Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

It starts with a video. Something harmless, something to just watch or create in your spare time. But slowly, it becomes so much more than that. It becomes a way to vent your emotions, or to realise that there is someone else out there who feels the same way you feel.

So when Gabriel first found GigantortheMoose’s channel, he thought nothing of it. Just some eighteen year old kid messing around with his camera. But then again, he had over 750,000 subscribers, so Gabe figured he had to be doing something right. He scrolled through his videos for a while before settling on one called ‘The Roadhouse’.

“Hello!” Oh my God. The sun shines out of this kid’s pores. Is someone that tall even allowed to be that cute?

“Today, err, ‘m going to be showing you around The Roadhouse, which my aunt Ellen runs. Well, not my aunt, but my aunt, y’know? Anyway, yeah, she runs it, and it’s just about the best place in the world. ‘Cause Ellen makes awesome and super healthy food, and her daughter Jo, she’s super badass. Oh, and get this, they have a sorta squatter called Ash, who –

'You take that back! I’m awesome!'

So, err, that was Ash. Not really sure how we know him, one day he was just, well, there. And now him and Jo do the err, well they do the sex. But yeah, my uncle Bobby also lives here, ‘nd he married Ellen … Fooooouuur? Four. Four years ago. He has an autoshop, which I’ll show you sometime. ‘Nyway, time to tour!”

The camera jolted and bobbed up and down as GigantortheMoose wandered from his booth to the pool tables, where a shorter, but slightly older looking man stood making sure all the balls were present and counted for.
“Hey Dean. This is Dean, he’s my older brother, he works at Bobby’s shop, but Ellen’s got ‘em both whipped and now he does a buttload of work here. Free of charge.

'Shut up, bitch.'

Jerk. Anyyyyway, that over there –“, at this point the camera swings around wildly, “is the bar, where, well, it’s a bar. You can figure out its function. And over there is – wait, Ash? Why are you, why are you meditating on the bar?

'Jo says that meditating is for hippies. Now dude, I ain’t a hippy, and I’m gonna prove that it ain’t a hippy thing. Then I’m gonna hack some major corporation. Maybe Roman Enterprises? Not sure. This your vid? Chill. Show ‘em my mullet. Business up front –'

Party in the back, right?

'Yeah it is'

Well that was Ash again. So, over here there’s a door and down that way are the bathrooms, but we’re not gonna go in there, because that’s creepy. But this waaayy, are some stairs. Which we go up”
Gabe finds himself grinning despite himself as the camera bounces up and down, blurring shapes punctuated by the thudding of feet on the stairs. Seriously, was this guy like some giant human puppy or something?
“So, this door is Jo’s room, and if we knock –“ He pauses in his speech to rap politely on the door, which is followed by a thud, the door shaking and then creaking open “- We see that Jo has perfected the art of throwing things at her door to open it.

'What d’you want, Sam?'

To show my followers around. Anyway, this, from what I’ve gathered is a typical teen’s room. And Jo is a – is that a knife?

'Get out.'

Why?!

'What was my one rule?'

Don’t wake you up within five metres, ‘cause I’ll get stabbed?

'No, the other one.'

Errr … Oh crap. Don’t, don’t film you in your pajamas?

'Don’t film me in my pajamas.'

I’m going, I’m leaving, don’t kill me.” He closed the door and looked directly into the camera. “We’re gonna forget that.

So if we go this way, this is the, err, not spare-spare room. It’s where me and Dean sleep when we stop here. This’s my bed, bouncy and broken and I love it.” He jumps onto the bed, a soft boing echoing through the room. “Dean’s is all memory foam and he’s obsessed. That’s my laptop over there, where I’ll edit this later, and that is Dean’s record collection. He’s gotta lot of ‘em.

Over here are our walls. That’s Dean’s with his inappropriate pictures of near nude men and women, his cars, bands and there are some pictures of Benny and Charlie and Garth. They’re cool. This is my wall. There’s Kevin and Meg and Ruby and Jess, who you've met. That’s my old dog, Buster, and these are my favourite things you guys sent in.

Here’s errm … Here’s my mom. It’s one of the only pictures we’ve got with all four of us. That there is my dad. He’s on another tour at the minute, he’ll be back in nine, no, eight months now. That’s my mom, and she’s got Dean on her lap there, and he is holding me. I’m three months old there. She err, she died. Three months after this was taken, there was a, a fire. She ran into my room and got trapped. Dean took me out. Firemen dragged my dad out, he was screaming that he had to go back for Mary. That was her name. She was so beautiful …”

Gabe can hear the hitch in Sam’s voice, hear the sniffle and as he wipes away a tear of his own, can only imagine how terrible Sam feels.

“Anyway, that’s ‘The Roadhouse’. I’ll introduce you to Bobby and Ellen another time, they’re out getting supplies and –

'Boys! Get your asses down here and help with these bags!'

'Coming'

'On my way Ellen, chill out.'

Coming Ellen! So, I guess this is the end of this video, I’ll see you –

'Joanna Beth! You were included in that, as you well know!'

'I’m in my pajamas!'

'I don’t give a damn!'

Err, yeah. See’ya!”

Gabe stared at the screen for a few moments. Was he in love? Crap.

Chapter Text

Gabe was busy scrolling through Sam’s videos when his phone pinged. He checked it immediately to see a message from his brother Cas.

Breakfast, downstairs. You haven’t eaten proper food in days, come and eat. NO LAPTOP!

Gabe let out a resigned sigh. He might be older than Cas by three years, and he might be the one who has actually had a job, but he certainly wasn’t the mature one in their relationship. He threw his duvet off and grabbed his robe, pulling it on as he walked downstairs to the kitchen-diner.

“Why am I here, instead of in bed?”

“Because I made you crepes, with strawberries and freshly squeezed orange juice and coffee. And because I need to ask you a favour.”

“Ugh, favours.” Gabe would never admit it, but he’d walk over hot coals for Cas. But Cas didn’t know that, and if that meant that Gabe got some nice breakfasts out of it, then who was he to complain? He shovelled half a crepe into his mouth at once, followed by two strawberries. As he sat chewing through it, Cas began to speak.

“So, there’s this YouTuber who lives a few towns over, and we have a lot of mutual fans who are always asking us to meet and make a collaborative video. His username is GigantortheMoose, and –“

Gabe choked. He hastily gulped down his orange juice, coughing and catching his breath as he revelled in the wonderful coincidence of it all. He sensed an opportunity.

“I’m driving you. Pedophiles. Murderers. Rapists. You know what you're like on public transport. I will drive, I am good sibling. We meet the star, date the star and then cry over the star, and you and the star shall be famoose.” It took him little over seven seconds to blurt this out, and Cas’ eyes were wide and confused by the time he had finished.

“I was going to ask you to drive me anyway. You know I can’t drive. And, what was that about dating? And, stars?”

“Nothing, just rambling. Was the driving the favor? Because I am a good sibling who doesn’t want his younger brother to be murdered, and would drive you anyway. And the star dating? Just, wondering what star date he is. Star sign! That’s the word. Right, well this has been lovely, but I’m going to finish this in my room.”

Gabe grabbed his plate and coffee, leaving the now empty glass of orange juice, and started walking up the stairs, his ears reddening.

“Incidentally, I’ll be announcing that in my next video. Which will have a main theme of popcorn.”

“I’ve taught you well brother. And you keep that video ‘mallow’, okay?”

“What are you on about Gabriel?”

“Oh, nothing.” This could be very fun, Gabe thought to himself as he settled back into his nest on his bed. Very fun indeed…

***

An hour or so later Gabe noticed that AngelofThursday had uploaded a new video, and always wanting to find some way to embarrass his little brother, he clicked on it immediately.

“Hello followers.”

Cas was wearing yesterday’s clothes, which meant he had filmed this when Gabe had gone to the comic book shop to see if there was anything new in, in order to avoid being interrupted. Sneaky bugger.

“Today, I bring you some exciting news and I hope you think that it is as well.

GigantortheMoose, also known as Sam Winchester, lives a few towns over from me, and we have many, many mutual subscribers, who constantly pester the both of us about meeting up, and recently Sam and I have been in contact with each other, and we have an announcement.

Sam and I have decided to make a joint video. If you like it, we shall be setting up a joint account and create a video every week, possibly every two weeks.”

Gabe would be lying if he said he hadn’t squealed a little at that. I mean, he might be seeing Sam Winchester at least twice every month. What wasn’t there to be excited about?

“I have been told that Sam has roped his brother Dean into playing camera man, and I plan on attempting to get my brother, Gabriel, to help as well.

Moving onto today’s video’s primary purpose, I have been informed that this –“

It was at that moment that he holds up a bag of marshmallows. Ah yes, Gabe thought, this would be hilarious.

“Is not popcorn.”

Damn.

“I was not informed of this. I do not know why I thought this was popcorn, I just have always called it that, and nobody ever corrected me. And, as a result, I have learnt that I have never actually tried popcorn. So, I went to the supermarket and I bought three flavours. Salted, cheese, why this is a thing I have no idea, and toffee. Here we go.

Salted first I think. Err, it is – OH GOD! That is disgusting! That is popcorned salt at the most! I’m going to get some water, excuse me.”

Gabe laughed as Cas’ face went bright red, and he choked a little on the popcorn. The frames switched to show Cas sitting in a different position with slightly wet eyes and red cheeks.

“Cheese now then. This could go badly considering what happened last time. Erm, it’s, I mean there’s nothing wrong with it. It’s nice. I can cope with this.”

Gabe sighed. It would have been much more fun to watch his brother choke again.

“Toffee last then. Okay, here we go. Oh heaven. This is, excuse me, I need to practice a technique I learnt from the pizza man on this popcorn.”

This time it was Gabe who choked on a sip of water he was taking, as he realised Cas was referring to the porn Gabe had showed him once. He really hoped he didn’t act this ridiculously when they went up to meet Sam and Dean. Mainly Sam though.

Gabe had realised after watching Cas’ video that he had quite a lot of work to do. He was taking a few online college courses and, well they were online, and so was YouTube. Did they really expect him to choose work over fun times and sunshine men?

So it was around three o’clock in the afternoon when he walked downstairs – surprisingly wearing actual clothes and not pajamas – searching for coffee and a snack, only to find Cas walking around the kitchen on the phone.

“Yeah, that’s cool … No, I like that idea … Yeah, I think they’d like it.”

“Cas?” Gabe mouthed, “Who’s that?”

“Sam,” Cas mouthed back, before he continued with the conversation, not noticing how Gabe’s mouth dropped open excitedly.

“It’s Thursday today, so I’m thinking Wednesday? … Is Dean free then? … Oh no, don’t worry, Gabe is always free … Okay, I’ll see you then,” Gabe started waving his arms frantically to get Cas’ attention, but he was too busy looking in a cupboard to pay attention, “Awesome, okay bye.” He hung up.

“CAS!”

“What?” Cas’ eyes widened, and he looked terrified, “what did I do?”

“WHY? I mean, am I not allowed to speak to him? Do you not love me, brother? Remember all our pranks, our games, we were brothers in arms! Why do you betray me like this? Why do you hate me Cas? Have I never done anything for you?”

“What? And no, you rarely do anything for me. I’m not convinced you’re driving me to be nice, you want something.”

“LIES! I gave you my math homework!”

“No, you stole my math homework! And they weren’t our pranks! You put frogs in my bed and you’re the reason I thought it was called popcorn! And why do you even want to speak to Sam anyway?”

Gabe suddenly feels a deep blush spreading from his cheeks to his neck, to the tips of his ears and just generally over his entire body.

“What? Just … Safety. And stuff. That’s all.”

They stare at each other for a few moments before Gabe nearly sprinted out, running up to his room and deciding the only way to cope with what just happened is to write a long and detailed comment on Cas’ video about how the manufacturers were lying to him, and the marshmallows actually were called popcorn all along.