Chapter Text
Sam and Gabriel wandered down the boardwalk, and the whole thing was so fucking clichéd Sam made Gabe swear up and down he did not orchestrate it. The breeze was warm and salty and smelled like honeysuckle, and the ocean roared softly in the east. And Gabriel was eating a fucking cotton-candy cone, of all things, pink and sticky, and Sam pushed words like adorable and sexy out of his head, replacing them with things like ridiculous and annoying and adorable and -- shit.
“Seriously, Gabe, are you twelve?”
Gabriel grinned at him. “Sometimes,” he said innocently. “Mostly not.”
Sam gave him a token eye-roll, but he had to admit he was enjoying himself. It had been so many years since he and Dean had lived anything resembling a normal life, if ever, and walking down this stupid boardwalk like an ordinary person, Sam felt something uncoil slightly inside him.
Gabriel seized his hand and pulled him into one of the storefronts. Sam blinked, startled. It was dark and dusty and hot, but he recognized some of the machines.
“Dude, are we in an arcade?”
“I’m going to win you a stuffed animal,” Gabriel said, pulling him through the aisles.
“Gabe, we aren’t on a date.”
“I am most certainly on a date, little moose,” Gabriel said. “If you are not on a date then that is your problem, and you are very much missing out. And if I win you one, you have to kiss me.”
“Nope,” Sam said automatically.
“Fine,” Gabriel said, undeterred. “If I win I’m going to try to kiss you, and take it as you will. Fair?”
“Gabe.”
“That’s not a no,” Gabriel said, and disappeared into the crowd.
Half an hour later, Gabriel was gleefully shoving a giant purple panda into Sam’s arms.
“Jesus Christ, Gabe. Are you seriously going to...?”
Gabriel sighed dramatically. “Not here, Sam. Haven’t you been on a date before?” He paused. “Am I making you uncomfortable?”
“You always make me uncomfortable.”
Gabe smiled at him, open and honest. “I try. But seriously. I’ll back off, I swear.”
Sam rolled his eyes, but couldn’t help the reciprocating smile at the corners of his mouth. “You’re fine, dude.”
Gabriel’s face lit up. “Good, because we’re going on the Ferris wheel.” He seized Sam’s wrist.
“Oh, my God, Gabe.”
Which is how Sam Winchester, who had drunk the blood of demons, shared a body with Lucifer and started the apocalypse, found himself perched atop a Ferris wheel at midnight, with a fucking purple panda bear on his lap and an archangel sitting next to him happily kicking his feet.
“You’re ridiculous, you know that?” Sam said.
“Among other things, yes.” He poked at the stuffed animal. “What’s its name?”
“I am not naming it, dude. I am not keeping it.”
Hurt flashed across Gabriel’s face for a second before it rearranged itself into its customary grin.
“You have to keep it, Sam-o. What will keep you warm at night when I’m gone?” he said with a theatrical pout.
Sam snorted, but something twisted unpleasantly in his stomach.
“Fine. But if you tell Dean, I swear to God --”
“It’ll be our little secret, Sammy-boy,” Gabriel said, slinging an arm around Sam’s shoulders. His features relaxed into the easy smile that was becoming less and less disconcerting on his face. Sam looked over him, at the golden hair flopping over the golden eyes, and his eyes flickered down to Gabriel’s mouth.
Gabriel watched the string of expressions flitting across Sam’s face. “Hey,” he said, poking Sam gently in the ribs. “What’s going on in that ridiculous moose brain of yours?”
Sam swallowed and opened his mouth, and at that moment the Ferris wheel ground to life again, slowly bringing them back down. Sam shook his head.
Eventually they found themselves sitting side by side on a playground jungle gym near the motel, sharing a six-pack of shitty beer they’d picked up from a convenience store.
“Think it’s safe to go back?” Sam asked.
Gabriel laughed. “They were forced to be apart all afternoon, Sammy. I don’t know if we’d be able to get their dicks out of each other with a crowbar.”
“Jesus Christ, dude,” Sam groaned. “Just when I think you’re growing on me.”
Gabriel grinned and scrambled up to throw a leg over Sam’s lap. “So I am growing on you,” he said triumphantly.
Sam rolled his eyes, but his hands automatically came up to rest on the angel’s hips. “Fuck’s sake, Gabe --”
“All it took was a romantic night out at an arcade that probably hasn’t been cleaned since 1982,” he teased.
“Gabe --”
“And a very large, very purple panda bear.”
“Gabe.”
“I’m going to kiss you now,” Gabriel said, his voice turning serious, and Sam shut his mouth. “Is that OK?”
“Um,” said Sam. Yes and no and I don’t know skittered through his head, but as Gabriel stared at him they turned into please and now and finally.
Gabriel moved closer until his forehead was resting against Sam’s. “You sure?” he breathed against Sam’s mouth.
Sam reached up to grab Gabriel’s face in his hands and kissed him hard. Gabriel stiffened and made a small, surprised noise, then returned the kiss with enthusiasm, wrapping his hand in Sam’s hair.
They broke apart, wide-eyed and gasping. “Oh,” said Gabriel, for once at a loss for words.
“Yeah,” agreed Sam, swallowing.
Gabriel brought his hand to Sam’s mouth, tracing his lower lip with his thumb, and Sam instinctively opened his mouth and licked it. Gabriel hissed. Sam closed his mouth and sucked gently, and he could feel Gabriel hardening on top of him, and fuck if that wasn’t sexy.
So much for “still straight”, Sam thought with a snort.
Gabriel smiled down at him. “Are you laughing at me, Sam Winchester?” His voice was deeper and slower than Sam had ever heard it, almost drugged.
Sam pulled his finger out of his mouth slowly, and Gabriel groaned. “Maybe,” he said at last.
“You are insufferable,” said Gabriel, unable to resist pressing down onto Sam.
“Did I seriously,” he said roughly, “just get called insufferable -- by Loki -- who is currently -- nngh -- grinding in my lap?”
Gabriel stilled, looking sheepish, and Sam grabbed his hips to return the pressure. “I didn’t say to stop.”
Gabriel just looked at him for a moment, then shoved him to his back on the platform.
“Oof,” he said as his head knocked against the wood, but then Gabriel’s mouth was on his, and warm fingers were sliding up Sam’s shirt, and he quickly forgot about the ache in his skull.
“Fuck, Gabe,” he groaned.
“That’s the idea,” Gabriel growled against his lips.
“Wait, Gabe,” Sam said, putting his hand over the angel’s. “I’ve never --”
Gabriel pulled back, and the predatory look was gone from his eyes. “We don’t have to, Sam-o-mine,” he said. “And as appealing as it would be to throw you down on your knees right here, I’m not a fan of splinters. But… do you want to stop?”
“No,” Sam said without hesitation, pulling Gabriel back down. “Jesus fuck, no.”
“Good,” Gabriel whispered, biting Sam’s lower lip, and Sam moaned. Gabriel pressed his thigh between Sam’s legs. “I swear to God, if you keep making those noises I cannot be held responsible for my actions.”
Sam let out a shaky laugh. “Can you ever, dude?”
Gabriel leaned in closer, kissing him deeply. Sam whined and pulled impatiently at Gabriel’s shirt, and Gabe broke the kiss long enough to let him yank it off. Gabriel manhandled him until he was sitting upright, tugging off his shirt as well.
They sat in silence for awhile, Sam raking his fingers through Gabriel’s hair and down his back and Gabriel tracing the musculature of Sam’s chest worshipfully.
“So gorgeous,” he whispered, sincerity evident in his voice. “So perfect.”
Sam replied by leaning forward and attaching his lips to Gabriel’s neck, using teeth and tongue to suck a line of bruises down his collarbone. Gabriel’s hips jerked up of their own accord, and he dropped his head onto Sam’s shoulder.
He trailed his fingertips down Sam’s back, feeling goosebumps forming at his touch. “Too many layers,” he murmured hoarsely, running his fingers under the waistband of Sam’s jeans. “Can I --?”
Sam bit down once hard on Gabriel’s shoulder, eliciting a gasp, then leaned back. After a confusing tangle of legs and fabric, in which Gabe very nearly kicked Sam in the jaw -- “Sorry, sorry,” Gabriel gasped. “I have a newly-vested interest in the functionality of your mouth” -- they managed to kick their jeans off and settle back together with just their boxers between them.
“Not that I don’t want to lay you out naked,” Gabriel growled, “but I doubt getting splinters in your ass would improve my chances with it.”
“And we’re in public,” Sam reminded him. “Not that we’re not already pretty well past the line of public indecency at the moment.”
“Well, it is Florida,” Gabriel agreed.
They rocked together faster, breathing coming in hitches and moans. “Gabe,” Sam hissed. “Gabe, fuck --”
“I told you,” Gabriel gasped. “Later,” but he reached down and wrapped his hand around both of them, slightly awkward over the fabric. Sam shuddered. He twisted one hand in Gabriel’s hair and snaked the other between them, wrapping it around Gabe’s much smaller hand.
“Oh, God,” Gabe choked out. “Sammy, I can’t --” Sam squeezed hard one last time and Gabriel came with a cry, and the sight of Gabriel arching back with the moonlight shimmering in his golden eyes pushed Sam over the edge.
They collapsed back on the platform, Gabriel half-sprawled on top of Sam, ignoring the sticky fabric between them, and lay breathing heavily for a few minutes.
“Jesus Christ,” Sam said eventually, opening his eyes.
“Like I said,” Gabe murmured, “not quite.” Sam rolled his eyes and shoved at him playfully. “I knew I’d have occasion to appreciate those giant man-hands, little moose,” he said.
Sam snorted and looked around. “I can’t believe we just defiled a children’s playground.”
“Not exactly what I was imagining for the first time I finally got to touch you,” Gabriel admitted.
“Well,” Sam said, “to be fair, given that you’re, you know, you, it’s kind of appropriate.”
Finally the drying stickiness in their boxers began to get uncomfortable, and they gathered their scattered clothes and staggered back towards the motel. Sam had just retrieved the room key from the pocket of his jeans when the door to the room next door opened.
They froze, classic deer in headlights. Dean looked at them for a long moment, Impala keys in hand, at their flushed faces and obvious state of undress, skin marked with guilty bruises, a giant fucking panda dangling from Sam's free hand, then turned on the ball of his foot and disappeared back inside, slamming the door.
Sam and Gabriel stared at each other, then dissolved into hysterical laughter, leaning against the door.
“Shut up, bitch,” Dean yelled from inside the room.
“G’night, jerk,” Sam called back as he finally got their door open. They collapsed into the room and onto one of the beds, still snorting occasionally.
“Oh, my God,” Sam said, wrapping his arms around Gabriel and wiping his eyes. “Revenge is a beautiful thing.”