Chapter Text
Chapter 1
Sam Winchester didn't know what to expect from college in the slightest. It wasn't like he could just call up Dean for advice anymore. Besides, this is uncharted territory for the Winchester family. As far as he knows, no one in his family tree has ever gone past high school. And most of them haven't even accomplished that.
His RA was nice enough. He helped Sam find his way around school and things like that. But he's a senior and they have little in common other than attending the same school. His roommate hadn't come around yet, either. There weren't any signs that he'd ever showed up, despite Tuesday being the second day of classes. Sam supposed that he could have free Mondays like he did, but it seemed strange that his dorm mate never even showed up.
Either way, in his first class on Tuesday, Sam was friendless without any idea of how to adjust to his unfamiliar setting. The sun was barely over the horizon. His cheap watch reading 6:54.
He didn't mind rising early. John had conditioned his kids to adjust to weird sleep patterns. Sam was certain that no amount of early rising could phase him anymore. Most of his classmates probably disagreed. Those that weren't visibly regretting their life choices were either typing away on laptops or chatting quietly in pairs. Some even had their heads dropped onto their desks, trying to catch a few more precious minutes of sleep. No one seemed happy to be there.
Sam sat in the midst of a group of unoccupied seats. All of his nearby classmates were either staring ahead with a blank look or napping on their desks. None looked open to conversation. Taking out the class's required materials didn't take long, so he quickly found himself in uncomfortable silence. With two minutes before the start of class, someone slid into the seat next to his.
The stranger was one of those who looked like he regretted his life's choices. His eyes fluttered with the telltale sign of drowsiness. His head involuntarily drifted forwards before he would snap upright. In one hand, he held a ridiculously over-sized cup of coffee considering his size. When the newcomer's eyes slid to Sam, they widened briefly. He seemed to brighten, looking pleasantly surprised. His mouth quirked into a smile.
Sam shot him a grateful smile that he hoped didn't look desperate in return. It was the closest he'd gotten to camaraderie in the past week. The stranger doesn't reply, but his smile doesn't fade, either. He turned to rifle through his bag, coming up with an aluminum can. Sam caught a glimpse at the words scrawled across the can- it was some sort of drink called Monster.
It sounded familiar. After rifling through his memories, Sam remembered why he recognized it. It was an energy drink that Dean had a couple times when he was still a kid- he'd thought coffee was gross, but he was too young to drink alcohol. In a compromise, Dean had sneaked a few cans into their shopping cart at a gas station once. He'd only drunkeen it twice before their dad confiscated it. From what Sam remembered, it'd made Dean bounce off the walls so much that John couldn't concentrate on anything other than keeping his sleep-deprived son out of trouble.
Sam glanced between the stranger's two drinks, wordlessly raising his brows. Although he noticed Sam's unspoken question, he still didn't verbally reply.
Instead, the man silently popped open the energy drink and dumped all of its contents into the canister of coffee. His eyes met Sam's once more and he finally spoke.
"I'm going to die," he drily announces, bitterly smirking.
A wiry man walked in before Sam had a chance to respond. He quickly silenced the few murmurings of the class by introducing himself, giving a steely look to anyone who so much as breathed too loudly.
Sam was distracted through the professor's entire introductory speech, eyes instead locked on the his companion. The man seemed dead set on drinking the entire concoction. Sam was certain that the caffeine content had to be toxic, especially considering that the man didn't top five nine. After a while, the stranger noticed the not-so-subtle stares thrown his way. He peered back at Sam until the taller man looked away, although he seemed pleased with the attention he'd garnered.
Sam's gaze darted elsewhere, finally settling on the professor. The professor rambled on about something dull relating to economics, a topic Sam couldn't care less about. Nonetheless, Sam reminded himself that he couldn't lose his concentration this early. Maybe mixing caffeinated drinks is just normal college behavior. How would he know? He'd get used to it soon enough.
The class ended two hours later. Half the class had edozed by then- Sam was close to joining their ranks at one point. At least a third of the students shambled out the door with blank looks like zombies. Sam fell among the few remaining students who'd fully embraced consciousness, ignoring a single slip-up. The stranger next to him seemed to have awakened, in no small part thanks to his now entirely empty cup. In fact, he was vibrating with energy. His fingers drummed impatiently against his desk, matching pace with his rapping feet. He caught Sam's amazed (and equally concerned) stare at his empty glass and just grinned.
"What? Don't tell me you haven't gotten some sort of caffeine boost this morning."
"I haven't," Sam finally admitted, cramming his laptop into his bag.
There was a pause. Sam felt the full intensity of his stare, although he didn't look up from his things.
"What are you? Some sort of God?" the stranger incredulously replied, eyes narrowed with suspicion.
"I don't know where things are yet. I didn't want to be late to class because I got lost," Sam defensively answered.
The stranger gave him a once over, doubt still clouding his face. The hunter- no- ex-hunter, finished packing away his stuff. He ignored the look of disbelief still being directed at him. When Sam stood, his companion seemed to shrink even more (much to the man's visible dismay as his eyes his taller opponent).
"What's your name, anyways?" the shorter of the pair asked.
"Uh- it's Sam."
There was an instinctive falter in his voice. Sam supposed years of using fake names would do that to you, although that was a conversation topic he'd rather avoid. It didn't go unnoticed. The stranger's eyebrows ross with doubt, leaving Sam to wonder if he's getting the full force of some sort of interrogation. Thankfully, the amber-eyed man doesn't pursue the matter any further. His lips did quirk into a smile, interest sparking in his eyes.
"I'm Gabriel. Don't wear it out."
Sam half-smiled and threw his bag around his shoulder.
"Are you new, too?"
"Yeah. This is a freshman class. Intro to Economics," Gabriel retorted.
"Oh. Right, yeah," Sam mumbled, biting back a wince.
"You sure you don't need a coffee?" the shorter man bemusedly questioned. "I know a place nearby."
Sam admittedly needed a caffeine boost. He wasn't tired at the beginning of the class, but the dim room quickly grew stuffy. The class wasn't riveting, either. His recent diet hasn't exactly been healthy- he'd been living off soda and granola bars for far longer than reccomended. He was pretty close to having his energy crash entirely- and he could feel a headache on the horizon, too. But since he had an afternoon class in a couple hours, it was in his best interests to hold off his crash for a while.
"Sure, that'd be great."
Besides, it's not like he had any plans (or friends, for that matter).
It was a short walk to the cafe, mostly filled with the customary boring pleasantries and questions. Sam stuck to his usual cover story, revealing as little as possible- he moved around a lot as a kid ans since he didn't want to go into the family business, he left for college. Gabriel was equally as vague about his past, too. They breeze past the topic quickly after the mutual discomfort became apparent.
Clearly they already had something in common. Sam silently wondered why Gabriel's had bad blood with his upbringing, but since they made an unspoken agreement not to talk about it, he was left to mull it over by himself. Besides, bonding over an unhappy childhood didn't seem like a start to a healthy friendship.
After around ten minutes, Gabriel stopped him in front of a brick building sandwiched between an art shop and a flower boutique. A hand-painted wooden sign above the door labeled the shop as The Cinnamon Cafe. Gabriel glided to the entrance. He dramatically threw the door open and marched inside. Sam followed after a short hesitation.
The name fit the cafe well. Cinnamon was the first thing Sam smelled when he walksd inside. It was mixed with the delightful scent of cooking pastries and the rich scent of brewing coffee. His mouth watered at the aroma- he couldn't help but to inhale it. Matters weren't helped when his eyes feasted upon the display exhibiting an array of freshly cooked desserts. Sam can't remember the last time he ate any sort of dessert that hadn't come out of a wrapper. Still, he hadn't worked out enough recently to justify a sugary treat. And his wallet was already screaming in protest before he entered. He'd have to hold off on splurging for now.
Gabriel seemed quite cheery as he strode to the counter with a grin that already seemed familiar. Sam couldn't help but to feel cheerful too, eyeing the menu. He was debating how girly of a drink he could order without the usual raised brows when he overheared Gabriel's order. In addition to some sort of caramel latte, the man rattled off a list of several pastries to top it off.
Sam chose some kind of cappuccino with liberal amounts of cream and sugar that probably would've gotten him cashiered if he were still with his family. But it's about damn time he had something other than the instant stuff from gas stations, so he was going to savor it. Once their orders are prepared, Gabriel guided him to a small booth in the corner. The entire place was cozy and thankfully clean. The lighting wasn't blinding, the seats were comfortable, and the other patrons were college students. For the most part, the other customers were quietly typing away on laptops. It was comfortable, much more so than the bars Sam used to be dragged into.
Gabriel proved to be a great conversational partner. Even for a Standord student, he was incredibly bright. He was cultured, charismatic, and well-read, which more than made up for his rather juvenile sense of humor. And he was a great story-teller, especially seeing as how trouble always seemed to find him. Sam frequently found himself laughing, especially when Gabriel started telling stories about his best pranks. Sam quickly found himself in the middle of an enthralling story without any recollection of how three hours have passed.
"Anyways, so I'm standing in nothing but my boxers and a ski mask on the top bleacher with a gallon of pudding and half a pie during the halftime show with my foot stuck in the drying cement while the school's mascot, this guy in an ancient bird costume, is chasing me with a pitchfork," Gabriel said, amusedly recalling the comeuppance of a bitchy teacher that went horribly wrong.
"Then what?" Sam impatiently asked.
"Well, I yanked my feet out of my shoes and started running away, barefoot. And let me tell you, a high school football game is a disgusting place to go barefoot. Anyways, I hop onto the field from the first row of bleachers. The band's on the field. They get totally off sync, no surprise there. I'd be distracted if some kid came streaking across the field with an armed bird in pursuit, too. They get totally uncoordinated. Some of them start running into each other and they sound like a mess. Eventually, the coach sends a football player after me. This guy, who's like six five and isn't weighed down by a thirty pound suit, comes trucking at me to get me off the field. So, I'm weaving in and out of the tuba players and the damned bird guy tackles me into the ground."
Gabriel dramatically paused to spoon cake into his mouth, feeding off of Sam's frustration at the untimely break. When Sam's gaze started morphing into an impatient glare, only then did Gabriel continue.
"Well, the pie goes flying and hits some band kid in the face. Everything's totally chaotic by now. I figure I'm being recorded by about half the student body now. Even though it's my senior year, I don't want to live on in infamy- so I decide that I'd rather be a legend than a loser. I punch the mascot in the face. It doesn't do anything through the padding, so I scoop a handful of pudding and just chuck it at him. He's so surprised that I manage to get away. The football player is still coming at me, though. So I'm just blindly throwing pudding over my shoulder."
Gabriel jabbed at his bowl of pudding for extra emphasis, liberally motioning with his spoon while he spoke. He grinned, Sam somehow fully believes that he wasn't making any of it up.
"I guess he slipped or something, because I manage to get into the locker rooms. I run into the shower room, because that place is creepy enough that no one's going in there at night. I probably shouldn't have- all I had for company in the dark was whatever was crawling across my foot and what I hope to God was the squeaking of rats. They don't look in the showers, though, so it works out. Once I'm alone, I steal some kid's gym clothes from the lost and found bucket and try to slip back into the crowd."
Gabriel snorted, stopping to take a swig of coffee (mostly because he was trying to figure out how to finish the story- things had gone smoothly once he was able to vanish without any eyewitnesses). Sam impatiently waited. When it became clear that Gabriel seemed done, he questioned,
"And? Is that it?"
"Pretty much. That's the story of how I got arrested and won Prom King because of it," Gabriel replies, smirking as he bites into a piece of cake. At Sam's raised brows, he elaborates. "They released me on lack of evidence. A few blurry videos of a guy in a ski mask wasn't enough evidence. There were rumors, though, and I guess they swung the vote in my favor."
Gabriel shamelessly grinned, innocently shrugging. After a moment of silence, Gabriel leaned forwards.
"What about you?"
"What do you mean?"
"Come on. What sorts of jokes have you played? Don't give me any of that innocent bullshit. You've got a mischievous side. I can tell."
Gabriel smiled at him in a way that was probably supposed to be encouraging, but came off more fiendish than anything else. Sam was certain that any of his practical jokes would seem bland and basic in comparison to Gabriel's devilishly creative ones. (Seriously- who knew someone could use honey like that?). But he decided to humor Gabriel, because this sas the closest he'd come to making a friend so far. So Sam picked out one story that he was particularly proud of to recount that one.
"Alright, fine. My brother and I liked to get into these prank wars. Someone would do something small and things would just escalate from there. Anyways, I was pretty mad at him for messing with my hair when I was asleep one night. He came home from work later that day and went straight to asleep. So I dug around in our groceries and found a pack of that instant drink mix stuff and some food dye. I end up putting all the mix behind the shower head."
Gabriel's eyes glinted with amusement while Sam paused to innocently sip his coffee.
"So, I turn off his alarm and wake him up late. He's obviously in a rush. He's racing around, and ends up jumping into the shower to rinse off before school. About a minute later, there's shouting from inside the bathroom, though it sounds more like a freaking banshee meeting its end. I'm pretty sure he slipped and fell over, even though he never admitted to it. But anyways, he barrels out of there, most of his skin and hair dyed bright bubblegum pink, dripping red water, and hopelessly sticky. He nearly strangled me, but I was out of there fast enough to avoid him. He went to school like that- dad said it was his fault for being late."
Sam smiled fondly at the memory, although it was soured when he remembered that he and Dean wouldn't be having more prank wars anytime soon. He hid his frown by dipping from his coffee. After Gabriel stopped laughing, a comfortable silence fell between them. Sam glanced down at his watch once it beeped to mark the start of a new hour.
"Ah, shit!" he hissed, abruptly jumping to his feet.
"Late?" Gabriel knowingly questioned.
Sam nodded, rapidly gathering his things. He haphazardly slung his satchel's strap over his shoulder. He only paused for a brief moment to ask,
"See you Thursday?"
"I'm not going anywhere," came the lazy reply.
Sam shot him an apologetic smile, then raced out the door to his next class.
Gabriel watched Sam retreat with a thoughtful look. He disinterestedly stirred his drink, musing over his growing interest in Sam. Perhaps he could extend his experiment awhile longer.