Author's note: Special thanks to Treeni for beta-reading!

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1

Sam Winchester spent enough time tied to various pieces of furniture that it became less a matter of 'Oh my God, what are you going to do to me?' and more a matter of 'Really? Did it have to be the table that's already hurting my back?'

Dean was completely right when he declared witches to be the worst. Hell, any monsters who were actually human and thus chose to be monsters in the first place were really bad even for their standards, but as his older brother so eloquently put it witches also had a knack for spewing bodily fluids everywhere, both their own or those of their victims. Of course, Sam just had to run into a bunch of anarchist teenage witches. It was the triple Jackpot of "suckitude" to say it in words those teens would be able to understand.

Not that Sam could talk with the gag they put into his mouth. A gag one of the teens had pulled out of a laundry basket that contained the unwashed laundry for all it looked like. Witches were just downright unsanitary, Dean was right in that point too.

Thinking of his older brother, between only just getting his soul back, having a wall he was not allowed to scratch at in his mind and now being put on a makeshift sacrificial table next to the laundry machines in the basement of some family's home Dean was never going to allow Sam to leave the house again. The house they of course didn't even technically have. Sam's freedom would be heavily limited in whatever way Dean could realistically manage. There was a real chance Dean would never allow him to leave the Impala again.

In all honesty, Sam had no idea what the chances for a god or goddess showing up to claim a sacrifice in person generally were, but even though he didn't understand more than a word of the incantation the teenage witches used, Sam was confident that he didn't have to worry about that part anyway. Loki was not going to drop by, Lucifer made sure of that. Not that Sam was going to let the stupid teenagers in on that.

Now Sam only had to use the much-needed time he had received to come up with an escape plan. Unfortunately, the teenagers were quite good at the whole restraint thing. The hunter couldn't move his hand or feet in the slightest, which was the first thing Sam would have to work on. At least it looked like he would be given the chance to do just that.

"If Loki hasn't claimed him come morning, we'll kill him," the most preppy looking of the teenage witches decided, flicking her long blonde hair over her shoulder as she gestured for the other two to follow her outside.

Sam could hear one of the other two -the punk-looking teenager if he had to guess- arguing that they should stay around to actually meet Loki, but both the preppy and the nerdy witch shot him down. Say what you want about witchcraft, but it sure brought people of all social circles together in utter stupidity.

Unfortunately, it was quite unlikely that Dean would notice he was missing before two or three in the morning. In retrospect, Sam shouldn't have insisted on them checking out clues separately, but Dean's constant hovering and the concerned looks his older brother kept shooting him these days whenever they were in the same room just got too much to bear after a while. Sam only wanted to do something on his own for a while to sort some things out before he returned to his brother. He even willingly let Dean go after the more promising suspect. Not that it had helped any.

Sam exhaled as soundly as he could around the gag and tried to relax for a moment. He had some time and relaxation usually helped with the thinking process. If he could loosen up the ropes enough to get just one of his limbs free...

"You know, usually I don't do this whole human sacrifice thing. Give me some Hershey's, Nestle, Kinder... even fruit if you must, but humans? You guys just taste awful," an all too familiar voice suddenly commented. It took a moment before Sam could localize where the voice came from, but when he did his head snapped toward the far side of the room where the smirking trickster -which was apparently what Gabriel was going for at that moment- was perched on the dryer of all things.

"These things are no fun when they're turned off," the trickster commented as if he could read Sam's thoughts as he kicked the dryer once and hopped off, "No vibrations."

Sam automatically rolled his eyes. It probably was a good thing that he couldn't comment with the gag in his mouth. Gabriel could help him out of this situation with a snap of his fingers -literally- antagonizing him in any way would be the stupidest thing Sam could do under the circumstances no matter how tempting. However, many questions burned on Sam's tongue, questions he understandably needed an answer to. The most obvious of which was, 'How the hell are you alive?'

"Anyway, where was I? Oh right, human sacrifice," the trickster stated as he walked up to Sam, casually unwrapping a lollipop he just pulled from his pocket, "You know, human sacrifice is really only ever welcome, if the offering is adequate and you... it doesn't get more inadequate than you."

Sam wasn't entirely sure if he should feel insulted or lucky. Maybe a mixture of both would do. Something about the way Gabriel was speaking, strutting around and looking at him really rubbed Sam the wrong way though, so he decided to just wait and see where this was going. Not that he realistically could do much else.

"I like my sacrifice evil, perverted, rotten to the core," the trickster went on, completely ignoring that the person he was talking to could not participate in the conversation, "You? A bunch of wrong things done for all the right reasons... and then a little on top that really doesn't count."

Sam frowned deeply as he listened to Gabriel's assessment of his character. It was weird to hear the archangel say things like that, when he had been one of the people who had always judged Sam's actions quite harshly. Hell, the archangel had punished Sam for his wrongdoings more than once! Sam nearly wanted to laugh at this turn of events, but the gag was still firmly in place.

"So, you see why you're a completely insufficient sacrifice?" the trickster concluded, before his ever present smirk turned darker, menacing, "I'll have to teach those witches a lesson about making great demands and offering something completely inadequate in return."

The teenagers wanted a great amount of chaos and anarchy for their sacrifice -this inadequate one and the ones they had done over the past days for which the trickster didn't even bother to show up for- but they had not made an effort to find something that was even close to the trickster's liking. It was too bad for them that he had now officially acknowledged their attempts and thus would have to do something about them.

Sam snorted into his gag and rolled his eyes once more. Truth be told, he didn't give a damn if Gabriel threw those three witches into a wormhole, or whatever else he would deem a fitting punishment for them. Alright, so maybe Sam gave a little of a damn, he couldn't help himself in that regard, but he wasn't going to plead their case. In fact, Gabriel taking care of it spared Sam and Dean from having to somehow keep a bunch of witches from ever practicing witchcraft again, preferably without killing a bunch of still under adult age humans. However, Sam was getting quite tired of listening to Gabriel going on and on about inane stuff while being bound to the table was starting to seriously torture Sam's back.

"Right, anything you want to say for yourself?" the trickster asked with a more benevolent smirk, as he snapped his fingers and made the gag disappear.

"What the hell, Gabriel? Just set me free already!" Sam spat the moment he was able to talk. This whole thing had gone on long enough. The longer it lasted the more worried Sam got that something really bad was happening and that he absolutely had no idea about was going on here. Gabriel was a strange guy, even for an angel, unusual in all regards, but he simply wasn't acting... right. The last time they had seen each other, Gabriel had faced his own certain death by the hands of Lucifer just to give them a chance to stop the Apocalypse. The archangel went on like none of that had ever happened and there was nobody other than Sam around, no one around he had to keep up a charade for.

"This is getting better and better," the trickster huffed out an annoyed breath as he threw his arms in the air showily, "You don't even know who you're being sacrificed to. That's just adding insult to injury!"

Sam swallowed hard. It couldn't be, but then again, who was he to say what could and couldn't be? By all rights, Sam should have been in the cage with Michael and Lucifer. It was an inescapable prison after all, but somehow first his body and then his soul were extracted from it. If this being in front of him looked like Gabriel, but somehow wasn't Gabriel at all, that left one other logical option, "Loki."

"Smart boy, but I won't give those ignorant fools credit for this now," the trickster replied with a more content smile, "We have met before after all and you are smart enough to have figured it out by yourself."

The teenage witches would still pay for setting this entire thing up in the first place and then some more for setting it up all wrong. Granted, it wasn't as easy as it used to be to find accurate and detailed descriptions of how to correctly sacrifice to the different gods around, but still, if they wanted to get into the business, they had to at least make an effort to learn the trade. Loki could have overlooked some small wrongdoings in the proceedings, but as things were those fools hadn't done a single thing right!

"You know me?" Sam asked astonished. He was pretty damn sure that the four times they had met Gabriel before, it had always been Gabriel and nobody else. There had been references to the other times they met every time after all, but if this god claimed he wasn't Gabriel at all, how did that make any sense?

"Not as smart as I thought," Loki clicked his tongue in disappointment, before he shrugged and added, "Still better than that brother of yours. Prettier too, if that helps your ego."

Sam completely ignored the second part of Loki's statement in favor of trying to make sense of the whole situation. Not that he was getting anywhere with the information he had at hand. Loki knew at least something about their previous meetings with Gabriel and he sure talked as if he had been there in person and not only heard of them. Was it possible that somehow, the archangel had shared a vessel with the trickster god and only the latter survived when Lucifer killed Gabriel? "How are you...?"

"Did you get brain damaged somewhere down the line?" Loki asked with a mock-concerned frown as he leaned in close to examine Sam's face. Apparently, he saw something that made the concern more heartfelt in his short examination as well. "Oh, I see... Sorry, big guy, I didn't look for that earlier."

Something seriously bad had happened to the human and while that was written all over his being -something the trickster had deliberately ignored earlier, because the guy was a hunter and a Winchester to boot, so naturally bad things happened to him- the real damage seemed to somehow be contained in his mind. Someone had messed around with it severely in an attempt to undo some damage somebody else had done before. It was fascinating in a way, like a car crash, nothing Loki really wanted to see, let alone concern himself with, but it was hard to look away.

"No, I... I remember you. Clear as day," Sam replied around the lump that had made its home in his throat at Loki's assessment. Knowing that he was messed up was one thing, but knowing that it was obvious to everyone who looked deep enough was something else entirely. Alright, not everyone could look behind the surface just powerful, supernatural beings... which was only about half of the people Sam met. It was especially great to know that the bad guys he faced might be able to tell.

"Good," Loki nodded to himself, before he waggled his eyebrows at Sam and added with a smirk, "So, about that sacrifice part."

Sam blinked once, then twice and gave his best fish-on-dry-land impression as he opened and closed his mouth a couple of times. What finally made it out of his mouth was, "What? I thought you didn't..."

"Problem is, Gigantor, I technically accepted the sacrifice the moment I showed up here to take a look," Loki shrugged casually, as if he was talking about the weather instead of how he was going to force himself to feast on some human flesh even though he found it disgusting. At least that was what Sam supposed Loki was talking about. "It's fully within my rights to find you completely inadequate, which I still do, but I accepted nonetheless."

"Then let me go on my inadequate way and I'll try to stay out of your hair," Sam groaned, struggling against his restraints for a moment just to make his position clear. He would gladly get out of Loki's hair, if the god just undid the ropes and let him leave. The trickster had made it plenty clear that he had no use whatsoever for someone like Sam -which actually counted as a win here, even though hearing he was inadequate over and over wasn't exactly nice- and he wasn't talking like he particularly wanted to kill Sam, so he might as well just do the logical thing and let him go.

"Uh-uh, not-so-iron giant," Loki replied in a chastising tone, wagging his index finger at the hunter for good measure, "A sacrifice has to be made here."

It wasn't Loki who made the rules. Granted, he broke the rules or rather bent the rules quite frequently and he did intend to bend them here, but the rules were still there. Apparently, he really had given Sam too much credit when it came to how smart the hunter was. The borderline panicked look on Sam's face said all too clearly that his mind was still stuck on the idea of being eaten, while Loki's mind had long moved on from that.

"Oh don't be silly and don't worry, Long Cat," Loki laughed, before he leaned in until the tips of his hair were tickling the side of Sam's face and he could whisper seductively, "After all, not all sacrifice is bloody."

"No!" Sam yelled, struggling against the ropes that bound him to the table until he could feel them biting into his skin until he nearly bled when Loki put a hand on his chest. "No! Absolutely not!"

To his credit, the trickster moved back nearly immediately, though he looked more annoyed and insulted than understanding of the fact that Sam didn't like the prospect of being pressured into sex. In fact, there was even more to it than that as well, but even Sam himself couldn't quite put his finger on it. He just knew that the trickster's advances while he was mostly powerless to do anything against them made him panic, though it helped a little that Loki had backed off at Sam's refusal.

"Excuse me?" Loki asked, for the first time not smirking, but nearly pouting, "I'll let you know that I've tangled with countless people, beings and what I like to categorize as 'other' before and everyone was highly satisfied."

Loki had his fair share of ex-lovers, ex-friends with benefits, ex-acquaintances with benefits and so on and so forth. Of course, most of them weren't exactly on good terms with him these days, but that had little to do with his qualities as a lover and a lot to do with his trickster nature. His more or less casual relationships simply tended to hit a point where he was bored and then the pranks started. Very few of his partners were appreciative of that and those who were stopped appreciating them after that one inevitable prank that simply went too far. At least, there were always Hel and Thor who liked to hear the stories afterward.

"I'd be tempted to hardly call it a sacrifice on your part, but... we have established that you are utterly inadequate anyway, so it will do," Loki added for good measure, waggling his eyebrows at the hunter once more.

"Don't you dare touch me!" Sam spat, "And if you say 'inadequate' one more time, I swear..!"

For a moment Sam was sure that he had gone too far. The trickster's face was completely impassive and the silence that had fallen over the room didn't bode well either. At least that was what Sam thought until Loki suddenly started to laugh so long and hard that he had to bend over and put his hands on his knees until he managed to stop again.

"I like you," Loki finally proclaimed, raising his hand to snap his fingers, only waiting a moment so he could explain, "And I'm really not into non-con anyway. Consent is sexy."

It wasn't like Loki didn't have more than enough willing bed partners, if he went looking for one... or two... three at the most, anything more usually became a logistic nightmare much too quickly. Of course, not all gods shared his way of thinking when it concerned sacrifice of the sexual kind, but Loki was all about having fun and enjoying the moment.

"Thank you," Sam stated, trying to sound at least a little meek as he rubbed his chaffed wrists. A pagan god had just basically done him a favor out of the goodness of his heart -however strange that might sound- so Sam thought a little gratefulness was in order. Of course, Sam was still aching to find out what exactly happened to Gabriel and how Loki was here now, especially looking exactly like the last time they had met...or he had met Gabriel…and/or Loki…whatever, though that aspect might be explained away easily enough with shape shifting, but the hunter thought he should just be glad that things turned out okay for him.

"No need to thank me," Loki shrugged, his trademark smirk firmly in place again as he added, "After all you never fulfilled your sacrifice."

Sam instinctively took a step back to put some more space between himself and the trickster at that announcement. It didn't make sense, but then what about this encounter had made sense? Sam frowned as he asked, "What does that mean?"

"You, Sam Winchester, belong to me now," Loki proclaimed somehow managing to sound nonchalant, but solemn at the same time, "Expect to see me again."

Sam's eyes widened in realization. There were a thousand questions running through his head, but they were all getting in the way of each other so he couldn't decide which one to ask first.

"But first I have to teach those kids a lesson about inadequate sacrifices," Loki announced with a wide smirk before he snapped his fingers and disappeared.

Somehow, Sam was convinced the trickster's laughter still hung in the air long after Loki was gone. How was he ever going to explain any of this to Dean?