🌵🤠🙄
Crouched down behind the bar at the back of the room, Dean pushes bottles around until he finds the little box of cactus-shaped cocktail sticks left over from Jack’s “Green Stuff” themed birthday party (Dean’s given up on questioning the kid’s requests) and holds them up triumphantly.
“Got ‘em!”
Sam peers around the back of his recliner and narrows his eyes as Dean makes his way back to the couch and plonks back into his seat, shaking a few out into his hand and sticking them into several cubes of cheese and deli meats on the platter he’d set up earlier.
“What are those, pickles?”
“They’re cactuses, man. They’re thematically relevant to the movie. Y’know, cowboys, deserts, cactuses.”
“Oh my god, I told you we are not watching it again,” Sam groans.
“Well, it’s what’s playing in the Deanplex tonight, and there’s only one screen, so—”
“The Deanplex? Really?”
“You kept whining about me calling it the Dean Cave,” Dean reminds him. “Reap what you sow.”
“Dean. I’m serious. No more Tombstone.”
“It’s a classic!”
“So is Citizen Kane, but we don’t need to watch it six times a year!”
Dean makes a face. Slaps Sam’s hand away when he tries to take one of the cubes of colby jack before he’s had a chance to stick a cactus in it.
“Okay, one? Citizen Kane is boring as fuck and you know it.”
“Not the point,” Sam huffs.
“And B? What are you talking about, six times? Who’s watched it six times?”
Sam stares, then raises his hand to count them off on his fingers.
“We watched it on your birthday,” he starts, raising his index finger.
Dean rolls his eyes.
“Yeah, ‘cause it’s one of my favorite movies. Choosing the movie is a time-honored birthday tradition.”
“So then why did we have to watch it on my birthday?”
“Hey, that’s on you, man. Not my fault you struck out on your date and came home when me and Cas had already hit play.”
“I didn’t strike out, Eileen had to—”
“And anyway, that’s only two times, so—”
Sam raises his second and third finger and cuts him off.
“We watched it again on Valentine’s Day.”
“Again, when you were supposed to be out! I don’t see why I have to suffer just because you can’t seem to manage to get a date with Eileen to continue past 7pm.”
Sam ignores the dig and lifts his fourth finger.
“We watched it on Jack’s birthday.”
“His choice, and as we’ve established: it’s birthday tradition,” Dean reminds him, and shrugs. “Kid inherited my good taste genes, I guess.”
“That’s not — that doesn’t make sense on literally any level.”
“Says you.”
“You’re not even his father!”
“How dare you say that about my son,” Dean says in exaggerated horror, and Sam grits his teeth, visibly making the decision not to push that particular argument, even as Dean can tell how infuriated he is.
He lifts his thumb.
“And then we watched it again two weeks ago, and— fine, yeah, that one I’ll give you, ‘cause it was like. The anniversary of that time we had the hunt in Tombstone when Cas just came back from the dead, so. Fine. But dude. Two weeks ago. It’s only July and we’ve already watched it five times this year. We are not watching it for a sixth.”
“It’s National Day of the Cowboy, Sam! How are we not gonna watch the best cowboy movie of all time on the Day of the Cowboy?”
“You’re still arguing about this?”
Cas’ voice floats over from the doorway, and Dean looks over to see him wearing the denim Western shirt Dean bought him for the occasion. The pearl snaps glint, silvery in the light from the TV screen where Tombstone is loaded and ready to play.
“Yeah, ‘cause Sam’s being unreasonable.”
“I’m not—”
“You realize I left to drop Jack off with his friends almost an hour ago,” Cas points out.
“Remind me again what he’s doing with his friends,” Dean says, and looks at Sam to see his reaction when Cas answers.
“They’re celebrating National Day of the Cowboy by watching the Dollars trilogy in Eliot’s backyard.”
“Sounds like Jack and his friends are getting into the sprit of the holiday,” Dean says pointedly.
“It’s not a holiday!”
“They’ve set up a projector to show the films on the side of the barn,” Cas goes on.
“Okay, so hey— a compromise,” Sam offers. “Why don’t we just watch the Dollars trilogy?”
“…oh, did you think we were only watching Tombstone tonight?” Dean asks, bemused. “Dude, that’s just the appetizer. We’ve got a whole damn buffet to get through.”
“I hate you so much,” Sam tells him, but he’s already given up. He snatches up several pieces of cheese and slouches back in his chair. “Start the damn movie.”
“Hey, man,” Dean says, and settles into the couch, spreading his arm for Cas to settle against before he kicks his cowboy-booted heels up onto the edge of the coffee table and hits play. “You’re the one who keeps crashing date night.”
[written for this prompt game] [find me on ao3 as imogenbynight 💚]
