It started with a brief touch; hands barely brushing against each other one late night on the roof with a bottle of whiskey. They said nothing, hands just barely beside each other. It'd be easy to grab the man and pull him closer… But he didn't know if that'd be welcomed. He was still barely registering that he was here, on this roof, with his Commander. It felt like a surreal dream he'd wake up from any moment now.

A hand sliding over to press against his reassured him no, this was not a dream. He chanced a glance at the other, then down to their hands; neither moved away. He looked up at the sky and sighed, his breath visible in front of him. He felt the hand atop of his squeeze lightly,

He smiled lightly, chancing another glance at him. It nearly caught him off guard when he saw Gabriel looking in his direction. Most importantly, he was staring at their hands. He shifted to turn fully towards him, a small smile still on his face. Gabriel looks unsure, brows furrowed as he continues to stare at their hands; he won't look Jesse in the face.

The cowboy huffs, letting out a breathy chuckle. It's almost weird to see his so-sure commander so… unsure. Hesitant. He take a moment before turning his hand over to grip the other's, making the first move. "... I've like ya for a real long time, you know." His voice was quieter than he'd intended, just barely above a whisper as he searched Gabriel's face for… something. He wasn't sure what.

Gabriel let out an almost hollow chuckle, "You're pretty shitty at hiding it." He mumbled, earning a small laugh from the cowboy. "... Don't get why though. I'm a pretty shitty person."

He frowned at that, brows furrowing for a moment as he thought of what to say. After a moment, he sighed and shrugged, "Never really thought about the why part; I just like you. You're a hardass, but you care. You care about us, your team, which is a whole lot more than we can say about a lot of people."

The name went unspoken, but they both knew who he was hinting at. Gabe huffed, turning his head away. Jesse took a deep breath and braced himself for the worst as he pressed forward, practically leaning against the man now. "Anyone'd be lucky to have ya, and I know without a doubt I'd love to be yours." He said it softly, but firm.

The hand over his slid away slowly. He was close to panicking; it'd taken just about everything to say this- he wasn't sure how he'd take a rejection. But then suddenly Gabriel was turning to face him, eyes still fixed just below his face. He looked relieved, in a way.

"... You better not regret those words any time soon." He said finally, eyes moving to meet Jesse's. "I'm not one to let go of what's mine." He said lowly, reaching a hand up to Jesse's face. Jesse grinned, nodding his head eagerly before meeting the man for a kiss. It was slow, hesitant…

He pulled away after only a few seconds, grinning at Gabriel. He turned completely to face him, hand moving to mimick the other man's hand on his cheek. He let out a breathy chuckle, slowly bringing him in for another kiss.


A/N: Wow okay hello, Fallen here. It's been forever and this is really just a filler prompt because I have 3 other chapters that aren't done. I've been kind of in and out of sleeping, and when I'm awake I've been way too weak to write much.

Yay for being terminally ill, amirite. But I've been feeling better recently, and really wanna finish the chapters I've already started writing.

And now, this lovely chapter; the prompt was "first" and I just really felt like showing a bit more of Jesse and Gabe's relationship because fuck me do I ship it. Jesse was never subtle about his affection for Gabe, and Gabe just tried to ignore it for the most part- which lead them to both getting a very awkward talk with Ana, followed by an awkward confession/first kiss on the roof.

And as a clarification/headcanon, Gabriel is asexual in this. During the Blackwatch days, he was closer to just being disinterested in sex, and as of now it's complete sex repulsion. Jesse's fine with it, he really doesn't care all too much about having sex. Gabe's only had one sexual relationship, and I bet you all can guess with who. Hint: it doesn't end well.

Gabriel and Jesse's relationship was awkward, then adorable-awkward, then things started to slip before completely crashing when Jesse said he was leaving with or without Gabe. Gabe didn't take that very well. It was only after the explosion that he went to Jesse and apologized.

Mary's the actual catalyst that made them start a new relationship- she kinda pushed them together and forced them to talk because they were both acting like emotionally constipated babies and she was not having any of that.

Side note: why can I not find any Beauty and the Beast AU's for this ship? It should be a crime that no one's made one yet.