Chapter Text

A Tree Fit For a Dog

Castiel looks out the window of his office when he hears two men bickering as they’re walking by. He grows curious and leans forward a little more to read their lips and make-out what they’re saying to one another. It looks pretty heated, so maybe Castiel should back off before he hears something that is absolutely none of his business.

“No, Sammy, c’mon, we gotta get one,” the one in the leather jacket says.

“This is ridiculous; we are grown-ass men looking for a Christmas tree in the first week of December,” retorts the taller one. Castiel chuckles slightly at that and decides that it was probably okay if he overhears some of what they’re saying.

“So what? You’re saying that grown men don’t get Christmas trees? Because that’s a sad state of affairs, my friend,” Leather Jacket says, shaking his head.

The Tall One was about to say something back but they were past the window before Castiel could hear anything else. Castiel steps back from the window to avoid being caught and he takes a seat back at his desk. He doesn’t need people staying away from the tree farm because of the ‘creepy owner’.

He gets back to quietly clicking away on his computer, trying to order more seeds for next year, but he can’t figure the stupid website out. It’s asking who his local distributor is, but that’s the whole point of why he’s on this website; to get seeds that he can’t get at the local place. Castiel has always been technologically challenged and he normally lets Anna take care of the computer stuff. He was just about to give up and shut his laptop when Anna comes into his office.

“There are two men out there who want to talk to an owner,” she says, rolling her eyes. Castiel eyes her curiously before he gets up and shrugs on his coat. “And don’t even ask me what they want because I have no clue.”

“Oh, alright. Well thanks for telling me; I’ll go deal with them,” Castiel replies while he pushes past her and out into the hallway. He reaches the foyer of the house and pauses to grab his baseball cap off of a nearby coat rack. He opens the door to the frigid air of December and jogs down the steps, shoving his hands in his pockets to combat the cold. Castiel spots the two men that were arguing in front of his window a few minutes ago. They’re the only customers here at the moment, so they must be looking for him.

“Hi, gentlemen, what can I do for you today?” He smiles warmly and looks up at the Tall One. He must be at least four or five inches taller than Castiel and the man would probably make Anna look like a little elf.

“Well we have a few questions about the types of trees and that pretty little red-head told us that you could help us.” Leather Jacket flashes a grin and Castiel suddenly got an odd feeling in his gut.

“Oh, uh, sure. What do you want to know?” Castiel inquires.

“You see, Sammy here has this dog, and we want to know which tree would be best for a dog.”

“My name is Sam,” says the other one, sending a pointed look to his companion. “And I have a German Shepherd. I just don’t want him eating the needles or something and then getting sick.”

“Ah, I see. My advice is to just try to keep your dog from eating the needles. No tree is better than another in that respect; all tree needles will be potentially harmful to a dog or cat.” Castiel fishes for some more information pertaining to pets and Christmas trees but it seems like that’s all he’s got. “If you want to be super-safe, I’d say to get a softer needle tree, one that won’t poke and irritate the skin,” he finishes.

Both men nod thoughtfully and then turn in tandem to look out on all of the trees. Leather Jacket turns back around, meets Castiel’s eyes with his own emerald green ones and sticks out his hand for Castiel to shake.

“Sorry, man, forgot to introduce myself.” Castiel takes the hand that’s offered and gives it a few firm pumps. “I’m Dean Winchester and, as you’ve found out, this is my brother Sam.”

“Nice to meet you,” Castiel replies, smiling again. Their hands drop and Castiel takes a step forward between the two men. “You can follow me this way and I’ll show you some trees that might fit your needs.”

The brothers shrug to one another and follow Castiel out into the field. The mud from the melted snow makes the tire tracks of the tractor that much more sloppy and difficult to navigate as the three weave their way to the Fraser Firs about halfway through the field of trees.

These trees were some of Castiel’s favorites. As he looks around the rows of trees, he draws in a deep breath and a light smile spreads across his face. The Frasers always filled out nicely and they had a good color about them. He could remember being a kid and playing hide and seek with Anna in these very same rows. They were just nice.

Castiel turns back around when he hears a low whistle coming from Dean’s mouth. Dean is then punching Sam in the arm with some remark of ‘always being right’, and Castiel shakes his head. Sam shoves Dean away from him and crosses his arms as if he’s upset, but Castiel does see a small smile flit across Sam’s face for just a second.

Dean starts to walk down the row ahead of Sam and Castiel. Castiel watches him go and silently hopes that he doesn’t slip in the wet grass. Dean stops suddenly and turns around with a lopsided grin on his face.

“Man, Cas, these are really awesome trees,” Dean says as he reaches out to touch some of the branches. “Do you grow these all by yourself?”

“No, actually, uh, my sister Anna-- the red-headed woman from earlier-- helps me out. We also have a few employees that survey the grounds and whatnot,” Castiel replies calmly, although his cheeks redden at the nickname Dean just assigned him. He hasn’t been called ‘Cas’ in God-knows how many years.

Dean nods but quickly turns back around to continue inspecting the trees. Sam is still strolling beside Castiel, trying to avoid all of the mud by sidestepping every big puddle he sees. He’s calmly surveying all the pines surrounding them and he doesn’t seem as impressed as his brother, but he doesn’t seem disinterested either.

The three men have made it through the first row of Frasers and are now on to the next one over. It’s so cold out that Castiel regrets taking his Yankee cap instead of a winter hat to keep his ears warm. He sees Dean rub his hands together every once in a while as they’re walking along. They continue on in a comfortable silence until Sam practically gasps. Castiel watches Sam’s face as his eyes widen and a smile breaks out on his lips.

“This one. This one is perfect.” Sam is already over to the desired tree and checking it for bare spots before Dean even stops and loops back around to them. Dean comes up and claps an approving hand on his brother’s shoulder. Castiel had to admit that it did look like a pretty good tree.

“This is great, Sammy! Couldn’t’ve picked a better one if I had tried,” Dean exclaims as he takes his turn inspecting the tree. It was a big one, maybe seven feet tall, with a straight trunk and virtually no bare spots. Upon further analysis by Castiel, it was deemed that it would, in fact, be dog-friendly.

Castiel was happy that the brothers had found a tree so quickly. It always did his heart good when a family went away happy and buzzing with excitement. Christmastime truly was a great time of year and Castiel was proud to be so closely involved with the holiday. And after all, the tree was one of the most important parts of the Christmas season, right? The answer is yes, in Castiel’s opinion.

The second best part of his job was after the family had found the perfect tree and still stuck around in the barn, drinking eggnog or hot chocolate and sharing past Christmas tree nightmares. He loved those stories.

While the brothers are cutting down their tree, Castiel calls one of the maintenance guys to come up with the John Deere Gator to grab the tree and take it back down the hill. Within minutes the Gator rolls up with Balthazar at the wheel. He's a fantastic employee when he wants to be. Actually, Castiel is pretty surprised that he showed up so quickly; Balthazar always seems to be in the middle of rather inappropriate situations whenever Castiel calls on him.

Balthazar had always been a close friend of the family and had worked here even while Castiel’s father was still alive. He was a good friend to Castiel, albeit an eccentric guy with strange quirks. One of which included the need to call Castiel by absurd nicknames.

“Hey, Cassie, how’s it going?” Balthazar says as he gets out of the Gator and wipes off his canvas snow pants. Castiel rolls his eyes but smiles anyway.

“I’m fine, Balthazar, and you?” Balthazar swaggers over to the tree that Sam and Dean had in their hands, completely ignoring Castiel’s question, and he lets out a whistle.

“This is nice one, boys,” he says in his accented voice. The brothers smile and murmur thanks before hoisting the tree onto their shoulders. They move over to the Gator and set the tree in the little bed of the vehicle. Sam wipes his hands on his pants before pushing aside the curtain of his shaggy hair up and out of his face. Castiel coughs as a reminder to Balthazar to answer his question.

Balthazar gets the clue and responds with, “I’m great, actually. I was just watching something on TV called Doctor Who. It comes from the U.K. but I didn’t really watch a lot of TV when I was younger, if you know what I mean.” He finishes with a lewd wink in Castiel’s direction and the other two men laugh.

“I actually watch Doctor Who,” Dean speaks up, rubbing his hand on the back of his neck. “What season are you on?” Balthazar’s eyebrows go up in curiosity at the other man's confession.

“I’m on season four of the new series. Haven’t gotten around to that old stuff, yet,” Balthazar answers, waving his hand in dismissal. And that launches a whole new conversation about the importance of ‘Classic Who’ and that’s about when Castiel kind of checks out of the chatter.

Ten minutes later, the sun is setting and Balthazar drives off with the tree with a honk and a wave. The three men turn and wave back as Balthazar chugs his way down the hill. Dean and Sam are chatting to each other excitedly about where the tree was going to go and what color lights were to go on it and etc. Castiel turns to the brothers with his hands on his hips and a smile on his face.

“Well, are you guys ready to head back down?” The other men nod and follow Castiel back the way they came.

About an hour later, Castiel sends Sam and Dean off with the tree strapped to their car with twine and hot chocolate in their hands. It had been quite a struggle getting that tree on top of the vintage Impala without Dean yelling about the needles of the tree scratching his ‘baby’. When they all eventually got it up there and bundled down, Dean had blamed Sam for not bringing his truck. Castiel had only sat back and chuckled at the exchange, as he had been doing all day.

Castiel is sad to see Sam and Dean back out of the driveway and leave. He really had fun with them today and it was unexpected and nice. It was great to have yet another satisfied customer, but he sincerely didn’t expect to ever see those brothers again.