Fic: As Brothers We Will Stand (Gabriel/Castiel, Lucifer/Castiel, Lucifer/Gabriel)
As told... Gabriel/Castiel fic.
An AU from episode 5.18 and 5.19. About PG-13 and ~8000 words.
What if Lucifer had found Castiel first? What if Lucifer had imprisoned Gabriel instead of killing him?
Thanks to puchuupoet for the beta.
As Brothers we Will Stand
**
This is the stupidest thing he’s ever done.
Gabriel is staring at the back of Lucifer’s head with his sword gripped tight and ready while Lucifer talks to his projection. The sword he hasn’t actually used in oh…over a hundred years. Because he doesn’t fight for his brothers and he sure as hell doesn’t fight against them. Damn Dean and all his stupid inspiring speeches. Damn Dean and his on the ball psychoanalysis.
Just…Damn the man. Gabriel hadn’t been looking to have any life changing epiphanies. He’d been happy.
He takes a step forward, ready to kill his own brother even if he knows he can’t. Lucifer is too clever and too fast, and as Lucifer’s hand wraps around his wrist and snaps the bone, Gabriel knows he’s done. He’s not entirely sure if he regrets it or not.
His sword clatters onto the floor and Lucifer is in his face, the quiet sympathy in Lucifer's eyes almost worse than if it had been rage.
“Brother. Did you think I would let you go so easily?”
Gabriel has a second to feel terror like he never has before and then Lucifer is drawing them away, leaving blood and death and Gabriel’s sword in their wake.
They arrive in a garden under pale blue skies surrounded by high red-brick walls and the creeping vine that covers them. There are pathways of red dirt but no footprints to show anyone’s been there, leading deeper into the trees and bushes and ferns. Gabriel spins once, taking it in, surprised though he shouldn’t be. Part of him had expected hell but this is exactly his brother’s style.
Lucifer stands a pace back and watches him. “Do you remember what the Earth used to be, before humanity ruined it with their depravity?” His gaze takes in the thick gardens. “This. Unfettered, unused.”
“Do you remember when you used to be sane?” Gabriel’s eyes keep casting around them and there, to the corner, a flash of colour that doesn’t belong in all this vibrancy. He moves towards it, turning his back on Lucifer in a silent ‘fuck you’ of defiance.
Lucifer doesn’t raise his hand or voice, he stands and watches Gabriel with curiosity. Gabriel just knows this is going to get so much worse.
“I’m fixing things, Gabriel. Once the humans and demons are purged it will be us again. Just us. I know you remember that, you were happy then. With your brothers, at home. None of this pointless bickering.”
Gabriel’s not paying attention, letting Lucifer’s words wash over him and drift past. He’s had thousands of years practice in tuning out his older brothers. He makes his way up the dirt red path, towards a flash of tan amongst the green and when he rounds the curve of the trail, he’s standing in front of a fountain. A vast fountain of the same red brick, the same creeping vines that cling along the smooth curve of it. Ice blue glacial water fills its depths and the sound of it running echoes in this chamber of trees. There’s an angel tethered to the base of it.
Gabriel rounds back on Lucifer, feeling fury, feeling disgust and the crawling of fear across his skin. “How is this fixing things?”
Lucifer has followed him along the path and he peers past Gabriel’s shoulder with disinterest. He shrugs. “He did that to himself.”
“Oh, right, I forgot Castiel’s such a fan of bondage that he’d chain himself to whatever special realm of Hell this is.”
Lucifer sighs, long and sad. Lucifer always looks sad but when he steps past Gabriel to Castiel, Gabriel watches him wary and ready to intercede. Again. God, he’s an idiot.
But Lucifer doesn’t hurt Castiel. He kneels down and presses his hand to the front of Castiel’s shoulder. Castiel shudders and draws a breath, looking up and acknowledging that he’s not alone for the first time since Gabriel walked into this clearing. Castiel’s eyes fasten on Lucifer’s and he pants out Lucifer’s name in relief. Lucifer urges Castiel to sit back until Gabriel can see what’s on his chest, past the torn wings of his shirt and the useless trench coat that lays open and pooled around his thighs.
Deep cut lines and Gabriel would know that sigil anywhere. They bleed light from Castiel’s skin but even as Gabriel watches, one of the lines seals itself and shuts Castiel’s grace back in.
“What happened?”
“Winchesters,” Lucifer says like that’s the best explanation and it kind of is. Those boys have trouble following them around like puppies and it takes a swipe at anyone stupid enough to get close. Like Gabriel. He stands back and watches with morbid fascination while Lucifer cradles Castiel close and Castiel goes. Fuck, Castiel rests his head willingly onto Lucifer’s shoulder and closes his eyes. “He’ll heal soon enough.”
“And then what, you’ll have his everlasting loyalty?” Gabriel scoffs but Lucifer answers him in silence. “Bullshit. Why the chain then?”
The ‘chain’ is a band of leather wrapped snugly around Castiel’s throat, Enochian etched into it. It binds Castiel here in Lucifer’s illusion and it dampens whatever flagging powers Castiel had left.
Lucifer looks down at it as if he’d forgotten its existence. “Ah yes. A precaution. Castiel has been…pesky on more than one occasion. That reminds me…” And he stares hard at Gabriel until Gabriel can feel the same leather form and crawl around his neck. Should have gotten out of here while the getting was good and as the collar seals itself, Gabriel can sense the sudden suffocation of imprisonment. “Stay awhile.”
“This isn’t really my usual style, y’know? Where are the desserts and naked women? I mean, what, that’s all I get?” He nods towards Castiel.
“I have a few errands to run,” Lucifer answers.
Gabriel rolls his eyes. “Oh so that’s what we’re calling mass genocide now.”
“Take care of your brother.” Lucifer leaves with that bit of advice, Castiel giving a startled noise as his support is suddenly taken and he collapses down to the ground.
Gabriel looks up, sky bright and not at all helpful in offering a way out. Not anymore than the angel who’s looking around him in bewilderment before his glassy eyes meet Gabriel’s. Gabriel sighs, short and sharp. “Great. This is great.”
Castiel blinks at him.
“You are stupid,” Gabriel says and isn’t sure which of them he means this time. Castiel doesn’t seem to care and Gabriel’s pretty sure the lights aren’t all on upstairs right now. Not while that damn sigil is eating through his chest anyway. Gabriel shudders when he thinks about it and can guess at how much it’s messing with Castiel right now.
Castiel tilts his head back to stare up at the sky and it creeps Gabriel out, the silence and the fact Castiel is probably waiting for Lucifer to come back and pet him some more. Gabriel doesn’t want to watch him so he leaves, picks one of the dozen paths emerging from the circle of trees and starts walking. Not that he thinks he’ll find a way out of here so easily. Sure enough, once he’s walked until his legs are tired, he ends up exactly back where he started. Castiel’s still staring at the sky and Gabriel watches him for a moment. Castiel shudders every few minutes, corresponding with an increase in the brightness pushing from the lines.
Gabriel picks another trail and walks until he’s back in front of Castiel. He tries to fly up and ends up in the fountain, soaked with icy cold water that stings his skin and makes him gasp sharply. Holy water. With a sigh, Gabriel cups some in his hands and brings it over to Castiel to dribble over his chest. Another line heals.
Castiel has his head tipped down now, as Gabriel kneels in front of him but something’s off. Gabriel frowns, ducks down a bit and his eyes widen when he realizes that Castiel is fucking smirking to himself. Gabriel throws the last trickle of water into Castiel’s face and Castiel gasps at the shock of the cold.
“You could have told me I’d end up in the damn fountain.” Lucifer’s illusion doesn’t even allow him to snap himself dry.
Castiel sniffs, indignant. “You deserved it.”
It’s probably the least Gabriel deserves. “Whatever.” He flicks a few drops of water from his fingers but Castiel doesn’t react as it hits him this time. With a huff, Gabriel sits next to Castiel, back thumping against the brick of the fountain. “So, what’s up?” There's no smooth way to ask what's going on here.
Castiel moves properly for the first time since Gabriel showed up in the clearing, lifting his arms to wrap tight around his chest. His whole body stiffens for a moment at Gabriel’s side and he doesn’t answer until he relaxes again. “I’ve been here a couple of weeks now.”
“No shit and you’re still alive?”
“It isn’t us Lucifer wishes to kill.”
“Right. Humans bad, down with the roaches, blah blah. I got his speech.”
Castiel tips his head to look at Gabriel with his bright eyes. “What are you doing here?”
“Winchesters,” Gabriel answers. The universal answer to all the fuckups of the world. “Dean might have uh…” This was awkward. “Brought me around to a new level of thinking.” Castiel stares at him. “He’s convincing! Kind of manipulating. Boy should run for politics.”
“Gabriel…”
“Don’t start. I don’t do fuzzy good feelings.” Castiel smiles at him. “Christ. Stop it.” Castiel doesn’t. “I mean it. I’ll throw you in the fountain.”
“The water from it helps.” Castiel’s smile fades then and pain tenses his muscles. He looks down, grits his teeth, but doesn’t make a noise of complaint. Gabriel takes the hint though and dips his hand back into the water, bringing it dripping to press against Castiel’s chest. Castiel lowers his arms gratefully to allow Gabriel the room.
“Just don’t cuddle me,” Gabriel warns and Castiel quietly closes his eyes.
Castiel sleeps next to him and after awhile, Gabriel tears a patch off Castiel’s already ruined shirt to soak in the holy water and hold that against his chest. The wound should have healed after a couple of weeks, even with the nature of it. Gabriel’s free hand traces along the edges of the collar around his throat. It isn’t constricting, it melds to him like a second skin but he can feel the marks scratched into it and what they are under his fingers. They suppress Gabriel’s grace and his magic. All but human.
He stretches his wings out and looks over the span of them. Flexes them and feels no weakness in them. He’s hesitant to try flying again, as the air grows cooler and he’s surprised to find that Lucifer’s false world has a night time. And it’s rapidly approaching, bringing cool air like a desert. It doesn’t take long for Castiel to shiver beside him, weakened from the collar and the mark on his chest and two weeks already in Lucifer’s hands. Gabriel doesn’t want to ask. He also doesn’t want to admit that it’s at least partly a crawling fear that has him shuffling a little closer to Castiel in his still damp clothes and then stretching a wing out across them. Warm and heavy, Castiel’s shivering stills when he’s under it.
Gabriel indulges in sleep like he’s been doing for decades but this is the first time he’s done it without it being his decision. He wakes, hot and sticky with warm sweat, opening his eyes to look across at Castiel. Gabriel’s wing is still over them, dark in the cave it creates and it's like a hot box with the late morning sun beating down. Castiel's awake and looking at him, panting a little in the heat but ill-inclined to move. Whatever. Gabriel's hot and he's never lived an iota of this human/pagan life being uncomfortable.
He folds his wing back into nothing and sits up, blinking in the harsh light. He wishes it were evening again, not too cold, not too hot. But he can't snap his fingers and make it happen, this is Lucifer's world.
“Well this is sweet.”
“Hey, speak of the devil.” Gabriel quirks a smile, looking up and catching sight of the angel that hadn't been there a second ago. Gabriel's not about to let on how disconcerting it is that he didn't sense Lucifer land. There are two demons to either side of Lucifer and he can at least take comfort that no one but another angel would have been able to see his wing blanketing Castiel. Embarrassing, Gabriel doesn't play at niceties. “And you brought minions. Is this where the 'I'm gonna rip off all your fingernails until you join me' part comes in?”
Lucifer smiles and crouches down in front of Gabriel. Gabriel flinches back from his outstretched fingers and Lucifer shrugs before touching Castiel's face instead. Castiel doesn't flinch or speak, he stares back at Lucifer and Gabriel isn't sure if he's being rebellious or vacant.
“I'm not here to hurt you.” He trails his fingers down Castiel's throat and to his chest, lingering over the still seeping lines. Castiel reacts. His eyes flutter closed and he arches into the touch. The tension of pain immediately lifts from Castiel's shoulders. “We're family.”
“So it's the kill us with kindness strategy?”
“It's the truth.” Lucifer sits back on his heels, hand slipping from Castiel's chest and Castiel falls back against the fountain. The light seems to flare brighter now that Lucifer's power isn't suppressing it. Castiel's eyes turn pain bright all over again and Gabriel hadn't realized how obvious it was until Lucifer had taken it away for that moment. “I want you to stand with me, brother, the way things used to be.”
“News flash, bro. Things change. People change. Hell, apparently even angels change.” The three of them were a pretty fucking big example of that. “Get over it.”
Lucifer looks angry for a moment, rage that he can't deny building up in his eyes before it's gone with the flash of a smile. Gabriel's brother is unhinged. Castiel probably has the smarter idea by staying silent and he even touches Gabriel's arm to try and shut him up as well. Gabriel's not exactly good at keeping to himself.
Lucifer is getting to his feet, dismissing them as he turns to the demons that blindly wait on his command. Stupid, ignorant... Gabriel feels angry himself, lurches to his feet despite Castiel's hand trying to grab at him. He stalks forward and spins Lucifer to face him by the shoulder. Just because Gabriel's wearing this scrap of leather around his throat doesn't mean he's down for the count. He hasn't survived as long as he has by being passive.
Of course, facing down Lucifer with zero power to draw on, Gabriel wonders how his brilliant ideas ever even got him through a decade. This is the stupidest thing he's ever done and Lucifer grabs hold of him, just like last time, before Gabriel can even begin to follow through with his intentions. Not that he's all that sure what they are. Just that he's stuck here after finally getting off the fence, which feels a lot like being back on a fence. Castiel is by turns looking hopeless or hurting or like Lucifer might actually be a saviour. Really, Lucifer just needs someone to smack him a good one in the side of the head.
Gabriel remembers too late that he’s survived this long by hiding.
Lucifer tosses Gabriel back against one of the thick trees hard enough that the trunk cracks and pins him there so that Gabriel can feel Lucifer's breath on his face and the twinges of pain running up his back. “Do not press me,” Lucifer hisses. “My patience is only so long, Gabriel. You were always good at trying it, you spoiled brat.”
Gabriel doesn't have a problem with admitting he is really fucking intimidated right now. Inwardly. Outwardly, he grins his cockiest. “What happened to 'thou shalt not hurt my brothers'?”
He's hoping that Lucifer will smile that unhinged smile again and back down. Instead, Lucifer pushes him harder. “Punishment is for your own good.”
“Gonna spank me?” Gabriel laughs. And wishes he hadn't, eyes widening. “You're kidding me.”
“Lucifer.”
Both of them turn at the quiet, firm word, to see that Castiel has dragged himself to his feet and stepped towards them though the demons that Gabriel had forgotten were even there, bar his way. Castiel doesn't try to get past them. Hell, it looks like a strong enough breeze could push him over.
“Stop. Please.” Castiel manages to make the request sound like an order and Gabriel's sure Lucifer is going to tell the demons to rip the arms off him, he looks so mad, before Lucifer is deflating. The anger drains from his eyes again, quick and disturbing.
Lucifer releases Gabriel, dismissing him as easily as dirt - or a human - and walking to Castiel. He raises his hand to cup Castiel's cheek and Castiel gives no reaction. Gabriel can almost admire him as he stands back and watches the scene unfold, like a horrific accident in the making. “I miss my brothers,” Lucifer says to Castiel and Castiel nods.
“I know.”
“And home.”
“Yes.”
“You understand why I have to do this. Don’t you, Castiel?”
“No.”
Lucifer sighs and he rests their foreheads together. Gabriel watches them in fascination, inching a little closer, eager to hear the quiet words spoken between them. It’s a conversation they’ve had before, from the easy give and take of answers and Lucifer’s patient eyes. “You will. Once I’ve cleansed this world to be how it used to.”
“It will never be what it used to be. You’re kidding yourself,” Castiel says with quiet severity and Gabriel steps forward too late to do anything as Lucifer’s eyes turn hard again.
Lucifer pulls harshly from Castiel and only has to look at the fountain before Castiel is pitched back into it, hitting the icy water with a hard slap and he doesn’t come back up. The surface of the water ripples, Gabriel can see Castiel pushing and struggling against the bottom.
“Lucifer!” Gabriel barks out and darts forward. His hands find Lucifer’s arm for a heartbeat, enough to turn Lucifer’s attention to him instead and Gabriel finds his feet pulled from under him and he’s on the red ground. Castiel breaks from the water with a gasp, only to cry out as he’s shoved back under. Gabriel is stuck, useless, on the ground. “Stop, Lucifer. That’s your brother!”
It’s minutes before Lucifer backs down and in that time, the rippling of the water eases. As soon as Gabriel feels the pressure on his body loosen, he’s on his feet, sprinting for the fountain and submerging himself again in to the glacier holy water. He hates the way his heart hammers, the boost of adrenaline that he’s supposed to be so far above. He ran away because he wanted to avoid all this dramatic bullshit, now he’s here and he has no idea if Castiel can breathe or not or if he can drown in Lucifer’s own little fantasy realm. Or if Castiel is as safe here as he was in Gabriel's own make believe world, where everything was a bluff and every ache could be healed with a snap of Gabriel's fingers.
He reaches into the water, grabs fistfuls of Castiel’s coat and hauls him to the surface. Castiel breaks it with choking coughs, shuddering and heaving in Gabriel’s grip. When Gabriel looks back towards Lucifer, he’s gone, the demons along with him.
“Dick,” Gabriel mutters under his breath and turns his attention back to the angel in his arms. “With me there, bro?”
“I am. With you.” Castiel gets out between gasps and Gabriel rolls his eyes at the gravity of the statement. Castiel is good at putting way too much entirely unneeded meaning to his words.
They drag themselves out of the water and back onto the dry ground, where the dirt immediately starts soaking up into their clothes. It dyes Castiel’s torn white shirt red. They collapse onto the ground regardless, Castiel gaining his breath and Gabriel enjoying the few minutes where the cold water dripping from his clothes feels good under the hot sun. He’s never been so uncomfortable though in his life. He’s dirty and damp and his clothes are sticking to him and he has absolutely no idea what to do about all this. Castiel doesn’t seem to notice, sitting still at his side.
“This sucks,” Gabriel whines for lack of anything more constructive to do, squirming to unstick the damp pants from his legs. Castiel gives him a look like he’s a fucking moron which is true enough since Gabriel is here.
“Take your clothes off.”
Gabriel’s eyebrows shoot up. “Bro.”
Castiel stares back at him and when Gabriel doesn’t move right away, he gets to his feet and follows his own advice. He shoulders off the trench coat which falls with a heavy thump to the ground. He tugs off his torn shirt and heels off his shoes. Even his socks go and finally his pants. He stops at his boxers. Gabriel can’t stop staring at him.
“You’re gonna burn.”
Castiel looks very much like he wants to roll his eyes, as he scoops up his discarded clothes and dumps them into the fountain. And starts rinsing the red dirt off of them.
“Oh.” Gabriel follows suit then. Strips to his boxers and tosses them into the fountain, where the water somehow refuses to turn dirty despite all the mud they just threw in it. “Well this is domestic.” Castiel doesn’t answer so Gabriel keeps the rest of his bitching to himself. By the time they have the majority of the mud off their clothes and Castiel spreads them all out on the ledges of the fountain to dry in the hot sun, Gabriel maybe has a bit more respect for humans and their mundane jobs. It’s taken maybe five minutes but Gabriel decides he hates washing clothes. He tries to snap his fingers more than once but nothing happens.
“This is really fucking annoying, y’know we-“ he starts in again but glancing over at Castiel shuts him up. Castiel’s tense again, eyes closed and as Gabriel watches, a line opens up on his chest. Gabriel sighs. “Come on.” He reaches out and draws them both down to sit on the ledge of the fountain with their legs dangling into the water. It feels good, with the sun beating down on the rest of them. “Guess you’re supposed to be doing that sit and relax thing, huh? I’d bring you some soup but I have the next best thing.”
Castiel eyes him warily and Gabriel reaches down to cup the water and bring it in a trickle again to Castiel’s chest. It makes Castiel gasp, shock at the cold or relief from the pain. Gabriel watches the rivulets trace down his chest and abs and dampen the waistband of his boxers.
“Thank you.”
Gabriel waves him off and Castiel breathes out long and slow. He doesn’t look a whole lot better and against his better judgement, Gabriel finds himself shifting over and reaching out. He braces Castiel’s swaying weight with an arm across his shoulders, and then a solid wing which Castiel leans back against.
“Don’t breathe a word,” Gabriel warns.
Castiel almost laughs. “You remind me of someone.”
“Warning you.”
“You remind me of Dean.”
Which is going way too far and Gabriel is well within his rights to use his wing to shove Castiel forward and back into the fountain. It doesn’t occur to him until it's too late that Castiel was almost drowned in there not that long ago. But this time, Castiel sputters to the surface, looking perpetually annoyed but not scared. Gabriel laughs and Castiel stays submerged up to his chin until Gabriel sees him start to shiver. He climbs out then, back onto the ledge in the same spot as before. Gabriel watches him draw his feet out of the water and wrap his arms around his knees. He looks human. Gabriel feels it, or what he thinks it must be like.
If I close my eyes and wish really really hard, this could almost be a vacation.” Gabriel needs to stop trying to lighten shit up because Castiel only has one mode and he’s a grave mother fucker.
“Free time. I don't think I'd know what to do with. I’ve never had a…vacation.”
“Well, when this is done, kiddo, I’ll take you on one.”
“I will not run away.”
“It’s not…running away.” Exasperation leaks into Gabriel’s tone and he’s not sure why he’s bothering. “It’s taking a break. Loosening up. You could use a little of that.”
“I don’t wish to go back to TV land either.”
“That was um…” Gabriel tries, awkwardly, to explain it away. That had been him scared and grasping at straws. “I wouldn’t have killed you.”
Castiel smiles at him. “I know. We might not have been close but I do remember you before you left. You loved us. Your presence was missed. You were always…trying, I believe, to make the others smile. Michael and Lucifer. Of course your method to breaking the tension wasn't always the...most intelligent.”
“I pulled pranks on them. I locked the gates on Michael once and he nearly tore my wings off.”
“Michael deserved it.”
“He was a dick.” And that’s Gabriel’s MO isn’t it? Taking the dicks of the world down a peg or two. Trying to make them see some sense and if that was asking too much, then screw them. They didn’t deserve to live.
“You tried,” Castiel repeats and Gabriel looks away, into the garden.
Gabriel stays silent and Castiel seems content enough to follow his lead. Gabriel’s not great at change. It’s an angel thing. But it’s all him as well. It took decades of back and forth before he took the plunge out of Heaven, maybe always hopeful that things at home would change. Not quite as long to give in to Dean’s wheedling. He’s not sure how long it’s taken him to give up on his family and turn to his new pseudo-adoptive ones. Stupid humans and their amazing food and hot women and gambling. And Earth. Earth has Vegas and the Grand Canyon. They live in constant pain and squalor and actually manage it. Gabriel’s been like this for a day and he’s miserable while the sun makes his skin itch.
He hates soul searching.
“Hey, sleepy.” Gabriel looks across at Castiel and finds him dozing with his head on his drawn up knees. Castiel looks up when Gabriel calls to him though, looking sick in the unending heat. “Let's find some shade.”
He draws to his feet and pesters Castiel until the other angel follows suit and together they wander down one of the thickly grown paths. Just a few feet in and the sun is blocked from the foliage. Gabriel’s momentarily worried about bugs as the last thing he needs to deal with but Lucifer’s perfect world wouldn’t have them. There’s nothing here. No birds or squirrels or fucking monkeys. Just the two of them. Gabriel and the only one of his family that might actually get it.
If he doesn’t die first. Castiel stumbles hard over the flat trail and Gabriel catches him. “Easy, bro.” He lowers them down to the ground and somehow ends up with Castiel reclined against his chest, breathing heavy. “You cling to everyone when you’re not feeling good?” Gabriel teases with the full expectation of getting a serious answer in return.
“Lucifer wishes to regain a closeness with us. His family. I find him…difficult to resist.”
“Do you find me difficult to resist?”
“I've killed our brothers. I can't imagine I'll be allowed close to other angels after this. Even Lucifer is angry at me.”
“Like Lucifer has room to talk.”
“Lucifer is something to endure, not reason with,” Castiel shoots back and the conversation dries up again.
Castiel has a point there. Gabriel's already seen it, in the quick flashes of anger that vanish as if they never were. One minute Lucifer might be coddling Castiel and the next he's trying to kill him in a vat of holy water. Grin and bear it seems to be Castiel's philosophy. It's not gonna work.
**
Gabriel stays with Castiel until he grows sore, another annoyance to add to the growing collection. He's not sure how Castiel bares it in silence, just shifts to a new position whenever the old one grows uncomfortable. This isn't how Gabriel lives. He lives in sweet fucking luxury. He's an archangel and a demi-god and he's stuck sitting in the dirt with a low-ranking all but human angel practically in his lap.
“You were all spoiled,” Castiel comes out with out of nowhere or maybe Gabriel's getting agitated enough again that he's projecting thoughts. Or he moaned in frustration.
“What?”
“You. The archangels. The four that've seen God, that hold all the power and the keys and our lives, our futures and our will. You were all spoiled.” Castiel cants his head back to look up at Gabriel. He isn't glaring or angry and Gabriel is tired of feeling like people are getting the edge on him all the time. “You gave up when things got too hard. Raphael would do the same. Michael thinks he can rule it all the way he wants, force our Father to see only him as the perfect son. And Lucifer...” Castiel shakes his head. He doesn't need to say anything about Lucifer. Lucifer is jealous and wants the attention he used to get in spades.
“Is there a reason everyone feels the need to psychoanalyze me lately?” Is there a reason why they all need to be so on the ball with it? “Come on, I came back.” Gabriel sounds like he's whining to his own ears and wants to take it back but Castiel is already smiling at him. “Stop doing that.”
“And I,” Castiel goes on, back to sombre. “I am torn. Some of what Lucifer says makes sense. Heaven will not accept either of us back.”
Gabriel shrugs and plays it off. “Heaven’s not worth it anyway.”
“I’ve thought that.”
“I’ll take you to Vegas.”
“Yes.”
They remain in the middle of the shaded path until night starts to chill the air again. They pick themselves up, Gabriel stretches out the aches from his hips and back and shoulders. Castiel stands still like stretching is beyond him but he walks stiffly along the trail, back to their clothes to dress for the impending cold. Gabriel decides to explore along the trails again and this time, Castiel follows him at a slow stilted pace and Gabriel loses sight of him several times around bends in the paths. Always, they end up back at the fountain.
When it grows dark, they stay by the fountain. Gabriel presses water to Castiel’s chest and then Castiel wraps his trench coat around himself tightly. When Castiel starts shivering again and Gabriel kind of wants to, he lets his wings loose, using one to shove Castiel down to the ground, surprised look accompanied by a small woof of air.
“You know you could do this yourself, right?” Gabriel mock grouses, lying himself next to Castiel, wing spread out behind him and the other draping to cover them both as Castiel shifts closer.
Castiel never answers and together, they wake up as before, too hot in the mid-morning sun and knowing that it will only get worse. Castiel’s watching him again, creepy and endearing and Gabriel doesn’t know what possesses him to lean over and kiss Castiel’s open mouth. It’s the right call to make since Castiel doesn’t waste a second in relaxing against Gabriel’s body and who cares why because when was the last time Gabriel got so close to his family?
He’s pushing Castiel onto his back when hard hands dig into his wings, fingers nearly splintering bone under them and Gabriel almost screams. His wings beat hard before he can remember the magic here and a second later he’s crashing into the fountain, gasping for air and relief from the shards of pain. “Fuck!”
The fountain isn’t deep and he stands so that the water ripples against his chest. On the other side of the fountain, Lucifer has Castiel locked in his arms, furious and all Castiel does is stare back impassively.
“Lucifer,” Gabriel calls out and starts forward through the water which feels thick as treacle around him, slow and painful to cross.
“You are mine, Castiel,” Lucifer’s voice floats along the water in a hiss. “You are not a human's or Gabriel’s. You are my brother. Both of you. All of you.”
Gabriel barely feels like he’s moved a foot and he struggles harder against the water as Lucifer reaches a hand to Castiel’s back, reaches past his vessel and a second later, Lucifer is forcing ripped wings free and Castiel screams.
“Stop it!”
Lucifer stares at Gabriel. “Humans aren’t good enough for you.”
Lucifer reaches out for him and Gabriel jerks back. He flinches, closes his eyes and when he opens them again, Castiel’s mouth is against his. The heat beats down on his wing and they’re pressed closed and uncomfortable with sweat. Gabriel jerks back and Castiel stares at him with wide open eyes.
“This is an illusion. I’m not here.”
Gabriel opens his eyes again and Castiel is sleeping beside him, curled together under Gabriel’s wing. Castiel wakes abruptly when Gabriel hauls his wings back and scrambles to his feet. Holy shit, he hates it when this crap is pulled on him. He looks around but Lucifer is absent and then he’s backing from Castiel and heading into the trees.
He’s never dreamt before. Angels don’t dream and he has no idea if the collar would change that. No idea suddenly if that’s Castiel back there or if Castiel is somewhere else or nowhere at all.
He stops when he’s as deep into the gardens as he knows he can get without appearing back at the fountain and braces his back against a thin tree. He can see Castiel's bloody ripped wings and with his eyes closed, he can see other details. Like the scarred over sigil on Castiel’s chest not leaking light and maybe something else. Something on Castiel’s neck that isn’t the leather collar.
“Castiel says you ran out on him.”
Gabriel jumps at Lucifer’s voice suddenly beside him. “Christ.”
“Dreaming is a side effect of the collars. You’re all but human with them on, I’m sorry; I didn’t want to lower you like that.” Lucifer reaches out, traces his fingers over the leather and Gabriel can feel it like a touch to his skin.
“Why did you? What’s the point?”
“I had to keep you out of the way.” Lucifer looks so sympathetic, so hurt by his own actions. If Gabriel didn’t know him so well, he’d believe the apologies. “I don’t want to. I want you here, by my side.”
“Bite me,” Gabriel answers, weary and disturbed by his dream.
He turns from Lucifer, back down the path to the fountain and Castiel. Castiel sits on the ledge as they had yesterday. He’s taken only his coat and shoes off this time, rolled his pants up to his knees and his feet dangle into the cold water. He looks oddly unmovable instead of vulnerable like he should.
Lucifer hasn’t followed Gabriel so he walks to Castiel’s side and says without preamble, “Can I see your wings?”
Castiel flashes him a surprised look but a second later and his wings are stretching to either side of him. For a second, they’re bloody ribbons in front of Gabriel’s eyes before he sees them as they are. Whole and strong and not a feather out of place. Gabriel reaches out to touch them, runs his fingers through the down of the underside to the sound of Castiel’s sigh.
“What are you doing?”
“I’m just not sure if this is real.”
Castiel looks around them. “This? This is Lucifer’s illusion, of course it isn’t real.”
“Are you?”
“As far as I know.”
Gabriel’s fingers take hold of a pinion feather and a hard jerk has it pulling loose. Castiel jolts and the wing vanishes under Gabriel’s hand but the feather stays between his fingers. Castiel gives him a wounded look and Gabriel cocks a smile at him. “Just like a human pinching himself, right?”
“To wake up, yes. But then you generally pinch yourself, not the other person in your dream.” Gabriel lets the feather fall to rest on the water of the fountain.
**
They spend another day in Lucifer’s fake world, moving eventually from the fountain to the shaded paths of the garden. Gabriel watches another line heal on Castiel’s chest and frowning, he reaches out to trace where it used to be.
“This shoulda healed by now. Lucifer could have done it.”
“I killed five angels with this sigil. The only reason I’m not with them is because of Lucifer.”
“So you’re thankful?”
Castiel thins his lips and looks away.
They sleep again by the fountain, again close, again with Gabriel’s wing sheltering them from the chill in the air. Gabriel wakes alone, though, and he folds his wings away to find Castiel with Lucifer. They sit together on the ledge of the fountain. Lucifer is smiling without malice and Castiel seems content, leaning against his side. It’s almost like home. Angels enjoying and taking solace in each other. Not fighting. The way it should be, the way it had been once.
Lucifer places a kiss on Castiel’s temple and Castiel turns his head to meet those lips with his own. Gabriel watches, uncertain and silent, until Lucifer looks to him and with a smile, he gestures Gabriel to come. There’s a tug on the collar at his neck and Gabriel follows it.
“Don’t you understand yet, brother? I can offer you forgiveness.”
Castiel rises and once again, Gabriel finds himself kissing him. When he looks behind Castiel, Lucifer is gone again. Castiel is regarding him with something he can’t make out but maybe it's disappointment. Gabriel’s not sure if that’s because he’s thinking of taking the easy way and giving in or because he’s not quite there yet.
“Come on, bro. It’s hot.”
Gabriel strips them to their boxers again and spends the day keeping them cool by dipping his wings into the cold water and holding them above where they sit, showering them in a rain of cool holy water.
As they settle for the night, Castiel says, under the warmth of Gabriel’s wing and his body, “Michael would not offer us forgiveness.”
Gabriel kisses him into silence and Castiel lets him. He doesn't let himself think that maybe Castiel has a point. And Gabriel is so very used to taking the easy way out, the hidden way.
Gabriel wakes this time, in the night. It’s dark but for the light from Castiel’s chest. He slips away from Castiel, away from that light and follows the path. There are no stars but there is a moon to show that it’s clear. Colder than a desert at night should be. Gabriel can see his breaths silver in the moonlight that casts a glow across the gardens. He feels guilty briefly, for abandoning Castiel to this cold.
He walks, longer than he thinks he has before. The path keeps going before him; though at each turn he expects to find the fountain. He doesn’t and his steps quicken in anticipation. The garden grows thicker, the trees closer. Gabriel stops to stare at one and finds that what he’d thought was sap is blood and every one of them has it running down the furrows of their bark.
He’s dreaming again. He pinches himself. He looses his wings to pull free a feather. Nothing changes so he keeps walking, steps faster and faster until he’s running, feet skidding in the loose red dirt - the dirt stained with blood.
“Castiel!” he calls, desperate and a rasping answers him from the trees that surround him. The path is gone and he spins in a circle, listening to that hitching strained panting.
“Gabriel.”
“Castiel.” Relief floods Gabriel and he steps forward, eager. “I hate this dreaming shit. Where are you?”
“You aren’t dreaming.”
Gabriel turns and the path is before him again, Castiel blocking it. His wings show, shorn and bloody over his shoulders. There’s a thick metal collar around his neck.
“Help me.” Castiel eyes go wide and pleading. His chest hitches and his breath rasps in echoes all around them.
There’s the low growl of a Hellhound before it lunges from the trees and drags Castiel into them by his bloodied wing. Another one lunges for Gabriel and he looks into the black maw of his wide jaws.
He jolts awake with Castiel’s arms wrapped around him. “You were dreaming,” Castiel tells him calmly.
Gabriel shakes his head and struggles away to his feet. He turns and runs down the path, expecting to lose it, expecting blood to fall from the trees. He ends up back at the fountain and stumbles to a halt when Lucifer is there again. Castiel is at his feet, his wings are cut off and useless on the ground. Castiel holds his hands cupped before him, staring in blank despair at the blood that runs through his fingers.
“I’m dreaming.”
Lucifer looks at him, anger masked in despair. “No.”
The Hellhound closes its teeth around his ankle before Gabriel knows it’s there. A hard tug has him falling to the dirt and when he hits it hard, the world turns around him.
They’re in a cement room with high walls and puddles from water damage. Gabriel recognizes the place. He’s trapped Sam and Dean here before. There’s no Hellhound but Lucifer is there and Castiel is at his feet. The dead wings on the ground are gone but there is a heavy collar around Castiel's neck, heavy chain links binding him to a metal support beam. Castiel looks at him, desperate and inadequate.
“What is this?”
Lucifer looks down to his feet where Castiel crouches. He toes at Castiel’s knee. “This? It’s only human.”
Gabriel pushes his hands against the dirty floor to gain his feet, staring Lucifer down as he realizes the collar around his neck is still there. “What’s going on?”
“I’m on a schedule; I can only babysit you for so long. What Castiel said was true. I offer forgiveness, Gabriel. A place here, with me.”
“Wow. Thanks for that.”
“But I can’t wait forever for you to decide. And Castiel here somehow continues to be in the way. He spoke to you when you slept.” Lucifer crouches down so he can stare at Castiel’s still stubborn eyes. “I’m curious to know how you managed that.” Lucifer hits him, hard, and Gabriel winces as Castiel goes down, head cracking off the cement floor. “Don’t look at me like that, either of you. You wanted to be like them. How did you enjoy it, Gabriel?”
“Being human?” He thinks back over the last few days, powerless and trapped and useless. He thinks about sleeping next to Castiel and enjoying the water. “It had its perks.” Gabriel steps forward, ignoring Lucifer to help Castiel to his feet. Castiel leans on him heavily. “You weren’t one of them,” he says, continuing to address Lucifer. “You’re wrong. So wrong, brother, you’ll never be able to kill them all. Cockroaches, right? They’re just gonna keep on coming back and I gotta go with the winning team, you know me.”
He takes a step back, drawing Castiel along with him. He swears Castiel winks at him. Gabriel hopes to God he’s right about this, about what Castiel can still do because Castiel got into his dreams when angels don’t dream.
“Don’t make me do this, Gabriel.”
Gabriel grins. “What’d I tell you about that? No one makes me do anything.” Gabriel lifts his hand and snaps his fingers.
They land on a fishing boat off Delacroix.
Gabriel can’t stop grinning. Not even when Castiel is unresponsive in his arms. Crazy little angel that could, he fits in with the Winchesters and Gabriel’s pretty damn sure he has his bet on the right horse. “You guys are insane,” he tells Castiel as he lowers him down to the deck. “Which is just about my style.”
There’s a shout when one of the men on board notices them and Gabriel leans closer to whisper against Castiel’s ear. “Gonna leave you here for now. These guys’ll take you to a hospital. I won’t be far.”
The collar has melted from his neck without Lucifer’s presence to keep it there and Gabriel spreads his wings to leave the deck before the fishermen can reach them.
He shows up later in Castiel’s hospital room, where Castiel sleeps unresponsive and human in a hospital gown and with bruises on his face. That last push to bring them to freedom drained him. Gabriel brushes his fingers across Castiel’s forehead to wake his mind.
“Hey, bro,” he greets when Castiel opens his eyes. “Clever trick.” Castiel smiles with a soft huff of amusement. “Saved my ass.”
“Is that your way of saying thank you?” Gabriel shrugs and can’t stop smiling. “You’re welcome. I wasn’t there exactly but I was. I knew what was going on.”
“Don’t tell anyone I cuddled you.”
“Only if you’ll do it again. For real.” Gabriel looks away, embarrassed at his own weakness in Lucifer's illusion. “I miss my family,” Castiel confesses and Gabriel caves.
He rolls his eyes and reaches out, his fingertips to Castiel’s temple and the bruises and cuts fade. “Me too. Maybe.”
“I need to call Dean.”
He does and when Dean says, “We’re going after Pestilence;” Castiel answers him “We’ll be there immediately.”
An AU from episode 5.18 and 5.19. About PG-13 and ~8000 words.
What if Lucifer had found Castiel first? What if Lucifer had imprisoned Gabriel instead of killing him?
Thanks to puchuupoet for the beta.
As Brothers we Will Stand
**
This is the stupidest thing he’s ever done.
Gabriel is staring at the back of Lucifer’s head with his sword gripped tight and ready while Lucifer talks to his projection. The sword he hasn’t actually used in oh…over a hundred years. Because he doesn’t fight for his brothers and he sure as hell doesn’t fight against them. Damn Dean and all his stupid inspiring speeches. Damn Dean and his on the ball psychoanalysis.
Just…Damn the man. Gabriel hadn’t been looking to have any life changing epiphanies. He’d been happy.
He takes a step forward, ready to kill his own brother even if he knows he can’t. Lucifer is too clever and too fast, and as Lucifer’s hand wraps around his wrist and snaps the bone, Gabriel knows he’s done. He’s not entirely sure if he regrets it or not.
His sword clatters onto the floor and Lucifer is in his face, the quiet sympathy in Lucifer's eyes almost worse than if it had been rage.
“Brother. Did you think I would let you go so easily?”
Gabriel has a second to feel terror like he never has before and then Lucifer is drawing them away, leaving blood and death and Gabriel’s sword in their wake.
They arrive in a garden under pale blue skies surrounded by high red-brick walls and the creeping vine that covers them. There are pathways of red dirt but no footprints to show anyone’s been there, leading deeper into the trees and bushes and ferns. Gabriel spins once, taking it in, surprised though he shouldn’t be. Part of him had expected hell but this is exactly his brother’s style.
Lucifer stands a pace back and watches him. “Do you remember what the Earth used to be, before humanity ruined it with their depravity?” His gaze takes in the thick gardens. “This. Unfettered, unused.”
“Do you remember when you used to be sane?” Gabriel’s eyes keep casting around them and there, to the corner, a flash of colour that doesn’t belong in all this vibrancy. He moves towards it, turning his back on Lucifer in a silent ‘fuck you’ of defiance.
Lucifer doesn’t raise his hand or voice, he stands and watches Gabriel with curiosity. Gabriel just knows this is going to get so much worse.
“I’m fixing things, Gabriel. Once the humans and demons are purged it will be us again. Just us. I know you remember that, you were happy then. With your brothers, at home. None of this pointless bickering.”
Gabriel’s not paying attention, letting Lucifer’s words wash over him and drift past. He’s had thousands of years practice in tuning out his older brothers. He makes his way up the dirt red path, towards a flash of tan amongst the green and when he rounds the curve of the trail, he’s standing in front of a fountain. A vast fountain of the same red brick, the same creeping vines that cling along the smooth curve of it. Ice blue glacial water fills its depths and the sound of it running echoes in this chamber of trees. There’s an angel tethered to the base of it.
Gabriel rounds back on Lucifer, feeling fury, feeling disgust and the crawling of fear across his skin. “How is this fixing things?”
Lucifer has followed him along the path and he peers past Gabriel’s shoulder with disinterest. He shrugs. “He did that to himself.”
“Oh, right, I forgot Castiel’s such a fan of bondage that he’d chain himself to whatever special realm of Hell this is.”
Lucifer sighs, long and sad. Lucifer always looks sad but when he steps past Gabriel to Castiel, Gabriel watches him wary and ready to intercede. Again. God, he’s an idiot.
But Lucifer doesn’t hurt Castiel. He kneels down and presses his hand to the front of Castiel’s shoulder. Castiel shudders and draws a breath, looking up and acknowledging that he’s not alone for the first time since Gabriel walked into this clearing. Castiel’s eyes fasten on Lucifer’s and he pants out Lucifer’s name in relief. Lucifer urges Castiel to sit back until Gabriel can see what’s on his chest, past the torn wings of his shirt and the useless trench coat that lays open and pooled around his thighs.
Deep cut lines and Gabriel would know that sigil anywhere. They bleed light from Castiel’s skin but even as Gabriel watches, one of the lines seals itself and shuts Castiel’s grace back in.
“What happened?”
“Winchesters,” Lucifer says like that’s the best explanation and it kind of is. Those boys have trouble following them around like puppies and it takes a swipe at anyone stupid enough to get close. Like Gabriel. He stands back and watches with morbid fascination while Lucifer cradles Castiel close and Castiel goes. Fuck, Castiel rests his head willingly onto Lucifer’s shoulder and closes his eyes. “He’ll heal soon enough.”
“And then what, you’ll have his everlasting loyalty?” Gabriel scoffs but Lucifer answers him in silence. “Bullshit. Why the chain then?”
The ‘chain’ is a band of leather wrapped snugly around Castiel’s throat, Enochian etched into it. It binds Castiel here in Lucifer’s illusion and it dampens whatever flagging powers Castiel had left.
Lucifer looks down at it as if he’d forgotten its existence. “Ah yes. A precaution. Castiel has been…pesky on more than one occasion. That reminds me…” And he stares hard at Gabriel until Gabriel can feel the same leather form and crawl around his neck. Should have gotten out of here while the getting was good and as the collar seals itself, Gabriel can sense the sudden suffocation of imprisonment. “Stay awhile.”
“This isn’t really my usual style, y’know? Where are the desserts and naked women? I mean, what, that’s all I get?” He nods towards Castiel.
“I have a few errands to run,” Lucifer answers.
Gabriel rolls his eyes. “Oh so that’s what we’re calling mass genocide now.”
“Take care of your brother.” Lucifer leaves with that bit of advice, Castiel giving a startled noise as his support is suddenly taken and he collapses down to the ground.
Gabriel looks up, sky bright and not at all helpful in offering a way out. Not anymore than the angel who’s looking around him in bewilderment before his glassy eyes meet Gabriel’s. Gabriel sighs, short and sharp. “Great. This is great.”
Castiel blinks at him.
“You are stupid,” Gabriel says and isn’t sure which of them he means this time. Castiel doesn’t seem to care and Gabriel’s pretty sure the lights aren’t all on upstairs right now. Not while that damn sigil is eating through his chest anyway. Gabriel shudders when he thinks about it and can guess at how much it’s messing with Castiel right now.
Castiel tilts his head back to stare up at the sky and it creeps Gabriel out, the silence and the fact Castiel is probably waiting for Lucifer to come back and pet him some more. Gabriel doesn’t want to watch him so he leaves, picks one of the dozen paths emerging from the circle of trees and starts walking. Not that he thinks he’ll find a way out of here so easily. Sure enough, once he’s walked until his legs are tired, he ends up exactly back where he started. Castiel’s still staring at the sky and Gabriel watches him for a moment. Castiel shudders every few minutes, corresponding with an increase in the brightness pushing from the lines.
Gabriel picks another trail and walks until he’s back in front of Castiel. He tries to fly up and ends up in the fountain, soaked with icy cold water that stings his skin and makes him gasp sharply. Holy water. With a sigh, Gabriel cups some in his hands and brings it over to Castiel to dribble over his chest. Another line heals.
Castiel has his head tipped down now, as Gabriel kneels in front of him but something’s off. Gabriel frowns, ducks down a bit and his eyes widen when he realizes that Castiel is fucking smirking to himself. Gabriel throws the last trickle of water into Castiel’s face and Castiel gasps at the shock of the cold.
“You could have told me I’d end up in the damn fountain.” Lucifer’s illusion doesn’t even allow him to snap himself dry.
Castiel sniffs, indignant. “You deserved it.”
It’s probably the least Gabriel deserves. “Whatever.” He flicks a few drops of water from his fingers but Castiel doesn’t react as it hits him this time. With a huff, Gabriel sits next to Castiel, back thumping against the brick of the fountain. “So, what’s up?” There's no smooth way to ask what's going on here.
Castiel moves properly for the first time since Gabriel showed up in the clearing, lifting his arms to wrap tight around his chest. His whole body stiffens for a moment at Gabriel’s side and he doesn’t answer until he relaxes again. “I’ve been here a couple of weeks now.”
“No shit and you’re still alive?”
“It isn’t us Lucifer wishes to kill.”
“Right. Humans bad, down with the roaches, blah blah. I got his speech.”
Castiel tips his head to look at Gabriel with his bright eyes. “What are you doing here?”
“Winchesters,” Gabriel answers. The universal answer to all the fuckups of the world. “Dean might have uh…” This was awkward. “Brought me around to a new level of thinking.” Castiel stares at him. “He’s convincing! Kind of manipulating. Boy should run for politics.”
“Gabriel…”
“Don’t start. I don’t do fuzzy good feelings.” Castiel smiles at him. “Christ. Stop it.” Castiel doesn’t. “I mean it. I’ll throw you in the fountain.”
“The water from it helps.” Castiel’s smile fades then and pain tenses his muscles. He looks down, grits his teeth, but doesn’t make a noise of complaint. Gabriel takes the hint though and dips his hand back into the water, bringing it dripping to press against Castiel’s chest. Castiel lowers his arms gratefully to allow Gabriel the room.
“Just don’t cuddle me,” Gabriel warns and Castiel quietly closes his eyes.
Castiel sleeps next to him and after awhile, Gabriel tears a patch off Castiel’s already ruined shirt to soak in the holy water and hold that against his chest. The wound should have healed after a couple of weeks, even with the nature of it. Gabriel’s free hand traces along the edges of the collar around his throat. It isn’t constricting, it melds to him like a second skin but he can feel the marks scratched into it and what they are under his fingers. They suppress Gabriel’s grace and his magic. All but human.
He stretches his wings out and looks over the span of them. Flexes them and feels no weakness in them. He’s hesitant to try flying again, as the air grows cooler and he’s surprised to find that Lucifer’s false world has a night time. And it’s rapidly approaching, bringing cool air like a desert. It doesn’t take long for Castiel to shiver beside him, weakened from the collar and the mark on his chest and two weeks already in Lucifer’s hands. Gabriel doesn’t want to ask. He also doesn’t want to admit that it’s at least partly a crawling fear that has him shuffling a little closer to Castiel in his still damp clothes and then stretching a wing out across them. Warm and heavy, Castiel’s shivering stills when he’s under it.
Gabriel indulges in sleep like he’s been doing for decades but this is the first time he’s done it without it being his decision. He wakes, hot and sticky with warm sweat, opening his eyes to look across at Castiel. Gabriel’s wing is still over them, dark in the cave it creates and it's like a hot box with the late morning sun beating down. Castiel's awake and looking at him, panting a little in the heat but ill-inclined to move. Whatever. Gabriel's hot and he's never lived an iota of this human/pagan life being uncomfortable.
He folds his wing back into nothing and sits up, blinking in the harsh light. He wishes it were evening again, not too cold, not too hot. But he can't snap his fingers and make it happen, this is Lucifer's world.
“Well this is sweet.”
“Hey, speak of the devil.” Gabriel quirks a smile, looking up and catching sight of the angel that hadn't been there a second ago. Gabriel's not about to let on how disconcerting it is that he didn't sense Lucifer land. There are two demons to either side of Lucifer and he can at least take comfort that no one but another angel would have been able to see his wing blanketing Castiel. Embarrassing, Gabriel doesn't play at niceties. “And you brought minions. Is this where the 'I'm gonna rip off all your fingernails until you join me' part comes in?”
Lucifer smiles and crouches down in front of Gabriel. Gabriel flinches back from his outstretched fingers and Lucifer shrugs before touching Castiel's face instead. Castiel doesn't flinch or speak, he stares back at Lucifer and Gabriel isn't sure if he's being rebellious or vacant.
“I'm not here to hurt you.” He trails his fingers down Castiel's throat and to his chest, lingering over the still seeping lines. Castiel reacts. His eyes flutter closed and he arches into the touch. The tension of pain immediately lifts from Castiel's shoulders. “We're family.”
“So it's the kill us with kindness strategy?”
“It's the truth.” Lucifer sits back on his heels, hand slipping from Castiel's chest and Castiel falls back against the fountain. The light seems to flare brighter now that Lucifer's power isn't suppressing it. Castiel's eyes turn pain bright all over again and Gabriel hadn't realized how obvious it was until Lucifer had taken it away for that moment. “I want you to stand with me, brother, the way things used to be.”
“News flash, bro. Things change. People change. Hell, apparently even angels change.” The three of them were a pretty fucking big example of that. “Get over it.”
Lucifer looks angry for a moment, rage that he can't deny building up in his eyes before it's gone with the flash of a smile. Gabriel's brother is unhinged. Castiel probably has the smarter idea by staying silent and he even touches Gabriel's arm to try and shut him up as well. Gabriel's not exactly good at keeping to himself.
Lucifer is getting to his feet, dismissing them as he turns to the demons that blindly wait on his command. Stupid, ignorant... Gabriel feels angry himself, lurches to his feet despite Castiel's hand trying to grab at him. He stalks forward and spins Lucifer to face him by the shoulder. Just because Gabriel's wearing this scrap of leather around his throat doesn't mean he's down for the count. He hasn't survived as long as he has by being passive.
Of course, facing down Lucifer with zero power to draw on, Gabriel wonders how his brilliant ideas ever even got him through a decade. This is the stupidest thing he's ever done and Lucifer grabs hold of him, just like last time, before Gabriel can even begin to follow through with his intentions. Not that he's all that sure what they are. Just that he's stuck here after finally getting off the fence, which feels a lot like being back on a fence. Castiel is by turns looking hopeless or hurting or like Lucifer might actually be a saviour. Really, Lucifer just needs someone to smack him a good one in the side of the head.
Gabriel remembers too late that he’s survived this long by hiding.
Lucifer tosses Gabriel back against one of the thick trees hard enough that the trunk cracks and pins him there so that Gabriel can feel Lucifer's breath on his face and the twinges of pain running up his back. “Do not press me,” Lucifer hisses. “My patience is only so long, Gabriel. You were always good at trying it, you spoiled brat.”
Gabriel doesn't have a problem with admitting he is really fucking intimidated right now. Inwardly. Outwardly, he grins his cockiest. “What happened to 'thou shalt not hurt my brothers'?”
He's hoping that Lucifer will smile that unhinged smile again and back down. Instead, Lucifer pushes him harder. “Punishment is for your own good.”
“Gonna spank me?” Gabriel laughs. And wishes he hadn't, eyes widening. “You're kidding me.”
“Lucifer.”
Both of them turn at the quiet, firm word, to see that Castiel has dragged himself to his feet and stepped towards them though the demons that Gabriel had forgotten were even there, bar his way. Castiel doesn't try to get past them. Hell, it looks like a strong enough breeze could push him over.
“Stop. Please.” Castiel manages to make the request sound like an order and Gabriel's sure Lucifer is going to tell the demons to rip the arms off him, he looks so mad, before Lucifer is deflating. The anger drains from his eyes again, quick and disturbing.
Lucifer releases Gabriel, dismissing him as easily as dirt - or a human - and walking to Castiel. He raises his hand to cup Castiel's cheek and Castiel gives no reaction. Gabriel can almost admire him as he stands back and watches the scene unfold, like a horrific accident in the making. “I miss my brothers,” Lucifer says to Castiel and Castiel nods.
“I know.”
“And home.”
“Yes.”
“You understand why I have to do this. Don’t you, Castiel?”
“No.”
Lucifer sighs and he rests their foreheads together. Gabriel watches them in fascination, inching a little closer, eager to hear the quiet words spoken between them. It’s a conversation they’ve had before, from the easy give and take of answers and Lucifer’s patient eyes. “You will. Once I’ve cleansed this world to be how it used to.”
“It will never be what it used to be. You’re kidding yourself,” Castiel says with quiet severity and Gabriel steps forward too late to do anything as Lucifer’s eyes turn hard again.
Lucifer pulls harshly from Castiel and only has to look at the fountain before Castiel is pitched back into it, hitting the icy water with a hard slap and he doesn’t come back up. The surface of the water ripples, Gabriel can see Castiel pushing and struggling against the bottom.
“Lucifer!” Gabriel barks out and darts forward. His hands find Lucifer’s arm for a heartbeat, enough to turn Lucifer’s attention to him instead and Gabriel finds his feet pulled from under him and he’s on the red ground. Castiel breaks from the water with a gasp, only to cry out as he’s shoved back under. Gabriel is stuck, useless, on the ground. “Stop, Lucifer. That’s your brother!”
It’s minutes before Lucifer backs down and in that time, the rippling of the water eases. As soon as Gabriel feels the pressure on his body loosen, he’s on his feet, sprinting for the fountain and submerging himself again in to the glacier holy water. He hates the way his heart hammers, the boost of adrenaline that he’s supposed to be so far above. He ran away because he wanted to avoid all this dramatic bullshit, now he’s here and he has no idea if Castiel can breathe or not or if he can drown in Lucifer’s own little fantasy realm. Or if Castiel is as safe here as he was in Gabriel's own make believe world, where everything was a bluff and every ache could be healed with a snap of Gabriel's fingers.
He reaches into the water, grabs fistfuls of Castiel’s coat and hauls him to the surface. Castiel breaks it with choking coughs, shuddering and heaving in Gabriel’s grip. When Gabriel looks back towards Lucifer, he’s gone, the demons along with him.
“Dick,” Gabriel mutters under his breath and turns his attention back to the angel in his arms. “With me there, bro?”
“I am. With you.” Castiel gets out between gasps and Gabriel rolls his eyes at the gravity of the statement. Castiel is good at putting way too much entirely unneeded meaning to his words.
They drag themselves out of the water and back onto the dry ground, where the dirt immediately starts soaking up into their clothes. It dyes Castiel’s torn white shirt red. They collapse onto the ground regardless, Castiel gaining his breath and Gabriel enjoying the few minutes where the cold water dripping from his clothes feels good under the hot sun. He’s never been so uncomfortable though in his life. He’s dirty and damp and his clothes are sticking to him and he has absolutely no idea what to do about all this. Castiel doesn’t seem to notice, sitting still at his side.
“This sucks,” Gabriel whines for lack of anything more constructive to do, squirming to unstick the damp pants from his legs. Castiel gives him a look like he’s a fucking moron which is true enough since Gabriel is here.
“Take your clothes off.”
Gabriel’s eyebrows shoot up. “Bro.”
Castiel stares back at him and when Gabriel doesn’t move right away, he gets to his feet and follows his own advice. He shoulders off the trench coat which falls with a heavy thump to the ground. He tugs off his torn shirt and heels off his shoes. Even his socks go and finally his pants. He stops at his boxers. Gabriel can’t stop staring at him.
“You’re gonna burn.”
Castiel looks very much like he wants to roll his eyes, as he scoops up his discarded clothes and dumps them into the fountain. And starts rinsing the red dirt off of them.
“Oh.” Gabriel follows suit then. Strips to his boxers and tosses them into the fountain, where the water somehow refuses to turn dirty despite all the mud they just threw in it. “Well this is domestic.” Castiel doesn’t answer so Gabriel keeps the rest of his bitching to himself. By the time they have the majority of the mud off their clothes and Castiel spreads them all out on the ledges of the fountain to dry in the hot sun, Gabriel maybe has a bit more respect for humans and their mundane jobs. It’s taken maybe five minutes but Gabriel decides he hates washing clothes. He tries to snap his fingers more than once but nothing happens.
“This is really fucking annoying, y’know we-“ he starts in again but glancing over at Castiel shuts him up. Castiel’s tense again, eyes closed and as Gabriel watches, a line opens up on his chest. Gabriel sighs. “Come on.” He reaches out and draws them both down to sit on the ledge of the fountain with their legs dangling into the water. It feels good, with the sun beating down on the rest of them. “Guess you’re supposed to be doing that sit and relax thing, huh? I’d bring you some soup but I have the next best thing.”
Castiel eyes him warily and Gabriel reaches down to cup the water and bring it in a trickle again to Castiel’s chest. It makes Castiel gasp, shock at the cold or relief from the pain. Gabriel watches the rivulets trace down his chest and abs and dampen the waistband of his boxers.
“Thank you.”
Gabriel waves him off and Castiel breathes out long and slow. He doesn’t look a whole lot better and against his better judgement, Gabriel finds himself shifting over and reaching out. He braces Castiel’s swaying weight with an arm across his shoulders, and then a solid wing which Castiel leans back against.
“Don’t breathe a word,” Gabriel warns.
Castiel almost laughs. “You remind me of someone.”
“Warning you.”
“You remind me of Dean.”
Which is going way too far and Gabriel is well within his rights to use his wing to shove Castiel forward and back into the fountain. It doesn’t occur to him until it's too late that Castiel was almost drowned in there not that long ago. But this time, Castiel sputters to the surface, looking perpetually annoyed but not scared. Gabriel laughs and Castiel stays submerged up to his chin until Gabriel sees him start to shiver. He climbs out then, back onto the ledge in the same spot as before. Gabriel watches him draw his feet out of the water and wrap his arms around his knees. He looks human. Gabriel feels it, or what he thinks it must be like.
If I close my eyes and wish really really hard, this could almost be a vacation.” Gabriel needs to stop trying to lighten shit up because Castiel only has one mode and he’s a grave mother fucker.
“Free time. I don't think I'd know what to do with. I’ve never had a…vacation.”
“Well, when this is done, kiddo, I’ll take you on one.”
“I will not run away.”
“It’s not…running away.” Exasperation leaks into Gabriel’s tone and he’s not sure why he’s bothering. “It’s taking a break. Loosening up. You could use a little of that.”
“I don’t wish to go back to TV land either.”
“That was um…” Gabriel tries, awkwardly, to explain it away. That had been him scared and grasping at straws. “I wouldn’t have killed you.”
Castiel smiles at him. “I know. We might not have been close but I do remember you before you left. You loved us. Your presence was missed. You were always…trying, I believe, to make the others smile. Michael and Lucifer. Of course your method to breaking the tension wasn't always the...most intelligent.”
“I pulled pranks on them. I locked the gates on Michael once and he nearly tore my wings off.”
“Michael deserved it.”
“He was a dick.” And that’s Gabriel’s MO isn’t it? Taking the dicks of the world down a peg or two. Trying to make them see some sense and if that was asking too much, then screw them. They didn’t deserve to live.
“You tried,” Castiel repeats and Gabriel looks away, into the garden.
Gabriel stays silent and Castiel seems content enough to follow his lead. Gabriel’s not great at change. It’s an angel thing. But it’s all him as well. It took decades of back and forth before he took the plunge out of Heaven, maybe always hopeful that things at home would change. Not quite as long to give in to Dean’s wheedling. He’s not sure how long it’s taken him to give up on his family and turn to his new pseudo-adoptive ones. Stupid humans and their amazing food and hot women and gambling. And Earth. Earth has Vegas and the Grand Canyon. They live in constant pain and squalor and actually manage it. Gabriel’s been like this for a day and he’s miserable while the sun makes his skin itch.
He hates soul searching.
“Hey, sleepy.” Gabriel looks across at Castiel and finds him dozing with his head on his drawn up knees. Castiel looks up when Gabriel calls to him though, looking sick in the unending heat. “Let's find some shade.”
He draws to his feet and pesters Castiel until the other angel follows suit and together they wander down one of the thickly grown paths. Just a few feet in and the sun is blocked from the foliage. Gabriel’s momentarily worried about bugs as the last thing he needs to deal with but Lucifer’s perfect world wouldn’t have them. There’s nothing here. No birds or squirrels or fucking monkeys. Just the two of them. Gabriel and the only one of his family that might actually get it.
If he doesn’t die first. Castiel stumbles hard over the flat trail and Gabriel catches him. “Easy, bro.” He lowers them down to the ground and somehow ends up with Castiel reclined against his chest, breathing heavy. “You cling to everyone when you’re not feeling good?” Gabriel teases with the full expectation of getting a serious answer in return.
“Lucifer wishes to regain a closeness with us. His family. I find him…difficult to resist.”
“Do you find me difficult to resist?”
“I've killed our brothers. I can't imagine I'll be allowed close to other angels after this. Even Lucifer is angry at me.”
“Like Lucifer has room to talk.”
“Lucifer is something to endure, not reason with,” Castiel shoots back and the conversation dries up again.
Castiel has a point there. Gabriel's already seen it, in the quick flashes of anger that vanish as if they never were. One minute Lucifer might be coddling Castiel and the next he's trying to kill him in a vat of holy water. Grin and bear it seems to be Castiel's philosophy. It's not gonna work.
**
Gabriel stays with Castiel until he grows sore, another annoyance to add to the growing collection. He's not sure how Castiel bares it in silence, just shifts to a new position whenever the old one grows uncomfortable. This isn't how Gabriel lives. He lives in sweet fucking luxury. He's an archangel and a demi-god and he's stuck sitting in the dirt with a low-ranking all but human angel practically in his lap.
“You were all spoiled,” Castiel comes out with out of nowhere or maybe Gabriel's getting agitated enough again that he's projecting thoughts. Or he moaned in frustration.
“What?”
“You. The archangels. The four that've seen God, that hold all the power and the keys and our lives, our futures and our will. You were all spoiled.” Castiel cants his head back to look up at Gabriel. He isn't glaring or angry and Gabriel is tired of feeling like people are getting the edge on him all the time. “You gave up when things got too hard. Raphael would do the same. Michael thinks he can rule it all the way he wants, force our Father to see only him as the perfect son. And Lucifer...” Castiel shakes his head. He doesn't need to say anything about Lucifer. Lucifer is jealous and wants the attention he used to get in spades.
“Is there a reason everyone feels the need to psychoanalyze me lately?” Is there a reason why they all need to be so on the ball with it? “Come on, I came back.” Gabriel sounds like he's whining to his own ears and wants to take it back but Castiel is already smiling at him. “Stop doing that.”
“And I,” Castiel goes on, back to sombre. “I am torn. Some of what Lucifer says makes sense. Heaven will not accept either of us back.”
Gabriel shrugs and plays it off. “Heaven’s not worth it anyway.”
“I’ve thought that.”
“I’ll take you to Vegas.”
“Yes.”
They remain in the middle of the shaded path until night starts to chill the air again. They pick themselves up, Gabriel stretches out the aches from his hips and back and shoulders. Castiel stands still like stretching is beyond him but he walks stiffly along the trail, back to their clothes to dress for the impending cold. Gabriel decides to explore along the trails again and this time, Castiel follows him at a slow stilted pace and Gabriel loses sight of him several times around bends in the paths. Always, they end up back at the fountain.
When it grows dark, they stay by the fountain. Gabriel presses water to Castiel’s chest and then Castiel wraps his trench coat around himself tightly. When Castiel starts shivering again and Gabriel kind of wants to, he lets his wings loose, using one to shove Castiel down to the ground, surprised look accompanied by a small woof of air.
“You know you could do this yourself, right?” Gabriel mock grouses, lying himself next to Castiel, wing spread out behind him and the other draping to cover them both as Castiel shifts closer.
Castiel never answers and together, they wake up as before, too hot in the mid-morning sun and knowing that it will only get worse. Castiel’s watching him again, creepy and endearing and Gabriel doesn’t know what possesses him to lean over and kiss Castiel’s open mouth. It’s the right call to make since Castiel doesn’t waste a second in relaxing against Gabriel’s body and who cares why because when was the last time Gabriel got so close to his family?
He’s pushing Castiel onto his back when hard hands dig into his wings, fingers nearly splintering bone under them and Gabriel almost screams. His wings beat hard before he can remember the magic here and a second later he’s crashing into the fountain, gasping for air and relief from the shards of pain. “Fuck!”
The fountain isn’t deep and he stands so that the water ripples against his chest. On the other side of the fountain, Lucifer has Castiel locked in his arms, furious and all Castiel does is stare back impassively.
“Lucifer,” Gabriel calls out and starts forward through the water which feels thick as treacle around him, slow and painful to cross.
“You are mine, Castiel,” Lucifer’s voice floats along the water in a hiss. “You are not a human's or Gabriel’s. You are my brother. Both of you. All of you.”
Gabriel barely feels like he’s moved a foot and he struggles harder against the water as Lucifer reaches a hand to Castiel’s back, reaches past his vessel and a second later, Lucifer is forcing ripped wings free and Castiel screams.
“Stop it!”
Lucifer stares at Gabriel. “Humans aren’t good enough for you.”
Lucifer reaches out for him and Gabriel jerks back. He flinches, closes his eyes and when he opens them again, Castiel’s mouth is against his. The heat beats down on his wing and they’re pressed closed and uncomfortable with sweat. Gabriel jerks back and Castiel stares at him with wide open eyes.
“This is an illusion. I’m not here.”
Gabriel opens his eyes again and Castiel is sleeping beside him, curled together under Gabriel’s wing. Castiel wakes abruptly when Gabriel hauls his wings back and scrambles to his feet. Holy shit, he hates it when this crap is pulled on him. He looks around but Lucifer is absent and then he’s backing from Castiel and heading into the trees.
He’s never dreamt before. Angels don’t dream and he has no idea if the collar would change that. No idea suddenly if that’s Castiel back there or if Castiel is somewhere else or nowhere at all.
He stops when he’s as deep into the gardens as he knows he can get without appearing back at the fountain and braces his back against a thin tree. He can see Castiel's bloody ripped wings and with his eyes closed, he can see other details. Like the scarred over sigil on Castiel’s chest not leaking light and maybe something else. Something on Castiel’s neck that isn’t the leather collar.
“Castiel says you ran out on him.”
Gabriel jumps at Lucifer’s voice suddenly beside him. “Christ.”
“Dreaming is a side effect of the collars. You’re all but human with them on, I’m sorry; I didn’t want to lower you like that.” Lucifer reaches out, traces his fingers over the leather and Gabriel can feel it like a touch to his skin.
“Why did you? What’s the point?”
“I had to keep you out of the way.” Lucifer looks so sympathetic, so hurt by his own actions. If Gabriel didn’t know him so well, he’d believe the apologies. “I don’t want to. I want you here, by my side.”
“Bite me,” Gabriel answers, weary and disturbed by his dream.
He turns from Lucifer, back down the path to the fountain and Castiel. Castiel sits on the ledge as they had yesterday. He’s taken only his coat and shoes off this time, rolled his pants up to his knees and his feet dangle into the cold water. He looks oddly unmovable instead of vulnerable like he should.
Lucifer hasn’t followed Gabriel so he walks to Castiel’s side and says without preamble, “Can I see your wings?”
Castiel flashes him a surprised look but a second later and his wings are stretching to either side of him. For a second, they’re bloody ribbons in front of Gabriel’s eyes before he sees them as they are. Whole and strong and not a feather out of place. Gabriel reaches out to touch them, runs his fingers through the down of the underside to the sound of Castiel’s sigh.
“What are you doing?”
“I’m just not sure if this is real.”
Castiel looks around them. “This? This is Lucifer’s illusion, of course it isn’t real.”
“Are you?”
“As far as I know.”
Gabriel’s fingers take hold of a pinion feather and a hard jerk has it pulling loose. Castiel jolts and the wing vanishes under Gabriel’s hand but the feather stays between his fingers. Castiel gives him a wounded look and Gabriel cocks a smile at him. “Just like a human pinching himself, right?”
“To wake up, yes. But then you generally pinch yourself, not the other person in your dream.” Gabriel lets the feather fall to rest on the water of the fountain.
**
They spend another day in Lucifer’s fake world, moving eventually from the fountain to the shaded paths of the garden. Gabriel watches another line heal on Castiel’s chest and frowning, he reaches out to trace where it used to be.
“This shoulda healed by now. Lucifer could have done it.”
“I killed five angels with this sigil. The only reason I’m not with them is because of Lucifer.”
“So you’re thankful?”
Castiel thins his lips and looks away.
They sleep again by the fountain, again close, again with Gabriel’s wing sheltering them from the chill in the air. Gabriel wakes alone, though, and he folds his wings away to find Castiel with Lucifer. They sit together on the ledge of the fountain. Lucifer is smiling without malice and Castiel seems content, leaning against his side. It’s almost like home. Angels enjoying and taking solace in each other. Not fighting. The way it should be, the way it had been once.
Lucifer places a kiss on Castiel’s temple and Castiel turns his head to meet those lips with his own. Gabriel watches, uncertain and silent, until Lucifer looks to him and with a smile, he gestures Gabriel to come. There’s a tug on the collar at his neck and Gabriel follows it.
“Don’t you understand yet, brother? I can offer you forgiveness.”
Castiel rises and once again, Gabriel finds himself kissing him. When he looks behind Castiel, Lucifer is gone again. Castiel is regarding him with something he can’t make out but maybe it's disappointment. Gabriel’s not sure if that’s because he’s thinking of taking the easy way and giving in or because he’s not quite there yet.
“Come on, bro. It’s hot.”
Gabriel strips them to their boxers again and spends the day keeping them cool by dipping his wings into the cold water and holding them above where they sit, showering them in a rain of cool holy water.
As they settle for the night, Castiel says, under the warmth of Gabriel’s wing and his body, “Michael would not offer us forgiveness.”
Gabriel kisses him into silence and Castiel lets him. He doesn't let himself think that maybe Castiel has a point. And Gabriel is so very used to taking the easy way out, the hidden way.
Gabriel wakes this time, in the night. It’s dark but for the light from Castiel’s chest. He slips away from Castiel, away from that light and follows the path. There are no stars but there is a moon to show that it’s clear. Colder than a desert at night should be. Gabriel can see his breaths silver in the moonlight that casts a glow across the gardens. He feels guilty briefly, for abandoning Castiel to this cold.
He walks, longer than he thinks he has before. The path keeps going before him; though at each turn he expects to find the fountain. He doesn’t and his steps quicken in anticipation. The garden grows thicker, the trees closer. Gabriel stops to stare at one and finds that what he’d thought was sap is blood and every one of them has it running down the furrows of their bark.
He’s dreaming again. He pinches himself. He looses his wings to pull free a feather. Nothing changes so he keeps walking, steps faster and faster until he’s running, feet skidding in the loose red dirt - the dirt stained with blood.
“Castiel!” he calls, desperate and a rasping answers him from the trees that surround him. The path is gone and he spins in a circle, listening to that hitching strained panting.
“Gabriel.”
“Castiel.” Relief floods Gabriel and he steps forward, eager. “I hate this dreaming shit. Where are you?”
“You aren’t dreaming.”
Gabriel turns and the path is before him again, Castiel blocking it. His wings show, shorn and bloody over his shoulders. There’s a thick metal collar around his neck.
“Help me.” Castiel eyes go wide and pleading. His chest hitches and his breath rasps in echoes all around them.
There’s the low growl of a Hellhound before it lunges from the trees and drags Castiel into them by his bloodied wing. Another one lunges for Gabriel and he looks into the black maw of his wide jaws.
He jolts awake with Castiel’s arms wrapped around him. “You were dreaming,” Castiel tells him calmly.
Gabriel shakes his head and struggles away to his feet. He turns and runs down the path, expecting to lose it, expecting blood to fall from the trees. He ends up back at the fountain and stumbles to a halt when Lucifer is there again. Castiel is at his feet, his wings are cut off and useless on the ground. Castiel holds his hands cupped before him, staring in blank despair at the blood that runs through his fingers.
“I’m dreaming.”
Lucifer looks at him, anger masked in despair. “No.”
The Hellhound closes its teeth around his ankle before Gabriel knows it’s there. A hard tug has him falling to the dirt and when he hits it hard, the world turns around him.
They’re in a cement room with high walls and puddles from water damage. Gabriel recognizes the place. He’s trapped Sam and Dean here before. There’s no Hellhound but Lucifer is there and Castiel is at his feet. The dead wings on the ground are gone but there is a heavy collar around Castiel's neck, heavy chain links binding him to a metal support beam. Castiel looks at him, desperate and inadequate.
“What is this?”
Lucifer looks down to his feet where Castiel crouches. He toes at Castiel’s knee. “This? It’s only human.”
Gabriel pushes his hands against the dirty floor to gain his feet, staring Lucifer down as he realizes the collar around his neck is still there. “What’s going on?”
“I’m on a schedule; I can only babysit you for so long. What Castiel said was true. I offer forgiveness, Gabriel. A place here, with me.”
“Wow. Thanks for that.”
“But I can’t wait forever for you to decide. And Castiel here somehow continues to be in the way. He spoke to you when you slept.” Lucifer crouches down so he can stare at Castiel’s still stubborn eyes. “I’m curious to know how you managed that.” Lucifer hits him, hard, and Gabriel winces as Castiel goes down, head cracking off the cement floor. “Don’t look at me like that, either of you. You wanted to be like them. How did you enjoy it, Gabriel?”
“Being human?” He thinks back over the last few days, powerless and trapped and useless. He thinks about sleeping next to Castiel and enjoying the water. “It had its perks.” Gabriel steps forward, ignoring Lucifer to help Castiel to his feet. Castiel leans on him heavily. “You weren’t one of them,” he says, continuing to address Lucifer. “You’re wrong. So wrong, brother, you’ll never be able to kill them all. Cockroaches, right? They’re just gonna keep on coming back and I gotta go with the winning team, you know me.”
He takes a step back, drawing Castiel along with him. He swears Castiel winks at him. Gabriel hopes to God he’s right about this, about what Castiel can still do because Castiel got into his dreams when angels don’t dream.
“Don’t make me do this, Gabriel.”
Gabriel grins. “What’d I tell you about that? No one makes me do anything.” Gabriel lifts his hand and snaps his fingers.
They land on a fishing boat off Delacroix.
Gabriel can’t stop grinning. Not even when Castiel is unresponsive in his arms. Crazy little angel that could, he fits in with the Winchesters and Gabriel’s pretty damn sure he has his bet on the right horse. “You guys are insane,” he tells Castiel as he lowers him down to the deck. “Which is just about my style.”
There’s a shout when one of the men on board notices them and Gabriel leans closer to whisper against Castiel’s ear. “Gonna leave you here for now. These guys’ll take you to a hospital. I won’t be far.”
The collar has melted from his neck without Lucifer’s presence to keep it there and Gabriel spreads his wings to leave the deck before the fishermen can reach them.
He shows up later in Castiel’s hospital room, where Castiel sleeps unresponsive and human in a hospital gown and with bruises on his face. That last push to bring them to freedom drained him. Gabriel brushes his fingers across Castiel’s forehead to wake his mind.
“Hey, bro,” he greets when Castiel opens his eyes. “Clever trick.” Castiel smiles with a soft huff of amusement. “Saved my ass.”
“Is that your way of saying thank you?” Gabriel shrugs and can’t stop smiling. “You’re welcome. I wasn’t there exactly but I was. I knew what was going on.”
“Don’t tell anyone I cuddled you.”
“Only if you’ll do it again. For real.” Gabriel looks away, embarrassed at his own weakness in Lucifer's illusion. “I miss my family,” Castiel confesses and Gabriel caves.
He rolls his eyes and reaches out, his fingertips to Castiel’s temple and the bruises and cuts fade. “Me too. Maybe.”
“I need to call Dean.”
He does and when Dean says, “We’re going after Pestilence;” Castiel answers him “We’ll be there immediately.”