"Dad! Dad! Get up! Get up!"

Cas grumbled and rolled over, burying his face farther into the covers.

"Come on, Cas. You heard your daughter!" Dean jumped onto the bed, causing Cas to bounce up high into the air. He groaned and opened his eyes to see stubble and emerald orbs inches from his face. "It's Christmas!"

Dean yanked the covers off of him and darted out of the room before he could get a punch in. Cas was not a morning person and Dean knew that; he enjoyed exploiting his mood. Joanne, their daughter, wasn't much better. She ran out of the room alongside her father, laughing all the way.

It wasn't just because it was morning. Cas had been trying to prepare himself for this day all year but to no avail. He really wasn't looking forward to this. As Dean's voice trailed down the hallway, he slowly tore himself from their bed and headed towards the kitchen. He couldn't stop the growing knot in his stomach, no matter how hard he tried. Jo and Dean's happiness meant more to him than anything in the world, but he was ashamed to say that his hatred for Christmas topped even that at the moment.

Cas tried to contain the shudder that ran through him as he entered the kitchen and started up the coffee pot. This happened every time. Each year he would wake up to people cheering for a holiday that the entire world found joyous and had to pretend he felt the same. Nothing bothered him more than the memories of what Christmas in his household used to be. Well, there wasn't much household to it. Bouncing from foster home to foster home, he never had a consistent family for a whole year, so he never got to celebrate the holiday with anyone who even remotely acted like they cared about him. He was always being tossed from one place to the next; no family wanted him. It got to the point that just the words, "social worker" gave him a panic attack, even if they were mentioned off-handedly. For him, Christmas always meant loneliness and envy and heartbreak. He didn't even think Dean would be able to change that.

The coffee maker beeped, signaling its completion and Cas reached for a mug. After pouring his coffee and adding some sugar, he turned and nearly spilled his drink all over his son who had unexpectedly walked up behind him.

"Oh, sorry Robert."

His son just looked at him, a sullen