Title: Coming Home
Author: Lady Eternal
Rating: PG-13
Pairing: Sam/Gabriel
Word Count: 1,294
Spoilers: To stay on the safe side, all aired episodes
Warnings: Angst and cuddles. And a little sexual tension tossed in for fun. ~_^
Disclaimer: The series Supernatural and its characters and settings are the property of Messires Kripke and Singer, among others. If I owned them, certain events would NEVER have happened and it would be on a premium channel so I could show the pr0n. I own little more than a tabby that gets destructive when he feels ignored, and am only playing with these worlds for my own amusement and the free entertainment of others.
Author’s Note: Written for
hils’ prompt on the
The SPN Cuddle CommentFic Meme, which I think is still open if someone wants to grab a prompt.
Feedback is adored, so if you like the fic, please comment! And the more details the better; I love knowing what people like about my work.
Music:
One Last Breath - Creed ~ooooOOOooo~
The only rooms the motel had were two singles. Sometimes Sam was really grateful for the opportunity to be alone: Dean wasn’t eating disgusting things on his bed just to annoy him or busting his chops for using shampoo that didn’t come from the dollar store. It was quiet enough that he could surf the Internet as long as he wanted, watch whatever he wanted on television. He didn’t have to worry about Cas popping in if he needed to do a little… maintenance… because Cas never popped in unless Dean was there.
But on nights like tonight, the computer sat unused in its bag on the floor, charging, and Sam was lying in bed after a long hot shower, staring at the ceiling with nothing but thoughts rattling around in his mind.
A candy bar wrapper, casually tossed in the corner of the bathroom. Probably had been lying there for a while, unnoticed by whatever less-than-minimum-wage maid service was working under the table in a place like this. Sam had picked it up after pulling on one of the latex gloves he and Dean kept with them for examining crime scenes, turned it over in his hand for a long moment, and then thrown it in the garbage can under the sink.
He’d been thinking ever since. About Gabriel.
In the aftermath of Mystery Spot, Sam would never have believed that he’d ever be able to honestly say he missed the Trickster. Finding out that the Trickster was Gabriel, ArchHerald of the Lord, had been more than a little startling to Sam. More startling was the way the Trickster was such a thin veil, barely concealing what Gabriel really was… what he was feeling. If Dean had just shut up for five minutes, had just let him talk to Gabriel back there in Wellington…
And then at Motel Hell. Once again, Dean had gotten in the way, controlling the conversations and baiting Gabriel… and not letting Sam go back for him. Lucifer wouldn’t have hurt his vessel; Sam was convinced of that. If he’d gone back for Gabriel… maybe Gabriel wouldn’t have died.
One more body in the graveyard in Sam’s heart. More blood on his hands for letting Lucifer out of his cage to begin with.
“Actually, there wasn’t any… blood, that is.”
Sam sat up so fast his head spun, scanning the room before his vision cleared. Gabriel was sitting at the end of the bed, not looking at him. Something about him seemed as quiet as Sam felt, indrawn and tired. “Gabriel?”
The archangel turned, wearing a crooked, mischievous smile that didn’t quite make it to his butterscotch eyes. “Hey, Sam. Nice to see you again.”
Without thinking about it, Sam scrambled across the bed and unceremoniously hugged the trickster angel that had once killed his brother more than a hundred times. “You’re back… how? God or… or was it Kali? She still had your blood…?”
“I don’t… really want to talk about it, Sammy,” Gabriel replied, “if it’s all the same to you. It wasn’t exactly a pleasant trip back.”
Instinctively, Sam tightened the hug, hauling Gabriel closer. Gabriel let out a soft breath and turned into the embrace, wrapping his arms around Sam and tucking his head into the hollow of Sam’s shoulder. He seemed comforted by the warmth of Sam’s body and the steady drum of Sam’s heart, and Sam was inching them back across the bed and curling down into the sheets with Gabriel without stopping to consider that Gabriel might not want to snuggle like a pair of lovers in a nest.
Or that he was naked to the waist. Or that Gabriel smelled like a brace of lilies and ripe strawberries in the summer afternoon sun. Sam didn’t want to think about any of that. He just wanted to draw in that scent, a fragrance he’d only caught traces of before now. He wanted to feel Gabriel’s warmer-than-human flesh beneath his hands and sleep in a tangle of limbs with a creature so old he remembered the faces of the first humans created by God.
“They were ordinary,” Gabriel said, obviously having read Sam’s mind. “At least to us. They were beautiful; all humans are, in their own ways; but they really were rather ordinary. Adam’s eyes were blue as the summer sky, and Eve’s were green as new grass in the spring…”
Lying there, holding Gabriel, Sam just let the archangel talk. The Messenger of God spun out stories and factoids and secrets, lying there in the warm cradle of Sam’s arms, face half-buried in Sam’s shoulder, drawing comfort from the simplicity of the human’s gentle kindness. And Sam just let him, because listening to stories about how Noah and his family really survived the flood, or what it was like when Enoch was transmuted into Metatron, was easier than thinking about his plan to let Lucifer in and then somehow gain enough control of his own body to leap into the Cage.
“It’s a stupid plan,” Gabriel said, his stories finally winding down. They’d spent hours, wrapped up in each other like two kittens in a basket: Gabriel talking and burrowing and wrapping Sam tightly against his body, and Sam silent, listening to every word, keeping Gabriel safe and sheltered in his arms.
“It’s all we’ve got,” Sam replied. “We can’t force him in. We can’t expect him to just make a mistake and wander in. We have to trick him in… and I’m the only weapon we have that he won’t see coming.”
Gabriel nestled deeper into Sam’s chest, pressing his ear against Sam’s heart. “I know… but it’s still a stupid plan. You’re going to get yourself killed.”
A lump formed in Sam’s throat at the concern in Gabriel’s voice. “Probably… blood and pain. That’s what you said… this can only end in blood and pain.”
“Not for you!” Gabriel’s head snapped up and he pulled away, staring down into Sam’s face with anger and fear and something old and terrible and unnamable in his eyes. And maybe… just maybe… there was a hint of something more. “I didn’t get myself killed and claw my way back and remake my vessel just in time for you to die screaming with nothing I can do to stop it.”
Sam smiled, biting his lip, reaching up and running a hand through Gabriel’s soft hair. “Dean unlocked the first catch, but I opened the door, Gabriel. I owe it to the world to close it again, if I can.” For a moment, Gabriel hung there above him, that other hint of something becoming more and more prominent in his eyes. More and more desperate. Wanting to ease the ache in that expression, Sam did the only thing he could think of.
He leaned up and kissed those parted lips.
It wasn’t a long kiss; Gabriel gasped into Sam’s mouth, letting Sam just a little deeper, but Sam didn’t push for too much. This was a promise, warm and gentle, that if Gabriel could find his way back from oblivion, Sam would find his way back from Hell.
Sam had begun it, and Sam ended it, slowly drawing his mouth away from Gabriel’s and gazing up into those too bright eyes. For a moment, Gabriel looked like he wanted to say something… anything… and then he just slipped back down again, burrowing into the cradle of Sam’s arms and pressing his ear against Sam’s heartbeat. Sam smiled, and snuggled closer, and kept Gabriel safe in his arms from whatever nightmare the archangel had clawed his way through to come back. To come home to him.
And Sam would do the same now, if it came down to it. He had a promise to keep.