Dean knew it was a goddamn awful idea to let Sammy get that sled. He had been pestering since the beginning of November for one, even though there wasn't any snow by that point. Every day, after coming back from school or a hunt he'd ask and Dean would say no. Up until yesterday that is.

The thing was, he had been saving some money. He hadn't told Dad, that would've been idiotic. Ultimately, he knew that he wasn't going to spend it on himself; he just knew. It almost felt like a heavy weight in his back pocket. They could've used the money two weeks ago for food, but he didn't. Bobby wouldn't let him.

It was of course Bobby who gave him this money in the first place. It was a couple of months ago in the scrap yard. He had said to him, "Spend it on yourself, you understand me, boy" with his large hand on Dean's shoulder. A small smile was on his face but behind his eyes, Dean could recognise an element of concern which made him feel more guilty than he should have felt.

It was inevitable that he would spend his money on Sammy anyways.

This is what he reasoned as he approached the nearest shop that sold the glorified plastic bin lids. Dad was out on a Ruguru hunt and Sammy had fallen asleep in the motel room as soon as his head hit his pillow. He didn't even notice when Dean silently left the box room.

When he finally found a place that sold the sleds at a local hardware store, he quickly went inside and bought one. Sammy had been going on about how Jo had been given a bright red one by Ellen and he wanted an even better one. Dean realised looking at the very bare selection of sleds in front of him that, of course, there were only two colours. One, the aforementioned red sled and two, a block blue sled. He chose the blue one, paid with all the money Bobby had given him and left.

That night he prayed that it would snow before they moved onto the next motel. There was no way he could hide this monstrosity in the back of the impala...

To Dean's surprise, it snowed within the next two days. Overnight, the motel car lot turned from a grey, dull wasteland into what Sammy seemed to consider a "winter wonderland". Sam's point of excitement was so high at this particular moment that Dean was unsure how he would react when he told him about his recent purchase for him.

Dean, who had been watching even more of snow settling from his bed, whilst Sam was at the window, intent on following every single snowflake down to the ground with his eyes, threw a stray sock at his brother's back.

"Dean!", a frown had appeared on Sam's forehead that complimented his lips which were held together in a thin line. If he didn't act fast, he was either going to be viscously attacked by his nine year old brother or he was going to have to deal with him crying. Neither option was appealing.

"Hey, no. Don't pull that face at me. It was a sock not a clown or something!"

Dean smiled at his own comment, expecting Sam to join in too but in fact his expression had just formed into more of a pout. Dean continued,

"Ah yeah, sorry bit of a sore spot there... Anyway, I have something for you."

"Maybe I don't want it..." Sam mumbled quietly. He was now looking even further into the car lot, trying not to meet Dean's eyes. His knees rested slightly under his chin as his arms wrapped around his legs. He seemed unbelievably small at this point.

"Well I'm sorry to bother you then..." Dean said with fake conviction, "I'm sure me and Cas can go out on this awesome blue sled. I mean it's not really his thing but I'm sure he would go all the same. I'm sure I can get Bobby to drop him off here..."

Dean continued, getting up, picking up the sled, approaching the door slowly. In the corner of his eye he could see Sam perking up.

"Wait, Dean..."

"Yeah, Sammy"

"Can you take me as well? Cas can come as well but I'd really like to show Jo the sled."

Dean smiled gently and agreed on terms that Sammy agreed he was the best sibling that he could ask for.

Bobby did, eventually, agree to drop Cas off at the park. One of the perks of being in a motel less than half an hour from Bobby's house was that Dean was able to see one of the only friends he ever really made. Cas had lived nearly next door to Bobby for his whole life and Naomi, his mom, had helped him out on a few hunts. From what Dean heard from Bobby, she had an obsession with angels and it had come in useful occasionally. It was also the reason why Cas (or Castiel as she insisted Dean should call him) and his brothers were named after angels. She even went as far as naming her second child, Lucifer, which not only raised eyebrows in the neighbourhood, but also, in Dean's opinion, set him up for a fall later in life. Who would employ anyone named after Satan, he often thought to himself.

Anyway, the three boys set off soon after Bobby dropped Cas off. Dean did see a disapproving look aimed at him from Bobby as he saw him figure out how Dean bought the sled but he said nothing and told them to, "stop standing around like idjits".

Soon after Sam met up with Jo and left Cas and Dean alone. It was at this point that they finally started to talk.

"How's it been, Cas?"

"It's been fine, Dean, as usual."

Dean paused. He had known Cas for the better part of five years now. Things sounded bad.

"Has it been that awful?"

Cas turned around to look at him the eye but he couldn't hold the eye contact. Instead he looked at the ground and kicked the snow beneath his feet.

"You can tell?"

"Of course I can, best friends, aren't we? Is Naomi pushing for piano lessons again? Because, really, you can say no-"

"No, no, it's not." Cas sighed and kicked the snow again, "Lucifer and Michael have been fighting again..."

"Oh no not the devil child-"

"Don't." Cas stopped Dean before he could continue, trying to hide his smile that disappeared once he started talking again.

"They came in last night with black eyes because they'd been fighting. It was awful, Dean. Michael's afraid that Luke is 'associating with the witches' again. He doesn't even like them..."

Concerned, Dean laid a hand on his friend's back and drew him into a quick hug.

"It'll be okay, you do realise, right?"

"Yeah, I know but-"

Cas was interrupted by a shrill scream. The two boys looked at each other for a brief moment before running towards the sound.

What they found brought Dean to a grinding halt. Jo was at the bank of a small pond which had frozen over the past week. From what Dean and Cas could tell they had been sliding down the bank onto the ice for a good ten minutes but something had gone wrong.

Sam was in the water.

A hole was now present in the white opaque ice and Sam was hardly floating above the water that was around him. Without thinking, Dean jumped in to retrieve him. He didn't realise how cold it was.

He remembered that it didn't take long for him to lift Sam out. Dad would have killed him if he did anything less. What he doesn't remember is how Cas managed to get him out and at what point he realised that he couldn't hear out of his left ear.