Our Unsinkable Love

2

10th April 1912

10:00 am

Gabriel felt himself being jostled around by the surging crowds. He struggled to keep his grip on the tools in his hands as he tried to follow his older brother Balthazar and their workmates, Victor Henricksen and Andy Gallagher. He could barely believe his luck, he was going to work on the Titanic, it was a fate far better than the other job he had been facing, working in mines.

Noticing the others were slipping further away through the crowds while he had been distracted by his thoughts. Hurrying to keep up, Gabriel suddenly felt himself colliding with another person. The tools in his hands clattered loudly to the ground, and Gabriel dropped to his knees to pick them up.

"I'm so sorry!" The most incredible voice Gabe had ever heard came from the man he'd knocked into.

Gabriel looked up and felt his mouth go dry. Wow, he couldn't even pretend to be normal at that moment, because the man kneeling beside him was way too good looking.

Blinking, Gabriel scrambled to gather his thoughts. "Don't stress moose," Gabriel felt himself winking at the tall man and cursed himself, the last thing he needed was for his actions to leave him without work.

He quickly gathers the last tool and runs off before the tall man could respond.

"What happened to you?" Balthazar asked, narrowing his eyes suspiciously at his younger brother.

Well aware that he was grinning like a schoolgirl who had a crush, Gabriel worked to rearrange his features into a more neutral expression. "I'm fine, this is just an exciting opportunity."

Balthazar nodded, "I know, but you must stay serious, I don't need you acting up and losing your job when I was the one to put you up for it."

Gabriel tried to look as serious as he could as he replied, "of course, I won't let you down."

Balthazar eyed him, then turned to lead him to the gangplank workers were using to move between the jetty and the ship. Gabriel turned to look once last time into the crowd, and he briefly makes eye contact with none other than the tall guy himself. A half smile flashes across his face as he watched the moose like stranger move up the line boarding the ship. Then he felt Balthazar tug his sleeve and Gabriel hurried to follow them onto the ship.

Gabriel was already tired, depressed and covered in black coal dust. He hated this, but he needed the pay no matter how bad it was. He sighed, pushing the burning pain of his straining muscles to the back of he head as he continued shovelling coal into the large furnace, the heat was making him sweat, which combined with the dust to form long black lines running down his face. The only good thing about working like this were the hours, they were relatively short shifts with breaks in between. Gabriel was pretty sure that if they had to work any longer than the normal four hours, he'd die from the sheer heat.

"So, what's a youngin' like yourself doing here?" The worker next to him asked Gabe was fairly sure he had said his name was Mick.

"I'm not that young," Gabriel grumbles. "I just look younger than I am."

"How old are you then?"

Gabriel glared at him half-heartedly, the heat making his eyes tear. "25."

"Fine, still young in my eyes but whatever, what'ya doin' down here?" 'Mick' shovelled more coal into a furnace and looked expectantly at Gabriel.

"I'm just earning some money for my family, tryin' to help my little brother Alfie have a chance at going to school."

"School eh? I never bothered with that bullock, but maybe I wouldn't be here if I had."

Gabriel continues to shovel determinedly, "yeah, well I want him to do better than this."

"Ain't nothing wrong with a bit of hope, but with the way the world's going it's getting harder and harder to have it."

"What? Hope?"

"Yeah," Mick frowned at the ever-growing pile of coal. "Y'know there's speak of war going on out there."

Gabriel had heard the whispers, saying that everyone was heading for the biggest war in history. "I did, thought they said it would be years off if it even happened at all."

Mick shrugged and the two fell silent as they continued the repetitive work of shovelling coals. Gabriel found his mind drifting off in an attempt to push off the pain, and he started thinking about the tall stranger again. There had been something about him that he just couldn't forget, maybe it was those hazel eyes that looked like they shifted from hazel to blue to green, or maybe it was his long, chocolate coloured hair that had hung neatly around his face. Or it might of even been his young, innocent face that made him look like he wouldn't be any older than Gabriel. Gabriel secretly hoped he would run into him but he knew that there wasn't much chance of that.

Finally, Gabriel was able to knock off, after saying goodbye to Mick, Gabriel planned on going back to his quarters and spending the majority of his eight hours off sleeping. Once he got out of his coal-stained shorts and undershirt that was. Humming to himself, Gabriel stops by the bathroom to wash his face off and was just wiping it dry when he realised something. The ship had launched, they were now not just powering an entire ship with their coal shovelling, but they were also on the ocean, powering their way to the first stop of the trip, in France. Determined to see at least some of the view before nabbing some sleep, Gabriel ran through the narrow corridors until he reached a door that leads to a deck. The sunlight hurt his eyes after spending so much time down in the bowls of the ship, but the view was worth it.

The water was a deep, brilliant blue, sparkling for miles under the sun that shone brightly in the clear sky. Gabe walked up to the edge of the ship in awe, leaning against the side without paying much attention to the rest of the deck. It was only when he felt another person's presence leaning against the side somewhere near him that he actually managed to tear his eyes away from the breath-taking view.

It was the tall, handsome guy from before, his ever-changing eyes fixed on the view as the slight breeze stirred his hair. Subconsciously touching his still dusty hair, Gabriel subtly sidled closer to the man.

"Well hey there, I believe we have met before," Gabriel grinned widely.

Tall guy blinked in surprise, turning to face Gabriel, who was praying that the guy wasn't like one of those people in first class that hated workers talking to them.

"Oh, right, are you alright? I didn't mean to run into you, I was just so excited about going on this ship and..." the stranger offered Gabe a shy, cute smile. "I'm uh, I'm Sam Winchester," 'Sam' held his hand out to Gabe.

Gabriel smiled warmly. "Gabriel, Gabriel Novak."

"I'm still sorry, and now I haven't even kept a polite conversational tone, I'm just babbling on..."

"You needn't worry about all that posh talk with me," Gabriel snorts. "I'm just a lowly worker."

Sam flushes, "sorry, I didn't even think about that, is there something against passengers and workers talking?"

Gabriel decided that this Sam character was the most adorable person he had ever met. "No, unless you worry about what others think."

Sam shrugs, "I'm normally second class, or even third class, anyway, this is all new to me." His eyes flash over to the door and back. "And honestly, it is rather boring with all its rules and expectations."

Gabriel laughed, "you know what? You are alright Sam, am I allowed to call you Sam? Or do you prefer Mr Winchester?" Gabriel let a bit of his fake posh accent leak in playfully.

"Sam is fine, Mr Novak," Sam laughed, patting Gabe's shoulder before turning back to the view.

"It's quite a sight, ain't it?" Gabriel murmurs.

"Sure is," Sam sounded more content than he had when they had first started conversing.

Gabriel smiled to himself, hoping he would see more of this Samoose.