Chapter Text
When Sam woke up in the morning, he was surrounded by the scent of his alpha, not only that, but he was still wrapped in warm arms, pressed skin to skin. It was the best way he could remember waking up…ever. But it was surprising, since Gabriel had said he would leave once the omega fell asleep.
“You’re still here?” Sam asked with a sleep-gruff voice and squeezed tighter, almost to prove to himself Gabriel really was there.
“Is that a problem?” he teased and surprised Sam further by kissing the top of his head. “I was…doing some thinking.”
“And thinking got us naked?” The omega pointed out, remembering how they’d appeared in the room fully clothed and on top of the covers.
Now they were tucked in without obstruction, touching on every surface.
With a laugh, Gabriel countered, “It’s more comfortable, all right? Wow. You’re doing a lot of complaining this morning.”
“No,” Sam was quick to correct, “I’m happily surprised. What were you thinking about?”
“Lotsa things.” It seemed like Gabriel was tentatively giving an elusive disclaimer before he launched into his nightly musing. “You, mostly. Us, too. How things have changed. I can’t explain it, but I’m sure you’ve heard or read about it. You and yer damn research-wired brain. The bite altered …shit. And when you said you weren’t sorry, I guess I decided I wasn’t either. But we’ve gotta be smart about this. We can’t let this catch us with our pants down, figuratively or literally.”
Sam could feel his heart swelling with joy at the admission, but he agreed, “I know. We will be smart. I can feel some rules coming into play because I know you.”
“You hit the nail on the head.” Gabriel shuffled them around so Sam was no longer curled up on his chest, but sharing the pillow with him so they could speak face to face. “This bond. Makes my alpha run wild, like it’s on steroids. Makes me wanna protect you. And your fine ass gets happens to get into more trouble than anything on this planet; which is a problem for two reasons.”
Sam nodded for him to continue, watching closely while silently admitting that was true.
“There’s something I’m gonna take it back.” The words were idle but Gabriel actually reneging on something? That was big.
“The whole play your roles thing from TV Land? Shipping you off to Lucifer? It ain’t happening. You, Winchester, are mine. You think of going anywhere near my brother and you’re gonna regret it. Same goes for Dean with good ol' Mike.”
With a huff, Gabriel had to admit in his late night dealings, he also came to conclude, “But the bitch of the matter is I’m not gonna get involved with angel business. If your love of trouble lands you on the wrong end of the winged dicks? I can’t bail you out. There’s a reason I want ’em to think I’m dead.” He reached forward to brush a stray strand off Sam’s brow. “So far so good?"
“Yeah.” And it was. To know that Gabriel was no longer in support of their starring roles as Lucifer and Michael anymore felt like a huge weight had been lifted off his chest. “We know how to deal with angels. I won’t put you in that position.”
With a wiggle of his eyebrows, he commented lewdly, “Good, there are much better positions to put me into anyways.”
Sam groaned dramatically, but ducked his hand under the blankets to rest against Gabriel’s bare waist and tugged as a prompt. “What’s the other part?”
“Now, I don’t know how much longer Cassie’ll keep his mouth shut.” There was a meaningful look on Gabriel’s face, like he wanted Sam to jump in. But when the omega didn’t - he was forced to continue. “I mean it when I said he’s gaga for Dean. He’ll slip up, tack isn't his strong suit. Plus, your bro’s not as dumb as he looks and I don’t know if you want to be the one to tell him or not.”
Just to bait Gabriel and get his own question answered, Sam slowly pronounced, “What exactly would I be telling him?”
Gabriel flashed him a ’bitch please’ glower, he evaded the inquiry with, “I don’t know. What do you think you should be telling him?”
“We’re stupid.” Sam laughed out loud and leaned forward to kiss the tip of Gabriel’s nose. “Alright, here’s my question for you.”
“Shoot.”
For the first time that morning, Sam appeared shy but held steady and refused to look away when he asked, “Are you going to mate me?” When Gabriel looked cagey once more, the omega pressed him further. “You were up all damn night thinking. There’s no doubt that crossed your mind. So just tell me.”
With a theatrical sigh, Gabriel admitted, “I don’t know.” The moment Sam’s face fell, he corrected, “Your brother needs to know first or he’s gonna try to roast me in Holy Oil. Then there’s the fact that I don’t know if the angels will be able to tell by the mark that it was made by me. It’s not basic shit-list material, Sammy. It’s big-time blasphemy. Where do you think nephilim come from?” He raised a challenging arched eyebrow.
Sam fucking hated it because he was right. Still, he had to amend the subject, “And if it couldn’t be linked back to you?” because his insecurities were slowly eating him alive.
It didn’t matter if they were here, wrapped up in one another. If Gabriel didn’t want him on the level Sam wished he did - it would crush him. After all, it was one thing to be physical. They didn’t have a problem there. Yet...if that’s all Gabriel wanted…Sam didn’t know what he’d do.
The archangel was finally the one to break their stare, but it wasn’t to crush the moment, it was to glance at Sam’s neck. With a heavy groan he admitted, “I could probably be talked into it pretty easily with yer goddamn puppy eyes.”
“Wow. Look at that passion.” Sam deadpanned, clearly unimpressed.
“Hey,” Gabriel’s voice was a bit sharper when he said, “I want to, okay? So chill out on the bitchface. But! There’s also no point in getting either of our hopes up.” A bit of silence lingered before he pressed their foreheads together and whispered, “Believe it or not…that was what I spent most of the night thinking about.” Sam felt the graze of fingertips over the spot on his neck that mirrored where he’d marked Gabriel. “Thought about bringing up finishing it, making it official but…I don’t want to put either of us in danger.”
“You don’t want the angels to find you.”
“I don’t want Lucifer to tear you apart when he finds you.” Gabriel retorted and pushed Sam away. “You don’t think he’ll flip about his vessel being ruined? Marred? It’s not gonna be waxed poetry to get you to say yes anymore, it’ll be pain, and torture and-”
“I would never say yes to him! Dammit, Gabriel!” Sam couldn’t control himself anymore, he couldn’t and wouldn’t hold back. “If our time’s limited anyway, then why the fuck-!”
The omega was abruptly stopped when the door flew open and Dean marched in, demanding, “Sammy?! What’s going-” only to freeze in his tracks.
Gabriel slapped a hand over his face and groaned, “Well, that solves one problem. Nice work, keeping the convo calm and hush-hush, kiddo.”
Finally coming out of his stupor, Dean charged the rest of the way into the room, shouting, “What did you do to my brother, you-!”
“This isn’t what it looks like!” Sam sat up, forgetting Gabriel had mojo’d their clothes away and scrambled to yank the blanket to cover his crotch. “Just- wait a second, I’ll be right-”
“I’m getting a fuckin’ angel blade, I swear to God!” The alpha ran out of the room just as quickly, slamming the door and leaving a mix of righteous fury and embarrassment in his wake. Both of them heard as he stumbled down the flight of stairs and a “Sonuvabitch!” echoed through the stairwell.
“Shit.” Sam ran a hand through his hair and looked down to see Gabriel had the audacity to appear thoroughly entertained and smug. “You’re staying! You need to be there or else he’s not going to understand…”
“Nah.”
The archangel tackled Sam to the bed, knowing they were on borrowed time and kissed him hard. Just because he could - the cat being out of the bag and what not - he gave Sam a taste of his own medicine. He brushed his teeth over the omega’s sensitive pulse point before sucking a mark into the skin of his throat. Sam moaned loudly at the sensation, his hand looping around Gabriel and holding on for dear life.
He wished they had more time because the feeling, that teasing move, went right to his dick and he could feel slick beginning to leak out from him. When Gabriel started to retreat, Sam refused, and drew him back in for a sloppy, filthy kiss. The alpha couldn’t help but get tangled up in it and hissed when Sam nipped his bottom lip.
This time, it was Sam who pushed him away with a narrowed halfhearted glare, “Remember? Angel blade? Dean?”
“Fuck, you’re a tease.” Gabriel’s voice was filled with lust as he stared at the omega. “It’s been too long. I’m gonna plow that tight ass into next week. First chance I get.”
“Promise?” Sam quipped right back, his hand grabbing Gabriel’s hard cock under the blankets.
He moaned and thrust into Sam’s fist, cursing under his breath before grunting, “Oh, you better believe it.” He swatted Sam’s hand away and kissed him once more. “Now, go tell your overprotective brother about our sexscapades and new illicit love affair. While what you’re really thinking about is my knot.”
“You’re wrong.” The omega said smoothly, “I’ll be thinking about your knot, how much I love you, and when we’re mating.”
“That’s-” Gabriel appeared completely caught off-guard by Sam‘s candidness, which was damn near impossible to do. “A lot on your mind.” He shook his head with a smile. “Best’a luck with that, Sasquatch.”
Then, with a peck of a kiss on Sam’s forehead, he was gone.
Sam took a few deep, centering breaths before he searched the small room to find where the hell Gabriel had put his clothes. He had to grin when he found them neatly folded on a chair right next to the bed and he pulled them on as quickly as possible.
After all, he knew Dean. There wasn’t a doubt in his mind that if he wasted anymore time he’d be pushing through the door for a second time, armed and ready. And this round Sam planned on being clothed.
Why did it feel like he was walking to the gallows when he exited the room and headed to the stairs? At least he’d begun the morning on a better note. Before things headed south.
------------------
“Sure managed to work ‘im up in a tizzy.” It was Bobby who greeted Sam at the bottom of the stairs in his wheelchair. “Before you go’n there, you gotta be straight with me. Who’s this monster Dean’s rantin’ an’ ravin’ about? Please don’t tell me you’ve relapsed.” Bobby glared at Sam looking for a clue as to what was going on.
“Everyone always goes right to the nuclear option,” Sam groaned and decided to sit on the couch adjacent Bobby. “I never relapsed on demon blood, Bobby.”
“I know.”
Sam was baffled for a moment, before the old hunter continued.
“Could see it, right away. But I figured you had yer reasons for pretending. Does it have anythin’ to do with what's happening now?” He watched him closely and when Sam nodded cautiously, he gave him the time to speak.
He could only form one word: “Gabriel,” and Bobby’s eyes lit up in recognition.
“That Trickster archangel?” The old alpha didn’t sound judgmental, simply curious. “Huh. Didn’t see that one coming. Worse things out there, but nothin’ quite so powerful. Suppose that’s what yer brother’s worried about.” With a huff and a crooked smile, Bobby admitted, “That why you’ve been boozing your feelings away? If my sniffer’s working, ’m guessing you patched things up.”
“And…you’re okay with all this?” Sam tilted his head and scrunched his brow.
“We don’t choose who makes us happy, just does.” He wheeled himself backwards, giving Sam a clear path to the kitchen, “Be glad you found it in time.”
“Thanks, Bobby.” And he meant it, God, did he mean it.
Although it wasn’t a sure thing that Bobby was in his corner, at least someone understood. He had a feeling he wasn’t going to get that lucky with his brother; it was time to face the music.
Sam finished the short walk and sat down in front of Dean, who was cradling a beer (which didn’t surprise him, even though it was still in the early hours) along with an angel blade actually haphazardly set on the table (fuck , Sam realized he was actually serious) and zoned out on the table. But the second the omega took his seat, the older Winchester snapped up with a barely-hidden fury and his scent exploded with defensive alpha.
Sam couldn’t seem to get away from that scent lately, all the friggin alpha’s surrounding him were always coated in it, like he was something fragile that need to be protected.
“What the hell are you thinking, Sam?!” he snarled in a low voice. “Gabriel? Fuckin’ Gabriel ?! How long has this been going on? How long has he been fucking with your head?!”
“Dean…” Sam tried to get him to calm down with the tone he always used when his brother was wound too tight. “We were just talking about how we were going to tell you, okay? This isn’t him fucking with my head, this is…us. We’re together. Neither of us thought it was going to happen, but it did.”
“And how does that work, huh?” Dean took a long pull from his bottle, “Wow! You just randomly wake up in bed one morning, chalk it up to being a couple and bam! We’re together? Funny, I don’t remember relationships happening that way - they start somewhere, somehow, and they usually don’t involve people who’ve screwed us over. On multiple occasions!”
“You didn’t go through what I went through! If anyone should be pissed at him, it’s me and I forgave him! And, yeah, we didn’t just wake up and decide to be together, but you do not want the gory details, trust me.” Sam puffed out an angry breath before he thought about what he could even recount. “He only came because I prayed. And…it was by accident. Then…stuff happened.”
This all sounded bad, it would continue to sound bad the more he thought about it, and the omega had to find some way to salvage it.
“He was the one who told me we were dealing with the wraith, who it was, how to kill it. He gave me grace, not demon blood to take out Famine-”
“Oh, just a regular friggin angel on your shoulder!” Dean grumbled out, but then paused when he realized, “It wasn’t demon blood? You faked it in the panic room?”
Sam nodded slowly, and quietly confessed, “It was easier to let you think that than explain…us. I didn‘t really know what we were at the time.”
“He’s the reason you went into heat!” The alpha was finally putting together all the pieces. “Dammit, Sammy! This isn’t you just getting boned by a monster, this is you obsessed, head over heels for the freak!”
“Yeah, it is!” His voice boomed just as loudly as Dean’s. “Which was why we were going to tell you! Why aren’t you getting that?!”
“You’re being played.” The alpha narrowed his eyes and spat out in disgust, “You don’t see it because you’re in too deep. Remember? He wanted us to play our roles? What better way than seducing you, making you think that you actually matter to him and then shoving you into saying yes to Lucifer!”
Sam’s clenched fist was itching to lash out and punch his brother across the face. He was so close, but that wouldn’t solve anything. He needed to be rational, he needed to think…
So instead, he calmly stated, “Call Cas.”
“What?” Dean looked confused because it had come out of left field. “Why would I call-?”
“Just do it.”
He rolled his eyes before he closed them and sarcastically prayed, “Dear Castiel, apparently my brother thinks you can help with a hell of a problem we’re having right now. So if you’d kindly join us on this clusterfuck of a mess, that’d be-”
“Hello, Dean.”
The alpha jerked as the angel manifested directly into the seat at the edge of the table between the brothers.
“What’s the problem? How may I be of assistance?” He still appeared bashful around Sam after the thorough tongue-lashing and minor assault from Gabriel, but he glowed when he looked at Dean. Per usual.
“Apparently my little dumbass of a brother thinks a monster like Gabriel is capable of giving a shit about him!” Dean threw his arms in the air then slammed them back on the table, looking at Castiel, “Help me get it through his thick skull that he’s being used! And whatever he thinks is love is blinding him and-”
“Oh. I thought you’d keep your relationship a secret for while longer,” the angel truthfully said to Sam and alluded, “Am I allowed…?” before turning to Dean when he gained permission. “Your worries are unfounded. Gabriel does love him, he’s already made the ultimate commitment. I was surprised as well, but the only reason he wears Sam’s mark but doesn’t repay it is for your brother’s safety, Dean. While I was shocked at first, once I sat and thought about it, even though it’s unprecedented it’s rather…admirable.”
Every cell in Dean’s body locked-up in a dead freeze. “What?”
“I’m not ‘blinded,’ Dean.” Sam hissed and gestured to Castiel, “Even he said it. Why the fuck would Gabriel let me mate him if he didn’t care about me? Pretty elaborate scam, right? To go to those lengths?”
“Holy hell.” The alpha wouldn’t look at his brother, he could only face the angel. “You saw it? With your own two eyes?”
Castiel nodded and reached out to grab Dean’s forearm in a steadying gesture, “Gabriel was wearing Sam’s mark. Last night, I confronted your brother about something, and I admit I got a bit carried away in my…interrogation. Gabriel appeared and reprimanded me, which I deserved, and I witnessed their relationship firsthand. Dean, this is a good thing. He’s a powerful ally and he cares-”
The alpha tore away from Cas and barely glanced at his brother before he grunted under his breath, “I don’t believe this,” and rushed out of the kitchen.
There was a moment of stillness before Castiel turned to Sam and asked, “Did I make a mistake?”
“No, you did exactly what I needed you to do.” The omega gave him a small smile and sighed, “Dean…walked in on us this morning. Not like that kind of walked in on us. We were talking. We were actually talking about how we were going to tell him, but that reveal was kind of taken away...”
Then Sam realized he was presented with the perfect opportunity.
He turned so quickly, the chair squeaked and moved with him as he demanded, “If Gabriel mated me, would it just be another mark? Or would angels be able to tell that it was made by another angel? Or, specially, which angel marked me?”
Castiel blinked a few times before he sheepishly stated, “It’s blasphemy, Sam. Now, before you become upset, I, personally, do not mean that. But the point remains that I don’t have a definitive answer because it’s simply…not done.”
Sam jumped in with, “But that could just as easily mean it’d just be another mating mark, right?”
“Bonded with the power of an archangel?” Cas theorized, “I’m unsure anything would be ‘just another’ anything.”
“Could he be powerful enough to hide any residual grace or indicators?” So what if he was grasping at straws? “Like you hid Dean and I with the markings on our ribs?”
“Perhaps,” Castiel was squinting at him and realized with awe, “Your love for him runs so deeply, doesn’t it? How could I have missed this before…”
Sam knew a blush was spreading across his cheeks, because when the words were spoken aloud - the gravity of the situation really sunk in. “Yeah, I, uh, guess it does.”
“Don’t be ashamed of love. It’s one of God’s greatest creations.” There was a minute but warm smile on Castiel’s face. “I was wrong to have spoke ill of anything before. I suppose some of Heaven’s beliefs are so deeply instilled into our 'programming' that we forget what He taught us was of import above all else. Ironic, how that works out.”
“Cas, I have a huge favor to ask you…” Sam bit his lip as the seraph agreed eagerly.
“Of course. What is it?”
“I don’t think Dean’s gonna want to talk to me about this. He’s stubborn and I know I’ve got a bad track record when it comes to what he thinks are monsters. But…yeah, Gabriel and us, we’ve got a history. And it’s not all rainbows and unicorns, but it’s different. Can you help him come around and see that?” He tried to show the angel how serious he was through his body language and eyes, but he already knew Cas recognized it was urgent.
“I’d love to help, but I don’t see why he’d listen to me about something like this.” Castiel frowned heavily and Sam wanted to friggin shake him, he was so dense sometimes.
“Because he trusts you. He listens to you. He cares about you, Cas,” then he added in something he hoped would resonate, “You’re family.”
That seemed to light the spark in him and the angel nodded gravely, “I’ll do my best. I believe he’s in the yard, I’ll see if I can calm him down a bit.”
“Thank you.”
But before Sam could even finish the ‘you’ part, Castiel had already fluttered away.
With a huff, Sam closed his eyes and sent a prayer up to Gabriel.
Consider Dean filled in. He’s got his own angel to take it out on and Cas is on our side. I’m crossing my fingers this all works out.
With a little hesitation, he added:
I hope I can see you soon. You’ve got a promise to keep.