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Sam would never, ever, admit this to Dean, but sometimes, and only sometimes, when he goes for the weekly or bi-weekly shop, he stops by the pet store to look at the puppies. Now that they have the bunker, he’s thought about getting one a lot. But they’re still on the road so much that it just wouldn’t be fair to the poor thing, even though they have friends now in Lebanon that would look after it if they asked. He’d feel too bad leaving it.So, no puppy.But, after looking at the all the puppies – this time they’ve some kind of beagle mix in the display pens – and reaching in to give some of them a pat when the pet store worker isn’t looking, Sam does a cursory glance at the other animals. Some hamsters, a wall of fish, a couple of lizards… all kinds of things that Sam isn’t really interested in, especially the kittens. Not that he hates them, but Dean would probably be more against a cat than a dog since he’s allergic. Sam’s about to leave the store when he decides to just glace into the adoption section, a set of three containers of different sizes that house animals of different sizes. Next to them are the posters for dogs and cats up for adoption, but they’re kept at a shelter in the next town over. But that’s not what has Sam’s attention; what has his attention is a jet black guinea pig with two light brown bands around his body with his ears and snout the same colour. The card next to him says ‘Hi, my name is Biscuit. My previous owners couldn’t look after me so now I am looking for a loving home. Male guinea pig aged one.’ He’s perfect. Since Cas became human he’s been feeling out of sorts. Without the strength he once had he struggled greatly on the couple hunts he’s been – the second of which ended with him getting a hairline fracture in his wrist. Since Sam and Dean benched him he’s been moping around the bunker watching Netflix and attempting (and failing) to cook. Sam appreciates the effort, despite the worryingly high amount of fires they’ve had to put out, but he thinks maybe Cas deserves something of his own. The angel has always liked animals – half of what he watches on Netflix is earth documentaries – so maybe he’d like a little animal friend of his own. Sam goes to the register and asks to adopt Biscuit. The woman is very kind and smiley and goes to put an ‘adopted’ sticker over Biscuit’s poster and then helps him pick out supplies for him. Sam didn’t realise than guinea pigs had toys, or that they needed so much sawdust. He deliberates over getting just a large, flat cage or a fancy three-story one with ramps between levels. Eventually he decides Cas will probably prefer the three storey one, even if they have to build it. He also gets a kind of circle of netting that can be pegged into the ground so Biscuit can go outside, carefully within the net. The bunker doesn’t have any daylight, so that feels important. The woman also suggests some kind of minty chew thing for his teeth? It seems frivolous but Cas will probably be glad he got it. The next thing he knows he’s single-handedly hefting all the boxes into the Impala along with the food, sawdust, and bags of toys and extra he got like a bed with a roof it can hide in, a water bottle, a food bowel and a guinea pig tunnel for him to run through. Soon afterwards, he’s paying for everything and carrying Biscuit – as carefully as he can – in a cardboard box over into the car. He kind of wishes that he’d gone and got one of the others so they could hold Biscuit while he drove, but Dean would never agree to a guinea pig in the first place and Sam would feel awful if he got Cas’ hopes up only to get to the pet store and find out Biscuit had been adopted while he was gone.
He cringes as he approaches the bunker, the road feeling way more uneven than he remembers it being. Luckily, the path down into the garage is smooth as sailing, as soon he’s parked, feeling Biscuit move around in his box under his hand, unharmed. Thank God. “Sam!” Dean calls, coming into the garage to help with the bags as he always does. Fuck. When he gets into the room he stops immediately, taking in Sam standing there with a cardboard box with holes and the pet store logo on it. “What the fuck is that?” He demands immediately, but luckily he seems more surprised than mad. Good.“It’s a guinea pig,” Sam says as casually as he can manage. “Named Biscuit.”Dean raises his eyebrows, taking a slow step towards his brother. “So, you bought a guinea pig named Biscuit?” Sam rolls his eyes. “Actually I adopted him, and he’s not for me, he’s for Cas.”Dean wrinkles his nose, even as hefts the cage out of the trunk so he can get to the groceries better. “Does Cas want a guinea pig?”The younger brother shrugs, still holding the cardboard box protectively. “I don’t know. I just thought he would like it.”Dean just sighs, shaking his head. “You’re probably right. God knows the guy needs something to focus on.” They continue on into the library, Dean with the groceries and Sam with a guinea pig. As Dean passes through the main corridor into the kitchen he calls out “Cas! Sam needs you in the library!” At least he’s helping a bit. Cas comes through into the library eventually, his hair and clothes dishevelled as though he just got out of bed. When he sees Sam standing there with the pet store box he freezes as Dean did, but instead of slightly angry confusion his eyes widen shocked awe, and he immediately comes closer. He’s almost vibrating with excitement already. “He’s for you,” Sam says, enjoying how a grin splits across Cas’ face at the proclamation. Sam suddenly finds himself being prodded to the table to open the box so Cas can looks inside, and when Cas sees that it’s a guinea pig he breathes in sharply, reaching out a gentle hand to stroke the back of his finger down the guinea pig’s back. “He’s one and his name is Biscuit,” Sam continues. “I bought him a cage, and food and a bed and everything – you know one of those house things – and I got one of these net things like an enclosure so he can go outside and- oof!”To Sam’s shock he finds himself enveloped in a hug by an extremely happy ex-angel, probably their first hug ever. “Thank you, Sam,” Cas says in a gruff voice. “Thank you very much.” “You are very welcome, Cas,” Sam laughs, easily returning the hug. “Now let’s go build this cage and get him settles into his new home.” Cas laughs and smiles probably for the first time since he fell, and even though Dean is gonna complain about it for the next month, and even though Sam is probably gonna spend the next four hours trying to build an overly complicated three tiered cage, seeing that expression on Cas’ face is totally worth it.