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Castiel had just finished putting up his final decorations on his tree and around his house. He had spent his day off putting up decorations and trying to get a few peaceful moments. Cas plopped down and opened his phone. It opened to the dead conversation with Dean, the hot guy he’d met on New Year’s Eve last year. They had been dancing around each other all year, not quite having the time to meet up. Whenever they made plans, they always went to crap.
Take last spring, for example: they ran into each other at the mechanics shop where Dean apparently worked. They had agreed to meet one day for lunch, but every time Dean was off, Castiel’s TA position would book him with covering classes and grading papers. Both of them were disappointed but promised that they would keep in touch. And for a while, they did. Nightly calls, facetimes, texts throughout the day with flirty emojis. They talked consistently until the summer.
Dean invited Cas to go out on his boat with him to spend the day fishing and messing around on the boat. Cas had previously agreed; however, the day before he was supposed to go out with Dean, he got a third-degree sunburn. Castiel has been sunbathing so he wouldn’t be so sickly and pale, but had ended up falling asleep and got the worst sunburn ever. Again, plans were cancelled.
———————
Snow coated the land, and so Castiel bundled up and went out, braving sending Christmas cards and last-minute RSVPs. He answered no to them all but wished them all a Merry Christmas and a warm season. After running out and about to the post office and getting food from the store.
After Cas pulled the turkey out, he looked down at it. It looked like the world’s smallest turkey, but it was something, so he supposed he had to be grateful. He carefully prepped it and popped it in the oven. Then, Cas began making the sides, starting with the mashed potatoes. He diced up a medium-sized pot worth of potatoes and put them on to boil. Cas opened his fridge to grab the cranberries so he could make a nice warm sauce of them for his turkey, only they weren't there. So, grumbling curses, Castiel grabbed his hat, scarf, coat, and marched back out into the snow.
Once at the store, Cas beelined for the produce. He was so focused, he almost didn’t notice the man right in front of him. “God, I’m sorry!” Cas said, feeling ashamed.
“No, no, it’s okay!” The guy said, turning around. “Wait, Cas?”
“Dean? Oh my god, I didn’t expect to see you here! Did you forget cranberries, too?”
“More so, buying a sad frozen pizza to eat for today and tomorrow.”
“Well, umm… I have plenty of food, so if you want, you could come over and stay the night?” Cas asked, immediately regretting it. Damnit, Cas, why would you suggest that? What if he’s a serial killer and the reason you allhaven'tt gone out is that the universe is trying to save your ass!
“Really? You would do that for some guy that you haven’t seen since New Year's? For all you know, I could be a serial killer.” Upon seeing Castiel’s face of horror, Dean corrected himself. “I am not a serial killer, I promise. I only kill bugs and sometimes a car part, “ he said with a chuckle, causing Cas to relax.
“Good to know about that, but yeah! You can totally come over. It can be like our first date!”
“Sounds good to me then! I’ll put the pizza back and meet you at your house?”
Cas nodded and sent Dean his address before going to check out. He made it out to his car quickly and almost made it home just as quickly. He had just barely gotten out of the car when Dean pulled up and got out of his car.
“Nice place,” Dean said as he closed his car door.
“Thanks, just follow me inside.” Cas and Dean walked up to the door, Cas unlocked it, and they walked inside. “You can hang your coat if you want.”
Dean took off his heavy leather jacket, revealing a red and black flannel on top of a black compression shirt. Castiel had to bite his tongue to not moan at the sight; he forgot how pretty Dean was. “You uh look good in that,” Cas said.
“Thanks, why don’t you take off your coat too?” Dean said, with a smirk. Cas shrugged off his coat, revealing his sweater, which at the beginning of the day Cas had felt quite confident in, but was now questioning his fashion choices. “Never thought I could be into sweaters, but on you? I could be into anything.”
Cas blushed a deep red and mumbled out a thanks. “Why don’t we go to the kitchen? I haven’t had a chance to make cookies all day and it could be a fun date activity.”
“Sounds like a great plan!” Dean followed Cas into the kitchen. Castiel proceeded to pull out the different ingredients while Dean got out the mixing bowls.
“Have you ever made gingerbread?” Castiel asked.
“Nah, after my mom died, my dad kinda gave up on holidays. If Sammy, my younger brother, wanted something, it was up to me to make sure he had it.” Dean paused. “Sorry, that got really deep and depressing.”
“No, no, it’s okay. My parents growing up were really religious, so like every holiday was about God, and all my siblings have religious names. I got named after the angel of Thursday. It’s taken a while to unlearn all of the religion shit they made us go through,” Cas said, handing Dean a spoon to mix the ingredients. Dean started mixing.
“Jesus, sounds like we both had kinda rough upbringings, huh?”
“Yeah, I guess so,” Cas says, chuckling. Dean and Cas finish up making the cookies and put them in the oven. For the first time in days, Castiel’s house is filled with laughter and joy. Maybe it’s Christmas magic, maybe it’s just a coincidence, but as Cas leans over and kisses Dean, he knows he couldn’t have missed this Christmas.