"I think we should explore this place," Sam said.
"Yeah, great idea!" Gabriel enthused, "It'll be so much fun. Maybe there'll be candy!"
"Candy?" Micha asked hopefully, "I like candy."
"Do you ever think about anything besides sweets?" Lucifer asked Gabriel, "It's getting old."
"I have the right to think about sweets as often as I like," Gabriel said, "and you can go screw yourself."
"Don't swear in front of the kid," Sam pleaded.
"Don't worry," Micha said, "I know plenty of naughty words already."
"That doesn't make it better," Sam said.
"Ah, don't worry your pretty head over it, Sam-a-lam," Gabriel said casually, "He'll have to hear everything sometime. And technically he's the oldest of us all, 'cept grumpy over there." He pointed to Mike, who was sitting in the corner ignoring everybody.
"Maybe I should go talk to him," Lucifer commented hopefully, "He needs to learn to handle social interaction."
"You just want to start another fight," Adam said accusingly, "No."
Lucifer scowled at Adam.
"Can we go exploring?" Micha pleaded, grabbing Sam's hand and pulling him towards the door. He used normal child strength, so Sam didn't move.
"Yeah," Gabriel agreed, "We need to go exploring. Angels die within half an hour if they don't get to explore somewhere new. It's an emergency!"
"I call bullshit," Lucifer noted.
"Aw, c'mon, Luce," Gabriel whined, "We need to make sure there's nothing dangerous here! And find candy."
Micha yawned. "Yeah," he said, "we need to- go-exploring."
"Micha's tired," Sam said, "Maybe we should do this later."
"I'm not tired," Micha argued crossly.
"There's nowhere to sleep here anyway," Adam noted, "We should split up. Look for exits or information on where we are, and Sam can find a bed or at least a couch for Micha."
"That's a terrible idea," Lucifer argued.
"I don't hear you coming up with a better one," Adam threw back.
"Just because I didn't tell you doesn't mean I don't have a perfectly good plan-"
"Come on, Luce," Adam said, grabbing Lucifer's shoulder and tugging him towards the door.
"Hey, you can't drag me places," Luc whined as he followed Adam out of the room.
Sam looked between little Micha who was whining and looked miserable and exhausted, and Mike who was glowering ominously in the corner. "Gabriel, can you stay with him?" Sam asked, motioning towards Mike.
"So, if I can drag him to the candy-"
"Sure, Gabe," Sam said, "Just keep an eye on him."
"Can do," Gabriel said.
"Thanks," Sam said earnestly. He picked Micha up and carried him out of the room.
"I don't wanna be carried," Micha whined, "Put me down! You're mean."
"OK," Sam said patiently. He kept carrying Micha, who fell asleep in Sam's arms four steps later.
Sam found a corridor lined with doors. He was drawn to one two down on the left. There was nothing special about it, but it just- felt right. He couldn't explain it. He pulled the door open to reveal a simple bedroom. The furnishings were small and basic with cold colors and lightly finished wood. Sam tucked Micha into the bed and left.
Back in the room where they'd woken up, Gabriel sat down hesitantly next to Mike. "Hi."
"Greetings are kind of pointless," Mike said.
Gabriel shrugged. "They're good for starting conversations. You know, like when you want to talk to someone."
Mike rolled his eyes. "Like you actually want to talk to me. Look, why don't you go find your candy, and I'll promise not to blow anything up while you're gone."
"I want you to come with me," Gabriel said.
"Why?"
"Because you're my brother," Gabriel said, "isn't that reason enough?"
"We're from different universes," Mike argued.
"Yeah, but they didn't branch off till long after we'd been brothers for billennia, or whatever the step up from millennia is."
"Billennia? Really?" Mike asked.
Gabriel shrugged. "It sounds cool. Billennia. It should be a song title."
"Don't you dare start singing," Mike said threateningly.
"Well, since you brought it up-" Gabriel grinned maniacally.
"No," Mike said.
Gabriel started singing. Michael covered his ears with his hands, but Gabriel was too loud and it didn't help much. Mike's ears were unfortunately highly sensitive. It was a normal archangel thing, but now he really wished he had dull human hearing. He started screaming to avoid having to listen, and that worked better. Gabriel gave up after a moment. Luckily he didn't have much patience when he was being mostly ignored.
Mike glowered at Gabriel.
Gabriel shrugged innocently.
Mike groaned and rolled his eyes.
"Let's go look for candy!" Gabriel enthused.
"Why?" Mike asked crossly.
"Cuz I'm your little brother," Gabriel pleaded. "You're s'posed to help me find candy." He tried out his puppy eyes.
Mike patted his head. "Go look by yourself."
Gabriel sniffled. "But Mikey-" Full power puppy eyes time. He let his lips tremble a bit and his eyes teared up. If this didn't work, nothing would, and that would mean that Mike's heart was made of stone and completely unshakable.
"Manipulative little brat," Mike whined, "Fine. I'll help you look for candy for five minutes, and five minutes only. It's a one time deal."
"Yay!" Gabriel yelled. He launched himself into Mike's arms. "You're the best big brother ever."
"I think that's a bit of an overstatement," Mike tried weakly.
Gabriel shook his head. Needless to say, Mike helped Gabriel look for candy for a lot longer than five minutes. It was three hours before Adam found Gabriel curled up asleep on the couch with lots of candy wrappers next to him. Mike was sitting on the ground next to him reading a book on recent history to catch up with the changes from his universe to this one. They were both smiling.
Lucifer followed Adam into the room, sitting down in an armchair and relaxing like he thought he was a king. Adam was trying to start a fire in the fireplace. It took him a while, but he finally managed it. The fire was roaring happily when Sam came in.
"So, are we having an official council now or something?" Lucifer asked.
Adam just shrugged. Mike didn't even look up from his book.
"Am I the only person who cares that we're trapped with no idea who brought us here?" Lucifer demanded, "We should be trying to escape or find out who did it or something."
Sam shrugged. "There's no way to figure it out and no way to escape."
"Ugh, I hate apathetic dumbasses," Luce whined.
"It's not bad here," Adam commented, "and a bunch of you idiots would be trying to take over the world if we went back. Maybe it's better to stay here and roll with it. Call it a vacation if it'll make you feel better."
"A vacation?" Mike sounded confused.
"Mike doesn't know what that means, cuz he's a moron and 'Father never ordered it', so he's never taken a break," Lucifer threw in helpfully, "It's probably how the stick got shoved so far up his ass."
"That's it," Mike snapped, getting up and stalking towards Lucifer.
"Wait," Sam said, "Can we not have another apocalypse? It didn't even work last time."
"That was last time," Lucifer said, "This time I'm gonna win."
"No, you're not," Mike snapped condescendingly.
"Oh, yes, I am," Lucifer retorted.
"No."
"Yes."
"No."
"Yes."
"No."
"Yes."
"Oh, will you two quit it?" Adam asked.
Mike and Luci stared at him. After a moment Lucifer shrugged. "There's no point fighting here anyway," he said, "We're stuck, so I can't take over the universe and you can't either."
"At least I would've ruled the universe properly if I'd managed to take over," Mike snapped, "All you did was sit in the throne room and demand the angels find your half-breed spawn."
"Hey, don't insult my kid!" Lucifer yelled, "He's a great kid. Lots of potential."
"I don't think he likes you much anymore," Mike commented, almost airily, "You did suck out all his grace, after all."
"Well, he doesn't like you any better," Lucifer retorted.
"What?" Mike asked, "Why would I care?"
"Argh," Lucifer complained, "For the sake of the argument, pretend you care!"
"I won't!"
"You're a dick!" Lucifer yelled.
"At least I'm not a whiny little bitch like you," Mike snapped.
"Cut it out!" Sam yelled.
Two archangels glared silently at him.
"If you two could stop fighting for half a second, maybe we could find a way out of this house," Sam said, trying to sound reasonable and not panic about the fact that two archangels were glowering murderously at him.
Lucifer scowl lightened. "Always knew there was a reason I liked you, roomie," he said, "You've got spunk, for a petty little human."
Sam's teeth clenched at the reminder of his time in the Cage, but he kept his cool.
"There's no way out," Adam cut in.
Sam rubbed his forehead tiredly. "What did you find?"
"There's a wall around the property," Adam said, "It's unscalable."
"I couldn't fly through it or over it, either," Lucifer whined, "It's dumb."
"So, whoever trapped us here has enough power to stop an archangel," Sam said, "At least that narrows down the possibilities."
"What did the energy feel like?" Mike asked, "You must've felt something."
"I-" Lucifer paused. "It's not possible. I must've been mistaken."
Mike's eyes narrowed. "What was it?" he asked harshly.
Lucifer scowled mutinously at the floor.
"Luce, spill," Mike ordered, "now."
"Go feel it for yourself," Lucifer grumbled.
"Fine," Mike growled angrily. He vanished. About ten seconds later he was back, and he looked massively baffled.
"Yeesh, what did you feel?" Adam asked.
"It's- impossible," Mike said.
"See?! I told you," Lucifer snapped.
"What is it?" Sam asked.
"The wall is made of our energy," Lucifer said. "Mine and Micha's and Gabriel's and Mike's, all bound together and- deliberately working together. It's impossible."
"And it's powered with your souls," Mike said, "but none of us is feeling the effects of that drain. We should be weak and exhausted, if it was even possible for all our powers to work together in such a fashion."
"Which it's not," Lucifer insisted.
"I felt the wall." Gabriel's voice was small and tired; he'd just woken up a little. "I like it. It feels like home used to."
Nobody knew quite how to respond to that.