AN/ I really feel that as a present for all of us, the next chapter I'm going to write for this Nick POV is just going to be him and Sam sitting on the beach joking around with each other and playing with a dog.

And then for the chapter after that it's just going to be them in bed kissing. No plot. Just snuggly smoochy times.

For his birthday Castiel was going to get something really, really nice this year from Nick. The older man was rather determined to make it happen, because his baby brother had come up with a fantastic solution to the lack of space in Nick's apartment.

They would simply switch homes.

Cas owned his house. It had a spare bedroom and a yard and all those kinds of good things that a kid like June probably needed. And he wasn't asking for anything in exchange. He'd just come up with the idea on his own, and come over with some boxes, and a desire to help Nick pack.

And Nick was a simple man, so he really didn't have all that much stuff that he felt like taking with him. Clothes, violin, and books. The blanket that Sam had given him (which was not sentimental. It was just a really nice and warm blanket, and he liked it and everyone who wanted to look too hard into his keeping it could just buzz off).

Nick was left to the couch during packing, not able to do much, since he really couldn't carry anything. He felt rather useless as he watched Castiel and June pull his books down from the shelves and tuck them away into brown boxes.

"Why don't you have a tv, Papa?" June asked as she wrote on the side of the box with a sharpie. Labeling it very clearly as 'more books'.

"I used to." He shrugged. "It broke and I never got around to replacing it." Simple enough.

She rolled her eyes and took another few books from Cassy. "There's a tv at your place though… right?"

"Yes, but I just bought it a few weeks ago so I can watch movies with a friend of mine when he comes over." He smiled an odd little smile. "And I will probably bring it over here with the rest of my stuff."

"How am I going to watch basketball without a tv?"

Which got Castiel to actually laugh, glancing over at Nick in odd confusion like he couldn't understand the words that she was saying, but still knew them to be a joke of sorts.

Nick could only shrug again. Not at all sure if she was serious or not. "You can always come over here to watch the game with your uncle." He awkwardly assured her, knowing full well that Castiel had never sat through any kind of sports game in his life, but would probably be willing to give it a try.

Despite the fact that Gabriel had left in a huff a few days ago, without so much as a goodbye- Castiel did not seem to share in any of this 'Nick is making things worse again' mentality. He actually was incredibly supportive about the whole thing. Not that they'd actually sat down and talked about it, or anything so formal, but the fact that he was here, and offering them a home, said more than any words they could have shared.

They kind of talked loosely about things, about how Nick needed to get June registered in school, and added to his health insurance and so many little things that he'd not really considered.

And Nick loved it. He loved the normalcy, and mundane nature. It made the whole thing feel even more real to him for some reason.

He was happily getting into a loose argument with his daughter, about what they should have for lunch (because she wanted sushi, and what kind of ten year old wants sushi? If Nick was going to pay for fish it had better be well cooked), when they were interrupted by the unmistakable sound of Gabriel whining outside the door.

"I told you I don't want to." Were the first and last decipherable, and muffled words out of him before the door was popped open and Gabriel shoved inside. He stumbled only a little, and then looked over his shoulder accusingly at his wife.

"We brought you some Thai food." She announced easily, gesturing to the bag her husband was holding.

"She brought you Thai food." Gabriel corrected, and dropped the bag on the coffee table. "If it was up to me I would be at home still enjoying my day off, and not having to look at your ugly face."

Nick flipped him off kind of casually alongside his neck, pretending to scratch an itch in a way that he hoped his daughter wouldn't see.

Which seemed fairly effective, because all June's attention was on Rekha, who was well worth looking at. "Uncle Gabriel," she said in a transfixed kind of way. "Is this the girl you like, that you were telling me about?"

"She is." In a second Gabe was, peacefully ignoring Nick, smiling at June and coming closer to peek into the boxes they had set aside.

"She's even prettier than you said." June informed him in a tone that was almost a lecture.

Rekha laughed in a gentle, pleased way and went into the kitchen to dig through Nick's mismatched collection of silverware.

"They didn't make words in this language strong enough to describe her." Gabriel apologised. "I did the best I could."

June nodded in an understanding, but still kind of awed sort of way.

"If I didn't know any better," Rekha came over with a handful of forks, "I would accuse you two of rehearsing that all in hopes of getting something from me."

"I would never." Gabriel managed to look wounded.

"And I don't know you well enough yet." June added with an almost innocent smile. Almost.

"Oh wonderful." Rekha sighed, setting the forks down beside the bag of food, before wrapping her arms in a firm chokehold around Nick's throat and head region. And Rekha always smelled faintly of smoke and sandalwood and vanilla, warm and welcoming. "She takes after you and Gabe."

Awkwardly, Nick slipped an arm around her shoulders, half returning the hug, half just enjoying the simple pleasure of having a spectacular set of breasts pressed against his cheek. It was a testament to how much respect that he had for this woman in the rather subtle way that he resisted the urge to kiss some of that soft warm skin. It also spoke volumes as to how much he missed being touched after only a few weeks out from the last time that he'd seen Sam.

In the end it would only be one more addiction that he would need to kick. And craving a rather oddly specific man's touch had to be easier to get over than the perpetual thirst that he couldn't seem to shake.

"I think she's perfect." He said in a rather muffled voice, defending his daughter against any accusations that she might be even half the trouble that him and Gabriel were when they were her age.

Compartmentalisation.

That's what he needed now.

Rather reluctantly he let go of his sister in law, giving her a smile that she might buy.

"You sound just like your father." With an almost sympathetic smile, Rekha patted his cheeks. "You're even starting to look like him. When was the last time you shaved?"

"Maybe… three days ago?" He sort of shrugged, reeling a bit at the strange kind of compliment that he'd just been paid.

No one would have ever considered giving Chuck a father of the year award. He'd been painfully awkward, and all together clueless on how to raise his trio of sons. Most nights they'd had canned spaghetti for dinner while they sat around the table struggling to figure out homework assignments together.

The man wasn't perfect. But he'd been there, and he tried, and for a couple of kids that no one else wanted, he'd been a savior.

Flaws and all.

Dad was a role model that Nick thought he could live up to.

He could be here, and he could attempt to do right by June, and he could still be a bit of a mess.

If that's all the world was going to ask of him, he could sure as hell try.

He felt a considerably more hopeful smile pulling at the edges of his mouth.

"Just… no beard, ok?" Rekha sat down beside him, handing over a box of Cashew Chicken that smelled just spicy enough to keep it safe from Gabriel's hungry gaze. "Your brother grew that awful one last summer, I still have nightmares about it."

June peered into the bag filled with its many nondescript white boxes. "I think you'd look nice with a beard, Papa. Like a lumberjack."

Nick chuckled, because oddly, looking like some kind of scruffy woodsman was not a goal of his.

"You would hate it after a while." Rekha told her niece rather confidently. "He'd always smell like whatever he'd been eating. Two days after a barbecue- you would still be able to taste the smoke on him."

June giggled. "Were you tasting Uncle Gabriel's beard?"

"Trust me, I didn't want to. It just kind of happens when you kiss someone. It was awful and for almost three weeks I had to withhold… kisses, until he finally shaved the terrible thing off." She continued on in a rather unshaken kind of way. "Do you like Pad Thai?"

And June did. She even made a point to say thank you, but didn't let it get in the way of reminding Nick that she still wanted sushi at some point and he would have to just get brave enough to eat raw fish.

It wasn't a prospect that he was looking forward to, so he focused on the pleasant meal at hand. Good food. Good company.

Well, semi good company.

Everyone except Gabriel. Gabriel who hadn't even looked at him since a vague insult he'd dropped along with the lunch, before making some room between them. Rather like a petulant child, Gabriel spent the meal over at the table by himself, curled sullen around his food- either upset simply for the fact that he had to be here around Nick who he was still angry at, or pouting because he really had enjoyed having a beard and always got a bit sore when Rekha brought up how much she hated it. It was anyone's guess at this point.

And now was not the time for it, because Nick was sort of enjoying being surrounded by all but a handful of his favorite people, and somehow managing not to have any stupid arguments- but to be honest, he'd liked the beard.

Though if Nick had had to choose between a beard or… kisses, he would have shaved too.

Chewing a little slower, he tried his best not to let himself wonder how Sam would have felt about him being a bit more scruffy than usual. If there would be threats, and withheld kisses and then the things that tended to come after kisses. Those had been some of NIck's favorite things.

Which was not at all a helpful path for his thoughts to wander down at this moment. Perhaps later tonight when he knew that June was in bed and asleep and he took one of his over long, hot showers, then he could let his mind dwell. But not right now.

Right now people were talking, and he was managing not to hear a single damn word of it.

"Are you saying that your… mom," Rekha hesitated over the word like she'd never considered actually using such a definition on a woman like Lilith, "didn't even remember to have you pack a jacket."

June looked over with a mouthful of noodles. "I've got this jacket now. I'm ok." She flapped the overly long, pushed up sleeves of the plaid flannel that she was wearing. She'd pulled it out of Nick's basket of clean laundry her second day with him and he hadn't been willing to tell her that it didn't belong to him in the first place. Telling her that Sam must have forgot it last time he was here would only inevitably lead to having to explain who Sam was.

And Papa having a boyfriend wasn't a talk that he was ready to have with his daughter yet. There was still some paranoia that it would be a deal breaker. That the information might get back to Lilith and the devil woman would find a way to use it against him

"You need a real coat, June." The woman elaborated. "And shoes, not sandals. It gets cold out here. And if you're going to be moving into Castiel's house we will need a new bed for you too."

"I've got some clothes... But my own bed would be really cool. Papa's bed is lumpy."

"You two have been sharing a bed?" Gabriel asked slowly, his bright eyes darting to Nick in a rather uncomfortable kind of allegatio.

"I sleep on the couch." He said rather quickly, not liking whatever implication there was. Bristling at whatever it was that his brother was trying to say.

"Of course you do." Rekha rested a hand on his knee for a moment, soothing Nick all the while shooting a dirty look over at her husband. "But the couch is too small for Nick, and I love shopping." She squeezed his knee and turned to look at June. "I was thinking it would be nice to have a girl's day, just me and you, none of these weird old men." She waved a hand at the three brothers- none of which rose to defend themselves against the name calling. "We'll get you some things of your own- blankets and towels and all that other stuff that my newest niece should not have to be sharing with her dad, who was never very good at sharing his things in the first place."

Which was as tender of an offer as Castiel wanting to trade houses. Even if they were the only two members of his family who had taken his side in this whole thing- Nick felt a swell of warmth and gratitude towards them.

June seemed absolutely thrilled at the offer, and shoved a few more bites of food into her cheeks, hardly chewing, before she was ready to go. Informing them all as she hunted down her flip flops, that she wanted a bed with drawers under it so that when she got her puppy she could use one of them as a puppy nest.

"I did not know that you were going to be buying her a dog." Castiel said slowly once the front door had closed behind the women.

"Discussions began about a week back." Nick stretched, trying not to smile. "She's rather persuasive- but I'm holding out, hoping that I can get her to settle for a fish instead."

"You hate dogs." Gabriel said without looking over, curled around a box of noodles that he'd refused to share with anyone, even his wife.

"I hated the dog that you tried to hide in our room when we were twelve." Nick corrected. "It pissed on my bed and ate my favorite pair of shoes."

"They were ugly shoes- and they smelled like your feet. Trust me, that dog did us all a favor."

"Hey, I don't come in your house and insult your shoes."

"Yes you do."

Nick snorted softly. "Yes I do." It felt good to be talking to Gabriel again. The man wasn't exactly his favorite person. Mainly because Gabriel wasn't anyone's favorite person. But he was one of the few people who could put up with half of the garbage that Nick tried to pull. In fact, over the years, more often than not Gabriel had been there beside Nick, cheering him on, or keeping a lookout for the cops.

And more than once, Nick had returned the favor.

"So," Gabe stabbed away with his fork. " This might shock you, but I didn't actually come here to help you pack. Rekha thinks that we need to have a talk- and when she comes back if I can't at least say I told you to fuck off, then she's going to get real mean when we get home tonight."

There were four boys in their family.

Michael was a self righteous prick. Humorless and cold- until you got to know him, and then you realized he was really just a big bag of dicks.

Nick was a caustic mixture of stubborn pride and self loathing. At any given point, about three heartbeats away from finding some new and creative way to screw himself over.

Castiel was full of hope. Quiet and trusting. Loyal to a fault.

And then there was Gabriel. He'd always danced to his own tune. Alive and vibrant, clinging to defiance like it was the last virtue of mankind. The man didn't give two fucks what anyone else thought. Unless that person happened to be his wife. He'd move mountains for that woman.

He'd even come to his brother's house and try to be civil.

"Go ahead. Out with it." Nick made a 'come here' motion with his hand.

"You're a fucking idiot."

Well, maybe not civil.

Castiel sighed deeply and stood, collecting up the empty food stained containers and silverware, and anything else he could manage that put him as clearly not part of this conversation.

Nick was in this alone. Which was fine. He knew the script. "Gee, Gabriel. I missed you too."

"I told you- I told you back in the hospital when you asked me to buy you a kid, that this was a bad idea and I wouldn't be part of it."

"What bad? I'm happy. June is happy. Lilith is fucking overseas. This is good, for the first time in my life. I'm good."

"Cassy told me all about what he found in your violin case." The man had no tack.

He also had a stunning knack for saying the wrong things.

Now, Nick hadn't been aware of the fact that Castiel had been rooting around in his things. Not even sure when the guy had managed to find the time. "He found my... violin?"

"He found a wedding ring, you ass."

Which was just fantastic.

He'd really sort of been hoping to keep that one to himself. Take it to his grave infact. This was not a matter that he'd ever wanted to have a family intervention over.

"See, that's what happens when you go digging around in a man's stuff." Nick pointedly did not look over at his youngest brother who was rather thoroughly scrubbing away at something in the sink like he meant to annihilate it. "You find things you aren't supposed to find."

Gabriel poked at his food with a finger, clicking his tongue softly. "Poor little Cassy comes to me when you're still drugged up in the hospital- tells me how he's 'very concerned for your emotional well being'." Gabriel did a rather remarkable Castiel impression. "Apparently the night of your accident you were making up nonsense about why you couldn't be with your towering Samsquach anymore- but our dear, sweet, misguided brother knows you were just making up excuses when the truth of the matter is because you're still apparently very much in love with Lilith."

First, Nick made a retching noise. The very suggestion laid out here making his stomach turn and suddenly the Thai food wasn't sitting well with him one bit. Once the moment had passed and he was sure that he would be able to keep his meal down, he threw a couch cushion into the kitchen, watching it fall short of actually hitting his brother. "Are you insane?"

Castiel looked back, a wet sponge held tightly in his hand. "I found a ring. What was I supposed to think?"

"You could have given me some credit- maybe not assumed that I'd lost my god damned mind."

"Don't worry. I explained it to him. " Gabriel used his fingers to dig a snowpea from his box of sweet rice, tossing it down onto a napkin like it had insulted him. "Explained how it couldn't have possibly been your wedding ring, because I was with you when you threw it out ages ago. Which leaves us with an interesting question- why, oh why would Nick have a gold ring hidden away if it's not his?"

He asked it like he already knew.

Castiel on the other hand apparently still hadn't figured it out. It was that tender innocence again. Standing there, looking between his big brothers with a lost kind of expression in his big, dark eyes.

"You didn't buy it for yourself." Gabriel found a piece of pineapple, which he ate rather loudly. "You bought it to give to someone else. Someone special. Our little Nick decided to overreact to some little girly crush that he'd got- and then he decided to freak out about it and hide it away under a bunch of alcohol and bad choices… just like usual."

Castiel looked from one of them to the other, confusion giving way to a bright smile that lit up his whole face. "You were going to give it to Sam." Like it was the sweetest thing that he'd ever heard.

"Christ, don't encourage him." Gabriel butted in.

"Hey, no one is encouraging anyone here. There's nothing to encourage." Nick tried to defend himself, because he hated, absolutely hated when his family talked about him like this. Like he wasn't in the room with them.

With a suffering kind of sigh, Gabriel let his head fall back. "You do know that there is a definite line between 'we're so happy for you' and 'what do you mean, you're getting married? You hardly know each other'. Huge, elephantine, never to be crossed line, you impulsive whaco."

"I don't know if either of you've noticed, but I'm not exactly engage to anyone here." He felt a need to point out, because apparently this simple fact had slipped everyone's mind.

But Gabriel wouldn't be shaken off so easily. "How long have you even known Sam?"

Nick groaned, narrowing his eyes as he did some quick math. "I met him… November eighth so, I don't know… a hundred and forty-six… forty-five days? But we haven't spoken in weeks now-"

"A few months." Gabriel said with too many teeth showing. "Normal people say a few months. They don't count it in days."

"So what? So it's been months? The day we met Rekha you told everyone who would listen to you that you were going to marry her."

"And then I waited for fifteen years! Because you don't marry someone you've just met." This was Gabriel talking. Gabriel who'd gotten kicked out of a petting zoo last summer for trying to stack the goats. This was the man who was giving advice on how to make responsible decisions.

"Again," Nick's head was hurting, "are you just choosing to deliberately overlook the fact that I'm not engaged here- much less not even dating anyone?"

Gabriel gave him a long, hard look.

"I changed my mind, you little gremlin. I'm allowed to change my mind." That sick feeling was coming back. "You should be congratulating me on realizing how stupid I was being before I really fucked things up."

With a shake of his head, Gabriel turned in his chair and pulled out his phone. Dismissive as possible without actually leaving the room. But he didn't need to say anything. Nick knew him well enough.

As far as Gabriel was concerned, Nick had already gone beyond redemption on this one. He hadn't dodged a bullet. He was bleeding out. And there was no way that Gabriel was going to help him.

Only- Nick didn't feel that way. Sure. He was a bit optimistic in saying that he was 'happy'. He was thrilled to have June in his life. He was hopeful. He felt like maybe he was pointed in the right direction for the first time in years.

So what if it felt a little lonely?

It would pass.

Lonely couldn't last forever.

And Nick believed that, because he had to. Because the idea of Sam somewhere else, happy and doing well without him made him happy by proxy.

That's what happens when you fall in love with someone. You want them to be happy, with or without you.

At least, he was fairly certain that's how it was supposed to work.

He'd never really had any one qualified sit him down and explain it.

"I- I know that no one has asked my opinion." Castiel said quietly, turning off the sink and drying his hands on a dishtowel. "But I've always felt that you and Sam were rather good for eachother."

"Sam got Nick to drive his bike into a van." Gabriel said without looking up from whatever game he was playing. "They were just fantastic for eachother."

"That was all me. Don't you dare blame Sam for it." Nick surprised himself.

"You fall in love with someone you don't know, realize that he probably isn't as into you as you are to him, and then you get your little broken heart drunk and almost kill yourself. Excuse me if I want to spread that blame around a little. You were erratic enough before you met him. He hasn't exactly been a comforting pair of arms for you to run to when you decided it was time to drink yourself back into the rehab wing of the hospital. You're almost as bad now as you were when Lilith left you."

The breath that he was holding started to burn in Nick's lungs. "Gabriel, come over here."

"...why?" He slowly looked up from his phone, reluctant, curious.

"Because I want to break your nose, but my leg hurts too much to walk over there."

"Tempting-" he half sang, like these kinds of threats were normal and nothing to worry about. "But this candy crush level isn't going to beat itself."

And Nick would just have to satisfy himself with imagining the satisfactory feeling of pounding that smile off his brother's face.

"You're wrong you know." Castiel added after the uncomfortable silence had just about climbed to its peak. "About Sam. He's very… into Nick. You never got to see how they would look at each other, Gabriel. It's the same way that you look at Rekha."

Which actually hurt Nick to hear. Physically hurt, but he pushed it down into that dark corner of his mind that had been labeled with with a big neon 'I'm not fucking dealing with this right now' sign.

"It's, uh, great that you're head of the fan club, Cassy. But Sam… changed his mind." Which was the biggest lie that he'd told in what felt like forever- but Nick was rather confident that Sam would get there. And it's not technically a lie if it'll be true in the future. Those are the rules.

"He 'changed his mind'? Is that your subtle way of saying that you actually had the balls to asked him to be your man-wife and he gave you a big old hells no?" Gabriel kept a straight face for about two whole seconds before he just started cackling. Kicking his stupid little feet like this was the funnest thing that he'd ever heard. "Did he let you down gently at least?"

Even though it hurt like a real son of a bitch, Nick dragged himself to his feet, gripping the edge of the couch for support, he made his way rather menacingly towards his brother.

Gabriel's eyes went a little wide as he scrambled out of his chair and ran to hide behind Castiel, using the taller man like a human shield. "Oh come on, Nick. I'm joking. I'm joking! You're a real peach- anyone would have to be out of their mind not to want to be stuck with a prince like you until death do you part. I'm sure he just got cold feet."

"I didn't ask him-" Nick had made it at far as the counter, but didn't think that he'd be able to maneuver around the rather nervous looking Castiel to get at the man clinging to the wrong side of him like a coward. "Not that it's any of your fucking business. So get off my back about it."

"Again, not that anyone seems to care what I think about all of this-" Castiel did his best to keep Gabriel hidden from Nick's view. "But if you never asked Sam, so he never said no- but you two just suddenly aren't together any more, then this sounds an awful lot like those other times when things would be going really well for you and then suddenly they wouldn't be and you'd start drinking again and refusing to talk to any of us."

"I have no idea what you're talking about." Nick would much rather be mad only at Gabriel, but it was hard when they were both ganging up on him.

"Like when you dropped out of school after being accepted into the master's program." Castiel suggested far too quickly.

"I- I wasn't going to have time for school with the baby on the way. I was being responsible."

"Or when you were offered that promotion when you were in the Marines and you submitted your discharge papers instead."

"I didn't want to make it a career." Nick hated having to defend himself. Especially against Castiel, who was just looking up at him with such a vulnerable, earnest expression.

Gabriel peered around his brother's shoulder. "Or that friend of yours who offered you that disturbingly good paying job restoring cars."

"I'm not old enough to retire to Arizona quite yet. And all my family's out here." Though why he'd chosen to stay was beyond him at this point.

"And then there was that time that you were dating a really nice guy who made you stupidly happy, and then you broke up with him for no reason." Castiel had never been accused of being subtle.

"I told you. He changed his mind."

But Castiel didn't look like he was buying this line.

Not even for a second.

And Nick felt himself caving. He'd never been all that good at lying to his little brother. There was just something so open and honest about the kid that made you feel dirty if you didn't return the favor. "Well, he was going to."

And that open, sweet look in Castiel's eyes turned painful. "Nick-"

"I was going to ask him this summer if he wanted to… you know, and he would have said yes." He knew. Nick knew it as sure as he knew that the sun would rise. "But he's young and impulsive and thinks that he's in love with me and after a few months or years he would have gotten over it... It's better for both of us this way." What an awful thing to say outloud. And hearing it, not just thinking it, but really hearing it for the first time... Nick realized how completely self destructive it really sounded.

That didn't mean he was going to take it back, because he was a realist, and he honestly believed the words that he was saying.

"Sweet baby Jesus, Luci." Gabriel apparently had reached maximum bull shit at this point. "You're really going to just kamakazi your way through yet another relationship, aren't you?"

"Shut up."

"I'm curious though, when you just decide that at some point in the future that June is just young and impulsive and doesn't actually love you either- are you just going to break up with her too?"

"Shut up."

"How does that work? I mean, do you just send her back to Lilith- or is there a chance to call dibs here?"

"Will you fucking shut up for once in your life?"

"And if that's how it works, can I just have Sam too? Because if you're not going to take that sweet ass of his for any more rides-"

Nick lunged, pushing Castiel out of the way to grab hold of the little bastard behind him. And even though it had been years since he'd let himself do it, punching Gabriel felt just as good as he remembered. But unlike last time, they had a third party involved, and for whatever reason, Castiel didn't seem all that enthusiastic about standing aside and watching a disemboweling.

He didn't pull them apart so much as just got between them, trusting that neither of his brothers would be willing to actually hit him. And when that didn't work so well Castiel pulled out plan B- which was hugging. Or at least what an outside observer would call hugging. For Nick it was like suddenly being caught up in a vicegrip, all the air squeezed out of him and all the weight of his brother catching him off balance to the point that he found himself too occupied with slamming his hands down onto the counter so he wouldn't fall over.

"Damn it, Cassy." He squeezed the words out with his last bit of air.

"No. I promised Rekha I wouldn't let you kill him."

The him in question had the back of a hand to his nose, trying to slow the flow of startlingly red blood. "When your ex came to visit did you specifically ask her to give you lessons on how to hit like a two cent whore," his teeth were dark and gruesome as he grinned, "or are you just finally losing your touch?"

Nick got an arm around Castiel's shoulders and felt the death grip ease just a hint. "I'm not going to kill him- I'm just going to crack his skull against the fridge."

"We're trading houses, so technically it's my fridge now and I'd like it not to have a dent in it the size of Gabriel's head." Castiel said in such a deathly serious voice. "It's a very large head."

"Your sympathy here is smothering, Cassy." Gabriel snagged up the dish towel and pressed it to the middle of his face.

"I love you both, but the two of your are the dumbest smart people that I've ever known." Castiel kept his arms locked, just trusting that he was holding back the only brother who could manage to do any real damage here. "Gabriel, stop antagonizing Nick- and Nick, stop trying to make yourself the king of your own lonely island. Society will not crumble if you actually let yourself be happy every once in awhile."

He managed a handful of his brother's shirt, tugging him this way and that- trying to shake some sense into the man. "I am happy. Why won't anyone believe me?"

"Because we know you?" Gabriel suggested.

"I hate you guys so much." Nick heard himself sigh.

Castiel's head felt heavy on his shoulder. "No you don't."

"I hate myself." He corrected listlessly.

"Yes, you do."

Well, as long as they could all agree.