Title: I Melted Wax To Fix My Wings

Author: TardisIsTheOnlyWayToTravel (aceofannwn on LJ)

Pairings: Sam/Gabriel, Dean/Castiel

Setting: Set across season 4 & 5. AU.

Summary: After four torturous months Sam has his brother back, but Dean is accompanied by an angel with a terrible task for them both: help stop the impending apocalypse, or see the world destroyed. Sam has no idea what to do next when the Trickster turns up, blonde and female this time but as maddening as ever, promising assistance. As time Sam finds himself slowly coming to depend on the pagan Trickster god, but just when it looks like the apocalypse can be averted, the Winchester luck kicks in and threatens to ruin everything - including Sam's friendship with Loki.

Notes: So, finally, the last chapter! God, you would not believe th eamount of formatting, copying and pasting etc it took to get this story up... and that' just on ffnet. -sigh- Please review, if you like it!

I Melted Wax To Fix My Wings

Chapter Ten

"So." Sam held Gabriel close, letting his chin rest on her head. She smelt like cotton candy. It was nice. "Lucifer is no longer a problem. The angels are going to leave us alone. All Dean and I have to worry about is hunting."

Sam tried to gather his nerve. He knew Gabriel cared deeply about him, dammit. He had the burn on his ass to prove it.

"I'd like to bond with you, if you want me."

Sam's lap was suddenly empty.

From three feet away Gabriel gaped at him.

"You can't be serious!" Gabriel exclaimed. She looked, and sounded, entirely shocked.

That wasn't encouraging. Sam pressed on anyway.

"Why not?" he asked, raising his eyebrows at her.

Gabriel gaped some more.

"You can't just – Sam, bonding is forever," she spluttered, looking so off-balance that part of Sam, the part that wasn't twisted into an giant earnest ball of hope and anxiety right now, wanted to laugh. "It's not something you can change your mind about, or take back ten years from now. An angelic bond lasts for all eternity."

"Gabriel." Sam spoke before she could get too wound up. "You're the best thing that's ever happened to me. I love you, and I want to be with you, and that's not going to change," he said simply.

"Kiddo, if you have any doubts…" Gabriel said warily, drifting closer, and Sam could hear the longing in her voice.

Sam huffed in amused impatience, and reached out to grab her hands and tug her forward, back into his lap.

The archangel went willingly enough, and fixed him with an unblinking, gravely serious gaze.

The weight of its didn't bother him.

"I want this," Sam said honestly. "I want you. All of you, if you'll let me."

Gabriel stared into his eyes for what felt like a long time, her own shining gold; then she cupped Sam's face and leaned forward to kiss his forehead, and reached down to cover the angelic handprint.

The rushing, roaring Grace that Sam remembered surrounded him, obscuring everything but the feel of it, golden-bright and full of majesty and purpose. The light nudged at him, flaring love and reassurance as it sank through into his skin and wrapped around him with a sensation like the clear brass call of trumpets.

Sam didn't know if he'd remembered to breathe, but it didn't matter; all that mattered was the immense, incomprehensible, gloriously shining being that he could feel all around him.

Slowly the light dimmed, and receded, taking most of the amazing feeling with it, until Sam found himself staring into Gabriel's eyes, which were radiating white light.

As he watched that too faded, leaving the golden irises that seemed to appear whenever Gabriel's angelic emotions seemed to be particularly strong.

But he could still feel a shadow of her, glimmering beneath his breastbone, full of warmth and humour.

The archangel smiled at him, and Sam just sat and breathed in wonder.

Gabriel slid closer so that they were flush against each other and brought her mouth to his, and Sam drank her in like a man dying of thirst.

Laughing softly into his mouth, Gabriel snapped her fingers and took them someplace where they definitely wouldn't be disturbed.

"So, I bought a house," Gabriel said one day, out of the blue.

"You what?" Sam asked blankly.

"Well, you two are kinda getting a bit old to be roughing it all the time in motel rooms. I don't want you to die yet because you were tired and too slow: I'd have to go back to Heaven to be with you, and that would boring."

"So you bought a house?" Dean repeated.

"That was an excellent idea," Castiel said approvingly.

"Thanks, bro. I figure our significant others can commute every day by Archangel Air and come home to dinner and a decent bed and all that jazz, and I can sit around all day and watch cable while you practice your cooking."

Sam saw Dean's face contort in consternation at that idea: last time Castiel had tried to cook, he'd set the kitchen on fire, and once they'd put it out Dean had been forced to choke down whatever inedible concoction Castiel had achieved for fear of disappointing his angel.

Sam smirked a little at Dean's look of fear, and saw Gabriel grin at him, knowing exactly what was going through his mind.

"So, Heaven would be boring," Sam prompted, hoping for more information.

"What do you think?" Gabriel insisted. "I've got like a thousand years of paperwork piled up. I'm putting that shit off for as long as possible."

"Angels have paperwork?" Dean asked, looking amused.

"Gabriel was speaking metaphorically," Castiel explained. "She is referring to her responsibilities as the Messenger, the Arch-Herald, the Angel of Judgement, and her more general duties as one of the four archangels."

"Never mind that," Gabriel interrupted. "I bought a house, we're going to live in it. All of us. It'll be big and happy and disgustingly domestic. Okay?"

Sam and Dean looked at each other.

Sam knew how he felt. He waited for Dean's answer.

"What the hell," Dean said finally.

Sam wasn't sure how a free evening without Dean and Cas had turned into dancing to cheesy music with Gabriel, but he was having fun.

"I never thought that I could be so satisfied, every time I look in your angel eyes…"

Gabriel had turned their room into a replica of an eighties disco and dressed herself in neon-green wayfarers, a shiny neon-pink jacket, and a tight neon-green mini-dress. Sam himself was now wearing a white suit and ridiculous white shoes, and wayfarers of his own. It was absurd and silly and Sam was having the time of his life.

"I said I wasn't going to lose my head, but then pop goes my heart…"

"This is a really cheesy song," he commented.

Gabriel laughed, giant hoop earrings dangling.

"It's a parody song," she admitted. "But it sounds eighties, doesn't it?"

Sam grinned, and twirled her.

"Dean and Cas are totally on a date, aren't they?" he asked.

Gabriel grinned wickedly.

"Your brother is a closet romantic," she confided. "He and Castiel are seeing a movie, and then he's taking Castiel out for ice cream afterwards."

Gabriel's voice was too full of glee for that to be the whole story. Sam tried to work out what he was missing.

"What movie?"

Gabriel smirked, and he knew that he'd guessed right.

"You know that little cinema that shows all the cult movies, about twenty minutes drive away?"

Sam nodded. Gabriel sighed happily.

"They're showing The Princess Bride tonight."

"Wait – so Dean is taking Cas to see The Princess Bride."

Sam stared at Gabriel.

She was snickering.

"Well, you know how baby bro is about relationship movies. He wanted to see a romance movie tonight, and Dean, well, he couldn't say no to him."

That – that was fabulous, and actually kind of sweet, and Sam was never, ever letting Dean live it down.

"I was thinking," Gabriel continued, "that we could sprinkle their bed with rose petals and heart confetti, and if you really feel evil, I could call up a cupid to add to the mood – assuming that you don't think a fat naked guy gushing over their love would ruin it."

Sam had to stop dancing, he was laughing so hard.

"Nothing's ever boring with you," he said finally, chuckling.

"That you can count on," Gabriel said, looking self-satisfied.

Sam just laughed, and continued dancing.

FINITE!