'Your mom grounded you?' Gabriel scrawled on his notebook, holding it up to Sam with a look of sympathy as Sam nodded, a hand running through his shaggy hair. Sam glanced back towards the door, making sure Mary wouldn't come barging in anytime soon before he wrote in his own notebook, flipping to a clean paper so he would have room to write.

'A week. Not the worst.' Sam held up his reply, shrugging his shoulders when Gabriel looked at him with a suspicious look. 

'I won't get to kiss you, though.' Gabriel wrote, a slight pout on his face as Sam rolled his eyes, standing up and stretching. By the smirk on his face, he hadn't missed Gabriel staring at that little strip of skin that had shown.

'Good-night, Gabriel.' Sam scrawled on his paper, giving Gabriel only just enough time to read it before he left the view of the window, and the lights flicked off a moment later. Gabriel sighed, putting away his own notebook, but he had a small smile on his face and a warmth in his chest. He could live with only seeing Sam at school for a week.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

He was holding Sam's hand. He. Was. Holding. Sam's. Hand.

Holy shit.

Sam was letting him hold his hand on the way to school, and if Gabriel had any less self-control, he would be screaming like a twelve-year-old with a crush. Sam had been giving him weird looks the entire walk, probably because Gabriel's face was a constant beet red, but he couldn't stop the blush or the weird smile he had splitting his face.

He could die of happiness right now.

"It's just hand holding," Sam finally commented, an endearing smile on his face as Gabriel grinned over at him, his free hand waving excitedly as he struggled to come up with why he was so happy.

"It's not just hand holding, though," Gabriel replied, holding up their hands and looking at it in wonder and excitement, "I'm holding hands with you. In public."

Sam chuckled, pulling their arms back down to a normal position and pulling Gabriel along to make sure he'd keep up, "It's not like I'm a celebrity or anything. I'm just me," Sam offered, slowing down a little as they climbed the stairs to the front of their school.

"But you're my favorite person, and getting to hold hands with your favorite person is a dream come true," Gabriel explained, pulling the front door of the school open and smiling at Sam, a gesture for him to go first. Sam shook his head in amusement, but he stepped in, being followed by the smaller teen.

"I think Castiel would be very jealous to hear that," Sam teased, and Gabriel couldn't help but smile. He liked when Sam was relaxed and playful. 

"Castiel has Dean. I deserve a Winchester too," Gabriel sniffed, bounding in front of Sam by a step, grinning when their linked hands got a few looks from the other students. He glanced back at Sam, grinning, and then proceeding to run into someone.

When he looked up, he found the scowling expression of Crowley flashed towards him, the teacher not even attempting to hide his annoyance as he turned towards the duo, his arms crossing over his chest as he surveyed the both of them, "Hello, boys," Crowley huffed out, arching one eyebrow as Gabriel met his gaze evenly.

"Morning," Gabriel greeted, a little more stilted than necessary. To be honest, Crowley came off as a little devious and untrustworthy to Gabriel. Sam didn't even seem to see him above a normal person, though, cocking his head and watching the shifting gaze of the man.

"Did you need to talk about something?" Sam asked, his eyes narrowed. Gabriel frowned a little in confusion, focusing in on Crowley's face, seeing the darker than normal look that framed his face. He looked...almost fearful? Was the world ending?

"All the teachers have been told to warn their students of the serial killer from the Southeast. Apparently, he was rumored to be spotted a couple towns over," Crowley explained, and Gabriel froze, his entire thought process coming to a pure halt and crashing into a shattering glass wall all around him. He couldn't breathe, his hand tightening harshly against Sam's, and nausea rolled in his stomach, curling and hissing flames at his throat.

"We'll make sure to be careful, Crowley," Sam responded softly, his mood dropping to something more serious as he glanced towards Gabriel, though Gabriel could see nothing in Sam's eyes through the shade of white panic. A gentle hand moved from his tight clutch to his back, bringing him to his senses and barely keeping himself from hurling up everything he had eaten that morning right on the floor.

He managed to stumble forwards, only the comforting voice of Sam keeping his body from completely shutting down as he was led from the hallway to his desk inside the classroom. He didn't know when he sat down, but he instead focused on the warm hand moving up and down his back, squeezing at his shoulder in an attempt to calm him down. 

The bell rang, and the noise blasted in Gabriel's ears, causing him to jump. His hold on his nausea crumbled, and he was up, holding his hand in his mouth to keep it all in until he made it to the bathroom, where his empty the contents of his stomach out, tears flowing down his cheeks unchecked.

His legs shake and he crumbles to the floor, a piteous whine leaving his throat as he curled against the tile, sobs heaving his chest until he was dry heaving. He could hear Sam behind him, but he couldn't look at him. Couldn't see the pain in Sam's eyes at what this news meant for them.

"Go away, Sam! Just...go away!" Gabriel shouted, a broken keen escaping as he fell into the quiet of his pain-filled tears and soft sobs. Sam took a step back, hesitance clear in the way Gabriel could hear him shift, but then the footsteps disappeared and allowed Gabriel to face his misery alone.

It felt like hours that he was sitting in the corner of the stall just crying. When the door opened again, he barely even noticed the soft touch of a hand to his shoulder, a guiding hand pulling him out of the corner and into a pair of strong, warm arms.

"Sam called," Castiel's voice rumbled over Gabriel, making the pain in his heart only grow as he hugged the man back, his fingers clutching Castiel's clothes tightly.

"I don't want to leave again, Cas. I'm tired of being alone," Gabriel hiccuped into Castiel's chest, his body shaking with the effort to contain his cries inside of him while Castiel was there.

"I'm sorry, Gabriel," Castiel whispered, the last little hope in his chest shattering when he heard the guilty, heart torn tone of the man's voice, "I'm so sorry."

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Gabriel didn't have a chance at hiding from Sam that afternoon, his locked window becoming easily accessible when Sam unlocked the latch, slipping in almost silently if it weren't for him tripping on the ledge on the way in.

"You're leaving?" Was the first words out of Sam's mouth, the concern in his voice giving way to the hurt. Gabriel cast a half conscious glance towards the barely packed boxes on the floor, his eyes long since dried of any tears and a numbness managing to reach his entire body.

"Yeah. I miss my parents, so I'm going to go meet them," Gabriel responded almost hallowly, his chest sparking with the tiniest bit of pain as his reserves of tears crawled its way to his eyes. He swallowed thickly, unable to stop the floodgates long ago as he began to cry again, his shoulders shaking as he picked up another piece of clothing, setting it in one of the boxes.

"Okay..." Sam said, though his voice made it clear that he already knew what Gabriel was hiding, and that did nothing but make Gabriel cry harder, "C'mere."

Gabriel couldn't find it in him to argue as he turned, barely managing to drag his feet to reach Sam. Warm arms encircled him, pulling him to the bed, and Gabriel curled into the smallest ball possible, sniffles leaving him every few seconds.

Sam's hand on the back of his head guided his nose to press close to Sam's chest, and Gabriel let out a wail as the smell brought a wave of fresh pain. Soon, this town, and these people, would be gone, and he would be shipped off to a new home, a new identity, and an empty heart. 

He let his cries continue, holding tightly to Sam and begging the God above to let him stay.