Gabriel hissed when Cas put disinfectant on his wound. Really, he was so stupid—he had let a vamp get the upper hand when he and his brother had been cleaning out a rather large nest. It had taken a nice bite out of his arm before he beheaded the fucker. Cas was about to stitch it up, but always insisted on disinfecting it first. Which almost hurt as much as the insistent, throbbing pain that was radiating from the wound.

"Gabe, if you don't stop squirming, I could botch the stitches and injure you further." Cas had gone to college—at least for two years—and talked like he was British royalty, for christssakes. It irritated Gabriel because it reminded him of being a high school drop-out, and that he had never really tried to abandon the life.

The bed dipped behind him as his younger brother sat, holding the thread and needle for closing the wound. He was just pressing the tip of the silver needle to the edge of the injury when there was a loud rustle of feathers and a tall—very, very tall—man was standing in front of the bed.

His hair was mussed and sticking up at awkward angles. He was blushing, flustered. He noticed their stares. "I'm not used to having a vessel, okay? It's hard to fly in one!"

Cas was the first one to talk. "Is Dean—"

The angel shook his head, his eyes apologetic. "Dean is busy. He's running errands for Heaven. I apologize, Cas."

The dark-haired man's eyes flashed with sadness. Gabriel spoke up next. "Yo, Sam, as long as you're here, you think you could, you know, mojo this bite away?"

Sam looked at the older hunter with concern as he reached out and pressed his fingers to his forehead, the bite healing. "What happened?"

"Vamps." Gabriel grimaced, rolling his shoulder experimentally. When he didn't feel the slightest twinge of pain, he rose to his feet and stalked over to his bag that was thrown haphazardly into a corner. He snagged a shirt from the top of it and turned to his brother. "Cas. Go shower." The younger man complied, rolling off the bed and walking the few steps to the bathroom. Gabriel pulled the shirt over his head, acutely aware of his half-dressed state in front of the angel.

He turned back to Sam and balked. The angel had been watching him curiously since he had gotten off the bed. "Don't do that, dude. Its freaking creepy when you stare at me like that." It rattled him and he knew why—he would almost say it was nerves, if he didn't know better. But he did know better, and he knew that it wasn't nerves—it was something else, something he was not going to name. Not to himself, and /definitely/ not the angel.

"I apologize, Gabriel." Gabriel let out a soft shudder. Nobody said his full name anymore. It was almost sensual, rolling off the angel's tongue.

Damn, Gabriel had it /bad/.

"What are you doing here? Heaven need us to stop another apocalypse?" Some idiot had let Lucifer out of the Pit, and the brothers had been assigned by heaven to kick him back in the Cage. Which, really, was ridiculous. Now they seemed to come to them for little tasks, mostly involving demons or a rogue angel.

"I'm here to do whatever you want." Gabriel ignored the inappropriate chill that phrasing sent down his spine. "I'm not… 'On duty' right now. I didn't have anything to occupy myself with, so I just… Came here." Sam seemed unsure, his voice almost questioning whether or not it was okay to come here.

"Yea—Yeah, dude, that's cool. But we're about as interesting as watching paint dry." He returned to his bag to grab a bag of Skittles.

Sam tilted his head, striking hazel eyes narrowing in confusion. "Watching paint dry is a thing of interest for humans?" Sam should have educated himself more about humans before volunteering to be the warrior equivalent of Gabriel's guardian angel. He didn't understand much of what the man said.

"No—that's not—no, Sam, it's boring. I was saying that we're boring. There's nothing really to do here." The shower started up. "You should watch TV. You wanna learn about people—that's where you start." He all but dragged the angel to the shitty motel couch. He flopped down next to the tall angel—hair still untidy from his fly in. He opened his bag of Skittles and set it between them, pointing at the bag. "Skittles. Good. Have some." He took a handful, stuffing his cheeks with them as he grabbed the remote and turned on the TV.

Sam cautiously stuck his hand in the bag as Gabriel channel surfed. The candy was small and round and hard and unnaturally colorful. This couldn't be something that was healthy for humans. He voiced his concern. "Gabriel, this is not healthy for humans. Why do you eat it?" He had taken his hand out of the bag as he spoke, several of the small, vibrant candies in his hand.

"It's damn good, that's why you eat it!" Gabriel paused in his channel surfing to turn to the angel. Sam was looking at the candy skeptically. Gabriel sighed and plucked one from the bag. Sam looked at Gabriel in alarm when he pressed the orange Skittle against his lips. "Open your mouth." Gabriel ordered. Sam complied, and the hunter pushed the candy between his lips.

Oh. That tasted interesting. "…It tastes like fermenting oranges." Sam commented. The scowl Gabriel sent him was so dark that he backpedaled quicker than he thought he could. "No… No! It's good! See?" Sam raised his hand and shoved the assortment of Skittles he had in his fist into his mouth. His tongue was assaulted by a hodgepodge of gaudy, false flavors and it was almost disgusting. But, he had to admit, that there was something in the sugar and the taste of the colors that complimented each other. He grinned widely at the hunter. He was doing human things!

Gabriel stared at the angel for a moment before bursting out into laughter. Sam's smile fell slowly. He shook his head as he laughed, trying to communicate that he wasn't laughing at Sam, there was just— "You… You have one… Stuck in your teeth." There was half of a bright blue skittle stuck to one of Sam's front teeth. It shouldn't've been so side-splittingly funny, but it was, and when Sam's tongue prodded at the offending object, he burst into laughter as well.

They were still laughing, the TV playing something with a long-haired doctor wearing cowboy boots, when Cas walked out of the bathroom. "Shower's open." He called to his brother.

Gabriel gave Sam a final grin before standing. He desperately needed that shower after their hunt that day. "You—eat skittles and watch TV. Ill be back!" He detoured to grab a clean pair of jeans from his bag before walking into the bathroom.

He would tell Sam tomorrow.