This prompt was rather interesting ("Mirror Mirror") and my mind immediately when to Harry Potter and the mirror of erised and thus this came to life! I will say I was worried in the beginning about getting it right, but I feel it worked out well in the end after quite a bit of editing?
Welp, y'all can be the judges and let me know! (Also, this is like kinda set some time in season 13 but with no set timeline so kinda just make your own up?)
It's Dean who was the first to spot it.
He was cleaning out one of the many rooms of the Bunker because Sam's pitched the genius idea of sorting through everything properly, updating any outdated information the Men of Letters might've had, and overall just making things easier for both themselves or any hunters that might need to use their information. So Dean found himself stuck in what he had coined the "Junk room", sorting through all the junk that's practically useless. It's mainly just sheets of paper either filled with illegible handwriting or most of it scratched out; broken books; old bits and pieces of other broken things he's not quite sure what they actually are; and a box of photographs that he's sure is older than both him and Sam's ages combined.
It's all in all just useless junk.
He ends up tossing most of it away in black garbage bags to be tossed or burned afterward, but when he gets to the photographs, he pauses. Most of them are tossed, and as he gets further into the ratty box, he soon finds himself holding a rather nice 8x11 framed photo. Picking up the photograph, Dean frowns, because he could've sworn this was destroyed years ago. There's no possible way for this picture to exist, and especially end up back in the bunker.
But it's real.
It had been taken back when the biggest problem for them was the Apocalypse, back when they still had Bobby, Ellen, and Jo. Dean had been sure there was just one photo taken, and that it had been burned after returning back lacking two members of their party, and that no one was smiling in it. They had all been grim-faced, accepting tomorrow might be the day they bite the dust, but in the photo, Dean held in his hands, they were all smiling. And to make it odder, his Dad, Mom, Charlie, Kevin, and Jack had also been added to the photo (and he might've spotted Gabriel on his tiptoes pulling bunny ears on himself), which didn't make sense because most of the people in the photograph had never met each other. They had all died beforehand. And yet somehow they were all together in one frame.
He tilted it left and right, confused, but he couldn't spot anywhere that revealed where the few photos containing all these people had been spliced together to make one natural, effortless photo. Somehow, a single photo existed containing all the people he cherished in his life. So despite how weird it was, Dean smiled. His birthday was coming up soon, so perhaps this had been Sam's doing, hiding a photograph with all of their family in a box of junk thinking Dean would never find it.
"Nice try Sammy," he said, taking the photo and leaving the "junk room" and heading towards his own.
It was Sam that found it next, a few months afterward.
He hadn't initially thought too much of it, spotting the photograph hanging on the wall of his brother's bedroom when he walked in, looking for a particular book he had noticed Dean take earlier. At first, he had walked past it but stopped, turning to look over his shoulder at it. Walking back to the photograph on the wall, Sam had noticed it was of him standing with Jess' arms wrapped around his waist, her grinning brightly. Beside him were Dean, Cas, Bobby and his mom, as well as a few other close friends they had lost over the years. They all wore smiles that matched Jess' and he, for a moment, swears he sees Dean laughing with an arm slung over Cas' shoulder.
Sam's smile grows, matching that of himself in the photo and removes it from his brother's wall. He's not sure where Dean got something like this because no way in Hell is Dean good with photoshop, but it looks too real that Sam doesn't want to look too much into it. He's too happy looking at the photo and so he takes it will him as he leaves Dean's room, going to hang it up elsewhere so all the people of the Bunker can appreciate it, not just Dean. (the book he had originally gone in for remained forgotten, no longer on his mind. And, if his brother does say something about seeing the photo in the kitchen, Sam just shrugs and tell him that the kitchen was missing something)
Cas notices the photo next, a few days after it makes its way on the kitchen wall, talking to Gabriel about their latest case. They two celestial beings had walked into the kitchen, and upon seeing it, froze in surprise. Cas had found himself unable to not smile while staring at the photograph, seeing himself standing with Sam and Dean right beside him. Each had an arm slung around his shoulders and to Sam's left, was Gabriel, who looked equally as happy. The longer he stared at the photo, the more people he noticed: Bobby, Mary, Jack, Balthazar? He blinked and in the distance saw all his fallen brothers and sisters as well.
Surprised and in shock, he turns to meet Gabriel's gazing hoping such a photo does exist because if not, it's a cruel joke placed by his mind. But the look on Gabriel's face tells him it's real.
"I can't believe a photo like this exists," He says and Gabriel nods, unable to look away.
"Yeah. It's...It's incredible," the archangel replies, staring at it. He wants to pluck it from the wall and hold it but refrains himself, shaking his head as if to clear his vision. Something doesn't sit right with him with that photo and so he turns to walk away, wanting to get as far away as possible from it. He leaves Cas with it, looking puzzled and troubled all at the same time.
Castiel doesn't notice his brother's face, too focused on the photo. It gives him a sense of purpose, of belonging and it's all he's ever wanted.
When Mary sees the photo, she starts crying tears of joy, a watery smile on her face. It's her boys and her husband, just like how they looked before the fire that changed everything. John's got his arm around her waist, Dean sitting on his hip and in her arms is baby Sammy. She takes it down from the wall, stroking it for a moment, too focused on the sheer emotions and memories to notice the her in the photo is crying as well.
It's just too perfect.
It makes her feel a little less lost, a little less confused being trapped in a time that she was a stranger in. Instead, she feels put together like every puzzle piece is in the right place and if she just sits there in the kitchen holding to her chest and crying, well, nobody needs to know.
The photo didn't remain in the kitchen, but rather seemed to travel around the bunker, more often than not appearing in one member's room - only to then be taken and moved elsewhere. No one it seemed wanted to part with it, and would sometimes spend hours staring at it, smiling, drawn in.
Only Gabriel refused to touch it. He refused to look at it, be near it, and instead watched from the sidelines as tension in the bunker rose, the members getting more and antsier the longer they stayed away from the photo.
It perplexed him, how in a few weeks, everyone had gone from being all happy go lucky to drastic flips of either dreamy-like states or bitter anger and jealousy. More than once he had helped break up fights that had started because of that photograph, and while at first, he didn't understand, the more he observed, the more the Messenger did.
Originally he had been hesitant about it, suspicious about the pull he received from looking at the photo, hence why he tried to avoid it as best as possible. But what had made him really suspicious about the photo was when asking each person in the bunker separately why they loved the photo so much, he had gotten four different stories. Each telling about a picture they saw that the other didn't. And that, that set off warning bells in Gabriel's mind.
He had an idea what it might be, after hearing their stories, but it wasn't fully solid until after one fight, Gabriel had ripped the photograph out of the hands of Dean and Sam.
"You two are being ridiculous! Full grown men acting like children! Separate and cool down or Dad help me, I'll toss this photo away!" He snapped, being the mature one of the group - and isn't that a surprise! He was the mature one of them all! Oh, how Luci would laugh if he saw Gabriel now! - and the two had flinched at his words, eyes wide with fear.
They begged for him not too, and even Mary and Cas looked terrified he might actually go through with his threat. But after they had calmed down and slunk off to be alone, Gabriel had decided to get a better look at the photo.
He stared at Michael's smile, shuddered at the phantom feeling of Raphael's arms pulling him in for a hug. They felt so real, and for a moment, when Gabriel glanced over his shoulder, he could've sworn Raphael was actually there. But it was just Gabriel. Alone. In the bunker. Looking back at the picture, he watched Lucifer laugh, felt the sturdy hand of his Father ruffle his blond hair, witnessed the family he had once had. It was what he had wanted more than anything, to have his father back, to have his brothers together, but the sight of it churned his stomach, and Gabriel couldn't bring himself to smile. And the Gabriel in the photograph didn't either.
Odd, he thought and just to test something, smiled. And the Gabriel in the photo did too. Then he frowned, and his reflection followed.
"You sneaky bastard," he murmured out loud. "I can't believe I didn't recognize what you were sooner. You're not going to get me. I've seen the chaos you unleash and know this isn't real."
Michael tilts his head, listening to Gabriel.
Lucifer frowns, and Raphael removes his arms from around Gabriel, the feeling of phantom limbs vanishing.
The image shifts and Gabriel sighs, looking at the now warped reflection. He then tilts the photo, letting the light of the bulb overhead catch the engraving at the bottom. 'Erised'
Desire
He chuckles to himself. "Thought they destroyed all of these mirrors decades ago. You cause too much trouble for your size."
Gabriel then takes the mirror, flying from the Bunker and hovering right over the deepest trench in the ocean. He prepares to throw away the mirror but makes the mistake at the last second by looking down, catching the worried faces of his brothers looking up at him. The Archangel stutters, lowering his arm.
"You don't know how much I wish this was real," he says sadly.
He feels the pull of the mirror, calling out to him, trying to draw him in and for a moment he does. He can hear Michael calling his name, hears the others joining in and a bitter smile graces his face. But he doesn't let the mirror pull him in. Gabriel shakes his head, riding his mind of the fog that the mirror casts.
"But I've accepted my family's gone for good."
And with that, he chucks the mirror into the ocean, watching it sadly disappear under the dark waves. Then, with a flutter of his wings, disappears.
I always liked the idea of the mirror of erised, how it can be both good and bad, and wondered if angels could beat the magic of it that drew you in and made you become almost obsessive like, should you continue over and over to expose yourself to it.
There probably won't be any more updates anytime soon on this account, only because I am being absolutely swamped with work (as I say this, I have a half-finished TOK journal and presentation I need to finish for my first period later today) and IB has been far from kind to me. I will hopefully return in June after exams and all my ai's are done and over with and all I have left is my ee because despite believing I could balance everything, I can't. And if I were to try and continue posting, it'd be shitty first drafts that I had yet to edit and god... those are absolutely awful. So all my chapter fics are on hold for the next two months roughly (Way Down Under the Ground, Will They Tell Your Story?, and yes, Fadir will be rewritten and updated and finished, my dudes. I just need time!) until everything's no longer crazy so I can get good marks and not hate myself.
À plus tard, mes chers,
Twist