Secrets and Camera Flashes

Chapter 64

Everyone sits in a circle around the tree while John and Ellen fulfill their parental duties by passing out presents, one at a time. Most of the presents are irrelevant to this story, but Castiel will admit, he finds himself really enjoying watching everyone open them.

About midway through, John slides a very familiar present over to Jo. She's the only one he brought a gift for (except Charlie; it would be weird not to bring a gift for his best friend) and he was admittedly a bit nervous that she wouldn't like it. At this point, though, he's convinced she would like anything that comes from him. The bar truly is on the ground.

"Alright," Jo says, "who's this one from...?" She has to flip the box over to find the tag, and when she does, her smile grows impossibly bigger. She looks over at Castiel (who's sitting next to her, not that anyone should be surprised). "This one's from you!"

"It sure is," Castiel says.

Jo puts a little more care into unwrapping this one than she did her other gifts, and Castiel is left wondering if it's because she can tell it's jewelry and she wants to be careful with jewelry or if it's just because it's from him.

She pulls the paper off to reveal a small box. She looks up at Castiel, excited, then looks back down to open the box. She gasps, slapping a hand over her mouth. "Cas, these are gorgeous!"

The last thing he'd wanted was for her to make a big production of it, but at least he can tell she really does like them. "I'm glad you like them. They reminded me of the dress you wore at the premiere, and I thought..." He shrugs. "You seem to like blue. Sapphires are blue."

These sapphire earrings set him back a few hundred bucks — and though that might not seem like much for a celebrity, he's no Ryan Reynolds so this was a lot for one gift. He just didn't want to come into the Harvelle household, in front both rich-as-fuck Jo Harvelle and slightly-richer-as-fuck Dean Winchester, and hand out something from the Dollar Tree.

This seems to have paid off because Jo pulls him into a big, seated hug, still clutching the earrings in one hand. "Thank you so much, Cas. I love them."

Castiel pushes away thoughts of her crush on him and hugs her back like he would if any other friend hugged him. That's what they are: friends. Just because she wants something more doesn't mean he needs to want something less.

Before they separate, Castiel catches a glimpse of Dean's face, and the frown he's wearing is a little worrying. Everyone else is smiling. Why isn't Dean? What does he know that Castiel doesn't?

A few more gifts get passed around, and then there's one for Castiel. He wasn't actually expecting anything, and definitely nothing this size. It's about a foot tall and double that in length, though it's so irregularly shaped that the sizing is difficult to estimate. The tag says it's from Jo, which presumably means the rest of the family wasn't involved in choosing it.

His interest piqued, he tears the wrapping paper off to get a look. It's a large picture frame, shaped just right to hold six different photos. There's a picture of a romantic scene from the movie (and he has to admit, it's a very cute scene. The director did it very well), and a behind-the-scenes photo from set as well. There are two pictures of them out on their pseudo-dates, and for paparazzi pictures, they're surprisingly good. The last two photos are of a fancier variety: one is from the premier and one is from some award show they went to.

"Aw, Jo, I love this so much," Castiel says, and he means it. He can tell she put a lot of effort into it. There are hundreds of pictures of the two of them out there. It had to have been difficult to weed out the bad ones, never mind to just choose six nice ones. It's a nice variety of pictures, too, and they really show what their relationship is about -- both the public aspect of it and the private, less-romantic side. This is easily one of the sweetest gifts he's ever been given. "Thank you."

Jo smiles. "I'm glad you like it. It was really hard to pick just six moments for this because we've done so much together, but these ones felt right."

"This is adorable," Castiel says. "I'm definitely hanging this up as soon as I get home." His walls are already covered in big group photos from movies he's worked on or pictures with celebrities that he's met on various red carpets across the country, but this is by far the cutest one that doesn't involve Charlie.

"Can I see?" Charlie asks.

Castiel hands it to her, earning an "Aw!" She hands it back, and Castiel carefully puts it down in front of him. It's going to be a pain flying home with this without it cracking, but he'll manage. Hopefully.

"We should do Charlie's next," Jo says.

Charlie furrows her brows together. "Wait, you guys got me a gift?"

"Of course!" Jo says. "Not a cool one because we didn't really know anything about you, but it would've been mean to make you sit here for an hour and not get anything out of it."

Ellen slides a neatly-wrapped box her way. Charlie tears the wrapping paper off to reveal a shoebox, and when she removes the lid, the smile on her face grows impossibly bigger.

"What is it?" Castiel asks.

"All the candy I could ever dream of!" Charlie says. She pulls out a huge bag of skittles with one hand and a huge bag of M&Ms in the other. "I'm going to eat so many rainbows, it's not even funny."

Castiel shakes his head affectionately. "You do that, Charlie."

To conclude the only gifts that matter, Charlie gets one more, this time from Castiel. She examines the box for a few seconds, puzzled.

"This isn't the one you showed me."

"Of course it's not the one I showed you," Castiel says. "Why would I show you the one I brought?"

She purses her lips. "Okay, fair point, but I wasn't aware we were bringing substitute gifts."

"I wasn't going to," Castiel says, "but I saw these and I couldn't not get them for you."

Charlie rips the wrapping paper off this new box, only to find that it's not just a box: there's a pair of earrings lying gently on top of the newly-unwrapped jewelry box.

"My baby!" she squeals. "I didn't even know BB8 earrings existed!"

"Look in the box," Castiel says. "That one's even better."

Charlie puts the earrings down to open the box, and her eyes go wide. "It's a mouse droid!"

"It sure is a mouse droid," Castiel says, and he's rather proud of himself for finding it. Who knew you could buy a mouse droid necklace? He certainly didn't.

"This is all I could ever want," Charlie tells him. "I'm never gonna go to Hot Topic again because nothing I find there will ever top this."

"And that was exactly why I bought it for you."

A/N And now for a quick look into the life of a burnt-out author: I'm back at school and classes start Monday. The class that took up most of my time last semester is back again this semester in addition to another three or four classes, so I'm about to get super busy again. I do have a few more chapters written that I'll post sporadically, but idk how much writing I'll be able to get done over the next few months. I moved back into my dorm about 30 hours ago and the depression is already hitting hard, so it doesn't bode well for how the semester is going to go, both in regards to classes and in regards to outside activities like writing. I just thought I'd let you guys know so you know what to expect, and thank you to everyone who comments because reading comments is the highlight of my day <3