80. Chapter 80

The sound of Sparks purring woke Dean from a sound sleep. He rubbed at his eyes and felt a wet nose brush against his hand. He smiled sleepily and ran a hand down Sparks's back. Her purr increased and she turned around to stare at him with bright eyes, practically vibrating. Dean touched her nose with his index finger. She really did have beautiful blue eyes. A blue collar would look really nice on her, especially against her dark fur. Maybe he could try to get her one for Christmas?

At the thought of buying a present for Christmas, Dean's smile vanished. Sparks wasn’t the only one he wanted to get a present for. He wanted to buy something for Castiel, Gabriel, Bobby, Jody, and maybe even Balthazar. But where was he going to get the money from? He didn't have any money. All of his old credit cards were probably either expired or had been closed. You only had so long to work with them before people caught on. He knew for a fact that he hadn't had more than a twenty on him when he left Bobby's the fateful day, and frankly Dean had no idea where his clothing had even ended up. For all he knew, that twenty bucks had been vaporized along with his clothes.

He could tell Castiel that he wanted to buy presents. He was positive that his daddy would give him all the money he wanted. But that would kind of defeat the purpose, wouldn't it? Besides, Castiel, Gabriel and Balthazar were angels. In the blink of an eye they could snap their fingers and create whatever they wanted, or spread their wings and fly to wherever they wanted. What could he possibly buy them that they wouldn't be able to get for themselves? And how was he supposed to get it without either Castiel or Gabriel knowing?

This was going to require some thinking.

He pushed himself up off the couch and looked around. He'd been watching a Hallmark Christmas movie when he fell asleep. The movie was just ending; Dean watched the crying man and woman embrace under the falling snow, right in front of the lit Christmas tree, and sighed to himself. He wasn't tired anymore after his nap. He felt restless, but watching television or playing with his toys didn't sound appealing. He glanced out the window and decided that what he really wanted to do was go outside and play in the snow. That snowball fight when they were looking for the tree had been fun, but Dean wanted to make a snowman.

"Daddy!" he called out.

Castiel appeared at the door to the kitchen almost immediately, smiling. "Hi baby," he greeted, moving towards Dean with outstretched arms. "Did you have a nice nap?"

"Mmhmm," Dean said with a nod, fighting back a yawn. He lifted his arms and allowed Castiel to scoop him up, happily snuggling into Castiel's warm arms. He'd always told himself that he wasn't a big fan of physical affection, but having regular access to hugs and cuddles had completely changed his mind.

"I guess Sparks woke you up," Castiel said. Sparks mewled, sounding very proud of herself.

"She was bored," Dean told him. "Me too. I wanna go play in the snow."

"In the snow?" Castiel echoed, sounding surprised.

"Wanna make a snowman. Go skating," Dean said. He'd never been skating before, but it sounded like fun. He could remember watching the Olympics on television with Sam. The figure skaters had always been so beautiful and graceful. Not that he had ever admitted as much to Sam, having always pretended like he was more interested in the manlier sports.

"I think we can do that," Gabriel said. Dean looked up and saw that he was standing in the kitchen doorway now. "I haven't been skating in decades, but I'm pretty sure I still remember how to do it."

"You went skating?" Dean said, staring at him.

Gabriel shrugged. "When Kali got an idea in her head, it was usually easiest to just go along with it." He tapped the side of his chin and smirked. "Except it turned out she wasn't very good at it. She landed on her ass more times than I can count. Angels get to cheat a bit when it comes to skating." He spread his wings for emphasis. "Wings give you better balance."

"You're lucky Kali is dead or she would've murdered you for that," Castiel said.

"Yeah, I know. I kinda hoped she'd never find out," Gabriel said with a grimace. "Still, it was worth being able to literally skate circles around her."

Castiel just shook his head. "Well, if we're going outside, let's get dressed."

Getting dressed was not a short process, at least not in the winter. By the time that Castiel finally deemed him ready, Dean was chomping at the bit to get outside. He threw the door open and burst through it, grinning as his boots crunched through the freshly fallen snow that was covering the porch. He clomped down the steps, leaving a trail of footprints behind him. Gabriel and Castiel followed, both of them just as well dressed as he was. Gabriel clapped his mittens together a couple of times and looked at Dean expectantly.

"Okay, Kiddo, what do you want to do first? Snowman? Skating?"

"Skating," Dean said eagerly. "Do you think the lake would be frozen over?"

"I can make it freeze," Gabriel said with a shrug. He gripped Dean's shoulder and spread his wings; Dean blinked and found himself standing at the lake. It wasn't entirely frozen over, but all Gabriel had to do was touch a finger to the surface and a sheet of thick ice radiated outwards. By the time Castiel flew in behind them, the entire lake was frozen solid.

"That won't hurt the fish, right?" Dean said, looking up at Gabriel.

"No. And I'll unfreeze it before we go," Gabriel replied, snapping his fingers. His boots immediately transformed into black skates with shiny silver blades. He carefully stepped onto the ice and pushed off, arms and wings held aloft for better balance.

"Wow," Dean said softly, impressed. Gabriel made skating look effortless. Anyone seeing him would've thought that he'd been skating for years. And Dean didn't exactly have an experienced eye, but he was pretty sure that Gabriel's wings weren't doing much. It looked more like Gabriel had his wings out for show, and he wondered if Gabriel was better at ice skating than he wanted to let on.

"He's pretty good, isn't he?" Castiel said, gesturing towards Dean's boots. Dean wobbled slightly as his boots turned into green skates. Castiel made a similar gesture towards his own boots, which changed into black skates.

"Better than I'll ever be," Dean said, cautiously setting a foot on the ice. Nothing happened, so he dared to put his second foot on the ice. That was a mistake. His skates slid forward a little and he squeaked in alarm, arms flailing as he tried to stop his progress. Castiel reached out to grab him, which would have helped except Castiel had to step onto the ice to do it. Both of them yelped as Castiel lost his balance, and they went down in a heap.

"Oh my god, are you okay?" Gabriel cried, skating back over to them.

Dean rolled over. "I have the feeling that skating was a mistake." The fall hadn't actually hurt, mostly because he was wearing so much padding in the form of a thick coat and snow pants.

"You're just new to it. Come here." Gabriel gripped his hands and gently but carefully drew Dean to his feet. "Cassie? You good?"

"I'm fine," Castiel said, getting up onto his knees. "Why don't you take Dean and show him how? I'll try to figure it out."

"You sure?" Gabriel said.

"Positive," Castiel said.

"Okay. C'mere, Dean-o. Spread your legs a little, like this." Gabriel demonstrated and Dean copied him. He wobbled slightly, but Gabriel's hands tightened on him instantly and kept him standing. He couldn't help clutching at Gabriel when Gabriel began slowly skating backwards, half-afraid that he was going to fall again.

"Not so fast!" he said quickly.

"We're barely moving. It's okay; I won't let you fall again."

"I'm not afraid to fall again," Dean lied. He shouldn't have been scared, because he probably wasn't even bruised from the one fall and he'd had far worse than a light fall in all his years of hunting, but he was.

Gabriel smiled like he knew exactly what was going through Dean's mind. "I know, but just in case. Lots of people fall when they're learning to skate, you know. When you're a little older, and you have better control of your wings, you'll be able to spread them for better balance. Okay, gently push off with your right foot and then do the same with your left foot. Try to find your center of gravity. Don't worry about falling; I'm right here. Just focus on your skates and what the ice feels like."

Dean tried to obey. It was hard to let go of his concern about falling, but he tried to pay attention to his skates. It was strange, having to focus so much on his feet. He'd never realized how weak his ankles were, but even with the support of his skates they were beginning to burn a little. He ignored the sensation and instead did as his uncle said, pushing off gently with his right foot. His heart thumped in his chest when that momentarily increased their speed, but it only lasted for a second or two. He swallowed hard and repeated the movement with his left foot.

Very slowly, he started to get the hang of it. It was tricky, and keeping his balance was harder than he’d expected, but Gabriel’s hands never let go. Gabriel seemed perfectly content to skate backwards for as long as Dean needed, but he was letting Dean direct how fast they went. Dean kept his eyes on the ice, moving first one foot and then the other.

“Okay,” Gabriel said. “I’m going to let go so I can show you how to stop.”

“Uh, sure,” Dean said uncertainly. He fought the urge to grab at his uncle as soon as Gabriel let go. Miraculously, he didn’t immediately fall on his ass.

Gabriel skated a short distance away. “Watch my feet,” he called, and so Dean did, watching as Gabriel coasted to a stop with one skate just behind the other.

“That’s not the way hockey players stop,” Dean pointed out.

“Professional hockey skaters aren’t just learning how to skate,” Gabriel said, amused. “Skate to me.”

“What?!”

“Skate to me,” Gabriel repeated, holding his arms out.

Dean stared at him, then looked around. His daddy had retreated back to the snow-packed banks and was watching them from a distance, clearly having decided that skating wasn’t for him. The distance between Gabriel and Dean was a lot shorter than the distance between Castiel and Dean. He looked back at Gabriel, who wiggled his mittens enticingly.

“What if I fall?” Dean said finally. The question came out in a pathetically tiny voice, and he was immediately mortified.

“If you fall, I’ll catch you,” Gabriel promised.

Before Castiel and Gabriel, no one had ever promised that before. After all the time and effort they had poured into him, how could he do anything but believe it? Dean swallowed, still nervous in spite of Gabriel’s encouraging smile, but shifted his right foot forward. He slowly pushed off, sucking in a sharp breath as his whole body followed. He wobbled slightly when he had to move his left foot forward to keep his momentum, but he didn’t fall. It only took another push with his right skate to send him into Gabriel’s arms.

“Woohoo! You did it!” Gabriel cheered, scooping him up and spinning him around in a circle. Dean giggled as his legs flew out behind him.

“That was fun,” he admitted, wrapping his arms around Gabriel’s shoulders. “Can I try again?”

“Of course you can, Kiddo. Here.” Gabriel set him back down on the ice and grabbed Dean’s right hand, holding it as securely as he could considering they were both wearing mittens. “Let’s skate back to your daddy together, okay?”

“Okay!” Dean felt much more secure with Gabriel holding his hand, and beamed happily as they made their way back towards the banks.

“Daddy! Did you see me?” he cried when they were close enough.

Castiel laughed and came to the edge of the bank, grinning. “Of course I did, baby boy. You did amazing.”