He kissed Luci goodbye as he got in his car.
"Have fun in Detroit," Sam said. Luci rolled his eyes. Once he drove off, Sam called Gabe to meet at the Roadhouse.
"A week?" he asked. Sam nodded, not even trying to fight the smile stretching across his face.
A whole week without Luci seemed almost too good to be true. He'd been called to Detroit for a week, because his parents wanted to have an early Thanksgiving since Luci wasn't able to make it up later in November. And since his parents were pretty strict in their hatred of cell phones and not on very good terms with Luci to begin with, he didn't even have to call while he was away. It was a taste of freedom that had Sam both excited and terribly nervous. What if he got used to it?
Gabriel smiled with an impish twinkle in his eye.
"I know exactly what we're gonna do with this vacation," he said. Sam raised his eyebrows at him.
Gabe elaborated, "Every day after school, you're gonna come over to my place, we're gonna hang out, and you're gonna have the best week of your life. Starting today." Sam tried desperately to not imagine what they could be doing during this wonderful week. He definitely did not think about a shirtless Gabriel greeting him every day after school. He didn't consider ditching school altogether. Not even once.
Dean squeezed into the booth, shoving Sam closer to Gabriel than he'd already been. Their shoulders brushed, sending electricity down Sam's side. This week was going to be insane.
Cas slid in next to Dean when Dean asked, "What about the best week of your life?"
Sam rolled his eyes, "Can I not have a private conversation for once—"
Gabe answered, "I'm gonna spend a week showing your brother a good time." Sam could feel the heat in his face as Dean burst out laughing.
Then, he noticed something. Something was forced in Dean's laugh. Sam looked up and met Dean's eyes. The joy on his face was missing from his eyes. His eyes were wider than normal. He seemed nervous.
Dean caught Sam's scrutiny and snapped, "What?"
Sam shrugged, "Nothing."
But then he saw how Cas was looking at Dean. Son of a bitch. Gabe was right. One way to know for sure, though.
"Yeah, Gabe and I were making plans for the week," Sam said, "Since we'll be out of your hair, maybe you two can go do something together."
Dean looked like he'd swallowed acid and shot Sam a look of pure, unadulterated hatred. And Sam knew Gabriel was completely right about them. Holy crap.
Cas beamed at the suggestion.
"That could be fun," he said to Dean. Dean stopped glaring at Sam long enough to turn to Cas.
"What would you want to do?" he asked.
Cas looked at the table, "I don't know." Dean smiled at Cas and Sam had to stifle a giggle. Oh, he had to talk to his brother about this. But as Gabriel lightly touched his arm, he knew it could wait.
"We're going to Gabe's," Sam said, getting up, "Don't wait up."
Dean shot Sam a death glare that made him worry about finding Nair in his shampoo later. He made a mental note to test his shampoo before using it again. Dean quickly resumed discussing plans with Cas as Sam and Gabriel left the Roadhouse.
When they reached Gabe's place, Sam asked, "So, what do you want to do?" Gabriel held the door open for Sam, grabbed an Almond Joy from the bowl, and plopped on his futon.
He grinned and said, "First, I want you to get naked."
"What?!" Sam asked, his voice an octave higher than he would've liked.
Gabe laughed, "I'm just kidding, Sam. It's too easy to make you blush. I couldn't resist." He patted the couch as Sam tried to slow his heart rate.
"But seriously though," Gabe said, "I don't want to start this week of awesome if you're neglecting injuries I don't know about."
Sam's breath caught. His ankle was a bit better, but it still hurt to walk on it. He had a running mental catalogue of all the bruises: two large ones on his torso and side, a large bruise on his back, several smaller marks on his legs, and fresh bruises on his arms. And there were other things.
"Are you asking me to show you all of it?" Sam asked.
Gabe nodded, "You weren't doing jack for your ankle. I gotta know there's not anything else like that."
He must've seen the fear in Sam's eyes, because Gabe said, "Sam, it's okay. I just gotta know you're alright. I'm gonna go get something. At least take your jacket off, hmm?" Sam nodded and shrugged off his coat as Gabe got up, rummaging through his backpack.
It wasn't like he hadn't show Gabriel bruises before. But as he gingerly removed his shirt, he was nervous as all hell. Gabe was going to be disgusted by him, or worse, he'd pity him. Even aside from those worries, sitting on Gabriel's couch shirtless was a new kind of nerve wracking.
Gabe turned around, a small package in hand, and crossed over to the futon. He swept his caramel hair out of his face and whistled. He tossed the package into Sam's hands and gently touched one of the larger bruises that mottled Sam's skin. His fingers were deliciously warm.
"Hot damn, Sam," Gabe said, "Are you sure Lucifer didn't break a few bones? I'm seeing at least three shades of purple here."
Sam nodded, thought he wasn't entirely sure. He'd always figured a broken bone would hurt worse than anything he had going on, but he'd never bothered to check. Gabe stopped staring at Sam's chest and cleared his throat.
"So, that's for you," Gabe said, indicating the small box Sam was holding. Sam opened it, instantly curious. It was a folded up ankle brace.
"Umm, what—" Sam started.
"I'm choosing to believe you just don't have an ankle brace, and that's why you let it get so bad," Gabe explained.
He took the brace from Sam and lifted Sam's ankle onto his lap. Sam watched as Gabriel carefully wrapped the brace around his ankle. His hands were inhumanly warm. And surprisingly soft. Gabe lifted his amber eyes to Sam's.
"Can't start having an awesome week with you all crippled," Gabe said, trying to be lighthearted.
Sam was completely caught off guard by the look in Gabriel's eyes. There was no pity or disgust or judgment. His warm, amber eyes were just filled with kindness and concern for Sam. He didn't know how to respond to a look like that.
"You really don't have to do this," Sam said. Gabe smiled and put Sam's leg back down.
"Yes, I really do," he said.
"Are you going to tell me the stories behind these bruises or what?" Gabe asked, scooting closer for better inspection.
"It's mostly kicking," he said as Gabriel studied him.
Gabe's eyes widened, "Kicking?"
"Yeah, if he's really upset, he kicks."
"What the fuck," Gabe breathed, "Don't you ever fight back?"
Sam shook his head. "No, I would never hurt someone I love," he said.
"But you don't love him."
"Yeah, but he doesn't know that. This is what happens when he thinks we are a happy, functional couple," Sam said, gesturing to the bruises, "If I fought back, he'd know the truth. I don't want to know what he'd do."
"Fair enough," Gabe said, "Wait…is that a bite mark?"
He was staring at Sam's shoulder. That one was pretty new. They'd been having sex, and Luci decided to try biting. He hadn't been expecting his boyfriend to break the skin like that, but thankfully, Luci didn't like how long the clean up took, so biting was no longer an option.
"Yeah," Sam answered, "You don't want to know."
Gabe said, "I bet I don't. Jesus. You've cleaned this, right?" Before Sam could answer, Gabriel retrieved rubbing alcohol, band-aids, and Neosporin from his bathroom. Gabe put some alcohol on the bite wound, and it stung like no other. Sam clenched his fist. At Gabriel's touch, the stinging lessened only to be replaced by fire and ecstasy. Sam really needed him to stop touching him.
"How are you not screaming right now?" Gabe asked as he moved onto the Neosporin.
Sam replied evenly, "I've made it a habit not to react to pain." Gabe covered the bite with two large band-aids, his hands leaving tingles as they smoothed the bandages. He turned Sam to face him. Heat spread through Sam's shoulders from Gabriel's hands.
"Dude," Gabe said, "What. The fuck." It took Sam a moment to realize he was talking about his lack of visible pain.
"Showing pain makes Luci make it worse," Sam said, looking at his lap. He knew how pathetic that sounded. Gabriel tilted Sam's head up, which sent Sam's heart racing, and made sure to lock eyes with him.
"If you hurt, you show it. I don't care how much you're used to dealing with. No holding out on me, okay?" Gabriel said. Sam tried to remember to breathe. He was so close to his face. He could so easily kiss Gabe. It would be effortless.
Sam pulled away quickly and said, "Okay." Gabe seemed satisfied.
He asked, "Any other war wounds?"
Sam nodded and motioned to his legs, "Just more bruising." He fought the urge to take off his pants just to see how Gabriel would react.
"I'm keeping these on," he said.
Gabriel smiled. "Okay," he said, sounding dejected.
Sam grinned and wished Gabe's disappointment was genuine.
"Anything else?" Gabe asked. Sam took Gabriel's hand and placed it gingerly on the right side of his head.
"That bump," Sam explained, "Was from a bookcase."
Gabe asked, worried, "You want ice for that?"
Sam shook his head, moving Gabriel's hand, "It's fine."
"I'm getting you ibuprofen," he said, returning to his bathroom. Sam just wanted Gabe's fingers in his hair again. If only all these touches were under different circumstances.
After Sam downed a couple pills, Gabe asked, "Is that it?" Even though he'd told Gabe he wouldn't hold out on him, he could not bring himself to tell him about the worst source of his pain.
"Yeah, that's it," Sam replied.
Gabriel smiled broadly, "So, now. Fun. What do you want to do?"
"I don't know," Sam said, pulling his shirt back on, "You have any ideas?"
"Oh, no. You're choosing," Gabe said, "This week is all about you."
After a moment, Sam suggested, "We could watch a movie."
He knew exactly what he wanted to do as he watched Gabriel's lips curl into a brilliant smile. He counted his blessings that, after all of this, he didn't have a boner.
"What kind of movies do you like?" Gabriel asked.
Sam said, "Well, I like Star Wars."
"Of course you do. Bet you like Lord of the Rings, too."
"Actually," Sam said, bracing himself for the usual reaction, "I haven't seen it."
"What? How? But—" Gabe sputtered.
Sam laughed a little. He'd been on the road with his dad and brother when the movies had first come out. They didn't have the money or time for watching movies back then.
Gabriel stood up and declared, "We are watching all three, back to back, right now." Sam stopped him.
"Are we gonna have time for that? It's almost 7 o'clock," he said.
Gabe sighed, "It's Saturday, Sam. It's not like we have a time limit. Look, I'll make popcorn, we'll watch the movies, it'll be great." He walked off to grab the Fellowship of the Ring first.
"So, where's your family?" Sam asked when Gabe came back, "I thought you said you lived with them."
Gabe nodded and threw a bag of popcorn in the microwave, "They live upstairs, Dad, Mike, and Raphy. This floor is all mine, though. Why, are you worried about interruptions?" He winked at Sam as he started the microwave.
Sam said, "No, more worried about people wondering why I'm in their house."
"I've had sleepovers before, Sam," Gabe said.
"Is this a sleepover?" Sam asked, confused.
The last time they'd had an impromptu sleepover, it hadn't ended very well. Or it had. Sam wasn't sure whether to categorize spooning as bad, because he wasn't spooning Luci, or good, because with Gabe it was a very, very good way to wake up.
"It can be if you're a light weight and pass out during the movies," Gabe replied.
As the night progressed, the popcorn was delicious, Gabe only called Sam "Samwise" a total of four times, he paused the movies multiple times to spout off trivia, he touched Sam way more than was necessary, Sam didn't mind the touching at all, and Gabe passed out on Sam's shoulder only a half hour into Return of the King.
Sam pulled the comforter over his sleeping friend after transferring him from his shoulder to his lap. He closed his eyes and hoped he wouldn't wake up cuddling Gabriel again.
But as he awoke in the morning to the Lord of the Rings title screen, Gabriel was spooning him, and he would've been lying if he said he was upset about it.