Chapter 74

"Jo, it's late. Go to sleep."

"What if I'm not tired?" Jo says, resting her arms on Michael's shoulders, almost as if they're slow dancing.

"I... don't understand the human body and its necessary functions enough to answer that," he admits.

She laughs softly. "Oh, Michael." She presses a kiss against his lips briefly. "What are we going to do with you?"

He looks down at her, a smile tugging at his lips. He didn't really understand the difference between a platonic friendship and a true relationship until very recently. Even when he asked Jo for more, he didn't really know just what he was getting into.

It has a very different feel than a platonic friendship. He wasn't really expecting that. He wasn't really expecting anything at all, but if he had been, it wouldn't have been this. To an outsider, it doesn't look much different than their friendship a few days ago, but it all feels so new.

"But really, you should probably go to sleep," he tells her.

"I think I'll pass," she replies. "But I do have something in mind to pass the time 'til morning."

"And what would that be?" he asks.

"This."

She pulls him close and presses their lips together. Michael wraps his arms around her waist and kisses her back. It's all going fine until he feels her start to try taking off his shirt, and he has to push her away.

"What's wrong?" she asks, sounding slightly worried.

"Nothing, nothing, just..." He pauses as he tries to figure out how to say this. "It's just, this whole..." He gestures vaguely, finally settling on, "intimacy thing isn't really..."

"You don't want to have sex," she substitutes, sounding almost hurt by that.

"It's nothing personal," he adds quickly. "It's just, I'm an angel. The Abrahamic religions and their teachings have sort of been drilled into my head since my creation, and —"

"No sex before marriage?" she guesses. "Wow, Heaven's really stuck in the 1800s, isn't it?"

"No, it's actually in the billions of years old," he replies.

"Not literally," she says, rolling her eyes. "Alright, whatever. I'm gonna go to bed. You can go hang out with everyone else in the war room."

He can't help but question this sudden change of mood. He gives her a quick good night kiss before flying off, genuinely baffled by her behavior, but not willing to ask about it. Humans are weird. He's just came to accept it.

~~

Meanwhile, Sam is having less luck when it comes to the idea of sleep. He only woke up about ten hours ago, completely awake, and not much has changed. Unfortunately, lying in bed for an hour or so hasn't brought him any closer to unconsciousness. If only there was some switch to flip to make him fall asleep immediately.

But maybe there is...

His first thought is Gabriel. He was a not-so-natural sleep remedy for years, when there would be too much on Sam's mind to let it shut down. Gabriel would even pop in when Dean was around sometimes, but only when he was asleep, and Gabriel's sudden appearance couldn't bother him.

They'd spend the night together in dreams, where Gabriel could give him everything he wanted and more without having to worry about anyone seeing them. Sometimes he would show up unannounced, a welcome surprise, and sometimes Sam would be expecting him, like after Gabriel would help put him to sleep.

Unfortunately, those days are gone. No more dream walking, no more surprise visits, no more Gabriel.

But he does know one angel who he knows can put him to sleep just as well...

But is it really worth it? Would Lucifer even help him anyway? They still hate each other. Right?

At this point, Sam doesn't even know what's going on with them. They're not avoiding each other like they used to, but they're not friends, either. They're something in between. They probably could have been friends, had they not had such a rocky past. Hell, if Lucifer were to get a new vessel, it wouldn't take too long for Sam to disassociate him from everything he's done in the before.

Who would have thought that one day, Sam would be thinking about a potential friendship with Satan himself?