It was the first Christmas they spent together since Castiel found Dean earlier that year in a back alley on his way from work. The poor little catboy was almost starved to death, whimpering, scared and shaking all over, his gingery fur all puffed up and missing patches here and there, one paw craddled to his chest, an ear bent unnaturally. It almost broke Castiel’s heart at the sight, and when the boy turned his translucent green eyes towards the man, heavy tears swimming in them, Castiel knew he was lost. So he took his trench coat off, cradled and covered the little creature in it and took it home.
He fed and cleaned the boy up, rubbed some balm onto the cat’s superficial wounds and scratches and made an appointment at the locat vet for the following day. At nighttime he hoarded some blankets and pillows on the bed in the guest room and let the the little tawny kitten sleep in the makeshift nest. At a second thought he added some towels onto the pile, previously warmed in the oven.
Dean didn’t say much that first day, only replied to Cas’s questions that he was kicked out by his previous owner because he got bored of the kitten. At hearing that, Cas’s outrage was almost palpable, but he made an effort to tone it down as to not scare the catboy even more. After he made sure Dean calmed down enough and he could hear a faint purr in the room, Cas turned on a nightlight and headed towards his own bedroom, but not before making sure the door to the catboy’s room was opened enough so that Dean could feel the other presence in the house comforting in case he had nightmares that night. Doing so, the man completely missed the two bright green beads tracking his every motion, filled with gratitude and awe, not breaking the stare until Cas was completely out of sight.
And here they were, months later, and Castiel could hardly wait for his little kitten to open all the Christmas presents that Cas got for him. He could almost see Dean’s delighted little face as he discovered all the toys he asked for, even the fluffy stuffed panther, four feet long and black with blue eyes. Castiel had to order it specificaly on ebay, because it just had to be the exact model that his catboy saw on tv once and really wanted, as it reminded Dean of his caring owner.
Castiel enjoyed immensely building new traditions together with Dean, like baking cookies together on Christmas Eve so they could leave some on a plate for Santa, together with a glass of milk, or greeting the carolers together, or opening the presents together on Christmas morning. Though whenever the doorbell rang, the kitten freaked out and jumped on Castiel’s back, so that everytime the man had to open the door he was doing it with a stripped orange tail wrapped around his face, all puffed out and trembling like crazy.
Castiel jolted awake at hearing a loud crash coming from the living room, he jumped out of bed thinking that his little catboy might have gotten hurt and ran into the other room. When he got there he screeched to a halt... well... that was definitely not what he was expecting.
The living room was a disaster zone, he was even amazed that the tree survided untouched. All around his beautifully decorated Christmas tree however was a mass of schredded wrapping paper (with little claw marks on it, go figure), cardboard pieces strewn everywhere covering the entire floor, there were even some puffs and feathers that were still floating in the air (Castiel scratched the back of his neck wondering if there even was something containing feathers in the gifts he left under the tree).
He glanced at all of Dean’s presents, opened and scattered as far as he could see. He took notice of the milk glass and cookie plate he left the previous night on the counter for Santa, now on the floor, broken into pieces, and apparently licked clean from what he could tell... and of course his little catboy in the middle of it all, frozen midstep, eyes the size of saucers when he saw that his owner caught him red handed.
The little naughty fluff ball squeaked and hurried to hide himself behind the counter, slumping on the floor where he knew Cas couldn’t see him, as he pretended he was invisible. Which would have been all good if not for the large stuffed panther that the catboy kept dragging with him by a paw.
Castiel just couldn’t help himself as he burst out laughing at his catboy’s scrambled moves and impressive mess, and after a while just bent forward and gripped his sides, his body shaking with laugter.
Encouraged by the sudden noise, Dean chanced a glance around the counter’s edge and when he figured that Cas wasn’t actually mad with him, he approached his owner, purring loudly and started to rub himself all over the man’s legs. Castiel smiled lovingly, picked up the catboy in his arms, tickled behind his ears a little and scratched his fur just like he knew Dean loved and looking into those bottle green eyes, simply said ”Merry Christmas Dean!”
And than, with a catboy still perched on his shoulder and stuffed black feline dragged behind him, Castiel went to look for any still unopened presents. Well... he could always start this tradition next year.
