Angel. (![]() ![]() @ 2013-12-03 21:27:00 |
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Entry tags: | !thread, angel, sam winchester |
Who: Angel and Sam Winchester.
When: Tonight.
Where: The streets of NYC.
What: Sam runs off and Angel follows to make sure he's okay.
Rating: TBD, probably medium, but there is definitely a spoiler warning for tonight's episode of "Supernatural." Possibly trigger warnings for talk of in-show violence, character possession, and lying liars who lie. Will update if necessary!
Watching "Supernatural" with Sam had become something of a weekly ritual for Angel. It was a strange ritual, and quite often an awkward one (especially last week with the chastity group and the porn star), but there was something comforting about it too. Well, maybe that was the wrong word. But he felt less alone, less isolated, when they watched it together. Being the star of a TV show all about the mistakes you've made and the people you've hurt (and who have hurt you) -- it wasn't an easy burden to cope with, and while he wished Sam didn't have to cope with it too, it was nice to have someone who understood. They'd discovered early on that they shared a great deal of otherwise-rare life experiences, and this was one of them. Granted, around here it wasn't really that rare to have a TV show about you. But a TV show that chronicled the very worst moments of your life, your greatest failings, your descent into darkness and your attempts to crawl out of it? That was slightly less common. It wasn't unusual for Sam to need time afterward to process what he'd seen before he could really talk about it. Angel got that, and he was happy to give it, happy to talk about something else or about nothing at all, or to just leave and give the guy some space for a while. He tried to be there for Sam however he could, because god knows Sam had been there for him countless times over the past few months. And Angel knew better than anyone that sometimes the best way to be there for a person was to get out of their way. But tonight was different. When the episode ended, Sam had gotten up and left without a word. That was new, and Angel wasn't entirely sure how to handle it. Space was fine, but he couldn't let his friend run off into the night while he was emotional. He might not have been thinking straight, or at all. So Angel gave it a few minutes, then when it was clear Sam wasn't coming back in, he got up to find him. Times like this, he had to admit, being a vampire came in handy. He didn't have eyes on Sam, but he didn't need them because he had the guy's scent. The trail was fresh enough to track it easily even without the benefit of blood or other bodily fluids (and yes, Angel could smell all of them, one of the rarely mentioned downsides of superhuman senses). It would've been easy for the vampire to catch up with his human friend, but he allowed Sam to maintain about a block or two of distance, partially so he was less likely to be noticed but mostly because he did want to respect Sam's needs. If he needed to be alone with his thoughts, that was okay; Angel just wanted to make sure he stayed safe. After a few more minutes, Sam ended up in a dark alley around the corner from Angel, who had to move in closer. It occurred to him that if Sam was upset, he might be even more vigilant than usual, not less. He knew how to follow someone silently, how to do surveillance without being seen or heard -- hell, he managed to sneak up on people even when he wasn't trying -- but if he so much as stepped on a twig, it could set Sam off. And besides, spying on a friend seemed kind of creepy. So he went the other route and announced himself, first by intentionally kicking up some gravel on the sidewalk when he was still about a hundred feet away, and then starting to speak when he reached the corner. "I can leave if you want," he said in a calm but cautious voice, the kind he'd used so many times on his son when Connor went into feral, just-returned-from-Quor'toth mode. Angel rounded the corner slowly to make sure there wasn't a stake waiting for him on the other side. "But I'm not sure you should be alone right now." |