As much as Pamela loved to torment Gabriel, she knew when to stop, and thankfully she didn't do anything to make Sam awkward. Most of their conversation stuck to the realm of what Gabriel had told her about him anyway. She left after her coffee, and shot Gabriel a grin that said she'd be back later for a far less appropriate chat. Sam stayed for another half hour, in which they agreed that they'd spend the day together on Sunday, since a bunch of people Sam knew from Harvard were setting up a charity fund-raising thing, and Sam had promised he'd show his face. He'd promised Gabriel that if it wasn't fun, they could go somewhere else and do what he wanted to do, which Gabriel instantly set about making him regret. They kissed each other goodbye, and Sam left for class.
Gabriel spent the rest of the day cleaning and tidying his apartment, and then invited Pamela up for a gossip session, taking time out every now and then to do what he would never admit to Castiel was his happy-dance.
Speaking of Castiel, the next morning he had a rather angry younger brother at his door.
"You are insufferable." He brushed past Gabriel, who blinked at him. He'd only just gotten up, and he had a feeling the delicious wake-up goodness of coffee would be forced to wait.
"Good morning, my much beloved brother. No, you're not intruding, come in, why don't you, please."
"I am not in the mood for your jokes, Gabriel." He didn't look it. "You are an insufferable fool."
"Yeah, I got that." Gabriel was still in his pyjamas, and his first mug of coffee was still steaming seductively in his hand. In fairness, it wasn't early; he'd just overslept, but still. He wasn't in the fittest state to deal with this sort of situation. "Can I get some context, please?"
"Dean Winchester arrived at his counselling session this morning and informed me he has backslid into dating his emotionally manipulative boyfriend."
"Right…"
Castiel glared at his brother.
"It's your fault."
"What? How the hell…"
"It was an argument with Sam which prompted Dean to revert to his old habits."
"And that's very sad, but I don't see…"
"It was about you."
Delivered with the tact and subtlety of a punch to the stomach, which was just typical of Castiel. Gabriel felt the world neatly pull itself from under his feet.
"They were arguing about me? Why?"
"Dean did not appreciate your leading Sam into physical acts, and…"
"Whoa, hold up. My leading Sam? Sam was making all the moves; I just went along with it."
"And you are old enough to know better."
Gabriel glared at Castiel, sorely tempted to throw his coffee at him.
"Bypassing comments about my age, can you please get to the point where this is my fault?"
Castiel had the decency to look abashed, at least. He fixed Gabriel with his best "calmly concerned" look, the one that invited people to share their feelings. Gabriel really hated that look.
"Perhaps I was a tad abrupt. But I know you have a tendency to rush into things, Gabriel."
"Castiel." It was a warning. But if Castiel picked up on it, he didn't let it stop him.
"From what Dean has told me in our sessions, I believe there is a lot about Sam that you don't know, and I feel it would be best for all involved if you got to know more about his life, before you do anything… rash."
"Rash?" Gabriel repeated, his eyebrows raised. Castiel looked like an incredibly uncomfortable little brother, which as far as Gabriel was concerned, was exactly how he should look. "You think I'll do something rash."
"I didn't say that you would, just that you might, and…"
"Right. Because I'm completely inept."
"No, Gabriel…"
"You think I haven't learned from my mistakes."
"I just think it might be prudent…"
"Castiel, go away." Gabriel opened the door and stepped back, arms crossed. "I don't want to talk about this, and I think you've insulted me enough for one morning. Just go away. And learn to talk like a goddamned human being."
"Please, Gabriel, I didn't mean to offend you." Castiel shrugged, looking genuinely sorry for himself. "I just… I've had a bad morning."
Gabriel let his guard drop for a moment, feeling sympathy creeping in. Castiel really did look tired and upset.
"What's up?"
"Oh, my date cancelled on me and we were supposed to be going somewhere. Not much, but… you know…"
"Mm…" Gabriel nodded, halfway towards patting Castiel on the back when realisation hit him. "Wait, 'date'? What date?"
Castiel continued looking sheepish. Sympathy retreated back, as Gabriel the Pissed Off Big Brother made a stomping return.
"Oh, you didn't. Tell me you didn't go crawling back to that same guy again."
"I…"
"How long have you been seeing him for?"
"Just a week. But he's cancelled, so…"
"Get out." Gabriel pointed at the door. "I don't have the patience for you right now. Leave."
Castiel left, casting his elder brother guilty, awkward looks as he went. He knew better than to try arguing when Gabriel was in these moods.
(-*-)
The fundraising event was a parade of yard sales along sorority and fraternity row, with each house holding a yard sale and their own unique stall; some sold cakes, some ran games and activities, some sketched portraits and caricatures, all in the hopes of raising money for a homeless charity. It was a way to kill an afternoon, if nothing else, and Gabriel wouldn't object to wandering around with Sam on a glorious autumn day like this.
Or, he wouldn't normally. Today, he was still kind of pissed.
"So…" He said, as they examined a table filled with customised mirrors. "Apparently I'm an evil predator who strips law students of their virtue?"
"What?" Sam blinked at him for a moment. Gabriel shrugged, stuck his hands in his pockets and continued walking.
"Oh yeah. I break up families too; drive them to arguing."
The sun was shining through the leafy trees that lined either side of the street, and the image of happy people strolling along the parade would have been beautiful if Gabriel wasn't in such a foul mood.
"Is this about me and Dean?" Sam caught up with him, grabbing his arm. Not hard, just enough to demand attention. "How do you even…"
"Castiel decided that since your brother bitched to him, he would bitch at me. I believe the implication was that I would take it candidly, without causing a fuss, but apparently I'm an evil S.O.B, so why should I care?"
"Whoa, hey…" Sam tugged on Gabriel's arm, forcing them to a stop. He looked down at Gabriel, his face creased with concern. "I don't know what you heard, but it really wasn't a big deal. Really. Dean got all annoyed and protective, because he sometimes has trouble remembering that I'm not a kid. Maybe he used that as an excuse to go back and beg for his boyfriend one more time, but it wasn't as big a deal as he made it out to be." Sam rubbed his thumb over Gabriel's arm, smiling. "Me and Dean are fine. Really."
After a while, Gabriel nodded, and looked away.
"Are we still fine?" Sam looked at him, really looked, and Gabriel felt very uncomfortable with the concept of someone giving this much of a shit about him. Uncomfortable, but not unhappy.
"Yeah." He cleared his throat. "We're good. Here, come on, let's go get some lunch." Gabriel smiled at him, his eyes shining with a guilty smile. Sam smiled back, reassuring him, and slipped his hand into the other man's grip. Oddly, Gabriel didn't mind it.
"Huh."
"What?"
"I don't usually do the whole… public relationship thing." Gabriel shrugged. "Displays of affection, discussing everything like this. I'm… actually, if I'm honest, the way I use the term "relationship" might be kind of different to how the common public use the term "relationship". It'd probably be closer to how most people use the term "train wreck"…"
Sam shrugged, his fingers rubbing between Gabriel's.
"I don't mind. It's… I've kind of been forced into publicity with a lot of my exes. I don't mind keeping it quiet if it makes you more comfortable. Although I don't mind this."
He squeezed Gabriel's hand again. Gabriel squeezed back.
"It's weird, I don't mind it either. You know, Castiel wasn't entirely wrong though." He let himself drift a little closer to Sam, their arms brushing together. "Maybe we don't know as much about each other as we should. I think… I think I'd like to know a little more about you."
"Me too." Sam smiled. Gabriel looked up at him, eyebrow raised.
"Well, if you need to know more about you, I'm screwed. I was hoping you could tell me the answers."
Sam rolled his eyes and bumped into Gabriel, not letting go of his hand. Gabriel just shrugged and bumped back.
"You're the one with the ambiguous grammar, don't blame me…"
They approached the buffet stall with smiles on their faces, and sat down together, picnicking on sunny grass.
"So what do you want to know?" Sam watched Gabriel pick at a chicken wing.
"Uh… Alright, am I qualified to know why you went into law yet?"
Sam bit his lip, sitting back slightly.
"It's a long story…"
"We have time."
"Not so much 'long', just… it covers a lot of ground."
"Well, you cover a fair bit of ground yourself, Sasquatch, and it hasn't sent me running yet."
"Ok…" He cleared his throat, setting his food aside. "My mother died when I was a baby, and my Dad took it pretty hard. It took about six years for social services to… uh… catch on that he was… unsuitable, as a parent. I remember sitting in the courthouse, waiting for him to finally get out of our lives. I remember being wowed by how much authority the lawyers had. How much control… I mean, I'd grown up with this guy treating me and Dean like soldiers, and these lawyers were coming in and telling him what he could and couldn't do. They were powerful, you know? Sweeping in to take us away from it, from him. I guess I wanted to be like that… I was the quiet one, the nerdy one, and now I saw these people who just flew in and used their intelligence to get rid of this big bully. I wanted to be like that."
Gabriel blinked, and rested his hand on Sam's.
"Uh… wow. You and your dad, then..?" Gabriel trailed off as Sam closed his eyes. "Hey, we can talk about something else, if you want. Ask me something. Anything, go on."
Sam flashed Gabriel a grateful smile, before pulling his food towards him.
"Uh… tell me about your family. Is it just you and Castiel?"
"We were five, originally." Gabriel sighed, kind of wishing Sam had gone for another topic. But then, he supposed, he would have asked about it sooner or later. "Michael, the eldest, myself, Raphael, Lucifer..."
"Lucifer?"
Gabriel shrugged.
"It's what we called him. And then there was Castiel. And then our parents divorced, and now there are also a large amount of half-siblings, step-siblings and cousins who converge in Aspen once a year."
"Wow."
"Yeah. Or, I presume they do. Castiel and Balthazar are the only ones who ever talk to me, so it's not like I get invited."
"How come?"
"When I came out to my parents I was…" Gabriel tried to choose the right phrase. "I was half forced out, half running away. Disowned, I suppose, either way. They refused to believe it was something I felt seriously about, they thought I was acting out because…"
He cleared his throat, looking away from Sam.
"I came out the summer after Raphael passed on. We were fourteen, he was… he got in a fight, got beat up really bad, and… lost a lot of blood." Gabriel swallowed, and Sam got a feeling he was swallowing back a lot of the story. He wouldn't press it, though. "It's always been… We were twins, see, so… I mean, we didn't look or act anything alike, but there was still that weird connection thing twins have. So when he died…"
Gabriel shot Sam an awkward look.
"Castiel delights in telling me that it's probably the reason I have a habit of, uh… issues. Concerning relationships. And commitment."
Sam gripped Gabriel's hand.
"We've both got histories."
Gabriel nodded, and felt something move in his chest; a sleepy sense of warmth spreading through him, filling him with the idea that, just maybe, things would be ok.
"Yeah. And we're both still here."
(-*-)
Gabriel had intended to be a gentleman. His sense of moral decency sat that the back of his brain, filing its nails and sending catty glares at the scene before him. His lustful animal side, however, was rattling the bars of its cage and very close to breaking the door. His inappropriate sense of humour mused on how Castiel would react if he knew…
"Mm." Sam broke away from the kiss, stepping back so that Gabriel slid down the back of the bedroom door and landed on the floor again. "The hell?"
"Sorry." Gabriel grinned, his cheeks flushed pink. "I uh… got sidetracked."
"Good." Sam scowled, backing off. "Good to know I'm holding your attention."
"Oh, no, don't…" Gabriel wound his hands around Sam's waist once more, kissing his bare chest. "I've spent all day being a perfect gentleman, and I was just a little disappointed that I couldn't hold out longer."
He felt Sam relax into the touch, and let his hands roam a little more, trailing across the dips of Sam's spine and waist. It was true, he thought, as he traced delicate lines and kisses over Sam's chest, loving every time he found a particularly sensitive area of skin. He was quite annoyed that he hadn't been able to hold out and be chaste for the duration of the day, but after their little sharing session over lunch, they had kept on sharing. Just little things, like favourite movies, books, past-times, Gabriel explaining how he went from trained chef to stand-up comic, Sam explaining how he and Dean ended up sharing a student apartment. Sam would speak like he felt he really wanted Gabriel to know whatever it was he was saying, and then he'd listen to Gabriel. Actually listen, paying attention, every movement and flicker of the eye saying that it wasn't stupid and that it mattered and for some reason Gabriel found that so indescribably hot that he'd suggested they take the party back to his apartment and yes, he was aware that he probably found it hot because it had been a long time since he'd been in the sort of relationship where his partner would even ask how his day was, and oh dear god if that wasn't a sad and revealing summary of his previous relationships-
"Gabriel." Sam sighed, glaring at him. "Seriously, if you're that distracted, I can just go."
Gabriel flashed an apologetic smile, before dropping to his knees and concentrating his kisses on Sam's stomach as he fumbled with the fly on his jeans.
"I can't help being a little distant, Sammy."
"Don't call me Sammy." Sam seemed quite disturbed by it, and he slapped at Gabriel's hand. "Dean calls me Sammy. You are not allowed to be that near my crotch and calling me Sammy."
"Samsquatch?" Gabriel supplied, but he only got a glare for his troubles. He resumed opening Sam's fly. "We can figure out pet names later… anyway, I'm allowed to be distracted. I got severely reprimanded the last time we did this."
"Wouldn't want that to happen again." Sam smiled at Gabriel, resting his hands on his shoulders and pulling lightly. Gabriel obligingly stood. "I promise I won't tell if you don't." He smiled, and it was such a soft, pure smile that somehow went beyond lust and into devotion, that Gabriel couldn't help but smirk back.
"Sounds like a plan." Gabriel moved his hands up to toy with Sam's hair, wrapping his arms around the other man's neck. "After all, we technically know each other better now, so I'm sure it's fine."