He's your brother. Right.

[i-have-my-flaws.livejournal.com]

((Closed to Dean, Sam and Starbuck. Lots of confusion to ensue, I'm sure. ^^))

Starbuck sort of felt bad. She really should have gone to see Dean as soon as she was feeling totally back to normal (the potion had put her off for a day or two). Instead, she got caught up in building the pyramid court, so glad that she had found something to preoccupy her mind that she completely forgot to go looking for her (admittedly hapless) rescuer.

Dean had told her that he was living in Le Bat En Rouge (the name alone was enough to make her laugh, even though she had no idea what the language was or what it meant), so she grabbed the pyramid ball to give her hands something to do, and made her way to New Orleans Square. And despite the fact that she actually had a serious question on her mind, she was in a damn good mood for a change.

When she arrived at the giftshop she stifled another laugh at the souveniers, rapped her knuckles against the doorframe, and called inside teasingly, "Housekeeping! Get her while she's in demand and before she realizes that she's not getting paid for it!" Not that she had ever learned good housekeeping habits. But he didn't look much better.

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[iron-and-latin.livejournal.com]

“Well, at least there aren’t any herd animals mounted on the walls.”

Seated on the counter next to the cash register, hands on either side of himself and his feet dangling, Sam surveyed their new residence. Aside from the lack of beds and a shower, Sam could almost pretend that it was just another bizarre motel room. Well, except for the fact that they didn’t have any of their stuff. And the fact that it was full of shelves and display racks which made it rather awkward space-wise. And the fact that the brother he was sharing the space with was from six months in the past. And the fact that they were in freaking Disneyland.

Okay, so maybe he was deluding himself just a little.

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"Yeah, I'll second that," Dean said, sitting down heavily in a plastic chair he'd found in a back room and dragged in front of the cash register. "Compared to some of the places we've seen, it's not all that bad, decor-wise." Alright, so maybe that was a bit of a lie. It wasn't substantially worse, at least.

He was about to make some comment about the presence (or lack thereof) of beds when he heard Starbuck's voice outside. Maybe jumping guiltily was the wrong response, but it was his immediate one--he hadn't seen her in a while, and--well, that didn't really entirely explain the brief flash of guilt. Shaking it off, he grinned sheepishly at Sam and went to open the door.

"Housekeeping, huh?" he asked, leaning against the doorframe just slightly. "You don't strike me as the housekeeping type, somehow."

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"I don't, huh?" she said, feigning disappointment and leaning closer. "Damn. And here I was thinking I could get off easy this time." She shrugged, looking benign and defeated. "Oh well."

And yanked him toward her by the collar until it was decidedly impossible for him to make a snarky comeback.

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Sam stared for a moment, surprised, then dropped his head in embarrassment.

So it wasn't exactly the first time something like that had happened, but it was still awkward. Leave it to Dean to have already found and made a 'friend' of some hot blond girl in pocket-dimension Disneyland. He tapped his fingers against the counter a few times and debated whether it would be better to try to slip into the back room or just stay where he was and pretend to be invisible.

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Dean wasn't really one to get embarrassed easily, but he was caught off-guard this time--he stumbled over his feet a little when Starbuck yanked him toward her. It didn't help any that he could hear Sam's finger-tapping behind him, either.

Blushing uncharacteristically, he regained his balance and stepped back, grinning just slightly. "Crap--uh, hey, you need to meet my brother," he said, pulling the door open to let her inside and gesturing in Sam's direction. "This is Sam; I think I told you about him, right? He just showed up here now. Pretty weird, huh?" Okay, so he was babbling a little.

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It was a good thing then that Starbuck didn't lose her balance so easy or they might have ended up in a neat tangle on the ground. As it was, she kind of liked it - it gave her a little crush of weight and she could keep him on his feet. And that blush was fun to follow since it trailed past his jaw, right down his neck....

But her brain cut off at the words meet my brother. Whoops.

Not that she was overly-modest (living in a close bunk situation with nine to eleven other people 24/7 pretty much demolished that), but it was clear that the one on the counter was. And... wait, that was his brother? Honestly, where were all the normal-looking people around here? "So this is Sam, huh? Lucky you, getting dropped off with someone you know already around," she said with a smile. She felt a stab of worry. She'd been fighting with herself over whether or not she thought it was good to find anyone she knew here, and particularly who she would want to show up if it were to happen. And now Dean had family here. Was it completely random, or was there a system?

She glanced at Dean out of the corner of her eye laughingly because all-in-all, her thoughts would be decidedly darker had he not sounded just a tiny bit flustered. It was pretty funny. So she licked at her bottom lip once just to make him antsy before looking back at Sam, all welcoming smiles and keen interest.

[iron-and-latin.livejournal.com]

Sam couldn’t help but grin a little at the collective-Winchester-awkwardness-level in the room and her contrasting unconcern. Sounded like Dean was a bit surprised by the whole thing too.

He slid down from the counter and offered her his hand.

“Hi nice to-”

And then he got a better look at her.

“Katee Sackhoff?”

[i-have-my-flaws.livejournal.com]

She blinked wide at him. I've just been very confused with someone else, she decided, and figured he could be forgiven having just shown up in this pocket-dimension, or whatever-the-hell everyone wanted to call it. "Starbuck," she told him, taking his hand and shaking firmly. "It's my callsign, at least, which your brother hasn't seemed to figure out yet." She looked over her shoulder at Dean and smirked.

[iron-and-latin.livejournal.com]

Starbuck?

Sam stared at her. Then he blinked. Then he stared some more. Then, finally, he realized he was staring and blushed furiously, dropping his eyes.

“Oh God, uh… sorry. I’m sorry. I just, uh, I’m a little thrown by all this and you,” he looked back up at her, “you look almost exactly like an actress on this show my girlfriend used to watch.*” Because, you know, she was the actress who played you. “Callsign, huh? That’s pretty cool.”

*And which Sam used to watch too. Jess had been a closet sci-fi geek, and he’d be lying if he said he hadn’t enjoyed curling up on the couch with her to watch Star Wars or Lost in Space or occasionally an episode of “Star Trek: The Next Generation,” along with the weekly episodes of the new “Battlestar Galactica.” He’d also be lying if he said he hadn’t thought Katee Sackhoff (and therefore Starbuck) was totally hot. It was awkward.

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"I had a suspicion," Dean muttered, glowering. And--wait, what the hell was Sam going on about? A show... One that Sam watched? What? He gave Sam a meaningful We'll talk about this later, look, then glanced between Starbuck and his brother.

"So, how 'bout we all go get some food?" he suggested, grinning. Before this gets any more awkward.

[i-have-my-flaws.livejournal.com]

"Uh-huh, and you just never asked," she pointed out with a disbelieving smile. After all, if muttering and glowering had ever bothered her she'd never spend as much time with Lee as she did. "Is this a family thing?" she asked jokingly. "The tandem blushing? Because I would think that would take lots of practice."

Well, something was going on that she had absolutely no idea about, judging from the weird looks getting exchanged all around. Food was probably a good idea then. "Yeah, what does everyone want?" She moved toward the door, whipping the pyramid ball she was still holding over her shoulder at Dean. He had good fighting reflexes, time to see about the rest.

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"...Yeah, well, I was getting around to it," Dean explained. Actually, he'd suspected that if she was keeping her real name a secret, it probably wasn't a good idea to ask. This hadn't been in respect of privacy so much as in fear of getting chewed out.

"We can--" he started to answer, then blinked, catching the ball half-accidentally. He managed not to drop it in surprise, though, which he hoped meant he'd passed the test--or whatever it was. "What is this thing?" he asked, inspecting it.

[iron-and-latin.livejournal.com]

Tandem blushing? Sam was vaguely mortified, but it was all he could do not to blurt ‘it’s a pyramid ball!’ when Dean questioned the thing Starbuck had just chucked at his head.

Holy crap this was weird.

[i-have-my-flaws.livejournal.com]

A little click happened in Starbuck's brain. "Right. The same thing happened to James." She gave a short huff of laughter before explaining. "His wife showed up here, but she showed before she was his wife. Actually, she apparently hated his guts for years before they started dating, so it was giving him some trouble. Can't remember what her name was supposed to be, though...."

She wasn't even going to get into how weird it sounded to hear them both going on about zombies like that was completely normal. Clearly, they knew their job well.

[iron-and-latin.livejournal.com]

For some reason, Starbuck's laugh, short as it was, was somehow contagious and at her little story Sam made a strangled sound.

“That… that sucks,” he managed, but trying to fight down the bubbling laughter only made it worse. A few giggles escaped despite his best efforts and he turned to Dean.

“Nailing her back into her coffin,” he said, as though it were the punch-line to some great joke. Which he supposed it was, in a way. Except in this joke, Dean was the guy who walked into a bar.* “That was the messy part.”

And then he was laughing harder, covering his mouth with the back of his left hand. “I’m sorry,” he said again. Seemed like he was apologizing a lot today. “Sorry I just...” snigger “It’s been a long… couple of hours and I haven’t eaten in a while. Can we go get pizza now?”

He sort of dissolved into a fit of giggles after that.

*and fell down.

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Dean wasn't feeling quite as giggle-prone as Sam was, but he did have to stifle a laugh when he glanced over at his brother. "Yeah, I think we'd better," he agreed, grinning and shaking his head. He nodded up ahead of them. "The pizza place is just up there."

[i-have-my-flaws.livejournal.com]

Starbuck threw Dean a look that communicated very well just how worried she was about his brother. Which was to say, not very much, but the giggling was getting to her. Because she was starting too. "He's completely delirious," she said just as Sador approached and fell in step beside her. "Well, now I know the signs of hunger for your family." When she heard another fit of chuckles, she hunched forward in her own peel of laughter.

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Starbuck wasn't helping, and neither was the thought of Starbuck not helping. Sam was laughing harder now, one arm crossed over his stomach as he watched her laugh too.

“Hey, it's your dog,” he said between chuckles, wiping at his eyes.

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"Nah, I think this is just Sam being weird," Dean said, grinning. "I'm not associating myself with this." Thankfully, they were rapidly approaching the pizza place, so he took a few steps ahead to hold the door open for Starbuck and Sam. "What does your dog eat, anyhow?" he asked Starbuck. "Human food?"

[i-have-my-flaws.livejournal.com]

She glanced over at Sam when he made the mention of Sador and laughed again. "Very good, Sam. You're a regular braintrust."

Walking into Redd Rockett's, Starbuck went straight for the kitchen. "Yeah, no dog food around here. I give her meat and vegetables mostly. I figure they're the best things for her."

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“Dean just gets grumpy when he’s hungry,” Sam informed Starbuck. “And I’m the smart brother.” He followed her into the restaurant, sniggering, but got sidetracked by the menu on the wall.

“Dude, they’ve got a lot more than pizza here,” he remarked, looking over the impressive list of pastas, salads, and side dishes. “Hey, foccacia!” A sudden thought struck him. “Do any of us actually know how to cook?”

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Dean would have smacked Sam over the head for referring to himself as 'the smart brother,' but as he was too far to reach, he simply snorted in disbelief.

"What the hell's foccacia?" Dean asked, reading the menu with a vague feeling of unease. "I was planning on just heating up some pizza, but if you feel like cooking..." He raised an eyebrow at Sam and gestured meaningfully toward the kitchen.

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"Oh, he gets grumpy," Starbuck said, raising her eyebrows in understanding and staring pointedly at Dean. "Well, I do too, so he's in good company there. Or maybe not." She didn't even have to laugh out loud at the mention of who the smart brother was. Looked like teasing Dean became a rightful sport with Sam around. But the youngest were always like that, in her experience.

She opened up one of the freezers and started pulling out crusts. "You actually remember how to heat up pizza, Dean?" she joked. "From what I recall of last time you had trouble telling which knobs to turn on the oven. But if you feel like being helpful you can get the sauce out and a spoon or a ladel if you can find one."

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"That," Dean said, pointing a finger at her, "is not information that needs to be shared." It wasn't his fault--he didn't exactly have much experience with cooking.

He was starting to prove Sam's point about being grumpy when hungry, though, so he went in search of a spoon without further complaint.

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Starbuck shaped her mouth into an 'o' at the scolding as though she were very caught and felt very bad about it. Then she leaned toward Sam and mumbled (so that Dean could hear her perfectly well), "Got a fragile ego, doesn't he? Good thing he's not one of my pilots...." She motioned with her head. "Toppings are over there."

She set the crust out on the counter and went to preheat the oven.