A/N: I saw a post on tumblr that gave me the idea for this fic. I thought I'd give it a try.
Birthdays were not a strong suit in the Winchester household.
For one, Sam and Dean had never been the best at gift giving anyway. For another, they rarely had time to truly appreciate a birthday properly anyway. This year, however, Cas wanted to celebrate it. After all, it was his first year as a human and nothing would please him more than to indulge in the practices of the ritualistic human birthday for the first time in his life. At first, Dean and Sam had been hesitant. After all, it's not like they were expecting to do something so uncommon for them, but it wasn't their place to deny Cas the right to plan Sam's birthday. Therefore, they had no further complaints once Cas has made his position clear.
The only problem was this; Cas had never thrown a birthday party before.
Birthday parties were hardly a difficult subject but when you had never seen a real birthday occur besides that of a television movie, it was difficult to understand how exactly to approach such a thing.
So Cas did the only logical thing to do, according to Charlie: he googled it.
As he recalled, Charlie had referred to this "google" as "the answer to all of life's questions." With such a description Cas could not see a downside to such a simple seeming website searching device.
And that is how he wound up at a cake shop, following the website's first instruction; "Buy a birthday cake". With this he smiled shyly at the shop owner and then proceeded to look at all the cakes in the shop.
"I assume you'd like to buy a cake... or are you just looking around?" the shop owner eventually said after Cas had been looking around for a while. Cas looked up from his observations and offered a small smile.
"No I... I plan to purchase a cake." Cas's eyebrows pressed together in confusion as he noticed the woman grin back at him.
"Well sir... what are you buying a cake for?" she leaned forward from her seat and tilted her head slightly, an amused smile resting on her lips.
"I plan to acquire the cake for a friend's birthday," he said quietly, his eyes scanning over the cakes once more. The owner's eyes lit up, her registering the situation.
"Oh! Well that's simple... just get them a cake that matches their interests." After stating it she straightened her head, feeling proud in her answer. Cas squinted for a second, contemplating her statement, then nodded slowly.
"I am unsure of Sam's interests," he finally said, frowning to himself. The shop owner raised her hands in resignation.
"Then just buy him or her a plain cake. We've got plenty of those," she quickly walked towards the end of the display cases, motioning for Cas to follow her, and pointed at the last cake. "This one is literally as simple as they get."
Cas's eyes scanned over the cake. It was indeed very simple, with white frosting around the edges with a hint of blue. The middle was completely white. The middle was empty.
"I suppose this would be the wisest choice," Cas said softly, nodding his approval. The shop owner smiled, then took the cake out of the display.
"Alright, you get to print out whatever words you want. My suggestion? A 'happy birthday' usually passes off well," she tilted her head and shrugged. Cas looked confused for a moment, then smiled as he discovered what he would like to do.
After he'd gotten the cake, he'd quickly checked over the next item on the list. To his dismay, it read "invite friends of birthday person over."
To this Cas knew he would encounter a problem. Either Sam did not have that many friends or most of his friends were dead. Most likely the latter since Sam did seem to be a charismatic person.
For this problem, Cas consulted Dean.
"Are you kidding?" was the gist of Dean's response after Cas had asked who to invite. "Sam doesn't have any friends. All his friends are dead." Dean let out a sigh and continued to research. "Although Charlie's still around. That's an idea." Dean smiled to himself, then looked at Cas with concern.
"How is the... party coming anyway? Do you need any... help?" Reading this correctly, you would assume that Dean was worried that Cas may screw up. After all, he was new to being human and it wasn't exactly easy. However, Cas simply read this as a helpful request and declined.
"I believe I can handle this myself." And with that, Cas made sure to contact Charlie.
The phone rang a few times, then Charlie picked up.
"Dean I don't have time for a Star Trek marathon, call me later, okay?" Cas could hear buttons clicking on the other side of the phone.
"I am unsure of what Star Trek is, although I assume that is the television show that contains the pointy eared alien." Charlie let out a slightly surprised gasp as she realized it was not Dean on the phone.
"Oh Cas hi... I wasn't thinking it was you..." she quickly paused whatever she was doing and switched the phone to her other ear. "Why are you calling anyway? I didn't know you could even work the phone." Cas let out a sigh, shaking his head at the comment.
"I am quite equipped to work such a simple device." he let out another sigh and began to execute his plan.
"I would like to invite you to Sam's birthday party." Cas waited patiently for a response. Finally, she breathed a happy sigh.
"I'd love to. I wasn't thinking you guys would plan an actual party but whatever floats your boat. Oh is Kevin going to be there? I still have to give him that book he asked for..."
"Yes, Kevin will be there," Cas responded, glad his plan was working.
"Perfect! So I'm assuming this party is... tomorrow?"
"That is a correct assumption. I will see you tomorrow." Cas quickly pressed the "end" button on the phone and placed it back on the receiver. Now all that was left to do was decorate.
"No fucking way," Dean said, looking around him in confusion and irritation once he saw Cas trying to decorate the house in streamers.
"I do not want to throw a party that does not follow all of the rules of a traditional party," Cas responded as Dean began to tear down the streamers.
"Dude... Sam is not turning seven, okay?" Dean let out a sigh as he glanced at the streamers in his hand. "Hello Kitty Cas? Really?"
"It was suggested to me," Cas frowned as Dean threw the streamers into the trash and sighed. He turned back towards Cas, sitting down in a chair and looking across the chair at Cas.
"I don't believe you are sitting in that chair correctly," Cas said as he noticed the chair's arch in front of Dean instead of where his back should be. Dean looked at the chair, then gave a tiny smile.
"Alright, you got me." He shook his head and laughed a little. "But Cas, listen; don't get your hopes up about this party, okay? It doesn't have to be perfect anyway. Just buy him a gift and you'll be good." Dean watched as his words registered and frowned a little. "Don't be too worried Cas... Sam wouldn't know a good birthday party if it hit him in the face." With that he left the room.
Once Dean had left Cas looked at the final item on the list. Surely enough, Dean had been right. "Buy a birthday present" was the last thing left to do.
Dean wasn't sure what he expected. Neither was Charlie, or Kevin, but the person who was most surprised would have to be Sam.
The walls were bare, sure, but the place seemed so much lighter than it ever had seemed. Sam's eyes scanned over the cake in the middle, covered for now but soon to be unveiled, the presents surrounding the cake and a surprisingly cheery table cloth underneath it all. Sam was very surprised.
"What do you think?" Cas said, looking over his handiwork with a big smile. Sam didn't open his mouth for a while, he just stared. Finally, a grin slipped on his lips as he gathered in all the work that Cas had put into the party.
"I love it." Sam said, blushing slightly at the fact that someone had spent so much time on something so unnecessary. With that, Dean gave a grin as well as did Charlie and Kevin. None of them had seen Sam smile like that for a long time. And it was refreshing to know he was still able to feel happy about things.
With that, a very awkward "happy birthday" ensued and the birthday cake was finally unveiled.
No one said a word.
The room went silent as everyone's eyes rested on Sam's birthday cake.
Cas felt an anxiety grip him. Had he done something wrong? Had he gotten the wrong sort of cake? Had the women at the store lied to him?
He was answered when Sam let out the longest, happiest laugh Cas had ever heard. He closed his eyes and his chest heaved with silent laughter. Once he laughed Dean began to chuckle as well, everyone surprised and humored by the cake in front of them.
"I do not understand why you are laughing," Cas said quietly, not wanting to seem ignorant. Dean slung his arm over Cas's shoulder and grinned widely.
"It's just very... you," Dean said with a final chuckle as he glanced over at the cake. Across the top read "it is your birthday" in big black letters. Cas would probably never know why they laughed but for the moment, he was just glad they were happy at all.
Sam would always remember this birthday, Dean knew he would. Especially since he and Charlie had both chipped in to buy him some weird nerd thing he'd been whining about for a while. But Dean knew that one of the most memorable things would be the stunt that Cas pulled at the very end.
"There is one more present," Cas said after all the presents on the table had been opened and marveled over. Sam looked over at Cas in confusion.
"More? Cas it's okay! What you did was already awesome enough," Cas shook his head and picked something up under the table. Sam pressed his eyebrows together as he watched a box be lifted onto the table. Sam did not understand what it could possibly be since the box was so tiny. Cas paused as Sam began to ponder the object, then motioned towards it.
"Open it," Cas said softly. Sam nodded silently, smiling as he gently pulled away the wrapping paper. He began to deduct what it could be once he saw crudely punched holes in the top.
Once the box was open Sam's eyes lifted of any confusion and was replaced with a soft pleasure. Dean let out a long moan and Charlie's hand went to her mouth in surprise.
"Ohmygod!" Charlie exclaimed. Dean let out a long sigh and gave an angry glance towards Cas.
"You had to get him one, didn't you," he said, raising his hands up in defeat. Sam gently lifted the object out of the box, feeling a tug at his heart as the small creature gave him a little kiss on the nose.
"Dean had told me that you had once owned a dog," Cas said in confusion to Sam's unreadable response. Sam let out a happy sigh as he pulled the puppy to his shoulder in a small embrace.
"I love it Cas," he said, chuckling softly.
"Well whatever, you're keeping it in your room," Dean said, annoyed. But really, he was just glad that Sam was smiling. It had been a long enough amount of time.