library_j | Fic: Palmer's Kiss (Reply)

Another one for the

schmoop_bingo card thing, this one about "hand-holding." So there. :)

Title: Palmers' Kiss
Author: jessebee
Rating: S for schmoop
Genre: romance
Pairing: Gabriel/Sam
Spoilers: only if you don't know who Gabriel is ;-)
Warnings: gooiness, may cause tooth decay
Disclaimer: not mine, never will be
Word Count: ~700
Summary: The things one discovers in the candy aisle….

Note: Unabashed sap, written for my schmoop_bingo card, the "holding hands" square.

The first time it happens, it's in a Cracker Barrel restaurant somewhere in nowhere, Indiana.

Gabriel's going mildly bonkers in the gift shop because seriously, it's huge and possibly a third of it is candy, a lot of it the old-timey kind that's basically pure hard sugar. Sam had forgotten that little fact about the restaurant chain because Dean rarely stopped at one. "They're like – fake diners, Sam. Wanna-bes. We need to eat where the real people are."

But circumstance has put them in this one, and watching Gabriel is worth every second of Dean's possible future bitching. The archangel is gleefully reading the names on the glass jars that line the big back wall and he looks – quite literally – like a kid in a candy store. "Sam, c'mere. Help me decide."

Sam grins at the back of Gabriel's head and ambles closer. "Which one to get?"

Gabriel spares him a quick half-glare. "Of course not," he says, his expression clearly indicating that he thinks Sam was dropped on his head as an infant. A lot. "I'm getting all of them. I meant which one to eat first. Come here, already." And reaches back without looking and grabs Sam's hand and pulls him in close. And doesn't let go. "So, first the strawberry and then the maple – or save the strawberry for –"

Sam hears his own breath catch, so there's no way Gabriel doesn't hear it as well, but the archangel just rolls on, mixing and matching flavors in a way that's possibly a bit manic. Gabriel is a "touchy" lover and Sam's known this – hell, Sam likes it, even if it does piss Dean off a bit. But Gabriel's only ever done it in motel rooms and the exotic hideaways that he steals Sam off to and occasionally the backseat of the Impala, when Dean's preoccupied enough that he won't catch the looks on Sam's face and run them off the road.

But this? Is public. Very, very public.

This – feels like some sort of….

Oh. Oh, wow.

Sam twists his hand a little, just enough, and slips his fingers in between Gabriel's before he can talk himself out of it.

There.

Gabriel's enthusiastic commentary slows. Falls silent.

Sam is holding hands with his lover. His far-as-the-world's-concerned male lover. In front of God and the world, and maybe nobody's ever made that statement in quite this same way. This feels – like a really big thing.

Sam's palm tingles where it's flush against Gabriel's, and then the back of his hand tingles too when Gabriel starts to rub a thumb lightly over his skin. "Humans," Gabriel grumbles softly.

"What?" Sam blinks, still a little lost in the tingles, and the spreading warmth.

A huff from the being at his side. "You've all been pretty touchy-feely for most of your history, you know. It's mostly only in the last hundred years or so that you've decided – mainly in the oh-so-progressive U.S. – that guys over a certain age develop cooties and suddenly there's no touching other guys. It's stupid." Gabriel's thumb is still moving, stroking gently. "Dad gave you nerve endings for a reason."

Oh, wow. "So you'd want to –" Sam's fingers tighten. "You'd want to do this more?"

Gabriel turns his head, and Sam's falling into the depths of warm amber eyes. "Sam. If it wouldn't immediately get both of us killed, I'd write it in the sky. You're mine. Is just holding your hand when I want to, too much to ask?"

The tone is flip, but beneath it –

Sam's chest feels like somebody's blowing up a balloon in it, making everything light and free. "Nope," he says, and doesn't even try to fight the giant grin that's spilling out. "I'm pretty sure I can deal with that."

Gabriel's answering smile lights up the room.

It takes them another ten minutes, an irritated phone call from Dean, and a huge bag of sweets to get out of the place, still holding hands.