Jess is the first person to post Christmas pictures on Instagram, and there's a mutual agreement that Sam will do the same in a few minutes. They don't want to sync their posting times: they want people to look at Jess's pictures, give that time to simmer, and then let Sam really nail it in that they're engaged.

Jess posts one picture from in front of the wreath with the Winchesters, and then the picture of her flaunting her engagement ring under the mistletoe in the next slide. She double checks with everyone that her caption — a Christmas tree in between two hearts — is good enough before she hits post.

After that, everyone heads to the kitchen to eat way too many cookies in the way you can only do on Christmas. Castiel leans against the wall, Jo on one side and Charlie on the other. Dean sits at the kitchen table in front of them, his chair turned around to face them. He's not sure why he's facing them because everyone is just on their phones — welcome to the 21st century — but he's too lazy to turn back around.

"Oh, hey, look!" Jess says suddenly, and everyone looks up from their phones. "'Winchester' is trending on Twitter!"

"Just 'Winchester'?" Sam asks.

"I think so," she says. "Hang on, lemme check..."

"I mean, it'd make sense," Dean says. "Some people are saying 'Sam Winchester,' some people are saying 'Dean Winchester's brother Sam,' and I'd be surprised if there's no one talking about our future Miss Jessica Winchester, too."

Jess beams at that. "I like the sound of that." She takes a moment to scroll through what Dean assumes is Twitter. "Oh, hey, 'Sam' is trending, too!"

"But 'Jess' isn't?" Dean asks, faking his outrage. "This is not okay. Quick, everyone spam-tweet 'Jess' until we get it trending."

"Because that wouldn't be weird," Jo says sarcastically.

"There are so many articles already," Jess says. "Entertainment Weekly, People, Billboard..."

"I would've thought someone tipped them off ahead of time if we hadn't just told everyone yesterday," Sam says.

"Are they being nice to you?" Dean asks. He could check himself, but he's already on Instagram and he doesn't feel like switching apps.

"It's mostly speculation right now," Jess says. "But people seem pretty excited."

"You have two things trending on Christmas," Jo reminds her. "That alone proves that they're excited."

"You have a point there," Jess agrees. "Sam, do you want to post now?"

"Great, now I gotta think of a caption," Sam says with a groan. "You already took the emoji idea, so I have to use actual words."

"Haha!" She sticks her tongue out at him.

Dean has absolutely no idea whether his brother is posting anything at the moment, and, honestly, he doesn't really care. He hasn't been online in a couple of days, so he has a lot of Instagram posts to catch up on. He basically leaves a like on every celebrity's post and skips over every page like Billboard and Apple Music that he only follows out of moral obligation.

"I'm just going to say 'Merry Christmas, y'all' and call it a day," Sam decides.

"Does that mean I'll have to think of a sappy, sentimental caption?" Dean asks.

"You're gonna need something more than a "Merry Christmas,'" Jo says, "but it doesn't have to be sappy and sentimental."

Dean groans. "Why can't my publicist write my captions for me? I don't have the brainpower for this."

"You don't have a brain at all," Sam says. "Now stop whining. You still have a few more hours until you need to have a caption. You've got plenty of time to think."

"I still think my publicist should write my captions for me," Dean mutters. Isn't it her job to make him look like a decently-put-together human being? If they can get actual songwriters to write his lyrics, they can get someone to write his captions, goddammit. All he knows is that he wants to take a jab at Jo, and that the picture of the four of them goofing off in front of the wreath is probably the easiest way to do it. He's just not sure how to turn it into a subtle jab. He wants to say something about how this Christmas is more fun than usual or they're goofier or something, but he can't figure out a casual way to say it.

He gets a notification that Sam posted — yes, he has his brother's post notifications on, and he will usually drop everything to like his posts when he sees them — so he's one of the earlier people to like Sam's post. He did the same when he got the notification for Jess's post, though he doesn't always drop everything to like hers on a normal day.

"I really think you all overthink your social media stuff," Ash tells them. "I promise, no one else pays this much attention."

"Exactly," Jo says. "We don't want them to pay attention. It's calculated just enough to look uncalculated."

Ash rolls his eyes. "Whatever you say, Jo."

Dean clicks his phone off. "If I have to pretend to care about any more celebrities' posts today, I'm going to explode." He's spent too damn long looking at them and they're all starting to blur together. He was willing to wait until Sam and Jess posted their pictures, but now he wants something else to do — preferably something not on his phone.

"Your life is so hard," Jo says sarcastically.

"I know, right?" Dean agrees. What to do, what to do... Well, there's always one thing he can do when he can't bear to look at a screen any longer. "I'm gonna play guitar. Someone give me song recommendations."

Sam groans. "Why do we have to suffer just because you're bored?"

"Because I refuse to suffer alone," Dean says. "Guitar's still in the living room, right?"

"Well, you are the only one who uses it," Jo reminds him, "so if that's where you left it..."

"Fair point," Dean says. "A'ight, I'm gonna go play guitar, so if anyone would like to be serenaded, feel free to join me.".

"Hard pass," Sam says, just like Dean knew he would. Dean also knows that he could easily get his brother to retract that statement by play Asia's "Heat of the Moment" because Sam is physically incapable of not marching in and telling him to shut up whenever he hears the chorus.

"Okay," Dean says, "now does anyone I actually like want to be serenaded?" He looks around the room, but no one jumps at the opportunity. He wasn't expecting anyone to, and he didn't really care either way. Playing guitar is about as fun with or without spectators.

He's just about to head to the living room alone when Castiel asks, "Do you want company?"

Dean grins. Okay, so maybe he cared a little bit, but only because Cas is involved. "I would love company."

"Then I'll come," Castiel says, and though he sounds mostly indifferent, Dean will admit that he's pretty happy with this turn of events. Even if Cas just sits on his phone the whole time, Dean will call it a win.

"I could go for some live music," Jo says, doubtlessly just because Cas is going. He can't blame her for wanting to spend time with her crush, but if she keeps at this, it's going to be damn near impossible to get a few minutes alone with him before he leaves. Given that they obviously weren't going to be having sex in the living room, though, Dean doesn't mind that Jo wants to join in. The more the merrier, right?

"Count me in, bitches," Charlie says.

"Wow," Dean says, "I have a whole posse."

The four of them head to the living room, where Dean makes himself comfortable on the floor, his guitar in his lap. The other three sit on the couch, and though the girls pull their phones back out immediately, Castiel leaves his on his lap, clearly waiting to hear the music. Dean had mostly expected to provide the background soundtrack to everyone's social media trips, but if Castiel actually wants to engage, Dean's going to put him to work.

"Alright, Cas," Dean says, "what should I play today?"

Castiel shrugs. "I don't know."

"Ah, that's not a valid answer," Dean tells him. "Pick a song, any song."

"How am I supposed to know what songs you know?" Castiel asks. "Something tells me I can't just name a Taylor Swift song."

"Try me," Dean says, then adds a quick, "But not with a Taylor Swift song because the only one I know off is 'Shake It Off.'" And he must admit, it's kind of a bop. He wishes he was in the music business when that came out because he would have loved to dance to it at award shows.

"I really don't know," Castiel says.

"Just name a random song," Dean insists.

Castiel sighs. "I don't know. 'Fire and Rain.'"

Dean cracks a smile. "Are you just saying that because it's the only song that you know I know?" First he suggested it for the BBC Live Lounge performance, and now for a spontaneous jam session? Either he did it on purpose or he just really likes this song.

Castiel shrugs. "You said 'name a song' so I named a song."

"Fair point," Dean says. He's actually sort of glad Cas chose this one, if only because he still remembers the chords off the top of his head from when he'd practice acoustically for the Live Lounge. He was fully expecting to have to google chords or lyrics, but he knows this one by heart.

Dean looks down at his hands as he begins picking the strings, making sure he's hitting the right ones and he gets back into the rhythm after not playing this for a couple months. He finally feels confident to look up again once he gets to the chorus, and the first thing he notices is the wistful smile on Castiel's face.

That answers Dean's question better than any verbal response could have. No, he didn't just choose this song because he knew Dean would know it. He chose it because it means something to him. The man is definitely lost in thought about something, swaying ever so slightly to the music, and Dean finds himself wondering not for the first time what's going on in his head.

Dean has no idea what their relationship is right now. He's not really sure what he wants their relationship to be. What he does know, though, is that he wants to understand him; he wants them to be close enough for Cas to confide in him. He can't be sure, but he has a feeling this song resonates with Cas for a personal reason, and one day — on Cas's time — he hopes to find out what that reason is.

A/N don't forget to stream Love Story (Taylor's Version) to help abolish the patriarchy today ♥