Notes: I posted this 3.13.16 but took it down because I didn't like the way it flowed. This is a repost. If you read it before you may want to read it again, sorry! Also, I realize now that I could've just updated the chapter, but I didnt think of that at the time, so sorry about that!
Warnings: angst, mentions of sex, drug abuse, alcohol abuse, drugging other people without permission
Lucky Stars
The word responsible is not usually used in association with Gabriel Novak. The word adult is even less likely. And that's why he's confused when he realizes he is standing in the middle of a suburban house in a middle class neighborhood, and the only person old enough to be considered an adult in the entire structure is himself.
It's especially jarring when he realizes that only 20 hours ago he was lounging on a beach in the south of Florida consuming copious amounts of alcohol, but Gabriel is quick to connect the dots. He must have been drunk when he agreed to this.
The only other plausible reason is that he's gone absolutely bat shit crazy. Either that, or he had more than just alcohol on that beach, and is now subsequently hallucinating.
His little brother Castiel is standing in front of him, but he doesn't seem particularly fazed by this sudden turn of events. "You should call Michael and let him know you got here alright," Cas says, watching his brother placidly.
"Right," Gabriel says, because there's no other answer.
There is another long pause and then Castiel speaks again, the words coming out a little disjointed, like he really had to think about them. "Your old room isn't exactly habitable. But I think either Michael's or Lucifer's is up for grabs. Or at least, they still have beds."
"What about you?" The words come out on their own accord.
"Uh, basement," Cas says, and shifts his weight uncomfortably. "And trust me, you're not going want to come down there."
Gabriel almost asks why, but then he remembers, all of a sudden, that his little brother Castiel is something of a hippie. He's all about free love and welcoming people with open arms and legs. And if there are orgies going on in his basement, Gabriel really, really does not want to know.
"Right," he says again. "So, um, what happened to my room?"
Surprisingly enough, Castiel turns an interesting shade of red and stares determinedly somewhere to the left of Gabriel's face. "Please don't go in there either," he says.
Gabriel just nods. "Sure, kiddo," he sighs, because there's just nothing for it. "I'll uh, just get my stuff."
When he comes back with his bags, Castiel is gone, but the door to the basement is open and there's some kind of weird indie pop sound floating up the stairs. Gabriel just shrugs to himself and carries his things down to Lucifer's old room and resolves to leave Cas alone.
He's still feeling a little weird about being the only adult in the house, of having guardianship of his seventeen-year-old kid brother when he's only nineteen himself, but maybe no one really expects him to make responsible adult decisions.
He doesn't call Michael, because really, this is all Michael's fault anyways.
Gabriel's only been there a few days when a new family moves into the house next door. He's pretty sure that his new neighbors, the Winchesters, are primarily alcoholics, because when they take out the trash, its full of beer bottles. For half a second he almost feigns concern, but then he remembers the orgy that he's almost positive is going on in his basement at that very moment and he pauses to reevaluate his life.
It's not like he hasn't noticed the constant stream of teenagers to the basement over the last few days, and he really is concerned about where they're all coming from, but he's thinking that it would be better to keep this thing on a need to know basis. That way he doesn't have to lie through his teeth when Michael inevitably makes his call.
He supposes he does feel a little bit guilty, because Castiel is going to be a senior in high school and Michael seems to have formed the false impression that 'Gabriel' means 'responsible adult presence'. But Gabe assumes that Cas is as careful as he can be for someone with his lifestyle and Gabriel has never really been the nurturing type.
Anyways, he has his own dirty habits that need paying attention to.
From where he's standing, which is exactly the center of the kitchen, he can hear moans and whimpers and breathless laughter. The laughter is Castiel, and Gabriel grimaces to himself and inches sideways, because he doesn't want to know what his little brother sounds like during sex. He imagines that if he keeps moving in this direction, he'll eventually be too far away to hear it.
He shuffles to the other side of the house, then looks up sheepishly when he hears someone clear their throat on the opposite side of the screen door.
"Er," Gabriel stares at them for a moment. "Hey."
The woman at the door looks concerned and slightly suspicious, and Gabriel has to admit that it does look odd, what he's doing. But despite the fact that his life has been a constant stream of partying for the last year and a half doesn't mean he's prepared to hear his little brother's sex noises.
"Hello," she says.
It takes him a moment, but he soon realizes that standing behind her are her two teenage sons, and that these must be the alcoholic Winchesters from next door, since he doesn't recognize them at all.
"I need to register my boys for school, but I don't have the number," she continues.
"Er." Gabriel throws a glance backwards to the kitchen. It's been three years since he's stepped foot in a high school but he assumes they have a phone book around here somewhere. He's slightly confused about why a visit for a phone number requires the presence of one's sons, but then he remembers oh, adults, subtext, yes.
She wants to know if there's any teenagers around who will be going to school with her sons.
He wets his lips and tries to remember what they were talking about. "Um."
"Maybe your parents are home?" Mary asks.
Gabriel snaps to attention. "Parents?" he asks incredulously, then blinks. "I mean, no. No parents. It's just me and my brother."
"Man, how old are you?" the oldest boy blurts. He's squinting at Gabriel, and obviously hungover. Gabriel is hungover too, now that he thinks about it.
He frowns. He knows he's short, but he didn't think he was that short. For a second he considers lying, but then he remembers he has nothing to hide. "Nineteen."
The most obscene moan floats up the stairs and Gabriel almost chokes because really, that was Castiel again, and he shouldn't know that.
Gabriel retracts his previous statement. He has nothing to hide except that.
Somehow he keeps a straight face. The youngest brother peers out from behind the oldest, looking faintly curious. The oldest boy stands up straighter, interested.
Mary's lips thin and she shoots Gabriel a look.
Gabriel doesn't know what the woman wants him to do. Apologize that his younger brother is having a sex party downstairs? Really, it's so out of his control. Gabriel clears his throat. "Ah, anyways, you needed the phone number to the school?"
That's right," Mary says coldly.
"Right," Gabriel says. "Come on in."
He ducks out of the way as the three Winchesters file in, and takes a sweeping look around the kitchen. "Um."
Castiel takes that moment to trudge up the stairs, and Gabriel thanks his lucky stars that Cas had the forethought to pull on some clothes. Granted, its only boxers and a thin t-shirt, but he's made appearances in less.
Castiel doesn't even look at the Winchesters, which is probably for the better because he smells like sex and weed and his pupils are completely blown out and his mouth is red.
"I'm hungry," he announces, dropping into a seat at the kitchen table.
"I'll order takeout?" Gabriel asks weakly, because that at least is something he can do.
Castiel wipes his mouth on his hand and looks up at him, seeming faintly troubled. "Can we have root beer floats?"
Gabriel nods quickly, because yes, sugar, sugar is good. "Sure, yeah. Uh, phonebook. Where is it?"
Cas huffs a little and lurches out of his seat. As he starts rummaging through the cupboards, Gabriel turns back to their guests. "Um, I'm Gabriel. That's my brother Cas."
Mary hurriedly introduces them and Gabe can tell she's dying to leave.
The youngest Winchester, Sam, who is actually about fourteen, speaks up. "What were you doing?" he asks Castiel.
Castiel climbs off of the counter and tosses the phonebook in Gabriel's general direction. "Yoga," he says calmly, with a tilt to his lips that is probably a smile, and Gabriel is a little giddy inside because for all of Cas's emphasis on love, he doesn't smile often.
"Yoga," he says, with a strangled little laugh, because really, what? "Is that what the kids are calling it these days?"
Castiel zeros in on him. "You're welcome to join us," he says seriously, but his eyes are crinkled, so Gabriel can tell that he's joking.
He chokes anyways.
So does Mary.
The oldest boy, Dean, snorts a laugh, and Cas smiles again. It makes him look younger. Lighter. "Root beer floats and Chinese food, from the good place," he orders. "And don't eat my sweet and sour chicken this time."
With that, Castiel snags several bottle of water off of the counter and disappears down the stairs. Gabriel offers Mary the phone book a little helplessly. "You could bring it back tomorrow," he suggests.
"Thank you," she says, looking uncomfortable. When she walks out the door, her sons linger.
"Is there any way I could get in on that?" Dean asks, looking slightly more awake.
"The um, yoga?" At Dean's nod, Gabriel pauses. "Um." He doesn't really want to be known as an enabler, but he assumes that Cas would share his knowledge on safe sex, and keep his drugs out of the house on the chance that Michael will drop by unexpectedly. "This is a pretty regular occurrence so just uh, feel free to drop by."
"Cool," Dean says. "Thanks man." He looks rather pleased, and Gabriel wants to die.
He turns to Sam. "Anything I can do for you, kiddo?" he asks, because he's already going to hell.
Sam blinks at him. "Can I get back to you on that?" he asks.
Gabriel swipes a hand tiredly over his face. Really, this adult business takes a lot out of him, but if making dangerous promises is what makes teenagers smile, he supposes he could use the practice. For Cas's sake. "Sure thing," he sighs.
After that, the neighborhood buzzes every time he leaves the house, and Gabriel isn't sure if it's because of the Winchesters or not. He resolves to spend more time inside, brainstorming ways to sound proof the basement, and how to get Castiel to smile more.
He does not see much more of the Winchesters, and if Dean ever drops by, then Gabriel misses it. Who he does see, however, are his older brothers. They show up together on the Fourth of July, entirely unannounced and bearing gifts in the form of take out, which is the only thing Gabriel and Cas have eaten in the entire 2 and a half weeks since his arrival.
The unfortunate part of their appearance is that Cas is standing in the middle of the kitchen in absolutely nothing and that Gabriel is decidedly too tipsy for it being only one in the afternoon.
"Gabriel," Michael says gravely and Gabriel almost falls over. "Castiel."
Cas is much more composed. He merely glances at them both and then pries the food out of their hands. "I'll be downstairs," he says, turning on his heel.
Lucifer snorts. "Well. You've certainly done a bang up job raising him," he says.
"Shuddup," Gabriel mumbles, leaning against the counter so as to keep his balance. "Like to see you do any better."
He hopes they don't plan on staying very long, if only to spare him the amused looks from Lucifer and Michael's stern, disappointed gaze.
By the end of the night, Gabriel is settled on the couch, curled into Lucifer's side and drifting. He knows they're talking about him, can tell by the inflections of their voices and the way they keep glancing down at him, but he can't bring himself to actually care.
That's why he's startled when Michael suddenly reaches over and touches his hair, and says something that looks like an apology but that he doesn't quite hear.
"What the hell did you put in my drink?" he mumbles, and he watches Lucifer's face flicker with surprise and then smooth out into an absent smile.
"How did you know?"
"Fuck you, I always know," Gabriel manages to get out, and Lucifer laughs and stretches out on the couch like a cat.
"Nothing deadly," he says.
The very idea should terrify him, but he remembers being in high school and passing out because his older brother had been slipping him sleeping medication when Gabriel asked him to, and while this feeling is distinctly different, partly because Gabe didn't ask, it's kind of the same thing.
Distantly, he sees Michael's face flash with anger. Sees him shake Lucifer's arm and yell, but he doesn't exactly understand what's going on until Castiel emerges in sweatpants and a wrinkled t-shirt.
He drops down onto the couch in between Michael and Gabriel and tugs Gabe away from Lucifer. Cas shifts around and tugs at Gabriel until they're settled comfortably, Gabriel's head on Cas's stomach and his feet in Lucifer's lap.
"Are you scared?" he whispers into Gabe's hair.
Gabriel doesn't really think he is, but he notices that Castiel's body language is oddly protective and hunched over Gabriel like he can shield him with his body.
"Fucking confused," Gabriel says. He's a little worried too, because Michael is still yelling at Lucifer and Lucifer's mouth is curled into a lazy smirk. "He used to give me sleeping medication," he tells Cas, but only because their older brothers aren't paying any attention.
"I know," Cas says.
"I can't remember what the hell for."
And he watches Castiel's expression tighten.
"You asked him to."
Gabriel swipes a hand over his face and tries to concentrate on what Cas is saying. "I know," he sighs. "I just meant, what for?"
And yeah, that's what he was thinking earlier, about dealing with his own dirty habits.
He sighs and waves an arm around, effectively gathering Michael's attention. "Hey, Mikes. Mikey. Quit yelling, bro. Its fine."
Cas's head drops slightly and he sighs into Gabriel's hair. "You're crazy," he says. There's a kind of desperate affection in his voice and his eyes are red rimmed and the hand digging into Gabriel's shoulder is shaking. He looks bad, really upset, and Gabriel tries not to feel completely wretched.
"Just fucking go to sleep, Cassie," he says, and looks away from all three of them.