Gabriel didn't bother to look up when he heard the bell jingle, signaling a customer had just entered the store. Pamela could handle the register and he had more important things to worry about, like if Casa Erotica 19 had finished downloading to his laptop.

"Hey Gabe, I think you wanna handle this one." Pamela nudged him.

He was just about to give her his best 'Please share whatever you're smoking because it must be the really good shit' face when he saw where she was looking. He smiled, "Isn't it time for your break?"

"You're going to hell," she laughed and headed into the back room.

She was probably right, the kid was only 16, but it wasn't like Gabriel intended to do anything with him. Sam Winchester was smart and funny and one of the sweetest people Gabriel had ever met. The kind of guy he would've totally mooned over in high school. So what if he kind of had a crush on him?

"Sorry Sam, that expansion pack isn't in yet." Gabriel considered his store to be a specialty shop, one side was stocked with all the latest and greatest video gaming paraphernalia and the other was filled with aisles of enough classic and exotic candy to give you diabetes just from looking at it. It was a little bit like heaven.

Sam ran a hand through his floppy bangs, "Then just these." He slid a bag of chocolate covered pretzels onto the counter, "Any idea when it'll be in?"

"Well, the delivery guy has been a total dick to me ever since I told his wife he was having an affair..." Gabriel scanned the pretzels and handed them back to Sam, "So he'll probably drop them off at six in the morning in the hope that they'll be stolen by some rogue jogger. Two bucks, kiddo."

Sam laughed, "You need to stop with that whole 'justice for all' thing; you're not Batman," He handed Gabriel two crumpled singles.

"But Sam," Gabriel whispered, "I am Batman."

"See you later Gabe," Sam waved as he exited the store.

"Wow, you're pathetic." Pamela said sympathetically as she returned to the register.

"Pretty much, thank God I'm so devastatingly handsome or I might not be able to cope."

Gabriel loved his job. That was why he called the store Playground; he got to spend every day dealing with his kind of people, gamers and sugar junkies. Despite having the best job ever, Gabriel found himself in a bit of a funk and it was getting more and more difficult to hide it from Pamela, the perceptive shrew.

It was stupid really, just because Gabriel sort of had a thing for him, didn't mean Sam needed to come in all the time. It had just been a whole month with no sign of the geek. The annoying voice in the back of his head kept saying it was good for him, what with Sam being a heaping helping of jailbait. He ignored it though, with most kids that age, the five year difference felt like millennia, but Sam was different. He was smart, really smart; he could hold deep conversations and actually keep Gabriel on his toes.

He sighed into his Mountain Dew before taking a sip, causing Pamela to look over at him.

"What's the deal? You usually love watching this crap," Pamela nodded toward the episode of Celebrity Rehab on Gabriel's flat screen.

"Yeah… Um" Gabriel mumbled. "I'm gonna crash; the couch is yours as always."

Pamela gave him a look, but let him go to bed.

Sometimes Gabriel was convinced his life was like some kind of sick Truman Show. This was definitely one of those times. Why else would "Pour Some Sugar on Me" start playing as soon as Sam entered Playground for the first time in over a month?

"Dude, turn that down," Sam bitched over his shoulder at slightly taller guy trailing behind him. Gabriel hated to admit it, but he kind of wanted to kill the guy a hundred times over on sight. He was hot. Dude was working green eyes and freckles like nobody's business. He seemed like the kind of cocky asshole that matched perfectly with Sam's sweetheart attitude and endless patience. In other words, he was the perfect guy for Sam. He also looked about Gabriel's age which was a nice dose of salt to the wound.

Mr. Perfect rolled his eyes, and pulled a massive pair of headphones from around his neck and onto his ears, muffling the song, "Whatever Sammy." He muttered as the candy aisles stole his attention.

Sammy? Yeah, Gabriel was going to have to commit a murder.

"Hey Gabe," Sam grinned, approaching the counter.

"Hey Kiddo, what's with the shadow?" He tried to sound pleasant as he jerked a thumb at Sam's companion.

"Oh, that's my older brother Dean, though he doesn't act like it," Sam crossed his arms.

Gabriel did his best to keep his mental parade from spilling over into the real world, "And who pissed in his Wheaties this morning?"

"Ah, he's just upset I made him walk here. It's only six blocks from home, but he wanted to take his baby," Sam rolled his eyes. "So…" Sam bounced on his heels looking like an overly excited kid on Christmas.

"You couldn't possibly be looking for this, could you?" Gabriel smirked, pulling the expansion pack from a drawer under the counter. He'd been saving it for whenever Sam came back, but he wouldn't consciously admit that.

Sam reached for the case, but Gabriel snatched it out of his reach at the last second. "I'm sorry, what are the magic words?"

Sam sighed, used to the routine, "The Playground is the perfect store, and I wish I didn't need to get an education so I could spend all my time here. I dream of the products sold here and wish I could buy them all, but alas I am just a gawky vagabond," Sam deadpanned. He reached for the game again, only to have Gabriel snatch it away again.

"And?" Gabriel asked, his smugness off the charts.

Sam's eyes darted over to brother but he seemed too interested in filling a bag with peach rings to notice Gabriel's antics. Sam tilted his head, his hair falling into his eyes, "Fine. Gabriel Novak is the coolest, most badass shopkeeper there ever was. His ungodly sex appeal makes him God's gift to women and men alike and I hope I can one day become a fraction of the man he is."

Sam's face was starting to redden so Gabriel took pity on him, "You forgot the part about my boundless altruism and perfect ass, but I'll let it slide." He handed Sam the expansion pack.

"How much do I owe you?" He reached in the pocket of his hoodie.

"This one's on the house," Gabriel said nonchalantly, he felt it added to his 'laid back awesome guy' appearance.

"Seriously?" Sam leaned across the countered and crushed Gabriel in a massive bear hug. He smelled like Old Spice and cappuccino.

"Yeah, it's fine. You practically keep me in business anyway. Well, until recently that is." Gabriel tried to casually bring up Sam's recent absences.

"Yeah, I've been busy. College applications… the warden wouldn't let play any video games until I finished all my essays." Sam nodded toward Dean.

"Aren't you a little young for college?" Gabriel was pretty sure he hadn't forgotten Sam's age.

"Well, I skipped a grade in elementary, and I'm in all AP's so… I'm technically a senior." Sam rubbed the back of his neck awkwardly.

"Yup, Sammy's always been a nerd." Dean set his bag of candy on the scale as he ruffled Sam's hair.

"$6.49," Gabriel deftly rang up Dean's purchase and gave him his receipt.

"Later Gabe," Sam called behind him as Dean herded him out the store, saying something about cheeseburgers and how they needed to be acquired as soon as possible.

"You're going to prison. I hope you know that," Pamela stated calmly as she flipped through a copy of PC Gamer, "And you better not expect me to go down too, just 'cause you wanna get your Mary Kay Letourneau on. That being said, what are you planning?" She flipped the magazine closed with a grin.

"I'm not planning anything, I was just considering maybe giving him some chocolate if he stops by tomorrow."

"Which happens to be Valentine's Day," Pamela crossed her arms.

"You know I like you better when you don't point out how pitiful I am." Gabriel said as he locked the register for the night.

"I just think you need to get out there," She put a hand on his shoulder, "And maybe get over Kali."

Gabriel tensed, "Hey, I'm over her. It's been months since I've even seen her."

Pamela didn't look even vaguely convinced.

"Pam, seriously, I'm just being nice to the guy. I'm not about to go dating some high school kid."

"Don't even try that shit. All the free shit you give him and painfully obvious flirting." Pamela sighed, "I'm not saying there's anything wrong with an age gap, but he's 16 Gabe. He's hormonal and confused about life in general, let alone some guy hitting on him all the time. You can be as nice as you want, but he isn't your boyfriend. I just don't want you getting put out if he starts dating someone else."

"You think I haven't thought about this already? About how mentally fucked up I must be that my response to getting my heart ripped out is to go all to-catch-a-predator on some poor kid? Because I think about it a lot," he leaned on the counter and took a few deep breaths, "You can go home, I'll finish closing."

Pamela frowned, "All right." She kissed him on the cheek, "Night Gabriel." The bell above the door dinged softly as she left.

This was a terrible idea.

What the hell had he been thinking? Sam was gonna think he was some psycho creeper who stalked customers or something. Okay, he needed to calm down. Friends gave each other stuff all the time, right? Did guy friends do that? Gabriel didn't have too many close friends besides Pamela and his cousin Castiel, but he was family so that didn't count.

Wow, he needed to get out of the store more often.

It had been busy all day, apparently nerds did have girlfriends and they really like chocolate. Gabriel just wanted this stupid holiday to be over so he could eat all the left over stock and watch reruns of Flavor of Love.

Yeah, he definitely needed to get out more.

He avoided the urge to bang his head into the wall as he rang up the eleventh box of candy hearts that day. There was a reason he preferred Halloween.

"Busy day, huh?" Sam smiled and leaned on the cooler next to the counter.

"You have no idea," Gabriel rubbed his eyes, "I actually have to work."

"Where's Pam?"

"Gave her the day off, can't punish her for having a love life. What about you? Here to get something for a lovely lady?" Gabriel wagged his eyebrows.

Sam blushed and shook his head, "No, I don't, um, I'm not… I'm single."

"Well, in that case," Gabriel pulled a small box from his drawer and tossed it to Sam who caught it easily, "Happy Jellyfish Day."

Sam raised an eyebrow, "Jellyfish Day?"

"Yeah, on February fourteenth single people get together to scoff at love and support the jellyfish of course." Gabriel informed him.

Sam smirked, "Me and Dean like to call it 'Unattached Drifter Christmas'. We used to move around a lot with our dad and well, there's a reason it's Dean's favorite holiday."

Gabriel laughed, "So I take it you're the classy brother."

Sam shrugged, "That's one way of putting it. Dean thinks I'm a wet blanket."

"That is the first time I've heard someone under 30 say 'wet blanket', I'm a little confused as to how to keep this conversation going."

"Shut up." Sam ate one of the chocolates in an incredibly bitchy manner.

Gabriel ruffled Sam's hair, "I'm just messin' with you Kiddo. I'm sure you're super hip, right? You been gettin' stupid fresh with all the dope homies at school?"

"Not funny," Sam said, although he was cracking a smile.

"What? You aren't busting mad moves with the fly hunnies at those bomb diggity house parties all the kids are throwing?"

Sam couldn't hold out any longer and burst into peals of laughter, "You sound like MC Hammer."

"I'm surprised you even know who that is."

"Hey, I'm turning 17 in May." Sam said as if it made all the difference.

"Talk to me when you can get into strip clubs." Gabriel said quickly ringing out a short teen that approached the counter.

"I swear to God, if you bring up the Spearmint Rhino one more time I'm choking you."

"Easy tiger, I only do S&M on weekends." Gabriel winked.

Sam blinked.

"Relax, I'm kidding." Gabriel lowered his voice, "It's not just weekends."

"You make me ridiculously uncomfortable sometimes." Sam shook his head and ate another chocolate.

"Not enough that you stop accepting free food." Gabriel checked out another customer.

"You know I could stay home for this kind of abuse." Sam presented Gabriel with a flawless bitch face.

"Your face'll freeze like that." Gabriel patted Sam on the cheek, "How about you do some work instead of loitering? Twenty bucks in it for you."

"What do you need?" Sam wiped his hand on his jeans and looked around like some eager puppy.

Sam was efficient and quick and Gabriel briefly entertained the idea of trading Pam in. The kid could lift a box like it was nothing, which was weird because Gabriel was pretty sure geeks weren't allowed to be in shape.

"All right Kiddo, closing time, you're free to go." Gabriel hopped off the counter and pulled out his wallet, "I swear, you are one great rack away from completely replacing Pam." He handed Sam a twenty.

"Then I think she'll be keeping her job." Sam tucked the bill into his pocket.

"Aw, c'mon, you got the hips to pull it off."

"I don't know what's more disturbing, us discussing me with boobs, or you studying my hips." Sam looked like he was honestly weighing the two in his head.

"You should be so lucky." Gabriel swatted Sam on the arm, "You're too short for me anyway."

Sam looked offended, "We're the same height!"

"Exactly," Gabriel cocked his head, "Who would change the light bulbs?"

"Well, that's what step stools are for." Sam leaned against the counter so he was shoulder to shoulder with Gabriel, "Or are you too cool to keep one around?"

"So you think I'm cool?" Gabriel smirked.

"God, you only hear half of what I say don't you?" Sam rolled his eyes. "Yeah, I think you're pretty cool."

"Why?" At the look Sam gave him Gabriel sighed, "I'm not fishing for compliments, I'm actually curious. In case you hadn't noticed I'm kind of a dick."

"Well, yeah," Sam agreed, "But that's why you're cool. You don't sugarcoat anything."

Gabriel snickered, "Pun intended?"

"Shut up, I'm being serious. You don't care what anyone thinks… you aren't trying to live up to stupid unrealistic expectations or trying to be like anyone else." Sam ran a hand through his hair.

"Why would you want be like anyone else?"

"You didn't grow up with Dean, he's cool, confident, everything our dad wanted him to be." Sam shrugged, "Who wouldn't want to be like that?"

"Dude, you're kind of a super genius, and one of the nicest people I know. Do you really wanna walk around with your collar popped like a total douche?"

Sam smiled, "I guess not."

"Atta boy," Gabriel threw an arm around Sam, "So how about you don't pull anymore of this pity party crap? I can't afford to keep having these touchy-feely conversations. I do have a reputation to uphold."

"Dude, we're kind of pathetic." Sam turned to Gabriel, "It's Valentine's Day and we're sitting around feeling sorry for ourselves. I feel like an episode of Sex and the City."

"Speak for yourself." Gabriel faced Sam, "We're much more Will and Grace. Of course you'd be Grace."

Sam laughed and Gabriel could feel it on his own lips, "Oh come one, we're at least Bert and Ernie." His voice was low.

Gabriel found himself matching Sam's tone, "I do like to eat cookies in bed."

This was bad. This was worse than bad, but it wasn't Gabriel's fault because Sam was leaning in too and making those damn eyes at him.

Gabriel pulled back, "I should… close up." He went behind the counter to lock the register, "I'll see you later Sam." He didn't look up.

"I got into Stanford." Gabriel looked up to where Sam was, halfway between him and the door, "Full ride."

"That… that's amazing Kiddo. You're gonna knock 'em dead."

Sam shoved his hands into his pockets and nodded, "Well, I guess I'll see you around Gabe."

Sam didn't come back after that. Gabriel figured he spent the spring and summer doing whatever it is weirdo egghead prodigies do before going to college a year early.

It was probably for the best.