Feels. :)
Here is a chapter all about Balthazar, because Ellie asked for one ages ago and because I asked Arya to pick an angel and she picked Balthy. :)
You were Gabriel's protégée, Castiel was his favourite but Castiel wouldn't listen and you were so, so eager and he saw in you the qualities of a trickster. You were Gabriel's protégée, you always learnt from his mistakes and you would be damned if you were going to die the same way he did, with your brother stabbing a knife through your grace, no, you always learnt from Gabriel's mistakes.
Castiel never learnt to identify the fakes, never took the time to study the way Gabriel's grace worked or the way yours did. Castiel never learnt to understand the 'amateur hocus-pocus' that Gabriel taught you to use, Castiel was his favourite, but he never listened. It was not through your grace that the knife cut, not your grace but a copy of it and Castiel never knew, you'd faked your death once, why not do it again?
You were Gabriel's protégée and Gabriel was Lucifer's, you learnt from Gabriel's mistakes and he learnt from Lucifer's, so is it really a surprise when there's a fluttering of wings, a hand on your shoulder and a familiar voice laughing in your ears? Gabriel learnt from Lucifer not to trust his brothers, you learnt from Gabriel not to trust anyone, so, really, is it a surprise when you're both ordering the same drink at the same bar and laughing with each other over the same old things you've always laughed about?
You were Gabriel's protégée, Castiel was his favourite but Castiel never listened and you were always so eager.
"They're just playing along with our ruse, right? They do realize those knives could have killed us?" it's a throwaway question and Gabriel answers it with a genuine laugh.
"Forget that, I want to know if they realize that the professionals were amateurs once too…" and you're laughing with your brother, in a nice new little bar named 'The Survivors Club,' in the city of the Angels and, for the time being, all is well.