Author's Notes: Kay, so I don't usually do something so AU, but it was a nagging idea. This will (hopefully) be a series of stories about Team Free Will +Gabriel. The back story is that Gabirel and the first incarnation of Sam's soul, another angel named Ezrael, were once friends. Ezrael was saved by a human she came to regard as her brother. Give it a chance. Any ideas on how to construct such an AU idea would be welcome. Also, any questions, please feel free to ask. I have this whole back story in my head, but I don't know how well it's coming across.
Story Notes: This chapter- Gabriel and Ezrael before the fighting, before the fall, just existing.
Summary: Gabriel watches the world with his young charge, though they see different things.
In the Beginning- World Watchers
"Gabriel, can we stay? Just for a while?"
Gabriel smiled indulgently at the fledgling.
"You know we can't be hanging around here. Why do you like this place so much anyway?" Gabriel wrinkled his nose a bit. He didn't harbor any ill feelings for the humans, but he didn't exactly care for them either and he certainly didn't see what Ezrael saw in them.
"Because…" Ezrael seemed to search for the words and Gabriel thought it a trick of the light to see her eyes shimmer. "Because they feel."
The archangel said nothing and the two were silent for some minutes, watching the sky, their home, from below rather than above. Gabriel looked at Ezrael and knew that whatever she saw when she looked upon the sky was different than what he saw. Finally, soft words broke the reverie.
"Gabriel, why do the others…why do they hate the humans?"
The elder sighed. Man, he wasn't cut out for this…
"They don't hate humans, Ez. You know that. It would be blasphemy." He was trying not to lie to her. She was the only one who ever made him feel bad about a deception. "They…dislike the humans because of what they've seen them do. How imperfect they are."
"But that's why I like them." Ezrael wasn't looking at him, but straight ahead, to the human settlement below the cliff they sat on. "They do terrible things, I know…but so do we, right?" She looked up at Gabriel so earnestly, like she was expecting an answer and Gabriel, for once, was struck silent. "But they do really good things as well. Truly beautiful things that we would never think of…"
Ezrael trailed off and quiet settled again. Gabriel sighed.
"You're way too young for these deep philosophical thoughts, Ez."
And then she was all little sister. All the younger child balking at her older brother.
"I'm over seven hundred, Gabriel." She huffed.
"Yeah, like I said." He ruffled her hair as he had seen human siblings do. "You're a baby. Go ahead and say 'nu-uh' so the package will be complete."
She looked at him in a way that, if he could see who they would become in the future, Gabriel would have identified as her 'bitch-face'.
All the destiny and in-fighting that would put his little sister, this innocent light, at the heart of a battle for the survival of the planet; would take her far out of his reach and place her where she belonged, side by side with her human brother. And Gabriel would be relegated to the sidelines, by his own will and her urgings, watching his family fall apart, kill one another. His archangel brethren fighting for the soul of his charge…
"C'mon, let's go home before they send someone after us."
He didn't feel like dealing with Raphael today. That guy was always in a bad mood.
"Just a little longer, Gabe?"
Gabriel sighed and flopped onto his back next to Ezrael.
"Only a bit."
Ezrael smiled at him and Gabriel felt his own lips twitch upwards against his will. They were different. Gabriel, Ezrael, Lucifer especially. They felt, much like the humans did. And this would mark them all for pain, for sadness and despair and a likely cruel end…
But for now they were just two siblings gazing at the stars with the world spread out before them.
