"I don't think I'm physically capable of eating any more of this, but it's so god to stop," Castiel tells Michael.

"It'll still be here tomorrow," Michael reminds him.

"Touché. I'm gonna savor it."

Castiel picks up Lucifer's phone so the live stream people still feel included an makes a move to get up, but Charlie runs over to him and pushes him back down.

"Not yet. Still got one piece of business to take care of." She sprints out of the room and over near the front door, returning shortly after with a large, thin, rectangular wrapped item. She hands it to him with a grin. "Happy birthday from all of us high school friends!"

"Guys, I told you not to —"

"Too late now!" Charlie interrupts. "Open it!"

Castiel shakes his head at the girl in amusement. He attempts to get it with one hand, but holding the phone proves too much work, so he passes it off to Lucifer across the table.

He removes the wrapping paper delicately because he's just that kind of person, then crumples it up in a ball and tosses it on the counter. He runs a hand over the front gently before looking up at Charlie. "You are such an overachiever."

"I know," she replies, popping her foot. "But it was a group effort. Me, Kevin, Gabriel, Sam, Garth, Harry, and Ed. Oh, and Donna, who felt bad she couldn't be here."

"Well, thank you guys."

"Hold on," Lucifer says, swiftly getting up and standing behind him. "The people of the interwebs gotta see this, too."

Castiel chuckles and looks down at the scrapbook, admiring the cover first. It's a simple red cover with a picture of his high school friend group from the day before he left for his first concert all those years ago. Above it in light pink sparkling letters reads, "Five years of friendship."

He opens to the first page to see a selfie he and Charlie took back in high school. He can't be sure, but he thinks he sees a wheelchair there, giving him a general time frame. On the same page is a picture she took of Kevin kneeling next to him, this time with the wheelchair impossible to miss.

"Our first pictures together ever," she tells him.

"I can't believe you still have those."

"'Course I do!" she replies as if it's obvious. "You think I delete pictures of me and my besties?"

He chuckles. "Yeah, guess not."

On the next page is Sam, Gabriel, Charlie, and Garth sitting on the very crowded high school gym bleachers, each wearing exaggerated frowns, as well as a picture with all of them laughing because Gabriel had apparently attempted to shove an entire bag of cotton candy in his mouth at once. There's a small piece of paper under them reading, "We missed you at the game, but not as much as you must have missed us!"

"I'm low key offended you went without me," he tells her.

"Hey, we tried to get you to come," Charlie tells him. "It was your idea to ditch."

"I don't remember that far back but I would be surprised if it was anything but."

The next page has a picture of him and Gabriel laughing about something or other in their room, which means it must be post-wheelchair time. There's also a picture of Castiel in an oversized hoodie snuggling up with Lucifer on the couch. He's fast asleep, but Lucifer is still awake, looking down at him with a loving expression on his face. The third picture is the two older brothers holding his first song notebook and smirking, the copy machine right behind them. This page is fittingly labeled, "Family Time!" at the top.

The page next to it is a continuation of it, with a picture of him helping Samandriel with homework while Gabriel helps Anna, none of them acknowledging the camera. It has to be from some point in Gabriel's high school career, probably Castiel's first year of online high school. Next to it is Castiel gaping at Chuck as he plays guitar. Even just looking at the picture, he can hear his father singing Fare The Well. Until then, he hadn't even realized Chuck knew how to play guitar. There's also a picture of Castiel and Michael playing Scrabble a few years ago because they're both bookworms.

"You and Michael need to take more pictures together, by the way," Kevin tells him.

"I don't like pictures," Michael informs him.

"Too bad," Charlie replies. "Finding this was a pain in the ass."

The next set of two pages just says, "School Dance," even though he can tell immediately that it has pictures from multiple dances. The first one is Castiel as Charlie's "prom date" in their junior year. It's a posed picture, just him with an arm around her shoulders, and her arm wrapped around his waist. The next is a picture the senior prom, with Charlie, Donna, Harry, and Ed as the actual seniors of the school and Castiel as Charlie's "date," Kevin as Donna's "date," and Sam and Gabriel as Harry and Ed's "dates," though none of the dates were actual dates more so as plus-ones. It was really just an excuse for them to be there as well. There's also a picture of Castiel holding Charlie bridal style as they both laugh.

He taps it once and looks up at her. "I remember that one."

"For two gay people, we made a hell of a couple," she says with a grin.

"Hell yeah we did."

The page next to it has a picture of Castiel and Kevin looking extra serious at senior prom just before they cracked up laughing. The two share a grin across the table as they remember it. Under is it a selfie of Castiel, Harry, and Ed just smiling like normal people at junior prom, with Charlie photo bombing with a goofy grin.

"Oh, Charlie," he says with an amused smile. "What are we gonna do with you?"

She just laughs.

Castiel pauses when he sees the last picture on the page, his smile slipping. He just looks at it for a few moments, his face expressionless.

"Castiel?" Michael says uncertainly. "You good?"

"Uh, yeah," Castiel replies halfheartedly. He taps the last picture and looks up at Charlie. "How did you get that?"

"Same way I got most of the school pictures," she replies. "Donna saved a digital copy of all of ours from her time on the school yearbook."

"Oh." He runs a finger over it gently, his thoughts momentarily drifting elsewhere.

"I couldn't just not put that in there," she adds. "I don't care if you guys broke up. Your first school dance and your first real boyfriend. No way was I skipping that one."

As much as it hurts to see his happier times with Dean, he can't say he wishes she skipped that picture. It was back during Dean's senior prom, when Donna photographed them just as they stepped inside the building so they didn't have the chance to shy away. They both have big smiles on their face just from being in each other's company. He looks down at their interlocked hands, when it just came naturally to them to hold on to each other like that. Back when everything was simple.

"Castiel?" Gabriel says uncertainly.

"Give him a minute," Sam says quietly.

He spends another few moments looking at it before turning the page. The next one is from his first tour, when he opened for Taylor Swift. The picture on top is Castiel, Taylor, and Charlie out in the empty stadium after everyone had already left. The one in the middle is Charlie on his back, both hands in the air and laughing while he struggles to keep from dropping her. The bottom one is the two of them sharing a hug, both looking over at the camera. There's a small note reading, "Perks of making the book: I can give myself a whole page." He chuckles to himself at that.

The next page is more varied. It's still after the same concert, but this time with different people. There's a selfie with him, Charlie, and Kevin all making funny faces, per usual. There's also a small picture of Castiel and Garth smiling at the camera like civilized people and a small picture of just Castiel and Kevin smiling. The nice thing is, they're genuine smiles, not just faked for the camera. It was a fun night for all of them.

The next page is all the Novaks at the concert. The first one is, from left to right, Chuck, Michael, Lucifer, Castiel, Gabriel, Samandriel, and then Anna, all squished together to fit in one picture. Next is little eighth grade Anna in his arms, both of them laughing. Then, it's Castiel, Lucifer, and Gabriel making silly faces, followed by Castiel and Sabriel being normal people.

Next to that page is another with the same theme, but he pauses on this one for a moment, trying to figure out what's off about it. Finally, he points to a picture of him and Lucifer crossing their eyes.

"Wrong concert."

"What?" Charlie says, confused.

"That was when Luce flew up to meet me at my first ever concert, not the one nearby. Only a couple weeks off, though."

"How did you know that?" Kevin asks, gaping at him.

Castiel just shrugs. "No clue. I'm weird that way."

He actually does know how he figured it out. He remembers that day clearly. It was his first concert ever, and, naturally, he was freaking out. He had been texting Lucifer all day about it, assuming his brother was still at home in Sioux Falls. All day, Lucifer did his best to calm the boy down, but to no avail.

It was about an hour before the doors opened when he got a text from Lucifer. It was a selfie in front of the venue, followed by the words, "You think the up and coming star's brother can get a head start?"

Obviously, Castiel had made sure that he got to see Lucifer before the show, partially because he had gone through the trouble to show up so early but mostly because he was still freaking out and needed a distraction. At that point, Lucifer was the best he could get.

They were sitting together backstage, not in the wings but the halls behind it. Castiel was just staring at the wall muttering, "I can't do this. I can't do this. I can't do this," over and over and over, not even acknowledging Lucifer as he tried to calm him down.

Finally, Lucifer had given up on trying to talk him out of it and clapped a hand over his mouth to shut him up, which worked more from surprise than inability to continue talking.

"You're going to do fine," Lucifer had assured him, removing his hand. "No, you're going to nail it. You know how I know that?"

"Hmm?" Castiel squeaked.

"Because I know you. I know that for all the panicking you like to do, everything always runs smoothly. This isn't going to be any different. You just have to calm down and listen to the music. Just pretend you're back in your room at home, with no audience whatsoever, and just play from the heart. Can you do that?"

"No."

"Yes, you can. Deep breaths," Lucifer had advised him. "Everything is going to go perfectly fine. If you get nervous, just look at me. I'll be in the front row cheering you on. Okay?"

And, sure enough, there he stood, front and center, Castiel's own personal stress reliever. He barely survived that first concert, running on adrenaline, muscle memory, and Lucifer's reassuring smiles that even the bright spotlight couldn't wipe out. And, after his part of the concert when he was freaking out backstage again, Lucifer missed an entire Taylor Swift concert — which, as her biggest fan, is really saying something — to sit with him and calm him down.

That was when the silly selfie tradition began. It was originally just to make Castiel laugh, and it definitely worked. By the end of the night, they were a giggling mess backstage, and he cherishes each and every one of those pictures.

"Do you think he even realizes we're still here?" Gabriel asks softly.

"Probably not," Lucifer replies.

"Shh," Sam whispers. "Let him zone out into happy times."

"God knows he doesn't get enough of 'em," Samandriel adds under his breath.

Castiel blinks a few times, snapping back into reality. Lucifer and Gabriel start clapping obnoxiously until they're slapped by Michael and Sam, respectively. Castiel bitch faces his brothers, and Lucifer sticks his tongue out in return.

"Hey, Castiel," Gabriel says with a teasing smile. "Welcome back to earth. We've missed you."

"Shut up," Castiel replies, but he can't hide his small smile.

He turns the page in the scrapbook to a collage of various concerts of his, each one showing one of his friends taking a selfie with him performing in the background.

Next is four pages of him with various celebrities and accepting various awards. He can't help but smile when he notices the first picture is the first time he met Jody, back when he was really awkward, and the last picture is when he met with Jody a few months ago. Even in the pictures, he can see how much more confident he is.

He takes a moment to reflect on each picture, which is mostly him staring in awe as he remembers that this is actually his life. Seriously, how did he get that many awards? That's ridiculous. He looks at the note on the bottom, written in Charlie's unmistakable handwriting.

You've changed a lot in the last five years. You're not just the little boy in the hoodie, never leaving the house because of your fear of humanity in general. We've watched for years as you've grown into your new Macho Man self, meeting celebrities we could only dream of catching a glimpse of. It could be sad, watching you growing up like this, but..."

He turns the page to reveal what has to be at least thirty pictures of him with his friends and family over the last five years. He takes a few moments to admire them, a smile tugging on the corners of his mouth. Finally, he finishes reading the second half of the note.

"No matter how much you've grown and who you've met, you've never left us behind, and that's why we love you. It's been an amazing five years with you, Castiel. Here's to many more."

"I think I'm gonna cry," he says, covering his mouth with his hands. "Oh my god, you guys. This is... Oh my god."

"You like it?" Charlie asks hopefully.

"'Like it'? Guys, this is... I don't think there are words to describe how much this means to me." He looks between all of them, each seeming both proud of the book and thrilled with the reaction. "C'mere."

They have a big group hug, something that hasn't happened in forever because they're never all at the same place at the same time.

"I love you," Castiel tells them. "I love all of you."

"We love you too, Castiel," Charlie replies.

"You know things are going well when you render a songwriter speechless," Kevin adds with a grin.

"I'm just trying not to cry," he replies, then adds, "It's not going very well,"

This earns a bit of a laugh from everyone.

He spends the next couple minutes trying to find the words to thank them. And yes, he does end up crying.