"I'm sorry Mr. Winchester, but there is only one apartment available within the price range you've given. There is one other occupant, and any pets need to be discussed between the two of you. The first month's utilities have already been paid in full," said the realtor.

Sam wanted to sigh. He had limited funds and there was no telling if he'd get along with the other occupant. But it was the only place that was within his price range.

He had dealt with Dean's quirks...he could live with damn near anything so long as it wasn't a supernatural monster trying to prey on the college campus until he had enough funds to move. Hopefully he'd get along with his possible new roommate until he settled in or got a better place.

What he expected was the exact opposite of what he got.

The first thing that came to mind upon meeting his new roommate was "Dean would do everything in his power to get her in bed if he saw her in a bar without a boyfriend."

"I'm sorry, you are...?"

"Sam Winchester? The realtor said that you were open to a roommate," he said quickly.

"Oh... I keep forgetting to check my phone. I'm Rhea Peverell," she said holding out her hand.

He firmly shook it.

"Interesting necklace," he said. And he meant it. "Pentacle?"

Rhea positively beamed at him.

"I like you already. So many people mistake it for a pentagram and think devil worship, especially when they find out I'm a practicing Wiccan. I find it ridiculous that just because of a few bad eggs people automatically assume a star is evil, when it only becomes dangerous when it's inverted."

Sam nodded with sympathy, mentally wondering what sort of Wiccan she was.

"In ancient cultures the star was used as a symbol of protection. It's only after Christianity took hold that someone started inverting it and using it for devil worship," said Sam.

"I heard that if used correctly the pentacle acts as protection from demon possession."

"Really?" said Sam with interest. He'd have to ask Bobby if that was true.

"So let me show you around the apartment," said Rhea.

Sam liked it already. He knew shared apartments could be really noisy, but the majority of the apartment was quiet enough to study in. It took him a few minutes to realize there were protective runes all over the place, particularly the doors and windows...and they were applied correctly on paper talismans.

"What's with the runes?"

Rhea looked sheepish.

"I used to attract a lot of bad luck growing up, so I figured every little bit helps. I prefer my home to be a sanctuary against bad things, so I looked up the best protection talismans that were within my ability to create. Also I like to keep a lot of salt in the apartment since it can be used to ward things like ghosts away."

Sam liked his new roommate already. Even if he suspected she was a part-time hunter.

"So what do you think of the apartment?" asked Rhea.

"I like it," said Sam. "How much do you want to split the rent and utilities?"

"How does two-fifty a month sound?" asked Rhea.

Sam relaxed...that was well within his price range.

"As for the internet, I have absolutely no idea what the best one is. The area I grew up in wasn't exactly caught up, technology wise, hence why I generally go old-school first."

"I can help with that. So you're not very good with computers?"

"It's less that I'm not good with them and more that I have very little experience with them. I mean I have a laptop, but I barely do anything with it because it seems like every time I turn around the stupid thing gets infected with a virus and starts fritzing," said Rhea in exasperation.

Sam chuckled.

"So who handles the cooking?"

"I handle the cooking, but you do your own laundry and agree to share doing the dishes."

"Deal," said Sam. His cooking wasn't anything to write home about.

Rhea showed him the room he would be taking.

"Once you sign the other half of the lease, this becomes your exclusive space and I will ignore anything that happens in here so long as I don't hear suspicious sounds or smells. I could care less if you keep it a pigsty so long as you keep the common areas clean."

"And by suspicious sounds..."

Rhea gave him a flat look.

"Anything that won't require me to either call the cops or investigate personally. If you want to have a girl over, give me a head's up and I'll drown you out with music or something if I have to. So long as I'm not required to testify against you in court, what you do in here is not my problem."

Sam let out a light laugh at that.

"Total understandable, so long as the same rules apply on your end."

"Any brewing I do with my home remedies usually happen in a wok in the kitchen," said Rhea dryly.

Sam blinked.

"Home remedies?"

"I'm a part time herbalist. Half my income comes from selling hangover remedies to the idiots that live in the sororities and fraternities," said Rhea. "Once word got out how effective it is, money just started pouring in. Not my problem if they want to kill their brain cells and liver."

"I can see it," said Sam. Of course a Wiccan would use the older remedies rather than pharmacy. So long as he didn't see anything sketchy he could turn a blind eye. "So you're not one of those New Age Vegan-only Wiccans?"

The look Rhea gave him when he said that could have peeled paint.

"I eat bacon and I cook meat. While crystals can be effective they have to be used properly and all of my remedies come from tried and true recipes that have lasted for longer than any of the people here have been alive. Please don't compare me to a New Age Wiccan again."

"Sorry," said Sam sheepishly.

By the time dinner rolled around (Sam was an instant convert to Rhea's cooking), he had an apartment.


"So Sammy, you dating your roommate or what?" asked Brady.

"Not at the moment, no."

"Are you kidding me? Have you seen how hot she is? I mean fake witch or not, I'd hit that!" said Kyle.

"She's a Wiccan, not a witch," said Sam.

"Like there's a difference," said Brady scoffing.

Sam grimaced.

"Do not get me into a comparison of the two. Trust me, Rhea would never let me hear the end of it if I mistook her for a witch."

"What about the pentragram necklace she's always wearing though?" said Brady.

"It's a pentacle. Pentragrams are upside-down stars that are often used in devil worship. Pentacles are symbols of protection used for centuries before some idiot decided to invert it. Just look at what happened to the swastika...it was originally associated with good fortune, and now whenever someone sees it they immediately think Nazi," said Sam.

"So are you dating her or not?" asked Brady.

"Every time I try to invite a girl to the apartment, they take one look at where I live and say the exact same thing with very little variation. Which inevitably pisses off Rhea, and means I'm lucky to get past the first date even though she does nothing to chase them off."

"What's that?" asked Kyle.

"'You live with the witch girl?'" repeated Sam. "The moment they realize I live with Rhea as a roommate, they mention the whole witch thing, get most of their facts wrong which pisses Rhea off, and even if I do make it as far as sleeping with them, something always happens that results in the girl breaking it off."

"You think Rhea scared them off?" said Brady.

"Here's the thing...she's made it abundantly clear that my personal life is not her business and usually leaves the apartment after the first fifteen minutes of meeting them. However the second they find out I don't mind her 'quirks' things inevitably go in a downward spiral rather quickly."

Sam might not be active, but he was a hunter and above all had a realistic view of his life. If the girls he brought back were 'weirded' out by something as tame as a practicing Wiccan, they wouldn't last five minutes in a hunt or take the precautions like keeping salt or iron handy seriously.

Just because he wasn't actively hunting didn't mean he wouldn't be targeted at random by something supernatural. They still didn't know why his mother was attacked that night or what did it, and that wasn't getting into the fact that something that he helped to hunt once would have friends looking for revenge.

If he wasn't half-certain Rhea was secretly a lesbian, he would have tried dating her.


As the days turned to months, Sam's least favorite holiday rolled around.

Hunters hated Halloween for good reason. They spent enough time tracking down monsters that preyed on innocent people that they could never get into the spirit of a holiday that basically celebrated them.

So you could imagine his surprise when he came home and found Rhea with hard liquor and Star Wars. From the looks of it she was planning to do a total marathon.

"You're not out partying or celebrating?"

"I despise Halloween for multiple reasons. I refuse to get dressed up and celebrate a holiday I can't stand when I can just as easily get some real booze and hopefully black out the holiday at home where I won't embarrass myself."

Sam could concede that logic.

"Room for one more? I can make some popcorn or something."

Rhea scooted over and Sam brought out a second glass. Halfway through the Death Star where Luke finally found Leia, he was comfortably relaxed and in a much better mood than normal for Halloween.

He didn't know when it happened...likely during the whole scene where Han tells Leia he loved her before being flash frozen and Rhea changing the tapes to the next movie...but at some point he found her halfway in his lap and they were making out like no tomorrow.

It was the first time he would try Rhea's hangover remedy (which had many students singing the praises of, even if they also lamented on how bad it tasted), but it wouldn't be the last. Sam was more concerned by the fact he found himself on the couch with his roommate, with her shirt half-off and her pants unbottoned but thankfully still on the next morning.

Sam thought it would get awkward. Amazingly he was wrong.

Rhea looked him in the eye amused.

"Sam, we were both blackout drunk and in need of comfort. Add in hormones and the fact that neither of us have really gotten any and you have a recipe for an awkward morning after certain inhibitions are lowered. I'll not hold it against you," said Rhea.

"So you're not actually a lesbian?" he blurted out, before he realized his error. "Oh god, I'm sorry. I can't believe I just channeled Dean."

"Dean?"

"My older brother," said Sam mortified.

Rhea laughed.

"You're lucky, I would have been thrilled to have siblings at all. Especially an older one. As for the lesbian thing...there is only one girl I'd consider that way and she's currently looking for possibly fictional creatures like a crumplehorned snorkack in Norway."

"What is that?" asked Sam baffled.

"Your guess is as good as mine, but I will say Luna is the opposite of boring...even if it takes a special touch to translate what she means. I bet she would have a top-notch lawyer confused within an hour or less. If I ever have to use the insanity plea, I would channel her at her most confusing. No one takes her to be a threat," laughed Rhea.

Sam smiled. He liked it when Rhea laughed.

"I'm surprised you're so calm about the dates I keep bringing back. Even if they never last more than a few days. You don't have anything to do with that, right?"

"Sam, why would I bother wasting my time chasing them off when it's obvious after twenty minutes that they would barely last a single one-night stand at most?" snorted Rhea. "You actually understand what I'm talking about when I reference older methods of protection from things people believe to be fiction or just old stories and you don't mind helping me make new ones whenever I find one that's interesting. Don't think I was oblivious to the fact you've kept a small notebook of the protection we've done."

Sam looked sheepish, but conceded her point.

"The point is that I knew from the start that you wouldn't get anywhere with them, with or without my interference. Besides, like I said when you first moved in, your personal life is no concern of mine unless I have to be called in to testify or interfere," said Rhea.

"Which is an odd relief, by the way."

"In any case if you did want to try dating me there is no way I'd sleep with you. Not without a solid foundation that said it would go past just being friends with benefits."

"You mean actually dating and possibly getting married after graduation," said Sam.

"I do want kids. I do not want them to have the stigma of being born out of wedlock," she said firmly. "If I do date someone, I want to know it's for the long haul and that there is a real connection between us. I don't do short term."

Sam could understand that. It wasn't a turn-off for him...far from it. He would rather be with someone for the long haul too. Someone that wouldn't take it badly once they found out he was an inactive hunter and wanted to settle down.

"Would you be open to dating?" he asked.

"You are hot as hell, and you're likely one of the rare guys on campus that doesn't take my paranoia the wrong way. Hell, you've even helped me find a few things I never would have looked up until something came after me later. So if you were interested in trying to date, I wouldn't be opposed to the idea."

Sam blinked then said something that would change quite a few things.

"How about next Saturday, after the exams?"

Rhea stared.

"Are you actually asking me out on a date?" she said in shock.

"Every time I bring a girl here, they take one look at our apartment and start making disparaging comments about witches and the protection symbols. And you take my paranoia in stride without batting an eye. At this point I think the only way either of us are going to find a decent relationship that won't end in tears is with each other. Besides, I think some of the girls were intimidated by the fact I live with someone that's more beautiful than they could be. They try to hard whereas you are openly comfortable in your own skin."

"Are you sure about this?" said Rhea uncertain.

"If I have to hear the idiots I call friends try to set me up or keep asking me to set them up with you, I am going to stab someone. Preferably one of them," said Sam flatly. "That or prank the living hell out of them for a week."

Rhea's grin was positively evil.

"Why Sam, you just said the magic word."

"What, stab?"

"No, pranks. If you want to get them off your back I have entire notebooks of things we can do that can't be traced back to us later. It really depends on what degree of humiliation you want to go for."

Sam felt like he was in love. Not only did she have a similar paranoia, was a cooking goddess and was insanely hot, but she liked pranks and was willing to help him get back at his annoying friends.

If Dean were here he'd tell Sam to marry her in a heartbeat.