Welcome back! For this specific happy tale, the prompt will be revealed at the end so it is, in fact, a surprise :) I hope you all enjoy! To the reviewers: Imtheonewhofeelinglost and KAL, thank you so much! I set out to make people smile with these, so your comments absolutely made my day.

Still don't own Supernatural.

Dean was flipping through the cassette tapes as Sam sat in the passenger seat, looking out the window. Maybe flipping wasn't the right word. He was more…rifling loudly through the box looking for a tape they hadn't played in a while. They had driven across multiple states for the past few hunts and had burned through their usual go to tapes. Dad had left two days ago to finish up the hunt in his own car, leaving the almost a year (legally) licensed driver Dean Winchester and his younger brother alone for the weekend, or until John returned. Dean, of course, had been driving for a few years, but no one else needed to know that.

"Dean, can we go?" Sam asked, eventually turning to look at his brother.

Dean made a face, having not found a decent tape to listen to, and dropped the box back in the second row of seats, resorting to what was already in the player. It was still AC/DC, which he would never get tired of, but a new tape with some new songs couldn't hurt. But with money the way it was, they couldn't just randomly get a new tape every time they wanted.

"Fine, fine, you got someplace to go? Hot date maybe?" Dean replied, and quirked a smirk and an eyebrow up at Sam as he turned on the Impala and checked to make sure it was clear before he pulled out of the library lot where they had been researching.

Sam rolled his eyes, but he still smiled at his brother's comments. "With my math book, yeah."

"Hey, be wary of girls like that, Sammy, I hear they're full of problems." Dean's grin widened, as he was quite proud of his joke, and received a decently powerful jab to the arm from Sam.

He didn't say anything else, just let out a small laugh before he went back to looking out the window. Ten minutes later, they were pulling into the small motel lot that had an adjacent mini-mart shopping center like thing and a diner that they hadn't yet been to.

Dean checked the fridge first when they got in, which was of course pretty much empty, and sighed. "I'm gonna grab a shower, then we'll get something to eat."

Sam shrugged as he sat down on the bed furthest from the door. "I can grab something, Dean," he tried, already knowing what his brother would say.

Dean immediately shook his head.

"But I'm almost thirteen, Dean! I can run across the street and get food for five minutes," he argued back.

"Nope. End of story. You're gonna sit your butt down and watch some…Western reruns," Dean said as he flipped the television on and handed Sam the remote, "until I get done, kapeesh?"

"Whatever," Sam muttered a moment later, and grabbed the remote out of Dean's hands. He leaned back against the pillows and began flipping channels as Dean stepped into the small bathroom.

As soon as he heard the water running, Sam was up, and as quietly as he could, made his way to the kitchenette where they had a pad of paper out. Back in 15 he wrote hastily on it before he grabbed a small wad of money out of his duffel and, with practiced carefulness and silence, left the motel with Dean still in the shower.

It was still afternoon when Sam crossed the small street towards the little shopping mart, and it wouldn't take him long to get the items he needed, one of which he knew what to look for. Thankful for the off hours, he went into the diner first, where the waitress greeted him with a pleasant smile.

"Can I get ya a table?" she offered, to which Sam shook his head.

"You have any pie?" he asked, not seeing any of the characteristic domes on any of the counters. The waitress smiled again and nodded.

"'course we do, and they're pretty good if I do say so myself. We've got," she paused for a second, "pecan, apple, cherry, and rhubarb," she finished.

Out of those options, Sam quickly went with "a slice of cherry and apple, please, to go," to which the waitress nodded. She went and packaged the slices up in a box and a bag with forks and napkins inside before she came back out.

"Special occasion?" she asked, still smiling as she totaled the pies up.

Sam shrugged in response. "Kinda. That, and my brother really likes pie."

"Well, he's got good taste then," she nodded. She read off the total, money exchanged hands, and a minute later Sam was walking out of the diner with a bag in one hand. He checked his watch, and seeing as he still had nine minutes left, he made a quick stop into the shopping area.

It was bigger than some others they had stopped by, with a grocery mart, a small donation center, and a discount music shop in the back. Sam looped around and headed into the music store, hoping they had what he was looking for.

The music store had a few people in it thumbing through records, which took up the middle section of the room on big racks. Sam went towards the back of the store where the labelled bargain bins were, a grin spreading across his face as he saw one bin filled with records and the other with cassette tapes. He went over to the second bin and began flipping through titles, some with cases, and some with just the tapes themselves. It took him a few minutes of looking to find one that was actually decent, and when he did, he went with it.

He brought it up to the front, where a less smiley cashier traded him a dollar for the cassette, and Sam put it in the pie bag and continued on his way. He only wished he had some wrapping paper…but looking back at his watch and the four minutes that remained, he knew he didn't have time. He was pushing it as it was, Dean wasn't known for taking long showers.

Sam hurried across the road and back to the motel. He got the key into the door and quickly closed it, hoping that Dean wasn't out of the shower yet. But as he turned around, Sam found out that Dean was in fact out of the shower, and he was looking at Sam crossly.

"Sam," he said in a warning tone. "Look, I get being cooped up sucks, but ten minutes is all I'm asking for, man." What could have passed off as anger in Dean's voice Sam actually knew to be worry, and as he assured himself that Sam was in fact alright, the 'anger' dropped off from his voice.

"Sorry," Sam apologized weakly.

"Don't go running off by yourself in a town you don't know, Sam, you know better, almost thirteen year old or not," Dean added. Sam still had a few months to go until he hit the magical teenage number, and he was practically counting down the days. When Sam didn't reply, Dean eventually sighed in defeat. "What was so important that you just had to go get asa-freaking-p?"

Sam finally smiled, hand closing tighter around the bag in his grasp. "You gotta sit down and close your eyes."

Dean quirked an eyebrow up in confusion, but, at seeing his excited little brother, decided to indulge whatever 'surprise' Sam had in mind. "I swear, Sam, if it's a lizard or something…" his threat trailed off as he sat down on the bed and did as he was told.

"No," Sam said with a laugh. He made sure Dean's eyes were closed before he carefully placed the bag in Dean's hands, taking out the cassette tape to hide behind his back first. If he didn't have wrapping paper, one present at a time would have to do. "'kay, you can open 'em now," he directed.

Dean did, and used one hand to push back the plastic to reveal the see-through pie container inside. Immediately, a smile spread across his face as he looked back up at Sam. "This is hardly dinner, but I won't complain," he nodded as he got out the container, forks, and napkins to place on the bed. "Thanks, Sammy," he added, honestly appreciative. The way Sam's face lit up was a gift in itself.

"Close your eyes again," Sam directed, smiling even more now than before. This time, Dean did as was told immediately, and Sam placed the cassette tape into Dean's hands. It was just a simple black tape with wording on it, as the case had probably been lost somewhere along the way, leaving just the tape. He had rifled through their own box as much as his dad and older brother had, and he was pretty sure he hadn't seen this one yet and it was a bit more recent…

Dean opened his eyes without an invitation and grinned, flipping the cassette tape over so he could read what was on it. "The Razors Edge, AC/DC," Dean read off, obviously happy with Sam's selection. His happiness soon turned into muted confusion, and he looked up at Sam. "This is great, Sam, but just on a whim? Where'd you get the money?"

Sam shrugged. "Uncle Bobby gave me some in case of emergencies," he stated simply.

"Well, what was the emergency?" Dean asked, again, no less appreciative, just trying to figure things out.

"Presents. Nobody else was gonna get you any, and you can't get 'em for yourself," Sam said matter'o'factly. "Happy birthday, Dean!"

And there was the emergency, one that Dean had completely forgotten about in the moment. All the driving around, it was easy to get the days confused…but apparently not for Sam. His little brother had remembered amid everything, and had gone out of his way to make it special in whatever little way he could.

"Thanks, Sammy," Dean echoed, a content look on his face, more so than he had been in a long time. "This is great. New tunes and pie, birthdays don't get better than that." He reached up to ruffle Sam's already long hair, to which the younger boy laughed, both proud of himself and happy that Dean liked everything.

"Okay, but two pieces? You know you're gonna have to help me out a little bit here," Dean said, tilting his head a bit as he popped the plastic container open and made room on the bed. A moment later, Sam sat down beside him.

"Fine, but just a little bit, it's your birthday pie," he replied and took the fork that Dean held out to him.

On January 24, 1996, Dean Winchester had one of the best birthdays of his life. It didn't entail a pile of gifts or a house full of friends or a grand cake or a movie outing, but it did have some meaningful music, a brother by his side, a pie in his lap, and some Western reruns. And to him, it was better than any overblown extravaganza could ever be.

I know, I know, happy BELATED birthday, I missed it but oh well. My good buddy Em (Em The Great and Powerful) suggested this story, something along the lines of John missing Dean's birthday for a hunt, so Sam surprises him with a cassette tape and some pie to make up for it. As always, hope you guys enjoyed, thanks for reading, and drop a review if you feel like it!

Note: Requests are still more than welcome, pleaseeeeee send some in if you want, I truly do love writing them. I generally write a chapter and then post a few days later, so in theory, more requests means more chapters so long as I have time ;) Have a good weekend!