#(( (her body count in bed is also astronomical for the same reasons)

[royalreef]

@oneiira​ replied to your post:

if i kill her she’ll kill me first if i fuck her she MAY kill me and if i marry her there’s a good chance she’ll kill me later. she’s the perfect woman 

       Getcha a girl who can do it all!!!!

[going2go-away4-awhile]

This isn’t What I Wanted: Chapter 1-Arrival

Summary:

Waking up in a hospital is always alarming, waking up in Hope County Hospital is terrifying. Suddenly thrust into a body that isn't hers and knowing nuclear fallout is on the horizon. Adaine must gather supplies while she can before the big day happens, and trying to stay clear of a radical cult is easier said than done.

Hi and thank you for clicking! I'm very nervous to be writing again, I haven't written fanticion since 2013. So please be patient with me if things don't seem right or if there are mistakes. I hope you enjoy reading!

    Also, I do know there is no real hospital in Hope County, but I’ve based this in Faith’s region near the jail.

FInd the story also on Archive of Our Own: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25543036/chapters/61978045#workskin

TW: Anxiety, Anxiety Attacks, Death, Description of dying, Car crash, Slight body Dysphoria.

Her name is Adaine. She loves her mom, likes animals and gardening, hasn’t found a real spot in life to settle into, and relaxes with a good game night with her friends.

(Adaine dies but at the same time she doesn’t. Nothing could have prepared her for this. Nothing in the world.)

_______________________________________________

Blearily waking to the sounds of quiet machines, voices murmuring faintly out of ear shot, and faint alarms going off in the distance. Her thoughts were slow, her whole being ached with a dull pain. Opening her sleep crusted eyes to a hospital room was surprising, given she knew the probability of her surviving a 50 foot drop off was astronomically low. But she needed answers, ‘How did you find me? Is my family coming? Where am I?’ Reaching for the call button was painful, but so worth the relief of seeing another person.

_______________________________________________

    Adaine had been out for 3 days, massive head trauma, a cracked rib and a broken foot. The Doctor had joked that she was lucky to survive the crash, but she didn’t survive a car crash. Last thing Adaine remembers was hiking and taking a tumble down a drop off, explaining this too the staff was met with gentle pitying tones of “Oh honey, your mind is blocking out the crash, it was a traumatic accident.”

    But it was all wrong, she had gone for a nice day walk on the Appalachian Trail in Kentucky and taken a nasty fall. How she ended up in bumfuck Montana after a car crash was nerve wracking. The staff had at least managed to get her phone, but everything in her phone was wrong. Her mother’s number was wrong, she didn’t have her best friend's contact info and all of her pictures told a different life than the one she led. Her social media timeline was off, her job wasn’t her job. Her mother’s number didn’t work. Having a major panic attack made the doctors take her phone rights away, sighting it was “detrimental to her health for the time being, we should focus on rehab for now.”

    Being stuck in a hospital for weeks was awful. The food was bland, the local accents were different, she didn’t have anyone here. She felt as though she was in a horror movie, when she looked in the mirror something was just off; her hair was longer, the mole she’s had all her life was gone. She was missing scars or the scars had simply moved a inch or so in another way. She had a million questions and no answers, ‘Where did the old Adaine go? Had her and her counterpart swap bodies? Why was this Adaine going to Montana?

When she tried contacting her family there was no answer and when she tried with friends, most claimed they had only met once or had never known her. The loneliness of the situation finally hit, Adaine didn’t get a good night's sleep for the rest of that week.

_____________________________________________________________

        Adaine had finally found the reason the old Adaine was in Montana. Apparently her great aunt had died and left her property and possessions to Adaine, the only family member she deemed “Smart enough to know what was really going on”. Whatever the fuck that meant. But, she felt a spark of love when she thought about the old woman, either from the old Adaine’s consciousness or the gratefulness she felt because this meant she wasn’t homeless and had a source of income for the time being. The property was 40 acres which had a house, river access at the back of the property, and a fallout bunker. Adaine felt a great sense of loss looking over the paperwork sent to her by her great aunt’s lawyer.

Hospital got marginally a little better every Friday, a small group from a local church would drop by and bring well wishes to those who were sick, and most importantly for Adaine, a chance of company. Adaine sometimes invited them in, but other times the thought of company was too overwhelming. She even met the Pastor of the church, Jerome Jeffries, a nice man who sat with her and talked about his own experiences in the hospital. However, every time he left, Adaine had a small voice ringing in her head.

You know him 

_____________________________________________________________

        Adaine could have jumped for joy, if she didn’t have boot on her foot, when she was cleared to leave the hospital. On the count she didn’t currently have a vehicle or that there wasn't any taxi service in such a rural area, Pastor Jeffries had offered to drive her to her new home.

“Pastor, I honestly can’t thank you enough.” Her voice breaking the quiet interior of the old pick up truck. She’s so nervous and excited, her stomach now housed butterflies and her heart had moved to her throat. Peering into the bed of the truck, where her measly belongings that survived the crash were stashed, she looked back at the normally soft spoken man driving.

Turning his expressive dark eyes to glance at her for a brief moment before he spoke, “Think nothing of it Adaine, I’m always happy to lend a hand to those in need.” His lips turned into a warm comforting smile, but warmth of the smile didn’t quite reach his eyes. His hands tightened on the worn steering wheel, before relaxing once more. Feeling as though she had misspoke or had bothered him, she turned her head to look out the window. She could understand why her great aunt had moved out here, it was beautiful. Tall evergreen trees covered the landscape, roaming hills and valleys that were cut by crystal clear water of slow rolling rivers. She rested her head against the glass and let her mind wander.

_____________________________________________________________

    Her thoughts were broken when Pastor Jeffries spoke, “I’m sorry for your loss, I personally didn’t know your Aunt very well. Most folks who live up here tend to keep to themselves, hell I’m pretty sure there’s a good chance that i’ll never meet 15% of the population who lives here.” He waved at a passing car on the small dirt road they had taken, his attention once again back on Adaine. “Do you plan on living here? If you don’t mind me asking.”

    “No I don’t mind, I’m planning on staying here for a while at least. I’ve got to clean the house and the bunker before I’ll make a decision.” He nodded and hummed in understanding, before gesturing to her broken foot.

    “That's going to be a problem for you, I can give you a number to call for some help. He’s a good kid, his family is-was part of my congregation, name is Jackson Wilson. I would like to help but… there are some problems I need to deal with.” His lips tightened into a small frown as he talked, and when he finished his brow had furrowed. She couldn’t tell if his mood was downed talking about the family, his inability to help her, or the problems within his own life. 

Adiane offered a small grateful smile to him. “I would love to have some help around the house. Thank you again for helping me out, it really means a lot. And, if you ever need any help please let me know.” He nodded and smiled as they pulled onto a small dirt road with a rusty mailbox at the end. 

“Well this is the address.” A little ways from the main road sat a large old white house, the flowers her Aunt had planted were being strangled by tall weeds, paint chipping off the window shutters, and a rusty old pick up truck sat in the driveway. 

….It was a fixer upper for sure.

Carefully stepping out of the truck, Adaine took in a deep breath, her ribs twinged at the notion, but the smell of the forest surrounding her senses was worth it. Helping the Pastor Jeffries take her stuff out the back of the truck and lugged it to the front door, she fished out her keys and slotted it into the door. It opened with a small click, and she released a sigh of air she’d subconsciously been holding in. They placed her things in the foyer and took in the sight of her new home. Books, magazines, and mail were pilled here and there, dust covered the majority of the windows and end tables, and an old ratty blue rug greeted them.

    Coughing into his elbow, Pastor Jeffries took a step back out the door. “Well, it's a diamond in the rough.” His eyes darted from the overgrown garden to the inside of the dusty house. “A lot of rough.” He pulled out a cellphone from his back pocket, “Here let me give Jackson’s number.”

    Exchanging numbers with Pastor Jeffries and an introductory text from Pastor Jeffries for her, and an exchange in goodbyes. He moved to walk back to his truck, but stopped and took a few steps back toward her. The same frown he had had before on the car ride was back on his face.

    “I don’t want to seem rude, or God forgive me if I’m just being petty, but I think you should know something about Hope County.” He took in a deep troubled breath, “Recently there have been...disturbing allegations about a local religious group. It’s called Eden’s Gate, and I just want you to be careful around these people. It's run by a man named Joseph Seed and his brothers, I just don’t want you walking in blind, but I'm sure it’s nothing. I need to be heading back now, hope to see you later Ms. Adaine.” Adaine stood in stunned silence as Jermone Jeffries drove off. Ice cold fear shot through her body, she could feel her heartbeat in her ears like a rapid pace drum.

Eden’s Gate.

Project Eden’s Gate.

The Seeds.

Far Cry.

How could she be so oblivious, the familiarity of Pastor Jermone Jeffries, Hope County a name that she should have known. God she was so stupid.  Shaking hands grabbed the door frame to support her body from collapsing. The bombs, there was going to be a nuclear fallout and she was stuck in place that would become ravaged by a lunatic cult. Adaine sucked in a deep breath before her knees collapsed under her and her mind was overcome with fear.

_______________________________________________

    His body was slammed into rapidly passing trees, he clawed at the steep rocky ground. He had to stop. Why wasn’t he stopping? As he tumbled, he got a fleeting glance of a large piece of wood jutting out of his abdomen. Fear gripped his heart as his head came crashing down on a rock.

    A jolt of movement and suddenly he was driving a car swerving into a large forest. Fuck, fuck, fuck, turn the wheel! Jerking the wheel, caused the car to flip and the last thing he knows is his head slamming into the steering wheel.

    Jolting awake clutching his head, Joseph stumbles out of bed, barely making it to the bathroom before he vomited violently into the toilet. Resting his face against the cool floor tile, Joseph gets the last bits of the vision.

    Groggily waking up in an unknown place. Pain. His body is Pain. This isn’t right. Nothing is right. Sadness. Loneliness. Why doesn’t someone come for him? All alone. 

    Flashes of a face not his own in the mirror. Wrong. Things are wrong. 

    Strength. This will not break me, move on you must move on. 

    A trembling smile comes onto his face, finally you were here. He’s waited so long.

[imagineangryspacegrump-blog]

Excuses, Excuses

Prompt: Bones continues to find small reasons for Reader to stay away from her engineering job because he sees the job as dangerous (Drabble)

Warnings: None

Word Count: 874

A/n: Fics won't be as consistent for a while friends. I'm nearing the end of the school year and I have oodles of projects, homework, and studying for finals I have to do so I have very little time for writing. Don't worry, once the school year is over and summer break begins, I'll get back on track and hopefully spit fics out like crazy!

You groaned and rolled your eyes as your boyfriend, Leonard, quickly stood in front of you as you made your way to the door of your shared quarters.

He had done this countless times over the past few days, always coming up with an excuse for you to stay in bed or take a day trip to the med bay. It made no sense to you. You knew he was cautious and concerning at times, but not this bad. It seemed to start at random after you had obtained a nasty burn from an over-heating boiler. Leonard had gone a tad bit ballistic and stated several complaints to Jim about the safety hazards in engineering.

You knew he was trying to keep you away from your job, but you couldn't just skip out. It was your job, and a tiny part of the ship depended on you. It was cute that he cared so much, but now it was getting a little ridiculous.

"What is it this time, Len?" You were nearly sighing the whole sentence.

He was quick to bring out a tricorder and wave it over you. After a second, he seemed to come up with today's excuse.

"You've contracted some sort of cardiac arrhythmia. It seems to spike randomly at times and I want to make sure it's not something we need to worry about."

You chuckled and reached up, cupping his face in your hands, squishing his cheeks lightly. "I think that 'cardiac arrhythmia' is how my heart reacts whenever I'm around you. I assure you, my heart is perfectly fine."

Patting his cheeks, you turn and quickly grabbed your PADD, fast-walking out of the door past him. You heard him grumble and close the door to your quarters, jogging to catch up with you. He wrapped his hand around your bicep, not stopping you but slowing you down to a very slow walk.

"Please, Y/n, don't go down there. What if something really bad happens? We're the damn flagship of Star fleet, so the possibility of people attacking this ship is astronomical, and you're in the same room with the most radioactive thing on this ship. What would I do if I lost you? Watching you get hurt so often is bad enough. Don't give me the possibility of operating on your barely breathing body because of some exploding gasket." With every word, he got more exasperated, grip tightening on your arm.

You knew why he was so scared to lose you. With his past experience dealing with his ex-wife and basically losing his daughter as well, it was hard for him let anyone into his life. But along you came, wiggling yourself right into his cracking heart, and taping the shattered pieces back together. Doing so, made the two of you stick together like glue, and you spent every moment you could together.

It also meant protective boyfriend was a constant. He knew it could be mildly annoying, but he'd rather be annoying than uncaring. Still, even with all the nagging, you loved him with everything you had.

"Hey." You turned and took both his hands in yours, bringing them to your lips. This always calmed him, you found. "Relationships are built on trust. It's what keeps them strong. So I need you to trust that I'll make it back to you every night. I give you my word that I'll do everything in my power to do so, and I expect you to do the same."

Nothing about your tone was threatening, and instead, it was gentle. You could see his jaw clench, but he said nothing more, and nodded instead. He, in turn, pressed a kiss to your forehead.

"You should think about getting out of Star Fleet and doing some sort of motivational speaking instead. You're very persuasive." He quirked a smile when you chuckled lightly and pressed your forehead against his chest.

After standing for a few seconds, you realized that your whole conversation had taken place right in the middle of a busy, hallway intersection. People passed by with either weird or 'aww'ed looks, but either way, the two of you were blocking traffic.

Leonard straightened out and let you slip your hands from his grasp. You smoothed out the wrinkles of his tunic and adjusted the insignia that had managed to twist slightly. He smiled softly and brushed away a hair that managed to escape your bun.

"See you tonight. We'll have a nice dinner and watch some old western movies." You smiled. Whenever you watched western movies, you always commented on how he looked like the perfect western villain and/or hero.

"Perfect. I'll be waiting." He smiled and lightly smacked your ass when you turned to walk away, which made you yelp lightly and playfully glare at him. Leonard acted like nothing happened and turned on his heel to walk down the opposite hall. You noticed him glare at a cadet that seemed to have witnessed everything that just happened. Cadet cowered under his glare and scuttled away, not uttering a word.

Turning yourself around, you walked down a different hall that would get you to a turbo lift so you could go down to your oh-so-dangerous engineering post.

Tags: @outside-the-government @feelmyroarrrr @hellhoundsandunicorns @captian-hannah-kirk

[revwinchester]

Throughout Time

Summary: Gabriel finds himself drawn to the same soul as it is reborn across the world and throughout history.  After falling in love with the woman housing the soul and losing her, Gabriel can’t allow himself to go down that road again.  But when the soul belongs to the reader, a hunter working with the Winchesters, she pushes him to drop his guard and let her in.

Pairing: Gabriel x Reader, Gabriel x Kali

Word Count: 3385

Warnings: Implied smut (nothing explicit happens in the body of the story but it’s definitely implied heavily at times), reader character death/reincarnation, light language, some angst (ok, a good deal of angst), but it’s got a happy, fluffy ending!

A/N: This is for the @gabriel-monthly-challenge February Prompts.  There was an art prompt that I used, as well as the statement/word prompt, Aliferous (meaning: having wings), and the dialogue prompt: “When I said I’d never fall in love, I think Aphrodite took it as a challenge.”  This was a beast of a fic to write for some reason and I hope y’all enjoy what I came up with this month.

The art (which I’m pretty sure was made by @lacqueluster) and the fic are below the cut!

Your name: submit What is this? // <![CDATA[ function replaceAll(find, replace, str) { return str.replace(new RegExp(find, 'g'), replace); } function myHandler() { var input = document.getElementById("inputTxt").value; document.body.innerHTML = replaceAll('Y/N', document.getElementById("inputTxt").value, document.body.innerHTML); } // ]]>

Throughout Time -

Being a Trickster was fun.  Gabriel had only really been at it for a century or so but leaving heaven and the incessant bickering behind had done wonders for his self confidence and roaming the earth dishing out amusing punishments to deserving humans was definitely a good time.  The Nordic people had called him Loki, a name he still loved and intended to return to, in Greece he was known as Dolos, but here in Rome he was called Mendacius.  

As Mendacius, he was invisibly strolling through the city, listening in on conversations and munching on a sweet cake as he looked for his next victim.  He peered down a side street and froze in his place when he saw her.  

She was the most beautiful woman Gabriel had ever seen and he was so intently drawn to her.  He’d heart stories of angels having gracemates, some of whom were humans, but he’d always dismissed it as tales the caretakers would tell the fledgelings.  Now, he wasn’t so sure as he gave up his quest for a new target for his trickery and, instead, followed the woman.  Her flowing garments looked familiar, however he couldn’t put his finger on why since he hadn’t been in Rome long.  It wasn’t until she reached her final destination that he recognized her garb - she was one of the priestesses of the temple of Vesta.  She was a Vestal Virgin.  

“Crap,” he muttered under his breath.  Of course he would find himself so intrigued by not only a mortal, but one who had taken a 30 year vow of chastity.  By the look of things, she couldn’t be more than a third of the way through that vow.  Perhaps if he spoke with Vesta… he didn’t know the goddess well but it was worth a shot.  Gabriel tore his eyes away from the woman and made his way to the seat of the goddess to plead his case, hopefully without giving away his secret identity.  

“What have you to offer me, little godling?” Vesta asked, her voice full of condescension toward the trickster god.  “There is nothing you could give me in return that would be worth one of my priestesses.  Though,” she mused, “I do enjoy watching you squirm.  Perhaps I’m due for a new priestess anyway.  Perhaps I should plant an idea in the mind of her colleagues, an idea that she’s been unfaithful to her vows.”

Gabriel tried to reason with Vesta but there was no use in it.  Before nightfall, the woman he’d so quickly and thoroughly fallen in love with was being led from the temple and thrown into a pit where she was buried alive and left to suffocate.

Gabriel fled again, just like he had done when he left heaven.  He returned to Greece and found solace with an old friend.

“Do not weep, Dolos,” Aphrodite offered, “for she will live on, even after her death, and you shall love again.”

“You’re too good to me, Aphie, but you’re wrong.  I’ll never fall in love, not again.  It only ends in pain.”  Gabriel wasn’t solely thinking of the woman who he’d gotten killed but he couldn’t explain that to Aphrodite, not without giving up his secret and his cover.  Between the love he’d had for his brothers, who would never stop fighting, his father, who had abandoned them all, and this woman, who had died because of him, Gabriel had learned the truth: to love was to be filled with pain.

Gabriel made his way East, exploring parts of his father’s creation that he had not yet encountered.

----

Things had been good for Loki.  Early in his eastern exploration, about two decades in, he had met Kali and fallen into an easy (and rather physical) relationship.  Neither was in any danger of developing feelings beyond sentimentality and Loki found it was nice to be surrounded by a thriving religion that wasn’t centered around his father.  Even in his final days with the Greeks and Romans, Christianity had begun sneaking in.

After about eight centuries with Kali, a blink of an eye, really, for immortal beings like them, Gabriel decided to see more of the continent.  Though he became known by many titles and names throughout the continent - huli jing, kitsune, kumiho, Sri Thanonchai - he never kept good track of where he was.  Rather, he had more of a general idea of his location while he dished out justice to deserving humans.  So he couldn’t say where in Asia he was when he saw her.  Sure, her skin was a different tone, the color and texture of her hair had changed, and even the shape of her eyes was different from those of the Vestal Virgin but the soul that shone through them couldn’t be dismissed.  She was here and, once again, Gabriel found himself drawn to her.  

She loved the sky, he learned.  Her father was an astronomer and had passed his knowledge to both her and her brother.  Her brother continued the family business while her culture dictated that she care for her aging parents.  She fulfilled her duty with a heart full of love and her eyes turned toward the sky.  

Gabriel carefully used some of his powers to ease some of her burdens so that he could spend more time with her, hearing the stories that her father had told her about the stars and their places in the heavens and sharing some of what he knew.  After sharing a tale about Yì Xiù, or Wings, one of the twenty-eight mansions and her father’s favorite constellation, she asked him, “Would you… May I present you to my father and brother?”

Gabriel knew the courage the question took and the even greater amount of gumption it would take to introduce him, in the vessel he’d taken from a Western man, to her family. He spent one final night gazing at the heavens with her before he stole away, making his way back to the West.

----

No one really believed in the old gods anymore now that Christianity had become pervasive, but Gabriel slipped back into his Loki persona anyway.  With a few notable exceptions, the Norse pantheon had always been his favorite.  As Loki, the most powerful of the trickster gods, he could use some of his archangel powers while still staying under the radar of his angelic brethren.  As Loki, he could indulge in the earthly sweets he’d come to love.  As Loki, he encountered her.  

He had stood by the statement he’d made to Aphrodite centuries ago and he didn’t intend to go back on that now, yet he found himself drawn to the woman.  She had the same eyes as the Roman priestess  he had loved.  

She was a sculptor, an odd thing for a woman in this time period.  Her physical features reminded him more of the Roman woman but her spirit, it seemed, remained unchanged in each of her iterations.  Gabriel was happy to serve as her muse and model for a time and, inevitably, they began to share a life and a bed.  It all caught up with Gabriel when she showed him her most recent piece; though he had never shared his celestial ancestry with her, she had depicted him with wings.

“You are my angel,” she confessed.  

That night, Gabriel left.  He didn’t wake her, just slipped out into the night, retreating once again to Asia, to Kali, intent on a good time.  He’d won, he told himself as he cheekily suggested that he and Kali memorize and perfect the Kama Sutra.

----

Throughout the 1800s, Gabriel decided to travel around Africa.  It was a huge place and Gabriel was fascinated by the diversity in the people and the terrains throughout the land.  He crossed the Sahara Desert on foot, simply because he could, before snapping himself onto some of the tallest dunes in the Namib Desert.  Gabriel also explored the savannah, observing the wildlife, watching lions hunt and nearly getting caught in a stampede, all the while humming a tune that wouldn’t be written for more than 150 years.

Gabriel didn’t purposely avoid human contact while he explored some of the various parts of the continent but he found that he had a clearer vision of the natural order of his father’s creation if he stayed clear of the routes the humans would generally take and the areas that they tended to gather and dwell.  So his surprise was understandable when he encountered a small community well off of the beaten path. Gabriel approached the people with care and he put up no resistance when they surrounded him and herded him toward where their leader was dwelling. Though he had never heard their language before, he could understand their words. The people had been driven from their land by force and now feared he was a spy.

When he was presented to their leader, a young woman, he knew immediately that everything would be fine. It was her. By now he'd know the soul that glowed within her anywhere, no matter what face she wore. He spoke with her and promised to help her people regain their home.

Gabriel assisted her in planning during the day and in the evenings, he shared stories with the people who gathered around the fire, earning himself a name among the tribe: Anansi. He told them tales of some of his better tricks as well as stories of a woman whose soul was reborn over and over again as searched to bond with its true partner. As he weaved that particular tale over the course of many nights, the leader began to grow sad and quiet.

The night before they were to retake their home, Anansi asked her about it.

“The woman in your tale,” she replied, “she lives time and time again, greeting her love in each life only to find herself dismissed. Before your arrival, I had not loved and, yet, I cannot help but find myself within her story.”

Anansi stayed the night with her, resolving that perhaps this time, he could stay. She was created to be with him, and he with her, he reasoned.

The next morning, the people reclaimed their land. Anansi had assured her that he could take care of it on his own but she had insisted that they all take part. She lead the bulk of the people while he and a much smaller group worked in tricks and traps. The people were somber upon their success and Anansi couldn't fathom why until he drew near enough to see the pyre they were preparing. She lay there, honored among the dead. Upon the pyre’s completion, Gabriel in his rage called down fire from heaven to consume the bodies before he disappeared.

----

After finding her and losing her in a place that he thought would be deserted, Gabriel decided he would do best somewhere where he was surrounded by people and he made his way to London.  However, his plan quickly backfired and only about two decades after he’d lost her, the glow of her soul found its way into his life again.  He’d never met her so soon after losing her before and he buried his grief in her ample breasts, still swearing to himself and to any god that would hear him that he would be the ruler of his emotions.  

She was an author now and their exploits worked their way into her fiction.  However, after being told that her writing was “too unladylike,” she chose to publish under a masculine pseudonym.  Only one of her pieces was published under her own name but Gabriel was sure that all of her works would survive the test of time.  

Maybe it was the residual emotions from the last time he had found her but, for the first time, Gabriel felt compelled to reveal his true self to her.  However, he knew that if he went through with it, there would be no going back from that moment.  If he stayed beyond the revelation, he would stay forever.  Rather than explain it all to her, Gabriel called his wings into her plane of vision.  He held back enough of the grace that would normally come with the vision so as not to harm her.

Instead of being repulsed, like Gabriel had feared she might be, she was intrigued.  She had always loved to watch the birds as she wrote and, she confessed, had longed to for the freedom of flight.  That night, after the streets had cleared, Gabriel pulled her into his arms and took to the skies.  He brought her back to her home exhilarated and exhausted and watched her fall asleep, a smile on her face and a story brewing in her mind, before he disappeared once again.

Feelings are dangerous; to love is to court pain, he assured himself.  Those words were his mantra as he took off and created a pocket dimension to hide in.

----

“Why do you hate me?” Y/N asked.

Gabriel had just wandered into the library and the question caught him off guard.  Dad, did those hurt.  “What?” he asked through a mouthful of sugary, heart shaped candies.

“You tease and prank Sam and Dean, you have a deep, brotherly affection for Cas, and you even seem to respect Crowley,” she explained, “but you rarely ever look at me, let alone speak with me.  And I don’t know why it bothers me, but it does.  A lot.  Way more than I’d care to admit.”

Gabriel swallowed the candy and looked into her eyes, past her body and stared deep into her soul.  “I don’t hate you,” he sighed.  “I could never hate you.”

“Then…” she began, her voice trailing off as she considered whether or not she wanted to keep pressing.  

Gabriel couldn’t blame her for her hesitation, he hadn’t said more than a sentence or two to her at a time since he’d arrived at the bunker about a month ago.  He smiled at her, maybe for the first time in this incarnation, in the hopes of encouraging her words.

“Then why don’t you ever want to be around me?  Why don’t you ever talk to me?”  Her voice sounded hurt and Gabriel hated himself for doing this to her.

“Because I… we… I, I can’t let it win.  If I’ve learned anything in my existence, it’s that love only leads to pain and I can’t do that to myself.  I can’t lose you.  Not again.”  Gabriel knew that, while he was laying all of his cards on the table, he wasn’t explaining the situation well but it was the best he could do in the moment but he had a feeling he was going to need to do better.

“What do you mean you can’t lose me again?” Y/N’s was curious; she wanted to understand him, like she always had.

Gabriel took a deep, unnecessary breath and, for the first time, told her everything.  Tales of her soul, of the Vestal Virgin, the astronomer, the sculptor, the village leader, and the author all poured out of his mouth.  Once Gabriel began speaking, it was like he couldn’t stop.  “We belong to one another; you’re my gracemate or, I guess, humans call it soulmates.  I’ve been drawn to your soul throughout my entire existence,” Gabriel explained.  “Because we haven’t bonded, your soul has been reborn over and over and each time I find you.”  Gabriel shifted his gaze from her face to his hands, unable to look directly at the beautiful soul that blazed within her.  “But I’ve lost you enough that I stopped allowing myself to love you.  Every time I let my guard down, you died.  So whenever I felt us getting too close, I’d run.  It’s what I’m good at.”

After a pause that felt like an eternity but, in actuality, probably only lasted a few seconds, Gabriel moved to stand.  He felt the itch to escape again, he needed to leave the bunker.  Y/N would explain to Sam and Dean and he could pop out, tell Cas, and disappear.

However, Y’N’s hand shot out and stopped him.  “Don’t run, Gabriel, not this time,” she asked, her all too familiar eyes searching out his as her voice caressed his name.  “Please.”

Gabriel sat beside her at the table and she laced her fingers through his.  He looked down at their joined hands and had to laugh a little.  “You know, when I said I’d never fall in love, I think Aphrodite took it as a challenge.”

“Aphrodite?  Like the actual Aphrodite?” Y/N asked him but she brushed the question off and spoke again before he could answer.  “Look, I’ve got an idea but I need you to promise me something.”

“Anything,” Gabriel replied, his voice quiet.

“Don’t go anywhere.  I want to talk more - we need to talk more and, preferably, before Sam and Dean get back from their trip into town - but I need to go to the kitchen first.  Promise me you’ll wait here for me.”

Her voice was so sincere and Gabriel knew he was a goner this time.  He agreed to stay in his spot until she returned and he watched as she disappeared into the bunker’s kitchen and listened while she began opening the cabinets and moving around the space.  

While he waited for Y/N to return, Gabriel took stock of everything that had happened that afternoon.  He had told her everything and she hadn’t run.  Surprisingly, neither had he, and it seemed like Y/N might care for him in return.  While Gabriel was lost in thought, Y/N reentered the library and pulled his attention back to her presence by setting down a crazy looking milkshake.  The glass was topped with whipped cream and candy and cake, all covered with sprinkles and cherries.  Gabriel looked up at her inquisitively as she pushed the milkshake closer to him and then held out a hand with her intention of leading him to a different room clear on her face.

“I was planning on trying to win you over with one of these but I accidentally let my mouth jump ahead of the plan,” Y/N explained as Gabriel took her hand.

Y/N had her own milkshake, not quite as elaborate but still quite fanciful in one hand and Gabriel allowed himself to be led through the bunker.  There was a smaller secondary library deeper in the space and that’s where Y/N took him but she didn’t stop at the tiny table in the room.  In fact, she marched them right up to one of the bookshelves in the back before she dropped his hand and handed him her milkshake.  

Gabriel stood confused as she began tugging at one of the bookshelves, watching as it gave way, revealing a small, secret room.  “I found this place a few months ago when Sam and Dean left me behind after I had sprained my wrist on a hunt.  It’s become my haven and I haven’t wanted to share it with anyone else before tonight,” Y/N told the angel as she took her milkshake back from him and ushered him into the room.  

They sat across from one another at the small table in the room and she leaned in, placing a hand on top of one of his.  “So, how many times have we fallen in love?”

“Five.  This is the sixth time I’ve met you,” Gabriel answered carefully as her fingers played over the top of his hand.

“So, sixth time’s the charm, then, I guess.”  Gabriel could tell Y/N was working to keep her voice light.  She was afraid that he was going to run and, yet, she was still speaking her mind, “Stop looking at me like I’m going to break, Gabriel.  I’m an archangel’s soulmate, not a damsel in distress.”

Gabriel huffed a laugh at that.  “I’m just not used to you living much beyond me making the decision to stick around.”

“Well, something tells me I’ve never been quite as stubborn as I am now,” Y/N replied, “and I have no intention to die any time soon.  Especially not before you tell me more about this whole gracemate thing.”

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