Title: Bright Soul: Part Two(2/3)
Rating: PG-13, I suppose
Pairing: Sam/Gabriel, Dean/Castiel
Spoilers: None
Disclaimer: Hah, as if I seriously owned Supernatural.
Summery: Castiel has disappeared and the only one who knows what happened or where he has gone is Gabriel but the archangel won't tell, not unless the youngest Winchester does something for him first.
A/N: Alright, so this is the much demanded Part Two, unfortunately, or not depending on who's reading, I couldn't wrap this up in only one more part, there was just too much going on so I've decided to make this a three part fic. And this time I mean it, I promise to finish it then ;)
-Bright Souls: Part Two-
As it turned out, Gabriel's deal had been for nothing. Sam had told Dean that Castiel was at a diner somewhere north, exactly what Gabriel had told him but the archangel hadn't known where, or at least never said. The older Winchester's relief was carefully disguised under fury at Castiel for leaving them without a word. When questioned as to why the angel was there Sam only said that Castiel was taking some time to think and that Gabriel hadn't told him what. A small lie on Sam's part but he didn't want to be the one to tell Dean about Castiel's love for him, that would have to come from Castiel and no one else. Dean would never believe it otherwise.
All this was proven moot anyways, for by the time the brothers returned to their motel it was to find Castiel patiently waiting in their room, standing still by the side of Dean's bed.
Dean had been quick to anger but for whatever reason Castiel was even quieter then usual and only bowed his head to Dean's ranting, bright blue eyes intent on the eldest's every move. Eventually Dean had calmed down enough to wring a promise out of Castiel for the angel to let them know if he ever felt the need to disappear again. To Sam it sounded harsh and selfish, even though he knew the reasoning behind it, but Castiel's eyes were calm when he agreed, his voice low and deep.
That was three months ago, and Sam hadn't seen Gabriel since. Usually he wouldn't be thinking twice about it, after all it wasn't as if they ever really saw him at all in the first place but lately it seems like he keeps catching himself thinking about that kiss more then he should be. He can't quite understand why it feels so important to him, so Sam keeps trying his best to forget about it but the memory of Gabriel's chocolate taste haunts him almost as badly as his dreams of Lucifer used to, just in a completely different way.
That's not the only thing bothering him though. It seemed like ever since the incident, and doesn't that sound like it should be italicized or capitalized, things have been going better then ever for them. Not in any big noticeable way or anything, in fact it seems like Sam's the only one who's noticed. It was all in the little stuff; hunts going easier like their luck has never been higher, finding cheap hotel/motels that actually have hot water and proper heating or softer beds, or even Sam sifting through the often tedious supernatural research to find the answer to their current problem faster then ever. It was small but unnerving, at least to Sam. He hadn't had such a relaxing time since Stanford and Sam was growing increasingly anxious, just waiting for that other shoe to drop and pile them with a load of evil crap. And it would because that's just how the Winchester's luck works. A shitload of bad always followed a good time.
Sam's not sure if he should be smug that he was right or pissed that they can't ever get a real break because right now he's never been in such pain.
Castiel had caught a whiff of demon during his occasional travels away from the brothers and led them to Detroit to burn a small nest of the evil things but as Winchester ways would have, the other shoe fell and it had to have belonged to one of those giants mentioned in lore that supposedly lived in the sky.
There were more demons then they had been expecting, dozens more. They had enough time to see Castiel's stunned and shamed expression before the pack attacked. The three of them held their own fairly well before the numbers just grew too overwhelming and then the brothers were separated. Dean was struggling but he had Castiel watching his back with obsessive intent and Sam was left to fend for his own. He wasn't doing bad but then one of them managed to slip behind him and Sam never saw the attack coming. One moment he was jerking Ruby's knife out of a demon housed in a pretty blonde and the next he felt the most searing pain ever explode at the middle of his back. His breath was robbed from him in an instant and he felt as the demon twisted the claws embedded in his flesh.
Suddenly he was surrounded, crowed on all sides by demonic black eyes and gleeful, sharp toothed smiles. Laughter washed foul breath over his face and Sam's eyes watered at the intense smell, ears ringing with the sound of sadistic happiness. The claws ripped themselves free, prompting another agonizing wave of pain and he dropped to the ground.
Dimly, he heard Dean's scream of his name but all Sam could see were black eyes, and beyond those a bright flash of yellow-white that the back of his mind registered as Castiel's demon exorcising light. One of the demons gripped him by the front of his shirt and raised him up, his weight nothing to an unnatural being's strength, to breathe in his face and sneer.
"Well, if it ain't the youngest Winchester. The lowly vessel of my Lord, the stupid human who is trying to destroy everything we've worked so hard for." The demon's borrowed face was twisted in hate and rage, and if the sounds coming from the others was any indicator then the rest of the demons felt just the same. The monster's grip shifted slightly, enough for Sam to feel how his blood was making the back of his shirt stick to his skin, and he flinched when a hand was curled almost gently around his chin, lifting his face to meet eyes with the demon. Sam stared back defiantly, refusing to back down to this thing.
The demon grinned. "Oh, boy, we are going to make you scream." It purred, fingers digging cruelly into his jaw and Sam managed to spit in the other's face, surprised to see that it was made more of blood then saliva and was given only a moment to worry about that before the demon shrieked in rage and slammed him into the ground. The sudden crash of his own weight on his injured back was nearly enough to make him pass out then and there but he just barely held on.
"SAM!" Dean's frantic scream brought him a little further back to consciousness and he managed only a little groan before a booted foot caught him across the ribs with unnatural force and drilled what little breath he'd had straight from his body. There was a low, evil snicker and then it became a kicking free for all, the demons acting as if he were a giant soccer ball. It only took a few solid connections before even the pain couldn't keep him awake anymore and the world disappeared behind his tightly closed eyes.
It was exactly four months to the day since his kiss with Gabriel and oddly enough it was the only thing Sam could think of as his life faded from his body.
Suddenly there was a strong force surrounding him, a bright light that slammed his soul none too gently back into his body.
"Not gonna happen, Winchester. I've put far too much effort into you just to lose you now. Not when I'm so close."
Faintly, Sam recognized the voice and it covered him with a warmth like the softness of the clouds. It was Gabriel, that much he was sure. It was everything else that didn't make any sense.
"Come on, Sammy. Open those pretty eyes of your's."
He almost did, because it was Gabriel asking and Sam really wanted to see the archangel again but something held him back and he balked as he remembered. Remembered the utter agony that accompanied being aware and alive.
"Please, Sam. Please…"
The voice had dimmed to a whisper, but it hit Sam harder then those claws ripping into his back had earlier. It sounded desperate, heartbroken and just so pained that he finally lost all will to resist, allowing the love laced in those words to coax him back to life.
Sam returned to awareness slowly, first feeling the hard ground beneath then the strong arms wrapped tightly around him. His first inhale hitched painfully, since he'd been expecting a rush of agony that never came and there was an audible gasp of unfathomable relief close to his ear. Something shifted around him and Sam finally opened his eyes, then all he could see was a rich gold color infused with so many emotions that he was pretty sure some of them didn't even have names. He blinked and the whole world rushed back, making Sam flail as panic shot through him.
"Sam! You're okay! Relax." Gabriel's soothing voice and those golden eyes holding his own managed to calm him enough to breath.
"Gabriel?" He whispered tentatively and the archangel gave him a beaming smile.
"Yeah, I'm here, kiddo."
"Sammy?" Dean's voice sounded broken with emotion and Sam didn't have to look far to find his brother. Dean was crowed close on his other side, Castiel hovering over his shoulder, both of them looking worried and relieved at the same time even if the expression was stronger on Dean then the other angel.
"Dean." He breathed, feeling the rest of him relax now that he was sure all of them were safe and his brother smiled weakly as he grabbed hold of his hand, squeezing in reassurance.
"You nearly gave me a Goddamn heart attack, Sammy." Dean scolded half-heartedly, relief too strong for it to have much force. Sam absently noticed that Castiel didn't even blink at the blasphemy and couldn't help his oddly amused smile at that.
"Sorry." He said, his voice sounding a little rough even to his own ears. He looked back at Gabriel, who was still watching him closely. "What happened?"
There was a moment of tense silence where Gabriel cast a heated glare at Dean and Castiel, who both blinked in surprise, before turning back to Sam. "You idiots got in over your heads again and this time I wasn't around to keep you safe." There was a glimmer of self-reproach in the back of the archangel's honey eyes that made Sam's heart kick.
The last bit of that sunk in then and Sam's eyes widened. "It was you." He breathed in surprised wonder. "You were the one doing all that stuff."
Sam could practically feel Dean and Castiel's confusion but Gabriel grinned slightly, "And the golden boy finally figures it out."
"But why?" Sam asked quietly, eyes searching Gabriel's but the archangel only placed a hand over Sam's, the one Dean wasn't still clutching.
"Later, Sammy." He said gently. "We need to skedaddle before anymore demons are drawn here by the light show I has to use to kill the others."
That sounded like a wonderful idea, so he nodded and allowed Dean and Gabriel to help him back on his feet and out of the old building, Castiel following behind like an alert and loyal guard dog.
Dean insisted they drive back and Sam agreed, much to the spoken frustration of Gabriel and the quiet exasperation of Castiel but both the humans needed the familiarity of being on the road. They needed the unique satisfaction and safety the sound of the Impala invoked and both angels reluctantly acknowledged this.
Despite their dislike for that particular mode of transportation the angels rode in the back with the brothers, Dean's rock music releasing some of the terror that had stolen over at the close call of death almost befalling one of them again.
Once back at the hotel, Gabriel stepped back and let Dean usher Sam onto one of the beds and look him over, despite the younger's repeated attempts to say he was fine. Dean's stance never relaxed until he had assured himself that Sam was in fact okay and once his unspoken approval was given the whole room gave a silent sigh.
"You don't get to do that, Sammy." Dean muttered, "We're both too young to be dying again anytime soon."
Sam gave his brother's hand a quick squeeze in apology and Dean nodded once before standing straight and turning to the angels. "What the Hell happened back there? You said there were only few of those things, Cas."
Castiel bowed his head, shoulders stiff in shame. "My apologies, it seems as though my senses are not as…keen as they once were."
Dean couldn't muster the strength to be angry, not when Castiel already sounded so pitiful. Besides, he just knew the lower angel was already beating himself up over it and at this point Dean's anger would only make things worse.
"This whole incident was not solely Castiel's fault." Gabriel snapped, he felt no reason not to be angry. "Both of you should have known better then to walk into a situation like that without first gathering more information. Your reliance on an angel has made you two complacent and if it weren't for me Sam would be dead!"
As it always was when his skills are a hunter are questioned, Dean surged in furious defiance but Sam's hand on his arm stopped the elder in his tracks. Sam's face was serious as he gazed calmly at the archangel. "Thank you, Gabriel." He said quietly and the angel stared at him for a long moment before rolling his eyes.
"Whatever." Gabriel muttered, summoning a candy bar and seeming to forget the entire conversation.
Dean turned toward Sam and urged him to lay down. "You need to get some rest, Sam."
"I'm fine, Dean." At his brother's doubtful look Sam decided to amend that statement. "Okay, yeah I am tired but I'm more hungry then anything."
Dean allowed a small grin and shook his head. "Alright, I'll run out and grab something real quick."
Sam nodded and leaned back against the headboard, watching curiously as Gabriel and his brother held an oddly meaningful gaze. Finally Dean nodded slightly and headed for the door. "Hey, Cas, you coming or what?"
Castiel looked surprised at the invitation but with an incline of his head toward Sam and the other angel he quickly followed. The door closed and everything was still.
From where he was leaning against the wall Gabriel sighed heavily, candy bar held loosely in his hand. Sam eyed him uncertainly before whispering the archangel's name. Gabriel was staring intently at the candy bar then he opened his hand and let it fall but before the chocolate even reached the ground Gabriel was suddenly on the bed and hugging Sam with a force born of desperation.
His arms were tight and the Winchester found himself instantly basking in the warmth surrounding him as Gabriel buried his face in the crook between Sam's neck and shoulder. Without hesitation Sam wrapped his arms around the angel in return and the tension in Gabriel's body slowly leaked away.
"It was too close, Sam. I came too close to losing you." The words were barely whispered into his skin but Sam heard them anyway and felt his heart swell.
"I'm sorry." He said, just as softly.
Gabriel just shook his head, hair brushing Sam's jaw, and tried to press himself even closer. "I can't. I can't lose you." The barely concealed panic broke something within Sam and he slid a hand into Gabriel's hair. He had nothing to say to that so instead he tugged gently on the other's hair, encouraging Gabriel to look him in the eyes. "I'm not going anywhere." He said softly, "I promise." To seal the deal, Sam leaned forward and kissed Gabriel, taking all the emotions he couldn't say and shoving them into the kiss.
It was a new sensation, kissing Gabriel, but oddly enough it felt like coming home. It felt right and it felt as if he finally had someplace he truly belonged.
Gabriel gave a full body shiver and pressed himself impossibly closer, tongue doing its damnedest to lick his tonsils and just overall making Sam's toes curl. He moaned and Gabriel echoed the sound, squirming on his lap in a way that forced Sam to break the kiss in order to hiss at the friction. His world had narrowed to this and only this. Everything was focused on the beautiful archangel plastered to his front, on the darkened honey eyes that saw everything and didn't seem to care.
Gabriel breathed in deeply and lifted his hands from Sam's hips to place them instead on either side of the human's head. "You need to know, Sam." He whispered, painfully serious and Sam's insides froze, expecting yet more terrible news.
"You need to know that I love you."
There was a loud rushing sound in his ears and a thundering that he only distantly recognized as his own heartbeat. The whole world was frozen, waiting with baited breath for something Sam couldn't see. All he could see was the warm yellow shine of the sun in his eyes and a tight feeling in his chest that was bordering on painful.
"Sammy. Sam!"
Gabriel's loud voice and a shake to his shoulders convinced the world to reluctantly begin again and Sam suddenly took a sharp breath, that pain receding as he did.
"What?" He muttered, dazed by something he couldn't be sure of.
"You scared me, kiddo. Kinda stopped breathing there. I know I'm awesome and all but you have to remember to breathe." The words sounded like a joke but Gabriel's face was still serious and his gazed fixed on Sam.
Abruptly the hunter remembered what he'd just been told and forced himself to inhale. "You're serious?" It came out shaky and sounding as if he'd just be resurrected again.
Gabriel scowled slightly, "Of course. I'm a Trickster but I told you I don't lie."
"Maybe not but you do twist the truth." That had to be it. Gabriel wanted something from him, Sam just didn't know what yet.
"Okay, yeah. Point there, Sammy." Gabriel bowed out to that easily enough, a proud gleam to his eyes that made Sam's stomach flutter. "But there is nothing twisted to this. I promise you that as an Archangel."
That's right. Gabriel was an Archangel, one of God's most powerful creations and a being worthy of so much more then what a broken and tainted half-human like himself could offer.
"Stop it, Sam!" Gabriel snarled fiercely, close to his face. "You are not broken, nor are you anything tainted, do you hear me? If you cannot believe yourself then believe me. I am an archangel, yes, and I'm in love with you."
That sounded good, far too good to be real but there was no denying the body curled so tightly around him. "Why me, Gabriel?" The tone of defeat couldn't be hidden and Sam just didn't know what to make of anything anymore.
"Why not you?" The angel snapped back, defensive on Sam's behalf. "You have more heart in your pinky finger then most other humans have in their whole bodies. You've sacrificed nearly everything for the people you love and you love with everything you have. What about that is there not to love? You Winchesters may have this ridiculous belief in self-sacrifice but you're selfless and loyal and beautiful in ways nothing else can hold a candle to."
Sam was suitably cowed, momentarily thrown off by the sheer passion and honest belief Gabriel had for what he was saying. "I've never heard you talk like that before." Sam muttered vaguely, lost on what to say in response. To his surprise, Gabriel blushed a bit and smirked.
"You've had quite the influence on me, Sammy."
"It's Sam."
"Sure thing, Sammy."
Sam sighed but the smile curling his lips felt good and he let the expression grow as it wished. "So, you really love me then."
"That's what I said." Gabriel was grinning now in response to Sam's own smile, the younger Winchester had always held that kind of power over him. He found it impossible not to smile when the other was.
"Well, good." Sam breathed, lifting a hand to slide into Gabriel's shorter but still pleasantly grown hair. "I think I love you, too."
Both of Gabriel's eyebrows shot up in surprise, having honestly not expected such an admission from the human so soon. "Really now?"
Sam nodded, scratching his nails against Gabriel's skull and savoring the shiver that issued.
"Even after everything I've done to you and your brother?"
"You were only doing what you thought was necessary to avoid all the pain that you knew would arrive with the Apocalypse. Your intentions were good and honest and I know what you were trying to teach me even though I still don't agree. I forgave you a long time ago, Gabriel."
Forgiveness. Gabriel was blown away. That was the one thing he had never asked for because not once had he ever expected to be granted it and yet here he was, receiving forgiveness from the one person he'd hurt almost beyond repair. The archangel was humbled in a way he would never say, his love for this particular example of a human only swelling in his Grace. "I just don't deserve you, Sam." He whispered brokenly against the hunter's mouth.
"And I don't deserve anything as amazing as you but I still love you." Was Sam's response.
Gabriel barked a short laugh and grinned. "We are such a match."
"A match made in Heaven." Sam quipped, enjoying the way Gabriel's eyes widened for the briefest second before the smile brightened the archangel's face.
"Oh, I definitely got the better Winchester."
Sam laughed and tugged Gabriel's mouth back to his, melding their lips together. Gabriel didn't let it go far though because he could sense their brother's approach and knew that now wasn't the time for a big reveal. He pulled away, missing the warmth of Sam's mouth instantly but grinned at the pout sent his way. "Sorry, Sammy but our Bros are close and I don't think Dean will take too kindly to finding out that I'm trying to jump his newly healed little brother."
Sam groaned, clearly agreeing and he tapped the human's nose. "Soon though, I promise. Your ass is mine now and I'm marking it as soon as we get separate rooms." Gabriel growled, grinding his hips against Sam's in a promise of things to come. Sam whimpered, a delicious sound that nearly shredded Gabriel's control but he forced himself off the bed, ignoring the anguish swirling in his gut at the separation. He left Sam to pant himself calm and leaned against the wall as near as he could get without being obvious.
Gabriel guessed that he hadn't succeeded as well as he'd hoped if the studying and curious blue gaze of Castiel was anything to go by when the two returned. Ah well, it wasn't as if the other angel could talk, Castiel was as obvious as a neon sign around Dean but the human was proving amazingly oblivious.
Hmmm, that was yet another thing he'd have to take care of, just as soon as he bound Sam to himself of course.
Gabriel watched in amusement as Dean fussed over his brother, an oddly endearing sight, and judging by the slight smile on Castiel's face the other angel thought so as well.
Seriously, those two need a closet and soon. Gabriel made a mental note to make sure the next motel he nudges them toward will have rooms with closets.
Sam lets out a grunt and meets Gabriel's eyes over Dean's head, smiling as if he knows exactly what the archangel is thinking. Gabriel figures he probably does, Sam is kind of amazing like that. And soon, that amazing will belong to him.
Gabriel can't wait.
End. Of Part Two.
A/N: There we go. Hope you all liked and Part Three should be along in just a few days. All that's left is the NC-17(Yayy!) bonding of Sam and Gabe and the trick of getting Cas and Dean together. Should be fun and hope to see you all there!