Gabriel opened up the door through the intercom once the boy outside the building introduced himself as his new homie. He was gladly impressed when the hot 21 year old came through the threshold into the apartment because although his voice was not really that of a man yet his body was already well defined, you could tell he worked his ass off in that car shop and Gabriel couldn’t but thank the gods that he had decided to leave the family business to help his uncle Bobby out while he found and trained a respectable manager for his first car shop branch. With a little bit of hope maybe he would decide to stay a manager himself and not leave.
-Hey
-’Sup Dean-o, nice to meet you in the flesh.
Gabriel couldn’t stop smiling brightly, asking for a roommate through Craigslist must have been the best idea he could have ever had. And he had a lot of good ideas, mind you, not the most innocent ones but good ideas in the end. Dean on the other side felt a lot less wary once he saw the cheerful honey-glazed eyes of the man in front of him, if the information he had provided through their messages was to be trusted, he was 28 and working at a half owned pastry shop. After an awkward moment of just looking at each other smiling Gabriel motioned himself into action.
-Right so uhm, is that all you brought with you?
He pointed out the puffed up duffle bag on Dean’s shoulder.
-Yeah, well, apart from Baby, you know, my car.
-Oh, there’s a parking space behind the building for our use, remind me to give you the card later.
-You don’t have a car?
-Work’s five blocks away, I’m pretty sure having a car would be an insult to the environment.
Dean chuckled, following him to one of the two tiny bedrooms of the apartment.
-So, here are your quarters young man, might not be the best in town but the view compensates all that.
Gabriel motioned towards the large windows and Dean’s face opened in awe. He had driven most part of the day and arrived late, meaning that the image of the sunset over the city was in front of him in all its magnificence.
His stomach though, was not entirely happy at the moment, Dean got three shades of red with the grumbling of his belly while Gabriel just laughed openly.
-Well, I guess it’s time to make a celebratory meal for your arrival!
-Is that really ok?
-Yep, you’re still helping with the cleaning though.
-Sure man, I can do that.
Dumping his bag at the room, Dean followed Gabriel back to the kitchen. It was obvious this guy Gabriel was an absolute foodie and, loving to cook himself, Dean was quite eager to put his hands on the pasta making machine.
He saw the guy fumbling over the fridge and take out a bunch of ingredients to start cooking. After prepping everything he eyed a bunch of apples in a fruit bowl and proceeded to look for something inside a cupboard.
-You like crumble Dean-o?
-What’s that?
-Well, it’s kind of like the poor distant cousin of pie.
-Dude I love pie.
-Then you’ll probably like the crumble.
After a moment Dean heard Gabriel curse under his breath.
-What is it?
-I’m out of teddy grahams.
-I can go get them, saw the store at the other corner.
-Would you Dean-o?
-Anything for a nice dessert.
For just a second, Gabriel allowed himself to think he would also do anything for Dean’s captivating eyes while looking at him. Damn, these kind of thoughts were probably not good if they were going to share the place as roommates. Still, he did his best to stay focused on doing an amazing meal because the way to a man’s heart was always through the stomach after all.
-Perfect! -he moved towards the entry door and grabbed a set of keys- Here, this is your set, this round one is for the door downstairs, the large one is the security lock but I only use it when I leave the place alone, this squarey one is the doorknob.
-Great, so what kind of flavor do you want them?
-Hmmm I’m not sure, honey’s the best way to go but cinnamon is also great…
-Well, I’ll get there in a moment so be sure to send me a message before I buy whichever I want.
Gabriel had been left at the door a bit startled, Dean might have been calm while introducing himself but he apparently had a snappy side and Gabriel was really digging the idea of pushing some buttons now.
After giving it some thought while cutting the onions he sent a message to Dean.
“Honey”
A ding from his phone while he was peeling the potatoes informed Gabriel that Dean had gotten the message.
Then a second ding came while he poured the potatoes in the boiling water, he had been about to make pasta when Dean arrived but now that the guy was here he had changed his mind into mashed potatoes. Curious, he picked up his phone.
“Yeah wassup?” was the first message.
The second message read “Just realized you were saying the flavor you wanted, not addressing me endearingly”
Gabriel’s stomach tied in a knot of nervousness while his face beamed. Still he wasn’t ready to lose the war. His fingers dashed through the phone’s keyboard.
“I’ll call you Honey when we get endearing enough”
Dean unlocked his phone after paying up the cookies and almost trips when he read Gabriel’s note. It was still too soon to know if Gabriel was just joking or not but he was certain he wouldn’t wait idly to find it out. And if he wasn’t joking then Dean would do everything in his hand to make him say a lot more appreciative words.
You were trying your best. But your best was nothing when you were confronted with the power of an archangel. The mightiest of the archangels. Michael.
At the moment you were helping Rowena search for every tracking and halting spell in all the notes of the bunker, you even decided to find the other Chapterhouses in order to see if they had something else inside. Something that could help you reach Dean. And some spells looked like they could have worked but something jarred it, no doubt that had been Michael. Had it been any other lesser being you were damn sure it would have worked.
Most of the time you were all by yourself these days. You still remembered the words that started your pilgrimage.
-Sam, you go and put a bunch of silver bullets over those werewolves’ hearts and stop worrying about the research for a while. I’ll do it. I’ll call you every night to keep you informed if that helps you distract yourself.
You called every night the first couple of weeks. You didn’t mind calling anymore. You couldn’t stand hearing Sam’s broken voice lose a little bit more hope every time you told him you still had found nothing. These days just a text note would go.
Chapterhouse 7 breached, everything’s in order.
Chapterhouse 7 day 1, nothing new.
Chapterhouse 7 day 2, nothing new.
Chapterhouse 7 day 3, nothing new.
Chapterhouse 7 day 4, nothing new.
Chapterhouse 7 day 5, nothing new.
Chapterhouse 7 day 6, nothing new.
Chapterhouse 7 done. Nothing new.
Found Chapterhouse 3.
Chapterhouse 3 entrance flooded up by the Glen Canyon Dam. Called Rowena. Impossible to breach and open.
Found Chapterhouse 11.
Chapterhouse 11 breached, everything’s in order.
Chapterhouse 11 day 1, nothing new.
Nothing new.
Nothing new.
Nothing new.
You even felt that the words themselves were losing meaning. What is nothing? What is new? Was it pronounced that way?
Those were the times you dropped all the books off the table. Rivers of tears flowing. Flowing for Sam, flowing for Dean, flowing for Cas, flowing for yourself. The phone rang, startling you from your breakdown. You checked out the caller id in fear before you answered the call.
-Any good news Rowena?
-And a very fine day to you too lass.
-Sigh… I’m sorry. I just… I just don’t feel like I care anymore.
Despite all the problems she had caused you in the past, Rowena had slowly become the closest thing to a confident you had these days. Oddly enough, she was a very good listener.
-Aye, that I see. But things will turn out just right. Three hundred years of experience are talking to you right now.
You couldn’t help but chuckle bitterly -I really don’t know how you’ve been able to do it. I am so much older than I can take.
The call had ended after you gave Rowena your current address. She wanted to check something in the scripture database Charlie had left as her legacy that you had copied on your laptop for easy access. Rowena still didn’t like to use computers and she preferred your company to that of the boys.
You went for your cooler to grab a beer and take a break. The table of that Chapterhouse was eerily similar to the one at home. Everything was similar to everything at home. Your mind went back to the last time you had an argument with Dean over a table just like that one.
You slammed your hand over the table.
–Oh don’t you put me on the backburner, Dean Winchester!
Dean stood up exasperated. -And what exactly are you going to do over there!? It’s bad enough that we’d have to watch all of our friends die together, I don’t want to see you go as well!
-And will it even matter if everybody else dies!?
Even Gabriel winced at the high pitch of your retort. You hated to show your weaknesses and Dean had managed to push you the wrong way enough. The room had gone silent, and you had to do your best to keep the tears up to yourself while hanging your head down. Finally you turned your sight back at him.
-I don’t need to argue with you. I’ll go.
You stormed before he could say a thing against it, grabbing a couple of beers on your way through the kitchen as safeguard to help yourself stay inside your bedroom without the need of going out again for at least half a day.
A soft knock came some minutes later. -Go away Bitch!
-Wow, rude much kid?
A slight pang of guilt held your gut, wrong person to lash at. You went for the doorknob and greeted a pair of pale gold eyes. Gabriel had not been too communicative with you ever since he had arrived to the bunker, not that you had had much time to interact with the assumed archangel. Still you were curious as to what the guy wanted with you. You knew from the boys that there was some sort of history between them but they never elaborated on that. You figured it might not have been that good considering Sam always winced when reminded about it and proceeded to bitchface Dean if the older brother tried to insist on telling the story.
He strolled into the room without even asking for permission.
-Couldn’t help but notice you care about the pair of idiots out there a bit too much.
You were startled, was this guy making himself at home, sitting over your bed and having a go at your recently opened beer stash?
-I thought angels were unable to taste food at all.
Gabriel just winked at her. -I’m way above the average angel Pumpkin.
-Even powered down?
-Potato, potato… whatever. You ain’t answering my question.
-I don’t recall you asking one.
He acknowledged you with a pointing finger. -You’re sassy, I like that. Come have a beer with me, my treat.
Such a ridiculous situation would have put Sam or Dean in a snappy mode but you ended up laughing about it. How could you not? It was exactly the same thing you used to do to the guys.
-You’re weird.
-Am I?
-Yeah but it’s alright… I like that.
You went to grab the second beer Gabriel already had opened for you and sat by his side. A quiet silence fell upon the both of you while you emptied your drink.
-They care about you too.
-Sigh, I know… And I get it. I mean, they are the closest thing to a family I got now but that’s exactly why I can’t let them go alone.
-We’ll take care that everything goes well for you kid.
-Thanks Gabriel.
-You can call me Gabe.
-Gabe
The sound of the phone buzzing over the table woke you up. your neck was hurting. Somehow you had snoozed off and the consequences of sleep deprivation were starting to show all over your aching body.
-Yeah?
-I’m outside the Chapterhouse sweetie, be a good girl and open this door for me.
-Coming right up ma’am.
The day passed, Rowena found her translated codes with help of the database and you had found an old archived box filled to the brim with codexes on nephilim. Maybe they would be of interest for Jack, you thought while putting them aside and filling up a note in an old recording binder denoting the time of removal of the box and the Chapterhouse to where it would be moved. Habit that you had taken up after Sam had gotten the librarian in himself out and forced everyone at the bunker to use library cards whenever a book was removed for reading after having lost a particularly important tome that appeared later on in Dean’s bedroom under a scotch glass. The idiot had forgotten he had taken it.
And there was Dean again coming back to your thoughts.
Gabriel had confronted you about it in a small free space of time at the refugee camp. The grey monotone of the land thankfully cut off by the brightness of the stars above. These were the moments where despite having angels by your side you wondered if there really was a Heaven out there.
-Oh there is a Heaven alright.
You turned to look at Gabriel in a start. This wasn’t the first time an angel had given a straight answer for an unasked question. Were your thoughts so open to every feathered ass out there? Gabriel chuckled.
-I’m sorry to break it to you Sugar Plum but you really are an open book when you let your mind drift like that. The more you let yourself be swallowed by everything around you the more your thoughts resound.
Well, that explained a thing or two you thought to yourself.
-So even if I’m not praying…
-We’ll hear you alright.
-Can demons hear me as well?
-Never seen one do that so I don’t think so.
You just nodded and sighed while turning your eyes back to the sky. Gabriel just followed your gaze.
-I know there’s a Heaven alright…
-But?
-I don’t think I’ll ever reach it at all.
You could sense Gabriel turning towards you but you were angled in a way that didn’t allow you to read his expressions. You turned your head towards the ground at your feet and slightly crouched, hiding from the light above you with loose strands of hair over your gaze.
–With all these things that I’ve done… Guess I just hope I’d rather be thrown into The Empty.
-You don’t know what you’re saying.
-Billy said she’d throw Dean there with her own hands. I don’t see why I can’t ask for the same.
Gabriel didn’t say a thing but you could feel him turning his whole body at you, you finally decided to face the archangel.
-Stop thinking like this. You’re gonna bring yourself down.
-I just don’t want to be left alone.
-No. You just don’t want to leave Dean alone.
You blushed and turned away. You were desperate to give a comeback and deny everything but you were too tired for doing anything about it at all. You had been pining over him long enough. That anybody else could see the obvious wouldn’t change the fact that the object of your affection would never see you as anything more than a cute little sister. That battle had been lost long ago.
-It doesn’t matter.
-It matters to me. -You chuckled but had to regain some sobriety when Gabriel knelt in front of you to be at your sitting height and made a move to hold your hand. -Because you are human and beautiful. And yeah, you may have committed terrible mistakes along the way but believe it or not, you are still so very pure. The single fact that you can love someone desperately enough to follow them everywhere just to ensure their safety is proof enough of that.
Everything happened so fast. Maybe it had been the piercing truth within his words, maybe it had been the soft touch between your bodies, maybe it was the way his attention was completely concentrated on you and nothing else than you. But you had felt those walls inside your heart crumble one by one and before you even knew it, your tears had been streaming down while you made a go to hold Gabriel tight and cry your grievance away.
Rowena startled you from your pensive state when she placed a plate of small sandwiches and a cup of tea in front of you.
-Enough research for today, it’s time to let the mind rest.
-Thanks Rowena. -The witch only smiled at you while sitting by your side to enjoy the refreshments.
-Well, have you discovered anything new?
You just gave away a sigh. -Not really, there is only so much documented angel lore, let alone talk about archangel lore. If we at least still had Gabriel by our side…
-…You miss the nifty steamy boy don’t you?
You could catch the undertone of the question Rowena gave you but you just didn’t feel like answering that kind of thing. -Well yeah, it would be such a great help to have him by our side to help us out of this Michael predicament. If we could only bring him back just like Jack brought Castiel ba…
You went silent, slowly dropping your hands over the table. Rowena could have been able to literally see the cogs in your brain work.
-Of course! Rowena I’m such an idiot! Why didn’t I think of this before!?
Rowena just raised an eyebrow with a smirk. She wouldn’t admit it but your pure joy was contagious and she was suddenly happy for the simple fact that you were happy as well. She saw you pick up the phone and send a message to Sam asking if he was available to talk then wait impatiently until your phone rang.
Gabriel understood to a point why hunting was so important to Dean, he loved violence in the most primordial kind of ways. And the healthiest way to be violent without technically committing a crime was killing monsters.
The problem with this was that it also meant that Gabriel always got left on the bench. And right now he was bored to Hell and back.
The guys had left towards an old area of the town where they had followed what apparently was a shapeshifter with a dash of serial killer as an aside.
Castiel had stayed watching out the entrance of an old dingy bar that according to knowledge was frequented by the monster and waiting for their call in case they had more luck.
And meanwhile Gabriel was strolling by a mock of a quarry nearby that someone might have dug ages ago with the intention of finding gold only to be sadly disappointed.
A twig snapping somewhere in the periphery made him turn his head. He could see the monster hidden behind the bushes just as well as if he had stood right in front of him, a normal human being would have never been able to tell at all.
Gabriel thought it was funny that the would be human was trying to predate on him until he remembered that he was concealing his power. It was a habit so ingrained in him after millennia of Trickster pretense that sometimes even Castiel would falter to remember his brother was an archangel considering his normal behaviour.
It would have been easy to smite the vermin right there but Dean would be extremely angry at him if he did. And he wanted Dean to be happy. Not angry.
This was probably the thought that made him take his next decision.
-Hello? -He approached an area around the bush. -Is anyone there? -In a flash, the monster was by his side, hitting him hard in the back. And Gabriel, well, he had to ‘pass out’ from the hit, right?
It was easy and rather fun to let himself be dragged by the monster adding a couple of dozen extra pounds to what would normally be his vessel’s weigh just to see if the monster thought there was something wrong. He didn’t. While apparently unconscious, Gabriel was hooded, bagged, tied up with duct tape and shoved unceremoniously into the back of a truck, the moment they got to their destination he was thrown into the cellar of a house.
He was starting to wonder how long he was supposed to ‘be unconscious’ when a bucket of iced water fell upon him. He reacted immediately.
-Wha…!? Where am I!? What is going on here!?
The view of the front wall that greeted him would have chilled any other persons blood. A set of shelves held the five missing heads. What gave him actual chills was the fact that all of these heads were from males resembling his features in an uncanny way.
The figure that came from his side view held the same face of the head at the topmost right, only around twenty years older.
-Who… Who are you!? Please let me out of here!
The man in front of him just smiled and made a go to a table filled with blades of different forms and shapes.
-I’m sorry, but you won’t come out alive.
The monster was about to touch him in order to take Gabriel’s looks when a soft noise upstairs alerted him of intruders in the house. The boys had arrived.
Gabriel was about to scream for help in the purest form of a scared to hell future murder victim but the monster placed the knife close to his neck.
-If you even dare think of screaming, I’ll make your painful death ten times worse.
Gabriel just nodded in apparent terror while thinking that if he had ever wondered who on Earth actually said such cheesy b-series lines he had an answer now.
He saw the man take the stairs up and the fight began a minute later. A loud crash, probably from a bookcase or shelf destroyed by one of the brother’s bodies sent away in a throw. More furniture crashing, a lamp, a chair maybe. Some more struggle, a gunshot, a groan, a thud and silence.
-Sammy you alright? -came the muffled voice from the ceiling.
-Yeah, you?
-Yeah, let’s get downstairs and see if there’s anyone living.
Sam came down first. And Gabriel would be damned if he hadn’t seen anything funnier in his life. He would have taken a Polaroid of that bitchface if he only hadn’t stayed properly tied up like a good victim.
-Heya Sammich. How’s it going? -His innocent, happy smile could’ve rivaled that of the cutest corgi. If he had had a tail he would’ve definitely had been wagging it like crazy.
Dean slammed the hotel room door open once they arrived back.
-Why are you still so angry at me!? Shouldn’t you be glad that no innocents were in danger?
-We thought there was an innocent person inside! What were you doing there in the first place? Are you out of your mind!?
Dean was screaming at Gabriel’s face now, which made him snap. He grabbed the hunter and pinned him on the wall thirty centimetres over the ground. Eyes flaring white blue just for a second.
-Don’t you dare even think of putting me in my place Dean. You might not like it when you get the backlash.
Before either hunter could say another thing, Gabriel was gone surrounded by the flap of his wings.
-Seriously Dean!? “Wanna come see how good the car feels?”? We’re in the middle of a vampire nest hunt and you’re trying to hook up with the bartender like everything’s done!?
Castiel and Gabriel hastily picked up the cards of their poker game and stepped out of Sam’s bed when they noticed the awful mood the younger Winchester was in.
-And it was totally worth it man, she was a real ginger!
-That’s beyond… urgh! -Sam made an exasperated motion with his arms -You know what? I’m done with your hooking up streak! It’s not just this ginger! Two days ago on Nevada it was the brunette that turned out to be a ghoul, last week there was the blonde one, the week before that the bartender that you ditched me for on the salt and burn and in between all those three, every single time we stopped for fuel or food you had to bat your eyelashes at any girl we passed by! I mean, seriously Dean not even you can get so distracted by women all the friggin’ time!
Dean sat on the edge of the bed after grabbing a beer.
-And would you blame me? All those girls were in desperate need of some love and I was right there, ready to provide. I mean, my heart’s like a condo, if they want in then who am I to deny them passage?
After a few more moments of Sam’s rambling, Gabriel, who had seen the interaction along Castiel with an appraising look approached the hunter and straddled him. Before anyone could say a thing he had surrounded Dean’s shoulders and approached him softly, gently tilting his head enough and softly parting his lips while lowering his gaze towards the hunter in an alluring manner. The moment Dean saw his actions he simply leaned forward and met the archangel in the middle, holding him close with his hand around his waist and indulging in the french kiss the archangel was offering.
Sam, who by that moment thought nothing could actually surprise him anymore was shocked. Not only by the boldness of the archangel, who clearly couldn’t care less about the amount of people in the room but by the way his brother had simply reveled in Gabriel’s touch. Sam approached Castiel who was squinting his eyes in a clear loss for words and grazed his hand to bring his attention. Cas turned to look at Sam. He didn’t need to have been an angel to understand Sam’s face literally asking in panic what the hell was going on. Castiel only moved his head negatively to state not even he had the slightest clue.
After what seemed to have been just some minutes but more than enough time to give Sam nightmares about his brother and the archangel for a lifetime, Gabriel almost unwillingly separated himself from Dean and made to stand up by his side, resting his hand over his shoulder.
-Yup, there’s no doubt about it. He was cursed by that witch you confronted three weeks ago. It wasn’t something serious so I never actually catched it.
He snapped his fingers in front of Dean’s face who suddenly began to act like he was just waking up from an hypnotism session.
-What the hell man?
-Dean? -The hunter turned to look at his little brother- Uh… Are you alright?
-Yeah? Wow, no, wait a second. -He turned upwards to look at Gabriel and looked at him in dread.- Were you just kissing me!?
-Well what can I say Big Boy? You said your heart was like a condo, I say that’s free real estate!
Dean didn’t understand what happened. The second time he kissed Gabriel he had been completely sober and even when he could deceive the rest of the world he couldn’t lie to himself. He had definitely enjoyed it.
He obviously knew how to kiss, but he had never kissed another man. Did the rules remain the same? And how the hell did they know who was supposed to take the lead? Was he overthinking everything right now? Yeah, he definitely was. Stop it Dean, you know you can’t win this one, just try to go along for the ride. According to Cas, it was important for Gabriel to be complete and not miss even a single bit of grace.
The kiss had started soft and hesitant, when their lips touched the first time Dean took a second to regain himself and assess everything, it hadn’t been that bad after all. He separated from Gabriel slightly only to go back for more, just to make sure the archangel was able to get his grace back. He pecked Gabriel like this one more time when the archangel began to open his mouth and Dean instinctively fell through the motions of experience. Before he could even realize what he was doing he tempted the archangel with his tongue to open up for him some more. Gabriel obliged, letting the hunter explore his mouth and play a push and pull game with their tongues, sometimes charging beyond his own boundaries and going into Dean’s mouth himself. His hands slowly reaching up along the hunter’s leg.
This was the only moment his conscience tried to warn him about the fact that he was going to fall headfirst into the rabbit’s hole. Red alert. Warning ahead. Proceed with caution. Gabriel couldn’t help himself and lifted up his hand, finding a sliver of skin between Dean’s jeans and his shirt. He slid his thumbs to touch and follow the hunter’s fine line between his firm belly muscles and the end of his hip bone.
The reaction had been immediate. Dean let out a soft grunt, pushed his body towards Gabriel and roughed up the kiss. Well if that wasn’t a provocation he didn’t know what it could have been, he urgently made way with his hands inside Dean’s shirt to take it off the hunter’s body while feeling how he pressed him down.
Dean’s own internal warnings were also raging inside his head. His logical part didn’t understand why he was into this so much while a more primordial side was telling him to just make the most out of the moment and the situation. Maybe it was the fact that Gabriel had been hornying about Dean for a while now and the grace stuck on him had done a fine number on the hunter after weeks of being by his side.
But none of it mattered right now, all that mattered was the feel of Dean’s tongue being sucked inside Gabriel’s mouth and the soft noises Gabriel did everytime he felt Dean’s body brush his own after they had finally relented sitting for a more comfortable position laying down on the couch, his legs surrounding the hunter and holding him as close as possible.
Each and every time Dean grabbed Gabriel’s lower lip the archangel reacted by lifting up his hips following his motion. Which was driving Dean mad. There was still room for debate in his brain though. The primordial side was fully on board with the idea of nailing down a horny archangel, male or not. Because he also was horny as hell and hey, both were consenting adults in the end. But the logical side had more cards to place over the table. First and foremost, he was not going to be horny all the time. There was a high probability that he might regret his actions later. And he was going to have to interact with the archangel later on. This was not a sideroad fling.
It was probably a good thing that their respective trains of thought got rudely pulled back to reality when they heard Castiel’s voice in the hall nearby.
-Sam?
-Yeah?
The first thought through Dean’s mind was ‘Shit’. His brother’s voice could be heard right on the other side of the door.
-Can you help me with the Netflix? The tv got an update and now it’s asking me for the email and password again.
-Oh, sure. Do you have a piece of paper? -They heard him move away from the door. Dean immediately backed away from the archangel who also made his way back into a sitting position, fixing their hair and clothes with a quick snap. -Here, this is the mail and the password. You shouldn’t have a problem with that.
-Thanks.
A moment later Sam entered the room and eyed the tv. -Seriously Dean? We just came back and you’re already watching cartoons?
-Hey, don’t look at me. He’s the one with the power right now.
Gabriel motioned his hand towards Sam with a smirk, the remote tightly gripped on it.
Two Days Into June 