“What is this visit supposed to accomplish?” Cas asks, casting wary eyes at all the other visitors. It’s a Wednesday, but the place is still booming probably because of the zoo’s free admission, and tourists. There are a few groups of school kids on field trips led by their teachers, and Dean makes sure to hold onto Cas’s hand, you know, just in case they get lost. It’s a big place.

“It’s supposed to be for fun,” Dean replies. He studies the map. “Oh, hey, they’ve got pandas. Wanna go see ‘em?”

“These animals are all in captivity,” Cas says with dejection, and crap, this was supposed to cheer him up, not give him more reasons to be sad and disappointed towards being human. “I don’t find joy in seeing them like this.”

“Uh, well.” Dean scratches his head, and points at the big WE SAVE SPECIES! written on the map. “This place is more like a safe place for animals that are, you know, in danger. So people are actually trying to help them.”

Cas tentatively eyes the map, and goes onto read the brochure Dean hands him that explains all the crap about conservation efforts the zoo is trying to do. He puts on a big concentration frown, and Dean wants to press his thumb between the crease to smooth it out.

“I guess it wouldn’t hurt to look around,” Cas says carefully, after meticulously looking through the brochure. “What should we do?”

Honestly, Dean’s as out of depth as Cas here. It’s not like this isn’t his first time at a zoo, too. “Let’s wing it,” Dean says, and he feels more like they’re stepping into a battleground than a peaceful afternoon at a family-friendly facility. Dean second-guesses himself, but Cas’s frown doesn’t cease, so around the zoo they’ll go.

The hype over the pandas are a fraud.

“Don’t say that, Dean,” Cas replies, squinting out at the panda mindlessly chewing on its bamboo stem. “It’s in their nature to eat for a long time.”

“We’ve been staring at them eat for the past twenty minutes. They don’t do anything else!” Dean exclaims, and drops his arms back down when the person beside him glances his way warily. “I know we didn’t pay to get in here,” Dean says with a lower voice, “but I still feel like I wasted my money.”

“They’re cute,” Cas says.

Dean rolls his eyes, but they stay for ten more minutes before they move onto the elephants.

Dean’s only a little hesitant when they have to cross a bridge that oversees the elephants, and the hesitation only lasts for maybe five seconds before the elephants all lift their heads in unison like that one scene in The Lion King, and stalks towards them, and towards Cas. All the zookeepers and everyone else around them reasonably look puzzled by the phenomenon of the elephants lifting their trunks towards him, almost like they’re reaching for him.

“Uh,” Dean says, all the while Cas serenely squats down, and waves at the elephants. He looks around, and they’re definitely causing a scene, so Dean forgets about all of his problems with heights just long enough to drag Cas over to the other side of the bridge. “Dude, the hell?”

“I guess some animals are more sensitive to what I used to be.”

“You think?” Dean’s not sure why, but the little display fucking crushed him, so before he can assess that any further he leads them to what looks like a house full of reptiles.

It’s not as crowded inside—Dean supposes reptiles aren’t as popular for regular families as elephants, or pandas. It was nice to be part of the crowd, people who have no fucking clue about what goes bump in the night, but now it’s nice to have a little downtime, too. They mostly stare in between the plants behind the glass, trying to find where all the critters are while Cas reads out what he finds interesting from the fact displays.

“Bet you an ice cream cone for whoever finds this one faster,” Dean says.

“We can both get one,” replies Cas. “Parts of all of the purchases within the zoo goes towards the conservation funds.”

“There’s no fun if there’s no risk.”

“You have a gambling problem, Dean.”

“Wha—One of us went gambling on a fucking riverboat once, and it ain’t me!”

“I needed gas money at the time. There,” Cas points at a spot, and there it is. “I found them.”

Dean gapes, and shoots what he hopes is an incredibly dirty look.

Cas grins.

They share the ice cream cone in the end, but that doesn’t negate how Cas gloats over it the whole damn time. They also sell souvenirs beside the food court, so they look around those shops, too. Cas insists on picking out a t-shirt for himself, for Dean, and for Sam, so he does just that, and Dean picks up a toy snake to sneak into Sam’s bed. Cas also gets a pair of tube socks with pandas and zebras on them for himself, and they’re the ugliest things Dean’s ever seen, but Cas is happy, so Dean’s happy.

Soon they announce that the zoo’s closing soon, so they walk out towards the parking lot with the sun setting on them. The sky is a brilliant orange and red and pink, and they throw their shopping bags in the back. Dean calls Sam and Eileen to let them know about the little detour on their way back, and to not worry. Cas sits beside him quietly until he ends the call, and he says, “Thank you for doing this.”

“Hey, no problem.” Dean doesn’t start the engine.

Cas doesn’t say anything else, but Dean knows that he’s thinking about the victim he couldn’t save during their case earlier. It wasn’t like Cas didn’t try his best—Dean feels shitty for thinking it, but at the time, there was honestly nothing they could’ve done more. They were just… too gone by the time they arrived on scene. Dean’s already given him a spiel about the down sides of hunting, and Cas had accepted that.

But he also does know what it feels like, to accept the facts but can’t help to think there must’ve been something they could’ve done better to save that one person. He figured something as nerdy as a zoo might’ve helped him a little, but maybe it was frivolous of him to think that. Maybe it was a side of indulgence on his part hoping to get a glimpse of Cas cheering up a little. Hey, he never claimed to be perfect.

Cas sits back on the seat, and lets out a little huff. Dean reaches over, and squeezes his hand, and Cas, stubborn son of a bitch who just can’t stop blaming himself for everything that happens, opens his eyes and tentatively smiles at Dean, like he’s forgotten how to, and he’s getting back into the mechanics of it again.

“Thank you,” Cas repeats. Then, no longer looking like death, he whines, “I’m tired.”

Dean nods. Good enough. “Okay. Let’s go home.”