Title: Spineless
Author: OpheliacAngel
Pairing: Gabriel/Dean
Genres: Romance/Angst
Rating: Teen
Summary: Gabriel tends to be pretty shy about his wings.
A/N: Written for Fandom Stocking for Thundernari's Stocking. Always happy to come across a Debriel shipper. And you have so many awesome prompts!
Gabriel's making strange noises when Dean enters their hotel suite.
Dean quickly checks the adjacent rooms to make sure Sam isn't around, even though there's no reason for him to be, and then proceeds to walk as quietly into the bedroom as he possibly can. Gabriel's sitting up in the bed, shirtless and back turned towards the door, translucent limbs attached to his back moving ever so slightly. Dean has a feeling this is something that he should not be seeing, but color him curious. This is something he couldn't ignore or turn away from even if he tried.
Unfortunately, Gabriel isn't alone. Castiel stands at his back and he looks odd with his hands on Gabriel's bare skin and his torso stripped of its trench coat, which lies untouched on the bed. If Dean wasn't one-hundred percent sure that nothing is going on between Cas and Gabe, he would be seriously worried at this point.
It's not that he doesn't trust Gabriel. It's just that no amount of trust could hold the jealousy Dean feels as he watches Cas with his hands all over Gabriel at bay. No amount of trust could make the red that has completely taken over Dean's vision dissipate as he watches Castiel smooth out things attached to Gabriel's limbs that Dean will not call wings just yet that look mysteriously like feathers.
Dean does a double take as he realizes that's what they are. Wings. Feathers. The fact that Dean's human and he's not supposed to be seeing this, he shouldn't physically be able to see this. He blinks a few times but the wings don't fade and neither does Cas. Gabriel's wings - if that's what the hell they are - are stretched so wide as to touch the walls at either end of the bedroom. Even Dean can tell by the way Gabriel is holding himself and the way the wings are bunched up slightly in the middle of his back that they're not even stretched to their full length. The enormity of it has Dean staggering a bit until he gets his balance back.
Gabriel doesn't even turn around to look at Dean even though Dean knows that Gabriel knows he's there. The archangel flexes his wings as if trying to loosen coiled muscles, and Dean stares in amazement at how the sun peeking in through the blinds makes the color of his wings shimmer and look like amber.
Gabriel sighs after a bit, but it isn't Dean's fault that he's become speechless. "You gonna stand there gawking all day, Dean-o?"
"Are they…?" Dean swallows, glancing up at Gabriel when he turns his head and looks up at him. He's finally noticed that there are a few feathers bent awkwardly and he wonders if they hurt, like if he were to sprain his ankle or even break a bone. "Are they supposed to look like that?" He gestures toward them but doesn't dare touch them yet. Gabriel looks bored and irritated and Dean's surprised he hasn't been sent away yet. What's worse than being thrown out of the room is Gabriel turning his head away to stare at the wall again, shutting Dean out. It feels like a vice around Dean's heart, squeezing all the air out of his lungs.
Cas has turned toward him now, watching Dean as if he's about to do something reckless. Dean wants to tell him to get the hell out because Castiel shouldn't come before him in this, in anything related to Gabriel. Not even if they're angels, not even if they go further back than Dean can even imagine. Dean doesn't get to be in the background for this, he deserves to know about this.
Hell, he and Gabriel have been going sorta steady for a few months now, and if Gabriel can't trust him with this then they're even further back then Dean's realized.
Either Gabriel breaches the wall in Dean's head and reads his thoughts, which pisses Dean off because Gabriel can block him all he wants but Gabriel's too powerful and stubbornly determined for Dean to do the same, or Gabriel just takes a good look at Dean's face and sees the hurt and jealousy and betrayal there. He shouldn't even have to look at Dean to see it because Dean's trying his damnedest to make it all leek from every pore, until he's covered in it and reeks of it and Gabriel can't escape it. He's pissed at Cas for standing at Gabriel's back instead of him, he's pissed at Gabriel for not letting him help. Stupid, stubborn Gabriel.
He knows better than to take his rage out on Gabriel though. "You know what? I'm gonna just… wait out here 'till you're done."
"Dean, wait!" Gabriel snaps his fingers and suddenly there's a shirt on him again. Gabriel doesn't try to hide the wince at the sudden movement, a flicker of pain across his face that quenches the anger in Dean. Nothing moves underneath the material, which means he must have retracted his wings, faulty feathers and all.
This isn't new, Dean can't help but think. When Dean makes a move to leave, Gabriel always puts up a fight. While Dean's holed up in a corner trying to talk about these feelings he's suddenly having, out of freaking nowhere, Gabriel's always the one to initiate intimacy but he's never the one to see it through. He hides himself away from Dean as if there's this huge chunk of him that he has to be ashamed of, that he somehow knows Dean will reject or be repulsed by. It's ridiculous and it hasn't exactly been helping their steady thing any.
Dean can't stand walking away so he doesn't. He wants to but if Gabriel's gotten over himself enough to actually ask Dean not to leave, then he can afford to wait a minute or two. He waits for Gabriel to glare Cas out of the room because Dean can't say anything or even look at Gabriel with Cas still there, and then when there's no trace of the angel or the trench coat he lets Gabriel have it.
"I am sick to death of this bullshit, Gabe. If you wanna hide things from me fine, but then we can't call this whatever we've been calling it. I don't just want a part of you, alright? I want all of you. That's what I signed up for." Because he did sign up to be a part of this, to be a part of Gabriel's life. Gabriel signed up too, for loyalty and commitment and trust.
Gabriel sits back on the bed and adjusts his long-sleeved shirt. It look two sizes too small for him, but Gabriel's even more stubborn than Dean is. "You're making a bigger deal out of this than it needs to be, kiddo. Really. It's just angel stuff." Yeah, Dean thinks. Angel grooming stuff. And he cannot believe he just used the word grooming in a sentence. When it came to Gabriel.
"And you didn't think you could ask me?"
Gabriel shrugs and continues to fidget, pulling and pinching at his sleeves. Dean rolls his eyes and has half a mind to make him sit still and fix the problem. He's gotta pretty damn good at fixing problems lately, especially Gabriel's. "Cassie has more experience is all. Just chill, okay? You're making me tense."
Dean caves and climbs onto the bed next to him, taking note of how Gabriel tenses as he comes near and paying it no further mind than that. "Let me," he whispers in the crook of Gabriel's neck, and Gabriel does. Dean maneuvers the archangel so he can remove his shirt and as soon as he does, Gabriel's wings release from his back and fan out, stirring the air around Dean, feathers tickling Dean's ear. He smirks as Gabriel's cheeks and upper back redden slightly, but he positions himself carefully at Gabriel's back. Dean's hands settle on the worst of the feathers and he gingerly smooths them out, working out the kinks and creases slow and methodically, so Gabriel has a clear picture of what he's doing. Gabriel moans obscenely as he finishes with the first feather and pushes it back into place, smoothing it out with his index finger and middle finger. If anyone questions how much time he's taking, he'll say he's just making sure the feathers look good as new again, but really he can't get enough of the way the feathers feel, downy soft and shifting under his fingers ever so slightly.
The weight of it all crashes down on him after he's making his way steadily through the first wing. Gabriel trusts him enough to do this. He is finally opening up a part of himself that Dean has never seen before.
Dean stops for a second and Gabriel makes to pull away, no doubt thinking that Dean's finished, but Dean doesn't want this to end just yet and chooses a feather that looks normal. He smooths his finger across the expanse of it. Gabriel doesn't have to know just yet. "Don't know why you're making such a big deal out of this."
Gabriel's eyes flash in anger. "Showing my wings to you isn't a light thing, Dean."
"Don't you think I know that? But I thought…," Dean cuts himself off. As if this wasn't all intimate enough, it's about to get a whole heck of a lot worse. Gabriel jerks his wing away but Dean moves to the other one, taking hold of a feather and pushing it back into place a bit more forcefully this time. Talking isn't his area of expertise, not by a long shot and definitely not about relationship stuff, and Gabriel isn't making any of this easier. The last thing they need right now is a communication breakdown, after all the work they've both put in these past few months. It's just like Gabriel to stick his head up his ass when he doesn't get his way. "I thought we had something?"
Gabriel was quiet before then, like he knew Dean was eventually going to say it. Regardless, Gabriel honest to god blanches, which is something new because Dean didn't think angels could go obscenely pale over anything, even if by inhabiting humans they're fully capable of it. "We do have something," Gabriel pouts, clawed hand gripping Dean's leg as if he's about to take off now.
"Look, I'm not one to preach about fairness, but you know pretty much everything there is to know about me. You've seen inside my soul, Gabriel. And as pretty and bright as you think it is down there, you don't think I can feel the same way about you? You know that I can't, beyond a doubt, right? Cause that's what I'm getting here."
Gabriel's shoulders slump and he curls in on himself and he looks so small. He is shorter and smaller than Dean, but right now, hunched in on himself, he looks nothing like the almighty archangel he actually is. And Dean forgets that sometimes, forgets that he can snap his fingers if Dean has a headache and it goes away, or that he can stop Dean's heartbeat with a blink of his eye, crush Dean like stomping on a tuna can with a flick of his wrist. He never would, yet there's all that power thrumming in there, vibrating underneath the surface, ready to pounce. The very thought, let alone the sheer magnitude of it, makes Dean shiver from head to toe.
The archangel's head snaps up then, eyes softening. "I'm an idiot."
"Yeah," Dean admits. "But you're my idiot."
Gabriel's face is still white and his feathers are shifting, which Dean takes to be a sign that Gabriel's still uncomfortable, but Dean can't fault him for that. He especially can't fault Gabriel's hands coming up slowly to cup Dean's face and shower him with light kisses on his lips and nose and cheeks. Dean relaxes and melts at the feather-light touches and kisses, letting Gabriel maneuver him until he's laying flat on his back and Gabriel is above him and spreading his wings out wider. Dean can feel that grace that was once coiled up so tightly inside the archangel release and envelope him until he's cocooned in it. Until Dean can feel all of Gabriel's power and will wrapped up inside his love for Dean.
"How'd I do on the grooming, by the way? You still in pain?"
Gabriel shakes his head, dips his body lower so that his stomach brushes against Dean's. His wings flex as they pull down, brushing against Dean's arm. They're not twitching anymore, betraying the thunderous beat of Dean's heart as Gabriel grins confidently down at him. "Hope you're up for your new job, kiddo."
Oddly enough, Dean is.
FIN