Hello! Since it's the first of December I decided to post the first beginnings of this Destiel Nutcracker Fic! It's full of good tidings, drama, adventure, and fun! So put a log on the fire, get some nice hot eggnog and a sugar plum or two, and get ready for the classic of a lifetime! I do not own Supernatural nor it's characters - but I do own this story. I suggest listening to Tchaikovsky's Nutcracker for this story.
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They were good children, always set to behave, never to do anything wrong that would displease their father or present him as a mockery to their birth name. They always washed themselves clean before breakfast, afternoon tea, and of all else dinner. They dressed well - boys never straying far from their dull ties and the girls always remembering to wear their hair pinned up high to show their pale faces. They rarely shouted at each other - only in the most dire of cases when Gabe would set a whole bucket of frogs upon the girls bedroom floors, or when Michael would come to visit and try to get them all to go to confession to repent for their sins.
No, they were the most serene and delicate - if not bored ridden - children of the entire neighborhood, of the entire estate. Perhaps even of the entire residents of Maine.
Yet there was one night, one peculiar, magical, entrancing night that allowed them to transform from their dull drabber and into the bright colors of festivity.
Anna was permitted to wear her coppery locks long at her back the way she fashioned, Raphael was allowed to wear his pearl dazed cufflinks that were usually only allowed to be donned upon him at church or funerals for special occasions, and Castiel and Gabe were allowed to shake off the burdens of being the two youngest, seventeen and eighteen, to instead have the time of their young lives.
For tonight, was Christmas Eve.
Although the Novak household was a God fearing household and each of the children would be whipped on their hands by a cruel nuns ruler at Sunday school should they not know the various Lords prayers - they were allowed this night, the Eve before their dear Saviors birth to rejoice in the cold weather that allowed them to drink deeply from the mulled wine in crystal goblets. That allowed them to look at all the beautiful frocks and petti-coats that Anna, Rachael, and Ester would change into during the evening to show off just how pretty their winter figures has become. To look out of their foggy windows and see just how grey and purple the sky was against the billowing snow that nipped at their ears and turned their noses red.
Christmas was Castiel's and Gabriel's favorite time of the year - though this was because of very selfish reasons they would admit.
Oh yes they attended church and even enjoyed the singing of the hymns that inspirited great mirth and joy at being Christian and celebrating the coming of the baby Jesus. They loved the story of Gabriel coming to Mary to announce that she, she herself would bear God a child as a virgin (Gabe especially puffed up his chest at that particular part of the Church sermon), and they delighted in the telling of all the lambs and oxen and asses crowding around and breathing against the new born.
Why they could practically smell the Myrrh and Frankincense from their hard wooden pews.
But that was not their favorite part of the evening, not by far.
When they got home from church and exited the shifting phaeton to perch themselves along the icy cobblestones of their house - they knew the surprise that was in store for them.
As soon as those grand doors were opened again and Michael would greet them through the eaves with a stern nod and a shake of their hands, they were set free.
The house that was previously home to dust and cobwebs, ugly paintings of Christ bleeding from his arms and head and the most drabness of cold -was gone. Eliminated. Destroyed.
In it's place was warmth, so much warmth that oozed and burned from the grand fireplace stocked full to bursting with pine logs that snapped at you with sap as it bubbled.
Smells greeted the two siblings noses as they handed their coats to the maid, a plump smiling woman who ruffled each boys curls with her small and boney hands.
The smell of honeyed ham, of turkeys roasted and stuffed with bread crumbs, garlic, chicken stock and cranberries. With cakes and pies laced with sugar and leaking juice from a thousand blackberries, currents, and slivered apples. Ellen the cook seemed to love Christmas Eve as much as the two youngest Novak boys, and showed her delight well through her mouth watering creations.
Pears baked delicately and drizzled with brandy were piled elegantly in triangle-like figures upon silver shined plates. Beef was cut thick and heartily upon mashed potatoes melted with fresh churned butter from just this morning - and there was a crispness to the warm air that only the uncorking of champagne could bring.
Oh it was mouthwatering and beautiful just the same as Gabriel and Castiel stampeded to the dessert table that was sprinkled with truffles, small cakes and tarts, candied fruits and sweetened and roasted nuts.
They stuffed their faces till they could not breathe and Anna and Raphael came to scold them for their gluttony. For Anna and Raphael were certainly more cultured than the two ill-mannered brothers. They were better in every way, as they took small and delicate bites from sugar plums wrapped in wax paper as they discussed in polite conversation the event that was sure to come.
Oh yes. The event.
Castiel and Gabe grinned with smiles that were as white as the snow drifting slowly outside. They pulled and adjusted at their ties to allow excited breath to catch in their lungs before they set their sights on something grand and beautiful. They scrambled through the living room to the great beautiful tree that stood as a bewildering monument to the holiday - with glass ornaments hanging from wire, laurels of dried cranberries and hazel, and glowing lit candles that stood with poise on their little metal clips.
It was a sight to behold and it made the boys grin more dangerously at the prospect that it brought - the beacon of light for their one special older brother to show his face among them, to allow them to discover the marvels he had wrought and created since last year.
They waited, for brother Luke.
And but what a surprise that they did not have to endure long - for a few moments later they heard the creaking and cranking of his large carriage. They heard the neighing of his powerful and often broody shires and they poised their ears to the shrill cry of the front bell as he made his presence known.
Michael was the first to open the door - as their father was already deeply enthralled with sleep after tonight's mass, and so it was that Michael, with his hard set features, kissed his twin upon both scarred cheeks before he allowed him entry into the warmth.
Oh what a presence he commanded, the tall and crudely devilish man, with his pale cropped blonde haired, blue eyes so much like his twin, and those curled lips that promised treasure and excitement for both of the two giddy siblings who were standing by the tree.
Luke approached the now silent crowd with a gleam in his eyes and a spring in his step. Everyone knew bits and pieces of his secret - that he was a magician of wondrous skill. How? Why, Michael claimed it was because he sold his soul to a crossroads demon for the deed. Anna supposed it was because he was more interested in mechanics than literature, and Raphael would just shake his head and mutter that it was pure insanity.
Yet whatever the cause, their brother Luke was famous around the whole area and State. He was a mechanical doll maker and a very good one at that. He made things easily as if by magic and he put all his blood, sweat, and tears into his creations. A fine doll maker he truly was. His coat never ceased to smell of pine soaked wood shavings and he always had at least three colors of paint under his nails. This evening, Castiel observed, it was red, white, and green. Hmmm. Peculiar indeed.
But he was indeed famous - he lived in a nice cozy room at a grand mansion where he was employed to do many a things. Make dolls, create toys and works of art, and to kill mice. He was a very skilled rat killer. Why, on his visit to see the Queen of Scotland it was said that at his first nights stay he killed half the rats in the bleak castle. No one knows how or even why, but he did it.
Yes, that was brother Luke.
Now with his carefully oiled black buckled shoes he allowed Michael to escort him to the now cleared ballroom, his cane with a serpent atop it's head gleamed a bright mixture of silver and gold.
Castiel and Gabe held their breath.
He tapped his cane thrice upon the patterned workings of the floor, entreating the already silent room to eerie obedience at his will.
Everyone stared at him, at his paled olive coat, worn and picked by moths so that one could quiet clearly see the oil and wax stains upon his sleeves. They looked impolitely at his face so populated with scars from candle and furnace fire - it was so bad that he wore a shapely velvet eye patch over his right eye where it was the worst of the molten flesh.
Castiel did not quite know how his older brother obtained all of those scars - he was sure it must have been from a spat with he and Micheal, though Luke always told him it was because there was an Angel living inside him and he wished to be let free. The only way for his vessel to be calmed was by the hums of a ticking clock and the twirl of a windup doll.
Though almost deformed and tiresome looking Luke was, everyone still tried to show the eldest twin at least some respect, waiting silently for that smile, that curl of lips that meant that there were surprises unimaginable in store.
Then, without another moments notice, with bated breath, Brother Luke's curious glimmer transformed into that of a grin.
The music, as if throttled by the tone of surprise - erupted.
With a glaring bang the doors to the drawing room flew open and three women - or, as Castiel realized with excitement - three dolls, were urged by the turning of their key at their backs into a tip toe. Out from the ruby wall papered room they came to tap their way onto the pearly chestnut floor.
Rosy cheeks painted with vermillion, long curled hair made from that of a horses tail, and the most delicate of feet carved from the finest of cedar made these dolls a sight to behold.
Gabriel and Cas grabbed at each others arms as they watched the three women, two with darkened hair, one with yellow - prance around with the same smiling faces painted upon their chipped lips.
An À la secondeto the side was then joined by the graceful moves of Adagio that seemed to make the dolls flutter.
The adults clapped and Gabe whistled rather shrilly as the three dolls bowed and then stuttered to a halt - their key's twist used all up.
Castiel thought them beautiful and with poise, so lovely of a sight to behold - and yet there was more.
Over the course of the displays appeared a lovely couple with fur hats and scarf's above their heads who danced heatedly with mixes of elegance as if their feet were as fine as needles and their hearts as light as a doves. They were Castiel's favorite.
Yet still there was more - performing a salsa dance a couple molded with the fine colors of chocolate, cherry red, and dark obsidian and gold, an uproarious delight starting when their keys were turned.
Then there were the Russian dolls that preformed jumping jacks and summersaults as if wired by springs. Then the big and hefty dumpling doll colored with a mass array of felt dresses with her little dolly-children running about her skirts.
There were giraffes with poles through there necks to make them move and even clowns painted like elves, all dressed in stripes and buttons that sang an off tuned version of "God Rest Ye, Merry Gentlemen". The clowns only served to make Micheal very mad and red in the face with their blasphemous rendition, and he soon began to encroach upon the ballroom just as the last of the dolls began to shift and stutter and groan into rigid movement as if they were dying from their dance.
And so it came to be as the last of the life-sized toys was carted away by some of the maids and butlers and back into Luke's old carriage, their brother proclaimed a shining and sweetened smile on his face. It seemed, out of nowhere he then produced a giant green velvet bag tightened with dark red chords.
Well, all the children knew what this meant.
And though Castiel and Gabriel were much too old to be seen so childishly - seventeen and eighteen year olds that they were - they could not help themselves as they scrambled over to their older brother who beckoned to them with a crooked finger.
However they were not the only ones excited, and many others of their siblings and cousins and distant relatives crowded around brother Luke to see just what goodies he had made for them on this very special night.
Castiel and Gabriel pushed and shoved as politely as they good - which was hardly as polite as one might think - and yet still they were burdened back by the line of greedy hands and rosy cheeks.
They saw young and freckled Samandriel rush past them, cradling a stuffed toy of a great and brown ugly spider that their young cousin seemed ecstatic with.
Raphael - though he would say to despising the gifts that Luke gave to them, looked quiet pleased with his smart new chess set that was carved in jet and ivory.
Anna looked thrilled and embarrassed by her grand gift of a Cathedral made of wood and white-washed stone that shined, complete with a beautiful stained glass window - one she had painted in her sketchbooks. It was marvelously accompanied by little tiny mechanical dolls inside that danced to a delightful hymn.
And my how Balthzar and Inias were giggling with delight as they hurried over by the stools and chairs to play with their new brightly painted tin soldiers - all with furry black hats and tiny little detailed bayonets - they were charming and artful and they caused a great ruckus from all the boys and girls grabbing hands.
And yet finally it was Castiel and Gabriel's turn as the throng had began to thin out and the children all scooted over to the walls and the grand tree to play with their new treasures. The adults already having begun competing in a grand and lively waltz.
Yet as Castiel and Gabriel appeared and Luke met them with a grin, the two siblings gazed upon the velvet crinkled bag on the floor.
It was empty.
Heads lowered in quiet sadness, Gabriel and Castiel began to turn away from their older brother, until his hands, waving them back, caught their attention.
"Brother, you have nothing to give us - your bag is empty." Gabriel exclaimed sourly before Castiel nudged him hard in the ribs with his elbow.
"But that is fine brother, all that matters is that you are here with the family again." Castiel smiled up at his eldest kin. Lucifer nodded his head gratefully, a smile on his face for the littlest Novak.
"Are you kiddin'? I only wanted the presents!" Gabriel grumbled before his growl turned into a squeak as Castiel hit him once again, just a tad bit harder.
"Do not mind him, Luke." Castiel smiled through clenched teeth as he bided Gabriel to stop his yapping and yipping. Castiel was deeply wrong to have thought Gabriel, being the oldest out of the two of them would be the most mature. One of the donkey's in Christ's manger was probably more well behaved then Gabe.
Yet Luke smirked and drew his coat back.
"Ah, but my dear favorite younger brothers - I do have a present for both of you. A grand present it is. One so very rare." He purred, taking great enjoyment in the hopeful and gleaming faces of the two younger boys before him.
"What is it?" Castiel's cornflower blue eyes grew glassy.
"Yeah, hand it over!" Gabriel exclaimed with waving hands.
Castiel stomped on his foot.
"Ow!"
"Now calm down my boys, here are your treasures." Luke drew back his clenched fist to reveal the body of a doll painted in a deep shade of purplish-red with auburn hair that seemed much too pretty on the tall doll. This toy was handed quite carefully to Gabriel who whistled low under his breath and held the toy - the nutcracker, up to the light.
Then, something cool and cold was pressed to Castiel's hands and he too was given a nutcracker - not the exact one, mind you, but a delightful one just the same!
It was shorter than Gabriel's, but much more handsome to Castiel, with it's chestnut blonde hair and cheeks painted with little dots to represent freckles. And the greenest eyes one had ever seen on such a toy.
Each doll was dressed handsomely in a soldiers outfit - complete with a taunt little generals hat painted a coal black and encrusted with a gold pentacle emblem along the rim of the hat that was warmed with fur. Their eyes were vacant but beautiful none the less, and all complete with a deep red sash flowing across their uniforms to create an air of elegance about them.
They were perfect.
"Would you like to hear the story of your nutcrackers? I do not fancy it to be true, but it is an interesting tale none the less." Lucifer asked the two boys as they cradled their dolls to their chests, Gabe making hilarious faces at his, and Castiel simply counting over and over the freckles on his nutcrackers wooden face. Six rosy freckles shined back at him.
"Oh yes please, nothing would delight us more!" Castiel prompted, urging his older brother to spin his tale as if it was a great big key set into a dolls back that needed turning.
Luke grinned, the small little eye patch on his face shifting some to show peach burned skin.
"Well. Once there was a grand clock maker who was much like me." Lucifer's eyes twinkled as he led the boys to the patched clothed sofa nearest to the tree, the evergreen needles tickling Castiel and Gabriel's hair.
"This clock-maker was skilled and grand and he was employed by the richest family in Maine to make skilled and beautiful dolls that gleamed and shined and clocks that ticked with perfect time." Lucifer idly played with a knitted ornament in the shape of a grey pelted mouse, it's tail a string of woven red and white twine to look like a candy cane.
"He did his job well, even building devils mouse traps in his spare time, as his mistress employed him to do so. Yet one night, because his traps had killed so many mice who were the children of the Rat King, he was visited in bed by a throng of rodents!" Castiel held his breath in his lungs, watching his brothers normally shallow green eyes turn vehement and weary.
"'And who is this, that should kill my children one by one!' Screeched the Rat King atop the doll-makers bed. At once the royal rodent bit at the mans ears and nose until he howled with pain."
Castiel and Gabe scrunched up their noses at the thought of yellowed animal teeth nipping at their flesh. It was not an experience to be desired.
"'What is it that you desire, savage animal?! Devil!' Shouted the watch maker and the King smiled with yellow protruding mouse teeth." Lucifer brought two of his slender and charcoal black fingers to his lips in the imitation of great big teeth. Castiel shivered and clung to the toy in his lap with fury.
"'I shall have my revenge, I shall - no son nor daughter that I see you have - yet your two apprentices shall feel my wrath for your foul doings! Cursed they shall be!'" Brother Luke's voice raged and shrieked like that of the Rat King, scaring Balthzar and Inais to near pieces as they jumped. There rang such a clatter that they had to remedy their last line of tin soldiers - placing them back into a neat formation, glaring at Castiel and Gabe as they did.
Lucifer ignored them and went right back to his story.
"And in an instant the rat King scurried away to leave the doll maker in a cold sweat, yet, believing it to be a dream, he went back to sleep, hoping to forget the horrible phantasm. But soon, in the morning he was awoken by the most frightening of sounds!
Wails of pain coming from his apprentices room where the two Winchester boys lay in their cots - and oh how they wailed and screamed!" Luke threw his arms up into the air as if his own tale caused him great agony.
"What happened to them?" Gabe asked with a forced breath, his knuckles turning white as he clenched his hands tighter around his dolls frame. The velvet cloth shifted and churned at his touch.
Castiel's eyes widened as well, almost as big as Gabe's, and he felt a sick nausea come over him. Oh this story, what was it doing to him?!
Luke smiled sorrowfully, peering down at the two grand wooden toys in each brothers hands. He looked as if he wished to weep at the sight of the creations.
"By the time the doll maker had put his slippers and robes on, the boys that had lain in their beds awaiting a days worth of work - were turned to wood." Castiel could not mistake the watery gaze in his brothers blue-green eyes - the look of devastation etched along his face as clearly as his scars.
"No... No fooling?" Gabe mumbled with a shocked twitch of his lips, for once almost stunned into silence. Quite a feat for one such as Gabriel whose lips hardly ever ceased to stop, except perhaps maybe in sleep.
Castiel could only join his brothers stunned stupor, his eyes widening to stare mortified down at his doll. The toy stared vacantly back at him, green eyes shining just a tad bit brighter than before. Castiel almost threw the thing to the floor in horror.
"Brother! Please tell me these are not the dolls that went through such torture!" Castiel pinned Lucifer with his wild gaze, deciding that cradling the doll to his chest was a much better gesture than heaving it to the cold wooden floor. If the story was truth instead of fiction, then this doll needed no more trials and hurt added to it's life.
Luke shrugged with a stiff movement, as if it pained him so.
"I do not know little brother, though the doll makers apprentices, once turned to wood did look an awful lot like them. Same freckles on that one-" Lucifer pointed a thin finger to Castiel's doll, "-same ridiculous hair on that one." Then he crooked a nail to Gabe's doll, Gabriel tucking it tighter to his chest in a protective manner.
Lucifer dragged his eyes over the dolls for what seemed like the ninth time that night before he sat up from the velvet and brass buttoned sofa, the cushions squishing under his weight.
Castiel and Gabriel watched as their brother pressed his well worn hands to the small of his back before giving his bony fingers a great shove against the tense muscles that were hardened under his skin.
After a good sigh and a solemn smile, Luke gave a slight wave to the two boys who gazed upon him expectantly.
"Well, goodnight my brothers! Sleep tight!" Lucifer smiled as he hugged each of them tightly in his grasp, looking satisfyingly back at the dolls as if his mood had changed entirely, like a snowflake changes it's shape against the orange winter sun.
But Castiel caught him by the waist coat with pleading cold fingers.
"Wait..." He murmured.
"Yes, Castiel?" Lucifer asked.
"That can't be the end of the story - there... there has to be a cure, a way to break the spell." The seventeen year old practically begged, tugging ever so tightly to Lucifer's lapels.
"Yeah! It would be rubbish of a story if that's how it ended." Gabe scrunched up his face and stuck his tongue out as if he had tasted something especially foul.
Luke chuckled, a slow dry sound from his throat as he turned back to the soured faced brothers.
"There is a way to break the spell." He leaned into the two boys, taking one hand for each of the boys shoulders as he squeezed them reassuringly.
"The two boys turned into nutcrackers must defeat the Rat Queen and King, and be loved dearly by there beloveds." He winked before he once again heaved himself up and on lanky legs, walked away to go join Raphael and Micheal for a warm brandy, leaving Castiel and Gabriel to stare with a cruel mixture of delight and fright at the dolls in their laps.
"You don't...You don't suppose these are the dolls - do you?" Gabriel asked softly, his golden eyes that shined so fine never leaving the gaudy face of his own doll.
Castiel bit his lip with worry, the nervousness in his body slinking down to root itself icily in his stomach. He felt sick.
"I must confess, I do not doubt that Luke is lying about the story being fantasy." Castiel mumbled softly, stroking the side of his dolls cold and painted face. The light made the varnish shine a dull peach.
Gabriel nodded slowly with conviction.
"Well then, we shall have to see how the night progresses - perhaps these nutcrackers will come to life, Hmm brother?" Gabe laughed gaily as he quickly sat up from the sofa and, on bright oiled shoes, ran for the dessert table.
Castiel sighed at his brothers words, giving his doll one last solemn smile before he too stood up and ran after his brother to the dessert table. Perhaps a big helping of fresh apple pie would be enough for him to forget his new formed troubles. Lord he hoped so.
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So what do we think? I hope I got you guys interested enough to read the other chapters that will be updated soon! Please Review, it makes my heart dance like a Sugar Plum Fairy!