Sam Winchester blearily opened his eyes to find that his alarm wasn't playing. He rolled over happily, and thought that he had more time to sleep. He glanced up at the clock sleepily. A millisecond later he jumped out of bed, and shouted "I'm late!" He must have slept through his alarm, because he now had only thirty minutes to get to a class that was a fifteen minute walk away. After having the fastest shower ever, he grabbed a cold pop tart, pulled on his socks, grabbed his coat, and ran out the door. He was halfway down the dorm hall before he realized he wasn't wearing any shoes. He raced back, fumbled with the keys to his dorm and cursed ever deity he could think of, grabbed them, and was now going to be late. But, he hadn't been the fastest person on the Sioux Falls High track team for nothing.
Sam sprinted to his 7:00 class, and made it two minutes before class started. He found some empty seats near the middle of the lecture hall and sat down, absolutely exhausted from running. He pulled out his books and got situated, and felt someone sit down beside him. Figures, out of all the seats in the hall they choose the one beside me, Sam thought. Sam looked over to find a short guy with blond hair and both a coffee and an energy-drink in his hands, which seemed like overkill to Sam. The stranger then proceeded to pull out a giant bag of sugar from his bag and the biggest cup Sam had ever seen, causing him to raise his eyebrows. What could this guy possibly need that for? Sam wondered. He quickly found out when the guy proceeded to pour half the bag of sugar, half the coffee, and half the energy-drink into the giant cup. The man noticed Sam staring at him, and leaned over and whispered "I'm gonna freaking die." The guy picked up the cup, winked, and chugged half of the drink. Sam gagged in disgust at the thought of drinking that.
His attention was pulled back to the front of the hall with the arrival of the professor. The prof apologized for being late and started the lesson. Sam was so concentrated on taking notes that he didn't even look up from his books until the end of class. When he did look up, he saw a donut sitting on the corner of his desk. He picked it up and saw a note under it. It said Enjoy the rush! in big loopy handwriting. That sounded suspiciously like code for drugs to Sam, so he threw it in the garbage on the way out of class. But all through his second and third class he couldn't stop thinking about how great a donut would be. Finally, he got a 2 hour break before his next class, so Sam decided to visit the coffee shop that was just off campus.
When he walked in the door, a little bell rang, and he stopped to take in the cozy atmosphere. The shop was decorated for Christmas, with even a little Christmas tree in the corner and mistletoe hung around the room. As Sam walked to the counter he noticed the smell of peppermint permeated the air.
"Hi, I'll have a donut and a small-" Sam broke off when he realized that the cashier was the insane drink guy from his first class. "Hey, it's you!" Sam blurted out.
"That it is," the stranger grinned. "Did you enjoy my present? You looked like you could use it."
"Uh, I don't do drugs so…"
"What? Is sugar a drug now?" The man sounded genuinely confused.
"It said 'enjoy the rush' which sounded like code for drugs…" Sam replied, realizing how ridiculous that sounded.
"You worry too much! It was a regular old donut. I'm Gabriel, by the way," the man stuck out his hand to shake. Sam wearily took the man's hand and shook it.
"Hey, Gabriel! Quit clogging up the line!" Another blond haired men yelled from the back of the shop. As he said that, the bell from the front door rang.
"Cassie! What impeccable timing you have!" Gabriel yelled in greeting to the man who just came in the door. "Balthazar, I'm taking my break now," he said, throwing his apron on a hook and taking a plate of donuts and two coffees on his way around the counter. "Cassie here can take over for me," he said, gesturing to the man who had just walked in.
"Gabriel, I have told you before, my name is Castiel, not Cassie," Castiel said with the air of someone who has said it before and knows they will say it many more times in the future. Gabriel ignored him and led Sam over to a table near the Christmas tree. Sam followed in a daze, not sure why he was following this man he barely knew, but following none the less. They both sat down, Sam awkwardly, Gabriel with ease.
"So, I never got your name, gigantor," Gabriel said before stuffing his face with a donut.
"Gigantor? I'm not really that tall, you're just short," Sam said defensively.
"C'mon, you're like a moose! But you still haven't given me a name," Gabriel moved on to his second donut.
"My name's Sam Winchester, I'm pre-law, and I'm 20," Sam parroted off, feeling like this was a job interview.
"Woah, is this some kind of dating show?" Gabriel asked, wiggling his eyebrows. Before Sam could protest that that's not what he meant, Gabriel continued. "Well, I'm Gabriel Novak, 21, no definite major yet, and my perfect date is skating followed by hot chocolate by the fire," Gabriel winked and batted his eyelashes with the last part, causing Sam to blush.
"That's not what I meant," Sam said, settling down and taking a donut. "So, if you don't have a major, why are you taking a pre-law course?" Sam enquired.
"Oh, you know, just trying to find my passion," Gabriel replied, brushing off the question.
"Well, now you've just made me curious," Sam teased, taking a sip of his coffee. He was surprised at how easily he was falling into friendly banter with this guy he had just met.
"To be honest… I just wanted to meet you, Samsquatch! A tall, handsome, strapping young man such as yourself, I'm sure you have tons of people sneaking into pre-law classes," Gabriel said with a wink. Sam blushed like crazy, he wasn't used to people being so forward, in fact…
"You're just screwing with me, aren't you?" Sam asked, embarrassed.
Gabriel grinned. "What gave it away? It was the 'strapping young man' part, wasn't it?" Gabriel replied jokingly. Sam laughed it off, taking a drink of coffee to hide his red cheeks. The bell rang, followed soon after with a call of "Hey, Sammy!" cutting off all hoped of conversation. Sam turned around to see his brother Dean striding towards him.
"Dean? What are you doing here?" Sam asked happily, rising to embrace his brother.
"What, a man can't drive a half hour to visit his little brother for no reason?" Dean grinned, pulling up a chair.
"And who might this be?" Gabriel enquired.
"Oh, Gabriel, this is my brother Dean, Dean this is…" Sam wasn't sure how to refer to a man he had just met this morning.
"Gabriel Novak, pleased to meet you," Gabriel saved him, reaching across to shake Dean's hand.
"How did you know I would be here?" Sam questioned, puzzled.
"I didn't. I came here because I saw the sign on the door," he pointed to the sign on the door advertising pie, "and I couldn't just show up your door empty handed," Dean explained.
"Gabriel," Castiel shouted over the noise of the shop, "Come help me with all these customers!"
"Coming!" Gabriel replied, looking annoyed. "Well, I guess this is where I leave you. Dean, can I get you anything?" He turned to Dean as he rose from his chair.
"Uh, yeah, I'll have a coffee, black, and a slice of your finest pie, thanks," Dean ordered.
"Coming right up!" Gabriel said enthusiastically. He walked back to the counter and started preparing the order.
"So, what, you just decided to come visit me without any notice, just because?" Sam asked his brother. It's not that he wasn't glad to see him, he was, he just would have liked some warning.
"Maybe we'd better discuss this back at your place," Dean responded, getting up. "Hey, Gabriel, I'll have to take a rain check on that pie!" Dean called to Gabriel.
"Alright, Deano, and Sam, coffee and donuts are on the house," Gabriel replied with a wink. Sam blushed and grabbed his coat.
"Somebody's got a crush," Dean teased. Their exchange had not gone unnoticed.
"I don't even know the guy," Sam defended.
"Alright, whatever," Dean said, clearly not letting this go.
Sam himself didn't even know what had happened. Something about Gabriel made him feel all weird. But Sam pushed all that out of his mind to try and figure out why Dean was here.