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Law school was terrifying. In two days, Sam was more overwhelmed than he’d ever been in college, with the exception of finals week. At least he had company. A lot of his classmates wore the same shellshocked expression that he did.
So the last thing he needed was a complication. Unfortunately, one showed up. Words on his arm, in two different scripts. One simply said “Hello.” Common, but incredibly unhelpful. The handwriting would help, but the loopy letters weren’t exactly distinctive.
The other would probably be much more helpful. “Sam Winchester. The boy with the demon blood.” Why anyone would say that, Sam had no idea. He didn’t even know what that meant. Demon blood? Really? The handwriting was super distinctive, too. Very old-fashioned. Almost medieval. That one shouldn’t be hard to find, just check out people’s notes in study group.
They both had to be people at his law school. Those were the only new people he’d met. He hadn’t even gone out anywhere the last couple days, barely having the energy left to eat the food his brother set in front of him. He hadn’t even noticed the words until today, but he knew they hadn’t been there when he got ready for his first day of classes.
No less than four people he didn’t think he’d spoken to before said hello to Sam before the first class of the day. All of them were weirded out when Sam responded with “Fluffy.”
The next person to say hello, though, gasped in surprise. “Fluffy?”
“Yes.”
“Now this makes sense!” She rolled up the sleeve on her plaid shirt. “I had to wonder who goes around randomly saying fluffy, but if you’ve got something like hello on your arm…”
“Yeah.” Sam looked at the words. Fluffy, in his handwriting, right there. She also had the medieval script on her arm. “Jessica Moore? Is that you?”
“That’s me! I don’t suppose you recognize the handwriting?”
Sam rolled up his own sleeve. “Only from this. At least he’s not saying anything about demon blood to you.”
“Well, this explains why they’re calling me ‘Sam’s girlfriend.’ You’ll tell me when you meet them, right?”
“Of course. I’ll explain the demon blood thing when I understand it myself, too.”
Sam and Jess started hanging out as soon as they had adjusted to the demands of law school, and it wasn’t long until their class realized they were dating. It brought a lot of joking, and Dean loved his brother’s new girlfriend.
Then, one day in class, a discussion derailed into addiction. One of their classmates questioned the idea of being addicted to gambling or chocolate, whether real addiction could be to anything but drugs. Sam disagreed. “It’s all about the chemicals, right? Well, the body makes chemicals. If gambling gives you a rush of chemicals that you don’t get in other ways, you can get addicted to that. You can get addicted to sex, or a particular food, or pretty much anything. Heck, you could probably get addicted to drinking demon blood, given the right circumstances.”
He’d only meant to say blood, as a vampire reference, but when Jess shot him a confused look, he realized what he’d actually said. He slid down in his seat, hoping no one but Jess would notice how embarrassed he was. At least his point hadn’t gotten lost in the accidental slip.
After class, Jess just had to tease him. “At least we know where the demon blood came from, right? If you hadn’t been so embarrassed I’d have thought you did it on purpose. It’s probably a good idea, anyway. I don’t expect they’ll come up to us right away, but… now they’ll recognize you.”
“Yeah, I guess.”
By the time the first quarter of law school ended, Sam and Jess still hadn’t found their other soulmate. To celebrate surviving the first quarter, one of their classmates was throwing a party, and Sam and Jess decided to go. Luis was an awesome guy, and he greeted them both with hugs. “Hey, guys! Glad you came. I think that’s everyone from our class!”
“Everyone? Really?” Jess asked, looking around.
Luis looked inside. It wasn’t much of a crowd. “Well, most of them are out back because that’s where the pool is, and some of them aren’t here yet, but come on. Ty Brady and his bunch never miss a party, they’re just not here yet.”
“Not what I meant,” Jess said. “That one guy who never does anything or says anything to anyone other than the teachers, and even then only when they make him, he’s here?”
“Oh, yeah! I’m so ashamed, but he had to remind me what his name was when he showed up. Come on, I’ll introduce you guys.” Luis walked inside, and Sam and Jess followed. “Hey, Castiel! You just gonna sit there all night?”
“That was my plan, yes.” Castiel set his beer down. “What do you want?”
“Want you to meet two of the coolest people in our class. This is…”
“Sam Winchester, the boy with the demon blood,” Castiel interrupted. He shook Sam’s hand, then Jess’s. “Jessica Moore, Sam’s girlfriend. I do recognize most of my classmates, even if I prefer not to interact.” He looked between the two. “Is something wrong?”
“We probably should have seen this coming,” Jess said. Castiel squinted and tilted his head at her. She rolled up her sleeve and held her arm out to him. “Hi! Nice to meet you!”
Castiel’s eyes went wide and he rolled up his own sleeve. He squinted up at Sam when Sam looked at it, too, and Sam grinned at him and read his line. “Hey, I’m just trying to see what I’m supposed to say to you.” He held out his arm, sleeve rolled up.
Castiel looked at it. “I see. That explains why I felt I had to come to this party tonight. I normally avoid this sort of thing.”
“We’ve noticed,” Sam said. “It’s nice to finally find out who you are, though!”