Chapter Text
3 laps to go. He was in second place, 2.34 seconds behind, and unless he got a last minute speed boost, he was crossing the finish line in this spot. He came around on the inside, turn four, 2 laps to go, 1.87 seconds behind, the first place car makes a mistake, they take the outside, checkered flag. Turn two, final lap, 1.02 seconds behind, it’s not looking good. Turn four, they’re nose to nose, finish line dead ahead. It’s all over, he’s lost, just .4 seconds behind the leader, and it was a close call.
The driver of car number 52, our second place driver, pulled himself out of the window with practiced ease. He laughed as the reporter’s eyes widened, waiting for him on the other side of the wall with his crew, the media were often surprised about his size; it wasn’t often that a man over six feet drove in these races, never mind a man that tall who was good at the job. His crew chief smiled at him once he got the helmet over his head and smoothed down his hair, which was sweaty and tangled, but it didn’t matter. He pulled the older man into a quick hug, laughing as the man had to reach up and grab his cap to keep it on his head.
“I swear boy, you keep this up we’re going to win the championship race,” Bobby’s smile was fond even as he was pushed out of the way and another body took his place. Sam gripped his brother to keep from falling against the car as Dean laughed into his shoulder.
“Dude you so had that guy, two more seconds and that race woulda been yours,” Dean pulled back to glare around the crowd toward the victory circle, where the race winner was talking into a camera. Sam’s attention was torn from his brother when the reporter from earlier tapped his shoulder to get a few statements about the race, how he prepares for them, how it felt to lose, and of course get a good shot of the sponsored car and uniforms.
Once they were allowed to pack up and head back home Sam stripped out of the red and white coveralls, brandished with his team’s sponsored logo. Their sponsor was a chain of restaurants throughout the country and Sam knew his team was really lucky to have them. They’d sponsored them for the last couple years even if Sam wasn’t big on their greasy food, the money was necessary to keep his job and crew running. He hadn’t wanted to be a NASCAR driver when he was younger, it hadn’t appealed to him until he was in his late teens, having learned everything there was to know about cars from his adoptive father Bobby and his brother Dean. They had been arguing over what to do with an old junker in the garage when Ash came running in grinning and ranting about the newest car they just got in, an old racer that just needed a tune up but the owner didn’t want her anymore since he’d given up interest. That’s when Sam’s attention was sparked, and seven years later he’s got three years NASCAR racing experience under his belt.
He couldn’t do it alone, not a chance, so he gathered a pit crew, ten people he trusted with his safety and around a car. It wasn’t particularly hard to find that many people, but an average crew is around 14 people, so his is small but he’s not ashamed of it nor does he think he needs anymore people.
First of course was Bobby, his father figure and the best match for crew chief. Bobby had called him an idjit and hit him with a newspaper when he’d asked the man to take the job, but Sam saw the way his cheeks reddened to know that the man had been flattered that Sam had asked.
Then Sam put together his pit crew, starting with his brother Dean. Dean became the jack man, because he was the one Sam trusted to watch over the pit directly and send him off to the track again. Then came Ash, who became the gas man. Dean and Ash are both also the main ones in charge of keeping the car in perfect condition even when it’s not being raced. The tire changers for the pit crew are Jo, Benny, Kevin, and Brady. Occasionally Rufus is allowed on the track to clear the windshield or to add extra window visors to help block the sun at certain tracks. Garth and Andy were the last to round out his crew, making it an even ten; both of them working behind the gate with Bobby to keep everything in line and the pit crew ready.
When the truck and serious of vehicles pulled back into Bobby’s after a six hour drive everyone was exhausted and most people left automatically to get back to their own houses, leaving Sam, Dean, Bobby, Jo, Ash, and Benny, all at Bobby’s for the night. Bobby had moved to Kansas after Mary died, coming to help John raise Sam and Dean and had stayed there after John died, adopting the boys as his own. Once Sam and the team started making good money Sam invested in a bigger house, yet it was still Bobby’s, he’d bought it for him and let Bobby have the master suite, instead sharing the upstairs floor with his brother. After patting his brother on the back again and wishing everyone goodnight, Dean pulled Benny up the stairs to his room for bed.
“You two crashing on the couch bed tonight then?” Bobby asked Jo, who was sipping a beer at the kitchen table. She nodded looking towards the living room where Ash was moving the furniture around carefully to make room to pull the bed out.
“Yeah, we’ll head home in the morning probably.” She grinned at Bobby as she stood and walked around the table to hug him around the neck, squeezing him close. “You get to sleep old man; you need your beauty rest.”
Bobby blushed red and glared over at Sam who was leaning on the counter, “Yeah yeah, night children.” Bobby shuffled down the hallway and into his room, leaving Sam and Jo in the kitchen. Sam ruffled Jo’s hair as he walked by and called out a goodnight to both her and Ash as he walked up the stairs to his room.
The next morning Sam woke up to Benny coming into his room and flicking on his light. He groaned and pushed his face into the pillow, muttering something about how ‘if my brother didn’t like you so much I swear I’d throw you out a window’ but Benny just laughed and told him to get his ass downstairs, apparently something’s happened. Sam crawled out of bed and waved a hand at Benny, though the blond didn’t leave the doorway until Sam pulled on a pair of sweats and shuffled down after him. Everyone was gathered in the kitchen, Bobby was leaning against the counter, Ash and Dean were sitting at the table, and Jo perched on Dean’s lap. Benny smiled as he came in, dropping into the seat next to Ash and patting his lap for Sam who rolled his eyes and took the seat at the end of the table.
“I take it from the sounds that sleeping beauty has joined us?” A thick British accent gave Crowley away even before he walked into the room from the library, moving to stand next to Bobby and placing a hand on the other man’s hip, though it was pushed away a second later. Crowley just smiled and shrugged, turning back to the group at the table. Crowley and Bobby had had a thing for years, Sam’s sure it must have started back when he was still a pre-teen, before John died. Crowley was a big name in the world of business though even after all this time none of them were exactly sure of what it was he did. He managed a lot of the business for the crew, so his being here meant something had either happened or was going too.
“What’s going on Crowley? You don’t usually stall this long.” Dean yawned into Jo’s arm, earning a whack on the head. Crowley sighed and ran a hand along his jaw.
“I hate to be the bearer of bad news. Well actually, I usually don’t care, but I like you people for some reason.” Bobby elbowed him in the side and he continued. “Your biggest sponsor called this morning,” Sam stiffened in his seat and it seemed like the whole room grew tense, “They’ve decided to drop you. You need to repaint the cars and get rid of the gear within the next week or so.”
The silence in the room stretched, Sam felt something in his chest snap and stared at the table. Ash shifted to sit up straighter to let Jo move to his lap when Dean stood to his feet. She pressed back against Ash and gripped his wrist as Dean slammed his fist onto the table.
“Why the fuck would they drop us?” Benny stood to walk around and grab one of Dean’s shoulders, just holding it there, keeping Dean grounded. Crowley sighed again, looking more serious than he had all morning.
“The company got a new owner after the only one retired, and this new guy is apparently not a fan of a few of our crew member’s ‘alternative lifestyles’ so they dropped us.” Bobby didn’t push Crowley’s arm away this time. Sam looked up just in time to see the way the words hit his older brother, watching as he nearly stumbled back into Benny’s chest. Benny wrapped an arm around his middle and shook his head, whispering something in his boyfriend’s ear.
“That’s bullshit man! They can’t do that!” Ash frowned. “That’s such a medieval way of thinking; I can’t stand assholes like that.”
“Technically there’s nothing in our contract that said they couldn’t do it,” Sam mumbled, “I remember reading it. We basically agreed that they could drop us without warning for little to no reason.”
“The moose is right guys,” Crowley tucked his free hand into his pocket, “as much as I’d like to sue the pretentious bastard, there’s nothing I can do.” Silence filled the room again for a minute or two before Jo groaned and covered her face with her hands.
“The next race is in two weeks, how are we supposed to find a sponsor, get new suits, and get the car painted in time?” She smoothed her hair out of her face as Ash smoothed a thumb across the back of her other hand.
“Dean and I can paint a car in less than a day, and Kevin’s got connections with a few people and with Crowley’s business knowledge the other two will be relatively okay.” Ash shrugged with a grim smile, yet Sam was really grateful for his attempt.
“We’ll figure it out. Even if I have to miss the next race,” Sam hated missing races but he’s sure he could claim some family trouble or something as an excuse.
“No can do kid, if you miss that one you’ll not be eligible for the championship race.” Bobby scratched his beard and frowned when Sam’s forehead hit the table again.
The next week didn’t hold many results, every time Crowley got a business to consider then they decided they didn’t have the money to put into the investment. Sam was feeling more and more disheartened, and he’d quit shaving a few days ago, growing himself a nice amount of scruff for the short amount of time. Dean kept trying to take responsibility for the sponsorship drop even though Sam kept reminding him that he wasn’t the only one on the team who wasn’t straight. At least five of the team members weren’t, Sam included.
He ignored his brothers grumbling now though, knowing it was no use and Dean would get over it as soon as they got a new sponsor. Instead he left the house to go for a walk, just to try and clear his head and two hours later was still out walking through town. A building caught his eye; a large sign on the front of it that said “Angel’s” and a set of stained glass window’s adorned the front of the building. Sam rolled up the sleeves of his red flannel shirt and walked closer, noticing it was a restaurant. It didn’t look like a fancy place when Sam entered the building so he relaxed; the whole place had the feeling of a small town diner, despite the appearance from the outside. He walked to the back of the place, sitting in the empty corner booth and looking out the window. A few moments later a cheery voice broke him out of his silence when they called his name. He looked up into the face of Charlie Bradbury, who smiled and waved at him. Charlie had gone to the same high school as both Winchesters, though she had been two years below Sam, and had earned her place as one of their closest friends when she whacked Dean over the head with a plastic sword when he tried to hit on her girlfriend. It wasn’t funny to Dean at the time, but her and Sam had connected right away and Dean had come around a week later. Her red hair was pulled back into a pony-tail, she had on a red polo and a knee-length black skit, Sam couldn’t see her shoes as she plopped down beside him in the booth.
“I didn’t know you had a job.” Sam cringed as Charlie smacked him with the notebook in her hand, the one she was supposed to be taking orders with.
“Hello to you too, rude ass,” she turned to face him as best as she could in the booth and propped her elbows on the table, “you look like shit. What’s going on?” Sam scowled at her and attempted to smooth his hair down.
“Shouldn’t you be working?” Sam pressed as close to the end of the booth as he could, trying unsuccessfully to avoid Charlie’s gaze.
“Don’t change the subject Winchester. Plus, I’m sure my boss would understand if he saw your face.” She grinned when he grumbled insults under his breath.
He sighed, “Our sponsor dropped us and we’ve got less than a week to find a willing sponsor or we’re out of the championship race. We’ve tried so many different places; no one has the money to spare. It’s not even a lot of money! We’ve got our own garage and the guys do all the repairs. And not to mention the small sponsors fund a majority of everything, we’re basically giving away advertisement space and no one’s taking it.” Charlie made a humming sound and patted Sam’s hair before sliding out of the booth and motioning at him to stay when he gave her an incredulous look.
Sam sat at the booth for a few more minutes, and in that time he made himself a pretty nice pile of torn bits of napkin to spite Charlie for leaving him there. A child behind him looked over his shoulder and pointed out where he needed to add more pieces to make it even and he indulged the kid until his mother told him to ‘leave the poor sad man alone’. Sam went back to grumbling under his breath after that, even when he felt Charlie drop back next to him. He only stopped when someone slid into the other side of the booth. Sam looked up slowly, meeting clear blue eyes and feeling embarrassed about his napkin pile. The man across from them was wearing a dark blue button down with the first few buttons undone, exposing his chest. He had a handsome face, though his face was focused on Sam’s at the moment, studying him too, with the before mentioned blue eyes and perfectly styled blond curls on his head. Sam was not afraid at all to admit the man was very attractive, but didn’t exactly look to friendly at the moment. The man cleared his throat and placed his hands on the table.
“Sam right?” When Sam nodded, after being momentarily shocked by the man’s British accent, it reminded him almost of Crowley, he continued, “I hear you’ve gotten yourself in a predicament, and I’m curious as to what you’re exactly looking for.” Sam blinked again.
“I’m a NASCAR driver…” Sam trailed off when the man looked bored and waved a hand at Sam to silence him.
“No, I know all those things. You lost a sponsor, you need one fast, no races for you, boohoo, and all that stuff, am I right?” Sam frowned at Charlie but she just grinned at him. “The advertisement space is what I’m interested in. You’re pretty lucky that our little Charlie overheard the owner of this place and I discussing how to get more business to our little chain a few days ago and then walked right in here when she was working.” Charlie tried to defend herself by pointing out that if they had just called her when they found out this conversation could have happened sooner.
“You’re interested in being our sponsor? That’s fantastic Mr…?” The man smiled.
“Roche, Balthazar Roche. And yes, Sam, I’m interested. Of course I need to ask why exactly the last sponsor dropped you.” Sam blushed and looked down at the table again.
“Well uh, they don’t approve of some of the crew’s lifestyle.” Sam hoped that was a good enough explanation and the way Charlie huffed, he guessed it had. When he looked back up at Balthazar he found the man to have a large smile on his face.
“Well it’s a fantastic thing my husband and I don’t mind different ways of life then, isn’t it?” Sam relaxed into the booth so much he made Charlie laugh out loud at him and Balthazar shook his head, looking amused, “Now, let’s talk business.”
Sam spoke to Balthazar for another hour or so about the money aspects and the business side as much as he could without calling in Crowley. The two arranged a meeting the next day between Crowley, Sam, Balthazar, and the owner of the “Angel’s” chain, Gabriel Milton, just to make sure Sam hadn’t gotten anything wrong and for complete clarity.
About twenty minutes in and Sam (now clean shaven) was starting to regret taking Balthazar up on his offer. It had nothing to do with Balthazar, or Crowley, or Castiel –Balthazar’s husband who Sam met briefly before the man had to get to his own meeting, - no; it was because of Gabriel, the obnoxious owner. Before Crowley had even sat down in the room Gabriel had hit on the man and made Crowley glare at Sam multiple times. The man was a good eight inches shorter than Sam but it didn’t stop him from freaking Sam the hell out, especially with the way he had stared at Sam from behind a cherry lollipop while he pretended to listen to what the other men in the room were discussing. His golden eyes had been glued to Sam’s figure the entire time, even as the men said their goodbyes and the shorter man winked up at Sam. It hadn’t taken Sam long to figure out that Balthazar was the one who was really in charge of the money.
Crowley and Balthazar worked out a deal: Balthazar and Gabriel would come down to the garage and meet with the crew in order to decide if they really wanted to take the sponsorship, though Crowley reassured Sam that it was a done deal. He wasn’t looking forward to having Gabriel in the shop, the man’s presence was unnerving.
The next day Sam had managed to rouse the members of his crew early just to make sure everything was in the best order it could possibly be. Dean and Ash were still covered in grease by the time the bell over the door chimed, much to Sam’s dismay. Benny, Kevin, and Garth all gave Sam reassuring smiles as he led the four men, Gabriel, Crowley, Balthazar, and Castiel, through the garage to meet each of the crew members.
They met Bobby first, the older man having to push Crowley’s arm away from his waist again to be able to focus on what he was talking about. No matter what any of the crew member’s said or explained Gabriel looked completely unimpressed, which would have worried Sam if he wasn’t too busy trying to keep his brother from doing something utterly embarrassing to all of them, like dropping a car on Gabriel for flirting with his little brother or something.
Not that Gabriel wasn’t attractive, he was. Sam just wasn’t into guys whose idea of flirting was to smack his ass as they passed by after knowing them less than a day, or making jokes on his height constantly, no, he was sure he could deal without the short business owner with the stupidly gorgeous smile.
“Well boys,” Crowley clapped his hands together once they were all standing outside the garage, “this is the family operated crew that keeps Moose winning races.” Sam sighed and leaned back against the wall -he’d given up being proper the moment Balthazar smacked Gabriel upside the head for whining about the heat- and waited for the rejection.
“Sure is a rag-tag group of misfits, isn’t it?” Gabriel had another lollipop in his mouth, Sam couldn’t tell what flavor it was but the way Castiel wrinkled his nose said it wasn’t very pleasant to be next to. Balthazar and Castiel sighed at the same time; the former rolled his eyes before smiling at Crowley.
“If it’s all the same to you and this ‘rag-tag group of misfits’ we’ll take you up on your sponsorship. After all, Cassie studied up on your race history and it looks like a pretty nice investment.”
The celebration was small, the entire crew piled into Bobby’s house for beers, laughing happily and patting each other on the back. Sam was happy to see his brother back to his normal self and relieved that the team would still have work. Dean was a few more beers in than anyone else and was happily declaring his love for Kevin even as Benny pulled him up the stairs to their bedroom; the blue-eyed man shook his head with a chuckle. Sam wanted to head to bed next because he knew they had a lot of work to do the next day but Brady and Garth both wrapped an arm around him and pulled him into the kitchen, both refusing to let go until Sam had joined them for a round of shots.
When Sam woke up he had Kevin wrapped around his waist and he pushed the smaller man off of him, both of the groaning at the pain movement caused. Work, Sam had work to do, so he ignored Kevin, who pulled Sam’s blankets over his head and cuddled into his pillows, and stumbled into his connecting bathroom, nearly tripping over Garth in the process. Once he was freshly showered and in a clean pair of jeans he made his way downstairs, wincing at the sounds of metal as pans hit each other in the sink. Bobby was standing at the stove and shook his head when Sam fell into a chair at the table. He walked over and placed a mug of coffee in front of Sam, “Y’know getting drunk off your asses when we have work to do the next day is not a good idea.”
“I know,” Sam grumbled as he sipped at the coffee in his hands, normally he wouldn’t take it black but today he needed it. “I woke up with Kevin wrapped around me.”
“Idjit refused to sleep on the floor, and he sure as hell wasn’t sharing with me.” Sam nodded, enjoying the silence for a moment, at least until several loud bangs came from the front door and he groaned again, head hitting the table. Bobby must have moved to answer the door because when he looked back up Gabriel Milton was staring at him from the other side of the table. Sam jumped in the seat just managing to catch the mug before it hit the ground. Gabriel laughed loudly which made Sam wince again.
“What are you doing here?” Sam pressed his palms to his temples trying to relieve some of the pressure and Gabriel walked around and looked in the cabinets, shrugging.
“Business mostly,” He smiled as whatever he was looking for caught his eye. He grabbed Sam’s mug and dumped the coffee down the sink (at which Sam totally did not whine) and filled it back with water. He sat the mug and the bottle of aspirin in front of Sam and took the seat across from him. Sam gave him a thankful smile, downing a few pills and the water.
“Mostly?”
“Yeah, well, I also planned on seeing you half-naked and hung over, so that’s working out for me.” Sam didn’t even look down at himself, just glared at the smaller man.
“Congratulations, now what’s the business part or is that me fully-naked, because I’m telling you, I’m too hung over right now,” Sam didn’t miss the way Gabriel’s pupils dilated even as he shifted in his seat and cleared his throat.
“That’ll have to wait until you’re not dead on your feet then,” He sighed, “but what I’m here for is design work. It’s Wednesday and your next race is Sunday right?” When Sam nodded he smiled and reached into his pocket to pull out some folded papers. Spread out on the table Sam could see that they were detailed drawings of several logo’s, all saying “Angel’s” and including a pair of angel wings but each was slightly different. “They’re not much, but they’re my logos and my restaurants and I’m supposed to make sure you promote me in a respectful and beautiful way. So I drew these up-“
“You drew these?” Sam interrupted him. His eyes were glued to the various colors and he marveled over how beautifully drawn each pair of wings seemed to be.
“Uh, yeah,” When Sam looked up and smiled at Gabriel he could see a pink tint on the other man’s cheeks, “They’re just quick sketches.” He dismissed the attention quickly, “But anyway, I wanted you to pick out the colors and stuff, I know your brother and that other guy need the design as soon as possible. I’m happy with whichever pair of wings, and as long as it’s not a hot pink car, I’m sure the design will look fine.” He stopped talking and Sam thought nothing of it as he studied the drawings some more, until Gabriel cleared his throat and Sam looked back up at him.
“Oh, sorry,” Sam ducked his head, “I really like these,” He pointed out a large pair of wings, white feathers stretching around the name of the restaurant and coming down to a point with the tips touching, “We could keep the wings white, make the name of the restaurant a bold black and paint the car blue. Cobalt Blue.”
Gabriel smiled and seemed to relax in his chair, “Blue sounds good, just don’t fuck around and make my name ugly, ‘kay kiddo?” Sam rolled his eyes.
“I’ll make sure Dean knows to make it crooked and misspelled.” Gabriel pouted even as Sam laughed at him.
“We can have the car done by tomorrow afternoon and Kevin says the new suits will be in Friday night,” Ash kicked his feet up on a workbench in the garage; Dean was in the next room tracing out the paint patterns. “He’s upset about the fact we had to pay extra to get them made so quickly but I assured him it was cool.”
Sam breathed out heavily, “Thanks man, I don’t know what I’d do without you.”
“Probably some lame ass desk job,” Ash waved to him as he left the garage. Outside Sam ran immediately into a smaller body, he reached out on instinct and caught Gabriel by the arm as he stumbled back. Gabriel huffed and crossed his arms.
“Really Sasquatch, there are nicer ways to get your hands on me, mowing me over is not one that I would prefer.” Sam dropped his arms back to his side and frowned down at Gabriel.
“I’ll make sure to keep that in mind, any reason you’re here again? You just left Bobby’s this morning.” As soon as Gabriel had left, after sketching out the finished idea, Sam had gone to wake Dean, making sure he had the new logo for the car so he could get to work on it as soon as they got to the garage.
“Balthy made me take the day off because he said I’ve got too many sick days acquired and I had to use one,” Gabriel kicked a rock at his feet, “Which is bullshit because it’s my restaurant so I should be the one in charge of those things but I can’t fight that British fuck, especially when he calls his husband to lecture me. So what else was I supposed to do but come bug my newest eye-candy? I got lucky too, this is the first placed I’ve looked and I’ve already found you.”
“It’s midafternoon, why is he kicking you out now?”
“Only open for dinner on weekdays Sammy, get with the program.” Gabriel turned and walked away from Sam back to his car. He paused at the driver’s side door and called over his shoulder, “Are you coming with me or what?”
“I didn’t realize I was being asked to go anywhere.” Even as he said it he was already headed toward the car, willing to go out with Gabriel if this was his chance.
“Wasn’t really a question in the matter, we’re going out,” Gabriel waited until Sam was buckled before he drove out of the lot and Sam didn’t really mind where they were headed.