On the way out of the department store they ended up stuck in a line for the exit. While waiting, Castiel was distracted by the Christmas tree full of paper angels.

"These angels all have names and genders and ages." He tilted his head with a confused frown. Dean looked at the angels on the tree, and sure enough all of those things were written across the angel's robes, along with a short list of random objects like dolls and Hello Kitty.

"Well, that's weird." The hunter shrugged. All of the other trees in the store were decorated in giant gaudy balls and garland. This one was very plain, and only had a bunch of the weird little paper angels all over it.

"I do not recognize any of these names." The real angel said, squinting at more of the angels.

A woman standing nearby with a clipboard huffed a little laugh at them, before inviting herself to come over and talk to them.

"This is an angel tree. Those are not real angel's names." She smiled softly at Castiel.

"What's an angel tree?" Dean asked her, drawing her attention away from his angel before he could say something that would sound weird to the woman.

"These angels represent children. Some of them are from local orphanages, some of them are going through hard times, and some of them have parents that just can't afford to do Christmas for their children this year." She pulled one of the angels off the tree and handed it to him while she explained what they were. "People adopt the angels and can purchase their Christmas gifts for them. It tells you the age and gender in case you want to buy more than what is on the list. The list is just a way for you to know what kinds of things they are already hoping to get for Christmas this year. Some of them only have things the child has shown interest in, if they didn't know what they wanted to ask for."

She smiled at them again, gently pulling the angel back out of Dean's hand and replacing it on the tree.

"Well, that's pretty cool." The hunter was actually pretty impressed with the idea. A lot of kids were going to have a decent Christmas because of other people being willing to help out for the holiday.

He turned to Castiel to herd him in the direction of the door again, but he immediately saw his mistake. The angel had turned his soulful blue eyes on the hunter, and he knew exactly what was going to come out of his mouth, even before it did.

"Dean, can we adopt some of these children?" Okay, so he didn't know exactly what was going to come out of his mouth, after all. He could feel his face heating with embarrassment. If they didn't look like a couple already, they certainly did now. Did Castiel have to ask him in those words?

"Cas, we haven't even gotten any of the shopping done that we planned. Do you really want to add another bunch of presents to the list?"

"Yes." Straight to the point, as always. Dean sighed.

"We're not made of money you know." He hedged. Not that he didn't want to help out some children in need, but if he allowed it the angel would probably adopt the whole damn tree.

"This can be my gift. I would like to use my gift to ensure that these children get presents for the holiday." Dean knew the angel didn't care about material things, and had probably been looking for a reason to not let the Winchesters spend their money on him.

"Cas…" He started, but the hunter knew his argument was dead. Castiel's face had already formed into the kicked puppy expression he had adopted from Sam.

"Dammit." Dean just sighed, and watched the angel's face transform into an expression of extreme happiness. Before the other man could start grabbing all the angels off the tree the hunter spoke up. "You can get two."

Castiel's smile drooped a little at that, but he knew that he had already won as much as he was going to and he started searching through all the angels on the tree. It was as if he was looking for the perfect one, whatever that meant.

"Help me pick one, Dean." He gestured to the tree as he kept up the search for his own angel.

The hunter stepped up to the tree, wondering how he was supposed to pick one. There were at least thirty angels left on the tree and they all looked exactly the same. The first one he looked at was for a little girl, and he realized that he could immediately dismiss about half of the angels. He had absolutely no idea what kinds of things girls liked, so it stood to reason that he should pick a boy.

Eventually, he found a little eight year old boy that liked cars and wanted racing video games. Dean thought they would be able to pull off a few gifts for the kid. Turning to show Castiel his discovery, he found the angel watching him already with a paper angel clasped in his hands.

"I got a little boy who likes cars." Dean told the angel, grinning.

"I found a baby, Dean." Castiel sounded upset. He allowed the hunter to pull the angel from his hands. The list was for things like diapers and bottles and all the little things that babies need. The woman glanced up from her clipboard at them.

"The babies are the most expensive." She told them, her eyes a little sad. "I don't mean to say that we don't appreciate any help we can get, and I certainly don't mean to infer about the state of your finances…" she trailed off as if rethinking her decision to comment, but then seemed to decide it was for the best. "Please don't take that one unless you can afford it. I'd rather that one still be available so the child can get all the things that it needs."

Well, it looked like Dean was about to max out his fake credit card. The second the woman had started talking about taking the angel back, Castiel had grabbed the angel and clutched it to his chest in a protective manner. Fuck. There was absolutely no way Dean was going to be able to take the angel away without breaking his angel's heart.

The hunter sighed heartily and held out his angel to the woman so she could mark it down on her clipboard, gesturing to Cas to do the same.

"Come on, buddy. Let's go see what they have for baby stuff in this place."

The bright smile that Castiel graced them with seemed to draw the attention of everyone in the vicinity.

Once they had found all the items on the baby list and a racetrack and a couple of racing games for the car loving kid, they tried to bring the gifts back to the woman with the clipboard. She regretfully informed them that they would have to drop the gifts off at her headquarters since she had no place to hold them. Luckily the headquarters was only a few blocks away and they could just walk to it.

Their load significantly lightened after the drop, they headed back out to the street to continue searching for the perfect gift for the mother Winchester. Well, Dean looked for gifts for his mother. Castiel seemed to wander aimlessly, just watching the other shoppers go about their business. The third time the angel wandered away Dean had to grab his hand and pull him out of the way of a horse drawn carriage.

"Cas! Watch where you are walking! You almost got trampled!"

Castiel didn't even turn to look at the hunter while he yelled at him. He just watched as the horse walked over the area where he had just been standing. He was still standing too close and Dean gave his hand a tug again before the carriage could clip him on it's way passed.

"Cas! You have got to pay attention! What are you going to do if you wander off and I can't find you? Hitchhike back to the bunker?" The hunter rolled his eyes at the idea. "Just stick with me, alright?"

It took the angel all of three seconds to wander off again. When Dean turned around and noticed the angel was gone, again, he made up his mind to do something about it. Finding the angel staring into the window of a nearby toy shop, he grabbed the other man's hand again.

"If you can't pay attention to where you are going you're going to have to hold my hand, like a child." Dean threatened. Castiel just continued smiling at the children running amok in the store. He tightened his grip on the hunter's hand and tugged him in the direction of the next window display.

How had Dean forgotten that the angel didn't care at all about appearances? Threatening the other man with embarrassment was never going to work. Castiel wasn't letting his hand go either. He was going to end up holding the angel's hand for the rest of the day. Dean pretended to be put out by the idea, but internally he was thrilled. Even though the hunter had been viewing the day as a date, he never thought he'd have an opportunity to do any of the soppy romantic crap that usually came with that sort of thing.

The feeling of being on a date only intensified as the day went on. They had made several stops in different stores. Castiel had seemed interested in literally every one of them, but Dean had only allowed himself to be pulled into the ones that might hold something for his mother or Sam. As much fun as he was having watching the angel enjoy himself, the hunter still wanted to make sure they actually got their shopping accomplished while they were out.

At no point in the rest of their excursion had Castiel released his hand. Dean might have been embarrassed at the looks they received from some of the other shoppers, but the thought of releasing the hand he'd finally gotten to hold in his own stopped him from doing anything about it. They could all go fuck themselves if they didn't like it.

It was as night was beginning to fall that they stumbled upon an alleyway filled with the soothing music of a saxophone. Without much deliberation, they headed down the alley to follow the echos of the instrument. They may have gotten their fill of Christmas music already, what with every store they visited blasting the crap, but somehow this was less irritating. The smooth sounds of the saxophone playing the same songs they had been forced to endure was actually quite pleasant.

The sign above the door said "Underground Jazz Club" and it did not lie. Stepping through the door there was an immediate increase in the volume of the sax, and they were faced with a staircase that only went down. Dean figured the club was probably set up in the basement of whatever store was about them.

The atmosphere of the place said that it was usually a smoky lounge in the fashion of the twentys. Dean almost expected a woman with a tray of cigarettes to pass by. The place was as decked for the holiday as every other business in the city had been, but in a much more muted style. The area was sparsely lit, utilizing the Christmas lights of the decor to keep the space in a muted glow. Each table had a candle burning on it to make it easier for the patrons to see what they were doing. The only real lighting in the place was a spotlight pointed at the stage.

There were only four members of the band on the stage, the saxophone sitting in the center, with a piano on one side and a bass on the other. There was a woman off-center in front of the band. Her dress was made of something sparkly, and the light reflected off of it in a shimmer. She was clearly a singer, with no instrument in her hand, but she was currently just softly swaying to the sounds of the band.

When Dean finally turned his attention from analyzing the place, he found his companion with a look filled with curiosity. He tugged Castiel toward the bar on the far side of the room, and while the angel's eyes seemed to be glued to the saxophone, he followed.

Dean ordered them each the house special for the night, hot buttered rum. He'd never tried it before, but figured it was part of the whole Christmas thing so he gave it a chance. He pushed one over to the distracted angel and sipped at his own while he looked for a place to sit. It was warm and inviting in the bar, and the hunter saw no reason why they couldn't just sit and enjoy the music and warmth of their discovery.

So, it might have been even closer to a date then Dean had originally planned. Sitting at a tiny table, with a little booze and a candle the only light on their faces, it sure felt like a date. The happy smile on Castiel's face whenever he looked at the hunter only solidified the feeling. Although the angel had released his hand, Dean was under the impression that he had every intention of taking it again when they were done here. The hunter was okay with that. He was more than okay with the way the day had been going so far, and could only see things going better from here.

When he finally convinced Castiel to leave the bar, he'd had a couple more drinks then he had intended, and he knew they'd have to stay in town a while longer while it worked its way out of his system. He was not going anywhere near his baby with all this traffic and the warm buzz he could feel across his skin. No way in hell.

Not that it was a chore to spend more time with the angel. A lot of the stores had closed in the time they had been in the bar, and the shoppers were beginning to thin out, finally. They still had one more gift to purchase, so they wandered into a few of the still open stores.

It was as they were being ushered out of the bookstore, so the doors could be locked behind them, that Dean remembered his last surprise for Castiel. He pulled the angel back toward the city's center, excited at the prospect of the reaction he was likely to get. Yes, they had already seen the giant tree in the square, but now the tree would be all lit up, and Dean knew it would be like an entirely different experience this time around.