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Chapter Text

Once upon a time… Castiel Novak had lost his voice and it was all Gabriel’s fault.

Firstly, his big brother had used Castiel’s special, all natural honey for Christmas baking. Cas (as his friends called him) needed that honey each night with warm milk, because it was good for his raw vocal cords. It also calmed him down after a stressful day at work. Gabriel knew that and had used the last of it anyway. Then, when Cas had confronted him about it, his brother had thought it funny to leave him out in the cold. Gabriel had been sitting on the large porch swing and when Cas had confronted him about the theft, empty honey glass in hand, the trickster had laughed at him. “You need to cool down, Cassie,” he had proclaimed and before Cas even had time to protest, Gabriel had brushed past him and shut the door.

“Gabe?” Cas had asked dumbfounded. It had only taken the snickering from inside the warm haven to turn his confusion into anger. “Damnit, Gabe! Open up, this isn’t funny.” It really wasn’t, seeing how Cas was only wearing his favorite Christmas sweater with no jacket or scarf. It had taken ten minutes of yelling and begging before he could convince Gabriel to show some mercy.

Too late though, Cas’ already hoarse voice was gone completely the next morning. No milk and honey, plus ten minutes of yelling in the cold on top of the usual long day at work had been too much. So you see: it was all Gabriel’s fault.

Being the good guy he was, Cas didn’t even consider calling in sick. It was just a few days until Christmas and this was always the busiest time of the year for them, the little Disney Store downtown buzzing with excited kids and worn out parents. Cas loved to work here. Even though the store was part of a chain, it still had enough personal touches to not look like just any other Disney Store in the country. One of the personal touches was extras like the hours of reading and singing with the kids. No wonder his voice was so strained, each night, singing “Part of your world”, “A whole new world”, and “Be our guest” countless times over the day did that to your vocal cords. Another great plus was his co-workers and he could never leave Anna, Meg, and Hannah alone so close to Christmas.

“But Cas,” Anna protested while putting on her pink shirt. All three girls knew about Cas being gay, so changing in the same room was no problem for either of them. “How will you help the kids, if you can’t even speak?”

“I…,” Cas began. It was more like a little screech that came out. He cleared his throat once, twice. It hurt and he pressed the dark blue scarf closer to his throat. Swallowing around the pain, he tried again. “I can still…,” that’s as far as his voice worked, already giving out on the last word.

“No, you can’t,” Hannah threw in. “Look, not that I’m not grateful you’re still here, trying to help us. But working the register is out of the question –” that much was true, seeing how Naomi, their boss, always expected them to communicate with customers to leave a final good impression, “– and the little ones will eat you alive when you won’t talk to them.” Probably true as well.

“Not even to mention reading stories and singing for the little devils to make them fall in love with you,” Meg added with a mock concerned voice. She earned scolding faces from Hannah and Anna for that and a pained look from Cas. Good thing they were all close friends and knew how to take her dark humor.

Desperate to say something on the matter, Cas grabbed one of the pens and notepads from the coffee table and scribbled a quick note.

I’ll find a way!

“Cas,” Anna started, but didn’t argue again, already sounding a bit more defeated.

I’m not leaving you alone!

“Okay, so what’s your great plan?”

I’ll figure it out.

He still had fifteen minutes until the store opened. Fifteen minutes to figure it out. The four of them left the staff room and went about their normal tasks before the store opened.

Cas really loved this store. It wasn’t too big and overly stuffed. The shelves in the show room weren’t too high, barely reaching to his chest. That made it easier for them to prevent any thefts and for parents to find their overexcited kids. One corner was filled with blankets, pillows and older stuffed animals, reserved for story time or when younger kids (or the occasional parent) got too tired.

Cas was sorting through the Disney Princess section. Obviously, kids loved to play here and things got messy. Even though the employees made sure to clean the store at night before closing, some finer tasks like sorting the dolls back in their right places was left for the quiet minutes in the morning. He just got another Ariel out of the Belle slot, when something stopped him. Looking closer at the Ariel doll, a sudden inspiration struck him and Cas laughed out loud. Sadly, it sounded more like he was being strangled, alerting his friends.

“Cassie? You okay?”

Pushing the last Ariel doll back in her rightful place, Cas made his way back to the staff room. He looked for a notepad that was presentable, searched for the blue, sparkly sharpie and set to work.

“Cas?” Anna spoke from behind him. Holding up one finger to signal her to wait a second, he finished his work before turning around. Proudly and with a wide grin, he held up the notepad and let his three coworkers read the text.

“Oh my god,” Hannah breathed out before dissolving into a fit of giggles. Meg started chuckling and Anna laughed out loud. “Cas, this is seriously brilliant. Yes, that will work.”

It did work.

It actually worked so well, Cas was starting to wonder if he shouldn’t always do it. He didn’t need to speak once all day. The kids looked at him with huge eyes the minute they read his little note or the minute their parents read it to them or told them in their own words what had happened. Being around him, none of them were loud or naughty, just excited. The adults of course knew what was going on but threw him a conspiratorial smile or wink, some even thanking him for having such a wonderful idea, letting the kids believe the stories were true. And even the older kids – those not fooled and obviously way too cool to even be in a store like this – even they smiled at him. By the end of the day, Cas felt like an attraction at Disney World, because some kids even wanted a picture with him and some families only came to the store because they had heard of him. So it seemed he was the talk of the mall.

Cas didn’t really mind. He had been able to do his job, entertain the kids and still save his voice. Besides that, his friends were still laughing about the whole thing while the four of them were cleaning up the shop that night. Having fun after a day at work was always a plus in his eyes.

“I swear, some of the kids were about to hunt down your true love just to save you,” Hannah smiled at him, while counting the money. Anna laughed at that, throwing some stray stuffed animals over to Cas, who put them back in their right places. “Yeah, and I swear some of the moms were about to offer themselves.”

“Not just the moms, I’m telling you,” Meg added. “Did you not see that gay couple? I bet you, if there hadn’t been so many kids here, they would have taken Cas away to never be seen again.”

Cas groaned at that miserably, yet in the end he couldn’t hide his chuckle. It wasn’t new to any of them that some of the single parents or a stray aunt or uncle occasionally hit on them, but it was still a kids store and most adults respected that.

“Who knows, Cassie, maybe this will end with you finding your Prince Charming.” For that, Cas threw a stuffed Dumbo at Meg, who didn’t even duck away. Dumbo hit her square in the face and all Meg did was to dissolve into laughter. Before they knew it, Anna, Cas, and Meg where involved in a kind of pillow fight with stuffed animals. Hannah, always prim and proper, ignored them for a few short minutes, before calling them to order. Cas, of course, wasn’t mad at Meg for the comment. The four of them were friends after all, meaning they also knew about the love lives of the others. Or lack thereof, in his case. Hannah was already happily married with kids, Anna was engaged to a teacher, and Meg was in an on and off thing with a friend of Castiel’s. He was pretty sure that Balthazar and Meg would end up getting married within the next few years. That or kill each other, he wasn’t quite sure yet.

And Cas? Well, he didn’t really date anymore. In his 32 years he had two serious relationships and the occasional short time fling in the past, but now there was nothing. He wasn’t even looking, something neither of the girls could understand. His last failed relationship had finally showed him that Happily Ever Afters only existed in fairytales and he didn’t really needed his heart broken again, thank you very much.

“Well,” Anna finally cut in, after they had cleaned up the artillery of soft toys. “The important thing is that Cassie’s voice is better, right?”

At that, they all looked at him expectantly. Swallowing first, Cas finally cleared his throat, before pushing his scarf to it and finally, after a long day without using it, testing his voice again. “Hope so,” he choked out and even though it still sounded raspier than usual, at least it didn’t hurt that much anymore.

“Sounds good, Clarence,” Meg smirked at him, before leaving for the staff room. Shaking his head – he would probably never understand the reference behind Meg’s very own nickname for him – he followed her, as did Anna and Hannah to quickly get changed.

“I think you should do this charade again tomorrow, just to make sure your voice is back fully before straining it again.”

Hannah nodded at Anna’s words. “Yes, that’s a good idea. Everybody loved it anyway. No need for you to strain your voice when we have a great solution like that.”

Cas pulled out the notepad and smiled down at it, leaving it on the coffee table before following the girls out of the store and closing up.

The next day pretty much went like the day before, as did the day after.

Cas had tested his voice the morning of the second day and decided it was still raw. He drank an extra warm milk and honey for breakfast that day. It seemed that threatening his life was a good way to get Gabriel to do something after all. When Castiel had gotten home the first night, not only had his brother bought a new glass of Castiel’s special honey from the bee farm outside of town, he also had a steaming hot mug with the elixir of life waiting for him and the same in the morning. By the end of day two, Cas could already talk short sentences, but Hannah decided to add a third day to the game. “Who knows, Cas, maybe we’ll leave you like this forever. The kids sure seem to like it,” she’d told him the second night, earning laughter from Meg and Anna and a glare from Castiel. Yes, he loved that the kids liked his idea, but he loved it even more to sing to them. He really missed it, so no way would he play the voiceless attraction for all eternity.

On the third morning, Cas tested his voice again and now he felt confident that it would be back fully by the end of the day.

It was after five in the afternoon of this third day, when the turning point of Cas’ own fairy tale happened. The whole day people had reacted to his little note with the same enthusiasm as the previous two days: excited and fascinated kids, charmed and understanding parents. That was, until a young family walked into the store.

Cas recognized them right away. It was hard to forget a couple like that, with him being the size of a moose and her looking like a princess from a Disney movie, curly blond hair and sweet smile included. The giant carried their little girl in his arms. Cas remembered helping her once or twice before and he knew that she was the perfect picture of her parents, with the curls and the eyes from her mother and the hair color as well as the smile from her father. She was a cute little princess and, if Cas remembered correctly, really well behaved (yes, sadly that was something that stuck out in a kids store). And as it seemed, she would be a big sister soon, her mother already showing an impressive baby belly. Not that Cas had any firsthand experience, yet working in this store for many years now, he knew a thing or two about pregnancies. It looked like the couple could very well have a Christmas baby.

The little girl squirmed a bit in her daddy’s arms, obviously showing him that she wanted to be put down. Her father complied and told her to stay close. They were heading in his direction and Castiel got ready to pull his notepad out.

“Oh, I know you,” the little girl said with an excited note in her voice once she saw him. The smile on Cas’ face came natural at that kind of excitement. “Do you remember me as well?” the girl asked, eyes sparkling. Cas nodded and smiled even wider, while kneeling in front of her. “Why aren’t you talking?”

“Mary,” her father said from behind her, clearly not wanting his daughter to ask such forward questions. Cas, being used to this spiel by now, only smiled at them and shook his head, signaling them that it was alright. He opened his notepad and gave it to the little girl. She seemed to be about four or five and since some kids that age could already read he didn’t want to ignore her by showing it to her parents right away. The little girl, Mary, took the notepad and looked at it for a few seconds, trying to read it. Soon, she gave up and turned around, holding the notepad up to her parents without a word. Slightly confused, but smiling kindly, the giant of a man kneeled down besides his daughter and took the notepad, reading the sparkly blue message. “What does it say, Daddy?”

Grinning at first, the guy quickly schooled his face into a pretend concerned look like this was a message they should take serious.

“It says here that he can’t speak because Ursula the Sea Witch stole his voice. But he’s still happy to assist us, so why don’t you tell that nice –”

“The Sea Witch?” the little girl repeated, shock clearly written on her face. After almost three days, Cas was used to that reaction and quickly morphed his features into the sad puppy look, as Meg had named it, nodding in confirmation once the girl looked back at him. He could hear the muffled snickering from the girl’s mother and saw the bemused smile on the father’s face, yet both parents were quick to play along whenever the girl’s inquiring look went back to them. Finally, Mary exclaimed: “That is terrible.”

“It sure is, sweetie,” her mom was quick to confirm. “Sadly there is nothing we can do about it.”

Her mom’s words seemed to go right over Mary’s head. “Where is your true love?”

“Mary!”

Cas was quick to throw her parents a reassuring smile. Nothing new about that. Like his friends had said, lots of kids had been about to search for his true love. Mary’s father, still kneeling behind his daughter, continued, even though he seemed to understand Cas’ reassurance. “Mary, you don’t just ask something like that.”

“But, Dad! He needs his true love to kiss him so he gets his voice back and can stay human.”

“That might be true, sweetie,” the father continued, finally handing the notepad back to Cas and getting up, “but it’s not your job to find his true love. Now, don’t you wanna tell him what you were looking for?”

“No!” And with that, Mary stomped one of her feet on the ground and turned back around to Cas. “I’ll help you find your prince first!”

Well, now that was new and to be quite honest, it threw Cas a bit. Before he knew it, her little hands were on his arm, pulling him to get back on his feet.

“Mary Joanna Winchester, this is no way to act.” Her mother was clearly using her Mom-voice and Cas instantly felt guilty. So far, all the kids had been too mesmerized by having a “true prince” in front of them (because clearly, such tragedy could only happen to a prince who was looking for his true love), or simply stunned to have the stories being real. Some of them had asked for his true love, but they all had listened to their parents when they told them that the kids couldn’t help him or that he would find his true love eventually. Not little Mary though, it seemed, and now this little sunshine would get into trouble because of him. Clearly not what he had anticipated. He got up, turning around to the young couple, giving them an apologetic look, mouthing “I’m sorry”.

“Not your fault, buddy,” the giant told him kindly, before turning on his Dad-voice. “The little missy just needs to learn when to stop. Right, young lady?”

“But, Daddy. You always tell me we should help people in need. And he needs to find his prince or the Sea Witch will get him.”

This was getting out of hand pretty fast and Cas had the feeling he couldn’t stop it. Already, some other parents were looking. They all had read his note at one point, so they knew what was going on. He didn’t want for this to become a big scene and get a sweet little girl in trouble, no matter how much it was true that she needed to listen to her parents. She wanted to help him and he would be damned if a kid with such a big heart would get into trouble because of him. Quickly, he got a pen out of his jeans pocket to scribble a note and once again handed it to the little girl. This time, she didn’t even try to read it herself but showed it to her parents right away. Reading it, they both looked at him as if to ask if he was really okay with that. He only nodded.

“What does it say?” Mary asked, still excited and almost bouncing on her little feet.

Her father sighed deeply and then read the note to his daughter: “Thank you, little princess. It would be an honor for me to have your help.”

For Cas, the look of pure joy on Mary’s face was well worth all the awkward situations this decision would surely bring him within the next few minutes. She grabbed his hand in her tiny ones, only for her mother to stop her before she could pull him along. “Mary, wait a second.”

“But, Mooom.”

Her mother held up her hands as if to sooth her. “I’m not stopping you. However, for this to work you’ll need to know what you are looking for,” she explained with a grin, winking at Cas. Only now did he realize that Mary had said she would help him look for his prince without even questioning it. Huh, nice to know that there seemed to be no prejudice in this family.

Mary’s huge eyes were back on him, studying Cas as if she wanted to find out without asking, before she finally gave in. “Do you want me to look for a princess or a prince?”

Cas had to smile at that. Of course she would ask him an either-or-question while he couldn’t answer. He was just about to pull out his notepad again, when Anna showed up next to them. “Our Prince Castiel here is looking for a prince to lift the curse.” Her smile was so angelic Cas couldn’t even bring himself to scowl at her. A quick look around showed him what he had feared: all business had come to a stop; focus completely on their little scene. To his relief though, nobody seemed to sneer about Anna’s revelation. Mary’s parents seemed completely at ease with it as well, only throwing apologetic looks at him because of this whole situation. He returned them in kind, telling them silently that it was his fault, not theirs, while he could hear little Mary repeat his name, unsure at how to pronounce it.

“You may also call him Cas.”

He felt a little tug on his hand and looked back at Mary. She smiled up at him and he couldn’t help himself, smiling back at the sweet girl. “Let’s find your true love, Prince Cas!” With that, she pulled his hand and Cas had no other choice but to follow her.

The first guy was just a few feet away. He was smiling at them, clearly a witness of what had just happened – then again, who in this store wasn’t? His smile gave Cas hope that this whole thing wouldn’t be too embarrassing.

“Scuse me, sir,” Mary began and the guy (bless his heart) gave her his full attention. “Are you a prince?”

“I’m sorry, little miss. Sadly, I am not a prince.”

Mary looked disappointed yet in no way discouraged. Cas and the guy had a silent conversation, consisting of a thankful smile on Cas’ part and a joking wink from the guy, before Mary had found the next person.

“Scuse me, sir. Are you a prince?”

“Little princess, I am indeed a prince,” the young man replied, but before Mary could get too excited (and before Cas’ heart could stop from shock), he continued: “However, I already found my princess.” The man put his hand around a petit redhead and the couple gave them the same smile he seemed to receive from the whole store. So far, Cas didn’t know if this was simply adorable or partly awkward as well. It was probably both, although none of the customers seemed to mind. Least of all the children, who were following the spectacle with wide eyes while Mary continued the search.

“Not a prince, milady, but the jester,” one of the store regulars answered with a deep bow, making everyone laugh. The next one replied that he was no prince, yet would try to help anyways, throwing a somewhat flirtatious smile at Cas. All too quickly, the guy realized he should have lied and pretended to be a prince if he wanted to get to Cas, because Mary shook her head vehemently. “No, sir, sorry,” she replied, her golden-brown curls bouncing around her head. “You need to be a prince to break the spell of the Sea Witch!”

Cas made a mental note to re-watch The Little Mermaid, because he couldn’t remember that being part of the deal. Most likely, it was Mary’s own interpretation. And for the better, because that flirtatious guy hardly looked of age and was most definitely too young for Cas’ taste.

That was four people down and Mary probably would have gone on, had it not been for her father, who chose that moment to step forward. “Alright, Mary. I think that’s enough for now.”

“But, Daddy.”

“No honey,” her mother told her in a gentle voice. “You gave your best. It seems his true love isn’t here yet, so he’ll find him on his own eventually.”

Cas felt a little pang to his heart at her words. She sounded confident where he wasn’t even looking anymore. Sure, she only sounded that confident because of her daughter, yet Cas found himself wanting to believe her. The warm smile she sent his way didn’t make it better. He smiled back anyways.

“Thank you for letting her do that,” the mother said and Cas wished he could reply. His voice most likely would work again, except there were too many children in the store right now, all eyes on him. No way would he ruin the magic for them. So he only smiled back and nodded.

That was the moment the bells above the door chimed, signaling the entry of a new customer. That was also the moment Mary’s hands suddenly left his.

“Uncle Dean!”

“Hey, little munchkin,” a deep voice replied, followed by happy giggles from Mary as her uncle lifted her up and gave her a big hug.

It was such a cute scene and Cas had hardly time to be glad that Mary was now distracted, when her next words seemed to freeze all action and time in the store yet again: “Uncle Dean, you’re a prince, right?”

Cas could feel his eyes widen, the heat slightly rising to his neck and face. He could hear the mixture of giggles, held breaths, shocked laughter. He could see the kid’s parents in his peripheral vision, shaking their heads as if to signal the other man to answer “no”. To no avail since he didn’t even glance in their direction. The smile he gave the little girl in his arms simply grew bigger before he answered her without missing beat. “Hells yeah, I’m a prince. Why?”

The smile Mary gave her uncle matched the man’s and it was easy to see the family resemblance. Sneaking her little arms around his neck she squeezed him as if he was her teddy bear – which he probably was, Cas thought in the back of his mind. “I knew it,” she squealed after releasing him a bit. “So you can break the curse.”

That finally seemed to get her uncle – Dean, as Cas now knew – to pay attention and for the first time, his eyes left little Mary and wandered over to her parents. Cas risked a look himself. They looked as if they had no pity for the man, even though he couldn’t have known what he got himself into by answering the way he had done.

“What curse, munchkin?” Dean asked, eyes still on the unhelpful grown-ups.

Mary’s little hand grabbed her uncle’s face to get his attention again before telling him in a serious and even sad tone: “The Sea Witch, Uncle Dean. She cursed Cas and she took his voice as well, like she did with Ariel. I tried to help him but we haven’t found his prince yet. You need to save him.”

“I… okay…?”

There was a small pause in which it was clear that Mary expected Dean to do something while he had no clue what it was. Finally, he told Mary just that. “So, what exactly is it you want me to do?”

Rolling her eyes in this uber-exasperated way only five year olds could manage, Mary sighed, before explaining the obvious. “A kiss, Uncle Dean! You need to kiss him and be his prince.” To emphasize her words, she pointed in his direction and not a second later Cas was looking into the greenest eyes he had ever seen, which were wide with shock.

Chapter Text

Once upon a time… Dean Winchester was late to pick up his niece and it was all Sam’s fault.

His little brother had roped Dean into a scheme to surprise Jessica, Sam’s lovely wife, with a hot tub in the garden behind their two story house for Christmas. Since Jess was heavily pregnant and about to have their second child any time now, she was already on maternity leave and at home all the time. The plan had been for Sam to take Jess Christmas shopping to get her out of the house, while Dean would let the construction guys in and supervise everything. Later on, he would meet up with them, pick up his favorite girl and take the munchkin Christmas shopping for her parents. Mary had handcrafted some pictures for them, artfully made and in Dean’s eyes way better than any other four and a half year old ever could. So he had convinced her that they needed framing and promised to help her pick out the “bestest” frames. After that he’d planned on taking her ice skating since Mary loved it and almost moved better on the ice than on the ground. Plus, it would wear her out so she wouldn’t be too grumpy later on when her uncle had to put her to bed – which of course was always a bit later than her parents told her to go to bed. It was simply what cool uncles were there for, right?

Well, all in all an easy plan, only not that easy to execute. For all his methodical planning, Sam had forgotten one little detail: checking the confirmation of his order one last time. Instead of the hot tub Sammy thought he had ordered, a size bigger was suddenly standing in the garden, ready to be set up on the too small spot that Sam and Dean had prepared the night before under the cover of darkness. After checking in with Sam, they had decided to keep it – sending this one back only to get the right one would not only cost time and nerves, Sammy wouldn’t even get all his money refunded, making the whole thing even more expensive. Dean was just lucky the construction guys were alright with helping him to enlarge the space. Second lucky stroke? At least the spa pad had been included in the deal, so it was the right size.

Thankfully, after everything was sorted out, the rest of the installation went off without a hitch. Still, once Dean was finally seeing the guys out the door, tipping them more than Sam had first asked him to, he was already almost an hour late and no way could he pick up his little princess dressed as he was. Luckily, he had been clever enough to change into something of Sam’s before starting to plow the backyard, so now all he had to do was jump in his brother’s shower and get back into his clean clothes. He managed it all in just less than fifteen minutes and finally got into his car, his beloved ’67 Chevy Impala, his pride and joy. Shooting a text to Sam he was told that they were about to head to the Disney Store to keep Mary entertained until her favorite uncle could get there (and yes, he was her favorite uncle, Jess’ brothers could all shut up).

When he finally got to the mall he pulled into the parking lot closest to the Disney Store and hurried inside. At once he was assaulted by everything “Christmas”, starting with the music (“Rudolph, the red-nosed reindeer”), over the smell (roast apple, gingerbread, and mulled wine), to the noise of all the Christmas shoppers. He navigated through the masses of happy couples, stressed families, and elderly citizens packed with goods for the grandkids.

At last he reached the store and the minute he was inside, thankfully shielded from Rudolph and all the noisy shoppers, he heard one of his favorite sounds in the world: “Uncle Dean!”

He saw his little sunshine let go of the hand of a stranger who Dean guessed was an employee and ran directly to him. “Hey, little munchkin,” Dean answered, spreading his arms wide and catching the whirlwind the moment she threw herself in his arms. He scooped her up and hugged her, her happy giggles ringing in his ears and making him smile even more. He would never get enough of this sweet sound, having vowed to himself a long time ago to do everything in his power to always keep the happiness in Mary’s heart. Which was why there was only one possible answer for him when she asked, “Uncle Dean, you’re a prince, right?”

It had been just two weeks ago when Dean had taken Mary downtown to his favorite comic book store to pick up the Christmas present he had ordered for his friend Ash, when Mary had been hell-bent on believing Dean was a superhero. In the end, he had relented and “revealed” that, yes, he was in fact Batman, but she wasn’t allowed to tell anyone (she did tell everyone for the next few days, so now his secret identity was totally blown, damnit). It looked like his brief career as a superhero would be followed by a career as a prince. And a Disney prince, no less. Knowing denial would be useless anyways, he simply gave his niece an even bigger smile and answered right away with an enthusiastic, “Hells yeah, I’m a prince.” Ignoring the fact that he probably shouldn’t be swearing in a kids’ store, he instead added, “Why?”

The smile Mary gave him was wide and gummy. Before Dean could react, she wrapped her arms around his neck and squeezed him tight. Dean lived for these almost bone crushing hugs. They were one of the many things that reminded him of a young Sammy. As did the look in her eyes he noticed once Mary released him a bit. “I knew it,” she squealed, and for some reason, Dean suddenly had a bad feeling in his gut although he had no idea why. Her next words, however, threw him off completely. “So you can break the curse.”

Curse? What curse? What was Mary coming up with this time? Bewildered, Dean looked over at his brother and sister-in-law. What he saw on their faces was quite unexpected. Jeez, rein in the bitch face, would’ya Sammy? Behind the bitch face Dean could read humor and maybe slight embarrassment. What the freaking hell was going on?

Almost absentmindedly, while still trying to silently get any info out of Sam and Jess, Dean asked his little munchkin what curse she meant. Before she answered him, he could feel her little hands on his scruffy face and let her turn his head back. “The Sea Witch, Uncle Dean,” she started, and her tone was so serious and sad that Dean instantly vowed to make it all better, no matter what she would ask of him. “She cursed Cas and she took his voice as well, like she did with Ariel. I tried to help him but we haven’t found his prince yet. You need to save him.”

“I… okay…?” Dean was at a total loss for words. Cas? Who was Cas? And how did a fictional character take his voice? And Mary had done what now? Wait, save him? Who? Cas? And how? … What??

He was pretty sure the fact that he had no clue what to do or what was expected of him was clearly written on his face, yet Mary seemed to need a bit more prodding. “So, what exactly is it you want me to do?”

The following eye-roll was so much like her father’s, but Dean had no time to appreciate it, since Mary finally exclaimed: “A kiss, Uncle Dean! You need to kiss him and be his prince.”

What the actually hell? Dean was so stunned, he could do little more than follow Mary’s outstretched hand, which led him directly to the guy he had vaguely noticed holding his niece’s hand when Dean had entered the store. But now, he paid some more attention. The first thing he noticed was the bright red face the man sported and deep blue eyes opened wide in shock, probably just like his own. Messy dark hair (Dean really loved the “I just rolled out of bed after having a sex-marathon”-hair style and that guy totally rocked it), a nice blue shirt that accentuated his eyes even more, as well as a dark blue, silky scarf. Taking all that in didn’t even take him five seconds.

“I…”

What he hadn’t figured out in these five seconds, however, was how to get out of this situation.

“Come on, Uncle Dean, what are you waiting for?” Mary asked in her cheery and admittedly loud voice and when Dean’s eyes moved past the blushing guy, he also realized that they had the attention of the whole store. Fuck.

“Mary… sweety… I’m sorry.” He kept his voice low, yet most people were probably still able to listen in. “I can’t just go and kiss someone.”

Lucky for him, Mary didn’t look upset by his declaration, simply irritated. It became obvious pretty quickly why that was the case. “But you kissed Hans all the time.”

Oookay, ouch! Flinching at the reminder, Dean tried again.

“Okay, let me rephrase that: I can’t just go and kiss a stranger.”

“But he’s not a stranger, he’s Cas!”

“Well, Cas is still a stranger to me.”

“But he won’t be once you kiss him!”

That… yeah, thanks, how does one argue against the logic of a kid?

Thank God his brain decided to help him out. “Did Prince Eric kiss Ariel right away when they first met?” He looked at his niece and hoped she wasn’t going to figure out one huge flaw in his argument: That Eric hadn’t known about the curse while Dean now did.

It seemed she didn’t, because for the first time, her smile fell and she looked defeated, sad, and almost shy, while whispering a disappointed “no”. Dean hated it.

He also hated himself for putting this look on her face and he couldn’t leave it at that, he just couldn’t. “No, he didn’t. But what did he do instead, hmm?”

The gravity of her disappointment was really obvious now, for she only shrugged her little shoulders while keeping her whole focus on playing with his necklace, the one her own father had given Dean so many years ago. Trying to get her attention, Dean shuffled her in his arms a bit, tilting his head until he was able to look into her eyes, before clarifying his question a bit. “What did Prince Eric do when he took Ariel to see his town?”

Excitement returned into Mary’s eyes and onto her face, clearly remembering. “A date! He took her on a date! You can take Cas on a date and then he won’t be a stranger anymore and then you can kiss him and break the curse and then you can marry and live happily ever after forever and ever and then –”

“Okay, munchkin, would you please take a breath.” Dean just had to laugh about Mary’s excitement, although he was painfully aware of all the stares directed at them and the whole situation being completely awkward. But not just for him, because the guy – Cas? What did that stand for? Casper? Carson? Well, never mind – probably hadn’t had such a peachy time with this either. He looked over again and he was sure he had never before seen such a flaming face framing eyes wide from shock and embarrassment. Yep, totally time to actually play Prince Charming and save the day… and maybe even score a date out of this. The more he looked at Cas the less he had a problem with that, to be honest. Now he only had to hope the guy would play along. “Will you be happy if I ask your new friend here on a date and then maybe kiss him later?”

Mary nodded excitedly and Dean, happy to have averted a minor drama, was just about to turn to the sexy guy to ask him officially, when suddenly…

“No! You can’t wait for the kiss!”

The voice was that of a young boy and an instant reprimanding “Kevin!” told everybody where to look. An Asian woman and her son, maybe a little bit older than Mary but hard to tell since he was so small, were standing not far away. The boy’s face showed fear paired with determination.

“You can’t wait,” he repeated, ignoring his mother. “It’s been three days already!”

“That’s true,” another young voice threw in, the shocked call of “Alfie!” going completely unnoticed in the background. “We were here two days ago and the Sea Witch already had his voice.”

“Oh, no,” a third voice joined in, a girl this time. “But Ursula only gives three days, so today is his last. You have to kiss him now!”

Before Dean could even blink, he was surrounded by almost a dozen children, all begging and pleading and reasoning with him to please, please kiss Cas and save him. A quick and slightly panicked look around showed him that there was no help to be expected by any of the parents. They were either as overwhelmed and stunned by the sheer force of will these little ones had, or they seemed to have a hard time reining in their amusement and mirth about the situation. Great, just great.

It was the reaction of the guy he was supposed to save that finally did him in. Seemingly overpowered by all the embarrassment and maybe even guilt, he mouthed, “I’m so, so sorry,” in his direction, pain showing plainly on his flushed face, before trying to hide it in his hands. Dean wasn’t sure, but it almost looked like he was shaking slightly. Whatever the reason was that had made him tell these kids Ursula had stolen his voice, he clearly hadn’t wanted it all to go this far out of hand. And Dean’s heart broke just a little bit for him.

“Alright,” he started, still looking in the guy’s direction, before bringing his attention back to the kids surrounding and pulling at him. “Alright, alright, shush you little monsters.” His voice was full of affection for these “little monsters” and once the last had stopped nagging and begging, he finally smiled at them. “Fine, you win, I’ll kiss him now.”

The cheers erupting at this were almost deafening and accompanied by some applause from the grown-ups.

Dean put his niece back on the floor at last, amongst the sea of monsters, kissing her on the crown of her head. “Happy now?”

She nodded wildly with a face-splitting grin, before grasping his hand and pulling him the few steps to the damsel in distress, who no longer hid behind his hands. Dean was once again met by those stunning blue eyes and he gulped involuntarily. What if the guy had a problem with Dean kissing him? What if he really had no voice right now and this all would go to shit? What if this would ruin the innocent minds of all these kids still believing in True Love and True Love’s Kiss and Happily Ever After and all that bull? They were way too young for reality to ruin them and Dean would never be able to forgive himself if he were the one to break their little bubble of belief.

He only realized he had been staring at Cas for a bit too long when a song playing over the speakers of the store got louder all of a sudden, someone turning the volume up high. 

Sha la la la la la

Don't stop now

Don't try to hide it how

You wanna kiss the girl

Sha la la la la la

The sudden increase of volume alone made Dean jump. But when the words and the melody finally registered, he could feel his own face grow red while Cas’ head whipped around to the counter, a strangled sound leaving his mouth. Luckily, none of the kids seemed to hear it amongst all the laughter breaking out now. Dean followed his gaze to the counter, seeing a feisty looking lady with dark, curly hair standing at the stereo system, giving the both of them a shit eating grin. “Just setting the mood,” she explained with a wink and Dean couldn’t help himself, he let out a nervous laugh, shaking his head over how ridiculous the whole situation was.

The kids still swarmed around him, including Cas in the circle now and all Dean could see were their hopeful faces shining up at him. He just had to make sure they wouldn’t be disappointed after this. “Okay, I’m going to try and break this curse now, alright?” A resounding YES was his answer. “Good, but remember: this might not work, so please don’t be disappointed if that happens.”

He hoped to all that was holy that the guy got with the program, taking the out Dean was giving him here if needed. Of course, Mary, his beautiful, innocent, lovely Mary, had to make this out an impossible solution with just one question: “Why wouldn’t it work? You are the bestest uncle in the world, you can fix everything!”

Well, shit.

Dean stared at her for a moment longer, feeling his eyes well up from the sheer love and trust this little human being put into him. He could hear all the aww’s in the background while carefully schooling his face. Finally he turned back to Cas and took the last step.

“You better speak after this, or I’ll kill you,” he whispered through clenched teeth, only half joking. A slight nod told him that Cas had gotten the message.

Taking a deep breath, he reached out for the slightly smaller man. Here goes nothing.

Keeping his eyes open, he leaned in for a quick peck on the mouth. That plan, however, went out the window the moment his lips connected with soft, yet slightly chapped lips. The touch seemed to elicit a small gasp from the guy, parting his lips while his eyes closed as if on reflex. Dean could feel his body react in kind. He didn’t take up the invitation the slightly parted lips gave him – this was a kids’ store after all and they had to keep it PG rated – but he let his own eyes close and pressed a little harder against Cas’ lips. The taste of milk and honey hit his senses and it was the sweetest thing Dean had ever had the fortune to taste. There was a hand on his left shoulder and it felt like it was burning through the layers of his shirts and jacket, leaving a mark on his skin. The feeling almost made him lose all sense of time and space.

Someone cleared their throat right next to him, helping Dean to get his head back in the game. He slowly ended the kiss as if he had been planning to do so all along, only now realizing that the guy’s other hand had found its way to the lapel of his jacket, fisting the material as if to keep Dean in place. Dean himself wasn’t better with one hand at Cas’ hip, no longer just barely touching, instead clutching the material as well, while his other hand had moved into the soft locks of dark sex-hair – when had that happened?

Once their lips had parted, Dean opened his eyes again, only to see blue eyes flutter open a moment later. He swallowed, waiting for Cas to do or rather to say something. As was everybody else, judging by the dead silence in the store.

Cas swallowed hard before clearing his voice once, twice. And then, at long last, he opened his mouth.

“Thank you, my prince.”

And, holy hell, if that voice wasn’t just the sexiest thing Dean had ever heard. It was rough, yet with a smooth note, leaving a warm feeling inside Dean, just like a fine, old whiskey. He guessed, or rather hoped, that Cas really had such a sexy whiskey-soaked voice, only amplified by disuse and a clear sign that yes, he really did have problems with it the past few days. Those four words alone seemed to strain the guy.

Lucky for Cas, he didn’t need to say more, because after an excited shout of “It worked!” from somewhere amongst all the munchkins around them, cheers and applause erupted in the whole store. If it hadn’t been for his hands still on the guy – and woah, he should probably take those away, like right now – Dean would have felt compelled to bow in front of their audience. Instead, he slowly and actually quite reluctantly let go of Cas and gave him an easy smile, as if kissing random strangers was something he did every day. Then again, this guy wasn’t a random stranger, right? To put it with Mary’s words: this was Cas.

“My pleasure,” he whispered back and hell did he wish for some privacy right now. Instead, Mary was on him again in seconds.

“You did it, Uncle Dean! I knew you could do it, I knew it! Now you can take him on a date and then you two can marry and then –”

“Alright, Mary Joanna Winchester, time to calm down a bit.”

Oh, so now Sammy decided to step in? Now? Where had that bitch been five minutes ago?

Although, if Dean was completely honest, he hadn’t really minded. Not when blue eyes stared at him like that, the warm hand still pressed to his shoulder and the feeling of soft, chapped lips still tingled on his own.

He could hear Mary argue with her father until a redhead interrupted them. Her attire clearly marking her as one of Cas’ colleagues. “Why don’t we let the two princes get some privacy to talk about the plans for their future, hmm? I’m sure they have lots to talk about. Sound good, little princess?”

Mary gave an excited squeal and the next thing Dean knew was the feel of a warm, big hand in his, pulling him along, further into the store. It took him a second to realize that they were heading toward a back door labeled “Staff only”. Just a moment later, the door closed behind them and cut off the excited voices still ringing throughout the store.

Catching his breath, he turned around, seeing Cas leaning against the door, doing the same. Their eyes met and all of a sudden, neither of them was able to stop the laughter that bubbled out of them. They laughed until they had tears in their eyes, only slowly coming down from their high.

“I’m Dean Winchester, by the way,” Dean finally croaked out.

Cas smiled at that, standing up a bit straighter against the door. “Castiel Novak.”

Castiel, of course. The name of an angel, Dean should have known. Casper absolutely did not fit this guy.

An awkward silence threatened to spread between them, but before it really could, Cas spoke again, clearly still struggling with the words to come out without hurting him. “Thank you, I really mean it. When I started this… charade, I hadn’t anticipated the kids would take it so seriously.” Halfway through his speech, his hand had wandered to his silky scarf, pressing it against his throat as if it could ward off the pain.

“Dude, don’t strain yourself with too much talking,” Dean told him, finding that he really did care for his wellbeing. “And don’t worry. Trust me, I know how insistent the evil spawn of my baby brother can be.”

To Dean’s enjoyment, Cas laughed again and he already knew that he would love to hear more of it.

“Don’t pretend like you aren’t spoiling her rotten,” Cas finally gasped out. “She has you wrapped around her little finger.”

Faking shock, Dean’s hand wandered to his heart. “What would make you think that?”

Cas just laughed harder and Dean couldn’t help himself, this guy’s laughter was infectious.

“Oh, I don’t know,” Cas pressed out, hand against his throat again, voice sometimes barely above a raspy whisper. “Maybe the fact that she was able to talk you into kissing me.”

“Yeah, didn’t need that much convincing…”

That seemed to sober up both of them just enough to rein in the laughter, but made them smile at each other even wider. Cas’ blue eyes were positively sparkling by now and Dean couldn’t look away.

“Thank you, by the way,” Dean finally tried to get some control over the situation. “For being able to talk after my magical kiss. I seriously would have killed you if you had ruined Mary’s trust in my abilities.”

“Of course. I wouldn’t have wanted to ruin the magic for any of the kids, much less for sweet Mary. She really was concerned for me.”

“Did she try to get other guys to kiss you before I came in?” Dean asked, all of a sudden remembering Mary’s statement that she had already tried to find Cas’ prince without any luck.

Cas’ nod and slight blush was answer enough. Lowering his head, he clarified: “She asked around if there was a prince to kiss me, yes.”

“Well, I’m glad there wasn’t.”

Cas’ head snapped back up, meeting Dean’s eyes once more. At this moment, Dean decided to throw caution to the wind.

“So, you know… about that date. Mary would probably be really disappointed if we didn’t go out at least once…”

And hell if the smirk Cas sent him wasn’t sexy as fuck. “She’ll probably also be disappointed if we don’t end up married and live happily ever after.”

The husky voice accompanying this statement absolutely did not send Dean’s thoughts straight to the gutter. Nope, not at all. And nope, the heat in his ears and cheeks absolutely was not a blush, because Dean Winchester simply did not blush. “Okay, let’s not get ahead of ourselves here, Ariel.”

There it was again, that laugh Dean could get used to hear every day for the rest of – woah, woah, woah, slow down there, Prince Charming. Taking a deep breath, Dean willed himself to stay calm. “So, what about this date?”

“Only to satisfy Mary?”

He couldn’t be sure, but to Dean it sounded as if there was a hint of disappointment behind the simple question. He studied Cas’ face before taking a leap of faith, shaking his head. “No, because I actually want to.”

The smile on Cas’ face told him all he needed to know. Returning it, he went on. “I have Mary tonight, but I know she won’t stop complaining if this date isn’t going to happen right now. So, I really hope you’re free tonight.”

“I am.”

“Great. I wanted to take her ice skating, but if you don’t –”

“Ice skating sounds perfect.”

“Great.”

With everything said, the awkward silence threatened to spread once more. It was time to wrap this up.

“So… store closes at nine, right? Any chance your shift ends earlier... like around six-ish?”

“Oh, no, sorry,” Cas told him, voice actually sounding disappointed. “I'll have to stay until we close. Longer actually to clean up and –”

“No, you don’t,” came a voice from the other side of the door, which was suddenly pushed open, making Cas stumble in Dean’s direction. The same feisty lady from earlier stuck her head inside the room. “You can totally leave at six, we can handle the last few hours and the rest.”

“Meg, have you been listening this whole time?”

“Don’t get your panties in a twist, Clarence. The important point is: We can handle a few hours without you plus the clean-up. You worked while you were sick anyways, no one will kill you for these three hours. Go on, go on your romantic dream date with Prince Charming here.” Looking at Dean, she added, “Don’t take no for an answer,” before leaving them alone again.

Needing a second to compose himself after that appearance, Dean looked at Cas once more. “Well,” he started. “You heard her: No is not an option.”

Sighing in defeat, Cas nodded. “Yeah, I know. Meg can be just as stubborn as Mary if she’s set her mind on something…”

This made Dean pause and all of a sudden, he started to worry. The last thing he wanted was for Cas to feel guilt tripped or pressured into a date with him. Before he could take his invitation back, however, Cas smiled at him again. “So, six o'clock?”

Pretty sure that his face muscles would be aching from all the smiling he did today, Dean could only nod. They stared at each other for a second longer, before Cas seemed to remember that he was still on duty. Nodding one last time, he turned around and opened the door. Contrary to Dean’s suspicions, Meg was not falling into the room. In fact, she wasn’t even around anymore, helping a customer instead.

Dean spotted his family right away – not that hard with his moose of a brother and all. They were at the checkout point, Mary seemingly able to get her head back on shopping after she had sent off her new friend and her uncle into their Happily Ever After. She saw him and soon enough, he had an armful of excited munchkin yet again.

“Did you talk? Are you going on a date? When is the wedding? Can I be flower girl? Oh please, Uncle Dean, I’ll be flower girl, right?”

“Mary Joanna Winchester, what did we just talk about?” Dean couldn’t remember the last time his brother had to use Mary’s full name twice in just one day and who knew how many times it had been before Dean had gotten here. His niece seemed thoroughly crestfallen.

“Sorry, Daddy. Sorry, Uncle Dean,” she mumbled, looking shy again. Gods, how he loved this little girl.

“It’s okay, munchkin. And guess what.”

Head peaking up, she was curious at once. “What?”

“Cas will be joining us for ice skating.”

“As a date?”

“As a date!”

Oh yes, Christmas and Birthday had just come early for Mary Winchester. She threw her arms around his neck, punching all air out of him, squealing directly into his ear. Grumbling as if he was annoyed, he searched for Sammy’s gaze over her shoulder, making sure his brother was okay with the new arrangement. The moose only winked and smiled, whispering something into Jess’ ear that made her laugh out loud. Dean couldn’t even be bothered. Not only had he just scored a date with the hottest guy to walk the planet, he had also made his niece positively thrilled, proving once again that he was the “bestest” uncle in the universe.

Cas appeared at his side and before Dean could even react, Mary had let go of his neck and flung her arms around Cas’ neck, still half hanging in Dean’s arms. Cas only laughed about her antics.

“Thank you, little princess, for your help.”

“That’s alright, Prince Cas.”

It took them a little while before they finally had everything ready to leave so they could get the rest of their Christmas shopping done. Before exiting the store, Dean turned back around one last time, finding Cas’ eyes on him. He couldn’t help it: the huge grin seemed to be a permanent fixture on his face today.

“Someone is happy,” Jess commented, nudging him in the side with her shoulder. “And he seems to be a nice guy. Definitely an improvement on ‘Hans’.”

Dean’s groan only made his brother and sister-in-law snort with laughter. “Please, not you too. His name wasn’t ‘Hans’ as you very well know. He was your friend first, after all. At least your daughter has better taste in friends she wants to set me up with.”

“Hey!” Sam protested at once. “No one ever forced you to date him.”

“Whatever, Sammy. One thing’s for sure though,” Dean said, looking at the angel still in his arms, her little arms wound around his neck again, head resting on his shoulder. “Your daughter is a way better wingman than you are.”

At that, Sam let out a bark of laughter, accompanied by Jess’ sweet chuckle. “Shut up, bitch”, Dean mouthed at his brother and only got a mouthed “Jerk” in return. At this moment, his life was simply perfect.

Chapter Text

Once upon a time… Cas was about to go on a date with the hottest guy in the universe and it was all thanks to little Mary Winchester.

True, the whole situation had probably been the most embarrassing in his life (and with Gabriel as a brother that was saying something), but in the end he had gotten a date out of it. Before he could ride off into the sunset with his prince, however, he had to endure the torture his three friends put him through. He didn’t mind though and nothing they said or did could wipe the happy smile off of his face.

“You’re so disgustingly sweet, Clarence,” Meg told him in the end, not giving up on teasing even after Hannah and then Anna had already done so. “Told you you’d find your true love this way.”

“Let’s not get ahead of ourselves,” Cas croaked out, grinning when he remembered Dean telling him the same. As if summoned by that thought, the man in question strode back into the store, Mary still in his arms, looking like the prince in shining armor he hopefully was. Checking his watch, Cas saw that he was right on time.

The moment Mary spotted him she let out an excited squeal of “Prince Cas!” and squirmed in her uncle’s arms until he let her down. Castiel stepped around the counter and her arms wound around his legs. “Prince Cas, are you ready for your date? We’re here to pick you up.”

“Sure, little Mary, let me just get my things from the back.” He looked at his friends to check again if it was alright for him to leave early, but all they did was nod and smile. Meg and Anna even made little shooing motions with their hands. How did he even deserve such awesome co-workers and friends?

Looking back at Dean, he found the man smiling at him. “I’ll just be a minute,” he told him, although Mary was still attached to his legs and didn’t seem keen to let go.

“What do you say, little Princess,” Anna asked, coming to his rescue. “Would you like to help us sort all the plushies while Prince Cas gets ready for the date?”

The little girl seemed to think about it for a few seconds before she let go of Cas’ legs and ran after Anna and Meg with an excited “Yes!” Taking her hands, the two women led her over to the section with the soft toys.

Throwing one last smile at Dean, Cas hurried off to the staff room. He quickly changed out of his uniform and back into his dark jeans, shirt and black hoody. Throwing on his tan trench coat, he briefly wondered if it would be a hindrance while ice skating. But he had no other warm jacket with him and he didn’t want to burden Dean with a detour to his house to get another outfit. Or his skates, for that matter. He would just rent some down at the park where Dean most likely planned on going. And the trench coat should be fine; he wasn’t planning on trying jumps and spins, after all. Actually, now that he had time to think about it… when was the last time he had been on ice? Was this something you could forget how to do? Or was it like riding a bike? When was the last time he rode a bike?

Cas realized that he was panicking. What was he even doing, going on a date with a complete stranger? Not that he thought Dean would kill him (hopefully), but what if he gave dating another chance and the result was the same as before? What if everything crashed and burned and tore his heart to pieces and then –

“Breathe, Castiel.”

The slim hand on his shoulder and the soft voice made Cas jump slightly, but he caught himself quickly. Hannah was standing next to him, giving him her kind smile.

“He’s a good man; you can see from the way he’s doting over the little girl. He won’t kill you and I don’t think he’ll treat you like that snob you dated last.”

Cas let out a small chuckle. For all her calm and sometimes even stern demeanor, he was pretty sure Hannah was the one who could read him the best.

“What makes you so sure?”

“I have faith,” was her simple answer, while she rubbed his back soothingly. “You simply deserve to be happy for all the good you’ve done on earth.”

He wanted to say something, contradict her, but he couldn’t find his voice. For one, he knew he would never convince Hannah otherwise. She wasn’t one of those people who tried to force her beliefs on others – but on the other hand, no one was able to make her waver in her own beliefs. And two… maybe Cas just wanted to believe it himself this time.

With a slight nod, he turned around and gave Hannah a short hug, thanking her without words. When he released her, she smiled at him and wound his blue scarf tightly around his neck. “You go out there and have fun. Enjoy it and don’t compare him to all the assholes you dated in the past.”

Choking out a laugh, Cas stared at Hannah with wide eyes. He had never heard her swear before.

“What?” she asked with a grin. “They were, and they definitely didn’t deserve you. Now go and don’t let your prince wait any longer.”

After a quick kiss to her cheek, he got his backpack and left the staff room, seeing Dean and Mary waiting close by the door. There were still some customers in the store, but it seemed to be slowly dying down. He still felt a little bit guilty, but he also knew that there was no arguing with his friends, so he wouldn't waste his breath. In her arms, Mary had one of the fluffy Flounder soft toys, even bigger than her own head. Whilst she played with it, Meg talked to Dean which left Cas with an uneasy feeling. If anyone of his friends was going to get the “you hurt him, they’ll never find your body” speech across convincingly, it was most definitely Meg. And Anna wasn't there to save Dean, probably somewhere else helping a customer.

“Ready?” he asked loudly, getting their attention. Dean looked slightly uneasy, but he hid it well behind his smile. The minute Cas saw that smile, his panic attack was well and truly forgotten.

“Prince Cas, look what Lady Anna gave me,” Mary said, holding her new toy up in delight. Cas was pretty sure “Lady Anna” had given it to her as a prize for getting Cas a date – he just hoped she hadn’t told this to the girl. As if summoned by Mary's words, Anna appeared next to them, most likely to see him off as well. After thoroughly gushing over how perfect Flounder was, Cas finally got kicked out by his friends, a laughing Dean right behind him.

“Alright, alright,” Dean said while picking up Mary. “We’re going. Mary, say goodbye to Sebastian, Flounder, and Scuttle.”

The looks on his friends’ faces left Cas roaring with laughter.

By the time they got outside, Cas had calmed down a bit. Looking around, his eyes landed on a sleek, black classic car, one of those he had always wanted but never had the money to buy. Sending it a loving gaze, he looked back up to Dean, only to find his eyes on him, a grin playing around the man’s lips.

“You like the Impala?”

“I love classic cars in general, but she’s a real beauty. Too bad I’ll probably never ride in one.”

“Why?” Dean asked, now positively grinning. “Were you planning on walking?”

Totally confused, Cas tilted his head slightly. What was Dean talking about? It only clicked once Dean started to walk in the direction of the Chevy. “Wait, she’s yours?”

“Yep,” Dean answered, pride easy to detect. He opened the back door to put Mary in the kids’ seat. “Got her from my old man. Had to build her back up from the ground once. Worth every penny and drop of blood and sweat.”

“Yes, absolutely,” Cas replied, unable to hide his admiration not only for the car but also for the man who could fix a car like this. Dean was holding the door open for him, and as he slid in Cas closed his eyes and inhaled the scent of this beautiful car. It smelled of rich leather and something earthy that Cas couldn’t put a finger on. When he heard the door close on the driver’s side, he opened his eyes again, turning towards Dean.

“So, you’re a mechanic then?”

Chuckling at that, Dean started the car, letting the deep roar fill the silence, before he answered. “Nope, not really. I mean I could have been. Learned it all from my old man and my uncle. But when Sammy left for college to become a lawyer, I decided that the family business wasn’t for me either. So I followed my baby brother, went to college, and now I’m a teacher at the elementary school.”

“Oh, that sounds nice. Do you like it?”

“I love it. I guess I just love kids,” Dean added, almost as an after-thought, sending a smile back to Mary through the rearview mirror.

“No wonder you’re so good with them. They seem to like you too.” Remembering the minutes back in the store when all the kids had swarmed around Dean, Cas almost missed the flicker that passed across Dean’s face. It was gone before he could even understand what it was.

“So, I was thinking,” Dean continued as if nothing was wrong, eyes back on the road. Maybe Cas had just imagined things. “You’re probably hungry. Would you like to grab a bite before we hit the ice?”

“Yeah, sure, what did you have in mind?”

“Mary,” Dean said instead of answering, getting the girl's attention right away. “Tell Prince Cas what we have for dinner Saturday nights.”

“PIZZA,” came the excited scream at once, making both men chuckle.

Taking his eyes from the road once more, Dean looked over at Cas. “I hope you like pizza, man. She’ll throw a fit if she doesn’t get her “pepperoni-extra-cheese-no-onions-please”-pizza.”

Seeing the excitement in Mary’s eyes, Cas was sure her uncle wasn’t kidding. “I take it you do that often?”

“Yeah. Sammy is this health freak, ya know? Honestly, sometimes I wonder if we’re even related. Jess is a bit more chilled with her own diet, but she’s on the same page with Sammy when it comes to Mary. Poor munchkin only gets healthy food at home. I mean, no kid can live on that alone, am I right?”

“So you made it your mission to only have her eat unhealthy food?”

“I’m a great uncle, aren’t I?” Dean replied, winking at Cas, the grin on his face giving him a boyish look.

Laughing at that, Cas turned back to Mary. “Are you excited to go ice skating?”

Squeezing Flounder tightly to her chest, Mary’s nodded her head wildly, sending her brown looks flying.

“She loves it. Jess is already thinking about paying for lessons, let her do it professionally.”

“How old is Mary, if you don’t mind me asking.”

“It’s cool, don’t worry. Mary’s four and a half. They had her pretty early on. She wasn’t...” Sending a quick glance to the girl, Dean started anew. “Well, my brother had just turned 22 when she was born and they married a few weeks later, if you get what I mean.”

Cas did. It wasn’t hard to understand that Mary hadn’t been planned.

“It was great though. Sam and Jess had met when they both started college, half a year later they were already talking about marriage and kids and all that. So she might have come a bit early, but she would have been with us sooner or later.”

It was fascinating, the love and adoration that shone so clearly in Dean’s eyes when he looked at his niece and in his voice when he talked about her.

“What about you?” Cas found himself asking. His question seemed to throw Dean off for a second. The glance he gave him was only quick, but Cas could see his eyes were opened wide in shock.

“Me?”

“Yeah,” he went on. “Do you want kids?”

The same look as before seemed to flit over Dean’s face. There was a silence that threatened to become awkward. All Cas could hear for a minute was Mary humming a Disney tune over the rumble of the car. When Dean finally looked at him again, his smile was back, but it didn’t reach his eyes. “Look at that, first date and we’re already talking kids? Thought we were taking it slow. I mean, at least buy me dinner first.”

“That can be arranged,” Cas gave back with a grin, taking the change of topic as what it was. The topic of kids was clearly off the table. If Cas was honest with himself, it only intrigued him even more with the man next to him.

Thankfully, they were spared any attempts to lighten the mood as they had reached the park. A little Christmas fair sat next to the skating rink and Cas was sure they would visit it afterwards. For now, they had to feed the little monster in the back, chanting “pizza, pizza, pizza”.

Dean found a parking spot on the other side of the street, which was lined by various diners, cafés, and other food places. After a little discussion about Flounder staying in the car or coming with them – which Mary won – Dean got their ice skates out of the trunk along with a backpack that Cas guessed held warmer clothes for Mary. His own backpack stayed in the car, just after he put his money and phone in the pocket of his jeans. Together, they took off to get the girl her pizza, the minor unease in their conversation forgotten by now.

The pizza place Dean and Mary chose wasn’t too far away and they got a booth at the window with a great view of all the Christmas lights adorning the fair. Cas was happy to let the little girl order for him, which made her positively thrilled, being allowed to choose the food for a prince. The way she ordered not only her own but also Dean’s pizza underlined how often the two of them seemed to come here.

“I have her almost every weekend,” Dean explained when he saw Cas’ bemused expression. “I’m trying to introduce her to other great food, but for now the little munchkin is dead set on pizza and who am I to deny her the third greatest food human kind has invented?”

“What’re the other two?”

“Mary?” Dean asked his niece, once again letting her answer for him.

Her answer was instant. “Pie!”

“That’s my girl,” Dean smiled, taking the knife she was playing with from her. When she took the fork, Dean took that from her as well. Mary didn’t even complain, just continued to play with Flounder. It fascinated Cas to no end, since he was sure most other kids would throw a fit if you took away the toys they were playing with.

“The other great food is burgers,” Dean took over explaining, still having an eye on Mary and her hands, checking if there was any other possible weapon close. “But she’ll get those often enough once grill-season starts again, right munchkin?”

“Burgers!”

God, Castiel was pretty sure he could watch these two for the rest of his life and never tire of how adorable they were together. When Dean looked back at him, Cas could see a slight blush on his cheeks. It was cute, really. And it accentuated his freckles and those stunning green eyes.

“I’m sorry, Cas, I’m the one doing all the talking.”

“Oh no, it’s fine,” Cas assured him at once. “I love listening and right now it’s easier for me anyways. Tell me a bit more about you.”

Dean did and the next few minutes he swept Cas away with stories about his job and the kids. Their pizzas arrived close to the end of a funny story and once Dean had finished, a comfortable silence fell over them while they all enjoyed the third best dish in the world. Looking at uncle and niece, Cas once more was able to detect the family resemblance by the way the two wolfed down bite after bite.

Mary was the first to break the silence. “Uncle Dean?”

“What is it, munchkin?”

“Can I have a milk from Uncle Benny?”

“Milk from Uncle Benny?” Dean asked, pretending to be completely surprised when Cas could clearly tell that he had anticipated the question. “I thought you wanted hot chocolate after ice skating.”

“Yes.”

“So which one is it?”

“I want the milk now and the hot chocolate later,” Mary explained as if it was obvious. It probably was for her.

Dean tried really hard to hide his smile and at least pretend to be stern with Mary – Cas was sure the little girl would end up with both drinks, although he had no idea why the milk would actually be a problem.

“Sweety, you can’t have both, it’s too much sugar and –”

“Please, Uncle Dean, please, please, please.”

“Mary –”

“Pleeeeease.” Mary put both her little hands on Dean’s arm and gave him the most impressive pleading eyes Cas had seen in a long time. In an odd way, the whole scene reminded him of Simba from The Lion King and his way of pleading with his dad. Just like Mufasa, Dean yielded.

“Alright, go tell the nice lady that we want to pay.”

Mary complied at once, hopping off her chair with a triumphant shout, both men looking after her as she made her way to get the waitress.

“I hate it when she uses her puppy eyes,” Dean mumbled, just loud enough for Cas to hear. Turning back to the man opposite him, Cas just smiled. Dean could complain all he wanted, he wasn’t fooling Cas. “She got those from her father. You’d think I’d be immune to them after Sammy has used them on me for over 26 years now, but it looks like this will never change.”

“Good to know,” Cas replied flirtingly, knowing full well he was able to pull off the puppy dog eyes as well.

Dean’s eyes went wide for a second, before he seemed to catch himself. He didn’t get a chance to answer, however, because Mary came back to their table, followed by the waitress.

After Dean paid for them (“It’s a date, Cas, and I asked you out. Put your money away.”) they stepped back outside. It was a bit chilly, so Cas pulled his scarf tighter around his neck, while Mary took off, clearly with a certain destination in mind. Dean let her run a bit ahead of them, still keeping a watchful eye on her. It was quite obvious that this was just another routine for them, but for some reason, it didn’t feel like he was intruding at all.

“Is Benny your brother as well?” he started their conversation again.

Keeping his eyes on the bouncing girl, Dean shook his head. “No, at least not by blood. He’s my best friend and his son is Mary’s age. They’ve grown quite close.”

When Cas’ eyes finally left Dean’s handsome face, he searched for the little girl again – only to find her gone. Before he could panic, Dean went for a door to a building Cas quickly identified as a coffee shop. He held it open and let Cas enter first. Mary was being lifted up by a huge man, all beard and crinkly smiles.

“Uncle Benny, guess what.”

“What, little Miss Mary?”

“Uncle Dean is a prince and today he broke the curse and now he is on a date with Prince Cas and I’ll be flower girl when they marry.”

“Oho, now that sounds exciting. Think I can be his best man?”

He threw a wink at Dean and while Mary babbled on, his eyes wandered over to Cas. It was probably just his imagination, but it felt like a challenge to Cas, so he held the eye contact until Benny nodded shortly before finally giving Mary the attention she demanded. “You here for your Special, little missy?”

“Yes!”

“Alright.” He put the girl on a chair at the bar before walking back behind it. “What about the soon to be wedded couple? I’ll make you a special price to celebrate the day,” he added, grinning like a school boy.

Cas felt the heat on his face once more, while he looked over to Dean to gauge his reaction. The man next to him seemed to be equally embarrassed and Cas saw him mouthing a quick, yet clear “shut up” towards his friend. Out loud, he said: “Cas, do you like warm milk with honey?”

Where has this man been all my life?

Nodding, Cas tried not to look too much like a crazy maniac staring at Dean.

“Any allergies?” Benny added, to which Cas was able to choke out a “no”. A few minutes later, he held the best warm milk with honey he had ever tasted in his hands. It was spiced with almond and nutmeg and Cas couldn’t believe he’d never thought of it in all his years of drinking this little piece of heaven.

Mary seemed to have the same as him, while Dean had a strong black coffee, only spiced with some chili. Cas would have loved to taste it, but he was pretty sure they hadn’t reached that level of intimacy yet.

Instead, he listened to Dean and Benny talk for a little while, mostly about the man’s wife and son. Other than that, Mary was quick to retell the events of the day, making all three men smile, although Cas and Dean were both slightly blushing.

“So,” Benny asked once Mary mentioned the date once more. “You’re gonna join these two on the ice?”

“That’s the plan, yes,” Cas replied politely, trying to cover up that he had been staring at Dean once more. He should probably try and stop, but it was just so damn hard not to look at the gorgeous man.

“Hope you’re good at it, ‘cause these two sure are.”

Sipping the last of the delicious warm milk, Cas nodded his head slightly. “I hope I’ll manage, but I haven’t been on the ice for quite some time now. Let’s just hope I’ll get back into it again quite quickly.”

“Don’t worry, Prince Cas,” Mary told him with a reassuring smile. “I’ll show you, and Uncle Dean can catch you.” Leaning over towards him, she tried to whisper: “I know, because I fell a lot, but Uncle Dean was always there.”

Trying not to imagine some cliché scenario from a bad rom-com, where the guy would catch the girl, but the girl was so adorable and awkward the guy fell for her anyways, Cas gravely thanked the little girl. It wasn’t long after that they said their goodbyes to Benny, who promised to take care of Flounder and bring him over once he closed the coffee shop. It was the only way to get him out of Mary’s clingy hands. Finally, they crossed the street towards the park.

Ice skating was not like riding a bike. At least not the first few steps and at least not for Cas. He’d loved it so much when he was younger, but the last few years, he’d never had anyone to go with, and since skating alone was just plain boring, he hadn’t been on the ice in at least five years. And the trench coat totally didn’t help. He hadn’t even been on the ice when he’d come to that conclusion. As had Dean, apparently.

“Cas, you sure you can skate in the long coat? Might be a bit of a hindrance.”

“I know, but it would be too cold without.”

Holding up a hand to signal him to wait, Dean had leaned back down to the backpack he’d left with their normal shoes. When he’d turned back around, he’d been holding an olive green jacket in his hands. It didn’t seem to be that warm, but on the other hand, it wasn’t that cold outside. Neither of them was wearing gloves or beanies, and Cas’ scarf was only there because of his voice. Mary, of course, was a different story. She wore a knitted set of gloves, beanie, and scarf.

“Since we’re not gonna be standing around, this should be warm enough,” Dean had told him. Cas had only hesitated for a second before shrugging of his trench coat and putting on the jacket Dean handed him. Thanks to his bulky hoody it fit him perfectly.

“Looking good,” Dean had said, winking at him before leading the way to the ice rink.

Which was where Cas found himself now. Three careful steps had brought him on the ice, yet he felt slightly shaky, not really wanting to let go of the railing. Had it really been that hard a few years back? He was going to embarrass himself so much in front of Dean... maybe he should say he felt dizzy. Dean didn’t know he’d lost his voice thanks to his assbutt of a brother... maybe he could pretend he’d just had a cold and was still not feeling that well... maybe –

Dean stopped right in front of him, his smile so genuine Cas found himself unable to lie when Dean asked if he was feeling alright.

“It’s just been a while. I feel a bit more shaky and unsteady than I thought I would.”

“Well, you’ll never get the hang of it back when you keep clinging to that railing,” Dean answered, holding out his hand for Cas to take.

God, this is so cliché.

As was the fact that Dean’s eyes mesmerized Cas and held his attention. They were just so green and he was sure he had never seen kinder ones. Dean could have made fun of him, but he didn’t. Following every cliché in the book, Cas took Dean’s proffered hand and let himself be pulled away from the side. Trying a few shaky glides it didn’t take long for him to get back into the rhythm. A few more glides and Cas was sure ice skating was like riding a bike after all – you never really forgot how to do it.

“Look at you,” Dean smiled, his hand still there, giving Cas a feeling of safety. “Already looking like a pro again.”

That made Cas laugh. As if to contradict Dean, his next glide was not as accurate, making him lose his balance and falter. Dean’s grip immediately grew tighter, giving him the support he needed to right himself. “You were saying?” was all Cas said once he was back to gliding relatively smoothly over the ice.

But Dean was right; it didn’t take long to get the hang of it again. Whenever he started stumbling or getting wobbly on his feet, Dean would tighten his hold to steady him, but as the minutes passed, those instances became less and less until Cas was sure he wouldn’t need Dean’s help anymore. Yet, he really liked the feeling of the man’s hand in his… he just didn’t want him to feel obliged to do it.

“I think it’s better now,” he started, trying not to make it seem as if he wanted Dean to let go of his hand. “If you need to pay more attention to Mary, please do so. I don’t want to monopolize you.”

Dean’s raised eyebrow and his slightly mocking smile showed Cas that the man wasn’t fooled. “Oh, it’s alright, Cas, I think she can manage.”

He was right. Of course he was right. Mary had been skating right in front of them the whole time, holding herself as if she’d never done anything else. It wasn’t hard to see why her family thought about paying for lessons – she was good without even trying and the spark in her eyes whenever she turned back to them as well as the huge smile that seemed to be a constant on her face ever since she’d stepped on the ice, was a testimony to how much she loved every second of it.

“But,” Cas tried again, “this is your time together, your thing. I don’t –”

“Cas, stop.”

He did right away, knowing his arguing was weak at best.

“You’re not intruding on anything, really. Sure, this is Mary’s and my ‘thing’, but it was the little munchkin that wanted you here. And so did I.” It was probably proof of how much Cas had improved on the skates that neither Dean’s words nor his enticing gaze and smile made Cas stumble. And neither did the lure of Dean that pulled him in. He was still sliding over the ice while his eyes were locked on rosy cheeks with freckles, amazing green eyes and soft lips. Oh, those lips. He had the unbelievable need to lean forward and kiss those lips again, taste them once more. They’d probably taste of coffee and chili this time. Cas really wanted to see if he was right.

Only the little hands taking hold of his free right hand pulled him back to reality. They also made him realize how close he had gotten to Dean, all while still being in sync with him, gliding carefully over the ice. Huh, maybe it really was like riding a bike.

“Prince Cas, will you watch me? I wanna show you something.”

“Sure, little Princess. I'm watching you.”

They spend the next hour or so watching Mary show what she was able to do on the ice, talking as much as Cas’ voice would let him (which was by far more than he had thought – Benny’s Special seemed to have some healing power of its own) and circling the rink round after round. They were laughing and flirting and the more time passed, the more a warm feeling took hold of Cas. It only grew with each smile Dean would give him. The whole time, Dean’s warm hand never left his.

They left the ice when Mary started to get tired – which of course she was adamant wasn’t the case. For the first time, Cas witnessed Dean winning an argument and not letting Mary have her way. Oh sure, he gave in to her pleas of “just five more minutes” once, but who wouldn’t? After that, he put his foot down and got the protesting girl off the ice.

“In case you’re wondering,” Dean told him while getting the skates off of the pouting girl. “Yes, it’s always this big a drama to leave the ice.”

“She loves it, I get it. It really is nice.” Turning around, Cas let his eyes wander over the rink, watching the people still skating on it. “I can’t believe I forgot how much I loved it,” he whispered, almost as if to himself. Dean might not even have heard it, if he hadn’t been right by his side all of a sudden.

“You know... you could join us again, maybe? I mean... only if you want to...”

Drawing his eyes away from the field of ice, Cas was touched to see a slight blush bloom on Dean’s face, fitting his shy statement and the eyes that wouldn’t quite meet his own. Dean really meant it. He made it sound like a casual thing, a meeting with both him and Mary to simply have fun again, but his demeanor revealed what this truly was: Dean was asking him for another date. Cas couldn’t have been more thrilled.

“I’d love to. Very much so.”

They shared a secret smile before both sat down to get out of the skates and back into their shoes. Cas left Dean to deal with Mary, who was still pouting, and to get her into dry clothes, while he gave back his rented skates. When he got back, Mary held Flounder in her arms, all smiles and happy-chatty princess once more. Cas looked around, but Benny was nowhere to be seen.

“He had to go home. Said something about cookies that needed to be baked and relatives arriving tomorrow. To be honest, it sounded more like ‘I don’t want to intrude’.”

Cas had to laugh at that, amused not only by Benny, but by Dean being so blunt about it.

He switched back into his trench coat, already missing the way it had felt to wear something of Dean’s. Dean made a quick run to his car to put their things away, leaving Mary with Cas – which absolutely floored the man. It was one thing to take a stranger to join in on the fun with his niece. It was a completely different thing to leave said stranger alone with her. He was gone for just two minutes, but still. After all, that would have been enough time for Cas to kidnap the sweet little thing.

Maybe, just maybe…

Cas was pondering about what this trust meant. Maybe Dean was feeling like he did. As if they weren’t strangers anymore.

Hello there, cliché, Cas thought, but he couldn’t deny it: never before had he felt so close to another human being in such a short time. It was as if they just clicked. And not just because of the attraction that was quite obviously mutual. But also on another level. Cas was pretty sure they had a good chance at becoming close friends even if it didn’t work out romantically between them. That thought alone made him quite happy.

When Dean came back, they started to tour the Christmas fair. Cas bought a little cherubim that was supposed to be the archangel Gabriel, telling Dean all about his older brother. While Mary was distracted by all the other things on display, he slipped in how he’d really lost his voice. Dean did show some pity, but was mostly laughing, telling Cas some of the shit he’d done to his own little brother.

“You do know this really doesn’t improve my picture of you, right? Knowing you’re as much of a tormentor as my big brother is.”

“Aww, come on, Cas, that’s what big brothers do. It’s our job.”

“Still not working in your favor to impress me,” Cas replied, putting the little Gabriel figurine in one of the pockets of his trench coat.

Dean was still smiling, gravely unimpressed by Cas’ momentarily pretend-sour look. “No? And what would work in my favor?”

When Cas didn’t answer, Dean took his hand. “This?” He intertwined their fingers. “Or this?” He pulled their joint hands to his lips and kissed each of Cas’ knuckles. “Or maybe this?”

Cas had to swallow hard before he was able to croak out an answer. “That’s a good start.” For once, he was pretty sure his weak voice had nothing to do with the loss of it the previous days. Dean’s green eyes were sparkling and he sent Cas a dazzling smile. Keeping their hands joined, Dean pulled him towards the booth with the hot chocolate, Mary bouncing a few steps ahead of them.

They sat down at a wooden picnic-table, each of them with a hot chocolate with whipped cream on top, sprinkled with cinnamon and cocoa. Joking around and keeping Mary entertained, Dean made sure to drink his hot chocolate in a way that would leave a whipped cream mustache on his upper lip. They all laughed at it, Cas trying hard not to give in to the urge to just lean over the table and kiss the mustache away. Dean seemed to notice and for a second, Cas was sure the green eyes grew darker, Dean’s gaze wandering to Cas’ own lips.

The moment was broken when a squeal nearby got their attention. “Look, Mommy. It’s the prince from Disney and his prince who saved him.”

“It sure is, sweety.”

When Cas turned towards the voices, he saw a young girl, maybe about Mary’s age and in a similar winter attire. She pulled two beautiful women with her, right up to their table. One of the women had honey colored curls, the other flaming red hair. They all smiled at them, the little girl with excitement in her eyes. “Is your voice really back? Are you married now?”

“No, they’re on a date,” Mary answered. “But they will marry soon and I’ll be the flower girl.”

“Wow.” The girl’s eyes were huge and in pure amazement. “That is so cool.”

Cas could feel the heat creep back in his cheeks. How was Dean going to explain to his niece that they weren’t going to get married right away? Wait! What was he thinking? Scratch the ‘right away’! How was Dean going to explain they weren’t going to get married, period. Because surely they wouldn’t be… right?

Am I seriously thinking what I’m thinking I’m thinking… I’m thinking I’m confusing myself, I should just stop.

Cas tried to focus back on the girls, who were still chatting as if they were best friends. Mary had introduced herself – this little girl really did have manners – and she had even introduced “Uncle Dean, he’s a prince” and “Prince Cas”.

“I’m Dori. And these’re my moms. Mommy” – she pointed to the redhead – “is a queen and Mum” – to the one with curly hair – “is a fairy.”

“Wooow.” It was Mary’s turn to be amazed. “That makes you a fairy princess. Uncle Dean, can I be a fairy princess, too?” Her head had snapped around to Dean so fast, Cas was scared she’d give herself whiplash. She was almost crawling on his lap, puppy eyes on full force.

“Sure my little munchkin. Everything you want to be,” Dean told her, kissing her head gently. Cas was pretty sure that the slight infatuation he had with this man was dipping into crush-territory right then and there.

Mary squealed and jumped down from the bench, Flounder tightly pressed to her chest, the rest of her hot chocolate long forgotten. Once she was in front of Dori, it was as if the two girls were speaking their own language, babbling about everything and nothing. Cas had a strange feeling they were planning the perfect wedding…

“Sorry for interrupting you guys,” the red head spoke up, smiling at them. She had one of these open smiles that were simply captivating and infectious. “We were at the store earlier and Dorothy wouldn’t shut up about the two of you the rest of the day.”

“It’s alright, don’t worry. You guys wanna sit down for a moment?” Dean asked, indicating the free space on the benches at the picnic table. “I mean…?” he suddenly faltered, looking at Castiel.

“Oh yeah, sure, that’s fine,” Cas was quick to jump in, nodding in the direction of the girls. “It doesn’t look like you’ll be able to leave anytime soon.”

“Very true,” the red head said, sitting down next to Castiel. “I’m Charlie, by the way. And this beautiful fairy is my wife, Gilda.”

Gilda smiled and said her hellos, while sitting down next to Dean, taking Mary’s vacated seat. Cas studied the two women and was pretty sure that, yes, he had seen them in the shop earlier that day.

It took no time at all for the four adults to fall into a comfortable chit chat just like the kids. Charlie and Gilda wanted to know the real story behind the show, as they called it, and both Dean and Cas took turns telling it, careful that the girls couldn’t hear. After that, they found out that Charlie was indeed a queen: Queen of Moondoor, the greatest and largest LARPing game in the world – at least according to Charlie. The fiery woman was obviously quite passionate about her hobby, while Gilda smiled at her wife fondly. They had given her the role of a fairy when she had wanted to join just once to see what all the fuss was about.

Cas was enjoying Dean’s poorly hidden excitement about the topic and after just a few minutes, Charlie had roped him into trying to play at least once.

“You can be my handmaiden, I actually need one.”

“Wait, I’m a prince, please don’t forget that.”

“Well, I’m the Queen, never forget that,” Charlie threw back, grinning like a maniac and not giving Dean a chance to retort. Turning towards Cas, she fixed him with a calculating gaze. “Hm… mhh… oh, I know! You could be an angel. We introduced the new species just before the holidays; you could still join that group.”

“I…” He had absolutely no idea what to say to that.

“Hey!” Dean threw in, looking deeply affronted. “Why does he get to play such a cool part and I would be your handmaiden?”

“Well, duh. Look at him. He just looks like an angel, doesn’t he?”

Everything went silent as three pairs of eyes studied Cas and, yep, that was a blush on his cheeks once more. It only got worse when he looked up and found Dean’s heated gaze on him, a playful smile grazing his lips. “Yes,” Dean answered Charlie, never breaking eye contact with Cas. “Yes, he absolutely does.”

Isn’t it supposed to be cold outside? Cas suddenly had the urge to rip his scarf off, he felt way too hot. A snicker from the woman next to him let him snap out of it.

“I guess we should leave you two to your date again,” Gilda spoke up, already getting up and taking her wife’s hand, probably to pull her along. “It was so nice meeting you two.”

Cas and Dean both told her the same, while Charlie asked her to hang on a second, rummaging in her many pockets. Gilda let her and picked up Dori, while Mary already crawled back on the bench. Cas could see that she was much quieter and for a second he worried. Had something happened? Even during the talk, the adults had kept their eyes on the girls who had been playing around in the snow and with Flounder. But maybe they had missed something? The moment Mary cuddled up so close to Dean she was practically on his lap, arms tightly around his arm, head resting against his biceps, Cas realized that Mary was simply starting to get tired. He quickly checked his watch. It was way past 10 pm. No wonder the sweet little girl was getting tired, even with all the sugar in her blood.

“Ha, found it,” Charlie exclaimed, handing Dean and Cas both a card with her name and number. “Let’s stay in touch; I really loved talking to you.”

“Yeah, sure,” Dean assured her enthusiastically, checking out the business card. “A photographer, eh? You don’t, by any miracle, have time before Christmas?”

“Depends,” Charlie answered truthfully.

“My brother – Mary’s father – wanted to have a family portrait taken while Jess is still pregnant. He just forgot that everybody would either be busy or not working around Christmas. But the baby could be here any day now, so –”

“Sure,” Charlie interrupted. “Just give me a call on Monday.”

“Great, thanks. I certainly will.”

They all said their goodbyes, Dori already half asleep on her mother’s arm, Mary not far behind her, snuggled close to Dean.

Once the three ladies were gone, it took Cas and Dean a few minutes to stop watching Mary being all cute and adorable. Flounder was still in her arms, squished tightly to her chest and Dean’s arm.

“I hate to say it, but I think we need to leave. Princess needs her sleep.” While he said it, Dean used his other hand to gently caress her head, stroking some of the hair that had escaped her beanie out of her eyes.

For a wild second, Cas wished those hands would do the same to him.

“Yes, let’s go,” he choked out, keeping his breath and voice regular.

Picking Mary up, Dean positioned her against his chest and shoulder in a way that would be comfortable for both of them. Flounder was dangling dangerously on their side, one little hand barely holding on to one string of his blue hair. Carefully, Cas took the stuffed fish from her as he fell into step next to Dean. The man shifted Mary a bit so one of his hands became free. Taking Cas’ hand again, he gave him an adoring smile, leading the way back to his car.

The ride back to Cas’ house – well, Gabriel’s house really, but whatever – was way too short in Cas opinion. They were holding hands the whole way. It felt surreal, yet so perfectly right. As if something between them just fit and that was it.

Cas used the first few minutes of the drive to put Dean’s number in his phone and ring him, so he would have Cas’ in return. After that, he sat back and watched the handsome man right next to him.

“Is it just me?” He asked Dean after a few silent minutes in which he hadn’t been able to take his eyes of him.

Dean seemed to have the same problem, as his eyes constantly left the street and wandered over to the man in the passenger seat. This time, he looked at him questioningly.

“I mean… This might sound stupid, but… I feel like…”

“Like we have a connection?”

“Yeah,” Cas nodded. “Yeah. Is that weird?”

“Maybe.” Once more, Dean’s eyes wandered over, holding his gaze. “But I don’t care. It just… it feels right, you know?”

Yes, Cas did know.

“So, you don’t think it’s weird that we hardly know each other, yet we have this connection? We just trust each other?”

Dean was quiet for a long time. When he spoke again, Cas wasn’t sure if he was changing the subject or not.

“Back in the store, did you hear Mary mention the name Hans?”

Having no idea what Dean was playing at, Cas simply nodded.

“I never dated a guy named Hans.” A twisted smile played at Dean’s lips. As if he was remembering a bittersweet memory. “His real name was Brady. He was a college friend of Sam’s, so my brother had known him for many years and so had I. By chance, we met again shortly after Mary was born. We kinda hit it off and started this on and off relationship thing. I… well I’d had some bad experiences with women and relationships at that point, so I had no interest in them anymore, at least for a while. So no matter how often Brady and I broke it off, eventually we would end up back together. Of course that meant that he was also part of Mary’s life. We had no idea how or why, but she never once called him Brady. From the moment she could talk – and the moment she’d first watched Frozen – she’d call him Hans. We tried to find explanations: maybe the name Brady was too hard for her to pronounce, maybe in her eyes he looked like him. When she was finally old enough to rationalize things, I asked her. Her answer was so simple it really cut me. ‘Because, Uncle Dean,’ she said, ‘he’s just like Hans.’ It got me thinking. At first, I thought he might have been mean to her, you know? She’d never really liked him, but she didn’t shy away from him either, like you would expect a kid that had been hurt by an adult. It took me two more months to finally get it.”

“What happened?” Cas quietly and gently prompted when Dean seemed to have a hard time continuing.

“I found him in my bed with another guy.”

Cas closed his eyes, painfully able to imagine what Dean must have felt back then and now. He squeezed his hand, giving him his silent support. Words wouldn’t help here anyway.

They were quiet again for a few minutes, just a few blocks down from where Cas lived.

“Mary loves you already,” Dean spoke again and Cas actually needed a second to realize that Dean wasn’t starting a new topic. He never had. That was his explanation. When their eyes met again, Castiel’s suspicion was confirmed: Mary trusted him, so Dean could as well. Because a kid was a better judge of character than most adults could ever be.

When they pulled up at Cas’ driveway, it was close to 11 pm, but he didn’t want to let go. Mary was asleep in her seat, Flounder right next to her.

Dean cut off the engine. “I guess I don’t have to tell you, but: I had a great evening.”

“Me too,” Cas replied, watching Dean in the semi darkness. The next streetlight was a few yards away and the lights in the surrounding houses were all off. It was a quiet neighborhood.

Dean looked up, catching Cas staring at him. People had often told him that he would weird them out with his staring, yet Dean didn’t seem to mind. On the contrary, he stared right back.

“I know it’s only our first date.” When Dean spoke again, he was whispering and Cas was thankful for it. He didn’t want the moment to ever stop and speaking too loud would surely ruin it. He had no idea how long they’d already been sitting there, staring at each other. Could have been seconds, could have been hours. “But I really want to kiss you right now.”

Cas heart skipped a beat before thundering back to life twice as fast.

“We’ve already kissed,” he whispered back, voice hardly audible. It didn’t have to be, Dean was already so close to him. “I don’t think normal dating procedure applies to us.”

“Good,” Dean replied, eyes already fluttering shut, closing the last little gap between them.

Just like before, Cas couldn’t suppress the tiny gasp that escaped him. He’d felt embarrassed about it the first time, but just like then, Dean’s kiss intensified and Cas couldn’t find it in him to be embarrassed now. He could feel Dean’s hand in his hair, his pinky grazing the nape of his neck just so, almost tickling him. It felt amazing. Without a conscious decision, his own hand wandered to Dean’s jacket, gripping it tight, pulling closer, never wanting to let go. He parted his lips and this time, Dean took the invitation. He tasted of hot chocolate with just a hint of chili.

It was almost impossible to suppress his moans. The first kiss had been amazing, but this…this kiss…

Heaven.

It was pure heaven with maybe just a tiny bit of hell. Because Cas wanted more, so much more, but the awkward position made it almost impossible. He wanted to straddle the man and God knows he most likely would have, had it not been for Mary. She was sleeping peacefully, yes, but she was still there and whatever would happen once he climbed on Dean’s lap was most certainly nothing child friendly.

So instead, Cas slowly let this wonderful kiss draw to an end. Without hesitating, Dean followed him, not letting his lips get too far away. Cas gave in willingly, reveling in the feeling of being wanted by a man like Dean.

When his want for this man started to actually hurt, he tried again to bring the kiss to an end and this time, Dean gave in, letting his forehead rest against Cas’ instead.

“I could do this all night long,” Dean told him, eyes still closed, voice still just a whisper.

Cas couldn’t help being a tease. “Trust me, if you were free tonight, kissing wouldn’t be the only thing I could do all night long.”

He had to bite his lips to hold back his laughter when Dean actually groaned at his words, shifting his hips just enough to make Cas realize that he had the same effect on this gorgeous man as Dean had on him.

“Please don’t say that,” Dean begged him, hand starting to massage Cas neck, their foreheads still touching. It started to hurt, being forced to look cross-eyed, so he closed his eyes again.

“Why?”

“Because if I think about it too much, I would wish I didn’t have Mary to stay.”

“You don’t mean that,” Cas chided him, huge smile clear in his voice. He could feel Dean shake his head no.

“No, I don’t mean that. But maybe I would lock my door for the first time.”

God, he was so adorable. How often had Mary wandered over to her uncle’s bed in the middle of the night? The picture made Cas grin even wider. He pulled back slightly, giving Dean a sweet kiss on the tip of his nose. That seemed to finally get the man out of his trance. He sucked in a deep breath as if just waking up, opening those green eyes at last. His hand was still in Cas’ hair and they stared into each other’s eyes for a few more minutes.

Cas had no idea what Dean was thinking about, but maybe it was something close to the things that shot through his own head.

How is this real? How is this possible? Where has this man been all my life? How did I get so lucky that I met him? And why are there bees in my stomach, doing somersaults?

“Are you free tomorrow?”

Cas could only nod.

“Mary and I are going to make Christmas cookies. If you promise not to eat Mary’s portion of the batter, I’m sure she’d be happy to have you.”

“But the batter is the best part of baking.”

A smile twitched at Dean’s lips. “We can share my half.”

“That sounds perfect. I’d love to.”

In lieu of an answer, Dean kissed him once more, just a single, closemouthed press to his lips, but it was enough to let the hive of bees in Cas’ stomach buzz again.

“I’ll text you my address tomorrow.”

“Okay.”

They kissed once, twice more, before Dean pulled his hand out of Cas’ hair. With one last glance back at the still sleeping girl, Cas finally took his backpack and got out of the car. At his door, he turned around once more, smiling at the black car almost in complete darkness. It wasn’t until he had safely closed the front door and sagged against it with a happy smile that he heard the low roar of the Impala, getting quieter the further it pulled away.

“Well, hello there.”

Cas was pretty sure he had a heart attack just then and there.

“Gabriel!” he choke-screamed out, glaring at his brother. The assbutt had the audacity to just grin at him and chuckle.

“I was just about to come outside and ask if you’d like a blanket and some pillows.”

“… What?”

“I was wondering if you and whoever’s face you were sucking wanted to sleep outside.”

Cas must have looked pretty stupid, as Gabriel simply pointed to the clock they had hanging on the wall.

It was almost midnight.

They had just made out in the car for about an hour.

“Good thing you got home before midnight or that sweet ride would have turned into a pumpkin and I’d had to come to your rescue.”

He’d just made out with a man he hardly knew, who made the bees inside him buzz whenever he thought of those green eyes and those lips and these hands. All Cas could do was to give a beatific smile as he pushed off the door and past his brother.

“Wrong fairytale,” he told him, leaving a confused Gabriel in his wake.

He was already in bed but unable to sleep, still high from thoughts of Dean, when his phone buzzed like bees. He took it off the nightstand and opened the message.

It was a picture of Mary in Ariel PJs, fast asleep and cuddling close to Flounder. The text read Dreaming of her prince?

Before he could answer, a second picture popped up. It was a selfie of Dean’s profile, head on a pillow, eyes closed as if he was sleeping, a soft smile playing on his lips. The text was so cheesy and Cas couldn’t help feeling absolutely giddy: I know I am.

Dork :)

Quickly, Cas took a selfie with a similar pose, only his profile the other way around so if they had been in the same bed, they would have been facing each other. He added just two simple words and sent it, before putting the phone back on the nightstand and going to sleep, a content smile on his lips.

Me too.

Chapter Text

Once upon a time… Dean was about to ask the most important question of his life and it was all thanks to his niece Mary.

After all it had been his niece that had demanded he’d play prince for Castiel Novak, the most gorgeous man Dean had ever met. Now, almost a year later, Dean just knew Cas was his Happily Ever After and he didn’t plan on ever letting him go. Not when the Supreme Court had finally decided that they would legally be able to marry. They had celebrated that day together, but their relationship had still been fresh at that time, just barely six months old. Neither of them had made an impetuous proposal – but it had Dean thinking about a possible future with the man next to him. And now, a few months later, he finally wanted to take that next step.

Getting the ring hadn’t been easy, but just like before, Mary was a big help. He didn’t tell her what it would be for – the chance of her accidentally letting it slip in front of Cas was too big. He took her to the zoo that day, just so she would be too excited about it to remember the trip to the jewelry store. It worked perfectly and that night when Cas got home from work, all she could talk about was the big lions, the giraffes, and of course the cute little bunnies she’d cuddled with in the petting zoo. Cas was none the wiser about the ring now resting in the drawer of one of the guest rooms at Sammy’s house.

That had been almost five weeks ago. It wasn’t as if it had taken this long for Dean to man up and actually ask, it was rather that he hadn’t had a clue how to do it right. He wanted it to be memorable, wanted it to be romantic without being too cheesy. He wanted it to be perfect because Cas deserved nothing less than that. It didn’t matter how often his family and friends told him that Cas wouldn’t care, that he would say yes even if Dean asked him during sex (that had been Charlie’s brilliant idea). Nope, none of that mattered; Dean needed this to be perfect.

And then Cas had gotten sick and had lost his voice once more. He hadn’t been at work the whole week, but today was not only a Saturday, which always guaranteed a full store; it was also Halloween. Dean had known his man wouldn’t be stopped from going in to work and being the supportive boyfriend he was he had suggested reviving the old notepad. Cas had been so happy his smile alone was worth it. Little did he know that Dean had an ulterior motive, because this chance was just too perfect to let it slide.

Getting his and Cas’ friends on board was the easiest part in all of this. Charlie insisted on being there as well to secretly film the whole thing. And of course Mary had to be there. After all she was the key to his plan.

That morning, Dean helped Cas to get ready. The entire Disney Store staff was supposed to be in costume and Castiel had chosen to be a prince this year. The black uniform with silver embroidery suited him so well Dean had a hard time keeping his hands off of his boyfriend. He kissed him goodbye before getting the house cleaned up and ready: candles in the bathroom and the bedroom, the right music in the stereo, Cas’ favorite champagne in a cooler next to their bed. He briefly thought about rose petals on the bed as well, but that was probably a tad too much. Instead he went ahead and prepared everything for Cas’ favorite dinner to be ready to go once they got home… well, probably once they left the bedroom after getting home.

Around 1 pm he had a brief panic attack. What if Cas said no? What if he thought it was too early? Or that Dean wasn’t ‘The One’ at all?

As if she’d sensed it, Charlie picked that time to show up, easily calming him down. It had taken no time at all for the feisty redhead to become one of Dean’s best friends. They would nerd about comics and movies while Gilda and Cas would sit and talk about politics and world literature. Dori and Mary had been inseparable after their first playdate. The three ladies had become family within just a few short days.

Charlie was able to calm him down. Yes, it hadn’t quite been a year, but Dean knew his feelings for Cas were real and that the man was sincere about his feelings for Dean as well. True, there hadn’t been any true tests of their relationship yet, but those few problems that they had encountered they had overcome together: their first real fight, their insecurities regarding partners and their own worth (well, they were still working on those), some dark secrets of the pasts they had to be honest about, and of course moving in together and coalescing their two lives. Dean knew neither he nor Cas was a prince and their life wasn’t a fairytale, the last few months had proven it. But having Cas at his side made it all better. All the good moments he had immediately wanted to share with Castiel. All the bad things had been improved as soon as Cas had been at his side. Dean wanted him by his side – and not just for the good times. He wanted the bad times as well, the times that Cas was grumpy, the times Dean was insecure, the times they would fight about their stupid habits they couldn’t seem to erase. He wanted all of it, because he wanted Cas.

So after assuring Charlie that he really was okay and wouldn’t back out, he hugged her goodbye and drove over to his brother’s place. Mary was in his arms before he was even really out of his Impala. She was already wearing her teal colored flower girl fairy costume which she’d demanded to wear for Halloween and during the big role she was going to play for the proposal.

“Hey there, little munchkin,” he greeted her, accepting the wet kiss she smacked on his cheek. “Are you ready for your little performance later?”

“Of course.”

“Still remember all the lines we practiced?”

“Yes, Uncle Dean, all of it,” she promised him and he believed her right away. With her five and a half years of age it was already obvious that she had gotten her father’s brains. She was a quick thinker and very clever. You didn’t really want to get into an argument with this one. She had been the one to convince her parents to get her professional ice skating lessons – not that her parents would have denied her, but the arguments were substantial none the less. Her lessons had started just at the beginning of October and Mary couldn’t be happier.

When they entered the house, they found Jessica in the kitchen with little Krissy, the newest addition to the Winchester family. She had been indeed a little Christmas angel, born on the 26th of December. Dean loved her just as much as he loved Mary.

When his brother came home the family had a quick snack. Dean was too nervous to have a single bite so instead, he was feeding little Krissy some of her baby food, knowing how interacting with his nieces usually calmed him down. It helped, if only a little bit. Afterwards Sam ushered him to the guestroom. Since Dean’s costume would have given away too much, he had kept it here at Sam’s together with the ring. His brother helped him get dressed in the costume that resembled Cas’ in all but color. Instead of the black, his was a dark hunter green. The embroidery itched a little, but he had to admit that he looked like a Prince Charming right out of one of Mary’s fairytale books.

Dean had talked with Cas’ colleagues about the best time to do this so he could take Cas home right afterwards. Since they now had two students that helped in the store during busy times of the year, Hannah, Meg, and Anna had agreed that Cas could leave at 7 pm. They would be able to handle the last hours with Garth and Donna there. So at six-thirty Dean helped his brother and sister-in-law get the two girls in the car before climbing into the Impala. His nerves attacked again when he reached the parking lot, but before it could blow into a full panic attack, Mary was at his car, opening the door for him and pulling him out.

As he entered the mall, he got a text from Gabe, telling him that everybody was already there, just waiting for them. Feeling his stomach turn and his hands start to sweat, he checked his pocket with the ring once more, before picking Mary up and pressing her close to him. It calmed him down enough to be able to follow his brother.

They made their way quickly through the mall. Since it was Halloween, no one batted an eye about his Prince Charming costume. Just before they were able to be seen through the windows of the Disney Store, the family stopped.

“You sure you remember your lines?”

“Yes, Uncle Dean,” Mary replied impatiently, letting him cuddle her once more before squirming to be let down so she could run inside the store. Her parents gave him one last encouraging smile, then followed Mary inside. He couldn’t risk being seen, so all he could do was wait, listen, and hope that Charlie really was able to get it all on video.

Just as he heard the excited shriek of “Uncle Cas” echoing through the store his phone binged again. He wanted to ignore it at first, but thought better of it. Fortunately he hadn’t ignored it since it was a message from Charlie with a link. Dean recognized the address to their private group on Facebook they used to swap funny links. He clicked on it and an online video popped up. Instantly, Dean smiled. It was a livestream on what was happening inside the store. He would have to remember to give Charlie an extra big hug later.

Cas and Mary’s profiles could be seen, partly covered. Charlie was obviously filming from behind some shelves to not make his boyfriend suspicious. Mary was in Cas’ arms, giving him a big hug. It had taken the little princess no time at all to not only steal Cas’ heart, but to fully accept him as her second uncle. If Dean wasn’t so in love with the man, he would have been jealous as to how many cuddles, kisses, and smiles he got from Mary.

When she finally released him and was sat back down, Dean’s heart skipped a beat. It was show time.

“Uncle Cas, why did Ursula take your voice again?”

The “deer in the headlights”-look on Castiel’s face was too adorable and made Dean chuckle.

“Is Uncle Dean not your prince anymore?”

Seeing the shock on Cas’ face made Dean’s heart flutter. It looked like the pure thought of Dean not being his prince anymore pained his boyfriend. Well, that was a good sign, wasn’t it?

When Cas kneeled down, the camera was quickly adjusted. He took Mary’s hands in one of his and pulled out the famous notepad. It looked a bit complicated, but Cas managed to have it on his knee and write with just one hand without holding the pad with his other hand. It warmed Dean’s heart to see how Cas seemed unwilling to let go of Mary’s hands. Dean was dying to read the note, but there was no chance with the angle of the camera.

Mary read the note before looking back up at Castiel. “But why is your voice gone? Did Uncle Dean forget to kiss you in the morning?”

There it was, that smile Dean had so fallen in love with. He just couldn’t get enough of it.

Nodding, Cas took the out Mary had offered him – not knowing that it was exactly the answer Dean had hoped for. But Mary knew and she was getting excited about the whole ploy working so perfectly.

“I will find you a prince that can kiss you right now.”

Cas’ face in that moment was priceless. How he was able to stay silent was beyond Dean. Mary smacked a kiss on Cas’ cheek before she left him to run outside. The last thing Dean saw on the video before putting his phone away was Cas' outstretched hand as if to stop the girl and then the bewildered, almost pleading look in Sam’s direction. Mary was by Dean’s side just a few moments later.

“Uncle Dean, it worked,” she whispered excited.

“I know, munchkin, I saw it. You were perfect. Shall we go inside?”

Instead of answering, she took his hand, pulling him inside the store.

He spotted his boyfriend right away and when their eyes met, he could see the relief on Cas’ face. Almost instantly, it was replaced by one of surprise and confusion.

“Look, Uncle Cas. I found you a prince that can kiss you and break the curse.” Mary was almost giggling, she was so excited. By now, Cas probably realized that something was going on. If he hadn’t gotten suspicious before, now he most certainly was. Which might have also been because the voices around the store had died down almost completely, Cas colleagues and their friends and family making sure people didn’t interrupt.

Instead of taking the last few steps towards the love of his life, Dean kneeled down next to Mary, pretending to be talking just to her. Yet he didn’t lower his voice.

“You want me to kiss him again?”

“Yes, Uncle Dean. Ursula took his voice just like last year.”

“His voice? Well, that’s a shame. It’s such a bad timing.”

“Why?”

Turning towards his man, Dean sent him a loving smile. “Because I came here to ask him a very important question.”

That statement had the desired effect. All around the store he could hear reactions, but the most important one was that of the blue-eyed angel just a few feet away from him. His eyes became big while his hand flew to his mouth to cover it.

“You still can. You just have to break the curse first, like you did last time.”

“Are you sure?” Dean asked, turning back towards his niece. She was playing her part so perfectly she had absolutely earned her big reward for it.

“Yes!”

“But what if he doesn’t want me to be his prince for forever?”

“But he does, Uncle Dean, he really does. He’s told me so.”

At that, Dean raised an eyebrow. The last part had not been in their script. “Did he now?”

Nodding wildly, Mary pointed towards Cas. “He wrote it on his notepad.” With that, her little hands wandered towards his cheeks, holding his face in both of her hands; the way she had seen Jess do with both of the Winchester brothers whenever she needed the two knuckleheads to really listen to her. “He really loves you, Uncle Dean. You should ask him. But you need to kiss him first, or he can’t answer you.”

It was almost too much for Dean. Huffing out a laugh, his eyes wandered to the floor for just a moment. He needed to collect himself or he would cry. And Dean Winchester would not cry during his proposal, dammit.

“Thank you, little munchkin. I think I’ll just take his kiss as an answer then, if he decides to say yes. How does that sound?”

Mary only nodded and Dean gave her a quick kiss on her forehead before getting back up and finally turning towards his boyfriend.

And holy hell, his gorgeous man was already crying. Shit, Dean was close to crying himself. He needed to do this now before he was too choked up.

Dean closed what little space was left between them and took Cas’ hand – the one that wasn’t still covering his quivering lips – into his own. This was it. He kept his eyes on their joined hands and began to speak.

“Cas.”

Why had no one ever told him that this moment would be so emotional? He had prepared a whole speech and now it felt like he had forgotten every word of the English language.

But then he looked up and those blue eyes looked at him. He could see the love in them he had seen for almost a year now. The kind of love he had always wished for. And suddenly the words were there. Maybe not the ones he had rehearsed, but certainly the ones he wanted to say to Cas.

“I know it’s not even been a year since we met and my niece forced me to kiss you to break a curse.” There were chuckles all around and Dean joined them, before continuing. “What I didn’t know back then was… that that kiss also broke a curse I was carrying. I know that sounds cheesy, but I don’t care. Cas, you… you’re the best thing that has ever happened to me. I know it’s not even been a year, but I don’t care. We have already had some ups and downs and through it all, I knew I wanted you by my side. And I want you by my side for the rest of my life. And if there’s a life after that, I want you there as well. You make me feel like this special person that can save you when you need me. But on the other hand, I know you’ll always be there to save me as well when I need it. You are my better half… and I don’t want to be without you anymore. So…” Not letting go of Cas’ hand, Dean used his other hand to pull out the little velvet box and opened it. His hand was shaking a bit, but it didn’t matter, because Cas held his other hand and he didn’t let go of it. He was there to anchor him.

“I know you don’t have your voice right now. Not until your true love kisses you. But I’m asking you nevertheless and just hope your kiss will be my answer: Castiel Novak, will you marry me?”

Not even a heartbeat passed before he felt Castiel’s lips on his.

He was vaguely aware of all the cheering around them, but it all faded out compared to the feeling of his angel pressed against him. His arms wound around Cas’ waist of their own volition while he felt his boyfriend’s arms slide around his neck.

No, not boyfriend. Fiancé.

Cas had said yes.

Dean pulled him as close as he could, not believing that he could be so lucky.

He had no idea how long they kissed, but when they started to pull apart, everybody around them was still cheering and clapping.

“Yes,” Cas whispered, voice still raw. Not that he cared, apparently, as he repeated that one word over and over while peppering Dean’s face with kisses.

The ring fitted perfectly. It was a silver band with golden flecks that looked like stardust. Or pixie dust, as Mary had called it. It might have been the reason she’d picked the ring. Dean didn’t care, it fitted them quite well. He had bought the counterpart for himself, the only difference a little diamond inserted in Cas’ ring. That night, his fiancé put it on Dean’s ring finger before happily falling asleep in his arms, their hands with the two rings intertwined.

Their wedding was just a few weeks later on December 20^th – exactly one year after they had first met.

Of course, Mary was the flower girl, wearing her sweet teal fairy dress once more. And as cheesy as it was, Dean and Cas had borrowed their princes uniforms again for the day. Obviously, the whole wedding evolved around the theme of Disney and fairytales. Only the combined forces of the ladies in their lives had made it possible to have everything ready and perfect that day.

Charlie’s present was not only the video from their proposal. No, it was much more, because to their surprise that hadn’t been the first time she'd caught them on tape. Apparently, one year ago she had been filming Dori when Mary’s antics had gotten her attention. And thus, she had a video of their very first meeting. How she had been able to keep that from everybody else for a whole year was beyond Dean, but he was in tears when he saw that little gem. As he had been halfway through his proposal. He hadn’t even realized he had been crying and he’d probably denied it, had it not been on the video.

Dean had been right. Their life was no fairytale. It continued to have a lot of ups but also a lot of downs. But during it all, they stood side by side and faced it together. And that was much better than any fairytale Dean could have ever dreamed of.

The note Cas had written to answer Mary’s question that day was framed and hang above their bed, so they would always be reminded of their love, even in the darkest of times.

Dean will always be my prince

I love him

Forever