A Very Supernatural Christmas

"Dean, you called?" Castiel appeared in the crowded motel room, head tilted in confusion and clad in his usual- if a little weird- attire.

"Yeah, I did." Dean moved towards him, scratching the back of his head in wonder of what to say. "Err, well I figured… It's Christmas eve and… Err, me and Sammy were thinking maybe you'd wanna spend it with us. I mean, we could knock a few beers back, kick our feet up. Sammy even got me the Star Trek IV DVD as an early Christmas present. So, how about it?" He glanced back at Sam who nodded in approval of his speech but turned to face Castiel as he started to speak.

"Well if that is okay with you guys. And what is 'Star Trek'?" Castiel looked genuinely confused but Dean just chuckled and told him that he had a lot to learn.

Castiel could tell that the boys had tried to make the place festive, even if they had- to be fair- failed. The Christmas tree-air freshener hung by the TV and there were a few presents wrapped badly in newspaper underneath that. Dean had the biggest smile Castiel had ever seen as he put the DVD into the holder and jumped back onto the bed; getting himself comfy by wriggling to and fro.

He twisted his body round to see Sam who was cleaning up the mess he'd made pouring the eggnog into glasses. He gave determined pout as he mopped the final remains up and brought the substance over, placing it on the small coffee-table. "Hey Dean, restart it! Cas and me haven't seen the beginning." He said as he snatched the remote from Dean's innocent hands.

"Alright don't throw your toys out your pram. Just because you're growing your hair don't give you an excuse to be a girl about everything."

"Shut-up, jerk." Castiel smiled, he knew what was coming next.

"Bitch." Sam retaliated, imitating Dean's voice. When it escalated, Castiel stepped in.

"I don't think Sam is a female dog and Dean… Well I'll tell you when I think of a defence. But can we just watch the film now?" Cas shook his head and turned to see a crack in the black void of space burst into light, only to fade and reveal the words 'Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home'. He heard an excited shriek from behind him and deducted that it was probably Dean. Cas had never seen him so happy before, and that went for both of them; the weight of the world had seemed to lift from their shoulders and all that was left were two excited young boys- watching a movie and praying things would go back to the way they used to be. When all they had to worry about was whether they had been good enough to be on Santa's 'nice' list.

"Wait, Sammy, you got pie, right?" Dean shot up from his relaxed position on the bed and looked in horror at Sam's apologetic expression. "No, no, no Sam! One thing, that's all you had to remember!"

Sam smiled slyly and got up to walk to the small kitchen- if that's what you would call a room with a microwave and a few cupboards. "Like I would forget." He walked back into the room and revealed a gigantic, round shaped apple pie from behind his back. "And, just in case you weren't happy with the flavour, which I figured was unlikely, but anyway..." Sam brought out another pie, around the same size, but this time it had 'Banoffee' clearly labelled on the packaging.

Cas had thought that he had never seen Dean wearing a bigger smile than that night. Even the next day when Sam brought out the Christmas dinner that he had scraped together, and even after he had unwrapped Sammy's present to him- which had turned out to be the amulet that he had dropped into the bin at a motel. Castiel didn't think that he could ever retrieve that happiness back. But that didn't matter, because it had been there once.

Once, on a cold night before Christmas, when all through the house; not a creature was stirring, not even a mouse. Where three men sat, all snug in their beds, whilst visions of monsters danced through their heads. With Sam in his plaid and Cas in his coat, I think I'll end the story on this very fine note.