(no subject)

[notrunninganymore]

Who: Gabriel, whoever
When: A few weeks after resurrection
What: Awkward reunions?
Where: A nondescript diner


Well well well. Isn't this all convenient?

Not that Gabriel is usually the type to have an issue with things being convenient; in fact, 'convenient' is one of his most desired adjectives for describing a situation. Convenient is usually easy, and easy usually means something terrible isn't happening. Just how he likes it.

And indeed, nothing terrible is happening right now, but it doesn't feel easy. It feels suspicious, even though it shouldn't, because he knows exactly how this whole thing came about. There's nothing suspicious, let alone sinister, about it. Gabriel isn't completely sure his nephew even knows what those words mean, let alone would do anything even slightly adjacent to them.

It is, of course, Jack's doing that Gabriel is here, both in general and in specific at this moment, in this diner. Something about overdue reunions, blah blah blah, Gabriel loves Jack but it's very difficult not to tune him out when he starts going on and on with the cute puppy stuff. New God or not.

But he's here all the same, eating a ridiculously over the top banana split the more morosely he's ever eaten a dessert before, and sure isn't really that morosely, but still. To say he's apprehensive about whoever Jack might've set him up to reunite with is an understatement, and he had carefully refused to promise that he wouldn't bail, with that option feeling only more and more tempting the more time goes on.

Comments

[familysucks]

Michael would argue about any of this being convenient, but Michael's often in the mood to argue. That's more true now than it ever was before the Winchesters put Jack in charge.

He questions that decision, too. The nephilim was powerful to start with and infinitely more so now that he's taken up their Father's mantle, but he's still a boy of four. Four! For all that he's now the omniscient lord of Heaven and everything beneath it, he can still stand there with his chipper smile and claim putting all the human souls in the same Heaven can't possibly lead to problems. Both Heaven and Earth are fine as they are and don't require angelic intervention. Michael thinks he's naive.

At the end of the day, though, Jack is still God and Michael has only so much will to argue with authority.

Which is why he's here now, dropping into the seat across from Gabriel. All part of proving he can play nice with even the most irritating of his siblings. Or maybe Jack really is just that optimistic and pure of heart and thinks they deserve a second chance at this.

Michael looks at the oversized dessert in front of Gabriel, and then he turns to consult the menu on the wall. He turns back with a frown. This place doesn't even serve banana splits.

"Bending the rules already?"

[notrunninganymore]

Oh. Well. He was right to be suspicious, he supposes, though of course he was right, he's always right. That's definitely how things go.

And, of all the people who could have shown up and sat across from him, Michael is not the worst. Not at all, in fact, and if Gabriel's last time seeing Michael--a Michael, anyway--hadn't been so terrible, he might've even felt relief at this being the person to join him. But now, his emotions are mixed, muddled together perhaps unfairly so to this Michael, though not strongly enough so that he feels the the need to make good on his thoughts of bailing. Not just yet, anyway.

Instead, he raises his eyebrows, gesturing at the dessert with his spoon. Another spoon has mysteriously appeared on the table.

"Hey, no need to be jealous, there's more than enough to go around."

He doesn't believe for a moment that Michael is interested, but the teasing joke is both inoffensive enough that he isn't worried about it and also an effective dodge of any discussion of his own propensity toward rule-breaking. Even if the comment from Michael hadn't been particularly harsh, Gabriel has very little interest in even looking at potentially dangerous waters just yet.

[familysucks]

There's only enough room at this table for one person who's always right, and Michael would insist it's obviously him. (Despite his track record of being wrong about, well, quite a lot of things. He was right about them when he made up his mind. Things tend to change around him while Michael himself remains steadfast and immutable.)

He doesn't guess at Gabriel's lingering unease at his presence. Instead, he looks down at the second spoon like it's litter left behind from the last patrons that sat here. Michael pushes the extra spoon firmly towards Gabriel's side of the table. He has two hands and now two spoons, he's sure he'll figure out something.

"That's not happening."

Mostly because he never did have occasion to learn to enjoy eating, but also a little bit because Gabriel has already been eating from that dish and he's sure there's saliva mixed in with the melted ice cream goop at the bottom. Maybe a lot that latter point.

"I suppose I shouldn't be surprised he brought you back." Heaven requires at least one archangel for stability, even in its new configuration. Lucifer is an obvious problem; Raphael never much cared for humanity. Jack's only feasible options are now both seated at the same table. "What deal did he make you?"

Even Jack wouldn't be so naive as to unleash a resurrected Gabriel on the world without imposing any limits, would he?

[notrunninganymore]

And then they would be at an impasse; two always-correct beings, yet in disagreement. Like a really bad riddle. Which angel is actually correct and which just thinks they are?

Gabriel is not at all surprised by Michael rejecting the offer, and exactly as probably expected, he takes the second spoon in his other hand and, just briefly, contemplates attacking the ice cream from both angles. But then he changes his mind and decides on something much sillier, moving both spoons to his right hand and beginning to attempt using both like a pair of chopsticks, all the while responding to Michael as nothing ridiculous is going on. This wouldn't be even a little difficult if the only problem were Gabriel's own antics, but Michael's question is a strange one to him, if maybe a bit telling.

"Who, Jack?" Obviously it's Jack; the question is rhetorical, and Gabriel uses the natural pause that follows to try to get a bite of ice cream with his spoon chopsticks. It goes terribly. Don't worry about it. Moving on.

"He's not exactly the 'write up a contract' type. And he also thinks I'm great." Which is... Not entirely untrue, actually; Jack's only ever seen Gabriel in a pretty good light, and has Gabriel taken advantage of that? Maybe. Only a little. Not in a bad way, though.

And of course, he has to ask--

"Why, did he make a deal with you?"