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All I Want (is to solve your puzzle)

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The first thing he noticed about the guy was that he was reading The Oxford Book of Medieval Latin Verse, despite the fact that it had nothing to do with anything they were studying in class.

Okay, no, the first thing he noticed about the guy is that he was eighty freakin’ feet tall, but back to the book. It was the kind of book you could kill a guy with, written in an even more obscure version of a totally dead language, and this kid was reading it for fun.

That was not normal. That was, in fact, the opposite of normal. So of course Gabriel was totally fascinated.

Sam Winchester was officially on his radar.

-----

It also didn’t hurt that Sam was totally cute. In a kind of lanky, dorky, stupid hair way. It actually kind of worked for him.

-----

The thing about having a reputation as a badass prank god ladies’ man was that after a while you didn’t even need to do anything to maintain it. Streak once or twice, let a goat loose on the track field that one time, cover the opposing football team’s locker room with unwrapped condoms at Homecoming and hey presto, set for life.

(Gabriel was still proud of that condom thing. Cost him a small fortune but it was worth it. And it was their fault for calling themselves “Trojans” in the first place.)

So Gabriel was cool, friends everywhere he went, parties every weekend if he wanted to go. He never had to worry about where to sit in the cafeteria, or who to hang out with after class. People came to him, wanted his attention, craved his approval.

It was a pretty sweet life, not gonna lie.

But there was one person who wasn’t interested in him at all. Wasn’t interested in anything, it seemed like, except for sitting by himself and reading books more suited to college professors and like, priests, instead of teenagers.

Gabriel took getting Sam’s attention as a personal challenge.

“Hey, Winchester,” he said breezily, slapping Sam on the shoulder as he passed him in the hall. Sam’s eyes went wide for a panicked second, then he ducked his head and… was he blushing?

Oh, this was gonna be fun.

-----

No matter how many times Gabriel said hi to Sam, the guy didn’t say a single word back. He’d kind of nod sometimes, real nervously, like maybe Gabriel was playing some kind of trick on him, but otherwise, nada.

Well, if Mohammed wasn’t gonna go to the mountain…

“Sam-I-Am! How’s it hangin’, bro? Listen, dude, did you see that dress that Mrs. Ahrends is wearing? Totally hot, right? Her chest is like, just unbelievable.”

Sam just stood there like a deer in headlights, seemingly unable to comprehend the idea of a conversation. Gabriel was undeterred. “You’re headed to the library, right? That’s where you usually go after fifth period?”

“Uh, yeah, I guess,” Sam said, and hallelujah, it was a miracle.

“Cool, mind if I go with you? I’ve got an hour to kill before Anna gets out of choir and Cas is done with Mathletes.”

“I… uh,”

“I will take that to mean, ‘yes, by all means accompany me to the library,’” Gabriel decided, taking Sam’s arm and steering him in the right direction. He still looked surprised, and deeply, deeply suspicious; but he was walking, so Gabriel was counting it as a victory.

Baby steps, man. Baby steps.

-----

Sam never talked. Not really. Not beyond the most basic “hey,” “um,” and “what?”

Gabriel would have taken it personally, if he’d seen the guy talk to anyone else, ever; but as it was, whatever. It was a process, getting Sam to open up, and Gabriel had no problem talking enough for the both of them.

“Anna’s my little sister, as you probably guessed, and Cas - Castiel - is my younger brother, even though he’s a junior, too, because he’s too smart for his own good and skipped a grade. Freaking Vulcan, but I love him, I guess. He’s family, you know.”

Sam huffed out a breath that sounded a lot like a laugh, then immediately curled his big hands tighter around his book and pretended like it never happened. He was really getting better at this whole ‘human interaction’ thing.

“Not that they’re my only family. I’ve got three older brothers, too. Mike and Luke are the twins, they’re almost twenty; and Raphael just turned eighteen last month. He’s a senior, so of course he thinks he’s better than everyone.”

Sam didn’t make a sound, but the corner of his lips curled up, and Gabriel read his meaning loud and clear.

“Yeah, your brother’s a senior, too, right? Dean? I don’t need to tell you how that goes. You know.”

That got a real smile for one awesome second, which faded into a confused frown for no reason that Gabriel could detect, and then Sam was back in his book.

The smile had been pretty excellent, though.

-----

It wasn’t like he thought about Sam all the time, writing his name on his notebooks like some kind of girl.

It was just nice, being around Sam, who didn’t care about being popular; didn’t want to be the center of attention. Sam, who liked things like Latin poetry and reading ridiculously huge books for fun. Who had such a great smile, and never let anyone see it.

Gabriel wondered why. Wondered what he’d have to do to change that.

He was certainly going to try.

-----

“Real vampires,” he said, flopping down on the empty bleachers next to Sam, because if Gabriel was gonna be the only person having a conversation anyway, he might as well start in the middle. “There’s no way they sparkle, right?”

Sam lifted an incredulous eyebrow. “Real vampires?”

Gabriel grinned. Sam’s condescension was music to his ears after so many weeks of basically talking to himself. “Yeah, man, I had the dumbest talk with Anna this morning. She says they totally do, and I say that no self-respecting undead terror would go around glittering like a fairy princess. But I felt bad, y’know, because no one else really listens to her, so whatever, I’ll pretend like I’m interested in the anti-gravitational properties of Edward Cullen’s hair or whatever.”

“Uh-huh.”

“But they totally don’t sparkle,” Gabriel reiterated. “Real vampires. No way. Also, like, his hair is totally ridiculous. Nobody should use that much product, especially not undead terrors.”

“You do know you’re supposed to be in math right now, right?” Sam said, a little sharply, and Gabriel blinked. When had Sam learned his class schedule? Hell, he barely remembered his class schedule. It made his stomach twist in a not-totally-unpleasant way.

“Eh, I wasn’t gonna learn anything anyway,” he said, waving it off. “Besides, I can always get Cas to give me his notes later. So what about you?"

"What about me?" Sam mumbled. "I've got study hall until English."

"No, dude," Gabriel said, bumping his shoulder against Sam's. "You. Tell me about your family. I mean, I assume you have one, and didn't just like, spring forth fully formed from the head of a god or something. Although, that might explain something about your taste in books."

Something flitted across Sam's face at that. Surprise at the reference? Maybe a little bit of grudging respect? It looked good on him. "Yeah, I mean, it's just me and Dean and our Dad. It's all right, I guess."

"Yeah?" Good job, Gabe, keep him talking. He let the stick of his sucker rest in the corner of his mouth and gave Sam his full attention.

"Dad's kind of away a lot, though," Sam continued. "So most of the time it's just me and Dean. He basically had to take care of me when we were kids, even though he's not that much older."

Gabriel nodded. "Yeah, Michael was the same way." He took the now-empty stick out of his mouth and twirled it absently between his fingers. "I bet you were a real bitch to look after."

"I'm the quietest person at this school," Sam pointed out. "Why would you think that?"

"It's always the quiet ones," Gabriel shrugged, smiling. "Plus, you do passive-aggressive like nobody's business, and you've got an epic bitchface."

Sam glared at him.

"Yeah, that one! I bet you made his life hell."

Sam ducked his head, a little bit red in the face. "Well, he did call me 'Satan's Little Helper' sometimes."

Gabriel grinned, like “see, I told you so,” and to his surprise, Sam smiled back; a small expression that spread almost unwillingly across his face.

"And one time, he threatened to shoot me in the ass with Dad's shotgun."

That made Gabriel laugh so loud it echoed across the quad. “You’re all right, Winchester,” he said, feeling a crazy rush of affection for the guy. “You know that? You’re all right.”

Sam’s smile got even bigger, and it was the best thing Gabriel had ever seen.

----

After that, though, things got kind of weird. Well, more so.

It was almost like… it was like Sam was pissed off at him, his suspicious looks now more like angry glares. He started disappearing after school, deliberately avoiding Gabriel in the halls and in classes, like they weren’t even friends anymore.

Fuck that. Gabriel had worked really hard to be his friend. He wasn’t gonna let Sam go back in his shell now.

He found Sam in the library, which was not even remotely surprising; his long hair pushed back in one hand as he wrote something in his notebook, head resting against his palm. Gabriel didn’t say anything, just sat down in the chair across from Sam and pulled a Crunch bar out of his bag, sliding a finger under the wrapper with a soft crinkling sound.

Sam didn’t look up.

Popping a piece of chocolate into his mouth, Gabriel reached across the table and snagged one of Sam’s books, the copy of Macbeth they all had to read for Honors English. He flipped through the pages noisily, not even looking at them, hoping that Sam would take the book back, or tell him to stop, or even just sigh like Gabriel was the bane of his existence, yeah, he would totally take that over this… nothing.

What the hell was even going on in that floppy-haired head?

"This story is such BS," Gabriel lamented, leaning over the table to see what Sam was writing, taking a more offensive approach. "'The Influence of Witches and Ghosts in Shakespeare's Macbeth.' Wow, that's boring. You’ve gotta get something snappier, or no-one's gonna want to read this."

Sam sighed impatiently, but scratched a line through the title anyway. Supernatural?, he wrote over the top of it, neat block capitals, and Gabriel snapped off another piece of chocolate in triumph.

"Not that anyone wants to read this anyway; this whole story is BS. Macbeth. He's a total pussy. Like, he's the Thane of Cawdor, right? That's a pretty sweet gig already. But no, some creepy old bitches in the woods tell him he'll be king, and then his gold-digger wife starts pushing him and so he goes along with it, but he's a total emo puss the whole time. It's like, dude. If you're gonna go Dark Side, you should go all the way, know what I mean? Really commit to it. Get ambitious with your megalomania.” Gabriel leaned back in his chair, balancing on the back legs, thoughtful. “His wife had the right idea, actually, till she went psycho."

"I..." Sam said, and stopped, like he couldn't argue with that. "I really need to focus on my essay, Gabriel."

"I know, that's why I'm helping." Gabriel grinned. "Want some chocolate?"

"We're not supposed to have food in the library."

"Chocolate's not food. Ask any responsible adult." He popped another piece in his mouth and carefully licked the tips of his fingers, to make sure he got every last bit. Sam was watching him, red-faced like he was biting down on a lecture on respect for books or something, eyes glued to Gabriel 's hand.

"Hey, Sam, relax," he said, stretching out his fingers to show that they were perfectly clean. "It's not like I'm gonna start smearing it all over the classic literature section in revenge for my library fine. Even though that was totally unfair. I brought back The Return of the King weeks ago. They must've just lost it."

"I didn't think you were gonna..." said Sam, weirdly bashful for some reason, until he caught up with the conversation. "Wait, you read The Lord of the Rings?"

Gabriel could tell he'd just scored major points. It felt really good, knowing he could surprise Sam in a good way. He wanted to do it again. All the time. "Hell yeah. It's nothing but short guys kicking ass and being awesome. What's not to like?"

"It just... you don't really seem like the type."

"Maybe you shouldn't judge a book by its cover, see what I did there? I have such hidden depths, Winchester, you would not even believe it.”

“Huh,” Sam said thoughtfully, looking at him with a curious expression. It was… strangely intense, and for the first time, Gabriel was the first one to look away.

“You sure you don't want a bite of this?" he asked, holding out the last of the candy bar. "Limited time offer, tick tock tick tock...""

Sam shook his head like he was angry, like Gabriel had just insulted him instead of offering him delicious treats. "What I want is to finish my essay," he snapped, bending his head decisively over his paper. He was really tall, so it had a ways to go, and that position could not be comfortable. "Have you even started yours yet?"

"Totally," Gabriel nodded, crumpling the now empty wrapper into a ball. "Finished it yesterday. 'Patterns of Force.' It's all about the parallels between Macbeth and Revenge of the Sith. Mr. Rosell is gonna freak."

"Macbeth and Revenge of the Sith?" Sam repeated. "You seriously compared this play to Star Wars?"

"Yeah, man. Good, upright guy gets pulled into temptation by someone close to him, ends up in way over his head and throws away his moral compass entirely, gets caught up in the pursuit of power and turns into a megalomaniac, even though he kind of sucks at it; and in the end he gets whacked by the kind of good, upright guy he was in the beginning, in a fit of cosmic irony. Totally the same story."

Sam just looked at him again, and maybe Gabriel couldn’t tell exactly what was going on behind that look, but he could tell Sam was impressed. And wow, he had really gorgeous eyes.

"Well, it's been nice talking to you, dude," Gabriel said, standing up and tossing the wrapper-ball into the trash can across the room and awarding himself three points. "But I'm all out of chocolate. See you later."

He wasn’t running away, he had to get to class; and besides, Sam wanted to be alone anyway. He was just being considerate, that was all.

And if he didn’t actually go to class, and ended up walking all the way out to the end of the empty practice field, thinking about the way Sam’s eyes had felt on him… fuck it. It wasn’t like there was anyone around to see it.

-----

He decided to give Sam a little space, since the guy obviously wanted it. He still nodded at him in passing, smiled and all that; it wasn’t like he was avoiding anybody. But he didn’t bother Sam in the library, or at lunch, or after school.

It wasn’t like he was lonely; he had tons of friends, never had to eat alone, and there was even reliable intel that Kali Shakti, the hottest girl in school, was on the outs with her boyfriend and looking for a little prank-god action. There was absolutely no reason for Gabriel to be anything less than totally happy with his life.

He sighed and banged his head against his locker door. Yeah, maybe if he kept telling himself that, it’d be true.

Goddamnit.

"Hey, you Gabriel?" someone asked in a gruff voice, and Gabriel took a second to square his shoulders before turning around. If someone was about to kick his ass, he wasn't about to make it easy for them.

"Yeah, who wants to know?"

"My name's Dean Winchester," the guy said, and even though he didn't know why Sam's brother was talking to him, he was pretty sure Dean wasn't here to kick his ass. He wanted to kick somebody's ass, though, that much was clear. "I don't know if you know, if he talks about me or anything, but I'm kind of friends with your brother, Cas."

Gabriel did his best to check his surprise. Obviously he would have to make more time to talk to his little brother, if he was hanging around with hot seniors. Hot seniors with hot younger brothers who... but this wasn't the time for that.

"Okay," said Gabriel, leaning back against the lockers. "How can I help you, Dean?"

"Look, don't tell Cas I told you this, but you know Zachariah Adler? He's been talking some real shit to your brother, and the only reason I haven't kicked the crap out of him is because Cas made me promise not to. But that asshole really needs to be taught a lesson, and I dunno, I heard you were pretty good at that."

"Better than pretty good," Gabriel said. "It's my specialty. What's he been saying?"

Dean told him.

Ten minutes later, Gabriel had a plan.

Twelve hours later, Zach had a face (and a chest, and an asscrack) full of honey, and was tied to the flagpole in a completely compromising position.

The confetti had maybe been a bit much, but Gabriel never was one to do things halfway.

-----

That “little stunt” had gotten him suspended for three days. Zach had tried to get him expelled, to get the cops called, but once Gabriel told the principal and the Adlers why he’d done it… well, he still got in trouble, but everyone agreed that Zach had pretty much asked for it. Oh, they couldn’t say as much, but it was obvious.

-----

If Gabriel stuck a little close to Cas after that, no one could blame him. Except for Cas, who was inexplicably upset about the whole thing. “I am grateful for your assistance, brother,” he’d said, “but your methods were excessive and unnecessary.”

Yeah, love you too, bro.

When he walked into the cafeteria, arm slung casually around Castiel’s back, the first thing he saw was Sam smiling at him. He didn’t even think, just herded Cas over to Sam’s table and sat down.

“Hey, Sam,” he said, as if the last week or so hadn’t even happened. “Have you met my brother, Cas? Turns out he’s friends with your brother, Dean. Isn’t that crazy?”

Okay, maybe he was kind of rambling.

“Hi,” said Sam, declining to comment on any craziness.

“Hello, Sam,” Castiel said gravely. This was why Gabriel never took Cas with him to parties.

Gabriel had accepted the fact that, between the three of them, he was going to be the one carrying all of the conversation; so he was completely surprised when Sam opened his mouth.

“So, what was that thing with Zachariah?” he asked. Cas immediately looked down at the floor.

“You heard about that?” Gabriel replied, which was stupid, because obviously, but he wasn’t sure how Sam felt about it.

But Sam’s lips twitched like he was trying not to laugh when he said, “I think everyone’s heard about it by now. Honey? Dude, seriously?”

“What can I say?” Gabriel shrugged, clapping a hand on his Castiel’s shoulder. “He needed to be sweeter. I’m the only person who gets to pick on my little brother.”

“Thank you, Gabriel,” Castiel said, dry as ever. “Your concern is touching.”

Sam did laugh, then, and Gabriel ruffled Cas’s hair, knowing his long-suffering expression would keep Sam laughing.

“What’s so funny, dork? Hey, Cas,” Dean said, coming out of nowhere and ruffling Sam’s hair. That shut him up quick, and Gabriel snorted into his hand.

“Dean,” Cas nodded in greeting, just the barest suggestion of a smile in his voice.

“Careful, Cas,” Gabriel chided, “you’ll lose your Vulcan status, showing emotion like that.”

“You are intractable and incorrigible,” Cas growled, and what kind of brother would Gabriel be if he couldn’t embarrass Cas in front of his friend?

“And you’ve got a stick up your ass the size of a redwood,” he retorted, which made Castiel narrow his eyes in frustration. Mission accomplished.

“You know, he’s not wrong,” Dean chimed in, reaching over to steal a handful of Gabriel’s M&Ms. He would’ve protested, except that now all of Cas’s indignant irritation was focused across the table instead of at him, and the amusement factor was worth a few pieces of candy.

Dean just smirked back in challenge. Cas sighed, “Thank you for the support, Dean. I will be certain to remember it next time you need assistance with your algebra homework.”

“Come on, Cas,” Dean said, looking kind of green. “Did I say it was a bad thing? I like the stick up your ass.” And then, after a moment. “Wow, that didn’t sound right. You know what I mean.”

Cas rolled his eyes, but his amusement was obvious. Gabriel was glad his brother had a friend like Dean, someone he could be himself around, who had his back. He was… almost jealous, in a weird way. Not sure what to do with that.

“Is that seriously all you’re having for lunch?” Sam said out of nowhere, and it took Gabriel a second to realize he was talking to him, looking sternly at the now almost empty bag of M&Ms on the table between them.

“So what if it is?”

“Dude, I know you think you run on sugar, but you need to eat something that at least pretends to have nutritional value.”

Were they seriously having this conversation? “Thanks, mom, but I’ll be fine.”

“Okay, if you want to weigh four-hundred pounds and die of malnutrition, be my guest,” Sam said, digging in for a real lecture, and Gabriel was equal parts fascinated and horrified. “But studies have shown improper nutrition causes decreased brain activity, fatigue, reduced immune system…”

“Fine!” Gabriel stole half of Cas’s sandwich, cramming it into his mouth and talking around it. “Happy now?”

Sam stopped the lecture with the smuggest little smile, nodding in approval. Gabriel didn’t even want to think about how that made him feel. It was almost good enough to make egg salad palatable, and seriously, how did Castiel eat this crap?

Speaking of… “I have never seen Gabriel take anyone’s advice on anything,” Cas said solemnly. “I am impressed, Sam.”

Dean laughed. “Hey, Sammy, hear that? You’re impressive.” In response, Sam dug his elbow into Dean’s ribs, and Gabriel was suddenly really glad his mouth was full. He couldn’t help smiling, anyway.

Sam was totally impressive.

-----

Impressively pissed-off, the next day in class, and none of Gabriel’s usual hilarious commentary was enough to snap him out of it. It wasn’t his fault this time, whatever crawled up Sam’s ass and died, and all Gabriel wanted was to cheer him up; make him smile again.

That… backfired really spectacularly.

“I don’t get it!” Sam exploded the second they hit the hallway, turning on Gabriel so fiercely it made him take a step back. “Why are you doing this, Gabriel?

“Doing what?” Gabriel was honestly confused.

“Hanging out with me all the time!” He said it like it was something terrible, like a betrayal. Like he was furious at Gabriel for being his friend.

“Because you’re awesome,” Gabriel said, telling the truth, but Sam scrubbed his hands over his face and back through his hair in frustration, and the feeling was kind of contagious. “Dude, what the hell?”

“How can you say that?” Sam railed, ignoring the question. “I’m a total geek! My favorite place to be is the library! My idea of a good time is reading medieval texts in the original Latin! Why the hell would you want to hang out with me?”

And okay, something was obviously going on behind all this, but he was not at all interested in attending Sam’s pity party. He planted a hand on Sam’s chest, twisted them until Sam’s back hit the wall and Gabriel had his full attention.

“You know why I want to hang out with you, Sam? Yeah, you’re a total freak. You’re different from everybody else in this whole goddamned school. You’re interesting, Sam, and I like that. I hang out with you because I like you, Sam, and you can just fucking deal with it!”

It took a second for Gabriel’s brain to catch up with his mouth, with the way his hand was fisted in the front of Sam’s shirt; how close they were. Sam’s mouth was open in shock, eyes wide, and what the fuck had just happened?

He let go of Sam like he’d been burned, and took off down the hall, not looking back.

-----

The first thing he did was find Kali Shakti, to tell her in no uncertain terms that he was going to take her out tonight, and he was going to rock her world. She looked him up and down, bit her lip in a totally sexy way, and said she’d give him a shot.

It… did not go well.

-----

He spent most of the next day in the library, because he really didn’t feel like people right now, and it was also a pretty good idea to keep a low profile.

“This is a switch,” Sam said, sitting down across from him, and Gabriel laughed ruefully. He wasn’t really amused, but the irony wasn’t lost on him.

“So… how was your date with Kali?” Sam asked, carefully. Gabriel recognized it for the peace offering it was, but he was so not in the mood.

“Great. It was great, yeah, chick was all hands. How was your night?”

“It sounds great,” said Sam, not convinced. “Why don’t you want to talk about it?”

“Who says I don’t want to talk about it?” Gabriel shot back. “Maybe I just don’t feel like talking.”

Sam gave him a look like, come on, dude, and Gabriel felt his bad mood lifting in the face of Sam’s puppy-like persistence.

“So, okay, yeah, maybe it didn’t go so well. We were having a good time, on the couch, y’know, when her fiancé came home early.”

“No way.”

“Yeah. Anyway, he’s a really cool guy, laid back about everything, but I kinda said some things I shouldn’t have, and Kali blew up, and now she wants my head for a necklace.”

“A necklace?” Sam repeated, incredulous.

“Yeah, I swear. Skull necklace. Totally her style, right?”

Sam narrowed his eyes, but was kind of smiling. “You’re fucking with me, right?”

Gabriel laughed despite himself. “Yeah, kinda. But seriously, it was a total disaster.”

“I’m sorry, man.”

“Don’t be,” Gabriel shrugged it off. “It doesn’t matter.”

“So, hey,” Sam said, changing the subject. “Um, my Dad’s out of town again this weekend, and Dean’s always out, so… I dunno, you want to come over and hang out?”

That gave Gabriel some kind of emotional whiplash. “What, seriously?”

“Yeah,” Sam nodded, suddenly bashful. “I mean, if you want. We can watch movies, or whatever.”

“That sounds awesome, Sam, yeah.” He couldn’t help grinning, and Sam’s face lit up.

“Awesome.”

-----

It was awesome, hanging out with Sam in his own space. Sure, he’d apologized for everything from the size of the apartment to the selection of snacks, but once they’d settled in, Sam was a lot more comfortable than he was at school. A lot less on edge.

It was really nice.

They were watching Star Wars, because Sam was never going to let him live that essay down, but they’d both seen it enough that they didn’t really have to pay attention. Which was good, because Gabriel was having trouble paying attention to anything other than Sam, sprawled back on the sofa, barefoot and relaxed. It was hard to reconcile with the shy, uptight guy he was used to seeing.

“I’m sorry for flipping out on you a while back,” Sam said after a while, eyes still on the TV. “It’s just… I’m not used to having friends.”

“Really?” Gabriel responded, dripping sarcasm, and he laughed out loud when Sam hit him with a pillow.

“I’m serious, dude. The last time someone wanted to be my friend, I really got burned.” He was totally serious, turned towards Gabriel now, one arm over the back of the sofa. “I thought she really liked me, but she didn’t care at all. She just wanted to use me.”

There was a lot Sam wasn’t saying, but Gabriel didn’t want to push. That in itself was kind of a first. He pulled his bent knee up on the couch, the better to face Sam.

“So when you started talking to me, I just… I couldn’t figure it out. I thought you were making fun of me for the longest, but then you just stuck around. And then you…” Sam trailed off, like he was thinking, or didn’t know what to say.

“You remember what I told you, right?” Gabriel asked, suddenly not sure where this was going, but knowing it was important. Sam ducked his head, and Gabriel realized he hadn’t seen that gesture in a long time. He wished it wasn’t so dark in the room; that the light from the television wasn’t so blue. He wanted to know if Sam was blushing, like he had that very first day.

“Yeah, I do,” said Sam, nodding. “Nobody’s ever said anything like that to me. I don’t think I could forget it.”

“Well, it’s true,” Gabriel said, feeling weirdly defensive.

“I like you, too, you know.” Sam’s voice was softer than it had been, and it almost sounded like…

“Okay, here’s the thing,” Gabriel started, decisive. “And you’re gonna have to tell me if I’m reading this all wrong, but… fuck it.” And he reached over and grabbed the back of Sam’s neck before he could think about it anymore, pressing his lips to Sam’s surprised mouth.

Which opened almost immediately under his own, and Sam was kissing him back, sweet and kind of dirty. Gabriel buried his hands in Sam’s ridiculous hair and just went with it, letting Sam tug him closer with those big hands on his back, his hips until he was basically on top of him, knees digging into the couch on either side of Sam’s waist.

“Took you long enough,” Sam laughed into his mouth.

“Sam Winchester,” Gabriel said, doing his best to sound affronted in the face of… well, Sam’s face; his lips all red and slick and his dark eyes sparkling with amusement. Suddenly, he couldn’t think of what he’d wanted to say.

“Wow,” said Sam, sliding a hand down Gabriel’s spine. “I feel like I should take a picture. I’ve never seen you speechless before.”

Gabriel rolled his eyes and pushed Sam back down against the arm of the couch. “And I never thought I’d have to shut you up.”

“Bring it,” Sam taunted, lifting his chin, so Gabriel pretty much had to lick his throat, nipping his way over to Sam’s ear, and it was amazing, the way Sam arched up into him.

He smiled against Sam’s neck, lips brushing softly over his skin as he spoke.

“Only if you say it in Latin.”