"Sometimes being a brother is even better than being a superhero." -Marc Brown
Death really wasn't at all what Gabriel had anticipated it to be. His very first vague feeling of consciousness had been wet, cold, prickly, and uncomfortable. Angel's did not get uncomfortable; they didn't get cold. His expectations for death (the experience not the old dude with a thing for food) had really been higher. The distant sound of birds chirping and the sudden awareness of the rise and fall of his chest offered up another option that wasn't death. It didn't seem like that bad of a slot, but it was the obvious signs that he couldn't ignore: the fidgetiness of his muscles, the clamminess of his skin, the actual fucking need to breathe.
He didn't really want to open his eyes, but he had to face the facts like the man he apparently now was. Every single sign was pointing towards being human. Gabriel could feel a faint, a very faint, trace of his grace deep within him but other than that he had hoped on the mud monkey train. Humans weren't such a bad lot. Gabriel liked humans, he had masqueraded as them, partook in their activities, and in some ways thought they were better than angels. He liked them, but when he sat up and didn't feel the familiar presence of his wings his eyes glistened.
Gabriel knew this was no time to be sentimental. He wanted to just curl up into a ball with a bag of Recess Peanut Butter Cups at his side, but he had other priorities; being naked as hell was one of the big ones. Gabriel assumed his father had brought him back, and he was grateful, but would it have killed the big man to resurrect him with a pair of jeans? It would be hard to find a sane person willing to offer some grub to a man that was buck naked.
Of course, it would be much harder for a naked man to fight for his life, so when Gabriel heard a rustling beyond the trees he decided to fuck it and keep his nude butt to the ground. No way he'd be able to throw any punches with one hand keeping his boys in place. A random hiker getting a peek at his junk wasn't the most pleasant option either. Gabriel had hoped it was a raccoon, even though the little bastards could be vicious, but he had in no way expected to see the two men he saw. Their names rang clearly in his ear: Michael and Lucifer. Lucifer's now body looked like his old vessel, Nick, while Michael's was less familiar with black hair and prominent cheekbones.
Michael whispered, "Gabriel, is that you?"
Gabriel had been feeling a plethora of emotions but since many were pretty damn complex the most notable was the overwhelming compulsion to avert his eyes from his elder brothers' nether regions; all dads seemed to like embarrassing their kids.
Michael spoke to Gabriel with a slight edge of desperation in his voice; it hurt to hear it, "Gabriel, brother, please let that be you."
Lucifer didn't say a word, but the sorrowful confused look in his eyes spoke more.
Gabriel mouth twitched into his usual smirk, although it lacked the usual mischievous air, "The one and only, big bros. Mikey, Luci…so how's it hanging? I mean…everything. Not your dicks."
The usual Michael, the great warrior, would've rolled his eyes at Gabriel and scolded him for his childish ways before continuing on with his duties, but no not today. Today, Michael practically violated Gabriel when he threw his arms around his neck. The archangel, now man, was sobbing. Michael's tears and snot felt utterly disgusting against Gabriel's bare skin, but he didn't have the heart to push his elder brother away. Lucifer just stood to the side as he had been. It was odd seeing him looking so defenseless, afraid , and vulnerable. Lucifer had once had such a confident almost kingly aura about him, and yet now he seemed to fold into himself as tight as he could; unsure, guilty, and ashamed. Never before had Gabriel thought he would ever use those words in the same context with Lucifer.
Michael cried, "Brother, little brother. Is that some sort of punishment from our father? I cannot feel my wings nor my grace. I feel so trapped, and I cannot control myself. I awoke like this with him and I am so confused. There are so many things that I feel…things I cannot understand. There's a pain in my lower abdomen, I feel sticky, and I feel so weary. I am just so confused, Gabriel. I am not supposed to be this confused I am the eldest! I think I am now a human! I'm a human! A human!"
Michael's ability to form coherent sentences seemed to fail him as he resorted back to wailing.
Once again Gabriel was forced to be the reasonable one. The great commander was too busy crying his eyes out, while the great deceiver was doing hid best to be the champion of the Quiet Game, so it was all up Gabriel. Everything else that had happened, all the death, doom, chaos, everything would be put to the side; at least for now.
Gabriel said, "Alright guys, first things first. We're going to stow all the crap, and of it, and get right down to business. We are human, and if you haven't noticed we're all naked. I'm all for letting it all hang loose, but this is ridiculous and we're not getting anywhere like this. We really should start with that pain of your first, Mike. Luci, do you feel that too?"
Lucifer didn't even meet Gabriel's eye when he nodded.
Gabriel clapped his hands together, "Broskis, here is what you do…"
"Okay, so don't look directly at little Gabe because that's weird, but you guys should really just get the gist of it. You have to hold is steady and then just let it go."
Gabriel muttered under his breath, "Ready, aim, fire!"
Michael groaned in disgust, but imitated him nonetheless , "This is urinating? I didn't know this was like this. Is this a regular occurrence often?"
"Of what I now this happens quite a lot."
Lucifer had no comments as he relived himself, but his nostrils flared and he glared down at little Lucifer as if it had betrayed him.
Gabriel sighed, "Now that that's over we really need to get our hands on some clothes unless you guys are up for joining a nudist colony."
Lucifer held up one finger to stop him. No words passed his lips as he jogged back into the woods returning with two backpacks. Gabriel had never been so grateful to have a pair of Hanes boxers. The packs held an outfit for each of the men with three small envelopes. The envelopes had each of their names written him gold lettering; it could only be from one person. They wasted no time in ripping the envelopes open. They had expected a letter of sorts, some sort of explanation, but there was none; there were only 100 US dollars in each envelope.
Michael murmured, "I…I still do not understand what father is trying to say to us."
Gabriel patted Michael's now cotton clad back, "You know, Dad's always been an ominous dickbag. We can only guess at what's going down in his noggin, my guess is that he'd trying to teach us a lesson; in his own way. Really I don't know how the whole Apocalypse thing went down but…"
Michael was about to interrupt when an eerie growl emitted from Lucifer's stomach.
Gabriel stood up, "Well before we get to all the yelling, arguing, and making of our own case we need to get some food."
Michael stated, "I do not require sustenance."
When Michael's stomach decided it too wanted to be heard his lip quivered. Michael wasn't taking getting his wings clipped that well. He had never been the 'bad' son; he never had to be punished, Lucifer's silence was just as bad. The human emotions must have been overwhelming for them. Gabriel knew how passionately humans felt, and he even accepted his own feelings as angel. Michael and Lucifer weren't like that. Not bred to love, but born to. Angels were originally creatures of compassion, but it seemed to be the two eldest archangels had forgotten that somewhere along the way.
According to the gas station cashier God had dropped them down in Portsmouth, New Hampshire. It had been about four years since his death. Gabriel munched on his Nutter Butter as he tried to make heads or tales of the map in his hands. It had only been a three mile trek from their awakening place in the woods to the gas station, and in that time Lucifer still hadn't said a word, while Michael clung to Gabriel like he was a life raft. Now they sat tired as hell at the small table nestled in the back of the gas station. Gabriel knew they needed to conserve money, so right now it would just be water bottles and cheap food. Lucifer guzzled the water, but was extremely suspicious of his Kit Kat. Michael had refused both food and water until the growling of his stomach got louder. He tore chunks of his Hershey's apart before putting the candy into his mouth. A hint of the old Lucifer shined through when he nibbled his candy not to be outdone by Michael.
Michael asked, "Since we have now obtained clothing and sustenance are we still as you say 'stowing all the crap' like before?"
Gabriel leaned back in his chair, "I guess we really should bring that all out. I guess I'll go first."
He ran a hand through his hair, "I ran from heaven because I was sick of you guy's bickering, and I didn't like seeing all the fighting so I ran. I ran around his the humans, posed as a pagan god, did some deeds as a trickster. I wasn't all the bad actually, ignoring everything, until I met those Winchester brothers. They tried to kill me a few times and with Cassie's help they figured out who I really was. I just wanted it all to be over, but of course those boys wouldn't even hear of accepting 'destiny' no matter what I said. The Hardy boys got under my skin, and well Luci knows what happened after that. I didn't want to run away anymore."
Michael's fingers clenched his water bottle in an iron grip, "I had felt you're grace burn out…I had heard…"
Gabriel's eyes flickered to Lucifer. He wasn't angry. Lucifer had a tendency to get rid of things that got in his way, but there was no denying the glisten in his brother's eyes when the archangel blade went into his heart. Lucifer hadn't wanted to kill him, but with the years of built up anger and slight insanity from hell Lucifer made the choice he thought would be more beneficial. The narcissistic bastard he once knew must have hidden deep beneath his skin because now the human Lucifer just wasn't that anymore.
Gabriel shrugged, "You know what that whole killing me thing doesn't even matter. Live and let die, bro, okay that was a wrong choice of words. What I mean is…so long as you don't do it again I think we can all try to get by…together. We all fucked up a bit; its why Daddy-kins is doing this. I just want you guys to do I'm not going to hold anything against you. If we're going to get through this we'll have to do it together. Now does any one else have anything say?"
Lucifer kept any thoughts going on in his head to himself. Michael laid his head on the table. He murmured, "I thought I was doing the right thing. I thought I was doing Father's will. I was…I was wrong. The Winchester Brothers averted the destined fight, for it seems that was the right thing. I was dragged into the cage with him. Brother, if we are to do this together…what is it we are doing?"
Gabriel said cheerily, "Well my game plan involves us finding the Winchesters and Castiel!"
Michael jumped out of his chair, "Do you wish to die again? They'll kill us. How do you even know they're still alive? Dean will never ever accept us, and Castiel is dead."
Gabriel rolled his eyes, "I'll have you know those boys are pretty fond of me, or at least I think they are. Those bozos get into a fuck ton of trouble, but they're pretty hard to keep dead. Also Dad seems to have a resurrect Cassie thing going for him, so the little angel that could is probably up and kicking too. If I know Castiel he'll surely help us out. Look I don't really want to go crawling to anyone, but we do need some help. We have no idea what's going on in heaven right now, but we can't just go off an have giant orgies we have an obligation and we can't just go to any random angel. We're human, but we can't just up and walk away. We'll find the Winchesters because really most freaky shit tends to happen in their general area."
"How will we find them?"
"I have a minimal, very minimal, amount of grace within me, but I'm not sure I can access it but other than that I'm as human as you. Well it can't be too hard to find a '67 Chevy Impala in awesome condition, but the nomadic boys tend to follow any supernatural going down. I think I may be able to use what grace I have to help our search. The two boys are hidden, but if we do that we might be able to find them. After that …well we'll cross that bridge when we come to it. I'm tired, so we'll need to go into town and get a cheap ass motel room just for the night."
Michael liked having a plan. He liked following orders, even if his younger brother had taken on the role of leader Gabriel was much more knowledgeable. This was what he was comfortable with. He didn't know how the plan might work, but it was better than nothing. As the gas station cashier begun to lock up the men left to find a motel. Gabriel made idle conversation; he must be a tired rambler.
He talked about his time with the Winchesters (avoiding his death), he talked about his time as Loki, and some things he did as a trickster. The first real sounds, aside from breathing, from Lucifer was an amused snort. Gabriel had been speaking of when he had made Sam Winchester star in a commercial for genital herpes. Michel had to try and hide his smile when Gabriel told them a story involving a college student and an alien. It was horrible, but very funny.
The motel had horrid wallpaper that should've been removed in the seventies where it belonged, it had a faint smell of cigarettes, and only two beds. Gabriel asked, "I'm assuming you two aren't ready to be bunk buddies yet, so who wants to share with little old Gabriel?"
Michael was about to grab Gabriel's arm when Lucifer grabbed him first. He hadn't expected that, but first come first serve. Michael curled into a ball alone in bed. He had been even more reluctant to sleep, but became far too tired to fight it. Lucifer and Gabriel laid back to back on the other. Gabriel's mind raced, but he was bound and determined to fall asleep. He couldn't be tried on the first day of their mission. Gabriel was just about to doze off when a slip of paper fluttered down into his line of vision. It read in small quickly scrawled letters: I'm sorry.
Gabriel couldn't bring himself to turn to the brother he knew it was from. Was Lucifer sorry about the whole killing him thing? Probably, but that wasn't all. Was he sorry about the people and angels he'd killed; all the beings he had hurt? Was he sorry for himself? Was he sorry about being knocked down to the level of a human; the very things he thought we're inferior. Was he sorry about loving God too much? Lucifer hadn't been one to feel guilt, he was too arrogant, but now? How uneasy Lucifer seemed…Gabriel had a hypothesis. He thought that maybe Lucifer knew. Lucifer knew he had been given another chance. Lucifer didn't want to go back to hell, and God had given him another chance. He thought that as confused as Michael was with his newfound humanity, Lucifer didn't know what to do with his second chance. He didn't know what would happen after everything.
When Gabriel glanced over at Lucifer he saw his brother's shoulders shaking. Soft gasps escaped his lips and an occasional hiccup. Gabriel couldn't see Lucifer's face, and he didn't really want to, but he could feel it. He could feel Lucifer's pain. With every muted whimper and shudder it echoed. Lucifer was used to being alone, to being hated, to being looked at in disgust. Michael had yet to speak to him directly; he hadn't even said Lucifer's name. Michael may not be ready to accept Lucifer, but Gabriel didn't want to fight anymore; not each other. Lucifer was so used to being alone, but he wasn't alone anymore.
Gabriel said, "Night, Big bro."
Lucifer didn't reply but the gentle ruffling of Gabriel's hair was enough. Lucifer had once been very affectionate to Gabriel; Michael had been the silent supporter. For whatever reason Lucifer just wasn't talking, but it didn't matter. All that mattered was he wasn't alone anymore. Michael would come around eventually. They were all in the same boat. They were all human. The archangels were human.
