Author's Note: Beta-read by the wonderful unhealthysp8obsession on tumblr. Thank you so much!

Disclaimer: I do not own Supernatural.

Matchmaker

It all began, initially, with Sam Winchester realising how utterly and irrevocably in love his brother and the angel Castiel were.

Unfortunately, it didn't stop with that.

It would have been okay, most likely, if Dean and Castiel themselves hadn't been totally oblivious to this fact. They danced around each other, sure enough, and they never let the other out of their sight, but they refused to see it through. It was the most ridiculous thing Sam had ever seen.

But he wasn't the only one to notice.

The three of them had thought the archangel Gabriel dead, and so had the rest of the cosmos – at least until he sauntered through the door of their motel room, very much alive and still very much himself.

He was the second one to notice.

After a lot of screaming, some splashes of holy water, and cuts with a silver knife, not to mention the countless assurances of Castiel that this was indeed his brother, Sam and Dean had to accept it: Gabriel was alive and kicking.

And he was on a mission.

But first of all, he disappeared again, leaving the brothers stunned and Castiel slightly hurt and confused – but since when had anybody ever been able to explain Gabriel's actions? They shrugged it off and carried on.

Sam tried to leave Dean and Cas alone more often now, tried to give them the space to work out the issues they clearly had, but the tension stayed and Sam grew more frustrated. In between the hunts, he tried to think of ways to get them to notice their attraction towards each other, but Dean and Cas were immune to his various setups.

It ended with Dean asking if Sam was seeing anybody – needless to say, he wasn't – and Sam finding himself in need of a good explanation. Preferably one that didn't involve shouting at his brother because said brother was too stubborn to talk to Cas.

That was when Gabriel chose to show up again.

"Dean-o," Gabriel said, smiling, "What's up?"

Dean shot him an angry glare. "What are you doing here, Gabriel? And how did you get here?"

Gabriel's smile didn't betray anything. "I was in town. Noticed my baby brother was here. I got curious!"

Dean huffed. "Sure."

Castiel tilted his head and considered Gabriel's words. He seemed strangely hopeful, yet wary. Sam slowly let out the breath he was holding, not letting Gabriel out of his sight but at the same time glad that he got off the hook this time. Dean would have been angry or at least seriously annoyed, and Sam wouldn't have been able to explain his behaviour without making a fool of himself.

While Dean was busy glaring at Gabriel angrily, Sam quietly snuck out of the motel room and headed for the vending machine to get himself a coke. It was surprisingly warm, and the sky was clear. Moonlight illuminated the parking lot of the motel, but it wasn't a full moon, and for once, Sam could actually believe that things were as peaceful as they seemed.

Well, not counting his grumpy brother and the miraculously revived archangel of course. Sam sighed.

"I'll have a coke, too."

Sam jumped when Gabriel suddenly appeared next to him. He knew better than to punch the angel – that would have hurt badly – but he couldn't say he wasn't tempted. Just because he'd been momentarily scared, of course.

"Help yourself," Sam replied grumpily. He still felt slightly hurt when he looked at Gabriel, probably because he'd actually been mourning this idiot when he was obviously alive and well. Sam knew it was childish, but he couldn't help it.

Gabriel pouted, then snapped himself a milkshake into existence. Sam tried to ignore the archangel, but Gabriel seemed determined on being noticed.

"So," he said, "You saw it, too."

"Saw what?" Sam looked down at Gabriel who contently sipped his milkshake with a broad grin. At Sam's words, he gestured towards a near bench.

"Let's give this problem the proper chat it deserves."

Gabriel sat on the bench cross-legged, and Sam had to try very hard not to laugh – the archangel looked like a short gymnastics enthusiast. His shoulders were hunched, though, and it was all-too-easy to imagine wings unfolding from Gabriel's shoulders.

Sam shook his head and sat down next to Gabriel, legs too long to sit cross-legged and face the archangel. He simply sat down as any normal person would do and turned his head to look at Gabriel. Somehow, the milkshake had turned into chocolate ice cream.

"So." Gabriel said. "The problem."

Sam nodded, not sure what he was supposed to say now. "The problem."

Gabriel laughed at Sam's slightly confused frown. "I'm talking about our brothers, kiddo. Our brothers and their epic love story of broken hearts and buried feelings."

Sam half snorted, half laughed before he could even think. Gabriel had summed up his frustration with the hunter and his angel pretty accurately. "You're lucky you don't have to be around them all the time. It's ridiculous."

Gabriel snapped away his ice cream and replaced it with a candy cane. "I know, Sammy, I know." He sighed. "So what are we going to do about it?"

"What?" Sam, who had just about started to relax, looked at Gabriel with a mixture of horror and confusion on his face. "We?"

Gabriel waved dismissively. "Oh, come on, it's not like you haven't been trying already."

It was kind of hard to argue with that. Sam had been trying. That was how he ended up here. "Well, that doesn't mean that you have to do something about it. And it's not like I asked for your help."

Gabriel pouted again, and it looked even more hurt and childish than it had before. "Sammy, I only have the best intentions for our brothers!"

"That's what frightens me," Sam muttered.

Gabriel leaned forward and gave him a playful shove, and it felt easy to just laugh along with him. "It's not like we're going to hurt them. We'll just point them in the right direction and then eat an ice cream of victory."

"Ice cream of victory?" Sam asked.

"You can have extra tasty grass or something. I'm not familiar with moose food."

"Shut up." Sam found himself still smiling. "Ice cream sounds okay."

"So it's a deal?" Gabriel looked at Sam, eyebrows raised in anticipation. "We're going to do something about the misery of those two?"

"I'm going to regret that," Sam stated, "But okay, we'll give it a try."

—Ψ—

They stayed up until late at night, planning what shouldn't have been so damn funny to Sam, but somehow was exciting anyway. Gabriel's ideas were mostly too extravagant or involved putting at least either Cas or Dean in a life-or-death situation to get the other to confess their feelings. Sam objected to these.

By the end of the evening, however, they had come up with a fairly good plan.

—Ψ—

"And where have you been?"

Dean seemed to have been in the middle of a rant when Sam came back to the motel. Sam inwardly rolled his eyes while he closed the door behind him. "Went to get a few drinks with Gabriel."

"With Gabriel?"

This time Sam rolled his eyes for real. "He came back from the dead! He wanted to know what he missed! It's not like he's planning to kill us, Dean. Calm down!"

At the table in the middle of the room, Sam could see the hunched figure of Cas and wondered what had happened between Dean and him while he'd been away. Whatever it was, it hadn't done anything to resolve the tension between them.

Sam found himself suddenly glad that he and Gabriel had their plan. He wasn't sure if he would have been able to cope with those two for much longer otherwise.

"I'm going to bed," he announced grumpily, and Dean turned away, arms crossed and a frown on his face. Before he pulled the blanket over his head, however, Sam heard the quiet flutter of wings and knew that Castiel had taken his chance to disappear again.

He sighed and went to sleep.

—Ψ—

"Dude, have you seen my car keys?"

Dean's concerned voice woke Sam from what hadn't been a relaxing sleep anyway. When he made out the words, however, he had to dive back under the covers and take a moment to straighten his face before he was able to face his brother.

"Your car keys?" He rubbed the sleep from his eyes, sat up and shrugged. "Hey, it's your baby, not mine."

Dean seemed permanently annoyed with life nowadays. He rolled his eyes at Sam and continued to search the motel room for the keys Sam knew he wouldn't find. That was the first step of their plan.

"Oh, come on!" Dean's muffled complaints were heard from the bathroom. "Where are the damn keys?"

Sam used the pillow to muffle his laughter.

—Ψ—

Sam's mobile rang shortly afterwards, when Dean had gone out to search the Impala for the keys. It was Gabriel.

"How did he react?"

Sam still couldn't stop grinning. It reminded him too much of the many times they had pranked each other over the years. "He's going crazy as we speak."

Gabriel appeared to be somewhere crowded; Sam could hear voices and cars in the background. "Dude, why didn't you just snap yourself here? And can't you turn yourself invisible or something?"

Gabriel chuckled. "There are some preparations to be made for the next stage of our plan. Besides, I don't want to be anywhere near Dean when he realises we've been messing with his car."

"We haven't." Sam was horrified by the thought of Dean's reaction if something happened to his beloved car. "Tell me we haven't."

Gabriel seemed smug, even though it was hard to tell over the phone. "You haven't."

"Oh, please..." Sam buried his face in his hands. "Gabriel, we agreed..."

"You can't trust a trickster, kiddo," Gabriel replied.

Sam had to agree with that. He tried to make the best of the situation. "So what exactly did you do?"

"Oh, you know, this and that." Gabriel was trying to sound casual, but there was a certain nervousness to his voice. It worried Sam a bit how easily he could tell. Though honestly he was more worried about Dean.

"How is that supposed to help with our plan? Now he'll be out all day trying to fix the car! You were just supposed to steal the keys!"

Sam could feel a headache approaching. He had reached that point again where dealing with Gabriel simply made him want to smack his head against a wall. It always happened sooner or later – luckily, this time, it had been more of a later.

Gabriel laughed, and Sam had to put the phone away from his ear for a bit, because it was an honest-to-god laugh, loud and wholehearted. When Gabriel's reply came, he was ready to listen anyway.

"It's going to go great, believe me! I have a knack for these kinds of things."

"You're not Cupid," Sam objected.

Gabriel snorted. "True. But I have spent enough time messing with people to know my way around a well-planned trick, and believe me, it's better this way."

Sam sighed. "Okay. Just... no more changes to the plan, okay?"

Gabriel sounded amused. "Whatever you want, Sammy dear. See you at seven, then."

Before Sam could protest, the line went dead. He sighed and decided to check on Dean, just to make sure he hadn't shot anybody yet. If he had learned one thing over the years, it was that his brother was ridiculously protective when it came to his car.

—Ψ—

"That's it, I'm going out."

Sam didn't even have to fake the annoyed tone in his voice as he got up from his motel bed. Dean had just switched the channel for the fifth time in two minutes without really settling and Sam could practically feel the annoyance and the brooding his brother emitted.

"Whatever," Dean said without really looking up. He was still sulking because he couldn't find the car keys. "You go out and enjoy yourself. I'll stay here. Obviously. I mean, it's not like I could go anywhere."

Sam rolled his eyes. "Quit being such a whiny bitch. It's not my fault you lost your car keys."

"Shut up, jerk," Dean replied and Sam put on his jacket and decided to head out before more of Dean's epically bad mood hit him.

When he opened the door, he suddenly found himself face to face with Castiel. The angel had a pensive look on his face, but he seemed genuinely surprised when Sam opened the door. "Hello, Sam."

Sam raised his eyebrows. "Hi, Cas."

He nodded at the angel and then pushed past him; out of the motel room and through the parking lot. The bar where he was supposed to meet Gabriel was only a few blocks away, and he decided to take his time and enjoy the quietness of things. His plan, however, didn't get very far.

He whirled around when he felt the hand on his shoulder, and found himself more or less facing Gabriel – the angel was still shorter than him, after all. Also, Gabriel had, after tapping Sam's shoulder, apparently decided to duck behind a bush like a five year old.

"Dude. What's this about?" Sam felt himself tempted to crouch down to speak with Gabriel at eye level, but he resisted, not quite wanting his dignity to go where the sanity of the archangel had obviously gone. He shifted his weight awkwardly from one foot to another and motioned at Gabriel. "What are you doing there?"

Gabriel's smile was more than mischievous – it looked downright scary, but more delightful than a kid on Christmas morning. "Just checking on our boys, Samsquatch. I hope you like the little plot twist I threw in."

"What plot twist?"

Sam frowned and found himself crouching next to Gabriel without even thinking about it. It probably came with the conspirative aura of the situation.

Gabriel pointed at the motel. "Cas. I sent him here a bit early. He's got the car keys; I dropped them in front of him before he went to knock at the door."

"He's got the car keys? But the plan was—"

"I know what the plan was, but the plan lacked imagination and a little bit of drama. Come on, Sammykins, you gotta live a little!"

"We agreed: no life or death situations."

Sam tried to look stern, but that was impossible with the way Gabriel smiled and rubbed his hands excitedly. "Nobody's going to get hurt, I promise. Come on, let's go before they catch us here."

"But if Cas has the car keys, then the whole part where Dean stays in the motel room because he's sulking and can't go anywhere goes to hell," Sam protested.

Gabriel wiggled his eyebrows. "Told you I've messed with the car."

Sam sighed. "He's going to try to fix it the entire evening when he finds out."

"Sammyboy, you are no fun to have around," Gabriel stated, "Have a little faith! Wait and see! Though maybe not here, we ought to get going. Come on!"

He got up and tugged at Sam's sleeve. When Sam didn't move immediately, he started dragging the younger Winchester behind him, Sam not so much protesting as still being more than mildly confused. "Gabriel, at what point does this result in Cas and Dean getting over their issues?"

There was thunder rumbling in the distance. Sam caught a glimpse of a more than satisfied smirk on Gabriel's face. "It's going to dawn on you any minute now."

Sam walked faster behind Gabriel. They had almost reached the bar – Sam could hear voices and music and the occasional clink of glasses. Gabriel stopped in front of the entrance, the door painted green and worn from weather. "Any minute now..." he muttered, and turned his head skywards. Sam followed his gaze.

"What are we waiting for?" he asked. Seconds later he wished he hadn't asked – the first raindrop of what appeared to be a rapidly approaching storm had fallen straight on his face. Gabriel saw his surprised expression and laughed.

"Contrarily to popular belief, some of my brothers actually can be helpful."

He pushed the bar's door open, Sam following him in. "What do you mean?"

"Think, Sammy," Gabriel replied as he went up to the bar and ordered two beers. The waitress smiled at him, and he smiled back, though she seemed more interested when she noticed Sam trailing behind the shorter guy.

Gabriel pointed towards the door. "Thunder. Rain. And I've been calling in a favour. Who could be at work here?"

"You don't mean..." Sam had to clear his throat. "You asked Thor to make it rain so Dean and Cas would be forced to stay indoors? The god of badassery in Norse mythology and you're making him play Cupid?"

"I like to believe I'm the god of badassery, but yes: Thor is currently playing Cupid, if you want to put it that way. He owed me one for that time I almost gave him back his wife's hair."

"What?"

"Ah, nevermind." Gabriel waved his hand dismissively and took a sip from his beer. "Anyway, we've got some time to kill before the epic storm of the century is over. Suggestions?"

—Ψ—

They had ordered something to eat and had moved away from the bar to a table in the corner. From time to time Gabriel would disappear to check on Dean and Cas, but up to now he had always returned with a sigh and a disappointed expression. Outside, the storm was raging.

"So how did you do it?" Sam asked when their food had arrived and both were somewhat drowsy from eating this much.

Gabriel looked up with a curious look on his face. "Do what?"

"You know" Sam made a weird gesture with his hand. "Not dying. Or coming back. Whatever."

Gabriel avoided his eyes at these words, Sam could tell. Either he wasn't entirely comfortable with the topic, or maybe he hated the uncertainty of it. He probably despised being in someone's debt as well.

"I don't know," he replied finally, still not quite facing Sam, "Cas says he thinks it was God, but I've been gone too far and for too long for God to care about me."

His words held a surprising bitterness and Sam found himself surprised at the sudden urge to reach over the table and touch Gabriel, just to comfort him. "He brought Cas back, and Cas was pretty far gone, too. So why shouldn't he care about you?"

Gabriel snorted. "Please. I like to believe it happened because my years as Loki finally paid off and bound my grace in places so old and exclusive to pagan magic that Lucifer couldn't reach them when he tried to destroy me. And eventually... well, eventually, I came back."

"So what, now you're immortal?" Sam rolled his eyes. "You can't be killed by a wooden stake as the Trickster, but an angel blade can't harm you as well, that's it?"

Gabriel shifted uncomfortably. "I wish. I mean, since I came back I've been feeling..."

There was something in his eyes, a shadow or maybe the memory of a shadow, and suddenly it was gone. Sam couldn't even blink, it happened so fast – and Gabriel the Trickster was back, smiling and joking and laughing it away. "You sure know how to ruin a good mood, kiddo. Come on, let's play some billiards!"

—Ψ—

"Nothing!"

It was almost three am, Sam had been in danger of falling asleep for some time now and Gabriel's not exactly legendary patience was wearing dangerously thin.

Sam sighed and leaned back against the fake leather of the booth they were sitting in. "Great."

Gabriel let his head fall on the table, narrowly avoiding the nachos they had ordered two hours ago. "They're about to close this place, and Dean and Cas are still staring at each other. I think Cas took my advice on wasting a bit of time with Dean too literal. He's nothing but wasting his opportunities in there!"

"Or he just doesn't take advice from a brother who spent several millennia as a trickster." Sam smiled crookedly and got up. "You have to admit, the source is debatable."

"Flattering, but no." Gabriel got up as well, snatching a pack of sugar for coffee from the bar as they headed for the door. "My brother just doesn't know how to have fun."

Outside, the storm was still raging. Gabriel paused after he'd opened the door, put his hands to his mouth and shouted: "We're good here, Thor. Thanks!"

Immediately, the storm subsided, leaving the streets steaming and wet and the sky crystal clear. Sam followed Gabriel through the open door and took a deep breath. Gabriel nudged him. "Coming to think of it, we probably had more fun tonight than our brothers did."

Sam looked down at him, surprised, and suddenly there was something in Gabriel's smile that made it hard to breathe. Maybe it was a bit of his grace shining out of the vessel's eyes, but Sam felt as if Gabriel had never been more of himself, and it made the moment special to him. Like he knew Gabriel for a few seconds.

"Yeah," he choked out, overwhelmed, "We definitely did."

—Ψ—

"Did you lose your phone?"

Dean's mood hadn't improved the slightest, although he had his car keys back, and it made Sam just want to turn around and head back to that bar with Gabriel. Or maybe just outside again. Alone. It wasn't as if it mattered where he was as long as he'd not be... well, here. About to be told off by his brother for coming home late.

"I'm sorry I didn't call, mom," Sam replied and headed straight for the shower without bothering to wait for an answer.

—Ψ—

"This calls for something more cunning," Gabriel decided when they had their next planning session at Dunkin' Donuts, "We have to show them, that's what I'd say. Practically shove it in their faces."

"Do you want to videotape them?"

Sam stared at his plate of donuts miserably. Gabriel had ordered them, patting his arm and telling him he would like those. Seeing the bright, artificial colours he wasn't so sure anymore – and he wasn't sure if he'd ever been sure about trusting Gabriel to begin with.

"No, I want to mirror them." Gabriel leaned over the table, eyebrows raised and mischief sparkling in his eyes. "Mirror their touches. Their longing stares. Make them see what we're going through."

"And... how exactly is that supposed to work?" Sam asked doubtfully. He wasn't sure were Gabriel was headed with his plan.

"It will take a bit of time, of course. And a lot of pie, if we want to convince Dean to let me join your little boy band." Gabriel leaned back in his seat and snatched a donut from the ones he had ordered for Sam. He didn't seem to mind the artificial flavours in the least.

"Wait." Sam frowned. "You want to mirror Cas? Dean's going to kill you if you keep staring at him."

"Sometimes, I wonder how you ever got this far, Winchester." Gabriel sighed. "I want the two of us to mirror Dean and Cas. Though it would probably be more fun if you played the shy angel, but we can discuss that later. And first, we have to convince Dean that I'm as harmless as they come. Well, almost."

Sam had to remind himself to close his mouth because his jaw felt suspiciously slack. "Okay..." he said slowly, and then shrugged, "Well, if it works it's fine by me, I guess."

It didn't take him more than a week to regret his decision.

—Ψ—

It had been three days since Sam and Gabriel had sealed their deal with donuts and coffee when Castiel returned to the new motel they were currently staying at with Gabriel trailing behind him. Cas looked somewhat miserable, but Gabriel was beaming, especially when he laid eyes on Sam. His smile seemed to become just that bit brighter, and Sam began to wonder...

Right, the mirroring.

He cleared his throat and got up, not taking his eyes off Gabriel. He was probably supposed to do something now, maybe say something, but Dean luckily saved him the trouble of thinking.

"What's he doing here?"

Castiel shifted his weight uncomfortably from one foot to another. "He is here because he is my brother, Dean, and he has offered to help us."

"Right, because your brothers have always been super helpful." Dean scoffed and turned away. "I can picture it."

Castiel's voice was stern, but his expression had softened, caught somewhere between angelically resolute and that thing Cas did where he managed to look like a confused puppy. "He sought me out because he wanted to explain himself. He wanted to apologise to you and Sam for what he put you through. He just wasn't sure if you would listen to him, so he asked me to assist him."

Sam bit his lip to hide his smile and gave a quick nod in Gabriel's direction. Well played.

Gabriel smiled in earnest and raised an eyebrow as if he was answering. I'm just that awesome.

Dean seemed genuinely taken aback. "That's... wow, that's unexpected."

He looked over to Sam, seemingly seeking advice on how to deal with the archangel-chick-flick-moment. Sam just shrugged. He'd made his point on forgiveness and second chances a long time ago and besides, he was only here to longingly stare at Gabriel and trying to look convincing.

Dean looked back at Gabriel, then to Cas who always had this heartbreaking aura of hopefulness around him when one of his brothers wasn't actively trying to kill them, and that seemed to do it for Dean. But at least he pretended not to have been convinced by a pair of puppy eyes.

"You wanna stick with us?"

Gabriel nodded nonchalantly. "Got some time to kill and thought why not?"

His eyes flickered over to Sam, but Sam couldn't tell if Dean had noticed.

"Try not to be too annoying," Dean replied and turned back to the shotgun he'd been disassembling. He didn't catch Gabriel muttering under his breath: "Annoying's the point, Winchester."

—Ψ—

From that point on, things just kept getting worse.

Their first drive in the Impala as a team had been an awkward staring contest in the rear-view mirror; their first meal at a diner quiet and tense. All in all, everything went according to Sam's and Gabriel's plan.

Of course Dean was constantly bitching about the innuendos Gabriel put out, and naturally Cas was cautious with what Gabriel did for fear of being betrayed by a brother again. It just played into Sam's and Gabriel's hands that Dean and Cas had somehow wordlessly decided to make Sam Gabriel's chaperon. Honestly, it was as if the two were asking for it.

—Ψ—

"That's it, I'm done for tonight."

Dean didn't even bother to take off his shoes; he just fell onto the motel bed and closed his eyes. Sam snorted. "Yeah, I bet you put a whole lot of effort into arriving late at the graveyard and watching that sucker push me into the grave."

"I said I'm sorry," Dean mumbled incoherently through the hands he had put over his face.

"I still smell like gasoline," Sam complained. He jumped when Gabriel put a hand on his back. "I bet that was really painful for you," he sympathised mockingly. Sam made a face at him. "It's not thanks to you that I'm still in one piece, either."

"Well, at least the important parts are still okay." Gabriel gave him a dirty smirk. Dean groaned. "Can't you just... stop? Just for five minutes?"

"Sorry, Dean-o. You didn't ask nicely enough." Gabriel's smirk turned into a content smile that was directed at Sam. Sam gave him a brief nod.

"At least Gabriel asked if I was okay."

"I don't think he was interested in your well-being in a general sense," Cas offered from the set of chairs in the corner of the room, "His interest seemed to be directed to certain parts of Sam that could be of use for my brother."

"Not you, too, Cas!" Dean appeared to be more than one hundred percent done with the world. "Please, there are things I don't want to hear and all of them include Gabriel in one way or another."

"Charming to know that I'm of such importance to you." Gabriel patted Sam's shoulder, "Off to bed now, moose-boy. We don't want you too tired tomorrow."

—Ψ—

It really wasn't as hard as Sam had expected.

After a hunt, they would crash at a motel, order a pizza or some burgers and sleep with their stomachs filled and the knowledge of having added yet another drop in the ocean. Well, Sam and Dean did, anyway. The angels didn't sleep much.

When on a hunt, Sam did his best to stick to Gabriel, although it made him uncomfortable to let his brother out of his sight from time to time. It wasn't that Dean couldn't look after himself, he just felt guilty for putting a practical joke before his own brother.

He decided to pick easier hunts for the time being, and he had a feeling that Gabriel did his part in assuring that the hunt of the day wouldn't be too dangerous for all of them. After all, they had agreed that life-or-death situations were out of question.

So all in all Sam did his best, and Gabriel played his part as well. They would stare at each other for a ridiculous amount of time, Gabriel would appear too close to Sam, and whenever Dean got into an argument with Cas or Cas decided to mysteriously disappear, Sam and Gabriel would put some extra effort into their staring and casual touching. Sam probably had too much fun with making Gabriel jump when he tapped his shoulder or whispered something in his ear, but on the other hand he didn't really believe that it was possible to surprise an archangel.

—Ψ—

Gabriel was magnificent at this thing.

They'd had a pretty messy hunt with two witches and a ghoul in some kind of feud that included a lot of casualties and even though there were four of them now it had been a tough thing. Sam fell asleep the moment his head touched the pillow.

The motel had been built next to the tracks that brought freight trains to the local harbour, and even at night the occasional trains caused an insufferable amount of ruckus. The only window in the room overlooked the tracks, and the floodlights around them cast an eerie light into the motel room. Naturally, there were no curtains, and the artificial light drained the colours from the scene.

At approximately twenty past four, Dean woke from another freight train passing the motel, and decided to head for the bathroom. He rubbed his eyes sleepily and swung his legs out of bed, freezing when he saw a figure hunched over the sleeping form of his brother.

"What the—"

He cursed silently, making a move for the gun under his pillow, when the figure turned around and Dean recognised Gabriel.

Gabriel was shushing him.

"What the hell?"

Dean kept his voice quiet, but the utter irritation on his face was obvious. He eyed Gabriel, trying to find an explanation as to why exactly the archangel was sitting cross-legged on his brother's bed.

To his surprise, the archangel kept a straight face. "I'm watching over him," he whispered as if it was evident.

Dean frowned. "You're... you're what?"

Gabriel seemed to roll his eyes – the half-light made it hard to tell. "You can talk. You've had an angel with you twenty-four/seven for the past years. Sammyboy here's had a rough day, and I'm granting him the luxury of an undisturbed night's sleep."

Dean's frown deepened at the mention of Cas. The angel quite obviously wasn't here while Gabriel was, watching his sleeping brother like a goddamn creeper.

He sighed and shrugged. "Whatever," he said and trodded off to the bathroom.

—Ψ—

"So... Gabriel's been watching over your sleep?"

Dean decided to ask his brother about the incident over breakfast the next day. He had to admit that Sam did look kind of relaxed, but he still didn't trust Gabriel. The archangel had been gone when he woke up this morning, and Dean couldn't decide whether that was a good or a bad sign.

Sam looked up when he heard Dean's question; colour rising in his cheeks. "What?"

"You heard me." Dean motioned towards he beds. "I saw him yesterday night. What's going on between you two?"

Sam looked down on his plate; pancakes neatly stacked on top of each other. He was avoiding Dean's gaze, genuinely surprised by the revelation that Gabriel had watched him sleep, but it made sense in the context of their plan, and so he decided to just go with it.

"I haven't been sleeping well." He tried his best to sound guiltily embarrassed about it, like he hadn't meant to not sleep well. Admitting a weakness was something most people found hard. "I asked Gabriel to help me. It was this or getting killed on a hunt because I was too tired to pay attention."

Thinking of it, he really had slept better. It wasn't something he would have noticed it Dean hadn't pointed it out, just a content calmness in his body. Sam wished it would stay.

Dean stilled frowned doubtfully, but he seemed okay with Sam's explanation. "Dude still creeps me out," he declared and got up. Sam rolled his eyes at the hypocrisy.

—Ψ—

He caught Gabriel outside of the motel before they left later that day. Gabriel had found a vending machine that sold candy, and he seemed ridiculously happy with snapping up coins to buy various candy bars when he could have just snapped them up.

"You're ruining the economy."

Sam cleared his throat and blushed when Gabriel looked up at him, because that wasn't what he had meant to say. The day was crisp and clear – they were close to the Canadian border – and somehow the colours seemed more intense in the cold air, especially Gabriel's hair, illuminated by the sun as if he was wearing an actual halo.

Sam had to clear his throat again in order to focus his thoughts. Gabriel had an eyebrow raised at him. "By buying things? Last time I checked that helped to increase the industry's productivity or something."

Sam couldn't even remember why he had said anything in the first place – his mouth seemed to have developed the worrying tendency to speak without consulting his brain first.

"By creating money out of nowhere." Sam pointed at the shimmering coin between the archangel's fingers. "You can't do that, it lowers the currency's value."

"Who says I'm creating money?" Gabriel wiggled his eyebrows at him. "I'm Robin Hood, baby! And those rich douchebags aren't gonna miss a few quarters."

Sam didn't know what to respond. He tried focusing on the subject he had originally wanted to talk about with Gabriel.

"Dean was pretty creeped out by the stunt you pulled. He says you've been watching over my sleep?"

The grin that spread on Gabriel's face was wider than the Mississippi. "You should've seen his face! Now, I'm not meaning to boast, but you can't deny that I am, in fact, a genius..."

Sam snorted. "A very crooked, capricious genius who takes himself too seriously."

"I don't take myself seriously, Samsquatch. That's the point of me – well, Trickster me anyway – when someone thinks he owns the world, I'm there to shove them off their throne and kick their ass."

Sam rolled his eyes. "I'm gonna admit, it was nicely played. Pretty major, but still."

Gabriel had a curious expression on his face for a second, but then he laughed as if nothing had happened. His laugh was a little too loud, like the voice of someone who changed his mind and wanted to cover it up.

"You can't go for anything less than major with those two. If they noticed longing stares and continuous eyefucking we would be out of this mess already."

"Guess you're right," Sam said and shrugged. "It was nice, though. I mean, it wasn't bad. I wasn't complaining about the watching..."

The urge to run into a wall headfirst had never been stronger. He could feel the heat rising in his cheeks, especially when Gabriel chuckled and then winked at him.

"I didn't mean it...!" Sam sighed. "Do you have to turn everything I say into an innuendo?"

"I didn't do a thing, kiddo. But do continue, please! I have feelings, too, you know? And you've been so lovely to me..."

"Shut up." Sam turned and walked back to the motel. "I'm not talking to you today."

He didn't see Gabriel rubbing his hands together like this was only part of some more elaborate scheme – one that even Sam Winchester didn't know about, but was nevertheless part of.

—Ψ—

Meanwhile Sam Winchester decided that he'd had enough. Not enough of Gabriel, not particularly, and not enough of their plan. Just enough of his own stupidity.

What was going on with him? It was bad enough that he'd found he enjoyed the game of messing with Dean and Cas, now he apparently enjoyed the company of an archangel who had given him genital herpes. He would have asked where his life had gone wrong, only that the answer was too painful and pretty clear.

He'd gone back inside and was staring at the motel room as if it had personally wronged him.

Why did he like Gabriel, anyway? He'd thought the whole point of their alliance was to bring Dean and Cas together, not to bond over the stupidity of their brothers and end up falling in love.

Hold on, that was not what he had meant. He had meant to... Except that was what had happened, right? He'd somehow managed to fall in love with Gabriel. Somehow he'd acquired a crush on an archangel gone trickster, and that was definitely not something he had planned for his life.

Sam sat down on the bed, and then decided to just lie down and put the pillow on his face to escape reality. Well fuck. Dean would not be happy about this. On the other hand Dean was rarely happy about anything nowadays, and Sam had a sneaking suspicion that it had to do with his and Gabriel's efforts. Maybe they should stop altogether.

But could they just go back now? Sam had to admit that the damage had already been done. And if they stopped, would Gabriel just leave again? No, he would probably stick around, just to bother Sam and because he wouldn't leave a plan unfinished if he thought it could work.

Sam was truly, truly fucked.

—Ψ—

Things went okay until they reached Indiana.

The hunt was easy, uncomplicated and entirely not enough to distract Sam from his tangled thoughts and emotions that kept creeping up whenever Gabriel was around. Moreover he couldn't just avoid Gabriel now – and whenever he tried, Gabriel would actively seek his company, because that had been their freaking plan.

Sam began to think of their team as a group of candidates for the madhouse.

"Are you trying to wrong all the rights in the world again, Sammy?"

Gabriel appeared next to him without warning, and Sam wasn't even startled anymore. He briefly looked up from his laptop and then tried to concentrate on the details for their next hunt again. "I think you mean it the other way around."

Gabriel frowned, Sam could practically hear it. When had he learned to read the archangel so well without even looking? Also, they were currently both sitting on Sam's motel bed and if that wasn't way beyond weird Sam would have no idea what was. But it was all part of the plan, wasn't it?

"Debatable," Gabriel decided after a while, "Puppy-eyed Sam would definitely do his best to fix the world, but I'm sure there's a wild side to you that you keep well hidden..."

"Oh, please..." Sam knitted his eyebrows together, "Not now, Gabriel, I'm trying to work."

Gabriel looked towards the door of the motel room. "Act sexually frustrated and emotionally limited to silent brooding."

Sam laughed. It got even funnier when the door opened and Dean walked in.

Sam only remembered that he was sitting on his bed with Gabriel next to him when Dean's face went from I'm so glad that pie exists to What the fuck is my brother doing in bed with an archangel. He tried to move over, but the bed was too small.

He didn't have to look over to know that Gabriel was smirking contently.

"What's up, Dean?"

Dean took a moment to carefully phrase his answer. "What the hell?"

He placed the bags with the takeout burgers on the motel table and then turned back to his brother and Gabriel. Sam didn't know where to put his hands – and he thought he'd left the awkwardness of his teenager life behind.

Well, no.

"And good evening to you, too, Dean Winchester!" Gabriel crossed his arms and smiled even more. "We were just talking about you, weren't we, Sammy?"

He playfully shoved Sam and Sam almost fell off the bed while trying to get as far away from Gabriel without appearing too scared of touching all of a sudden. Gabriel raised an eyebrow when he noticed the sudden nervousness, but he didn't say anything.

Sam thought he'd gotten pretty rubbish at this thing since his feelings were involved. Only there was no way out of this.

"Yeah, Gabriel was just saying..." His voice trailed off because everything that Gabriel had been saying was sexually frustrated and emotionally limited. Honesty was out of question.

"I was wondering if you'd seen Cas? He wanted to help you carry the takeaway."

Gabriel sure had noticed Sam's hesitation, and he jumped in with a graceful explanation before Sam could even properly panic. He really wondered how Gabriel did that.

Dean looked back towards the door, a confused frown on his face. "Did he? I haven't seen him."

He tried to shrug casually, but ended up looking more concerned than he would have liked. Moments like these reminded Sam of why he had agreed to this poor excuse of a plan in the first place.

"Nah, well," Gabriel finally got off the bed, "He's gonna come back in a few minutes. Probably just stopped to pensively look at a duck pond while contemplating his feelings or something."

Sam could tell from the look on Dean's face that he hadn't understood what Gabriel was trying to say. Again.

—Ψ—

Sam was packing his duffel bag, preparing to leave the motel in Indiana when, with a rustle of feathers, Gabriel appeared behind him. Their shoulders brushed up against each other as Gabriel stepped next to him. All part of the plan, they did that all the time.

"You done packing yet?"

"Not quite," Sam muttered, going through the bag trying to find that book on spells he'd been reading before breakfast. "But we're good to go at any rate. Pass me my jacket, will you?"

Gabriel reached over to the chair next to the bed and handed Sam the jacket. "I'll go and tell Dean we're ready," Gabriel said and disappeared. Sam nodded absentmindedly, spotting the book under the menu detailing the room service, throwing it in his bag. He flung the bag over his shoulder and turned to leave the motel room.

It was only then that he realised he was alone in the room. Neither Cas nor Dean had been there when Gabriel had showed up.

—Ψ—

The next motel was just as cheap and just as dirty as the last one: the walls a pale beige, the sheets on the beds of a horrifying pattern that included yellow, green and the colour a sandwich gets when it's left out in the sun for a few weeks.

Neither of them cared enough to utter a single word of complaint: material wealth and luxuries were more than expendable. When they bargained for something, it was the safety of their loved ones – of each other.

Sam volunteered for the first round of questioning suspects and asking around and it didn't take a genius to figure out that he was trying to distract himself from something. This particular something was, not just in this case, Gabriel.

"It's no big deal." Sam shrugged it off like it was nothing. "You've been driving all day, Dean, you should get some rest."

"I'm fine," Dean insisted, despite the dark purple circles under his eyes, "Sammy, I'm not a baby. I can take care of myself."

"I can see that," Sam snorted, "and now get some sleep and I'll go and check if anybody has seen anything out of the ordinary."

Suddenly, Gabriel chirped in. "Cas can stay here," he suggested with a merry smile, "And I'll help Sam. Agreed, Samsquatch?"

Sam was momentarily taken aback. "Sure," he said with an irritated tone to his voice. Dean looked at them like they had suddenly sprouted two heads. "Is something the matter with you two?"

Sam quickly shook his head, too quickly. "No, it's alright. Let's go."

He hurried out of the motel, fake badge already in the pocket of his suit. Gabriel caught up with him in the parking lot.

"What's going on, Sam?"

Sam rolled his eyes in frustration, because honestly, he didn't have the nerve to pretend everything was alright. "It's fine, Gabriel."

"Yeah, I can see how fine it is. Now go on and tell me what's going on with you. I've never seen you this pissed, and I've killed your brother a few hundred times."

Gabriel crossed his arms, but there was still the ghost of a smile on his face and honestly – Sam had never been more annoyed in his entire life. He was miserable because he fucking liked the guy and at the same time he remembered a thousand reasons why he shouldn't and then Gabriel came along and reminded him of some more while at the same time being fucking irresistible. Hadn't he already been to hell that would've probably been what he would have compared it with.

"I... let's just get this done, okay? I think I need to sleep as well." Sam sighed and rubbed his eyes. He wasn't tired, he felt like every nerve ending in his body had been set on fire, but like hell would he tell the truth now.

"You know, I can handle this alone." Gabriel took a step towards him, and Sam saw honest concern on his face. "You can just go back to the motel and sleep."

The laugh Sam had planned as an answer died in his throat when he kept looking at Gabriel and couldn't stop seeing all the little things about Gabriel that he'd only started to notice in the past days, maybe weeks. "Dean would kill me if I let you go off on your own," he answered hoarsely, and cursed himself for not sounding more confident or less affected by the sudden nearness of Gabriel.

Just when he thought he'd given himself away, Gabriel barked out a laugh and took a step back, eyes fixed on the ground. "Better not give him a reason to kill you, then."

Sam had never been more relieved, and never more disappointed in his entire life.

—Ψ—

"I think it's a demon," Sam announced when they got back to the motel.

"Well, I'm saying it's a Mesopotamian weather god."

Gabriel entered behind him and kicked the door. It closed with a loud bang that woke Dean from his beauty sleep and called Cas from wherever he'd been back into the main room.

"What's going on?" Dean asked sleepily, "Is someone dying?"

"It's fine," Sam replied, "Gabriel is just being stupid." Turning to Gabriel, he asked, "What would a Mesopotamian weather god want in America?"

"We've had Hindu gods," Gabriel noted, "Mesopotamian isn't too far-fetched. And I know the signs."

"That was the freaking apocalypse!" Sam answered angrily, "You're just too stuck-up to admit that your angel senses are getting a bit rusty."

"Nothing's getting rusty," Gabriel replied, teeth gritted and annoyance flaring in his eyes, "I would have sensed demons right away. That's what I'm an archangel for. This is something bigger. Something more ancient."

Sam rolled his eyes. Dean kept staring at them. "What the hell's going on?"

"Sam, I think Gabriel-" Cas tried to interfere, but was cut off by Sam's angry voice.

"I'm telling you, it's a demon!" Sam insisted.

"Well, that just makes you stupid and wrong!" Gabriel took a step forward to angrily stare into Sam's eyes – which did look kind of comical from Dean's point of view because the archangel was quite a bit shorter than Sam.

Sam took another step forward, looming over the archangel. He couldn't even say why he was so angry – or maybe he knew it all-too well. "I'm not wrong," he stated flatly.

And then Gabriel was kissing him.

Sam only blinked and before he could open his eyes again Gabriel had yanked his head down, his hand locked in Sam's long hair and their lips crashed together in what would have been more of a kiss if Sam had actually known that this was going to happen. He made a surprised noise, and he was pretty sure that Dean was shouting something, but he couldn't make it out because the sound of blood rushing was suddenly too loud in his ears.

Why Gabriel was kissing him he still had no idea.

Sam was breathless when Gabriel let go of him, and all he could do was stare at the archangel with wide eyes and try to convey the million questions in his head through one look. Gabriel smirked. Dean was still shouting.

Somewhere along the line, Sam's brain caught up with the events. "You just kissed me," he said, and then he believed it. Gabriel nodded slowly. "So it would seem."

Sam grabbed Gabriel's wrist. "We have to talk."

—Ψ—

Something about Gabriel made Sam's thoughts derail every time he was standing too close to him. When Gabriel closed the motel door behind them, the first thing that Sam did was take a deep breath and then turn around, finally having mustered up the courage to actually speak about the mess of his emotions.

Only that now he had decided to do so, it came out all at once.

"What the hell? You were kissing me, and you didn't even like me and I can't like you and you killed my brother I mean you were dead and I fucking missed you and now you're back and I'm probably way too emotional about this whole thing but if you could just stop being so freaking funny for five minutes I would have the time to get my thoughts in order and sort this out and you kissed me, I mean, what the hell..."

Somehow, they ended up kissing again.

Gabriel was holding his arms just under his shoulders as if to still him, and Sam's eyes fell shut when he tasted candy and smelled and felt Gabriel. The air was chilly, but Gabriel was warm and comforting. Sam pressed up against him, holding Gabriel around the waist.

Gabriel had effectively shut him up.

After a while, their lips parted long enough for Gabriel to look up at Sam with a smile that seemed neither mischievous nor derisive. Sam found that the need to ask a million questions at once had gone. He smiled back and settled for one question.

"Since when?"

Their bodies were still pressed up against each other, and Sam could feel the laugh vibrating in Gabriel's chest. "Oh, I don't know, probably since... somewhere between you being willing to sacrifice for the sake of this planet and you being almost good enough to beat me at billiards."

Sam knew he was blushing. Gabriel seemed to get him to do that quite often. "Why didn't you say anything?"

"Do you remember your little mental breakdown a couple of minutes ago?"

"I was just... scared." Sam shrugged. "Can't say I've ever had a crush on an archangel."

"I certainly hope so." Gabriel laughed again, and Sam could finally admit to himself just how much he loved the light in Gabriel's eyes when he was truly happy like this. "We're quite the couple, aren't we?"

Sam sighed. "We team up to get our brothers together and this happens."

He frowned when something hit him. "Wait. You said... you said you'd been in love with me since before the apocalypse, right?"

Gabriel nodded absentmindedly, too busy placing kisses along Sam's jaw. It wasn't easy to maintain a train of thought like this, but Sam held on to his realisation. "But that means we've... we've been doing this stuff together all the time and you never said anything."

"Didn't need to." Now Gabriel smirked. "My plan worked out just fine..."

Sam's protests were silenced by another kiss. Afterwards, he couldn't really say that he'd minded it.

—Ψ—

Eventually they went back inside, mostly because Sam insisted that they'd have to talk to Dean to calm him down and assure him that Sam wasn't making another mistake like he'd done with Ruby. Gabriel took his hand before Sam opened the door.

Much to their surprise, they found themselves in the middle of an argument.

"Damnit, Cas, you brought him back here!" Dean was shouting at Cas angrily but stopped when he heard the door opening. Sam cleared his throat and waved with his free hand. "Hi."

Dean blinked a few times and stared at him, then he processed that Sam and Gabriel were holding hands. He took a few steps towards Gabriel. "I swear, if you've done anything to him..."

Sam caught his arm before he reached Gabriel. "Dean, it's fine. He hasn't done anything!"

"You would say that even if he had done something," Dean replied when he felt a hand on his shoulder and turned around. Cas was staring at him. "My brother hasn't used any of his magic on Sam. I would feel it if he had."

Obviously that wasn't what Dean had wanted to hear. He pointed at Sam's and Gabriel's intertwined hands accusingly. "Well then how do you explain this?"

"Oh, for God's sake, Dean!" Sam sighed loudly. "It's what people do when they like each other. Do you want me to give you the full talk?"

Gabriel chuckled and went silent immediately when Dean shot him an angry glare. "Is there anything you would like to say, Sam?"

Sam let go of Gabriel's hand to point towards Cas. "Well, I don't know, is there maybe anything you would like to tell him?"

Despite his usually blank expression it was evident that Cas was uncomfortable – he blushed slightly and avoided Dean's eyes, although he was still looking at him. The fluttering seams of his trenchcoat betrayed the soft shaking of his body.

Gabriel nodded at him. "Come on, Cas, it's obvious."

Cas searched his eyes and tilted his head. "Gabriel, please, it's not..."

"We'll leave you two alone," Gabriel promised, not leaving any room for Cas' protest, "And I swear to Dad, if we come back and you two are still staring at each other, I will murder someone."

He took a step forward and grabbed Sam's hand. "Let's celebrate the newfound love with cheap takeaway. I seriously need something to eat."

—Ψ—

The diner they went to looked almost like the one where they had spent their first evening of waiting for Dean and Cas, only this time they sat next to each other and Gabriel couldn't keep his hands of Sam. It made Sam laugh and Gabriel happy. In fact, it made both of them happy.

"So do you think they're finally going to talk about their undying love?" Sam snatched a french fry from Gabriel's plate. "Or has it all been in vain?"

"I wouldn't call this in vain..." Gabriel wiggled his eyebrows. "You know, I think we've made it so obvious that even they can't ignore it anymore."

"They've managed to ignore quite a lot in the past..."

"Cas wouldn't risk me killing someone." Gabriel seemed sure of himself. "Besides, don't you think Dean will feel challenged? His baby brother got over his issues quicker than him, I mean, that's got to hurt his pride..."

Sam leaned forward to steal a quick kiss from Gabriel. "So all this has just been part of a giant plan of yours? Even when you appeared in our motel the first time?"

Gabriel nodded. "Hey, I can't help it! You're just really gorgeous!"

Sam laughed and kissed Gabriel again, and it felt warm and unexpected and good. He couldn't begin to put into words how glad he was to have Gabriel in his life.

—Ψ—

"We've given them enough time, don't you think?"

Gabriel took a look at the clock on the wall. "You're right. Let's go."

They paid and got up, heading back to the motel, still holding hands as if they'd been doing this for ages. From time to time, they would bump into each other and laugh.

The lights were still on in their motel room when they got back. Sam opened the door and went in first – Gabriel was totally pushing him from behind and whispering encouragingly because he didn't want to be the first one to face Dean's wrath – and found Dean and Cas sitting cross-legged on Dean's bed. Sam took that as a good sign.

When there wasn't immediate shouting, Gabriel stuck his head through the door. "Everything still in one piece?" He seemed satisfied. "We're going to leave you two alone now," he announced, and Cas blushed and Dean shifted his weight uncomfortably.

"Dude, nobody said we were going to..."

"I know." Gabriel grinned from ear to ear. "But we were."

He pulled the blushing Sam out of the motel room, gave him a quick kiss on the lips and snapped them away to some luxurious hotel suite. Sam held on to him and didn't let go for the rest of the night.