Castiel lied on the couch, all six of his wings flopped down behind him limply.

Gabriel's "house" was more like a mansion...and for the first time in ages he was able to let his full power come out and simply rest. He had a full two weeks off from doing anything outside of fun.

It helped that he hadn't used any of his vacation days before now.

Gabriel sat on the only free space available and gently ran his fingers through Castiel's wings. The younger angel started purring...it was a common occurrence for angels to purr when their wings were being groomed. It was just extremely rare for humans to hear it.

Gabriel frowned at the state of his little brother's wings, so he coaxed Castiel into the massive bathroom for a proper grooming. While binding his power made it easier for him to operate as a human, it certainly hadn't done his two extra sets of wings any favors. They definitely needed to be cleaned at least.

Castiel relaxed almost immediately under Gabriel's skilled hands. The air was charged with Grace, and it almost felt like they were home. Almost.

The younger angel was practically a puddle of goo as Gabriel cleaned and straightened his wings. It was pretty clear why he had been so stressed lately...his wings were causing him pain, but he wasn't that used to them just yet so he had been unable to properly let them out.

"Castiel, you might as well keep those unbound for a while. Keeping that spell on them hasn't done you any favors," said Gabriel. Castiel nodded. The sense of relief he had felt when he first let them out in Gabriel's house had been so great he nearly passed out.

Once he was done, Castiel laid flat on his stomach on the bed, while Gabriel made something to eat. His wings were allowed to air dry, and he soon fell into a very deep sleep. Gabriel chuckled upon hearing Castiel's snores.

"OOF!"

Castiel was finally relaxing...though much to Gabriel's dismay, his active lifestyle kicked in making it hard for him to stay down for more than an hour...and that was if he distracted his brother with a good enough book or put him on a new game.

So to get rid of pent up energy, Gabriel sparred with him and tried to beat the crap out of his brother. Too bad he hadn't known Cas had been picking up as many fighting styles as he could just to keep ahead of the things he hunted.

"Where the hell did you pick up this many grappling maneuvers?" whined Gabriel.

"You'd be surprised how much easier it is to get hormonal females to leave you alone if you use them," deadpanned Castiel.

Gabriel choked.

"That's not fighting! That's groping under the guise of sparring!"

"Again, it gets them to back off," shrugged Castiel.

"And you're okay with random girls groping you for no apparent reason."

Castiel gave him a bland look.

"Let me put it this way... I let them grope me in an 'innocent' accident and they're less likely to become like...(here he shuddered) Ginny Weasley."

Gabriel winced, but conceded the point. The youngest of the Weasley brood had taken a running leap off the deep end when Luna started dating Cas. Apparently she was so convinced she would become Lady Potter that she would have become a rabid stalker had it not been for the fact Cas never stayed in one spot more than a month, and he rarely left clues to where he was heading next.

Cas was thoroughly glad that they had been sorted into different houses. She had barely gotten off when she was nearly got caught trying to break into his room second year.

"But still..."

"It's not like I ever allow it to get past the 'grope' phase," said Castiel.

"That does it... I am so getting you a new freaking girlfriend if you're that hard up for human contact..." said Gabriel flatly.

"Do it and die," said Castiel, eyes glinting.

It was fortunate that the 'house' Gabriel claimed as his own was far, far from normal civilization...the resulting prank war that Castiel instigated would have drawn more than just the local cops on their ass otherwise.

Cas fell back into a familiar routine. Well, almost familiar. Gabriel was definitely following through on his threat, because he kept causing incidents where Cas was the one forced to deal with...all so he could 'innocently' introduce some poor man or woman to his 'desperately lonely' baby brother.

It was just a miracle Castiel had the patience of a saint. Otherwise he would have cheerfully committed fratricide after the third 'match-up' by Gabriel with a smile on his face and whistling innocently the entire time.

As it stood, after the fourth time he did it, Cas immediately enlisted the aid of Constantine and his new wife to hex the living crap out of him. It was extremely therapeutic. Gabriel would pout for days, but even he would later admit he deserved far worse.

He was just glad Christo (who was getting on in years) and Angel hadn't decided to join the "let's maim the arch angel" bandwagon.

Though why Castiel kept that ugly as hell half-kneazle and blasted owl, he had no idea.

So to be perfectly honest, the odd mission Death asked him to go on was a welcome reprieve. At least Castiel knew for a fact the entity wasn't trying to set him up with some random bird or bloke.

He was still bringing his cat though. Angel got along well enough with Nymphadora that she happily accepted the owl as a wedding present...and a way for her to contact Cas. Christo, however, refused to be parted from him as easily.

And really, the only other person who adored that cat was Hermione, who was not an option.

Cas would then wonder if the headache he got after was worth dealing with some moron trying to pretend he was 'Death' or not.

At this point, he was leaning towards not.

"Brother, if you do not cease with your efforts to 'get me laid', I swear to our Father I'll tell the Pope your real name, just so you would have to deal with the clergy again," said Castiel without looking up.

To date, the Pope only knew Loki was in fact an angel, and that he had gone into hiding as a pagan because he didn't want to be drawn into the fight between Lucifer and Micheal. He still had no idea which angel he was.

Gabriel pouted.

"You suck," he said.

"I bet that's what your last boyfriend said to his friends," Castiel shot back without remorse.

"Low blow..."

"That's what he said."

Gabriel groaned.

"Okay, it's official. You've spent far too much time with Johnny-boy in the bars," said Gabriel.

Castiel smirked.

"Oh? And what makes you say that?"

"Because the boy scout you were before would never think to counter with such a filthy suggestion," said Gabriel, grinning.

If John could corrupt Castiel, who was one of the most straight laced and boring angels, to the point where he would make such filthy remarks without batting an eye, then Gabriel would have to make sure John went to heaven.

If only so the exorcist could help him corrupt all the other angels.

"So what did ol' Death want you for anyway?"

"Apparently he's tired of dealing with the morons who are stupid enough to use him as 'inspiration' to cause trouble. So now I'm his go-to angel to deal with them. Basically if a demon is stupid enough to recreate the four horsemen, I'm the one stuck cleaning up," said Castiel flatly.

Gabriel winced.

"You do realize with how popular that particular legend is, that you'll likely have a hell of a time keeping it down."

"Put the fear of our Father in enough idiots, send out the Order every time even a hint of a rumor comes up..." said Castiel shrugging.

Gabriel had to admit, that could work.

Gabriel had only been gone for a few hours...he still had to maintain his identity as Loki after all...but what he found when he came back would have him laugh so hard he literally got a bout of hiccups that lasted three hours. And it would continue off and on for days.

He came back to his house to hear some of the older rock and roll music blaring from the place...the windows were rattling. Curious as to whether Cas was having a party without inviting him.

Instead what he found was his baby brother in nothing but a pair of black boxers and dancing around in his socks mock singing to the music. He was even doing an air guitar for crying out loud.

At least Cas had a good taste in music.

"Back in black...hit the sack..."

Gabriel watched him sing the entire song from start to finish, and when he was about to start another he started laughing hysterically. He was laughing so hard he didn't notice the music cut off abruptly, or the fact Cas looked highly embarrassed Gabriel had caught him.

Gabriel was literally holding his sides and if he wasn't an angel he would have passed out ages ago.

"Are you finished?" asked Cas irritated. It was bad enough Gabriel had come back to see that. He didn't need to be mocked.

"Oh Father, I needed a laugh like that. If I had known you would be singing AC/DC whenever I left the house for a few hours I would have left a camera behind ages ago!" cackled Gabriel. He couldn't look at Cas without imagining him jamming out to classic rock in nothing but his boxers and a pair of socks...and the air guitar!

"Don't you dare!"

"Oh little brother... you have yet to learn the fun tricks with magical artifacts. There's no way you're living this down," said Gabriel evilly.

He had yet to get the two newlyweds a proper wedding gift, but he had promised good blackmail if he ever found it.

And this was blackmail gold.

"Oh..." started John.

"My..." continued Chas.

"God..." finished Nymph.

As one, the three about died laughing so hard.

Cas was hilarious...and best of all he wasn't drunk, so there was no way he was going to get out of this.

Seeing him dance around singing 'Back in Black' by AC/DC in his underwear and socks was hysterical. He even pretended he was playing an air guitar of all things!

"Oh man, this is further proof you and Loki have corrupted him and turned him human! Can you imagine how the angels would react if they saw him doing that with his wings out?" said Chas.

"You kidding? Loki said he's passing this out to all of his 'younger' siblings!"

"Wonder if we could get Cas to do a private showing?" asked Nymph speculatively.

"If he ever does, we're bringing cameras," said John snickering.

Cas' little dance and show was not forgotten for months. To make matters worse, Gabriel didn't hesitate to share it with everyone that knew who they actually were.

Which included the Constantines, Luna, Balthazar (who also about died laughing his ass off), the Winchester brothers and of course most of Cas' classmates from the Vatican Academy.

Several of whom damn near choked once they realized what they were watching. And then the laughter started.

"Brother, I will defend you to hell and back...but there are sometimes I hate you so, so much," said Castiel.

Ever since that video went 'viral' for lack of a better term among their close friends, Cas had been suffering through countless calls, e-mails, and texts with good natured ribbing.

Or in the case of one rival, (aka Dean Winchester), a long list of suggestions as to what he could sing to next. Top of that list was 'Thunderstruck'.

At least Cas could hex Gabriel and it would hurt.

"Oh come on baby bro! It's all in good fun!" said Gabriel grinning like the Cheshire cat.

"And how exactly are you planning to make this up to me?" asked Cas, raising an eyebrow in irritation.

"Strip poker with the girls (or guys) of your choice," said Gabriel.

"Meh."

In the American heartlands...

A fourteen-year-old boy clutched something in his hands desperately, as if it were his only protection.

Closer inspection would reveal a stamped piece of metal with a Latin inscription and the picture of what looked like an arch angel.

However the name wasn't any of the older angels.

It was St. Castiel, Shield of the Innocent.

He had always thought the comic was a joke, that it was one of the few comics his heavily catholic parents would allow him to read because it was so heavily steeped in religious dogma.

But after they moved to their new home and something started to stalk him, and his parents refused to believe, he realized something.

The comic wasn't fiction. It was real.

More importantly so were the monsters in the comic.

"St. Castiel the arch angel, protect me and shield me from all things that would seek me harm. St. Castiel the arch angel, protect me and shield me from all things that would seek me harm."

Over and over, he kept repeating it. It was the only prayer that seemed to work, since the St. Micheal prayer only angered the entity that was haunting him. Even blessing the house did nothing.

The entity grew closer and closer, about to rake it's claws over him like it had a few weeks ago. It was getting bolder and bolder the longer this continued.

Suddenly he felt safe. The entity couldn't make it past the shield that he could feel around him. Like something was stopping it from harming him.

He knew that this thing, whatever it was, wouldn't be able to harm him tonight.

For the next few weeks, he repeats the prayer, and the shield protects him.

However, the same could not be said of his parents and older brother. The ghost, demon...whatever it was, decided to take it's frustration on them instead.

For the first time, they started to believe him when he said there was something evil in the house.

However his father refused to call in a paranormal investigator. So he took it upon himself to call the number in the comic, hoping it was real.

Even his father, a Catholic priest, couldn't complain if the Vatican came to get rid of the thing.

Cas was increasingly annoying. Something kept trying to breach his shield he sent to someone praying rather fervently to St. Castiel. And whatever it was, it was highly malevolent.

So when he heard about a call of something potentially demonic haunting the family of a low-level priest, he was the first to answer it.

There was a knock on the door.

Father Derrick had been plagued by something for weeks, and was a reluctant believer in the supernatural. His youngest son, Eric, was the only one who had any answers to what was happening.

"Hello?"

"Father Derrick? We received a call from this house about a possible demonic entity. I was sent to help you clear it out."

"Who are you? We've never made a call to anyone and I won't have some 'investigator' in my home!"

"I'm not a paranormal investigator, I'm a professional exorcist authorized and validated by the Vatican. You can check my credentials if you wish," said the stranger.

He reluctantly took the badge. It looked very real to him, but he was still skeptical.

That changed when he called the number and got the Vatican itself.

"If I might ask, what phenomena have you experienced?"

"Not much, our youngest Eric was the one who first started saying there was something here. I thought he was reading too many comics..."

The exorcist sighed.

"Shield of God by Chuck Shurley?" he asked.

"How did you..."

"Your son apparently called the Order directly from the book. I don't know why Chuck insisted on adding the actual phone number, but it's increased calls from people suffering paranormal activity by over seventy percent since," he said with a long suffering sigh.

Father Shields walked through the home, and immediately paused at Eric's bedroom.

"I was hoping this was a simple salt and burn case. It looks like your son had the right idea to call us first."

"What is it?"

"A malevolent demon. You find them occasionally and they're almost impossible to get rid of without divine intervention. Most people think a simple cleansing will rid them of the foul things, but short of asking a cardinal for a blessing they tend to come back with a vengeance. Generally it's easier to move."

"Is there anything we can do?"

"Where is the rest of the family? I need to make sure that this beast hasn't attached itself to anyone."

Father Derrick to the exorcist into the kitchen. The second Eric saw Shields, he dropped his fork in shock.

"No way... You're real?"

Father Shields sighed.

"I'm going to set Loki on Chuck for printing that bloody comic. I knew telling him about my job was a bad idea," said Shields.

"Father Shields here has come to...help us...with our problem," he said.

Eric's attitude went a total 360.

"So there is something here?"

"There is a demonic entity in your room. I suppose when it couldn't get to you, it went after the rest of family. I just need to do a blessing of the others to insure it hasn't tried to attach to the others before I get rid of it."

Eric watched as Father Shields went into his room...and his belief in god would forever be cemented when he saw six massive wings behind Father Shields as he cast out the demons.

After the demon was gone for good, Eric would buy every single issue of Shield of God, even if he had to save up for them.

He would later grow up to be an exorcist.