Hey hey hey it's me, back at it again with the shipping and filler chapters!
Yeah, chapter 12 should be faster and come out sooner, right before chapter 13, which, like all 'lucky number 13's is where everything goes to shit. This one and chapter 12 are just sorta semi-filler chapters.
Also, regarding Sam's characterization at the end of this chapter, I often feel like he'd be the one totally down for some sort of human contact, and offer comfort because that's just Sam. If you don't like it though, let me know and I'll try to keep it more in character.
The AKA for this chapter is 'Netflix and Chill'. I'll let you take that where you think.
{September, 1909}
Fear ate away at people.
In this case, the fear of demons tore at every hunter's heart.
All, except for Gabriel.
At the moment, he was worried about being discovered.
Isabelle had come to the Bunker, in all her furious glory. She arrived with half her dress covered in blood, Priscilla missing from her side.
'Priscilla and I are working alone for a bit.' Was how she had explained. 'I've brought more demon research for Gabriel.' Except she didn't say 'Gabriel'. She said 'angel', just like always.
Isabelle had invited herself in, Like always, following Gabriel to his room as he worked to translate the book. Taking extra time, Gabriel attempted to circumvent any suspicion from the mute hunter, but it didn't seem to work.
"Hey, random question." Gabriel sat up from the old vellum book, looking back at Isabelle. "Why do you call me 'angel'?" He asked innocuously. "Is it just because my name is Gabriel or..."
'You know, I'm not surprised that an angel is a shitty liar.' Isabelle signed back, leaning on the table. 'They aren't built to be good liars, are they, Gabriel?'
Gabriel's innocent half-smile fell, and he looked up, eyes empty of all emotion at Isabelle, who met him with an equally cold expression.
He wasn't sure if he should laugh it off, or fake it, or make it better in some way, or just admit to it.
"...When did you figure it out?"
'Ever since I stepped foot in this Bunker. Don't worry. You and me are one and the same.' Isabelle replied, violet eyes lowered to the floor.
It took a moment for Gabriel to place the feeling that he recognized around Isabelle.
"...You're a fifth generation Werewolf." He announced to the quiet space.
She nodded. 'One of the few. True blood wolf, too.'
"So then you have a wolf form." Gabriel remembered, pulling forward a book of monsters.
Fifth generation werewolves, when they were pure blood, not mixed, could have a spell cast over their pregnancy that allowed them a grand many abilities. For example, full wolf form. Not just fangs, and teeth, full on, gigantic grey wolf. He had only ever met one once. They had fur like armour, muscles like coiled springs, and enough bite strength to bend metal. They were essentially the apex form of all werewolves, more resistant to silver, in full control of both their forms, and, like all bred wolves, they could shift at any time. The only way to fully kill them was to cut them in half.
'Of course.' Isabelle signed. 'I smelled angel the day I walked in here. So, angel... what is your real name?'
"You really wanna know?" Gabriel chuckled sarcastically. "...It's Gabriel. Just Gabriel."
Isabelle froze. 'As in... A-R-C-H angel?' She spelled out in hand signs, eyes wide.
"...Yeah. As in Archangel." Gabriel flipped a page of the text she had brought him, reading the Enochian as easily as English. "...We're one and the same, you're right. Both uncommon uniquities in our species."
'I do not believe that is a word. U-N-I-Q-U-I-T-I-E-S.' She spelt.
"Hey, I'm an Archangel." Gabriel shrugged. "I'm allowed to bend the rules a bit."
The bond between them only grew, a soft sense of kinship and alignment with all other special creatures in their species.
'That is why you translate so well. You have seen much of this place.' She signed, tapping her hands to her head in a gesture of realization. 'Much of this earth.'
"You'd be right. But the shit that you must know as a... As a wolf." He made a small motion with his hand, flipping another page. "...Just... Something spectacular, really." He sighed.
'There is always time for learning. Lessons and knowledge are an old thing for me.' She explained. 'I spent years away from Priscilla, learning as a wolf. I'm returning to that, Gabriel.' Isabelle signed slowly.
"Wait, hold on, you're... Running away?"
'Call it that if you will.' She signed. '...Priscilla is...'
"Priscilla found out." Gabriel filled in.
'Close enough to.' Isabelle responded with a small breath. '...You will not see me again. I am leaving to a hunt in Yellowstone. All evidence...' She paused. 'Will point to my death.'
"So this is it, huh?" Gabriel shut the book that she had brought with a definitive clap. "You're just... Leaving."
'I cannot live like this any further. I will be joining a wolf's pack in the caldera.' Isabelle signed with soft, careful movements.
"Can't live like what, Isabelle?" Gabriel stood up to face her. "Because trust me, running away from your problems, it's not... Not ideal."
'Judging by the fact you are here, you don't heed your own advice well.' Isabelle said with a faint, grim smirk.
"Yeah well... I've got all the time in the world."
'As do I, Gabriel.' She signed out his full name, in spelling. He realized it had been the first time that she had ever outright fully stated his name.
Gabriel let out a long-suffered sigh, picking up the book she had given him and flipping to the first page, picking his little gold and black pen off the table. "...So what now? Your secret dies with me, mine dies with you?"
'That... is how it will go. If you are... alright with that.' She signed haltingly, stunted and sharp.
"...As long as you give me something to remember this by." Gabriel held the pen out to her.
Isabelle glanced between the pen and the book, before nodding and taking it, signing a small message in flowing cursive, along with her name.
'...I cannot keep anything... to remind me of you.' She signed sadly.
"That's a lie." Gabriel stated, and reached into his pocket. Using his grace, he created a thin gold chain that would not break, standing up and clipping it around her throat. "...I will miss you, Isabelle."
'If my sister comes through here later... looking for me...' Isabelle's hand fell, and she opened her mouth. In a low, unused voice that didn't sound human, more animalistic, she spoke. "...Tell her where I went."
Gabriel understood. Let my sister find me. Let my sister get closure. Don't tell her what happened to me, but tell her where I am. She needs the finality. He nodded, and stepped in, wrapping the shorter wolf in his arms.
"...Goodbye, Isabelle the wolf."
"Goodbye... Gabriel the Archangel."
-{[|]}-
The knocking on the door was loud.
Loud and angry. Too angry. Too angry to be angry. More frantic, scared.
Gabriel didn't have to look at the soul of the person who stormed in past Marcus with a furious shove to know who it was.
Priscilla was on the hunt for her sister.
"Where is she?" Priscilla demanded as she whirled into the room, her dirty-blond hair in wisps and waves around her head, obviously having not been done in a while.
Silence and shocked looks answered her, which only had the effect of pissing her off.
"WHERE IS SHE!?" Priscilla roared, slamming a fist on the table and almost knocking over a glass of water. "She came here a week ago, I know that! She told me!"
Gabriel carefully closed the book on his lap, not letting the first page show.
"...Where..." Priscilla's hand uncurled from it's fist, spreading across the table. "...Where did my sister go?"
The break in her voice just about shattered Gabriel's insides.
"Priscilla... She... She went off to Yellowstone." He announced, making Pricilla's head swivel to focus on him with both endless pain and eternal rage. "Said she was hunting... Vampires? Werewolves? ...I'm sorry I don't remember." He said lowly. Guilt twisted up and crushed his insides.
"...Thanks, Gabe." She said, taking in a shaking breath. "...I'll go look. Thank you."
And just like that, she was gone.
{October, 1909}
The funeral was a month later.
A month of searching, of hiking through every inch of Yellowstone National Park and it's surrounding area, combing every tree.
Nothing supernatural would be coming to Yellowstone for a very long time, if the bodies left in their wake were anything to tell by.
Priscilla was a juggernaut, walking through anything inhuman. She slaughtered demons, vampires, even a werewolf pup in her rage. 'ISABELLE! WHERE IS SHE?!' Were the words always repeated, right before a knife went through their chest.
And nothing, not one kill, brought them closer to finding Isabelle.
Every so often, Gabriel was certain he'd see a wolf slip through the trees when he was on a hike. A wolf with brilliant, violet eyes, as if they'd been cut from the deepest amethyst.
He was never certain.
They held a pyre with an empty body, nothing more than a pile of sticks in a unique formation, and a small iron ring placed on top.
They had the funeral on the grassy knoll behind the Bunker, just as the snow was falling. The heat of the pyre and the chill of the October day seemed to be a cruel, mocking representation to the heat of everyone's anger and the iciness of Gabriel's guilt.
When the funeral was over, he took his book to the research room, turning on a single lamp, just for himself, before opening the book to the first page.
'To the other uniquity of an old species, Gabriel. Take care of them for me.
-Isabelle Greenwood'
Beside her name, a tiny paw print and fang were drawn, marked down in ink black as night.
Gabriel, for the first time in a long time, closed the book, curled on his side in the armchair, and silently cried for the family he had lost.
{November, 2013}
Gabriel spent his morning in Yellowstone, trying to do as much damage to an area as possible without triggering anything messed up.
He didn't know why he picked Yellowstone National Park, what with it's huge amounts of visitors, massive mountains and risk of volcanic activity, but once he figured out that some of the trees needed to be cleared because they were getting too dense, he tore into it like nothing else mattered.
The first roar and swipe of his hand released a spray of grace strong enough to obliterate a tree, scattering sawdust-like pieces of it across fifty feet at high velocity.
After that, he was just glad he had been smart enough to cloak what was going on there.
The second tree went in far larger chunks, taking bullet-sized holes out of logs and removing sections of bark like it was nothing. He shattered boulders and changed a few water flows, for a bit. He razed a few hundred cubic meters of ground cover because he was pissed.
When it was over, and his anger cooled, the rage in his chest dimming, Gabriel flew to the other side of the caldera and sat beside a dead tree, leaning back on the soft, rotting bark.
It was only moments before he locked onto the Greenwood pack and flew to a tree nearby, hiding in the branches.
The wolves were there, in all their semi-creature glory. The leader was a large, black and silver male who's soft lavender eyes twinkled with life and energy. Around his neck, a thin string of gold lay, the same necklace that he had made for his great great grandmother years ago.
The young alpha's name was Myron. Gabriel had kept an eye on Isabelle's pack when he had 'died', which was in many ways, fortunate. He had even spent a few months as a rogue wolf in the area, going to pay his respects at Isabelle's true grave.
Priscilla never did find her sister.
He still wasn't sure on the how of Priscilla being a human, and yet, Isabelle being a fifth generation werewolf. He was certain adoption had a part in it, and the girls had never been told that they were anything but siblings.
Isabelle had loved Priscilla deeply, but she had known what she was, and that she'd have to leave one day. Priscilla, on the other hand, had loved Isabelle like Dean loved Sam; She would sacrifice herself, kill others, and break moral codes for Isabelle.
He still wasn't sure which sister had been right.
Now though, Myron trotted into the rest of his pack, nosing a pup calmly out of his path. He sniffed around, checking the perimeter, before glaring at the tree where Gabriel resided.
Wreathing himself in grace, Gabriel took on a mimicry of Fenris' form, in golden fur and smaller stature, before climbing down the tree.
One of the females, a young one with soft brown fur, growled at him, but a single yip from Myron silenced her.
The alpha crept forward, sniffing at Gabriel quietly. While the language of wolves was not easy to translate, Gabriel still heard him talk. "I recognize you." Myron stated, pacing around Gabriel.
"You should." Gabriel responded with a tentative sniff of his own. "I was once a friend of your pack's first alpha."
"...Isabelle?" Myron questioned, staring at him with mute curiosity. "You are Gabriel. The one who's colour I still bear."
"As has every alpha born of Isabelle's bloodline." Gabriel nodded slowly, thoughtfully. "You will not be the last."
"You are welcome in this pack." Myron tapped noses with Gabriel, before stepping back. "...You are stressed. What ails you, brother?" With a tail flick, Myron gave a gesture to follow as he started to patrol around the camp.
"I have joined with a new pack. They are small, but they are strong. One of them... his mind is taken by another." Gabriel explained in simple terms, hoping the wolf would understand.
"And you wish to save him?" Myron questioned. Gabriel dipped his head in confirmation as they walked slowly about the trees. "...A long time ago, one of our young wolves was attacked by a Mountain Cat. After that, she became different, as though her mind was taken over. It was a long time to fix her, but we had to save her."
"How did you save her?" Gabriel asked, remembering all the things he had learned about Feline Parasitic Viruses. They basically made the infected animal crazy.
"We forced her to throw up the bad, eject it. Her recovery was long, and difficult, but she did recover." Myron flicked an ear at a wolf with silver and deep orange-red fur.
"She is your mate." Gabriel realized, watching her play with pups that weren't her own, but bonding nevertheless.
"Yes." The wolf responded, smiling faintly at the others. "...Protect your pack, Gabriel. Sometimes, you have to hurt them first, but..." He looked specifically at the female wolf. "They will recover stronger than before."
Watching the wolf, Gabriel noticed the scars on her stomach where fur would never fully regrow, and the limp in her left front side. When she ran, the fur blew over the wounds, and the limp vanished. She looked perfect, all alive and brilliant. It was then that he truly understood what Myron was telling him, and he began to realize what he needed to do.
"...Go save your friend, Gabriel." Myron encouraged.
Gabriel opened the door of the Bunker soundlessly, stepping inside while using some grace, reducing any noise he made even further. His wing, stiff from sitting in the sling all day, protested the slowness of the movement.
Normally, he wouldn't care. He would strut in powerfully, call out for one of the hunters as a joke, and Dean would return with swear words.
But it was 3:37 AM. And not even Gabriel was that big of a jerk.
He closed it just as quietly, slipping down the stairs to the main floor with silent footsteps.
It was then that he realized someone had left a light on for him.
That's nice. He thought. Completely unnecessary. But nice.
As he turned the corner into the lighted library, he realized that nobody had actually intentionally left on the light.
Sam was slumped over a book, snoring softly into it's aged pages, arms crossed under his head. Gabriel chuckled faintly, taking off his boots before walking over, patting Sam's ruffled, fluffy bed-head. "Hey." He called gently, scratching at the hunter's scalp. "Hey, get up." He laughed slightly at Sam's displeased moan. "You're gonna have one hell of a kink in your back, kiddo, unless you get into an actual bed."
"F'ck 'ff." Sam mumbled, turning his face into his arms, away from the invasive presence and light.
"I mean, if you feel like waking up with a knot in your back..." Gabriel retaliated by digging his knuckles into Sam's spine, making the taller man snap upright and arch back with a strangled noise.
"Ow!" Sam exclaimed, glaring back at the Archangel, who shrugged.
"Hey, I'm just doing you a favour." He shook his head slightly, then winced when his wing resisted the motion again.
"Did you hurt your wing again?" Sam asked, looking at him closely.
"Not hurt, just... it's stiff. Sitting in this sling all day, y'know?"
Sam gave him a curious look. "...Want to go sit in my room for a while? You woke me up, might as well watch Netflix."
"Why Sammoose..." Gabriel smirked, trying to cover the fact that his grace had just about sprang out of his body to wrap around that soft, warm soul, to cuddle it and love it because for everything that Sam had done, he still had the prettiest soul Gabriel had seen in a long time. "Are you asking me to 'Netflix and Chill?'"
"No, I'm asking if you want a wing massage and a chance at a nap." Sam rolled his eyes. "Yes or no, Gabe?"
"I'm coming..." He sighed with a loose grin, chasing Sam to the other room.
"What do you want to watch?" Sam asked after they had flopped on the massive bed that Dean had obviously got specifically for massive-moose-man Sam.
"Disney." Stretching out the energy in his back, Gabriel breathed out, forming his wings into physical entities. The healthy ones simply folded at his sides, spreading over his body like a blanket, while his broken one slowly unfurled as much as the reappearing knot of fabric would allow, the sling stretched over the feathers. "And can you please untie this?" He asked.
Sam nodded, reaching over to unloop the knot from Gabriel's wing, freeing out the feathers. "How healed are you?" The hunter questioned, running a tentative hand over the bulge of bandages and braces across the break.
"I'll be back in the air within a week." Gabriel splayed out the feathers across Sam's lap, mostly because he had nowhere else to put the wing. With it unfolded, it was significantly more comfortable to just lay there, even as The Little Mermaid started, and Sam lay hands over his feathers.
"Whoa, some of these are..." He stroked down them, Gabriel's head almost immediately collapsing onto the pillow in response. "Burned."
"...mhmm..." Gabriel agreed quietly, letting Sam pet his wings gently.
"Is that from your landing?"
"Fr'm the sp'll." He mumbled sleepily, taking a pillow and pulling it under his head and chest, acting as a support piece for his body. Sam brushed his feathers straight, rubbing at the aching muscle as he combed them into an orderly pattern. "B'rned..." Gabriel sighed, nuzzling into the pillow.
"Do you even need to sleep?" Sam chuckled, but he sounded kind of sleepy too.
"N't really..." Gabriel mumbled back, feeling the muscles in his back and wings relax.
"...Sounds good though..." Sam slid down in the bed, lying there with his head barely tilted to watch the low-volume Disney movie.
And, with a silent promise in his mind to protect Sam always, Gabriel fell asleep with another person's hand on his feathers.
The morning went by fairly uneventful. Neither of them treated it as awkward or strange, just Sam helped Gabriel put his wing back in the sling, and then Sam went downstairs, while Gabriel took his research book and followed, though he hid in the War room.
"Dean?" Sam called as he walked in, looking around. "Kevin?" He continued, looking between the bookshelves.
After making sure he would not be interrupted, Sam reached over to a shelf and pulled 'Tales from Oz' off it, settling in to read.
Of course, the minute he did so, the phone rang.
With an exasperated sigh, Sam stood up and walked over to answer it. "Hello? ...I'm sorry, there's no, uh... there's no D-dawg... uh..."
"I got it. I got it." Dean repeated, taking the phone from Sam. "Sonny, hey." He greeted, attracting Gabriel's attention as well. "So, what's up?" Sam sat down to watch his brother talk. "Okay." Dean acknowledged. "Alright, yeah, just sit tight. I'll be there as soon as I can. Yeah." He nodded, then hung up.
"So..." Sam began slowly. "What was that all about, 'D-Dawg?'"
"You remember when we were kids, that spring in upstate New York?"
By this point, Gabriel had fully lowered his book, watching with muted interest.
"Dad was on a rougarou hunt, we uh- we crashed at the uh... Bungalow colony with the ping-pong table?"
"Yeah, uh. Y-you disappeared. Dad came back, you were gone. He shipped me off to Bobby's for a couple months and... went and found you. You were lost on a hunt, or something." Sam recalled.
"That's what we told you. Right." Dean realized.
Long pause.
"I'm sorry, that's what you told me?"
"Truth is, um... I lost the food money that dad left for us in a card game. I knew you'd get hungry, so, I tried taking the five-finger discount at the local market and got busted. I wasn't on a hunt. They sent me to a boy's home."
"A boy's home." Sam stated. "Like, a reform school?"
"Yeah, more or less." Dean nodded. "It was a farm, and the guy who ran it, Sonny, he uh... you know, he looked after me."
"Wait. Does Sonny know what we do?"
"Yeah. He's good people. I gave him the number to the bat phone, and, sounds like he's got something in our wheelhouse, so... Hey, are you gonna be cool to do this, or are you too tired?" Dean turned around, just as Sam yawned.
"Uh, no. Yeah, I'm just uh... I'll be fine."
Dean leaned forward, resting hands on the chair in front of him. "And everybody's ok with heading out to the Catskills?"
Sam tilted his head slightly in confusion. Gabriel's hands tightened involuntarily on his book, eyes narrowing to slits at the light in Sam's chest.
"...Unless we're taking Gabriel, I am everybody."
"...Yeah. Alright. Grab your stuff, and we'll head out."
There was a pause before Sam stood up. "Hey, Dean... I mean, why didn't you tell me you went to a boy's home?"
"I don't know." Dean shrugged. "Uh, it was dad's idea. And then it just... you know, the story became the story. I was 16." Dean turned, walking off, down the hall.
"...Alright. You good?" Sam looked at Gabriel.
"You owe me another wing massage tonight for taking care of your prophet." Gabriel joked, like it was such a hardship. Sam only snorted and rolled his eyes before he trotted away as well. "Yeah, sure, roll your eyes! Let's see if I make sure he doesn't pass out later!"
"Screw you, Gabriel!" Sam called back down the hall.
"Yeah yeah!"
"Hey, Kev?" Gabriel leaned against the prophet's doorframe, smiling loosely.
The teen looked up, turning away from the tablet and his notes. "Oh." He noted, then swivelled around again. "Hey, Gabriel." Kevin said as the Archangel walked further into the room, leaning on the table to watch him take notes in cuneiform. It had been nearly three days since Sam and Dean had left, and all Gabriel had done with Kevin so far was forcefeed him and make sure he slept enough.
"...You hungry?" He questioned, shifting down slightly to rest his forearms on the table rather than his hands. "You look bored."
"I am. But I got stuff to translate. I got a responsibility to everyone, including you and the other angels in Heaven."
"Yeah, but kid, you're like... 16."
"18!" Kevin exclaimed, then his eyes widened, as if he was realizing that he was still talking to an Archangel.
"Sure. Still a little on the small side." Gabriel grinned, happy that someone other than a hunter treated him on an equal standing. "But that aside. You need a break, you're gonna burn yourself out on these tablets by the time you're twenty."
"Well... I guess I could use a break..." Kevin sat back, rubbing his face.
"So, on four wings, I've got about a half-continent in any direction, and you need a break. Where do you feel like going?" Gabriel flared his wings behind him, even if they were invisible to Kevin.
Kevin paused for a few minutes, glancing at his pages before turning back to Gabriel. "...can we go see Frozen?"
It was an odd request, but one that Gabriel would accept.
"Sounds good." He nodded, a smile starting to cover his mouth. "Grab your coat! We're heading out!" Gabriel spun one finger in the air, turning and leaving. "See ya at the door, kiddo!" He called as he trotted for the stairs to the exit.
Kevin rejoined him about ten minutes later, zipping up a jacket and pulling on his boots, smiling slightly as they stepped outside, Gabriel locking the door once they were in the open.
"Alright, where do you feel like going to see Frozen?" Gabriel asked as he flipped the leather strap of his key back over his neck, dropping the key down his shirt.
"Um... How about Edmonton?" Kevin suggested.
"...Edmonton? As in Canada?" Gabriel confirmed suspiciously. "Why Edmonton?"
"Because... Well, I've always wanted to go there for the mall. Kinda weird, right?" Kevin laughed nervously, rubbing at his neck.
"Trust me, Kev, this is a judgement free zone." He patted the kid's shoulder. "Let's go." Gabriel tightened his grip on Kevin and beat his four functional wings, taking to the air effortlessly.
After Frozen, (Which had Kevin humming 'Do you Wanna Build a Snowman?' constantly) Skittles and the largest bucket of popcorn that God had created, Kevin seemed much more like an 18 year old kid and less like a particular aged, overtired thirty-something by the name of Winchester.
They wandered around the rest of the mall, every so often one of them slowly starting up on one of the childish songs, for the other to join in about three seconds later.
"Can we get candy apples?" Kevin requested, nodding to the Rocky Mountain Chocolate Factory as they walked past.
"It's like you're a smaller, more responsible me!" Gabriel replied with a grin, nudging Kevin's shoulder toward the shop.
Three minutes later they left with Kevin carrying a massive red sugar-coated apple, and Gabriel munching on a caramel-coated, rolled in M&Ms apple. "Good idea Kev! That was your best one yet! Hey, do you think we should go watch the Sea Lions?"
"You're ridiculous." Kevin rolled his eyes, like any teenager, before glancing over at the clock that showed 7 minutes before the next show started. "Yes please let's go watch the Sea Lions." He blurted out.
So they watched the Sea Lions and pretended that they were just normal people for a while.
After the mall, Kevin had deserved like, triple the sleeping time he was getting, so Gabriel put something cheesy on the TV and they watched a movie for no reason. He prophet had fallen asleep, stretched out across the longer couch, after about ten minutes.
"Gabriel?" Sam called as they closed up. Immediately flying to the front door, Gabriel popped into reality, making Dean fall back with an embarrassing squeak.
"Keep it down. Kevin's sleeping." Gabriel hissed. "I made him take a break day."
"You did what?!" Dean demanded, but at a glare, kept his voice low. "He needs to translate the tablet!"
"He can't do that if he's burned out, Winchester. Shut your trap for a while. Let the kid sleep. Let... just let him work as he can."
After a small glare, the older brother pushed past Gabe and trotted down the stairs quietly, throwing his bag at the foot of the staircase.
"...I'm tired, so good night!" Dean snapped, and stormed away.
"...What was that about?" Gabriel questioned when he was out of earshot.
"Apparently, Dean was ready to stay at the farm. I think he... I think he just has some bad memories about leaving." Sam explained, running a hand through his hair. "How did your weekend go?"
"Well enough." Gabriel shrugged. "I want to start flying again in a few days. Maybe by Thursday." He smiled slightly, his wing already flaring at the temptation of the open sky.
"...then do you want... to... uh... watch a movie?" Sam smiled sheepishly. Even after a few days of just hanging out while Gabriel napped and Sam preened his wings, the hunter wasn't quite comfortable with it. He used little messages and things to get his request across, which Gabriel found eternally cute.
"Yeah, sure." Gabriel shrugged. "Right before I start flying again. Sounds good."
They watched the first 'Die Hard', which had Gabriel in stitches until he fell asleep, Sam chuckling and softly combing his wings. Which is about when Gabriel realized he was screwed. He had fallen for a Winchester. And to him, it wasn't a sensation of 'falling', per say, more a light tugging upward into some sense of home through this disaster.
It's like he's flying.
It's like he's falling.
The heat was burning at his wings with the force of Lucifer's cold grace, when the brother's sunset red wings had pulled up high, scattering ash and hellfire over Gabriel's own wings, right before he boxed him in with soft, half whispered threats and promises that were way too sexual.
The wind beat at his wings like claws, trying to rip out all his feathers, scattering them across the stars. His hair was wild and tangled behind him as he struggled to get his wings, his burning, dying wings, back under his body, back against the air. His Trickster magic was gone, he couldn't protect them, there was screaming in the sky and he couldn't fly and he couldn't fly, he was going to crash. He could feel his wings tearing from his spine, the agony ripping forth another wail from his throat like the cry of a wounded child.
He was falling. He was missing his wings.
He was...
Archangels really, shouldn't be the kind of creatures to wake up with a scream building in their throat.
Gabriel shot upright, chest working overtime, though he had no use for the oxygen it brought. On the wall opposite, two spots of gold stared back at him from within the dark room, a surefire sign that his grace was reacting.
It was a nightmare. Gabriel told himself, reflecting, not for the first time, on the fact that Archangels should never have nightmares. They should never be terrified into their memories and grace turning on them when they rest. They should never be that traumatized. It was a nightmare. He repeated, rubbing his eyes and focusing on the blanket that had fallen into his lap, blinking rapidly. The twin circles of golden-white light dimmed slightly, but didn't flicker out. His wings had fluffed up with the stress, and he fear, and his vessel's heart rate was way too high. His breathing was erratic and irregular, a little panicked.
For a moment, he didn't want to fly.
He wanted to stay down, where it was safe. Where he wouldn't wind up burned out of the air.
"'br'l?" Sam mumbled in some twisted, garbled form of his name. "Y' 'k?"
"Y-y-eah." And Gabriel hated the way his voice broke. "I'm ok." He murmured, glaring at the palms of his hands in an attempt to get rid of the headlamps.
There was a moment of silence before Sam shifted upright in bed too, making Gabriel's feathers pull at awkward angles when the sheets moved below them. "...no, you're not. Gabriel, you're shaking." Sam realized with a hand on the Trickster's back, faint shivers running down his spine every few exhale.
"J-just... give me a sec, here, Sam. I need-..." Gabriel panted. I don't need air! It's not a thing I require! Why do I feel like I'm going to drown if I don't have it?!
"You need to calm down." Sam said, pushing Gabriel's wings out of the way to wrap the Archangel in a hug. "Breathe, Gabriel."
He wasn't quite sure what he was doing, letting himself be comforted by a human. He wasn't sure why it was working. He also wasn't sure why his vessel suddenly needed air, and he definitely wasn't sure why Sam was doing anything for him at all. Ever. God knew he didn't deserve it.
But, never the less, he let Sam hold his head against his chest, rubbing his back between his wings as Gabriel struggled to take a full breath, eyes wide and lungs hitching strangely between each intake. Gabriel had been in many stressful situations before, but only once before, like this.
One time before that left his grace fluttering in panic, one time that had his chest working with rough gasping noises, but no air coming in. His diaphragm compressing and expanding so fast he wondered if he might get a cramp.
The one other time was when his brother was cast out.
Gabriel wasn't sure why something so simple as a nightmare was bringing out that level of reaction, but it was painful. The gasping had devolved into choking, tears streaming down Gabriel's cheeks and he didn't know why he was so emotional and afraid and he didn't know why he was clinging to the t-shirt on Sam's back like it was a lifeline.
He didn't know why he was slowly taking deeper swallows of air, gulping it down like water as Sam rubbed his back in gentle circles, other hand pinning Gabriel's head to his shoulder and over his neck. He wasn't sure when Sam started humming as a comfort method, but it was working. He was starting to breathe again.
"...You alright? What happened there?" Sam asked when Gabriel's gasping had been reduced to heavy breathing.
"...nightmare." Gabriel admitted, closing his eyes and burying his face in Sam's shoulder.
"I didn't know you could get those." Sam stated, running a hand through his golden hair.
"Neither did I." Gabriel murmured, nuzzling down a little more as Sam leaned back onto the bed, pulling Gabriel with him. "...I was falling.
"...go to sleep, Gabriel." Sam patted his back, settling into the blankets. "You've got to fly in a few days, not fall."
Gabriel wasn't entirely sure about a lot of things that evening, and when he had fallen asleep was just another on the list.