Sam paced the floor of the living room in the tiny apartment anxiously, clutching his second hand phone from Bobby tightly in one hand. He flipped it open every couple of minutes to check that no, there were no new messages. He sighed heavily and ran a hand through his long, messy brown hair before he plopped down on the couch and buried his face in his hands.
"Why did I think this was a good idea?" he groaned to the empty rooms around him.
John had just been leaving when Sam had arrived home from his debate club meeting, headed out to catch the mid-week specials at whatever dive was dumb enough to still give the older Winchester an open tab. Naturally, Sam had taken advantage of the empty apartment to continue his texting with one infuriatingly appealing Gabriel Novak.
At the beginning of the summer, he had been annoyed to have the older man sitting next to him in class. The guy always seemed to need something, a pen, some paper. A couple of times he even forgot to bring his textbook to their shared sociology class and had leaned way into Sam's body space in order to follow along in the book with whatever their teacher was talking about that day. And then one day about halfway through the semester he wasn't at class and Sam had been left staring at the extra pen he had already pulled out of his bag in anticipation of Gabriel needing one, wondering when the person next to him had stopped being so frustrating and instead started being an irritating, but welcome feature of his college experience.
When Gabe showed up to class for their next session, Sam had silently offered him a Hershey bar along with a scantron for the test they were taking that day and Gabriel had told him that his brother had needed his help and that was why he had been absent earlier that week. For the first time, Sam decided to wait for the other man to finish his own test instead of leaving immediately once he was done. They had sat in the hallway outside of the classroom, sharing the candy bar and talking for the remainder of the time until Dean had called saying he was there to pick up the younger Winchester.
Sam had found it difficult to leave the company of the floppy haired man sitting next to him and had been extra grumpy to his older brother that day, Dean had written it off as the test Sammy had to take being harder than the younger boy had been expecting. After that day, he found himself seeking out Gabriel as soon as he walked into their class, which was silly because they always sat in the same seats anyway. Sam felt his heart beating quicker when the other man smiled at him or let him in on one of the pranks he was planning to pull on another one of his instructors or a student.
In the infamous Skittle and whoopee cusion caper of 2010, Sam had proven himself more than useful as a distraction while Gabriel rigged up the complicated apparatus he had come up with that would shoot Skittles at the students in the front row of his history class while also adding the charming sound effects that came from his instructor's chair which had been hijacked with a whoopee cushion. He had waited in the hallway at the beginning of Gabe's first class and less than ten minutes later he had burst into laughter when the teacher had unceremoniously expelled his breathless friend. The older man had taken his hand and they had run down the hallways before they collapsed on a bench outside the student bookstore, laughing until their sides ached and tears streamed down Gabriel's face.
That was the first time Sam had wanted to do something that he knew wouldn't line up with The Plan. Dean had come up with The Plan one spring break when they were much younger. Their mom had been gone for a couple of years, but John had already started his descent into alcoholism, which to hear his older brother tell it was less of a downward spiral and more of an inevitability that Sam just hadn't seen coming until their mom had left, and the elder Winchester had decided that the only way they were going to make it through their teenage years with their sanity was to have a plan in place.
It had always seemed very self-sacrificing on Dean's part to Sam and the thought of deviating from The Plan for his own selfish reasons made him almost physically ill when he thought about how much his older brother was giving up to make sure Sam succeeded. Dean had always thought he wasn't as smart as his younger brother and a significant portion of the scheme hinged on Sam powering through school while Dean put his own ambitions on hold to support him.
They had both agreed that romantic relationships were a liability, not only did they distract from the ultimate goal which was to make their lives as uncomplicated as possible despite their father's lack of concern for their well-being, but they also meant uncomfortably awkward situations like going to a romantic interest's house or meeting their family which were not things the Winchesters could reciprocate since keeping nosy social workers off their backs was a constant and very real concern.
So they kept their relationships with other people at a friendly, distance. Close enough that asking for help wasn't unexpected by the other party, but not indulgent to the point that someone other than family (which included Bobby, Jo, and Ellen by default since they had been privy to the downfall of John Winchester from the beginning) would become emotionally invested enough to want to save them. And yea, it had been hard.
Dean had coped by having a seemingly unending stream of one-night stands and meaningless encounters that left the other participant hating him more often than not when he stopped returning their phone calls and started avoiding them at parties. Sam went the opposite route when he saw how emotionally self-destructive his brother's behavior was and decided to avoid situations and places where he might have the urge to become closer to another person. That meant that he spent a lot of his time at home, the library, or at Bobby's shop. Nothing killed an erection faster than reading about genocide or listening to a surly old man's complaints about how he couldn't eat spicy food like he used to.
But something about Gabriel made Sam want to throw away all of the years that he and his brother had spent working towards eventually having a normal, apple pie life; a goal that came complete with white picket fence, 2.5 kids and a golden retriever. The feelings he felt around the older man made normalcy seem really overrated and frankly, boring.
So when he had decided to never see Gabriel again after their last study session together on the day of their final exam because he was already struggling with being too close too comfortable around the other boy, it was made all the more difficult when Gabe had causally reached over and brushed behind his ear the hair that had fallen into his face as he was bent over his textbook. Even now he could feel how the other's fingers had lingered on his face; trailing lightly over his jaw before Gabe had blushed scarlet and fled the library with a murmured apology. He had sat as far away from Sam as possible during their exam and disappeared as soon as he had handed his own in.
Sam spent the week between his college courses ending and his junior year of high school beginning trying to get back into a familiar routine that didn't involve him cramming for tests or pining over someone who made him question why following The Plan was the only way he could be happy. He buried memories of how easy it had been to smile and laugh around Gabriel and resigned himself to another school year of debate and National Honor Society and kissing the ass of every teacher he had so that they wouldn't automatically assume he was as much of a slacker as his older brother was sometimes. It was what he had been wanting after all, right? To have it end?
The first day of school they had been late because both he and Dean had slept though the lame excuse for an alarm on Dean's cell phone, but as soon as Sam had seen the car he knew who it belonged to. He had walked Gabriel to his car several times after class and they had joked about how it was the type of vehicle that 1950s teenagers went 'parking' in. That was fairly early on in their friendship and by the end Sam had often caught himself hoping that the other boy would offer him a ride home or something just so he knew what the interior of the car felt like, smelled like; details that he could use to improve the daydreams he had started having about spending time with Gabriel where they didn't only talk about conflict theory or Karl Marx.
He had assumed that the older man had let his siblings borrow his car to get to school that day and fought to keep himself from lashing out at Dean when the bitterness of what he had let slip though his fingers started to weigh down on him. Sam would one day look back fondly on how he had literally been knocked off of his feet when Gabriel unexpectedly reentered his life, but at the time he had just been so embarrassed by his own klutziness that he didn't realize that he had somehow gotten the other boy's phone number scribbled onto his palm until he made it to homeroom less than five minutes before the bell rang for the next class.
Sam hadn't waited until school let out that day before texting Gabriel and by the time the weekend had rolled around it was like they had never stopped sitting next to each other in the murky amphitheater that housed their shared class. He noticed that Gabriel never brought up the moment that had passed between them in the library on the last day of class and Sam followed along with the unspoken agreement that they wouldn't discuss it. They kept their conversations light, though Sam thought that there was always an undertone of coyness coming from the other boy that was hard to not reciprocate.
His phone buzzed loudly on the coffee table in front of him, where he had tossed it down in frustration when he had settled on the couch. He reached out a shaky hand to check the message and let out a strangled whimper when he had read it.
Gabe: What was your apartment number again?
And there it was the thing that had Sam rushing to the bathroom to make sure his hair wasn't doing something weird and cupping his hand over his mouth to check that his breath wasn't horrible before typing in a reply with trembling fingers.
Sam: 237
Several minutes later there was a knock on the door and Sam cast one last glance around the sparse apartment to make sure that it wasn't absolutely disgusting before opening the door.
His breath caught in his chest as he took in the sight of Gabriel leaning on the doorframe on one arm with a playful smile on his face, looking every bit the adorable muchkin that Sam had privately started to think of him as. Oh, yea. That's why this is a good idea.
He looked very at ease in loose fitting jeans, a faded black Michael Jackson shirt and a light-weight olive jacket and the older man unabashedly raked his gaze over Sam before his golden eyes returned to the taller boy's face and he cleared his throat with a small pointed cough.
"So are you going to invite me in or did I get all prettied up for nothing?
"R-Right," Sam said quickly stepping to the side to provide room for Gabriel to enter the apartment. "Come in."
He watched nervously as the shorter man gambled around the small space, poking into cabinets and running his fingers lightly over the framed pictures that Dean had put up on the walls during a slightly drunken bout of sentimentality. Gabriel lingered on a picture of a pretty blonde woman being kissed on either cheek by two small boys, one with close cropped dark hair and another with slightly overgrown lighter locks.
"Your mom?" he asked looking over at Sam who hadn't yet been able to tear his eyes away from the first person that wasn't family to ever set foot in his home.
"Yea," Sam said clearing his throat, it was one of the last pictures they had taken before his mom had left for good when he was 9 years old.
"It's nice that you have pictures," Gabriel replied giving him a sad smile as he moved to sit on the couch, clasping his hands on his knees in front of him.
Sam didn't know what to say to that, they had never really talked about their families outside of their respective siblings and he wondered if maybe they had each avoided bringing up their parents on purpose. He moved towards the fridge, just wanting to have something to do that might temper the awkwardness of the situation. He just had one thought which was; now that he had Gabriel here what was he going to do with him?
"Do you want a drink?" he asked lamely.
"Water's fine."
He grabbed two bottles of water and went to sit by his friend, taking a tentative sip as the silence of the room began to weigh oppressively on the two occupants.
"Where's your brother?" Gabriel asked conversationally moving so that he was sitting with his back against the armrest of the couch, his legs crossed on the cushion in front of him and he was facing his host.
"Probably the same place as your brother. Movie night." Sam replied unconsciously mirroring the other boy's position, which made for a pretty tight squeeze, since the couch wasn't exactly big and Sam's legs weren't exactly short. There was about two inches of space left between the two men as they regarded each other, a fond smile alighting on Gabriel's face at the mention of his younger brother.
"Yea. Not that I don't love the kid, but I'm happy that he has a reason to get out of the house now. Y'know, besides running himself into an early grave or playing army men."
Sam smiled, from what Gabe had told him about his younger brother, he could probably learn a thing or two from Dean about how to relax. He just hoped his older brother wasn't too terrible of an influence on the other boy.
"So what do you want to do?" Sam asked stretching his arms above his head, he noticed how Gabriel's gaze immediately went to where his shirt rode up on his stomach and he couldn't help himself from drawing the movement out longer than was probably necessary.
"Um, there's this diner Cassie and I go to after his – every now and then. It's like right around the corner." The older man was blushing furiously and almost vaulted over the back of the couch as he spoke in his haste to get to the door.
"Sounds great," Sam rose from the couch fluidly, his confident gestures hiding the fact that inside he was a squealing, nervous mess.
He stepped close to Gabriel, reaching over his shoulder to grab his own jacket off of the hooks by the door. Close enough to smell the Juicy Fruit gum that the other man was chewing and to feel the body heat radiating off of him. Every one of his senses felt like it was on high alert, he wanted to absorb every small detail about Gabe just in case he suddenly took off again deciding that this, whatever it was, was just too much, too weird, too perfect.
The diner was only a couple of blocks away and Sam was more than slightly disappointed that it wasn't far enough to justify taking Gabe's car which was parked in the spot usually reserved for the Impala.
Gabriel noticed the younger boy looking at the vehicle forlornly as the set off away from the apartment complex and he couldn't help himself from chuckling as he bumped his friend conspiratorially with his shoulder. "Easy tiger. You'll get to ride in her eventually."
"Am I that obvious?" Sam said ducking his head bashfully as they walked down the street.
"Yeah," Gabe replied with a shrug. "But I like obvious, it's cute. In case you haven't noticed I'm not so good with subtle."
Sam bit his lip and seemed to consider the other man's words for a moment. He stopped Gabe with a hand on his shoulder right as they reached the front of the diner and spun him around to face him. The younger man hesitated for just a moment before leaning down and placing a soft chaste kiss on the other's cheek. Gabe's lightly stubbled face made his lips tingle and his heart felt like it was about to pound out of his chest in fear as he regarded the surprised expression on his crush's face.
"I'm not good with subtlety either," Sam declared before he entered the diner, leaving the other man on the street as the shock turned into a dazed, contented smile and he let out a little huff of air.
Wow. Gabriel thought to himself as he slid into the red vinyl booth across from Sam and picked up the laminated menu with unsteady hands.
"What's good?" Sam asked, his brow furrowing in concentration as he tried to decide what on the menu would kill him the slowest. Everything was battered and deep fried, the only vegetables being the ones that came on the various burgers.
"Well, I always get the monte cristo with the sweet potato fries," Gabe offered with a glance at the younger boy.
"That's like a deep fried sandwich, right?"
The older man nodded, "And it comes with powdered sugar on top and raspberry jam on the side. It's so good."
Sam made an adorably disgusted face at him and all Gabriel could think about what how he shouldn't be doing this. This was so not okay and he was definitely going to go to hell for all of the impure thoughts he had been having about the cluelessly sexy minor sitting across from him.
Because no matter how much he may want to jump across the formica table separating them and kiss the hell out of Sam Winchester, the other boy was still only sixteen. Sixteen; younger than his own brother was.
So granted, Sam looked like he could easily pass for eighteen, was male model level gorgeous, and had an amazing voice that made his toes curl even when the other boy was talking about social contract theory, but Gabriel was the adult in the situation and he should be trying much harder to keep this relationship from becoming something that would have Sam's dad or worse his older brother showing up on his doorstep with a loaded gun.
He wasn't afraid of the whole gay thing or how his family would take it if he were to bring a boy home for dinner or anything. Well, Anna and Cassie at any rate. Even when he had been living at home he hadn't been dumb enough to let his father or older brother catch on to the fact that the 'friends' he stayed over with a lot of the time were really much more than that. His only regret about Pontiac was that he hadn't noticed his younger brother trying and failing miserably at having to hide who he was as well.
No, the problem here was really the age thing. If he had met a 16 year old girl in his sociology class and taken a liking to her, well then her parents might be slightly surprised but not overly scandalized by the fact that he was a 20 year old college freshman and guardian of his two siblings wanting to steal their darling child's virtue. He didn't dare allow himself to hope that Sam's gruff looking older brother would be quite as accepting of the fact that a manther was lusting after his baby bro.
"Hey Gabe," his regular waitress, Barb, said sidling up to the table with a wide smile on her face. "Where's that handsome brother of yours?"
"He's got a hot date with his friends tonight, Barbie doll." Gabriel replied winking at the plump older woman.
"Well, he's not the only one. What's your name, sugar?" the waitress turned to address Sam who was looking at the woman with the biggest, most innocent looking puppy-dog eyes Gabriel had ever seen.
The taller boy reached out a hand in greeting and Gabriel was reminded of another reason why he couldn't get Sam out of his head, he was just so damn polite. "Sam, it's nice to meet you."
Barb's mouth turned into a surprised 'O' and she shook the younger man's hand enthusiastically. "You're Sam. Of course you are good lookin' fella like you. I've heard a lot about you."
Sam gave her a confused look before turning to Gabriel who was doing his level best to resist the urge to kick his favorite waitress and probably closest friend in Lawrence in the shin.
"Thanks, Barb." Gabe muttered, blushing furiously and feeling like he could melt into a puddle of embarrassment right there on the floor.
She cleared her throat and suddenly the woman was all business again, hoping that if she kept her trap shut maybe her boy could still save face and salvage his date. "What can I get you crazy kids?"
"I'll have the turkey burger with a side of chips and guacamole. Coffee to drink, please ma'am."
That was Sam; chivalrous despite the discomfort Gabe knew he had to be feeling. Now that he knew that the older man had been obsessing over him practically since they met and talking about him to other people on top of that, the other boy was probably really regretting that little public display of affection he had shown outside.
"For you, Gabe? The usual?"
"Yea, doll. Double chocolate shake this time, extra whipped cream." He replied trying to keep the sudden despondency out of his voice.
Barb scribbled a quick note on her ticket pad and gave the shorter man a comforting squeeze on the shoulder before moving away to get their drinks and put their order in.
Gabriel stared resolutely at the salt and pepper shakers on the table and taped his fingers anxiously in an effort to keep from biting his nails. His father used to say he had a hand to mouth fixation when he was a kid and had plied lollipops and candy on him to keep him from biting his nails to the quick. Now he had the worst sweet tooth and could get really grumpy when the older Novak got what Anna called 'the sugar shakes'. Thank god he had never taken up smoking.
"So your usual is probably the most artery clogging thing on the menu and you get a chocolate coma shake to wash it all down with? You're going to have diabetes like tomorrow if you keep that up." Sam said in a good-natured tone, causing the other man to look up from his brooding.
"Well, you got coffee. Aren't you afraid you're going to stunt your growth there, Yao Ming?" Gabriel replied, not being one to miss an opportunity to give as good as he got.
"Are we really going to bring height into this?" Sam asked quirking his eyebrow and smiling teasingly as he reached across the table to still the other man's frantically tapping fingers.
That small voice in his head that sounded like his sixth grade science teacher, who in turn had sounded an awful lot like Severus Snape fighting a very bad head cold, told him to pull his hand away. This was not a date. This was two friends, catching up face to face after not having seen each other for awhile. And holding hands. They could hold hands and this still wouldn't be a date, right?
And when had he started questioning doing anything. Not that long ago the name Gabriel Novak had been synonymous with doing whatever the fuck you wanted whenever you wanted. But that had been before he had 'adult' problems and 'real' responsibilities, like making sure your little brother was actually taking his antidepressants and not flushing them down the toilet again or warning your baby sister away from being just another teenage pregnancy statistic. He was going to go gray just from thinking about how randy he had been when he was a freshman and imagining those same kind of hormones assaulting sweet little Anna. He would never for a second regret buying her that travel-sized pepper spray to keep in her backpack.
"I guess not," Gabriel replied smiling back at his friend and letting himself relax back into his seat, twining his fingers through the other boy's instinctively.
Barb brought over their drinks and gave her favorite regular a wink when she noticed their clasped hands on the table top.
The two men talked amicably about what they had been up to since their college course had let out and shared little silly stories from their childhoods until their food came. They ate in comfortable silence and Gabriel even managed to get Sam to try a bit of his 'death sandwich', Sam's designation for the grease dripping, preserve slathered concoction that the older man had held enticingly in front of his mouth until the smell of the food had made him give in and take the bite off of the end of the fork at his lips. He had groaned in appreciation and made a mental note of the wanton look that had crossed Gabriel's face at the sound.
They both opted to not get dessert and while Sam stepped out to take a call from his brother, Gabriel paid for both of their meals, still resolutely telling himself that this dinner was not a date. He gave Barb a hug on his way out of the restaurant and promised that he would talk to her soon, the man usually stopped in after classes to study over a plate of fries and a milkshake.
"Dean called," Sam said pocketing his phone when he saw the older man emerge from the diner. "Said they're watching sequels tonight and then he's gonna give everyone a lift home after so he won't be back until late."
"So I won't have to pick up Castiel, great." Gabriel said with a wry smile. "What now?"
The younger boy seemed to ponder the question for a moment and then he shrugged. "We could go back to my house, watch a movie or something. We'll have plenty of time to finish it since they don't even start movie night until the pizza gets there. Dean said they just ordered so we've got a couple of hours easy."
"Won't your dad be home by the time we get back?"
Sam's expression darkened and he turned his face away from the other boy as they began the short walk back toward the apartment complex. "No. If he comes home at all it won't be until way after Dean gets back."
"Oh." Gabriel replied not knowing what else to say with the information. Maybe this explained by Dean seemed so protective of his younger brother, their dad was a deadbeat.
The trip back to the apartment was filled with a tense silence and more than once Gabriel considered just getting in his car and going home to a hot shower where the only Sam Winchester he had to worry about was in his head and more than willing to skip the awkward 'getting to know you' stage.
But as tempting as that sounded, the older man knew that he would regret leaving whatever was going on between the two of them on such uncertain terms. He needed to do something, make a decisive move that wasn't coy or teasing and would let Sam know exactly how he felt. Because he was pretty ready to tell the consequences to go fuck themselves as he climbed the stairs to the second floor apartment behind the younger man, the view was just amazing.
Gabriel stood awkwardly in the small hallway inside the door of the apartment as he waited for Sam to retrieve his battered lap top from the bedroom he shared with his brother and wondered if it would be too forward of him if he just scaled the taller boy like a mountain and kissed him senseless.
"What are we watching?" he asked the younger boy who was perching on the edge of the couch and going through the files he had stored on his computer with a small smile on his face.
"You said you like Downton Abbey and British stuff, right?"
"Yeah…" Gabe replied warily as Sam settled back on the couch and clicked the play button on the small screen of the laptop on the coffee table in front of them.
The older man laughed out loud when the opening strains of Pride and Prejudice started and gave his friend a pointed look. "You dangling Matthew MacFayden in front of me is going to win you all of the favors, Winchester."
"Yea, I like him too." Sam said blushing slightly as he turned to face Gabriel, propping one leg up on the cushion separating them. "We don't have to watch it if you don't want to though."
"If we get tired of it, we can turn it off." He replied with a shrug before he slid down to curl up on his side on his half of the couch, head laying on the armrest. "I've seen it like a billion times."
The evening light started to fade as they watched the movie and neither man bothered to get up and turn on the lamps that sat at either end of the couch. By the time it got to the scene where Lizzie and Mr. Darcy were finally getting their heads out of their asses long enough to dance with each other at the Netherfield ball, Gabriel's arm had started to go numb from where he was laying on it and he was shifting uncomfortably.
Sam let out a loud sigh and moved so that he was sitting turned more towards the other man, draping an arm across the back of the couch as he went. "Come here."
Gabriel hesitated for less than a second before he dove across the space separating him and Sam and firmly nestled himself into the larger man's side, wrapping his arm's around the other boy's torso and placing his head on the broad, flannel covered expanse of chest underneath him. Sam laughed at the older man's actions and leaned down to drop a kiss into Gabe's hair. The smaller man sighed in contentment and vowed to himself that he was going to remember everything about this night, even if it was the only one with Sam that he ever got.
When the movie drew to a close, Sam jostled Gabriel slightly to make sure that he had not fallen asleep as he turned on the light next to him and was startled when he saw the usually mirthful golden eyes filled with tears.
"What's wrong, Gabe?" He asked in a worried tone, drawing away slightly from the other boy so that he could take in his whole expression.
"It's nothing really. I'm just being a big stupid girl." Gabriel said drawing in a shaky breath and wiping furiously at his eyes with the heel of his hand.
It was too much. He had never wanted to see Gabriel sad, would give anything to make sure that the man in his arms never had to cry again. Would tear the world apart if it meant he could hear the other's infectious laugh every day for the rest of his life.
"No something is wrong. What is going on? Why are you crying?"
Gabriel shook his head and tightened his grip on Sam, not wanting to let go, but knowing he should. He should be going, this was wrong. "I just don't want tonight to end."
"Is that all? You really are a big stupid girl." The other boy replied with a chuckle.
"Be serious, Sam." He was angry. Sam was going to force him to be the bad guy. "How is this ever going to work? It won't work, it can't work."
"And why the hell not? Who's to say that we can't do this, watch movies and cuddle and eat food that's going to end up killing us? This," Sam gestured between the two of them, when had they moved so far apart? "Is is no one's business but our own."
"I'm too old for you. I can't be serious about anything for more than ten minutes. I am raising my siblings, Sam. That's like some real fucking shit. If anyone were to find out about us, they could be taken away from me. Anna could go back to my dad, I can't let that happen."
"I can handle the serious stuff, my life isn't perfect, Gabe. I can't see anything I don't like about you. All of that stuff you think is bad is just one more reason why I'm crazy about you."
"But you will! But you will. You know, you will think of things about me that piss you off. Make you regret fucking up your life for someone like me. And I'll get bored with you and feel trapped because that's what happens with me." Gabriel was almost shouting now. He could feel his heart thudding in his chest again, only now it was painful, not exciting like it had been when Sam had kissed him earlier in the afternoon.
"Ok." Sam said plainly, grabbing Gabriel's wrist tightly to anchor him to the conversation so he couldn't run away again. If he ran again then the younger man knew that it would be over, before they even got a chance.
"Ok?"
"If you piss me off, if I find something about you that I think isn't absolutely adorable I'll tell you. And if you get bored, I'll let you go. I can't promise it won't kill me if you do, but I just want you to be happy." Sam's voice was serious and Gabriel found that he couldn't look away from the penetrating gaze of the boy's dark brown eyes. "But my only regret will be not trying; giving up on having something amazing just because it's not easy."
The shorter man exhaled loudly, not even realized that he had been holding his breath while Sam had been speaking and felt his mouth forming a trembling smile. "Alright then."
Sam nodded in agreement and tentatively reached out to cup Gabriel's face with his free hand, adjusting his grip on the other man's wrist so that their fingers were linked together. He leaned forward, closing the gap that had formed between them and softly brushed his lips against Gabe's.
It was time-stopping and innocent and heart-wrenchingly sweet and everything a first kiss should be. When they pulled away, Gabriel rested his forehead against Sam's, looking at the other boy who still had his eyes closed, but who's expression had settled into one of dazed contentment.
It was something that no one else had ever seen and the older man let his worries and fears evaporate for the time being as he moved forward for another kiss, knowing at the back of his mind that the problems would still be there when time started up again, but savoring the present too much to care.
Author Note:So my original title for this chapter was 'Interlude' since I meant for it to be short, sweet, and just something quick I would write in between chapters, but it kinda got away from me. If you're familar with The Killers you'll notice that the title is similar to what I had originally planned, but is a song reference off of the album Sam's Town. I think its pretty appropriate.
I was worried that I couldn't write cutesy stuff and I'm still pretty worried about slash, but I guess I will cross that sexy bridge when I get to it. This is the second chapter in a row that wasn't ever meant to be longer than 1K words or so, but I hope that can only mean that I am enjoying writing this so much that it feels like its writing itself.
Anyway, here it is a day early! Next chapter will not be up until Friday so please let me know what you think of this one.
