Henry's POV *warning in advance: moderate cursing, because that's just what it's like inside his head.
I have just one question for you. Have you ever killed around thirty demons all at once by using some ability that your douchebag father gave you that you don't really know how to use before?
Yeah. Me neither.
Let me give you a little word of advice. Fucking Don't. Like, ever.
To say I felt like shit would be the understatement of the century. I literally was like the shit's shit. Like a fly ate shit and then shit it out again. That would be me right now. Except maybe even worse. Like maybe that last shit from that poor motherfucker at the tail end of that creepy ass human centipede thing, like shit times three. Yeah, that sounds about right.
So here I am, sitting flat on my stomach, basically all I can even do right now is breathe and moan unintelligable words. I feel like throwing up and also curling in a ball and maybe just, you know, not existing for a while. I feel the crap in my bones, man. The aching is deep as fuck. I can't really concentrate on much else besides the fact that my brain is screaming a million different pain impulses at once. My tweaked wing hurts like a mother, my bones hurt, my whole shadow of influence is hotter than hell as it's trying to deflate after stretching so far. My entire body just feels bitchtastic.
I finally get my first thought that's not about pain. James. My mind reminds me, and I jerk and try to roll over, I can feel my cousin's grace is nearby. I have to see him, I have to make sure he's okay.
"Hey, shh, Henry? It's okay." That voice matches my dad. Well, not my douchebag angel dad, my real dad. I feel a reassuring yet strong hand press to my shoulder and I relax just a little. He wouldn't have told me things were okay if something had happened to James.
"Dad...is James.." I manage to say, but I sound like a bullfrog with strep throat. Ugh. I won't be picking up many ladies or gents with that voice.
"It's okay. He's perfectly fine. Just relax." Sam's voice calms me down, and I let my body sink into the mattress underneath me. That one bum wing that came out twisted when I was little was bothering me again. I needed to make sure they were in this dimension still as I gently folded them: yup, they were here. I felt kind of bad- Sam was probably a little overwhelmed right now. I sure as hell was when I first got them; there's just so many of them.
"What's wrong? Does something hurt?" Sam asked right away, concern pouring from his words. "Henry, let me help you."
"My wing..." I groaned, but I couldn't flap it to indicate which one of the six it was. "Middle Left." I let out a puff of air I didn't know I was holding in as he gently pulled on it, the muscles stretched and the pain lifted as he helped me to guide it back in to fold.
"Cas told us what you did back there." Sam said quietly, coming and sitting at the foot of the bed by my side. I felt his large, calloused hand smooth down my back and rub in small circles by my shoulder blades. "I'm...I'm proud of you. What you did for James." I smiled a little smile into the blankets so that he wouldn't see. I finally lifted my wings up, and with just a little bit of effort tucked them away so they'd be invisible again.
"I have to see James." I said after that, feeling a little more strength when I thought about being able to see that my cousin was safe after what that horrible demon did to him.
"He's fine. Better than you are, you're the one who needs rest."
I frowned, and this time I made sure he could see it. "Send him in then, dammit." I almost ordered, but I was just so anxious. This wasn't the first time I've saved his ass. Or that he's saved mine. I waited for a little while in my triple-shitty state, when I finally heard footsteps come into the room.
I felt arms wordlessly wrap around me, and I locked my teeth together and squeezed that smallish, muscular little body that I called my cousin. "Oh, you stupid motherfucker." I breathed out, squeezing my eyes even tighter as James let out a little wheeze from his crushing ribcage. "James, you piece of shit." I didn't want to let go even when he bubbled up a laugh and began pushing against me. "You're crushing me, HJ."
"I fucking hate you, you know that?" Of course I meant the opposite. Not like I was going to say the L-word out loud, anyway.
"I know." James replied, the corners of his eyes crinkling up from a smile as I finally let go of the bone-crushing hug. He then grew to look concened, an expression that was very Cas-like. "Are you okay? I mean...does it hurt?" He was thinking about last time, I could tell. I was too.
"I basically feel like triple-shit. Like you know that one poor soul at the end of the human centip-" I interupted myself with a loud laugh as I saw my cousin's expression. James screwed up his face and shook his head quickly back and forth. "Ew. Stop, TMI."
He looked concerned again and touched my back lightly. "It got twisted again, huh?" He asked quietly. "You need to stop carrying so much weight. We're too young, Henry." It was almost uncomfortable how well we knew each other. I shrugged and rolled my shoulders, the wing was only aching now, not so much pinching with twisted muscles. "I'm fine." I mumbled, sitting up in bed. James frowned and helped steady me by the shoulders as black began to fuzz my vision and I swayed a little.
"You're better than last time, right?" He asked quietly, genuine concern shining from his deep blue eyes. I hesitated but nodded. "I should be fine in a few days, short stop." He didn't looked so convinced. Smart bastard.
I can never forget that sound of that bullet zipping by my ear, rustling my hair with a small push of wind. That tinny little zppppp can still sometimes work its way into my dreams, the ghost of the sound jerking me awake and leaving me to lie and stare at the ceiling for a few minutes.
Not everyone in heaven settled well with Gramp's plan, obviously. Some angels had just gone full-on dick and would never be able to go back, no matter what Grandpappy's orders were. These angels never paired with humans, they had such an overwhelming disgust and deep-seated hatred of them. They were locked away in Purgatory, Daddy's little time-out corner, in order to try and change their minds. Some felt they deserved the penance. Others found a way to break out. And what was their first target? Me and my cousin and the other children like us, the "abominations."
"Jimmy! Jimmy, where are you?" I was around ten at the time, James was seven. People were fighting all around, there was smoke, there were clashes and booms that hurt my heart when angels died and yells and screams for mercy. I finally found him, he was curled up and sobbing, halfway ensnared in a thornbush, punctures and little leaks of blood already scratching his arms. The fear had caused him to expose his wings, the little baby black wings were tangled in the thorns as well.
"Henry..." He sobbed, tears streaming from his eyes. "They're going to kill us. I don't want to die." He rocked back and forth, hiccuping and hugging his knees to his chest. "Henry, I'm scared. I'm scared." I folded him into my arms, and pulled out my wings. I remember having absolutely no idea what to do.
It was so close. Milimeters, I'd guess. The wounded angel came out of nowhere, not even hesitating for one second as she plunged the blade just milimeters away from killing James, before shining with light and dying herself as another angel jabbed a blade into her back and ripped it out, shatters of grace flitting and dying in the air like embers. I was already filling up with fear and anger as I met the eyes of the man who saved my cousin and me.
It was Gabriel. He looked pretty worse for wear, he had a slash across his face and numerous all over his body as he looked at me with hazel-green eyes, he was donning an overwhelmed expression. I said those same words that just fell from my lips whenever I saw him. "...Dad?" I asked, keeping a tight hold on James, who was sniffling and looking up to his Uncle as well. "Henry, I-" His voice was the same as I'd remembered it, and he didn't look too different either. My heart ached just seeing him again after I'd begged for him to stay and he just left me and my dad again.
He was interrupted as he quickly ran through another enemy angel. "Fly away from here. You're not safe." He told me, but I didn't know how. I didn't want to never see him again if I did. I saw another angel sneak up behind him, and I tried to warn him, but it was too late. The bladge plunged into the back of his bicep, and he buckled over, grace streaming out. But he still moved to sheild us.
The anger began to fill me up, spilling out from my body, taking over my vision. I squeezed my eyes shut and the circle of influence kicked out, bursting like an exploding star and tearing into enemy angel's vessels, ripping their graces significantly, harming them enough but I wasn't strong enough to kill them. Yet, anyway. I could tell I would be able to one day, when I'm older.
I was horrible at flying at that age. I sucked more than a desperate prostitute. I skipped like a stone, I felt my heart squeeze as I heard one of James' bones snap loudly at the first bounce and he screamed out, and I let him go as I knew we were home but I couldn't stop myself from flying. I kept on skipping over land, skin scraping off my elbows and knees each time I impacted, as I finally slid to a stop and lay flat on my back.
It was cold as fuck, snowing a little too. I was on top of snow, it was like needles to my exposed skin. The sky was a starchy bright grey, and white flakes were skittering down all around me. My scrapes stung, in that awkward painful phase before the cold let them be numb, I was so void of energy that I didn't even have it in me to twitch a finger. My eyes were halfway open. I couldn't even muster the strength to tense up as I heard loud snaps in the frosty forest to my right.
I knew I was already dead when I heard a deep rumbling growl, and an animalistic snarl. The snow crunched as large footfalls made their way toward me, hot breaths snuffling into the air. It wasn't long before a humid exhale combed through my hair, and the best I could do was shut my eyes and play dead. I felt a wet nose nuzzle into my exposed palm, and then a warm lick on my cheek. I halfway opened my eyes again, and I met the stark ice white-blue eyes on the face of a wickedly dark wolf. His head was huge too; probably the size of my entire torso. I managed to let out a little whimper as I snapped my eyes closed again. I was so confused as I was suddenly lifted into very strong, very human arms.
"So you're the new little addition to the family." His voice was rough and deep, but I kind of liked it instead of feeling intimidated by it. I leaned with all my weight onto the stony-muscled chest underneath me. "Poor kid. You look like shit, baby bro." His laugh bobbed my body slightly as he began to crunch through the snow, carrying me somewhere else. Hopefully it would be warm there. "Pops told me to come after you. He's a little busy nowadays, ain't he? I suprised he had the time to pop out another kid. He's fighting the Big Bads now, huh? At least he's keeping you under the radar. Leviathans can be a pain in my ass."
"Who..." I managed to whisper. I felt the mysterious man brush the hair away that had fallen into my eyes. "I'm Fenrisulfr, just call me Fenris. And I'm your older brother, you idiot." I don't remember much else as I blacked out right after he said that to me. I'll never know if I imagined the exaggerated "Oh, great." That came after that. I'd never told anyone, but Fenris became sort of my role model after that. I wanted to act like I imagined he'd act.
When I woke up, I was lying against something that was warm and soft and moving. It was breathing. I peeked open my eye and saw that I was resting against a grey speckled horse, and Fenris was putting something on my scrapes that riddled my body. I blinked, and didn't know if I had imagined it. This wasn't a regular horse...
"You have a lot of legs." I said groggily, hissing just a little as Fenris put something on my scraped knee. Fenris chuckled and answered. "He says you have a lot of wings." I nodded just a little and lay back on the soft grey belly. "Touché." I replied, and the horse snorted and Fenris erupted into laughter. "Think whatever you want, Sleip. I think he's cute." It was then that I suddenly remembered. "James! I hurt him, his bones broke-"
Fenris quickly calmed me down, shushing as he put a hand on my shoulder. "Sh, Henry, It's okay. We'll get you home soon, okay?" I nodded as a tear rushed down my face. The whole thing had scared me shitless, and I could feel myself trembling.
"Chin up, baby bro." Fenris smoothed away the tear as I closed my eyes again. "It'll all be okay."
When I finally did make it home, things weren't so great. James was worried sick as I was holed up in bed for weeks after the incident. I barely ate, and slept for the majority of the day. I lost close to ten pounds, and James thought I was dying. But every single day, when I woke up in the morning, there was a new lollilop on my bedside table. It went through every flavor of blow pop, dum-dum, and tootsie pop, and when it had gone through the whole spectrum, salt water taffies and German chocolates and caramels arrived, sitting there without so much as a note. And the last day I spent in bed I found a huge rainbow swirl lolly that took me and James four days to eat. I didn't know Sam knew I had a sweetooth. It was sweet of him to do that for me.
"Now that we're both up Dean's gonna give us an earful." James sighed and ran his hand through his dark hair. "I didn't think it was a bad plan at the time. Hell, sub-sigil worked like a charm."
"Yeah. Great planning on that one, by the way." I added, hoping I didn't sound too soppy. James could be a goddamn genius sometimes. He smiled just a little at the compliment. "If only Asmodeus hadn't shown up it would have gone perfectly to plan."
I pressed my lips together. "Well, try telling Uncle D that." James rolled his eyes and let out a huff. "Yeah, this is going to end great."
We exchanged glances as we were called out to dinner that night. Sam and Dean had already eaten, and Dean nodded for us to sit down across the table from him, plates of spagetti just daring us to take a bite. We both didn't even pick up a fork.
Dean knitted his fingers together and took a deep breath. "Okay." He said on exhale, blinking deeply and ovbiously trying to keep his anger in check. "Let me start out by saying I would appreciate it if you two took Baby to the shop to get all the windows replaced." He started out calmly enough, and me and James wordlessly nodded in agreement.
"Second I want to know who stabbed James." He was obviously trying very hard not to burst out with 'what the hell were you thinking!'s and 'I told you not to's. I huffed out a breath and slung my arm over my cousin. Hopefully Dean wouldn't be too harsh with him, I had been the one to convince him to go with me.
"Her name is Asmodeus. She has the ability to travel through space, while Mammon has time. I'm sure Abbadon has something too." I paused. "She came out of nowhere. There was nothing we could do." I squeezed James' shoulder lightly.
You sweetheart. Better be careful or you'll grow a mangina. James taunted, and I turned my wrist around and gave him a small bump with my fist, pretending to punch him. God, I loved my cousin.
"And I'm guessing you had the Mammu thing under control?" Dean seethed sarcastically.
He was way too angry for me to attempt to correct the name. "Yeah, actually." I shot back. He was treating us like babies, but me and James were damn good Hunters. It just so happened he was seeing one of our flukes. "You ever heard of carving a devil's trap telekinetically underneath the demon? Cuz that's what me and couzie did, and the bitch never saw it coming. But then that fucking sister had to show up and everything went downhill."
"You know why? Because you two tried to do that all by yourselves, dammit! If me and Sam had been there-"
"If you and Sam had been there you'd be dead." I interrupted, narrowing my eyes at him as I felt my cousin getting guiltier by the second. "If James were human, he'd have died. There were almost thirty demons that I tore apart from the inside, and there must have been more I didn't get. I could only carry one other person, period. I can barely carry myself after using that much energy."
Dean looked pissed but like he couldn't help but agree. "So don't take this out on James, Uncle D. I was the one who pressured him into going with me and keeping you and dad safe." Dean narrowed his eyes and crossed his arms.
"We don't need saving."
I gritted my teeth. My Uncle could be such a thick skull sometimes. "Sure. Whatever. All I'm saying is that we had it under control, and we will be going after these two again."
"Not without us, you won't." Dean quickly added, and ended the discussion by roughly standing up in his chair. "Don't do stupid things. That's all I'm asking." James nodded guiltily and took his first bite of food. Once Dean left, followed by Sam, I began to eat too. I swallowed my first bite and sighed. "Dude, I need a fuckin' drink." I said. Since we took up this Mammon case, I hadn't been to a bar for leisure in what felt like years.
"No kidding." James agreed, taking another large bite of his spagetti. "That didn't go as bad as I thought." He said optimistically after he swallowed.
"Meh. I still need a drink though." I loved going to bars with James and watching him trip over himself to try and hookup with the ladies. But I won't deny he made an awesome wingman. I waved my hand over the table, invisioning exactly what I wanted and expending just a little bit of energy to make it appear. James picked up his fake ID, stating that he was twenty-two, and examined it closely.
"You know, I'll kind of miss you making these for me once I turn twenty-one. They make me feel like a badass." He joked, slipping the ID into his wallet. "You know, like a total rule-breaker."
Trust me, a fake ID wasn't the worst of our crimes. Not even close. "I'll still make you some after your birthday if you want to feel that bad-boy rush." I joked, he was such a weirdo. Then, just to fuck with him, I changed the name from "James Brown" to..
"Haywood Jablomi?!" He exclaimed, holding back a laugh.
"Ah, depends on how much you're willing to pay." I winked at him, and I was met with a slug to the shoulder, hard. I rubbed it in circles and stuck my tongue out at him. "Take a joke, prude."
"You suck, Henry." James laughed, standing up from his chair and tucking the wallet back into his pocket. Hell, we deserved something fun after all the crap we'd just gone through. And in a time when I technically didn't even exist yet- this was going to be fun.
Hello! I'm wanting to have some fun parts in here because some parts of this story are going to be pretty sad, just as a warning! Any suggestions, reader? I'd love to hear them and I'll take all of them into consideration! Please review X)