Gabe saw the angels cleaning up Heaven and his walk slowed to a dawdle. He did not want to clean up Heaven because he knew that when they were done everything would be different. Nothing was the same ever since the fighting had started and nothing could be returned to what it was now that the fighting had finished. He just wanted everything to return to the days when he was still a fledgling and Michael and Lucifer adored him. Or the days when he first became a guardian and they would spend their time doting over Cas and Balthazar. Or the time when their father was still here and he would sit and talk with them, smiling. But he couldn't go back. Life couldn't ever go back to what it had been.
Gabe felt a pang of loss as he reflected on what his life used to be like. How happy and carefree he used to be. He could still remember the day when Michael and Lucifer taught him how to fly for the first time. They had taken Gabe to Earth, long before humans had been created, and were standing in an empty field. Raphael had come with them as well but he had already learnt to fly and was practicing elsewhere. He had been terrified but excited at the same time. Finally he was able to be like his brother. Finally he was growing up. Now, Gabe wished that he was still that young. That he was still learning to fly. That he hadn't grown up and that his family was still together and happy. But all he could do now was remember the happy times and to try and move on.
Slowly Gabe unfurled his wings and felt the wind rustle his feathers. He stretched them out further, enjoying the cool, almost ticklish feeling it provided. Michael and Lucifer watched in amusement for a while, enjoying the feeling on their wings as well. Eventually they began to instruct him. Michael gently told him what to do and Lucifer encouraged him as Gabe began to move his wings. Gradually he rose into the air and felt both a rush of terror and joy at being off the ground. His brothers cheered him and uncurled their wings, pure white brushing deep red. Almost effortlessly, they rose into the air and joined their younger brother. While Michael and Lucifer's wings flapped slowly and elegantly, Gabe's wings were flapping rapidly as he desperately tried to keep himself in the air. His older brother's laughed and taught him how to use the wind to stay up, laughing at Gabe's look of amazement when it worked.
As they flew Michael and Lucifer gave him pointers and helped him when he began to tire. Before long, they were back on the ground, Gabe's still small wings not yet being able to take too much use. Lucifer held Gabe in his arms as Michael called Raphael back to them and together they made the warp-speed flight back to Heaven, Gabe curled up securely in Lucifer's arms.
Upon returning, Gabe and Raphael felt a wave of exhaustion sweep over them and they yawned. Lucifer, seeing this, decided to take them back to their nest, telling Michael that he would be back soon. Holding Gabe in his arms, Lucifer and Raphael took off into the air, leaving a bemused Michael behind. When they arrived, Lucifer gently placed Gabe in the nest and moved to leave, but seeing them curled up, looking so small in the nest, he changed his mind and laid down next to them, drawing the two younger angels closer to him and closing his eyes.
As Michael was passing by the nest he saw his younger brothers curled up together, a mess of red, green and gold wings decorating the nest. A gentle smile made its way onto his peaceful face as he climbed in and placed his stately white wing over his brothers, as if shielding them from harm. Michael watched his brother's feeling a sense of peace and calm wash over him. It didn't matter what he had to do later, all that mattered was laying here with his brother's. Michael slowly fell asleep with his brothers curled against him. In a relatively empty and young Heaven, the four angels who lived there were all together, sleeping peacefully, each feeling safe in each other's wings.
Gabriel awoke from his daydream and found Cas and Balthazar looking up at him expectantly, wondering why he had stopped. Gabe forced himself to smile at them and beckoned them forwards towards the other angels. They scurried off and greeted their siblings before starting to help out. Gabriel raked his eyes over his siblings yet he didn't see Michael or Raphael. He had half been hoping that it would be the same as it was during his memory. All of his brother's working together happily in a perfect Heaven, feeling safe and calm together. But in reality, it had not been like that for a very long time in Heaven. And Gabe doubted that it would ever be like that again.
In all honesty, Gabe had not expected to see Michael and Raphael helping out with all of the other angels. His archangel brothers had begun to distance themselves from the other angels and the angels had done the same back. It hurt him to see the younger angels treating him as if he was someone to be feared and obeyed instead of the older brother who had raised them and loved them. They saw him as a soldier, a commander, instead of a friend and brother. Gabe felt a flash of anger as he realised that his life and the life of all the other angels could never go back to what it once was. The older, senior angels were expected to be commanders, capable of giving out orders without mercy. And the younger, more junior angels were expected to be mindless soldiers, following the orders given to them without a semblance of free thought.
Gabe's anger cooled as he saw Cas and Balthazar wave at him and he smiled as he realised that he still had two angels who loved him with all of their hearts. They at least still had free will and love and he was going to make sure that they kept that. He made a promise to himself that he would never willingly hurt or abandon them for as long as he lived. He didn't know just how soon he would break that promise.