Dean's birthday party has to be perfect.
Castiel knows Dean’s birthday party has to be perfect. It has to show the man he loves how much he loves him. And not just him. Dean needs to get it, once and for all, into that beautiful, dead, thick head of his, how loved he is by everyone they share their Heaven with. And this party is Castiel’s opportunity to ensure that.
He's a man on a mission.
By the end of it, Dean has to complain about how his cheeks hurt from smiling so much.
Their time on earth hadn't allowed many opportunities for laughter. But Dean complaining about his cheeks was always the sign Castiel needed to know the man was (at least temporarily) truly relaxed and enjoying himself.
Now, he's made it the goal of his afterlife to make sure Dean is happier than he ever imagined possible. Because Dean's soul is the most wonderful, beautiful, loving thing Castiel ever laid eyes on. And the fact that they can finally just be –and be together– in peace, is more than he ever thought he could get. More than he's ever deserved. And he's so grateful for it all.
So.
Dean's party needs to be perfect.
He plans it with Ellen’s and Bobby’s help. He doesn’t tell them about his plans for after the party, when him and Dean are alone back in the home they built for themselves –a lovely little cottage with access to a lake, and a new and improved Dean Cave.
Nevertheless, he knows they can sense this one is important to them.
So they get a couple of cases of Dean’s favorite whiskey, they fix the pool table in case he wants to play, and they set up a karaoke because he will want to sing.
Castiel spends an unreasonable amount of time convincing John Bonham and Richard Wright (among other rockstars) to come and play something or at least congratulate Dean on his birthday. “It would mean the world to him if you could join us. I know you don’t know him but this is his first birthday after passing and he’s a really big fan of your work, and he stopped the apocalypse, did you know that? He did it out of love. He’s a very loving man.You’ll see. We will serve whiskey.”
When the day comes, their entire family and friends are there: obviously Bobby and Ellen and Jo, but also Kevin, Ash, and even his mom and dad join them. It is still taking John a while to get used to the whole my-son-is-bisexual-and-dating-an-angel thing, but he's getting there. He congratulates Cas on the pie he baked while also joking that, "you still got some to learn from your mother in law if you truly want to earn Dean's heart through his stomach, son."
And it's not as awkward as previous interactions between them have been, and Dean really appreciates that he's trying. He does. So he laughs instead of saying that the pie is perfect as it is, and so is Cas, and he has already won Dean's heart ages ago. But he still makes a mental note to remind Cas of that the second they're alone.
There's so many people at the Roadhouse that Dean doesn't even know where to lay his eyes. He's just so excited to see them all and to meet his idols, and so happy that Cas organized all of this for him, that he gets slightly more drunk than he had planned. But after all, it’s his fucking birthday so who cares.
That train of thought inevitably ends in him screaming Taylor Swift’s Paper Rings out of tune while shaking his hips and pointing at Cas and laughing in between verses because even while drunk out of his soul, he recognizes the silliness and cheesiness of it all.
But Cas did it for him. All of this for him. Cas. His Cas. Got their friends together, got him rockstars, got him good buzz, baked him a freaking pie, fixed up and decorated the roadhouse, sacrificed himself to save him. Cas. Always Cas. Doing it, all of it, for him.
So he smiles at his angel and he sings with all of his heart:
I like shiny things, but I’d marry you with paper rings
Uh huh, that’s right
Darling, you’re the one I want, and
I hate accidents except when we went from friends to this
Uh huh, that’s right
Darling, you’re the one I want
When he comes down from the stage, only stumbling slightly, the crowd claps and cheers, and everything is right in his... Life? Death? Afterlife? He doesn't know the right word but it doesn't matter. What he knows is he has the most wonderful partner in the universe and he smiles as he stumbles the rest of the way up to Cas and kisses him senseless.
When they break apart, the angel strokes his cheek lightly with his thumb and whispers,
“I know you just said paper, but... " he reaches for the inner pocket of his trenchcoat and Dean's heart stops when he sees the tiny hat, "what about cowboy rings?”
The top of the hat opens and there's a beautiful, simple, silver band inside. He could cry.
“OhmyfuckinggodsholyshitCas” he’s breathless, or whatever the equivalent of breathless is when you’re a dead soul in heaven.
His drunken mind vaguely registers a happy murmur among the guests. But it doesn't matter. None of them matter. Only one person does. One wonderful, stubborn, adorable angel. And he still can believe his luck that this marvelous creature ever decided to look his way. And now he's... He's asking him to... With cowboy rings no less!
Dean looks into Castiel’s impossibly blue eyes and he’s so fucking happy.
“How are you this fucking perfect?”
“I’m far from perfect, Dean, you of all people should know that.”
He holds the cheesy “to me, you are” that immediately comes to his mind for a few seconds before saying it out loud.
Castiel just smiles and kisses him deeply. By now, he knows not to argue against that. He's learning (every second a little bit more) to accept Dean's love, to believe himself worthy of it.
“I know the ‘til death do us apart’ bit wouldn’t really apply for us, I mean as you…” got yourself killed one week after I left you, you suicidal little shit, he doesn’t say. He shakes his head to refocus and continues, “But we’ve been through so much, you and I. Death couldn’t keep us apart, not even God himself could and he tried. The assbutt.” he rolls his eyes and he thinks for a second that he sees a tear forming in the corner of Dean's eye and he's not sure how much longer he can hold his own. "But I just love you too much and I… I’m not good at speeches, Dean, but believe me when I say there’s absolutely no one I would rather spend eternity with. So…” he looks around them briefly, takes a step back and falls to one knee, holding the little hat box up to the love of his life, “Dean Winchester, will you let me be your Huckleberry forever?”
Dean can’t help the grin, “Always.”
The abrupt sound of applause and cheering brings him back to the roadhouse, his family, his heaven. Cas gets up, slides the band on his trembling finger, and flashes his wings to hug him fully with them. Dean has never told another soul this, but whenever Cas wraps him like that, he feels safer than he ever has. Even before all the monsters and demons and the trauma, when he was little and his mother would tell him angels were looking after him. Turns out, she was right.
He sinks his face in the crook of Cas’s neck, inhales the wonderful scent of his future husband, and he can't think of a time he's ever been happier.
His cheeks hurt from smiling so much. And normally he would complain. But tonight, he’s so fucking happy that, for once, he doesn’t care.
Dean's birthday party is perfect.