Chapter 181

Castiel wakes up the next day to his phone telling him someone wants to FaceTime. He's about to accept, but thinks better of it. He looks like an absolute mess, which is probably because he is one — even more so now than usual. He makes his way out of bed and into the kitchen to find a piece of tape and some paper. He covers the front camera with the paper, taping it on, and quickly returns to the bathroom. He FaceTimes Dean back, and Dean immediately accepts the call.

"Hey — wait, you don't have a face."

Castiel chuckles halfheartedly at that. "No, the black screen is much more appealing."

"I doubt that," Dean protests.

"I look like a hobo," Castiel deadpans. "The camera cover stays. And you might want to turn the volume down, too. I'll just sit here quietly and watch."

"What, you're not gonna talk to us?"

"No, I'll just watch like the Ghost of Christmas Past and try not to be a Scrooge."

"That's no fun but fine." Dean sets the camera down next to him, so Castiel can watch.

From where the camera is, he can see Sabriel, Adamandriel, Bobby, Michael, Anna, Balthazar, and Hannah, though he's sure there are more people who were cropped out or view.

Nothing very interesting happens. The most entertaining part was the death glare Michael sent Lucifer's way when he got every season of Doctor Who on DVD. Apparently, the time travel messes with Michael's head because there are too many "logical fallacies."

It's a while into the gift session that Castiel throws up, which apparently wakes Misha up, because he can hear the clicking of the dog's nails on the floor, slowly approaching the bathroom.

"Hey, Cas, you okay?" Dean asks.

Castiel takes a deep breath, making sure he's not going to puke again before answering, "I told you. I'm sick."

"Well, yeah, but you didn't say you were sick sick."

Castiel sighs to himself. "Well, I'm sick sick, and I kinda just wanna sleep, so can we just hurry up the parts I have to be here for?"

There's a brief pause before Lucifer steps in, crawling it from behind the phone. "Alrighty, then. We were gonna save this for last, but nah, we can do it now. Schedules are for the weak!" He pulls out a bunch of small boxes, about the size of a box that cheese food would come in, and hands one to everyone. "This is gonna be the best gift ever seen in the Novak household, if I do say so myself. It's from me and the Deanosaur. And... Open!"

Gabriel is the most enthusiastic, tearing the wrapping paper off immediately, and Balthazar is close behind. Gabriel dumps the contents of his box out to find a bunch of small metal pins that Castiel can't see very well, and a piece of paper, which he reads aloud.

"'Mickey wants you to go to Disney World!'" He turns it around to show a horribly photoshopped picture of Uncle Sam with Mickey Mouse's face on it. "'May 13 to May 23.' But that's so far away!"

"Wait, but who's coming?" Samandriel asks. "All of us?"

"Yep," Lucifer replies. "So it's gonna be..." He counts them on his fingers as he says, "Michael, me, Gabe, Castiel, you, Anna, Claire, Balthazar, Hannah, Charlie and her girlfriend, Bobby, Adam, Sam, and Dean."

"Ooh, Charlie's coming?" Gabriel says excitedly. "I never get to see Charlie anymore! That's awesome!"

"How long has this been a thing?" Claire asks from somewhere behind the camera.

"For, like, a month. Two months? Some large number of days?"

"Almost two months, I think," Dean says. "Lucifer and I have been attempting to adult and planning a vacation and this shit is hard, so at least pretend you're excited so our hard work and billion FaceTime calls won't feel wasted."

"What do you mean, pretend? This is awesome!" Hannah squeals.

"See, like that," Dean says. "Everyone act that excited."

"I can't," Castiel says. "I'll be on tour."

"Ah, yes, but we planned around that," Lucifer says. "If you take a look at your tour dates, you'll see that you'll have the weekend off, and then the next week and half the week after are free because we'll be in Disney, and then we leave on Friday and your next tour dates are on Saturday and Sunday at Gillette Stadium, conveniently right where Dean lives and in just enough time for you two to get back to Massachusetts and catch up on sleep."

"And it was a hard fight to get that to work, and many swears were uttered," Dean adds. "So you have no choice, because we didn't do all that for nothing. You're coming."

Before Castiel can respond, Lucifer adds, "And look! Everyone got, like, fifty pins that you can trade with the people who work there and you can wear them and start collections and get fifty of the same pin to line your doorway with!"

Everyone sifts through the pins that came in each box, except for Castiel, who just watches, bored, and Anna.

"What if I don't wanna go?" she challenges.

"Then don't," Lucifer says.

That seems to take her by surprise. "Wait, seriously?"

"Yes, seriously. I'm not going to fight with you. You're old enough to stay home alone, so if you'd rather do that, I'll cancel your ticket and split your pins between the rest of us."

Anna purses her lips, thinking about it, then says, "Well, everyone else gets to bring a friend. Can I bring —"

"And yes, we got a ticket for Cain," Lucifer interrupts. "But his brother isn't coming."

Anna grins. "Aw, thanks, Luce! You're the best!"

"What resort are we staying at?" Adam asks. "Art of Animation is the best. Just saying." He must see the weird looks that earns him, because he adds, "I went with my mom a few times when I was little."

Everyone seems to accept that, because no one questions it, and Lucifer answers his question with, "Well, we're staying in these little cabins in the woods where you might get eaten by a bear, but you can be loud without waking people up at night so it's okay. Dean and I have all the sleeping arrangements worked out, so it'll be, like, four cabins, I think? Or five? Hopefully right near each other. It's like our own lil houses!"

Castiel feels the urge to puke again, so he quickly ends the FaceTime call and holds his head over the toilet. He can hear Dean trying to call him, but he doesn't answer. This is going to be a long day.

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