Alice had been giving Dean the cold shoulder ever since he'd snuck up on her during her personal time and stuck his big fat nose in the thing she was most embarrassed of in the entire world.
"Alice, come on, you're being ridiculous!" Dean protested as she walked away from him in a motel parking lot. "We can't afford three separate rooms!"
"Why do we need three? Didn't you and Sam share a room before I made it a crowd?" she snapped. "You two can bunk together. I need some private time. Apparently the only way for me to get it is in a room that you don't have a key to!"
She closed the door in his face, crossing her arms over her chest obstinately as she surveyed the room that was hers and hers alone. Unexpectedly, she was struck by a pang of loneliness. Mad as she was, she already missed Dean.
She shoved the feeling aside and started blaring Metallica to fill the void.
Three hours of solitaire passed before Alice's self-imposed seclusion was interrupted by a knock at her door. She got up and peeked out the peephole to see Dean outside.
"What."
"Come on Alice, open up. I come bearing gifts."
Dean held up a bottle of Sierra Silver and a take-out bag. Alice's stomach growled, prompting her to reluctantly open the door.
"What's in the bag?"
"Atomic hot wings. The place I got them from claims that if you can eat your way through an order of these puppies without puking, you're a hot wing legend."
"Uh-huh. Did you get an order of lemon pepper too?"
"Is hell hot?" Dean replied.
Alice stepped aside to let him in. He nodded in appreciation of the song playing.
"Ozzy. Classic."
"Don't push your luck, Winchester," she warned. "You can't buy my forgiveness with food."
"Or an apology, apparently," Dean muttered.
"What's that?"
"So, let's dig in and see if these wings live up to the hype!" he hastily corrected himself.
They dug in and Dean pulled out his phone after a moment.
"Mind if I take over the music?"
"Only if you promise not to put on any more damn Oyster Cult."
"You got it."
He put a song on and Alice almost choked on her wing as she recognized it.
"I used to think one day, I'd tell the story of us..."
"You son of a-"
"What?"
"Get out!"
"Why?"
"I am SO not in the mood to be made fun of, you bag of dicks!"
"I'm not making fun of you!"
"...and we're not speaking. And I'm dying to know, is it killing you like it's killing mee-ee, yeah!"
"Then what the hell-"
"Alice, look, you don't have to be embarrassed!" Dean said quickly. "There's nothing wrong with... you know. Her. Come on, I'm sick of us not talking, and over what? It's just music! Everyone has different tastes. I don't like her, but... look, I don't judge you for liking her, ok?"
Alice considered him for a long moment while the song went on.
"If you don't like her, how'd you pick out such a fitting song?" she finally asked.
"I asked Sam," Dean admitted.
"Sam's into Taylor Swift?"
"I'm sure he is, but he's in the closet about it too. No, we listened to all her albums and picked this song out."
Alice fixed Dean with a look of complete disbelief.
"You. Listened to ALL of Taylor Swift's music? So you could make up with me?"
"Don't read too much into it," Dean said dismissively, digging into his hot wings.
"Huh."
They ate in silence for a while. Alice had to admit, she was tickled that Dean had put in this much effort for her sake.
"So, I, uh... I guess I was the one being a dick," she said after a long time. She was terrible at apologies, but she was touched enough by the gesture that she was willing to give it her best shot.
"Hell yeah," Dean agreed. Alice immediately regretted giving him the upper hand.
"This time," she stressed. "Most of the time, you're the dick."
"Aw, come on. Why you gotta be so mean?" Dean asked with a grin.
Alice rolled her eyes, unable to keep herself from smiling.
