Posted originally on the Archive of Our Own at http://archiveofourown.org/works/151034.

Rating: Teen And Up Audiences

Archive Warning: No Archive Warnings Apply
Category: M/M
Fandom: Supernatural
Relationship: Suggested Sam/Gabriel and Dean/Castiel
Character: Gabriel, Sam Winchester, Castiel, Dean Winchester
Stats: Published: 2010-04-10 Words: 3078

Envy
by entanglednow

Summary

In which Gabriel is annoying, Sam is confused, and no one is having sex.

Sam's trying to find a clean shirt when Gabriel shows up. There's no flap of wings, no rush of
misplaced air, he's just there when he turns around. Like the world moves to accommodate him and not
the other way around. He's sprawled on Sam's bed, boots flung together, leafing his way through one
of Sam's books and demolishing a candy bar.

"Get off my bed," Sam says. Because Dean may have let the personal space issues and invasion of
privacy thing become a habit with Castiel, but Sam has standards.

Gabriel makes a noise and completely ignores him, flips pages like he's been there all along and just
decided to make himself visible. Which is...an incredibly creepifying thought that Sam's going to
pretend he never had.

He spends a moment being irritated at, as usual, having absolutely no effect at all on the Trickster-
turned-Archangel. Then decides he could grow old that way, so he just picks a shirt at random from the
bag by the end of the bed. Because, though he's loathe to admit it, he's getting used to Gabriel
randomly appearing.

"I hope you're killing something interesting today," Gabriel says. Sounding thoroughly bored over a
chapter about the Wild Hunt. "I hate it when I drop in and you're doing something boring."

Sam snags the book out of Gabriel's hand.

"Stop getting chocolate on the ancient texts."

"I was helping," Gabriel protests. "You're always complaining that I'm not helping."
"You're not helping, you don't help even when you say you are. You mock, and reminisce and
occasionally just make stuff up."

"I do not make stuff up, I add drama. I thought you'd appreciate that. A little damsel in distress, a little
dramatic lighting, a little sex magic." Gabriel flicks his eyebrows up. "I know how much that repetitive
daily grind gets to you."

"The repetitive daily grind is sometimes wildly preferable to your special brand of helping," Sam says
tightly.

Gabriel makes an irritated noise.

"What about that haunted town, I helped you with that."

"You set it on fire," Sam says flatly. "The whole town burned to the ground."

Gabriel lifts a finger and wags it at him.

"It wasn't haunted any more though was it," he says.

Sam snatches up the rest of the books before Gabriel can mess with them and Gabriel makes a sound of
amusement like he's just discovered Sam can be taught to do simple tricks.

But it's true, for all that Gabriel has grudgingly, and clearly unhappily, decided to help them on their
quest to not have the world destroyed he never seems particularly enthusiastic about it. Like he's just
waiting for something better to come up. Like they're damaged in some way for not appreciating how
awesome he is to have around.

Which he's not.

He's really, really not.

"Why do you never bother Dean?"

"Dean already has his own bothersome angel. Besides, if I show up there he tends to get all defensive
and manly and then Castiel will try to protect him in his block-headedly serious and sickeningly
devoted sort of way."

Gabriel sighs theatrically.

"Honestly, I always liked you best Sam but now, with them involved in the world's longest and most
boring courtship you're like a gigantic palm tree of sanity in the desert of chaos."

"I'm ignoring the fact that you just compared me to a gigantic palm tree," Sam says testily.

"Someone should point out that tragic romances are out of fashion. I'm half tempted to skip to the
ending and kill them both. It would save us both from having to put up with any more of it."

Sam looks up from putting the books back in his bag.

"No killing people, you promised," he tells him tightly.

Gabriel lets his head fall back against the wall and makes an irritated, long-suffering noise.

"I did, didn't I." He shakes his head. "Why did I do that?"

"Because torturing people for your own amusement isn't nice," Sam reminds him, like he doesn’t know
that. or maybe like he's forgotten it.

"It's not supposed to be nice, it's supposed to be fun. They mostly deserve it anyway."

"Dean didn't deserve it."

"I didn't kill Dean for fun. I killed Dean to make a point." Gabriel seems to realise that's not going to
win him any bonus points and he stays quiet while Sam fumes and packs everything away with more
enthusiastic force than it merits.

Sam eventually makes his way back to the bed, because ignoring Gabriel for too long just encourages
him to do things.

"So what's the monster quest today?" Gabriel asks, reluctantly, in a terribly uninterested sort of way.
But Sam gets the feeling that that's all the apology he's going to get.

"We don't know yet, we're going to go and see if it's anything we need to be there for. But we got a tip
from Bobby so we're going prepared."

Gabriel groans, like he finds the whole idea horribly tedious.

Sam dumps one of his bags on the bed and absolutely doesn't accidentally crush Gabriel's foot when he
does it.

"And if you're coming, you might want to tell Dean, he hates it when you just pop up in the backseat.

"Irritating your brother is one of the tiny highlights of my day," Gabriel tells him and Sam really
doesn’t like the way he manages to make that sound threatening around the enthusiasm. Gabriel flicks
his eyebrows up like he knows exactly what Sam's thinking.

"Yeah, but it just makes him a dick for the rest of it," Sam complains, sensibly, because he knows
damn well when Dean's a dick he's normally the one that suffers.

"Dean's a dick all the time," Gabriel protests.

Sam glares at him.

"Most of the time?" Gabriel offers hopefully.

Sam grumbles something irritated and goes into the bathroom to collect his stuff. He really is sick of
this whole family vacation feel that his life has taken on lately. He always used to wonder what that
would be like. To have a proper family that did things like go on vacation.

He thinks maybe he knows now.

He thinks he understands why some people hate it.

"Sam," Gabriel calls from the other room, slow and amused. He manages, in one word, to suggest he's
going to get up to things if Sam doesn’t talk to him. Like it's Sam's job to make sure he's not bored
because Dean's busy not noticing his glacially slow courtship of Castiel.

Sam stares at a crack in the mirror, sighs so hard his hair flies all over the place, then rolls his eyes and
heads back out into the room.

Gabriel now has his boots on top of Sam's bag.

"A whole afternoon in a confined space with you three. Sitting next to Castiel, who'll be trying his
damnedest to stare a hole through the front seat and thinking about how amazing and important your
emotionally retarded brother is. Wow, I know I can't wait."

Sam sighs and throws Gabriel a look that he's fairly sure won't work on him but he thinks maybe he's
used it so often with Dean that he can't help it.

Gabriel looks briefly disgusted and then sighs in a loud and overly dramatic sort of way.

"Fine, but if I don't get to kill something horribly by the end of the day I'm going to be really annoyed."

"You don't have to come," Sam points out and then realises that wasn't the best thing to say. Because it
isn't like their lives are a cakewalk and Gabriel may be a giant pain in the ass but he isn't exactly the last
kid picked for sports here.

Gabriel grunts something that sounds barely interested, but doesn't immediately run off to find
something better to do so Sam's probably been given a pass for his horrible lack of enthusiasm.

"If Dean makes one remark about how awesome Castiel is -"

"You're not turning Dean into anything," Sam finishes and Gabriel pulls a face like Sam is ruining is
entire life.

"Maybe I could get them a fruit basket with a nice note 'we've had enough of your tragic non-romance,
get a room and fuck already.'"

"That's subtle."

"Don't you think they're past subtle. Don't you think they went past subtle a week ago when there was
the whole 'I'm spreading this burn ointment on you for your own good and you will suffer through it'
fiasco."

Sam sighs, and winces at the memory, because, yeah, Gabriel has a point.

"Ok, granted, that was...weirdly uncomfortable."

"That wasn't weirdly uncomfortable, that was like watching Amish porn. Your brother is immune to
subtle, he requires the careful application of large and obvious to the skull."

"No killing Dean," Sam snaps, because, yeah, still a sore point and that isn't going to change any time
soon.

Gabriel throws his hands up.

"Fine, fine, so we do it without any bloodshed. You're no fun at all."

Sam sits down on the bed, shoves Gabriel's boots out of the way hard enough for him to grunt
irritation.

"Besides, it's Dean, if you just point it out he'll get defensive and angst about it for months. Until it all
blows up in his face and there's a fiery car wreck where subtle used to be." Because Dean and Castiel
are kind of - Sam has no idea what they are, or aren't. But he doesn't want to break them. He likes
Castiel and Dean deserves...he deserves something that isn't broken. Even if that something turns out to
be a male angel who may be unnaturally devoted to him.

Their life is weird.

Even more weird than usual and that's saying something for them.
Even more weird than usual and that's saying something for them.

"Gabriel, I don't want to turn them into a car wreck and you tend to be -" Sam tries to think of a good
way to describe what Gabriel usually is.

Gabriel pulls an expectant face at him.

"Over-enthusiastic," Sam decides on eventually

The angel makes a rude noise.

"I am capable of being the blade rather than the blunt instrument you know." Gabriel flings his arms
out. " Hello, Archangel."

Sam eyeballs him, because, yeah, they have trust issues.

"Gabriel."

"I won't touch them, not a single suggestive push. I'll use my vast intellect and experience instead."

Sam pulls a face.

"That doesn't make me feel any better."

"You wound me, Sam, really, you do."

Sam mutters something about Gabriel's ideas never turning out well but when he looks up again
Gabriel has gone.

He gets the strangest feeling he's just agreed to something he shouldn't have done.

~~~~~

Sam's putting the bags in the car, not really thinking about anything at all, when he notices that Castiel
is looking at him. Not in his usual 'hello, Sam Winchester' way that's sort of spooky and intense but not
exactly threatening. No, this is different.

This isn't like that at all.

Castiel looks surprised, proper wide-eyed surprise, verging on the disturbed.

Sam resists the urge to check his face for some sort of horrible demonic ectoplasm. Then wonders
exactly why that's his first instinct. Jesus, their lives really are messed up.

"What?" he says instead.

Castiel's expression doesn't change.

"Cas, what?"

The angel slides all the way into his personal space, looks set for a moment to reach a hand up and - but
then he drops his arm, expression shifting into something harder, something firm.

Sam's more than a little weirded out now.

"Gabriel," Castiel says simply. Like that's a whole conversation all by itself.
Sam's a little lost on what that conversation is.

"Yeah, he's coming with us today, I guess."

Castiel frowns, like he's frustrated by that answer. Which isn't exactly fair since he never asked a
question.

"You and Gabriel have become close." Castiel sounds uncertain. Dean's been telling him about the
proper way to start a conversation. He hasn't really gotten the hang of it yet.

Sam shrugs.

"I wouldn't say close. He hangs around with me I suppose, mostly when I'm trying to do something
else. But he's kind of hard to get rid of - well, ok, no, not hard. Just, not the sort of person who's going
to go away if you tell him to."

Castiel's mouth draws into a tight line, like that isn't the answer he expected.

"And you are happy with this arrangement?"

Sam shrugs.

"It's ok, I guess, I don't entirely trust him, considering our history. And I'm pretty sure he's not exactly
the -" He wants to say 'not exactly the sanest angel' but he's a little bit afraid of admitting that out loud.
Where anyone could hear him. He leaves the sentence hanging instead.

"If he's made you do anything you're not comfortable with," Castiel says, and his voice is slow and
serious. But there's a tightness under there. Something that suggests if Gabriel has then Castiel is going
to be very unhappy.

Sam spends a moment in blank confusion, but Castiel's expression seems to get worse in the pause, so
he hurriedly thinks of something to say.

"Er, no, no I don't think so. I mean, not yet. Sometimes he asks me to do weird things because he
thinks it's funny, but he hasn't made me do anything." As far as Sam knows. But that train of thought
probably doesn't end in a good place, so he's just going to drop it.

Castiel frowns

"You don't have to do what he asks of you, Sam. His help is not so vital to our cause, no matter what
you may think." Castiel says firmly and Sam's still not entirely sure what's going on. He thinks maybe
he's missing something, and that something is maybe a complicated angel thing.

But he tries for some sort of reassurance, anything to chase away that focused, determined expression.

"Yeah, I know that. I mean I don't think he would, but I wouldn’t, don't worry about it."

Castiel's still doing that scary angel thing. Like the angel thinks he's missed something and he's just
going to stand there staring at him until he gets it. Sam's usually the one watching him do it to Dean. It's
kind of unnerving up close.

"And if Gabriel asks too much of you I hope that you would tell me. I am not what I once was but I
would not let such a thing happen."

Sam blinks. He's not entirely sure what to say to that.

"That's - thanks, Cas, really. I appreciate it. But, I think I'm ok."

Castiel still seems to be worried about it. Though there's a tension there too now. Something far more
complicated. Something that feels a lot like disapproval.

"I hope you are aware of what you're doing," Castiel says stiffly.

Sam gets the impression Castiel is now angry with him.

There's a low rip of sound and Sam's left alone in the parking lot, holding his bag by one strap and
feeling far more confused than he usually enjoys.

~~~~~

Sam's fairly sure Castiel watches him from the back for every mile the car eats up. He pretends he
hasn't noticed anything. Flicking through one of the books he'd borrowed off of Bobby and mostly
ignoring Dean's thoughts on the other cars on the road, or where to stop for lunch, or whether their last
room did or didn't have rats.

He feels a little bad about how good he's gotten at tuning it all out.

He waits until Dean and Cas both get out, Dean to pay for the gas and Castiel to follow him in his
strange and fiercely devoted sort of way. Like he might be required, at any moment, to save him from
demons. Or dispense archaic information.

The minute they get out of sight Sam turns in his seat, leather squeaking.

Sure enough, Gabriel is looking far too innocent in the back, boots hiked up on the back of the driver's
seat in a way Sam's fairly sure Dean would attempt to kill him for.

"Ok, what did you do?"

"Hmm?" Gabriel looks up from where he's making what looks like an origami dragon.

"Cas has been looking at me funny all day and this morning he asked me some really weird questions."

Gabriel makes a quiet sound of amusement. Gabriel's amusement is never encouraging, especially
when it's not immediately obvious why he's amused.

"Did you do something creepy to me?" Sam hisses.

"I didn't do anything to you. I may have messed with the way Castiel's going to see you...a little bit."

Sam continues to look at him, because he's getting an explanation for that.

Gabriel's mouth hikes up at the edge.

"I may have added something to your own personal Sam Winchester flavour."

"Like what?" Sam demands.

"Like I may have added a little of my own awesome angel flavour," Gabriel says, far too innocently.

"You left angel on me?" Sam knows he sounds bewildered and he's completely ignoring how wrong
that sounds now he's actually voiced it.
Gabriel snorts.

"That's an amusing way to put it, but essentially correct, in a metaphysically butchered sort of way."

"So what exactly does that mean?" Sam asks slowly.

Gabriel makes a thoughtful noise in his throat.

"In angel vision, you may, or may not look like I've been having my way with you."

Sam turns around very slowly and the sound the leather makes is almost obscene in the quiet.

"Repeatedly," Gabriel adds.

"Gabriel," Sam growls threateningly.

"Did you see his face?" Gabriel says. The drawl of his voice is lazy and smug.

Sam briefly stops being annoyed and thinks about it, really thinks about it. The way Castiel had looked,
not just surprised but something uncomfortable and that flavour of angry that strayed perilously close to
hurt. Like maybe he wasn't quite as oblivious as they'd thought.

"Huh," Sam says eloquently.

Gabriel leans forward far enough to rest the dragon on the dash and Sam half expects the damn thing to
breathe fire.

"I think we just taught my little brother what envy feels like."

Sam grunts agreement. Because, yes, fine, he has to admit that maybe it worked, a little bit.

"If he tells Dean, I'm denying it with every fibre of my being," Sam points out.

"Fine, fine, I wouldn't want to sully your reputation for only sleeping with suitable people," Gabriel
drawls out sarcastically.

Sam turns around and glares at him.

Gabriel's wearing his innocent face again.

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