A/N I have two ideas for chapter 50 because that's a cool number for an eventful chapter but idk which one to do... Also, over 50k reads on Strings Attached and 5k on Fame Crazy! *faints*

Castiel and Lucifer return to the living room a few minutes later to hear Gabriel's voice. "— or dare?"

"Truth," Adam replies.

They kept playing? How could they keep playing without Castiel and Lucifer? Just kidding. Neither of them really want to play anyway.

"Um... Are you gay?"

"Lucifer's not here, so I think it's safe to say 'yes.'"

Lucifer jumps out into the living room. "You're never safe from me! Hey, we're a fourth of the way to having Adamandriel!"

"Oh my god," everyone complains at once.

Castiel walks into the room as well. "How's this whole 'reflecting on how you're all horrible people' thing going?"

"Great," Samandriel replies jokingly. "We all really feel like horrible people."

"Good," Castiel replies.

Lucifer walks over to him and pushes him towards Dean, then presses on his shoulders to lower him to the ground next to the boy. Satisfied, he walks back to the doorway and leans against the wall.

Castiel rolls his eyes and moves closer to Dean, resting his head on his boyfriend's shoulder. Dean puts an arm around him, holding him close.

"Get a room," Claire says in mock disgust.

"Mm, how 'bout no?" Castiel replies, nuzzling Dean just for that.

Dean laughs softly, and Castiel can feel his chest shaking. He presses a kiss to the top of Castiel's head before resting his own head on top. And right then, everything seemed perfect.

~~

Castiel wakes up the next morning just before noon. Sleeping in is the best thing ever. Climbing out of bed, he peeks at Gabriel's bunk at the bottom, but it's empty. He's probably out with Sam or something. It must be weird to them, not to living together anymore like they did at Stanford. That would explain why they always spend so much time together while they're in Sioux Falls.

Castiel makes the long and treacherous journey down the stairs, ready to go eat a giant pancake breakfast just because, but he pauses when he hears Lucifer's voice.

"— twenty-five years old and you're barely eighteen and there's no way this could even work out anyway. If I thought I had a chance, I would've told you. But as it is, I'm just hoping this doesn't screw anything up between us."

"It won't," Claire's voice responds. "Just don't go trying to cop a feel and pass it off as 'just friends' cuz then I'll have to play the 'independent woman' card and beat your ass."

"That wasn't my plan and yet I'm still scared," Lucifer tells her. "So, we all good? No awkwardness or anything?"

"Seems like," Claire replies.

And then there's silence, which Castiel takes as his cue to enter the kitchen because food.

"'Morning," Castiel greets them, stifling a yawn as he walks up to the freezer to get pancakes.

"It's not really morning anymore," Lucifer tells him.

Castiel glances at the clock on the stove. Sure enough, it's 12:01 PM. "Hmm. Well, it's still pancake time."

"I approve," Lucifer tells him.

It's quiet for a couple minutes, the only sounds coming from the plastic bag holding the frozen pancakes. Castiel plops them in the microwave and sets the timer. And now, they wait.

"How do you manage to stay in shape eating like that?" Claire asks.

"By not having pancakes at my house," Castiel replies. "But six pancakes isn't that many. By my standards, anyway."

"Then your standards are wrong," Claire tells him. "Dude, I have, like, four. Tops."

"I'm so sorry for you," he replies, walking over to the closet to get the maple syrup because ain't nobody got time to refrigerate syrup. Just as he returns to the microwave, the time dings. Well, if that's not a sign of a good day, he doesn't know what is. Now to eat the pancakes. It doesn't get much better than this.

~~

The Winchesters come up for dinner that afternoon. It probably seems like the Novaks have something fun planned, but they really just want to eat pizza. Well, most of them do. Chuck went on a trip for work for the sake of convenience because he doesn't really fit in the story and Anna went out somewhere a few hours ago without explanation and no one really questioned it.

"I see an Impala!" Gabriel says excitedly, running out of the house to great his boyfriend outside.

"Go," Lucifer whispers, pushing Castiel towards the door. When did he even get over here? "Go see Dean."

"Dean will literally be inside in, like, fifteen seconds," Castiel reminds him.

"I'm going to act like a mature adult and not make a sex joke about that," Lucifer replies.

"No one's buying the maturity thing," Claire tells him, walking up to the two of them.

"Well, I'm trying, so fight me, bro."

"You wanna go?" Claire asks teasingly, smacking her fist with the palm of her hand.

"No, no, please don't hurt me," Lucifer says quickly.

Claire just laughs at him.

"Hey, Cas," Dean says from behind the boy, his chin appearing on his boyfriend's shoulder.

"Hey," Castiel replies, turning his head to give Dean a kiss.

"Charlie would be having a field day right now," Gabriel observes as he walks into the kitchen with them, his fingers laced with Sam's.

"I haven't seen Charlie in forever," Dean complains.

"We need to get the gang together again," Sam announces.

"Definitely," Castiel agrees.

"But first: pizza."

Everyone looks over to see Lucifer standing in the doorway with a bunch of boxes of pizza stacked on his hand in a very cliché way.

"Weren't you just right here?" Claire asks, confused.

"Yeah."

"And now you have pizza?"

"Yeah."

"But... how?"

"Magic!"

Michael takes that moment to walk by and inform them, "I just brought them home and he wanted them."

Lucifer puts the pizza down on the counter and walks up to his twin. Michael cocks his head in confusion, looking at his brother with questioning eyes. Lucifer smacks him on the shoulder.

"What was that for?" Michael whines. Michael only ever whines with Lucifer. That's sort of weird. Then again, no one annoys Michael in the most loving way possible like Lucifer.

"That was for spoiling my magic trick," Lucifer pouts.

Michael just rolls his eyes. "Whatever. Pizza, anyone?"

And thus begins the pizza party.