The charm on Sam's wrist immediately caught Gabriel's attention. He'd been about to tell the human that their brothers had flown off to who knew where, Paris, he was willing to bet, since Cas was adorably obvious like that, to work on "destroying some wendigos" as Dean had said.
Of course, when you're an archangel, you notice things, like cursed charms.
Especially when they're on someone you consider a friend.
"Samwise! Get that thing off!"
Immediately he was standing infront of the startled hunter, had grabbed his wrist.
"Hey, wait, no! Gabe, I know what it is!" The human says, just a tad annoyed.
Gabriel pauses but scowls, "And you know that there's a price for this sort of stuff? You get lucky for a day, and unlucky the next. You probably won't survive-"
"I already paid the one day debt" Sam huffed, waiting until Gabriel blinked and then released him. Something inside tapped a little, upset that he hadn't noticed a luck magic hovering over the human, no matter how sporadically he visited.
"Whadoya need it for anyways, Sambean? I could help you with any gambling, ooh, or pranking, if you like-"
Sam leaned in and kissed him, and Gabriel stilled as the hunter pressed close.
Oh Sammy, he thinks, this magic doesn't work on archangels. But he's not about to ruin the mood.
Gabriel decides just saying it out loud will rush the situation along, because despite his guilt at having not set things straight earlier, he's not gonna lie in bed with the human and keep it to himself for however long Sam expected the magic to work.
He's not even gonna berate the human for that because really? Hoodoo on an archangel? You couldn't kill one with the colt you revere so much but some second-rate charm is gonna do the trick?
He contemplates how to phrase it for a moment, finally scrapping his delicate application of words because that will probably mortify Sam way more, anyways.
And maybe a tiny part of him wants to relish Sam's expression when he says, "Sam, hate to break it to ya, but that thing's bust on me. I'm immune to hoodoo, kid."
Just the barest moment before that hits home and the hunter sits upright in alarm, "What!?"
"Yup. That was allll me." Okay, so maybe he's slathering it on a little heavy, but he knows that it's gonna be mega awkward otherwise, because... well because he's going to totally take advantage of this if he's not actively attempting to avoid it.
Sam groans and drags his hands over his face, "Of course. You would be that easy." His hair sticks up and Gabriel ignores the small urge to pat it down. Not relevant for the present situation, he chides himself.
"Hey!" He says in playful indignance, "Who was going to use hoodoo to get lucky?"
Sam sighed, "So the chances of you magically forgetting this in the morning have just dropped marginally, haven't they?"
Gabriel figured Sam was taking it all in stride, which he mentally applauded. He sat up, "Unless you got some Dinousian wine up your sleeves - which I know you don't, because I was very involved in the clothing removal process - yeah, pretty much."
"Sammster, what's wrong?"
But Sam just shakes his head, and yeah, Gabriel has a right to ask, but suddenly he's getting the archangelic premonition that maybe this is... he's not sure.
He's not sure.
It's not some fling, even though Sam wants it to be like one - because Gabriel hits on him - and Dean, and yeah, occasionally Cas, just to see Dean's face caught between morbidly disgusted and jealous - and he doesn't know, but it feels more serious than Sam is letting on and that means he won't talk about it.
Because Sam preaches emotional talks but he only excels at it in comparison to Dean.
Really he's just difficult until you try to get something out of the older Winchester, who then makes the entire task impossible.
If this was serious, Sam wasn't going to share. And Gabriel isn't surprised, because Lucifer can do that to you - because Sam had had to keep everything of himself even closer after the Apocalypse had started, and maybe it was over, but he hadn't even had much of a chance to get back to normal hunter levels of paranoid.
...
He feels a moment of guilt for what he's about to do, but hey, Sam had tried to influence him, too, even if it didn't work.
"Sam." He whispers, pressing energy into his breath, pressing his palm against Sam's skin, at the base of his hunter's neck. He almost flinches as Sam's eyes widen in surprise, shock, alarm, recognition, anger, before the hunter relaxes into him.
"What is it?"
Sam shakes his head into Gabriel's shoulder, "I can't really say."
Gabriel's already pushed the boundaries by putting a truth spell on the human, so mind reading isn't really an option.
"Please?" He tries, almost for the hell of it.
Sam looks up at him in surprise. Then he sags and sits up. Gabriel kind of regrets the loss of contact but doesn't move to stop him, instead sits up with him.
"Can I forget this in the morning?" the distressed human sighs into his hands.
"Depends on if you really want to." Gabriel says almost warily, "What's eating at you?"
He tentatively puts a hand on Sam's forearm.
For a moment he doesn't think the human will answer, even with the spell, but in reality it was just pushing the words, heavy, over the edge.
"Oh you know, just the usual," Sam says miserably, not looking at him.
"May have fallen in love with an archangel, nothing big."