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Kaidan walks up to the office door and gives three hard knocks. Work never ends for a Gabriel, and he’s cutting it close to the next heist briefing with his crew, but today’s a special day. He'll take the heat if he's late; he's on an important mission.
He stands taller as Gabriel—the original one—opens the door. It's been six months since Kaidan was promoted and they were put on equal footing, but he often still has to fight the knee-jerk impulse to greet Gabriel as his superior.
Not today, though. Today he's here to meet him man to man, to pay more than just respect.
“Good morning, Kaidan!” Gabriel says. “Is there something you need?”
“No, no, I just…” He shoves his nervousness to the back of his mind and extends the bouquet he had hidden behind him. Blue roses with a few white accents, Kaidan prefers the classic red himself but trusts they'll get their meaning across all the same. “...Happy Valentine's Day.”
“Oh! How nice.” Gabriel takes the roses, holding them up to his mask as if the scent makes it through. “These will brighten up my office, thank you. Though don't you have a meeting to go to?”
“Well yeah, but I—”
Gabriel cuts him off with a hand wave. “Don't skip your duties on my account! We'll catch up tomorrow over Mike D’s. It'll be my treat as thanks for this.” He closes the office door before Kaidan can get another word in.
Kaidan looks at the door and sighs, scratching the back of his head. Mike D Wednesdays with Gabriel are a longstanding tradition when they can afford the time, not anything special. “Maybe I should have gotten red ones after all,” he mutters as he walks away.
---
The next person to knock on the door a few minutes later is Rook, a searingly pink basket slung over his forearm. When Gabriel peeks out, Rook gives his most charming grin, which only serves to up suspicion. Gabriel is a professional, though, and he pulls his door open far enough to give Rook a cordial greeting. “Hey, Rook. Did you need something?”
“You need something, Pennywise,” he replies, digging through his basket. “And I have it...here...somewhere...voila!”
He hands Gabriel a card with a very muted exterior that, upon opening, spits out a lot of glitter onto Gabriel's shoes and begins playing a tinny rendition of “Can't Help Falling in Love”. A paper taco on a spring bounces out from the card, surrounded by the words LET'S TACO BOUT US!
“...Wow, that's really something,” Gabriel says over the card singing its little heart out. “Thanks?”
“I know! So are you thinking what I'm thinking? Tacos and watching the sunset over Lake Michigan?”
“Thanks for the invite, but I have too much scheduled today. Send me a photo if you and Bishop go, though?” Gabriel asked before swinging the door closed.
Rook shakes his head with a good-natured smile. “Breaking my heart, Pennywise!” He calls through the door, before heading to Michael's office. Now there's someone who could use some glitter in his life.
---
As Rook turns the corner, Raquel walks up to Gabriel's office and raps on the door in a specific pattern. There's a pattern she could knock that would immediately send him scrambling out of the nearest entrance toward Papua New Guinea, but right now he's right where she wants him.
Gabriel opens the door looking unexpectedly flustered. Did he—?
“Hi Raquel, did you need something?” Okay so no, she has no clue why he’s worked up, but maybe she can help.
With a simple signed “Happy Valentine’s Day”, she holds out a gift for him: a stuffed cat with its paws wrapped around a heart-shaped chocolate box.
“Aw, thank you! You'll have to try some of the chocolates when I open it up.” Gabriel nods to her, the smile in his voice apparent, but he quickly looks back in my office. “I've been kept from work all day, but I'll see you tomorrow at 9 for our meeting. Thanks again!”
Raquel tries to sign for him to wait, but Gabriel disappears into the room before she can catch his eye, and she hears the telltale click of the lock when the door slams shut. She stays for a minute to stare at the frosted glass of the door as if it will reveal its secrets to her, before huffing and returning to the clinic. If what she suspects is really happening there, she doesn't want to know about it.
---
Your feet are kicked up on his desk when Gabriel returns, this time with a plushie and a candy box in tow. He locks the door decisively, but gives it another hard look, daring someone else to knock. He slumps when he finally turns back to you, putting down the cat next to his gifts from Rook and Kaidan, and those dropped off earlier by others. “I'm sorry, Raphael. I really don't know why I'm so popular today.”
You level him with a disbelieving look. The man who can single-handedly inspire a full room of Archangels while falling apart, the man who can ready you for war with one pat on the shoulder, the man who cares about you as a person beyond a soldier...doesn't get why do many people would want him as their valentine? “You're not serious?”
“Of course I'm serious,” he says, baffled. “What makes me so special?”
You stand up and come around the desk, giving a tug on his tie so he'll slide up his mask and lean in. And before you give him a sweet Valentine's gift of your own, you tell him, “that's just one of the many reasons you're so special.”