Dean very quickly regretted his decision to stay up until 3 am on Christmas Eve.

It was 7:30 am, way too early for Dean to function, when he was shaken awake by a very eager Cas. There was a glow in his eyes- excitement, perhaps, or just pure, unadulterated joy. What was there to be excited about? Dean wondered. He was perfectly happy in his bed, tucked under the thick blankets with his head against the warm, cushy pillow. He didn't want to get up.

It wasn't until he finally got up and out of bed that he spotted the dozens of presents stacked neatly under the tree- surely the work of Cas, given how neat the presents looked- and realized that this was what Cas had been so excited about. Presents.

Dean's suspicion that this was the work of Cas was further supported when Dean saw his own horribly wrapped presents underneath the small tree; when he saw his own wrapping job next to Cas's, he felt a small wave of shame wash over him, but he shook it off quickly. He didn't want to make this Christmas a sad one.

"How'd you get all these presents?" Inquired Dean, staring at the mound of presents with awe.

"There's only seven presents," Cas murmured, crouching down to his knees to gaze at the gifts, "but my parents always give me money for Christmas, to buy gifts."

Dean was, for once, too amazed to be jealous. He too crouched down, coming face level with the bottom of the small tree. He reached his hands under the tree, pulling out a small, neatly wrapped package that was peach colored with yellow ribbon.

Dean carefully undid the ribbon and peeled the wrapping paper off cautiously, not wanting to rip it.

Inside the package was a smaller, white package, neatly wrapped. Dean peeled the wrapping off that too, with just as much caution.

Inside the smaller package was a box of headphones- apple ones. Dean carefully took them out of the box, holding them in the air.

"Thanks Cas." Dean murmured, placing the headphones into the open palm of his left hand. He had never had a high quality pair of headphones- just $5 from Hot Topic that would break within 3 weeks, which, granted, were decent quality- so he was happy that Cas had gifted him a pair.

Cas just nodded and grabbed one of the presents that were for him from under the tree.

He didn't seem to mind Dean's horrible wrapping job- he laughed at the wrapping paper, which had the words 'Merry Christmas ya filthy animal' repeating over and over in black lettering against stripes of red and green- and instead just ripped it open, revealing a small box. Inside of said box was a pair of boots that were decorated to look like bees.

Cas's face immediately erupted into a wide smile when he saw the boots. "Thank you Dean. Thank you." He pulled the boots out, slipped his slippers off and pulled on the boots. His eyes seemed to light up with a childlike glee, and he stared at the boots with utter reverence.

Dean couldn't help but blush a little at how happy Cas was with the gift.

Determined to shake off the embarrassment, he grabbed another gift, bigger than the first one, from under the tree. It too was wrapped in plain peach colored wrapping paper, tied up with a neat yellow ribbon.

When Dean unwrapped it, it revealed a box- a movie collection. It was the entire Harry Potter movie series- from Sorcerer's Stone to Deathly Hallows Part 2- all stacked neatly. Dean couldn't believe it.

He'd been a fan of Harry Potter since he was a child; he'd heard of the first movie when it came out the year he turned five, but his father never let him watch it. Of course, he didn't talk much about his love for Harry Potter, but he did love the series and had always wanted to watch the movies. And now he had the chance.

He bit his tongue to avoid crying- thankfully, or really unfortunately, his time living under his dad's roof gave him enough skill in holding back tears- and picked up the box, holding it up to examine it.

"I- I-"

Cas held up his hand and smiled. "You're welcome."

Dean lifted his head, glancing at Cas. Cas was sitting cross-legged, his hands grabbing at a present under the tree. Dean bit his lip, tears fighting to well up in his eyes, but he fought them back with vigor. Instead, he just opened the package, taking the movies out to examine them.

Sure enough, all 8 movies were there, packed neatly into the box. Dean put the movies back into the box after taking a moment to examine them, and he instead reached his hands underneath the tree. His hands soon found a present, and he pulled it out.

It was wrapped in green and red paper with white dots on it, complete with a neat white bow on top. Inside the package was a large book, one that Dean quickly saw was all about cars and mechanical engineering and all that. Dean lifted the book with ease, taking a moment to examine it. It was new, with that fresh new book smell that Dean rarely encountered. It was somewhat thick- obviously over 250 pages, as Dean could tell.

As Dean gazed at the book, Cas unwrapped his second present- which he soon discovered was a book about Greek Mythology, something he had expressed an interest in before to Dean. Clearly, Dean paid attention.

Around ten more minutes of present opening passed by, in which Dean opened four more gifts (the first four Harry Potter books, a $25 gift card to Barnes & Noble and a Led Zeppelin CD) and Cas opened one more (a t-shirt with an AHS design on it).

It was 8 in the morning when a familiar knock came at their door. Cas got up to open it, and he revealed none other than Gabriel standing there, a bag in hand.

"I come bearing presents!" Gabriel exclaimed, putting the bag on the floor. "And I also come with food!" And he swung his other hand out, revealing a box of donuts clasped in his grasp.
Cas opened the bag of presents to reveal four presents inside- two small and two medium, all of them wrapped somewhat messily. Two were addressed to Dean, and the other two were addressed to Cas.

Dean's presents ended up being the fifth Harry Potter book and a plaid shirt, while Cas ended up unwrapping an AHS season 3 dvd and a new trench coat.

Gabriel shared the box of donuts, and the three men ended up spending Christmas morning eating donuts and watching the first two episodes of AHS: Coven.

~~~~~

"Here we are." Exclaimed Dean as he tore the key from the ignition. His car was facing the garage of Bobby's house, where he and Cas had been invited for Christmas dinner after spending two whole hours at the Novak house.

"I must say, your guardian has quite a quaint house." Murmured Cas as he opened the Impala door and stepped out onto the rough pavement on the driveway, the one that desperately needed to be repaved.

"Yeah, well, Bobby isn't one for large, show-offy houses." Dean remarked as he opened his own door and stepped out.

Bobby's house was two stories, yet it gave off a rustic, dilapidated feel, rather than a modern one that one might expect. It had a large backyard, no pool, and the slats on one window were falling off. Still, it was in relatively decent shape.

"Bobby is actually thinking of moving." Cas turned his head at the statement. "Maybe after this summer, or even after the next. He wants to go to Sioux Falls, where he used to live."

"Would you go with him?"

Dean took a moment to think, then shrugged his shoulders. "Probably. But I may just move after college, and settle in Sioux Falls."

Cas nodded in reply. He didn't know why, but a huge part of him was screaming no, that he didn't want Dean to ever move, and another part of him was screaming at him to move with Dean if that time ever came. And as Dean began to walk to the house, and Cas followed, he wrestled internally with himself- all the while trying to make it seem like he wasn't.

Dean was the first to reach the door. He lifted his hand and rapped his fist against it three times before lowering his hand to his side.

Not a second passed before the door was swung open by a surprisingly tall teenage boy- one with lucious brown hair that went just past his chin and large, hazel green eyes that were brimming with adoration at the sight of Dean- and Cas could immediately tell that this was Dean's brother.

"Dean!" Yelled the boy, wrapping both arms around Dean, nearly squeezing the life out of him. "You're here!"

Dean let out a laugh and ran his hand through the boy's hair as soon as the boy let him go. "What did you think I'd do, Sammy, not show up?"

Sam gave a sheepish grin and shrugged his shoulders. In response, Dean rolled his eyes and then it was Sam's turn to laugh.

The laugh soon dissipated when Sam's eyes landed on Cas, standing awkwardly two feet behind Dean. Sam held out his arms, cocking his wrists to almost beckon Cas forward. Cas yielded to the gesture and walked forward, only to get pulled into a bone-crushing hug by the eager teen.

"You must be Cas!" Exclaimed Sam when he finally pulled away. "I've heard so much about you, I'm really happy to finally meet you."

Cas's lips twitched and curved into a small smile. "Does he?"

"I've never seen that boy talk about someone so much," came a voice from inside the house, "so you must be pretty damn special."

And out from the house emerged none other than Bobby, who was adorned with a cap on his head and two different jackets. Clearly, Dean had adopted his fashion from Bobby, in some aspects.

"I don't know about special. I'm just me."

"Well, 'me' must be pretty damn spectacular to get Dean to talk that much." Bobby ushered both of them inside, closing the door behind the two of them when they finally walked inside. "That boy don't talk much, specially about anyone other than Sam over there."

Cas took his bee boots off at the door and smiled politely.

"Well, I'm honored."

To Cas's surprise, Bobby smiled at that. Granted, it was short lived and Bobby was soon ushering the three boys to sit- but Cas hadn't suspected Bobby to be the smiling type. When he caught a glimpse of a surprised expression on Dean's face, he quickly realized that his suspicion was correct- and his surprise was warranted.

"Here ya go, Dean." Murmured Bobby, handing a gift that he had pulled out from underneath the tree to Dean. It was wrapped rather neatly, obviously the work of Sam, and adorned with red and green and white wrapping paper.

The gift was quickly revealed to be a gryffindor varsity jacket, something Dean had actually stared at longingly when he took Sam shopping one time, back when they moved to the town. Dean nearly broke down at the gift, but steadied himself and handed Sam a present: a book on law. Sam unwrapped it and started crying.

Dean almost instantly wrapped his arms around Sam, pulling his younger brother into a hug as Sam sobbed into his shoulder. Sam wanted to desperately to study law, and now he had a book of his own to study it. The two brothers didn't move for over a minute, just hugging each other.

Cas, meanwhile, watched the situation unfold with a calculating expression, as something formed in his mind.

~~~~~

"Hey Dean, can I talk to ya a sec?"

At the sound of the voice, Dean lifted his head away from the book he was reading- Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone- and turned to face Bobby, who was standing in a doorway.

Dean briefly glanced at Sam- who was talking eagerly to Cas about the Harry Potter books- and nodded. He stood up, gave a tiny wave to Sam and walked towards Bobby. Bobby then led him up the stairs and into the room that would be his bedroom over the summer.

"Be frank with me Dean- are you in love with that Castiel?"

Dean choked in surprise and spluttered, a red blush spreading across his cheeks.

Before he could open his mouth to deny it, Bobby spoke out a harsh "don't you dare lie to me, Dean."

Dean briefly locked eyes with Bobby, bit his lip and sighed. "Yes. I am."

Bobby shifted. Dean's eyes barely lifted, scanning Bobby's face in a vain effort to find any trace of disapproval- of disappointment, or hate. He waited for the traces of John to appear- oh god, just the thought of John finding out made Dean flinch.

"Well, boy, I certainly wouldn't have expected you to fall for a guy."

Here it comes.

"But,"

Oh god, here it comes.

"I'll support you. If you really love that guy, then he's welcome anytime."

Silence.

Oh god. It didn't come.

Dean blinked, partly from confusion and partly from shock. He had braced himself to be yelled at, to have Bobby scream at him- but Bobby was not John. Not in any way.

John would have yelled. He would have screamed, have thrown bottles and thrown punches and god knows what else- he was a storm when he was angry, ripping through everything in his path, be it his furniture, bottles, Sam or Dean. John didn't care, he just destroyed everything.

But Bobby wasn't John.

And Dean didn't know why he had even braced himself in the first place.

Tears beaded Dean's eyes, and before he knew it, he had collapsed into Bobby's arms, crying his heart out. Bobby hadn't even questioned why; he had immediately held his arms out and taken Dean into a hug, running his hand over Dean's back to calm him.

And suddenly, Dean was grateful that Sam and Cas were both downstairs and far out of earshot.

It's almost May 3rd where I am but fuck it, Happy Birthday to Sam Winchester! Here's a new chapter in celebration