Heaven On Earth

Heaven On Earth is a classic, five-star, family run restaurant that caters to the rich and famous. However, the restaurant is not what we're here for. In fact, our story begins with the very people who make Heaven On Earth a possibility. The Novak family, the owners of Heaven On Earth, are dysfunctional enough as it was, but with the addition of two new attractive waiters, the Winchester brothers, their regular crazy becomes downright insane. With the head pastry chef vying for the attention of the younger Winchester and the head waiter falling for the elder, not to mention the longstanding feud between the head chef and sous chef, and throw in the continuous battle with the Health Inspector who was hell-bent on having the restaurant put out of business, it was a huge wonder the restaurant still made it to People Magazine's Top 5 Best Restaurants in the Country.

A/N: Chapter 2! I'm on a roll!

DISCLAIMER: I do not claim any ownership to the characters. All of them are the lovely brainchildren of Mr. Kripke and Mr. Singer and I promise I make no money out of this!

Chapter 2 – The One Where Gabriel's In Love (But Denies it Vehemently)

Waiting tables, Dean decided five minutes into the job, was difficult as hell.

In a brief moment of insanity, Dean actually thought he'd prefer hell to this.

So far, he's stumbled five times, groped three times by desperate, rich little old ladies who wave their money around like they were reminding everyone of their status in life, barged into a table corner twice, and actually managed to trip over air and bring Sam down with him in the process. It was a good thing they were only carrying dirty dishes back to the kitchen, or else, they really would've been in trouble.

That wasn't the only problem. The uniforms they had to wear were very constrictive – a white button-up shirt, black slacks, a bow tie and an apron that seemed to be just a thin strip of cloth that covered his crotch area only. He felt more like a Chippendales dancer than a waiter that moment. Dean felt like he stepped out of a special issue of Playgirl. It wasn't pretty.

The fact that Castiel's been eyeing him since the dinner rush started wasn't helping much, either.

Sam, Dean noted with sadistic pleasure, wasn't faring much better. The moment that customers started flooding in, his little brother's been rather flustered and awkward, which, combined with his huge size, was really bad. To cut long story short, there was a lot of flailing involved, tiptoeing, and ultimately tripping over invisible stuff causing him to barge into Dean more than once.

It was just half past-ten when the customers actually started thinning out (some of them didn't even bother to stay and wait for their meal, the pretentious assholes) and Dean finally got to actually take a deep breath. He staggered back to the waiters' station where Castiel was ringing up the bill of one customer. The blue-eyed man glanced at him, lips pressed in a tight line.

"I know, I know. I suck at waiting tables." Dean said before Castiel could open his mouth. "I'll pay for the broken plates, I promise.

Castiel tilted his head. "Quite the contrary. You fared much better than the last one we had. Ten minutes into his shift, he threatened to quit. He had, shall we say, quite a colorful vocabulary of swear words." He said. "He stood on the fountain and shouted at every single customer that night. Father was this close to firing him." He added, pinching his forefinger and thumb close together to demonstrate just how close that guy was to being jobless.

"What, really?"

Castiel nodded. "He lasted six turbulent months before slapping his letter of resignation down a month ago on father's desk. You'll manage just fine. Don't worry about the plates. They're easily replaceable."

Dean cracked a grin at that. "Thanks. Just what I needed to hear."

"I'm your superior. It is my job to encourage you." Was all Castiel said before going over to a customer (was that Jensen Ackles?) and handing him his bill.

Dean watched him leave before picking up his tray and going over to where Luke was bellowing for a waiter to "Get this goddamn filet mignon to the goddamn prick who ordered it before it gets cold, goddamnit."

Well, he didn't say it in those exact words, but Dean was an expert in reading between the lines. He was pretty sure if Luke did say those words out loud, either Chuck or Michael would castrate him. Sure enough, when he listened closely, there was the tell-tale sign of someone hitting someone in the kitchen. He just wasn't sure if it was Michael or Chuck who did the hitting.

Much, much later, just ten minutes after closing time, he and Sam gravitated towards the bar where a tired-looking but grinning Balthazar offered them each a shot of vodka. "You two looked like you need a break." Was all he said. Dean flashed him a grateful look and took the shot, letting the liquid burn down his throat. It was amazing.

"Oh you have no idea." Sam replied, eyeing the shotglass warily. "And you know what's hilarious? I actually thought waiting tables would be easy."

"You picked the busiest, fanciest, most expensive restaurant in California to work for." Balthazar deadpanned. "You are bound to get real tired. Drink your vodka. I promise it's not poison."

"That doesn't really assure me." Sam said but took the shot anyways.

Balthazar then chuckled. "Well, if it's any consolation, you two did manage to get through the night without any untoward events."

"Are you kidding me? People left because of us." Dean snorted.

Balthazar scoffed. "People leave all the time. Remember, some of our customers are pretentious asshats who expect to be treated like they hung the bloody moon. If they think they've been treated shoddily, then they leave. No ifs, ands, or buts about it. We do our ultimate best here. It's not your fault anymore if they think the service here is sub par to their expectations."

"Damn right it isn't." A voice behind Sam piped up, causing the younger Winchester to yelp and whirl around. Gabriel sat on the bar stool next to Sam while munching on a Twix bar. "Trust me, kiddo. I've been in the food business for almost ten years now. I've learned not to be disappointed when customers throw my tarts back at me and claim the most outrageous insect infestation on them even if it was just a tiny ant that loved sugar."

"Yeah, but how did you deal when you started out?" Sam asked.

"Honestly?" Gabriel raised an eyebrow before shoving the rest of the Twix bar in his mouth. "I grew up in the business kiddo. Growing up in the food industry actually makes you more immune to the big bad world out there. You get used to hearing criticism and bad comments and shoving them back into the mouths of the people who said it. In due time, you'll be able to handle it. Pretty face like yours? You'll have the ladies – and maybe the gentlemen falling to their knees. God knows I'm willing to get down on mine for you." He finishes with a flirty grin and Sam promptly chokes on air.

"E-excuse me?" Sam stutters.

"I mean, look at you! All six feet of tall, dark, and smokingly handsome." Gabriel ploughs on. "And your face. Dear God, if we put your face on billboards everywhere, maybe we could actually have world peace! I wouldn't mind if we made a little peace between ourselves in the storage room, if you get what I mean."

Silence stretched on before Sam lifted his eyes up to look at Gabriel. "Are you flirting with me?"

"Depends. Is it working?"

"No," Sam began. "You're a horrible flirt."

Balthazar tips his head back and laughs. Hard. The noise echoes throughout the dining hall and literally thirty seconds later, he's laughing noiselessly, wheezing and clapping like a retarded seal. Gabriel glowers at him and Sam looks like he missed something important.

"You have to forgive Gabriel." Anna speaks up as she entered the dining hall, removing her flour-stained apron. "He doesn't have a flirty bone in his body."

"Excuse you, I am a great flirt. How do you think I managed to bed Kali?"

"You blackmailed her?" Balthazar squeaks out.

"Fuck you, Balthy. At least I don't fuck everything that breathes." Gabriel retorts.

"At least I have sex!" Balthazar cackles. "You – you don't!"

Anna turns to Sam and Dean with a fond, exasperated look on her face. "Don't worry. You'll get used to the madness. Eventually."

"Are you guys always like this?" Dean asks. "Crazy nuts." He adds under his breath.

"Oh, sweetie believe me, this is mild." Anna replies with a serene smile. "You two still have no idea how crazy we can get. You've never seen the royal rumble between Mike and Luke yet, so I'm guessing you have three days with your sanity intact."

"You're being too generous, Anna." Castiel suddenly materializes out of fucking nowhere causing Dean to yelp and fall off the stool. Castiel glances at him for a second before holding his hand out to help Dean up. "I say they have a day at most to remain sane."

"Oh I'm so touched at your faith in me." Dean snipes, but taking the offered hand anyways.

Castiel merely holds his gaze, electric blue eyes burning a hole into Dean's soul and wasn't that just so damn poetic?

"Dean?" Sam speaks out tentatively, causing Dean to tear his gaze away and look at Sam.

"What?"

"Can we go now? I have class early tomorrow." Sam replies.

That caught Gabriel's interest. "You're a student?"

Sam nodded. "I'm studying law. Stanford. That's why I took the job here – to help me pay for the tuition."

"Oh my God." Anna says with a huge smile. "If there's anything else that turns Gabriel on, it's intelligence, and you seem to have that in spades. His last girlfriend, Kali? She was a neurosurgeon and Chief of the Neurology department at the hospital she worked at."

Sam squirmed uncomfortably in his seat, looking between Anna who had a shit-eating grin on her face and Gabriel who was looking at Sam like he changed his whole stance on life by just being a law student. He then turns to Dean with pleading eyes. "Can we go now?"

Dean nods once and Sam follows him to the door.

"See you lads tomorrow!" Balthazar shouts out. "That is if you don't pack up and go AWOL."

"You better be back." Anna threatens. "We haven't had good eye-candy in here in a long time."

"We'll try our best." Sam says with a sheepish smile. "Good night!"

They all chorused "Good night" back at him and with that, he closed the door.

In all of his years as a five-star pastry chef, Gabriel hasn't seen perfection. He didn't see perfection in the pastries he made, nor did he see perfection in any of the customers that walked in through the doors. Sure they were A-list actors and grammy winners, but meeting them was always a huge disappointment. Make up and camera angles can do a person wonders.

So yeah, Gabriel didn't see perfection. And he was so close to believing it didn't exist.

Well, until Sam Winchester walked into the kitchen just a day ago.

Sam was – for lack of better term – perfect, if he was being honest with himself. Gabriel could list an entire dictionary of adjectives just to describe Sam, but it all boils down to one word – perfect. Perfect hair, perfect height, perfect eyes, perfect body, perfect smile, perfect nose, perfect everything. Sure he's only seen Sam in a physical sense, but dear God above, if he ever got close to the boy, he wonders just how perfect he can be. If Gabriel were being cliche, he would've said Sam fell out of heaven and straight into his life.

And then of course, Sam had to go and become a law student! As if he could get any more perfect. Gabriel loved smart people. He loved to listen when smart people talked. It was a huge turn on for him.

He's sure as hell of one thing though – Sam Winchester made him believe in perfection again.

"Oh god, he's in love." Anna's voice cut in through his thoughts. Gabriel startles out of his mind and turns to look at Anna.

"Excuse me?"

"Who's in love?" Luke walks out of the kitchen and tosses his apron haphazardly on the bar. Balthazar glares at him for that.

"Gabriel, apparently." He growls out. He picks up the dirty apron and flings it across the room where it lands on the face of the statue of the archangel Michael. Michael comes out just as this happens and trains his glare on Balthazar who schooled his expression into one of innocence. The eldest Novak just huffs and makes his way to the employee lounge.

Gabriel scoffs, pretending to look affronted. "Excuse you, I am not in love."

"The goo-goo eyes and the horrible flirting say differently." Anna pipes up. She turns to Luke. "He's gone moon-eyed over Sam Winchester."

"Aww!" Luke coos. He pinches Gabriel's cheek who swats his hand away. "My little Gabby's fallen in wuv!"

"Shut up, I am not in love."

"On the contrary. You seem to have a particular affinity for Sam." Castiel says from his spot.

"See!" Balthazar says excitedly. "Even Castiel can see you have the hots for him and we know Cassie's one of the most oblivious persons alive!"

Castiel narrows his eyes at Balthazar.

"Yeah well, Castiel's a stoic ass!" Gabriel retorts.

"Hey!" Castiel shouts, clearly offended.

"Anyways," Anna interrupts loudly before they continue their childish spat. "Isn't he too young for you?"

"Oh sure, rag me on my age. I'm only thirty five, fuck you very much." Gabriel growls out. "He's what, twenty two? Twenty three at the latest?"

"So you admit you wanna get on with him?" Anna asks. "He's legal."

Gabriel splutters. "N – no! I don't! And besides, what if I do? I'm sure we have some policy against dating co-workers."

"Actually we don't." Castiel replies. "Since we're all relatives working here, I highly doubt a policy such as that would be put into effect. What are the odds we start dating each other?"

"Will you all stop it!" Gabriel grumbles. "I am not in love!"

"Look, Sam came back!" Anna shrieks.

Gabriel whips his head around. "Where?"

That sends everyone howling with laughter. Even Castiel cracked a grin.

"Oh I hate all of you. I'm going home and I will drown my sorrows with a tub of Ben & Jerry's and you're not invited!" Gabriel huffs, grabs his coat and leaves dramatically, slamming the front door on his way out.

"Aww, poor Gabey! He's gonna go all emo on us again!" Luke mocks. Gabriel comes back to flip him off before leaving again.

"Think we were too hard on him?" Castiel asks.

Balthazar, Luke and Anna all looked at each other. "Nah." They said in unison.

Whoo! Here's the second chapter! Please review! I want to know what you guys think so far :)