Chapter Text
Sam’s back hurt like a bitch. In fact, that was the one thing waking him up.
It was easy to forget that he and Dean were getting actually older every day, and that maybe they had to delegate some cases to younger, more agile hunters. They weren’t kids anymore.
It wasn’t like he had a choice, though. That fight with last night’s Djinn was a rough one but if he hadn’t arrived in time, it would’ve killed Dean.
Sam straightened on his bed, grunting in pain. He checked his phone –it was 6 a.m. At least he slept more than his usual three hours.
After letting his legs slide to a side, he sat on the edge of the mattress. Maybe Cas’s grace could do the trick and make him feel better. Or, if Sam was lucky and the Men of Letters were as eccentric as they appeared to be, they maybe had an old but functioning massage chair or something similar enough.
Although, now that he thought better about it, the pain was a good excuse to practice some yoga. God knew he wanted to try it.
♦️
Cas entered through the bunker’s main door as quietly as possible, considering it was 4 a.m. and Sam and Dean, maybe even Jack, were still asleep.
He returned from a walk around Lebanon’s streets, something he did to relax himself and rest. When he had his wings, he’d go to temples, gardens, one of the seven wonders or to some small town where he could connect a little more with humanity.
Now, he couldn’t visit those places but he didn’t complain, either. He liked the life he had.
He heard noise in the kitchen.
As he stepped in, he saw Jack. He was eating a hot dog.
“Hey, Cas,” he said before taking another bite.
“Hi, Jack,” Cas replied. “I’m not gonna tell Sam or Dean about this.”
“I think since I process food differently, there’s no actual harm in this. But until I’m sure of that, I’d appreciate it.”
Cas offered a smile. He took a seat in front of Jack.
“Where were you?” Jack asked.
“Just walking. It helps me rest.”
“I’ve thought about doing that: going to cool places when I can, know the Earth, but… by myself, it doesn’t sound like fun.”
“I could join you if you asked. There’s a very nice city in Africa, Nairobi. One of my favorite places in the world.”
Jack looked up from his meal, looked at Cas, then smiled.
“I’ll finish this and then we’re off.”
♦️
Sam left his bedroom, feeling renewed after his YouTube yoga lesson, to a delicious smell emanating from the kitchen. He imagined that maybe Cas had gone out to buy something. He definitely didn’t expect to see his brother, out of the three other people that lived there, wearing an apron, standing in front of the stove, cooking.
“To what do we owe the miracle?” He greeted.
“Are you kidding, man?” Dean turned from the pan and gave him an incredulous look. “We’re done with Michael, we have no big bad wanting to end the world, we got occasional hunts, I’d say this is the peak of our lives.”
Sam snorted.
“I guess you’re right. What are you cooking?” He peered over Dean’s shoulder.
There was something frying in the pot but he couldn’t make out what it was.
Dean pushed him back, trying to block his view.
“Don’t spy! It’s a surprise,” he said, tone as serious as ever. “In fact, take a seat. I’d like to talk about something with you.”
Sam arched his eyebrows for a moment. He obeyed, sitting at the table.
“I’m all ears,” he said. “What is it?”
“I was thinking, you and I have birthdays, even Jack does —May 18—, but what about Cas?”
“You’re worried about Cas's birthday?” Sam asked, disbelieving. “I don’t think Cas has even stopped to consider-”
“Think about it! It’s unfair he doesn’t get a celebration of life and growth and-” Dean shut up when Sam’s bitch face #15 —the this is funny but stop giving me bullshit one— was set. “Ok, yeah, and it’s a good, nice excuse to do more of this kinda thing, y’know? Family things? It’s nice to be able to celebrate all of our birthdays, that’s all.”
“Okay, that I’m buying,” Sam said. He leaned over the table with his hands over it. “So, unlike Jack, he wasn’t born. He was created —Before calendars as we know them existed, which means that even if we asked him, he probably doesn’t have an answer to when his birthday is.”
“Then we just invent it,” Dean said easily. He turned around and extended his hand. “A plate, please.”
Sam reached for one in the rack and handed it to Dean.
Dean served him, then gave Sam the dish back.
There were four semi-circles of fried dough. Sam took a napkin, grabbed one and bit it. It was stuffed with shredded chicken.
He moaned at the taste.
“This is amazing!”
Dean smiled as he fried more of those. Deep down, he knew Sam loved greasy food.
“Thank you.”
“So, were you saying we should just arbitrarily declare Cas's birthday?” Sam asked, mouth half-full.
“Why not? It’s symbolic, right?”
“What’s symbolic?” Jack asked, walking in the kitchen with Cas following behind.
“Hello, Sam. Hello, Dean.”
Sam and Dean exchanged a look.
“Hey, guys,” Dean said. “I’ll answer that in a second,” he told Jack.
Sam was about to ask about it when Jack announced:
“We went to Africa,” he said, simply like it was just going to the grocery store.
“Awesome,” Dean answered.
“What part?” Sam asked.
“Nairobi,” Cas said. “We brought you food.” He put a couple of paper bags on the table.
“See?” Dean said, looking at Sam. “You two are just amazing.”
Dean peeked inside one of the bags. It didn’t smell as good as what he was cooking but he wouldn’t complain.
“Jack, you gonna eat that or do you want to try my empanadas?”
“Try them,” Sam said, nodding vehemently.
“I’ll have two, yes,” Jack said.
Dean served Jack a plate, then one for himself. He sat at the table, turned to Cas, who wasn’t eating anything, then said, “It’s a shame you can’t try this. It’s Heaven, man.”
Cas would’ve made a comment, something about Heaven not being as great as the saying implied, but understood the euphemism and didn’t reply to it.
“I miss eating, too.”
“So, Sam and I were thinking,” Dean said. He paused, all eyes focused on him. “Sam, we were saying?”
“Oh, okay,” Sam said. “Dean and I were thinking about celebrating-“
“About the need to celebrate,” Dean corrected.
“About the need to celebrate,” Sam continued, “your birthday, Cas.”
“My age is relative. I don’t age as you do and although my vessel is showing signs of-“
“It’s symbolic,” Dean protested.
Cas sighed.
“I like the idea,” Jack said.
“You really don’t have to, you know that, right?” Cas said.
“We want to. As Dean says, it’s an excuse to do something nice for you, and for all of us.”
“We could go to Africa again,” Jack suggested.
“Or to a restaurant, like normal people!” Dean said with a grin.
“Whatever you want, Cas,” Sam said. “I think we’re all good with not having normal lives, so why not celebrate a supernatural birthday, right?”
“Okay, yeah, well, I’ll let you do it. It’s, in fact, a good reason to distract us. We’ve earned it.”
“Great. So, as one of your best friends and the soul you saved from Hell, I declare that your official birthday is on… “Dean held up a finger, grabbed his phone from his pocket, checked the calendar app, “Friday.The 27th”.
“That day is the anniversary of Gary’s death,” Sam said.
“Gary?”
“The fish from my childhood.”
Dean rolled his eyes. “Okay, then Saturday, the 28th”.
“I believe I read that’s the National Mourning Day in a village in a Caribbean island,” Jack said.
“Okay! What about Sunday? Any complains about Sunday?” Sam and Jack shook their heads. Dean finally turned to Cas. He didn’t say anything. “Good. Sunday it is.”
After breakfast, Jack and Cas left to get Jack some clothes. Dean and Sam would’ve gone, but a) they knew it was the closest thing Jack had to father-son time and b) they had their own stuff to do.
“What are you going to do today?” Dean asked, washing the dishes and passing them to Sam.
“I was thinking about staying in. You?”
“Me too, actually. I’m probably gonna binge something on Netflix. I’ve heard Cable Girls it’s pretty good.”
Sam tried not to look too impressed.
“I’ve got a few books to read I’ve been dying to get into. For a change, they’re not about lore.”
“Coelho shit?”
“You’re gonna watch Cable Girls but I can’t read The Valkyries?”
♦️
“What about this?” Jack asked, leaving the fitting room.
Cas frowned. Jack was wearing an oversized leather jacket and sunglasses. He shook his head.
After trying a lot of other things Cas wasn’t convinced of —a Hawaiian shirt too bright even for his angel eyes, outdated wooden scarfs, that thing Cas thought was supposed to be a diving suit— Jack finally walked out the curtain with something familiar enough.
A plaid overshirt, white round neck t-shirt underneath, simple jeans that didn’t show too much skin on the knees.
“Winchester enough?” Jack asked.
Cas smiled fondly.
“Now you’re only missing the boots.”
Jack’s bare feet danced on the floor.
“Next stop: a shoe store.”
♦️
Sam was never as grateful for the second-hand set of couches they bought as he was when he sprawled on the biggest one to finish his book that night.
Dean was in his cave, starting the second season of Cable Girls, Cas was in his bedroom admiring Renaissance paintings on his laptop, and Jack was in other of the smaller couches, using his tablet.
After an hour or so of shared quietness, Sam’s reading was interrupted.
“Sam, I think I found us a case.”
“Yeah?” He finished the sentence he was reading, grabbed his MetroCard bookmark, and closed the book.
“Look.” Jack left his place on the couch and kneeled next to Sam, handing him the tablet. “Police reports read that ‘a lightning streak’ robbed a gas stop.”
Sam played the security cameras video. In less than two seconds of footage, a streak of lightning moved through hallways of the small store and left.
“This happened in Vernal, Utah,” Jack continued to explain.
“It’s definitely a case,” Sam said, replaying the video.
“Yes. People are talking about aliens, superhumans, all kind of stuff online about it.”
“I’ll let Dean and Cas know. We’re leaving tomorrow morning.”