Chapter 4

Never Leave Me

A gentle breeze swept through the large clearing, rustling the few leaves that still clung to the branches of the surrounding deciduous trees. The air was chilly and foretold the coming of winter. High above the clouds and beyond the atmosphere, the moon shone brilliantly in the night sky. Stars twinkled down at the little beings in the clearing.

Off to the side, away from the humans and the other angel investing in this time together, the two archangels quietly observed the aforementioned humans as they laughed and joked and shared stories with one another in merriment and pointed up at the different constellations in the sky. The younger of the two smiled a little at a particularly loud round of laughter (and Dean's ruffled shout that it wasn't true).

"The lens you put over the clearing was a nice touch. Even the humans can pick out the Andromeda galaxy from here," Gabriel remarked, walking with his brother into the forest.

Lucifer had subtly called him over to the side and whispered over their bond of another clearing – away from prying eyes – where they could have a rather long awaited discussion. Though it might not go as either of them planned.

"I got the idea from that telescope they never use," Lucifer replied. He was taking them further and further from the cheery (and partially drunk) group of humans. "It should keep them entertained for a while. Hopefully they'll all go back inside before they pass out."

A smile crossed Gabriel's face even as he shook his head. "It's too cold for them to stay out in this weather," he huffed.

Lucifer looked back at him briefly before casting a look at their surroundings and then changing their course slightly to the right. Gabriel noted that it was darker in the forest underneath the bare branches of the trees that cast long shadows on the ground. A slight gust of wind had the shadows crawl like fingers against the light from the moon and stars above them.

"All the better. We'll have the outdoors to ourselves for the rest of the night," Lucifer said just loud enough for Gabriel to hear him.

Leaves continued to crunch underneath their feet as they trekked through the forest. Gabriel figured that they were a ten minute walk from the others now. He knew they wouldn't mind the archangels' disappearance for a short while. He and Lucifer had done that a few times, though usually they went a bit farther than just to the next clearing.

"Dinner was nice," Lucifer spoke up after a couple minutes of quiet walking.

Gabriel figured they were close now. The clearing couldn't have been too far, or Lucifer would have just flown them there. And as much as Gabriel liked to take a hike through a forest at night, he would have liked even more to get where they were going so they could have a very much needed conversation.

He had ignored it as much as he could, but the incident with Sam had crossed a line. He couldn't just keep avoiding this and think that it would solve itself (whatever the hell it was). Part of him had wanted to bury his head in the sand and wait for the storm to blow over, but the other part – the part that was rather strong willed in its beliefs – was ready to meet this problem face to face, ready to tackle and overcome it.

Guess which part won in the end. Hint: it wasn't the one that wanted what the Winchesters might have called a coward's way out.

So Gabriel would demand an answer from his brother, and he would persist until he got that answer because Gabriel could be just as stubborn as any of his older brothers when he wanted to be. Oh, and he was definitely going to ask about when this whole mess started. He knew exactly when the behavior shift happened – there was no mistaking it.

"That's good," Gabriel accepted the compliment easily. "Wasn't sure if you'd like some of the dishes. Dean gave that one with spinach and Brussels sprouts the stink eye."

"I like all of the things you make, Gabriel," Lucifer said somewhat offhandedly.

He was looking somewhere off to the left now, but he was still moving forward. Gabriel didn't sense anything suspicious around them. Aside from the Bunker and humans somewhere behind them, there wasn't anything around the area for miles until one reached town. Sure, there was the road, but hardly anyone used it unless they were just passing by.

Gabriel was about to ask Lucifer what he was looking at when they suddenly reached the clearing. It was smaller than the one Lucifer had brought the others to, but it was still open and spacious – large enough to have an oak tree growing in the direct center of it. (And as oddly placed as the tree was, there was nothing particularly special about it.)

"You know…" Lucifer leaned in, whispering in Gabriel's ear. "The others might think we're out here doing unsavory things."

Rolling his eyes, Gabriel let out a scoff. "As if. They know we're just teasing them."

"The humans' expressions said otherwise," Lucifer returned with a smirk, still barely centimeters away from Gabriel's skin.

Gabriel frowned slightly, brow only creasing a touch. Okay, sure. Over the past few months, Gabriel had sometimes liked to pull a gag or two, and sometimes said gags involved being a bit… handsy with Lucifer. Now, to be fair, Lucifer hadn't cared one way or the other because he knew that Gabriel was just pranking Sam and Dean (whose reactions were absolutely hilarious). Gabriel and Lucifer were close, but not like that.

However, at Lucifer's words, it occurred to Gabriel that the gestures could have easily been taken the wrong way. Gabriel was also reminded that he had thought it'd be a great idea to pull one of those gags while the guests were around. It hadn't been anything major – he'd just been a bit physically closer to Lucifer than what would be normal by human standards.

Humans liked to assume things that weren't necessarily correct. Unsavory things. That was a smooth way of putting it, a somewhat irritated and disgruntled part of Gabriel thought to himself. "So? Not my fault if their heads are in the gutter."

That smirk turned subtly wolfish. "Obviously they weren't the only ones in the gutter. Takes one to know one," he teased.

An amber eyed glare was sent Lucifer's way along with a halfhearted shove. "Rude," Gabriel huffed, stepping towards the giant oak tree. "Besides! You're the one who went along with it all. You're just as guilty as me."

"Does that make us partners in crime?" Lucifer chuckled as he slowly followed the other.

"Well, duh, brother," Gabriel shot back in the same amused tone, mimicking the emphasis on a specific word.

He inclined his head upward to look at the top of the tree. It was a massive thing – had to be at least a couple hundred years old. That being said, it was doing pretty well. Gabriel figured it would still be alive for another hundred years as long as no one tried to cut it down. If it managed to get past those hundred years, it would have a long, long life ahead of it. All of this was considered within the matter of a second.

Gabriel turned to face Lucifer, who was standing a couple feet away from him now. "I'm not even going to try to be discreet about this. You know why we're out here, Lucifer."

"I know," Lucifer sighed in agreement. "I'm not quite sure where to start."

"How about when you disappeared for over half the day while we were all at Disney World," Gabriel suggested, tone flat to cover any emotion that came with the words. That, however, showed his hand more than whatever heat could have been applied.

"That's a bit hard to explain—" Lucifer started to mutter before he got cut off.

"I don't care," Gabriel snapped, crossing his arms. "Just tell me what happened."

Lucifer's stance stiffened. Tension filled the space between them, and the distance that had been growing over the past two weeks suddenly grew even larger. "Gabriel, I can't just—"

"You can't." Gabriel let out a harsh scoff, uncrossing his arms to throw them up in the air before letting them drop back down to his sides, shaking his head. "Of course you can't. You know what? Fine! I was going to stand here and wait until you told me what the hell happened, but apparently you can't."

As Gabriel began to stalk off back to the Bunker (because he really needed to let of some steam right now and just flying back would put him in contact with other people too soon), he felt a wave of guilt and regret crash over him from Lucifer's side of their bond.

"No," he hissed, spinning on his heel to point a finger at his older brother. "You do not get to win me back over the bond you neglected for weeks. I asked you what was wrong! Sam told me about your blackouts. I had to hear about them from the one person in the Bunker that still kind of holds a grudge against you."

A gust of frigid air blasted through the clearing, whipping their clothes around them and ripping any remaining leaves off of the branches they clung to. Amber eyes had turned dark gold as their owner's fury simmered just below the point of eruption.

"You wanna know what hurt even more? The fact that it had to be Mary who convinced us to talk. What happened, Lucifer? We were fine until two weeks ago. What changed?"

Neither of them acknowledged the crack in Gabriel's voice. One too furious to care; the other too shamed to notice.

"You need to calm down," a soothing voice whispered in his head.

It had been a good long while since Gabriel had heard Bennett. There had been one or two times when he could feel their difference in choice, but this had to be the first time the kid had spoken up since Gabriel had Lucifer had reconciled five months ago. Still, he trusted that part of himself to know what it was saying. Talk about a voice of reason.

But instead of stopping and taking a deep breath, Gabriel gave Lucifer one last furious look before flying far, far away.

~o-O-o~

The man took in a deep breath before opening the door to the warehouse. Inside looked almost exactly like the original. A second man glanced curiously at the first when he paused in the entryway.

"Is there something wrong?"

The first man blinked rapidly, coming out of his daze. "No, no. Just... memories..."

"Good or bad?"

The first man – who was slighter in frame than the other – cast his gaze over to his colleague. "What do you mean?" he inquired.

"Well, considering you were almost killed last time you were in a setting such as this... Good or bad memories?"

Steel grey eyes looked back to the spacious room before them. "Neither."

~o-O-o~

It wasn't unusual for the Bunker to be silent at this time of night. Nor was it unusual for any of the Bunker's inhabitants to be awake at any given time of the day. These two statements contradicted each other, and yet they both still held true. At two in the morning, while the western world was fast asleep, four occupants of the Bunker were wide awake and sending messages to one another from their respective rooms.

Dean (2:12 AM): But we shouldn't worry about it though right?

Mary (2:14 AM): That's the problem. Maybe we aren't worried enough.

Sam (2:15 AM): They had a fight. It happens to everyone. Still…

Dean (2:18 AM): Come on Sammy. Don't hold out

Castiel (2:21 AM): Gabriel has yet to return from wherever he flew off to. While it is not overly concerning considering his nature, it would be best if they tried to talk their issues out again, though perhaps with a firmer hand in persuading them to finish their discussion.

Dean (2:22 AM): So like we did with Chuck and Luce?

Sam (2:23 AM): Since when do you call him "Luce"?

Dean (2:23 AM): It's faster to spell than Lucifer

Mary (2:24 AM): What do you mean like with Chuck and Lucifer?

Castiel (2:26 AM): Sam and Dean had to arrange a meeting between Lucifer and God in order for the two to work together against Amara.

Castiel (2:26 AM): It worked, though Sam and Dean were excluded from the end of the conversation.

Dean (2:27 AM): That's a nice way of putting it

Mary (2:27 AM): Do you think it would work between Gabriel and Lucifer?

Castiel (2:29 AM): Perhaps.

Sam (2:32 AM): We can't expect for them to even talk at this rate. They don't /want/ to talk to each other.

Sam (2:33 AM): With Chuck and Lucifer, they both agreed to talk civilly because they both wanted to have the conversation.

Dean (2:35 AM): Gabe and Luce both agreed to talk

Castiel (2:36 AM): But no one was there to keep either of them from storming off.

Mary (2:39 AM): So do we all agree that we need to get them to try again?

Dean (2:41 AM): Sure why the hell not

Castiel (2:42 AM): I believe another attempt is needed.

Mary (2:44 AM): Sam?

Sam (2:48 AM): Fine

Dean (2:50 AM): Cool, now that that's settled Goodnight

Castiel (2:51 AM): Good night.

Sam (2:51 AM): Yeah, goodnight

Mary (2:52 AM): See you all in the morning.

But none of the Bunker's human residents were able to sleep that night as they tossed and turned in their beds. The minds of each were filled with thoughts of the looming conversation that they would have to enforce on their archangelic roommates. The lone angel quietly left his room to seek out the only other angelic being within the concrete walls.

Lucifer had not taken Gabriel's departure well. Day and night were spent waiting near the Bunker's entrance. Several days had already passed by, and December would soon replace November.

It's a shame that each of those days sent Lucifer hurtling closer to the edge.

~o-O-o~

"So I guess I'll be seeing you tomorrow, then?" the woman asked him with a warm smile.

He returned the smile and nodded. "Sure, just ask and I'll be there." He finally let out a soft sigh as she walked out of view. Dealing with Bennett's mother was a bit difficult.

"Smooth, Richard."

Gabriel refrained from jumping out of his skin at a girl's voice. "Shit, kid," he breathed out, turning to face the young girl. "Don't do that, you'll give someone a heart attack."

"I don't think you can get heart attacks," she responded after a pause.

"It's an expression."

She rolled her eyes, crossing her arms. "Well, duh. I know that, Mr. Archangel."

Gabriel was inwardly grateful that no one else was around right then because he did not need Gabriel Bennett's little sister back talking him for being an ancient being of celestial powers. "Aren't you supposed to be in school?" he questioned, narrowing his eyes at her.

"We got let out half an hour ago," she informed him.

He checked his internal clock. It was almost four in the afternoon now. "Oh."

"Yeah," Lucilia huffed, uncrossing her arms and looking past him at her house. "So… you wanna tell me why you're here? Last time I saw you, you implied that I wouldn't see you again unless I called or something."

Gabriel could sense that she wasn't trying to be rude or anything. He had noticed from the couple of times that he'd watched her from afar that she was… different. A bit less outgoing but still cheerful around her friends and family. Still his little sister.

"I was just making sure you two moved in okay," he said as an excuse. He was here for that, sure. But he was there for… other things too.

Lucilia seemed to take that as a decent enough answer though. "I liked my birthday present," she said abruptly after a brief lull in their conversation.

"You caught that, huh?" he remarked with a soft, sheepish chuckle, rubbing the back of his neck.

"Well, it wasn't like it was hard to figure out. I have a dorky, older than dirt, mighty weapon of Heaven who was my human big brother for a guardian angel," she pointed out, for all the world acting like she was only discussing the weather.

Gabriel smiled while holding back a frown. "I'm dorky?"

Lucilia's laugh was music to his ears. It was refreshing and exactly what he needed right now. He was soothing his mind in several ways. One of which involved invoking joy in his human side. After all of his earlier frustrations, it was nice to just revel in the opposite of all that.

They talked long into the evening, Lucilia having to take her dinner to her room so that they could continue their conversation without interruption. They talked about how Lucilia was doing in school (not that Gabriel didn't already know) and how she was still adjusting to living without her brother around. They talked about what it was like for Gabriel to live in the Bunker with his brothers and the Winchesters. They even talked about her newfound interest in art – specifically drawing.

"You'll be a da Vinci in no time," he remarked, looking down at one of her more recent sketches.

Lucilia blushed a little in modesty but took the compliment as it was. Then curiosity burned in her eyes. "Did you get to meet Leonardo da Vinci?"

"Where do you think he got his fascination of flight from?" he asked back with a smirk, slowly flipping through the drawings she had handed him and pausing whenever one caught his eye.

"Um… birds?" she responded, questioning her own answer – though they both knew she was teasing him. Lucilia's lips twitched into a smile at Gabriel's mock offense, and then a pondering expression took hold. "Do… do angels have wings?"

"Well, yeah— I mean… why d'ya ask?" Gabriel fumbled over his answer.

With a sparkle in her eyes, Lucilia reached over and turned a couple more pages over. Gabriel's hands stilled as he looked upon the image on the paper. It was of him. And he had golden wings behind him.

"Damn, I'm hot," he remarked after a couple minutes of him staring at the drawing had passed.

Lucilia giggled at the compliment.

Another hour or so went by before she started getting sleepy, her head lolling onto his shoulder before popping back up as she tried to stay awake. They had moved to her bed, and Gabriel had taken up position beside her with his arm around her shoulders as they looked through the rest of her drawings and sketches. A warm smile crossed his lips the moment he noticed her falling asleep.

"You should talk to him…" she mumbled when he tucked her in.

He froze at the comment, his hands still resting on either side of her tired form. And then he was moving again, though only repositioning himself to the side of the bed housing the darling girl so he could tuck her in. A heavy sigh left his lips. "I know."

And he did. He knew what he had to do – whether he liked it or not. "I know."

A/N: Hey! I'm not dead… But, yeah, school's started. It's going pretty well, so that's good. How have you guys been? I imagine that you're all kind of mad at me for being slow to update. To be honest, this was supposed to get posted like a week ago but then it was a busy week in school and excuses that I'm sure you guys don't care to hear...

(Also, if you want to believe that Lucilia is, like, the best artist ever, then look up 'Gabriel fanart wings', pick the one you like the most and imagine that one as the one Lucilia drew.)

Last edited: [August 12, 2018]

Avenage99: I only brought Garth back because Thanksgiving (in my family anyway) was one of those holidays where everyone got together to celebrate, and in season 12 you see that Garth is technically still alive, so I thought it'd be a cool little cameo for him. And about that Borderlands fic, I haven't posted it yet but that's because I was thinking about making a real story out of it, but then I looked at all of the fics I'm working on already and thought it'd be fine to leave it as it is. So it should be posted sooner or later.

teabrows: I really don't mind answering any of your questions or sharing other people's works that I liked. And if I don't answer a question in one of these 'little' responses, then an answer will probably pop up in the fic somewhere.