"Hey, kiddo, you with me?"
There was a sharp pain as his head snapped to the side, and rolled downwards. All his muscles throbbed, and his lips parted, a moan falling out. The voice sounded vaguely familiar, but all the words slurred into an ineligible tangle. Heck, his head hurt just processing the fact that there was a voice.
"You know, you've just got a death-wish. You're a pain in the arse, you are."
He felt a slight pressure against his forehead, and his vision, what little of it he had, was flooded with a white light. It drained him, pushing him back under the black he was trying to escape, and his body fell limp.
The first thing Sam noticed was the dull ache in his muscles, gone. All the cuts and bruises, gone. The rope burns on his wrists, gone. His eyelids opened slightly, wincing as colors hit him. Not browns and blacks. Actual colors, blues and greens and reds. His hands stretched out behind him, sliding over the sheets, pushing himself up, and for the first time in a long time, he felt safe. He dared to open his eyes fully, and looked around in awe, the extravagance of the room something he hadn't seen in a long time. And then he realized he wasn't alone.
Sat in front of the bed, with his head cocked to the side, a smirk playing on his lips and a lollipop stick protruding from his mouth was someone Sam hadn't seen in a long time. Someone he thought he'd never see again, and someone he'd lost many a sleepless night over. The hunter drew in a quick breath, pursing his lips, his eyes widening ever so slightly.
"How you feeling then, kiddo?" Sam started shaking his head. It wasn't possible. No. It just wasn't possible for him, him of all people, to be sat in front of him, now twiddling the aforementioned lollipop stick between his fingers, quirking his eyebrows suggestively. It was probably just a dream. Had to be. It was the only logical explanation.
"Your tongue wasn't cut out, honest. Chocolate?" Nope. Just another way his mind was going to torture him, make him dream of everyone he ever cared about. Because they all died in the end. Everyone. He ignored the outstretched arm, his eyes fixated on the other man. The one who infected his dreams with a sickly sweet touch. Just another of those taken from him, but he deserved it. Sam didn't deserve anyone, he'd just hurt them.
"Pleeaaaseee," he rolled his eyes, "I'm real, Sammy boy. Not an illusion, or a dream, or a hallucination. It's me, the sexy-ass Archangel, in the flesh. I'm pretty sure you remember me, I'm not exactly easy to forget." Sam blinked a few times, never moving his gaze from the man he'd mourned.
"You died. Gabriel, you died, you can't be here. I just… How?" Gabriel grinned slightly, but it wasn't his usual cocky, mischievous grin. It was a false grin, the grin of a man who'd grinned too many times, laughed for too long, and it just wasn't appealing anymore. It reminded Sam that the archangel who liked to play innocent and youthful was older than he could even comprehend. He'd been hurt more, he'd seen more, he'd felt more. He wasn't the overgrown child he liked to make himself out to be, but a war veteran who'd fought too many times for something he wasn't even sure believed in.
Gabriel shrugged. "Heck if I know. Maybe Daddy-o decided I get another shot at life. Or maybe archangels really can't die… I couldn't really careless. Life is for living, not figuring out how I'm still living." The grin had dropped slightly as Gabriel stopped trying to maintain the carefree facade he'd mastered over the years, a mask crafted for only his face being removed.
"How long?" What Sam meant was "Just how long have you been alive whilst I've been mourning you, pining after you? How long have you hidden away in the shadows?" but he knew had he attempted such an utterance, his voice would've cracked.
"Long enough to know you've developed a death wish."
"It's kind of a part of the job, if you didn't notice, Gabe. Not exactly the safest occupation in the world." Sam snapped, and he felt the beginnings of what was known as a bitchface tugging at his lips.
"No Sam, dangerous is what your job is. A death wish is just giving up hope on living, and what I don't get is why! Just because your brother isn't here to rein in the angst train, doesn't mean you get to throw yourself at jobs in the hope you'll be killed!
"You're worth a hell of a lot more than most people on this planet, kiddo, otherwise I wouldn't be tailing you just to keep you alive! Do you know how many times you've nearly died in the last few months, Sam? Do you know how many times I've had to step in to save your ass?" Gabriel pursed his lips, the lollipop stick in his hand snapped in half.
"Do you, Samuel Winchester, know how scared I was when you went off the radar last week? An archangel, scared, that's what you do to me. But that, that terrified me, because I couldn't just 'find' you, damn sigils, so I had to do it the long way, looking for you, and honest to God, they were the worst days of my existence. Demons, Sam, of all things, you had to get kidnapped by demons, who really didn't like you. I mean really, they had nasty plans."
"Why were you scared, for me of all people. I'm an abomination, Gabriel, I'm not anything important. I mean, surely it'd make more sense for you to despise me." The archangel cocked his head to the side, shoving a new lollipop into his mouth.
"Again with the self-hatred. Stop making yourself into something you're not: a monster. You're not an abomination, Sam. If I say so myself, you ain't far from perfect." The hunter frowned in confusion, and Gabriel simply sighed. "A compliment, kiddo. I was declaring my undying love in hopes it was requited." Gabriel threw his arms about, making himself as dramatic as possible in mockery.
"Why didn't you tell me you were alive, at least. Do you know how many nights I lost sleep over you, how long I mourned you, how many dreams you stole off me? It fucking hurt, Gabriel, believing you were actually, permanently gone." Sam had pushed himself off the bed, and stood above the archangel, glaring down at him. "So yeah, make jokes about love as much as you want, it's fucking real for me, and I thought you were just another in the long chain of those I cared for to die."
"I did die, Sam."
"Shut the hell up." Sam pulled Gabriel up, and slammed their lips together, pushing against the archangel with his hips. Gabriel wrapped an arm round his neck, tugging back on his hair as the hunter pushed him back into a wall, towering over him. Gabriel pushed his tongue against Sam's lips, a far more addictive taste than the sugar he constantly craved, bitter and sweet mixed together. It was euphoria, and he wanted more. His other hand pushed up under Sam's shirt, feeling every muscle tensing at his touch, and oh God did it feel wonderful. His hand came to rest over Sam's heart, and he pressed, desperate to feel the pulsating thrum against his palm. The hunter hissed as his chest began to burn, pulling away with wide eyes and gritted teeth.
"What the hell did you do?!" he growled through clenched teeth, and once more, Gabriel bore his trademark smile. Sam pulled up his top, wincing at the red blotch on the left. He looked back up at Gabriel, and raised an eyebrow. Gabriel's smirk simply grew.
"I might have marked as the mate of an archangel, kiddo. You're mine, now." And surely enough, as the red began to fade away, in tiny writing, read 'Property of Archangel Gabriel. Touch and be smited.'