87. Chapter 87

Dean slipped his hand into his uncle’s as they left the jewelry store. He noticed a few other angels turning to look their way. At first the closer scrutiny made him a bit uncomfortable, and he pressed a bit closer to Gabriel as he wondered if something was about to happen, but then he realized that they weren’t paying attention to him. Instead, they were looking at Gabriel.

“Why are they staring at you?” Dean asked since Gabriel didn’t seem to notice.

“It’s because I’m an archangel,” Gabriel said, so quickly and so smoothly that Dean realized he had to have noticed the attention after all. “They look at Castiel too. The two of us are in charge upstairs now, though we’ve left things in the hands of our trusted brethren while we’re down here with you. Some of these angels have been earth-bound with their hatchlings and nestlings for a while, so they haven’t seen us before. We’re… a novelty, you could say.”

“Do they always stare?” Dean said in surprise, trying to remember back to previous outings.

“Yup. I’m used to it, and I’m not sure Cassie even notices,” Gabriel replied.

Dean frowned at himself. That meant there had been staring during the past few trips too, and he hadn’t been paying enough attention to notice – he’d been too wrapped up in himself and everything that was going on. That wasn’t a great sign: one of the first lessons that John had taught him was about always taking in your surroundings. He was supposed to be a hunter! That kind of stuff wasn’t supposed to be sliding past him!

“Does the attention bother you?” Gabriel asked, studying his face.

“No,” Dean said. “Angels have always stared at me.” That wasn’t completely true as the stares did bother him a bit, mostly because he felt self-conscious knowing that angels were watching them so closely.

But at the same time, he felt better knowing that he wasn’t the source of them. Besides that, the latter of what he’d said was true. Ever since angels had first appeared in his and Sam’s life, they’d been watched. Dean supposed that part of that was their attitude. Sam was a tiny bit more reverent towards angels than Dean was, but Dean had been pretty upfront about telling angels to piss off from the get-go.

Gabriel’s mouth quirked into a smile. “They knew you were Cassie’s,” he said, angling one of his wings to better shield Dean from any curious looks. Dean blinked at that, a little baffled. Did that mean every angel had been able to see that their current situation was an eventuality from day one? He wasn’t sure he wanted to know if that was the truth or not, so decided not to ask.

“Is that why they stared at Sam even after he didn’t have the demon blood in him? Because they knew he was yours?” he asked instead. Better to deflect the attention onto Sammy.

“That was definitely part of it,” Gabriel agreed, and then mercifully changed the subject. “So, what do you want to get for Balthazar? How about a copy of the movie Titanic?”

“Titanic?” Dean repeated. “Does he like that movie?” He couldn’t help making a face. No matter what he was, human or hatchling, he would never find any enjoyment in chick flicks.

Gabriel snickered. “Actually, it’s just the opposite. He always said that if could change one thing about the past, he’d stop the Titanic from sinking so that certain songs from the movie were never written.”

Dean raised his eyebrows. “That’s a serious dedication to hate,” he commented, impressed, but shook his head. “No, I want to get him something he’ll enjoy.” As tempting as it was to buy Balthazar the movie just to see his reaction, Dean didn’t think he knew Balthazar well enough for that.

Besides that, Balthazar had helped to save him, Sam, Bobby, and Jody from those demons. More angels than just Balthazar had come, of course, but Balthazar was the one who had responded directly to Dean’s cry. He and Anael had also taken Dean back to the cabin and stayed there with him until Castiel and Gabriel had been able to return. Dean felt like he owed Balthazar a lot.

“Well, Balthazar is all about pleasure,” Gabriel said thoughtfully. “How about chocolates and wine?”

“Daddy said I wasn’t allowed to give anyone alcohol for Christmas,” Dean said.

“I think he meant you weren’t allowed to give Sam alcohol, sweetheart,” Gabriel said, looking like he was trying not to laugh. “For an angel, the rules are a bit different.”

“If you’re sure,” Dean said.

“I am. I can pick up a good bottle of wine for you, but we can pick out the chocolates now. There’s a candy shop down the way,” Gabriel said.

Dean looked at him sideways. “Are you sure this isn’t just an excuse for you to visit the candy shop again?”

“Absolutely not!” Gabriel said with a straight face, but the twinkle in his eyes gave him away. Dean rolled his eyes at him and Gabriel finally broke, tossing his head back with laughter. That was enough to make Dean smile too. He would always cherish carefree moments like this, where everything was good. They had been so rare in the past, but now he had hope that they would happen more often.

He glanced around again and decided that he would go back to ignoring the fleeting stares for the time being. It wasn’t like Gabriel could make the angels stop, after all, and he supposed it was kind of the way humans acted when celebrities were around. Some of them were sneaking peeks at Dean too, but he hadn’t been lying when he told Gabriel that angels had always stared at him.

“So, are you ready to hit the candy shop?” Gabriel asked.

“I forgot Sparks!” Dean exclaimed at the same time.

“What?” Gabriel said.

Dean stepped forward and put his hand against the pet shop window. He hadn’t even realized that they were standing in front of the pet store, too distracted by the other angels. Now he felt super guilty for having left Sparks off his list as soon as they got to the shopping center.

“I want to get something for Sparks too and I forgot,” he said miserably.

Gabriel glanced at the shop window and seemed to finally understand. “You didn’t forget, kiddo. We’re still here, aren’t we? You’re not done your shopping yet. We can go finish off Balthazar and then get something for Sparks and before you know it, it’ll be lunch time!”

He had to admit, the sound of that was nice. Breakfast already seemed like it had been a long time ago, and he was beginning to get tired. The days where he could go non-stop from morning to night on hunts were a long way in his past. And there was no point in complaining about it because Gabriel would just smile and tell him that the process of becoming an angel was very taxing on the human body and that there was a reason Dean needed as much sleep as he currently did.

“Let’s go,” Gabriel said. He seemed very eager to go to the candy shop now that Dean had agreed to go. Probably, Dean realized with some amusement, because he wanted to go while Castiel wasn’t around. There was no doubt in Dean’s mind that his daddy would put his foot down in regards to everything Gabriel wanted to buy.

But once they got to the shop, Dean couldn’t blame his uncle for being excited. His eyes rounded in wonder as they walked inside. Dean had been to candy stores before – or so he thought. But those stores were nothing like this. The whole thing spanned two entire floors, and there was every kind of candy that Dean could think of and more. Everywhere he looked, angels and humans alike had smiles on their faces.

The second floor appeared to be devoted totally to chocolate, and to prove it there was an actual waterfall of molten chocolate spilling down from the second floor and into a river that snaked around the first floor. Dean stepped closer to the waterfall, mesmerized by the plate of chocolate beneath the lights. It smelled amazing, rich and sweet and mouth-watering.

“Wow,” he breathed. “Is this heaven?”

“It’s what heaven would look like if I had my say in it,” Gabriel said dreamily.

“An angel must run this place,” Dean said, craning his head back to better look at the waterfall. He couldn’t think of a human way to engineer and run this that wouldn’t be pretty costly, but an angel could just snap their fingers and make it happen. Plus, with the help of an angel, things like contamination wouldn’t really be an issue.

“It’s a joint ownership. Human creations for the most part, with a touch of grace to make the more unique creations happen,” Gabriel replied. He wiggled his fingers at Dean.

“Are you the one who supplies the grace?” Dean asked, because he wouldn’t have put it past his uncle, and Gabriel laughed.

“Sadly, no. I don’t really have the time between you, Cassie, and heaven,” he said. “Besides, if I had to help run the place, I wouldn’t have time to be their best customer, right?”

Dean had to concede the point with a nod, and happily followed his uncle deeper into the store. Frankly, it was incredible just to see the various concoctions and beautifully colored candy. As his eyes traced the numerous shelves, he couldn’t help thinking that if Sam were here, he would’ve been exclaiming about how it was Willy Wonka’s Chocolate Factory come to life. He was a giant dork like that.

Thinking of his brother made Dean a little sad, and momentarily dampened his enjoyment. Sam was a health freak who was forever harassing Dean about what he ate, but there was no doubt in Dean’s mind that Sam would’ve loved something like this. For just a few minutes, Sam would’ve forgot all about his salads and smoothies and tried to throw himself face first in the chocolate river.

“What’s the matter, Dean?”

Dean jumped. “Daddy!”

Castiel looked at him with a faintly puzzled frown. “What’s wrong?” he asked again.

Dean shrugged and, hoping to distract him, said, “How did you know we were here?”

“This is the only candy shop around for about twenty miles, and you were with Gabriel,” Castiel said with a perfectly deadpan expression. “How do you think I knew where you were?”

“Fair,” Dean said, trying not to laugh.

“Now, what’s wrong?” Castiel said, focusing in on Dean with the kind of intensity that suggested he would not be so easily distracted. Dean sighed, realizing that he shouldn’t even have bothered.

“I was just wishing that Sammy could be here, that’s all,” he mumbled, hunching his shoulders slightly. His wings curled in tightly against his back as he thought about how much he wished he could’ve brought Sam to a place like this when they were kids.

John hadn’t really believed in things like candy. Not when they were just barely scraping by at times. Treat for Sam and Dean had been few and far between and usually came from people like Bobby, not their father. Once or twice Dean had managed to shoplift a couple of candy bars when John wasn’t around, but he hadn’t even dared do that too often for fear Sam would blab. And by the time Sam got old enough to keep it a secret, John had started taking Dean along on hunts.

“Oh, Dean.” It was Castiel’s turn to sigh. “I promise that we can bring Sam here with us one day, okay?”

“Really?” Dean said, searching Castiel’s face.

“Really.” Castiel reached out and brushed a stray curl off of Dean’s forehead. “Sam has things that he needs to do right now. You know that. But as soon as he’s ready for us, Gabriel and I want to give him all the experiences that we’ve given to you.”

“Right,” Dean said. Of course they did. He didn’t know why he’d doubted that for even a moment.

“Besides, with Gabriel for a daddy, Sam will definitely become acquainted with this place sooner rather than later,” Castiel said wryly.

Dean couldn’t help grinning. “Yeah, you’re right. Okay, then. Now, on to more important things.”

“Important things?” Castiel repeated.

“Do they have pie here?” Dean demanded.

Castiel laughed. “I don’t know, but let’s go find out.”