Hi. Another day, another challenge; I am making a promise of one chapter per week, hopefully more often. Chapters are short, uneventful, more of a characters study than a novel.

It's a Sabriel story, my guilty pleasure, and also the first slash fiction that is solely mine and not a mere interpretation of what my ex-profile-sister had on her mind.

If you have any comment, question, criticism concerning either the store, spelling, grammar or even my adopted writing style, don't hesitate to let me know. You can use reviews, private messages, psi-contacting (telepathy) or pigeon post to do so.

Name: Heir to the Heathen Throne

Chapter: Nirvána

Place/setting: Random university town

Characters: Gabriel, Castiel, Balthazar

Mood: Easy, Enigmatic, Energetic

Warnings: Strong language (for me, at least)

Author listening to: Nothing, but I'm going to go for Lemuria by Therion

Enjoy, if possible.


Nirvána; imperturbable stillness of mind after the fires of desire, aversion, and delusion have been finally extinguished.

Nirvana; name of three respective bands, American, Brittish and Swedish.


Gabriel liked to think it was a good name for a sweetshop; it suggested calmness, bliss and had that slight taste of foreign that he knew students just loved. Good, as well, since students made about seventy percent of his customers.

The radio wasn't playing Nirvana the moment he unlocked the door to the place. The radio was playing some weird ass mantra, and as soothing as those could be, if he was ever forced to repeat Oh mani padme hum for three hundred times, he might just get loony. But the mantra helped him realize one thing in exactly two seconds it took him to raise his eyes from where he had had them lowered while unlocking the door; Castiel was over.

"Oh by gods, will you stop breaking in?" he called into the shop, looking over the number of tables, chairs upside down on them, trying to see where his weird ass cousin was at the moment. He heard the sound of a long exhale and then Castiel's head appeared from behind the counter, the teen straightening up and stretching all of his muscles along the way.

"I didn't break in, the backdoor is unlocked." Castiel said evenly, running his hand trough his hair, darkened even more than usual by sweat. It made Gabriel snort and cross the room, with one relieved click turning the music off.

"Yeah. Now it is. Who taught you how to pick locks? I'm gonna send that fucker to Valhalla prematurely." He wasn't really bothered by Castiel's presence, the teen using Gabriel's shop as some kind of safe haven, more so after his brother started working there as a waiter. On the good days, Gabriel thought he might just have to strangle the two of them, their presence was overwhelming and exactly what he always expected from family, yet never got from his own set of brothers. On the bad days, he was half-tempted to accept Castiel's offer of massage and getting high.

"Your mother, Gabriel." Castiel followed him with his gaze, he was sure of it; could feel the eyes on the back of his neck even as he put the chairs one-by-one from the tables to the floor.

"I didn't know you were into necromancy, too." was Gabriel's smart reply and he would love to get it printed and hung above his bed. "You could help me, you know? Since you already spend more time in here than you do at home."

He raised his eyes to see Castiel give him a contemplative look and then shake his head, "No, I do not think so." the male said with a hint of amusement in his voice.

Gabriel huffed and went on silently until he had the shop prepared for opening; it was half past six and he still had ten more minutes before he would leave to the kitchen to warm up the sweets for breakfast and start on a new batch. However, he needed Balthazar over by that time, since he had honest to gods no idea how to prepare coffee with the silly coffee makers.

"Where's that asshat of your brother anyway?" he huffed towards Castiel, moving to lean against the counter now that the dark-haired teen was busy moving around the shop and lighting up aroma candles.

"What's the time?" Castiel asked and Gabriel peered up at the clock above the counter- a gift from Lucifer, who thought Winnie the Pooh was a decent idea of decoration, that dick. "Twenty-five to seven." He breathed in the air and caught a hint of scent from the candles, heavy and enticing. It was strangely familiar, but he couldn't place it.

"Santal wood." he heard Castiel say and raised his eyebrows, but the male obviously wasn't done yet, "It's aphrodisiakum. Cleans the air. Calms people down. And Balthazar is probably still asleep."

Gabriel snickered, "Aphrodisiakum? Seriously? You know this is a coffee shop, rig- wait, what do you mean 'still asleep'?" he pushed away from the counter, started pacing the room. "I'm gonna castrate the fuc-"

He was interrupted by the front door opening and in danced said male, whistling off-tune and ridiculously cheerful, "Who offended your cakes this time?"

Gabriel narrowed his eyes, "Good morning to you too." he greeted him, eyebrows raised and arms crossed over his chest, stupidly annoyed. But he had been afraid Balthazar would come in late and the coffee wouldn't be ready for the first customers and then-

"You're being the mean boss today?" Balthazar folded his jacket over one of the chairs, by a corner table that they usually reserved for family and friends over, unless there was too many people in.

"I wouldn't worry about it too much." Castiel piped in, blowing off the long match he had used to light up his candles, "He is simply worried his coffee-drinking sweetheart would leave if there was no coffee to be drunk."

Gabriel straightened up so fast his neck stung, "Oi!" he glared at them both, hoping it would be enough to get the siblings to shut up and stop poking fun of him.

It didn't work quite the way he had hoped for; but they did shut their mouths and Balthazar moved around the counter to start on the coffee, while Castiel simply raised his hands, palms-up, in a gesture of surrender.

The peace and silence didn't last long and Gabriel knew he should have expected that. All the while, the moment he saw Castiel open his mouth and take in a deep breath, he suddenly wished he had a piece of pie in his hand to stuff his mouth shut. "I don't think he would stop coming in, even if you didn't serve the coffee." And if Gabriel expected his cousin to start with the usual cliché of 'he comes in to see you', he was sadly mistaken; "It's the only place 'round the campus that doesn't sell drugs and whores."

"Maybe I should start selling drugs and whores." Gabriel repeated sulkily, reaching to take the mug of steaming coffee that Balthazar prepared for him. "Maybe then he wouldn't sit in a sweet shop, drinking black coffee."

Gabriel just caught the sound of the two siblings laughing in unison, weirdly in harmony, but that might just be the Sandal wood or whatever playing hockey with his mind. He turned around and fled into his safe kitchen, but not fast enough to miss Balthazar's last retort;

"Maybe we should hire Ruby, then. From what I heard she's the biggest whore since Mary Magdalene."

Gabriel felt the tip of his ears heat up and he kicked the door to the kitchen shut, turning his laptop on to play his own music; gossiping just never felt right to him.


"You sure 'bout that? I mean.. you've got school 'n stuff, don't wanna get in the way, dude."

"-for the fifth time, Dean, it's cool, alright? It's nice to get you to myself for few days. Without dad."

"Yeah, yeah, I know. Dad's got some stuff to do in Oregon, or somethin', so it's gonna be just us."

"Great. I'll see if I can get you a room yeah?"

"Motel's always an option, chill."

"- fine. When are you going to get here?"

"Friday. Evening, probably. I'll call you when I know more, yeah?"