"Mr. Loki here, tell me your dreams and I'll be sure to mail them to Thor."
"Gabriel."
One word. The honey-haired man grinned. Still, he knew exactly who it was. Who else was so straightforward with such a husky voice? "Yes, Cassy?"
"Don't call me that."
Some relief breathed life into his old soul. The last time he had called Castiel that, it hadn't warranted a reaction. No, the SAR officer had been too hyped up on painkillers to even notice that Gabriel had been there. "Anything you happen to want or are you just calling to say hi?"
"I would… I would like my vacation now."
What Cassy didn't know was that he was already on it. Two weeks into it, actually. That's okay, though, Gabriel had figured he'd give Castiel a month at most. He'd never taken a sick day before and he was definitely one of the most hardworking officers Gabriel had ever had to deal with. "Sure, Cassy –"
"Don't call me –"
"I'll want you back by the first of October."
"… Thank you, Gabriel." There was some background noise, an agonized scream like something off of a horror movie. The line was muffled, most likely by Castiel's hand, but he heard the officer's shushes anyway.
Judging by the tone of Cassy's voice and how the scream reduced to whimpers before becoming a sleepy grumble, Gabe could guess that someone had just woken up from a pretty bad nightmare. Except it couldn't have been Cassy, he was the one on the phone, so who?
He puckered his lips as he pondered the both dark and yet juicy mystery. For one, that was obviously a very haunted soul. But… he was pretty sure that that scream had something to do with Castiel's vacation.
He would have to go down and check that out, wouldn't he? "Cassy, anything you want to tell me?"
This time, Castiel didn't correct him. "Nothing." He was too quick to respond. "I will return by the first of October." Then he hung up.
Gabriel put the phone down for a second, stuck in awed silence.
And then he called home, waiting on giddy nerves for his lover to pick up.
"Hello?" his lover yawned on the other end, adorably tired and obviously just out of bed. Maybe not even out of it, maybe he was still beneath the covers where Gabriel had left him after three hours of very, very fulfilling sex. That would mean that he was naked, Gabe's spunk dried between his thighs, and his moose-y angel would have bed hair.
The vision was so powerful, Gabriel drooled on his desk. "I need you."
There was a groan. "Gabe, I love you and all, but can't you just, y'know, sleep like everyone else in the world?"
"As much as I would love to need you that way right now – which, actually, I do – that's not what I'm talking to."
God bless his boytoy, but he felt his lover become serious over the phone. "Gabe, is everything okay?"
"You said you were born in Lawrence, Kansas, right?"
There was a tense pause, one that he knew for a fact harbored many beautiful and terrible memories.
"You mind going there with me?"
He believed for a complete ten seconds that his lover would deny him. His giant-sized sweetheart had a thing against going anywhere near the state of Kansas. There was something there that he was avoiding and had been for the past two and a half years.
And then, "O-Okay… but, when we get there, there's, uh, something I have to do…"
"Okie dokie, kiddo." He sensed that he was about to be hung up on. "Wait!"
A heavy sigh answered him. "What now? Please don't tell me you want me to make you some of those pancakes for when you get home…"
"No, no, nothing like that… okay, that would be awesome, though – and if you truly love me, maybe you'd like to do that for me… but, no, that wasn't what I was going for."
There was shuffling and he knew that his lover boy was out of bed, hopefully heading towards the kitchen. The sound of the shower being turned on disappointed him. "Okay, I'll do that… first, just let me clean off."
He grinned triumphantly. "Sammy boy, I just wanted to tell you that I love you." He made kissy noises into the mouthpiece. "I want to be there with you right now, making sweet, sweet love to you…"
His lover rumbled out a chuckle. "I love you too, Gabe."
They hung up and he reveled in the victory of his love life.
Two and a half years ago when he had first met Sam, a kid doing part time at a garage in town, he had been a bitter man with a gun in the waistband of his jeans. Their relationship had been trial after trial, the first one actually being getting Sam to trust him. The second had been getting Sam back into law school and then getting Sam to love him a little more than a friend.
The first night they had had sex, Gabe had felt both blessed and terrified. As much as he liked his lovers big, a part of him had been intimidated by having Sammy spread out on his bed, waiting for him. Though more of him had been damned turned on. But then a small part of him had been fully aware that Sam had had a knife by the bed the entire time.
Here he was nearly three years later, though, and Sam was admitting his love to him. Oh, yeah, life was great.
Life was beautiful.
~ :: ~
Castiel and Dean lied down in bed, not having sex but just holding each other.
Dean had covered the bulletin board the moment he saw it, as if he just knew it meant something terrible. And he had flushed all the pills and powders he had found in Castiel's apartment down the toilet, met only with compliance on the officer's part.
When he had finally stopped, he had taken a nap. Meanwhile, Castiel had made his call.
Dean had woken up with a scream.
Now they were facing each other, unwilling to let go. Demons were riding them like they were whores, faces behind both their eyes, and they couldn't go to sleep.
Dean softly admitted that he hadn't gone to sleep without Michael, his 'Master', since having first met him two years ago. Castiel admitted that he had insomnia.
They stayed together in silence. Castiel's marine blue quilt was pulled over them, both of them naked. They knew nothing was going to happen, they didn't plan on letting anything happen, not yet. But their hands occasionally got curious and it was a surprisingly warm night for mid-September to begin with, so they stripped and huddled together.
Castiel stroked his hands across scarred skin, both of them marred, and lulled Dean eventually into sleep. He didn't wake back up and his face remained relaxed, only as long as Castiel rubbed his left shoulder. It was strange, but anywhere else and Dean would begin to whimper and his muscles would twitch, like he wanted to move but knew better than to do so.
Castiel wrapped his hand loosely around Dean's bicep, a brief image in his mind of having his handprint tattooed there. That way, Dean would never be afraid again. Castiel's hand would always be there, soothing him. A permanent part of him.
Lost in Dean and how to keep his promise, he hadn't realized he hadn't spared a thought to the number thirty-two or what it entailed. He blinked, slowly but surely, and then he blinked again.
This time, though, he didn't open his eyes again.
They laid there, Dean in the depths of Castiel's embrace like he's a shield and Castiel holding on to Dean like a lifeline. They slept.
~ :: ~
Sam had left Gabriel at the hotel room, needing to do this alone.
He just… he had never meant to… he wanted…
Dean was his big brother. He deserved an explanation… No, not that, Dean most likely already knew why he had left. He had needed to find Jess's killer, it had been more important to him than his own life and even Dean's and that…
It wasn't something he could apologize for. On top of finding Jess's killer (though he had been less than pleased with the outcome. He had wanted to kill that bastard, rip him to shreds and make him experience Jess's pain. But the lawyer in him had instead turned him into the police to be judged as the culprit in multiple other rapes and murders), Gabriel had found him. That wasn't something he would ever undo.
But Dean… he had left Dean behind, left him in the dark. He had never called or mailed or even emailed. Two words, all he had ever had to say were two words: I'm okay. Yet he had said nothing. He had left Dean alone and…
Not until Gabe had told him he was coming here had Sam worked up the courage to finally admit his mistake. Was it too late to be forgiven? Was it too late to get back into Dean's life?
He had been drowning in all of these insecurities since getting on the plane in. He'd been so obsessed, he hadn't even noticed the pitying gazes of the townspeople.
He'd been so worried, he hadn't even realized that Dean's prized Impala was a skeleton of its previous glory right off the porch. Then again, Dean wouldn't have even recognized the heap of warped metal.
The door opened slowly and behind it was a stranger. He was about a six inches shorter than Sam and, judging by how he looked up at Sammy, he didn't like that.
Sam took a step back. His lawyer senses were tingling.
Something wasn't right here. Well, aside from the fact that there was a complete stranger in his big brother's house. "Who are you?" he growled at the golden-haired man, feeling the muscles in his back bunch with tension.
"Wouldn't you like to know."
"Yeah, I would," he growled. Something bad was about to happen, he could feel it, the bad feeling was choking him. "And I'd like to know what the hell you're doing in my brother's house."
The stranger opened the door further and behind him were three men. Two of them were black and the last one was balding and chubby.
Sam clenched and unclenched his hands at his sides. He was strong, definitely. And he was big. But there were four of them and one of him. Not only that, but they were looking and standing like they knew what they were doing. Not just like they thought they knew what they were doing, but they had built up experience to be certified killers. And they had guns.
"Why don't you come in and find out for yourself, Sam Winchester?"
~ :: ~
He woke up alone, a message on the bedside counter saying that Sam had gone out and wouldn't be back for awhile. He'd call Gabe when he was coming back.
It was signed: Love you, Gabe, and even through the careful, neat writing, he could feel Sammy's nervousness of the message through his letter. So shy, his moose-y lover. He grinned and kissed the note, rolling back over in bed.
He was aware of the fact that he should be in a hurry, but, really? How good would he be in a possibly dangerous situation if he was half-asleep and craving sweets?
Humming, he settled right back into the soft-as-marshmallows bed.
It was about three in the afternoon when he finally went out looking for Cassy. What? He just couldn't be pressured into getting up in the morning, no matter the circumstance.
Gabriel found Castiel's apartment with minimal trouble. Supplied with an extra key, he let himself in, whistling a soft tune beneath his breath.
Full of gusto, he swept into the small space, throwing his arms out wide like he wanted to embrace the world. "Cassy, I've come for you!"
Except as Gabriel was saying that he was winding deeper into the room. There was an incomplete wall between the living room and what appeared to be the bedroom, one he didn't think to not go through.
On the mattress he discovered his officer and a blonde wrapped around each other like they were one another's only defense against Hell. The blonde was pressed into Cassy's chest, like he was trying to hide in his heart, and Castiel was holding Dean as tightly as a lost child would hold a teddy bear. No matter what angle he looked at it, they both looked broken.
Gabe almost considered walking away. He couldn't remember the last time Castiel had slept.
Then again, if he was sleeping now, that meant he could sleep later.
He leapt onto the bed and bounced up and down. "Wakey, Cassy, wakey, Cassy, wakey, Cassy – "
He stopped immediately, the same moment the mysterious lover looked at him. He didn't care for their green shade, not for the cracks and shadows of a broken soul.
What got him was how dead he looked, as if Gabe was about to take something from him he knew he wasn't going to fight for.
Castiel was up only a second afterward, blue eyes flickering open to peer questioningly at Gabriel. He didn't seem to mind that the fragile person in his arms curled deeper into his embrace, appearing to only make his own embrace tighter. "Don't call me that," he rumbled. He swept his lips across the man's forehead. "'Morning, Dean…"
"Cas…" Dean's voice was full of uncertainty and even a bit of resignation.
"He won't harm you, he's a colleague of mine." He sat up and the quilt on him pooled around his waist. "Gabriel, this is Dean Winchester. Dean, this is my boss, Gabriel Loki." He turned a hard look on Gabriel. "What are you doing here?"
"Me? Oh, I was just checking in on my favorite officer~" he studied the room around him.
There were no pills, no alcohol, and no baggies. The bulletin board across from the bed was covered with a marine blue sheet.
Gabriel, from experience, knew what was on that board.
Aside from the bed and the board, there was nothing else to determine that the motel room was Cassy's. He obviously hadn't been planning on staying long.
"Why are you checking on me?" Castiel asked suspiciously. Dean was trying his hardest to pretend that Gabe wasn't there, going as far as to wrap his arms around Cassy's waist and burrowing his face against his back. Castiel rested a hand on his left shoulder and stroked.
That surprisingly seemed to calm him a bit.
"I heard screaming." He leered. "I thought my little Cassy was finally going to get laid."
Sometimes, even he was annoyed by how insensitive he was.
Dean whimpered and, really? Gabriel couldn't take it. It wasn't like he was skin and bones, something that needed protection from everything. There was actual meat to him, not just that, but muscle. He could see it bulging from his biceps and triceps as he squeezed Castiel's waist, the twitching bulk of his back and side. Considering the folds of the blanket on top of him, Gabe could even guess that Dean was taller than both other men in the room.
Dean wasn't small or puny. So why was he so clingy and brittle?
Castiel glared at Gabriel, pulling the quilt up to block Dean from view. "We have only slept together."
He eyed the clothing at the edge of the bed. "Huh."
"Just. Sleep. Nothing else."
"Of course, Cassy – "
"Don't call – "
Gabe's phone rang. "Excuse me while I get that."
In the next room, he grinned feral-y at the picture ID and flipped his cell open. "Yo, Sammy boy, miss me already?"
"Gabriel," the voice that answered was certainly not Sammy's, but that didn't make it any less recognizable.
Gabriel's grin was wiped off his face.
"You wouldn't mind going on a little hunt for me, would you? I'm looking for Dean Winchester. His little brother just isn't as entertaining." As if to mock Gabriel, there was a scream of pain and then a sick laugh as background noise.
"I swear to God, Michael, if you harm him – "
"What's this? My brother with commitment problems is going to threaten me over a boy?"
"Damn straight." Because Sam was worth it.
And then his mind went blank. Wait, Dean Winchester? Sam, his little brother?
Gabriel looked back to the room divider, as if he could see through it to the two men lying on the bed.
That was what Sam had wanted to do so badly and yet had been so scared of. Dean Winchester…
Sammy had an older brother, one he had never told Gabriel about. That hurt, man. But that wasn't the most important thing on his mind, either.
"Bring Dean home and I'll give back Sam. Don't bother asking for directions, just have my little one lead you. If it so happens that you can't find Dean…" Ominously, the message ended there.
Gabriel had a white-knuckled clutch on the small device.
He slipped back into the bedroom and both men were already dressed. Castiel looked at him instantly but Dean took a moment longer to follow.
"Dean Winchester… Deano…" He grinned with fake suave as he saddled up to the two boys. "Tell me, how good are you at strategies? Because, let me tell you, my big brother just called, saying that he had my lover in his custody. And, apparently, my lover is…" he pointed an accusing finger at Dean, "your baby brother… I didn't even know he had a brother!"
Dean's face was pale and getting paler by the second. "S-Sammy…?"
"Wait for it, Deano, don't start freaking out yet 'cause here's the really freaky part. My big brother… was asking for you. Now, tell me honestly, do you happen to know a so-so tall guy with eyes like mine? Name's Michael? Really psycho?"
Dean looked as if Gabriel had just stabbed him. Castiel had a hand over his shoulder and that didn't seem to be helping him at all.
"Now… what would my big brother… want with you?"
