Work Text:
Castiel had written the six words on the small piece of paper several times before his handwriting came out neat enough. The first one he’d spelt something wrong, despite the simplicity of all the words involved. The rest had been illegible script that was nothing like his usual looping, almost calligraphic handwriting, but finally, he was satisfied with what he had.
Castiel folded the paper once and placed it inside the ‘make your own’ cracker alongside a small plastic toy dog. He glued it together before tying small pieces of ribbon round the ends and writing Sam’s name on the side, going over previously pencilled lines.
This was it.
The last day of the semester before the holidays started. They were having a dorm room Christmas dinner. Castiel had been put in charge of table decorations; the others knew what he was like cooking and kept him well away from the kitchen. Food should not be explosive.
There was a knock on his door and Castiel scooted Sam’s currently unwrapped Christmas gift from sight and yelled for the person to enter.
He smiled when Sam entered the room.
“Hey.” Sam greeted, he seated himself on Castiel’s desk chair and spun round to face Castiel who was sat on the floor.
“Morning. Did you sleep well?” Castiel asked, he gathered up the spare pieces of paper lying around from the cracker making and stacked them neatly in a pile before collecting all the rubbish and dumping it in the bin.
“Yeah, kinda itching to go home now. It’ll be nice seeing Dean and Dad again.” Sam told him and Castiel nodded in response. “How are the decorations going?”
“Good. I’ve just about finished. I was just about to go and put everything out. We’re eating in about three hours, aren’t we?”
“Yeah. Brady’s just got the chicken in the oven.”
“They got it all sorted then.”
“Yeah, I peeled all the veg this morning after my run.”
“I will never understand how you get up so early. At all. Ever.” Castiel laughed and pulled himself up from the floor gathering the bits and pieces that would go on the table.
“Pass some stuff to me, Cas, I’ll give you a hand.” Sam said and received the throwaway table cloth and the napkins from Castiel’s hands and led the way back down the stairs to their shared kitchen.
Together, they set the table. Spreading out the red table cloth and then putting the placemats down. Sam got the cutlery from the draws, all mismatched as everyone had their own. Castiel placed the crackers in the right places for the eight of them. Sam sat next to Castiel, it could be awkward if Sam pulled his cracker with someone else. Brady sat next to Charlie and Jo. Then, Tim, Grant and Francesca sat in the other seats. Castiel had taken careful planning of who sat where. It wasn’t that people didn’t like each other, they all got a long very well, much better than some of the other houses around anyway, it was just that some people were better friends that others. Castiel was also sure that there was something going on between Charlie and Jo so sat them together to encourage them to talk to each other.
The table was set and Cas sat at one of the chairs and began to fold the napkins into origami Santas, he’d been practicing over the last couple of days and could now do it without instruction.
Sam sat and watched. Eyes glued to the way Castiel’s deft hand folded the napkin this way and that.
“That’s amazing.” Sam whispered, Castiel still heard it in near silence and blushed.
“Uh… Thanks.”
“And the crackers too, they all have our names on!” Sam grinned and inspected the one with his name on before giving it a teasing shake and smirking at Castiel. He shook his head.
“You’re going to break it.” Castiel teased and moved on to the next Santa.
-\o/-
They all sat at the table waiting on Brady to get the chicken out of the oven and on to their crammed dining table that was full of food.
“Here it comes!” Brady called as he bought the chicken through wearing some gimmick ‘Kiss the cook’ oven gloves.
There was mixture of appreciative sounds as the chicken was put on the table and then served out. Everyone took potatoes and stuffing and vegetables to their plates too, filling them up and then slathering it all with gravy.
“Wait!” Cas said quickly before everyone tucked in. “Crackers first!” Castiel crossed his arms over holding his cracker over to Brady and held on to the other side of Sam’s cracker too. Once they were all linked they all grinned and pulled. A series of snaps filled the room and some of the toys tossed across the table.
Sam pulled out his Christmas hat and stuck it on his head before pulling out the little toy dog and grinning. He then fished out the small bit of paper that would have a joke on.
“I hope you didn’t make these jokes up, Cas, yours are terrible.” Sam winked and unfolded in paper.
He froze.
Sam read the paper several times. Over and over again.
Will you go out with me?
“Cas?” Sam croaked. Castiel blushed and everyone was staring at them trying to work out what was going on.
“So?” Castiel inquired. He twisted in his chair to look at Sam, his face unreadable. Castiel almost regretted doing it when his entire house was in the same room.
“Yes.” Sam said simply. He smiled, put the piece of paper on the table as if it were made of gold and turned back to Cas. “So much, yes.” He reiterated and took hold of Castiel’s face with his big, tanned hands. He leant forward and asked for silent permission to which Castiel nodded, head still swimming from the fact Sam said yes.
They kissed, short, sweet but full of passion and confirmation. The other table occupants were cheering and giggling. As they pulled away, Cas saw Charlie link her fingers with Jo’s. He’d known it.
“Thank you, Sam.”
“Okay! Let’s eat before this amazing chicken I cooked goes cold!” Brady announced and they all dove into their food.
-\o/-
The meal had been delicious, all of them sure that it was the best they’d eaten since the start of their year.
Afterwards they all grouped in Charlie’s room which was on the ground floor, moving their poor excuse of a Christmas tree in the small space along with all the presents they’d bought for each other.
They’d agreed on buying each other gifts that cost less than seven dollars as none of them earned enough to spend much more.
Castiel, though, may have stretched to twelve dollars for a leather bound notebook he’d seen Sam eyeing at the Christmas market in the city. Sam thanked him with a kiss and let Castiel curl up with him, resting against the wall behind Charlie’s bed.
“You’re the best Christmas present ever, Cas.” Sam whispered in his ear as he opened the first page where Castiel had written a short message and a ‘Merry Christmas’.
Castiel sighed with content and took hold of Sam’s arms to wrap them around him with Sam chuckling quietly in his ear.