And then. Then there's the battle, and it's brutal and terrible, like all battles are, only this time... this time when Gabriel looks to his left, Lucifer isn't beside him, and when there are no more soldiers coming at him with blades drawn and fear in their eyes, he turns to his brothers and sees Michael standing there with his sword to Lucifer's throat. And Lucifer...Lucifer is smiling.
Everything moves fast after that, but Gabriel feels like he's frozen. Michael is right up in Lucifer's face, screaming something that sounds more pained than angry, and Lucifer still has that grin on his face, like all this is funny to him, like he saw this coming, like he doesn't care.
Gabriel doesn't move when Michael pronounces the banishment, doesn't flinch, doesn't look away. Lucifer's gaze falls everywhere but on Gabriel, until finally he settles his glare towards the sky. Michael is raising his sword, striking down and finally, finally Gabriel feels himself move. He's gasping, taking half a step forward, stalled in his tracks by Lucifer's eyes cutting to him over the swing of Michael's blade. The grin is gone, and a second later, so is Lucifer.
***
It's not the last time they see each other, not even close.
Lucifer has a habit of showing up in Gabriel's life whenever Gabriel least expects him. And then again when Gabriel expects him the most. And sometimes he's there just because he's bored or he's hungry or it's Thursday and he's got nothing better to do... Lucifer never was one to play by any sort of rules.
Understatement, really.
But things are different now. Gabriel's different. A quick smile and a few honeyed words don't get to him the way they used to. Lucifer was always the one trying to teach Gabriel lessons, well... Gabriel sure as hell learned his lesson this time.
He'll hand it to Lucifer, he never tried to crawl back with pathetic excuses or pitiful looks. There've been moments, flashes of...something...every now and then--
--but mostly things have been...light between them. Playful and teasing on Lucifer's side, sometimes cruel when he's not getting the reaction from Gabriel he so clearly wants. But it's nothing close to the way it was before. Gabriel won't let it be... he doesn't want it to be.
There are times, though... times when Lucifer breezes in, smile playing at the corner of his lips as he slips into the empty chair beside Gabriel. He doesn't ask permission, please was never in his vocabulary, he just takes and takes until someone tells him that's enough... And, well, if the chair to Gabriel's left is always left open, that's nothing to do with him. If he really thought about it, he could probably put it down to habit, but he's not thinking about it, and no one seems to want to question it, so... so maybe it's not as big of a deal as Lucifer's quiet smirk seem to make it out to be.
Lucifer's asshole friends were right, Gabriel isn't the naive little soldier he had been all that time ago. And yeah, a lot of that is down to Lucifer, just not in the way they'd been implying. Well... not entirely, anyway.
He reminds himself of that when Lucifer's fingers brush the back of his neck, the curve of his shoulder, the base of his wing. He reminds himself again when Lucifer's eyes light up at not being slapped away this time.
He's going to keep reminding himself, he is absolutely going to do that. Right up until the time one of his hands is bruising tight on Lucifer's hip, the other twisted tight in his hair, pulling 'til he's got him baring his neck, and then, for a while, Gabriel forgets, forgets, forgets.
Everything moves fast after that, but Gabriel feels like he's frozen. Michael is right up in Lucifer's face, screaming something that sounds more pained than angry, and Lucifer still has that grin on his face, like all this is funny to him, like he saw this coming, like he doesn't care.
Gabriel doesn't move when Michael pronounces the banishment, doesn't flinch, doesn't look away. Lucifer's gaze falls everywhere but on Gabriel, until finally he settles his glare towards the sky. Michael is raising his sword, striking down and finally, finally Gabriel feels himself move. He's gasping, taking half a step forward, stalled in his tracks by Lucifer's eyes cutting to him over the swing of Michael's blade. The grin is gone, and a second later, so is Lucifer.
***
It's not the last time they see each other, not even close.
Lucifer has a habit of showing up in Gabriel's life whenever Gabriel least expects him. And then again when Gabriel expects him the most. And sometimes he's there just because he's bored or he's hungry or it's Thursday and he's got nothing better to do... Lucifer never was one to play by any sort of rules.
Understatement, really.
But things are different now. Gabriel's different. A quick smile and a few honeyed words don't get to him the way they used to. Lucifer was always the one trying to teach Gabriel lessons, well... Gabriel sure as hell learned his lesson this time.
He'll hand it to Lucifer, he never tried to crawl back with pathetic excuses or pitiful looks. There've been moments, flashes of...something...every now and then--
--but mostly things have been...light between them. Playful and teasing on Lucifer's side, sometimes cruel when he's not getting the reaction from Gabriel he so clearly wants. But it's nothing close to the way it was before. Gabriel won't let it be... he doesn't want it to be.
There are times, though... times when Lucifer breezes in, smile playing at the corner of his lips as he slips into the empty chair beside Gabriel. He doesn't ask permission, please was never in his vocabulary, he just takes and takes until someone tells him that's enough... And, well, if the chair to Gabriel's left is always left open, that's nothing to do with him. If he really thought about it, he could probably put it down to habit, but he's not thinking about it, and no one seems to want to question it, so... so maybe it's not as big of a deal as Lucifer's quiet smirk seem to make it out to be.
Lucifer's asshole friends were right, Gabriel isn't the naive little soldier he had been all that time ago. And yeah, a lot of that is down to Lucifer, just not in the way they'd been implying. Well... not entirely, anyway.
He reminds himself of that when Lucifer's fingers brush the back of his neck, the curve of his shoulder, the base of his wing. He reminds himself again when Lucifer's eyes light up at not being slapped away this time.
He's going to keep reminding himself, he is absolutely going to do that. Right up until the time one of his hands is bruising tight on Lucifer's hip, the other twisted tight in his hair, pulling 'til he's got him baring his neck, and then, for a while, Gabriel forgets, forgets, forgets.
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