Cas was staring at the wall of frozen yogurt dispensers, looking befuddled. Sam glanced over at Dean and Gabriel arguing heatedly about whether peanuts belonged anywhere near frozen yogurt, and took pity on the confused angel.

"Here," he said, taking the empty container from Cas and putting together a simple dish which anyone would like. Vanilla yogurt, fruit, chocolate. "Ready to pay?" he called over to Dean and Gabe, who shoved their overflowing cups onto the counter and kept arguing. Sam made a face at the mountains of yogurt and toppings (his teeth hurt just looking at them) and pulled out his wallet.

"Hi, Sam," greeted the girl behind the counter.

"Hey, Kathy," he returned with a smile. She was the niece of Sam's boss and popped in at the bookstore sometimes on her way home from school. Bright and daring and obviously more than a little intrigued by the mysterious trio who lived just outside of town, she had struck up a conversation or two.

"Didn't know you guys had kids," she said, tone and phrasing carefully noncommittal, eyes curious.

"We don't," said Sam smoothly, his smile not faltering. He knew that there was all sorts of speculation about the exact nature of the relationship between the three of them, and had stopped caring a long time ago. "He's Cas' brother."

"Oh," said Kathy, a little doubtfully, obviously doing the math in her head. Thankfully, Cas didn't seem to age like a human and still looked in his mid-thirties. A moment later Kathy's face cleared. "Oh! Right, he mentioned he was from a big family."

"Yeah, I bet he did," Sam agreed, making a mental note to be more careful about letting Cas talk to the locals alone. "Thanks," he added, picking up his own cup (a reasonable amount of vanilla frozen yogurt, assorted fruit).

Kathy smiled in reply, but faltered when her eyes flickered to something over his shoulder. Her cheeks went pink, and Sam turned around with a growing feeling of trepidation.

"Oh god."

Dean's spoonful of yogurt was hanging, forgotten and slowly melting, halfway to his mouth – which was open, apparently also forgotten as he watched Cas swallow a slice of strawberry and lick chocolate syrup off his spoon. Gabriel, glancing between them, looked torn between amusement and nausea.

"Way to go, Chef Batali," Gabriel said as Sam sank reluctantly into the last remaining seat. "Give him every natural aphrodisiac in the shop."

"So what are you going to do now?" Sam asked, rather than dignifying the jibe with a response. "I mean, you still look fourteen . . ."

"Eh, I'll be able to fix that soon enough," said Gabriel with a dismissive wave of his hand. "Bit rusty, is all. Be back to full power in no time, and then who knows. Might even drop in on the old place, now that they're not trying to destroy the planet anymore." He paused. "They're not trying to destroy the planet anymore, are they?"

"Not as far as we know," answered Sam with a shrug. He glanced at Cas and Dean. They were very much occupied, and he quickly averted his eyes. "We, um –" He cleared his throat and tried again while Gabriel smirked. "We really don't have much of a line on what's happening in Heaven these days. Cas has kind of . . . tuned it out."

"He definitely seems distracted enough," Gabriel commented. "So you guys are officially retired, huh?"

"Yeah. Yeah, it's, uh, it's good. We're good." Sam wondered whether he was imagining the wistful look in Gabriel's eyes. No, he definitely wasn't, he decided as the archangel dropped his gaze. He cleared his throat. Oh, he was going to regret this. "You could, uh, maybe . . . stay with us."

Gabriel's head jerked up, a rare look of surprise on his face.

"For a bit," Sam added quickly. "Until you get up to strength."

"You know what, Samsquatch?" replied Gabriel, a wide grin blooming. "I might just take you up on that."

Dean chose that moment to remember that there was a world outside of Cas.

"Wait. What?!"

~Fin~