Gabriel's cell phone rang while he was in the elevator, heading back to his apartment after his workday. It had been a week since his first chiropractor visit. He dug around his pockets, forgetting which one he had last put it in, and he finally pulled it out.

"Cas!" He yelled after sliding to answer the call. "It's been a while."

"Yeah, seven months is what most might call a while." Castiel answered, his tone not totally readable, but suggestive of weariness.

"So, what's hanging?" Gabriel fumbled with the keys to his apartment while he made his way down the hall. He didn't press Castiel about the span of time between their last talk and now.

"Not a whole lot, I just thought I would let you know that I'll be in the area tomorrow, if you want to maybe get food and catch up?" Castiel must have started letting a smile grow on his face, because it seeped into his words, infecting Gabriel's already bright expression.

"You're calling to tell me this one day in advance? Surprises aren't like you," Gabriel loved his cousin, and he was always up for talking to him. He had nearly forgotten how much he missed talking to him, actually.

"I was going to just show up at your apartment, but I can never remember your work schedule. I didn't want to risk being left with no choice but to loiter in the hall, so I thought it would be wise to call and line up a time."

"You're not wrong," Gabriel dropped his keys on the kitchen counter and went to sprawl out on the couch. He could take up a lot of room for being a relatively small person.

"Are you busy tomorrow?"

"I've got work until 3, but I'm open after that. I don't work until noon on Saturday, so we could stay out a bit late and it wouldn't make me any worse at my job than I already am."

"Would it be any trouble if I stayed for a few nights?"

"Never. That's never an issue, Cassie."

"Thank you, Gabriel."

"Uh huh. Now about tomorrow, I never got the chance to bring you to the Silver Cup Cafe down town, and they've got the best donuts I've ever eaten. Do you want to maybe go there, or are you thinking we should get dinner?" Gabriel flipped over on the couch, reaching a hand towards Ichabark, lightly rubbing the top of the dog's head and behind his ears.

"Whichever suits you, I don't care one way or the other," Castiel sounded like he was content with the way everything fell back into place, the way they were picking up where they left off. He really didn't mind what or where they planned to eat.

"Okay, how about we meet when I get off, we go eat donuts at the Silver Cup, and then we can do whatever for a while. Anything you want to do. Then we can come back to my place and we'll order takeout from that Thai place you love when we get hungry," Gabriel spewed this plan out after a short moment of thought.

"Sounds perfect," Cas replied. "And you said you're off at 3, right?"

"Yep. Do you remember how to get to the bagel store?"

"I do."

"Great. Any other surprises you wanna throw at me?"

"None that can't wait for tomorrow."

"So there is more up your sleeve?"

"I guess you'll have to wait and see," Castiel laughed. "I'll see you tomorrow, Gabriel."

"Copy that," Gabriel waited for the click on Cas's end before laying his phone on the coffee table. Castiel was alive and well, from what Gabriel gathered during their short phone call.

"You were really watching the clock today," Meg remarked as she and Gabriel hung up their aprons.

"Yeah, my favorite cousin is meeting me after work," Gabriel gave her a straight answer for once.

"Is that code for your mistress? Gabriel, baby, I thought I was the one. I thought we had something special," she punched his arm.

"Sorry, sweet cheeks, I've found someone else," he went with it as they passed through the door. He didn't notice Castiel, waiting next to his car.

"How could you? I trusted you."

"Don't be so trusting nex-" Gabriel cut his sentence short to throw himself at Castiel.

"Hi, Meg," Cas called, waving his arm as best as he could with his golden haired cousin hanging onto him. He smiled sheepishly. "You should know by now that Gabriel isn't to be trusted with anything."

"I guess I never learn," she returned his smile. Gabriel straightened up, releasing Cas from the hug. He looked at Meg, preparing another joke, and then he saw the expression she was making at Castiel. She hardly ever looked at anyone like that; her expression was less guarded and almost soft. Gabriel decided, if nothing else, it would be fun to see Meg get flustered. He nudged Cas.

"I know this might be shocking, but I think the demon queen wants a hug. Who knew she could crave human affection?" Gabriel grinned, and bit back a laugh as Cas awkwardly stepped towards Meg, his arms comically open. Meg rolled her eyes at Gabriel and let herself fall into the hug.

"You're a moron, Gabriel." Meg said over Cas' shoulder. Gabriel put a hand over his heart and made a mock dreamy-face at her. Cas and Meg's embrace was a short one, and he came away with pink cheeks. Meg flipped Gabriel off before getting into her car.

"I'll see you losers later," she called once her window was rolled down and the engine was started.

"See ya later, schnookums!" Gabriel waved and then brought his attention back to his dark haired cousin. "So, how about we just take my car from here to the cafe, and then we'll swing back here after that, and you can follow me back to the apartment?"

"Sounds good to me," Cas nodded. Gabriel unlocked his car to let himself and Cas in.

"Did you have lunch today?"

"When would I have stopped for lunch?"

"Oh, I dunno, at some point during your drive down here."

"There aren't a lot of places between here and Manhattan worth stopping to eat at, you know that. I wasn't really hungry anyway, I had a big breakfast and it was later than normal."

"Yeah? What'd you eat?"

"...Cereal and toast." Cas finally answered.

"Seriously? God, Cas, you're so uncultured. You've got the world in your hands up in New York and you eat cereal and toast for breakfast and claim it was big?" Gabriel stopped at the red light.

"Well, maybe if I had you to cook for me or bring me to places with good breakfast, I'd expand my horizons on that front."

"You're probably right about that." Gabriel agreed and parallel parked on the street, as close as he could get to the cafe. "We're here," he shot another smile to Cas.

"Yippee," he said in a rather unenthusiastic manner.

"Come on, Eeyore, let's get you some donuts and an ice cream topped with espresso," Gabriel climbed out of the car and waited for Castiel to join him. He locked the doors when Castiel shut his, and then they entered the cafe together, and they were promptly greeted with the warm smell of pastries and fresh coffee. Gabriel sidled up to the counter; there was no line at 3:28 in the afternoon, and the only other person was by herself at a table, earbuds in her ears and a laptop opened in front of her. Cas scanned the menu, standing slightly behind and to the side of his older cousin.

"What can I get for you?" The red headed, young lady behind the register inquired sweetly.

"Two chocolate donuts and two maple nut donuts," Gabriel started, pausing to think and to allow the woman to write down what he'd said so far. "And a medium dish of mocha chip topped with a shot of espresso, and two cheer-up teas." He turned to Cas. "Anything else you see that you'd like?"

"Uh," he gave the menu a final once-over. "No, I trust your judgement in this area."

"Okay," Gabriel faced the woman again.

"That'll be fourteen dollars and thirty-two cents," she handed Gabriel a plastic stand marked "18," to signify their order number.

"Keep the change," Gabriel passed her a twenty dollar bill. "Where should we sit?"

"The table by the window seems nice," Cas looked at a table near the front door, the small kind with two chairs, one on each side. They seated themselves at the tiny table.

"So, how's life?" Gabriel looked intently at his cousin.

"Where to begin," Cas' face came up in a half smile. "Busy. Maybe a little exhausting sometimes. But not bad."

"Yeah? So the job's working out for you?" Gabriel looked half worried.

"The job is great, I love it, honestly." Cas' expression shifted just so, and Gabriel couldn't quite read it. "It really does keep me occupied for most of the time, and I think that's a good thing. I enjoy it. It's just other aspects sort of get in the way of my mood, I guess."

"Like what?" Gabriel didn't hide his concern, and he had put away his usual joking and jeering, playful manner of speaking for the time being.

"I don't know, I think I just feel lonely. New York's a big city, and I'm just one comparatively tiny person."

"Yikes, Cas, are you hitting a midlife crisis?"

"I'm younger than you, and you're only 27. I don't think I'm really entitled to a midlife crisis yet."

"Yeah, but you kinda are. You're 24 and you're operating a business you started. Not only do I actually respect that, but that's a pretty good place to be at your age."

"So you're jumping from 'midlife crisis' to 'wow you're practically a baby still, be proud of yourself and your accomplishments?'"

"Pretty much, yeah. You got me," Gabriel smiled. "Okay, so I know with you opening your flower shop and apparently doing most of the work by yourself you've been crazy amounts of busy, and that's why we had such a long lull between talking, but if you were starting to feel like you didn't have anyone, you could've called me sooner."

"I know, Gabriel. But I didn't want to think about it. I didn't want to acknowledge that I was feeling less than myself, and I didn't want to tell you I felt lonesome because that's for losers."

"Jesus, Cas, you think only losers feel lonely? As much as I hate to admit it, everyone feels lonely sometimes," he sighed dramatically. "And yes, that includes your badass older cousin." Gabriel looked up as a server appeared and set down trays full of sweets between himself and Castiel.

"Can I get you anything else?"

"No, this looks perfect, thanks," Gabriel answered kindly, returning his attention to Cas when the server returned to the kitchen. Cas took one of the teacups, wrapping his hands around the cup. He sniffed at it before drawing in a sip. Gabriel reached for one of the chocolate donuts and waited for Cas to speak again.

"Now that I'm here with you, I'm not dying to get back to New York. It's a relief just being here, away from that for a while."

"Speaking of, how long did you manage to ditch your job for? Because, believe me, I would love for you to just move in with me and stick around til you feel better, but I know you can't do that."

"I've got the next two weeks off," he said after another sip of tea. "Of course, I don't have to impose on you the entire time."

"Impose? Shut up, Cas. You're never a nuisance," Gabriel said around a mouthful of donut. He swallowed. "Two weeks, huh? That's a good amount of time. Maybe we actually can get you back into balance before duty calls and you gotta head back north."

"I'm hoping so. I just finished training two employees to take care of things while I'm here. I left my number with them if they had any problems they couldn't solve on their own."

"One more thing before we retire this conversation for now, and this is damn near excruciating for me to tell you, but if you need someone besides me to talk to, Meg is honestly not a bad person to go to." Gabriel took a drink of his tea and started scooping some of the ice cream onto his spoon.

"I'll consider it," Cas replied, finishing the last bite of his donut.

They talked about the flower shop and the bagel shop, swapping stories about bizarre customers and laughing again, eating the rest of the ice cream in the dish. The server brought them a box for the leftover donuts.

"So I'm realizing that I was really sick not too long ago, and I took two days off, so I've gotta check to see what I've got left for time off," Gabriel explained to Cas after they were situated in the car. "Because there's no way I'm gonna let you stay here for two weeks while I work for twelve of the fourteen days you're around."

"I can entertain myself while you're working, you know."

"That's gross, Cas, and I don't need to hear it," Gabriel deadpanned.

"Oh my god, that isn't at all what I meant," Cas looked horrified with a side of offended.

"Sure it wasn't," he smiled this time. "But seriously, we need to make a plan for you just in case I don't get as many days off as I'd like."

"Gabriel, my car will be readily available to me while you're at work. I can go look around the city and I can go to a library or a park. I'm not a child."

"I know, but I feel like I'm failing you as a cousin to just say 'I'm going to work, you're an adult, and you're on your own, so go wild,' when I can make an attempt to see that you're not bored as balls. Speaking of which, is there anything you want to do right now, or do you just want to head back to the apartment for the rest of the day?"

"We can just go back for today. I'm kind of tired."

He and Gabriel planned out a tentative schedule of things for him to do for the first week if Gabriel had no luck getting time off before they arrived back at the bagel shop to pick up Cas' car. Gabriel drove in front of Cas on the way to the apartment complex.

"Oh, shit," Gabriel quietly cursed as he closed the apartment door behind himself and Castiel.

"What's the matter?"

"I don't know if I'll be able to find the air mattress or the pump for it. And I'm not letting you sleep on the couch, so you can take my bed. The sheets are still relatively clean, I made sure to wash them when I started feeling less sick."

"That's not necessary, I don't need to take your bed from you."

"Cas, just sleep in my bed. You're taller than me, so the couch probably wouldn't be an ideal place for you to sleep for multiple, consecutive nights," Gabriel crossed through the kitchen and into the main room, sinking into the couch. "Do you want to watch a movie or something?"

"Whatever's fine with me," Cas answered, taking the other side of the couch. They settled on a tv show and more discussions, and it went on for a few hours. It paused when Cas' stomach growled.

"Time to order food?" Gabriel peered at his cousin.

"I think so," Cas admitted.

"You still like pad si u, right? Or did your favorite dish change?"

"That sounds delicious, but I'm kind of craving curry."

"Gimme a minute, I have a menu somewhere," Gabriel rose from the couch and went to the kitchen, moving things on the counter and digging through his junk drawer. He triumphantly pulled a crumpled tri-folded paper menu out of the drawer and went back to the sofa. "It's a bit beat up, but here's a menu."

"Thanks," Cas accepted the proffered menu and carefully unfolded it, trying not to further wreck it. After a few minutes, he spoke again. "I'll order the massaman curry."

"Nice. I'm just gonna get ginger duck," Gabriel distractedly dialed the Thai place's number and held the phone up to his ear. "Hi, I would like to make an order to-go." There was a brief moment of silence. "I need one massaman curry and one order of the roast duck with ginger and orange," another pause. "A spider roll and some spring rolls, and two sides of rice. That should be everything." Quiet. "Perfect, I'm in apartment 7E at Correl Towers on Morrissey Boulevard." He hung up and set the phone back on the arm of the couch.

"They said the food should be here in 35 minutes," he informed Cas.

Once their delivery arrived and they had eaten to their bellies' content, they moved back to the matter of sleeping arrangements.

"No, really, Cas, just take my bed. I don't care if I sleep on the couch. Besides, if it screws up my back, it's not a big deal. I'm going to the chiropractor on Thursday."

"The chiropractor?"

"I forgot to tell you that while I was sick I made some poor choices regarding where and how I slept, so I ended up with some bad mojo in my back. I went to the chiropractor, and he told me he wanted to check me out again just to make sure everything's still in normal, working order. No biggie," Gabriel shut the TV off and picked up the leftover food. He brought it into the kitchen and set it neatly in the fridge.

"Leftover donuts and Thai for breakfast sound good to you?" Gabriel strolled through the living room and motioned for Cas to follow him.

"No complaints here," Cas responded easily, a few steps behind Gabriel.

"Fantastic. I've got toothpaste in the bathroom in the mirror cabinet. I'm gonna go grab a blanket out of the closet in my room for myself, and if you need anything else, let me know," Gabriel started to walk off and then he stopped and turned around again. "Where's your suitcase?"

"I forgot to grab it out of the trunk before I came in, I'll go get it," Cas went back through the apartment and returned ten minutes later, brown duffle bag in hand. Gabriel had thrown a blanket over the couch and some pillows, and he had brushed his teeth in the time Cas was gone. Cas set his duffle on the bathroom counter and unzipped it, reaching in and withdrawing a plastic zip lock bag of toiletries.

"Good night, Cas. I'll be on the couch if you need anything. There's an outlet just to the side of the nightstand in my room if you wanna charge your phone."

"Thanks, Gabriel."

"No problemo," he lightly smacked Cas on the upper arm and went to the living room. Once the bathroom sink taps shut off and Cas was settled into Gabriel's bed, the flat was virtually silent. They fell asleep, and it wasn't quite 11 PM yet.

Morning came, and Gabriel rolled off the couch at eight at the request of his alarm. "Why do I do this to myself," he muttered, shutting off his alarm and going into the bathroom. He locked the door, though it was a bit weird to do so. Honestly, it was out of the ordinary for him to even bother closing the door for a shower. But Cas was here, and he didn't need to expose himself like that.

He hummed to himself as he soaped up and rinsed off, and he planned out the best way to ask Raphael for time off while he washed his face. When the last traces of soap were rinsed away, he shut the water off and grabbed a towel. He patted his body dry and froze as he was reaching for the doorknob. He didn't have the foresight the previous evening to grab clean work clothes from his room.

Gabriel scowled and wrapped his towel around his waist before letting himself out of the bathroom and into his own bedroom, tiptoeing through his open bedroom door. He was a little bit grateful that Cas didn't close or lock the door. He crept through his room and opened his dresser drawers as slowly as he could, collecting the necessary clothing for the day. He slipped back out of his room with clothes draped over his forearm, the other hand gripping his towel.

He closed himself back in the bathroom and pulled his fresh clothes on. He finger combed his hair back and away from his face and used a spritz of cologne.

While he started a pot of coffee, he debated whether or not he should wake Cas up to eat breakfast with him before he went to work, and ultimately decided Cas could always go back to bed after the apartment was empty again.

"Cas," Gabriel shook his sleeping cousin. "Come eat breakfast with me. Then I'll be out of your hair for a while and you can do whatever you want to do." Cas woke up gradually. "Come on," Gabriel shook him again.

"I'm getting up," he rasped, sitting up sluggishly. He swung his feet over the side of the bed and joined Gabriel in the kitchen, where they microwaved last night's dinner and munched on the two remaining donuts.

"You can go back to sleep when I leave, if you want. I'm off at four today, so make sure you're fully clothed by 4:30 at the very latest."

"Honestly, Gabriel, I'm not going to-"

"Shh, shh, it's okay, we all do it. It's a natural, normal thing," Gabriel grinned. "But really, I'll see you after work. Don't do anything I wouldn't do."

"Right," Cas murmured. "See you then."