"Father has his reasons –"

"And what, exactly, are those reasons? He creates those revolting mud monkeys and spends all His time on them –"

"The humans are important, Lucifer! Gabriel, tell our brother –"

The two bickering archangels turn to where Gabriel was a minute ago, but their younger sibling is gone.

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Gabriel flits from cloud to cloud, seeking a distraction from Michael and Lucifer's constant arguments. They've never seen eye to eye on most things, but their squabbles used to be trivial and short-lived. After Dad made the humans, though, the fights turn more vicious and bitter by the day, and Gabriel wants nothing to do with it.

He considers going to pester Raphael, but remembers that he's in the Archives today, and he doesn't want to get dragged into helping him transcribe. Instead, he glides over an unfamiliar part of heaven, looking down at his younger siblings. Gabriel vaguely recognises all of them, but he definitely can't remember names; there are just too many. He lands on a deserted cloud, takes a step forward, and promptly trips over something, his wings flaring out to keep his balance.

Looking down, he curses as he spots the little Seraph sprawled on his back. Gabriel kneels and reaches out to set his younger brother back on his feet. "Hey, little guy, sorry about that. Wasn't watching where I was going."

"You're Gabriel," the little angel says quietly with wide blue eyes, seemingly unperturbed by the fact that he was just knocked off his feet by an archangel.

"Yeah, that's me." He squints at the angel, but the tiny Seraph must be newly created; Gabriel doesn't recognise him, much less know his name. "What's your name?"

"Castiel," the little one pronounces his name solemnly. "You have really big wings."

He smirks, twitching the tip of one wing forward to nudge his younger sibling gently. "Don't worry, little guy, you'll eventually grow up big and strong like me too."

The angel stares up at Gabriel's wings doubtfully, Castiel's own tiny wings fluttering on his back.

Gabriel teases his wing over Castiel's head, grinning when the tiny angel nearly overbalances and falls flat on his back again while craning his head back to follow the movement, fascinated. His remaining bad mood from witnessing Michael and Lucifer's fight dissipates as he soaks in the pure awe and wonder radiating from his little brother.

"So, Castiel, what are you doing here by yourself?" Angels this young shouldn't be wandering around alone, he remembers that much.

"I got lost." Castiel twists back to face him, face scrunching up as he apparently recalled his predicament before an archangel came blasting out from nowhere to bowl him over.

"Hey, c'mon, don't do that. You'll be fine. Who's your garrison leader?"

"Anael."

Gabriel nods. Anael's garrison headquarters isn't too far from here, just a hop and skip away. He considers the angel in front of him, an idea forming in the back of his mind.

"I bet you haven't been around heaven much, huh?"

Castiel's head tilts to the side. "We're not allowed to until we're older."

In response, Gabriel's wing curled around Castiel's back pushes lightly, the tiny angel emitting an adorable squeak as he tumbles forward into Gabriel's arms. The grinning archangel stands, cradling his younger brother securely against him.

"Let's go do some sight-seeing around here, little bro, promise you it'll be fun!"