Work Text:
“Sammitch!”
When Sam glanced up from his laptop, he had to bite his lip to keep himself from laughing. Gabriel was wearing one of Sam’s gray knit sweaters, the hem of which was falling down past his waist, and only the tips of his fingers were peeking out of the sleeves. “That’s a little big, don’t you think?” he said, unable to hold back his grin.
Gabriel made a face at him. “Shut up, you know I like wearing your sweaters.” He leaned against the doorframe and pouted at Sam. “Come cuddle with me.”
Sam snorted. “I’m kind of busy, you know,” he said, gesturing towards his laptop as he got to his feet. “I was actually just going to run into the library to get-”
He was interrupted by Gabriel’s sharp gasp. “You mean you’d rather do research than cuddle with me?” he asked, eyes wide and one hand fluttering dramatically over his heart. “But I thought I meant more to you than that!”
That time Sam couldn’t stop the soft laugh that escaped him, and he only chuckled harder when Gabriel glared at him with an expression full of mock-pain. “We can cuddle later?” he suggested helplessly, trying to edge past Gabriel in order to get to the library.
He barely made it through the doorway before a pair of arms wrapped themselves tightly around his middle. “Sam,” Gabriel whined, face buried between his shoulder blades. “Cuddles.”
“You’re doing this just to spite me, aren’t you?” Sam said with a sigh, going limp for a moment. He felt Gabriel grin into his back.
“Maybe,” Gabriel admitted. As an afterthought he added, “If you choose not to come and cuddle with me, I reserve the right to make you.”
Sam rolled his eyes, a smile still playing at the corners of his mouth, before resuming his attempts to wriggle out of Gabriel’s grasp. Gabriel huffed, and without any other warning Sam saw three large pairs of wings appear out of the corner of his eye.
“How do you even do that when you have clothes on-oof!” He was suddenly met with a face-full of fluffy golden feathers as Gabriel’s wings folded around him, enveloping him up in a tight embrace.
“See how nice this is?” Gabriel asked brightly.
“You- I- forced cuddles, Gabe, really?”
He could almost sense Gabriel’s smug grin. “I told you if you-AH!” The archangel broke off with a garbled yelp that quickly turned to laughter when Sam leaned forward, buried his face in the soft, fluffy feathers of Gabriel’s wing and blew a raspberry.
Gabriel’s initial surprise gave Sam just enough leverage to wiggle around so that he was facing Gabriel when he wrapped his arms around him and dug his fingers into the base of his wings. Gabriel shrieked and recoiled, his wings quivering. “Sahahaham, thahahat tihihihickles! No fahahahahahair- Stohohohohohop!”
“Make me,” Sam countered, knowing perfectly well that if Gabriel really wanted him to stop he would have no trouble freeing himself from Sam’s hold. When Gabriel only buried his face in Sam’s shoulder and laughed harder, Sam grinned and scribbled his fingers through the downy feathers at Gabriel’s back.
“Sahahahammyhehehehe, cohohome ohohohon- NOhohohohoho!” Gabriel squealed when one of Sam’s hands snuck underneath one of his wings, fingers weaving in between feathers to scratch at the more sensitive joints beneath. “I’m gohohohoing to gehehehehehehet you fohohor thihihihis-”
“You’re so cute when you try to be scary,” Sam said playfully. Though he knew in the back of his mind that he wouldn’t be so amused when Gabriel did get him back, he couldn’t resist teasing - and Gabriel was cute when he attempted to threaten Sam through his bubbly, uncontrollable laughter.
He wriggled his fingers in Gabriel’s feathers a minute longer before reaching out and tugging Gabriel’s wingtip closer, blowing one more raspberry into the soft feathers, and then another one. Gabriel shrieked and flailed so suddenly that Sam lost his balance and he toppled over, bringing Gabriel down with him.
An instant before he hit the ground they were in his bedroom, tumbling down onto his soft comforter instead. Gabriel was no longer laughing but he still had an adorably-giddy smile spread across his face as his wings settled and he used them to draw Sam in towards his body. “You are really going to regret doing that, kiddo,” he muttered, nuzzling his head underneath Sam’s chin. “Later. Right now we’re gonna cuddle.” Unwilling to argue, Sam only smiled and threaded his fingers through Gabriel’s wings, pulling him closer.
———
Sam kept waiting for the other shoe to drop. Even as days passed by without Gabriel mentioning revenge, he knew as well as anyone who had met the archangel that he was capable of biding his time. However, the longer Gabriel went without even attempting to tickle torture Sam, the more the hunter was able to put the nagging worry at the back of his mind and focus on other things, like the poltergeist case he and Dean were currently investigating.
Nothing seemed out of the ordinary at first. They were sitting on the victim’s couch and going through a list of questions when the back of Sam’s neck began to tingle, and he reached back absently to itch at it. Except rather than disappearing, the feeling migrated, slowly moving down his neck and in between his shoulder blades. The sensation was reminiscent of how it felt when Gabriel would lightly, lightly trace his fingertips over Sam’s skin or when the end of Sam’s hair would tickle the back of his neck, and he arched his back, trying to rub the feeling away.
“Are you alright, agent?” the girl sitting across from him asked, looking concerned. Sam didn’t miss the sidelong look Dean gave him and he nodded, folding his hands in his lap.
“Yes, I’m-” If anything it was getting worse, and Sam wasn’t really sure what was happening, but it tickled. The feeling disappeared from his back only to return at his sides, almost as though someone was poking his skin with teasing fingertips and he flinched, unable to stop a quiet giggle from escaping his lips.
Dean and the victim were both staring at him, each looking equally puzzled by the turn of events. When Sam giggled again as the frequency of the pokes increased, Dean leaned into Sam’s space and muttered out of the corner of his mouth, “Pretty sure this isn’t a laughing matter, Sammy.” Before he could reply a sudden tickling sensation on his belly made him spasm and laugh harder, clutching at his stomach, and Dean jerked away to avoid his brother’s head hitting him in the nose, amusement and confusion warring on his face.
Sam barely heard the excuses Dean made as he tugged Sam out of the house, promising the poor girl to call her back later before propelling them both into the Impala. “What the hell, Sam?” he asked as Sam doubled over, unable to do anything to put a stop to the not-there fingers that scribbled across his ribs. The feeling was just made worse by the helplessness that came from not knowing what was causing the sensations and Sam could only shake his head, powerless to so much as stop laughing long enough to answer Dean.
Just as Sam was losing the ability to draw air into his lungs, the feeling stopped suddenly, leaving him breathless while Dean shot him increasingly weirded-out looks.
“What was that?” Dean finally asked, clearly utterly bewildered but trying not to seem so, resulting in a look of constipation on his face.
“I might have an idea,” Sam muttered, thinking back to Gabriel’s promise to enact revenge. He knew that if he was right - and he was fairly certain that he was - then he had a long ways to go before the archangel would consider him sufficiently repentant.
———
It went on like that all week. Sam was never in the middle of anything dangerous when it happened, but when he was preparing a sandwich for lunch or in the middle of his morning jog he would feel sudden, inexplicable tickling sensations on his stomach, his neck, his knees, his feet, and it was never long before he was incapacitated with laughter. The time that it happened at the grocery store it had been all he could do to pay for his items without collapsing, and he had been subjected to numerous bemused looks from those who saw him clutching at his sides and rubbing at his thighs, chuckling for seemingly no reason at all.
Whenever he brought the topic up to Gabriel the archangel acted innocent and quickly deflected, until one afternoon Sam finally cornered Gabriel while they were lying in bed and demanded to know what was going on.
Gabriel yawned unconcernedly and looked over at the hunter with an guiltless expression. “Hmmm… what do you mean, Sammycakes?”
Sam glowered down at him. “Look Gabe, I know you’ve been - been doing something, alright? Just tell me how you’re managing to tickle me to death without even being around me. Are you using your mojo?”
“You have so little faith in me Samsquatch,” Gabriel said mournfully. “As if my epic revenge plan would be that obvious. Nope.” He sat up and in the blink of an eye there was a small doll lying in his palm. “I’ve been using this.”
Sam stared. It looked a lot like him, in miniature, with long felt hair, little brown buttons for eyes, and dressed in a tiny t-shirt, plaid shirt and jeans. “What-”
Gabriel smirked at him and ran the pad of his thumb over the doll’s tiny belly. With a jolt Sam squeaked and wrapped his arms around his stomach, giggles bubbling up in his throat at the feeling of numerous fingers scribbling over his belly. “G-Gahahahabe, wahahahat are you dohohohing?”
“You have to admit it’s pretty cool. All I need to do is this,” Gabriel stroked the doll’s feet and Sam burst into laughter, clenching his toes and kicking his feet in a useless attempt to stop the sudden tickle attack. “To make you completely fall apart. A lot more tickly than just these guys, huh?” he asked, wiggling his fingers in Sam’s face.
Sam was laughing too hard to respond. It felt like there were dozens of fingers poking at his feet, trailing over his soles and wriggling in between his toes, leaving no spot untouched. Sam was not adverse to being tickled - he actually enjoyed it, a fact that Gabriel took great joy in getting him to admit - but currently, it was more than a little overwhelming. It was the usual feeling of being tickled, multiplied by ten. “Gahahahahabe, pleehehehehehease!”
“Please what? Please keep going?”
With how playful and annoyingly-endearing Gabriel tended to behave around Sam, it was sometimes easy to forget the decades that he had spent as a trickster, but Sam really shouldn’t have been surprised - of course Gabriel would go overboard with getting back at him. Nevertheless, whenever he had tried to imagine what exactly Gabriel’s revenge plan was, a voodoo doll hadn’t factored into the equation. “Nohohohoho, plehehehease stohohohohop!”
Gabriel tsked, waving the doll around teasingly. “I don’t think so, cupcake. You had this one coming.” He wiggled his finger a little more deliberately over the doll’s feet.
“Bahahahahat ihihit tihihihihickles!” Sam squealed, and Gabriel chuckled in response.
“Yeah? What about when I do this-” Gabriel turned his attention to the doll’s stomach and Sam immediately curled up, rubbing at his stomach as the tickling spread across his entire belly, illusory fingers poking at his sides and his hips, drilling into his ribs and squiggling around inside his navel.
“Gahahahahabe! Thahahat tihihihihihickles mohohohoHORE!” Sam could feel his cheeks turning red as he laughed uncontrollably, squirming around on the bed despite the fact that he knew there was no escaping the retribution Gabriel had prepared for him. “Stohohohohohop!”
“Awww, but you sound so adorable right now,” Gabriel teased, sticking his fingers under the doll’s arms. “You know how much I love hearing you laugh.”
Laugh he did. Sam could hardly speak for how much it tickled, and his helpless laughter only became more desperate as Gabriel targeted all of his most sensitive spots, overwhelming his stomach and knees and neck and thighs and feet with too many ticklish fingers to count, until Gabriel said, “Gotta say kiddo, as much fun as this is, I can think of a way to make it even better.”
Sam laughter had by that point grown silent, tears of mirth streaking from his squeezed-shut eyes, and he was unable to get out anything more than a choked “No.” He peeked up just long enough to see Gabriel grin wickedly, three sets of wings suddenly materializing into existence.
Before Sam could do anything - though what could he have done? - Gabriel threw the voodoo doll aside and pounced, pushing up the hem of Sam’s shirt before a flurry of soft, downy, unbearably ticklish feathers converged on his belly, sides, and ribs.
“Gahahahahabe!” Sam shrieked, attempting to coordinate himself enough to bat the archangel’s wings away. “No no nohohoHOHOHOHO!” His voice was lost once again when Gabriel dipped his head down to blow a raspberry right below his belly button, then continued nipping at Sam’s skin with his teeth.
Just when Sam thought that he could not possibly take any more tickling Gabriel relented, pulling back enough to give Sam room to breathe, his wings popping away as quickly as they had appeared. Sam curled up into a ball, still wheezing softly as he tried to recover. Finally he was able to gasp, “You’re evil. That- that was so unfair-”
“Since when have you known me to play fair?” Gabriel asked, raising his eyebrows. “Besides you liked it.”
Sam huffed, but wiggled over to Gabriel’s wide-open arms and let Gabriel wrap him up in a comforting embrace. “I liked it until I couldn’t breathe.”
Gabriel snorted with what sounded suspiciously like laughter, giving Sam a quick kiss before nuzzling his face into Sam’s neck. “Fine, maybe I went a little overboard. You still love me, though.”
“Unfortunately,” he muttered, smiling as he aimed a playful poke at Gabriel’s tummy. His smirk at the archangel’s muffled laugh quickly turned into nervous giggles when Gabriel began planting light, ticklish kisses across his neck. “Nahahaha, Gahahahabe!”