Angel Wings and Demon Pitchforks

39. Not So Secret Santa

"Alright Ladies!" Charlie jumped up (more like crawled gracefully) on to the table and stood in the very centre. Her outfit consisted of glittery green tights, black boots with white cotton balls poorly glued to the tip of the shoe, a Santa hat that fell over her eyes if she moved around too quickly, and a red dress that had flashing Christmas lights wrapped around it. Castiel thought she looked like Christmas had thrown up on her and he loved it. "It's secret Santa time!"

The group gathered around the table placing their presents in the middle. After a week of stress, anxiety and frantic shopping, it was time to open them. Charlie shooed everyone away from the table and pretended to kick Gabe when he lingered too long.

"Alright newbies this is how it works; I pick up a pretty present and give it to whoever's name is on the tag. Then they open it and have to guess who the present was from. If they don't guess correctly then the person has to come forward."

"Doesn't that just destroy the point of 'secret' Santa?" Dean asked.

"Shut up Dean." Charlie said picking up a red gift bag. "This is how we've done it since Junior year. And it's important to thank Santa. Didn't you ever send Santa a thank-you note when you were little? Where are your manners? Meg," she read off the tag.

Meg stepped forward. The only Christmas thing she wore was a Santa hat, given to her by Lucifer that morning ("because it's two days from Christmas break you have to wear something festive") -- Lucifer had already been wearing a tinsel (stolen from the Novak Christmas tree) around his neck. 

Meg opened the gift. "A new leather jacket! Just what I wanted."

"Hang on," Balthazar said, "didn't you put that present on the table?"

Meg shrugged, winked, and swapped her old jacket for the new one. Charlie sighed and moved on.

"Oh! It's mine," she grinned and tore off the green Christmas wrapping paper to reveal a fully sized pride flag covered in all sorts of painted on quotes and pictures of the Tardis, the Stark Symbol, a wolf - there was even a little Hogwarts in the corner. It was a flag covered in references from all of her fandoms. She let out a little squeal and danced on the table top. Adam lurched forward to save some of the presents that she almost stepped on.

"Sorry, sorry," she apologised - still not entirely calm - and looked around at the group. Cas was trying to keep a straight face but it was very hard when Charlie looked so excited. Her eyes locked onto him and he broke, giving her a smile. "Thank you Cassie!" She hopped off the table to give him a hug. She almost bowled him over, and he stumbled to keep his balance, but he hugged her back.

"Hell yeah!" Balthazar grinned, holding up a disc copy of The Princess Bride. "And just in time too, cause the ban is lifted in a two weeks."

"Oh no," Cas groaned, holding Charlie back as she leapt at Balthazar, yelling at him about how he 'ruined the process' by opening his gift.

"Thanks Jo," Balthazar winked. Jo looked a bit taken aback.

"How'd you know it was me?"

"Little birdie told me."

"I'm sorry!" Lucifer exclaimed after Jo shot him a look. "I can't keep a secret!"

"That's how I know Lucifer got me," Gabriel said, reaching for the gift that had his name on it.

"I didn't tell you!" Lucifer crossed his arms. He moved them to the surrender position at the glare Charlie gave him, who took it as a personal offence Secret Santa had descended into chaos. "I didn't, I swear!"

"I know, I snuck into your room and saw the piece of paper," Gabriel said, reaching into the gift bag and pulling out a lollipop.

"You got him candy?" Sam asked, leaning over Gabe's shoulder to look inside the bag. "That is a bag full of diabetes and a stroke." He took it and showed the group. It was a large gift bag full of different kinds of candy.

"Not everyone is as healthy as you, Sammy-boy," Gabe said, booping him on the nose and snatching back his gift. Gabriel put his hand back in the bag before his eyes went wide. He slowly lifted out a small whiteboard, no bigger than 12 inches tall, with little wheels attached to the bottom. Charlie hurried back onto the table to ensure order.

"Kevin," she read.

Kevin looked surprised. "A gift? For me?"

"It was one time," Balthazar said.

"I still haven't received it," Kevin shook his head, taking his gift. "It's been a year Balthazar, where's my Secret Santa present?"

"Right there," Balthazar nodded at the gift in Kevin's hands.

"No! You can't just tell him before he's opened it," Charlie pouted.

"I'm impressed, you actually remembered to buy me something," Kevin smirked.

"It was last year and I only did it once. Once."

Charlie looked down at the remaining presents and picked up two that looked exactly the same, but with different wrapping. "Alfie and Adam," she read. They took the gifts and opened them.

"No way," Alfie breathed and Adam burst out laughing. "Did we--"

"I think we did." Adam held up a necklace with a small golden comedy mask on the end of it. Alfie also held up a similar necklace, but with a small tragedy mask charm. Their soulmarks. 

"You got the same gift?" Lucifer asked.

"We got each other," Adam explained.

Alfie shrugged, discarding the wrapping paper and box into the growing pile and put the necklace on. "Must be a soulmate thing." Adam grinned. 

Cas tried to keep his expression neutral and definitely did not look over at Dean.

"Cassie," Charlie said and he jumped slightly, thinking he'd given something away, but she was just handing him his present.

"Thanks," he said and tore the paper away, revealing a trench coat. It was the same colour and design as the one he was wearing, but when he held it up, he noticed the inside fabric was covered with bees. Each bee had been individually sewn on.

"Ellen helped with the stitching," Dean said and Cas finally looked at him. His hands were in his pockets and if Cas didn't know better, he looked nervous. "You love that one," he nodded at the coat Cas was wearing, "but it's always getting dirty so I figured you'd like a spare for when it has to get cleaned."

Cas was speechless, and so, apparently, was the rest of the group. Everyone looked in awe at the coat in Cas' hands. They must have been sensing the tension between the two of them for the past week and this... this felt like an olive branch. A sign of peace, an attempt at a truce.

Cas slipped off his coat and quickly shrugged on the bee one to avoid the chill. It fit perfectly and was a lot warmer than his other one. It might have been his imagination though, because Dean had made it. He threw the old one on top of his bag and leapt over to give Dean a hug.

"Thank you," Cas whispered. Dean's tension released and he returned the hug awkwardly.

"No..." Dean cleared his throat. "No problem."

---

Michael took it as a personal offence when Lucifer said he'd never seen The Breakfast Club.

It was Saturday afternoon. They were sitting on Michael's couch, sipping their coffee and lounging around (trying not to look like a couple even though they had the house to themselves) when Lucifer suggested they watch a movie. Michael thought this was a mediocre idea until Lucifer added,

"Yeah I was just remembering that I brought the copy of The Breakfast Club that you got me for Secret Santa. I haven't seen it yet." 

Michael put a hand to his heart. "How could I have fallen for someone who hasn't even seen the greatest movie on the planet?" He asked dramatically.

"Greatest movie? Try 10 Things I Hate About You."

"I'm sorry," Michael stood up, "but I think we're about to get into our first fight."

Lucifer smirked. "I know how to settle this. We watch both movies and whichever one we most enjoy watching wins."

"You're on."