Happy Birthday, Dean! (SPN, Sam)

[gingerdean]

 

Plot: Sam tries to make Dean a birthday cake, and Cas tries to help. Also, Sam has a cold. That's about it.

 

 

This is a fill I started a year and a half ago for tarotgal's 2015 "Bad Birthday Baking" mini-meme on LJ, but never finished. I was feeling the need to write something kind of light and mindless, so I decided to finish it off.

 

 Anyway, I know that it's nowhere near Jan. 24th, aka Dean's birthday.  But, it is almost his half-birthday, so...Happy Almost-Half Birthday, Dean!  Here is your gift: You are not sick or allergy-ridden in this fic. Enjoy it while it lasts.

 

This is a bunker-era fic, but other than that, there's no specific timeline, or spoilers. Warning for language.

 

 

 

Sam stood alone in the kitchen of the bunker, stirring at a mixture of batter with a large wooden spoon, and glancing over the cake recipe that he'd printed off the internet several days prior. Satisfied with his progress, he smiled to himself in approval. He'd followed the recipe to a T so far, and everything appeared to be coming along as it should, as far as he could tell. He dipped his pinky finger into the brown goo, and sampled a taste. Edible, he thought to himself. Edible was good. 

 

He set the bowl down, and pulled out his phone to do a time check. 4:30pm. By Sam's estimation, it would be at least two and a half hours before Dean would come back into the house. Dean had been in hog heaven all day long, holed up in the bunker's garage, painstakingly giving the Impala a full detailing, inside and out. Sam knew this was the best birthday present his brother could possibly give himself, and he was thankful that they were able to wrap up their last case ahead of schedule, so that Dean could enjoy a rare day off today.

 

Sam stifled a threatening cough, and winced at the dull pain that had settled into his throat over the last few hours. The nagging headache that had been plaguing him off-and-on all day had been steadily getting worse over the last hour or so, and had now settled squarely behind his eyes. Dammit. Dean had spent the last week and a half battling a nasty head cold, and now it was apparently Sam's turn to join in the fun. The brothers had spent the last two weeks cleaning out a vamps nest somewhere out in rural Idaho, and the close personal space Sam had shared with Dean and his germs during that time pretty much guaranteed that Sam would come down sick himself, sooner or later.

 

As Sam went back to mixing his batter, he became aware of another presence entering the kitchen. Sam did an about-face, and found Cas standing before him.

 

"Hello, Sam." Cas looked around the kitchen in confusion, and then back up at the younger Winchester. There were flakes of brown goo covering Sam's face and the front of his shirt, and speckled all over the kitchen counter. A large, dripping bowl of dark sludge was sitting next to Sam on the countertop, and Sam held a second vat of brown goo in his arms. Cas wasn't quite sure what to make of the scene before him. He'd never known Sam to cook anything, before now.

 

Sam ran his sleeve beneath his nose as he continued to stir. "Hey Cas. Thanks for coming, man. Dean'll be happy to see you."

 

Cas nodded, then held up a brown paper bag. "I brought Dean a pie. From what I understand, it is customary to offer a gift to those you care about, on their day of birth." Cas cocked his head and surveyed the mess in the kitchen again. "And you are...cooking something?"

 

Sam nodded, and looked around at the disaster splayed before him. "Yeah...I'm trying to, anyway. It's a birthday cake, for Dean."

 

Cas studied the two mixing bowls for several moments, then looked back up to Sam. "That is not a cake, Sam. I believe the name for what you have here is...pudding." Cas gave Sam as encouraging a look as he was capable of. "Don't worry though, I believe Dean is quite fond of that as well. I'm sure he will enjoy it."

 

Sam rolled his eyes. "This is just the batter, Cas. I have to bake it first, then it'll be a cake." Sam grabbed the fingerprint-smudged recipe off the countertop, and held it out to Cas. "A layered German chocolate cake, with coconut-pecan frosting, to be exact."

 

Cas stared at the recipe for a few seconds, nodded, and held up his paper bag for the second time. "Well...Dean likes pie. So I bought him a pie."

 

Sam smiled. "That's great, Cas. He's gonna love it. I thought about buying him a pie, too, but...I don't know. I just thought I'd try something a little different...Something special, I guess." Sam glanced at the black-and-white picture of the cake on the recipe paper, and smiled. "Dean and I had this amazing German chocolate cake when we were passing through Madison, a few years back. He wouldn't shut up about it for the longest time. So I thought...why not..."  Sam trailed off as his eyes glazed over, and he sniffed loudly. "Shit." Sam scrunched his face as his breath began to hitch. Careful to avoid spraying germs anywhere near the cake mix, Sam held the bowl away from his body with one hand, raised his left arm, and sneezed into the side of his chest, angling his head awkwardly towards the floor. "hresshhh'huh  ......ESSHSH-huh!"

 

"God bless you. I take it that you caught Dean's cold?"

 

Sam sniffed. "Ugh, yeah...." Sam hastily rubbed his nose on his sleeve. "S'ok though. At least Dean's pretty much over it now. I really didn't want him feeling sick on his birthday. Especially not this year."

 

Cas ripped a paper towel from a roll that was lying on the countertop, and silently offered it out to Sam. Sam accepted it, and smiled. "Thanks, Cas." Sam blew his nose, and walked over to the sink to wash his hands. "Here's the thing Cas...neither of us have celebrated our birthdays in years. Not since we were kids, actually. And Dean's never had a birthday cake." Sam frowned. "At least not that I remember. I guess mom probably made him cakes when he was little. Huh...We've never really talked about it, I guess." Sam shook his head, and glanced nervously at the mess on the countertop. "The point is, Cas - I just don't wanna screw this up, you know? I think I might be in over my head, here. I don't know what the hell I'm doing. I've never baked a thing in my life!" Sam scratched his head. "Well, I did help Jessica make some brownies once. But she did most of the work, and we ended up burning them anyway. And this cake is a lot more complicated than I thought at first, and I'm just not sure if I can-"

 

"Relax, Sam." Cas walked in closer, and stared down at the bowls of batter, with a puzzled look on his face. "I'll admit, I don't understand the chemical reactions that are supposed to occur here, to change this...this vile concoction into a birthday cake. But I am happy to offer my help to you, in any way you see fit." Cas looked up at Sam with an air of immense seriousness. "This is for Dean, after all."

 

Sam grinned at Cas, and chuckled softly. "Well, two culinary neophytes are better than one, I guess. Thanks, Cas." Sam glanced over at the ginormous, ancient-looking stove, and sighed. "Well, I guess we'd better get on with it. First things first...I've gotta figure out how to turn this oven on."

 

One hour and forty-five minutes later....

 

 

Sam and Cas stared silently at the cake for several seconds...then looked at each other, questioningly. 

Then back at the cake, again. Finally, Sam cleared his throat. "Um...it's a little lopsided, isn't it?"

 

Cas brought a fist up to his chin, and frowned. "It doesn't seem to be very structurally sound."

 

Sam sighed. "It didn't cook evenly. I think the oven is on an incline, or something."

 

Cas nodded. "I think the issue could have been minimized, though, if large pieces of the cake had not adhered to the pan." Cas picked up the recipe paper, and looked it over. "This says that we should have added some grease to the pan, first. I believe you neglected to do that."

 

Sam slapped his forehead. "Oh, yeah. How did I forget that? I went and bought that spray-on crap, and everything!"  Sam turned to his side suddenly, his red-tinged nose high in the air. "he'eh..hiii'gishhh-kuh....huh'ESSSHH-hah!"  Sam groaned softly, rubbed a hand over his eyes, and sniffed.

 

Cas pressed his lips together, as he continued to stare down the cake. "Perhaps we should start over and try again, with a less-complicated recipe. You could attempt a cake with one layer, instead of three? That would seem a bit more appropriate, given your lack of culinary skills."

 

Sam sighed. "There's not enough time, Cas, and I don't have enough ingredients. We're just going to have to make this work, somehow."

 

"Make it work?" Cas frowned for a moment, then nodded. "Ok. Yes. That is what the man from Project Runway would say, if your cake was an abhorrent piece of clothing, instead of an unsightly baked good, as is the case here."

 

"Um, ok." Sam did his best to shrug off Cas' incessant criticism of his labor of love that he'd been slaving over all day long... and he didn't even bother trying to figure out when (or why) Cas had taken to watching Project Runway.  "Well, I think it'll look better once we put the rest of the icing on."

 

Cas frowned. "The top layer is quite misaligned from the rest of the cake, Sam. Perhaps if I..." Cas proceeded to reach out towards the cake to slide the top layer to a more centered position.

 

"Wait Cas, don't...." Sam reached out to stop him, but it was too late. the top layer of the cake, in it's precarious state, began to split into three separate pieces. Both Sam and Cas found themselves holding together the top layer of the cake, Cas with one hand, and Sam with two. They looked at each other, unsure what to do next.

 

Sam glanced to where the bowl of icing was lying nearby. "Cas, can you reach the icing? It's on the other side of you."

 

"Yes, I think so." Cas used his elbow to pull the bowl a bit closer to him, then reached beneath his right armpit with his left hand, grabbing the container.

 

Sam nodded. "Ok, now use the spoon to scoop up some of that icing, and fill in the cracks. That'll help hold the top layer together. I think. Then we'll, uh...cover the whole cake with a thick layer of the stuff."

 

Cas nodded, and carefully balanced a large glob of icing onto the spoon. As he guided it towards the cake, the spoon tilted to the side, and the glob slowly oozed off the spoon and fell, landing on Sam's boot.

 

Sam sighed. "Cas, can you be a little more careful? We don't have enough icing to waste it like that."

 

"My apologies." Cas extended the spoon towards Sam's shoe with his left hand. "I think I can scrape it off, if I just..."

 

Sam made a face. "Ew. No Cas, just...leave it for now, man." Sam scrunched his nose and sniffled. "Try again- just be more careful this time, ok? Keep the spoon upright."

 

Cas nodded, and set himself to his task once again. He was so intently focused on keeping the icing on the spoon, that he didn't realize he was pressing three deep holes into the cake with his other hand in the process. As he started to dump the icing into the cracks, Sam cursed quietly under his breath. He sniffed thickly again, and sighed. "Crap. I'm gonna sneeze, Cas."

 

Cas looked up from his work to see Sam's nose twitching and his eyelashes fluttering. "If you need to sneeze, you should wait until after we fix the cake."

 

Sam shook his head. "I...phew. I know that Cas, but I...huh. I cuh-hiiii...can't...

 

Sam pulled his head back and closed his eyes, as the sneeze continued to overtake him. Sam turned his head over his left shoulder and...  

 

 "hnh'GNNKK-huh!"  

 

Sam managed to painfully stifle the sneeze, and avoid doing any damage to the cake in the process. Sam shook his head a bit in the aftermath, wincing. "Ugh. That hurt."

 

"God bless you", Cas acknowledged. As he moved his arm towards the bowl to grab another scoop of icing, Sam shook his head wildly to get his attention. "Hold up, Cas...gotta...one more.  hiiii..."

 

Cas cast Sam a look of mild impatience as Sam's eyes began to well up, and his chest began to heave once again.

Sam lowered his head towards his shoulder once again, and...

 

"hiii....gih'HISSHHH-huh!  -gh'ngttt!"

 

 The cake somehow managed to survive Sam's second sneeze, even as monstrous as it was...but a third, tiny sneeze snuck out, almost as an afterthought, and apparently caught Sam well off his guard. As Sam's body spasmed with the sneeze,  he involuntarily  pressed down the palm of his left hand, smashing in one side of the cake.

 

After taking a moment to recover, Sam looked at the result in dismay. "Shit."

 

Cas nodded. Apparently he had nothing more constructive to add than that.

 

Sam sighed. "We'll just pile some extra frosting on that side, to even it out some more. " Sam rubbed his nose on his shoulder, and sighed. "Ok Cas, Pour a couple more scoops into the crack, then we'll press it together. Do it quickly though. My nose is running like crazy." 

 

5 minutes later....

 

Cas looked over to Sam with raised eyebrows. "I think it looked better before we tried to fix it, Sam."

 

Sam chewed his lip, then sighed. "Well, we do have a whole box of candles...Maybe we can hide the worst of it."

 

Cas grabbed the box of candles from the countertop, and nodded briskly. "I'm on it."

 

Cas set to work on strategically placing the candles on the cake, while Sam began to clean up. Cas concentrated a group of candles on one side of the cake, figuring that the added height would distract from the area that Sam had smushed down when he'd sneezed earlier.  With plenty of candles to spare after that, he began poking some of the candles into the sides of the bottom two layers of the cake.

 

Sam finished wiping the icing off his boot, and finally took notice of the way Cas was arranging the candles. "Don't poke them out the sides like that, Cas. It looks stupid. They're supposed to go on the top."

 

 

Cas eyed Sam with a hint of defensiveness. "I highly doubt my placement of the candles will detract from your cake's aesthetics at this point, Sam."

 

"I beg to differ, Cas." Sam mumbled, looking at his creation with a growing feeling of woe. He didn't think the cake could possibly look any worse than it did before. But with the added assault of the candles, the cake had now taken on the appearance of a porcupine that had just had a run-in with a semi-truck, and was now leaking out Leviathan goo from it's insides. One-third of the top layer of the cake was starting to slide to the side again, apparently impervious to Sam's icing glue, and a cluster of candles was sliding right along with it.

 

Suddenly, Sam heard the sound of the back door slamming shut. Crap. Dean was finished in the garage, and he was almost a half-hour earlier than Sam had expected. Sam hoped that Dean would head straight to his room to get cleaned up first, but there was no such luck. Not ten seconds later, Sam heard footsteps coming towards the kitchen.

 

"Wow, something smells good in here." Dean came around the corner and poked his head into the kitchen. His face lit up visibly when he saw the angel standing next to Sam. "Hey, Cas."  Dean's eyes widened as he took notice of the cake sitting on the counter behind his brother. His mouth opened, then closed...then opened again. "Is...is that for me?"

 

Sam made his best effort to smile, but he was sure it came off as a wince, instead. "Yeah, Dean. It's your birthday cake. We made it for you - "

 

"Sam made it", Cas quickly interjected.

 

Sam narrowed his eyes at Cas. "Cas put the candles on."

 

Dean studied the oddly structured, dripping mess of a dessert, and shook his head, apparently at a loss for words. "Wow guys, that's...."  

 

Just at that moment, the piece of the top layer that had been sliding sideways finally toppled off the cake. One large chunk fell onto the counter, and another fell to the counter then to the floor, crumbling on both surfaces as it hit.

 

 Dean pressed a fist over his mouth, failing to hide the grin beneath. Sam suddenly clasped both hands over his face, and doubled over with two loud sneezes, one right after the other. As he rose back up, he looked towards Dean as if to say something, but instead he gasped, turned away, and sneezed again into the bend of his arm. His face began to crumple once more, and Sam held one finger up. "Hold on guys, I got...hiii...gotta..." With one hand clasped over his face, Sam headed down the hallway in the direction of the bathroom, as the sound of another bellowing sneeze echoed throughout the bunker.

 

Always one for impeccable timing, Cas placed one hand squarely on Dean's shoulder. "Happy Birthday, Dean", he said sincerely.

 

Dean patted Cas' hand with his own, then pulled Cas' arm over his shoulder. "Thanks, buddy." He looked over towards his cake again and shook his head, grinning from ear to ear. Another loud sneeze rang out from the direction of the bathroom, and Dean looked over his shoulder, frowning in concern. "How's Sam doing, Cas? He's not sounding too hot."

 

Cas quirked his lips. "It is obvious he isn't feeling quite himself. But his concern today is only for your well-being. It is very important to him that you are not unwell today. On your birthday", he added, in case Dean had forgotten what day it was in the last thirty seconds. Cas looked Dean square in the eyes. "How are you feeing, Dean?" 

 

The grin from earlier had never left Dean's face. "Never better, Cas. Never better." Another loud sneeze rang out behind him, and his smile faltered a bit. "I just wish I hadn't gotten Sam sick. Poor kid sneezes like crazy every time he gets a head cold."

 

"So I've noticed." Cas nodded. "He's gone through great pains to avoid sneezing on your cake, though."

 

Dean laughed. "Well that, I do appreciate." Dean's stomach suddenly growled audibly, and he shot a look of longing towards the cake. "So, how does this work, Cas? The birthday boy gets the first piece, right?"  Dean walked over and grabbed a handful of the fallen cake from the countertop, and tossed it into his mouth. His eyes lit open. "Holy shit, Sam! This is awesome!"

 

Sam re-entered the kitchen, a cloud of tissues covering his now-severely clogged up nose. "Id's ok Deand, you dod't have to ead it. Cas brought you a pie. We cad ead that idstead."

 

Dean grinned. "You're damn straight we will. But first we're gonna eat this. I don't know where you got this recipe, but it's freaking amazing." Dean tossed another loose handful of cake into his mouth. "It's even better than that cake we had at that little diner in Madison, a few years back. Do you remember that, Sammy?"

 

Sam grinned with pride, as he rubbed his wad of tissues beneath his reddened nose. "Yep, I do." 

 

Dean walked over to the utensil drawer and pulled out three forks. "And I thought I was the budding chef of the family. You've been holding out on me, man. "  Dean held out forks towards his brother and his best friend. "Come on, guys. Dig in."

Cas accepted the fork, but then grabbed Dean's arm. "Wait, Dean. Isn't it customary to light the candles first, before we eat the cake?"

 

Dean blinked. "Oh, right. I forgot about that part." He glanced over at Sam. "Do you think your masterpiece would survive a trip over to the kitchen table?"

 

Sam smiled, and snuffled loudly. "I guess we're godda fide out."

 

 

Fifteen minutes later....

 

 

Dean leaned back in his chair, and let out a long, satisfied sigh. "I think I'll have just one more piece."

 

Sam shot Dean an incredulous look. "Are you kidding? You've already had three pieces, man. You're gonna make yourself s'hih...sick.   heh-ESSSHH'huh!" 

 

"Bless you." Dean frowned, then nodded, closing his eyes. "Yeah, you're right. I need to save some room for a slice of Cas' pie for dessert."

 

Sam shook his head. "You're ridiculous, man."

 

Dean grinned. "Aw, come on Sammy. You know you love me."

 

Sam rolled his eyes as he stabbed at his last bit of cake. He glanced back up at Dean, who was now chatting it up with Cas with an untroubled, carefree air, looking happier than Sam had seen him in years.

 

Yeah, I do, big brother, he thought to himself. I do.

 

 

 

The end 

 

Edited July 21, 2016 by gingerdean
I fixed something

[Sawyer]

Hell yes dude, are you kidding me?? Not only is it Sam with a cold, but it's Sam with a cold alone with Cas! My favorite pair, especially because we don't see a lot of them together. I don't check out much on this show anymore, but you've always been one of my favorites and you really knocked this one out of the park!

[CharliesGirl]

Mmm... Yummy Sam and now I really want some cake! 

[sneezy_frnk]

this was so ridiculously cute! I LOVE IT! my lil Sammy is so sweeeet 

[ID2006]

ROFL, you did such a great job in writing this, I can totally picture it in my head.

[AngelEyes]

This is epic!!! I love it! You have Cas just perfect! And Sam trying so hard to make something nice and worried that he's failed and Dean just over the top enthusiastic. Awesome!

[gingerdean]

On ‎7‎/‎12‎/‎2016 at 9:16 PM, Sen Beret said:

Hell yes dude, are you kidding me?? Not only is it Sam with a cold, but it's Sam with a cold alone with Cas! My favorite pair, especially because we don't see a lot of them together. I don't check out much on this show anymore, but you've always been one of my favorites and you really knocked this one out of the park!

Aww, thank you! I actually had a lot of fun writing Cas and Sam together! (More than I would have thought, given the lack of Dean in this one.)  It was a fun change of pace for me. Thanks for reading!   (Even though you're not in the fandom anymore, I still think of you whenever I write sneezy Sam!) 

On ‎7‎/‎12‎/‎2016 at 5:40 AM, CharliesGirl said:

Mmm... Yummy Sam and now I really want some cake! 

haha, I did too!  Thanks for reading

 

On ‎7‎/‎12‎/‎2016 at 6:44 AM, sneezy_frnk said:

this was so ridiculously cute! I LOVE IT! my lil Sammy is so sweeeet 

Thank you!!  And thank you for the comment

 

On ‎7‎/‎12‎/‎2016 at 2:53 PM, ickydog2006 said:

ROFL, you did such a great job in writing this, I can totally picture it in my head.

Thank you! I appreciate the comment

On ‎7‎/‎14‎/‎2016 at 10:31 PM, AngelEyes said:

This is epic!!! I love it! You have Cas just perfect! And Sam trying so hard to make something nice and worried that he's failed and Dean just over the top enthusiastic. Awesome!

Aw, thank you!! And thank you for the comment on Cas, especially. I've never written him before, and was really nervous about that! I really struggled with trying to get his voice right in this one.

[spirkestielgirl87]

This was awesome. I was literally LOL! And you do a great job with the characters- their voices were spot on.