Beneath his feet the sounds of the city echo, but before him the sky stretches out endlessly, vast and calling. The door to the roof slams open, breaking his calm.

"Don't do it!" says a voice, and Gabriel turns around to raise an eyebrow at the newcomer. He's a big man, brown hair chopped to chin level, wearing loose fitting jeans and a hoodie. He's standing by the door, one hand out as if to calm him.

"Listen, I don't know what's going on in your life right now, but I can tell you this isn't the answer." The man says.

Gabriel laughs. "No worries kiddo, I wasn't planning to jump" He hops off the ledge and heads for the door "I just like the view."

It's the last time Gabriel expects to see the man. The next time he sees him is in fact hours later outside his condo.

"Hey, I know you!" he exclaims to the man sitting by the vent to the boiler room "The hero from the roof!"

"Oh, the little bird." The man replies, looking up from his laptop.

"Is that some kind of crazy joke?" Gabriel asks, smirking.

"Maybe" the man replies, starting to smile.

After a moment, Gabriel offers his hand "Gabriel" he introduces himself.

The man takes his hand "Sam" he says.

"Nice to meet you Sam"

"Same to you, Gabriel"

At the time, neither man has any idea how far that one meeting will take them. Later on, in grief, Gabriel has the sense to wish it had been their last. But that isn't until after it's too late.

It isn't until after Gabriel comes bounding out of the condo, foamy bubbles raining down from the fifth floor calling "Sammy, hide me!". It isn't until after it starts to get cold outside and Gabriel asks "You got anywhere to go, kiddo?" to which Sam hesitates, then replies "Yeah, I got a place". It isn't until after Gabriel filches his laptop and finds out he's in law school, of all things, and calls him a nerd. It isn't until after he sees Sam thinning and shares his candy, and Sam says he'll get diabetes if he keeps eating sugar like he does, and then Gabriel sets Sam's ringtone, screensaver and background to some variation of Wilford Brimley. It isn't until after his brothers get his number and it's Sam who sits with him in the rain, never asking, only being there. It isn't until the day Gabriel steps out of his condo early in the morning and sees an unmistakable head of hair peeking out from around the side of the building. He walks over and rounds the corner to find Sam huddled by the other vent from the boiler in the alley, fast asleep. Gabriel crouches down and tugs his blanket up higher, then pats his hair.

"I thought you said you had someplace to go, Sammy" he says softly. After a minute he gets up and walks across the street to the corner store to grab the milk he needed for his cereal. As he's coming out he sees a town car turn down the alley where Sam is sleeping.

"Hey!" He calls, waving "Look out, there's a guy there!" Gabriel walks to the crosswalk, but when he gets there the car hasn't slowed down.

"Hey!" He waves more frantically, and a few people look at him "Watch out!"

A few other pedestrians look where he's looking and their eyes widen. The car still doesn't slow down. The light turns and Gabriel bolts across the road, waving his arms frantically.

"Stop!"

But he's too late.

Sam cries out over the sickening sound of breaking bone and damaged flesh and the car grinds to a halt a few feet later. Gabriel is at his side in an instant, carefully turning him over and setting Sam's head on his lap.

"Sammy?" he says, voice cracking just slightly.

"Gabe...riel what-" Sam gasps, blood on his lips.

"It's okay; some idiot just took a wrong turn and didn't see you. You're gonna be okay" Gabriel says.

Sam nods and blinks up at him "Fuck, it hurts" he mumbles, possibly to himself.

"Yeah, Sam, it was a pretty big car" Gabriel laughs a little hysterically "Just hold on"

Sam doesn't respond, just gasps for air. Gabriel grips his shoulder tightly "Hold on" he says again.

Sam stops breathing.

Someone shoves him aside screaming "I'm a doctor!" and Gabriel falls back, staring at Sam. Someone else tries to help him up, but he shoves them away and wanders off blindly to lean against a bike rack. He vaguely registers the sound of sirens fast approaching. Then he hears it:

"-And who's going to pay for the damage to my car, huh? I paid ninety-three thousand dollars for this car. 'Course I feel bad for this poor homeless bastard, but he's probably done something bad to end up where he is-"

Gabriel turns to see a portly old man hollering at a police officer, all self-righteous fury.

"You killed Sam" He says, and something makes the man and the officer look over. "And you don't even care"

"What- of course I care! But I just paid this car off-"

"You're a monster" Gabriel announces "And you won't have to worry about that car for long"

Gabriel turns and walks away while the man starts to scream "That man just threatened me! Are you just going to stand there? Arrest him!"

Setting up the loss of the man's car takes three days. Gabriel pays a guy to look the other way and puts a little sugar in the gas tank and a little bomb in the trunk. Then he hacks the car's owner's (last name Carter, first name no one fucking cares) phone and replaces his towing company's number with one that goes straight to Gabriel's cell. Then he waits. When the call inevitably comes, Gabriel puts on the uniform, climbs into his rented tow truck and heads out.

"I've had no end of trouble with this car" Carter says when he gets there "I'm starting to think it's bad luck!" and the bastard laughs.

"Maybe its haunted" Gabriel replies "You know, if they re-used any parts"

He hauls the car up onto the back of the truck and starts off down the road, Carter in the seat beside him. He takes the long way to Carter's address, apologizing when he takes the wrong turn and promising not to charge him extra. This way leads them up onto the side of a mountain, a solid wall of rock on one side, a fifty foot drop on the other; and a sharp corner Gabriel takes at top speed. The unsecured town car flies off the back of the truck and rolls satisfyingly down the steep cliff. Gabriel pulls off and acts shocked, apologetic; even as in the absence of a boom, he hits the call button on his phone that sets off the bomb. Carter rails on him the whole way back, but Gabriel feels amazing. He swears to have Gabriel's job when he drops him off. Gabriel's not listening though, because all he can see is his probably fifty-room mansion. Sam had to sleep in an alley; it would only be fair to give this man the same experience.

"Are you even listening to me?!" Carter yells.

"No" Gabriel says "I said you wouldn't have to worry about that car for long didn't I?" He grins, not happily, as the man recognizes him. "I could say the same for your house" And with that, he drives away.

Setting up the house isn't much of an issue either. He forces a power surge in the neighborhood- nothing unfixable, just some burnt out outlets and fried circuits. Carter's on the lookout for him now of course, but a little disguise goes a long way and has Carter none the wiser when he comes in to fix their electrical system. He runs into a little trouble inside the house, but makes it work to his advantage. Then he sets up his concoction of flammable gases in the air system, nothing deadly, just things that will make the place go up like a tinderbox with the right push, turns on the gas in the kitchen and leaves. Gabriel lets it sit for the day, and then comes back after dark to complete the task.

As soon as he steps into the back yard he's blinded by floodlights. Carter barrels out of the house seconds later, waving a pistol about.

"You think I wasn't waiting for you, you bastard?!" Carter screams "The police are on their way. I hope you spent the day outside because they're going to bury you so deep-"

"I never see sunlight again, got it" Gabriel says, nonplused. He reaches into his breast pocket and withdraws a malted milk ball, popping it into his mouth.

"You arrogant prick, do you think you'll get away with this?!" Carter demands.

"Oh, no, you got me. I've been foiled by you superior intellect" Gabriel mocks.

"You're crazy. Crazy! Coming after me, of all people, over some bum, some stray dog-"

"Sammy was in law school" Gabriel says "He was a straight A student."

Again, Carter laughs, while his housekeeper runs out beside him. "Oh, I'm so sorry! I'm sure he would have been a prodigy!"

"Yeah" Gabriel says, pulling a Bang Snap firework from his breast pocket and throwing it past the pair into the house "Me too"

Behind them the house explodes.

Both Carter and the housekeeper are knocked off their feet as the house goes up in flames. Gabriel withstands it and waits for them to gather themselves before he continues.

"So that's it. I want you to experience what it was like for him, living on the streets."

"You're insane!" Carter cries.

"I doubt you have a lot of friends willing to offer their couches, so we can end this here. I'm satisfied. We can walk away and you can get back to your life within the month. It's a pretty sweet deal considering you killed someone" Gabriel says.

Carter points the pistol at him, eyes wild "You're not going anywhere!" He yells.

Gabriel pulls a lollipop from his pocket next and pops that into his mouth.

"Or you can fire that gun and take another life. Your choice. I hope you make the right one" Gabriel turns and starts walking away from them, back off the property.

"Stop right now!" Carter yells, but Gabriel ignores him. "I'm warning you, stop! I'll shoot!"

Gabriel waves at him dismissively.

Carter screams in pure rage and pulls the trigger. The housekeeper starts to scream. Gabriel keeps walking.

Three weeks later Gabriel comes back to his condo late, ingredients for dinner hanging from one hand in a bag. The taxi driver almost overshoots his condo; forcing Gabriel to stand not five feet from where Sam had died. He can't keep his eyes from straying to the stain that had yet to come out of the pavement. He decides it's about time for him to find a new place to live. A tiny mewling sound draws his attention to a dirty kitten wobbling against the building. Gabriel walks over and kneels by it, smiling faintly.

"Hey buddy. Loose your mom?" He says, patting the kitten. It mews loudly at him in response. The weather had said rain for the evening. "Come on" Gabriel scoops the kitten up and stands, something heavy settling in his chest.

"I should've known you were a cat person" says a voice he knows off to his left. Slowly, Gabriel turns to regard its owner. Sitting against the building in his usual spot is none other than Sam. His arm is in a sling, one of his legs is in a cast and he looks like death warmed over, but he's unmistakably there.

"You were dead" Gabriel says intelligently.

Sam laughs "Yeah, twice; three minutes and five seconds total. But I made it" Sam quiets down "You okay Gabe?"

And just like that he's moving. He drops his bag halfway to Sam and the kitten somehow finds its way safely to Sam's bag while Gabriel collapses into the taller man. Sam 'oof's but catches hold of him as Gabriel wraps his arms around his neck, twining the fingers of his left hand tightly in Sam's hair.

"Sam" He says quietly, holding tight.

Sam sighs and his good arm comes around Gabriel's waist. They stay like that for nowhere near enough time in Gabriel's opinion, but Sam eventually clears his throat.

"Hey, um, Gabe? Not that I'm unhappy with this new development or anything, but I'm kinda injured here..."

"Right" Gabriel breathes and sits up slowly. He can't help but just look at Sam before he gets up again, letting it sink in that he's alive. Thunder rumbles in the distance, reminding Gabriel of the coming rain. He gathers up his and Sam's bags (complete with kitten) and offers Sam his hand.

"Come on. Let's go inside" He says.

Sam stares up at him dumbly "Gabriel, you don't have to..." he starts.

"It's going to rain, and you can't get water in your cast, Sammy."

Sam, with a glance at the sky, struggles to his feet with the help of Gabriel and a crutch and follows him in.

The ride up is a silent one, save the occasionally mew from the kitten. When they reach Gabriel's apartment he drops their bags and sets about putting milk down for the cat. When that's finished and he turns back to see Sam, it hits him again that Sam is alive, and breathing, and in his house finally. He walks over purposefully and stops inches from the taller man.

"Nice place you got here" Sam says conversationally.

"It has its perks."

"I like the view" Sam gestures to the floor-to-ceiling window off to their left, but doesn't take his eyes off Gabriel.

"Hmm" Gabriel agrees, standing on his toes and placing a hand on Sam's chest. Sam comes down to meet him, good arm curling back around his waist again and pulling their bodies flush together as they kiss. They break apart just as the rain starts to patter on the window pane.

"Stay here" Gabriel says "Until you actually find someplace to go. Or forever. Whichever happens second"

Sam huffs a laugh "Gabriel, you hardly know me"

"You ran away from home to go to college. You're from Kansas. How bad can you be?" Gabriel replies.

"Alright, then. I don't know much about you, other than your crazy pranks and also not great family"

"Sammy, that's more than anyone else knows about me"

They're quiet in the growing dark of the condo, foreheads pressed together.

"Okay. It's crazy, but I'll stay" Sam says.

"Good" Gabriel says.