this is awful and i know it. i'm severely sleep deprived and emotionally scarred. please bear with me.
it's 666 words, if that helps?
Some Saturdays, Dean's brother, Sam, and his family like to come over. Dean and I treat them to sandwiches for lunch, the kids run around all afternoon and the rest of us do 'boring adult stuff' like talk, then we have a proper family meal, the likes of which Dean tells me he and Sam had not experienced before me.
When I open the door to see an apologetic expression on Jess' face, I know today is an energetic day – one in which we will all get somewhat dragged into the kids' activities.
"I recognise that bag." I say warily.
"Jo convinced her father that she needed a witch costume, now."
"Despite Halloween being 4 months from now?"
"What do you expect? She has Sam wrapped around her little finger."
Dean smirks. "Well, we all know that. It's good to see you, Jess."
"And you, Dean. Nice to see you, too, Cas."
"Oh, of course." Kisses on cheeks go around, and suddenly Sam walks in with Garth on his shoulders and Jo running just in front of him. Sam has to watch very carefully where he treads, and I'm sure he will do his neck permanent damage – due to his height, the angle he must tilt his head is extremely steep.
"Don't forget to tell them what you bought Garth, honey." Sam grins, knowing immediately what we would have been talking about.
"Garth felt left out. So I had to buy him a costume, too."
I restrain a smile, seeing Garth tugging a distinctive blue and red suit out of the costume bag.
"Spiderman?" Dean says, almost appalled.
"Spiderman's the best!" Garth yells.
"I'm gonna do you a favour and pretend I didn't hear that, little guy."
The kids swarm around us for hugs, prompted by their parents into some semblance of manners.
"Me 'n' Garth are gonna put on a play for you, Uncle Cas." Jo states proudly.
"What is it going to be about?"
"It's a surprise."
"Oh, I'm sorry! Is it going to be just you and Garth?"
"Um…" she puts her fist on her chin to think. "Well, I think we still have a few people we could put in." She eyes me speculatively.
"Do you know who really likes being in plays, Jo?" I ask in a low voice.
"No! Who?"
"Come here, I'll tell you." She sits on my lap and I speak slightly quieter. "It's Uncle Dean. But he doesn't like it when I tell people that, so you've got to ask him if he wants to be in it in a way so he doesn't think you're doing it to make him happy, okay?"
"Okay, Uncle Cas!" She grins at me and jumps off over to Dean, who gives me a suspicious glance. I smile and quickly look away.
The dirty look he gives me is well worth seeing him in a crown, made up by the amazingly skilled Jo. He is cast as the evil stepmother, who just happens to be the queen of Everything. "That's with a big E, daddy!"
The witch is not evil – or at least, so she claims – and, out of the goodness of her heart, she offers her help to the good-willed-yet-clumsy-and-pretty-much-useless-Spi derman (characterisation Dean clearly approves of) in order to overthrow the truly evil Queen.
It was a very serious play. It was hard to keep a straight face, however, as Jo was all-but-continuously pinching Dean to remind him to speak in a 'girl voice'.
After it finishes, Dean walks past me to wash his face and oh-so-inconspicuously hits me on the back of my head.
As he walks back, with a bright red face, Jess laughs and says that she does have make-up wipes, Dean, you could have used them if you wanted. I pull him next to me so I can whisper in his ear – "if you ever think of taking me to a performance elsewhere, just know you can save money and go this route…"
He hits me again.