Standing Together

Chapter 126

"Hey, Cas, you missed a very important decision from last night," Dean tells his fiancé as he's pouring himself a cup of coffee.

"Oh, god," Castiel mutters.

"No, no, it's not a bad one, promise," Dean says. "At least, I don't think it is."

"Well, don't leave me in suspense." Castiel sits down across from him at the table, propping his head up in his hands. "What is it?"

"This year for Christmas, we're doing a Secret Santa instead of everyone getting gifts from everyone."

"Oh, cool," Castiel says. Less work for him. "Do we know who's getting gifts for who yet?"

Dean pulls a small, folded up envelope from his back pocket and hands it to him. "Voila."

Castiel takes it and opens it up, pulling out a small slip of paper with Adam's name on it. He frowns. All he really knows about Adam is that he's Samandriel's best friend and he likes Jacksfilms. That's not a lot to go off of.

"Who'd you get?" Dean asks, excited.

"I thought it was supposed to be a secret," Castiel reminds him.

"Well, yeah, but you can tell people who aren't the person."

Castiel just stares at him. "I don't understand how that sentence made as much sense as it did."

Dean waves a dismissive hand. "Ah, whatever. So, who is it?"

Castiel mimes zipping his lips.

"If you tell me who it is, I'll tell you who I got."

Castiel folds his paper up and slides it back into his envelope in silence.

"Tell me and I'll tell you what I'm getting the person I got."

Castiel cocks his head to the side. "Seriously? You already know what you're getting them?"

Dean nods, satisfied. "Knew as soon as I saw the name."

Castiel just looks at him for a moment, then says, "Okay, you win. I got Adam. Who'd you get?"

"Ah, dude, lucky!" Dean says. "You could literally give Adam a chocolate bar and he'd be happy."

"In that case, maybe I'll just buy him a giant refrigerator-sized box of Hershey kisses," Castiel says, only half joking.

"No, get him all of Brooklyn 99 on DVD," Dean says. "He'd be thrilled." He pauses, then adds, "Unless you don't want help from me, in which case I will shut my cakehole and you do you."

"No, that's definitely what I'm getting him," Castiel says. That works, right? "So who'd you get?"

"Sam," he says. "Easy peasy. I'm getting him a gift card to a tattoo place nearby and a copy of the picture we said we'd get tattooed one day when we were younger."

"Right, you mentioned that once," Castiel says. "What was it again?"

"A pentagram with flames around it," Dean says. "It's really cool, trust me."

"After you actually going to get that tattooed on you?"

Dean shrugs. "If he wants to. A permanent throwback to simpler times, you know?"

"That's... cute," Castiel says uncertainly.

Dean cocks his head to the side. "Do you not like that idea? 'Cause I can get him something else if you want. I was just thinking nostalgia factor, but there are other things I could do for that if you want."