Work Text
“Do you think fairytales can be real?” Sam asks, and Dean groans.Is it really the time for Sam to ask this kind of questions? They’re trudging through the snow and the night and the cold and the humidity and Dean is really not in a good mood.“I don’t know,” he answers and he regrets it right away because he doesn’t want to start this kind of conversation with Sam. All he wants is to get the firewood Dad asked of them as quickly as possible and to get back to the warmth of the cabin they’re staying in for the night.“But I mean, if ghosts and werewolves and vampires and all these monsters are real, why couldn’t some fairytales be real too?” Sam goes on, in a way-too-reasonable voice. This isn’t the time to be reasonable. This is the time to shut up and brandish your torch well enough for you to find firewood in the snow and the night and the cold.It’s nights like these when Dean thinks he really hates his life. But the thing is, Dean doesn’t hate Sam so he doesn’t want to be mean to Sam, when really, Sam is the only one who keeps him from turning mad when they’re in this kind of setting.“I don’t know, Sammy. In my experience, it’s the bad things that are real, not the good ones.”“Fairytales can be pretty creepy,” Sam answers. And okay, they’ve started this conversation now, they’re talking about freaking fairytales.“What do you mean, creepy? Aren’t fairytales all about a beautiful princess getting saved by a charming prince? This doesn’t sound creepy to me. This sounds like the kind of stuff that wouldn’t happen in real life, but other than that…” Dean trails off.“No, but I mean…take Little Red Riding Hood, for example. That’s creepy. A young girl gets eaten by a wolf and then the wolf’s belly gets opened up. Pretty gory if you ask me”Dean cannot believe he’s having this kind of conversation with his kid brother. “If they’re so creepy why would you want fairytales to be real?”“I don’t want fairytales to be real, I was just asking if you thought they could be! It was just, you know, a theoretical question.”“Man, Sammy! Why do you have theoretical questions at your age? You’re in middle school, not in post-grad. Just be a kid, man!”“I don’t know any other kid whose father sends out in the night and the snow to look for freaking firewood.” Sam is right on that. “Plus, I saw Dad start a pack of beer just as we went out. I’m sure he doesn’t care at all whether we bring back firewood or not.”“Don’t argue, Sam. Dad asked us to get firewood, we get firewood. We don’t ask questions.”They walk for a little bit longer in silence, looking for this firewood that, if you ask Dean, might actually be non-existent, before Sam talks again.“I wish we could be building a snowman. It’s been so long since we’ve been somewhere where it snowed so much in winter.”“Well you’ll build a snowman tomorrow after school. This really isn’t the time for this, Sam.”“But tomorrow after school I’m sure either the snow will have melted or it’ll be all dirty from the cars passing by on the highway,” Sam whines, and really, Dean could have gone for firewood by himself. Maybe if Sam went to bed a bit earlier he would be less of a pain in the ass.They’re arriving by a crop of trees, so they leave the moonlit path they’re walking on in the hope of finding more wood where there are more trees.Their walk through this little bit of forest is not easy, but Dean trusts his torch and he trusts his instincts and he’s sure he’ll find firewood anytime now.When they reach a clearing nearby, Sam is still whining and talking about freaking snowmen and fairytales and Dean’s had enough of it. So he tells Sam he can stay in that clearing for now and build his freaking snowman while Dean looks further into the woods to actually do what their father told them to do. Sam’s elated, so that’s a good thing. And without his little brother whining and moaning, maybe Dean will be able to get this done a bit faster.So he leaves Sam in the clearing with his so-far nonexistent snowman, and he just hopes there are no monsters or beasts nearby. He decides not to go too far anyway because he wants to close enough to hear Sam shout in case of an emergency.He tries and circle the clearing so that they don’t separate too much. Except in the night and in the snow, and with this freaking torchlight that isn’t as good as it should be, Dean kinda gets lost. Well, he doesn’t get lost per se but he’s not sure where he is exactly. He thought he’d gone all around the clearing by now but he doesn’t recognize anything and he doesn’t see his own footprints and well, this is getting kinda scary. Plus, he still hasn’t found any freaking firewood.Dean decides to go back to the clearing and to Sam, because at this point there’s nothing else he can do anyway, but when he reaches it, there is no Sam anymore.Dean is gripped by utter panic.“Sam! Sammy, where are you? Sammy!”They were supposed to stay within shouting distance. The only trace of Sam Dean can find is his freaking snowman. Not even any footprints in the thick snow mark his little brother’s presence. Dean has no idea what to do and his heart is beating so fast it feels like it’s gonna burst out.“Sam! Sammy!”Where the fuck is this kid?Dean gets closer to the snowman. How the hell did Sam have enough time to build such a tall one? Even weirder, there seems to be no dip in the snow indicating the place Sam would have gathered the material to build the snowman. Dean gets closer still, and the snowman itself, it’s not just 3 balls on top of each other.It actually looks like an actual person. A person who’s around Dean’s size and who is…wearing a trench coat? Why the fuck would Sam build this? How the fuck would Sam build this?Dean starts to doubt he’s actually in the same clearing where he left Sam. It looks a lot like it, but it cannot be. There is no way Sam would have left the place where they were supposed to meet, and there is no way he could have built something as intricate as this.Dean starts to calm down. Okay, maybe he just got lost a bit more than he thought. Sam is still building a snowman completely worry-free in the original clearing, and this is just a freak of nature. A very beautiful freak of nature.As close as Dean is now he can see the snowman’s face—and can you really call that a snowman at this point?—how detailed it is. So detailed that Dean can see the dryness of its lips.Dean is still staring in wonder when a huge gust of wind coming from absolutely nowhere pushes him forward and makes him fall right through the snowman.Dean falls face first into the snow and spare only a thought to pity the fact that he just destroyed such a beautifully carved piece of work.It takes him a few minutes to get his bearings and to get back up and out of the snow.He is completely drenched and curses once again his dad for making them look for firewood in this weather, when he hears a voice behind him.“Hello Dean, thank you for lifting my curse.”Dean jumps.“What the hell?”“I said thank you for lifting my curse, Dean.”Dean turns around and can see a man standing behind him. A man who strangely looks exactly like the snowman he just destroyed, right down to the trench coat and the chapped lips.Dean must have gone insane.“I…Look. I don’t know who you are or where you come from, dude, but I haven’t lifted any curse.”“Of course, you did,” answers the man. “I am an Angel of the Lord and I was cursed to be a snowman by a very powerful witch. The only way to lift the curse was to receive a true love’s kiss while I stil was in snow form.”This is it. Dean must have actually fainted, and this is a completely crazy hallucination. Dean only hopes Sam is okay in the real world and not too worried about Dean.“This is not a hallucination, Dean,” the man says again.“Yes it is,” Dean insists.“No, Dean. You kissed me and now I am not a snowman anymore. I thank you, Dean.“One: I did not kiss you,” Dean answers adamantly. “Two: how could I be your true love? I don’t even know you! And three: this is not possible.”“It is true that this was not the most romantic kiss I could have asked for, but when you fell on me, your lips did come into contact with my lips. I believe it technically counted for a kiss as far as the curse was concerned. Also, as an Angel of the Lord, I know things about your destiny that you couldn’t dream of, and I know that we are meant to meet once more a few years from now. I am however sorry to say that neither the curse I was under, nor this meeting were supposed to take place. As a consequence of this, you will have to forget what just happened between us. I hope that, in a corner of your mind, you will always know that I am really grateful for what you did tonight; Dean. My name is Castiel.”The man smiles at Dean and yeah okay, Dean can maybe perhaps picture himself having somewhat of a relationship with him in the future, but so far as to say that they would be true love…Dean doesn’t have the time to ponder about it more because then in the blink of an eye, Castel is gone.What the hell just happened?Dean is still half-convinced that it was in fact an hallucination, but the conversation he had earlier with Sam about fairytales makes him also believe that this could have been real.He needs to tell Sam right away.“Sam! Saaaam!” Dean shouts once more, leaving the center of the clearing.This time he hears an answer.“Dean! Deaaan!”Dean follows Sam’s voice and meets him right where he left him, in the first clearing they encountered. A clearing where Sam indeed tried to make a very lumpy snowman.Why on earth did Dean ever believe that, with his very dubious artistic skills, Sam would have ever been able to make the one Castiel was trapped in?Well, thinking of that, Dean needs to tell Sam right away!Except—what…what was he…?“Sam,” he starts. He knows there is something he needs to tell Sam but he isn’t sure what. “Sam, you know when you… what you said about fairytales earlier?”Sam is listening but Dean doesn’t know where this is going. What was he saying? He doesn’t know. Firewood, they need to get firewood!“I didn’t find firewood,” Dean ends up saying, and it sounds pretty wrong but he has no idea what else he could have said. “Let’s go back to the cabin. I’m sure Dad must be asleep by now. We’ll try to find some in the morning.”“Yeah, Dean, I told you we should have from the start. Look at my snowman though! It’s sick right?”“Sick is the word yes,” Dean answers with his trademark shit-eating grin. “It doesn’t look like it’s in very good health.”“Dean, you’re such a jerk!”“I know. But you know what, I think I can be charming too,” Dean says, with more self-reflection than he ever expected from himself. “Just like the princes in the fairytales.”Sam regards him doubtfully but doesn’t contradict him either, so Dean’ll take it as a win.