NOTE FROM PRESENT-DAY ME: I apologize I forgot to update for so long! I'm a ridiculous person and stuff, I know. I will upload several chapters now to make up for it.
My etsy is still not up -_-
The Christmas sweater I describe Cas as wearing is actually a sweater I own. I wore it on the last day of school because I thought it would be cool. My mom found it in a goodwill and literally bought it because it was so ugly. Tell you guys what; if you give me at least four comments on this chapter, I'll take a selfie with the sweater and post it to my tumblr so all of you can see it. (Including a link in the introduction of the next chapter).
NOTE FROM PRESENT-DAY ME: That never happened because I did not in fact receive four reviews. BUT, I ended up recently posting pics of the sweater on tumblr anyways. You can find them on my blog (mysticmoonhigh) under /tagged/selfie , and maybe under /tagged/faard because I'm not sure whether or not i put it under that tag anyways or not.
So, thanks for the comments and support so far! You guys have been great! I REACHED MY KUDOS GOAL! yay!\
It was all set up for the party.
Dean had spent hours putting up the Christmas tree, hanging stockings and wreaths and mistletoe, and had all of the ingredients lined up on the counter to make sugar and ginger bread cookies. There was plenty of booze, cold cut meat and bread (hey, he's not made out of money) with those awesome fancy cheese cubes, and he has popped corn overflowing from a bowl that could fit at least two severed limbs. I mean, if Dean was going to put severed limbs in there.
The radio was blaring crappy Christmas music, and he had "Frosty the Snowman" in the DVD player, ready to be seen. Everyone had confirmed that they were going to be there, and soon his small apartment was going to be more crowded than ever. He found himself excited, rather than stressed.
Him and Cas hadn't really talked about what happened yet. It had been a busy week for both of them, and they had both wanted to spend their time together off of risky subjects. Dean was eager to finally get to the point where they could talk about it, though, and awaited Monday night's long anticipated chat. He'd decided that, since things would be back to normal by then, it would be a good time to talk.
A loud knock at the door jerked him out of his thoughts. He quickly put the popcorn and string down next to the barren tree, running to open the door for those who were awaiting his arrival. As soon as it swung open, he was met by the smiling face of his big brother and his blushing, soon-to-be-bride.
"WE, wish you a merry Christmas, we wish you a merry Christmas!" Both of them sang, loudly and off-tune. Dean laughed, stepping aside and ushering them in through the door. They both seemed more than satisfied with the decorations, and Sam is nodding his head as if impressed. Dean knows Sam expected him to bull crap the entire thing, but something had him feeling a little more in the festive spirit this year. It may or may not have had everything to do with the fact that Cas would be there later.
"Where's everyone else? Dean, you didn't just invite us, did you?" Sam questions. Dean shakes his head.
"They should get here soon. Don't worry, I'm not the recluse you like to pretend I am." Dean teases. He hops onto his couch and uses the temporary height advantage to wrap an arm around his brother's neck, putting him in a temporary head lock. Sam squirmed and wiggled, shoving at Dean's hand as Dean tried to hold on for Dear life. Eventually, he broke free and gave Dean a playful glare, before his lip finally quirked up in a fond smile.
"Okay then. I'm sure they'll all love to hear the story from when we were kids and you decided it would be a good idea to plant oatmeal." Sam threatened.
"You wouldn't." Dean deadpans. That story's not all that embarrassing, but he thinks that with Cas and the Guild there, he would be mortified to have it spoken of. "I swear to Christ I will tell everyone about the time you swallowed a lego on purpose."
"Alright boys, break it up." Jess chides, stepping in between them. "Christmas is not the time for testosterone."
"Dang it, looks like I have to take all those supplements I bought back to the store." Dean said, snapping his fingers. Sam and Jess both rolled their eyes at the same time, and Dean has the thought, Their child is really going to be the sassiest thing to ever walk the face of the earth. I'm in trouble.
Suddenly, there's a knock on the door again. Hope rises within Dean that it may be Cas; he said he'd be a little late, though, and Dean's more rational than that. Instead of being disappointed, he smiles as he opens the door to see Charlie. She even brought a box of six month old candy canes that, by some miracle of god, are actually in okay condition.
From there, the guests show up one after another. Soon, Dean's house is hustling and bustling with the Christmas spirit, everyone laughing and drinking merrily and having a good time. He thinks that his Guild actually fits in with his regular family a little too well; Charlie is explaining some of the complicated stuff in LARPing to Sam, and Jo is bonding with Jess. Garth and Ash are having a conversation about lord only knows what, and Benny and him are silently standing beside each other, drinking some beer and watching everyone.
The door makes one final sound, and Dean practically lunges at it. When he opens it, he thinks he just might die of happiness.
Castiel is on the other side, wearing an absolutely huge, red, obnoxiously patterned sweater. It has a large green cat on the front, sticking it's butt out behind him, as if stretching. The cat is hot glued to the shirt, a line of the substance traced along the contours of the feline, punctured and broken in places. On the cat is a ridiculous pattern of repeated green holly or mistletoe or something, and it just ends up looking like marijuana. He immediately doubles over in a fit of laughter, and Castiel's face remains absolutely stoney the entire time, only serving to amuse him more.
"Well, Cas," He finally chokes out, standing up a little, "If we were having an ugly sweater contest, you would have won for sure." He says, swinging his hand out to casually pull Cas in for a hug. It's warm and nice and Cas smells like soap bars and tea, and Dean thinks that it might be the best hug he's had in awhile.
"I figured you might like it. It's one of my favourites." He deadpans, and Dean is laughing again, this time into Cas's shoulder. When he finally pulls away, he realizes that at least half of the people in the room are staring at them, and Sam has that look in his eyes like he knows something isn't quite what it seems. Dean pushes Cas firmly out of his grip at that point, stepping aside so his angel can walk around. The door shuts behind him, and there's a silence as everyone in the room takes in everything that is Castiel.
"Hello. I'm Dean's friend Cas." He introduces himself. Dean sees significant glances shared between his guild members, and he's glad for the obnoxious Christmas music playing in the background, to make the silence less awkward.
"Alright everyone." He finally breaks it, stepping up to the center of the room. Heads turn to him, Sam's head jingling, since Jess made him put on a dorky Santa hat with a giant bell attached to the end. "You can decorate the tree or make cookies or keep talking or whatever. I'm gonna go and make egg nog and rum shots." Dean says, rubbing his hands together.
"I brought fruit cake." Castiel reminds him, gesturing towards where he had set the platter.
"Hey, everyone, Cas brought a brick to eat." Dean declares. The playful glare he recieves makes him feel a little bit warm and fuzzy on the inside. "A brick that I'm sure will taste better than most."
"You'd better be sure. You're the one who has to try it due to your reflexive gambling habits." Cas scolds, crossing his arms over his chest. Dean wonders briefly how he didn't notice Cas having the fruit cake when he came in, but decides to ignore it for more important issues. Like, the fact that his brother was staring at him.
"What did you two bet on?" He asks, innocently enough. Dean can tell that there's a punch after this, of course. "I mean, I'm assuming personally that it was who would kiss who first, but,"
Sam is interrupted by Dean's elbow digging into his rib cage. Dean's glaring at Sam like he's never glared at anyone before; he loves his brother, but he doesn't want to spend all night being teased at for being too close to Cas. Especially when he wasn't a hundred percent sure that the other man liked him back in the same way.
"Dean and I had an arm wrestling match. I won." Cas said simply, before walking into the kitchen, carrying the fruit cake. Sam's eyebrows raise upwards, and Dean just shrugs, following Cas before any other questions can be asked. It doesn't take long until they're standing alone in the kitchen.
"I'm glad you could make it." Dean says, taking cherries out of the fridge. He drops each one into a different shot glass, (fifteen in all- Dean used to collect them, and still has one from every state) before turning back to lean casually against the counter. Cas gets his fruit cake all set up and cuts a small piece, offering it to Dean.
Dean takes it, slowly. He eyes the piece expectantly. Then again, if Cas really wanted him dead, he probably could've pulled it off by now. Dean tended to be gullible, and wouldn't think twice to down a pie sent to him, no matter if he knew the origins or not. As soon as the thought was out, though, he dismissed it. Cas wouldn't actually poison him. Even if poison was probably one of the ingredients in those god-awful things.
Dean slowly takes a bite, chewing it softly a couple of times. He thinks that it's probably close to the most satisfactory piece of cake he's ever had, even if he doesn't like cake. It's moist and soft and just the slightest bit tangy with the fruit, and the flavours all mix together well for something home-baked. Dean looks up at Cas and he knows he's never going to hear the last of this, because the sound he just made was close to orgasmic, and Cas looks like one smug motherfucker if Dean ever did see one.
"I'm glad I came, too. To remove your prejudice over holiday-themed food items pertaining to cake and fruit." He says, leaning back against the counter. Dean rolls his eyes, clearing his throat and setting the plate down. He turns around like the sulking teenager he is in his soul and pours egg nog in all the shot glasses, leaving them half empty for the liquor. He tops them off with rum and loads them on a tray, leading Cas and him back out to civilization. When he gets there, he laughs out loud.
Sam is sprawled across the floor, intensely concentrating on making the popped corn string, his hair dangling in his face. Instead of the Santa hat, somebody had removed it and replaced it with a pair of moose antlers. He was too in the zone to even ask what Dean thought was funny; he really did look like a moose caught in the wild.
The shots are passed around, and Garth heads to the kitchen with Jo to go and make the ginger bread cookies. Dean is absolutely, 1,000% sure that Jo's only in there with him to eat half of the cookie dough while it's still raw, but he couldn't complain because he'd do the same fucking thing if he got the chance. He notices out of the corner of his eye that Cas looks a little awkward.
"Come on, have a shot." Dean insists, pushing one towards him. Cas shakes his head with a small smile.
"I often find drinking distasteful in the company of those I have yet to talk with." He says. Dean figures he can respect that, and gives a half hearted shrug. Besides, he has just the thing for that, anyways. Not that he actually thought of Castiel enough when he went grocery shopping to actually throw something in that he would like. No, he totally would have gotten the tea on his own. Dean likes tea. Really.
Okay, yeah, no, he got it because he's a fucking idiot who is really, really head over heels for his gaming partner.
He walks into the living room and fills one of his cups to the brim with scalding hot water, reaching into his cupboard to bring out the large package of different flavours of tea that he threw into his cart. After spending five stright minutes trying to decide what Cas would be in the mood for, he decides to just call the guy over himself. "Hey Cas, get in here!"
Cas strolls in, almost bumping into Jo, who's carrying a large bowl full of cookie dough batter across the small kitchen. After excusing himself from the small disaster, he walks the rest of the way over and peers into the cup Dean's holding. Dean, in retaliation, pushes the warm liquid into Castiel's hands, gesturing towards the open box of teas. "I didn't know which flavour you would want, so I figured I should let you get it yourself. I, uh, also have some honey here," He reaches for the bottle, which has 'all natural' written across the top and is (disappointingly) not in the shape of a bear, "If you want to use it."
"Dean, did you get this specifically for me?" Castiel asks. Dean freezes up entirely, and he's not sure at this point if he looks nervous or just plain sick. Once Cas realizes he has his answer, a small smile pulls at the corner of his lips. "That's very thoughtful of you."
Dean feels all of the tension he'd been holding disappear. He smiles, patting Cas fondly on the shoulder. "yeah yeah yeah, just trying to level up my character. The tea brings stamina points, so..."
Cas chuckles, and Dean's about to make a joke when he hears Sam yell from the other room. "Dean, get in here!"
"I'll be back eventually." He tells Cas, walking out to the room. Sam is standing next to the tree, which is now strung up with fresh;y strung popped corn. Benny, Ash, and Charlie were helping him thread it; there was no way he could have done it all by himself. "Whoa. Cool."
"Yeah, except we need real ornaments now. Where are they?" Sam asks. Dean feels a little bit irritated.
"Dude, patience, young Jedi. I'll be back in a flash." Dean insists, turning towards the hall. He turns a corner, and continues to move until he's past the bedroom, bathroom, and almost to the storage closet. He pauses outside of it, eying the wooden door with more caution than he would give a rabid dog. Lord only knows how much stuff he had thrown into there over the years, and even if he had just gotten into it earlier today to retrieve the tree, that didn't mean that it was any less dangerous than usual.
After fifteen minutes of digging through the closet, he finally found the small shoe box filled with their childhood ornaments, and the larger box of crappy wall-mart stuff he bought last year to make the tree seem more full. He puts the smaller one inside of the bigger one and forces the door shut, wandering back out to the party. What he was not expecting, of course, was Castiel to be standing right outside of the door way.
He bumped right into the guy, almost dropping his ornaments in the process. As the box started to fall to the ground, Cas reached out and grabbed it. It stayed suspended between their bodies for a couple of minutes before Dean grabbed it and set it on the back of the couch, moving a little, but staying relatively close to Cas. "That was a nice catch. Why were you there, though?" Dean questions, raising his eyebrows.
"Your brother told me to stand here, and proceeded to take my tea out of my hands and insist that it would be fun. I don't understand how you almost breaking your possessions is meant to be fun, but I suppose he may have a bit of a warped perception of it." Castiel admits. Suddenly, Dean realizes that everyone in the room has stopped to stare at them. Even Jo and Garth were leaning around the kitchen door frame, fighting to get a better view. Dean feels his feet stomach down to his feet as he tries to make eye contact with Sam, but Sam is looking pointedly upwards. It dawns on him then that this seems to be exactly where he put the mistletoe.
"It would seem my brother is trying to pull something, Cas." Dean said, looking up. Castiel's eyes follow his own, but there's still confusion written plainly all over his face. Dean is caught in between thinking that it's cute, and being annoyed he has to explain this. He decides the annoyance is for Sam.
"You two have to do it, it's Christmas tradition! Whenever two people are under a mistletoe, they have to kiss. Either pucker up, or admit that you're a tasteless person with no endurance stats." Sam teases. Yeah, he's been talking to Charlie too much.
"It is? We do?" Cas questions, turning his eyes back to Dean. Dean shakes his head.
"I'm not gonna make the guy uncomfortable. I mean, I wouldn't mind, but I don't think he would really want-" Dean is silenced by a hand, sliding behind his neck. He turns his head back towards Cas, eyes immediately darting towards the other's lips. He feels his tongue dart out to lick his own in anticipation.
Cas is fast; Dean barely sees it coming before Cas's lips are pressed hot against his, the slightly wet sensation causing a low groan to form in Dean's throat. He barely holds back the noise, and instead it comes out as a questioning sound. His hands fall naturally to Castiel's hips as his body pushes both of them back, and there's a dull thud as Cas's back its the door frame. Dean is vaguely aware that there are people watching, but he can't find it in him to care.
Cas tastes like honey and tea, like sweet and healthy and just a little bit of something Dean can't quite put his finger on; it's manly, though, and reminds Dean of exactly who he's kissing. Cas's lips are pliant against his and his body pushes against Dean's, the hard lines and muscles different than anything Dean's witnessed before. He's already begun the process of biting and licking his way into Cas's mouth when he hears a low whistle behind him, reminding him that they're literally in front of everyone he cares about, and he should probably pull away now.
It still takes all of his effort to do so, and when he does, he's left panting and soft-eyed, body still pressed against Cas's. Their eyes meet, and Dean can tell that this was never going to be a one time thing. They were too perfect; too made for this. Dean didn't think he'd ever gotten this excited over a kiss before.
"Well there Dean, I didn't know you rolled that way. I'm gonna guess your Angel's not gonna be too pleased." Benny teases him, hitting him over the back of the head. This breaks Dean and Cas's eye contact, and Dean slowly peels his body off of the other man's. He turns to glare at Benny.
"Actually, Cas is Angel. We met online, and we called each other angel and hunter at first because that's what our screen names came up as. That's why he's Angel in my phone." Dean explains. Mostly because everyone was giving him confused looks about Benny's comment, and that seemed like the easiest way to explain it. Almost everyone could draw their own inferences from that.
"Well then, love birds, bring over the ornaments!" Sam enthuses, holding out his hands. Dean grabs the large box and brings it over, being sure to drop it right on Sam's legs. His brother lets out a slightly pained yelp, and Dean feels satisfied.
"Jerk." Sam chides, but without really meaning it. He's leafing through the box already, picking out what he wants and slinging it onto the bottom layers of the Christmas tree.
The rest of the night passes in a blurr of happiness and joy. Dean and Cas are almost never farther away then ten feet from each other, the cookies turn out great, and they end up watching Star Wars instead of a Christmas movie, because everyone agrees that it's deplorable Cas hasn't seen it.
When the credits finally roll, everyone is tired, and they all shuffle tiredly out the door. Cas stays, practically asleep on the couch, huddled up with his third cup of tea pressed firmly between his hands. When he stands to leave, Dean stands with him, running a hand through his already tousled hair.
They have a lot to talk about, but that can be handled tomorrow. Cas is tired and Dean is ready to head off to bed himself. He can't help but lean forward and leave a sloppy kiss on Cas's forehead before he heads out the door. Cas lets out a pleased hum, turning to absolute fucking putty in Dean's hands. He's warm and tired and Dean almost doesn't want to let him go, wrapped in a hug he's sure he'll remember for the rest of forever, but he also knows it's best for Cas to go home for the night. After all, whatever the hell they have going here, Dean doesn't want to dive straight into it. No, because that's the way you ruin things.
"Goodnight, Cas," He says affectionately.
"Goodnight, Dean." Cas concludes, turning and walking back down to his end of the hallway.
Dean thinks he's never been more grateful for his little brother's scheming in all of his life.