25th December
'Come on Cas, let's decorate the tree.' Dean walked into Bobby's living room with a box of decorations in his arms, putting it down on the floor next to the giant tree in the middle of the room. Castiel gave looked confused and tilted his head in question. 'It's a tradition, when Christmas comes around people decorate a Christmas tree.'
'Alright, but what is the point of that?'
Dean shrugged, 'Because it's nice to do something with the people you care about and it looks pretty when you're done.' He smiles adoringly at Cas who is still confused and bends down to pick up some bits of tinsel and put them in Cas' hands who took it. 'Okay I'll get the lights and you unwind those.'
Dean started wrapping the lights around the tree while Cas unwound the strings of tinsel and carefully laid them down next to him. Sam and Bobby then walked in with a few bags of new decorations, since most of the old ones had broken or had fallen apart over the years of laying in the stuffy attic.
'Sam, you mind plugging in the lights, I wanna see if they all work.'
The lights turned on and the room was filled with the warm light and Sam turned off the big lights. Cas stared with big eyes at the tree, dropping the tinsel in his lap.
'I now understand why people do this, Dean.' Dean sat down next to the angel and slung his arm around him, pressing a kiss to his cheek.
'Merry Christmas, assholes.' They all looked up at the sound of Gabriel's voice. Sam's face paled at the sound of his boyfriend.
'Hey Gabe-' But Dean can't finish his sentence as Gabriel flicks his hand, an angry scowl on his face and suddenly, instead of Dean and Cas, two piles of clothing are in their place.
Realisation crosses Sam's face in matter of seconds and he goes to yell at Gabriel, but he's gone before can even say a word. Gabriel had taken his anger with him taken out on his brother and best friend.
'Balls!' Bobby exclaims next to him. He rakes a hand through his hair and crouches down to move away the clothes a bit. Two kittens appear, one he remembered, white, black and red, and one that was new to him, Dean, who was entirely ginger. Despite the situation, Sam couldn't help the giggle he let out at the colour of Dean's fur, but then sighed deeply.
'Seriously though Sam, did anything happen between the two of you?' He looked slightly worried. Just slightly.
Sam bit his lip, 'Yeah, alright, something happened. I'll fix it, don't worry, Cas and Dean will be themselves again before Christmas Eve.'
'So you admit that this is because of you.'
'It probably is.'
'Well then solve it.'
Sam looked at his brother and best friend, who had stepped out of the pile of clothes they were enveloped in before and had begun sniffing around. Dean seemed properly befuddled, while Cas just seemed curious about Dean. Cas had walked up to the other cat and started sniffing him while Dean was staring around with big eyes and then looked at Sam.
'Oh god, Dean I'm so sorry, but you're adorable. I know this is bad, but you guys are really adorable.' He picked his brother up in one hand and Cas in the other, cradling them against his chest and looked down at them. 'I guess I'll have to get all of the stuff from last time down.'
'It's in the attic, and this time don't forget the litterbox!'
Sam puts the cats back down on the ground and walks to the hall and up the stairs, Cas and Dean immediately following him and running past him. He almost trips when Cas runs through his legs, but he managed to catch himself before tumbling down.
That night when he went to bed, he went to get Dean and Cas to go upstairs, to find them curled up together in Cas' old basket. Their heads were bumped together and they were both in a deep sleep. Deciding he couldn't get himself to wake them up he picked up the basket, careful not to wake the cats up, and brought it upstairs with him.
Sam changed silently and laid down in his bed, before he turned off his light he glanced at Cas and Dean on the ground and said, 'Goodnight guys.' It woke Dean a little and he twisted a bit, but resettled soon enough and curled up even closer to Castiel.
He smiled at the sight and turned off the light.
The next morning he was woken up by soft padding on the bed and when he opened his eyes he found his brother and friend waltzing all over him, trying to wake him up. Dean seemed to notice he was finally awake and walked up to his face and booped his cheek with his nose.
'Morning Dean.' He petted Dean's head, who arched into the touch with what resembled to a smile on his face, looking happy. Cas also hobbled over and then demanded attention by almost pushing Dean away from Sam's hand. 'Wow, you guys are needy.' He sighed, 'Alright, let's go down, I'll get you two breakfast.'
The cats then quickly left him alone and jumped off the bed, bolting towards the bedroom door, Dean going as far as putting his front paws up against it and looking back at Sam.
Sam threw the covers off of him and got up, he picked up a pair of socks because of the cold even though he usually would have just gone without them. He made his way down the stairs, this time letting Cas and Dean run down it first, so he wouldn't trip over them again.
He picks up takes three bowls out of the cupboard and fills two of them with cat food and one with water. He wants to pick them up and put them on the ground, when he suddenly yells out as he feels a couple of sharp nails in his leg. Sam looks down to see Dean latched onto his thigh and making his way up. He swears at his brother and pulls him off his leg, he holds him in front of his face, the cat struggling to get out of his hands.
'Wait for you turn, Dean.' Dean meowed angry, 'I don't know what you're trying to say. And if you're blaming me or that it's my own fault, I am well aware.' He puts Dean back on the floor and places the bowls of food down.
It doesn't surprise him when Dean finishes his bowl way before Cas and then tries to work Cas away to steal his food too. 'Dean, no! That's Cas' food.' He chuckles and uses his foot to push Dean away.
'Morning Sam.' Bobby walks in from outside, cleaning his hands with a rag. He took a look at the scene going on on the floor, scoffing at Dean who was once again trying to steal Castiel's food. Sam was then surprised by Cas, when he attacked Dean. They hissed at each other for a moment and stared at each other for a moment with high backs, but as abrupt as it has started it was over and Cas booped Dean's nose with his own.
'I swear to god Bobby, these two.' They both chuckle, but then sit down together to have breakfast.
While they eat, Dean and Castiel are playing around the room together. Cas rediscovered his favourite toy from the first time when he had been a cat, a tiny, bright yellow and pink tennis ball. Dean, in the meantime, had at some point put down the toy mouse to stare curiously at the Christmas tree. Some tinsel was hanging quite low and Sam hadn't realised how dangerous that was yet, but was about to soon enough.
Dean was now preparing himself to leap into the tree and Sam had finally realised why Dean was so fascinated. At the moment realisation struck the younger Winchester, Dean had launched himself into the tree and had clutched himself onto it just above the middle.
'Oh my fucking god Dean.' Sam stopped in his run and looked at his brother, the one that was sitting in a Christmas tree at the time, with a disappointed look, glaring daggers at the same time.
'I knew yer brother was a giant baby when still human, but geez he's even worse now.' Bobby laughed, seeing the humour in the situation.
'You got that entirely right Bobby.' Sam admitted and then let out a chuckle.
They hear some creaking which makes them look back at the tree, only to see it falling over. It almost happen in slow motion. As soon as they see the tree falling over, both their hunter reflexes kick in and Sam launches forward to hold his hands up and catch Dean, who was tumbling along with the tree with big scared eyes.
Five minutes later Sam is sitting on the floor in the living room, ornaments lying around him, mostly not broken luckily. Cas and Dean are somewhere behind him messing around together and Bobby is getting a vacuum. He looks around with a sigh.
'Bobby?' He calls out
'Yeah?'
'I think I'm going out for a bit.'
'Where you going?' Bobby asked as he finally made his way into the room with the vacuum.
'I need to talk to Gabriel.'
'Alright, you go do that. What even happened between you two, you guys seemed so happy together.'
The corner of his mouth tilted up slightly, 'Yeah, we were. That's why I'm going to him, right now.'
Bobby put a hand on his shoulder and gave him a court nod, which was enough of a good luck for Sam.
'Dean, if you don't want me to borrow Baby, just say no.' He turned around to look at Dean who was currently wrestling around the living room with Cas and didn't seem to even be aware of Sam speaking, 'I don't hear a no? Well I guess that's a yes.'
While he was dressing himself he thought about the event that had caused all of this and a strong feeling of guilt filled him, realizing he had been wrong to say no. Sam went downstairs and picked the impala's keys from Dean's leather jacket and went outside.
'Hey Gabe, please meet me in that field just outside of Sioux Falls, we need to talk.' The prayer was directed to Gabriel, hoping the archangel would even answer.
Sam drove up to the field, spotting Gabriel standing in the middle of it, a lollipop sticking out of the corner of his mouth. He put his hand on the door handle and sighed deeply, mustering up some more courage which he needed a lot.
As he was walking up to the archangel he shoved his hands in his pockets, knowing he would otherwise fidget with them. Finally he stopped in front of Gabriel and he knew that this was it.
'Hey Gabe.'
'Thank god, we're ourselves again.' Dean sighed when he suddenly realised he had opposable thumbs again. He then also realised he was stark naked and sitting on top of Cas… He quickly scrambled off of his boyfriend and took his leather jacket that was hanging on a chair and covered himself with it.
'Do you think Sam made up with Gabriel?' Castiel asked as he stood up, not bothering to cover himself up.
'Yeah I- Cas! Cover yourself.' Dean hissed, passing him a blanket that was lying on the armrest of the couch.
A door opened and they both looked up to see who was coming and was going to see them like this. Sam's mop of hair appeared in the door opening. Dean fidgeted on his spot, realising that it would be too late to run out of the room.
Sam turned to face them and took the sight before him in, seeing his brother and friend standing in the living room together, naked, covering themselves with seemingly random objects.
'Heya Sammy…' Dean said awkwardly, smiling in a forced manner.
Sam's gaze went from Castiel to Dean and back again. He blinked for a moment and then put his hands up in the air, 'You know what, screw you guys. I'm getting married.'
Dean's eyes grew twice their usual size and he stuttered, 'W-wha- Y- you're getting m-married…? Explain!' Dean ordered.
Sam scoffed, 'Not when you guys look like that. Naked.'
Dean immediately starts blushing when he remembers their current state.
'Right.'
15 minutes later both Dean and Castiel were dressed and sitting with Sam in the living room and Dean told about how he realised that he couldn't let them stay cats forever so he knew he had to talk with Gabriel. Bobby had also joined in after he walked in on Sam sitting on the couch and then asked why he was just sitting there.
Cas then surprised everyone by speaking up, 'Okay, but what caused all this in the first place?!'
'Well,' Sam smiled a bit and reddened quickly, 'Gabriel proposed to me.'
Everyone at the table was shocked at that. Castiel was just staring at Sam with big eyes, while Dean was choking on his beer and Bobby had slammed his hand on the table and was now using it to cover his mouth, making it impossible for Sam to tell what he thought. He actually couldn't tell what any of them thought if he were honest, yes they were surprised, but in what other direction went their thoughts about this?
'So… what do you guys think?' he said awkwardly, 'I mean, not that it could change anything anymore now, but I just care about what you guys think, you know.' He looked down into his lap, fiddling with a loose thread in his jeans. Because he was facing down, he almost leapt into the air when his brother's hand landed on his shoulder, hard.
'Congratulations Sammy!' What surprised Sam more, was when Dean bent down to hug him tightly. Across from him, Castiel and Bobby were smiling brightly at him, obviously happy for him.
'Wait, did he give you a ring?' Dean then asked with a slight frown. Sam nodded and, how cliché chick flick it might have been to do so, he held up his right hand and showed the simple gold band to the rest of the table.
'I like how the colour of the ring corresponds with the colour of my brother's wings.' Castiel said with a kind smile and Sam returned it.
'So you thought you could just do all this without me?'
'Gabriel, good to see you. Also, I'm glad you two made up, seeing as I am now human again.' Dean said with a raise of his eyebrows.
'Yeah, sorry about that guys, but you have to understand I wanted to get Sammy's attention, right. You'd do the same if this happened with you and Castiel, right?'
Dean glanced at Cas with a smile and then back at Gabriel, 'Yeah, although I think I wouldn't turn my boyfriend's brother and his brother into cats, but I get your point.'
'Thank god you guys made up today, because I made a Christmas dinner.' Bobby said as he got up and went to the kitchen.
Gabriel clapped in his hands and smiled brightly, 'I'll take care of the dessert.' And snapped his fingers, making a giant cake appear on the coffee table in the living room. Dean laughed at the typically Gabriel move and bent over to press a kiss to Cas' lips, after which they smiled after each other.
'So we have now got a wedding to plan.'
'Well let's first eat dinner and celebrate Christmas, then we'll see further.' Bobby announced as he walked back into the room, a plate of food in his hands, steaming hot.
Gabriel sat down at the table and they all clinked their glasses together and wished a merry Christmas to each other.
