Fic: A History of Heaven (Gabriel/Various Angels, PG-13 for this chapter) 22/59
For full notes and other chapters, please see the Masterpost.
Notes: In this story, before Lucifer fell, his name was Sammael. He was not Lucifer in Heaven.
There is one other canon character operating under an OC name, but I wish for his identity to remain unknown.
Chapter Rating: PG-13
Chapter word count: 1,843
Chapter Summary: Michael has chosen a temporary second and calls Gabriel back later to talk about their wayward brother.
CHAPTER 22:
Gabriel and Michael
Heaven was filled from wall to wall with laments to the angels who died fighting the dragons. For weeks, the ululating songs echoed through every angel’s head, and the heavy sorrow kept the Host low to the ground. They walked through Heaven, only flying when they absolutely needed to, and even then, soaring barely above their brothers’ heads.
Gabriel put in a request to have a meeting with Michael the day after the dragon battle ended. Two weeks later, he was still waiting for his brother to summon him. Michael’s choir had the most reorganizing to do, as he needed to replace his second and elevate a lower angel to the rank of Seraph. Gabriel did not pressure his brother to move any faster. If Cariel had been killed in battle, Gabriel knew he himself would have been useless for months, if not years. Still, he was aware of how much time was passing on Earth. Sammael was waiting. Gabriel had promised him “soon.”
Cariel slipped into Gabriel’s office and held out a note. Gabriel reached for it, but Cariel drew it back, holding it just out of the Archangel’s reach. Gabriel frowned at his second.
“You’re not going to like this,” Cariel warned, before he held out the note again. This time, he let Gabriel take it.
The note was a simple acknowledgement of Gabriel’s request, scheduling an appointment with Michael for that afternoon. The Archangel of Heaven’s schedule had been cleared, it said, so they could have the entire afternoon and evening to discuss ‘whatever it is’ that was so important. “Why wouldn’t I like this?” Gabriel asked. “It’s exactly what I wanted.”
“Look at who authorized it,” Cariel said, pointing to the signature at the bottom. Ordinarily, this would be where Filiel’s spiky scrawl confirmed the authenticity of the message. This time, it had the rounder loops of Michael’s new second.
Naomi.
Gabriel crumpled the acknowledgment in his hand with a growl. Cariel just nodded in understanding. “Nearly did that myself. She’s been angling for a promotion for centuries. Honestly, I wouldn’t be surprised if she caused Filiel’s death just to get that position to open up.”
“Spreading such gossip would be a sin,” Gabriel chided, chucking the ball of paper across the office. “Make sure it’s true before you repeat it again.” Cariel was smirking as Gabriel left his office.
Naomi was practically radiating self-satisfaction as Gabriel approached Michael’s tower. She gave the Archangel a bow as he stepped inside, but her smile was anything but friendly. “Michael is waiting in the Crown,” she said, referring to the uppermost observation deck of the northern tower. “Have him back by tomorrow. He has a very busy day.”
“You’re his assistant, not his nanny,” Gabriel snapped back. “He’ll be back when he’s back, and you’ll adapt.”
Naomi narrowed her eyes at Gabriel, but the Archangel swept past her, stalking up the stairs to find his brother.
Michael looked smaller than Gabriel remembered, sitting on the edge of his tower, leaning forward and looking out over Heaven. His wings were loose and spread behind him, trailing over the branch-like decorations of the tower roof, the feathers in an unusual ungroomed disarray. His entire grace was tinted with a spirit-deep sadness, highlighted by the fading black smudges that still wrapped around his spirit. Gabriel sat quietly beside his brother, looping an arm around Michael’s waist and encouraging the older angel to lean against him. Michael moved easily, nestling into Gabriel’s shoulder with a little sigh.
Sammael had waited two months already. He could wait a bit longer. Gabriel leaned his head against Michael’s and sung softly, an ancient lullaby the older angels would sing to him when he was a fledgling, whenever they wanted him to quiet down and let them rest. It was the only thing they had discovered that would ever get the young Archangel to sit still, cuddled up against them and humming along, one little hand clutching at feathers bigger than his own wings.
As Gabriel had hoped, Michael’s lips twitched in a little smile when he recognized the song. His eyes drifted closed, and he reached over to stroke his fingers over Gabriel’s gold-edged feathers. “You’ve grown up so much since those days, Little One. So changed.”
“For the worse?” Gabriel asked lightly, earning a slightly stronger smile from his brother.
“For the better. You make me proud, every day.”
Gabriel smiled, turning his head to kiss Michael’s forehead. The gesture was less meaningful in Heaven, where their spirits had no nerves to register the texture of the caress, but the intent was still there. “I love you,” he whispered. “No matter what happens, I will always love you.”
“And I you.” Michael opened his eyes and lifted his head to meet Gabriel’s gaze. His fingers brushed along the Messenger’s cheek, and Michael leaned in to touch their lips together gently in a symbolic gesture. “Even if you leave us, Gabriel, I will still love you.”
“Leave?” Gabriel hadn’t told anyone about Sammael’s proposition, not even Cariel. How could Michael have known that he had even considered abandoning Heaven?
“I’m not blind.” Michael settled back against Gabriel’s shoulder, utterly calm in spite of what he had just suggested. “Nor am I ignorant of Sammael’s plans. He’s wanted to tear away from Heaven for centuries, longer even than he’s been exiled.”
“Really?”
Michael nodded, that sadness swelling through his grace. “We quarreled about it, even before he challenged Father. You always thought we were so perfect, you and Raphael, but…” He sighed, closing his eyes, his mouth twisting in old pain. “We hid our fights from you, just as the four of us hid them from the rest of the Host.”
“How long?” Gabriel couldn’t believe Michael and Sammael had ever fought before that fateful day in the Throne Room. Playful bickering, yes, friendly sparring, of course, but never genuine arguments!
“After our first vessels. Hevel and Qayin. After what Qayin did. Sammael was horrified. He blamed himself, doubted himself, thought it was foreshadowing what would happen to us. Thought it meant he was capable of turning on his brother. On me.” Michael shook his head. “It was a self-fulfilling prophecy in the end. His thinking it was possible made it possible. Made it real. He wanted to run. To find some other universe, where he wasn’t bound by Father’s plans.”
“He created a new realm,” Gabriel said.
“Did he?” Michael didn’t sound surprised. “My Light Bringer always wanted to be a Creator like Father. He always loved to watch when Father worked, and he asked so many questions.” Michael fell silent, just watching Heaven for a few minutes, before he spoke again. “Did he ask you to join him?”
Gabriel hesitated before nodding, knowing Michael would sense the gesture even without looking.
“Sammael is my partner, but you are more like him than I ever will be,” Michael said. “You both delight in the new and the different. You’re so curious, wanting to change everything, to make it better. You take far more risks than I ever dare to, and you both frequently border on absolutely irreverent and blasphemous.” Michael smoothed his fingers over Gabriel’s fingers and gave another one of those sad little smiles. “Sometimes, Gabriel, I would be jealous of how deep your connection was with my partner.”
“All the time, I would be jealous that you had a connection with your partner,” Gabriel confided, closing his eyes and tightening his arm around Michael. “I… I hate Raphael, and I hate that I hate him. I’d watch you and Sammael and… and I wanted that. I always wanted that. But I couldn’t ever say anything, or the Host would pity me, for having such a broken partnership.”
Michael sat up a little more, winding his arms around Gabriel and pulling him close. Now it was Gabriel’s turn to settle against his brother, his fingers finding Michael’s soft feathers. “Sammael… he asked me to be his partner in his realm, to leave Raphael with you.”
“Did you say yes?” Michael’s voice was still calm, not judging Gabriel at all, but Gabriel still shook his head emphatically, pulling back so Michael could see the truth in his face.
“No. Absolutely not. For many reasons. I mean, I was tempted, yes, but… Sammael is your partner. You’re the perfect one with him. I’m just glad you two always let me tag along. I can’t take him from you, I have no right to take him from you, even if you two have been fighting. And Raphael’s my partner, for better or worse. I need to accept him as he is. But… but also, Sammael’s realm is terrifying. It’s incredible, but it’s also wrong. He’s warded it so not even Father can enter. I was completely cut off from the Host there. I’ve never felt so empty before, or so small. I can’t leave Heaven for that. Heaven is my home. The Host is my family.”
“Sammael is forgetting that, the longer he stays away.” Michael looked away from Gabriel, taking in the view of Heaven again. “I sometimes fear that by exiling him, I’ve condemned him to this. I just wanted to give him time, time and space to come to his senses, to want to come home.”
“That would mean admitting he was wrong,” Gabriel said. “You know Sammael would never admit such a thing on his own.”
“I know,” Michael agreed. “But I don’t know what else to do.”
“Talk to him.” Gabriel sat up straighter, untangling himself from Michael so he could look his brother in the eye. “Go to his realm, to his territory, and be willing to just talk. And listen. He wants you to listen, Michael. He wants to explain himself to you, wants you to understand him. He misses you; I know he does. When it was just the two of us in his realm, it was harder to hide emotions from each other. He loves you, and he misses you, and he just wants you to understand him.”
“We haven’t had much luck with talking recently,” Michael pointed out.
“Because you’ve always talked with a judgmental audience.” Gabriel took Michael’s hands in his, his wings stirring a little in hope. “In his realm, not even Father can overhear you. You’ll both be free to say whatever is on your minds, in your hearts. No one will judge you or punish you. You can just… come together. Like you used to. He misses you at least as much as you miss him. Please, Michael. Please try. For me. For him. For Heaven.”
Michael’s wings flexed thoughtfully, and he looked back over Heaven, his eyes drifting south and fixing on the icy spike of Sammael’s tower in the distance. “Do you think it has a chance to work?”
“Yes,” Gabriel answered immediately. “If you both try to listen to each other, I think it does.”
Still staring at Sammael’s tower, Michael gave a slow nod. “All right. I’ll try.”
Next...
Notes: In this story, before Lucifer fell, his name was Sammael. He was not Lucifer in Heaven.
There is one other canon character operating under an OC name, but I wish for his identity to remain unknown.
Chapter Rating: PG-13
Chapter word count: 1,843
Chapter Summary: Michael has chosen a temporary second and calls Gabriel back later to talk about their wayward brother.
CHAPTER 22:
Gabriel and Michael
Heaven was filled from wall to wall with laments to the angels who died fighting the dragons. For weeks, the ululating songs echoed through every angel’s head, and the heavy sorrow kept the Host low to the ground. They walked through Heaven, only flying when they absolutely needed to, and even then, soaring barely above their brothers’ heads.
Gabriel put in a request to have a meeting with Michael the day after the dragon battle ended. Two weeks later, he was still waiting for his brother to summon him. Michael’s choir had the most reorganizing to do, as he needed to replace his second and elevate a lower angel to the rank of Seraph. Gabriel did not pressure his brother to move any faster. If Cariel had been killed in battle, Gabriel knew he himself would have been useless for months, if not years. Still, he was aware of how much time was passing on Earth. Sammael was waiting. Gabriel had promised him “soon.”
Cariel slipped into Gabriel’s office and held out a note. Gabriel reached for it, but Cariel drew it back, holding it just out of the Archangel’s reach. Gabriel frowned at his second.
“You’re not going to like this,” Cariel warned, before he held out the note again. This time, he let Gabriel take it.
The note was a simple acknowledgement of Gabriel’s request, scheduling an appointment with Michael for that afternoon. The Archangel of Heaven’s schedule had been cleared, it said, so they could have the entire afternoon and evening to discuss ‘whatever it is’ that was so important. “Why wouldn’t I like this?” Gabriel asked. “It’s exactly what I wanted.”
“Look at who authorized it,” Cariel said, pointing to the signature at the bottom. Ordinarily, this would be where Filiel’s spiky scrawl confirmed the authenticity of the message. This time, it had the rounder loops of Michael’s new second.
Naomi.
Gabriel crumpled the acknowledgment in his hand with a growl. Cariel just nodded in understanding. “Nearly did that myself. She’s been angling for a promotion for centuries. Honestly, I wouldn’t be surprised if she caused Filiel’s death just to get that position to open up.”
“Spreading such gossip would be a sin,” Gabriel chided, chucking the ball of paper across the office. “Make sure it’s true before you repeat it again.” Cariel was smirking as Gabriel left his office.
Naomi was practically radiating self-satisfaction as Gabriel approached Michael’s tower. She gave the Archangel a bow as he stepped inside, but her smile was anything but friendly. “Michael is waiting in the Crown,” she said, referring to the uppermost observation deck of the northern tower. “Have him back by tomorrow. He has a very busy day.”
“You’re his assistant, not his nanny,” Gabriel snapped back. “He’ll be back when he’s back, and you’ll adapt.”
Naomi narrowed her eyes at Gabriel, but the Archangel swept past her, stalking up the stairs to find his brother.
Michael looked smaller than Gabriel remembered, sitting on the edge of his tower, leaning forward and looking out over Heaven. His wings were loose and spread behind him, trailing over the branch-like decorations of the tower roof, the feathers in an unusual ungroomed disarray. His entire grace was tinted with a spirit-deep sadness, highlighted by the fading black smudges that still wrapped around his spirit. Gabriel sat quietly beside his brother, looping an arm around Michael’s waist and encouraging the older angel to lean against him. Michael moved easily, nestling into Gabriel’s shoulder with a little sigh.
Sammael had waited two months already. He could wait a bit longer. Gabriel leaned his head against Michael’s and sung softly, an ancient lullaby the older angels would sing to him when he was a fledgling, whenever they wanted him to quiet down and let them rest. It was the only thing they had discovered that would ever get the young Archangel to sit still, cuddled up against them and humming along, one little hand clutching at feathers bigger than his own wings.
As Gabriel had hoped, Michael’s lips twitched in a little smile when he recognized the song. His eyes drifted closed, and he reached over to stroke his fingers over Gabriel’s gold-edged feathers. “You’ve grown up so much since those days, Little One. So changed.”
“For the worse?” Gabriel asked lightly, earning a slightly stronger smile from his brother.
“For the better. You make me proud, every day.”
Gabriel smiled, turning his head to kiss Michael’s forehead. The gesture was less meaningful in Heaven, where their spirits had no nerves to register the texture of the caress, but the intent was still there. “I love you,” he whispered. “No matter what happens, I will always love you.”
“And I you.” Michael opened his eyes and lifted his head to meet Gabriel’s gaze. His fingers brushed along the Messenger’s cheek, and Michael leaned in to touch their lips together gently in a symbolic gesture. “Even if you leave us, Gabriel, I will still love you.”
“Leave?” Gabriel hadn’t told anyone about Sammael’s proposition, not even Cariel. How could Michael have known that he had even considered abandoning Heaven?
“I’m not blind.” Michael settled back against Gabriel’s shoulder, utterly calm in spite of what he had just suggested. “Nor am I ignorant of Sammael’s plans. He’s wanted to tear away from Heaven for centuries, longer even than he’s been exiled.”
“Really?”
Michael nodded, that sadness swelling through his grace. “We quarreled about it, even before he challenged Father. You always thought we were so perfect, you and Raphael, but…” He sighed, closing his eyes, his mouth twisting in old pain. “We hid our fights from you, just as the four of us hid them from the rest of the Host.”
“How long?” Gabriel couldn’t believe Michael and Sammael had ever fought before that fateful day in the Throne Room. Playful bickering, yes, friendly sparring, of course, but never genuine arguments!
“After our first vessels. Hevel and Qayin. After what Qayin did. Sammael was horrified. He blamed himself, doubted himself, thought it was foreshadowing what would happen to us. Thought it meant he was capable of turning on his brother. On me.” Michael shook his head. “It was a self-fulfilling prophecy in the end. His thinking it was possible made it possible. Made it real. He wanted to run. To find some other universe, where he wasn’t bound by Father’s plans.”
“He created a new realm,” Gabriel said.
“Did he?” Michael didn’t sound surprised. “My Light Bringer always wanted to be a Creator like Father. He always loved to watch when Father worked, and he asked so many questions.” Michael fell silent, just watching Heaven for a few minutes, before he spoke again. “Did he ask you to join him?”
Gabriel hesitated before nodding, knowing Michael would sense the gesture even without looking.
“Sammael is my partner, but you are more like him than I ever will be,” Michael said. “You both delight in the new and the different. You’re so curious, wanting to change everything, to make it better. You take far more risks than I ever dare to, and you both frequently border on absolutely irreverent and blasphemous.” Michael smoothed his fingers over Gabriel’s fingers and gave another one of those sad little smiles. “Sometimes, Gabriel, I would be jealous of how deep your connection was with my partner.”
“All the time, I would be jealous that you had a connection with your partner,” Gabriel confided, closing his eyes and tightening his arm around Michael. “I… I hate Raphael, and I hate that I hate him. I’d watch you and Sammael and… and I wanted that. I always wanted that. But I couldn’t ever say anything, or the Host would pity me, for having such a broken partnership.”
Michael sat up a little more, winding his arms around Gabriel and pulling him close. Now it was Gabriel’s turn to settle against his brother, his fingers finding Michael’s soft feathers. “Sammael… he asked me to be his partner in his realm, to leave Raphael with you.”
“Did you say yes?” Michael’s voice was still calm, not judging Gabriel at all, but Gabriel still shook his head emphatically, pulling back so Michael could see the truth in his face.
“No. Absolutely not. For many reasons. I mean, I was tempted, yes, but… Sammael is your partner. You’re the perfect one with him. I’m just glad you two always let me tag along. I can’t take him from you, I have no right to take him from you, even if you two have been fighting. And Raphael’s my partner, for better or worse. I need to accept him as he is. But… but also, Sammael’s realm is terrifying. It’s incredible, but it’s also wrong. He’s warded it so not even Father can enter. I was completely cut off from the Host there. I’ve never felt so empty before, or so small. I can’t leave Heaven for that. Heaven is my home. The Host is my family.”
“Sammael is forgetting that, the longer he stays away.” Michael looked away from Gabriel, taking in the view of Heaven again. “I sometimes fear that by exiling him, I’ve condemned him to this. I just wanted to give him time, time and space to come to his senses, to want to come home.”
“That would mean admitting he was wrong,” Gabriel said. “You know Sammael would never admit such a thing on his own.”
“I know,” Michael agreed. “But I don’t know what else to do.”
“Talk to him.” Gabriel sat up straighter, untangling himself from Michael so he could look his brother in the eye. “Go to his realm, to his territory, and be willing to just talk. And listen. He wants you to listen, Michael. He wants to explain himself to you, wants you to understand him. He misses you; I know he does. When it was just the two of us in his realm, it was harder to hide emotions from each other. He loves you, and he misses you, and he just wants you to understand him.”
“We haven’t had much luck with talking recently,” Michael pointed out.
“Because you’ve always talked with a judgmental audience.” Gabriel took Michael’s hands in his, his wings stirring a little in hope. “In his realm, not even Father can overhear you. You’ll both be free to say whatever is on your minds, in your hearts. No one will judge you or punish you. You can just… come together. Like you used to. He misses you at least as much as you miss him. Please, Michael. Please try. For me. For him. For Heaven.”
Michael’s wings flexed thoughtfully, and he looked back over Heaven, his eyes drifting south and fixing on the icy spike of Sammael’s tower in the distance. “Do you think it has a chance to work?”
“Yes,” Gabriel answered immediately. “If you both try to listen to each other, I think it does.”
Still staring at Sammael’s tower, Michael gave a slow nod. “All right. I’ll try.”
Next...