Chapter Text
“Treats and Tricks,” the sign read in bold red lettering.
The bakery seemed nice enough. It looked clean enough, at least from the outside. Hopefully, their pie was good enough too. Sam looked through the big picture windows. It looked like a regular bakery inside. There was also a guy standing behind a cash register so that meant they were open. Sam looked around but it didn’t seem like anyone else was in there.
Sam stepped through the door and a bell alerted the attendant someone dropped in.
“Hey, there. Welcome to Treats and Tricks. What can I do for you?” the clerk asked.
At least, Sam figured he was the clerk since he was standing behind the glass counter next to the register. But he didn’t have a nametag or uniform or anything. From what Sam could see of him, the man standing behind the counter was wearing an old beat-up button down shirt with an equally beaten-up T-shirt underneath it. He wasn’t too tall but then again, everyone was short compared to Sam.
The clerk looked him over with sharp brown eyes.
“Hey,” Sam greeted back. “You guys got any pie?” Which was of course a dumb question. This was a bakery. What bakery didn’t have pie?
The clerk beamed at him. “Sure do.”
He then lifted up the cash register and took out from underneath it what looked like receipts and rustled them around a little. Then he asked, “What’s your order number?”
“My what?”
“Order number.”
A rather awkward silence passed between them.
“Um... I didn’t order anything yet.”
“Oh,” the clerk looked up as he stuffed the receipts back underneath the cash register. “Silly me. Of course, you didn’t. I’d never forgive myself if I forgot a handsome face like that.”
Sam smiled at the compliment but didn’t say anything.
The clerk got out a notepad and pencil. “Now you said you wanted pie?”
“Uh, yeah.”
“What kind did you want?”
Sam paused. He didn’t know if Dean had a favorite kind of pie. Whenever Sam asked him what he wanted for his birthday he always just said, “I don’t need anything, Sammy. You work hard for your money and you shouldn’t spend it on stupid shit that I might not even use. Just get me some pie and I’ll be happy.” Which was absolute bullshit because whether he wanted it or not Sam bought him a birthday present. But that still didn’t lend itself to the question what kind of pie?
“Um, what kind do you got?”
“We can make all kinds of pie for you. Like any kind of fruit pie or cream pie. We made an ice cream pie that kind of looked like pizza once if that’s more along the lines you’re thinking of.”
“Uh, no,” Sam said. “I meant what kind do you have right now?”
“Right now?”
“Yeah.”
“As in, already baked and ready to go for anyone who would walk through those doors and want pie without ordering beforehand?”
“Yes?”
The clerk furrowed his brows. And then, he said like he had practiced it a million times against his will, “I’m sorry, sir, but we don’t have any pie available in the store right now. You can place an order for it and pick it up later.
“Okay, how much later?”
“This time tomorrow.”
Sam groaned. “Well, crap.”
The clerk clenched at his pencil as if anticipating something.
“Can I interest you in anything else?” the clerk asked, still just as practiced.
“Um, no. I just... Sorry. It’s my brother’s birthday today. I probably should have planned this ahead of time. Probably called you guys to see if you had any pie to begin with... Thanks, anyway.”
Sam turned to leave. He was halfway toward the entrance when the clerk called after him. “Wait!”
Sam turned back around.
“When do you need the pie by?”
“Uh...” Sam checked his watch. It was going on three. “I’m going to go meet them at six.”
The clerk chewed on his pencil and drummed his fingers on the counter. His eyes shifted around the room like there was some kind of equation that was written on the walls that he was trying to figure out.
“You know what? Stay right there. I’ll be right back,” the clerk said. Then he rushed off toward the back of the store.
Sam blinked after him for a minute. He checked his watch and decided he could stick around for a few more minutes.
He looked around the store. It looked a little unorganized like the owner didn’t know what he wanted for the store. There were paintings hung on the wall that were pretty but generic. There were landscape paintings of beaches and forests and then one close up photograph of a bee perched on a bright pink flower. Then there were other photographs hung on the wall. The content of the photos was mainly the store clerk doing a myriad of weird things. There was one picture where he was balancing a bong on his head. There was another that had him and a slightly scruffy looking man drinking out of giant wine glasses with a giant bottle of wine sitting between them. The scruffy guy had dark hair that stuck up at all ends. He was looking like he was confused by the giant glass of wine and didn’t know what to do with it. The clerk on the other hand was giving a big smile and a thumbs up toward the camera. Sam smiled at the picture.
He also got a good look at what was in the glass counter. On one side of the counter there were regular cookies and cupcakes like what you would expect from a respectable bakery. But then on the other side there were other cookies and cupcakes and confections that were... just weird.
There were cookies that looked some kind of rotting meat and there were at least fifteen real-looking flies attached to each one with the label “Carcass Cookies”. There were chocolate spiders that looked like real spiders. Not the kind of cute spiders that you give to kids on Halloween. They looked like live tarantulas. They were big and gross looking. But whoever sculpted the chocolate was seriously talented. Sam could see the fangs and eyes and everything. There were also tins of what looked like shit (actual shit) with the label “Chocolate Cow Pies.” Then on the same side as the abominations to the pastry world there were regular looking cupcakes that only had the label “Surprise Cupcakes!”
It was at that moment the clerk came back around to the front of the store and said, “Okay! So the pie master is up and at ‘em. He’ll have your pie ready in about an hour or so. Oh, and before I forget, did you decide what kind you wanted?”
“Um, what’s the ‘pie master’s’ specialty?”
The clerk thought for a minute then turned his head to the back of the store and yelled, “Hey, Cas! What’s your best pie that you make?”
“Blackberry!” was the reply.
The clerk turned back to Sam and asked, “Sound good to you?”
“Yeah. Sounds great.”
The clerk smiled and yelled back to where Sam supposed the kitchen was. “Okay! Make that one then!”
An answering grunt came from the kitchen with the accompanying sounds of pots and pans clanging together.
Sam sighed in relief. “Thank you.” He didn’t know what else to say but he figured he should at least express gratitude to the man who was saving him from the sour looks that Dean got if no one brought him pie for his birthday.
The clerk smiled at him and shrugged. “Hey, no problemo. Cas was just being lazy all day anyway. The guy could use a little work ethic, you know what I’m saying?”
There was an extra loud bang from the kitchen that made both Sam and the clerk jump.
“I mean,” the clerk started in an overly adoring voice that was loud enough for Cas to hear in the kitchen, “poor Cassie was sleeping like a little angel. And then the bad big brother comes along and wakes him to do more work. My poor Cinderella pudding pie had to get up early this morning and make all the wonderfully delicious things in the store. He barely got any sleep last night. And I’m such a terrible person for making him work even more.”
“Gabriel!” Cas growled from the kitchen.
“What do you want from me?” The clerk, Gabriel, rolled his eyes and looked at Sam. “I tease him and he gets pissy. I’m nice to him and he gets pissy. Tell me how I can win.”
Sam shrugged and said, “You can’t win.”
“That’s what I’m saying!”
Another sound came from the kitchen. This time it was more of a thump noise. Like a very large knife hitting a wooden cutting board.
Gabriel’s eyes widened comically. Then he cleared his throat and a more polite expression stretched across his face.
“So... Can I get you anything while you’re waiting? Tea? Coffee?”
“Uh,” Sam hesitated. He had been thinking of just going to go back to the library and study some more. He had an exam this week and it was one of those essay exams. But he convinced himself that he couldn’t get a lot done in an hour anyway. “Sure, coffee sounds good.”
“Coming up,” Gabriel said with a wink.
Gabriel disappeared to the back of the store. When he came back out he had two styrofoam cups of coffee in his hands as well as sugar packets, a couple containers of creamer and stirring sticks.
“I guess I should have asked you how you take your coffee before I went to go get it,” Gabriel said with a smile and a hint of apology.
Sam returned the smile and said, “Don’t worry about it.”
He took one of the cups from Gabriel and emptied one sugar packet and one creamer into the cup and began to stir. Gabriel took the rest of the packets and dumped them all in his cup.
“Sweet tooth?” Sam asked conversationally.
“I own a bakery, smart ass. What do you think?”
Sam laughed. “So this is yours? It’s a nice place.”
Gabriel smiled. “Yep. Me and Cas co-own it. We always wanted to set up a sweet shop out here. Me and Cas went to culinary school not too far from here. Good times. Right, Cas?” He shouted the last part over his shoulder.
“Some things were enjoyable, yes,” was Cas’s answer.
Gabriel turned back around to Sam and asked, “So what about you? Oh, I’m Gabriel by the way.” He stuck his hand out and Sam shook it.
“I’m Sam.”
Gabriel gave him a crooked smile and said, “Nice to meet you, Sam.” Then he turned back to the kitchen. “Cas get out here and meet the nice customer!” He turned back to Sam. “Would you believe you are the first non-asshole-ish person that walked through that door today?
Before Sam could answer, Cas answered from the kitchen first. “I’m busy, Gabriel! He can meet me when I’m done!”
“Fucking workaholic,” Gabriel muttered under his breath. “Anyway, you were saying?” he said to Sam.
“I... uh, I go to school right now.”
“Yeah?” Gabriel leaned against the counter. He propped one elbow on the counter and rested his head in his hand. “What are you studying?”
“Law. I’m hoping to get my law degree by next year and then start practicing.”
“As a lawyer?”
“Yeah.”
Their conversation flowed easily after that. Gabriel asked Sam everything someone could possibly want to know about law. Then he started giving Sam all of these crazy situations and asked him about how the legal system would deal with it. He also had a lot of specific questions about bakeries and what vendors could be liable for.
Soon after that, Cas walked out of the kitchen with a styrofoam cup in one hand and a dish towel thrown over his shoulder. Sam recognized him from the pictures that were hung up on the walls.
“Ah, there he is. The man of the hour,” Gabriel said. He walked over to Cas and threw an arm around him. Cas just turned a cold hard glare on him.
“Sam, I’d like you to meet my brother and partner-in-crime Castiel Milton. You can totally laugh at his name, by the way.”
Cas promptly shoved an elbow into Gabriel’s stomach. Sam winced in sympathy.
But Sam figured he should still be polite and stretched out his hand toward him. “Hey, Cas. I’m Sam. Anyway, thanks for making me a pie and sorry I’m kind of ruining your day off.”
Cas’s eyes softened but he didn’t smile. He shook Sam’s hand and said, “It’s alright. I wouldn’t be doing this if I didn’t want to.”
“So how far along are you?” Gabriel asked.
“I just put it in the oven. It should be done in forty five minutes to an hour.”
Sam nodded.
Gabriel in the meanwhile pulled up some stools for them all to sit on. “It doesn’t look like anyone else is going to come in,” Gabriel said.
“Is business normally this slow?” Sam asked.
Cas and Gabriel exchanged a look. Gabriel shrugged. “Well, we’re new in town and-”
“Gabriel doesn’t have very good customer service skills,” Cas interrupted.
Gabriel seemed shocked. “What are you talking about?”
“Someone says something that you don’t like and you become defensive and then insult the customers.”
Gabriel snorted and said, “Those asshats had no right to say that I’m sloppy and unprofessional. They can just go fuck themselves.”
Cas turned to Sam and said, “You can imagine why we don’t have many returning customers. Or customers that would recommend us to their friends for that matter.”
Gabriel rolled his eyes. “I don’t want any asshole customers.”
He then turned a smoldering stare on Sam and said, “I like my customers tall, handsome and sweet. Hold the asshole.” His eyes raked over him from top to bottom.
Sam laughed nervously.
He was saved from answering when Cas said, “Would you rather have asshole customers or no customers at all?”
“Well, we don’t have to worry about that now do we? Because we got Sammy here. I’m sure he’ll make us his number one stop when he needs any kind of sweet treat. Right, Sammy?”
“Uh, it’s Sam and sure. Why not?”
Gabriel seemed pleased with the answer and turned to Cas and said, “There. You see?”
Cas eyed Gabriel wearily but didn’t say anything else.
“So, anyway? Mind telling us why you need a pie so desperately?”
“It’s my brother’s birthday,” Sam explained.
Gabriel made a face. “And he didn’t want a cake or anything?”
Sam shook his head. “One time I got him a cake for his birthday, he picked up his slice and shoved it in my face. He was like, ‘You take this crap back where you got it from and get me pie!’ I got so mad at him I picked the cake up and shoved the whole thing in his face and told him to get his own crummy pie. He didn’t talk to me about a week after that”
Gabriel laughed and Cas smiled.
Cas then told a story that Sam had reminded him of. Back when they were kids, Cas and Gabriel had been at one of the neighbor’s kid’s birthday party. There was a piñata. Everyone was whacking it with a stick as fast as they could. They all heard the piñata break accept for Gabriel. He had been laughing away with his blindfold still on still hitting the piñata. By the time he realized it, everyone at the party had gotten some candy, except for him. He cried so much and made such a fuss about it that Cas was ordered by their father to give Gabriel half of his candy.
When Cas’s story was done, Sam laughed heartily. Gabriel sulked about it and muttered something to Cas. Something to the effect that, Cas was some brother if he didn’t even tell his brother that there was candy on the floor.
Gabriel then told Sam about how pissy Cas could get if the dishes weren’t sparkling by the time they closed up shop. He recalled such a time when Cas upon finding that the dishes weren’t done and that Gabriel had already gone up to bed, he took all the dishes, tied them up in an old tablecloth, carried them up to Gabriel’s room and unceremoniously dumped them onto Gabriel’s sleeping form. Gabriel had screamed himself hoarse at Cas. Cas then added at the end of the story that Gabriel had never left without cleaning them ever again.
Gabriel was about to retort when a buzzer in the kitchen went off.
“That’s the pie,” Cas said. He got up from his stool and strode over to the kitchen.
Gabriel also got up from his seat then turned to Sam with a smile and a tilt of his head almost as if to say, “You coming?”
Sam nodded and followed Gabriel into the kitchen.
It smelled heavenly in there. The smell of baked berries, flaky crust and cinnamon wafted through the air. Sam’s mouth started watering.
Cas was just bringing the pie out of the oven. Two hands clasped tightly to the tin with two thick dishcloths between to keep Cas’s hands from burning on the hot metal.
He set it on the counter and Sam got a good look at it. Not only did it smell good but it looked good. Strips of crust criss-crossed along the top with dark rich blackberries peeking out between.
“I’m pretty sure Dean is going to have a fit when he sees this,” Sam muttered.
Cas’s face, which had previously been one of quiet pride, swiftly turned rigid and serious. “What’s wrong?” he asked.
Sam blinked. “No. Nothing’s wrong. I meant, he’d really like it. He’d have a fit of ecstasy or whatever. I wouldn’t be surprised if he asked me who baked this pie so he could go and propose marriage tomorrow.”
Gabriel laughed and Cas turned a bright pink. He coughed into his hand. “Well, I hope he enjoys it. Nice meeting you, Sam.”
With that, Cas brushed passed Gabriel and Sam and headed to a door in the back of the kitchen. He shut the door and Sam could hear him climb up the stairs.
Gabriel smiled after his brother. “There he goes. Cas, the king of prudes. Say anything remotely romantic or sexual around him he just gets up and leaves. I’d tease him about it but he’d just run away and that’s no fun.” Gabriel’s eyes got softer and his smile faded a little.
Sam raised an eyebrow. “What? You wouldn’t go after him?”
“I draw a very firm line in my teasing, Sam. It’s probably a very thin line,” -- Sam’s eyebrow raised even higher -- “okay, a very very thin line but I don’t cross it.”
“What’s that?”
“I don’t tease when it’s one-sided. That would just make me a jerk.”
Sam smiled. “You’re right. That would.”
Gabriel smiled back at him. If anyone had been around at this point, they would have noticed that these two would be staring and smiling at each other for a little longer than necessary or polite. But since no one was there to point it out to them, they didn’t notice. So they stared and smiled until Gabriel got the idea that they should work out a fee.
“So, how’s about thirty dollars for the pie?”
“Thirty dollars for a pie? That’s a little ridiculous, isn’t it?”
“Uh, no. Ever here of supply and demand? Very few in supply, these pies. In fact, we only have one. It’s in very high demand at this moment. So thirty dollars it is.”
“I haven’t even tasted it yet.”
Gabriel considered this. “Fair point. Tell you what, handsome. You take this pie to your brother. Eat it. Enjoy it. Come back and we’ll talk about how much the taste orgasm you are about to have eating my brother’s pie of a masterpiece that he has spent years perfecting was worth.”
Sam smiled and stuck out his hand. “Deal.”
Gabriel smiled back up at him, took his hand and said, “Deal.”
Gabriel packed up the pie in a white box and added a garish red bow on top. “For flair,” Gabriel clarified.
He put the box in a plastic bag and handed it over to Sam.
“Well then, Sam,” Gabriel said. “I’ll see you soon, alright?”
“Alright.”
“Take care.”
“You too.”
Sam strode out of Treats and Tricks with a pie in one hand and a smile on his face.