Chapter 83

"I should probably wake up," Sam tells Lucifer after a while, though he's hesitant to do so.

"Why bother?" Lucifer replies carelessly from where he's hanging upside down on monkey bars he created in their new random dream house's backyard. "Not like there's anything to do out in the real world, anyway."

"No, but Dean's gotta be wondering where I am." Sam hops off the swing set he created. It's not so much that he wanted to swing, but he wanted to sit, and chairs are too mainstream. "I don't want him to get suspicious. He's not happy as it is."

Lucifer rolls his eyes. "Right, 'course. Dean. Should've known." He does a backflip off the monkey bars, landing on his feet easily. "See ya."

"Wait," Sam says quickly, teleporting — yes, he can even teleport in his dream — next to the archangel and grabbing his arm as if that can stop him from disappearing if he wanted to. "You get why Dean can't know, right?"

"I get why you don't want him to know, yeah," Lucifer replies. "I think it's stupid, but I get it."

"It's not stupid," Sam insists. "He'd be pissed."

"Yeah, and?" Lucifer prompts. "Everyone's always pissed at me. You get used to it."

"He's my brother — the one person I would want to fight with. If I could at least try to not make him mad, I'm going to."

Lucifer sighs. "Whatever. Have it your way." With that, he disappears, returning to the waking world.

Sam isn't sure how he does it, but somehow, he forces himself awake, too. Thankfully, he manages catch Lucifer before he disappears, sliding his clothes back on, and he's able finish the conversation Lucifer so rudely walked out on.

"You know it's nothing personal, right?" Sam asks.

"Of course it's personal. I'm freaking . How would it be personal?"

"Yeah, maybe you are, but there's more to you than that."

"No one else seems to care," Lucifer mutters.

"I wish I could sympathize, but that's really all your fault," Sam tells him. "Not for being Satan, but for the rep you've got."

"How is that my fault?" Lucifer demands. "Everyone hates me already. Can't really change that."

Sam scoffs. "And? You think I had it much better? You know what the first thing an angel ever said to me was?"

Lucifer raises an eyebrow curiously.

"'Sam Winchester, the boy with the demon blood.'"

Lucifer lets put a low whistle. "Oof. Rough. But heaven still hates you, so I don't see your point."

"Yes, but Cas doesn't. Balthazar doesn't — didn't? Gabriel doesn't. I think. Michael probably doesn't. Alfie doesn't. No one still hates me. There's no reason it can't be the same for you."

"Okay, what exactly are you saying?" Lucifer asks.

"Just try to get along with people," Sam says.

"Why?"

"Because I'm not talking to you outside of this room until Dean doesn't hate you," Sam replies. "And it doesn't look like anyone's in a rush to start a conversation with you, so it's kinda up to you."

"Why bother? You couldn't get Dean to tolerate Gabriel. I won't be able to get him to tolerate me."

"Just try, okay?" Sam pleads. "Because I don't want to have to listen to Dean and Cas all day, everyday, and you're my only escape plan."

A small, somewhat amused smile sneaks up on Lucifer's face at that. "How about this? I won't start any fights with anyone. I'll even try to fight with people who pick fights with me. But there's no way I'm gonna go up to anyone and start trying to mend relationships or whatever because that's just weird."

Sam sighs. "Fine. Good enough. Just know that that's probably not going to make Dean like you."

Lucifer shrugs. "I can deal with that. I mean, he already hates me, and I don't see him changing his mind about me. He hasn't with anyone else here."

~~

But apparently he has.

The first thing Sam notices when he walks into the war room is Dean and Gabriel laughing, and Castiel looking amused on a smaller scale. They're all clearly having a good time, and Sam doesn't want to interrupt it. He tries to back away silently to find Lucifer again, but Dean catches sight of him and waves him over.

Sam reluctantly walks up to the three of them, not quite sure what to expect. He can feel the sudden tension, and he's not sure if it's between himself and Gabriel or Dean. The former looks down at the floor, careful not to meet Sam's gaze, while the latter just looks upset, even if he is trying to hide it.

"I feel like I'm interrupting something..." Sam says awkwardly.

"No, not at all." Dean gives him an assuring smile that he doesn't believe at all.

"Right..."

And awkward silence.

Sam lets out a long breath, and, when no one else speaks, says, "Well, um, you guys get back to whatever you were doing, and I'm just gonna go?"

"Back to Lucifer?" Dean asks it like an innocent question, but it's clear he's not happy about that.

"No," Sam lies. He'd definitely be going back to Lucifer. It's better than being alone. "Back to sleep."

"Oh, so you were just sleeping, not..."

"Not what?" Sam asks, somewhat offended even though he doesn't know exactly where Dean was going with that.

"Not with Lucifer," Dean finishes.

Sam mentally debates how to answer this. He could just lie and say he never went to talk to Lucifer at all, and it seems Dean would believe it. But he did have another plan, so he might as well go with that one.

"I was," Sam replies. "I broke things off with him and then I took a nap."

"You What, were you him?"

"What? No! I broke off any semblance of a friendship we had. That's it." And it's still a lie, but Dean doesn't have to know that. Although, he wouldn't really call what they have "dating." It's nothing like his relationship with Gabriel was, at least. It's even questionable calling him a friend, but "friends with benefits" seems to fit their relationship well, so maybe they are friends. He doesn't even know at this point.

"Oh." Dean pauses for a moment, then shrugs. "Well, awesome. Good for you. Anyway, Gabriel was just telling us about the time he —"

"Stuck someone in ?" Sam finishes.

"Uh, yeah, actually. How did you know that?"

Sam glances at the archangel, who's carefully avoiding his gaze by looking at Dean instead, before responding with, "Because I know Gabriel." That was always one of his favorite stories to tell.

Dean looks between the two, just now realizing the awkwardness. "Right, because you guys... Well, Gabriel, are there any tricks that Sam doesn't know about?"

"None worth talking about," Gabriel replies, but Sam can't tell if it's because he's told Sam all the good stories or if he just doesn't want to talk to Sam right now, because that's how Sam feels about him.

Dean frowns, obviously realizing that this isn't working out. After a pause, he says, "Well, I still want to hear the rest of the story, so you can just listen to it again." He looks down at Gabriel expectantly, and after a pause, he continues telling the familiar story.

It's more rushed than it was when he told Sam about it, and he knows that's no coincidence. Sam fucked things up between them, and Gabriel decided to keep them fucked up. It doesn't look like they're about to come back from that any time soon.