Sam was bored. It had been a month since he had been grounded and he was still stuck in the house except for training. Unfortunately, his training session had been cancelled for the day. Michael had had other matters to attend to with Lucifer for the day. Sam's father was also helping with those things. So, Sam was stuck in the house by himself bored out of his mind. He wished he could go for a walk or something, but he still wasn't allowed.
Sam was pulled from this thoughts by the sound of a knock at the door. He got up from the couch and answered it. He was surprised to see that Michael was there. "Hi, Michael. Come on in."
"Hello, Sam," Michael said before walking past the young Nephilim."
"What are you doing here? My dad isn't home. I thought he was with you and Lucifer," Sam said.
"Yes, and as far as I know, he's still with Lucifer. I came because I wanted to apologize for having to cancel training today. Lucifer, your father, and I have been working lately to make things better around here, starting with finding the rest of the angels that fell," Michael said. He had never cared about that when he was in charge. He'd seen those that left as traitors. He wouldn't go looking for them, and if he came across them, he would've punished them severely. But he'd since realized his mistakes. He was trying to do better.
"Are there a lot of them?" Sam wondered.
"In the grand scheme of things, no. There are maybe a handful, but finding them is proving difficult. I had to cancel today's session because we located one," Michael said.
"Did you get them to come back?" Sam wondered.
Michael shook his head sadly. "We were unsuccessful. He didn't trust us, especially me, and decided he wasn't ready to come home. We decided not to push the issue. Hopefully, he'll change his mind one day." He had wanted to push the issue a bit further. He just didn't think it was appropriate for an angel to be on Earth. But Lucifer had made it clear that force would not be used. He didn't think it would help any of their siblings to see that things were changing. Reluctantly, Michael had to agree that his brother was right.
"It's good that you didn't force him," Sam said.
"I cannot deny being tempted. I am trying to learn from my mistakes, but it's not easy to stop a habit. I am trying to do better though," Michael said.
"You are, Michael. I've seen how much you've changed. You went from hating everything about me to telling a room full of angels that you loved me. I know you might have just said that to make a point, but I do know that the way you think of me has changed," Sam said.
"I didn't say what I did to prove a point to anybody. I spoke the truth," Michael told him. He didn't want his nephew thinking even for a moment that what he'd said was false. He loved him. That feeling had snuck up on him, but it was nonetheless accurate.
"You love me? Just a few weeks before you said that, you hated me," Sam said in disbelief.
Michael shook his head. "No, I never hated you. I didn't see you for who you were, but I didn't hate you. I saw you as an entity that shouldn't have been created. I saw you as an example of the blatant disobedience of my father's will. I didn't hate you, but I didn't like that you existed. Now, when I look back, I don't see how I could ever have thought anything like that."
"What changed? It couldn't just be me being hurt," Sam said. He knew him getting hurt had affected Michael, but he had to believe that something happened even before that. The archangel couldn't have just all of a sudden started caring at that moment.
"No. That's just when I noticed the change. That's when I was finally sort it out in my own head. I'd say things started to change for me when you forced my own logic on me. You fought my own beliefs by using my other belief that Free Will isn't real. It was hard to refute it," Michael said with a warm, prideful smile.
Sam laughed a little and went over to the couch and sat down. "I didn't even realize that had an impact on you. I figured you'd ignored it right after hearing it."
"Oh, believe me, I tried," Michael said as he walked over and sat down with his nephew. "But it's hard to refute your own logic when it's thrown at you. That's when, without realizing it, I let myself start to get to know you. By the time you were attacked, I already loved you."
"Uh… Thanks," Sam said. He wasn't sure what else to say. He was kind of floored. Even if he knew Michael's opinion of him had changed, he couldn't believe that Michael could actually have come to love him in such a short amount of time.
Just then, the door opened and Gabriel, Lucifer, and Castiel stepped in. "Hey, Mike. We've been looking for you."
"Yes, I came to offer Sam my apologies for having to cancel our appointment," Michael said.
"Hey, Lucifer, Cas. What are you guys doing here?" Sam wondered.
"I've declared tonight family night, Sammy. We could all use some unwinding time, and I know you're getting antsy, so we're gonna do some bonding," Gabriel said with a smile.
Michael got up from his seat. He decided that was his cue to leave. He knew he wouldn't be welcome to stay. While it bothered him, he certainly understood it. He had to earn everyone's forgiveness.
"Where are you going, Mikey. Last I knew, you were family," Gabriel said as eh watched his brother start to leave. He'd far from forgiven Michael, but his older brother had proved every day that he was trying to change. The least Gabriel felt he could do was show that he recognized that by including him.
"Are you sure you want me here?" Michael asked in surprise.
"I said we were looking for you. What did you think we wanted you for?" Lucifer asked.
"Yeah, stay, Michael, Please," Sam said. He added his puppy eyes for good measure.
Michael gasped at the look his nephew was giving him. "You inherited that look from your father! That's not right. One person shouldn't have that look, let alone two."
Gabriel snickered in response. "So, you're staying then. We both know no one can resist that look."
"I would've stayed anyway, but yeah, you're right," Michael said.
"Good. Let's go to the kitchen. I'm making dinner," Gabriel said.
"You're gonna make those human meat slabs again, right?" Lucifer asked hopefully.
"You mean stake? Yeah, sure, bro," Gabriel said with a smirk.
Michael frowned a little as they all traveled to the kitchen. "But we don't need to eat."
"It doesn't mean we can't. Food's good. Even Lucifer likes it," Gabriel said as he snapped up some uncooked stakes. Stakes were one thing he didn't snap up already cooked. They were not the same as when actually cooked. He had a stove that he used his Grace to make work in Heaven.
"Yeah, it turns out humans have their uses. They actually created decent food," Lucifer said.
"Frame this moment. Lucifer just admitted humans aren't completely useless," Gabriel joked.
"Yes, they're just mostly useless," Lucifer said completely serious.
Sam rolled his eyes as his uncle's comment as he, Michael, Lucifer, and Castiel took seats at the table.
Castiel sat as far away from Michael as he could, next to Lucifer and Sam. He knew Michael was changing, but he still didn't feel comfortable around the archangel.
Seeing his Cas's discomfort, Sam nudged Michael and sent him a look.
Michael frowned at his nephew. Sam was acting a bit strange. He seemed to want to say something, but he wasn't saying it. "Sam, what's wrong? Do you need to tell me something?"
Gabriel turned to his son in concern, wanting to know what was going on. "Sam?"
Sam grew frustrated now that all eyes were on him. He hoped his uncle would get the point, but he seemed agonizingly oblivious. Before Sam knew what was happening, his thoughts got away from him. 'You should apologize to Cas.'
Michael was caught by surprise, not because of what Sam said, but because he hadn't actually said it. It was like the thought was thrown at him, which was strange because he could never hear Sam's thoughts in the past. Apparently, however, Sam had the ability to push his thoughts out when he wanted to.
"Did you hear me?" Sam asked.
"Yes," Michael answered.
"Here what?" Lucifer asked.
"What the hell's going on?" Gabriel demanded to know.
Michael smiled. "It seems Sam has discovered a new power. He can shove his thoughts out at whomever he chooses."
"He said something to you?" Lucifer asked. He hadn't heard a word. He just saw the strange looks on Sam's face directed towards Michael.
"Uh, I certainly hope this doesn't happen often," Sam said. He was happy to know no one could hear his thoughts. Well, except for Chuck, of course. The thought of anyone hearing his thoughts was more than a little off putting.
"Well, it only happened now because you had something you wanted to say to me, so I don't think it'll happen again unless you really want it to," Michael assured him.
"You okay, kiddo?" Gabriel asked. He wouldn't ask what was said because that was clearly something Sam wanted to say to Michael privately, but he at least wanted to know everything was okay.
"Yeah, I'm fine," Sam said. He was still a little weirded out by what just happened, but he was okay.
Michael turned to Castiel. Sam was right that he probably needed to make things right with the young seraph. He hadn't treated him right all, and Castiel mattered a lot, both to his siblings and his nephew. "Castiel, I owe you an apology."
"It isn't necessary," Castiel said quickly.
"It is. I was angry because you fell out of line. You disobeyed your superiors, which in turn meant to me that you were disobeying me. I couldn't see yet that I needed to disobeyed. AT the time, all I wanted was for everything to be over so that our father would return home. And I wanted everything to stop being on my shoulders. Truthfully, I hated being in charge," Michael said.
"You did?" Sam asked surprised. He probably shouldn't be interrupting him, but it shocked him so much that he couldn't help it. "But you fought Lucifer when he came to take your place.
"Because I thought it was my duty. Plus, I didn't realize then how much I hated my position. It wasn't until recently when it was no longer on my shoulders. I've felt free lately," Michael said before turning back to Castiel. "What I did to you was wrong. You didn't deserve to be cut off from Heaven, or tortured for disobedience. I even threatened you once you came back. I'm sorry, and I'm grateful to you for protecting Sam from me."
"Uh… Thank you," Castiel said. He couldn't' think of anything else to say.
About twenty minutes passed between all of them with quiet small talk before Gabriel came over with food and they all began to eat.