So, I guess I can start talking up here, hm? Heh, jk. Sorry this is getting posted at 1 in the bleeding morning. I was up doing a school assignment. My ears are ringing. And my head hurts.
Hahahahaha I'm in agony.
Alright, well, enjoy. I'll start posting up what Gabriel calls these chapters now. They all have that little label you see up in the corner, then they have his label! Also, warning, implied sexual content.
So now, I give you chapter 4.
AKA, Makeouts in a Hippie Van
{May, 1909}
"Y'all seen Gabe?" Shay walked in with her regular swagger, hair tired into a bun. "Wayne wants t'talk to him."
"I'm here, Shay." Gabriel's head popped out from behind a shelf, covered in dust. "By the way, call Emil for me. He needs to go through these back files. They look like the haven't been touched for a damn century!" He exclaimed, brushing cobwebs from his undershirt as he grabbed his suit jacket from a chair.
"They're from another Bunker, Gabe." Vance informed without looking up. "Remember? You wanted to keep that kitten from the Farm?"
"Kitten was cute! He had these nice little streaks of white!" Gabriel waved an arm as he marched for the door. "And if I was the only one here, I'd keep the kitten in the Bunker. He could catch some of the mice and shit." Gabriel whipped around the corner, only to stop three feet down and backtrack to stick his head into the room again. "Guard cat. And his name would've been Skeleton."
"You're batty." Curtis chuckled. "You're makin' me want the damn thing. Go see what Wayne wants."
"Yep, got it. Bye!" Gabriel swept out again, setting a light jog toward the stairs, on his way to the dungeon.
Wayne didn't talk much, not after his time of half dying and spending twenty minutes with his head in Hell, but he did make a spectacular torturer. Gabriel would never comment on whether or not he made sure that Wayne came back to his sister and brother, but it was leaning toward the former. It had been the first and so far only time he had used his grace for something noticeable in the Bunker.
The warding, though, was rather unique. Levels of different wards, only sections that had to be on at a time. The general wards though prevent the entry of anything malicious, anything with negative intentions to the inhabitants. That specific type of warding hadn't been seen in well over a thousand years, to Gabriel, so he was rather glad to see it the Bunker. They were called Blanket Wards for a reason. They trumped basically everything. They were demonic wording, in Enochican sigilwork, translated to be in Latin. Honestly, impressive.
They allowed him to walk through the angel warding like it didn't exist, especially after they added his name to the sigils, deeming him a member of their personal home. It was an honour, really.
For now, though, he walked to the dungeon, room 29 level 2, faintly humming something not quite of the time period under his breath, mouthing the words carefully as he spun into the dark area. "Hey, Wayne, you wanted to chat?" He called out, knocking on the doorframe.
A pained wail greeted him.
"Point taken... still at work." Gabriel huffed, marching deeper into the hall leading into the centre and peeking in.
On the ground, an angel lay. A fallen one, twisted up and burned by hellfire. Wayne, a thickset, large man with pointed, dangerous brown eyes and a soft voice that seemed very out of place on him, stood overtop of it's wings, walking around it and picking up a sword that made Gabriel wince.
It was his blade, technically. When he came to the Bunker, he said he filched it off an angel and used it as his own, but it was actually an Archangel's blade. Specifically, his. An exposure risk, but, well, prices to pay.
"Hey, be nice to my sword." Gabriel reprimanded when Wayne tapped it's tip against the wall. Everyone knew of Gabriel's probably unhealthy attachment to the sword, which he took with him when he went on hunts. But all the same... he'd much rather keep it at the story that Gabriel had managed to kill an angel and was protective over his prize than any other reason.
Wayne, though, rolled his eyes and stopped with the tapping. "Got an assignment for you, Gabe. You never mind hunting, right?"
"Not now, not ever." Gabriel leaned against the wall, watching the fallen angel wheeze on the floor. "What's the mission?"
"This yegg's friend. Twenty clicks east, a little hotel called 'Sun trail.' Room 18." Wayne answered, voice clipped but steady.
"You'll never find her." Rasped the angel. "She'll be long gone."
"You can hope." Wayne turned to Gabriel. "We've got an extra sword. Take yours, maybe ask Priscilla and Isabelle if you can hitch a ride with them."
"I'll ask, yep. Thanks, Wayne. Was wondering if I was gonna go stir crazy." Gabriel chuckled. Last time he had gone 'stir crazy' he had rearranged the entire archive, to Emil's eternal chagrin.
"Just take whoever's willing to go and get outta my sight. Bring me another angel." He huffed, waving Gabriel off dismissively, turning back to the angel on the floor.
"I'm on it, Wayne! Back in a bit!" He announced, skipping out with light steps.
-{[|]}-
Gabriel, Priscilla and Isabelle were packing up, Gabriel tying the belt that held his blade loosely around his hip. It would be concealed by the long coat he wore, hidden pressed against his thigh, ready to be drawn.
"You gonna come back to keep translating that damn book?" Vance questioned, leaning against the wall by the staircase. He tried to look nonchalant and casual, but he had never exactly had a like of hunting, or seeing his friends go out hunting. His anxiety was clear from the tenseness of his shoulders and the way his eyes kept flicking from Gabriel to the door.
"Couldn't keep me away, Vance." Gabriel knelt down to tie his boots. "Don't worry about me. I'll be back before you know it." He laughed, straightening.
"Of all you librarians, Gabriel's always the one willing to come on out and get his hands dirty." Priscilla smiled gently, tying her own boots up. They would be hidden under her long dress, which she could tie up perfectly would the need arise.
Isabelle never said anything, but she too had her boots and dress, nodding faintly to each of them.
Isabelle's muteness was a part of something that Gabriel had only asked about once. Apparently, it involved a rusty bronze-copper knife, a blood sacrifice and a dangerous, borderline deadly deal. That was all he knew, except that Isabelle was the second most dangerous person he'd ever met. The girl was cold-blooded, and would happily kill anything she was allowed to.
She made a few quick hand-signs to her sister and him, nodding with a soft purr. Gabriel, though, cocked his head at the last sign. He recognized it from somewhere, he just couldn't remember where...
"Gabe, Isabelle said to hurry your ass. Let's go." Priscilla nudged his shoulder, pushing him for the door.
"Alright, I'm coming. I'll be back soon, Vance!" He waved over his back as he pushed open the door, holding it for the girls, who immediately got into their car, relegating him to the back seat.
"Road trip!" Gabriel jokingly cheered, but it made Isabelle smile, a rare thing. She sighed a few words, and Gabriel once again was left to question what that one sign was, and why he knew it.
"She said 'Gabriel, you're ridiculous.'" Priscilla informed, but she was also smirking.
When they lapsed into the silence of the hunter's road, he remembered that sign and what she was using it for.
The sign meant 'Angel'.
And she was using it in place of his name.
{October, 2013}
The ride started fun, continued to be so, even when they took a break at the side of the highway outside Springview.
During the first hour of the trip, they had discussed everything from life on the road to politics, to sex. It was all the intelligent brilliance and luscious debauchery that Gabriel had missed over the last few years, even if it was mostly talk.
Literally, college kids were freaking magic.
They talked silly to serious, all the way through, before Ti had to pull over.
"Rest stop, bitches." She announced, spinning around in the seat. "Alex, get your pretty ass over here, boo." She waved a hand. "C'mon, we can make out as long as we keep it down."
Alex climbed the seats, laying down with Ti in the front row. Gabriel caught the rest of their conversation rather clearly, thanks to angelic hearing.
"Y'now, if you can keep quiet and not move, we can have a little fun up here too." Ti whispered conspiratorially.
"Kinky." Alex returned in a light, sultry tone. "You know I'm into i- not now, wait until they're as-sl-sleep..." The redhead but back a whimpered moan at that.
"Hey, uh, Gabriel..." Scott clambered his long limbs over the backrest into the rear row, basically the trunk. "I'm getting kicked out of the middle row. And I think Ti and Alex are doing it in the front seat. Sorry to make it awkward." He said sheepishly.
"Hey, as long as nobody winds up with an STD, yo." Gabriel shrugged, uncaring.
He and Scott had a few minute whisper conversation that, while interesting, mostly ignored what was going on behind the short little decorative curtain that made for a useful person shield. They were very alike, Gabriel and Scott, and had a lot in common, including an interest in the other. It was a while before Gabe finally popped a question in the lull of an awkward pause.
"Wanna make out?"
"God, please, yes."
The magic of being a pagan god is the sinful shit. Gabriel decided as they quickly lost their jackets and boots and multiple other layers, touching and touching and skin and skin and a little lower, a little harder, a little more, a little-
Then he realized something a little less of the pagan half of him, and more the angelic half of him. He missed the feeling of another body by his.
Touch starved, He remembered, that's the term.
Even if he barely knew Scott or his life or his friends, or path, or anything, it felt damn good.
He really needed to get to the Bunker.
-{[|]}-
Gabriel didn't really wake up, even when they got on the road. He let the minimal amount of grace he had active drain away, and he let his vessel's instincts take fully over, and he just splattered for the rest of the night.
"Hey, Max, wake up Gabe and Scott. Ask 'me what they want from Mcinedibles." Kayala ordered from the driver's seat.
"'Ee, I swear, if tha's you badmouthing Micky Dee's I'm breaking up here and now."
"Alex, when have you ever hear' me complain abou' McDonald's. Ever."
"No'sure, but you could've."
"Fuck you."
"You already did."
"Yeah, you're right." Ti huffed. "Max, wake up!" Ordered Ti with a kick to his seat. "Wake up the boys and ask them about food."
Max groaned, but flipped over and sat up, brushing the curtains away from the back seat and looking down.
The sunlight from the front windshield fell over his shoulder, illuminating Gabriel and Scott's faces, who scowled squintily up, growling angrily at Max
"Oh Jesus my eyes!" Max yelped, falling back to his own side of the seat.
It was then that Gabriel remembered he and Scott were mostly naked, barely covered by the fluffy but worn grey blanket that was just pulled up to Gabriel's rather sharp hip-bones. Hey, for all the junk that he ate, deep down, he still liked looking like a sex god.
"Fuck off, Max." Scott grumbled, twisting his head to press into the space between the seat and Gabriel's arm. "Suck my dick."
Ti's head, hair a little ruffled, popped up from the seat. "Looks like Gabriel already did that."
"Fuck you too, Ti." Scott flipped her the bird, and Gabriel gave a rumbling chuckle.
"As fun as this is, I'm hungry, which means you need to get off me." He patted Scott's shoulder. The other young man groaned, but obeyed, sitting up and straddling Gabriel's hips.
He turned to lean on the back of the next row of seats, a relaxed, cocky grin plastered on his cheeks. "Get me two Bacon Mcdoubles, a large fries, and a coffee." He called forward.
"Ditto that, but can you get me a hot chocolate instead of the coffee?" Gabriel half-shouted from his position pinned under Scott. "I've got some cash if Scotty would let me grab my jacket."
"Uh-uh, I'm paying for yours." Scott insisted.
"You kidding? To the guy who managed to get Scott out of his deep blue funk and call him 'Scotty' without getting slapped? You ain't paying for shit." Ti threw her head back, wavy brown hair ruffled, cackling.
Gabriel laughed loudly, and settled back as Scott handed him his jeans and shirt. "Well, then, thanks."
"Sit down and shut up." Alex growled from some random location. "Some of us are still sleepin'."
They all giggled a bit at that.
-{[|]}-
The next two hours were fairly unneventful, all of them trading stories from their journeys, not exactly wanting to let go of each other. Scott's hand didn't leave Gabriel's thigh for a solid hour, until it was his shift at driving.
That put Gabriel in the passenger's seat, managing music while Scott and him talked on jokes and pranks, plans for the future.
"Well, yeah. I went to college, I have an engineering degree, or whatever. No plans, though." Scott shrugged, tapping his fingers on the steering wheel to the beat of 'Pumped Up Kicks'. "How about you?"
"I just have to make it to home." Gabriel sighed. "I'll figure out what to do from there. I used to do some pretty crazy shit way back when, and I don't think my life'll slow down." Ever. Gabriel added wordlessly.
"Well, I don't like to sonder, but damn, you sure sound like you had a wacky early basis." Scott joked.
"You've got no idea." Gabriel chuckled weakly, watching out the window as they continued down the highway.
It wasn't as long of a trip as Gabriel had hoped. Really, he wanted to be stuck in that car with the other teens for another few hours, but he didn't get that option.
"Well, Gabe, thanks for... y'know, riding with us." Scott nodded to him, a forlorn smile on his mouth. "Y'sure you can't stay?"
"I'll be back on the highway before noon, Scotty." Gabriel tipped the hat Max had given him, a sheer, silk black baseball cap. "Thanks anyway, though."
"Where are y'headed? Specifically. And don't say Westerville, you lied about that. Nobody as cute as you goes to Westerville." Ti joked with an eye roll.
Gabriel took a breath, closing his eyes. "...Lebanon." He announced, dropping his head.
"As in, Kansas?" Kayala let out a low whistle. "Long way from home out here, Gabe."
"No kidding, right?" He crooked his head upward to look her in the eyes. "...Thanks a lot, you guys. Really."
"...You're welcome, Gabe. Thanks for... everything." Scott gave him a final, sad smile before sliding further into the van, Kayala hopping into the passenger's seat while the others sat up straight, shutting the door and waving to him through the window. Gabriel kept his hand up, waving to them too, then the van turned onto the highway and vanished from view.
"...Later guys..." He murmured to empty air, slowly letting his hand lower.
He had a long way to go.
Gabriel stopped only once before a gas station to undo the disguise he had given his vessel. Upon arrival, he noticed two trucks this time rather than the normal three or more. Damn... I'll probably have to steal a car, come Ravenna. He realized with a grim sinking feeling.
He pushed into the store, buying more water and another bottle of painkillers, just enough to last him to the Bunker. After that, he had all the medical supplies in the world and a bed. God, a bed.
Archangels didn't need to sleep, but that didn't mean it wasn't awesome. Sleep was great. He loved it. Replenish, rejuvenate... Wonderful. He couldn't wait for a bed.
His room had always been room 1, level B. The 'Monday room', as they had jokingly called it, because it had one of the few windows in the place. In the summer mornings, it was Hell when the sun came up. Bright and irritating, though the least they could do was spray-paint some fake dirt on it. It didn't really help, though. On top of that, he thought it was rather ironic that the Archangel of Monday lived in the Monday room.
Gabriel requested the store clerk to see about anyone heading to Ravenna, before walking out to check on his ribs and arm.
They were healing nicely, but one of the branches in his arm-wrap had broken in his uh... activities, the night prior. After fixing the brace and rewrapping his bandages, he felt much better. The splintered end of the broken stick had been poking him in the arm for the past hour, but it was more comfortable now.
"Um, excuse me..." A voice, light and simple, and not at all imposing, crept up behind him. Gabriel spun around, coming to face a short girl, barely over five feet with soft blond hair, looking at him shyly. "You... said you needed to get to Ravenna? In the store?" She inquired warily.
"If uh... if you're willing to take me..." Gabriel mumbled softly, rubbing the back of his neck.
"Follow." She instructed gently, her flats tapping on the concrete as they headed for a golden and black-marked car. It had to be a Crown Vic, something that Gabriel hadn't seen in years, but it sounded no less pretty when she turned it on. "So..." She began, adjusting her mirrors. "What's your name?"
"Gabriel." The Archangel purred, keeping his voice calm and soft, no flirtatious lilt this time. "And you are?"
"Hannah." She murmured, then focused on the road.
Gabriel didn't make an effort at conversation either. He was too tired to.
-{[|]}-
"Well, thanks for the ride." He smiled loosely as he hopped out of her passenger seat.
"...You're welcome..." She blushed. "...I'm, sorry I'm not a good conversationalist."
"Well, you got me here alive, and that's good enough. Thanks, kiddo." Gabriel plastered on another fake smile, hoping, wanting this day to be over already. He was exhausted.
When her golden Crown Vic had vanished down the highway, Gabriel made his way to the gas station. He was tired of waiting.
It was a straight line run from Ravenna to Lebanon, and he was making it.
The grace it took to unlock and start his stolen car was minimal, Gabriel slipping into the silver Chevrolet Impala without incident. It sure wasn't the Impala he was used to, but it would have to do. Somewhere, deep in his chest, was a long-forgotten sensation of longing, the desire to... to have a friend again. The time he had forgotten that had been when he was with Scott and the others, and they were...
Safe. Gabriel thought, leaning his head forward to rest on the wheel. They're safe. Just go to Lebanon. Clean up. Bandage wing. Eat. Drink. Sleep. In that order. He told himself, just wanting peace. Peace and quiet.
...Let's go home now. That Michael-voice who told him to get walking earlier was still helping him out, even though Gabriel knew where his brother actually was.
Ignoring the tumultuous feelings in his lower chest, Gabriel put the car in reverse, pulled out, and started down Ravenna Road, away from his feelings.