Done it again...wrote another.
Supernatural this time. Blame my friend, I certainly do.
I´m not sure if I´m going to finish it but I will at least try. On the other hand...who else except for me and my friend is going to read that?
If you´re offended by Gabriel thinking more than he lets on, fluffiness, brotherly love, scars and epiphanies...well, then please leave. You´ve been warned.
Perhaps I´ll go visit the slash section later (much later...), I don´t know right now.
Also: Watched Hammer of Gods and all Trickster-episodes? Congratulations, you´re safe. To all the others: Again, I warned!
I don´t own nothing Spn-related...not even the title. Damn you, Van Helsing! But the mistakes are mine, hurray!
Enjoy reading, folks.
-angel-
"Hello Gabriel…"
If Castiel was surprised to see him alive and breathing he was a master at hiding it…or as expressionless as ever, Gabriel couldn´t decide. And instead of fussing over the fact that he wasn´t bombarded with stupid questions the archangel just grinned broadly, popped a candy cane into his mouth and jumped on one of the two ugly beds. After all, Ernie and Bert still hadn´t returned to their little closet from grocery shopping.
"Hey bro. No, I´m not dead. It´s nice you noticed. Oh no….you don´t need to fuss over me, it was just a life-threatening scratch to my grace. Nothing to worry about. You´re welcome by the way…" Gabriel said, his trade-mark smirk partially interrupted by the red-white striped sweet hanging from the right side of his mouth.
The minutes went by and his little brother still hadn´t glanced at or spoken to him except for those two words at the beginning and it really started to bug him. Gabriel knew he wasn´t a glorious example of the big and caring brother he should have been but hey, he had saved those two pawns from the great chessboard of apocalypse – if only for a brief moment but it were the thought and the fact he risked his life that should count here.
And come on, for someone like him – meaning a damn good-looking fellow of a pagan god slash ex-archangel with an obsession for sweet things any race and hair color – that meant a lot. Surely his baby bro would appreciate it somehow…
Fifteen minutes passed and Castiel mimed the role of a frozen Neanderthal so well he was on the verge of applauding furiously for this excellent piece of act. However the displeasure of talking to his long-lost brother clung heavy to the younger angel.
Gabriel sighed deeply. Well, it was time to kick the elephant in the room in his huge, grey ass for sticking it into their faces. An image Gabriel didn´t want to think of any time soon…
"Listen bro…" he began, now propped comfortably against the headboard, averting his brother´s piercing gaze. The candy cane had mysteriously vanished.
"I´m not here to cause you trouble or play any tricks on Simon and Garfunkel. Believe me, I had my fun back then…surely wouldn´t hurt me or them more to do it again but that´s not the reason why I chose to come back from the land of the seemingly-dead."
It was a scarce nod and a flare of acceptance in Castiel´s grace that gave the archangel the courage to continue with what seemed to become the most vulnerable moment of his life since he joined Earth as the Trickster. At least he was sharing it with a brother who began to understand the grand schemes of this realm and who had a great love for everyone – despite those creepy, expressionless staring-matches he loved to start.
Gabriel motioned for his brother to sit beside him. If he was going to be totally unlike himself he was going to do it right…the sappy kind of way.
The crappy bed creaked dangerously under their combined weight but right now both of them couldn´t care less. And maybe it would lighten the mood if it fell apart.
"I thought about what Dean-o said back in the warehouse…"
He hoped Castiel wouldn´t tell the cocky human of this. He´d never hear the end of it…
"About our family reunion…" he rubbed his face nervously. If only his brother wouldn´t stare at him with those innocent but knowing eyes. This was way more complicated than he had imagined back in his hide-out. Maybe it hadn´t been a good idea to sort out a plan while the pain of his wound held him on the verge of unconsciousness.
"He was right…partially at least. This whole thing is not just about us." the angel swayed his hand between them, "It´s about them…humans…"
He´d never ever tell the kid but after Dean had bitch-slapped him – verbally – Gabriel began to really look at the beings his father had been so proud of when he created them millennia ago. And he was ashamed to admit that after all those years of being the Pagan god of trickery and all his fucking around in the world of humanity his big brothers´ influence had remained as a dark stain on his white vest of indifference.
Mankind wasn´t this greedy, little, dirty vermin which needed to be killed because all it was able to was to take and take and give a shit about the kind old man in the clouds who had sweated to make its life wonderful. This, Gabriel knew. But it was the first time he actually saw the people how his father had intended him to: They were beautiful. With all their flaws, their sins, their wars they at least tried to do better, to make amends for their mistakes. Sure enough they would fail sometime, it was inevitable. But instead of moaning and bitching and waiting for His holy fingers to snap and repair their crushed world they raised themselves from the ashes and founded their new life on the ruins of their old. It were those imperfections…this will to continue to walk on a path of endless failure and not to be crushed but to be encouraged to try again and better…it made them perfect, in every aspect possible.
And for the first time in his eternal life Gabriel understood. Thought he could finally grasp what his daddy-o wanted him and his brothers and sisters to see. They were created to do what every little, good soldier did: Protect…and learn…
"Gabriel?"
Castiel´s gravelly voice broke through his thoughts of epiphany and he smiled ruefully.
"Sorry bro, was thinking of dear Lucy and our enlightening talk…"
As if on cue his wound began to sting uncomfortably and he rubbed it to ease the pain – it didn´t help but what else could he do?
A wave of concern, sorrow but also of pure and innocent love washed over him, the younger angel´s grace wrapping around his smaller frame like a security blanket. Gabriel enjoyed it. There was finally someone willing to stretch his hand out for him, to praise him and care for the choices he made. He felt like he finally found his family again.
"How…how bad is that wound you mentioned?"
The question was barely above a whisper and if Gabriel were human he wouldn´t have heard it. Shame and uncertainty now flooded his senses. His little brother felt guilty for an injury he himself had simply been too stupid to prevent.
"Don´t do this Castiel. There are enough other things you can blame yourself for. This is my selfish pleasure." he answered with a smirk and got up from the bed, stretching his vessel´s tired muscles. Slowly he began to unbutton his shirt, ignoring his brother´s confused but curious gaze.
When the green silk pooled around his naked feet Castiel´s eyes widened in disbelief and shock.
The archangel knew how he looked like – royally fucked up and miserable. There were cuts all over his upper body, not deep enough to leave scars when healing but enough to look and be very painful when he moved too much around.
And of course there was the mother of all cuts, the big gash, stretching from his right pectoral muscle across his stomach and vanishing on his left side beneath his jeans. For this one, Gabriel thought grimly, he would be eternally "thankful" to his big brother.
"Will it fade?"
Both angels knew the question was unnecessary. The wound didn´t stop at just the mere flesh of Gabriel´s vessel. It had cut right through his grace too, leaving a nasty scar both physically and on his angelic powers.
"It won´t…doesn´t matter how much grace I´m going to pump into it. I´m a marked outsider now, Cassie. Think it´s going to impress the ladies?" he asked lightly, the half-smirk still present on his face despite the now painful pull of his wound.
His grin was met with tearful, cerulean eyes and his mood darkened again. Gabriel could feel the guilt and pain radiating from his baby brother and it was almost unbearable.
"I´m sorry…so sorry, brother. I should have been there for them. They are my responsibility. I don´t know how to make amends for what I´ve done to you…"
And then Castiel sobbed. Deep and whole-heartedly sobbed…and it broke Gabriel´s carefully build shell right there. He groaned deeply. Looked like it was another torture-Gabriel-by-making-him-strip-to-his-soul-moment, oh how he loved those…
"Listen to me, you big cry-baby. I´m going to say something you will never…ever…hear again from my mouth not even when one of our brother´s does finally land the big blow of cracking the world like an egg. You hear me?"
Castiel´s quiet nod was all he needed. He swiftly returned to the bed, wriggling between his little brother´s parted legs. Softly Gabriel cradled the pale face in his warm hands. Bright blue eyes staring into golden green ones.
"I am not speaking to you as the Pagan god Loki but as the archangel Gabriel, your brother. So please…believe every word I now say."
The smile, growing wider on Gabriel´s face now, wasn´t one of mockery but of deep brotherly love.
"I…have faith in you, little brother. And I apologize for all the things I did and didn´t do to burden you with the task of watching over the two dumbasses in distress who were chosen to save the world."
He stroked the smooth cheeks under his fingers, caressed the soft raven hair and let his grace wrap around the warm body in front of him. Showing that he cared, understood, loved…
"And if there is anything I can do to lighten this weight on your shoulders…just call my name and I will gladly sacrifice my life for you, them and humanity…" he concluded with another broad smile and a soft kiss on Castiel´s forehead.
He interpreted the sigh underneath him as a good sign and smiled even brighter. However, the comforting silence surrounding them was broken when soft hands began caressing the still healing wound, coaxing a gasp out of the smaller angel.
"Thank you, Gabriel…" Castiel whispered, forehead pressed against the unhurt skin of his chest and arms now winding around his waist.
Three words. So simple, but to Gabriel they meant the world.
"Always bro. And only for you…"
Neither of them heard the motel room door open, too wrapped up in their own little cloud of love and peace. They didn´t hear the sharp double-intake of breath or the dull thump of the grocery bags hitting the dirty floor.
However the loud and demanding "What the HELL is going on here?" was nothing they could ignore…for long.