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Sam Winchester had wanted a puppy since he was a kid. Dean had known this for years but sadly, John had never let the boys get any type of pet.
"It won't work with our lifestyle, Dean. You know that. We move around too often and I can't handle another mouth to feed."
And Dean would be sad at the fact that his dad had just made a no-pets rule. However, he was absolutely heartbroken when he had to explain this to his brother. The younger Winchester's face crumbled and the pain was clear in his eyes. And at that moment, Dean wanted to take back everything he had said and go out and buy the kid a freakin' puppy. But he couldn't. So he sucked it up and dealt with it, constantly carrying around the guilt that Sammy couldn't get something as simple as a puppy.
Until now.
The brothers were older now and, with their father gone, were allowed to do practically whatever they pleased, as long as their boyfriend's approved.
So, when Sam's birthday finally came around and Gabriel approached Dean, asking for gift ideas, Dean was ecstatic.
"Puppy." Dean was so excited he couldn't get out a full sentence. But he didn't care.
And apparently, neither did Gabriel since the archangel was out the door and on his way to the nearest animal shelter, which just happened to be "Animal Haven," as soon as he heard "Pup-"
When Gabriel entered the shelter, he paused and relished for a moment in the barks and meows coming from the different kennels around him. He then waltzed up to the front desk. There, a bored looking young man, who looked to be about mid-twenties, with a light brown fringe and dark brown eyes was sitting, fiddling mindlessly with his phone.
"Hello, my name is Gabriel and I was wondering if you could direct me to the way of the puppies please?" Gabriel spoke quickly but politely, not wanting to irritate the man and miss his chance at making his boyfriend happy.
After a few moments without a response, Gabriel tried again. This time, mentioning Sam, hoping to maybe get some pity points from the man.
"Do you know where the puppies are? I am getting one for my boyfriend, Sam, for his birthday. He's wanted one since he was a little kid but his dad would never let him get one."
At the word "boyfriend," the man looked up from his phone and smiled widely, dimples showing. After listening to Gabriel, he spoke.
"Oh, yes, sorry." The man apologized. It was then that Gabriel noticed that he had a very strong British accent. "Right this way." The man then started to lead Gabriel through the shelter, stopping every once in awhile to smile and pat a dog on the head or rub a kitten behind the ears.
"You seem to like your job." Gabriel commented after they stopped for the third time.
"Oh yea. I really do," the man responded before continuing. "I'm Daniel by the way, but I go by Dan. I'm sorry for being rude earlier, I just thought you were one of those rich, snobby men who walk in here and demand to see the puppies. Just so they can buy one for their supermodel girlfriends and then dump them on the side of the road when it doesn't work out between them." The man, Dan, sighed.
"Dump the girl or the dog?" Gabriel joked, trying to lighten the mood a bit.
It worked and Dan laughed loudly. "The dog," He said in between fits of giggles. "I meant the dog."
Gabriel laughed at this as well, enjoying the man's bright laughter. Then, he remembered something.
"Hey, when I mentioned Sam earlier, you seemed to perk up. Why was that?" Gabriel asked, a bit nervous of the response he was going to get.
Dan turned to smile at him before speaking. "Oh, well, like I said before, most of the guys that come in here are jerks and that's one of the reasons I'm normally rude to people that come in here. But when you mentioned your boyfriend, I thought of my boyfriend and I guess I just automatically smiled and looked up, expecting him to be here." Dan sighed, the smile fading off his face.
Gabriel picked up on the hint of sadness in the man's voice and became curious.
"Where is he? I noticed you have a accent, is he in the UK?" Gabriel asked.
Dan smiled slightly before nodding, a distant look in his eyes.
"Yeah," he replied quietly, "Phil's visiting his mum and dad in England. He's been gone for about a week but he should be back soon." Dan sighed before looking down at the floor, mumbling something about "missing his lion."
Gabriel ignored the odd comment and sat down, leaning against the wall and patted the space next to him as an invitation for Dan to sit down, which Dan took gratefully.
"Tell me about him. And about yourself. Did you two just move here?" Gabriel asked, knowing that the man needed to let some things off his mind.
At this, Dan visibly brightened before responding eagerly to the question.
"Yeah, we just moved here a couple months ago. Phil owns his own bookstore near our house called "The Lion's Den." That's actually why we moved here. Phil wanted to own his own bookstore and there was a cheap old building here and we both wanted to move to America so that's what we did." Dan said all of this in a rush and was smiling widely by the end.
Gabriel continued to ask questions, discovering more about the man's life. This went on for almost an hour before Gabriel remembered why he was in this animal shelter in the first place. For Sam.
Gabriel mentioned the time to Dan and the pair both rushed to the end of the corridor, finally getting to where the puppies were being held.
Gabriel took his time interacting with each and every one, wanting to get the perfect dog for Sam. He let Mia the black lab lick his hand and Rox the pit bull sniff at his fingers.
Finally, the archangel got to the end of the row and saw the dog in the very last cage. And he knew that it was perfect.
~~
After a bit of negotiating on Gabriel's part, which went something like this: "Here, Dan, just take all of it, buy Phil something nice." and Dan's stubborn response "No Gabriel, I can't-" and finally, "Yes you can and you will." Dan finally relented and took all of Gabriel's money and Gabriel finally bought the puppy.
Gabriel knew Sam was going to love the little cuddly pup, who was even more adorable now that he was out of his cage. Gabriel already had a name picked out, but was going to wait until he got back to the bunker to tell anyone, even Dan.
Gabriel was finally ready to leave, puppy in his arms without a collar. When Dan asked if Gabriel had wanted a collar, Gabriel simply replied, "Nah, I've got a plan."
Halfway out the door, Gabriel realized he had no car and no way to get home. He had gotten to the shelter in the first place by flying but he couldn't do that now with a puppy in his arms. So, he turned to Dan sheepishly.
"Hey, um, can I have a ride home please? I walked here but now I'm running short on time and half to do some things before Sammy gets home." Upon, hearing this, Dan smiled, dimples popping again.
"Sure, It's about time for my break anyways. Let's go." Dan replied, grabbing his car keys off the desk and heading out the front door, with Gabriel trailing behind him.
"So where exactly do you live?" Dan asked once they were in the car. Gabriel inwardly sighed, he knew the boys weren't going to be happy about him giving away their address to a stranger. But for some reason, Gabriel trusted Dan. So, he listed off his address. Once Dan heard it, he perked up.
"Hey, that's near where Phil and I live. You should visit some time. And bring Sam, he sounds like a great guy." Dan said excitedly.
Gabriel smiled and agreed but inside he was confused. He thought there were no other houses near the bunker. Then, he realized that there was a house about a twenty minute walk away that had a bunch of colorful flowers in front of it.
"Oh, is that the one with the flowers in front of it?" Gabriel asked Dan curiously.
"Yep, that's the one. Phil loves flowers and bright colors. It says it makes the world seem brighter." Dan smiled again.
Dang, this kid is just really happy isn't he? Gabriel asked himself.
~~
After the rest of the car ride was spent in silence, save for the quiet Muse playing through the radio, Gabriel got out of the car once they approached the bunker, thanking Dan and exchanging phone numbers, promising to keep in touch.
Gabriel snuck quietly into the house, praying to his Father that Sam wasn't home yet.
Thankfully, the only ones home were Castiel and Dean, who were in their room dealing with their own presents for Sam.
Gabriel set down the puppy and got to work on his collar. The puppy's, not Gabriel's, that is.
~~
After many hours of work, Gabriel was finally done. He gently put the collar on the puppy and took a step back, admiring his work along with the puppy.
Gabriel had snapped into existence a high-quality blue collar with a buckle made of real gold. He then preceded to spend hours working on painting feathers all around the collar. Golden feathers. The same exact color of his own on his wings.
Gabriel smiled and curled up on the couch, cuddling with the puppy and running his fingers through the chocolate lab's soft brown fur. He then laid there quietly, smile still on his face, while he waited for Sam.
~~
Gabriel's eyes snapped open at the sound of an oven timer dinging and he shot up off the couch. He gently picked up the puppy and headed in the direction of the sound.
When he entered the room where the sound was coming from, the first thing he noticed was the smell of birthday cake fresh out of the oven. The second thing he noticed was Sam, Dean, and Castiel, all staring at him.
The latter two were smiling widely while the youngest Winchester was gaping at the puppy in Gabriel's arms with a slightly glazed over and awed look.
"Gabe...how did you...what..why..." Sam trailed off and slowly walked over to the puppy, almost as if to not startle it. He reached out his arm and ran his fingers gently through the puppy's fur, beaming when the puppy lifted up it's head to gaze sleepily at Sam.
After a few moments of undeniable love between Sam and the puppy, the hunter finally looked up, love and gratitude shining in his eyes. Along with a few happy tears.
"Thank you Gabe. Thank you so much. What's it's name?" Sam asked, wiping as his eyes not as discreetly as he thought. He then noticed the intricate collar and ran his fingers over the lines of the golden feathers in awe.
"His name is Moose," Gabriel replied, smiling to himself at the name that reminded the archangel of his hunter's utter hugeness, "And he's our puppy."