mGabriel 5
Jun. 5th, 2013 10:23 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
moonshadowsThe days leading up to Christmas were almost domestic. Lessons in the morning, teleport practice in the afternoon, gym in the evening. Gabriel offered Zenyatta a teleport back to Nepal, which he accepted, but Genji humbly requested that he be sent to Nepal rather than going back to Ana's. The next day, Gabriel and Jack went to Ana's to get hugged and fussed over and finally explain where Genji was. The day after that, Gabriel demanded his wallet (and badge, and keys, and brass knuckles) and vanished for a handful of hours, only to come back cheerfully laden with bags from Wal-Mart. Sweats and tees were fine for around the mansion, but he wanted to look good when meeting Jack's parents. He had the golems take Jack's unused bed out and replace it with a dresser so he had someplace to put his new clothes - and also to stash the junk food he'd picked up.
That's not to say, of course, that there weren't rough patches. There seemed to be some sort of conflict between the harpies, leading Angela to look frazzled while Amelie sulked and avoided the rest of them. Gabriel did a lot of thinking about how comfortable he was wrapped in Jack's arms, and if it was truly just because he trusted the griffin to not turn on him for having been raised as a girl or if it was...something more. Was he reacting to the romantic implications human culture ascribed to this level of physical contact? Would he be jealous if Jack cuddled another man? And would he want to cuddle a man who wasn't Jack?
That last one, at least, got a resounding no. Unless it was a life-threatening situation, Gabriel would not be comfortable with another man - another person - sharing his personal space while he slept. He wouldn't be upset at Jack cuddling anyone else so long as he didn't reject Gabriel to do it. And the idea of jack just casually planting a kiss against his jaw made him feel warm and giddy.
But he still didn't want to fuck.
Gabriel went to sleep on Christmas Eve wondering what that said about his feelings.
===
Christmas morning dawned with Jack sleepily nibbling on Gabriel's ear.
"The hell?" Gabriel murmured, not quite awake yet. "Jack? Are you biting my ear?"
The teeth vanished, but so did the warmth of the griffin's body.
Gabriel rolled over and frowned. "Jack?"
The griffin was sitting up and blushing a deep red, from his neck to the tips of his ears. "Sorry."
"It didn't hurt," Gabriel assured him. "Just wasn't expecting it."
Jack looked away, hands kneading the blanket anxiously. "Sorry. I got...carried away."
"Jack..." Gabriel sat up and hugged the griffin from behind, pressing his cheek to the back of that blushing neck. "It's okay. Merry Christmas."
Two hands covered Gabriel's, and Jack seemed to center himself with that touch. "Merry Christmas, Gabe."
They didn't talk about it during breakfast or while getting dressed, Gabriel changing in the bathroom as usual. Neither of them mentioned it when, at quarter of ten, they teleported to a little clearing about a 15-minute walk from the Morrison house. They did hold hands as they walked, and the silence was comfortable. Turned out, Gabriel discovered while he was practicing, that this had been one of the places the Reaper had brought him to on that first day. Some of the places he had figured out held emotional significance to the entity. This one was a puzzle. Regardless, the imaginary cat seemed content to drape itself across Gabriel's sweater-clad shoulders and nap, and he wasn't about to question its complacency.
Jack knocked on the door and Gabriel mentally prepared himself for being dismissed and talked over, just like some of the police balls he'd accompanied Liao to. The woman who opened the door a few seconds later looked like every farmer's wife stereotype shoved into one gaudy holiday sweater and a dark-blue ankle length skirt.
"Jackie! You're here early!" she exclaimed as she hugged him tightly and then released him. Her blue eyes flickered to Gabriel and back to her son.
"I wanted to introduce you to my friend Gabriel," Jack said.
Mary Morrison frowned in motherly disapproval. "Jackie..."
"I know," Jack said evenly. "He's male, and he's human. Pa's not going to like it."
A little bit of the disapproval went away. "You told him, then?"
"I stole him from a harpy who was abducting him. Yes, Ma, he knows what I am."
She eyed Gabriel again. After three seconds, he deliberately lowered his eyes and bowed his head, demonstrating submission. "Hmph. Friend, you said? You don't have to use euphemisms with me, Jackie."
Jack sighed. "Fine. We're sharing a bed."
Mary smiled and patted his cheek. "There, was that so hard? Bring him in, it's cold for a human and your father has a good fire going. Show him the hoard and then bring him into the kitchen so I can get to know him while I cook."
"Of course, Ma."
Jack waved Gabriel inside as Mary retreated. The farmhouse was huge, with a very generous dining room in the front corner and a roomy kitchen in the back, staircase nestled between them. Fully half the house, it seemed, was an enormous living room with a handful of couches and several easy chairs scattered all around what looked like a sandbox in the middle of the room, six feet to a side with walls knee high. Only instead of sand, there was a seven-foot pile of gold in all shapes and forms inside it and iron poles in the corners held chicken wire that had been wrapped around them.
"My parents' hoard," Jack said quietly. "The chicken wire is just because not all of the kids in the family are old enough to know better than to filch from another griffin's hoard."
"You hoard guns," Gabriel realized. "Nice collection!"
Jack flushed slightly in pleasure. "Thanks. Listen, my mother's probably going to tell stories about John and Jane. Don't ask questions. John was my older brother, died before I was born. Jane's a younger sister, disowned for lifestyle choices."
Gabriel arched one eyebrow.
"She ran off with a dragon and lives a life of luxury. Servants take care of everything. She's not running the household."
"Got it."
"Alright, let's go introduce you to Ma."
Mary looked over as they stepped into the kitchen.
"Ma, this is Gabriel." Jack gestured him forward.
Again, Gabriel met her eyes for a count of three and then bowed.
"Well, he seems well-behaved. Go and tell your father."
Jack nodded, squeezed Gabriel's shoulder briefly, and left to rattle up the stairs.
"Tell me about yourself," Mary said, turning back to what she was doing at the stove.
Fuck. They hadn't anticipated this. "I grew up in Los Angeles. Got into a lot of fights at school. Went into law enforcement to protect people, but when I met Jack, I knew I couldn't go back to my human life." Hopefully, that would be enough.
"You're quite spirited, for a human," Mary said with a hint of approval. "Tell me how you met him."
"It's like he said," Gabriel started. "I was being literally carried off by a harpy and Jack just...wham, right into her, grabbed me and dove. Landed in a clearing, checked me over to make sure I wasn't hurt, and then took me back to his nest."
"Oh, my. That was quite...forward of him." Despite the protest, her cheeks were pinking slightly.
"It was my first time sleeping with another man," Gabriel said with total honesty. "I'm not exactly weak by human standards, but Jack makes me feel...safe."
That pleased her, he could tell. "And what about...other aspects?"
"I make sure he has clothes and a clean living space, and I've introduced him to a number of foods he's never had." It was technically true; she didn't need to know about the golems. "We're both very physically active, so I make sure neither of us goes hungry."
Two sets of feet on the stairs.
"Oh, here comes my husband. He's quite an aggressive male, so make sure to mind your manners."
Nervously, Gabriel faced the door and kept his eyes on the floor. He could see two sets of boots enter, Jack behind his father, and the imaginary cat woke up. Then it did something Gabriel wasn't expecting: it settled back down, purring.
"This is him?" a new voice said gruffly. "He's sick."
"What do you mean, Pa?" Jack sounded nervous, too.
"He's got whatever your Great-Uncle Alfred had. I can smell it on him."
Well, that explained a number of things. Gabriel wondered if Alfred had been a lion-headed griffin.
"You, human."
"Gabriel, Pa."
"Gabriel. Look at me."
Gabriel raised his head, met John's eyes for a count of five, then lowered his gaze.
"You sure he can provide for you?" John demanded.
"He's done okay so far, Pa. It's been a lot to adjust to. He was the protector of a fairly large human pride."
"Hmph."
"Dear," Mary said, "the lamb still has a few hours to go but I suspect Louise and her bunch are going to arrive soon so the children can rest. Go out front and greet them, would you?"
John hmphed again, but left the kitchen.
"Very well done, you two," Mary said in a warm tone. "And he's right, Gabriel is sick with whatever Alfred had. He always just said it was something terminal, but human medicine must have found a way to cure it because your friend Liao had it, but she got over it."
Jack and Gabriel exchanged a startled look.
"Go show him the rest of the house, dear."
"Yes, Ma," Jack said obediently, gesturing for Gabriel to follow.
=
"So Great-Uncle Alfred was a Mantle," Gabriel said once the door to Jack's old room had closed behind them. "Tell me about him?"
Jack sat on the bed and absently patted the mattress beside him, putting his arm just as absently around Gabriel when he sat. "I don't remember much. He died when I was pretty young. He was Pa's favorite relative, though. Told great stories. And actually, he's my Great-Great-Uncle. Great-Grandmother's brother."
"The Great-Grandmother who's going to be here?" Gabriel asked dryly.
"Shit. She's going to know."
"Think she'll say anything?"
Jack turned and nuzzled the fuzz that passed for Gabriel's hair. "I don't know."
"Well, at least we know why the Reaper brought me here on my first day. And it recognized your dad in a good way."
"So it's going to be more relaxed than you?" Jack teased.
Gabriel snorted in amusement. "Probably."
"My room is safe; just let me know if you need an escort."
Gabriel grimaced. "As much as I despise the idea of hiding in your room...better safe than sorry."
=
Louise (the lion-headed cousin, Gabriel remembered) and her husband and their three children were there when Jack led Gabriel back downstairs. The kids were piled up on one of the couches, napping, and Jack made introductions before catching up with Louise and leaving Gabriel to make awkward small talk with Tybalt, who'd married into the family. Apparently having a lion's head emphasized the social aspects, and female lion-headed griffins were highly desirable as mates while males tended to be...less traditional. Mating outside the species, not mating at all, and taking more than one griffin mate at the same time were all common for males with lion heads. Thus, Tybalt explained patronizingly, he wasn't surprised to see Jack with a human mate.
Gabriel gritted his teeth, nodded, and smiled.
Thankfully, other relative arrived and the children woke up and the imaginary cat recognized enough uncles and cousins that it was perfectly content. There were a handful of comments comparing Gabriel's scent to Alfred's, but Jack brushed aside the worry (and it was worry, which surprised Gabriel) with reassurance that he was getting treatment from a human doctor.
Then Great-Grandma Isabella arrived, and Gabriel nearly bolted for the stairs.
Once the rest of the relatives had paid their respects and the ancient griffin was ensconced in a chair as though it were her throne, Jack came over to him looking quietly anxious.
"She wants to meet me?" Gabriel asked quietly. Jack nodded. "Figured."
The imaginary cat was practically pacing back and forth with eager anticipation. Gabriel followed Jack to the corner chair Isabella was tucked into, by the fireplace.
"Grandma, this is my mate Gabriel."
The ancient griffin peered at him with sharp amber eyes. "Sit," she commanded, pointing to a footstool that Jack immediately brought over and placed beside her chair.
Gabriel sat.
"Your scent reminds me of my brother," she announced in a strangely-accented voice. One hand rested on his head, fingers absently stroking the fuzz as though preening feathers that weren't there...or combing through a mane. "He was lion-headed, like Jackie. A good man. Strong protector. Are you a good man, Gabriel?"
"Yes." He didn't have to pretend there, at least.
"Tell me. Tell me about yourself. Tell me about your human pride."
Gabriel told stories, starting with protecting the bullied kids in high school and ending with the neighborhood calling him with 'anonymous tips' when they'd been victims of a crime. How, sometimes, when the law failed to protect the members of his pride, he gathered a group of youths and they took it upon themselves to teach outsiders that this territory had guardians.
"A good, strong protector," she said quietly. "You will do much good if you remember who you are."
"Thank you," he said somewhat awkwardly.
Isabella looked around, noting that no one was paying attention to them. Even Jack was playing with the children.
"Does it remember me?" she asked quickly, her bright eyes piercing as she looked at him.
He swallowed. "Very fondly. You, and Jack's dad, and some of the uncles and cousins."
The ancient griffin crooned happily. "My brother had it for many years. It is good to know that something of him lives on."
"I am very grateful for your brother," Gabriel said, swallowing unexpected emotions. "Because of him, I can understand Jack when he's in his natural form."
She peered at him sideways, a very birdlike gesture. "Are you truly mates?"
Gabriel blushed, tongue-tied as the truth and the lie he kind of wanted to be true collided in his throat and choked him.
"I will ask when we meet again," she said in a gleeful cackle. "My birthday is in April. You and Jack will attend."
It wasn't a question or an invitation. "Yes, ma'am," he replied obediently.
Jack's dad approached them, meeting his grandmother's eyes for five seconds before lowering his head. "Dinner is ready to be served," he said meekly.
"Good; I'm hungry. Gabriel, help me to the table."
"Yes, ma'am."
As chivalrously as he could manage, he helped the family matriarch out of the chair and into the dining room, where she settled into the padded chair at the head of the table. The rest of the family began to stream in, Jack grabbing Gabriel's arm and pushing him into a chair close to the head of the table. It made him a little nervous, displacing some relative like that, especially since he'd been politely ignored most of the afternoon-
Well. Not quite, now that he was thinking about it. He'd been politely ignored by the men, but the women had been politely curious. He wasn't sure if that was some reflection on the gender roles, or just some family prejudice, although Louise had seemed pretty friendly once she'd caught up with Jack.
The imaginary cat being so perfectly at ease the whole time had certainly helped settle his nerves at being in a room full of potentially-hostile giant predators.
Once everyone had taken seats and voiced anticipation for the food on the table - which did smell amazing - Great-Grandma Isabella cleared her throat and said a little speech that wasn't quite a blessing or a prayer but something in between. Then she effectively declared open season on the food and Jack's dad leaped up with her plate to fill it. All the men, he noticed, were filling plates that belonged to their wives.
Jack grabbed Gabriel's plate. "What would you like?"
"Uh...lamb, stuffing, potatoes, whatever else you think I'll like. Thank you."
He turned away, but Gabriel could see a pink tinge to his cheeks.
Once the protectors had made sure their mates had food, they served themselves, but no one touched their food until wine had been poured and Jack's dad took the first, ceremonial bite. Then the feasting began. Compliments on the food dominated conversation for a few minutes, and then it settled into more catching-up and bragging because John's brothers and their wives and adult children had arrived only shortly before the meal was served. There was a lot of chatter over whose kids were doing what, how much people had added to their hoards, and what they were up to aside from that.
The one across from Jack, Stephen, finished chatting with John and Mary and turned to their son. "Jack! Haven't seen you in a while. You look good for your age!"
Jack demurred politely, but privately, Gabriel found himself agreeing.
"And who's your friend? I don't think I've heard a word out of him. That is a male human, right? It's so easy to get them mixed up."
Gabriel almost choked on his bite of lamb. "Didn't want to interrupt," he muttered, keeping his eyes on his plate because Stephen was rubbing him the wrong way, and imaginary cat purring or no, he was pretty sure his eyes were glowing.
"Gabriel," answered Jack.
"And here I thought he was just shy. I guess you've got him pretty well-trained, though."
Jack's other hand fisted on his leg, and Gabriel silently urged him to think of a come-back because he was not trusting anything that came out of his mouth right now.
"He's just a little overwhelmed. This is his first time around so many nonhumans."
Not good enough, Gabriel thought furiously, nudging Jack's ankle with his foot.
Stephen nodded with a sound of understanding and smiled at Gabriel in a distinctly condescending way. "You don't have to worry, Jack's the most ferocious griffin this side of the Mississippi. He's a good protector. Of course, I live on the other side, and he doesn't really hold a candle..."
"We'll see after dinner," Jack said tightly.
Melody, Stephen's wife, leaned in. "He's certainly handsome, and he looks pretty strong. Did he let you lead without a fight, or did you have to...break him in?"
Unhelpfully, Jack stammered out an incoherent denial while blushing.
"Jack," drawled Stephen, "don't be shy. We're not as strict as your father. Although..." he smirked at Gabriel. "I think he's a little too...virile for my tastes. But you always did like a challenge."
Melody elbowed her husband jokingly. "You know he'd get bored with a small, submissive man. And he does look pretty strong..."
"He can certainly be a handful," Jack agreed, still blushing to the tips of his ears.
Okay, enough was enough. Gabriel drew on a lifetime of bluster, centered himself, and raised his eyes to meet Stephen's solidly. "I'm almost too much man for Jack," he smirked.
...three, four, five, hold it...
Stephen's eyes widened as he realized Gabriel was deliberately holding his gaze. A dominance challenge.
...eight, nine, ten...
A blink, and Stephen looked at Jack with an almost panicked expression of outrage, like how dare this human challenge me?
"I'd definitely be too much man for you," purred Gabriel.
Jack choked on his wine. Melody laughed.
"Oooh, he has spirit! How did you meet Jack?"
"He snatched me out of the air while a harpy was abducting me. Took me back to his nest. Showed me his hoard." Gabriel leaned back in his chair smugly. "It was huge."
He hadn't thought it was possible for Jack to blush any harder, but apparently he was wrong.
"Really." Melody's tone was speculative. "And what were you before Jack took you for his mate?"
"The protector of several city blocks in Los Angeles. No one messed with my people and got away with it."
Stephen shot Jack a hard look, and suddenly Gabriel was afraid he thought Jack was being less than manly.
Still smirking, Gabriel slid an arm around Jack's waist and leaned in to lip at one earlobe, maintaining eye contact with Stephen, before laying his head coyly on Jack's shoulder. "But once I spent the night with Jack, I knew I couldn't go back to my human life. He's the only one I want to share a bed with. Ever."
"Oooooh." Melody's eyes were sparkling. "Now that's a man."
For the second time, Stephen averted his eyes first.
Jack downed the rest of his wine, refilling his glass and Gabriel's, and it occurred to Gabriel that he had no idea how many glasses of wine he'd actually drunk. But now that he was thinking about it, he could feel the warm flush and guessed he was probably solidly into tipsy. Fuck. Well, that explained where his inhibitions had gone.
Thankfully, no one else talked to him for the rest of the meal.
===
Children, it turned out, were the only ones in griffin families that got presents. Something about them being old enough to want to hoard but too young to actually gather things for their hoards themselves. Once the kids had ripped open their presents, the adults tucked them into chairs and onto couches with blankets to nap while everyone else went out for the traditional post-dinner fights.
Each adult - except the champion - fought two fights. One against their mate (or a single griffin of the opposite gender), and the other against someone their own gender. Sometimes, this was a grudge match or challenge. The rest of the time, it was determined by age or how quickly they'd finished their fight. To be eligible to fight the champion, a griffin had to win both of their fights. That usually eliminated the majority, but some years more than one griffin managed it and it was on them to decide amongst themselves who would fight the champion.
As adult griffins went out to the front yard and spread out around the circle scarred into the grass, Gabriel and Jack stayed on the porch with Great-Grandma Isabella, who was bundled warmly into a wicker chair.
Stephen and Melody were the first fight, for reasons Gabriel didn't understand or care about. Melody handed him his ass with ease.
"He was right," Gabriel said teasingly. "You don't hold a candle. You hold the entire candelabra."
Isabella cackled quietly. "Jack, you know what your friend is?"
"A treasure?" Jack joked, blushing slightly.
She made a small, approving sound. "You know what he holds, what he carries within."
"He knows I'm the Reaper."
"Good, good." She cocked her head in that birdlike motion, watching them sidelong. "My brother told me it is like a child that does not know its own strength or understand the consequences of its actions. Be firm but gentle, do not let it have its way simply because it wants something, and you will be a good Mantle. The more you give in to it, the less control you will have."
"It's not that bad," Gabriel found himself saying. "It wants to help. It just needs things explained sometimes."
"It still over-reacts," Jack added dryly.
Gabriel remembered the killing rage he'd found himself in when he learned the conditions Jack had been kept in. "It wants to help," he repeated. "But yeah, it needs to learn what an appropriate reaction is."
Isabella was looking at them fondly. "You, Jack, take care of him. Help him remember who he is. And you, Gabriel, watch out for Jack. And both of you," she cackled, "come to my birthday party in April."
"She'll be two hundred and fifty," Jack informed Gabriel.
"Oh, we have to be there. Maybe I can find something for your hoard." Or maybe he could go find that sphinx and have her design something for a griffin matriarch.
"Such a nice boy you found," Isabella teased.
They watched the fights in silence after that, Gabriel shamelessly leaning into Jack's one-armed embrace because it was cold out. Louise and Mary both defeated their husbands, easily and with difficulty respectively, and each pair of combatants licked the other's wounds when they were done to ensure no hard feelings. Louise faced Melody and had her squalling surrender within seconds; Mary faced another of Jack's aunts by marriage and was defeated - but the aunt had surrendered to her husband, who had in turn lost to Mark the single father, who had been paired with and lost to an unmarried cousin, who...
In the end, Louise was the only double-victor and Jack grinned as she roared at him from the center of the circle. Better kiss your mate for luck, she said in the rumbling lion language. You're going to need it, cousin.
"What do you think," Jack asked him. "Should I give her a fighting chance?"
Gabriel's heart leaped and his wine-loosened lips betrayed him. "Kick her ass with everything you've got."
Jack tugged him into a proper embrace, lips searingly soft against Gabriel's, and then he was clattering down the steps and shifting into his birth form while Gabriel prayed the cold air would extinguish the fire on his cheeks.
It was awe-inspiring and viscerally terrifying to his primitive monkey brain to see two creatures with the front halves of lions and the back halves of giant eagles spread their wings and roar in deliberate displays of posturing. Louise was tawny and seemed to glow in the dying light of the day; Jack was pale as the moon and looked like a ghost. Then they lunged for each other, growling and snapping and slashing.
As fights go, this one was dirty. They pounced and rolled, raking at bellies with sharp hind claws, biting at wings with feline teeth, clawing at furry flanks and leaving deep gouges that dripped blood. The imaginary cat was way more chill about this than Gabriel was. He barely remembered to breathe, he was so tense watching Jack's coat get splattered with scarlet. It seemed like forever before the maned griffin got his cousin on the ground, one forepaw on a golden wing and teeth on the back of her neck.
You got me, she roared almost pitifully. I give up, you win.
As the other family members cheered, Jack let her up and they licked the wounds they'd caused. Beside Gabriel, Isabella muttered breathe and he sucked in a deep lungful of air, only then noticing that his fists were clenched so tightly that they ached.
A still-bloody but clearly pleased Jack bounded up to the porch and reared briefly to lick Gabriel's face with his lion tongue before shifting back to human. "What did you think?" he asked breathlessly.
"Well done, champion," Gabriel grinned back.
"You need to thank your mate for that luck!" Melody called, laughter in her voice.
Stephen, by comparison, sounded sulky when he shouted, "Celebrate your victory with your family! Your mate can wait!"
"I'm the champion," Jack shot back, grinning. "You can be patient for a minute while I collect congratulations for my win."
Gabriel could see the split second of hesitation in Jack's eyes as he realized what he'd volunteered Gabriel for. Throwing caution to the wind, he wrapped his arms around the griffin's torso and pressed his lips against Jack's. He could feel that warm, sturdy body relax, arms going around Gabriel, and tentatively, the searingly soft lips moved against his. Cheering and applause from the rest of the family made both of them blush.
"Time for dessert!" Mary declared, leading the herd of hooting relatives past them and back into the house.
"You want dessert?" Jack asked softly, forehead pressed against Gabriel's.
"Mm. Not in front of your family. The wine..."
"Shit, yeah. Sorry," Jack said, releasing him. "You go to my room, I'll bring you water and pie."
"Sounds good."
Thankfully, everyone's attention was on pie and no one noticed Gabriel slipping upstairs. He sat on Jack's old bed wondering if he'd fucked everything up. Obviously Jack's kiss had been for show. And, just as obviously, so had their second kiss. They were just friends.
But Gabriel's stomach twisted, and he realized that he wanted them to be more.
It was a couple of minutes before Jack's footsteps heralded his approach and he kicked the door to his room shut behind him. One hand held a glass of water, which he offered to Gabriel. The other held a plate with two slices of pumpkin pie slathered in whipped cream but only one fork.
"You can eat first," he said, blushing as he sat beside Gabriel. "Ma thinks we're going to feed each other romantically."
Gabriel sipped his water. "You're the champion, you eat first."
Jack gave him a look that said, are you sure? but picked up the fork and started on his pie.
"It was incredible, watching you fight," Gabriel said into the depths of his glass. "Your great-grandmother had to remind me to breathe."
"Does this mean you're going to okay that all-out sparring match I've been wanting?" Jack teased.
"Maybe."
They sat in silence for a minute while Jack ate and Gabriel drank. He wanted to do something to demonstrate that the kiss wasn't just for show, but his wine-muddled brain wasn't helping him out. Then Jack reached across him to put the plate on the bedside table, and he knew it was now or never.
"Jack?" he said, lifting his head to look at the griffin.
Jack turned to look at him. "Hm?"
Blindly, Gabriel shoved the now-empty glass onto the bedside table with one hand, the other on the back of Jack's neck, urging his head closer as he leaned in and kissed the griffin.
For a terrifying moment, those scarred lips were unyielding beneath his, but then they moved slightly as Jack put one hand on Gabriel's hip and brought the other up to caress his cheek.
"How much did you have to drink with dinner?" Jack asked lightly as the kiss ended.
Gabriel's heart shriveled and he turned away. "Not enough to blame my actions on."
Silence.
"...Gabe?"
"I like you," he said sullenly, despair painting a picture of him going back to the mansion alone, facing his bed alone, having to explain to the imaginary cat why neither of them were getting gentle pettings anymore. "If you don't...feel the same way...just tell me. Don't leave me in suspense. Just break my heart and get it over with."
"I could never do that," Jack said, his voice soft and warm, his arms sliding around Gabriel's torso. "I like you, too. I didn't want to assume - didn't dare hope you had feelings for me."
Fuck. They were both insecure idiots. Gabriel leaned back into Jack's embrace, telling himself firmly that he was not a weepy drunk, he would not cry.
"We'll need to talk about this tomorrow, when we're both sober," Jack murmured. "And...we need to go slow, because the Reaper is given to unhealthy attachments as well as fits of violent temper. Okay?"
"Okay," Gabriel breathed, barely able to think past relieved exultation that he would not be facing a life bereft of griffin cuddles.
Jack nuzzled his neck. "So...shall I feed you your pie?"
Gabriel blushed. "I won't say no."
The pie was delicious.
=
After several minutes of cuddling, they made their way back downstairs to the knowing cheers of Jack's family. True to what Jack had told him about griffins and physical contact, the couches were full of adults piled haphazardly together with no sense of concern regarding whose limbs were where. Jack had warned him the egg nog was spiked, and it looked like everyone else had hit it hard.
"We're heading out," Jack announced.
John looked at them, eyes slightly unfocused. "Not going to stay the night?"
"My old bed's barely big enough for just me," he replied.
That got assorted laughs.
They made their goodbyes and promised to keep in touch, and then they were out in the crisp night air.
"Home?" Gabriel asked.
Jack hugged him and nuzzled his neck again. "I was thinking we could spend the night in my nest."
"Griffin cuddles, fuck yes," he breathed, making Jack chuckle.
"You really like it that much?"
"When Angela lets me out of that dumb transition room, I'm gonna demand a bedroom big enough for a nest box as well as a bed."
In the dark, he couldn't see Jack's blush, but he could feel it against his skin. "I'd like that," he said softly.
"Your ravine. Alright." Make sure we get there? he asked the imaginary cat, who patted his cheek. Liquid steel filled him. "Here we go."
Gabriel reached, and the sky overhead lightened, painting the walls of the ravine in shades of bronze and gold. Jack gave him a kiss on the temple before stepping back to shift and flow into the nest cave. Gabriel waited for him to get settled before crawling in. One furry foreleg as his pillow, the other holding him to Jack's feline chest, rumbling with his purr, and a wing outstretched as his blanket. This was the life.
"Hey," he asked idly, "you said that the protector or higher-ranking griffin settles first. But what about cross-species mates? You settled first, but I'm in the protected position. What does that mean?"
Too much thinking, Jack complained in rumbling groans. Cuddles now. Think later.
"Can't argue with that," Gabriel chuckled.
Cradled by purring warmth inside and out, he slept.
===
The urgent need to pee woke him sometime past dawn, and Gabriel translocated himself to the top of the ravine to squat behind a bush and relieve himself. Then he translocated back down to find Jack looking as alarmed as a lion-faced thing can look. When he saw Gabriel re-form, he shrank down to his human shape and hugged the mantle desperately before half-dragging him back into his nest.
"Don't do that to me," Jack murmured fiercely, face buried in Gabriel's neck. "I thought you were gone!"
The display of frantic concern made Gabriel's stomach twist. "It's okay, Jack. I'm here. I just had to pee. I'm sorry I worried you."
"I was afraid you'd reconsidered last night and you'd gone back without me."
Last night. The words hit him like a punch to the gut. Kissing. Getting kissed. "That...really happened?" he asked somewhat shakily. "You have feelings for me?"
"I have feelings for you." Jack made it sound like an apology and a promise all in one. "So many feelings, Gabe. I'm sorry-"
Gabriel pulled the griffin's head up for a kiss that he hoped explained exactly how not bothered he was by this despite the fact that he'd never kissed anyone before yesterday. Something must have worked, though, because the anxious tension bled out of Jack and he practically melted, taking Gabriel with him, until he was on his back with the Mantle sprawled half across his chest.
"I'm no good at expressing feelings," Gabriel breathed when the kiss ended. "Or, at least, feelings that aren't anger. But you're the first person I've had them for."
Dazed blue eyes blinked up at him. "Really?"
"Yeah." Gabriel flopped down next to the griffin. "I've got no clue what the fuck I'm doing, just to warn you."
Jack rolled over to nuzzle Gabriel's neck again. "No worries; we're taking it slow anyway, remember?"
"You need to be more specific than that, White Bread," he teased. "What's taking it slow entail?"
"How about...until the end of January, we don't kiss below the neck and we don't touch below the waist or the nipples."
"Okay." Gabriel's stomach growled. "Sounds like time to go back."
As he made a motion to sit up, Jack held him tighter. "Gabe?"
"Yeah?"
"When I nibbled your ear yesterday morning...that was a romantic gesture." The griffin was blushing a brilliant red.
Slowly, Gabriel smiled. "That makes me feel a lot better," he said. "But I'm really hungry."
Jack lifted himself up enough to kiss Gabriel slowly, tenderly, but not as long as he wanted to. "Okay. Let's go back."
===
"Let me do it?" Jack asked as Gabriel raised a forkful of waffle towards his mouth. They were in bed with generously-loaded breakfast trays.
Gabriel quirked one eyebrow at him. "You want to feed me?"
The griffin's cheeks turned distinctly pink. "I hated seeing you treated like that yesterday. I want to make it up to you, even if you weren't offended."
He lowered the fork back to his plate. "Jack...I know it's not allowed in griffin culture, but...do you want to be supportive rather than protective?"
Jack looked away. "it's...complicated. The supportive mates are so much stronger than the protective ones. It's a lot of 'let the man think he's in charge' while really, the women run everything. It's toxic, and I hate it. You saw it with my parents - Ma spent hours in the kitchen making the food, but Pa's the one who brings it to her like he's gone out and killed it himself, and no one eats until he takes the first bite. I want more than that. I want to pull my own weight. I want to be a real partner, not..." he trailed off, making frustrated hand gestures.
"A trophy husband?" Gabriel asked. "A useless ass like Stephen?"
"Something like that. I mean, I'm not saying I'm bad at being a protector, but..." Jack shook his head. "You're so much better at it than I am. You're a natural. I just want to take care of you, so you can keep being the amazing protector you are and know that I've got your back whether it's providing cover fire in a fight or being there to massage your shoulders at the end of a long day."
Wordlessly, Gabriel passed over his fork. Then he leaned against the griffin, relaxing slightly at the familiar arm around his waist. Jack fed him a bite, then took a bite of his own breakfast, and was ready with another bite when Gabriel swallowed.
"I used to fantasize about finding someone - not a griffin - but someone of another species who would let me share the domestic responsibilities. Cooking side by side in the kitchen. Washing dishes together. Helping fold the sheets when we did laundry. Someone who would also stand by my side and fight if we ever had to fight."
"Your dad's gonna throw a fit," Gabriel said lazily between bites. "Because I am so down for that. I mean, if we didn't live in the Reaper mansion with golem servants."
"That's why I'm feeding you, and we'll spar later." Jack laid a kiss on Gabriel's temple. "Besides, it might not last. I don't know why Torbjörn has apparently defected from Overwatch to serving the Reaper, but I suspect that he might not stay depending on how this case plays out."
"Now I want to see how good a cook you are," Gabriel teased.
Jack flushed slightly. "I'd be glad to show you more than deer on a campfire sometime."
"Hey, don't knock that, that was the best meal I had in two days."
It took a couple of bites before Jack said, "I'd say your standards are too low, but then I remember the amazing meal you ordered that first lunch."
"See? I know what I'm talking about." He paused for a few bites. "Jack? Don't let me take you for granted, okay? You're amazing and I don't want to forget that and treat you like shit."
"Do you really think you'll do that?"
"No. I'm just scared I'll fuck this up somehow."
Jack kissed his temple again. "Don't worry, you'll be fine; you have me."
Gabriel laughed.
===
When it was time for Gabriel's lessons, they went to the library to find that Angela looked like she hadn't slept in two days.
"Everything okay?" Gabriel asked warily.
The harpy plucked nervously at a few feathers. "Amelie and I are...having temporary difficulties."
In other words, they were fighting. Gabriel decided to keep his mouth shut on the entire subject of relationships. "So...can I learn about werewolves today?"
Angela flashed him a fragile, relieved smile. "Of course."
Lessons, Reaper practice, and physical training all went smoothly (and delightfully - the addition of kisses made everything better) for the rest of the day, and the two following. Amelie was absent for meals, at first, but apparently the harpies made up or came to an agreement because she was there on the third day. Then, on the morning of the 29th, Gabriel woke up coughing up and sneezing out black goo. His body was making one last-ditch effort to fight off the entity it was hosting, and Angela firmly canceled his entire schedule.
"Then I want to go back to my apartment," Gabriel said in what tried to be a hard voice but came out sulky. "I want my phone, I want my laptop, I want my clothes."
"Impossible. You are in no condition to travel-"
"Then drive me! This place should have a garage with something that doesn't require livestock pulling it. I refuse to believe that no Reaper in the last half a century didn't own a car."
Angela chewed her lip absently for a moment. "I will check. Jack-"
"I'm coming with him," the griffin said firmly, offering Gabriel another tissue as a sneezing fit took him.
"Absolutely not!" Angela's cheeks pinked slightly. "It's too much of a security risk."
Gabriel wadded up his tissue and dropped it in the bucket. "Looks like I'll be teleporting, then-"
"Absolutely not!"
"Then find a vehicle that works and drive me there."
Mantle and harpy stared at each other. Angela's eyes dropped first.
"Put me in the cuffs," Jack said quietly.
"Jack-"
"That way," he continued, talking over Gabriel, "you can be assured that I won't take the opportunity to try to escape, and neither will Gabriel."
Angela met the griffin's gaze for a long minute, then nodded. "Very well. I will see what vehicles are available."
Jack hugged Gabriel as he started coughing again. "Thank you," he said for both of them.
Angela fled.
=
Gabriel stared. Beside him, Jack stared as well. Angela seemed embarrassed to even be seen near the van.
"That's..."
"The Grim Reaper," Gabriel confirmed.
Jack shook his head, as if that would make the image go away. "Riding..."
"A unicorn. With a rainbow mane and tail. Through space."
"Why?"
Gabriel shrugged. "It was the seventies, so probably drugs."
"There's a little heart-shaped window."
"Yeah, it was a thing." Gabriel grinned at Angela. "How's the interior?"
The harpy blushed. Deeply.
Gabriel sneezed into a tissue. "Oh, this I have to see."
The interior was plushly upholstered in a rich purple, even the ceiling, with a small chandelier lit by what seemed to be magical blacklights. The mini-fridge built into the side was still cold and stocked. The front seats were also plush and upholstered in purple, but at least they looked really comfortable. Two steps led up to a pentagonal 'doorway' and Gabriel couldn't help but smirk as he looked inside. The mattress was firm but giving, the sheets were black silk, there was a sun roof and a shelf in one corner with a TV. Pillows crowded every corner.
"I fucking love it," he breathed.
Jack made an uncertain sound. "This seems a little...over-the-top."
"Shut up, it's perfect. When can we go?"
"Can you even drive this thing?" Jack asked Angela.
The harpy looked more uncomfortable. "The Reaper who was responsible for it magically altered the mechanisms. It is simple to control and charges through exposure to the sun."
"A solar-powered shaggin' wagon," Gabriel murmured in satisfaction. "This is a work of fuckin' art."
"The drive to Gabriel's apartment will take approximately two and a half hours," Angela said. "It is almost ten. If we leave at ten, we can have lunch and then you will have plenty of time to pack Gabriel's things and bring them down, and we can be home well before dinner."
"Grab some bottled water, a box of tissues, and a garbage bag," Gabriel said, rubbing his hands together. "Bucket just in case. Everyone hit the bathroom, we're going on a road trip."
=
The road trip was less enjoyable than Gabriel had hoped, although not because the van was lacking. Amelie came along "to keep Angela company" and they kept the radio on some bizarre station that played annoying songs in French. Gabriel assured the imaginary cat that it didn't have to translate. On top of that, the constant coughing and sneezing had him more exhausted than he thought he would be. But the bed in the van was still comfortable, being held by Jack was still comforting, and the promise of regular old fast food was surprisingly strong. He was wearing his POLICE hoodie, with all his things in the pockets, and since the harpies couldn't exactly go through drive-through without being seen and possibly detected that meant he and Jack got a chance to stretch their legs and go into a Burger King.
The rest of the trip through LA was uneventful, Jack and Gabriel sitting in the back eating burgers and fries and sharing a handful of kisses.
"We're here," Angela announced as the van pulled into the cramped parking lot. "Amelie and I will wait here for you."
Gabriel climbed out of bed, out of the van, and stretched while Jack did the same. He leaned back into the van and smirked. "I promise I won't teleport away with Jack and leave you here." A beat while Angela looked horrified, and he added, "I'm not leaving this sweet ride behind."
Chuckling, he grabbed Jack's hand and led him into the building.
Lucio looked up at the door opening, then sat up sharply and took his headphones off. "Gabriel! My man!"
"Lucio!" Grinning, he did the fistbump/handshake. "I was right - got a promotion up north, effective immediately. This is the first chance I've gotten to come back for my stuff."
"I guess that explains the friend?"
"Yeah, met Jack like two days after me and Liao were here, and we hit it off. Real friends help you move, right? Anyway, I'm gonna go up and clear my stuff. Anything that's left when I'm gone? Sell it, keep it, give it away, whatever you think is best. And tell the abuelas I will miss every single one of them."
"You got it, my man." Lucio offered him a firm handshake. "It was good having you, we're all gonna miss you, but I'm glad you're moving on to bigger and better. you make sure they realize how lucky they are to have you, up north. Got it?"
Gabriel smiled. "I promise."
Once they were in the elevator, Jack said, "Landlord? He sounded nice."
"Yeah, he was real chill. I'm gonna miss him. I'm gonna miss all of them." He nuzzled the griffin briefly. "But I have you."
It was surreal, being in his apartment again after the dream and the abduction. His phone was on the coffee table, where he'd left it, but unplugged. He ignored it for the moment. The dish had been reclaimed, but his glass and spoon were still sitting on the kitchen table.
The door to his bedroom was open.
"I'm gonna change into something with pockets," he told Jack. "There should be a laptop bag in the front closet..."
Jack kissed him lightly. "Go for it. I'll get started."
In the end, it took a few trips to transport everything Gabriel wanted to keep. Clothes, both clean and dirty, in plastic garbage bags and his giant laundry bag. Laptop, phone, chargers. Some books. The small fireproof file safe with all his important papers and photos in it. A small backpack of his personal effects. He really didn't have much, which lent itself unfortunately to the idea that he was destined to become the Reaper. Jack insisted on taking the linens off his bed because they smelled like him; Gabriel shrugged and tossed his pillows and blankets in as well. Jack wound up taking most of it down, grabbing full bags and vanishing while Gabriel packed.
Finally, there was nothing left. Gabriel stood in the living room, feeling surreal that he was leaving and more surreal that he wasn't more upset about it. Then he followed Jack out and locked the door behind him. As they rode the elevator down, he examined his keys. He really didn't have any that were there for nostalgia - chucked those years ago - and aside from the apartment keys, everything else was police business. Even the keyring was a generic, nondescript thing he'd gotten for a buck fifty some ten or fifteen years ago at a hardware store or someplace.
"This is it?" Lucio asked as Gabriel and Jack approached with the bags of bedding.
"This is it. I'm gonna miss you," Gabriel told him. He laid the keyring on the counter. "This one's for apartment keys," he said, pointing at one ring. "If Liao shows up looking for me, give her the others."
"You got it, man."
They exchanged one final fistbump/handshake, and then Gabriel was walking to the van and leaving his mortal life behind him.
===
Gabriel slept most of the way back, his exhausted body surrendering to the entity it hosted, the imaginary cat purring as Jack held him. He woke up hungry when they reached Santa Barbara, and after only a little argument convinced Angela to stop for pizza. He and Jack ate in the back and Amelie ate in the front seat while Angela drove, but once they reached the forest, the harpies switched places. Angela got a chance to eat while Amelie drove them the last leg of the trip back to the mansion. Once they'd stopped, Angela got halfway through a patronizing comment about Gabriel not over-exerting himself before the imaginary cat hissed. A dozen shadow tendrils wrapped around Jack and all of Gabriel's belongings, and he teleported to his room with everything including his griffin.
It was some time later before Angela came to check on them, and she found them sorting through clothes. There was a tense conversation about the room that would be Gabriel's once his adjustment period had completed, including the fact that when the harpies had murdered the previous Mantle, they hadn't actually gotten rid of the body. Gabriel demanded that happen as soon as he was fully fledged, and also ordered a nest box be built to the specifications of Jack's griffin body as well as a new king-sized bed. Jack expressed surprise that Gabriel would be so...welcoming regarding his natural shape, to which Gabriel expressed outrage for anyone who had implicitly accepted him in spite of what he was and only tolerated his griffin side rather than embracing it. He got kissed for that, and apparently that's when Angela realized that they'd gone from friends to something more.
Angela left shortly after that, somewhat shaken. Jack and Gabriel discussed what, exactly, their relationship was and the meanings and connotations various words held for both of them. They settled on mates, and then celebrated that decision with kissing and some play-fighting.
When Gabriel's phone was fully charged, he braced himself and turned it on. There were 17 voicemails from Liao and almost twice that many missed calls. Jack took one look at the expression on Gabriel's face, read off a sequence of numbers, and told him to dial it and put the call on speaker. It took seven rings before someone picked up, but the look on Jack's face as they listened to it ring said it would be worth it.
Then Ana said "Hello?" and the next hour passed in a rush of catching up and sharing news.
By the time Gabriel was ready for bed, he was ready to call this the best day of his life...but only because the delight of becoming mates with Jack was divided between semi-inebriated kissing on Christmas and confirming things once sober the next morning.
Jack and Gabriel spent New Year's Eve at Ana's, Gabriel meeting Lena and Fareeha and the griffin catching up with them. They told the story of Gabriel's abduction, rescue, near-capture, escape, and capture again, culminating in him hosting the Reaper within his body. Then Gabriel did tricks, showing off the shadow tendrils, translocation, and the teleporting hand. The imaginary cat was beside itself with excitement at getting so much positive attention. The news that Angela had been an accessory to the murder of several of their friends went over less well, complete with a more-than-tipsy Ana formally revoking the harpy's welcome under her roof and gifting her room to Jack and Gabriel instead.
"Should we tell her?" Gabriel asked fuzzily as he drank a last glass of water before settling down to sleep.
In what had been Angela's nestlike bed, Jack yawned. "I'll handle it. Come to bed, Gabe. I wanna preen your hair."
That made Gabriel chuckle as he lay down and let the griffin pull him closer. "I don't have enough hair to preen, Jack."
"Too bad. I'm gonna preen what's there."
"You're drunk, Jack."
"Lil' bit. Gabe?"
"Hm?"
"If you give me a nickname, don't make it Jackie? Ma calls me that and it makes me feel like she's not seeing me as an adult."
Gabriel nuzzled his mate's chest briefly. "Hmm. I don't want to use anything too cutesy, because I don't want to say it and you're not cutesy."
"Not even as a griffin?"
"Nope. Noble, majestic, terrifying, and endearing. Not cute."
Jack paused in what was either kissing or licking Gabriel's hair. "I think that's a relief, but I'm drunk."
"Mmmmm. Not mi rey, because I'm not your bitch. I could use mi sol but you're white, not gold, and mi luna doesn't sound manly enough for you."
"Manly nickname for a manly mate," Jack muttered, mock-growling into Gabriel's hair. "Manly Mantle's manly mate."
Gabriel smiled into the griffin's chest. "You're drunk," he said warmly, "but I love you."
"Love you too," Jack murmured.
Love. That was it. Gabriel tilted his head up and kissed Jack, slow and tender. "Good night, amorcito."
"Mmm. G'night, Gabe."
The imaginary cat prowled between them, confused as to why they weren't doing...anything else. Other Mantles had gone from kissing to grappling in situations like this.
I'm not other Mantles, Gabriel thought firmly. I don't want to do those things, even if I love him.
The imaginary cat looked at him, head tilted to one side. Wasn't the grappling what was supposed to happen?
Silently, Gabriel growled at it. Damn it, they didn't have to fuck! They could be a happy, healthy couple without being sexually active!
Startled, the imaginary cat clunk away. It hadn't meant to make Gabriel upset!
Gabriel sighed and mentally apologized to the cat, one hand out to offer pettings. He was just so tired of everything being about sex. He knew the cat was still learning, it wasn't the cat's fault.
The cat, for its part, seemed relieved that Gabriel wasn't angry - but also that sex wasn't a requirement.
This is my life now, Gabriel thought with a resigned - but not unhappy - sigh. Teaching consent to the embodiment of violent murder. But then...it had never asked to be the embodiment of violent murder, had it? Poor thing was just doing what it was told, the only thing it thought was right.
Liao's a shitty mother, was his last thought before sleep dragged him down.
That's not to say, of course, that there weren't rough patches. There seemed to be some sort of conflict between the harpies, leading Angela to look frazzled while Amelie sulked and avoided the rest of them. Gabriel did a lot of thinking about how comfortable he was wrapped in Jack's arms, and if it was truly just because he trusted the griffin to not turn on him for having been raised as a girl or if it was...something more. Was he reacting to the romantic implications human culture ascribed to this level of physical contact? Would he be jealous if Jack cuddled another man? And would he want to cuddle a man who wasn't Jack?
That last one, at least, got a resounding no. Unless it was a life-threatening situation, Gabriel would not be comfortable with another man - another person - sharing his personal space while he slept. He wouldn't be upset at Jack cuddling anyone else so long as he didn't reject Gabriel to do it. And the idea of jack just casually planting a kiss against his jaw made him feel warm and giddy.
But he still didn't want to fuck.
Gabriel went to sleep on Christmas Eve wondering what that said about his feelings.
===
Christmas morning dawned with Jack sleepily nibbling on Gabriel's ear.
"The hell?" Gabriel murmured, not quite awake yet. "Jack? Are you biting my ear?"
The teeth vanished, but so did the warmth of the griffin's body.
Gabriel rolled over and frowned. "Jack?"
The griffin was sitting up and blushing a deep red, from his neck to the tips of his ears. "Sorry."
"It didn't hurt," Gabriel assured him. "Just wasn't expecting it."
Jack looked away, hands kneading the blanket anxiously. "Sorry. I got...carried away."
"Jack..." Gabriel sat up and hugged the griffin from behind, pressing his cheek to the back of that blushing neck. "It's okay. Merry Christmas."
Two hands covered Gabriel's, and Jack seemed to center himself with that touch. "Merry Christmas, Gabe."
They didn't talk about it during breakfast or while getting dressed, Gabriel changing in the bathroom as usual. Neither of them mentioned it when, at quarter of ten, they teleported to a little clearing about a 15-minute walk from the Morrison house. They did hold hands as they walked, and the silence was comfortable. Turned out, Gabriel discovered while he was practicing, that this had been one of the places the Reaper had brought him to on that first day. Some of the places he had figured out held emotional significance to the entity. This one was a puzzle. Regardless, the imaginary cat seemed content to drape itself across Gabriel's sweater-clad shoulders and nap, and he wasn't about to question its complacency.
Jack knocked on the door and Gabriel mentally prepared himself for being dismissed and talked over, just like some of the police balls he'd accompanied Liao to. The woman who opened the door a few seconds later looked like every farmer's wife stereotype shoved into one gaudy holiday sweater and a dark-blue ankle length skirt.
"Jackie! You're here early!" she exclaimed as she hugged him tightly and then released him. Her blue eyes flickered to Gabriel and back to her son.
"I wanted to introduce you to my friend Gabriel," Jack said.
Mary Morrison frowned in motherly disapproval. "Jackie..."
"I know," Jack said evenly. "He's male, and he's human. Pa's not going to like it."
A little bit of the disapproval went away. "You told him, then?"
"I stole him from a harpy who was abducting him. Yes, Ma, he knows what I am."
She eyed Gabriel again. After three seconds, he deliberately lowered his eyes and bowed his head, demonstrating submission. "Hmph. Friend, you said? You don't have to use euphemisms with me, Jackie."
Jack sighed. "Fine. We're sharing a bed."
Mary smiled and patted his cheek. "There, was that so hard? Bring him in, it's cold for a human and your father has a good fire going. Show him the hoard and then bring him into the kitchen so I can get to know him while I cook."
"Of course, Ma."
Jack waved Gabriel inside as Mary retreated. The farmhouse was huge, with a very generous dining room in the front corner and a roomy kitchen in the back, staircase nestled between them. Fully half the house, it seemed, was an enormous living room with a handful of couches and several easy chairs scattered all around what looked like a sandbox in the middle of the room, six feet to a side with walls knee high. Only instead of sand, there was a seven-foot pile of gold in all shapes and forms inside it and iron poles in the corners held chicken wire that had been wrapped around them.
"My parents' hoard," Jack said quietly. "The chicken wire is just because not all of the kids in the family are old enough to know better than to filch from another griffin's hoard."
"You hoard guns," Gabriel realized. "Nice collection!"
Jack flushed slightly in pleasure. "Thanks. Listen, my mother's probably going to tell stories about John and Jane. Don't ask questions. John was my older brother, died before I was born. Jane's a younger sister, disowned for lifestyle choices."
Gabriel arched one eyebrow.
"She ran off with a dragon and lives a life of luxury. Servants take care of everything. She's not running the household."
"Got it."
"Alright, let's go introduce you to Ma."
Mary looked over as they stepped into the kitchen.
"Ma, this is Gabriel." Jack gestured him forward.
Again, Gabriel met her eyes for a count of three and then bowed.
"Well, he seems well-behaved. Go and tell your father."
Jack nodded, squeezed Gabriel's shoulder briefly, and left to rattle up the stairs.
"Tell me about yourself," Mary said, turning back to what she was doing at the stove.
Fuck. They hadn't anticipated this. "I grew up in Los Angeles. Got into a lot of fights at school. Went into law enforcement to protect people, but when I met Jack, I knew I couldn't go back to my human life." Hopefully, that would be enough.
"You're quite spirited, for a human," Mary said with a hint of approval. "Tell me how you met him."
"It's like he said," Gabriel started. "I was being literally carried off by a harpy and Jack just...wham, right into her, grabbed me and dove. Landed in a clearing, checked me over to make sure I wasn't hurt, and then took me back to his nest."
"Oh, my. That was quite...forward of him." Despite the protest, her cheeks were pinking slightly.
"It was my first time sleeping with another man," Gabriel said with total honesty. "I'm not exactly weak by human standards, but Jack makes me feel...safe."
That pleased her, he could tell. "And what about...other aspects?"
"I make sure he has clothes and a clean living space, and I've introduced him to a number of foods he's never had." It was technically true; she didn't need to know about the golems. "We're both very physically active, so I make sure neither of us goes hungry."
Two sets of feet on the stairs.
"Oh, here comes my husband. He's quite an aggressive male, so make sure to mind your manners."
Nervously, Gabriel faced the door and kept his eyes on the floor. He could see two sets of boots enter, Jack behind his father, and the imaginary cat woke up. Then it did something Gabriel wasn't expecting: it settled back down, purring.
"This is him?" a new voice said gruffly. "He's sick."
"What do you mean, Pa?" Jack sounded nervous, too.
"He's got whatever your Great-Uncle Alfred had. I can smell it on him."
Well, that explained a number of things. Gabriel wondered if Alfred had been a lion-headed griffin.
"You, human."
"Gabriel, Pa."
"Gabriel. Look at me."
Gabriel raised his head, met John's eyes for a count of five, then lowered his gaze.
"You sure he can provide for you?" John demanded.
"He's done okay so far, Pa. It's been a lot to adjust to. He was the protector of a fairly large human pride."
"Hmph."
"Dear," Mary said, "the lamb still has a few hours to go but I suspect Louise and her bunch are going to arrive soon so the children can rest. Go out front and greet them, would you?"
John hmphed again, but left the kitchen.
"Very well done, you two," Mary said in a warm tone. "And he's right, Gabriel is sick with whatever Alfred had. He always just said it was something terminal, but human medicine must have found a way to cure it because your friend Liao had it, but she got over it."
Jack and Gabriel exchanged a startled look.
"Go show him the rest of the house, dear."
"Yes, Ma," Jack said obediently, gesturing for Gabriel to follow.
=
"So Great-Uncle Alfred was a Mantle," Gabriel said once the door to Jack's old room had closed behind them. "Tell me about him?"
Jack sat on the bed and absently patted the mattress beside him, putting his arm just as absently around Gabriel when he sat. "I don't remember much. He died when I was pretty young. He was Pa's favorite relative, though. Told great stories. And actually, he's my Great-Great-Uncle. Great-Grandmother's brother."
"The Great-Grandmother who's going to be here?" Gabriel asked dryly.
"Shit. She's going to know."
"Think she'll say anything?"
Jack turned and nuzzled the fuzz that passed for Gabriel's hair. "I don't know."
"Well, at least we know why the Reaper brought me here on my first day. And it recognized your dad in a good way."
"So it's going to be more relaxed than you?" Jack teased.
Gabriel snorted in amusement. "Probably."
"My room is safe; just let me know if you need an escort."
Gabriel grimaced. "As much as I despise the idea of hiding in your room...better safe than sorry."
=
Louise (the lion-headed cousin, Gabriel remembered) and her husband and their three children were there when Jack led Gabriel back downstairs. The kids were piled up on one of the couches, napping, and Jack made introductions before catching up with Louise and leaving Gabriel to make awkward small talk with Tybalt, who'd married into the family. Apparently having a lion's head emphasized the social aspects, and female lion-headed griffins were highly desirable as mates while males tended to be...less traditional. Mating outside the species, not mating at all, and taking more than one griffin mate at the same time were all common for males with lion heads. Thus, Tybalt explained patronizingly, he wasn't surprised to see Jack with a human mate.
Gabriel gritted his teeth, nodded, and smiled.
Thankfully, other relative arrived and the children woke up and the imaginary cat recognized enough uncles and cousins that it was perfectly content. There were a handful of comments comparing Gabriel's scent to Alfred's, but Jack brushed aside the worry (and it was worry, which surprised Gabriel) with reassurance that he was getting treatment from a human doctor.
Then Great-Grandma Isabella arrived, and Gabriel nearly bolted for the stairs.
Once the rest of the relatives had paid their respects and the ancient griffin was ensconced in a chair as though it were her throne, Jack came over to him looking quietly anxious.
"She wants to meet me?" Gabriel asked quietly. Jack nodded. "Figured."
The imaginary cat was practically pacing back and forth with eager anticipation. Gabriel followed Jack to the corner chair Isabella was tucked into, by the fireplace.
"Grandma, this is my mate Gabriel."
The ancient griffin peered at him with sharp amber eyes. "Sit," she commanded, pointing to a footstool that Jack immediately brought over and placed beside her chair.
Gabriel sat.
"Your scent reminds me of my brother," she announced in a strangely-accented voice. One hand rested on his head, fingers absently stroking the fuzz as though preening feathers that weren't there...or combing through a mane. "He was lion-headed, like Jackie. A good man. Strong protector. Are you a good man, Gabriel?"
"Yes." He didn't have to pretend there, at least.
"Tell me. Tell me about yourself. Tell me about your human pride."
Gabriel told stories, starting with protecting the bullied kids in high school and ending with the neighborhood calling him with 'anonymous tips' when they'd been victims of a crime. How, sometimes, when the law failed to protect the members of his pride, he gathered a group of youths and they took it upon themselves to teach outsiders that this territory had guardians.
"A good, strong protector," she said quietly. "You will do much good if you remember who you are."
"Thank you," he said somewhat awkwardly.
Isabella looked around, noting that no one was paying attention to them. Even Jack was playing with the children.
"Does it remember me?" she asked quickly, her bright eyes piercing as she looked at him.
He swallowed. "Very fondly. You, and Jack's dad, and some of the uncles and cousins."
The ancient griffin crooned happily. "My brother had it for many years. It is good to know that something of him lives on."
"I am very grateful for your brother," Gabriel said, swallowing unexpected emotions. "Because of him, I can understand Jack when he's in his natural form."
She peered at him sideways, a very birdlike gesture. "Are you truly mates?"
Gabriel blushed, tongue-tied as the truth and the lie he kind of wanted to be true collided in his throat and choked him.
"I will ask when we meet again," she said in a gleeful cackle. "My birthday is in April. You and Jack will attend."
It wasn't a question or an invitation. "Yes, ma'am," he replied obediently.
Jack's dad approached them, meeting his grandmother's eyes for five seconds before lowering his head. "Dinner is ready to be served," he said meekly.
"Good; I'm hungry. Gabriel, help me to the table."
"Yes, ma'am."
As chivalrously as he could manage, he helped the family matriarch out of the chair and into the dining room, where she settled into the padded chair at the head of the table. The rest of the family began to stream in, Jack grabbing Gabriel's arm and pushing him into a chair close to the head of the table. It made him a little nervous, displacing some relative like that, especially since he'd been politely ignored most of the afternoon-
Well. Not quite, now that he was thinking about it. He'd been politely ignored by the men, but the women had been politely curious. He wasn't sure if that was some reflection on the gender roles, or just some family prejudice, although Louise had seemed pretty friendly once she'd caught up with Jack.
The imaginary cat being so perfectly at ease the whole time had certainly helped settle his nerves at being in a room full of potentially-hostile giant predators.
Once everyone had taken seats and voiced anticipation for the food on the table - which did smell amazing - Great-Grandma Isabella cleared her throat and said a little speech that wasn't quite a blessing or a prayer but something in between. Then she effectively declared open season on the food and Jack's dad leaped up with her plate to fill it. All the men, he noticed, were filling plates that belonged to their wives.
Jack grabbed Gabriel's plate. "What would you like?"
"Uh...lamb, stuffing, potatoes, whatever else you think I'll like. Thank you."
He turned away, but Gabriel could see a pink tinge to his cheeks.
Once the protectors had made sure their mates had food, they served themselves, but no one touched their food until wine had been poured and Jack's dad took the first, ceremonial bite. Then the feasting began. Compliments on the food dominated conversation for a few minutes, and then it settled into more catching-up and bragging because John's brothers and their wives and adult children had arrived only shortly before the meal was served. There was a lot of chatter over whose kids were doing what, how much people had added to their hoards, and what they were up to aside from that.
The one across from Jack, Stephen, finished chatting with John and Mary and turned to their son. "Jack! Haven't seen you in a while. You look good for your age!"
Jack demurred politely, but privately, Gabriel found himself agreeing.
"And who's your friend? I don't think I've heard a word out of him. That is a male human, right? It's so easy to get them mixed up."
Gabriel almost choked on his bite of lamb. "Didn't want to interrupt," he muttered, keeping his eyes on his plate because Stephen was rubbing him the wrong way, and imaginary cat purring or no, he was pretty sure his eyes were glowing.
"Gabriel," answered Jack.
"And here I thought he was just shy. I guess you've got him pretty well-trained, though."
Jack's other hand fisted on his leg, and Gabriel silently urged him to think of a come-back because he was not trusting anything that came out of his mouth right now.
"He's just a little overwhelmed. This is his first time around so many nonhumans."
Not good enough, Gabriel thought furiously, nudging Jack's ankle with his foot.
Stephen nodded with a sound of understanding and smiled at Gabriel in a distinctly condescending way. "You don't have to worry, Jack's the most ferocious griffin this side of the Mississippi. He's a good protector. Of course, I live on the other side, and he doesn't really hold a candle..."
"We'll see after dinner," Jack said tightly.
Melody, Stephen's wife, leaned in. "He's certainly handsome, and he looks pretty strong. Did he let you lead without a fight, or did you have to...break him in?"
Unhelpfully, Jack stammered out an incoherent denial while blushing.
"Jack," drawled Stephen, "don't be shy. We're not as strict as your father. Although..." he smirked at Gabriel. "I think he's a little too...virile for my tastes. But you always did like a challenge."
Melody elbowed her husband jokingly. "You know he'd get bored with a small, submissive man. And he does look pretty strong..."
"He can certainly be a handful," Jack agreed, still blushing to the tips of his ears.
Okay, enough was enough. Gabriel drew on a lifetime of bluster, centered himself, and raised his eyes to meet Stephen's solidly. "I'm almost too much man for Jack," he smirked.
...three, four, five, hold it...
Stephen's eyes widened as he realized Gabriel was deliberately holding his gaze. A dominance challenge.
...eight, nine, ten...
A blink, and Stephen looked at Jack with an almost panicked expression of outrage, like how dare this human challenge me?
"I'd definitely be too much man for you," purred Gabriel.
Jack choked on his wine. Melody laughed.
"Oooh, he has spirit! How did you meet Jack?"
"He snatched me out of the air while a harpy was abducting me. Took me back to his nest. Showed me his hoard." Gabriel leaned back in his chair smugly. "It was huge."
He hadn't thought it was possible for Jack to blush any harder, but apparently he was wrong.
"Really." Melody's tone was speculative. "And what were you before Jack took you for his mate?"
"The protector of several city blocks in Los Angeles. No one messed with my people and got away with it."
Stephen shot Jack a hard look, and suddenly Gabriel was afraid he thought Jack was being less than manly.
Still smirking, Gabriel slid an arm around Jack's waist and leaned in to lip at one earlobe, maintaining eye contact with Stephen, before laying his head coyly on Jack's shoulder. "But once I spent the night with Jack, I knew I couldn't go back to my human life. He's the only one I want to share a bed with. Ever."
"Oooooh." Melody's eyes were sparkling. "Now that's a man."
For the second time, Stephen averted his eyes first.
Jack downed the rest of his wine, refilling his glass and Gabriel's, and it occurred to Gabriel that he had no idea how many glasses of wine he'd actually drunk. But now that he was thinking about it, he could feel the warm flush and guessed he was probably solidly into tipsy. Fuck. Well, that explained where his inhibitions had gone.
Thankfully, no one else talked to him for the rest of the meal.
===
Children, it turned out, were the only ones in griffin families that got presents. Something about them being old enough to want to hoard but too young to actually gather things for their hoards themselves. Once the kids had ripped open their presents, the adults tucked them into chairs and onto couches with blankets to nap while everyone else went out for the traditional post-dinner fights.
Each adult - except the champion - fought two fights. One against their mate (or a single griffin of the opposite gender), and the other against someone their own gender. Sometimes, this was a grudge match or challenge. The rest of the time, it was determined by age or how quickly they'd finished their fight. To be eligible to fight the champion, a griffin had to win both of their fights. That usually eliminated the majority, but some years more than one griffin managed it and it was on them to decide amongst themselves who would fight the champion.
As adult griffins went out to the front yard and spread out around the circle scarred into the grass, Gabriel and Jack stayed on the porch with Great-Grandma Isabella, who was bundled warmly into a wicker chair.
Stephen and Melody were the first fight, for reasons Gabriel didn't understand or care about. Melody handed him his ass with ease.
"He was right," Gabriel said teasingly. "You don't hold a candle. You hold the entire candelabra."
Isabella cackled quietly. "Jack, you know what your friend is?"
"A treasure?" Jack joked, blushing slightly.
She made a small, approving sound. "You know what he holds, what he carries within."
"He knows I'm the Reaper."
"Good, good." She cocked her head in that birdlike motion, watching them sidelong. "My brother told me it is like a child that does not know its own strength or understand the consequences of its actions. Be firm but gentle, do not let it have its way simply because it wants something, and you will be a good Mantle. The more you give in to it, the less control you will have."
"It's not that bad," Gabriel found himself saying. "It wants to help. It just needs things explained sometimes."
"It still over-reacts," Jack added dryly.
Gabriel remembered the killing rage he'd found himself in when he learned the conditions Jack had been kept in. "It wants to help," he repeated. "But yeah, it needs to learn what an appropriate reaction is."
Isabella was looking at them fondly. "You, Jack, take care of him. Help him remember who he is. And you, Gabriel, watch out for Jack. And both of you," she cackled, "come to my birthday party in April."
"She'll be two hundred and fifty," Jack informed Gabriel.
"Oh, we have to be there. Maybe I can find something for your hoard." Or maybe he could go find that sphinx and have her design something for a griffin matriarch.
"Such a nice boy you found," Isabella teased.
They watched the fights in silence after that, Gabriel shamelessly leaning into Jack's one-armed embrace because it was cold out. Louise and Mary both defeated their husbands, easily and with difficulty respectively, and each pair of combatants licked the other's wounds when they were done to ensure no hard feelings. Louise faced Melody and had her squalling surrender within seconds; Mary faced another of Jack's aunts by marriage and was defeated - but the aunt had surrendered to her husband, who had in turn lost to Mark the single father, who had been paired with and lost to an unmarried cousin, who...
In the end, Louise was the only double-victor and Jack grinned as she roared at him from the center of the circle. Better kiss your mate for luck, she said in the rumbling lion language. You're going to need it, cousin.
"What do you think," Jack asked him. "Should I give her a fighting chance?"
Gabriel's heart leaped and his wine-loosened lips betrayed him. "Kick her ass with everything you've got."
Jack tugged him into a proper embrace, lips searingly soft against Gabriel's, and then he was clattering down the steps and shifting into his birth form while Gabriel prayed the cold air would extinguish the fire on his cheeks.
It was awe-inspiring and viscerally terrifying to his primitive monkey brain to see two creatures with the front halves of lions and the back halves of giant eagles spread their wings and roar in deliberate displays of posturing. Louise was tawny and seemed to glow in the dying light of the day; Jack was pale as the moon and looked like a ghost. Then they lunged for each other, growling and snapping and slashing.
As fights go, this one was dirty. They pounced and rolled, raking at bellies with sharp hind claws, biting at wings with feline teeth, clawing at furry flanks and leaving deep gouges that dripped blood. The imaginary cat was way more chill about this than Gabriel was. He barely remembered to breathe, he was so tense watching Jack's coat get splattered with scarlet. It seemed like forever before the maned griffin got his cousin on the ground, one forepaw on a golden wing and teeth on the back of her neck.
You got me, she roared almost pitifully. I give up, you win.
As the other family members cheered, Jack let her up and they licked the wounds they'd caused. Beside Gabriel, Isabella muttered breathe and he sucked in a deep lungful of air, only then noticing that his fists were clenched so tightly that they ached.
A still-bloody but clearly pleased Jack bounded up to the porch and reared briefly to lick Gabriel's face with his lion tongue before shifting back to human. "What did you think?" he asked breathlessly.
"Well done, champion," Gabriel grinned back.
"You need to thank your mate for that luck!" Melody called, laughter in her voice.
Stephen, by comparison, sounded sulky when he shouted, "Celebrate your victory with your family! Your mate can wait!"
"I'm the champion," Jack shot back, grinning. "You can be patient for a minute while I collect congratulations for my win."
Gabriel could see the split second of hesitation in Jack's eyes as he realized what he'd volunteered Gabriel for. Throwing caution to the wind, he wrapped his arms around the griffin's torso and pressed his lips against Jack's. He could feel that warm, sturdy body relax, arms going around Gabriel, and tentatively, the searingly soft lips moved against his. Cheering and applause from the rest of the family made both of them blush.
"Time for dessert!" Mary declared, leading the herd of hooting relatives past them and back into the house.
"You want dessert?" Jack asked softly, forehead pressed against Gabriel's.
"Mm. Not in front of your family. The wine..."
"Shit, yeah. Sorry," Jack said, releasing him. "You go to my room, I'll bring you water and pie."
"Sounds good."
Thankfully, everyone's attention was on pie and no one noticed Gabriel slipping upstairs. He sat on Jack's old bed wondering if he'd fucked everything up. Obviously Jack's kiss had been for show. And, just as obviously, so had their second kiss. They were just friends.
But Gabriel's stomach twisted, and he realized that he wanted them to be more.
It was a couple of minutes before Jack's footsteps heralded his approach and he kicked the door to his room shut behind him. One hand held a glass of water, which he offered to Gabriel. The other held a plate with two slices of pumpkin pie slathered in whipped cream but only one fork.
"You can eat first," he said, blushing as he sat beside Gabriel. "Ma thinks we're going to feed each other romantically."
Gabriel sipped his water. "You're the champion, you eat first."
Jack gave him a look that said, are you sure? but picked up the fork and started on his pie.
"It was incredible, watching you fight," Gabriel said into the depths of his glass. "Your great-grandmother had to remind me to breathe."
"Does this mean you're going to okay that all-out sparring match I've been wanting?" Jack teased.
"Maybe."
They sat in silence for a minute while Jack ate and Gabriel drank. He wanted to do something to demonstrate that the kiss wasn't just for show, but his wine-muddled brain wasn't helping him out. Then Jack reached across him to put the plate on the bedside table, and he knew it was now or never.
"Jack?" he said, lifting his head to look at the griffin.
Jack turned to look at him. "Hm?"
Blindly, Gabriel shoved the now-empty glass onto the bedside table with one hand, the other on the back of Jack's neck, urging his head closer as he leaned in and kissed the griffin.
For a terrifying moment, those scarred lips were unyielding beneath his, but then they moved slightly as Jack put one hand on Gabriel's hip and brought the other up to caress his cheek.
"How much did you have to drink with dinner?" Jack asked lightly as the kiss ended.
Gabriel's heart shriveled and he turned away. "Not enough to blame my actions on."
Silence.
"...Gabe?"
"I like you," he said sullenly, despair painting a picture of him going back to the mansion alone, facing his bed alone, having to explain to the imaginary cat why neither of them were getting gentle pettings anymore. "If you don't...feel the same way...just tell me. Don't leave me in suspense. Just break my heart and get it over with."
"I could never do that," Jack said, his voice soft and warm, his arms sliding around Gabriel's torso. "I like you, too. I didn't want to assume - didn't dare hope you had feelings for me."
Fuck. They were both insecure idiots. Gabriel leaned back into Jack's embrace, telling himself firmly that he was not a weepy drunk, he would not cry.
"We'll need to talk about this tomorrow, when we're both sober," Jack murmured. "And...we need to go slow, because the Reaper is given to unhealthy attachments as well as fits of violent temper. Okay?"
"Okay," Gabriel breathed, barely able to think past relieved exultation that he would not be facing a life bereft of griffin cuddles.
Jack nuzzled his neck. "So...shall I feed you your pie?"
Gabriel blushed. "I won't say no."
The pie was delicious.
=
After several minutes of cuddling, they made their way back downstairs to the knowing cheers of Jack's family. True to what Jack had told him about griffins and physical contact, the couches were full of adults piled haphazardly together with no sense of concern regarding whose limbs were where. Jack had warned him the egg nog was spiked, and it looked like everyone else had hit it hard.
"We're heading out," Jack announced.
John looked at them, eyes slightly unfocused. "Not going to stay the night?"
"My old bed's barely big enough for just me," he replied.
That got assorted laughs.
They made their goodbyes and promised to keep in touch, and then they were out in the crisp night air.
"Home?" Gabriel asked.
Jack hugged him and nuzzled his neck again. "I was thinking we could spend the night in my nest."
"Griffin cuddles, fuck yes," he breathed, making Jack chuckle.
"You really like it that much?"
"When Angela lets me out of that dumb transition room, I'm gonna demand a bedroom big enough for a nest box as well as a bed."
In the dark, he couldn't see Jack's blush, but he could feel it against his skin. "I'd like that," he said softly.
"Your ravine. Alright." Make sure we get there? he asked the imaginary cat, who patted his cheek. Liquid steel filled him. "Here we go."
Gabriel reached, and the sky overhead lightened, painting the walls of the ravine in shades of bronze and gold. Jack gave him a kiss on the temple before stepping back to shift and flow into the nest cave. Gabriel waited for him to get settled before crawling in. One furry foreleg as his pillow, the other holding him to Jack's feline chest, rumbling with his purr, and a wing outstretched as his blanket. This was the life.
"Hey," he asked idly, "you said that the protector or higher-ranking griffin settles first. But what about cross-species mates? You settled first, but I'm in the protected position. What does that mean?"
Too much thinking, Jack complained in rumbling groans. Cuddles now. Think later.
"Can't argue with that," Gabriel chuckled.
Cradled by purring warmth inside and out, he slept.
===
The urgent need to pee woke him sometime past dawn, and Gabriel translocated himself to the top of the ravine to squat behind a bush and relieve himself. Then he translocated back down to find Jack looking as alarmed as a lion-faced thing can look. When he saw Gabriel re-form, he shrank down to his human shape and hugged the mantle desperately before half-dragging him back into his nest.
"Don't do that to me," Jack murmured fiercely, face buried in Gabriel's neck. "I thought you were gone!"
The display of frantic concern made Gabriel's stomach twist. "It's okay, Jack. I'm here. I just had to pee. I'm sorry I worried you."
"I was afraid you'd reconsidered last night and you'd gone back without me."
Last night. The words hit him like a punch to the gut. Kissing. Getting kissed. "That...really happened?" he asked somewhat shakily. "You have feelings for me?"
"I have feelings for you." Jack made it sound like an apology and a promise all in one. "So many feelings, Gabe. I'm sorry-"
Gabriel pulled the griffin's head up for a kiss that he hoped explained exactly how not bothered he was by this despite the fact that he'd never kissed anyone before yesterday. Something must have worked, though, because the anxious tension bled out of Jack and he practically melted, taking Gabriel with him, until he was on his back with the Mantle sprawled half across his chest.
"I'm no good at expressing feelings," Gabriel breathed when the kiss ended. "Or, at least, feelings that aren't anger. But you're the first person I've had them for."
Dazed blue eyes blinked up at him. "Really?"
"Yeah." Gabriel flopped down next to the griffin. "I've got no clue what the fuck I'm doing, just to warn you."
Jack rolled over to nuzzle Gabriel's neck again. "No worries; we're taking it slow anyway, remember?"
"You need to be more specific than that, White Bread," he teased. "What's taking it slow entail?"
"How about...until the end of January, we don't kiss below the neck and we don't touch below the waist or the nipples."
"Okay." Gabriel's stomach growled. "Sounds like time to go back."
As he made a motion to sit up, Jack held him tighter. "Gabe?"
"Yeah?"
"When I nibbled your ear yesterday morning...that was a romantic gesture." The griffin was blushing a brilliant red.
Slowly, Gabriel smiled. "That makes me feel a lot better," he said. "But I'm really hungry."
Jack lifted himself up enough to kiss Gabriel slowly, tenderly, but not as long as he wanted to. "Okay. Let's go back."
===
"Let me do it?" Jack asked as Gabriel raised a forkful of waffle towards his mouth. They were in bed with generously-loaded breakfast trays.
Gabriel quirked one eyebrow at him. "You want to feed me?"
The griffin's cheeks turned distinctly pink. "I hated seeing you treated like that yesterday. I want to make it up to you, even if you weren't offended."
He lowered the fork back to his plate. "Jack...I know it's not allowed in griffin culture, but...do you want to be supportive rather than protective?"
Jack looked away. "it's...complicated. The supportive mates are so much stronger than the protective ones. It's a lot of 'let the man think he's in charge' while really, the women run everything. It's toxic, and I hate it. You saw it with my parents - Ma spent hours in the kitchen making the food, but Pa's the one who brings it to her like he's gone out and killed it himself, and no one eats until he takes the first bite. I want more than that. I want to pull my own weight. I want to be a real partner, not..." he trailed off, making frustrated hand gestures.
"A trophy husband?" Gabriel asked. "A useless ass like Stephen?"
"Something like that. I mean, I'm not saying I'm bad at being a protector, but..." Jack shook his head. "You're so much better at it than I am. You're a natural. I just want to take care of you, so you can keep being the amazing protector you are and know that I've got your back whether it's providing cover fire in a fight or being there to massage your shoulders at the end of a long day."
Wordlessly, Gabriel passed over his fork. Then he leaned against the griffin, relaxing slightly at the familiar arm around his waist. Jack fed him a bite, then took a bite of his own breakfast, and was ready with another bite when Gabriel swallowed.
"I used to fantasize about finding someone - not a griffin - but someone of another species who would let me share the domestic responsibilities. Cooking side by side in the kitchen. Washing dishes together. Helping fold the sheets when we did laundry. Someone who would also stand by my side and fight if we ever had to fight."
"Your dad's gonna throw a fit," Gabriel said lazily between bites. "Because I am so down for that. I mean, if we didn't live in the Reaper mansion with golem servants."
"That's why I'm feeding you, and we'll spar later." Jack laid a kiss on Gabriel's temple. "Besides, it might not last. I don't know why Torbjörn has apparently defected from Overwatch to serving the Reaper, but I suspect that he might not stay depending on how this case plays out."
"Now I want to see how good a cook you are," Gabriel teased.
Jack flushed slightly. "I'd be glad to show you more than deer on a campfire sometime."
"Hey, don't knock that, that was the best meal I had in two days."
It took a couple of bites before Jack said, "I'd say your standards are too low, but then I remember the amazing meal you ordered that first lunch."
"See? I know what I'm talking about." He paused for a few bites. "Jack? Don't let me take you for granted, okay? You're amazing and I don't want to forget that and treat you like shit."
"Do you really think you'll do that?"
"No. I'm just scared I'll fuck this up somehow."
Jack kissed his temple again. "Don't worry, you'll be fine; you have me."
Gabriel laughed.
===
When it was time for Gabriel's lessons, they went to the library to find that Angela looked like she hadn't slept in two days.
"Everything okay?" Gabriel asked warily.
The harpy plucked nervously at a few feathers. "Amelie and I are...having temporary difficulties."
In other words, they were fighting. Gabriel decided to keep his mouth shut on the entire subject of relationships. "So...can I learn about werewolves today?"
Angela flashed him a fragile, relieved smile. "Of course."
Lessons, Reaper practice, and physical training all went smoothly (and delightfully - the addition of kisses made everything better) for the rest of the day, and the two following. Amelie was absent for meals, at first, but apparently the harpies made up or came to an agreement because she was there on the third day. Then, on the morning of the 29th, Gabriel woke up coughing up and sneezing out black goo. His body was making one last-ditch effort to fight off the entity it was hosting, and Angela firmly canceled his entire schedule.
"Then I want to go back to my apartment," Gabriel said in what tried to be a hard voice but came out sulky. "I want my phone, I want my laptop, I want my clothes."
"Impossible. You are in no condition to travel-"
"Then drive me! This place should have a garage with something that doesn't require livestock pulling it. I refuse to believe that no Reaper in the last half a century didn't own a car."
Angela chewed her lip absently for a moment. "I will check. Jack-"
"I'm coming with him," the griffin said firmly, offering Gabriel another tissue as a sneezing fit took him.
"Absolutely not!" Angela's cheeks pinked slightly. "It's too much of a security risk."
Gabriel wadded up his tissue and dropped it in the bucket. "Looks like I'll be teleporting, then-"
"Absolutely not!"
"Then find a vehicle that works and drive me there."
Mantle and harpy stared at each other. Angela's eyes dropped first.
"Put me in the cuffs," Jack said quietly.
"Jack-"
"That way," he continued, talking over Gabriel, "you can be assured that I won't take the opportunity to try to escape, and neither will Gabriel."
Angela met the griffin's gaze for a long minute, then nodded. "Very well. I will see what vehicles are available."
Jack hugged Gabriel as he started coughing again. "Thank you," he said for both of them.
Angela fled.
=
Gabriel stared. Beside him, Jack stared as well. Angela seemed embarrassed to even be seen near the van.
"That's..."
"The Grim Reaper," Gabriel confirmed.
Jack shook his head, as if that would make the image go away. "Riding..."
"A unicorn. With a rainbow mane and tail. Through space."
"Why?"
Gabriel shrugged. "It was the seventies, so probably drugs."
"There's a little heart-shaped window."
"Yeah, it was a thing." Gabriel grinned at Angela. "How's the interior?"
The harpy blushed. Deeply.
Gabriel sneezed into a tissue. "Oh, this I have to see."
The interior was plushly upholstered in a rich purple, even the ceiling, with a small chandelier lit by what seemed to be magical blacklights. The mini-fridge built into the side was still cold and stocked. The front seats were also plush and upholstered in purple, but at least they looked really comfortable. Two steps led up to a pentagonal 'doorway' and Gabriel couldn't help but smirk as he looked inside. The mattress was firm but giving, the sheets were black silk, there was a sun roof and a shelf in one corner with a TV. Pillows crowded every corner.
"I fucking love it," he breathed.
Jack made an uncertain sound. "This seems a little...over-the-top."
"Shut up, it's perfect. When can we go?"
"Can you even drive this thing?" Jack asked Angela.
The harpy looked more uncomfortable. "The Reaper who was responsible for it magically altered the mechanisms. It is simple to control and charges through exposure to the sun."
"A solar-powered shaggin' wagon," Gabriel murmured in satisfaction. "This is a work of fuckin' art."
"The drive to Gabriel's apartment will take approximately two and a half hours," Angela said. "It is almost ten. If we leave at ten, we can have lunch and then you will have plenty of time to pack Gabriel's things and bring them down, and we can be home well before dinner."
"Grab some bottled water, a box of tissues, and a garbage bag," Gabriel said, rubbing his hands together. "Bucket just in case. Everyone hit the bathroom, we're going on a road trip."
=
The road trip was less enjoyable than Gabriel had hoped, although not because the van was lacking. Amelie came along "to keep Angela company" and they kept the radio on some bizarre station that played annoying songs in French. Gabriel assured the imaginary cat that it didn't have to translate. On top of that, the constant coughing and sneezing had him more exhausted than he thought he would be. But the bed in the van was still comfortable, being held by Jack was still comforting, and the promise of regular old fast food was surprisingly strong. He was wearing his POLICE hoodie, with all his things in the pockets, and since the harpies couldn't exactly go through drive-through without being seen and possibly detected that meant he and Jack got a chance to stretch their legs and go into a Burger King.
The rest of the trip through LA was uneventful, Jack and Gabriel sitting in the back eating burgers and fries and sharing a handful of kisses.
"We're here," Angela announced as the van pulled into the cramped parking lot. "Amelie and I will wait here for you."
Gabriel climbed out of bed, out of the van, and stretched while Jack did the same. He leaned back into the van and smirked. "I promise I won't teleport away with Jack and leave you here." A beat while Angela looked horrified, and he added, "I'm not leaving this sweet ride behind."
Chuckling, he grabbed Jack's hand and led him into the building.
Lucio looked up at the door opening, then sat up sharply and took his headphones off. "Gabriel! My man!"
"Lucio!" Grinning, he did the fistbump/handshake. "I was right - got a promotion up north, effective immediately. This is the first chance I've gotten to come back for my stuff."
"I guess that explains the friend?"
"Yeah, met Jack like two days after me and Liao were here, and we hit it off. Real friends help you move, right? Anyway, I'm gonna go up and clear my stuff. Anything that's left when I'm gone? Sell it, keep it, give it away, whatever you think is best. And tell the abuelas I will miss every single one of them."
"You got it, my man." Lucio offered him a firm handshake. "It was good having you, we're all gonna miss you, but I'm glad you're moving on to bigger and better. you make sure they realize how lucky they are to have you, up north. Got it?"
Gabriel smiled. "I promise."
Once they were in the elevator, Jack said, "Landlord? He sounded nice."
"Yeah, he was real chill. I'm gonna miss him. I'm gonna miss all of them." He nuzzled the griffin briefly. "But I have you."
It was surreal, being in his apartment again after the dream and the abduction. His phone was on the coffee table, where he'd left it, but unplugged. He ignored it for the moment. The dish had been reclaimed, but his glass and spoon were still sitting on the kitchen table.
The door to his bedroom was open.
"I'm gonna change into something with pockets," he told Jack. "There should be a laptop bag in the front closet..."
Jack kissed him lightly. "Go for it. I'll get started."
In the end, it took a few trips to transport everything Gabriel wanted to keep. Clothes, both clean and dirty, in plastic garbage bags and his giant laundry bag. Laptop, phone, chargers. Some books. The small fireproof file safe with all his important papers and photos in it. A small backpack of his personal effects. He really didn't have much, which lent itself unfortunately to the idea that he was destined to become the Reaper. Jack insisted on taking the linens off his bed because they smelled like him; Gabriel shrugged and tossed his pillows and blankets in as well. Jack wound up taking most of it down, grabbing full bags and vanishing while Gabriel packed.
Finally, there was nothing left. Gabriel stood in the living room, feeling surreal that he was leaving and more surreal that he wasn't more upset about it. Then he followed Jack out and locked the door behind him. As they rode the elevator down, he examined his keys. He really didn't have any that were there for nostalgia - chucked those years ago - and aside from the apartment keys, everything else was police business. Even the keyring was a generic, nondescript thing he'd gotten for a buck fifty some ten or fifteen years ago at a hardware store or someplace.
"This is it?" Lucio asked as Gabriel and Jack approached with the bags of bedding.
"This is it. I'm gonna miss you," Gabriel told him. He laid the keyring on the counter. "This one's for apartment keys," he said, pointing at one ring. "If Liao shows up looking for me, give her the others."
"You got it, man."
They exchanged one final fistbump/handshake, and then Gabriel was walking to the van and leaving his mortal life behind him.
===
Gabriel slept most of the way back, his exhausted body surrendering to the entity it hosted, the imaginary cat purring as Jack held him. He woke up hungry when they reached Santa Barbara, and after only a little argument convinced Angela to stop for pizza. He and Jack ate in the back and Amelie ate in the front seat while Angela drove, but once they reached the forest, the harpies switched places. Angela got a chance to eat while Amelie drove them the last leg of the trip back to the mansion. Once they'd stopped, Angela got halfway through a patronizing comment about Gabriel not over-exerting himself before the imaginary cat hissed. A dozen shadow tendrils wrapped around Jack and all of Gabriel's belongings, and he teleported to his room with everything including his griffin.
It was some time later before Angela came to check on them, and she found them sorting through clothes. There was a tense conversation about the room that would be Gabriel's once his adjustment period had completed, including the fact that when the harpies had murdered the previous Mantle, they hadn't actually gotten rid of the body. Gabriel demanded that happen as soon as he was fully fledged, and also ordered a nest box be built to the specifications of Jack's griffin body as well as a new king-sized bed. Jack expressed surprise that Gabriel would be so...welcoming regarding his natural shape, to which Gabriel expressed outrage for anyone who had implicitly accepted him in spite of what he was and only tolerated his griffin side rather than embracing it. He got kissed for that, and apparently that's when Angela realized that they'd gone from friends to something more.
Angela left shortly after that, somewhat shaken. Jack and Gabriel discussed what, exactly, their relationship was and the meanings and connotations various words held for both of them. They settled on mates, and then celebrated that decision with kissing and some play-fighting.
When Gabriel's phone was fully charged, he braced himself and turned it on. There were 17 voicemails from Liao and almost twice that many missed calls. Jack took one look at the expression on Gabriel's face, read off a sequence of numbers, and told him to dial it and put the call on speaker. It took seven rings before someone picked up, but the look on Jack's face as they listened to it ring said it would be worth it.
Then Ana said "Hello?" and the next hour passed in a rush of catching up and sharing news.
By the time Gabriel was ready for bed, he was ready to call this the best day of his life...but only because the delight of becoming mates with Jack was divided between semi-inebriated kissing on Christmas and confirming things once sober the next morning.
Jack and Gabriel spent New Year's Eve at Ana's, Gabriel meeting Lena and Fareeha and the griffin catching up with them. They told the story of Gabriel's abduction, rescue, near-capture, escape, and capture again, culminating in him hosting the Reaper within his body. Then Gabriel did tricks, showing off the shadow tendrils, translocation, and the teleporting hand. The imaginary cat was beside itself with excitement at getting so much positive attention. The news that Angela had been an accessory to the murder of several of their friends went over less well, complete with a more-than-tipsy Ana formally revoking the harpy's welcome under her roof and gifting her room to Jack and Gabriel instead.
"Should we tell her?" Gabriel asked fuzzily as he drank a last glass of water before settling down to sleep.
In what had been Angela's nestlike bed, Jack yawned. "I'll handle it. Come to bed, Gabe. I wanna preen your hair."
That made Gabriel chuckle as he lay down and let the griffin pull him closer. "I don't have enough hair to preen, Jack."
"Too bad. I'm gonna preen what's there."
"You're drunk, Jack."
"Lil' bit. Gabe?"
"Hm?"
"If you give me a nickname, don't make it Jackie? Ma calls me that and it makes me feel like she's not seeing me as an adult."
Gabriel nuzzled his mate's chest briefly. "Hmm. I don't want to use anything too cutesy, because I don't want to say it and you're not cutesy."
"Not even as a griffin?"
"Nope. Noble, majestic, terrifying, and endearing. Not cute."
Jack paused in what was either kissing or licking Gabriel's hair. "I think that's a relief, but I'm drunk."
"Mmmmm. Not mi rey, because I'm not your bitch. I could use mi sol but you're white, not gold, and mi luna doesn't sound manly enough for you."
"Manly nickname for a manly mate," Jack muttered, mock-growling into Gabriel's hair. "Manly Mantle's manly mate."
Gabriel smiled into the griffin's chest. "You're drunk," he said warmly, "but I love you."
"Love you too," Jack murmured.
Love. That was it. Gabriel tilted his head up and kissed Jack, slow and tender. "Good night, amorcito."
"Mmm. G'night, Gabe."
The imaginary cat prowled between them, confused as to why they weren't doing...anything else. Other Mantles had gone from kissing to grappling in situations like this.
I'm not other Mantles, Gabriel thought firmly. I don't want to do those things, even if I love him.
The imaginary cat looked at him, head tilted to one side. Wasn't the grappling what was supposed to happen?
Silently, Gabriel growled at it. Damn it, they didn't have to fuck! They could be a happy, healthy couple without being sexually active!
Startled, the imaginary cat clunk away. It hadn't meant to make Gabriel upset!
Gabriel sighed and mentally apologized to the cat, one hand out to offer pettings. He was just so tired of everything being about sex. He knew the cat was still learning, it wasn't the cat's fault.
The cat, for its part, seemed relieved that Gabriel wasn't angry - but also that sex wasn't a requirement.
This is my life now, Gabriel thought with a resigned - but not unhappy - sigh. Teaching consent to the embodiment of violent murder. But then...it had never asked to be the embodiment of violent murder, had it? Poor thing was just doing what it was told, the only thing it thought was right.
Liao's a shitty mother, was his last thought before sleep dragged him down.