Family Reunion; Take 2 [closed to Castiel]

[angel_awol]

Well, this was it. Castiel's Willness Center. Home of yoga and hot cups of tea and probably fung shui too. It was the sort of place Gabriel would only go to if he had a very good reason, like burning the whole lot down

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[c_a_s_t_i_e_l]

Before finding here, Cas had tried the actual church in the village, but even though his good friend, the Prophet Chuck Shurley, had worked there as a librarian he still didn't feel very comfortable at the place. He didn't belong there, and it didn't make him feel closer to Heaven or God or his siblings... no, actually the place had made him feel worse. And so, he stopped going and had gone in search of new things. That's when he met Kerai at the Wellness Center. He still missed her, and he missed Chuck too, of course. Actually, the two of them had been a couple, but that was a story for a different day

[c_a_s_t_i_e_l]

Cas moved to go sit at a couch with a bunch of oversized pillows not too far away. He didn't motion for Gabriel to sit, but Bernie began heading over toward Cas and so he figured his brother would get the hint to come too. Bernie will totally occupy his new friend's lap if he was welcome to.

"He... started acting a little strange when I mentioned it to him. I don't know if it was remorse, but..." Castiel shrugged.

[angel_awol]

Gabriel was comfortable enough crouched down, rubbing the dog's belly. But as Bernie moved away, Gabriel was forced to get up and follow him. He settled at the other end of the sofa, tossing the cushions towards his brother. He patted his knee, letting the dog climb up for more attention.

"Lucifer is never sorry for anything." Gabriel said a little sourly. "Besides, he didn't have to stab me. I wasn't planning to stab him."

[c_a_s_t_i_e_l]

Really? Because Cas felt sorry for what he did to Balthazar all over again while they were having this conversation. Maybe that was the difference- Cas fell and did terrible things, but he did feel remorse for every last one of them. Still, the look in Lucifer's eyes gave Castiel a very strange feeling...

"Was he aware that you weren't planning to stab him?" This was all turning into an extremely uncomfortable conversation, and Gabe said he didn't want to talk about it, but then he had continued to do so and Cas felt the urge to help. Somehow.

[angel_awol]

Castiel wasn't Lucifer. That was the crux of it- Castiel might have been far more human than any of the archangels would ever be, even Gabriel, although the Trickster would argue the point. But Gabriel knew, deep down, personality wasn't the same as humanity. And Castiel had that in bucket loads. Cute, dorky, confused bucket loads.

"We didn't sit around a table for twenty minutes to discuss our agenda, no." Gabriel said a bit sharply, frankly it felt like an obvious answer. But even if they didn't discuss it, Lucifer should have known that Gabe wouldn't have done such a thing.

"Why am I getting all the hard questions? Why did you kill Balthazar? Why did you let Mike kill Anna? What is the square root of 456?"

[c_a_s_t_i_e_l]

Cas would argue that Gabriel was more human than the other archangels because he had left and spent more time with them. That was the same reason that Balthazar was the way he was, even if the latter claimed he didn't care about humans and he was only into the more 'decadent' things humans had. You know, food, alcohol, and orgies.

In a matter of seconds, Castiel's face went a bit pale and he looked like he was about to get sick from Gabriel even asking him those questions. No matter how many times he went through these answers nothing seemed like enough, but he started spewing out words anyway and very quickly. "I was power-hungry and obsessive and I thought Balthazar betrayed me because he went to the Winchesters. I thought I was doing the right thing with Anna because I had to save Sam and Dean, but also I was too weak to stand up straight let alone be able to stop Michael from killing her. And 21.354 when rounded to the nearest thousandth."

[angel_awol]

Gabriel blinked. He'd not expected Castiel to answer those questions, he'd expected Castiel to withdraw and tell Gabriel where to stuff his questions. The very fact that Castiel answered so fast, like a running faucet, made Gabriel peer at him.

"Right. Okay. That's enough answers for today." Gabriel said quietly, as if talking to an unexploded bomb, or very hyper child that has only just slowed down. "How about we talk about something else? Something nice. How are the brochesters? Should I be hurt neither of them have said hi?"

[c_a_s_t_i_e_l]

Cas let out a deep sigh and nodded. Okay, they can save the subject of sibling rivalry and backstabbing for the day they talk about Naomi and Metatron.

After drinking some tea, he appeared to be pretty much okay again. "They didn't want to go anywhere near you with the pranks you've been playing. Are you planning to stop that any time soon?"

[angel_awol]

Gabriel raised an eyebrow. "What, those boys care that every right sock they own has gone missing? Jeez, considering all their underwear is labelled Sambi and Deano Winchester they certainly are prima donnas, aren't they?"

"That's all old news anyways. I haven't done any pranking for at least... three days." He shrugged, "Seems that the other douche bag is blaming me for at least 50% of his ones anyway. You know, it's always sad when an artist won't put their own name to their work, be proud enough of it, don't you think?"

[c_a_s_t_i_e_l]

Cas blinked and then smirked slightly. "I knew Loki was lying to me."

"I think they were more worried about more dangerous or humiliating pranks. You know, Dean dying three hundred times, or being stuck in a commercial for sexually transmitted diseases."

[angel_awol]

Gabriel broke into a grin, "If this was the 90's we could high-five." He said, genuinely pleased at least one of his siblings had some faith in him. "What did he tell you I was up to?"

Then the smile dropped a little. For a moment he wanted to correct Cas, tell him exactly how many times Dean had died, and more importantly that it was genital herpes was a sexually transmitted infection, not disease. "What? They're not still on about that are they? Those weren't pranks. Well, Deano wasn't. I was... trying to get a bad point across."

"Considering that you know I died for them, they could at least drop by. Ingrates."

[c_a_s_t_i_e_l]

"So, people don't high five anymore?" Castiel asked very seriously.

"He's planting pranks, calling them yours, and then making people believe he's saving them from them. You're becoming a dangerous, evil mastermind apparently." Castiel shrugged. Eventually Loki would stop. It was a shame that Cas and Dean wouldn't have to try to get Gabe distracted now, though. Well, a shame for Gabe.

"The Winchesters have a habit of not visiting." Case in point: when Cas was in the mental institution. Of course, there they were much more busy. "Well, Dean did suggest you meet someone so you could get your mind off of pranks, but I guess you don't need to meet her now after all."

[angel_awol]

Gabriel was going to have to remember that while Castiel had humanity, he didn't have a brain in his cute little head. "People still high-five Cas." He said somberly.

"Huh." Gabriel said, leaning back and putting his hands behind his head. "At least he's right about that. But I'm retired now, at least a bit. Mostly."

He didn't look impressed when Castiel mentioned that. It was fairly shitty, but then again, the brochesters were possibly a very bad set of friends to have. At that moment though, Gabriel looked ready to renounce his promise of being retired and go knock some heads together- sometimes he could be a good big brother.

"I can get dates myself, without your help. And forgive me for saying so, but I don't think you or Dean have a great track record with relationships. Better than Sam, but not great. And for that matter, do you even know the sort of people I like dating?"

[c_a_s_t_i_e_l]

"I don't know, Dean had nothing but nice things to say about her. She's a succubus. And not an evil one, I'm guessing, if they decided to let her be."

[angel_awol]

Gabriel rolled his eyes. "Dean thinks I'll like the girls he likes huh?" He said, because he could almost imagine the goofy, toothy grin on the human's face. Succubus, huh? Well, you could say one thing for Dean, he was predictable.

"A+ for effort, but if you were serious about wanting me to stop, you had to try harder. Sex is great but you can get that anywhere. Did anyone suggest summoning Kali? Or pointing me in the direction of a good spa? Finding a decent Thai restaurant? Inviting my kids to visit?"

Honestly guys.

[c_a_s_t_i_e_l]

"I had thought about it, but summoning spells don't often work within the village." Plus Cas thought there were plenty of deities around already, and maybe he didn't want man-eating cats roaming Haurvatat either.

"And, I think you and Dean do have more in common than either of you would want to let on." Castiel liked to think he was pretty observant. He didn't often have a lot to say, but that gave him more time to observe and reflect.