Pairing: Gabriel/Sam
Table: #1-Elemental
Prompt #16: Earth
Word Count: 1,214
Spoilers: General Season Five ending and some of Season Six
Warnings: A tad angsty but not much.
Rating: PG-13
Summary: In which Sam still has a fear, Gabriel is scary insightful and God plays matchmaker.
Notes: This evolved rapidly away from where I had originally intended but *shrugs* it just wrote itself and I couldn't stop it.
"Why won't you admit it?"
Sam blinked and looked up from his place on the ground to Gabriel, who hadn't been standing there a moment before. Sam's been sitting out here, alone, for a few hours now. He walked here after settling in at the motel with Dean to give his brother and Castiel some alone time. He really doesn't mind and even offered to get a separate room but it seemed Dean and the angel aren't quite at that point in their relationship. So he decided to walk to this park while they talked or stared at each other or did whatever it was they did when they were alone if they weren't having sex yet.
He was actually grateful for the opportunity to sit in the quiet and feel the breeze across his skin and through his hair. It wasn't often that he got this chance and the peace helped to counteract those occasional flashes of heat and flames and blood that he saw in his mind. The ground was solid beneath him and occasionally he liked nothing more then to dig his fingers into the dirt and realize it was actually there.
"Admit what?" Sam asked, a little curious but wary because Gabriel sounded frustrated.
The archangel's sudden resurrection had been just as much of a shock to all of them as it had to Gabriel. He wouldn't say how he was brought back or if he even knows, all he had said was that he was dead for real then just...not anymore. Dean might have been distrustful for a while but Gabriel stuck around, helping out when he felt like it and pulling harmless pranks with the same mindset and eventually Dean stopped bothering. For his part, Sam was just glad Gabriel wasn't dead, that he wasn't the only one who's sacrifice was rewarded.
He was still looking up, waiting for a response and passively holding the angel's gaze. Absently, Sam moved a hand and pulled gently against a clump of grass.
Gabriel gave a gusty sigh, "That you're in love with me."
Sam blinked and took a moment to think that through. "No, I'm not."
"Yeah you are, Sam. Just like I love you." Gabriel said, sounding so matter-of-fact that Sam almost believed him on tone alone. The angel grunted softly as he plopped down in the grass beside Sam, legs tucked neatly under himself.
Sam frowned but before he could say anything against that, Gabriel held up a hand. "Stop right there. You are, we both know you are and that's not the problem here."
Sam briefly had the thought that it really said something about his life that hearing an angel tell him being in love with a man, even, or perhaps especially, an angel in a man's body, was not a problem and he wasn't in the slightest surprised. He snorted and leaned back onto his hands, "Then what is?"
"The fact that you won't admit it, or do anything about it." He thought Gabriel meant the last part to be snarky and as innuendo but it fell flat and instead sounded far too serious. "So tell me, Sam, what's holding you back?"
The hunter took a moment, mostly deciding whether or not to answer but for the most part Gabriel had a right to know. That didn't mean Sam had to like it. He looked to the left, away from the angel at his side, and ripped a chunk of grass out of the ground.
Gabriel could only watch as Sam fiddled with the blades and let them filter through his fingers. Sam's answer, when it came, was soft and if he wasn't an angel Gabriel might not have heard it.
"You already died once."
"Yeah, and?" He'd really rather not think about the circumstances of his death and un-death but he couldn't see where Sam was going with this.
"And if you stay with me you will die again." Sam still won't look at him and he's down to a single blade of grass that is twirled between restless fingers. The hunter sounded disturbingly certain of that and Gabriel can't help his shiver.
"Why do you say that? What makes you so certain how the future will play out?" Gabriel snapped, a bit harsher then he'd intended.
"Because," Sam said slowly, voice steady if not empty, "everyone who loves me dies."
Gabriel wanted to deny it, to laugh in the hunter's face and call him a moron but he can't because it was true. In this whole mess of an Apocalypse anyone who had shown a bond with the Winchesters had become targets of Heaven and Hell both and in reality none made it out alive. If not for God cleaning up the mess his angelic children had created then most of those people would still be dead, some still were. So, yeah, Sam had a point but at the same time he was also missing one.
"Okay, yeah, that may have been true. Before." Gabriel sighed and shifted closer to filch the grass from Sam and forced the human to look at him. "You have to realize, Sam, that this didn't actually have anything to do with you. You and your brother...you guys drew the extremely short celestial straw and ended up in my Family's mess. You were merely a target and a victim of circumstances so far beyond your control it's sickening."
Sam watched him, brows furrowed and mouth tight but his eyes were keen on Gabriel's hands, which moved restlessly in gestures as he spoke. Now, Gabriel paused and laid his hand on Sam's cheek, tilting his head to meet the angel's eyes. The blade of grass was oddly cool against his cheek in contrast to Gabriel's skin.
"There is nothing wrong with you, Sam. It's over now and it doesn't matter who you love or who loves you. And believe me when I say that the only thing now that could drag me away from you would be God and I really think that would negate his reasoning for bringing me back." Gabriel said, voice fierce and determined with a hint of amusement.
"Wait." Sam blinked and gaped at him, "Are you saying He..."
"Brought me back specially so we could be together and make with the sexy times? Then yes. Not that he mentioned the sex bit but He knows me so He had to have realized that's part of the love package."
Sam looked a little shocked and Gabriel took the moment to lean forward that last bit and kiss the hunter softly and quickly. "Which means, Sammy, that we literally have permission of the Highest order for me to be with you. Can't ask for anything more then that, you know."
Sam felt like his mind was spinning too fast to keep up with and all he could think was 'Gabriel won't leave'. That...that was the single greatest thing he could have imagined. He came back to himself with a jolt and practically tackled the angel, fingers digging into fabric and mouths crushed together.
The single sliver of grass fell to the ground and Sam thought nothing of it. He had Gabriel now and the angel would be more then enough to ground him where he belonged.