In the autumn night, when there's no wind blowing,
I could hear the stars falling in the dark.
When you find out what's worth keeping,
With a breath of kindness, blow the rest away.

***

Okay, maybe you couldn't get Sam Winchester to admit in so many words that he was now the private and personal possession of a certain supremely awesome archangel, but that didn't change the fact that it was true. Gabriel gazed affectionately at the sleeping Sasquatch – yes, he liked to watch him sleep, and no, that didn't make him a creeper! – and thought, Mine. All mine. So what if he was a little overly possessive? He'd been trying to win this stupid human's heart for ages, and now that it finally seemed to have worked, he could be excused for preening about it.

Speaking of preening, Gabriel manifested his wings – so nice to give 'em a good stretch from time to time, he got tired of constantly keeping them hidden – and gave a single silent but powerful flap, disappearing from his spot at the foot of the bed and reappearing next to the nightstand. With a self-satisfied smirk, he laid down a glittering object and adjusted its positioning so Sam would see it first thing when he woke up. Task accomplished, Gabriel gently brushed Sam's hair off his forehead with the tip of one dark gold wing, then flew away.

In the morning, Sam awoke to feel something tickling his nose. Annoyed, he huffed out a breath, and whatever it was vanished. He cracked an eye open and started to yawn, but stopped right in the middle of the yawn and sat up. On the nightstand by his bed was a wristwatch that didn't belong to him or his brother. Dean would never wear something like that. Sam might, but he could tell on first glance that he certainly wouldn't be able to afford a specimen such as this. It had a casing that appeared to be made of platinum and was inset with tiny emeralds, and the face of the watch included four smaller faces. Besides the main face that told the time – Sam peered closer – the smaller faces were a calendar, a chronograph, a compass, and something that he couldn't figure out.

Confused, he carefully put the watch back down and swung his legs out of bed. His gaze fell on the floor and he saw a single golden feather lying next to his bed. A smile spread across his face as he picked it up. "That would explain it," he said to himself. His voice was quiet, but it still triggered a mumble and a groan from Dean. Sam got out of bed and stretched his arms over his head – they bumped the ceiling, as always – while his brother blinked himself awake.

"Hey. Mmmt time's 't?"

Luckily, Sam was adept at interpreting Dean-in-the-morning language, and he reached out and picked up the watch. He had been so busy examining it that he hadn't even noticed the time. "Uh..." The multiple dials were a bit distracting. "It's almost eight."

Dean rubbed his eyes and squinted at Sam's hand. "What's that?"

"A watch."

"Yeah, I can see that." Dean sat up. "Where'd you get it?"

Sam shrugged. "It was just sitting on the nightstand when I woke up. I found this, though–" he twirled the feather in his fingers– "so I'm guessing it's Gabriel."

"Huh." Dean started dragging himself out of bed. "So your boyfriend buys you fancy watches. Nice." Sam glared after his brother as Dean trudged into the bathroom, but then returned his attention to the watch. The more he looked at it, the more he was convinced that this was a really expensive piece.

After breakfast – he'd learned the hard way not to bother the Winchesters pre-coffee – Gabriel popped in. If Sam had had any remaining doubts about the provenance of the unexpected gift, they evaporated when he noticed that Gabriel glanced at his wrist right away, looking quite pleased when he confirmed that Sam was wearing the watch. "Hey, boys. Nice timepiece, Sam."

"Yeah, very nice," Sam replied, giving the angel a meaningful look. "Where'd you get it?"

"Ah, you found me out." Gabriel shrugged, grinning broadly. "Too bad. It's a Patek Philippe. I had it made for you specially. Like it?"

"Sure, I mean... it's kind of intimidating," Sam said truthfully. All the extra dials and inlaid stones made it a bit heavy on his wrist, but it was undeniably a very cool watch. "What is this one for?" He indicated the fourth dial, the one he hadn't been able to figure out.

Gabriel peered at it. "Oh, that shows you the phases of the moon. See? Waxing gibbous. Thought it might be handy to have that information for some of your jobs."

"Ah, okay. Thanks, Gabriel. It's really neat." Sam smiled at the archangel, who looked like he was about to burst with self-satisfaction.

Dean put up with the moment for about two seconds and then cleared his throat loudly, earning him a genuine bitchface from Sam and quite a good imitation of one from Gabriel.

***

About a week later, the brothers had completed a rather strenuous several-day job that had culminated in a mild concussion for Sam, and Dean had decided that they would lay low at Bobby's for a while, seeing as they were in the area, and give Sam time to recover. Sam thought of pointing out that Dean never wanted to take a break when he himself was hurt, but changed his mind and decided not to mention it. It would be nice to take a few days off.

The morning after they'd settled into the guest room Bobby always kept available for them, Gabriel came to visit Sam. He tsk-tsked over Sam's injury – an impressive bruise was blossoming on his right temple – and fluttered around being generally annoying in the way Sam knew meant he was showing his affection.

"Why do you always come hole up here?" Gabriel demanded, while Sam was staring into the refrigerator, wondering if anything edible could be concocted out of beer, frozen peas, and mustard. "Don't you get sick of it? Singer Auto isn't exactly a five-star hotel."

"Go to hell," grumped Bobby from his desk in the next room.

"Good idea, at least they've got an active nightlife," Gabriel shot back. "There is absolutely nothing to do around here!"

"I'd be satisfied with something to eat," Sam mumbled.

"You ought to try the Mediterranean diet," Gabriel suggested. "There's nothing like olives and feta accompanied by a good red wine while you're gazing out over the blue Aegean Sea."

Sam raised an eyebrow. "Sounds great." Giving up on the idea of food, he pulled a beer out of the fridge.

"How about it, though, seriously?" Gabriel was suddenly right in front of him, blocking his way, with that spark of mischief in his eyes. "Two weeks on the idyllic island of Santorini. Now that's what I call a rest cure. I could zap us there right now. Just take a load off, really relax for a while. The monsters can wait, I promise. And they certainly won't chase you all the way to Greece."

"Gabriel, no!" Sam laughed and nimbly stepped around him, ducking into the den. "We've got work to do here. I'm sure the Greek islands are beautiful and all, but honestly, this place is just fine for me."

Bobby grunted approvingly and raised his own beer to clink with Sam's as he headed for the stairs, leaving an annoyed archangel alone in the kitchen.

***

That night, Sam was in bed, reading about different types of wraiths on his e-reader. A friend of Bobby's had been selling it used for cheap, so he'd got it for Sam, and Sam had to admit it had its uses. When he was officially done researching for the day but wasn't able to fall asleep yet, he could make use of the extra time by going through some virtual texts he'd found online.

When Gabriel materialized and plopped down a little more dramatically than was necessary on the edge of the bed, Sam barely glanced up, greeting him with a smile. "Hey."

"Hi. What are you looking at? What could possibly be more interesting than me?"

"I'm checking up on some lore, on this... um... Kindle."

"This what?" Gabriel plucked it out of his hands and settled himself next to Sam on the bedspread. "Oh, it's one of those weird electronic book things. Whatever."

"It's really useful," Sam protested. "There are a bunch of out-of-print mythology textbooks that you can download for free. Some of them have pretty good information."

"Hmph. Well, as long as there's a chance you'll finally be able to learn something new in bed, I guess I'm not complaining."

Sam let out a laugh and hit the angel. "Shut up!"

"I'm coming in!" announced Dean loudly from outside the bedroom door. Both Sam and Gabriel glanced up innocently as he entered. Dean let out a sigh of relief. "Thank God, I thought I was gonna need some brain bleach. Who knows what you two get up to when I'm not around?"

"Shut up," Sam repeated, blushing and grabbing his Kindle back. "I was just reading until Gabriel appeared and started bothering me."

"Yeah, sure," Dean snorted. "I totally believe that. Hence all the school-girl giggling." Sam tried giving him a death glare, but Dean ignored it, crossing to his own bed and rummaging through his duffel bag.

"This guy's a jerk," Gabriel commented, while Dean pretended not to hear him. "How can you stand being in the car with him all the time?"

Sam sighed, and mumbled "I don't know," missing the peace and quiet he'd been enjoying until a few minutes ago.

"Hey, here's an idea!" Gabriel brightened up and pointed a finger at Sam. "How'd you like your own car?"

"My own – come on, Gabriel," Sam groaned.

"No, seriously though! Why not? Anything you want. How about a solid gold Bentley?"

"What?" Sam blurted, and even Dean let out a laugh hastily disguised as a cough.

"Maybe a Bentley Azure," Gabriel continued, musingly. "Nice car. Big enough for even a giant like you. Think of it, pure freedom. You'd get to play your own awful music all the time!"

Sam spluttered indignantly, and Dean was openly cracking up now. "A Bentley?" he gasped through his laughter. "Seriously? Only douches drive those things! You have got to be kidding me."

Finally Sam regained his ability to speak. "Gabriel, stop," he pleaded. "Just stop. All of this."

"All of what?" The archangel looked genuinely confused.

"I don't need any of this," Sam explained. "All this... stuff. I don't need gifts and glamour and luxury items. Honestly, my life is pretty good the way it is right now."

Gabriel's eyebrows drew together in a mixture of irritation and bewilderment, and for a moment he didn't say anything. Then he forced a shrug and said in a too-casual voice "Okay, fine. Good night, then." Before Sam could answer, he had vanished.

***

It was the final day at Bobby's. Next morning they were planning to head west – they'd got wind of a possible job in Wyoming. Sam hadn't seen Gabriel in two days, and he was starting to worry that he might have offended him somehow.

The last rays of the late afternoon sun were reflecting off the windows of all the broken-down cars, and Sam was sitting alone on the porch with a beer in his hand, enjoying the temporary need to do nothing. Bobby had gone into town to get supplies and Dean was giving the Impala a brief tune-up before they hit the road again. From the garage, Sam could hear the sounds of him working.

The bench swing shifted unexpectedly, and Gabriel was sitting next to Sam, squinting into the sun. Neither of them said anything for a moment, then Gabriel swiped Sam's beer, took a swig, and handed it back. Sam let out a soft breath of relief.

"So," said the archangel with no preamble, still staring off across the sea of car roofs, "If you don't like presents, what do you like?"

Sam thought for a minute. "I like, uh, hanging out. You know, just..." He shrugged. "Spending time together."

Gabriel finally turned to look at him, and the anxiousness in the angel's face caught Sam off-guard. "Is that... are you sure that's enough?"

"Yes, I'm sure." Sam met his gaze, trying to communicate his honesty through his eyes.

There was a pause, and then Gabriel let out a short sigh of frustration. "Well, what do we talk about, then?"

Sam bit his lip to keep from laughing. "Whatever we want. You should tell me about some of the stuff you've done. You were hiding on Earth for a couple of thousand years, right? You must have had tons of adventures."

Gabriel considered this for a moment. "Yes. I did."

A thought struck Sam, related to the Bible lore he'd been skimming through on his e-reader the previous night. "Here's something I've been wondering about. Did you take a vessel in order to appear to Mary?"

"Who, your mom?"

"No." Sam smiled. "The Virgin Mary. I read that you were the one who told her she was going to have Jesus, right?"

"Oh, her. Yeah." Gabriel pushed off with his feet, sending the porch swing swaying gently back and forth. "Her name was actually Miriam. And no, I didn't have to. She was achrantos, so she could see my true form."

"She was what?"

"It means she was free of sin. Immaculate conception and all that. Her parents were nice people – Joachim and Anne – but they had no idea what they were getting themselves into. Hoo boy. When you've got a daughter like that, you just hold on tight and go along for the ride. She was a fireball."

Sam shook his head in astonishment. "Wow. For some reason I never imagined her like that."

Gabriel stole another sip of Sam's beer. "Oh yeah. She was something else. 'Strong-willed' would be an understatement. Sweet and kind and all that, sure, but she sensed she was meant for something big right from the beginning, and she didn't let anything get in her way."

Sam finished his beer, pondering this new information. He set down his empty bottle, pulled the golden feather out of his pocket where he'd been keeping it, and turned it absent-mindedly between his fingers. Gabriel looked at it for a long moment but didn't say anything.

After a minute, Sam said "I wish I could see your true form."

The archangel grinned. "I wish you could too. I'm pretty fantastic."

Sam's laugh echoed across the junkyard, and the two of them sank into a companionable silence again, watching evening's shadows slowly collect around the tires of the cars and the corners of the garage. The sky was still a pale lavender-blue, the sun having only just slipped below the horizon.

"See?" Sam prompted quietly after a while. "Hanging out is fun. We don't need anything else. Just talking is nice." After a moment he added "Not talking can be nice too."

This time, when Gabriel turned his eyes on Sam, they were shining as if they'd caught the entire sunset inside them. "Yeah. Yeah, it's nice."

~ fin ~