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Of every ridiculous thing Gabriel has ever said, there’s this one phrase, one phrase, that absolutely drives Sam crazy.That phrase is “Ya know what I love?”, because no, Sam does not know what Gabriel loves this time. He never knows what to expect to follow, or even the general direction of the conversation. Food? Sex? TV? Ancient Egypt?? God only knows. Ultimately, though, Sam hates how easily he does it, how easily he opens the conversation and just tells Sam what he loves, mostly because, for weeks now, Sam’s been trying to express what he loves. Namely, Gabriel.
~~~
"Sam, ya know what I love?" The angel is pulling a pan out of the bunker oven, and Sam honestly isn’t surprised that Gabe’s the one responsible for his finding the smell of fresh baked… muffins(?) at three am when he couldn’t sleep.
"Uh. Lemon and poppyseed?"
Gabriel doesn’t acknowledge his answer. “I love how baking works. How it smells.” He sets the pan down on the cook-top and hoists himself up to sit on another counter, ignoring the dusting of flour that’s already there. “I know how it all works. Every molecule, every chemical interaction… all of it. But doing it in person? It’s just kind of incredible, isn’t it?”
Sam’s immediate reaction is to shoot back that you’re kind of incredible, but he bites it back. It’s true, there’s something amazing about an archangel sitting on your counter in patched jeans covered in flour and telling you about atoms. Sam doesn’t know quite how to tell him that. He settles for “Baking. Yeah. I never had much of a chance, growing up, but…”
Gabriel slides down off the counter, sending a handful of poppyseeds tumbling to the ground, along with Sam’s little fantasies about using the change in height to get his mouth on the angel’s. “Well damn, Sammy, now’s your chance. Get over here and help me decide what to put in the next batch.” Dean found them sitting on the kitchen floor a few hours later, the sunrise illuminating the muffin batter on themselves and every surface in the kitchen, talking “like goddamn science geeks” about atomic physics.
~~~~
"Ya know what I love?" Gabriel asks lazily, sprawling out across the couch in the living room. He’s got a bag of M&Ms on the coffee table next to him, where he appears to have been absent-mindedly sorting them by color. Sam still does that too, and he smiles a little.
"Chocolate?" he asks, raising an eyebrow and glancing down at the remains of the candy bag on the table.
"No, I’m in love with-" he pauses. "That too. But I was gonna say I’m in love with this couch.” The angel drops his head back against the throw pillow with an absolutely indecent moan. “So fucking soft I… I feel absorbed. The couch and I are one now.” He glances down towards his feet. “Just the right length, too.”
Sam snorts. “Speak for yourself on that one. No foot room.”
"Maybe not for you, Gigantor." Gabe hums a little, nestles down further into the couch. "God, imagine the sex you could have on this.”
Halfway across the room, Dean chokes. “Dude. I didn’t want those thoughts with breakfast.” Sam’s thankful that Dean responded, just so that he wouldn’t have to. He’s not sure what he could say that wouldn’t sound like a offer for couch sex.
"Your loss, Deanosaur. I’m told I give excellent blow jobs." Dean just rolls his eyes and turns back to his cereal, but Sam high-tails it from the room before the angel can notice how veryokay he is with that idea.
~~~~~
"Ya know what I love, Sammy?" They’re on Sam’s bed, propped up on their elbows and hours deep in netflix, shoulder to shoulder and hip to hip. Neither of those things is entirely necessary, as Sam has research he could be doing and his bed is a queen, but he deserves a night off, and he’s definitely not about to move away.
Sam wants to guess “my bed" but thinks better of it. "Netflix?"
Gabe tilts his head a little, considering. “Specifically, that one,” he responds, pointing out a series on the screen.
He starts to say something more just as Sam begins softly, "You know what I love?” That question hangs there for a moment, and then Gabriel turns to look Sam in the eyes, face lit by the laptop’s white glow, gold eyes questioning. Fuck. Fuck, Sam needs to say something. He was supposed to just say it, just say “you." but now Gabe’s only a few inches away and… Sam glances down at the angel’s lips for a split second and then back to his eyes, breath caught.
And then everything shatters as Gabriel turns away, rolling his eyes. “Saaaam, you interrupted me. I was telling you about that show I love.” And then he’s off on a tangent about the characters and the humor and the historical accuracy, but Sam isn’t entirely listening; his body’s still hyped up from what just happened- or rather, almost happened.
He’s pretty sure Gabriel had realized he was frozen up and was defusing the tension, which he appreciated, but still. Sam wanted to get it out.
~~~~~~
"Ya know what I love?" Gabe asks nonchalantly, wandering into the library. Sam’s hunting through one of the bookshelves for a book he’d had just the other day, but he drops the search to gaze at the angel.
"What do you love, Gabriel?"
The smile he gets in return is warm and teasing. “You.”
Sam freezes, aware that he’s opened his mouth to say something and never closed it when he found himself speechless. Finally he gets out a very small “Really?”
"Really really, Sam." He purrs. "I get the idea you were trying to tell me before." There’s a tiny pause, but if he expected Sam to respond, he was severely overestimating Sam’s ability to talk sense when in shock. "Buuuut I’m a selfish bastard, and I wanted to say it first."
Sam recovers enough to default to a slightly offended bitchface. “You… you stole my line.”
The angel shrugs. “And you stole my heart, kiddo, but neither of us seem to be making any goddamn returns.”
Sam can’t help his grin. “That is the cheesiest thing I’ve ever heard.” And then he closes the gap between them and kisses Gabriel, bringing his hands up to Gabe’s shoulder height so he can lace their fingers. Sam pulls back a little, resting his forehead against Gabe’s, and whispers, “Know what I love?”
"Me," Gabriel answers, "definitely gonna go with me on this one." Sam nods a little, still smiling like a lovesick puppy, and kisses the angel again, because Gabe’s got this one absolutely right.