Author's Note: This work is dedicated to fortheoswin on tumblr. I hope this is what you hoped for. It's not beta-read and I've never even written Adamandriel before, so this is a first for me. I've also taken some liberties with the prompt, I hope that's okay.

Disclaimer:I do not own Supernatural.

"We're running late, Adam…"

Dean's voice echoed through the house, not impatient but already agitated. Adam knew he was just itching to take his baby out for a ride again – his baby being a '67 Chevy Impala – even if it was just a drive as short as the ten-minute-drive from their house to Joshua High School.

Adam was still sitting on his bed, backpack at his feet, the room around him still empty and impersonal. He'd been living here since the start of summer break, but even though he hadn't gotten out a lot, he hadn't found the time to decorate it and make it a little more personal. Not that he didn't feel welcome here; he just hadn't felt like it was permanent.

It's pretty damn well permanent, a voice reminded him, without Mom this is all the family you have left. Deal with it.

"Adam, come on!"

He preferred the annoyed shouting of Dean over the cold sneering of his memory, even though the Winchester's presence in his life was another bitter reminder of what he had lost. Not that he was blaming them. They had taken him in, after all.

"I'm coming!" He got up and flung his backpack over his shoulder, making his way downstairs and passing John on the way out. "See you later, Uncle John," he called and then headed out the door.

Dean let out an exaggerated sigh. "What took you so long?"

Adam smiled – a quiet, clever smile that only betrayed part of his amusement. "Not all of us are graced with sparkly green eyes and a natural beauty. I have to work for these good looks."

Sam, who had been leaning against the side of the car, let out a full-blown laugh. "Our new brother seems sassier than you, Dean…"

"Shut up, jerk."

"Bitch," Sam answered and got in the car. Adam resigned himself to the back seat, quite happy to observe the brothers' banter rather than to take part in it. Even though they had welcomed him warmly and called him their brother, he still couldn't quite bring himself to take that last step. Plus, both of them were older than him, starting their year as seniors at Joshua High School, and he was still a sophomore, so there was that.

Adam sighed and fished a book out of his backpack, ending up with Good Omens in his hands. Dean sighed when he caught a glimpse of his cousin reading in the rearview mirror.

"Sammy, I think he's like you…"

Sam turned around. "What are you reading?"

Adam held up the book so Sam could see the cover. "I bought it at a garage sale just before Mom…" He cleared his throat. "Just before I got here."

Sam nodded and tried to act casual, but the look of sympathy on his face was evident. "Listen, Adam, we know what you're going through, and if you ever want to talk…"

"Save it, Sammy," Dean interrupted, "This isn't a therapy session."

Adam caught his eye in the rearview mirror and gave him a brief, thankful nod. As much as he appreciated Sam's concern, there was only so much sympathy he could take before he started cracking again.

-Ψ-

Joshua High School wasn't as big as Adam's old school, but it certainly seemed twice as loud and noisy in the hallway. Dean pointed him to his locker and then left him with an encouraging slap on the back when he spotted another student with dark hair and a baggy trenchcoat across the hall. Sam laughed when he saw Dean heading towards the other student.

"Who's that?" Adam asked, partly curious but mainly because Sam seemed to be expecting the question.

"Cas. He's sort of… Dean's best friend, except nobody believes they're just friends. It's ridiculous."

Sam shook his head, still smiling. Adam wasn't sure if he was talking about the ridiculousness of the friendship or the behaviour of the others, so he just resigned himself to a nod. "I see."

Sam was about to say something when someone rushed past Adam and tackled Sam in a hug. "Samsquatch!"

Sam let out a surprised and partly strangled huff. "Gabe, get off me!"

After a few pushes from Sam's side, the boy let go and turned to Adam. "And who are you?"

"Adam," he said and waved his hand in a short greeting. "Hi."

Sam elbowed the shorter guy. "That's my cousin Adam. I told you about him, remember?"

Gabe's eyes lit up. "I remember! Didn't your father kick me out of the house before the start of summer break saying that he didn't want a hyperactive sugar-addict around when his nephew showed up?"

Sam could barely suppress a grin at the memory. "Yes, he did."

Gabe waved his hand dismissively. "Whatever. See you later, big boy."

He headed off down the hall. Adam pointed after him hesitantly. "So, are you two...?"

There was a look of panic on Sam's face, and Adam was quick to say, "It's totally fine, I mean, if you two are happy...", but then Sam laughed and Adam relaxed. He hated awkward situations, but he always managed to get himself into them. "Gabe's always like this," Sam explained, "He works at the comic store downtown and I suppose we're really close but you can't trust a word he says. And he's unbelievably clingy, like a baby cat."

Adam nodded. "I should probably get to class," he remarked with a look at the timetable Dean had given him earlier. Sam checked his watch and a look of panic crept back on his face. "Shit, I promised Joe to..."

He looked at Adam and then back at his watch. "I'm sorry, but I really gotta go. See you during lunch break!"

And off he went.

Around Adam, students were walking faster now, hurrying to their classes. Nobody paid attention to the hunched figure of the slightly lost Junior. Realising that he probably wouldn't have time to put his books in his locker, Adam decided it would be best to get the hell to class as well. His priority right now was figuring out where his French class would take place.

-Ψ-

As first days after summer break went, Samandriel's had so far been pretty disastrous.

He caught a ride with Gabriel because that was what they usually did – the four of them, Gabriel, Castiel, Anna, and Samandriel – even though Samandriel was a year younger than them. They had just always been friends, since kindergarten, when Anna had accidentally punched Samandriel and Gabe had offered him candy as an apology.

Disaster started when they pulled into the school's parking lot, Gabriel and Anna disappearing to god-knows-where, and Samandriel noticing the pained look on Castiel's face.

"Are you alright?" he asked with honest concern in his voice. Cas sure didn't look alright – it was summer and he was wearing a trenchcoat – and Samandriel had always felt particularly concerned about Castiel, in the same way a smaller brother wouldn't want to see his big brother hurt.

Castiel shrugged, starting to walk towards the school, and Samandriel had to hurry to catch up with him again. When he did, Cas smiled at him. "I've just... been thinking about Dean."

And right, how could he have forgotten Castiel's soft spot for the car nerd and manliest of male models to ever grace this high school with his presence. Not that Dean was a model. He just had... fabulous looks, as Anna put it. Gabriel said he looked like an anime character.

Samandriel sighed and patted Cas' arm, because he was horrible at giving advice for this sort of this. He pursed his lips. "It's gonna be okay, Cas."

Cas didn't answer, and Samandriel was sad about not being able to give better advice. They reached the front doors and entered, being greeted by the familiar smell of dust, the sweat of a warm summer morning and those forgotten lunches and snacks that the cleaners hadn't found during summer break. Castiel stopped when they reached the general location of Dean's locker. "I'll just... wait here."

Samandriel nodded with a compassionate smile and then headed off towards his own locker. He caught a glimpse of Anna disappearing into the girl's bathroom, and then was busy trying to squeeze all his books into his locker.

A cold sneer behind him made him turn around.

"Busy much, are we?"

"Professor Crowley! I... um... yes."

Samandriel was nervous around Crowley. There was something almost demonic about the man that made him uneasy.

Crowley snickered. "Well, I hope you're not too busy to pay attention in my math class. We can't afford a repetition of last year, can we?"

The students close enough to hear what the professor was saying laughed, and Samandriel's face turned bright red in embarrassment.

"I'll try my best, Sir," he said, grabbing his French textbook and hurrying off towards his classroom – or at least he tried, but Crowley block his way.

"I'll keep an eye on you this year, Samandriel. If you so much as blink at the wrong moment, I'll make sure you fail my class."

Samandriel nodded, hearing the school bell ring, and now the time for panic had definitely come. "Sir, I have to..."

He tried to dodge past the Professor, until Crowley made way with a sly smile. "I'll see you after lunch," he called after the student and Samandriel had no words for how much he dreaded the math lesson this afternoon. Crowley was demonic.

Samandriel was running now, but the hallways were already empty and he was definitely too late. Just one turn around the corner, and he came to a skidding stop – or at least he meant to, until he ran headfirst into another student and fell back on the floor.

For a moment, he was too stunned to even say ouch.

"Oh my God, are you okay?" The other student's voice sounded distressed and concerned, and he extended a hand to help Samandriel up. "I'm sorry, I didn't see you; I didn't mean to..."

Samandriel took the hand and got up, shaking his head and smiling. "I'm okay, really. I ran into you, after all, and I'm sorry."

His back hurt, but it wasn't too bad, and he still had to get into the classroom. He felt uncomfortable being late.

"I'm okay." The other student ran his fingers through his short brown hair. "Listen, is this Professor Balthazar's classroom?"

He pointed to the classroom door on Samandriel's left. Samandriel nodded. "That's the one. You've got French class now?"

The other student huffed in relief. "Yes, and I couldn't find the room. New here, you see?"

"We should probably go inside," Samandriel suggested. He was getting more nervous by the minute. He pointed towards the room, and the other student nodded. "We probably should."

Samandriel turned towards the door and knocked, then pulled it open, his face already burning red with embarrassment. The deep baritone voice of the Professor stopped dead when the door opened, but the smile on his face never betrayed a hint of annoyance, only slight amusement. "Samandriel! You decided to join us at last?"

Samandriel coughed out a yes and then hurried to an empty seat next to Jo Harvelle. The blonde smiled at him, and leaned in to whisper something when Balthazar noticed the other student standing in the door.

"C'est qui? And who are you?"

The other student shifted his weight from one foot to another. "I'm Adam Milligan. I'm... new here."

Some of the kids in class giggled, but Samandriel felt sorry for him. There was something about those big blue eyes – or maybe it wasn't even the eyes, but Samandriel didn't know how else to explain it – that really made him like the student. Maybe it was because he knew how awkward it felt to be at the centre of attention without wanting to.

Balthazar was still smiling.

"Bienvenue à notre classe, Adam. Take a seat."

-Ψ-

After his disastrous entrance in French class, Adam's day went pretty okay. Being the new guy, everybody treated him as some sort of exotic animal, but they were reasonably nice and he was okay with that. He talked to some of them, but kept mostly to himself until lunch break, when he joined Sam and Dean at their table.

Well, Sam and Dean and the rest of them.

Adam recognised Cas from earlier, - seriously, the guy was wearing a trenchcoat in summer – but he didn't recognise the redheaded girl that was sitting opposite of Sam. They were talking animatedly, and from time to time Dean would throw in a comment and Sam would nod in agreement. And even though Adam hadn't even been here for a day, he already agreed that it was ridiculous how Cas managed to sit so close to Dean that he was practically in his lap and the two of them were still acting like nothing was going on.

Adam set down his tray and took the chair opposite of Dean and Cas. Dean gave him a brief nod. "Everything good?"

"As the never-ending misery of first school days goes, yes."

Sam looked up from his discussion with the redhead to laugh at Adam's comment. "I've seen your timetable, man, and you've got nothing to complain about," he announced theatrically.

Dean patted his arm with a fake smile. "Mister Future lawyer's gotta work for his job..." he chimed and smiled broadly.

Sam huffed. "Adam, this is Anna," he said, pointing a finger at the redhead in a somewhat desperate attempt to distract Dean.

Adam waved at her briefly. "Hi, nice to meet you."

Anna nodded at him. "Hi." She seemed fierce in a way, and she was definitely good-looking, but Adam had a feeling that he didn't want to mess with her.

"So, are you coming?" Anna had turned back to Sam, hands folded on the table and body bent forward. Her expression was deadly serious.

"Coming where?" Dean interrupted, half-eaten burger passed over to Cas and Adam had never seen anything that was equally gross and oddly sweet.

Anna rolled her eyes. Dean obviously hadn't paid as much attention to the conversation as he should have. "There's a geek meetup at Wiener Hut this afternoon. We're bringing comic's and everything." She briefly looked over to Sam. "Gabe's organised this whole thing."

Dean looked over to Cas. "Do you want to go?"

Cas shrugged. "I think I should study for chemistry, Dean. Our professor seemed... hell-bent on making my life miserable."

Dean broke out into a laughing fit that Adam couldn't explain until Sam leaned over and said, "He's called Professor Lucifer. And Dean and Cas have started making stupid puns around second period."

Adam nodded in consideration, then went back to the topic of geek meetups at Wiener Hut. "I'll go," he said, "I mean, if you want me."

Comics sounded like fun, and Uncle John would be glad to get him out of the house for a while. He seriously needed to get out more often.

"Sure," Sam said, "Anna, can you ask Gabe to pick us up?"

"Will do," Anna answered, "Oh, and you might want to bring some candy."

"Why the candy?" Adam asked, curious.

"It's sort of a pagan sacrifice," Dean offered, "We don't know why, but Gabriel seems to run on candy."

"You give him anything that contains sugar and he will find you the most amazing rare books and comics you can wish for. Just don't ask where he gets them from," Sam added.

Adam laughed, and then concentrated on his lunch. His next class was math, and math was hard enough to endure without a full stomach. The quietness that fell over the table wasn't uncomfortable, and it was the first time in a very long while that Adam just sat with someone without them feeling the need to make conversation.

-Ψ-

Samandriel dreaded the end of lunch break, mostly because the threat of Crowley's math class had been looming over him since he'd taken the first look at his timetable this morning. As soon as the bell rang, he felt his stomach sink and got up slowly, waiting for Jo to finish packing her bag.

"You okay?" the blonde asked when they were headed out of the cafeteria. "You look kind of pale."

Samandriel tried to smile, but it came out nervous and unconvincing. "It's just... Professor Crowley, you know?"

Jo laughed and rolled her eyes. "He scares the living crap out of me, too, but you can't let him get to you. Ignore it, that's what I'd do."

She gave him a playful shove and Samandriel was going to tell her that he wished it was that easy when someone put a hand on Jo's shoulder and she spun around. Anna, who had, according to Jo, spent her lunch break trying to set up Sam and Gabriel, had caught up with them.

Jo smiled at her, then glanced over her shoulder back at Samandriel. "We'll be on our way, then," she said and Samandriel waved them goodbye. As they walked down the hall, Anna took Jo's hand and the blonde almost floated towards her classroom. Sometimes she was overly energetic, but at the moment she just seemed plain happy.

Samandriel was happy for them, too, but he couldn't help but feel lonely with pretty much all of his friends almost or already in a relationship. Sometimes he caught himself wishing that there was someone for him as well.

He wasn't the first one in Crowley's classroom, and that alone was a relief. Some of the kids he recognised from last year, and much to his surprise he saw the new guy Adam crouching in a chair as far away from the teacher as possible. He looked kind of lonely – or maybe that was just Samandriel projecting his own feelings on someone who possibly found himself in a vaguely similar situation: apart from everybody else, a kind of voluntary exclusion, and too shy to speak up about it.

No, he was definitely projecting.

Samandriel was just about to turn away when Adam looked up and caught him staring. Immediately, Samandriel blushed and offered an honest smile – the other probably still felt awkward about running into him earlier that day.

Before something even more awkward could happen, Samandriel looked away and quickly sat down next to some kid he'd seen in the hallway a couple of times. Kevin, that was his name.

Samandriel did a double take. "Aren't you in advanced placement?"

Kevin looked over at him and sighed as if he was tired of hearing that question.

-Ψ-

Adam realised he wasn't going to like this class the moment Professor Crowley got up from his chair and smiled at the class. Adam was generally distrustful of any math teacher that smiled at his students

"Welcome, my dim-witted students. I hope this won't be as spectacular a failure as last year."

Okay, Adam definitely wasn't going to like this class.

"As I'm sure you've all prepared yourself for trigonometry over the summer holidays, we can start right away. Who wants to explain..."

Adam glanced over at the boy he had run into earlier – god, the embarrassment of it – and noticed a definite look of terror on the kid's face. He was white as a sheet and didn't seem to enjoy this class, either.

Adam bit his lip, then looked up at Professor Crowley, who was scribbling something about trigonometry on the blackboard. Swiftly, Adam ripped a page out of his notebook and wrote down:

A formal apology

to: the guy I ran into earlier.

Sorry.

He tried to think of something witty to say, but couldn't think of anything. Shaking his head he almost crumpled the paper – how old was he, five? – but he'd be damned if he chickened out of this one. Besides, he didn't have anything else to do, anyway.

Carefully, he passed the slip of paper on to the kid left of him, then pointed at the guy he'd run into. He looked really young, with his soft pale face and blue eyes, and kind of... innocent. Adam couldn't find the right word to describe him. It was frustrating, especially because he didn't even have a name.

The Asian guy next to him passed Adam's note to John Doe and he frowned, clearly not used to receiving notes in class when it was obviously directed at him. He unfolded the paper and then smiled – and, oh, what a smile it was; slowly spreading, bright and honest and Adam couldn't help but smile, too. John Doe looked over to him, and Adam tried to shrug nonchalantly, but somehow found himself smiling even harder at the other guy whose name he still didn't know and who was now mouthing a silent 'thanks'.

Suddenly, a shadow fell over him. Crowley was standing in front of John Doe.

"Samandriel."

So that was the boy's name. Adam silently mouthed the name, but his heart sank when he remembered that he was the one responsible for getting Samandriel into trouble. Twice, if you counted the running into each other and being late for French class as well.

"This is really no place to be flirting, is it?"

The teacher's voice and smile were mocking, and Samandriel blushed violently. Adam felt the heat rising in his cheeks as well.

"I wasn't..." Samandriel stammered. "It's not..."

Crowley tutted. "Don't try to fool me, boy. And please keep your extracurricular activities to your breaks and for after school. Remember what I said about not getting distracted?"

"Yes, Professor," Samandriel said and looked down. Adam really got angry at that – he hated arrogant teachers, and he hated it when people got blamed for something they hadn't even done. He really was a big fan of justice and doing what was right.

He was just about to speak up, when some girl next to him elbowed him. "Don't," she whispered and sounded honest, "I know you mean well, but the Professor just loves to bully Samandriel. You won't do him a favour if you speak up now."

And Adam took her advice, not because he had been looking for an easy way out, but because he still felt like the new guy, and if he didn't want one thing it was trouble. After all, he'd only just gotten here. How on earth was he supposed to get all those alliances and hostilities so fast?

-Ψ-

The rest of the day passed rather quickly, and when the school bell rang, Samandriel caught a ride to Wiener Hut with Gabriel and Anna. Cas apparently had gone home with Dean, at least that was what Jo said when she got in the car behind Anna. Gabriel couldn't help but snort.

"He said he wanted to study for chemistry," Anna said.

"I can tell you what kind of studying they're doing," Gabriel laughed as they drove out of the parking lot, the school disappearing behind them. Anna snickered, and Jo couldn't suppress a grin as well.

Gabriel switched on the radio and started singing along to some ballad. His hands beat out the rhythm on the steering wheel, and his voice was loud and off-key.

"So who's coming to our geek meetup?" Jo asked, trying to get Gabriel to shut up after he'd missed the fifth high note and made everybody's teeth hurt with the screeching noises he uttered.

"Wiener Hut?" Samandriel asked, because they usually did those during his shift to include him in their activities even though he had to work. Anna nodded and put a hand over Gabriel's mouth.

"Sam said he'd come. Apart from that it's just us, I guess." She hesitated. "No, wait, the other guy said he'd come. Adam, that's him, right? His cousin?"

Gabriel tried to bite her hand, and Anna quickly pulled it away before he succeeded. "He's Sam's cousin," he confirmed, "Got here right after the start of summer break."

He pulled into the parking lot of Wiener Hut to drop off Samandriel. "See you in an hour!" Gabriel called before Samandriel shut the door and hurried inside to put on his ridiculously striped uniform. At least there was something to look forward to.

-Ψ-

Adam tried focussing on his homework for some time, but mostly just laid on his bed and read a bit until Sam called from downstairs that they were going, and Adam picked up his backpack and followed Sam out of the door. He wasn't sure if he was supposed to bring anything, so he'd packed Good Omens just in case, and decided he'd just go with whatever happened.

Gabriel was waving at them through the open window of a blaring red Camaro, looking more than overly excited. Sam took the passenger seat and Adam got in the back.

"Are we picking up Anna?" Sam asked.

"She's getting a ride with Jo," Gabriel answered, "If you know what I mean."

"Gabriel!" Sam seemed horrified, even though he was still smiling like a lunatic at Gabriel. Adam was still trying to get a hang of all the relationships and not-relationships.

"Are they...?" he asked cautiously.

"Totally," Gabriel responded, "And you don't want them against you. They're like... Lara Croft and Catwoman or something. Absolutely badass and terrifying. I swear, Jo knows more about knives than she should, and I'm pretty sure Anna can kill with a look."

"Gabriel has a thing for strong women," Sam explained, "Too bad those two are out of reach, huh?"

Adam saw Gabriel's grumpy face in the rearview mirror. "I don't," he protested, "It's not..."

He looked over at Sam, and in that moment, Adam realised what a hypocrite Sam had been when he'd told Adam about Dean's and Cas' ridiculous relationship. This was exactly the same, only that Gabriel was more obvious, if that was even possible.

Gabriel parked the car as close to the doors of Wiener Hut as possible, then got out and pulled several cardboard boxes with comics from the trunk. "Here," he said and handed two of those to Sam, and one to Adam. "Carry those, will you?"

He himself just sauntered through the doors of Wiener Hut, stopping only to hold them open for Sam with a dirty smirk. Adam managed to quickly sneak in behind Sam before the door swung closed again.

Anna and Jo were already waiting, sitting next to each other in a booth near the counter and talking quietly. At first, Adam didn't recognise the employee that leaned against their table, but then he took a closer look and realised it was Samandriel.

He blushed immediately, finding himself glad that he was walking behind Sam, who was efficiently hiding him from the others.

They all looked up when Sam dropped his two boxes of comics on the table. Adam kept holding his, until Gabriel took it from him and placed it on top of the pile with a proud smirk.

"Since our lovely moose here had me kicked out for the summer-"

"That was my dad!" Sam protested.

"—I've had more than enough time to collect and acquire all sorts of new comics, a fact that, I am sure, we all benefit from. Knock yourselves out, guys."

He got down and pulled Sam next to him. Now Adam was standing in front of Samandriel.

"Hi," he said and smiled nervously. "And... sorry, you know. For getting you into trouble during math."

Samandriel smiled back with the same nervousness. He was wearing a red-and-white striped uniform and a red cap that read 'Wiener Hut'. He looked rather comical in the outfit, but in a cute way. "Seems you keep finding reasons to apologise to me."

"And it's only been a day." Adam was overly aware of the others possibly staring at them. "Imagine how much harder your life is going to get from now on."

Samandriel laughed, and Adam laughed as well. Then they just kind of stared at each other until it got awkward.

Samandriel cleared his throat. "Can I get you anything to drink? I should probably get behind the counter again, my boss..."

"I'll have a coke!" Gabriel announced loudly.

"Just water," Sam ordered. Considering the fact that he had is head almost buried in one of the boxes, it was a miracle he was conscious enough to speak at all.

Samandriel looked at Adam again. Adam scratched his head. "Coke," he decided, "And thanks."

He sat down next to Sam and sighed. Anna looked at him with a curious expression, but didn't say anything.

"IS THAT A SIGNED COPY OF LORD OF THE RINGS?"

Sam's shouting called everyone to attention. Gabriel looked up from a pile of Wolverine-comics he'd been rearranging. "I guess?"

He shrugged, when Sam grabbed his shoulders and shook him almost violently. "YOU CAN'T JUST HAVE A SIGNED COPY OF LORD OF THE RINGS!"

"Jeez, Sam!" Anna laughed. "Calm down there."

Jo grabbed the book and flipped it open. "Holy shit," she exclaimed, "It's a signed copy of Lord of the Rings."

"Gabriel!" Sam was close to hyperventilating. "I love you."

Gabriel had already opened his mouth to come up with a witty retort, but halfway between his brain and his mouth the words seemed to get lost and he just sat there with his mouth hanging open, baffled. "That's... nice?"

Sam blushed, only just realising what he'd said. "I mean... I love you for the book. I mean, who just so happens to get his hands on a signed copy of Lord of the Rings?"

Apparently, Sam's shouting had alarmed Samandriel who came rushing out of the kitchen area. "What happened?" he asked with a look of distress on his face. He seemed to expect terrible news.

Since the others were still obsessing over the book, Adam decided to answer Samandriel's question. "Sam's found a signed copy of Lord of the Rings in one of Gabriel's boxes and told him that he loved him. Then took it back again."

"The book?"

"The confession," Adam answered. "Talk about a Freudian slip."

Samandriel grinned. "Uh... yes. Wait a second; I should get your drinks..."

Adam got up and followed him. When Samandriel turned around with a questioning look on his face, he shrugged. "I'll help you carry them."

"You don't have to," Samandriel said. He seemed to be uncomfortable with this unexpected friendliness, as if he wasn't used to it. Well, Adam knew how that felt.

"What else should I do? It's like a double date out there, and I'm the third wheel. Or fifth wheel, to be precise..."

"Well, you can always hang out with me," Samandriel suggested jokingly, but with a nervous undertone, "You know, prepare fast-food takeaways and deal with impatient customers..."

"Have you been working here long?" Adam asked when Samandriel put the coke in his hand and took the other two drinks himself, then ventured out of the kitchen area again.

"I started last year," Samandriel said over his shoulder, "It's nice, having a little independence from your family."

Adam wanted to agree with him but found he couldn't. At the moment, family was all he had.

Samandriel put down the drinks. When he went back into the kitchen, Adam followed him. "Aren't you going to take a look at the comics?"

Samandriel shrugged. "Later, maybe. We might not get a lot of customers around this time of the day, but my boss still prefers to see me working."

He hesitated a moment. "What about you?"

It was Adam's turn to shrug. "I don't know. Those comics seem nice, but I prefer books. And I've still got one to read, so I don't really need a new one."

"What are you reading?"

Samandriel had a way of always carefully choosing his words, only to stumble over them anyway because they came out a bit too rushed. It was cute, Adam had to admit.

He grabbed the book from his backpack and handed it over to Samandriel, who took a look at the summary on the back and then laughed out loud. "Is the entire book like this?" he asked, and Adam nodded. "It's crazy, I mean I'm pretty sure the authors were high most of the time, but it's awesome. It makes the apocalypse sound almost fun."

Samandriel flipped through the book for a bit, then handed it back to Adam. "That really sounds like a good book. Can I borrow it from you when you're done?"

"You definitely should," Adam said, when the bell at the door rang and a guy in a suit entered.

"Sorry, I gotta go," Samandriel said, and Adam reluctantly went back to the others at the table to let Samandriel deal with the customer.

Gabriel, who obviously knew the comics already, seemed bored. "Let's do something," he suggested, "Something fun."

Sam didn't even flinch, not even when Gabriel elbowed him. With an evil smirk, Gabriel pulled at a strand of Sam's hair – and ended up with the contents of Sam's glass of water in his face.

"What was that for?" the smaller boy asked with an exaggerated pout, wiping his face with the back of his hand and shaking his head like a dog. Sam pointed an accusing finger at him. "Don't ever pull my hair again, or I will end you."

"What about 'I love you'?" Gabriel retorted and wiggled his eyebrows, and Sam seemed to regret emptying his glass of water so fast.

"You're a pain in the ass, Gabe," he answered and went back to the comics.

"No, but I mean it!" Gabriel insisted, "We should do something fun. Movie night tomorrow, maybe? I've got some animes we could watch, and I'll make popcorn..."

Jo looked at Anna who shrugged apologetically. "I've got training tomorrow, and I don't really want to stay out late on a school night."

"You're no fun," Gabriel said, "What about you, Sam?"

"If that gets you to shut up, yes." Sam turned to Adam. "You're coming with me. I'm not playing babysitter alone again."

"Sure," Adam agreed. Sam went back to his comic, and Adam grabbed one for himself. From the corner of his eye he saw Samandriel who was busy getting his customer's food, rushing around in the kitchen area and collecting more and more items on the tray, all without losing one inch of his smile. Anna and Gabriel started talking quietly, and Jo turned to him, pointing out something about sexism in comics, and Adam found he enjoyed the conversation. It was new and unexpected, and it was nice having a little light in his life again after the tragedy of his mother's death.

-Ψ-

Samandriel's first class on Monday morning was English, and he was late again.

That was two times in a row he had been late for his first class now, and it hadn't been his fault both times – Gabriel's Camaro had broken down this morning, and Anna's dad had refused to give her the car and then Gabriel had somehow managed to get some old guy to borrow them two tandems on which they'd ridden to school. He couldn't believe half of the things that happened to Gabriel, even though he'd witnessed quite a lot of them.

That still didn't change anything about the fact that he was late.

He raced to Professor Singer's classroom, pulling the door open and sneaking in as quietly as possible, only to be greeted by a gruff, "What was the holdup, idjit?"

He flinched. "I... the car... Gabriel's car broke down," he explained, gesturing towards the door as if Professor Singer would be able to see Gabriel's car if only he went outside.

The Professor huffed. "That kid's gotta mess up everything, don't he?" he muttered and motioned for Samandriel to sit down. It wasn't until he was seated that he noticed Adam next to him. Sam's cousin was smirking. "This time it wasn't my fault," he whispered when the Professor turned around to fish something out of his back. Samandriel laughed quietly. "I won't believe you until it has been proven that it was indeed a marten and not you who messed with the cables."

"Quiet, boys," the Professor called, and Samandriel's face turned red again. He cleared his throat and focussed on Singer, who was now standing up and walking around the desk, where he leaned against it, facing his class. "We're gonna study twentieth century American literature this year. Now, I can either stand here telling you idjits about books you probably won't even bother readin', or ya can do some work for yerselves for once."

Some of the students looked at each other – mostly the new ones, those who weren't used to the Professor yet. Samandriel noticed that Adam looked confused as well, and leaned over, despite having vowed not to get into trouble anymore. "He's actually one of the nicest teachers we have, even though he's a tough guy."

Adam nodded. "I see."

Professor Singer glared at him, and he quickly shut up. "Now I've got ten books for ya, which means ya'll be workin' with a partner. I'm gonna assign the books and the partner, and I don't wanna see any complainin'. You'll do as I tell ya, boys."

He reached for a sheet of paper behind him and started reading from it, students reacting with groans and occasionally a shout of victory. Samandriel only started to care when he heard his own name. "Samandriel and Adam'll be reading The Great Gatsby."

Samandriel looked over at Adam who smiled sheepishly. "Does that count as getting you into trouble?" he asked, "Because I really didn't mean to keep making your life harder."

Samandriel shrugged. "Well, I could have ended up with Lilith, so I guess it's okay," Samandriel replied and pointed over to a blonde girl who was currently smiling at the boy next to her menacingly, conveying with her entire body that she would make sure she wouldn't be the one doing the work. Adam shuddered. "She looks evil."

"She is evil. An evil genius. Believe me, you don't want to mess with her."

Adam seemed to believe him.

-Ψ-

When the bell rang, they walked out of the classroom together. Adam had found Samandriel's description of Professor Singer rather accurate as the lesson progressed – the man did appear gruff, but he was actually one big softie who enjoyed teaching kids.

"So... how much time do you need for the reading?" Samandriel asked after they'd walked in silence for a moment. The hallway was packed with students, and it was hard to maintain a conversation while permanently dodging couples, engrossed readers with books in front of their faces and the occasional football giant who made the ground vibrate. Adam found the door to the schoolyard and slipped outside.

"I don't know. Four days, maybe?" He shrugged. "Depends on how much homework we get. And how many movie nights Sam drags me to."

He sat down on a bench and leaned back, enjoying the remaining summer sun. Samandriel took off his backpack and sat down cross-legged on the ground in front of him. Without his uniform, he looked less childish and actually quite... nice.

Wait, no. That wasn't what Adam had meant.

"What movie nights?" Samandriel asked, plucking a bit of grass from between the cobblestone.

"Gabriel's?" Adam replied, scratching his head. "I'm not quite sure; he just said he wanted me to come."

"Ah." Samandriel nodded. "Well, the book shouldn't take you too long. There's not much to it, page-wise. But I kind of like the story."

"You read it?" Adam asked. He was intrigued by Samandriel, or rather by finally finding out something about him that went past their banter and running into each other before class.

"During summer break. I had a lot of time." Samandriel smiled guiltily. "Gabe went comic-hunting and Anna and Jo were busy with each other, so I had a lot of time."

Adam laughed. He loved the way Samandriel managed to admit guiltily to having read a book – he wasn't sure how many people could manage that. With a sigh, he gazed over the schoolyard and the students sitting or standing around in little groups. He still only knew about five to seven of them, but with Sam and Dean and their friends it wasn't so bad being the new guy. They had welcomed him as their new brother right away.

When Adam looked back at Samandriel, he caught the other boy staring at him. Not sure as to how he was supposed to react he smiled, then quickly looked away again. "What's your next class he asked?"

Samandriel cleared his throat. "Chemistry," he answered, his voice filled with dread. Adam could understand him all-too well. "Poor you," he said, "I've got Photography."

Samandriel groaned, and the sudden tension that had built up between them eased away. "My parents made me take Chemistry. They said I wouldn't get anywhere in life with Photography or, God forbid, Creative Writing."

"You're a writer?" Adam asked, and Samandriel's cheeks went redder than ever before. He mumbled something, then spoke up when he figured that Adam probably couldn't hear him. "It's... nothing serious. Just a hobby of mine."

"It's pretty cool," Adam said with an impressed smile, but that did nothing to lessen the blush on Samandriel's face – if anything, it made his face flush even redder.

"It's not like I write cool stories about superheroes or anything. It's just... stuff," he mumbled.

Adam decided to drop it. "Still," he said, "You can give me your number and I can call you when I've finished the book. Then we can talk about the assignments."

-Ψ-

Sam instructed Adam over dinner.

"Gabe lives down the street," he explained, "You can't miss it, really, the house is big and posh and his father put several American flags up in the garden. Just... follow the patriotism."

"I thought you were going there, too," Adam replied, helping himself to some more of the soup.

"Gabe called; he said he had some homework he wanted me to check. You don't want to be there for the boring part, trust me."

It almost pained Adam physically to see how desperate Gabriel was trying to get quality time alone with Sam. Still, he didn't mention it. "Sure," he answered instead, "You can call me when you two are finished."

Little did he know that this was only the beginning of a series of misadventures that would lead into something unbelievable, especially for him.

-Ψ-

When Sam came over to Gabriel's house, he found the front door open and Gabriel in the bathtub, luckily still dressed and with his legs hanging over the edge of the tub, his arms crossed.

He was pouting.

Sam stopped dead and then leaned against the doorframe when Gabriel didn't move at the sound of his footsteps.

"How did you get in?" Gabriel asked without turning to face Sam. He just stared at his hands in some sort of apathy.

"The front door was open," Sam answered.

"Ah," Gabriel said, and then fell silent again.

"What are you doing?"

Sam was confused, and mildly concerned. Sitting in the bathtub wasn't normal behaviour, not even for Gabriel who had done a lot of strange things in his life. It was generally something that only happened in movies, or, admittedly, when someone wanted to take a bath and was drunk as hell. But those were the only two scenarios Sam could think of where it was acceptable to sit in a bathtub, fully dressed, and stare into the distance with that soulful expression on one's face.

"It's comfortable," Gabriel replied defensively, "I like it here."

"Um... fine?" Sam took a careful step forward and sat down on the edge of the tub, "But we were supposed to meet, remember? Watch animes and eat ridiculously sweet popcorn?"

Gabriel scowled. "I can't, I'm having an existential crisis over here."

Sam shook his head. "Why would you-"

Gabriel looked up at him with an expression that clearly told Sam how much he wasn't helping, although Sam wasn't quite sure why that was the case. "Dude, you're really touchy today..."

Gabriel sighed theatrically. "My struggles are horrifying and my efforts vastly underappreciated. But alas – I shall suffer alone, for I would not dare to burden a creature as glorious as yourself with such a heavy weight."

"How much sugar have you had?"

Sam laughed, and then Gabriel laughed and the bright light of the bathroom, reflected by the white tiles, lit up Gabriel's amber eyes and caught in his hair; and for a moment, it took Sam's breath away. At least it did until Sam quickly remembered to shove that sentiment somewhere it wouldn't get in the way of consoling a friend – a friend and nothing more.

Gabriel leaned his head back against the wall. "Some," he answered, "But you know I can take it."

He looked at Sam, then let his head fall down and looked at his hands. "I'm sorry," he mumbled quietly, and Sam knew that side of him as well – the side that he hid under that charming, sparkling façade of a trickster. "I really wanted to help me with that stuff and then I remembered that I'm not smart and that's all dad cares about and it just kinda went downhill from there on."

He laughed, clearly embarrassed, and Sam just had to ruffle his hair. "Get out of that tub, Gabe, and then we can talk about getting you out of that pool of self-pity you decided to throw yourself into."

"What did I do to deserve you?" Gabriel groaned, but Sam grabbed his arms above his wrists and pulled him up, staggering backwards with the effort and then suddenly he had a bundle of Gabriel in his arms.

He looked down at the shorter man and swallowed heavily, blinking several times. Gabriel looked back, seemingly without blinking, and it got more intense by the second, especially when Gabriel, still not taking his eyes from Sam's, tried to move so that he could stand on his own feet and Sam still didn't let go, too caught up in staring at Gabriel, and suddenly he could feel every movement of Gabe's body.

He let go and cleared his throat, expecting Gabriel to laugh and make some dirty or flirtatious joke, but nothing happened. Sam looked back at Gabriel to find him still staring at him. He laughed nervously. He couldn't meet Gabriel's eyes.

"Okay, I was lying." Gabriel grinned sheepishly. "But don't judge me, okay?"

"You lie all the time," Sam answered, "Why would I get offended now of all times?"

"Never to you!" Gabriel protested. Sam crossed his arms in front of his chest. "The Confetti Shower Incident."

"That was one time. And it was for a greater good! I mean, in ten years you're going to look back at it and think I only wish I had fallen victim to more great pranks like The Confetti Shower Incident."

Sam snorted. "That time you told me there was going to be a new Star Wars movie?"

Gabriel looked triumphant. "There is going to be a new Star Wars movie!"

"We don't talk about that," Sam deadpanned, and Gabriel was quick to agree. "We don't." Then he shook his head violently. "But that's not the point!"

"Then get to the point!" Sam called exasperatedly, because Gabriel was Gabriel and he might have a crush on the guy but that didn't make Gabriel any less annoying.

"The point is that I was sitting in my bathtub because my hot best friend was coming over and I tried to make myself look nice but then I remembered that we're best friends and he wanted to bring his cousin because I'm too annoying even for my hot best friend!" Gabriel shouted in frustration.

After two seconds, he found the courage to look up at Sam.

Sam, naturally, was utterly baffled. Plus, his face was glowing red, brighter than a flashlight.

"Did I mess it up?" Gabriel asked. After another two seconds, Sam managed to shake his head. "You..."

He was interrupted by the sound of a guitar and someone singing.

Do you ever feel like a plastic bag, drifting through the wind, wanting to start again?

Gabriel almost doubled over from laughter, and Sam looked totally embarrassed. "That... is not Katy Perry!" Gabriel finally managed to get out. It was clearly a man's voice, but it was still so cheesy and somehow so very like Sam that he almost started laughing again.

"It's John Barrowman," Sam mumbled and quickly fished his phone from his pocket. "Sam Winchester?"

His mouth formed a silent 'oh' at the response from the other end. "Shit, Adam, sorry..." Sam looked at Gabriel. "Listen, we kind of... Gabe's not really in the mood for movies, he's having trouble with his dad and he wants me to stay. Is that okay?"

He listened to the response with a guilty expression on his face, then said, "Thanks, bye" and hung up quicker than Gabriel had ever seen him end a phone conversation.

"You're a bad person. You just lied to your cousin because you want to make out with me," he sneered and poked Sam.

"I never said I wanted to make out with you," Sam answered, trying to appear cross at Gabriel's contentedness with himself.

"You do, though." Gabriel grinned up at him.

"Maybe."

"You do."

"I hate you," Sam said, and he didn't mean it.

-Ψ-

Samandriel was lying on his bed when he heard his phone ring.

He'd just contemplated the general nature of coincidences, trying to decide whether he really believed in them, when he was violently reminded of reality around himself and he had to jump up and rush to his desk in order to answer his phone.

"Yes?" he said, then congratulated himself for the fabulous introduction. Phone calls would never stop being awkward.

"Samandriel? Is that you?"

"Adam?" Samandriel was ninety-eight point six percent sure it was Adam, but he still had to ask because he was that kind of guy that would get the one point four percent.

"Yep, it's me." Adam sounded kind of unsure about what to say next. "I just... remember that movie night Sam wanted me to go to? He just cancelled it."

Samandriel walked back to his bed slowly and sat down. "Why?"

Adam sighed. "He said Gabriel's having problems with his dad."

"Okay." Samandriel considered that for a moment. "Could be. They have a bit of a rocky relationship, Gabriel has already run away two times." He tapped his index finger on his leg. "But then why would Sam stay over?"

"Exactly!" Adam called, "I mean, I don't care what they do, but Sam could at least tell me."

"Uh, I don't think they're..." Samandriel waved his hand until he realised that Adam couldn't see him. "You know, together."

"Doesn't matter what they get up to. Though I seriously think it's weird that at first he totally wants me to go there and then he's like 'no I'm fine, I don't need you to hold my hand'. Do you think something happened?"

Samandriel leaned back before he remembered that he was sitting on his bed, so he ended up just falling backwards and staying there. "I don't know," he said, "I mean, it's been getting worse with the two of them. You were there for Sam's Freudian slip."

"Dean and Cas are equally ridiculous," Adam added.

"Dean and Cas are equally ridiculous," Samandriel confirmed with conviction. He noticed a small spider on his ceiling and made a mental note to carry it outside later. Later, in this case, being the general time after the end of this phone call, and Samandriel suddenly found himself hoping that it wouldn't be soon.

Because of the spider. Obviously.

"Hey, uhm..." Adam cleared his throat. "Wanna get something to eat? I kind of got an entire evening on my hands now, and I read the first chapters of The Great Gatsby."

It was kind of embarrassing how fast Samandriel replied, "Sure."

-Ψ-

"And then-" Adam waved with his hand to illustrate what had happened. "John dropped baby Sammy in Dean's arms and told him to take his brother outside. But their dad was in the room when the stink bomb went off, and so when you hear Dean talk about how he rescued Sam's life, that's the story."

There was a wide smile on his face, and he even managed to continue smiling while chewing.

"Did you see them a lot? When you were kids?" Samandriel asked. They were sitting at In-n-Out-Burger, both with a burger and some French fries in front of them, and Adam had already gotten up two times to get himself a new coke. Somehow, they had started sharing family anecdotes.

"Not really. Once or twice, maybe, but Mom talked about them a lot. I suppose John wasn't quite as enthusiastic, but still." He shrugged. "They're nice, but they're a little gruff. It takes them a little time to... you know, make friends."

"You seem quite open," Samandriel stated, "Apparently you didn't inherit the family curse."

"Only because I like you," Adam mumbled to his cup. He regretted it as soon as Samandriel looked up. "Well, you know, I'm nice because you're nice and all that crap."

And damn him if he didn't sound like the typical Winchester at that moment – oblivious to his feelings, and utterly in self-denial.

Luckily, Samandriel didn't seem to notice, and if he did, he didn't mention it. He just smiled and looked at his burger in that way he always did.

"So... The Great Gatsby," Adam said after a moment of silence. "I haven't read much, but they seem to get drunk quite a lot."

Samandriel looked back at him and laughed. "Kind of, yeah."

"And did Gatsby really kill someone?" Adam asked, honest curiosity on his face. His head was slightly tilted, and he seemed unable to stop grinning, at least when looking at Samandriel.

"I'm not saying anything," Samandriel said, raising both of his hands defensively.

"Oh, come on, it's only a school book!" Adam exclaimed, his expression changing to pleading. "You can tell me!"

Samandriel laughed, and he had to stop looking at Adam because honestly, this guy had the most amazing blue puppy eyes Samandriel had ever seen on a guy his age. Not even Sam Winchester came close to that, and he was regarded the champion of puppy eyes by pretty much everyone.

"There's no such thing as 'only a book'. You'll have to read it. Sorry." He managed not to look smug, but he found that he had fun teasing Adam. Luckily, Adam didn't seem to mind.

"I'll google it," he muttered, "I'll get home and I'll google it. You can't stop me."

"That would be cheating. You have to earn that knowledge." Samandriel looked up at him with a sort of adorable smile, and Adam had to admit he felt challenged. He rolled his eyes. "If I can't stay awake in class tomorrow, it's because I stayed up all night reading."

-Ψ-

He did, as it turned out, stay up all night reading, and the only thing that kept him from falling asleep in class the next morning was Samandriel, with whom he exchanged ideas and favourite quotes and other stuff about The Great Gatsby until the teachers glared at them. They talked during lunch break, and they talked on the phone in the afternoon.

The next day, they met up to get the first part of their project done, and spent the entire afternoon planning, analysing and drawing character relationships on huge posters. By the end of the day, Adam's hands were full of sharpie stains and Samandriel had red markings all over his face because Adam had tried to enact a zombie apocalypse.

It was the most fun both of them had had in months.

-Ψ-

The rest of the week was filled with equal meetings, more laughing and occasional teasing. On Friday night, the whole group – meaning Dean, Sam Gabe, Cas, Anna, Jo, Samandriel and Adam – went out to get burgers, and it turned out that Adam and Samandriel had been right about Sam and Gabriel.

They high-fived each other and spend the evening laughing at Dean's unamused bitchface and playing billiards. Adam kept pushing Samandriel to make him miss his hits.

The weekend was gone too quickly, and soon it was Monday morning again. Adam rolled himself out of bed with an annoyed groan – he remembered the last thing he thought yesterday night was that he was going to regret calling Samandriel about The Old Man and the Sea – and trodded to the bathroom with his hair ruffled and his eyes puffy. He almost ran into Dean, who was somehow already dressed and way too energetic.

"Sorry!" Dean called as he dodged Adam, "Cas called, I have to pick him up now. His car broke down and he lives out of town, so he can't walk to school."

"Doesn't Cas usually ride with Gabe?" Adam called after him, when said self-assigned trickster popped out of the bathroom Adam had meant to enter. "Not today, Squashykins."

Adam blinked several times and took a step back. "Good morning," he said, "I'm so glad my room is not next to Sam's."

-Ψ-

Since today was the last day before Adam's and Samandriel's presentation, they were both kind of anxious in French class this morning.

"I just hope we didn't forget anything," Samandriel muttered quietly, "It's so hard to do this when we don't get any leads to go by."

"I'm all in favour of freedom," Adam agreed in a quiet whisper, "But he could have at least told us what sort of presentation he was expecting. He'll just end up calling us a bunch of idjits and send us home."

Samandriel laughed at Adam's brief impression of Professor Singer. "Say that again."

Adam pulled a grumpy face. "Idjits," he muttered, and Samandriel laughed harder.

Someone cleared his throat before them. Said someone turned out to be Professor Balthazar. "Mes amis, I hope I'm not interrupting something."

Adam looked at Samandriel as if he wanted to say I'm so sorry I keep getting you into trouble. The grin was still stuck on Samandriel's face, which made his apology kind of harder. "We're sorry, Professor."

"Il ne faut pas flirter dans la classe de français," the Professor said, and then turned back to the class to resume his lesson.

Behind his back, Adam leaned over to Samandriel and repeated in Balthazar's typical deep voice. "Il ne faut pas flirter dans la classe de français."

It wasn't until after the class that both of them started to think about Balthazar's words, and why exactly he had thought that the two of them were flirting. Separately, they would discard their thoughts as a silly notion – because there was no way they were in love, was there?

-Ψ-

Tuesday was the day of their great presentation. Adam was nervous, but he managed to hide it quite well. Samandriel, on the other hand, was just a nervous bundle of issues.

"It's gonna be okay," Adam told him with a helpless shrug when they were standing in front of the classroom, because Samandriel looked pale and his hands were shaking and Adam really wanted to comfort him but felt kind of awkward. They still had several minutes before English class began, and they were standing apart from the other students.

Samandriel looked up at him with a jittery smile. "Thank you," he said, but continued to clutch his cue cards in his hands like they were his most treasured possession. Adam realised that he had some serious issues with talking in front of people, and immediately felt pity for Samandriel. He had been brilliant with analysing the book, he just didn't have the confidence in himself.

Spontaneously, Adam took Samandriel's hands until they stopped shaking. "It's gonna be great."

This time, Samandriel's smile wasn't nervous – it was honest, and cute in that way Samandriel always managed to appear even though it wasn't a word that Adam thought he would have applied to anything ever.

"Thanks," Samandriel said again, and Adam let go of his hands. And maybe he did stand a little closer to Samandriel afterwards, but that was just because they both needed the comfort, and besides, who cared?

-Ψ-

Lunch break after the presentation was heaven.

They were sitting outside in the surprisingly warm sun of the fading summer, Dean and Sam arguing over who spilled a cup of coffee in the Impala, and Anna teasing Gabriel about buying candy for Sam. Adam was just lying on the grass watching the clouds pass overhead, and from time to time contributing to the conversation. Samandriel was lying next to him.

"We made it," Adam said for about the third time this day, "And it was awesome."

"He didn't call us idjits," Samandriel added, and his nose went all crinkly when he tried to imitate Professor Singer's mimic. Adam looked over at him in time to see it and laughed.

"No, but he did give us three weeks' worth of homework," he sighed.

"Life goes on," Samandriel agreed, "And as one struggle ends, another begins."

They laughed again, having had too much fun to actually feel bothered by trivialities such as homework or school or anything.

Gabriel threw candy wrappers at them. "Stop being boring. You can watch the clouds when you're old and grey. We have things to do!"

Sam interrupted his conversation with Dean. "You are not asking him for the keys to our hose. Dad said no parties when he's gone."

Cas looked at Dean. "John is gone?"

"No," Dean explained with a sigh, "He's leaving for the weekend next week."

Gabriel made a whiny sound. "Sam, please! Just... imagine the possibilities! We could have so much fun!"

"Or we could leave the house in one piece."

"You're no fun."

Adam looked at them and smiled. Even when they were bickering, you could tell how ridiculously happy both of them were. A few weeks ago, he would have felt a pang of jealousy combined with the wish for something similar but now... he found that the urge wasn't quite as strong anymore. He figured it was because he was in the process of finding something like it.

-Ψ-

Two weeks passed, and the weekend of John's departure approached.

Adam and Samandriel still spent almost every afternoon together, still talking about books and god-knows-what. Actually, it had become sort of a habit that whenever Samandriel didn't come over, or Adam didn't, that one of them would call the other and they would talk, without thinking about how exactly their relationship had to look to outsiders.

They were just two people, quite alike in what they thought and felt, that had found each other. It didn't really matter all that much what kind of relationship they had.

Except they were rapidly approaching the stage where it would begin to matter.

-Ψ-

Gabriel, of course, had managed – with a lot of bribery, promises, and batting of his eyelashes – to convince Sam, Dean and Adam to let him, Cas, Anna, Jo and Samandriel come over for the weekend. Adam had sighed when Sam and Dean had told them about their plan, but he had agreed to it, because they were older and knew what they were doing, right?

"This is going to go terrible," he muttered.

The night of the party, Gabriel showed up at their house with a box full of DVDs, and another two boxes full of candy. "I'm not sharing," he announced as he pushed past Sam, who leaned down to kiss him and quickly stole one of the boxes when Gabriel was distracted.

Gabriel cursed and tackled him on the couch, and Dean muttered something about making out in public and how he didn't actually want to see his brother with his boyfriend, but he seemed okay with the world when Cas showed up shortly after Gabe.

Adam had been in the kitchen to look at the pizza Sam had prepared, and when he came back out with a milkshake – or rather Dean's attempt at making a milkshake – he found that Cas had given Anna and Samandriel a ride. He smiled and went over so Samandriel.

"How's it going?" he asked, even though they had been talking on the phone about half an hour ago.

Samandriel discreetly pointed at Cas. "He's been worrying about his outfit when we arrived to pick him up. He had us look at all of the contents of his closet, and then he put on the same outfit he always wears." He sighed. "I think dear Cas is worrying a bit too much. It's pretty obvious that Dean likes him, and he's worrying about his clothes like a teenage girl."

"As a teenage girl, I take that as an insult." Anna had appeared behind them, and she smiled. "But you're right. They're both head over heels. I might have to think of something to make them realise how in love they are. Do you think if I kiss Dean, Cas is going to get jealous?"

"You don't even like boys!" Samandriel argued.

"True, but then again, Dean is one pretty Disney princess."

Adam snorted and laughed at the same time, which then ended in a coughing fit because he couldn't control his laughter. Samandriel patted his back until he could breathe again. "Thanks," Adam said.

They all settled down in the living room, and Sam took the pizza out of the oven. Gabriel almost burned his hand when he grabbed the first slice of the hot baking tray, and he tried to make Sam kiss it better. The younger Winchester refused with a stern expression but kept stroking his boyfriend's hair when he though no one was looking.

Jo arrived several minutes later and stole Dean's slice of pizza just before he got to take a bite. The string of curses that followed made Cas turn bright red and Adam wonder what kind of company his brother kept to acquire such a colourful vocabulary.

Anna chose Inception as a movie, and nobody dared to argue with her. She and Jo smiled with ridiculous happiness as they snuggled up on the giant chair together. The blonde rested her head on Anna's shoulder.

They watched Inception, then Sam suggested a film called Momo – The Grey Gentlemen which was good but kind of a children's movie, and half of the people in the room were making out by the end of it. Samandriel, however, was completely engrossed.

"Walk faster, Momo!"

Adam leaned over to him. "It's only a movie, Samandriel."

"Be quiet," Samandriel shot back and hugged a pillow he had snatched from the couch. Adam ruffled his hair and kept quiet. Admittedly, he was more fascinated by watching Samandriel than by the movie itself.

-Ψ-

After another movie – in this case one of the Batman movies because Dean felt he needed to restore his masculinity – the group just sort of went their separate ways. Sam and Gabriel went into the kitchen, because Sam wanted to clean up and Gabriel wanted to see what kinds of sweets he could snatch from the fridge, Dean and Cas stayed in the living room because Dean had bought Halo 4 only weeks ago and was trying to get Cas to play video games. Anna and Jo stayed with them, mostly so that Jo could snatch the controller from Dean when she couldn't stand his amateur playing anymore, even though he claimed he was flawless at the game.

Cas, to everyone's surprise, proved to be quite a good player. So good, in fact, that he won the first three matches against Dean, even though Jo stole Dean's controller several times and tried to make up for it. Anna just winked at Cas as if they had been practicing this.

Samandriel and Adam went upstairs into Adam's new room that wasn't as empty and sterile as it had been a few weeks ago. Several books were lying around on the floor or on his desk, and a CD Samandriel had borrowed him was lying on his player. His homework was spread all over his desk, and his calculator had somehow ended up on his pillow.

Samandriel sat down on Adam's bed, and the casual manner in which he relaxed there spoke of the many times he'd been here. Adam sat down next to him, cross-legged and leaning backwards. They were both staring ahead out of the window.

From time to time, and annoyed curse was heard when Jo took the controller from Dean again.

"I like you," Samandriel said suddenly, and it sounded like he had practiced it in front of a mirror many times before managing to say it out loud in front of Adam.

Adam could feel his face turn red, but he still looked over at Samandriel to find the other boy staring back at him. He cleared his throat, and Samandriel looked down, insecurity in his blue eyes. "I mean, you're really nice, and we sort of... I mean..."

He sighed when he realised that however carefully he had prepared this, it just wouldn't come out right. "You know," he added lamely and then looked back at Adam.

There was a smile in the corner of Adam's mouth, and it was slowly growing bigger. "I like you too, you know," he answered quietly. He felt like it was sort of a cheesy thing to say, but with Samandriel, he never worried about how stupid or weird he sounded. It just felt right, being here, with him, so he took the other boy's hand and they just sat there on Adam's bed, looking out of the window and listening to the laughter and curses from downstairs.

-Ψ-

Sunday after the party was eerily quiet.

Adam woke up around twelve and walked downstairs in his pyjamas to find that Sam had apparently made breakfast. He helped himself to some scrambled eggs and bacon and then sat down when Sam entered the kitchen.

He poured Adam a cup of coffee and sat down.

"So Gabe's having a movie night tonight," he said, "Because his Dad bought Wolverine and he hasn't seen it yet, so he's super excited. You want to come?"

Adam looked at him with his eyebrows raised. "Is this going to be another fake movie night where you two end up making out and forget to tell me that I shouldn't come over?"

Sam's face turned bright red. "It wasn't like this!"

"Sure," Adam said with a mischievous grin, "I totally believe you, especially because Gabe is known for his patience and subtlety."

Sam got up. "Whatever. You can come over if you want to, I'll give you a call."

-Ψ-

Adam really wanted to call Samandriel, though.

When he returned to his room he sat down at his desk, placed his mobile in front of him, rested his chin on his arms and stared at it for ten solid minutes. Nothing happened, and he couldn't think of anything to say, but the memory of Samandriel's smile kept popping up in his head at random times to distract him. Finally, he flung his mobile on his bed and took out his math textbook.

He could at least try to be productive.

-Ψ-

Samandriel was doing pretty much the same, only that he was sitting in Anna's room and she was poking him for about the fifth time today because he was supposed to help her with math.

"Eyes front, soldier," she scolded him and then sighed when she noticed he'd been checking his mobile again. "Seriously, what is wrong with you today?"

"Nothing," Samandriel assured her, "I'm just... uh... waiting for a call."

Anna raised an eyebrow. "It's Adam, isn't it?"

"No!" Samandriel replied, too fast and too loud and Anna smiled triumphantly. "I knew it! You two are in love!"

Samandriel sighed and let his head fall on the desk. "Shut up."

"Aw, but you two can have adorable dates at Wiener Hut and he can wear your hat and you can read books to each other in the park. Don't you know how adorable you two are?"

"Anna!" Samandriel whined. Her wicked smile told him that she wasn't going to leave him alone.

-Ψ-

One thing was certain: Adam wasn't ever going to attend a movie night at Gabriel's house.

The call from Sam came at about seven-thirty, when Adam had just closed his French textbook with a frustrated groan. He quickly answered the call, hoping it would be Samandriel and disappointed when he found it was only his cousin.

"What's up?" he asked, trying to sound cheerful.

"It's just... uh..." Sam sounded embarrassed, but he didn't sound like he was really sorry. "Gabe's Dad hasn't really bought Wolverine."

Adam rolled his eyes. "Sam, could you just not invite me the next time? I know how to socialise on my own!"

Sam sighed. "I swear to God, I didn't know! Gabriel's been planning this... thing for me and he..."

"Okay, I get it." Adam waved his hand in front of his face to fight off the mental images. "You don't need to paint a picture for me. Just... use protection."

Sam started to stutter out a response when Adam hung up. He didn't really want to know.

He sighed and turned back to his desk. There was still a lot of homework to be done; the preparations for the party had taken up quite some time. And he really wanted to study, but there was only so much stale coffee one could stand before going absolutely mental, and so he finally decided to call Samandriel.

He almost hung up when Samandriel didn't pick up after the second ring, but he was a Winchester now and that apparently included some misplaced sense of pride that kept him from hanging u and marking himself as the socially awkward newbie forever.

Besides, that was Samandriel. Why should he be scared now?

When Samandriel picked up, he sounded kind of breathless. "Hi," he muttered, and the grin that appeared on Adam's face threatened to split his skull in two. "Hi," he answered.

Samandriel laughed nervously. "We are so bad at this."

"We're better at this than Dean and Cas," Adam replied with a shrug, and suddenly it was easy again, "You wanna get something to eat?"

"I already had dinner," Samandriel answered apologetically. Adam laughed again. "Me too."

"We could go to the park," Samandriel suggested.

Adam's smile got steadily wider. "I'd love to," he said.

-Ψ-

It wasn't quite dark yet, but the sun had already disappeared behind the line of trees at the far end of the park, and it was refreshingly cool on the grass where Samandriel and Adam had sat down. The park was empty except for one or two people with their dogs and the occasional jogger.

Adam felt like his heart was going to burst out of his chest any moment because he couldn't remember a single moment in his life where he'd been as happy as he was now.

"God, this is so cheesy," he muttered, because otherwise he would maybe actually say something weirdly romantic or start singing about his feelings because he couldn't contain his happiness anymore.

"I know," Samandriel answered, "I like it."

Adam laughed and turned so that he was lying on his side, facing Samandriel. The cool light caught in his eyes and made them seem even brighter than before. Adam reached out for his hand again, crossing the distance between them, and leaning in hesitantly.

Samandriel tilted his head forward slightly, and then they both sort of stopped, waiting for the other to make the next move. They stayed like this for a moment, but when nothing happened, they both sort of started giggling, but didn't move away from each other.

"We should-" Samandriel began, but Adam had already made up his mind – Winchester pride and all that – and he leaned forward to place his lips on Samandriel's. Samandriel stilled at the contact, but relaxed when he found their hands still intertwined – Adam's hands were calming his shaking ones again. Between the smell of grass and the sound of birds they kissed, slowly and sweetly, holding each other with the knowledge that they both had found someone who cared for them.

So okay, I suck at endings. Anyway, tell me how I did, and feel free to yell at me. And Adam is Sam's and Dean's cousin, because it's my AU and I can do what I want.