if I was writing a series (which I'm not) the order would be this: "Colour Me Free", this fic right here, "Whisper a Sunset" and "Give Me Wings"
Cas appears in a rustle of feathers before Dean has had the time to move the phone from his ear. Then things go to hell. Well, not literally to Hell and it's kind of disturbing how these days Dean has to tag on that disclaimer.
"Deano, Sammy," a voice Dean didn't really ever want to hear again says cheerfully. "Fancy seeing you here," he adds, sounding for all the world like they've just accidentally bumped into each other somewhere and not like, say, he just suddenly appeared in their motel room.
Gabriel leans casually against the wall.
"You," Dean spits out and finally lowers the cell phone that now makes him feel kind of stupid. "What do you want?"
"You." The word is followed by an overly suggestive waggle of eyebrows that seems so much more disturbing now that they know who the Trickster is.
A short and kind of stunned silence follows that announcement and Gabriel doesn't hesitate to take advantage of it.
The archangel looks over at Cas, or possibly at Dean since the angel had appeared with his usual disregard for any kind of personal space.
"Don't worry bro, he'll be back in no time." Gabriel lifts his right hand, ready to snap. "Unharmed," he adds a bit softer and the tone almost sounds reassuring. Maybe that's the angel showing through the whole trickster persona, or maybe Gabriel is just damn good at sounding like something he isn't. "I promise," he says and snaps.
The next thing Dean knows he's sitting in a red upholstered booth in a diner, red Formica tabletop separating him from the archangel. Neither Cas nor Sammy are anywhere in sight.
"The hell?"
Gabriel motions for a waitress and a pretty young blonde comes over. Normally Dean would spare her more than a glance, but at the moment there are slightly more important things on his mind. Like the fact that he's been kidnapped by a crazy, pagan archangel who probably doesn't like him too much, considering how they left things last time.
The archangel takes it on himself to order Dean a beer and a cheeseburger with fries and a stack of pancakes for himself.
"What the fuck is it this time, Gabriel?" Dean hisses once the waitress leaves. There's no holy oil lying around and Dean has no hope in hell of actually stopping the archangel, but he'll be damned if he's going to act like he's worried.
"What does it look like, Deano?" There's mischief dancing in the angel's eyes and the innocent look he's trying to keep on his face isn't really fooling anyone.
"It's you," Dean points out. "How the fuck should I know." If he's learned one thing about the Trickster, and he's already learned way more than he wanted to, it's that what you see is usually not what you get.
Gabriel smiles and spreads his hands in an 'okay, you've got a point' gesture and looks stupidly pleased about it too. Dean hadn't meant it as a compliment.
"Relax Winchester," Gabriel drawls. "I promised the little one, didn't I?"
Aside from pointing out that the Trickster isn't someone Dean would trust to keep any kind of promise, it takes him a while to figure out what heck he's actually talking about. Because that's so far from the way Dean has ever thought of Cas.
"So what do you want?" Dean asks after a moment making an effort to sound normal and calm and at least he isn't yelling, so he'll count it as a success, because it's as friendly as Dean is going to get.
The angel sure as hell doesn't seem to be volunteering any information. In fact Gabriel seems more than happy to just sit back and look at Dean and radiate that Trickster smugness all over the place. Any more and Dean's going to choke on it.
"Just enjoy the food," Gabriel tells him and as if on cue the waitress appears with his cheeseburger and the angel's pancakes. And really, it's the Trickster, she probably did just appear when Gabriel wanted her to.
Who knows if this place even exists. Except Dean remembers TV Land, oh, he remembers, and just because it isn't real doesn't mean it can't fucking well kill Dean anyway. Not that the diner looks threatening and he's not really expecting the food to be poisoned or anything, because whatever happened he doesn't think Gabriel wants to kill him. Hurt him, humiliate him and then stuff his brother inside him, sure, but he doesn't want Dean dead.
Because Dean isn't stupid enough not to know that if an archangel wants you dead, you're dead and no amount of Enochian sigils or holy oil will help you forever.
Dean also remembers that it's easier to play along with whatever Gabriel is planning, at least until he actually knows what the hell is going on and has any chance in hell of doing anything about it. So he bites into the cheeseburger.
The food turns out to be really good. As in completely awesome and if Dean concentrates on that hard enough he can almost pretend that there isn't an archangel sitting across from him, happily munching on a stack of pancakes drenched in so much syrup that it makes even Dean cringe a bit. At least Gabriel seems content to let Dean enjoy his awesome food in peace, or as close to it as he can get with Gabriel looking at him all the time.
Did he mention that the food is awesome.
"So, how about dessert?" Gabriel leers at him about five seconds after Dean swallows down his last bit of cheeseburger and it's a good thing the angel waited, because otherwise Dean would probably have choked on the food and wouldn't that have been awkward.
The angel chuckles and leans back in the booth, posture going all lazy and satisfied.
"Oh, fuck you," Dean manages to choke out and realises exactly what he just said when a completely delighted look makes its way over Gabriel's features.
"As fun as that would be," the Trickster grins wickedly before the smile turns into something a bit more comfortable for Dean and he adds, "I was talking about pie."
Gabriel snaps and everything around them changes. Or possibly they move someplace else, who the hell knows. The place is all pastel colours and the smell of freshly baked pies and Dean's mouth waters despite himself.
There's a waitress there before Dean has time to say anything and he's starting to suspect that Gabriel's doing that on purpose. She looks like the middle aged motherly type and she only smiles indulgently when the angel orders two slices of every kind of pie they have.
Dean's pretty sure the pie is going to be awesome. Because… well, it's pie. And the Trickster wouldn't go for anything but really good pie, he's kind of sure about that. Dean should say something right about now, try to figure out what the hell Gabriel wants, because he still has no clue, but he can wait for the pie first, right? Whatever trick it is this time, at least Dean will get something out of it.
He's a couple of spoonfuls into a piece of cherry pie when Gabriel starts talking between bites.
"You know," the angel says thoughtfully, "I think this really is the second best pie I've ever had."
Dean looks up at him at that, because seriously, that's the first real thing the angel decides to say to him? Not that he isn't right about the pie, but seriously?
"Second best?" Dean asks, because if Gabriel starts talking maybe they'll actually get to the point of all this. Even if the point probably is something Dean won't enjoy, but he really just wants to get to it already. Because he's sitting and eating pie with the goddamned Trickster, who's also a fucking archangel and there's no way that isn't disturbing as all hell, no matter how incredibly awesome the pies are.
"Mmm," the angel agrees around a spoonful of pie. "You would have thrown a bitch fit if I took you to the best ones." He says and waggles the spoon in Dean's direction.
"And where's that?" Dean asks suspiciously. He'd really like someone to tell him if they're actually talking about pies here, because if this is a metaphor for something he sure as hell isn't getting it.
"Oh, around 1824," Gabriel waves dismissively. "Pies to die for," he adds with a disturbing little grin that has no shred of angel in it and it doesn't sound like a metaphor at all.
"No time travel," Dean growls and points his spoon straight at Gabriel.
The archangel's expression goes from startled to inquisitive to understanding almost too fast for Dean to follow. "Zachariah, huh?"
"You're not the only one with shitty ideas of how to make me say yes," Dean tells him bitterly. "Fucking angels are all the same."
"We just want it over with," Gabriel sighs. He looks tired and there's a familiar pain lurking behind the archangel's eyes, except this pain is something so ancient that Dean can't even fathom it. The look is only there for a moment before the Trickster is smirking at him again. "Are you going to finish that?"
His hands go to grab Dean's plate and without thinking Dean smacks the angel's hand away. "Don't touch the pie," he growls.
Gabriel pouts at him. The angel fucking Ipouts at him. Dean gives him an incredulous look and then looks over at the dozen or so untouched pieces of pie still covering most of the table.
The angel shrugs. "I like cherry."
What the hell do you say to that anyway?