Fame Crazy (Sequel to Strings Attached)

Chapter 151

"Alright, well, I think it's time for presents," Gabriel announces before Castiel can start sulking. "Everyone agree? Everyone agrees, and if you don't agree, you're wrong and you really do agree."

Castiel chuckles. "I'm guessing I don't have a choice in the matter, then?"

"Nope," he replies. "Quick, present time!"

Everyone scatters to get the presents they brought, while Dean and Castiel stay on the couch. As they wait for everyone to return, Dean remarks, "I never realized how difficult it is to find a gift for someone who can buy anything."

"If I wanted a gift, I would've thrown my own birthday party," Castiel replies. "I just wanted to spend the day with you. That's enough of a gift for me."

"Well, sucks for you, then, because I did get you a gift," Dean tells him. "Nothing super amazing because I'm not creative enough for that, but I did get you something."

"You know you didn't have to do that, right?" Castiel says, and he means it. There's nothing he really even wants, and if he did want something, he'd get it himself. Birthdays presents are kind of pointless when you're a multimillionaire with millions of people willing to do whatever you ask.

"Open this one first!" Charlie says as she jumps into the room, Gilda just behind her. The redheaded hands him a slightly bulging envelope. "I think this is something you're going want all your fans to see. Just saying."

Castiel chuckles. "Okay, I'm kinda scared right now," he jokes. "Once everyone's here, I'll open it, and I'll make sure Lucifer is recording so if it's a tarantula that's gonna kill me, there's proof that it's your fault."

But, he realizes as soon as he opens it, it's not something that will kill him. It's just a very thick homemade card, with the spine facing him. He pulls it out cautiously, and as soon as it's out of the envelope, it practically explodes with rainbow glitter.

Castiel laughs. "I think I'm just gonna leave that there forever," he jokes — though he doesn't particularly want to vacuum it up, and god knows Dean doesn't clean up, so he actually might leave it there for a very long time.

He looks at the front of the card, which has a big heart on it with ombré rainbow glitter coloring. "Happy" is written above it, and "birthday!" is on the bottom. He opens it up to see a glitter glue border, a gay pride flag on the left side, and a message on the right.

"Dear Castiel,

"Congratulations on making it yet another year in the spotlight without making a total fool of yourself! Now, I don't know about you, but I'm feeling 22. Just remember, everything will be alright if you keep Dean next to you! 22 isn't some big number, so I'm not going to do anything super adorable like last year or when you turned 18, but don't worry, you do get more than just a glitter bomb...

"— Charlie & Gilda!"

Castiel looks up at them with slight confusion — all he's gotten is glitter, so he's not sure what they — or Charlie, as it seems — meant by getting more. But he understands immediately when he sees what Charlie is holding, and he bursts out laughing.

"You hype up this gay thing more than the media does, and that's really saying something," he tells her as he takes the rainbow swirled yo yo from her. Just as he thinks he can move on, Charlie pulls a rainbow slinky out from behind her back. That's the cool thing about being rich is that people know there's nothing he actually wants, so they choose their gifts more humorously.

"My goal is to hype up the homo more than Bart Baker," Charlie tells him. "How's it working so far?"

Castiel clicks his tongue once as he pretends to think about that, but he knows already that his answer is, "Close, but Bart Baker's got you beat." By a lot.

"Ah, dang it," she says with exaggerated disappointment.

The next person to give him a gift is Lucifer. It comes in a huge box that the older boy had to push into the room, and again, pushes it up to Castiel on the couch. He hands his brother a pair of scissors.

"For cutting the tape," he explains.

Castiel takes them hesitantly. Lucifer always gets him another copy of the Bee Movie dvd for his birthday, so this is unexpected. He cuts open the tape on the box and puts the scissors down. Opening the box, he finds it full of packing peanuts. He sticks his hand in and feels around for whatever is in there, but all he touches is more packing peanuts.

"Is my gift just packing peanuts?" Castiel asks.

Lucifer shakes his head. "Nope. There's something else in there. Good luck finding it!"

Castiel closes the box and flips it over, cutting the bottom open instead. Sure enough, the gift is at the very bottom. He pulls it out to find that it's, unsurprisingly, another copy of the Bee Movie. Lucifer is always so predictable.

"Gasp, what a surprise," Castiel deadpans. "I never would have guessed." Despite his best efforts, he finds himself ginning slightly. God, his brother is such a dork.

Next is Michael, who gives him all the DVDs of Sherlock, because apparently the whole family is into that series now, and he should join the hype. Samandriel got him a Pop Funko version of himself, which he apparently found hilarious, and Castiel can't help laughing at, too. He and Adam also give Castiel a shirt with a light switch on it, God knows why, but Lucifer bursts out laughing at it, so it must be something stupid. Sam and Gabriel give him a rainbow tie, as well as a resealable bag of skittles. Claire gives him a dog toy, because, according to her, "When it doubt, Misha."

"And then Dean just forgot your birthday," Lucifer says once everyone else has given him a present.

"I literally put this whole thing together," Dean reminds him. "I didn't forget it." Turning to Castiel, he explains, "Okay, so your gift didn't come in in time, and it's not going to come in for a while, so for now, you're stuck with a card." He reaches under the couch and pulls out a yellow envelope, which he must have his under there a while ago. He hands it over. "Happy birthday."

"Thank you, kind sir," Castiel replies with a grin, taking the envelope from him.  The front of it, he observes, says, "Cas (not Cass)," possibly as a reference to his new Instagram account, which he finds adorable.

He opens it up to find a cheesy store bought card, which Castiel barely skims before opening it to find that it's not quite as empty as Dean led him to believe. He holds the two thin pieces of paper up to read them, then launches himself on Dean and gives him a huge hug.

"Thank you thank you thank you thank you!"

Dean laughs and hugs him back. "I'm glad you like it, because I had to call in a lot of favors for this."

"And I'm so freaking glad you did!" Castiel adds.

"Okay, but what is it?" Claire asks.

"Tickets to see Bon Jovi perform in a concert that hasn't been announced yet," Dean replies. "Which also means you can't tell anyone until it has been announced."

"No one is allowed to say anything until after it's happened," Castiel corrects him. "I don't want people going to that concert because I'm gonna be there. I want the Bon Jovi crowd instead."

"So what do we say when everyone starts asking what Dean got you?" Lucifer asks. "Because if neither of you say it, people are gonna start asking me."

"Just don't tell them," Castiel says with a shrug. "As long as Dean and I know we're gonna go watch the most legendary person to ever exist perform live, we're all good."

"But it also means you have to wait, like, eight months," Dean tells him. "The concert's not 'til next March."

Castiel sighs dramatically. "Fine. I'll see if I can survive 'til then." But the wait will be worth it. Who doesn't want to see the epitome of rock perform live?