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Gabriel Novak wasn't having the best morning.
He'd woken up at seven, for starters. Which, firstly, is not very much sleep when he'd only finally conked out at about three. Secondly, finals started at eight.
As it was, he woke up with a bang. Literally, a bang, as he hit the floor and shit, his tailbone was probably bruised but he didn't have time to worry about that. His underwear might have been backwards but who even cared as this point he was going to be late.
He was running out to his old pickup in a record 5 minutes after he'd woken up, a grand total of 45 minutes after his alarm was supposed to have woken him.
The morning was a blur- he may or may not have forgotten to take the pop tarts out of the toaster and eat them, but he'd at least made his coffee, if the new stain on his shirt was any indication. His old, clunky pickup truck had somehow gotten from his house to the university without breaking down, and he might have left half his notes back on his desk but it was a bit too late to worry about it.
He scared himself half to death when he saw his reflection in the window outside the testing room, just noticing the dark circles under his eyes and the way his face had less life than week-old roadkill.
Alright, bleh. Nice mental picture there, Gabe-o.
As a snap decision, he made a quick (read: insanely hurried) stop at the vending machine by the door, jamming the dollar bill in, then taking it out, viciously pressing out the wrinkles and jamming it in again. When the Monster energy drink popped out below, he grabbed it with the hand not holding his coffee, his books and notes balanced in his elbows.
He paused, at the doorway. Well, this was it. Pass or fail. Win or lose. Now he just had to wait for someone to open the door for him…
/
Sam was prepared. He'd gotten a good 7 hours of sleep before he came, thanks to Dean. Dean, who had forcefully pulled his textbook away the night before, telling him sleep was more important than last-minute studying. Sam ought to thank him when he got home. He felt a lot more comfortable here on a full night of sleep, and had remembered everything he needed. Pens, pencils, sharpener, calculator, notes. This test was going to be a breeze.
He'd arrived half an hour early, practically before anybody else except Professor Singer. Ate his breakfast while going over a few formulas to make sure he'd memorized them, sipping leisurely at the tea in his thermos.
He was interrupted when someone slammed through the push door at full force minutes before the test was meant to start, everyone's heads snapping towards the new arrival.
Sam, who took Tuesday classes, didn't recognize the short guy with hazel eyes; figured he must have come from the Wednesday class. He, the newcomer, was in disarray in every way Sam was not. He had a dull pencil balanced precariously behind his ear, papers only just being held in place between his elbows, and what looked like a different brand of what he liked to call "fake energy" in each hand.
The Winchester watched with passive interest as short-guy scanned the room, which was pretty much filled up at this point. In fact, Sam sat next to one of the only empty seats, and the closest one to the door. Short-guy saw this, too, and started shuffling his way over.
He half-tripped on the way, on something seemingly invisible. From Lucifer's laugh next to him, though, Sam would have to guess it was Lucifer's foot. Wow, real mature.
Thankfully, Sam was close enough to bolt up and grab the guy's shoulders, steadying him before he could fall on his face and spill his (drinks?) everywhere.
"Hey, hey. Careful there. You alright dude?"
/
Shit shit shit-
Gabriel had seen Lucifer's smirk before he walked past, but figured it was worth the risk, being that the closest empty seat was (thankfully) so nearby. But, like everything this morning, what went wrong, could, and Gabriel didn't have time to do anything but fall on his face when one dress-shoe clad foot caught his ankle.
Or, he would have fallen, if two huge hands hadn't caught him by the shoulders to keep him upright. He scrambled to get his legs back under him, looking up to thank and apologize whoever had caught him.
He looked up and first saw nothing but a plaid-shirted chest (a firm and hot plaid-shirted chest), and looked up again into the deepest brown eyes he'd ever seen. The tall guy, freaking sasquatch, had long, light brown hair that reached his shoulders, which were square and chiseled like the rest of him like damn. Seriously, did he just get saved by a freaking sex god?
"Hey, hey. Careful there. You alright dude?"
Gabriel blinked at him, mouth partway open, for maybe 5 seconds before getting his shit together. He turned on his signature smirk, eyebrow raising cockily with a glint in his eye. It was impressive, he thought, how quickly he could get a hold of himself.
"Yeah, 'course, kiddo. Fine and dandy."
He pulled himself out of the guy's grip almost regretfully, plopping all his shit down on the desk next to freaking Hercules' twin. He sat down, pointedly not looking at Lucifer, who he knew was probably laughing his hoity-toity ass off. Asshole.
He got out his notes, clock on the wall telling him he had a whole 5 minutes to study. God, was he tired though. Maybe more like 5 minutes to nap. No, no, he had to wake up. He had to wake up now. There was no time left.
He eyed his drinks. His coffee was half empty, Monster unopened. He got an idea, doing it before he could think about just how crazy it was. He was probably going to regret this, but he didn't care.
Sasquatch was staring at him while he executed his plan, looking slightly concerned as Gabriel popped open the Monster drink, pouring it into his coffee cup and mixing the two together to make a (hopefully not so) deadly concoction.
"Uh… what are you doing?"
Gabriel just smiled back, with a look that might or might not have been two buses and a boat ride from sane.
"I'm going to die." He said, grinning, and downed the whole thing in one go.
/
Sam's eyes bulged, watching short-guy chug down an unhealthy amount of caffeine in an insanely short amount of time. This guy was nuts.
He watched the man's Adam's apple bob as he gulped audibly, and surprised himself to find that it didn't look as gross as it should. It was actually kind of attractive, in a way. Come to think of it, the dirty blonde didn't look bad altogether. His smirk and smile were pretty adorable, his eyes were this… distractingly bright hazel color…
No, no. He didn't need this right now. He had a test in- he checked his watch- 2 minutes, now. He could see Mr. Singer coming in, copies of the test in his arms. This was the final he'd been preparing for the last 2 weeks, and he couldn't afford distractions.
Still, might be best to keep an eye on him. Just in case, like, he had a heart attack. Passed out from rapid… heart palpitations, or something. Alright, so Sam wasn't completely sure he understood the meaning of 'heart palpitations', being a law man, not a medical professional, but he figured that drinking both a coffee and an energy drink in quick succession was not a good idea.
So, he'd just keep an eye on the guy. No sweat.
"Alright, kids. Passin' out the test now. I may be old but you'd be an idjit to try cheatin'. Lookin' at you, McLeod."
A man who looked about Mr. Singer's age looked back to him with a smirk, speaking in a Scottish accent.
"Woteva helps ya sleep at night, Bobby boy." The man winked. Flirtingly. Short-guy mimed throwing up in the chair next to Sam. Oh yeah, he was just surrounded by maturity.
"Alright, alright, settle down. Papers coming down the rows. Hour long test. Should be on my table by nine sharp. Then all o' you young people can go back to bed. I'd say good luck, but I ain't that kind of man. Test begins when you get your paper. And, start."
/
Gabriel felt like he was being stared at.
He was already under a lot of pressure, alright? No need to add paranoia to the way the words on the page bounced around in his empty skull without running into a single formula. Or the way his hands were shaking with the jitters of over-caffeination. He'd already had Lucifer kick him from behind more than he figured was fair, and he was constantly concerned about what might happen if his pencil (the only one he brought) suddenly snapped.
Not to mention, the test was nearly over, and he was only about 2/3 of the way through. He'd never finish in time as it was, and he didn't need anyone staring at him on top of it all.
He succumbed to the feeling, eventually flicking his gaze up to meet his starer in the eye. Or eyes.
Really, really deep brown eyes.
His head snapped back to his paper, but Gabriel already felt his face heating up. Great, sasquatch was staring at him. A really, really attractive guy who obviously had just finished his own test was staring at him, probably wondering what the Hell Gabriel was doing in an AP statistics class and not some sort of remedial pre-algebra. Not that Gabriel could really blame him.
His hand shook uncontrollably but he ignored it, trying to force himself to focus on the page. Given that X1, X2, is an i.i.d. random sample from X… Show that Tn = 1/n∑n i=1 log X is an unbiased estimator for 1/theta…
"Shit." he whispered through his teeth, pressing his pencil hard down on the paper, a little too hard, he really wasn't paying attention to how hard until…
…yeah. That snap was graphite, cracking under his fingers. Graphite from his only pencil. Shit. Shit. Shit.
Maybe there was one at the bottom of his bag, or something. He ducked down under the table, rummaging through crumpled papers and crumbs and a beat-up planner from 2012. He was startled when a hand tapped him on the shoulder, and he went to sit up quickly, smacking his head on the underside of the table and just barely biting his lip before he swore, colorfully.
"Sorry."
Sasquatch was giving him that worried look again, brows furrowed in such a way that Gabriel just knew the kid could turn into a killer puppy dog face if he wanted to. It made his stomach do a little flip-flop just thinking about it.
"Sorry." he repeated, in a whisper. "You okay?"
"Uh. Yeah."
"Oh, okay. That's good. Uh. Did you need a pencil? I've got extras."
"Yeah… I do. Thanks." Gabriel found himself whispering, too, both grateful for an excuse to talk to the guy, and embarrassed about the circumstance he'd found himself in to do so.
Sasquatch turned away for a minute, reaching down into his own bag and giving Gabriel a full view of the way his plaid shirt stretched over his back muscles, just as firm as the rest of him…
"Here." the larger man said as he handed Gabriel a new pencil, sharpened to the point that it could probably pierce skin. "I'm Sam, by the way. Sam Winchester."
Gabriel looked up at him, slightly surprised as Sasqua- as Sam held out his hand to shake.
He took it, though. Couldn't help himself. "…Gabriel. Novak."
"Nice to meet you, Gabriel."
"Yeah, nice to meet you too-"
"Hey! Do I hear chattin' over there? Leave it for outside, boys, or I'll have both your papers right now." Mr. Singer barked from his desk in the front corner of the room.
Lucifer snickered behind him, unashamedly. Gabriel whipped around, ready to flip him a few birds if not for catching a glimpse at Sam, who himself looked on the verge of giggling like a little boy. It made Gabriel smile against his own will, momentarily forgetting about the great big bag of dicks behind him.
Maybe the day hadn't turned out so awful, after all.
/
Sam wasn't sure why he was having to try so hard not to laugh. He'd just been threatened to about his test grade, for talking to some crazy short guy- Gabriel- who not 45 minutes earlier had downed an insane amount of caffeine with the simple words "I'm going to die". It was crazy, and it was weird, and it was somehow just so funny.
The test ended without incident, Gabriel looking a bit nervous but not nearly as tired and worn as he had before. Daylight seeped through the windows as early turned to midmorning, and the smile he received for offering to take the dirty blonde's paper up for him was worth the trek up to the desk, even worth the condescending eye he got from Mr. Singer, unspoken judgement for his earlier behavior.
When he walked back to pack up his things, Gabriel was nearly done gathering his own, looking ready to scurry away as soon as he was done.
"Hey." Sam caught him before he could walk by, gently tapping him on the shoulder again.
Gabriel turned to look at him, curiously. A look of realization crossed his face.
"Oh. Oh, your pencil, yeah. Sorry, I almost forgot, here you-"
"No. no. I, uh." Sam wasn't even sure where he was going with this, but he figured he'd find out soon enough. Gabriel just looked at him, confusedly.
"You're crazy, y'know that?"
Gabriel raised an eyebrow, looking a bit offended. "Wow, thanks, Sambo. How nice of you." Sam cringed- he hadn't meant for it to come out that way, but Gabriel was already walking away again-
"No, wait! I mean…" Why was he doing this, again? Why was he talking to the guy who nearly got him in trouble, who was obviously stressed about his test grade and probably didn't want some know-it-all like Sam rubbing it in his face. Gabriel's eyebrow raised higher, and despite the situation, Sam thought that look was pretty attractive on him. It exuded a confidence that Sam only dreamed of having, like he was some old, benevolent god getting a little tired with a human's shit. He realized then that he really, really wanted to get to know this guy more- exactly why, he couldn't tell yet.
"I mean… um. You wanna get lunch? My cousin Jo owns a diner down the road…"
Gabriel's eyes widened for a second, and he blinked them a few times, but didn't respond. Sam wondered if he'd said something wrong.
"Hey, I mean, if you're busy… Or, if… If you just don't want to, that's fi-"
"Hell freaking yes, are you kidding me?" Gabriel blurted out, startling both of them. A little quieter, he added, "I mean. Yeah. I got nothing today, might as well hang out with Mr. Samsquatch. Talk about your chest- *cough* test."
Sam's eyes widened, and he felt his face light up. Gabriel just smirked again, winking up at him. The rapid change from shy, cautious Gabriel to this new, shamelessly flirty Gabriel wasn't unwelcome though. In fact, it was kind of hot. Dangerous. Sam liked danger.
Sam shrugged, feigning nonchalance. "Or, we could maybe do a little more than talking?" he tried, and was pleased with the reaction it pulled from Gabriel. It was the shorter man's turn to heat up a little, but paired with his red cheeks, Sam swore he could see Gabriel's pupils darken slightly, and yeah, that was definitely pretty hot.
Sam had a pretty good feeling that this was just the start to what would be an awesome day.
/
Hours later, after lunch, and dinner, and midnight snack; After they'd fallen onto Sam's futon and into each other; after Gabriel was enveloped by strong arms and Sam was pulled close by fingers in his hair and the two of them were left panting under the covers, Gabriel decided. Yeah.
Definitely the best test day, ever.