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Dean didn’t believe in soulmates. Matching tattoos were no basis for deciding who to spend your life with. It certainly didn’t help that he had two of the mystical woo-woo tattoos, and the more obvious one weirded most people out. At first glance, the interlocking silver rings under his left eye looked like wedding rings. Upon closer inspection, though, the rings were engraved with the words “brothers forever”. Most people didn’t look that closely – they just saw that he and his little brother had matching wedding-ring-esque tattoos on their faces. In school, they were always told not to read too deeply into their soul tattoos. They gave examples, such as the couple whose tattoo was a graphic murder, who got along just fine and were good people who never hurt anyone if they could help it. And yet, when they saw the rings, people just couldn’t help making assumptions about Sam and Dean. They just could not get their heads around having that tattoo and being strictly fraternal soulmates.
The other tattoo, the hidden one on his right hip, wasn’t much better. It was a weird mess of overlapping lavender spirals and infinity symbols. Dean hated it, and kept it covered all the time. After seeing what happened to his dad when he lost his soulmate, he wasn’t sure he wanted to get into something that could screw him up like that. Didn’t see what could be worth losing himself to the pain and the alcohol and the rage that ended up landing John in prison for murder, leaving Sam and Dean to be raised by Bobby Singer.
Gabriel ducked as a lamp went flying by his ear. “Whoa, Deano! You okay there, buddy?”
“Shit! Sorry, man.” Dean hadn’t heard Gabriel come in. He was too busy plotting the lingering, terrifying, and painful death he would be inflicting in graphic loving detail. Sam would never let him go through with it, so this was the closest he’d get to revenge for the asshole who had completely destroyed Sammy. “You do soul tattoo coverups, don’t you?”
Gabriel raised an eyebrow and pointed to his eye. “Remember me offering to do something about that one, make it less weird for you and Sam? Yeah, I do soul tattoo coverups, no questions asked because if it’s any of my business I’ll already know the answers. Why do you ask?”
“Sam’s gonna be coming to live with us for a bit.” Gabriel’s eyes gleamed as a smile bloomed on his face, and Dean shook his head. “No, man, don’t. Don’t set him up for as many meet-cutes with Cas as it takes for them to catch on that soulmates are bullshit and they should just find someone who’s right for them without some mystical bullcrap. Not yet, anyway.”
“Aww, you never let me have any fun.” Gabriel’s pout disappeared when Dean didn’t even crack a smile. “Let me guess: that gut feeling about Brady was right, he’s not the sweetheart save-the-world medical student Sam thought he was?”
“He’s been different since he went home last Thanksgiving. Sam’s mentioned a few things that I told him were warning signs and that he should probably cut and run, but kid still believes in soulmates and refused to give up on one of his. That’s over.” Dean leaned on his desk, grasping the edge of it in both hands so he couldn’t throw anything else. “The cheating on him with this chick Ruby they know from class, that Sam could have dealt with. He’d have been hurt, but he’s the forgiving type. Problem is, they grabbed his history notes and spread them out over the bed they were fucking in, and then used them to clean up after. The only reason he or I could come up with is that Brady wanted to hurt Sam as badly and as thoroughly as he could. His final’s in three days, there’s no way he’ll be able to get notes from someone else, and the test is intended to be open-note so they could look up specific details.”
Gabriel hissed. “Wow. Holy fuck, that’s messed up. Hell, man, I’ll do that coverup for free. Remind me which one that one is?”
“The one on his ankle, black feathers around a blood droplet. Not sure what you can do, but whatever you can, I know he’ll be grateful for.”
At least Sam got the last laugh – he didn’t quite make full marks on his history exam, but he was close, and the professor sent him an email congratulating him on how well he’d done since she’d noticed he didn’t have notes with him, and giving him her contact information to use as a reference for applications to law school and jobs. That took enough of the sting out of the incident that Sam could at least see the funny side – gossip was full of curiosity about how, exactly, Brady had gotten paper cuts on his dick.
Gabriel had come up with a plan to add some colored feathers to create proper wreath of feathers, and then fill the inside with a purple that would hide the crimson of the blood well. Sam approved it readily. “You guys sure you don’t want me to turn those rings into a smiley face for you?” Gabriel asked while he prepared to start working on Sam’s ankle.
“Yeah, but thanks,” Sam said. “I just hope my remaining soulmate doesn’t turn out awful. Not that you’re awful,” he added quickly to Dean. “Just… y’know. Not the kind of relationship I’m hoping to have with my other one.”
“Yeah, I know.” Dean ruffled Sam’s hair. With his other hand, he covered his other tattoo. He’d never been interested in finding his soulmate, and after this? Sam could Pollyanna it if he wanted, but as far as he was concerned, his soulmate could stay the hell out of his life, thank you. Gabriel had said no questions asked, and Dean believed him. He wouldn’t judge. “Hey, Gabe? When you finish with Sam, will you do me too?”
Gabriel looked up and waggled his eyebrows. “Not in the shop, buddy. Health hazard.”
“Oh, for…” But Dean couldn’t help the snort. “You know what I mean. Cover up my other soul tattoo. I don’t care what you do to it, if I hate it I’m used to keeping it covered anyway.”
“Yeah, sure. I can do that.” Gabriel got back to work on Sam’s tattoo. “Sam? You want me to do something with your other one?”
“No, I like that one. If they turn out to be a dick like Brady, I don’t know that I’ll ever be able to eat another PB&J again, but I love the tattoo.”
Gabriel’s eyes narrowed. “Can I see it?”
“Uh, sure?” Sam lifted his shirt, revealing the sandwich on his ribcage.
“Holy shit.” He looked up at Dean. Dean looked back at him in puzzlement. He had no idea what Gabriel was thinking. “Sam, my cousin Castiel’s got that same tattoo. I promise he is not a dick like Brady turned out to be.”
When Sam’s tattoo was done and covered, Dean took the chair. “Location’s a bit awkward, but you’re a tattoo artist, you probably deal with anatomy all the time, right?”
“Yeah, dude, once you’ve tattooed a guy’s balls, nothing else fazes you anymore.” Gabriel waited while Dean undid his pants and lowered them enough to show the tattoo on his hip.
Gabriel’s reaction was not what Dean expected. He’d expected to get laughed at for having such a girly tattoo, or for Gabriel to start spouting ideas, or even for Gabriel to make a crack about being excited to see Dean’s private parts. He was not expecting Gabriel to just stand there, staring without blinking for so long that even Sam looked like he wanted to crack a joke about Gabriel being a little too into the sight. Dean waved a hand in Gabriel’s line of sight. “Gabe? Dude, you’re kinda freaking me out a little.”
“Yeah. Okay. Look. If you really want to get that covered up, I’ll do it, but there’s something I want you to know first. Normally, I wouldn’t bother, but I don’t want you to accidentally see something later and feel like an asshole.”
“Okay…” Dean was a little startled when Gabriel dropped his pants, but then he saw what Gabriel meant. The lavender swirls across his hip exactly matched Dean’s. “Wow. Awkward.”
Sam started snickering, looking between them. “I know you’re paranoid about keeping yours covered, Dean, but you guys have been roommates… six years now? And you’re just now discovering this? That’s…” He trailed off, letting his laughter speak for him.
“So, yeah. You know I agree with you about soulmates being bullshit, so if you still want me to cover that up I’m happy to do it. Just thought you should know in case my paranoia slipped at some point.” Gabriel went to the shelves and grabbed a sketchbook – one he’d never let Dean look at, before. “Flip through there, see if anything strikes your fancy.”
Dean looked through. They were all sketches of ways to alter the soul tattoo they shared, ranging from simple to highly complicated, truly covering to incorporating, all sorts of genres. As he flipped through, his thoughts were not on the images. Eventually, he made up his mind. “You got a favorite, Gabe?”
“Yeah.” He flipped through to one that turned the swirls into a green and grey snake. “That one.”
That was one of the ones Dean had just flipped right by without considering, but he wasn’t going to let that change his mind. “Cool. Wanna get matching? I mean, obviously you’re not gonna do your own, but since it’s your artwork it should be close enough.”
Gabriel blinked. “Doesn’t that defeat the point? This is a ‘fuck you’ at the idea of soulmates, and matching tattoos? Soulmate thing.”
“Yeah, but see, this isn’t us giving in to some mystical bullshit. This is the only reason I didn’t hit on you six years ago was that there’s no good way to hide the tattoo while fucking. For a one-night stand I didn’t care, but you were my roommate and I’d have to live with you after you saw it. This is you and me having a lot of stuff in common, from the important like thinking soulmates are bullshit to the minor like a shared love of pie. This is us knowing we’re good to live together because we have been. This is a choice we’d be making because we think it could work, not because some weird force thingie tells us to. What do you think?”
“Not to mention you being so cool with the idea that you hear me say I’d turn it into a snake, and I know you hate snakes, but you still immediately suggested we get matching?” Gabriel flipped a few pages in the book, landing on the symbol going up in flames. “If we’re doing matching, let’s do that one instead.”