UPDATED: SO AFTER REREADING IT I COMPLETELY AGREE THAT THE ENDING FELT A BIT RUSHED THERE AND SO I WENT AND ADDED A FEEL MORE PARTS, IT STILL FEELS A BIT RUSHED IN MY OPINION BUT NOT AS BAD AS IT HAD BEEN! I HOPE YOU ENJOY WHAT I'VE ADDED HERE! THANKS GUYS! KISSES AND HUGS
So this goes out to Saturnmieze and I hope you like it! I tried to follow the request just as it was given but my mind goes a thousand different directions when I try and do these sorts of things lol! But thank you so much for the request and I hope I at least got somewhat close to anything you asked for lol!
Request: What if Gabriel stayed in Heaven because he couldn't stand it to abandon his younger siblings. What would happen to him? How much would he change? Are they good or bad changes? And how would his older brothers think about such changes to Gabriel? How will it affect them?
Well honestly, I think at first it really wouldn't have so much of an outlying affect that they would notice right away, but I think that Gabriel would become cruel and heartless. Live to the expectation that he is meant to be some cruel hardened Archangel, some sort of weapon with no soul and no limits. And I think once they do notice that it would turn them for a loop. Because Gabriel is the joyful one, the one always laughing and joking and smiling, the one who loves with all his heart no matter what they do. The one who sees the bright side even when no one else can.
His older brothers, Gabriel reflects now, have always been too alike for their own good. Michael and Lucifer, a clash of fire and ice, but created from the same star were the sun that his planets revolved around. He did everything in his power to get that soft, shy, proud smile Michael would give whenever he did something right. To hear that silky harmonious laugh that Lucifer was well known for, the happiest of the archangels, even above Gabriel himself.
It had been Lucifer who had taught him to find all the bright things, even when he was surrounded by what seemed like endless darkness, there was always a bright side to be found.
He remembers a time when, he'd been no more then a fledgling with three grown older brothers, the little ones would be playing among the trees of the Garden and the eldest two would come to play, arm in arm, always at each others side, smiling the same smile they had given when Father had gifted the three of them with a fourth and final archangel to raise.
The fledglings would flock around them, they took it in stride every time, Lucifer would scoop up whoever was unfortunate enough to be close enough and tickle the ever-living snot out of them before passing them on to his older brother for calming cuddles and gentle grooming's.
He remembers falling victim to such treatment more often then the other fledglings had, having their own personal garden that they could enter, and being ambushed by both. Michael would be the calming to Lucifer's chaos , some times, but others he'd join in as well and when Michael joined it was always so much worse.
More fun.
But worse.
He laugh and they'd knead and scratch and kiss until he was crying tears of bliss and joy, and then he'd be held close, cuddled and groomed, as they smile and whisper over his head about how adorable he was and that they were the luckiest older brothers in creation to have something as bright as their baby archangel to hold so close.
It's painful to remember it all, the good times, but he does. He has to. What else would he have to live for if not the good times?
He remembers being taught to fly in that garden, their garden, and falling more times then he can count. He'd scraped his hands and knees, his little wings, and his belly and face more times then he even bothers to think about.
Raphael.
Raphael was calm and precise, but gentle and caring, he had this sort of soothing-ness about him that made it hard to simply sob while he healed even the littlest of cuts. And when you did, he's sweep you up, hold you close in the many folds of his robe, and rock you until the cries subsided.
Raphael was there every time, with soft words of comfort and kind words of encouragement, picking him up and straightening him out. He'd fix the cuts and scrapes, with an added bonus of a few giggles if he could reach the right spots, and ruffle the uneven feathers back into place before sending you back on your way.
Gabriel remembers a particular bad cut he'd gotten, more like a gash, from a thick tree limb. He'd been doing something reckless, all by himself in their garden, and had crashed hard enough that he had splintered the tree. His gentle older brother had been reading a new book under the shade of a nearby apple tree, he'd heard and come running, Gabriel remembers blood soaking through the front of his tunic and just screaming, it hurt so bad and he still has a small scar in it's place, but Raphael had fixed him new again.
He'd needed stitches done, and his older brother had held him in his lap as he did them one handed, the other for clutching when it started to hurt so horridly, and when he'd been done he entwined his grace into the wound to ensure that if he did feel anything it wouldn't be anything more then a pinch.
Raphael, good guy, he'd been the one who had instilled the 'if your dumb enough to get the injury then your dumb enough to let it heal on its own' in them all. He remembers how he had cried and went on and on about Raphael being some horrible big brother for making him suffer like that.
That had been when his big brother had introduced him to what the older archangel called his 'healing kisses', it should have hurt like nothing else, being right over the stitching and all, but he quickly came to learn that Raphael was so much worse then Michael and Lucifer combined.
Using his soft tingly grace to get all those little spots that could drive you up the wall.
And then there was Father, warm and bright and safe, Father was love personified. He spent most of His time in the workshop, fledglings weren't allowed in there, but He did come out once a day to play with them all. He'd just appear in The Garden, surprising the little ones and their Archangel caretaker, and they'd all squeal excited as they clamored all over Him like He was some sort of overgrown jungle gym.
He could scoop them all up in large arm fulls, and they'd all buzz in over-excitement, unable to contain themselves at being held in His big strong arms. He'd toss a few of the strong fliers into the air above Him laughing along with the angels, a deep rolling thunderous sort of laugh, and He'd sit under the tree with the little ones who couldn't fly yet.
But at the end of the day He'd have them all enthralled, scattered about, telling them all stories of Creation and Time and of 'What Came Before...'.
Everything had been perfect. Love had filled the air. Laughter and singing. Michael and Lucifer side by side soaring above them all as a constant reminder that they were forever protected from any who would dare think of coming for them. Raphael there to heal and sooth and hold with his gentle touches and soft words.
That had been his home.
Tickle ambushes and sore bellies and tears of joy, cuddles and love and laughter, stories and older brothers.
It had been Gabriel's life.
Life had been perfect back then.
But then Father had shown them His last and most cherished creation.
The Humans.
Honestly, Gabriel hadn't been crazy about them, and that's not to say that he hated them either. At the time he wasn't aware he was capable of dislike, of hatred, of anything other then fun and laughter and love.
They were weird.
Fleshy and weak.
They had to eat and sleep like fledglings, and didn't like playing their games with them, they preferred to be with the animals and eat the fruits and play in the clear waters of the ponds. They enjoyed the presence of the angels though, even the little ones, and Gabriel thought they were kind.
The Man would reach for the high fruits for the little angels who couldn't quite reach.
The Woman would weave little trinkets from the long blades of grass and give them as gifts.
They would play some games with them and tell some interesting stories, not as good as Michael and Lucifer, but as good as they could be.
Gabriel didn't mind them, they were new, interesting, something to be explored.
But Lucifer didn't agree.
And thus the fighting had begun.
The fights were horrible, terrifying, two opposing forces who were quite possibly the stronger beings in creation save for Father Himself.
Lightning and Thunder.
Fire and Ice.
They could last for minutes, hours, days.
Gabriel remembers a particularly bad one, it had shaken Heaven at it's very core, and he'd gone to seek shelter in Raphael's room. Screaming and sobbing, a right mess, but his older brother had been waiting. Door propped open and arms hanging open for him to jump into. Raphael had held him close, rubbing soothing circles against his back, humming deep in his chest trying to block out the sounds of clashing swords and thunder as best as he could.
He cried until he couldn't no more, completely spent and left to simply hang against his older brother's strong sturdy arms, breaths shallow and wet. Somewhere in a state between sleeping and wakefulness.
Raphael had been furious when their older brothers had come to him later, still holding onto his little brother, sheepish and asking to heal their wounds.
He'd done so, as he would for the next few centuries, but had given them a tongue lashing so severe that even Father had been shocked silent from it.
And for the longest time they had made it a point not to fight, they had gone so long without one, Gabriel had been happy again, his brothers loved again and the thunder was gone.
But, as he would come to find, not all good things can last.
No sooner had it ended, it began again. Father had asked them all to bow to the humans, and they had done so without question. Good children to a loving Father. All but one. Lucifer had his reservations still, he did not like having to bow to creatures he deemed substandard to that of an angel.
They were first.
Why must they bow?
Michael had been furious.
"How dare you question our Father's orders!"
"They are worthless! Nothing! We are better then that!"
"Watch your tone, little brother."
It was not said as a term of endearment, as it had always been do so long, but as a reminder of his position. Lucifer bulked at the reminder from his elder and lunged. Feathers were torn free and blood was drawn.
Gabriel could only stare as Michael took up his blade, they had never taken up weapons before, not against each other, never against their brother.
"You are a fool Michael, blinded by devotion for a Man who is Flawed!"
He didn't know what urged him to do what he had, his wings just seemed to propel him on their own, beating against the currents to stop his brother before he did something Gabriel knows he's going to live to regret, Michael loves Lucifer, they competed each other.
Lucifer let out a sound of surprise as his vision was taken over by something golden in color. Michael is in the heat of the moment, his vision clouded by his rage, but something in the back of his mind screams at him to stop as he plows on. Gabriel curls on himself slightly, preparing himself for the ripping feeling of Michael's blade piercing him.
It's going to hurt.
Oh, how it's going to hurt.
He'd only made the mistake of touching the blade of Michael's sword once, and it had burned his hand so severely it had been near unusable for an eon. Raphael and Father had been right angry with him afterwards.
Michael only realizes that it was not his intended target, the subject of his blinding anger, when his sword pierces into the skin of the angel blocking his path and the scream that is released at such an action is the twin of the scream let out all that long ago when little Gabriel had been foolish enough to try and play with his-.
No.
"GABRIEL!"
It had taken Raphael nearly a year to collect the Messengers leaking grace, and knit it back together, to stabilize his core and bring life back to him. Though he'd done everything he could to help make it all better again, there was still a large scar in the middle of his chest where Michael's sword had gone through him.
Sometimes it still hurt, but he's grown accustom to it.
Lucifer had gotten on Michael more then ever after that, throwing accusations at him and insults so horrid that they would have made their Father blush and pull him into His throne room.
His hide would be tanned and he wouldn't sit right for a week.
That was, if Father had started paying them all more attention, and hadn't begun to withdraw from them all.
"You are a monster Michael!"
"Lucifer I am warning you-!"
"You'd rather kill your own baby brother than be rid of those mud-monkeys! Those cockroaches under your feet!"
"How dare you!"
"What? Don't like hearing the truth, brother?"
Michael rose to the bait every time, Lucifer just had that power over him, and the fights would last and last. At one point, Gabriel would run to Raphael's room, the elder always waiting with his door propped open and arms ready to hold him tight, they'd lay in his bed and Gabriel would be held as close as he could be as his older brother whispered stories in his ear, blocking out the sounds of the war raging between their older brothers.
But then, even he stopped, instead taking to locking his door. Gabriel would spend hours just pounding on the fine wood, begging through tears to be let in.
"Please Raphael!", he broke out through a mouth full of sobs, breath catching in his throat, and his fist going purple from the force of his knocks.
"Let me in! Please!"
"Go away Gabriel."
"Please big brother!," He leaned in close to the door, his ear pressed to the warm surface, listening for anything that might sound like his older brother moving to let him in despite his denials and that he might be on the other side of the door too.
"...Raphy..."
But he can't hear anything, his big brother isn't going to take him in his arms this time, isn't going to drown out the sounds of his older brothers fighting with his smooth soft voice and his many unending stories. And Gabriel's left to slide down his older brothers bedroom door, sobbing his little angel heart out.
Not once does the older archangel open his bedroom door.
Gabriel knew he would have to change the moment Raphael stopped opening his door, become stronger, harder, and that was just what he did.
The fun-loving easy Messenger turned to stone.
Lucifer fell.
Michael went hard.
Raphael turned cold.
And Gabriel was cruel.
In another world, Gabriel would have left, snuck to Earth in the dark of the night, unable to take his brothers fighting any longer and runaway. He becomes a pagan trickster god, renames himself Loki, and changes his appearance to fit the part.
He loves his tricks and takes the lives of many of the species that he blames for taking his family away from him.
But in this one, he stays, he drops the fun and games shtick and turns into a monster.
Fledglings weep at the mere sight of him, even if he's not after them at that particular moment, Raphael can't tell you the number of times he's had patients come to him after being sent to Gabriel for punishment.
There have been a few who have had to have been mind-wiped, what they experienced to horrific for them to move passed.
Michael corner's Gabriel one day, after the cry of a fledgling rings through Heaven. He'd burnt one of the premature wings with holy fire because they could not weld the blade the correct way.
And it's in that confrontation that Michael finally opens his eyes to what he truly has done.
To what they've all truly done.
"Gabriel what in-What are you doing?"
His little brother smiles sadistically at him, a shadow of the smile he once held for so long, and Michael can't do anything but collect the flames in his hand and push the little fledgling in the direction of the Healer.
"This is becoming unacceptable Gabriel, what has gotten into you? You used to be such a great caretaker for the little ones."
Gabriel scoffed, shoving passed his older brother, "I only did what you wanted brother, I grew up, just like you said, 'no time for fun and games Gabriel start acting like your an Archangel'. Well we are weapons, Michael, nothing more, nothing less."
Michael had gone to Raphael later that same night, expressing the shared concerns his younger brother had, through everything Gabriel had been the one thing that had held them together, given them a reason to smile throughout the day, and now he was becoming a monster of himself.
He was forgetting how to find the bright side in the dark surrounding.
He forgot how to smile, and how to have fun, and how to laugh.
It was all their fault too.
If only Raphael had opened his door all those eons ago, taken him into his arms like he knew he should have, drowned out the Fall with his soft spoken stories.
If only Michael had listened.
In one version, Gabriel gets killed by Lucifer in the middle of a hotel ball room after interrupting a meeting between the pagan powers who thought they stood any chance against an archangel, let alone the second born, and by his own blade no less.
And in the other, well it's not all that much different, except that it's Michael's blade that delivers the blow over his own blade.
Nobody had ever thought that there could be anyone who could be feared more then the devil himself.
Until they met the Archangel Gabriel.
In one universe, Gabriel leave a message on a pornographic DVD about the four horsemen rings being the key to lock Lucifer back up in his cage, in the hands of two humans.
Sam and Dean Winchester.
And in the alternate universe, Sam Winchester never gets the chance to spring Lucifer from his imprisonment.
Archangel Michael does it for him.
In the end of one story the fate of the world is in the hands of the two eldest archangels, locked in the same battle they've been fighting since the dawn of man. One has to kill the other, and the surviving dies in the guilt of taking the life of their other.
But in another, a different end to a different story, it doesn't come down to two humans against all of Heaven, one Angel who breaks everything he touches in the name of doing the right thing, nor does it come down to the first and the second.
It comes down to the third.
The one who never gave up that hope that one day his little sun would be returned to him. That the little angel whom used to fall in stitches every time he prescribed him a dose of his 'healing kisses' wasn't completely lost to him. He who convinced Michael to communicate again with their fallen brother, for them to talk, and not to loose another brother for the sake of a misunderstanding.
In one story, the ending is decided by two Archangels and a pair of strong willed humans.
And in the other, it falls to the Healer, and the Messenger.
He can list the most sorrowful things he's been through on one hand, there is very little that has had such a lasting affect on Raphael, but having to witness his older brother deliver what should have been a killing blow to the baby brother they had all taken a part in raising was most probably the most life changing.
There are many things he has lived to regret.
Lucifer's Fall.
Allowing his siblings to be turned into warriors, into shadows that they were never meant to be.
Condoning Naomi's 're-education' to go on so long.
But most of all he regrets letting Gabriel turn into what he had. There are so many 'what-ifs' and 'if onlys' that run through his mind whenever he sees something that reminds him of his youngest brother (and there is a lot of things that do) like if only he had not turned his back on him.
If only he had opened his door that fateful day.
If only he hadn't gotten so selfish.
Michael couldn't do it, not really, and though it had been told to the Host and the masses, the killing blow that would have put an end to Gabriel's reign of terror permanently had never been truly delivered. He'd been left scattered in the stars, the only place that still truly felt like home, in an induced coma like state.
Impossible to wake from unless someone on the outside, someone with the power, could pull his grace back together and mold it once more.
Raphael ignored the whispering of the host as his plans were finally realized, he ignored the worried urging of his brothers now that Michael and Lucifer were on talking terms once more, not what they had once been but close as they could get, they all had each other.
Their balance.
Gabriel had been his.
Gabriel was like that of a flowing river, the ocean, wild and majestic and unpredictable. He never fit into one image and was always carving his own path in creation. He was excitement and boisterous.
Whereas Raphael himself was like the wind, soft and calm, a constant presence. He was wherever he was needed, never in one place for too long, and there even if you didn't see him. He was calm, but dangerous when he needed to be.
They were each others balance.
Michael was the fire to Lucifer's ice.
The order to his chaos.
He came to the conclusion, too little too late, that he needed Gabriel as much as Gabriel needed him.
Raphael let himself merely exist there, floating unmoving in the midst of all the stars, and felt his eyes closing. His arms raised, spreading on their own accord, and he exhaled deeply. An unseen breeze through the milky way.
The beat of the messenger's grace thrummed around him, filling in the emptiness with being. And then he inhaled, his eyes flying open, glowing in the darkness, and grace came to him as little shooting stars through the endless night. It gathered and condensed under his command, his presence, it formed and took life.
A bright light, brighter then any star or sun, took hold as it got ever larger in size. Fingers and a nose, lips, and a set of glowing eyes.
His brother took form right before his eyes, six wings outstretched behind him, blurring into the golden hue of the burning suns behind them.
Slowly ever so slowly he pulled his own grace back in, and his arms started to fall back to his sides, as the glowing began to fade. Fading light gave way to golden brown hair, whiskey colored eyes, and tan skin.
"Gabriel," Raphael breaths his name as if it is his breath of life. His baby brother. The one who was always so much better then them all. The truly lost brother.
"Raphael."
Gabriel's voice is hoarse from lack of use.
"You let him kill me."
The Healer tilts his head, "You were turning into a monster."
"I only became what you guys wanted. You told me to act my rank. I did and you got scared."
"I admit, we were wrong, and I was indeed scared."
Gabriel snorts, still unpredictable and dangerous, but just as equally his baby brother all the same, "You brought me back. And for what?"
"I never let you go and you are my brother."
Again another snort, "Funny way of showing it. What do you want?"
"For you to come home, come back to us, to me."
"Why should I? Hmmm? I came to you! I always came to you! You were the one who locked me out! You were the one who turned their back! I came to you and you turned me away! Why should I come back to you now!"
Raphael moved, adjusted, and came to be on what some would call his knees.
"Because I am not whole without you. You are my balance Gabriel. I need you now. I miss you. My little one. My little hummingbird. My little sun-drop. I beg you to forgive me. Can you forgive an old timers mistakes?"
"You truly aren't as young as you were."
"Though I am still young enough to bring you to your knee's, I'm sure."
Gabriel gave a small smile and his eyes shined with unfamiliar humor. It had been so long since those bright golden orbs had shined with such carefree emotion.
"And the fighting?"
"No more."
"I don't think we can ever be what we once were."
Raphael understood that and perhaps deserved it, and so much more, "But I would desire to try if you would allow it?"
He stiffens as the younger moves, shocked and somewhat frightened as a body slams into his, and then he feels arms wrap around him. A nose pressed to the crook of his neck and he breaths a sigh of relief when a small voice whispers in his ear.
"I missed you big brother."
"And I you. Everyday."
It's tense, to say the least, when Gabriel finally sees Michael again, and it had been nearly three months now that Raphael had managed to piece their youngest brother back together again, the younger had not wanted to leave Raphael's side now that he was allowed to be there once again and the elder was more then happy to keep him under wing.
Too excited of the fact that he had his little hummingbird back then to care that he was most likely underfoot.
Gabriel had been vocal about his reservations he held about seeing Michael or Lucifer again, especially considering the last time he had seen either; one had fallen and the other had 'killed' him.
That being said, the poor Healer was bombarded everyday by questions and concerns in regards to their youngest archangel from his two older brothers not to mention having to deny deny deny their constant requests to see him. Eventually he'd just caved at the annoyance of their constant badgering and put his foot down.
Gabriel clutched at the back of his brother's top as he watched his two oldest brothers slowly enter their Garden, the place none of them had been in so so long, Joshua had still maintained such good care of it that they ought to thank him one of these days. He felt vaguely like a fledgling again, hiding away behind his older brother, reminding him of times gone by when he'd done wrong and Raphael would shelter him in his wings as their older brothers gave him stern reprimands and he would cry, and cossetting him there when consequence was given for his misdeed and he whined about it being unfair.
Raphael was always there.
The Morning Star and The Prince came to a stop a good couple paces away, making sure to keep their distance, and from over Raphael's shoulder the Messenger watched as they slowly lowered themselves to their knees. Nothing that he had expected actually occurred, he's prepared himself for yelling and violence and disappointment, but he got none.
He got silence instead.
And soft words.
"Gabriel. We are so sorry."
"As you should be!",Raphael stumbled as Gabriel thrust himself forward slightly to peer around him and then ducked back away again. A living shield for anything that might happen. He didn't mind in the slightest though.
"We do not deserve you."
"Damn straight."
They exchanged looks and Raphael rolled his shoulders, peering back at the younger Archangel, "Little one they are trying."
"So what! I don't have to forgive them for anything!"
"Raindrop," A nickname, a pet name he hasn't heard in so long is enough to warrant Gabriel's attention being turned to Michael and his sad eyes, "Please don't let us go."
"You guys never listened! I tried to warn you!"
"And we were fools."
"Yes you were."
It was somewhere, an unknown uncharted somewhere, but it was a progressive somewhere indeed. Raphael gave a soft fond smile and shook his head.
"You are all fools."
"Coming from you big guy? So a compliment."
Gabriel's gone, absolutely gone, and all he can manage to do is shove against his older brother's head as best as he can with as much strength as he can muster.
OH FATHER! STOP! PLEASE! NOT THE SCAR ON HIS BELLY! NOT THERE!
Raphael's been laying over him for what feels like an eternity, pressing his dreaded 'healing kisses' all over every scar and bump he can find. Gabriel's howling, absolutely howling, squirming as much as he's allowed and kicking wildly into the mattress.
"What do we do if a fledgling is crying?"
A shit ton of kisses and the Messenger squeals for mercy.
"Gabriel."
"OH OUR DAD! WE CUDDLE THEM! WE CUUUUUDDLE THEM!"
"And what don't we do?"
He throws his head back, a loud scream breaking from him when those kisses travel down to his belly button, falling into another fit of hysterical high pitched laughter.
"MAKE THEM CRY MORE! MAAAAKE THEM CRY MOOOORE!"
"Well well well, looks like he can be trained to be nice again, aren't you just full of giggles today!'
Lucifer's in the doorway, with Michael attached to his arm, "Can we join?"
So this was actually really hard to finish, cause I kept re-re-re-rewriting scenes and stuff! And then I would be like, nah, i dont like any of that and completely change it and then be like, nah, I don't like any of that either.
All in all this took me a while so please go easy on me!
LOVE YOU ALL!