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“I don’t see how this is...”
“’s a useful skill, angel,” Benny refuted. “Works damn well if you’re ever iced in.”
“Besides, you have to have fun sometime,” Dean argued.
Cas looked thoroughly unconvinced. “Why is Sam not joining us?”
“Because he can’t keep two feet under himse—”
“Because someone has to find our next case, Dean,” Sam snapped, shrugging his laptop bag higher on his shoulder. “Don’t worry, Cas. Dean and Benny won’t let you fall.” He glared at his brother, who just rolled his eyes.
“Yeah, unlike you.”
“I was five, Dean. And it’s ice. Of course I fell.”
They stood in line behind a mob of soccer moms and their children, waiting while they paid and swapped shoes for ice skates. The ice rink, though small, was crowded with parents and young children, all swaddled in thick layers of coats, hats, and mittens. For once, the hunters’ flannel shirts and multiple layers weren’t out of place in the summer heat of the southeast.
“Jus’ stick close to me, angel. I’ll keep you on your feet,” Benny assured the oldest member of their group, while Dean laughed and Sam paid—“three adult skate rentals. None for me; I’m just watching.”
Sam listed his brother’s and Cas’s shoe sizes from memory—Dean had finally talked the angel into buying new clothes—and Benny added his. They found a bench to lace on their skates—Dean joking about how Sam was now the short one—and shuffled through the insulated doors to the frozen rink.
Benny entered the ice first, skating backward to watch as Dean herded Castiel through the narrow door. Castiel kept a hand on the low wall, examining Benny’s short glides and the fumbling steps of toddlers, contrasting them with the sweeping glides of couples in the center of the ice.
At his side, Dean fidgeted, bowlegs spread wide and stable on the ice. “You just push, Cas. You don’t walk like normal.”
“’s all about balance. Push off with one foot and balance on the other. You don’t have to work to move on the ice; once you’ve started, you just slide.” Benny spun and pushed off, gliding almost ten feet before he turned back around.
Castiel nodded slowly and took a tentative step, sliding a few inches while his hand hovered over the ramp. Dean paced him easily, one arm halfway around his waist. He looked up at Sam, proud smile on his face, and Sam gave him a thumb’s up.
Dean gradually coaxed Cas away from the wall, freeing it for waist-high toddlers and their parents, and pulled him instead into the inner circles of the skating rink. By their second circuit, Castiel was skating freely, easily balanced on the two blades with his companions bracketing him. Dean had an arm around his waist and an expression daring anyone to comment, while Benny blithely commented on something Sam couldn’t hear. He took a picture with his phone anyway, trying to capture the moment.
And then Dean yelled for hot chocolate.