Kripke owns all of the Supernaturalcharacters, not me. Let me rant on Sera Gamble (I just watched 7.17 last night and I sobbed like a little bitch) and say I hate what she did to Cas, but I love how she wrote Lucifer.

Also, forgive me for the vague scenes in the restaurant...Castiel is supposed to be the sous chef of a 4-star restaurant but I REALLY don't know how they're run so I'm just spitballing. There probably won't be many more instances to show him at work. ALSO ALSO bonus points if you can figure out who the mystery guy is at the end of the chapter (it's kind of obvious, though...).

It was only ten, and already Castiel was ready to go back home.

When he got in an hour earlier, the first thing he saw was Crowley stalking through the restaurant, chatting up customers but looking extremely annoyed once there were none around to impress. Castiel tried to sneak by unnoticed, but Ruby called out, "Hey, Cas!" and Crowley's eyes zeroed in on the birthday boy.

"Novak, where have you been?" Crowley demanded, appearing near the door with almost preternatural speed.

Fuck! "I was at home, remember? It's not like I can just appear here."

Crowley wasn't about to yell at him in front of patrons, but he did give Castiel a look that said they would be talking more later. As soon as his boss stormed away, he slunk into the kitchen.

Only about twenty minutes later, he burned his left hand when the flame from pilot light went out and he went to light it again. Then he managed to slice into his right index finger while prepping someone's entrée. Uriel must have bumped into him four times and finally, Castiel dragged his sleeve across his forehead and said, "I'm getting some air." With that, he walked to the back door and stepped outside.

He regretted it almost immediately. It was the middle of July, after all, and it was quite possibly hotter out here than it was inside. He went back inside and went into the fridge to cool off, sitting on an overturned bucket. Better. He probably had a good five or ten minutes he could relax, so he hunched over and ran his fingers through his hair.

He was pretty sure he hadn't had a worse birthday in his life. At least last year, Crowley had let him take the day off, but then again, his birthday had fallen on a Wednesday the year before. Wednesday nights weren't typically that busy. Now he was stuck at work with a throbbing burn on his dominant hand and a cut that wasn't quite deep enough for stitches on his other.

He twisted his hands to stare at the bandages and sighed. He just wanted to go home and watch TV. He didn't care if he didn't have a party—Anna was coming in tomorrow and it would be the first time they'd seen each other in almost a year, and that was enough. That, and Gabe and Lu would probably come over like they did just about every other night.

And that was just fine.

Someone tapped on the door. Castiel's head snapped up and he locked eyes with Uriel. Uriel held up his wrist and pointed to his watch, the meaning clear: you've been in there long enough. Castiel nodded and slowly stood up. He popped his back before twisting the handle and going back to his stove.

At around three, Castiel made himself a sandwich wrap and ducked into the walk-in fridge for lunch. Ruby was there, too, eating a sandwich she'd brought from home.

It always amused Castiel how the fridge was the unofficial break room.

"Hey, what's up?" Ruby asked.

"Nothing." Castiel settled onto the floor, knowing the seat of his black pants would be dirty when he stood back up but genuinely not caring. "Just having the shittiest birthday of all time."

"Aw, hun, I'm sorry," she said. She gently ran her fingers over his hair once, then dropped her hand. "I didn't know it was your birthday."

Castiel shrugged, taking a bite of his sandwich. "It doesn't matter. I'm not doing anything to celebrate. I'd just rather be at home right now. At least Mikey doesn't seem to have it in for me."

"What do you mean?"

"Crowley. He called me in early because Meg didn't show. It's like he's throwing this colossal bitch-fit today. He's never been this big of a dick to me before."

"I think it's that time of the month for him," Ruby joked.

Castiel scoffed. "I wish I knew for sure. I didn't do anything to him. I just exist."

"He'll get over it. Hey," she added on sudden inspiration. "If you're not doing anything tonight, maybe you should come out to the Lord & Lady tonight. The owner's pretty cute and he'd probably give you a few free birthday shots."

He half-laughed, then took a swig of his Coke. "Maybe. I'll see if Gabe wants to go. He'd probably be okay with that."

"Who's Gabe again?"

"Friend of the family." Castiel paused. Something about the term didn't sound right when applied to the merry little prankster, so he clarified, "A friend of mine and Mikey's. He and Lu always used to hang out with us for some reason. I think it was because we were the only other kids around their age in the neighborhood. And then they never left." Which wasn't quite true—Lu had actually moved out of the neighborhood but his apartment was so close that he might as well not have. Gabe, meanwhile, had moved out of his parents' house but stayed in the neighborhood—practically the same block.

"And Lu is…?"

"Gabe's best friend. So I guess he's sort of mine and Mikey's friend too, although Mikey can't stand him for more than five minutes at a time." Castiel's tolerance for Lu was higher than Mikey's—Lu and Mikey had clashed for as long as they'd known each other, but Castiel was a little more laid-back than his brother. Lu's snarky comments bothered him a bit, but they didn't infuriate him like they did Mikey.

Ruby finished off her sandwich and a bottle of water before standing up and wiping her hands off on the inside of her apron. "Well, I hope the rest of your birthday goes better than it has so far, and hopefully, I'll see you tonight."

"Oh, yeah, where is the… Lord & Lady, right?"

"Yeah, the L&L. It's over at Winchester and Lawrence."

"Oh, I think I've seen it before."

"Probably. It's closer to your place than here is."

Castiel shrugged.

About ten minutes later, he went out to his truck and turned on the radio. After a few minutes of channel surfing, he came to the conclusion that there was nothing good on and turned it back off. He had another fifteen minutes left on his lunch, and he had no idea what to do. He wanted to nap, but his body wouldn't let him and there was no guarantee he'd wake up on time if he did. Finally, he settled for pulling out his phone and playing Tetris.

His last fifteen minutes passed quickly, and he was feeling a little better about the next three and a half hours of work by the time he pocketed his phone and slid out of his truck. He quickly smacked the back of his pants to rid them of dust and slunk to the front door again. Just as he reached the handle, the door opened and a slightly taller, rather attractive man strolled out. Castiel had just enough time to take in his dark blond hair, blue eyes, and gray V-neck shirt under a black jacket—and notice that he was glancing over Castiel as well with a faint smirk—before he kept walking.

Castiel just stood there. He wasn't quite certain, but he could have sworn the guy checked him out. He wasn't used to attention, either from males or females, because it seemed he'd only grown into his looks in the past two or three years. He didn't think he'd ever get used to someone eyefucking him—not like Mikey, who always turned heads and always had.

He made it back to the kitchen without Crowley noticing him and tied his apron back around his waist. All he wanted to do was finish up here and go home to spend the rest of his birthday in peace. That's all he wanted.

"Castiel Novak just checked into Work :("