Aegis; name of the breastplate of Zeus.

Aegis; collar or cape worn to display protection provided by religious authority.

Aegis; band from Philippines.

Aegis; American combat system.

Gabriel was exhausted. His eyes strayed towards the Winnie-the-Pooh clock again, only to note that it had been all seven minutes since the last time he looked. It was half past nine in the morning and already he was tempted to shut the shop and never open it again.

"Do they have to do that? Like, really?" he asked the half-finished coffee in front of him desperately, before adding cream on top of it. It looked messy at best, but it wasn't his fault Balthazar went and broke his leg, was it.

Anna twirled towards him with a look of pure annoyance on her face and snatched the two coffees he had managed to make, "Tell them something." she snapped, throwing an angry look towards a corner table where two young males were sitting, throwing insults at each other with such vigour he was surprised there even were any guests in the coffee shop at all.

"Why don't you?" Gabriel snapped right back, crossing his arms over his chest. "I'm sick of dealing with them at home, I don't need it at work as well."

His cousin, the amazing, amazing young girl just threw her fiery red hair over her shoulders and stomped off to the restroom, slamming the door loudly shut behind her. Gabriel sighed and started the coffee machine anew.

He watched as the dark liquid poured into tall glass and switched on the next Satan's machine, that Balthazar always used to prepare whipped milk, but at him it kept spitting white lumps, resembling snot much more then mousse, instead. And it was still better than trying to stop his brothers from starting a war in his coffee shop.

Gabriel caught his name from one of his siblings and grimaced, wondering whether he should follow Anna into the restroom, or put lethal poison into Lucifer's fries. Yet, he still loved his brothers.

Just as he was about to tie his own noose from gummy snakes, the bell above his door jingled and in pushed two laughing males and oh hell, that was the worst ever possible time for the Rory-Gilmore-in-male-form to come to visit.

"I've got it." Anna danced past him into the open space of the diner and Gabriel tipped his head, silently congratulating her for leaving their save haven behind the bar. She was all smiles and trills as she showed Rory and his company to a table that was as far away from Lucifer and Michael as the shop would allow.

Gabriel abandoned his attempts at a latté and fished a beer from the cooler, quickly pouring one black coffee. He added a piece of carrot pie from the kitchen when he recognized the other guy as Rory's brother; even after seeing him only once, the pair was unforgettable.

Anna was politely giggling at something Rory's brother said when Gabriel entered the war-zone that was his shop and started towards them, smile on his face. He was so dedicated to the task at hand that he failed to notice his brothers stopped arguing for one sweet, sweet moment.

Rory's brother – and now he really needed Balthazar there to help him out, because he can't well keep calling Rory's brother 'Rory's brother' and he always sucked at finding the most accurate nickname – looked up in that moment and watched him with rather contemplative look, before giving out one of the smiles that would sure melt Gabriel's knees, had he not been so desperately smitten already.

"..prove it.." he caught a piece of conversation from the table, but that didn't bother him. As he spent the whole day inside of the shop, he could write a book from those fragments that people shot at each other. What bothered him, though, was that he didn't catch the next part, the important part, the significant part that was spoken silently, the words that were drowned in grey noise from the street.

His smile was much more polite and difficult to keep when he finally reached the table, gently laying the tray on it like Michael taught him so long ago; first his little finger and then the tray right next to it, as not to spill or make unnecessary noise. He settled the beer and pie in front of Rory's brother and earned another radiant smile, hearty gratitude and loud compliment; he settled coffee in front of Rory and Rory just kept on looking at Anna, who was still blushing prettily, like only teenage girls could when thrown of guard.

Tray clasped in front of himself, Gabriel smiled and turned on his heel, striding back across the place. Lucifer once again proved to be a mind-reader and reached to pull third chair to his and Michael's table, into which Gabriel gratefully sank.

"Troubles, brother?" Lucifer's face was adorned by the ever-present half-smirk that Gabriel had the urge to punch away since he turned old enough to reach. Michael mirrored the younger twin's posture, chin leaned on his palm and watching their youngest brother as a particularly ugly experiment.

"You know you really look like brothers like this?" Gabriel leaned back in his chair, abandoning the empty tray on the table. He watched with some smugness as both his siblings quickly shifted into a different position.

Michael looked annoyed enough, too, so Gabriel decided not to pour more oil into the fire and actually answer, "Hellish day. No pun intended, bro."

"Hellish day and you didn't even have to deal with Lucifer for longer than twenty seconds." Michael pinched the bridge of his nose, pretending not to notice the ugly look that said brother sent him.

Gabriel just shrugged, reaching to snatch Michael's mostly untouched coffee from in front of the male. Strangely, he didn't even protest.

"Every day is a hellish one when I see you two guys. Wonder why.." the youngest said conversationally, stirring the coffee with a long spoon. He took a sip and realized why didn't Michael fight against getting it stolen; Gabriel pushed it away, vowing to get Balthazar back to work, even if he had to carry him there.

"Perhaps because you realize how empty your days are without us?" Lucifer suggested, eyebrows titled upwards in pleased amusement. Gabriel smiled to keep his brother in a good mood, because his brother in a good mood meant no one was going to get stabbed.

Michael rolled his eyes to show that he was still a grown-up and above ridiculous shows of affection such as teasing. He eyed his wrist watch and cleared his throat, "Well, I'll leave you to it. I have an important meeting."

"Say 'hi' to your right hand." Lucifer returned cheerfully, swinging on the chair he was sitting on and dawning the rest of his own, probably equally horrible, coffee.

Michael scoffed and leaned down to give the polite hug-and-two-cheek-kisses goodbye to both of them, trying not to wince when Lucifer licked his cheek. Then he straightened his suit and was out, not looking back at his two siblings that were both watching him leave.

"Do I wanna know what you did this time?" Gabriel asked after a moment of silence – during which he was sipping Michael's coffee and Lucifer was wiping his mouth with a napkin – eyeing the blond with a look of suspicion.

Lucifer made a stop in the task of rubbing his tongue clean and grinned, "Me?" he raised his eyebrows, a picture of innocence. The shine in his eyes was devilish, though, and Gabriel was reminded of the times they both sneaked out of their house, setting haystacks on fire.

"Don't tell me he had to arrest you again.." Gabriel sighed, running a hand trough his hair.

"Oh brother.." Lucifer set the napkin down and looked at him with a sigh of desperate sadness. "So young and yet you sound so, so old. You should never have gone to university."

Gabriel scowled at him, "Like that have anything to do with anything." They were both silent for few minutes, with Lucifer studying the residue of coffee-grounds in his mug.

"What is it, then, brother mine?" Lucifer asked, voice silent and serious and Gabriel felt like a five-years old again when his brother pierced him with his cold eyes, looking straight into him. "Worried that one of us will kill the other? Don't be silly.." the blond laughed and Gabriel wanted to answer, but he was still under the spell and Lucifer wasn't done talking, either. "That is nothing you should worry about; it will happen one day. You can't do anything about that."

Gabriel swallowed and had to look away, pretending to study the ugly zen-garden painting on the wall. "Why?" he asked just as silently and just closed his eyes when his brother laughed at the question; "Goodbye, brother. Till next time."

With that, the diner was suddenly silent and empty, sans Rory with his brother and a lone person with his ear's covered by earphones. Too silent and too empty and Gabriel stared at the picture, wondering why can't he ever claim his inner peace, if only for a moment.

Why did meditating never work for him, when Castiel was obviously all too good at putting himself under, or luring innocent by-passers into a 'shared meditation'?

Why couldn't he find peace in knowing that world was a crazy place like Balthazar did? Just laugh at everything and everyone and push anything bothersome away?

And why can't his brothers sometimes choose a different place to argue at? What the fuck did they need spectator for anyway?

And why, oh why, why did Rory – the guy that never talked to anyone unless necessary – feel the need to share something blushing-worthy with Anna all of a sudden?

And why the fuck can't he go home?

"The redhead was nice."

"Stop sounding so smug.. It's not like you hooked us up."

"What's her name?"

"Good question, Dean."

"I know. So?"

"I've got no idea."

"Dude. What?"

"To be clear, I'm not dating some girl I saw five times in my life."

"You seemed pretty into her last time I looked."

"You told me to prove it, so I did."

"To prove what, that you didn't like the guy? In /front/ of said guy? Like, really?"

"What did you want me to do, ask her to kindly step outside with me?"

"Choose someone else."

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Nice day,

me.