Gabriel liked to watch Sam while he slept—not in a creepy Edward Cullen way. In a... In a way where he got bored with the television, and had no one to talk to, so his eyes inevitably drifted to the way Sam's chest barely lifted while he breathed, and to the soft brush of his eyelashes against his cheeks, and the slight part of his mouth. The way his entire body went slack and relaxed and limp. He never held himself like that while he was awake. Spent every second of the day tense, waiting.
It came as no surprise, really, that Sam spent his life so wound up.
But Gabriel loved the way he melted with sleep. The way every wrinkle on his face smoothed until he looked almost like a different person. At peace. Gabriel liked how sometimes Sam made tiny sounds in the back of his throat as he shifted to lay on his side, or how he would snuffle suddenly—as if about to wake up—and would then loosen back up.
His limbs sprawled over the mattress, sometimes under the sheets and sometimes atop them. Long and lithe and tanned and spotted with moles in a haphazard, delicate fashion. Possessive of a certain grace, in their muscles and veins and curves of bone within.
Gabriel found Sam very beautiful.
The taper of his waist, from his broad shoulders. His long legs and his smooth throat and his delicate face. His pointy, cute nose. The tilt of his closed eyes and the slope of his brows—Gabriel had made fun of Sam's big forehead more than once, but the truth was he liked all of his face. The way his hair swept away from scalp and fell across the pillow.
All of it was gorgeous.
Slender fingers and pink mouth and that mole on the left side of his nose.
His favorite thing, of course, only showed when Sam was awake or dreaming very sweetly.
His dimples.
And Gabriel figured, "You know, I ought to be indifferent to dimples." Because he had them himself. But Sam wore his so well, and gave off such an aura of sunshine and happiness when those two little spots by his mouth sank in. It was different. Gabriel loved it and he wanted to see toothy, dimpled smiles as often as he could.
But for that moment...
He just watched him sleep.
And he smiled to himself, and whispered to himself,
"Lovely."