When the school bell announced lunch time, Sam told Kevin to go ahead while he went to Dean's locker. His brother had texted him during second period to ask if they could talk in private for a minute. Even though he was definitely surprised by the request, Sam hadn't hesitated for a second. If Dean needed him for whatever it was, he'd be there.

The older Winchester was already waiting for him, taking his time to put some of his books away.

"Hey," Sam greeted him. "What's going on?"

"Dude, look what I just found in my locker," Dean said, subtly handing him a stack of bills.

Sam's eyes grew big at the sight of the money. They were twenties and there was a lot of them. There was also a note tied to the stack.

'This should cover any damage to the car. - T,' it read, in a familiar handwriting.

"I'm guessing T is for Trickster," Dean commented. "Don't know why the asshole didn't just sign with his name."

"He just gave you a couple hundred bucks," Sam huffed. "Don't you think it's time to bury the axe now?"

Dean gave him an incredulous look. "That son of a bitch messed with my Baby. We may be even again, but that doesn't mean I'm gonna stop hating his guts for what he did."

"Fine, whatever." Sam didn't even know why he had thought Dean could ever forgive anyone who did as much as touch his car. Not that it mattered. "Anyway, what did you need to talk about?"

"Right." Dean looked around the hallway to make sure that the majority of the mass had cleared out before he answered. "There's something I gotta tell you actually."

While he had first thought that there had to be an emergency, and that the news would have to be bad, Sam could now see hints of a smile tugging at the corners of Dean's mouth before he tried to suppress them. It was quite the surprise, considering basically everything was bad news these days. The only thing that Sam could think about that even could be good was their dad coming home, but there was no reason for Dean to be so sneaky about that.

"See, the thing is," Dean started, clearing his throat, "you know how I've been hanging out with Cas a lot lately, right?"

That definitely got Sam's attention. He suddenly had a feeling he might finally find out if there was more to his brother's friendship with Castiel than he had led on. He knew better than to say that out loud though, so he kept it at a simple, "Yeah."

Now Dean really couldn't keep himself from smiling anymore. "Yeah well, we kinda decided that we... really like each other, you know?"

"Dean, are you telling me that you and Cas are dating?" Sam asked, now with a grin of his own.

"Pretty much, yeah," Dean admitted, automatically looking away out of embarrassment because no matter what, talking about his feelings would never be the older Winchester's thing.

Sam was over the moon though. "Dean, that's amazing!"

"It's not that big a deal, okay?" Dean was quick to say. Then he stopped for a moment. "I mean, it's... it's awesome, but... I mean, it's still..."

Before his brother could get any worse, Sam decided to intervene. "All I'm saying is I'm happy for you, man."

"Thanks, Sammy."

"You should bring him over again. Give me a chance to properly get to know him this time," he suggested.

Dean's voice returned to a grumble. "Yeah, if I ever get him out of Michael's creepy claws."

"Does he know?" Sam asked. "About you and Cas?"

"No, and I'd like to keep it that way. At least until Cas is ready to tell his family," Dean explained, sounding a little tired.

When it came to the Shurleys, that was an awfully familiar feeling. "It's something, dealing with all of their family drama, isn't it?"

His brother let out a shallow laugh. "That's one way to put it. First freaking Gabriel, then Lucifer, now Michael... What the hell is wrong with these people?"

"Chuck Shurley?" was Sam's educated guess.

"Sounds about right."

"But hey, at least you got something good out of it now," he pointed out with a comforting smile.

It was pretty amazing to see Dean grin at just the thought of Castiel. "Yeah, fair enough."

"So, how did the two of you get together?" Sam tried.

Dean immediately made a face. "Alright, don't push it, dude."

With a laugh, Sam shook his head. "Okay, okay. Whatever makes you happy."

They walked to the cafeteria together, where Kevin, Charlie, Jo and Benny were already sitting their regular table. Sam couldn't help but look around for a moment, only to find Lucifer at a table with Ruby, Meg and that jerk Azazel. He still didn't understand how that had suddenly happened. Not that it mattered anymore.

Sam sighed and pushed every thought of Lucifer from his mind as he sat down with his friends. As he did so, he happened to see Balthazar walk by, to a table with a couple of other Shurleys. One of them was Gabriel, hanging in his chair while he munched on a candy bar and clearly not interested in whatever his siblings were saying.

Of course he remembered their conversation from yesterday, but he completely understood why Dean didn't want Michael to know about him and Cas. At the same time, he felt a little bad though, since he had told Gabriel he would keep him posted. And sure, the guy had said that he wasn't on either side in the Lucifer/Michael debate, but there was still no way Sam completely trusted him, even if he was trying to make up for what he had done by giving Dean money. Too much had happened for that. But then again, if Gabriel really was sorry, maybe Sam should give him a chance to prove himself.

He took his phone from his pocket and started typing. 'Thanks for paying for the Impala, I appreciate it'

Looking over to see if Gabriel had gotten the message, Sam watched him immediately pull out his own phone to write an answer. 'No problemo, big boy ;) Only seemed right, no way I'd want to be in your bro's debt'

'You didn't seem like the type that cared to me,' Sam replied.

'Who says I do?'

For some reason, Sam found that hard to believe. Gabriel had put a shitload of effort into warning him about Lucifer and he still didn't understand why. It made him think that Gabriel might care a lot more than he liked to admit. 'I do'

He could see the other boy's eyebrow twitch when he got the message. 'And what makes you the expert?'

'You forget I grew up with Dean Winchester'

'And?' Gabriel texted back.

'And that means I have a front-row seat to his tough-guy act on a daily basis,' Sam explained with a smile on his face. He found it pretty amusing that in that aspect, Dean and Gabriel were a lot more alike than either of them would probably ever want to hear.

Judging by the look on Gabriel's face, he was thinking the same thing and didn't like it. 'Really, Sam? Comparing me to your brother? Way to break my heart'

Sam grinned at his screen. 'I thought you didn't care'

"What're you smiling about, Sammy?" his brother interrupted his thoughts with a questioning look.

For a moment, Sam didn't know what to say to that. If he told the truth, Dean would probably say that he was crazy again, but he definitely didn't want a repeat of the Lucifer fiasco. Not that that was where his texts with Gabriel were going, not at all. God, it wasn't even going anywhere, they were just joking around over text.

Why was he even making this complicated? "Gabriel," he admitted to his brother.

"Gabriel?" Dean repeated incredulously. "Seriously?"

"Don't worry, we're just talking a bit. It's no big deal," Sam quickly added.

"Well, just don't let him get to you."

Trying not to roll his eyes, he said, "I promise I won't make that mistake again, trust me."

Dean nodded. "Good."

"But, Dean?" Sam told him. "Let's never fight over who we hang out with anymore."

"He's kinda right," Charlie pointed out with a shrug.

"Yeah, it really isn't fun when you two are fighting, for anyone," Kevin agreed.

Sam and Dean exchanged a look, and they knew exactly what the other was thinking.

"Only the truth from now on," Sam promised.

"And I'll try not to judge too much," Dean begrudgingly conceded, but he was also smiling.

Charlie bumped his shoulder. "That's more like it."

When he quickly checked his phone, Sam actually saw two new messages from Gabriel.

'I think you got plenty people who care already, kiddo'

'That being said, there is one thing I might care about'

If Gabriel was trying to make him curious, then he had officially succeeded. 'If you say sex, I'm blocking you'

Over at his own table, Gabriel seemed to be doing his best not to smile. 'XD Not what I was gonna say, but I like the way you're thinking ;))'

'God please don't,' Sam typed, making a face.

'You started it'

Not exactly untrue, but he wasn't about to admit that. 'Okay, so then what?'

It took a while for the next reply to come in. 'See, I've been thinking. It's pretty screwed up what our dear Luci pulled on you and it doesn't seem fair to let him get away with it. Sooooo, I wondered if you might be interested to get some sweet vengeance for what he did. I promise it's up to you, but I thought I'd ask'

Sam definitely hadn't been expecting that. Did he want to take revenge on Lucifer? He was hurt for sure, but he also didn't want even more drama...

'I see you're thinking,' Gabriel sent him.

'I just don't wanna start a war or something, you know? It's bad enough as it is,' Sam answered.

Gabriel seemed to be thinking about it for a bit before his next text came in. 'Hey, it's your call, captain. You wanna pull out any time, you just say the word ;)'

With a sigh, Sam took a decision. 'What did you have in mind?' It wouldn't hurt to just get an idea of what Gabriel was planning if he could still choose not to go through with it.

'How would you feel about getting to work together with the Trickster?'

~~~

Thanks so much to everyone who has voted/commented on this story! It recently won the first position in the Destiel tag, and I couldn't be more proud. You guys never cease to inspire me <3