I come bearing sabriel.
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To Sam, Gabriel's mind is a mystery. Which is dumb if you think about it, because Sam's a telepath and everything that goes with that, but it's not that he can't get into Gabriel's head.
It's that he's not quite sure he wants to.
The guy is stranger than a meatloaf in a school cafeteria, and it just adds to their mutant hodgepodge. Take this afternoon, for example, when they'd taken a break for breakfast at a Baker's Square off the side of the road in Riverside.
They sat at a booth, with Dean and Castiel on one side, leaving Sam stuck with Gabriel opposite them. Sam was glad to see Dean and Castiel so comfortable together, because he'd seen enough of their eye-sex to last him a lifetime. Hopefully they'd pulled their shit together when he and Gabe were asleep in the backseat.
Fuck, he was already calling him Gabe.
They skimmed over the menus and decided quickly, starting to discuss their plan of action there at the table before they placed their order.
"Cas says this school," Dean started, pretending to be more skeptical than he really was. "This school, it's for people like us?"
At the last part his voice dropped to a raspy whisper. Which didn't really make any difference, Sam noted vaguely, because all the other customers were either old as balls and half-deaf, dealing with one cranky toddler too many, or too far away to hear. But they ran the risk of being kicked out and chased away if anyone there caught wind that they were, well, mutants.
"Technically it's for younger mutants," Castiel confirmed, his Batman-voice already low enough to be safe, "but yes, it is for 'people like us', as you said. We are too old to attend classes but I have contacted the head of the school and he says that if any of us are interested he would be happy to offer us teaching positions."
Dean snorted.
"Must be pretty desperate if he's offering us of all-"
"You boys decided on anything yet?"
The waitress stood at the head of the table, whipping her notepad out of her apron and fixing them with an impatient look. She was projecting rather loudly, Sam observed with a cringe. It would sure suck for her if the manager found out she was planning on blowing the busboy in the back room after her shift ended.
"Yeah, uh, I'll just have a garden salad," Sam answered quickly, letting the other three recover. Gabriel made an amused noise in the back of his throat before ordering a stack of chocolate-ship pancakes and a chocolate milkshake, extra cherries, please. The waitress snapped her gum and turned to Dean.
"For you, hun?"
"Bacon and eggs, over-easy, white toast. And how's your cherry pie?"
"Take it or leave it."
"Take it."
Castiel looked up awkwardly from his menu, looking like he'd been in the midst of discovering the secrets of being when he was dropped from the heavens into the booth.
"A cheeseburger for me," he said, managing to look both sheepish and completely put-together at the same time. The waitress hopped off and began flirting like nobody's business with the busboy. Sam highly doubted they would make it to the end of her shift without some form of sexual encounter.
"Cas, are you sure this school is, you know, legit?" he asked, getting them back to the subject at hand with a lowered voice while gently prodding the other customers' minds so that they wouldn't notice their conversation. "We could be walking into a hoax. I mean, do you really think there're that many of us out there? Enough to keep a large school running for fifty years?"
There was that sheepish look again. Castiel knew something he hadn't told them.
"I may have visited the campus," he confessed. "I have seen the grounds and I can confirm that there are at least a thousand students currently in attendance, all of them possessing some form of mutation."
Dean gave a low whistle.
"A thousand," he breathed. "I don't think I even know a thousand people."
Sam could practically feel the rays of hope emanating from him, blanketed by a thick curtain of skepticism. It made him sad; Dean had gone most of his life with Dad telling him he wasn't normal, keeping his mutation a secret. Sure, he'd told Sam the same thing, but Sam had Dean to tell him that he wasn't alone. He hadn't been alone, he had his big brother, but who was there to tell Dean? More than anyone he knew, Dean deserved this trip.
The waitress arrived with their orders and they ate in silence, daydreaming about what it would be like at Charles Xavier's.
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When they finish and pay the check they can left, and they piled into the Impala like clowns in a clown car. Gabriel had to lean on Sam because his leg was still screwed six ways to hell but they managed to get into the backseat without much trouble and situate themselves much like they had on their way there, with Gabriel's bad leg propped up on Sam's lap.
Dean and Castiel talked in the front, most likely more about the school but Sam noticed Castiel's hand find its way to rest on Dean's thigh somewhere in the first hour of driving. He may have cracked a smile.
"Be still my heart," Gabriel cooed, gesturing towards the two in the front seat and wiping a fake tear from his eye. "Little Cassie's all grown up."
Dean's head whipped around to flash Gabriel a dirty look but he just responded with a waggle of his eyebrows.
"So, kiddo," he tried again, and it took a moment before Sam realized yes, he was addressing him. "What were you up to before you were plucked from the daily grind to go on a groovy mutant road-trip with Tall, Dark and Angsty and his boyfriend the Beige Crusader here?"
Another dirty look from Dean and a threat to turn the car around, but it went ignored.
"Ah," Sam begins with a nervous chuckle. "I was going to law school for a while there but that didn't pan out too well. I ended up working part-time at a library near the school."
"Hadn't pegged you as the sexy librarian type, Sambo."
Sam's cheeks flushed.
"Gabriel. Not like that," he shushed him.
"Relax, kiddo, I'm just yanking your chain," Gabriel reassured him with a good-natured chuckle and a wave of his hand. "Ah. Ouch. Not trying to make you uncomfortable or anything but would you, ah, mind moving my leg a little?"
They got Gabriel's pant leg rolled up to the knee so that the burn was exposed to the air. It was still an angry red and some blisters had popped. It looked pretty clean, for the most part, but like this it just screamed for infection. It would have been great if they could have just stopped for a few minutes at a drugstore and get some ointment but they couldn't afford to stop so soon out of South Dakota. Gently Sam prodded at Gabriel's mind and immediately was assaulted by stinging pain. It was a miracle Gabriel was still his normal, chipper self, and Sam numbed the leg so the sting dulled to an ache.
Gabriel must have noticed, because he turned to Sam with a gentler smile than he'd seen from him thus far.
"Thanks, kiddo," he said quietly, enough for Sam to hear the real gratitude, before leaning into his side and falling asleep.
Dean had one arm around Castiel's shoulders while he drove, letting the quiet man sleep. Sam hazarded another smile before draping an arm across Gabriel, tucking him further into him. He may have liked it a little more than he let on, but then again, did anybody else really have to know?