I got this churned out really quick. Let me just say, Lu is a funny bitch first thing in the morning. He was remarkably easy to write. (Also, I'm obsessed with Mark Pellegrino right now and I've discovered a lot of new pictures and gifs of him to use as references in this and my Balcifer fanfictions.)

If you haven't voted in the poll on my page already, go do it now! And thank you to all the people who've read and left reviews (I'll thank you by name next time; I'm just really trying to upload this ASAP). I really appreciate your support. #attackhug

This is for the lovely Mems, who gripped me tight and raised me from Perdition.

Gabriel groaned, keeping his eyes closed. The room was spinning and he'd only been conscious for a few seconds. Where was the justice in that? Dizzily, he rubbed his forehead, which was pounding. He had a furious hangover, the worst he could remember. Alright, that's it. I'm not drinking again. Even as he thought the words, though, he knew they were a lie.

What the Hell happened? And where the Hell am I? He slowly pried his eyes open before slamming them shut again with another groan. Jesus, it was bright in here. Gingerly, he braved the light again before closing his eyes nearly immediately. In frustration, he smacked the bed next to him.

"Hey! Watch it! Douche," a sleepy voice barked. The bed shifted as the person rolled over, but Gabriel felt his heart stop for one terrifying second. He wrenched his eyes open, ignoring the splitting pain in his head, and stared at the entirely hidden form next to him.

"Lu? Is that you?" Please, do not be Lu. Please, be anyone but Lu Pellegrino. He supposed it would have also sucked it if was Dean or Castiel, but apart from that, he couldn't give two shits.

"Yeah, dumbfuck. Who else would it be?" Lu rolled over again, giving Gabriel an annoyed look. He was wearing a wife beater shirt, which calmed Gabriel's heart rate a bit, but he still had no idea what happened.

"Is this your new apartment?" He glanced around briefly in an attempt to orient himself. He knew Lu had moved a few months ago, but he'd never actually been here before.

"Yeah. I guess you were too trashed to notice last night, though."

"Oh." Now that he'd adjusted to the light, his eyes and his head didn't hurt so badly. He looked around and noted with a small amount of relief that he didn't see any suspicious articles of clothing on the floor. Still, there was only one way to be sure. "So. What happened last night?"

Lu groaned in frustration and then yawned. "Well, I don't know what was going on with you, but when I finally stopped spinning at midnight, you were already pretty well hammered. You kept saying, 'I'm gonna go talk to Sam. I'm gonna go talk to Sam.' It was actually kind of funny."

Gabriel felt his eyes widen in horror. "I didn't really talk to him like that, did I?" Oh, God, if he had, it would have made the worst fucking impression in the world.

Lu scoffed. "Fuck, no. I kept you away from him. I don't know where Dean and Castiel were for awhile so I just made sure you didn't overdo it. Then I brought you back here since I didn't know where your keys were. Or your apartment, for that matter."

"So… we didn't… y'know, have sex, right?" That, after all, was what he was trying to figure out.

Lu covered his eyes for a minute and sighed in resignation. "Jesus, Gabe. I told you. I'm only doing couples now. And I don't fuck drunk people. That's just asking for trouble. And I especially don't fuck people I've been friends with for ten years." He yawned again. "But congratulations. You're the first person who's woken up in this bed that I haven't slept with."

Gabriel laughed with relief. "Thank God for your moral code. I had a mini heart attack. I mean, I really thought that we…" He laughed nervously. "But we didn't, so that's what counts."

Lu rolled his eyes. "Yeah. Trust me, your virtue is safe with me." He rolled back over and pulled the covers over his head again. "Now if you'll excuse me, there's a pair of hot blondes I want to get back to."

Something else finally struck Gabriel as weird. "Why am I in your bed? As opposed to on your couch or something, I mean. 'Cause that would have made this morning a lot less awkward." He waited for an answer, and when there wasn't one, he picked up his pillow and smacked Lu's head with it. "Hey! Lu!"

Lu glared at him from under the comforter. "Considering I did you a very big favor last night, you're being extremely obnoxious." When Gabriel met his glare with a bored stare, he groaned again. "Alright, what was the fucking question?"

"I said, why am I in your bed and not on the couch?"

"Because of my 'moral code,' douche-wagon. You're my friend, not some random schmuck from Perdition. I figured that, even with you drunk, sharing a bed would be relatively awkwardness-free. Who the fuck makes one of their best friends sleep on the couch? No, fuck that. Now would you go the fuck back to sleep?"

Gabriel snorted with laughter. "Your karma is definitely in the positive area right now. You've got something good coming your way."

"Yeah, whatever," Lu mumbled, pulling the covers over his head again.

Gabriel grimaced and eased himself off the bed. He was still in his shirt and tuxedo pants from last night. He was definitely going to have to get them dry-cleaned now. "I'm just gonna go grab some aspirin. I've got the hangover from Hell."

"Color me completely unsurprised."

Gabriel found the bathroom fairly easily; it was adjacent to the bedroom. He closed the door before he flipped on the lights because they would have been shining right into Lu's eyes. As much as he loved messing with people, especially Lu, a pissed-off Lu first thing in the morning wouldn't think twice about punching him in the face.

After downing four aspirin and about eight glasses of water, he finally caught sight of his reflection and grimaced. He looked like a fucking mess. His hair was falling into his eyes, he looked pale except for garish splotches of color on his cheeks, and there were circles under his eyes. He sighed and patted down his pockets for his phone.

10% or less remaining. Plug in your charger now. "Great," he muttered, turning his phone off. He pocketed it again and turned off the lights before heading back out. "Hey. Where's your phone?"

"I swear to God, I will stab you," Lu said sleepily. Keeping his eyes closed, he reached into his nightstand and threw his cell phone at Gabriel. The shorter man caught it and started dialing for a taxi. He had to get back home. He needed a shower and shave and a change of clothes, he needed to call Castiel and let him know he was okay, he needed to call Roché… His list was ridiculous.

"You working tonight?" he asked Lu as the phone rang in his ear.

Lu mumbled something unintelligible that Gabriel didn't even try to decipher. A woman picked up and said, "First Taxi, how can I help you?"

Gabriel managed to get Lu's address before the strawberry-blonde threw the other pillow at his head. The shorter man dodged it easily and finally hung up, setting Lu's phone back on the nightstand. "Okay, so my cab's coming in about ten minutes. Where the fuck is my jacket? And my shoes, for that matter."

"Shoes by the chair. Your jacket's in the closet. If you're going to keep making noise, kindly remove yourself from my bedroom. Don't make me kill you."

The moment Gabriel got back to his apartment, he plugged in his phone and went right to the shower. He spent a good twenty minutes under the stream, turning the water as hot as he could stand and leaning his head against the wall. His headache had subsided to a dull pressure just above his left eye, but it was still another half an hour before he reluctantly turned off the water. After wrapping up in a towel, he went back to his phone (now at 40% battery, thank you very much) and checked his new messages. He had one from Dean, one from Michael, three from Castiel, and two from Roché. He rolled his eyes.

The text message from Dean said, Hey, did you ever go talk to Sam? Gabriel rubbed the bridge of his nose and sent a reply. No, I didn't. Apparently I was almost too smashed to function. My buddy Lu kept me from making an ass of myself.

The one from Michael said, Do you know that Lu Pellegrino guy? That actually made Gabriel snort with laughter. Yeah, I know him. I didn't know he was going to be there until I saw him, though.

Castiel's messages said, Gabriel, where are you? Dean and I have been looking for you everywhere. The next one read, Gabriel, answer your phone. The next one (sent after a missed call from both Castiel and Dean) read, Gabriel, we can't find you. Dean has to work in the morning so we're leaving. Call me when you get this.

Gabriel sighed and called Castiel. The line rang for all of about four seconds before his friend picked up. "Gabriel?"

"Hey, Cas. What's up?"

"Are you okay? We lost track of you around one. We couldn't find you anywhere."

"Yeah, I'm not sure where I was, but I'm home now. Lu kept me out of trouble. I crashed at his place."

Castiel sighed with relief. "Well, that's good. I'm glad you didn't wake up in a tub of ice, missing your kidneys."

Gabriel raised an eyebrow in mild horror. "Yeah, that makes two of us. So…" He chuckled nervously. "I had a good time last night. How about you?"

"Yeah, I had a good time. That artwork was quite impressive, actually. I'm probably going to the next show they have, too. I think Dean rather enjoyed himself, too."

"Alright. Well, I have a few more calls to return so I'll let you go."

"Thanks for calling back."

"Yeah, no problem." He hung up and went to his messages from Roché. The first one read, Gabriel, I hope you kept yourself out of trouble last night. Call or text me when you get a minute so I know you're alive. The other one said, Since I hear so many people talking about Perdition, I'm probably going there tonight. Feel free to join me if you don't have plans. Gabriel snorted with laughter and sent his reply. Wow, Roché, are you asking me on a date? ALREADY? You're great and all, but I don't really like blondes. Still, he wasn't sure why, but he felt like going to Perdition tonight anyway. He needed to blow off a little steam, and since last night hadn't gone exactly as planned, he figured he should go basically by himself. That way, he wouldn't be tempted to get wasted.

By the time he got dressed and poured himself a bowl of Lucky Charms, Roché had answered. Ha-ha-ha. Glad to see you've got your sense of humour back. Do you think you'll be there or not?

Gabriel yawned once before answering. Yeah, probably. I'll let you know if I change my mind, though. He threw back the rest of his cereal before heading back to bed. He had a feeling he'd be up late tonight.

A dubstep remix of some rock song was blaring through the speakers of Perdition when Gabriel arrived there twelve hours later. It was an interesting combination, to say the least. He handed over the ten dollars for a cover charge, waited for Chuck to slap him with a wristband, and went inside.

Apparently, Lu's inarticulate mumble had been an affirmative one, because the moment Gabriel swung his head, there he was, pouring four drinks at once. Relieved, he made a beeline right for his friend.

"Oh, great, it's you," Lu said sarcastically. He pushed the drinks toward their respective owners and glanced around the bar. "Did you want something, or are you just here to annoy the holy Hell out of me?" One of the people at the bar caught his eye and he moved a few feet away to get his order.

"Trust me, I'm not gonna be hanging around here very much. I'm having one drink, maybe two. But I really overdid it last night."

"Hell, yeah, you did," Lu said. He splashed a double shot of Jack Daniels in a small glass and poured some Coke into it. Once he made change for the ten the guy paid him with, he went right back to Gabriel. "But I'm glad to see you're still alive. So, do you want your one drink now, or later?"

"I'll probably swing by in a few minutes to get it." He pulled out his phone and texted Roché: I'm at the bar. "I'm actually gonna head to the bathroom, but I'll be back in a minute."

Lu gave him a mock salute and returned his attention to the other customers.

By the time he went back into the main bar area, he saw his agent hovering there, looking a bit dazed. He saw Gabriel just as Gabriel saw him and he seemed to snap out of his trance. "Hey, Roché," Gabriel said. "What's up?"

"Not much. Just waiting for you, that's all."

"Oh. Sorry." Gabriel grinned. "Let's get a drink."

Roché glanced toward the bar, as if sizing it up. "Alright."

They sat down and Lu came right back over. "Hey, Gabe," he said easily, cheerfully, as if it hadn't been just five minutes since they'd seen each other last. Then his eyes flicked over to Roché and the bartender grinned. "Who's your friend?"

"Oh, yeah. Sorry—Lu, this is my agent, Balthazar Roché. Balthazar, this is my friend from high school, Lu Pellegrino."

Lu's grin widened. "Oh, wow, so you're Balthazar?"

"I am. What has Gabriel told you about me?"

"Don't answer that," Gabriel ordered. Lu just laughed, though.

"Mostly that you're a huge asshole."

"Alright, screw this. I'm out of here." Gabriel hopped right off his barstool and headed into the crush of people on the dance floor.

The song transitioned smoothly from some hip-hop bullshit that Gabriel couldn't stand to a dance remix of some Top 40 song he didn't recognize. He weaved his way through the crowd, trying not to bump into too many people, but then one guy just stepped right in front of him. Gabriel was just about to skirt past him when a voice he definitely recognized said, "Gabe? Is that you?"

"Sam?" Gabriel peered up at the form towering over him. Yes, that was definitely Sam Winchester in front of him. He felt his heart skitter to a half for a moment, but he wasn't drunk this time at least. Maybe he could actually talk to him now.

"Hey! I wasn't expecting to see you here! How are you?"

Gabriel grinned. "I'm great. I wasn't expecting to see you, either. Did you have fun last night? I'm sorry I kind of disappeared." He kept his smile on his face. "I've had a lot of crap happening lately." He hoped he wasn't babbling. He just really liked seeing that smile on Sam's face. It encouraged him.

"Yeah, it was pretty cool. Where did you get off to, anyway? I found Dean and Cas later and they had no clue where you were. We were kind of worried about you."

He said "we"! He was worried, too! That shouldn't have filled him with a sense of relief, but it did. "I was trying to think of something interesting to say," he half-joked. "The best I came up with was, 'What's your favorite doughnut?'"

Sam laughed. "Apple cinnamon. No one's ever asked me that before."

Gabriel's cheeks were starting to hurt, but he couldn't stop smiling. He put his hand on Sam's arm. "Wanna go somewhere and talk?"

Sam was still smiling. "I'd love to."

Perdition is based off this gay bar I used to go to when I was living in Pensacola called Emerald City. If you're in the area, I recommend it. That being said, Perdition is not a gay bar. It's an "all-communities-welcome" bar, just like Hell is. Except there's fewer religious whackjobs in Perdition than there are in Hell.

Also, since I mentioned several of Lucifer's conquests in the previous chapter (read: Sam and Castiel), if I were to write the recounting of those trysts, would anyone read that? Samifer? Casifer? Yes/no?