Home

Chapter 43: Thanksgiving

A/N: I know...I'm late again. As usual. Things will hopefully be better at the summer. Love you guys!

Also, a fun book fact: You guys have been living with the boys for a total of 73 days with this chapter upload. :)

Your alarm had gone off at five in the morning, and you'd been frantically working since. It was Thanksgiving Day, and you wanted everything to be perfect. It had been years since you had a nice Thanksgiving meal that wasn't served at some dive bar. It needed to be perfect for your own sake, but also the boys'. The past couple weeks after your possession had been tense. You were all still trying to dig anything up on Abaddon, but nothing could be found, so your group took on small hunts as a distraction.

As you were peeling potatoes to be boiled, you felt a chill settle in your bones. You shrugged it off as being sleepy and went and put a hoodie over your thin T-shirt. The hours dragged as you prepped everything. The turkey was taking forever, and you were kicking yourself for not making a brine earlier. There was no way the flavor was going to get into the meat in time.

"Hey," Sam said, entering the kitchen at about eight o'clock. "How long have you been up?"

"Five," you answered groggily. Your voice was scratchy, probably from not being used at all in the past three hours.

"Wow. Can I help?"

"Um..." You hesitated. Help sounded amazing, but you were doing this for them. It seemed selfish to ask for help. "No, I'm good. Just relax."

"Are you sure? I don't mind."

You smiled at him. "I'm positive. Besides, I'm almost finished up with the prep. Most of it can't be cooked until later anyway."

Shortly after Sam's offer, you decided to get ready. While smearing on your foundation, you felt a warm flush on your face.

"Man, I really need to keep out of that kitchen for a while," you mumbled to yourself. The circulation in there wasn't very good, and the heat sat stagnant.

After you were satisfied with your looks, you went out and laid down on the couch beside Dean who was watching Dr. Sexy.

"What?" Dean said. "No good morning?"

"It's been a long morning," you mumbled into the cushion. "I'm going to nap until noon and finish everything up."

Dean reached over the arm of the couch and then handed you a throw pillow and blanket. You thanked him, set an alarm on your phone, and quickly drifted to sleep. It wasn't the most peaceful sleep, it never really was ever since your possession. The memories haunted you every time you closed your eyes. You were beginning to wonder if you would ever be able to forget about it.

When Sam woke you up, the smell of food filled your nose. You sat up slowly and asked what time it was.

"About three," he answered.

You sprang to your feet and wobbled from the abrupt action. "Three?" you asked in desperation. "I was supposed to get up at noon and finish everything."

Dean walked into the room with an apron on. You looked at him, confused. He pulled your phone out of his pocket and handed it over to you.

"You needed sleep," he said. "I figured I know how to cook so I'd take it over."

You smiled at him. "Thank you, but I wanted to do this meal for you guys. You weren't supposed to have to do any of it."

"Y/N, you did plenty," Sam replied. "Now let's eat."

The three of you sat down to the excessive spread placed on the dinner. There was more food there than would ever get eaten. You knew that when you were preparing everything, but that has part of the novelty of a holiday dinner.

"Guys this is amazing. Thank you."

"You did the hard stuff," Dean said. "We just finished it."

You were overcome with happiness for what the boys did. It was sweet and thoughtful. Never in a million years did you think you would have this kind of relationship with the boys. You assumed maybe Sam would be one that you would be good friends with, but your relationship with Dean was always so touch and go. It was hard to describe how it felt to have Dean take initiative to go out of his way for you.

"I know as hunters, life usually sucks. A lot." The boys smirked and watched you intently as you rambled your little speech. "But the past couple of months have sucked a lot less thanks to you guys. I was living one rundown place to the next, only ever hunting. And it wasn't the worst life I could've had, but living here has been so much better.

"It's definitely had its ups and downs, and honestly I don't know that it's been easier. In fact, it's probably been harder on me." You watched as shame filled Dean's eyes. "But," you exaggerated to pull him away from his self-destructive thoughts, "maybe it's my mind subconsciously blocking out some of the bad, or maybe it's you two...I just finally feel like I have a family again. I feel like I belong somewhere again. So thank you for that."

Neither one seemed to know what to say, and you didn't mind. You didn't say all of that to get a response in return. You simply wanted them to know how you felt.

"You do belong," Dean said. "Whether you're here, or hundreds of miles away, you belong, and you always have. Don't ever guess your worth, or make it depend on other people. You're better than that."

Now it was your turn to sit silent, not knowing what to say. "That was a compliment, right?"

"Yeah."

After the meal was finished, you started putting everything into containers. Dean washed the dishes as you emptied them and Sam dried until his phone rang. When he left the room, Dean stopped washing and stared at you.

"Are you okay?"

Your brows furrowed in question. "What?"

"Are you okay?"

"I know what you asked, but why?"

He shrugged. "I don't know. You seem a little off your game. Not as much energy to your step as normal."

"I'm good, Dean." You chuckled.

Sam came back into the room with a frown set into her face.

"What's up?" you asked him.

"Remember when we did that LARP thing with Charlie?" he asked toward Dean.

You saw his eyes get wide. He looked excited. "Dude, are we going again?"

Sam gave him his classic face that had "idiot" written all over it. "She's back into it and said some weird stuff was going on again, wants to know if we can head out tomorrow."

You cut into the conversation. "Is this the Charlie you guys keep telling me I need to meet?"

"Y/N, you'll love her. She's quirky, but that's her best quality," Dean answered. "I say we go."

"Well let's get this mess cleaned up, relax a little, and then head out early," Sam said.

+++

After a long day of cooking, eating, and watching a livestream of a football game with the brothers, you were more than happy to collapse into your bed. You pulled out an extra blanket to put on your bed. You noted that you needed to ask the boys if the heat could be turned up.

Once you were snuggled as deeply in your blankets as you could be, your eyes fell heavy and you weren't going to stop them from closing. Sleep sounded wonderful.

Next Update: May 9th (For Sure. I promise, unless I have technical problems.)