Crossing The Inferno: When Stars Collide
Gabriel threaded his fingers through the thick fur on either side of Bela's neck, the pads of his fingertips pressing against the skin underneath. "Sam asked me to give you back your voice, after everything you've done for us," he said calmly, though his eyes sparkled with faint annoyance at the idea. "At first he asked me to change you back, but you know as well as I that that's impossible. This is what you chose." She growled and he smiled, pulling his hands away and watching the bit of Grace leave him and flow into her. "Well, what do you think?"
She barked in reply, tilting her head to the side. Gabriel rolled his eyes, "Don't look at me like that, I did what I could. You'll just have to work on it." He shrugged and placed his hands behind him, easing his weight slowly back so as not to hurt his already injured right arm further. Glancing sideways he could make out Sam, curled up in the usual mound of blankets within arm's reach. His chest rose and fell as he slept, soft mumbles and snores reaching the angel's ears from where he sat. Bela barked at him again and he raised an eyebrow at her, "I'm not going to answer that question until you can say it in English," he smirked, watching as she bared her teeth at him in frustration. "Come on, it's not too hard. Just keep trying."
Reaching over, he tangled his fingers into the hair on the top of Sam's head, smiling as the Hunter immediately stilled beneath his touch, still sound asleep. Bela barked again and he looked up, waiting patiently as she struggled to form words.
"H-how . . . Long," she said finally, looking a tad bit startled that she'd even managed that much successfully. Her tail wagged.
The archangel glanced at Sam, knowing what she was asking, "His record is fifty hours. It's only going to get worse from here on out, isn't it." He frowned as she nodded, her tail drooping once more, swishing across the stone ground. "I know what I have to do . . . It's just . . ." He shrugged again and bit his lip, unsure of how to say what he meant.
"The mark," Bela said suddenly, tongue stumbling on the words a bit. "I saw the . . . The mark. On his chest."
"Yeah," Gabriel nodded, remembering the handprint that should have already faded away, yet hadn't. "It shouldn't be there. As you said before, it has to be a mutual arrangement for it to remain in place."
"Maybe it is," she said, padding over to curl up at Sam's side, laying her head on her paws.
Gabriel snorted in disbelief, "As if that would ever happen. I still have seven months left before the first year is out, I'll decide what to do then if things get any worse than they already are." He sighed, pulling his knees to his chest and resting his arms against them. "We're going to need time to heal and adjust. All of us. I wouldn't mind staying in this area, at least for now. Sam needs the rest." He flicked his gaze to the hellhound again, watching as she seemed to be perfectly content to stay at the human's side. "Why did you do it, anyways?"
Bela's ears twitched in his general direction, but otherwise she didn't move for a long moment. Finally, her lips curling back from her sharp canines, she muttered, "Because all I want is out. Sam can lead me back to the upper world. I don't care how I look, or what form I'm in. I just . . . Don't want to be here anymore. Never did in the first place."
"Getting pretty good at talking there," Gabriel remarked. "But if you didn't want to come here, why'd you deal with a demon in the first place?" He had little respect for people that were so full of greed they'd sell their own soul.
The hellhound's tail moved to curl around her paws, covering her eyes. She did not answer the question, and Gabriel was content to let the matter drop, at least for now. He pressed his face into the space between his knees and his sternum, letting his eyes close and his mind start to wander in the state of rest that was as close to sleep as an angel would ever get.
OoOoOoOoOoOoO
When Sam woke up, the first thing he did was stretch, testing out the dull ache in his wrist and ankle where Gabriel had healed them. Rolling over, he blinked as he came face to face with a wall of dark fur, and he snorted in faint surprise, sitting up to look down at the hellhound curled up beside him. Bela opened one demon black eye as he moved, but otherwise remained where she was, tail waving just above the ground near his claves. Peering around, he quickly caught sight of Gabriel, sitting with his head on his knees, wings tucked behind him and his eyes closed in that almost sleep he sometimes went into. Sam grinned, he hardly ever woke up before the archangel, usually because Gabriel didn't angel-sleep very much at all.
Tangling his fingers into the fur on Bela's back he whispered, "Wanna explore, girl?" She raised her head, staring at him for a long moment before she wagged her tail and stood. Sam smiled, "We gotta be quiet, okay? Gabe would never let me out of his sight if he was awake." He laughed softly, standing up and keeping a hand in her fur, "Right where do you think we should go first?" The Hunter motioned towards his right, "The rocky outcropping over there?" He did the same towards the left, "Or the one over there?" Straight ahead, "Or how about maybe those mysterious slightly different rocks over there?"
Bela bounded ahead of him towards choice number three, wagging her tail. When they were out of Gabriel's immediate earshot, she barked, darting around the stones and off across the unchanging rocky ground of Hell. Sam laughed and followed her at his own pace, watching as she paused now and then to sniff at something here and there. "You make a cute dog," he remarked, grinning as she shot back towards him like a bullet at the words, sitting at his feet with a hard eyed glare.
"Insult," she barked, making Sam's eyes widen and his mouth drop.
"Gabe-" he started, stunned. He knew that his companion was an angel of incomprehensible power, but he never thought that he'd take his request into account, let alone grant it. Smiling, he scratched the place between her ears, "He's really something, isn't he." He rolled his shoulders, following as she began to move again, her fur brushing against the denim covering his legs, "Half the time I think he's going to say no, it ends up being the opposite. And the other half I think he'll agree and he shoots me down without a second thought." Bela blinked up at him lazily, as though it didn't really matter, though the perked position of her ears indicated that she was listening. "And sometimes he just looks at me like he's seeing something else . . ."
Here, he paused, throat tightening around the words. Over the past few weeks when he'd caught that look in the archangel's eye, he wondered if perhaps Gabriel was seeing his brother, the Morningstar, instead of Sam. It hurt to think that, because he knew it was highly possible. Bela's tail thwapped against the back of his legs and he turned to look at her.
"Not like that," she whispered, and Sam flinched, wondering if she'd been a strong enough demon before she changed to be able to read minds. In reply, she merely stared up at him intently, tail still wagging, slow and waiting.
"How do you know," Sam said softly, tangling his fingers into her fur again, the movement quickly becoming one he took comfort in. Even when they'd known each other in life, he'd never once felt her presence to be a danger to himself. An annoyance, after she'd taken their scratch tickets, yes. A regret after she'd stolen the colt, because he'd believed her to be above that. A guilt after Dean had refused to turn back, they would have been too late anyways. "Never mind," he added after a moment of thought, "I don't want to hear what Gabriel thinks of me."
Bela barked, the sound ringing off of the rocks as she began to trot ahead of Sam once again, clawing her way up the stones and out of sight, the Hunter not far behind, laughing as he scrambled up the small slope. Never mind Gabriel for right now, he was content to explore the unchanging landscape with the hellhound, formerly a demon, before that a human, at his side.
Gabriel shifted out of his state of half-sleep to find a pair of hazel-green eyes staring straight at him. He blinked, leaning back a bit to take in the sight of the Hunter, crouched on his heels with his hands on his knees, looking at Gabriel more than a little intently. "Something you want, kiddo?" the archangel asked lightly, uncurling his wings from their place against his spine and enjoying the feeling of his feathers aligning themselves into more comfortable places.
Sam titled his head to the side, "Uh, yeah. Bela and I found something really cool, we wanted you to come see it." He shifted nervously, standing up and looking down at his feet.
The Trickster sighed, "Don't be like that, Sam," he muttered, a little annoyed. "If you want me to go with you somewhere, be insistent. I won't bite, I swear," Gabriel grinned, showing his teeth pointedly. "Now ask me like you mean it." They'd never be able to work together if Sam started treating him like some sort of higher being (Which he was, but that wasn't the point), down here, they were equals, and Gabriel preferred to be treated like one. Especially by Sam. With everything he'd put the kid through, he should be treated no different than any other monster the Hunter had smote in his lifetime, archangel or not.
Sam's eyes lit up slightly at this, and he practically bounced on his toes with excitement, "There's uh, this thing, over there. Water, I think. It's weird, and Bela won't go near it, but I swear it's water-"
"Water," Gabriel echoed, intrigued. He stood, shifting his wings and shaking the stiffness from them, "Well let's see it then."
The Hunter smiled, motioning towards a rocky outcropping ahead where the angel noticed the blue-gray furred hellhound standing, "Over this way, come on." Gabriel remained where he was however, watching as Sam scrambled around the stones and out of sight before he followed, listening to the sound of Bela barking, leading the way to whatever they had discovered together. Somehow, the idea that he felt perfectly secure in leaving Sam alone with the hellhound made him uneasy. It should be him watching over the human, not Bela. But he did not force his position as the protector either. He had no right to.
"You're so slow!" Sam's head popped over the outcropping, hair that was starting to get much too long flying around his face with the motion. Gabriel made a mental note to get that trimmed sometime soon. "Come on, come on!"
The archangel smiled to himself, shuffling along at his own pace and taking pride in the way Sam became more and more impatient with him, running ahead for awhile before bounding back, one of his typical of the situation bitch faces in place. Gabriel just sauntered along in response, warms behind his head and a grin plastered on his face. It wasn't until Bela started gnawing at his pant legs that he decided to pick up the pace, catching up to the Hunter as they approached a the slope of a hill. "It looks like water, right?" Sam said excitedly.
Gabriel folded his arms across his chest and stared at what the Hunter was motioning to with apprehension. It was a pond, of sorts. Too small to be a lake and too big to be a puddle. The water, if that's what it truly was, near the far end was darker, suggesting a greater depth, and the surface of the whole thing simmered with steam. "I don't know, Sammy," he said honestly, taking note of the way Bela's ears laid flat against the top of her head just looking at it, "Let's take a closer look. At least you didn't jump into it before coming to get me," he relented with a sigh.
Sam frowned, "I think you're confusing me with Dean there. I always think ahead."
"Like a good little boy scout," Gabriel smirked. He paced forward until he drew level with the water, staring down at it with distaste. "It's not normal water, that's for sure." He didn't want to touch it either, and he sent Sam a warning glare when the other tired to edge closer to it. "It's water in every aspect, taste and content, but to those who are dead, those who are damned, it's like acid." Beside him, Bela's tail drooped and she lay down, staying well away from the stuff.
The Hunter groaned, "Ugh, I was half hoping for a bath, but of course it's too good to be true. This is Hell after all." He shrugged, not noticing the way Gabriel's eyes lit up at the idea.
A bath . . . He had some Grace to spare, what could be more worth it. "I could do that," he said with a smile, snapping his fingers. Sam turned, staring at the water as it failed to show even a tiny bit of change. Gabriel merely shook his head at the look, "I put a speck of my Grace in there, kiddo. There's no purer water between here and Heaven now."
If Sam was a dog, Gabriel knew his tail would be wagging as he whooped, leaping into the air and tearing off his shirt as he dashed towards the water. Bela huffed and remained where she was, looking as if she had no intention of joining in the fun. The archangel laughed, sitting down at the edge of the pond and leaving her to her own devices, "Well that's quite a sight," he mused to himself, putting an arm over his head to deflect the hot spray of water as Sam cannonball into the pond.
Lowering his arm he peered at the surface of the water, waiting for the Hunter to reemerge from his stunt. But nothing happened, and a flash of unease worked it's way through his system. Leaning forward, he gazed down into the depths of the pond, wondering if he'd underestimated the power of his Grace, swallowing at the thought.
It was then that water surged upwards, splashing him thoroughly just before strong arms wrapped around his shoulders. He didn't have time to let out more than an, "Wha?" before he hit the water.
It was hotter than he expected, like the overheat of a hot-tub rather than the gentle warmth of a nice bath. Forcing his eyes open, Gabriel flailed a bit until large hands caught him by the shoulders, an explosion of bubbles clouding his vision before he caught sight of viridian-green eyes, crinkled in laughter. The hands dragged him back up into the air, and he gasped, sputtering and spitting while Sam rolled in the water, clutching at his sides. "You little jerk!" Gabriel wheezed, coughing up water, "I won't be able to fly for hours now! Look at my feathers!" He shook his wings, water flying everywhere off of dark plumage. Sam just laughed harder.
"We killed Percy, we're in the clear for now," the Hunter pointed out, treading water as he drifted out towards the other end of the pond, "Relax a little, Gabe." He ducked below the surface again, and Gabriel could only tense, waiting to see what ridiculous thing the human was going to do next. Sam resurfaced just inches away from him, fingers tangled into Gabriel's layers of clothes, "You gonna wear all this while swimming?"
"I didn't want to swim in the first place," Gabriel retorted, rolling his eyes. But he snapped his fingers obligingly, watching Sam's shocked expression with amusement as the Hunter suddenly found himself floating in front of a naked archangel. "You like?" he teased.
Sam looked up pointedly, staring at nothing, "You wish," he muttered, swimming backwards. Gabriel snorted, turning in the water towards the rocky edge of the pond, waving a hand at it and watching as a slab jutted out just right for sitting on below the water's surface. He sighed and lounged back on it, watching with glazed eyes as Sam circled the perimeter of the pond.
A lollipop zapped into existence, and The Trickster stuck it in his mouth, twirling it over his tongue with a bored expression as the Hunter swam back over to him, settling on the jut of rock beside the angel. "Having fun?"
"As fun as Hell can get," Sam grinned, drawing his fingers across the surface of the water and following the paths the ripples he made took with his eyes. "Thank you."
Gabriel raised an eyebrow, "For what?"
Sam smiled, ducking his head down until his chin touched the water, "For staying with me. Most people wouldn't have bothered. And I never thought in a million years you would." He shrugged, closing his eyes.
The archangel stiffened, "Hey, wait, that's not true at all bucko. Dean would have stayed at your side the whole way if he could have-"
"Because he feels obligated. It's his duty as a brother," Sam interrupted, waving the very idea away. "That's different."
Gabriel wanted to protest and say that it really wasn't, but he stopped, leaning back with a defeated sigh. "I'm obligated too, I told you that. Save a Winchester once and you're stuck for life."
Sam smiled, the expression not quite reaching his eyes, "But you made the choice to save us in the first place. And besides, I know that line is a total load of crap."
The archangel tensed almost instantly, wings flexing against his back, "Why would you say that?"
The Hunter shrugged again, leaning back as well. Gabriel's eyes immediately fell to the handprint, seared into the Hunter's skin across his sternum just visible above the water. "I just think that that's how it really is," Sam remarked coolly. "I don't think you see it as an obligation at all. It's something you want to do, isn't it."
Gabriel looked away, folding his arms over his chest, "So what if it is?"
Sam sat up a bit straighter, "Then I'd thank you. Which I did," he smirked, "Now, if you'll excuse me . . ."
Bela scooted farther back from the edge of the pond as Sam disappeared below the water with an unnecessary amount of splashing, the angel beside him covering his face. Gabriel let out an audible, drawn out sigh, putting his hands behind him on the shore and pulling himself out of the water, snapping a towel into the air and drying himself off, his feet still swishing about in the pool. Bela barked at him, staying the same distance away as she had been before.
"I know, I know," the archangel muttered. "You don't have to remind me that we're running out of time, mutt. I'm counting down the minutes and the days just as much as you are. And," he glanced at her over his shoulder, waving a hand and waiting as fresh clothes settled comfortably over his form, "I know what I have to do. I just think it would be better if it wasn't a forced issue, all right?"
The hellhound snorted, paws folding together in front of her as she stared the angel down, "Fine."
"Fine," Gabriel snapped back, irritated. He looked away as Sam resurfaced, dripping wet and still all too distractingly naked. The Trickster's eyes drifted to the handprint again, glowing fresh and red as it should not, and he bit his lip.
He was starting to think that it wouldn't be forced at all. And that was what worried him most.
RANDOM AUTHOR RAMBLE
I'm soooooo sorry this is so ridiculously late. But I took part in the fourth Secret Angel fic exchange because Destiel is still my number one. Remind me not to do so again, tho, it was a pain and a hyperventilation experience. The fic I submitted ended up being really long. Not to worry tho, a good portion of that was devoted to Gabriel/Sam pre-slash. :D some Crowley/Bobby too, cause it filled space. Lol. But overall, I'm quite pleased with how it turned out, despite the annoying lack of sex.
Speaking of . . . Next chapter . . . You will get no sex. *gets shot* but you will get what you've been waiting for almost as eagerly! (I would hope) sooommmmee confessions . . . And muchas smootchas!
But yeah, reason I finally got this chapter done besides having free time for once - I thought of the bath scene while in the bath. O_O well, as Spencer said, "I always think best when I'm wet." oooohhhh . . . iCarly joke. *gets shot again. Repeatedly*
And about season six? I'm going to shove what has happened thus far (AKA, ep 1) into the pile of things the fangirls pretend NEVER happened. Over in the corner with Harry Potter book 7 epilogue, X Men 3, and other such failures. Tho I believe once Cass comes back, all will be well once more.