Disclaimer: Supernatural and its characters are the property of Eric Kripke. Sadly, I do not own any of these guys.
"Uh, Sammy?" Dean asked as he peered around his taller-but-younger brother's shoulder at the bowl of eggnog on the counter.
"What?" Sam asked without turning around, concentrating on getting all of the brandy into the bowl and not onto the floor.
"Nothin'. I just thought you might want some eggnog to go with that brandy."
Sam smirked, pouring a little bit more brandy into the enormous mixing bowl before swigging down the last of it straight from the bottle. "Coming from you that's a little scary, Dean. And you haven't lived until you've had eggnog the way they make it at Stanford. It's probably strong enough to knock an angel over if he drinks enough."
As if he'd been summoned, Gabriel came in at that moment, striding over to the bowl and taking a contemplative sniff before drawing back like he'd been stung. "Wow, Samsquatch. How much alcohol's in that stuff? I only sniffed it and I think I'm already wasted."
"You're hilarious," Sam said, pouring it into cups for all of them, as well as Castiel, who had just come into the kitchen too. Kevin was currently over at Josephine's house, so they didn't have to worry about the fact that he was a minor and shouldn't drink. If he managed to sneak some from the kitchen while they weren't looking, though… Well, he was a legal adult, and they were probably going to be too buzzed to care at that point. "Here, Gabriel, this one's for you."
The Archangel cocked an eyebrow at the gallon pitcher full of eggnog Sam handed him, sniffing it again and shaking his head. "Uh, Sam? Are you trying to tell me something here? I think I'll get sick before I even finish half of this."
"You won't," Dean said immediately. "Cas drank an entire liquor store in a couple hours and then ate three-hundred cheeseburgers a few weeks later. He was totally fine both times."
Castiel blushed, neither of those being particularly proud memories of his, and took a sip of his eggnog, wrinkling his nose at the strong alcoholic burn. "I wasn't completely fine after the liquor store. That was probably the first hangover any angel in history's ever had."
"Well congrats, bro," Gabriel said jovially, slapping Castiel on the back and almost making him spill his drink. "Looks like you're a trendsetter, 'cause after tonight I might have the second hangover any angel's ever had." With that he tipped back the pitcher, taking several gigantic gulps before wiping the eggnog moustache off of his lips and grinning at Sam. "This remind you of any of your Stanford parties yet, Sammy-boy? Or were you too drunk to remember them?"
"Hoo boy…" the younger Winchester said with a roll of his eyes, downing his small cup and pouring another one. "I wonder if drinking enough of this will make you funny, Gabe."
"Ouch," Dean said with a chuckle, reaching for the poker set and spreading it out on the table. "That's Sam one, Gabe zero. Now are we gonna play this game or not? Baby needs a new set of spark plugs."
Everyone gathered around the table, drinks and poker chips in front of them, and jumped into the game. Castiel and Gabriel took a few rounds to learn the rules, so Dean and Sam didn't take any chips from them until they were confident that the angels could at least play identify the basic hands. The bowl of eggnog sat at the end of the table, and every so often someone would get up and refill their cup, everyone but Gabriel drinking it slowly since they didn't have angelic alcohol tolerances. A few hours passed in the blink of an eye, blurring together into a happy swirl of eggnog, laughter, and frustrated groans as Dean somehow managed to win a little over half of the hands; Sam's wins made up the smaller half, and the angels had only one each.
Eventually they lost count of what round they were on. Everyone was very buzzed, including Gabriel, who had now drunk almost three gallons of the brandy-soaked eggnog and was busy giggling to himself while he tried – and failed – again and again to braid a poker chip into Sam's hair. Castiel had had only one glass, but since he now had an alcohol tolerance that got him wasted on one beer, that was a lot. He was staring blissfully off into space, swaying back and forth and hiccupping every few seconds while he laid his head on Dean's shoulder and went cross-eyed trying to focus on his cards.
"Dean, is th – *hic* – this a club or a shpade? I can't t – *hic* – ell," Castiel mumbled, holding up a red six of hearts for Dean to see.
The older hunter sighed, pulling out his chair and Castiel's so he could throw the inebriated ex-angel's arm over his shoulder and keep him from tumbling off his shaky legs.
"Alright, Cas, it's time for bed now," Dean said softly, not showing any indication that he had even been drinking besides a slight darkening of his cheeks.
"But 'm no'tired," Castiel slurred, tripping and clutching onto Dean so he wouldn't fall.
"You will be once you get in bed. Come on." Cas trudged along beside him, swaying dangerously the entire time but not falling with Dean's strong arm around him. He hiccupped another three times, and Dean made a mental note to get him some water to drink and get rid of them so that both of them wouldn't be up all night long.
Sam watched the two of them go, unable to move anywhere with Gabriel's hands still woven into his hair, and waved sleepily. "Night, Dean."
"Night, Sammy. Oh, and by the way, either give me the recipe for this or be prepared to make it again next year. This was the best eggnog ever."
Sam stared down at own almost-empty glass of eggnog, swirling it around and then pushing it away when the motion made him slightly queasy. He looked over at Gabriel, who was now busy trying to grab a chocolate bar he'd somehow managed to conjure up into Sam's pocket instead of in his hand, and stood up to check the medicine cabinet, after retrieving the chocolate bar and handing it to Gabriel when he whined in protest. The industrial-sized bottle of ibuprofen was still in there, and he breathed a sigh of relief to see it. Something – namely the way Cas and Gabriel looked along with the way he already felt – told him he and everyone else would have it completely empty by the next afternoon. But if that was the payment for all the fun they'd had as a family tonight, it was totally worth it.