Sam was hunched over some odd runes that he couldn’t understand. It had already been eight hours since he last stood up for anything.
-Sam, you should get some rest and something to eat.
The hunter tiredly passed his fingers over his eyes. -I know, I know, just… Just this page and…- Castiel unceremoniously closed the book he had been checking.
-Now.
Sam considered for a second to argue with the angel but he already knew better and made way to the kitchen.
-Well look at that, who’d know you like to babysit Sammich.
-Hello, brother.
-Have you ever thought about helping him get dressed for bed too? Passing your hand through his hair until he falls asleep?
Castiel just squinted his eyes a little while tilting his head. -I’m pretty sure Sam wouldn’t appreciate being treated like a toddler.
Gabriel lifted his hands up to the sky with a groan. -Seriously? You don’t even get I’m trying to tease you? Like, actually implying that you like the guy? How dense can you actually get to be Castiel?
-Well, I do like Sam, I wouldn’t care so much about him if I didn’t.
-That’s not the same kind of liking I’m talking about! I’m talking about smooching and christening furniture all around the house as loud as you can!
-You mean like what you’d like to do with Dean?
-Exactly! Just like…- Gabriel suddenly stopped and glared at Castiel who was sporting a smug smile. -You!
Gabriel sighs could be heard all the way from the kitchen to the library. He had been like that all the morning after Sam and Dean left for a quick hunt a couple states away and Castiel couldn’t take it anymore.
-Brother.
-*sigh* ‘Sup bro.
-What’s wrong?
-I’m screwed Cas. That’s what’s wrong. -The angel’s tilt of his head was all Gabe was going to get as a form of inquiry. -I kissed Dean and left some of my grace on him, now I can’t stop wanting to get close to him again.
Cas went blank for a second while looking at his brother gobbling a whole cake with ice-cream, there were a ton of questions forming on his head in a flash. Gabriel and Dean kissed? When had they kissed? How did Gabriel even manage to convince Dean on kissing him? Because he had done it willingly, right? …RIGHT? But maybe the most important thing at the moment was:
-You left part of your grace on him!? -Dejected sigh as answer -How?
-I… I just wanted to feel him and I ended up touching him with it. I didn’t notice until a lot later because it had been such a little bit but Dean felt something was odd and I… I couldn’t tell him about my mistake when I realized it.
Cas was abashed. He knew his brother could seem bold but he’d proven more than enough times how cunning he actually was, being able to fool even The Devil himself. The simple fact that he had let his guard down like that only meant that either he had been extremely drunk or extremely smitten by the hunter, in this case probably both.
-You have to retrieve it.
-No shit Sherlock like I don’t know! But try to go convincing Dean of sharing another kiss!
-How did you convince him of getting the first one?
Gabriel squirmed uncomfortably on his chair. -Let’s just say I don’t think the same trick will work again.
Castiel only nodded. -I’ll see what I can do to help you. -Gabriel turned to his brother with hope brimming on his eyes. -Thanks Cas. Ice cream?
Three days later Castiel took a hold of the hunter right after they parked Baby and dragged him out of both of their brother’s ears reach before he began to expose the issue at hand.
Some time after that, Dean finally found Gabriel holed up in his mancave watching Netflix. He shut the door close just to make sure Sam didn’t see something from the hallway in the least convenient moment. He sat by Gabriel’s side and eyed the show.
-Gravity Falls?
-Reality is an illusion.
-The universe is a hologram.
A silent understanding flashed between their eyes before Gabriel turned his gaze back to the screen. He was clearly uncomfortable now that the silence had settled back. Dean sighed loudly.
-So you didn’t do anything to me that night, huh?
Dang it, Gabriel knew he had asked Cas for help but he’d be damned if he didn’t want to snap the seraph into a thousand feathers right now.
-In my defense, it was never on purpose.
-Yeah, I could get that much. -Both shifted a little. -So all you need to do is get your bit of grace back, right?
-Right.
-Okay then.
Gabriel turned to look at him clearly shocked. Okay? He didn’t know what his brother had told Dean but he was pretty sure he hadn’t left aside the most important part of the issue.
-You realize we have to kiss again, right?
The elephant in the room had finally been addressed. Dean was not entirely comfortable with the idea but this was nothing compared to what he had to put up with at some hunts. He gathered himself and leaned over Gabriel.
-Ok Gabe you gotta be honest with me right here, right now. Did you do something to me that night?
Dean knew himself, he knew that he had never felt any kind of attraction for men before, that it was beyond the realm of possibilities to even think about that and yet here he was, remembering the heated embrace he had shared with Gabriel after accepting his offer of a thousand bucks to nothing he could give him a boner with just one kiss.
Good news were, he had got a thousand bucks richer despite the ethilic overdose he had at the time. Bad news were, a month later he had started to wake up wanting to feel some lips again, more than ever.
And watching the archangel softly pass his tongue over his lips a few inches away from his own face wasn’t helping him. He looked down to Dean’s lips with a hungry look.
-Well, I remember doing something very specific to you that night.
-Don’t play dumb on me Gabriel! You know what I mean!
Gabriel’s conceited look mellowed after seeing the hunter’s honest look of distress.
-No Dean, I didn’t.
-You sure about that?
-Cross my heart and hope to cry.
After what felt an eternity Dean dejectedly looked down and sighed. -Okay… I believe you.
He started to move away from Gabriel when he felt his wrist pulled back softly by the archangel. Dean locked his gaze on him and saw an odd tremor behind his usually nonchalant facade.
-This is just a vessel Dean. You do get that, right?
Dean nodded while moving away from him, his hand free from the soft grasp. Of course he knew Gabriel’s body was just a vessel. His brain was more than able to understand that angels needed vessels to be able to interact with the real world. Why had Gabriel tried to even make a point of that? It had nothing to do with their conversation anyways.
Gabriel would never admit it but that night he actually had done something. Only not to Dean, not willingly at least. He had thrown his grace as close to the surface as possible in order to feel the hunter. Really feel him. He had always liked him and, reckless as he was, he couldn’t pass up the chance of scoring with him. And it had been a mistake, because he had obviously left a bit of his grace clinging onto Dean.
If there was one single thing everybody knew about Dean Winchester, even if they knew him in the shallowest way, was that the only person he was comfortable with having as shotgun was Sam. Granted, he also allowed Castiel there, but never if Sam was actually going along for the ride.
-It’s ok Dean, I can sit at the back. -Sam was holding his hands up, set in between Dean and Gabriel’s heated argument about that particular matter. Since Gabe had started to travel with them everywhere it seemed like the number of times he found himself in this position had exponentially increased.
-No Sammy, it’s not ok! -the hunter barked and turned his attention back to the Trickster with an accusing finger lifted towards him- You think that just because you’re an archangel you can go around picking up on everyone!? Damnit Gabriel, I was expecting better of you after all these years and yet you manage to disappoint me!
-Aw come on! You start to sound like a father and it’s really off putting Dean, I really don’t like that kind of play!
Cas was already sitting in the back looking at the bickering pair in what few people would discern as amusement. If he had learnt to read him well these past months, he could tell his brother was glowing with delight. But he didn’t really like the fact that he was making his friend this upset.
-Brother please, there must be better ways to catch Dean’s attention. You’re not in pre-school anymore. Be honest to yourself.
The silence that followed would have made Sam feel uncomfortable if it weren’t for the face of incredulity his brother and Gabriel snapped at the angel after realization of the undertone Cas meant hit them.
-You know what? I’m with Cas on this. Either you two start dating or you pull the moves away from my brother. I’m tired of doing this.
And just like that Sam went to the back seat to join Cas. He anticipated the way back home to be quite entertaining and he really wished he had thought of bringing some popcorn for the ride.
It hadn’t even been a week since this started but Dean was already losing his mind.
First it had been the sausages smudged with nutella. But only because they were aside the pancakes and not by themselves, Dean concluded, so he allowed that one to slip.
Next day it had been the chicken wings with barbecue sauce, a tad bit too sweet for their own good, but edible.
Then came the takeout hamburgers that had obviously been angelically tampered with to be filled with teriyaki sauce instead of ketchup.
After that, he only passed up the slight of overly sweet and sour sauce on the vegetarian burritos because he had been bitter with Sam for picking up such an awful meal for the both of them.
And the day afterwards he had just been too tired to argue about the messed up chop-suey even when he had definitely logged it into the ‘to bring up on an argument’ tab in his brain.
He wasn’t truly ready to start talking about the strawberry milkshake he had received instead of the beer he asked for at the diner the following night.
But now, right now, he had finally snapped.
-GODDAMNIT GABRIEL WHAT ON EARTH IS THIS!?
-”French sunny side up toasts, made them up myself.” snickered the Trickster, full of self praise.
All Sam did was sigh and start to eat before any of the parties involved in the fight decided to flip the table, probably in a quite literal way. Cas standing by their side, just in case he had to protect the Winchesters from any kind of magical retaliation his brother might pull.
-I don’t give a damn about how you call them! What I want to know is why the heck you decided it would be fun to choke my bacon in maple syrup!
-Aw, come on Bean, it tastes like heaven! Just give a try! I know you like sweet stuff.
Dean fought hard against his instinct to punch the archangel on the face, one for wiggling his eyebrows at him in that unnerving manner and two, for giving him that pet name. He had already confronted him about that a dozen times.
-I don’t want to taste it! I’m done with all your fucking sweet stuff! I want salty shit that’s not covered in caramel sauce! Savoury food should stay that way so Stop. Messing. With. It!
For a second Gabriel seemed genuinely confronted while Dean towered close in front of him with a finger tapping hard on his chest in an attempt of intimidation and then the unimaginable happened. In a manner that would’ve been too fast for a normal human being, Gabriel grabbed Dean’s head and pulled him towards himself, closing the gap between their mouths.
Dean tried to fight him at first but Gabriel was far stronger, pushing him against the wall. They fell into some struggling until the hunter was forced to open his mouth for the archangel, who immediately took the chance to insert his tongue. A flood of electricity crashed through Dean’s mind making him lose any concept of logic, the only thing grounding him to the moment was listening to a couple of low carnal grunts that he couldn’t tell who of the both of them had done. Suddenly, he heard a clear clunk of cutlery over a plate, Sam’s plate to be precise about it and his face flushed bright red in embarrassment. He’d never hear the end of it.
After whoever knew how much time, Gabriel pulled back with a dilated and predating look on his eyes that gave Dean chills through his spine.
The first time Gabe poofed himself by Dean’s side on the loveseat using the hunter’s lap as pillow for his legs to watch tv, Dean made a huge fuzz about it and was only slightly appeased after the archangel snapped a bunch of snacks, drinks and popcorn into existence.
Which were still not ok since the popcorn was caramelised, according to the hunter’s words but he finally gave in and allowed Gabriel to stay for the rest of the Dr. Sexy M.D. weekend marathon.
That had been eight months ago.
Today, he was reclined over Dean with a pillow on his lap and propping his legs on the empty side of the loveseat.
-I seriously don’t understand why Dr. Sexy doesn’t pull the moves on the new intern when she’s so obviously head over heels about him.
Dean chuckled, passing his hand between the archangel’s strands of hair. An odd habit he didn’t know when he had picked up.
-Well duh, can’t you tell that’s because he actually misses Dr. Piccolo?
-Yeah, but she got married ages ago!
-And he was an idiot for not realising that he was losing the love of his life. I’m telling ya’, he’s mourning his loss of her.
-…Whatever you say Dean-o, guess it takes an idiot to know one. ‘Cause if it had been me, I’d have made a move before losing her like that.
More laughs.
-Right, you’re way too over the top man, bet you’d scare the hell out of them right away.
Gabriel turned his head slightly to lock his honey glazed blazing eyes on the hunter’s sight with an intensity that made Dean’s insides squirm with self-aware in a way he vaguely recalled along hallways filled with lockers and the looks of every single person around him staring at the new kid at school.
-I dunno Big Boy, right now I think it’s working out pretty well.
Two Days Into June 