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For the past few Thanksgivings, Sam and Dean had kept it simple. Y’know, kick their feet up and enjoy a few beers, reminiscent of old friends. If Dean was lucky Sam would even go and buy a pie. He liked it that way. Sure it was simple and low key but he liked simple.
Things had changed since last year though. After Cas had gotten possessed Dean confessed his feelings as a last ditch effort to get him to expel Lucifer. It had worked, thank god. They were together now and things had taken on a much more chick flick rom-com feel than Dean thought he would’ve liked. But as much as he denies it when Sam teases him, he loves it. That wasn’t even the oddest thing about the scenario, their mom was back now. He only vaguely remembered Thanksgiving with his mom when he was younger. There was a turkey of course, and pie (That he found out was probably bought at a store). So he wasn’t sure how this year would turn out. He wanted to do something different and he was sure Sam felt the same way it was just what they were going to do differently. That was until Cas approached him that is.
“I want to make a pie Dean,” Cas proclaimed the night before Thanksgiving. Dean spluttered on his beer.
“You what?”
“I’d like to make a pie,” he hesitates, “with you.”
“Sure, yeah, of course, Angel” Dean smiled questioningly at him.
They make a run to the store at about nine pm to get ingredients for the pie and picked up a few things for Sam along the way. After paying with a fake credit card they head back to the bunker. Sam’s already asleep unsurprisingly so they sneak into the kitchen to bake by themselves. This is when disaster starts.
“You know I have no idea what I’m doing right?” Dean said while reading the recipe on the back of the corn syrup bottle.
“Nor do I,” Cas replied, looking inquisitively at a bag of pecans. After a pause, he says “Is it pronounced “peh-kahn” or “pee-can?”
Dean stares at him as if he’s daft. “It’s ‘pee-can’ what are you talking about?”
Cas holds his stare a little longer and a little challenging “I’m going to take these ‘peh-kahns’ over to the other ingredients,” he raises an eyebrow as he says pecan. Dean just rolls his eyes and smiles at him fondly.
——–
“I would make the crust first. Right? That’s how it works I think,” Dean asks more so to himself than anyone else. They rummage the shopping bags until they find flour and butter. It doesn’t take long until they’ve poured the flour and butter into a bowl.
“What now? Do we use our hands?” Dean asks, looking over to Cas who has shed his trench coat and rolled up his sleeves. “Yes?” Is Dean’s only reply before Cas has plunged his hands into the buttery flour concoction!
Flour goes absolutely everywhere. They’re covered in it. Some even sprinkle the bridge of Dean’s nose. Cas tries to wipe it off when he sees it, but instead he leaves just more flour and butter. It makes Dean laugh though, so it’s worth it. Cas goes on anyhow, despite the mess and tries to mix the flour and butter together to make the dough. It works. Sort of. It turns out a bit stickier than Dean thought was suppose to happen but that’s okay. After several tries, they get it into the pie pan. It’s definitely not the prettiest, but It’ll do.
“Dean now it says to mix these things together,” Cas hands the bottle of corn syrup to Dean who looks at the ingredients. “Okay let’s do that then.”
They mix together corn syrup, butter, sugar, pecans, and more sugar until it’s mixed together and they’re both covered in sticky sweet goo when it’s done. Cas spots some on Dean’s face and cheekily kisses it off. Dean blushes like he doesn’t know what to do so Cas just keeps stirring pretending nothing happened.
Together they pour it into their crust. They take a step back to look at their masterpiece and discover it looks… terrible.
“This is a disaster,” Dean breathes. He turns to Cas only to see him smiling from ear to ear and soon Dean’s smiling too. It turns into a laugh and soon they’re both laughing till they can’t breathe.
“We suck at this!” Dean practically chokes through laughter. He’s rewarded with a kiss to his cheek and another smile. Worth it, he thinks.
They carefully slide it into the oven and set the timer for 40 minutes. “What now?” Cas asks as Dean slides down onto the floor in front of the stove. Cas sits beside him and rests his head on Dean’s shoulder, “We wait.”
——–
Sam wakes up for a glass water only to find them asleep in front of the stove. Hands interlaced, they’re breathing slow and heads rested against one another. Sam stealthily takes a picture before opening the oven to find a burnt pecan pie practically boiling in the oven.
“Always loved burnt diabetes,” Sam says to himself. He grabs the oven mitts and takes it out. Pecan pie goo has dripped onto the base of the oven and now burns like overcooked caramel. Sam scrunches his nose at the smell and closes the oven. He’ll clean it later.
———–
Dean and Cas wake up the next morning spirits high and backs sore from resting against the cabinet. Dean looks at Cas and groggily smiles. Then he remembers the pie…
“Oh, god the pie. How has this place not burnt down? Why don’t I see any fire?” He launches upwards only to see the oven off, the bunker unburnt (with a lingering smell of smoke though), and a burnt pecan pie resting on the counter. The crust is charred just a little too brown and the pecans have separated and the goo has overflown making the side of the pan sticky.
It’s the best thing he’s ever seen.
Cas wakes up from the commotion moments later and pushes himself upward to hug Dean from the back. He rests his head on Dean’s shoulder and looks at the pie with a content look. It looks terrible, but he likes it.
———-
When Mary sees the pie she smiles and looks at her sons who’re talking in the other room. Cas is sat beside Dean absentmindedly rubbing his thumb on his palm. Her sons are laughing and she realizes that if her son found love and if he can make a terrible pie, and if they can all still be happy, the world might not be as bad as she thought. She walks back into the ‘common room’, aka the bunkers war room, and sits by Sam. He smiles at her and she smiles back. Her boys are happy and that’s all that matters.