It's July now, and that means it's getting way too hot to wear pajamas to bed. The nice thing about living with his fiancé is that there's no reason not to sleep in his boxers. God knows Dean won't complain about that.

Dean gets up before him, and the squeaking of the bed is enough to wake Castiel up, at least a little. He mumbles incoherently and reaches over to the boy, but he's already out of bed.

"'Morning, Cas," Dean says quietly.

"Mm," Castiel hums. He feels around the bed, but when he can't find Dean, he takes the pillow instead and wraps his arms around it, basically cuddling with it.

"Cas?" Dean says softly, stifling his laughter.

"Mm."

"Are you awake?" Dean asks.

"Mm."

Dean laughs softly. "Okay." He leans down and kisses the boy on the forehead. "Love you, Cas."

~~

When Castiel really wakes up, he's alone in the room, still cuddling the pillow. He sits up and rubs his eyes. He kind of just wants to go back to bed, but he'd rather go find Dean, so he tosses on a t shirt and sweatpants and goes Dean-searching.

Dean is sitting on the piano bench, eating a bowl of cereal. Castiel cocks his head in confusion and heads over to him.

"Sup?" Dean says with a grin.

"Why are you eating out here?" Castiel asks. "You do realize we have a kitchen, right?"

"I'm just admiring my new picture," Dean says.

Castiel looks over at their wall of nostalgia, scanning the photos for an unfamiliar one. It takes him a few moments, but he does find it. It's just him, lying in bed and cuddling with a pillow. It would almost be a cute little picture if he wasn't just wearing his boxers in it.

"Dean!" Castiel whines.

"Yes, Cas?" Dean says, exaggerating his sincerity.

"You can't put half naked pictures of me on the wall," Castiel says.

"But I like looking at you when you're half naked," Dean says with a smirk. "Almost as much as I like looking at you when you're fully naked."

"But on the wall?" Castiel complains.

"Like we're ever gonna have anyone over," Dean says sarcastically. "The only ones that are gonna see it are me and you — and then me again because it's really cute and I'll probably look at it a lot."

"But what if someone does come over?" Castiel asks.

"Then I'll take it down before they get here," Dean says. "But come on. No one's gonna visit us here. If we want to see anyone, we have to go visit them. That's how living in the middle of nowhere works."

"I feel like this is as far from the middle of nowhere as possible," Castiel says. "We're kinda in the middle of everything."

"Well, yeah, but no one else lives around here," Dean says. "Well, no one relevant, at least. We're about as far from our civilization as possible."

"Okay, fair point," Castiel agrees. "Although I wouldn't put it past Lucifer to show up unannounced."

"Honestly, if he didn't have a kid, he probably would have already," Dean says. "I was actually talking to him this morning, and he was basically begging us to go back to Sioux Falls so he can see us, so I don't think he has any plans for a surprise visit."

"Stupid kids, getting in the way of my surprise visits from Lucifer," Castiel pouts.

"You know what I just realized this morning?" Dean says.

"What?"

"Alex is over 18 months old."

Castiel gapes at him. "No way. She's not..."

"That's what I thought!" Dean says. "I still think of her as the little two-month-old from Florida."

"I refuse to believe she's not still the little two month old from Florida," Castiel says.

"How big even is an 18-month-old?" Dean asks. "I know she can walk and she can kinda talk, but is she still a baby, or is she a toddler?"

"I mean, if she can walk, I'd assume she's a toddler, just by definition," Castiel says.

"Wait, is that the difference between a baby and a toddler?" Dean asks, amazed.

"Well, yeah, I'd say a toddler is someone who toddles," Castiel says.

Dean stares at him incredulously. "How did I not know that?"

"Well, you're not the brightest bulb in the box," Castiel says teasingly.

"Okay, ouch," Dean says. "I mean, you're right, but ouch."

Castiel chuckles and sits down next to him. "So, when are we going to visit them ourselves?"

"Soon?" Dean guesses. "I don't know."

"Well, that's boring," Castiel says.

Dean just looks at him for a few moments, then asks, "Are you just oblivious to the date, or are you waiting for me to say something? Because I genuinely can't tell."

"Wait, what's today?" Castiel asks.

"Your birthday, silly," Dean says.

"Oh, that's today?"

Dean shakes his head in amusement. "Yes, Cas, that's today." Dean presses a kiss to the top of his head. "Happy birthday."

"Thanks," Castiel says with a small smile.

"I'm not gonna lie; I had a very hard time finding a present for you," Dean says.

"You don't have to, you know," Castiel says. "I can buy whatever I want, whenever I want."

"That's true," Dean says. "But it's your birthday, and that only happens once a year, so I did it anyway. Want me to get it for you now, or wait until later and we can eat cake at the same time?"

"Did you somehow buy a cake without me noticing?" Castiel asks, confused.

"No, but we can make a cake," Dean say. "Either from scratch or from the box recipe; it's up to you. And you could just make me make it if you want, but I wasn't sure if you'd want to be involved."

"I would love to be involved," Castiel says. "Can we make it now?"

"Hells yeah we can."

~~

"So, I didn't wrap your present," Dean tells him once the cake's been baked, frosted, and almost entirely eaten.

"That's fine," Castiel assures him.

"Imma go grab it," Dean says, then heads down to the garage.

Castiel waits impatiently at the kitchen table for a few minutes, until Dean finally reappears, carrying an entire record player in his arms.

Castiel gapes at him. "Is that mine?"

"Wait, it gets better," Dean says, then puts the record player down on the table. "I'll be right back."

He takes off again, back to the garage. He returns a minute or so later with a cardboard box, putting that next to the record player.

"Okay, open it," Dean says with an excited grin.

Castiel does as he's told, revealing a stack of records to go along with the record player. He pulls them out one st a time, and it doesn't take long for him to recognize the pattern.

"Did you get me Elvis Presley's entire discography?" Castiel asks, amused.

Dean nods. "That's exactly what I did."

"Do you even like Elvis?" Castiel asks.

"I can dig Elvis," Dean says with a smirk.

Castiel chuckles. "I should have known that's where you were going with that."

"Honestly, I'm surprised it took you this long," Dean says. "But I got you actual records that you might listen to, too, if you keep looking. There's, like, Kansas and AC/DC —"

"Bon Jovi?" Castiel asks hopefully.

"Obviously," Dean replies.

Castiel grins and gives Dean a hug. "This is why you're the best."