Work Text:
“Are you sure this thing can fly itself?” Sam asked, pulling the blanket a little tighter around the four people huddled in the bottom bunk of Jack’s bed. “We don’t need someone up there to fly it?”
“It’s not flying itself!” Jack protested indignantly. “Luke Skywalker and Han Solo are flying it! No one flies better than them!” He climbed into Gabriel’s lap, cuddling in against him. “Which means we can all hang out down here.”
Gabriel wrapped his arms around Jack, grinning over at Sam. “Jack’s ship, Jack’s rules, you know how this works.” He stopped, thinking about that. Did Sam know how this worked? None of the three of them had experienced a normal childhood, but their blind spots were all different. Gabriel had grown up incredibly privileged and spoiled, pretty much given anything he wanted, and had to unlearn a lot of that when he realized not everyone lived like he did. Part of that was sneaking out to play with “normal” kids. Castiel had been ignored by his caretakers his entire childhood, but at least he’d been around other kids in the group home.
But Sam… Sam had grown up isolated. He went to school, but never long enough for the shy and awkward kid to be accepted and make friends. The closest thing he’d had to a friend his age when he was at an age where playing make-believe like this was still cool instead of babyish was his brother Dean, who probably would have insisted on his rules no matter whose ideas they were making believe. Sam might well not have ever learned that you either all agreed on the rules or played by the rules of whoever came up with the game.
The game was one of Jack’s favorites – they were astronauts exploring the universe. Jack’s bunk bed was not exactly a comfortable fit for three grown men, and Sam’s moose limbs more than compensated for Gabriel’s relatively fun-size frame. He could only imagine how much worse it would be if the bed was the standard twin, but with a full, they could all fit in with some cuddling. None of them objected a bit to that. Before getting in, Gabriel had helped Jack carefully hang blankets from the top bunk so that they were closed in, “Like we would be in a spaceship!” Normally, Jack or Gabriel would be up top to “fly” the ship to their destination.
“Tell us, Jack, where are we going?” Castiel asked. “And what will we be attempting to do there?”
“We’re going to Tellefrax! We’re delivering some very important cargo.” Jack peeked out enough to reach a box under the bed, which he lifted into the bunk. All three grownups raised their eyebrows when they saw Jack had retrieved his toy makeup kit. “They’re hosting a beauty pageant, but the Tellefraxian atmosphere melts normal makeup, especially lipstick. We’re delivering this very special Izorean makeup so they can go on with the show.”
“Hmmm… sounds like the beauty queens will be incredibly grateful,” Gabriel said, earning a smack from Sam. “Ow! What was that for?”
“You shouldn’t go encouraging taking advantage of their gratitude,” Sam said after a moment, which Gabriel figured was him trying to yell at him for thinking of sleeping with the beauty queens without having to explain things to Jack. “I’m sure Jack’s already negotiated our payment for this, right, Jack?”
“We got paid up front, but we’re supposed to accept any additional rewards the contestants offer us that we’re interested in,” Jack agreed. “Mr. Drethis said they might have some cool things for us.”
“Oh, he did?” Sam said, trying to hold the ice out of his voice but not quite succeeding. Gabriel had only slightly better luck holding in the laughter. Mr. Drethis was Dean. Since they all had names starting with different letters, Jack had started using the initials as code for anyone who couldn’t join the game but he’d talked to about ideas. Dean was likely in for some unpleasantness next time Sam got the chance to tell him off. “Like what, did he say?”
“Like if there’s some makeup left over, they might let us join them! Or the winner might share their champagne, although he said if they did I shouldn’t drink any. He also said they’d probably find beds for us to spend the night comfortably instead of sleeping on the spaceship for the night.” Gabriel lost the fight against his laughter at the look on Sam’s face. Castiel just rolled his eyes. “What’s so funny, Daddio?”
“Your papa makes funny faces when he’s annoyed,” Gabriel deflected. “Do you want to sleep somewhere other than the ship tonight?”
Jack tilted his head in consideration, and then shook it. “I wouldn’t mind if you guys wanted to, but the ship’s comfortable for me. All the cuddles if you’re here, plenty of space to stretch out if you’re not.”
“That’s that, then,” Castiel said. “Sam, Gabriel, if you two would like to accept an offer of a more comfortable bed from the beauty pageant contestants, go right ahead. I’ll stay with Jack on the ship.”
“We’ll see what happens when we get to Tellefrax,” Gabriel said, and Sam rolled his eyes. “Are we going to stay to watch the pageant?”
“We can if we want to! Or we can try to find our next job,” Jack said. He started to put his thumb in his mouth, but stopped at a look from Castiel. “Tellefrax has dinosaurs, you know. That might be cool, going to see the dinosaurs instead of watching the beauty pageant. Or we could do both? Take some time between jobs like Uncle Dean and Aunt Jo and Uncle Benny and Aunt Hannah do?”
“That sounds like fun,” Castiel agreed. “Which first, in case some kind of emergency comes up?”
Jack had to stop and think about that one. “Beauty pageant,” he eventually decided. “There are dinosaurs on other planets, but this is the first time we’ve run into a pageant in space.” Gabriel smirked. He couldn’t remember a planet they had visited in their travels that didn’t have dinosaurs, except for the few times they’d popped by Earth.
With that settled, they could sit back and enjoy the trip out. Gabriel enjoyed this a lot more than he usually let on – spending Sunday evening playing make believe with his husbands and son was way more fun than he could have dreamed before he got talked into giving settling down and having husbands a try. When Jack started squirming, needing to get up, Gabriel clapped his hands. “Hey! I think we just dropped out of warp. Lead the way to the beauty contestants, Jack.”
Jack jumped out of bed a little too eagerly, pulling the blanket wall down with him in his eagerness to get out his Barbies. Sam stayed back to fix it while Gabriel and Castiel helped Jack “test” the makeup to prove to the beauty contestants that it wouldn’t melt. He got there in time to help choose outfits and dress the contestants for their pageant.
There was enough time once Jack had crowned the winner of the pageant to set the Barbies aside and get out the dinosaurs, too. They were in the middle of a T-rex chasing a triceratops when the alarm went off to signal that there was an emergency. “Quick, Jack, let’s get back to the beauty pageant and make sure all the contestants are safe!” Gabriel said. Jack, Gabriel, and Sam got the Barbies put away while Castiel put the dinosaurs back, finishing minutes before the second alarm went off.
“Great job, everyone,” Sam announced. “We saved the day! Give me a high five, Jack?”
Jack high-fived Sam. Then his face fell. “The spaceship! We didn’t get that set up for bedtime!”
“That’s okay, Jack. Go get yourself set up for bedtime, and by the time you get back, I’ll have your bed ready for you,” Gabriel promised. Jack took off for the bathroom, pajamas in hand. When he came back, Gabriel and Castiel had his bed back to its normal configuration. Jack got in, getting good night kisses from all three of his dads.