Ch.4

Y/f/d= your favorite detergent

What. The. Hell?! You had sat there for the past couple minutes staring at the empty seat across from you. You didn't know what it was that made him leave so suddenly. The two of you had been having a good time for once, laughing and talking more freely than you had ever thought possible. After you had taken a sip of the coffee, you had apparently gotten whipped cream on your face, which embarrassed you beyond measure, leaving you unable to face him as you tried to keep down the blush that threatened to color your cheeks.

It was during the ensuing silence that you suddenly heard a snap and felt a slight energy in the air, and sure enough when you lifted your head, Gabriel had vanished. You had to fight back the tears trying to push past your lashes as you closed your eyes and took slow, deep breaths to keep yourself from breaking down right then and there.

You took a sip of the masterpiece Gabriel had made you, trying to rid throat of the lump that had risen. What had been sweet and heavenly just minutes ago, now was cloying and heavy on your tongue. You struggled to swallow it down and then stood up from the table, taking the abandoned drinks to the sink. You poured both of them down the drain and washed out the mugs, drying them and placing them back in the cabinet before turning to the food you had taken out of the fridge earlier. You stood there, staring at the eggs and bacon, a sour feeling rising in your still-empty stomach.

You no longer felt hungry and doubted anything would stay down anyway. You grabbed the carton of eggs and package of bacon and placed them back in the fridge along with the butter Gabriel had snapped up. After putting the bread back in its place, you noticed the jar of jelly. You were half-tempted to give it a taste as he had never told what flavor he had chosen. You picked it up and as you tried to make up your mind on whether you could manage a bite, a single tear slipped past your lashes and landed on the jar.

Sighing heavily, you set the jar back on the counter and left the kitchen, casting a wistful last glance at the cafe table on your way out. You made your way through the bunker back to your room. As you passed by the room Gabe used as his whenever he stayed over, you paused. Oddly, you could feel a low hum of electricity eminating from behind the door. You had never felt this before and it piqued your curiosity. You felt a gentle shiver run up spine as you reached out to knock softly on the door. If Gabriel was indeed in there, he didn't answer.

Further dejected, you continued on to your room, pulling out your phone to check the time again. It was only 10:30. Too early to start drinking your sorrows away, not that was the best idea anyway on an empty stomach. You debated whether to just go back to sleep for a couple hours, but decided instead to do something constructive to pass the time. You left your room and headed to the laundry room the boys had set up in the back end of the bunker.

This time as you passed by Gabriel's door, the strange energy you'd felt was gone. Not thinking you would ever get the chance to ask him about it, you made a note to look through the angel lore books in the library to see if there was any information on it. If not, you could always ask Cas when he got back.

As you entered the darkened laundry room, you used the light from your phone to find the pull-string that hung from the bare bulb in the middle of the room. The light blinded you for a second and as your eyes adjusted, you could make out the empty hampers sitting by the washing machine. Then you noticed that everyone's clothes were neatly stacked and folded, sitting on top of the dryer. You stood there for minute in confusion. You knew this had to be Gabe's doing; but it was just incongruous to abrupt disappearing act that you couldn't make sense of it.

You went to gather up the piles and notice that while Sam and Dean's clothes smelled like the regular detergent, yours smelled like (y/f/d), a brand you didnt often have around, as the boys thought it was too girly and you had already run out of it since the last time you'd been able to go shopping. Your heart clenched slightly at the gesture. You were more confused than ever. You pushed this new act of kindness to the back of your mind to dwell on later. Taking the clothes, you went to go put them away in their respective rooms.

After setting Dean's clothes on his bed, you head to Sam's room to do the same. As you're about to set his clothes down, you notice a strip of fabric sticking out from the stack. You separate the top half of the pile from the bottom and gasp as you realize that smack dab between Sam's shirts and jeans, is the shirt you slept in last night, now shredded into nearly fifty peices. You pick up a handful of the bits of fabric, once again confused beyond belief.

Why would Gabriel do something so kind for you one moment and something so childish the next? This back and forth behavior of his was making you dizzy. And why this shirt? A quck check through the rest of Sam's clothes showed that this was the only victim of Gabe's, whatever you wanted to call this. It's as if this shirt in particular had offended him somehow. Much as you thought about it, you just couldn't come up with a feasible reason why he would destroy this one shirt. You would just have to ask him yourself if he ever showed his face again.

You gather up bits of fabric and pick your clothes up again and go back to your room. After putting all your clothes away and placing the scraps of Sam's shirt in your drawer to deal with later, you decide to head to the library to see if you can find any information about that strange energy you had felt earlier. Once in the library, you go and pick out the most useful books on angel lore you guys had and sat in one of the chairs, pulling out your phone and putting your playlist back on. Music always helped keep you from zoning out when doing research.

After an hour of searching through three musty books, you had found not a single mention of anything similar to what you had felt. Shutting the last leather-bound tome, you sat up and stretched, your muscles slightly aching from your sustained postion. Focusing on reading had allowed you to forget about worrying over how your conversation with Gabriel had ended and the music had helped to ease your stress enough that you felt you could finally handle some food.

As you headed to the kitchen, you checked the time again. Noon. Plenty of time left in the day with nothing to do. You enter the kitchen and instantly notice the table is now gone, snapped back to the void from which it had been summoned. You take a breath and shake off the thoughts trying to push their way back to the front of your mind.

You take a package of ground beef, buns and all your favorite toppings from the fridge and get to work making youself lunch, carefully avoiding glancing at the jelly still sitting on the counter. Though if you had looked over at it, you would have noticed that now there was a red ribbon tied around it with a note-tag attached.

Just as you had finished fixing your burger just the way you liked it, you noticed that static in the air again. You whirled around to see what could be causing it and your mind dragged up a memory from this morning. The energy you felt was almost identical to the shock you had felt when you had touched Gabriel's hand. Your lips parted in a small gasp at this realization.

"Gabriel?" You spoke out into the seemingly empty room.

Gabriel's P.O.V.

Shit. He had hoped against hope this wouldn't happen. As soon as he had felt that spark this morning, he had worried about what it had meant. At first, she didn't seem to notice anything after that initial contact. But after he had run off to gain control over himself, he knew she had hesitated at his door just a little too long. As though something was keeping her from being convinced he had left the bunker completely.

When he heard her make it to her room, he made quick work of the laundry and exacted a tiny, if petty, bit of revenge on Sam. A shirt was a small price to pay for the ire he had caused Gabriel, what with the clothes-sharing and that horrid display he'd had to witness the night before. By the time she had left her room again, his rage had dwindled enough for him to tamper his Grace back down to workable levels.

After an hour or so of wondering how to fix the mess he had no doubt created between them this morning, he could sense that she was calmer than she had been. He hadn't been able to pinpoint the emotions had felt radiating through his door when she had paused outside it as they were all projecting at the same time, tangling together, but he thought he had detected a note of hurt somewhere in the mix. Since he no longer could feel her emotions with the same intensity as earlier, he decided it might be a good time to check in on her. Just to gauge whether the progress they had started to make in their friendship was still attainable.

As soon as he had walked into the kitchen, he was once again taken aback by the beauty of her. Even during the simple task of cooking, she exuded a grace he had yet to see in any other human. Her back was to him and took a moment to take in her form. Every curve exactly perfect. The heat from the stove causing a bead of sweat to form on the back of her neck.

He had the sudden urge to confess everything to her right then and there. He longed to feel her skin on his again. To feel that shock that awoken every nerve of his being. He could feel his Grace surging up again. As it did, she suddenly whipped around and stared directly at him, face full of confusion, as if she knew he was there.

"Gabriel?" She asked.

And that was all it took. He knew then that he had been correct in his assumptions about that first touch. They were connected now. Well, fuck. It would be nearly impossible to hide himself from her now. As long as he felt this away about her, his Grace would give him away.

He had no choice now but to make himself visible. He could see it in her face, she knew it was him. He just hoped he could think of an excuse for leaving the way he did and find a way to rectify the situation.

"Hey, kiddo." He said in what he hoped was a nonchalant tone as he appeared before her in the doorway.

"What the hell, Gabe", she exclaimed. "How come I could sense you? And more importantly why were you just lurking there anyway?"

Gabriel could hear the anger slowly rising in her voice. He could feel small tendrils of it rolling off her skin.

"Look, I wasn't exactly lurking, okay? I was just coming to check on you, and figured you might not want to see me after what happened this morning. As for you sensing me, well it happens sometimes. Let's just leave it at that."

"Oh", she said softly, her eyes slowly hardening as Gabriel could suddenly detect that hint of hurt creeping back into her emotions. Why was he suddenly more attuned to her mind? He didn't exactly want to follow that train of thought just yet. First, fix this. "Well, speaking of this morning, do mind explaining exactly what the fuck that was about?"

He gulped as he tried to find an answer as close to the truth without telling her outright how he felt. "Uh, yeah, look I'm sorry about just snapping out of here like that. That was stupid. I just, I got caught up in my own mind. I'm sorry, really."

She nodded her head as she thought over his words. He could feel the anger easing away, though the hurt remained. Gabriel groaned internally at that. The fact that he was the cause of it killed him. They had finally been on a good footing, and he had ruined it. Chalk it up to just another reason why he would never deserve her affection.

"I'll just go and let you eat your lunch. You probably don't want me around now." Gabriel turned to go back to his room.

"No", she sighed. "Please stay. Let's try this again, okay? Thank you for doing the laundry, by the way."

"Oh. You're welcome. It was the least I could do." He was surprised yet relieved she didn't mention Sam's shirt. One less thing to have to awkwardly explain. " You know, I can whip you up some fries to go with that?" He quirked an eyebrow up questioningly at her, waving his hand towards her burger.

"Hmm, sure. Fries would be great. Nothing fancy though, okay? Just simple, greasy fries."

He obliged her request with a simple snap of his fingers, a sizeable pile of crispy french fries appearing on her plate. She grabbed the plate and followed him to go sit at the table in the war room.