Another update! It took both of us until yesterday realize we were due to update the next day. ^^; But it's all good! And we have another chapter with fun conversations, weird things, and family bonding time! And Coyote. :D

Chapter 5

Rhodey was the first person to notice Gabriel, shooting him a warm grin. "Hey, Tony. How's it – is that a snake?" He froze at the sight of Jormungandr winding his way to Fenris, who was sitting opposite Rhodey.

"Jormungandr!" Fenris beamed, dropping to the floor to wrap Jormungandr in a hug. "You're here!"

"Why is there a snake," Rhodey said, staring. He looked half a second away from standing on his chair. To be fair, Jormungandr was pretty big. Gabriel decided not to tell Rhodey that this was much smaller than his actual form.

Gabriel came over to put a hand on Rhodey's shoulder. "That's Jormungandr. He doesn't bite. And he's not venomous unless he wants to be, anyway."

"Does he constrict?" Rhodey asked, voice slightly higher than usual.

"Uh…well, he'd bite if you pissed him off. Same for the constriction."

"Then I won't piss him off."

"Ah, he's a sweetheart." Gabriel dropped into the nearest empty chair. "Not a lot that you might do that could make him mad."

Jormungandr, at this point, was wrapped almost entirely around Fenris and hissing delightedly. Fenris, completely unbothered by it, was still grinning broadly.

"Well," Natasha said calmly from the doorway, "this isn't something you see every day."

"I take it that's your other kid?" James asked from behind Natasha. "He's scalier than I expected."

From one second to the next, Fenris was suddenly a gray wolf. Jormungandr adjusted to the shift effortlessly, slipping off Fenris to twine under and around his legs.

With a playful nip, Fenris was off, dashing through the room and past Natasha and James with Jormungandr literally on his tail.

Tilting his head to the side, Gabriel watched their progress through the bunker, right up until they reached Dean and Sam in the kitchen. He couldn't help but smirk at the twin shouts that erupted, both of them scrambling for the nearest weapon before Sam seemed to realize what was going on and jumped on Dean, blocking him from drawing his gun.

"Get off!" Dean shouted, voice echoing loudly enough for the others to hear.

"Don't! That's Jormungandr!" Sam shouted back. "He's fine!"

"He's a snake!"

"Aren't you going to do anything?" Rhodey asked.

Gabriel could tell that Fenris and Jormungandr were already streaking out of the room. "They'll be fine," he said. "The worst that's gonna happen is they'll get lost in the bunker."

"I can believe that," James said. "This place is full of rooms that look like they haven't been touched in years."

"Think they'll find the dungeon?" Natasha looked back over her shoulder as if she could see them playing.

Gabriel looked for them again. Fenris and Jormungandr ran past the staircase that led to said dungeon, sprinting through winding corridors until slamming through a door and jumping onto a familiar bed. Gabriel could tell they'd curled up together before he drew most of his attention back to the room he was in.

"They've stopped," he said, searching for Coyote. He found him in one of the storage rooms, poking through dusty boxes. "And I think they'll be out for a while." Sighing, he pushed away from the table, chair sliding across the floor. "Plenty of time for Coyote and I to go get Sleipnir."

"You just got back," Rhodey protested, standing up as well.

"And Rán will have undoubtedly had an Æsir visitor by now subtly asking if anyone came by to get Jormungandr," Gabriel replied. "I wasn't very subtle when getting him, and I don't want them to have any time to prepare."

"Rán?" Natasha asked.

"Sea goddess. In the same general area as he was." It was going to be hard enough getting into Asgard with that wall protecting it, but hey. He'd been there when it was built, and the shortcuts he knew through it were probably still there.

Probably.

"Doesn't getting Sleipnir involve breaking into Asgard?" Natasha had crossed her arms. "Sounds like a tall order."

"Too bad Kevin's not here," Dean mused. "He could do some prophet-y stuff and tell you how to do it by like, seeing what you're going to do or something."

Gabriel turned to him, eyebrows raised disbelievingly. "You think I can't get into Asgard on my own? It's nothing I haven't done before." Although the first time had just involved getting into Idunn's orchard and not the stables.

"That sounds like a story you should share." James's eyebrows had shot up at the admission, and he wasn't alone in his surprise.

"Maybe later." Gabriel paused. "How is Kevin, anyway?" He felt a vague, archangelic responsibility niggling at the back of his mind, even if Kevin wasn't his responsibility, and he might as well do this one thing.

"He's with his mom," Sam said. "There's not anything threatening enough to keep him confined to the bunker, and he kind of…hated it." He ignored Gabriel's "no kidding" expression. "So he went home. There's a couple angels keeping an eye on him at all times, according to Raphael."

"That's good to know."

"As for sneaking into Asgard," Natasha said, changing the subject back, "we could just look it up on our own. I'm sure it's in mythology somewhere."

Gabriel grinned. "Aw, you know you'd rather hear it from me. The myths just don't give it that personal touch."

"I feel so lucky," Rhodey drawled. "I bet you say that to all your friends."

"Just the ones I like." Gabriel's grin widened briefly before he looked in the direction Coyote was. "Be back soon."

He was pretty sure that the promise of breaking into Asgard would quickly wipe away any of Coyote's complaints about not having any downtime.

"I thought there was a fancy bridge you guys had to get in," Coyote said.

"Yeah, that's exactly what I'm going to do, take the main gate in." Gabriel rolled his eyes. "Really, Coyote?"

"Hey, I was just wondering." Coyote paused, then said, "Is it really rainbow-colored?"

That was one thing that hadn't changed between universes. "Yes, but there isn't a pot of gold at the end."

"I'm not an idiot, that's Irish, not you."

"Just covering all my bases." Gabriel couldn't help the teasing lilt that crept into his tone. "C'mon."

Traveling through Yggdrasil was never easy, though Gabriel had it down to an art by this time. Coyote was less experienced, this being his first trip through the nine realms, and it had been agreed that Gabriel would give him a ride through the tree. He was the only one of the two who had any idea what traps lay on Yggdrasil's branches, and Gabriel suspected that the cranky eagle up at the top was still there.

Last he checked, eagles and coyotes didn't get along too well.

"If we see a squirrel," Gabriel warned Coyote, "just don't do anything, okay?"

Coyote's eyes widened slightly. "What squirrel?"

Gabriel flashed him a smirk, then whisked them away and out of Midgard, getting a look at Yggdrasil for the first time in centuries.

It was always a peculiar thing, seeing the worlds from the outside. For split second, it looked ever-so-slightly out of place, and then it all fit together into branches and leaves arching into a black sky. If one could call it a sky.

"Holy shit," Coyote said.

"Yeah," Gabriel said, "that was pretty much my reaction, getting a first look at this."

Coyote tilted his head up. Dimly, as though from a great distance away, lights shone around the branches over their heads. "That's where we're going?"

"Not quite," Gabriel said. "Asgard's at the top. There are four other realms in-between us and them. We might have to take a trip through a couple on the way up, just to avoid some of the bits where the branches are thinner."

"Right," said Coyote, and then, "do I want to know what happens if we fall off the tree?"

"You really don't." Even Gabriel didn't want to think about what lay at the bottom.

"I figured."

"We won't fall off," Gabriel reassured him. "If we do, that means we're both dead anyway."

Coyote swallowed, then muttered, "I'm sticking on Earth next time."

"No experiencing the wonders of the universe? What a shame." Gabriel climbed up towards Svartalfheim, pulling Coyote up after him.

The gateway to that realm was a little more ominous than most, black and vaguely sticky-looking, but Coyote followed him in with only a moment of hesitation. He gave Coyote just enough time to see what the realm looked like before pulling them back out again onto the branches. He went right past Jotunheim's gate without even touching it. The spindly gate, which looked more like branches frosted over and frozen into a vaguely circular shape, was enough to remind him why going there was a bad idea.

He very clearly remembered how cold that realm was - that, and he had no desire to end up in a talk with Laufey. On the list of things that he didn't want to do, having a conversation with Loki's mother was right up on top.

He could all too well imagine Laufey's displeasure at finding out that the original Loki had been dead long before Gabriel had snuffed it.

It was a pity, too, since he'd had some good talks with Laufey as Loki. They'd had a complicated relationship, but not necessarily an antagonistic one.

Gabriel passed through Alfheim and Vanaheim just as quickly as he had Svartalfheim, hesitating only briefly before leaving Vanaheim. Asgard's gate was easy to find, golden and metallic, shining against the blackness of everything that wasn't part of the tree.

Most assumed that anyone coming through would be on the Bifrost. Gabriel was one of the few who knew that the Bifrost didn't take up the whole gate.

"Whoa," Coyote said, impressed, at the sight of the rainbow road.

"No time to stop and admire." Gabriel slipped around to the "underside" of the road, or what could be considered its underside. The gate looked far wider from this side, and it was easy to climb up through it and end up in the same sunny forest that didn't look like it had changed in six hundred years.

"It's a lot sunnier than I expected," Coyote whispered, falling into step behind Gabriel.

"You familiar with the golden apples?"

"The one that started the Trojan War?"

Damn Aphrodite. That had only been amusing until the war started. "The other golden apples. That was the Greeks."

Coyote took a moment. "The ones that are supposed to give these guys immortality?"

Gabriel nodded, raising his eyebrows. "Guess where we are."

"No way," Coyote breathed, looking more closely at the trees. "This is the orchard?"

"Yep." Gabriel kept moving, staying on the fringes of the orchard, Grace tightly reined in. "But the stables aren't here."

"Stables?" Coyote hissed. "After all the trouble we went through for the others, they're keeping one in the stables?"

"Hel's got her own realm," Gabriel said. "The thing with Fenris and Jor…" He paused, taking a slow breath. "They're prophesized to be directly involved in Ragnarok. Sleipnir and Hel aren't."

"That's your end of the world, right? Don't give me that look," Coyote said defensively, when Gabriel gave him a look. "I don't keep track of other pantheons' prophecies. What happened with Upstairs was so obvious even someone under a rock would've noticed."

"That's because they weren't trying to be subtle," Gabriel said. "But yeah, Ragnarok's the big finale."

"You're not worried you're gonna set something off?"

"I never played this big a role in that prophecy," Gabriel said. "We're not fulfilling anything. Nothing started when Jor…was released, and that's when it's supposed to." He deliberately didn't think of Jormungandr's tail.

"Does Asgard know that?"

"Nope."

"Good with me," Coyote said. "I'd rather Earth stuck around. And while I'm thinking about it, should I be weirded out that we haven't run into anyone yet?"

"Only Idunn hangs around in here," Gabriel said. "Once we get into the streets, then we worry about avoiding people."

"The stables wouldn't happen to be near the center, would they?"

"How'd you guess?"

"Nothing's ever easy," Coyote muttered mutinously. "Are we hiding or just waltzing through?"

"I can cloak us, but even Asgardians will notice when Sleipnir goes missing."

"So we sneak in and then bust our way out. Who's gonna get in the way of a horse that's got twice the usual number of legs?"

"Heimdall might," Gabriel said. "And he's probably already realized we're here, so let's keep moving, shall we?"

"You can't just fly us there?" Coyote asked, wheedling slightly.

"That kind of transportation would throw up a giant red flag," Gabriel said dryly. "Let's not raise any until we need to."

Gabriel could tell they were getting closer to the edge of the orchard – the trees were thinning out, and he could see glimpses of the white wall that bordered it.

Before leaving the shelter of the trees entirely, Gabriel cloaked the two of them from prying eyes. The last thing they needed was for Heimdall to catch a glimpse of them, and if Frigg realized they were in the city she'd be able to find them immediately. After that, it was a small matter of getting over the wall and then they were in the city itself.

Asgard hadn't changed at all since Gabriel had last been here, though he would have expected something given Odin's death. Frigg must have been keeping things together pretty well.

Walking through the streets was easy, the layout exactly the same as it had been when Gabriel had last been here. It was giving him an odd sense of déjà vu, even though he knew that without the glamour of magic hiding him from sight the various Æsir they passed would have a lot to say – and do – about his presence in Asgard.

"Hey." Coyote flicked him on the shoulder. "Don't get nostalgic on me. We're here for your kid, and I have no idea where I'm going, so pay attention."

"Right." Gabriel took a deep breath, making sure to stay as quiet as possible. The glamour depended on attracting as little attention as possible. "Come on."

There were fewer people around the center of the city, which meant Gabriel didn't have to pay quite as much attention to his glamour as he and Coyote slipped into the stables. The last time he'd used pagan magic had been when he'd been separated, and he hadn't exactly done a lot as Loki except for shifting his physical appearance and some parlor tricks. Asgard wasn't really big on magic, after all.

"I thought the horses would be a little bigger," Coyote said, head twisting as he examined the building.

"They're the same size as us," Gabriel answered distractedly, making a beeline for where he could sense Sleipnir. "It's the Jotuns who're different sizes."

Coyote muttered something else that Gabriel didn't catch, too distracted by the sight of Sleipnir.

Unlike Fenris and Jormungandr, Sleipnir had the chance of growing, so he looked a little larger than he had last time Gabriel had seen him. He let his glamour drop as he stopped in front of the gate, breath coming shakily. "Hey," he breathed.

Sleipnir didn't immediately react, staring at Gabriel with one brown eye. Then, snuffling slightly, he leaned over the wooden gate separating them, drawing closer to Gabriel.

"Sleipnir." Gabriel touched Sleipnir carefully, hands trembling as he stroked down his son's nose. "Hey," he said again, managing a wobbly smile. "What do you say we get out of here?"

"As a horse?" Coyote asked from behind Gabriel, effectively shattering the moment. "An eight-legged horse is going to be a little noticeable."

Sleipnir snorted, butting Gabriel gently to remind him to open the gate. Once he stepped out, his form shifted to that of a lanky teenager, one noticeably older than Fenris and Jormungandr. "A horse is not my only form," he said, flashing a mischievous grin in Coyote's direction. It shifted to a rather wobbly looking smile when he looked back at Gabriel. "Is it…really you?"

Gabriel inhaled, nodding jerkily, not trusting his voice.

"I had thought…" Sleipnir took a hesitant step forward, worrying his lower lip.

Unable to stand the hesitant – almost scared – look on Sleipnir's face, Gabriel closed the remaining distance between them to hug him tightly, relieved when Sleipnir instantly returned the gesture with what sounded like a choked sob.

They stayed like that for a long moment, and Gabriel wasn't sure how much longer it would have lasted if it wasn't for Coyote coughing.

"This is really touching and all, but getting caught here wouldn't be a good thing," Coyote said pointedly. "You can do all the hugging once we're out of here."

Sleipnir's hands tightened where they were clutching at Gabriel. "They told me you were dead."

"Their mistake," Gabriel said, smoothing a hand over Sleipnir's hair. "But Coyote's right. We should be out of here as soon as possible."

"How?" Sleipnir seemed reluctant to step away, only moving enough to look up at Gabriel. One hand dropped down to tangle with Gabriel's, and Gabriel squeezed it reassuringly.

"Bust out?" Coyote suggested.

"I was thinking more…" Gabriel trailed off as he noticed the bird flutter down to land on the fence just outside the stables. "Oh, shit."

As one, Sleipnir and Coyote turned to look.

"That's a raven," Coyote said.

"Huginn," Sleipnir said, sounding panicked.

"New plan," Gabriel announced, making up his mind quickly. "Run like hell."

"I got this." Coyote was moving before he even finished talking, changing mid-leap into an identical black bird before throwing himself at Huginn. Huginn cawed sharply, taking off in the same second. Coyote chased him up over the roof of the stables and out of sight.

"Great," Gabriel said. "He'll probably get halfway across the city in about a second like that."

…Maybe that hadn't been the best thing to say, with Sleipnir already clutching his hand in a death grip.

"When Huginn tells Frigg, she will kill you," Sleipnir said, voice high in panic.

"She can try, but it won't stick." A second later he realized that had been another bad decision when Sleipnir let out a panicked whine. "Hey, it'll be fine. We just have to get Coyote and we can get out of here, okay?"

It would be a little more complicated than that, but Gabriel was going to try and avoid giving Sleipnir anymore heart attacks.

"But Frigg—

"Doesn't quite know what she's dealing with. I can dodge them if we have to. It won't be pretty, but they won't hurt you."

"I'm concerned about you," Sleipnir protested.

"They won't hurt me either," Gabriel reassured him. "Let's go."

Coyote and Huginn were two black specks in the sky, and they weren't exactly being subtle, which at least meant everyone's attention was on the sky and not on the two of them emerging from the stables. Sleipnir didn't ease his grip on Gabriel's hand, and he kept up with Gabriel's fast pace so easily Gabriel wondered if he was trying to stop himself from breaking into a run.

Gabriel hadn't forgotten the glamour, but his mind was half on Sleipnir and half on figuring how to get Coyote close enough that he could fly them all out without attracting attention, and magic only worked perfectly if the caster was focusing on nothing else, so it really shouldn't have been a surprise when someone shouted out.

"Sleipnir!"

"Fuck," Gabriel sighed, glancing over his shoulder to the offending god. "Let's pick up the pace."

The shout had caught the attention of other gods, though.

He could use his Grace to hide them more effectively than pagan magic, but that would really tip his hand if none of these gods had realized that he wasn't actually one of them staging a jailbreak. But compared to winding his way through the streets on foot and trying to catch up to two birds flying in the air…using Grace might be more effective.

Coyote would be pissed if he snatched him out of the air like that, though.

But it would also mean them getting out of Asgard more quickly with a lower chance of getting caught. And Gabriel was all for not getting caught.

"Damn you, Laufeyson!" a god shouted after him, though when Gabriel looked the god was looking at Sleipnir. "And you—"

"If you're going to insult someone, at least do it right!" Gabriel snapped back, interrupting whatever insult was about to be aimed at Sleipnir. "It's Laufeyjarson!" To Sleipnir, "Hold on."

Without any further warning, he took off, holding Sleipnir close. The alarmed cries of the gods didn't even register on his radar – he was too focused on getting to Coyote and grabbing him.

When Gabriel dropped back into physical space, he took a second to snatch Coyote, who was very emphatically displeased with being interrupted so rudely, his talons gouging into Gabriel's hands. He disappeared with another flick of his wings, this time reversing course and heading straight for the Bifrost.

The benefit of flying and not dealing with the rules of pagan teleportation was that it was a lot faster than anything pagans were accustomed to dealing with, so absolutely none of the guards noticed when he shot right past them and back onto the branches of Yggdrasil. From there it was a straight path back down to Midgard, though it was a little more difficult with an unruly and very disgruntled passenger in his hands.

Landing on Earth itself was rather jarring, Gabriel stumbling and letting Coyote go with a hiss, his hands healing a second later. Sleipnir didn't let go of where he had ended up clinging to Gabriel's waist, trembling violently.

"Don't do that again!" Coyote spit out the moment he shifted back.

"I had to get us out of there," Gabriel fired back, "and you were too busy high-tailing it after Huginn to hear me. You couldn't have stayed calm about ravens for three seconds?"

"Would you have preferred that he attack you?"

"They're spies, not weapons. You just made it more difficult."

Coyote rolled his eyes, crossing his arms over his chest. "Whatever. We got your kid, right?"

"Yeah," Gabriel breathed, relaxing slightly. He turned, wrapping an arm around Sleipnir's trembling form. "We're good."

"What was that?" Sleipnir whispered, not loosening his grip in the slightest.

"My usual method of getting places," Gabriel answered, rubbing over Sleipnir's back. "Think you can hang on a little more until I get us to the bunker? Your brothers are there."

"They are?" Sleipnir stood straight up, eyes wide. "For how long? Where?"

"Not that long. I've been orchestrating a jailbreak with his help." Gabriel nodded over to a visibly disgruntled Coyote, who seemed only slightly mollified at Gabriel's admission. "You want to see them?"

Sleipnir nodded. "Yes. Of course."

Gabriel glanced at Coyote, eyebrows raised inquiringly. "You mind if I…?"

Heaving a put-on sigh, Coyote shuffled closer. "Fine. But be gentle."

"I usually am."

And Gabriel was very gentle when he whisked them off to the bunker, landing them in the empty library. He was pretty sure even Clint wouldn't have anything to complain about.

"Are we the only ones here?" Sleipnir looked around at the books and (probably ornamental) swords and other artifacts.

"Nah, it's not my bunker." Gabriel was pretty sure they were all in the kitchen. "It belongs to some hunters, but they won't hurt you."

"If you're nice," Coyote muttered. Gabriel gave him a sharp, pointed look.

"They won't hurt you," Gabriel repeated, dropping his eyes to Sleipnir. "I mean it. They're a hell of a lot more trustworthy than most other hunters."

"Very well," Sleipnir said, nodding. He pulled away from Gabriel, once again holding onto Gabriel's hand. "Where are they?"

"Follow me." Gabriel tugged him along, leading him through the bunker and into the kitchen.

Jormungandr and Fenris were both in human form at the table, concentrating on what looked like had previously been a large pizza. Rhodey looked faintly amazed at one end of the table, while Dean and Sam both had resigned looks on their faces; Dean was even rooting through the fridge. James and Natasha both seemed too amused for their own good, used to large appetites given Steve and Loki.

"I bring presents," Gabriel announced in the Allspeak, getting their attention.

Fenris was the first to react. "Sleipnir!" He jumped out of his chair, running straight into Sleipnir to crush him into a hug.

Jormungandr was only a second slower, his slightly longer arms managing to cover both his brothers.

Gabriel would have stepped back to make more room, but Sleipnir pulled him closer, glancing at him pleadingly before letting go of his hand to hug the others, so he stayed, moving his hand to rest it on Sleipnir's shoulder.

"Huh," Dean said. "I was expecting more arms or something."

Sleipnir glanced down at himself, or what he could manage to see through the tangle of his brother's arms.

"You've got it right," Gabriel told him.

"I wasn't certain for a second," Sleipnir admitted sheepishly.

"Dean just likes to think he's funny," Sam said.

"I am funny."

"I'm sorry," Rhodey said, "but that just sounds like Tony here."

Gabriel affected a hurt expression. "Excuse you, I am hilarious."

"So you think."

Sleipnir looked back at Gabriel, frowning. "Tony?"

"Right, uh…" Gabriel sighed, ruffling Sleipnir's hair. "I've got something to say."

"He's an angel," Fenris said before Gabriel could, voice muffled where his head was tucked into Sleipnir's chest. "But it's all right because he's still Dad."

Sleipnir's frown deepened, and he pulled back so that the hug broke apart. "When did that happen?"

"I've always been one," Gabriel said, managing to keep his tone even. "But I was Loki. None of that was a lie."

"That's how you got us out so quickly," Sleipnir realized. "And…but…you weren't dead?"

"Dead?" Fenris and Jormungandr said at the same time, both looking at Gabriel in alarm.

"Well, obviously I'm not dead," Gabriel replied, trying to sound reassuring.

"That conversation escalated quickly," Rhodey said in surprise. Natasha and James must have slipped out when Gabriel wasn't paying attention, because the kitchen was much emptier than it had been a moment ago and Sam was already in the middle of "discreetly" tugging Dean out the door.

"They told me you were dead!" Sleipnir insisted, voice cracking. "That you wouldn't come back."

"Hey." Gabriel took Sleipnir's hand, pressing it to his chest. "My heart's still beating, isn't it? And I'm breathing? I'm alive. I promise you that I'm alive."

"Now, anyway," Coyote muttered under his breath.

Gabriel shot him another pointed glare, mentally willing him to get the message that he wasn't helping. Coyote just shot him a blase look. "I'm alive," he repeated, returning his attention to his kids.

"I think I would've noticed if I were hanging out with a dead guy," Rhodey said, trying to sound reassuring.

Fenris was giving him an accusatory look. "He said you were alive now," he said. "What's that supposed to mean?"

"So you understood that?" Of course Fenris had started picking up some modern English. Gabriel sighed, shoulders slumping. "I…there may have been a little incident some time ago. But it's sorted out now."

This didn't seem to reassure Fenris at all. "How is being dead 'little'?"

"I'm not dead anymore?"

"Oh my God," Rhodey muttered. "You're hopeless."

"It's not like it's happened to you," Gabriel said, glancing at him.

"But you're supposed to stay dead if you're dead," Jormungandr said. "Unless you're a talking head."

Gabriel did distantly remember complaining about that little incident. "Sometimes you don't. There are quite a few people around here that can attest otherwise. I just got really lucky."

"Odin saved Mimir," Jormungandr said. "Who helped you?"

"My Dad," Gabriel said, and then realized they would probably think of the wrong person. "Not Farbauti, my angel dad. He doesn't exactly have a lot of limits when it comes to life and death." Though that didn't mean Death wasn't upset about Him upsetting the scales.

With a sigh, Gabriel realized he was going to have to have this exact conversation with Hel, who doubtlessly had sensed his passing but hadn't sensed his resurrection. "I'm not dying anytime soon again."

"I will kick your ass if that happens," Rhodey said cheerfully. "Even if I break my foot."

That startled a laugh out of Sleipnir, which made the other two look at him curiously.

"What, what did he say?"

"He said he would kick Dad's ass if it happens," Sleipnir said, grinning. "Even if it breaks his foot."

"But it isn't that hard," Fenris said, squinting at Gabriel.

"If I don't pay attention, it is," Gabriel said, grinning wryly. He winked at him. "You should be good, though, if you're careful."

"I don't want to kick you," Fenris said plaintively.

"Wait until you get older," Coyote told him, his Norse heavily accented but understandable. "That will change."

"It looks like we're good," Rhodey said. "I don't see anyone on the verge of tears anymore, so I'm gonna go ahead and ask why your kid looks like he's got half a suit on."

Sleipnir did look like all he was missing was the jacket, but he still looked puzzled. "What, me?"

"Yeah, you," Gabriel said. "You're a couple centuries out of date, but it's not any worse than your brothers."

"Hey," Fenris said, sounding offended. "My clothes are fine."

"And from the fourteen hundreds," Gabriel reminded him. "Fashion's changed a lot since then."

"Your pants look so uncomfortable," Fenris complained. "How can you move in them?"

"Because they're expensive and more flexible than they look. Now, Coyote's are cheap."

"I'm sorry, we can't all be rich assholes," Coyote protested, miffed.

"We've got other pants that you can wear," Gabriel continued, ignoring Coyote. "Get you used to modern fashion. I think you'll like the jackets."

"What's on your shirt?" Jormungandr asked. "I meant to ask earlier."

"A really sweet rock band." Gabriel tugged his shirt down to straighten the creases. "Rock is also a little after you guys, though. It's music."

"I'm pretty sure you've just got a closet full of identical AC/DC shirts," Rhodey said. "You're always wearing those or suits."

"Suits mean business." And Gabriel did like looking snazzy when the occasion called for it.

"It's hard to call it 'business' when you don't tie your tie properly and your jacket's not buttoned up."

"I don't remember hiring you to be my fashion critic."

"You didn't hire me to be anything."

"Okay, hold up," Coyote said. "Before this conversation gets any farther, you promised me you'd tell me what you made."

Gabriel abruptly shifted gears. "Did I?"

"Yes. You did." Coyote gave him an unimpressed looks. "For what you just put me through – both in the freaking ocean and with jerking me out of the sky like that – you owe me." His tone changed. "Come on…it can't be that bad."

Gabriel considered him, head tilted. Finally, "Before I say anything, let me preface this by saying that I didn't know what I was doing."

Coyote raised his eyebrows. "Oh? This should be good. What monstrosity are you responsible for in Australia?"

"Oh my God, this explains so much about Australia," Rhodey said, eyes wide.

"Shut up." Gabriel shot Rhodey a glare. "My Dad's had his share of weird fuck-ups. You didn't see some of the things that ended up going extinct."

"But I can poke fun at you."

"Two species?" Coyote asked before Gabriel could retort. "You owe me."

"Fine." His kids looked just as eager to find out what he had made. "The platypus and the potoo. That's all you're getting from me."

Rhodey was the first to react. "You mean that weird mammal that lays eggs is because of you?"

"What the hell is a potoo?" Coyote said at the same time.

"I thought it was cool," Gabriel grumbled. "I mean, eggs! And beaks! What's not to like?"

"Sure thing," Rhodey said, smirking.

"A potoo?" Coyote asked again. "Do you mean potato?"

"I mean potoo," Gabriel said dryly. "It's a bird."

"It's a weird-ass bird!" Dean hollered outside the room, evidently eavesdropping.

"Dean!" Sam hissed a second later.

"I gotta look this up," Rhodey said, pulling out his phone. Coyote sidled over to him to look over his shoulder. A minute later, both of them were looking up at Gabriel with identical expressions of glee.

"Does the big mouth stand for something?" Coyote asked, grinning broadly.

"So it can eat!" Things had been a lot bigger in the past. "I'll have you know that bird's a master of camouflage."

"Somehow I am not surprised," Rhodey said dryly, pulling the phone out of Coyote's reach before he could get more pictures.

"And you made more?" Coyote still had an unholy grin on his face.

"I'm not telling you anything else."

"No, wait, you said everything you made got dumped into Australia. Does this mean that I can just point to an animal and you'll have made it?"

"All of my stuff ending up in Australia doesn't equal everything there being because of me." It just meant there was a higher likelihood of it having been because of him.

"What about cassowaries?" Rhodey was still grinning widely.

"I'm not answering that."

"The emus sound like your thing," Rhodey continued. "I mean, picking a fight and then actually winning?"

"Nope." Gabriel popped the "p," shaking his head. "That's all you're getting from me."

Rhodey looked at him for a moment longer before deciding, "I'm asking Gadreel."

The worrying part was, Gadreel would probably know at least some of what Gabriel had made. There had been a lot of gossiping (for angels, anyway) when some of Gabriel's wackier creations had been developed.

Still… "What makes you think he'll know?"

"Animals were around way before humans," Rhodey pointed out, snorting. "He'll have heard of some of them."

"Who's Gadreel?" Coyote asked.

"His brother," Rhodey answered. "He's been hanging around in our universe."

Coyote snorted. "More brothers?"

"You're forgetting I'm an angel, too," Gabriel retorted. "Even I can't put a number to how many siblings I have." He probably hadn't even met all of them.

"'More' brothers?" Rhodey looked at Gabriel with raised eyebrows. "He's already met some of your siblings?"

"You can't go ten feet without running into an angel nowadays," Coyote informed him. "But I was talking about the gods."

Rhodey looked puzzled. "Like Odin?"

"Hell no." Coyote looked offended that Rhodey would even imply he'd met the lord of Asgard.

"I've met dad's other brothers," Sleipnir said.

Fenrir looked disgruntled. "I haven't. When did this happen?"

"Not often," Gabriel said. "You probably just weren't there when I did."

"Back up." Rhodey held up a hand. "Which brothers are you referring to? 'Cause I swear, your family gets bigger every time you mention it."

"Brothers on the frost giant side of things," Gabriel said. "Y'know, as Loki. Laufey had more than just one kid." He gave the three boys a grin. "You guys have been around the bunker, right? I bet you could show Sleipnir a couple cool places you found."

None of them looked fooled, but Fenris led the way out. Gabriel could tell that Sam and Dean were still there, but he didn't mind quite as much if they overheard.

"Is this going to be the kind of conversation we need privacy for?" Coyote had watched them go with raised eyebrows.

"It's the kind of conversation where I'd like to talk to Rhodey privately," Gabriel replied. Coyote gave him a dirty look. "Oh, come on, it's nothing you don't already know." Mostly. He'd been extraordinarily lucky so far with Coyote's blasé acceptance of his angelic status, and he didn't want to know if this would change things. "I'm sure you've got other things to be doing."

"All right, fine," Coyote said in a dramatic huff, before vanishing on the spot. Gabriel was too used to him to be surprised by the abrupt disappearance.

"Brothers a sore subject, huh?" Rhodey sounded like he thought he already knew the answer to that question.

"A tricky one, more like." Gabriel sat down at the table. "Go ahead. I got rid of everyone else, you might as well ask."

"How many?"

"Just the two," Gabriel said. "Helblindi and Býlestr. Not sure who was the oldest, to be honest."

"How does that work?" Rhodey asked. "With you being Gabriel, too. Was it like how you ended up as Tony?"

"Oh, no. This was on purpose, for one." Gabriel leaned back in his chair. "I was really only her kid in that I was Loki. And that…" He exhaled, remembering that cold night. "That's another story in itself."

"The way you always said it before was like you'd just demoted yourself," Rhodey said. "Is that…not what happened?"

Gabriel was pretty sure that Dean and Sam weren't breathing, and Natasha and James weren't much better off from where they had joined the brothers.

"A demotion was involved," Gabriel said finally. "There was a major downsize in what I could do and the type of magic available to me. But how it happened… I didn't have a vessel back then." This wasn't something he regretted, but he couldn't help but wonder how this world's Loki would have turned out.

The twin sharp inhales from Sam and Dean were loud enough that Gabriel would have been able to hear it even without angelic senses.

"I remember it being cold," Gabriel continued quietly. "And dark. It sounds really cliche, but it was. And there – just like that – I saw him. He was just a Jotun at that point – hadn't even seen Asgard. And he was dying. So I…I made an offer. If he hadn't accepted, I would've done something else, but he did. And I had my in." He shrugged, smiling self-deprecatingly. "Everything after that was all me."

After a brief tussle, Dean stumbled in, hindered by the fact that Sam was clinging to his leg. "You possessed a god?" he accused. "That suit of yours wasn't even human?"

Gabriel spread his arms. "How else would I have stayed out of Heaven's sight for so long? It was enough to let me hide my Grace well enough that not even Odin ever guessed." He was pretty sure Odin never did; or at least he hoped, but it wouldn't make a difference now. "I might've managed otherwise, but luckily I didn't have to."

"I thought they were called frost giants," Sam said from the floor. "Your vessel was kind of small."

"Compared to you, maybe, sasquatch." Gabriel gave Sam a pointed look, deliberately measuring him out with his hands. "Besides, he was a little smaller than average. And there are plenty who are just as short – or a lot bigger. It varies." Besides, back then that vessel had been fairly tall compared to most humans.

"So Laufey didn't know," Rhodey said.

"No." Like he would have told anyone, least of all his vessel's mother. That would have earned him a one-way ticket to nowhere good. "As Loki…I wandered a lot. I didn't see Laufey or either of my brothers a lot. And there were plenty who took a disliking to me once I set up with Asgard."

"How shocking," Dean deadpanned, folding his arms across his chest.

"Plenty of Jotuns," Gabriel clarified. "Mostly just because of Asgard's admittedly deserved reputation. But yeah, pointing out when someone fucked up or lying to them didn't make me a fan favorite in Asgard either." Not that he'd particularly wanted to be friends with any of them, but being so close to Odin had necessitated (and helped to create) a sort of tenuous companionship with most of Asgard.

"Which is a completely different ballgame from our Loki," Rhodey mused.

"It's a different universe. I'd be surprised if there was anything beyond superficial similarities."

"How many pagans have you got there?" Dean asked, eyebrows raised.

"Just the Norse pantheon, though they're not actually on Earth. It's a hell of a lot quieter than this place."

"Especially now that Doom's gone," Rhodey agreed.

Dean furrowed his brow. "Wait, Doom with the mask? I thought that guy was like a cockroach - you can't get rid of him."

"A cockroach?" Gabriel tilted his head, remembering what the Trickster had thought of Doom. "Huh…that would have been a good fit, too…but less ostentatious."

"What did you do?" Sam, at this point, had picked himself up from the floor.

"He turned him into a statue and stuck him in the middle of Times Square," Natasha answered from behind him.

"With a dunce cap on his head," James added.

"There were so many calls from Latveria," Rhodey groaned. "And no answers because you"—he gestured at Gabriel—"were in four pieces."

Dean glanced at Sam, who looked just as confused as he did. "Do you mean physically in four pieces? Because that doesn't really stop angels."

"It's a long story," Gabriel said, "which they can tell you while I head out to see Hel."

"No rescue mission?" James tilted his head.

Gabriel snorted, waving a hand. "She's goddess of the dead and queen of an entire realm. If anyone's doing any rescuing, it's her. Or more like killing, really."

"This going to be easy, then?" Rhodey asked.

"Easy in the sense that I don't have to break into anything, buuuttt…" Gabriel sighed, glancing to where he could sense his kids. "She's older than they are by now. Which makes things a little more difficult."

Rhodey reached out to squeeze Gabriel's shoulder. "Adults can be funny like that, yeah. It should be fine."

Gabriel looked at his feet. "We'll see."

If Coyote had thought the ocean was bad, he wasn't going to like the realm of the dead.

The potoos! The potoos. Seriously, have you SEEN them? Of course Gabriel had a hand in their design! xD He's not revealing anything else, so for now all they know is that he designed the platypus and the potoo. Although there's some other animals in Australia that have a similar claim to fame...

Sleipnir's pic can also be found on my blog thelastarchangelaskblog! Or on wizard-fallen-angel's tumblr.

And a note from Alatar...

On another note, though, this is an actual conversation that took place when I wrote the bit about cassowaries and inukagome copied the word to look them up:

me: they're a kind of bird that has a direct link back to their dinosaur ancestors

inukagome: they don't look that bad

me: they're six feet tall

inukagome: I retract my previous statement