Gabriel was… hard to impress, to say the least. He was an archangel. Sam knew that Gabriel had seen it all. He'd created the platypus, watched as The Lightbringer ignited stars across the sky, and breathed in as his wings touched down on soft soil for the first time. Long story short, Gabriel was very hard to impress.
He would never admit it of course. Whenever Sam took him out, or bought him flowers, Gabriel was always happy and chatty and thanking Sam, kissing his cheeks and crinkling warm brown eyes. Gabriel didn't mind. He understood that there just wasn't much he didn't already know. The knowledge of an archangel was very vast. So vast, in fact, that Gabriel was sure that he could still remember the scientific title of each animal across the world. Sam didn't really believe that one.
At first, it didn't really matter to Sam. He was trying and that was what made it ok. But then, Gabriel surprised Sam with things he never thought possible. Hiking mountains in Thailand, eating the best cuisine in Paris, and once Gabriel even flew Sam up into the sky, the entire town spread out below them. After that, Sam tried harder. But there wasn't a thing that Gabriel hadn't seen already. He'd seen the early sunsets beside the pyramids of Giza and the twinkling stars and solitary planets that linger in the sky til dawn.
But Sam was resilient. Even though Gabriel was adamant that Sam would never be able to surprise him and that that was ok, Sam still wouldn't stop. Every angel that had ever met a Winchester came away changed and Sam was determined to make this instance no different. He went everywhere, scouring books full of archangelic lore and once the books didn't pan out, Sam went to the angel Castiel. The train of thought was that maybe one angel would be able to surprise another. Alas, Castiel was several millennia younger than Gabriel and could give no solid advice.
Sam was losing hope. What would surprise an archangel? And how could Sam, a lowly human, ever hope to find it? After days of deep thoughts and hopeless i deas, Sam finally thought of something. It wasn't necessarily… good. It was an idea. But there was no telling whether Gabriel would appreciate it or mindlessly hate it. However, it was the best idea Sam had come up with, so he rolled with it.
The idea took a long time. A very long time. Weeks actually. Everything had to be perfect. It was hours of tedious, easily ruined work. One wrong move and everything would be scattered across the room, both literally and figuratively. Sam couldn't make any mistakes because Gabriel knows everything and he would notice and Sam just wanted this to be the best present ever. Hopefully, even if Gabriel didn't like it, he'd at least appreciate the backbreaking work that Sam had put into it. It's just, Sam Winchester wasn't an artist. Sam Winchester was supposed to be a lawyer. But this had to be perfect because Gabriel was perfect and he deserved so much more that Sam couldn't give him and it just wasn't right and there shouldn't be a thing out of place because this had to be perfect.
Finally, weeks later, it was finished. It was done and there was no going back now. So Sam waited for the perfect moment. The time came once the wind wasn't blowing and a thick grey cloud cover shielded the velvety sky. It may not seem romantic, but it was all part of Sam's plan. It was normal at first, as if Sam was trying to throw Gabriel off the scent of what he'd been working on for the past few weeks. A delicious dinner at a nice Olive Garden. Then after Gabriel flew them back to the bunker, Sam demanded that the archangel close his eyes. Chuckling, Gabriel obeyed and stumbled after Sam as the taller man led him somewhere unknown. Of course, if he had wanted to, Gabriel could've turned on angel radar and pinpointed where he was immediately, but it was more fun not knowing.
Once Sam let go, the archangel opened his eyes and scanned his surroundings. They were in a dilapidated warehouse above the bunker. A copse of trees around the metallic structure shielded all wind and rain and if you looked up, you could see pieces of the cloud covered sky through the patchy roof. Looking down, Gabriel could see small bits of black powder scattered on the floor. All over the floor actually. Gunpowder. He turned to the side. "Sammy, what-". The shorter man was cut off by a finger over his lips. Sam looked down at the ground, scuffing his shoe. Looking back up, he started, "Look, Gabriel. I-I didn't know if you'd like it or not. If you don't that's fine. I-I just wanted to do something special that would surprise you." Finishing, Sam shook his head before Gabriel could even open his mouth.
Leading Gabriel to the center of the floor, motioning for him to stay, Sam walked to the right of the room and bent down close to the floor. The younger Winchester reached into his pocket and pulled out a match. Before he could lose his nerve, Sam struck the match onto the jagged cement, lighting it, and then carefully setting it into the closest circle of gunpowder. Jogging back to Gabriel's side, he watched as the show began. Flames spread from right to left. They lit up the room with flashes of burnt orange and warm yellow.
The flames followed the trails of gunpowder, tediously piled in very specific spots all throughout the warehouse. Gabriel gasped as the flames continued to spread in a controlled blaze, eyes welling up. It was perfectly imperfect circles of flame burning so hot, almost white, connected by tiny tendrils of soft orange. Stars. It looked like stars. Blindingly white stars and constellations all connected together and lighting up the decrepit warehouse. They burned so bright. It was almost like the Lightbringer was back, igniting the stars in the beginning of time. And for the first time, Gabriel felt like he was at peace.
Sighing, the shorter man leaned his head against Sam's shoulder. He was content to watch the stars burn, imagining that maybe the Lightbringer was back. He knew it wasn't true, but it was ok to pretend sometimes. Gabriel burrowed further into Sam's shoulder. Of course he wished his brothers were ok and that his family wasn't hanging on by an old frazzled thread. But right now, it was just Sam. Sam was there, everything was ok, and Sam was more than enough for Gabriel. And so the two lovers just sat there and watched as the flames burned and smoke fizzled, adding to the erie cloud cover. For once in their lives, everything was ok.