![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
Look, before anyone asks, I don't even know, alright? I have no idea where this one came from, or why it chose now. *shrugs sheepishly* Also? I seriously want to adopt Jormungandr. I really, really do.
Title: Win, Lose, or Draw
Rating: PG-13
Fandoms: Supernatural, Norse Myth
Continuity: Set a couple of hours after the end of Running Games
Characters/Pairings: Gabriel, Jormungandr, Loki, Castiel, Fenrir. Gabriel/Loki
Summary: Okay, so the game didn't quite go exactly as planned ... Gabriel has a number of panic-attacks, and Castiel meets another of Loki's sons
Wordcount: 4111
Warnings/Spoilers: Post 5x22 again. Also, I feel I should warn for something regarding Gabriel and Jor, and the tongue, but ... I'm afraid I don't quite know how. *sheepish*
Disclaimer: So very much not mine
Title: Win, Lose, or Draw
Rating: PG-13
Fandoms: Supernatural, Norse Myth
Continuity: Set a couple of hours after the end of Running Games
Characters/Pairings: Gabriel, Jormungandr, Loki, Castiel, Fenrir. Gabriel/Loki
Summary: Okay, so the game didn't quite go exactly as planned ... Gabriel has a number of panic-attacks, and Castiel meets another of Loki's sons
Wordcount: 4111
Warnings/Spoilers: Post 5x22 again. Also, I feel I should warn for something regarding Gabriel and Jor, and the tongue, but ... I'm afraid I don't quite know how. *sheepish*
Disclaimer: So very much not mine
Win, Lose or Draw
The game hadn't gone exactly as planned, Gabriel thought wryly, waiting for Jor to let him go again. He sat quietly on his step-son's tongue, very carefully not thinking about it, and silently conceded that he and Loki may have bitten off slightly more than they could chew ...
Okay, bad analogy, there. Given that he was currently sitting in the World Serpent's mouth, and all.
"You know, this is really, incredibly embarrassing!" he called out, listening to his voice reverberating off Jor's back teeth, and trying not to shudder. "I know there's precedent and all, but Jonah was not my idea, and frankly I always thought the entire thing was ridiculous ... are you listening to me?"
The vibrations under his ass as Jor chuckled around him were decidedly unsettling.
"Okay, Jor," he pleaded, bright and wheedling. "You win, okay? You and Cas, you win. Or, well, I suppose it could be a draw, if Loki managed to pin the little twerp ..." He stopped, as he felt Jor hum around him, and frowned. "Wait a minute ... Cas? Loki and Cas? This is ... Oh, what have you done now?"
Daylight peeked through the teeth ahead of him, and it took Gabriel a second to realise that was because Jormungandr was grinning. And then it hardly mattered anymore, because Jor was suddenly speaking, too, or trying to, and suddenly the world went very strange for a second as he went tumbling through the air, his wings flopping damply around him, while some bastard played gong with his head. There was a thump, as he hit something cold and solid, and his hands leapt out to cling to it until the world decided to make sense again.
A few minutes later, when his ears stopped ringing and the world was mostly the right way up again, he looked up from the iceberg he'd landed on to see Jor looming apologetically above him.
"Sorry," the Serpent murmured, shame-faced. "I forgot."
Gabriel blinked at him. "You forgot??" he asked, incredulously. "You try to eat me, and you forgot about it? I suppose I'm just lucky you decided to try talking, instead of swallowing!" ... Um. Actually, yes, he probably was, and wow that was a thought. Loki, darling, I'm sorry I can't talk to you right now, only your son's just eaten me. I'll get back to you once he poops me out the other end ...
Okay. As of now, he was never thinking that again. He was editing that entire concept from his consciousness. He was rewriting his memory from the ground up, and this entire incident was going straight to the cutting-room floor, and never, ever coming out again ...
"Are you alright?" a slightly sheepish voice asked, from just over his head, and he jumped, looking up to see Jor's nose a few feet away (above the teeth, why had he never noticed the kid's teeth), black eyes watching him with worry and a degree of morbid curiosity that came straight from his father, Gabriel was sure of it.
"No, I am not okay!" he yelled, poking the massive nose. "Look, I realise this is the first time you've gotten a chance to see me without your Dad being here too, but that is no excuse for trying to eat me! Honestly, if you've suddenly decided you don't like me, all you have to do is tell me to bugger off, no need to get digestive tracts involved ..."
Jor laughed at him. The bloody stupid homicidal idiot laughed at him, all warm and amused and ever-so-slightly mocking, and then the kid butted him gently, nosing up against him, and Gabriel found himself smoothing a hand over the tough hide before he thought about it. Which annoyed him no end, let him tell you ...
"I'm sorry, Gabriel," Jor murmured, massive head vibrating under his hand with the sound, but at least Gabriel was outside this time, and wasn't about to get spat out again. "I just wanted you to sit still for a while, to let Father talk with Castiel. Or Castiel talk with Father. Whatever they needed." He paused, pulled back a little to smile winsomely down at the archangel, and Gabriel stared, because no way should that look be endearing on a gigantic, be-fanged serpent who'd just eaten him, but ... "You forgive me, right? Please?"
"Hmpf!" he growled, crossing his arms for a second and scowling just to see the kid up the wattage on the smile. Then he grinned, just a little, and nodded. "You're just lucky you're my favourite," he muttered, and laughed when Jor happily bumped him half-way across the 'berg. "Now let me up, you menace, until I see what my god's gone and done to my little brother!"
"I think it's more what your little brother has done to my father," the Serpent grinned, but pulled away, letting himself start to fall back beneath the waves. "Bring them to Hel's, will you? So we can all meet him?"
Gabriel frowned, but nodded, waving as the World Serpent disappeared back into the iron seas. "Yeah, sure. See you there, kid!"
Now what had the little bugger meant by that?
Absolutely nothing, it turned out. At least as far as Gabriel could see, when he managed to catch up to his lover and his brother, standing across from each other on a beach of black, volcanic sand somewhere in the South Pacific. Standing close together, arms folded but shoulders relaxed, at ease as they both looked up at where he circled, and Gabriel had to admit to a clench in his chest at the sight. At seeing one of his brothers, his family, standing at ease beside his love. It was ... it was breathtaking, though he could never, ever admit that.
And, okay, there was a weird flinch from Loki as he landed, a weird shuffle as his god caught Castiel's eyes briefly and grimaced, but it disappeared again as soon as he looked back towards Gabriel, too fast to be sure what it was. Probably nothing to be worried about, right?
Gabriel scowled to himself. When he caught back up with that kid, he was going to kill him ...
"Gabriel," Castiel greeted evenly, walking over behind Loki and politely ignoring the way the god wound himself sinuously around Gabriel. Almost ... possessively, and Gabriel had to pause for a second to collect his thoughts before he could look back at his brother. Loki grinned smugly. "You look a little ... damp?"
"Heya, Cas," he managed, trapping one of Loki's hands quickly, scowling at his god. "Little bit of a misadventure in the Bering Strait, no worries. What have ... Loki! ... what have you two been up to?" Loki pouted darkly at him, wriggling his arm free again, and turned to leer smugly at the angel watching them. Gabriel glared at him in exasperation, but Castiel only smiled strangely.
"Loki has been telling me how you seduced him," the kid murmured, his eyes on Loki's face. "How you came to him while he was helpless and ... 'made him an offer he couldn't refuse', I believe?" And there was a smile lurking under the granite impassiveness of his face, a certain gleam in those oh-so-innocent blue eyes, and if Gabriel hadn't been busy turning to glare at his love, he might have been worried by that.
"The Godfather??" he asked bitterly. "Of all the things you could have compared me to, you pick that?"
Loki grinned easily, watching Castiel out of the corner of his eye. "Well, I always thought you had the jaw for it," he murmured, tracing a finger over said jaw. "And it wasn't a lie, was it?"
Gabriel grunted. "We are so talking about that later," he warned sourly. "After you've given out to your son for traumatising me for life, and after we introduce Cas to the rest of them, anyway." He grimaced at Loki's questioning look, and the sudden curiosity in Castiel's face. "Jor says I'm supposed to bring you to Hel. If ... you want to come, that is?" He asked, looking over at his brother in sudden doubt. Dealing with both Loki and Jor in one day, maybe the kid was all jotun-ed out for a while ... but Castiel only tilted his head, looking between them for a second, and nodded thoughtfully.
"I believe I would like to meet the rest of your family, Gabriel," he murmured softly, and Gabriel felt another lurch in his chest, at the easy admission. Your family. As if it wasn't a problem at all. Castiel smiled at him. "And I must tell Jormungandr that we have won, too."
Loki grimaced automatically, but Gabriel could feel him tremble ever so faintly himself. "You cheated," the god growled. "Angel's aren't supposed to cheat! Using that storm to sneak up on me was completely unfair!"
Castiel looked at him for a second, and then smiled, slow and dark and smug enough to put a Trickster to shame. "I felt that a Trickster would expect such things," he murmured loftily. "I didn't want to disappoint you ..." He paused, the humour slipping a little, and turned to meet Gabriel's eyes. "... Or lead you to believe that all of Gabriel's family are incapable of ... playing the game with the right spirit?"
Gabriel swallowed. "You ... you got nothing to prove, kid. Not to me."
Castiel smiled, very sadly, and looked Heavenward for a moment, a brief second. His eyes, when he looked back, were rueful. "Yes, we do," he murmured softly. "To many people. We have ... a great deal to prove, now."
And yeah, alright, maybe that was true, and it reminded him, too, of a far less friendly brother they'd left floating in the North Atlantic, and ... they needed to go. Now. He needed ... he needed Jor, and Hel, and their family around him, if he was going to deal with this, if he was going to let himself think about that, and he felt his arm tighten around Loki's waist by pure instinct, felt his god curl tighter around him in return.
"Let's talk about that later," Loki said quietly, watching him carefully. "First, I believe my daughter requested our presence?" A small smile, gently prompting. "It's never wise to be late when Hel calls, you know ..."
Gabriel blinked, pulling himself together, turning to smile brightly at his god as he nodded. Something flickered in Loki's features, a flash of pain, or maybe concern, before he returned Gabriel's grin and poked him playfully in the ribs. Gabriel scooped him up bride-style in vengeance, and turned to grin at Castiel, who was watching them curiously.
"Last one there has to brush Jor's teeth!" Gabriel grinned, a flash of challenge and dare, and then he was away, leaping into the air with his god in his arms, and only the glancing sight of Castiel's surprise and then competitive glower to encourage him.
That was all right. He'd never needed all that much encouragement.
They entered Niflheim through the North Pole, which Gabriel always found somewhat blackly amusing, since today seemed to be a day for sea-ice. There had been one brief panicky moment en-route, when they'd dropped down to pick up the unconscious Raphael and found him missing (alright, so leaving him alone and knocked-out on an iceberg hadn't been Gabriel's greatest idea), but Loki noticed a note left deep inside the ice, the runes faintly glowing to attract their attention. Turned out Hel had been keeping a little bit of an eye on them, and had picked up the archangel herself. Which gave Gabriel all sorts of chills, really, but no helping it now.
Castiel had taken the journey in stride, all things considered, flying close and steady at Gabriel's back. The archangel had looked back at him a lot, trying to gauge his reaction, but all Castiel had done was look around with narrow-eyed consideration, and faint wonder. Travelling between the Nine Worlds ... it wasn't like travelling between his Father's realms and the first sight of Hel's great halls was always intimidating, passing through the ice-bound gates and between the towering walls ... but Castiel had seen Hell in his time, too, if Gabriel remembered right, and though the kid looked suitably impressed, there was no undue worry in his expression.
Gabriel met Loki's eyes briefly, flying backwards as they watched him, and the god nodded slightly, begrudgingly impressed. Gabriel bit back a grin. Score one for Castiel the Imperturbable.
There was a figure waiting for them in the snowy courtyard just off the main hall. Somewhat surprisingly, it wasn't Hel. The Goddess had obviously delegated out, possibly because she was peeved at them for dropping a comatose archangel in her lap while they ran off to play games. Or ... possibly because the person in question had wheedled her into it, Gabriel thought with a sudden grin, once he recognised the tall, willowy young man.
"Hey, you menace," he snarled, landing in a flurry of ice as his wings kicked up the ground-snow, letting Loki down so he could stomp over and glare at the suddenly innocent expression on the youth's deathly-pale face.
"Hello, Jor," Loki added, coming up beside him to look warily between them. "Do I even want to know?"
"Probably not," Jormungandr said cheerfully, grinning at Gabriel. "Though if he wakes up tonight screaming about tonsils, I wouldn't worry about it ..." Loki frowned in confusion, looking between them for a long second, before the penny dropped and an expression of mild horror and desperate amusement crossed his face.
"You didn't," the god muttered, covering his face with his palm for a second. "You didn't!"
"He did," Gabriel confirmed, still glaring. "Oh, believe me, he did, Loki. And you are yelling him for it, or you are sleeping on the couch for the next year, I promise you!" Loki nodded hurriedly, peeking out from between his fingers as he desperately stifled a laugh behind his hands. "And quit laughing at me, you maniac! Your son eating your lover is not supposed to be funny!"
"Of ... Of course not ..." Loki wheezed for a second, and then just gave up, and gave Gabriel the full belt of his helpless snickering. "Oh, Jor, you ... There are times when I absolutely adore you, you know that?"
Jormungandr just grinned, winking at Gabriel and reaching out to pat his father companionably on the shoulder. "Of course I do, father. And don't worry, I'm sure Hel will make up a nice, comfy sofa for you, for as long as you're going to need it ..."
"A long, long time," Gabriel muttered darkly, glaring at his gasping lover, but Jor was ignoring him again, moving past them to hold out his hand to the increasingly bewildered angel behind them. Gabriel actually started a little. He'd almost forgotten Cas was there ...
"So, did we win?" Jor asked casually, his hand steady in the air between them as Castiel stared at him in some confusion. Loki quieted, turning beside Gabriel to watch them. To watch the slight tremble in his son's hand, to see the tightness in the shoulders as Jor reintroduced himself, and waited for Castiel to acknowledge him.
Castiel ... frowned, and held out a hand carefully to complete the gesture. "Jormungandr?" he asked softly, while the Serpent clasped his hand gently. Jor smiled, a little sadly.
"Yeah, it's me," he murmured. "Here, at least. I can't really move my true form, except in the tracks of my coils, so ... A while ago, some of my sister's subjects agreed to carry my mind within her halls, so that I could ... have someone to talk to, I guess." He smiled lopsidedly. "Out of love for her, you know. They really do worship her, some of them. Can be a bit of a downside, though, because ... well, there are some things I never wanted to know about my sister ..."
He trailed off, voice growing steadily quieter and quieter, looking at Castiel while he waited for the angel to ... to do something, anything. To drop his hand in disgust, or walk away, or ... or something, and Gabriel flinched inside, wanting to scoop the kid up and snuggle him. Despite his earlier outrage, he seriously wanted to hold the poor kid, and snarl at Castiel simultaneously, because if the little bastard didn't do something quick, he was going to ...
Then Cas shifted his grip, moving his hand along Jor's arm to clasp his forearm, the way comrades and brothers do, and smiled, gesturing to his own chest. "I learned many things from my own vessel that I did not care to at the time," the angel murmured quietly, mouth curling ruefully. "I will never look at hamburgers quite the same way again."
And Jormungandr smiled, shifting his own grip and holding tightly, nearly giddy in relief. "Look on the bright side," he grinned, shaking a little, bouncing on his heels. "At least neither of us had to put up with my Father as a vessel. I don't know how Gabriel managed not to go insane, all those years ..."
"Hey!" Loki cut in, from where he was curled anxiously around Gabriel, his hand wrapped white-knuckled around the archangel's, behind their backs where the kids couldn't see. "He was lucky to have me!"
"One of us was," Gabriel muttered brightly, and squeezed his god's hand. He moved to the steps up to the hall. "Not to break up the reunion or anything, kids, but you think we could head inside sometime today? My feet are freezing over here!"
They traded looks, his brother and Loki's son, the kind of look that made Gabriel question that whole 'favourite' idea, but they came readily enough. Arm in arm, at Jor's insistence and Castiel's somewhat befuddled acceptance, and Gabriel took a second to hope that this could actually work out. For all his hopes, that this one brother, of all of them, might actually have the brains to be okay with ... with this, with his family ... he hadn't really been all that optimistic. Not really. But there was Castiel, walking arm in arm with the Midgard Serpent, and there was a darkness in Loki's eyes beside him as he looked at them, a fierce protective delight, and for a second ...
Then a giant form stepped out of the shadows at the door, dark pelt soaking up the snow, and Fenrir Godslayer moved into the light, staring down at them.
Both Gabriel and Jor were moving before either noticed the other, trying to get between Castiel and the wolf. Castiel blinked at them in bewilderment, turning to frown at the newcomer in wary interest. And Loki ... Loki stayed where he was, dark eyes glimmering up at his son as he stood behind them on the steps, mouth curving in a faint and savage smile.
"Hello, son," the god greeted softly. Fenrir turned his head towards him a little in acknowledgement, golden eyes bright and deadly as they remained fixed on Castiel. Who stared back with all the intensity of a warrior, and all the curiosity of a child. Gabriel almost bounced nervously in front of him, just to break the stare.
"Hel wants to see you," Fenrir rumbled quietly at his father, still staring at the angel. "She has a guest, and she's not happy. I'd hurry."
"Right!" Gabriel grinned queasily, grabbing Castiel's arm and moving to hustle him up the stairs, intent on keeping himself between his brother and the least trusting of his step-kids. Castiel resisted. Gently, but pointedly, the angel pulled his arm carefully out of Gabriel's grasp, and took a small step back.
"You and Loki should go," he murmured quietly, watching the wolf carefully. "I will wait here." And Gabriel saw Fenrir's small, toothy smile at that, oh yes, he saw that, and no way in hell was he leaving Castiel alone with the kid ... "I will be fine, Gabriel," Castiel interrupted, turning to smile gently at him. "I am the intruder, here. I will wait until ... Hel? I will wait until Hel decides I may enter." A faint, almost reproving look. "It is only polite."
Gabriel stared at him. "Polite? When the hell did you decide to grow some manners! You are not standing out here in the snow, kid, even if Fenrir's got his giant butt blocking the door! Now come inside and quit making a fool of yourself ..."
"Gabriel," Loki said, very quietly, coming to lay a hand on the archangel's arm. Gently, but firm enough to leave no doubt of his capability for force, if necessary. "Come away. Fenrir and Jor will show Castiel to the lesser halls. We need to speak to my daughter."
"I'll look after him," Jor reassured hurriedly, as Gabriel looked between them in almost panic. "Trust me, Gabriel. We'll be fine." Which would have been perfectly reassuring, if he hadn't shot a nervous look at his brother in the same breath, and Gabriel shook his head, digging in his heels. Oh no. Not this time. He'd lost enough bloody brothers of late, and though it wasn't like he didn't trust Fenrir, not exactly, but he still wasn't about to abandon Castiel to his company ...
Castiel moved. Shaking his head at them, with the strangest expression on his face, an expression Gabriel could swore he'd seen, somewhere else, facing something else, and Castiel stepped back while Loki and Jor were blocking Gabriel's path. Stepped back, turned around, and walked slowly and steadily right up to the wolf's jaws. While Fenrir watched him curiously, while the wolf looked at him with wary, feral eyes, Castiel walked up to him, and held out one hand, as Jor had to him moments ago. Castiel held out a hand.
A shudder rolled through the wolf, as if Castiel had struck him, and a flare of shock and something else, something ancient and pained, twisted his features. Fenrir stared down at the hand the angel held out to him, and back up at Castiel's face, and trembled.
"It's good to meet you, Fenrisulfr," Castiel said quietly, his head tilted as he frowned, brows furrowing faintly. "Forgive me, if I have offended?" Confused, placid. Not a hint of fear, and Gabriel, once his heart climbed back down out of his mouth, could see the effort that took, could see the slight tightness of his little brother's jaw, the faint lift of the chin that Castiel seemed to have picked up off the Winchesters. Gabriel could see the knowledge of a threat in Castiel's stance, the hum of fear in his Grace, and the quiet, complete refusal to show it as he greeted a monster as family.
Fenrir stared at him, stared at the kid for a long, long time, while the three of them watched from the steps, coiled tight and ready for when someone moved. Even Loki, though Gabriel honestly wasn't sure which one the god was poised to defend. Actually, he honestly wasn't sure which one he was poised to defend.
Then Fenrir raised one massive paw, very, very slowly, very carefully, keeping Castiel's gaze the whole time, and gently batted the angel's hand down. Castiel controlled his flinch, tilted his head for a second in narrow-eyed consideration while Fenrir shrugged in wary explanation, and nodded. Once, quietly, to himself. He didn't raise his hand again.
Beside Gabriel, Jormungandr breathed out in relief.
"Come in if you're coming," Fenrir muttered, gruffly, and stood aside to let Castiel pass. The angel smiled, suddenly, letting the tension slip from his shoulders, and moved to Fenrir's side. He stopped once, just long enough to look back and ask "Well? Are you coming?", and walked inside with a very bemused, and reluctantly amused, godwolf.
On the steps, Gabriel traded looks with his lover and his step-son, taking in Loki's almost annoyed shock, and Jor's stunned amusement, and felt the bubble of fear in his chest burst, quietly, and fall away.
"Don't worry," he told them, suddenly fighting the urge to bounce on his heels. "He confuses everyone like that." He shook his head, feeling the grin slip out. "Always was the weird kid in the family ... don't know where he gets it from ..." And Loki glared at him, shaking his head and muttering under his breath about 'insane bloody angels', and stalked off into the hall. Jor waited for a second, sharing a small smile with Gabriel, before he shook his head and headed off after his father, and his brother, and his new best friend.
And Gabriel? Stood quietly for a second, in the cold and the snow of another world, on the steps of somewhere he'd begun to call 'home', and grinned stupidly to himself.
Okay. So the game hadn't gone exactly as planned. That was okay, though. Gabriel didn't count it as a loss.
More ... a very promising draw.
The game hadn't gone exactly as planned, Gabriel thought wryly, waiting for Jor to let him go again. He sat quietly on his step-son's tongue, very carefully not thinking about it, and silently conceded that he and Loki may have bitten off slightly more than they could chew ...
Okay, bad analogy, there. Given that he was currently sitting in the World Serpent's mouth, and all.
"You know, this is really, incredibly embarrassing!" he called out, listening to his voice reverberating off Jor's back teeth, and trying not to shudder. "I know there's precedent and all, but Jonah was not my idea, and frankly I always thought the entire thing was ridiculous ... are you listening to me?"
The vibrations under his ass as Jor chuckled around him were decidedly unsettling.
"Okay, Jor," he pleaded, bright and wheedling. "You win, okay? You and Cas, you win. Or, well, I suppose it could be a draw, if Loki managed to pin the little twerp ..." He stopped, as he felt Jor hum around him, and frowned. "Wait a minute ... Cas? Loki and Cas? This is ... Oh, what have you done now?"
Daylight peeked through the teeth ahead of him, and it took Gabriel a second to realise that was because Jormungandr was grinning. And then it hardly mattered anymore, because Jor was suddenly speaking, too, or trying to, and suddenly the world went very strange for a second as he went tumbling through the air, his wings flopping damply around him, while some bastard played gong with his head. There was a thump, as he hit something cold and solid, and his hands leapt out to cling to it until the world decided to make sense again.
A few minutes later, when his ears stopped ringing and the world was mostly the right way up again, he looked up from the iceberg he'd landed on to see Jor looming apologetically above him.
"Sorry," the Serpent murmured, shame-faced. "I forgot."
Gabriel blinked at him. "You forgot??" he asked, incredulously. "You try to eat me, and you forgot about it? I suppose I'm just lucky you decided to try talking, instead of swallowing!" ... Um. Actually, yes, he probably was, and wow that was a thought. Loki, darling, I'm sorry I can't talk to you right now, only your son's just eaten me. I'll get back to you once he poops me out the other end ...
Okay. As of now, he was never thinking that again. He was editing that entire concept from his consciousness. He was rewriting his memory from the ground up, and this entire incident was going straight to the cutting-room floor, and never, ever coming out again ...
"Are you alright?" a slightly sheepish voice asked, from just over his head, and he jumped, looking up to see Jor's nose a few feet away (above the teeth, why had he never noticed the kid's teeth), black eyes watching him with worry and a degree of morbid curiosity that came straight from his father, Gabriel was sure of it.
"No, I am not okay!" he yelled, poking the massive nose. "Look, I realise this is the first time you've gotten a chance to see me without your Dad being here too, but that is no excuse for trying to eat me! Honestly, if you've suddenly decided you don't like me, all you have to do is tell me to bugger off, no need to get digestive tracts involved ..."
Jor laughed at him. The bloody stupid homicidal idiot laughed at him, all warm and amused and ever-so-slightly mocking, and then the kid butted him gently, nosing up against him, and Gabriel found himself smoothing a hand over the tough hide before he thought about it. Which annoyed him no end, let him tell you ...
"I'm sorry, Gabriel," Jor murmured, massive head vibrating under his hand with the sound, but at least Gabriel was outside this time, and wasn't about to get spat out again. "I just wanted you to sit still for a while, to let Father talk with Castiel. Or Castiel talk with Father. Whatever they needed." He paused, pulled back a little to smile winsomely down at the archangel, and Gabriel stared, because no way should that look be endearing on a gigantic, be-fanged serpent who'd just eaten him, but ... "You forgive me, right? Please?"
"Hmpf!" he growled, crossing his arms for a second and scowling just to see the kid up the wattage on the smile. Then he grinned, just a little, and nodded. "You're just lucky you're my favourite," he muttered, and laughed when Jor happily bumped him half-way across the 'berg. "Now let me up, you menace, until I see what my god's gone and done to my little brother!"
"I think it's more what your little brother has done to my father," the Serpent grinned, but pulled away, letting himself start to fall back beneath the waves. "Bring them to Hel's, will you? So we can all meet him?"
Gabriel frowned, but nodded, waving as the World Serpent disappeared back into the iron seas. "Yeah, sure. See you there, kid!"
Now what had the little bugger meant by that?
***
Absolutely nothing, it turned out. At least as far as Gabriel could see, when he managed to catch up to his lover and his brother, standing across from each other on a beach of black, volcanic sand somewhere in the South Pacific. Standing close together, arms folded but shoulders relaxed, at ease as they both looked up at where he circled, and Gabriel had to admit to a clench in his chest at the sight. At seeing one of his brothers, his family, standing at ease beside his love. It was ... it was breathtaking, though he could never, ever admit that.
And, okay, there was a weird flinch from Loki as he landed, a weird shuffle as his god caught Castiel's eyes briefly and grimaced, but it disappeared again as soon as he looked back towards Gabriel, too fast to be sure what it was. Probably nothing to be worried about, right?
Gabriel scowled to himself. When he caught back up with that kid, he was going to kill him ...
"Gabriel," Castiel greeted evenly, walking over behind Loki and politely ignoring the way the god wound himself sinuously around Gabriel. Almost ... possessively, and Gabriel had to pause for a second to collect his thoughts before he could look back at his brother. Loki grinned smugly. "You look a little ... damp?"
"Heya, Cas," he managed, trapping one of Loki's hands quickly, scowling at his god. "Little bit of a misadventure in the Bering Strait, no worries. What have ... Loki! ... what have you two been up to?" Loki pouted darkly at him, wriggling his arm free again, and turned to leer smugly at the angel watching them. Gabriel glared at him in exasperation, but Castiel only smiled strangely.
"Loki has been telling me how you seduced him," the kid murmured, his eyes on Loki's face. "How you came to him while he was helpless and ... 'made him an offer he couldn't refuse', I believe?" And there was a smile lurking under the granite impassiveness of his face, a certain gleam in those oh-so-innocent blue eyes, and if Gabriel hadn't been busy turning to glare at his love, he might have been worried by that.
"The Godfather??" he asked bitterly. "Of all the things you could have compared me to, you pick that?"
Loki grinned easily, watching Castiel out of the corner of his eye. "Well, I always thought you had the jaw for it," he murmured, tracing a finger over said jaw. "And it wasn't a lie, was it?"
Gabriel grunted. "We are so talking about that later," he warned sourly. "After you've given out to your son for traumatising me for life, and after we introduce Cas to the rest of them, anyway." He grimaced at Loki's questioning look, and the sudden curiosity in Castiel's face. "Jor says I'm supposed to bring you to Hel. If ... you want to come, that is?" He asked, looking over at his brother in sudden doubt. Dealing with both Loki and Jor in one day, maybe the kid was all jotun-ed out for a while ... but Castiel only tilted his head, looking between them for a second, and nodded thoughtfully.
"I believe I would like to meet the rest of your family, Gabriel," he murmured softly, and Gabriel felt another lurch in his chest, at the easy admission. Your family. As if it wasn't a problem at all. Castiel smiled at him. "And I must tell Jormungandr that we have won, too."
Loki grimaced automatically, but Gabriel could feel him tremble ever so faintly himself. "You cheated," the god growled. "Angel's aren't supposed to cheat! Using that storm to sneak up on me was completely unfair!"
Castiel looked at him for a second, and then smiled, slow and dark and smug enough to put a Trickster to shame. "I felt that a Trickster would expect such things," he murmured loftily. "I didn't want to disappoint you ..." He paused, the humour slipping a little, and turned to meet Gabriel's eyes. "... Or lead you to believe that all of Gabriel's family are incapable of ... playing the game with the right spirit?"
Gabriel swallowed. "You ... you got nothing to prove, kid. Not to me."
Castiel smiled, very sadly, and looked Heavenward for a moment, a brief second. His eyes, when he looked back, were rueful. "Yes, we do," he murmured softly. "To many people. We have ... a great deal to prove, now."
And yeah, alright, maybe that was true, and it reminded him, too, of a far less friendly brother they'd left floating in the North Atlantic, and ... they needed to go. Now. He needed ... he needed Jor, and Hel, and their family around him, if he was going to deal with this, if he was going to let himself think about that, and he felt his arm tighten around Loki's waist by pure instinct, felt his god curl tighter around him in return.
"Let's talk about that later," Loki said quietly, watching him carefully. "First, I believe my daughter requested our presence?" A small smile, gently prompting. "It's never wise to be late when Hel calls, you know ..."
Gabriel blinked, pulling himself together, turning to smile brightly at his god as he nodded. Something flickered in Loki's features, a flash of pain, or maybe concern, before he returned Gabriel's grin and poked him playfully in the ribs. Gabriel scooped him up bride-style in vengeance, and turned to grin at Castiel, who was watching them curiously.
"Last one there has to brush Jor's teeth!" Gabriel grinned, a flash of challenge and dare, and then he was away, leaping into the air with his god in his arms, and only the glancing sight of Castiel's surprise and then competitive glower to encourage him.
That was all right. He'd never needed all that much encouragement.
***
They entered Niflheim through the North Pole, which Gabriel always found somewhat blackly amusing, since today seemed to be a day for sea-ice. There had been one brief panicky moment en-route, when they'd dropped down to pick up the unconscious Raphael and found him missing (alright, so leaving him alone and knocked-out on an iceberg hadn't been Gabriel's greatest idea), but Loki noticed a note left deep inside the ice, the runes faintly glowing to attract their attention. Turned out Hel had been keeping a little bit of an eye on them, and had picked up the archangel herself. Which gave Gabriel all sorts of chills, really, but no helping it now.
Castiel had taken the journey in stride, all things considered, flying close and steady at Gabriel's back. The archangel had looked back at him a lot, trying to gauge his reaction, but all Castiel had done was look around with narrow-eyed consideration, and faint wonder. Travelling between the Nine Worlds ... it wasn't like travelling between his Father's realms and the first sight of Hel's great halls was always intimidating, passing through the ice-bound gates and between the towering walls ... but Castiel had seen Hell in his time, too, if Gabriel remembered right, and though the kid looked suitably impressed, there was no undue worry in his expression.
Gabriel met Loki's eyes briefly, flying backwards as they watched him, and the god nodded slightly, begrudgingly impressed. Gabriel bit back a grin. Score one for Castiel the Imperturbable.
There was a figure waiting for them in the snowy courtyard just off the main hall. Somewhat surprisingly, it wasn't Hel. The Goddess had obviously delegated out, possibly because she was peeved at them for dropping a comatose archangel in her lap while they ran off to play games. Or ... possibly because the person in question had wheedled her into it, Gabriel thought with a sudden grin, once he recognised the tall, willowy young man.
"Hey, you menace," he snarled, landing in a flurry of ice as his wings kicked up the ground-snow, letting Loki down so he could stomp over and glare at the suddenly innocent expression on the youth's deathly-pale face.
"Hello, Jor," Loki added, coming up beside him to look warily between them. "Do I even want to know?"
"Probably not," Jormungandr said cheerfully, grinning at Gabriel. "Though if he wakes up tonight screaming about tonsils, I wouldn't worry about it ..." Loki frowned in confusion, looking between them for a long second, before the penny dropped and an expression of mild horror and desperate amusement crossed his face.
"You didn't," the god muttered, covering his face with his palm for a second. "You didn't!"
"He did," Gabriel confirmed, still glaring. "Oh, believe me, he did, Loki. And you are yelling him for it, or you are sleeping on the couch for the next year, I promise you!" Loki nodded hurriedly, peeking out from between his fingers as he desperately stifled a laugh behind his hands. "And quit laughing at me, you maniac! Your son eating your lover is not supposed to be funny!"
"Of ... Of course not ..." Loki wheezed for a second, and then just gave up, and gave Gabriel the full belt of his helpless snickering. "Oh, Jor, you ... There are times when I absolutely adore you, you know that?"
Jormungandr just grinned, winking at Gabriel and reaching out to pat his father companionably on the shoulder. "Of course I do, father. And don't worry, I'm sure Hel will make up a nice, comfy sofa for you, for as long as you're going to need it ..."
"A long, long time," Gabriel muttered darkly, glaring at his gasping lover, but Jor was ignoring him again, moving past them to hold out his hand to the increasingly bewildered angel behind them. Gabriel actually started a little. He'd almost forgotten Cas was there ...
"So, did we win?" Jor asked casually, his hand steady in the air between them as Castiel stared at him in some confusion. Loki quieted, turning beside Gabriel to watch them. To watch the slight tremble in his son's hand, to see the tightness in the shoulders as Jor reintroduced himself, and waited for Castiel to acknowledge him.
Castiel ... frowned, and held out a hand carefully to complete the gesture. "Jormungandr?" he asked softly, while the Serpent clasped his hand gently. Jor smiled, a little sadly.
"Yeah, it's me," he murmured. "Here, at least. I can't really move my true form, except in the tracks of my coils, so ... A while ago, some of my sister's subjects agreed to carry my mind within her halls, so that I could ... have someone to talk to, I guess." He smiled lopsidedly. "Out of love for her, you know. They really do worship her, some of them. Can be a bit of a downside, though, because ... well, there are some things I never wanted to know about my sister ..."
He trailed off, voice growing steadily quieter and quieter, looking at Castiel while he waited for the angel to ... to do something, anything. To drop his hand in disgust, or walk away, or ... or something, and Gabriel flinched inside, wanting to scoop the kid up and snuggle him. Despite his earlier outrage, he seriously wanted to hold the poor kid, and snarl at Castiel simultaneously, because if the little bastard didn't do something quick, he was going to ...
Then Cas shifted his grip, moving his hand along Jor's arm to clasp his forearm, the way comrades and brothers do, and smiled, gesturing to his own chest. "I learned many things from my own vessel that I did not care to at the time," the angel murmured quietly, mouth curling ruefully. "I will never look at hamburgers quite the same way again."
And Jormungandr smiled, shifting his own grip and holding tightly, nearly giddy in relief. "Look on the bright side," he grinned, shaking a little, bouncing on his heels. "At least neither of us had to put up with my Father as a vessel. I don't know how Gabriel managed not to go insane, all those years ..."
"Hey!" Loki cut in, from where he was curled anxiously around Gabriel, his hand wrapped white-knuckled around the archangel's, behind their backs where the kids couldn't see. "He was lucky to have me!"
"One of us was," Gabriel muttered brightly, and squeezed his god's hand. He moved to the steps up to the hall. "Not to break up the reunion or anything, kids, but you think we could head inside sometime today? My feet are freezing over here!"
They traded looks, his brother and Loki's son, the kind of look that made Gabriel question that whole 'favourite' idea, but they came readily enough. Arm in arm, at Jor's insistence and Castiel's somewhat befuddled acceptance, and Gabriel took a second to hope that this could actually work out. For all his hopes, that this one brother, of all of them, might actually have the brains to be okay with ... with this, with his family ... he hadn't really been all that optimistic. Not really. But there was Castiel, walking arm in arm with the Midgard Serpent, and there was a darkness in Loki's eyes beside him as he looked at them, a fierce protective delight, and for a second ...
Then a giant form stepped out of the shadows at the door, dark pelt soaking up the snow, and Fenrir Godslayer moved into the light, staring down at them.
Both Gabriel and Jor were moving before either noticed the other, trying to get between Castiel and the wolf. Castiel blinked at them in bewilderment, turning to frown at the newcomer in wary interest. And Loki ... Loki stayed where he was, dark eyes glimmering up at his son as he stood behind them on the steps, mouth curving in a faint and savage smile.
"Hello, son," the god greeted softly. Fenrir turned his head towards him a little in acknowledgement, golden eyes bright and deadly as they remained fixed on Castiel. Who stared back with all the intensity of a warrior, and all the curiosity of a child. Gabriel almost bounced nervously in front of him, just to break the stare.
"Hel wants to see you," Fenrir rumbled quietly at his father, still staring at the angel. "She has a guest, and she's not happy. I'd hurry."
"Right!" Gabriel grinned queasily, grabbing Castiel's arm and moving to hustle him up the stairs, intent on keeping himself between his brother and the least trusting of his step-kids. Castiel resisted. Gently, but pointedly, the angel pulled his arm carefully out of Gabriel's grasp, and took a small step back.
"You and Loki should go," he murmured quietly, watching the wolf carefully. "I will wait here." And Gabriel saw Fenrir's small, toothy smile at that, oh yes, he saw that, and no way in hell was he leaving Castiel alone with the kid ... "I will be fine, Gabriel," Castiel interrupted, turning to smile gently at him. "I am the intruder, here. I will wait until ... Hel? I will wait until Hel decides I may enter." A faint, almost reproving look. "It is only polite."
Gabriel stared at him. "Polite? When the hell did you decide to grow some manners! You are not standing out here in the snow, kid, even if Fenrir's got his giant butt blocking the door! Now come inside and quit making a fool of yourself ..."
"Gabriel," Loki said, very quietly, coming to lay a hand on the archangel's arm. Gently, but firm enough to leave no doubt of his capability for force, if necessary. "Come away. Fenrir and Jor will show Castiel to the lesser halls. We need to speak to my daughter."
"I'll look after him," Jor reassured hurriedly, as Gabriel looked between them in almost panic. "Trust me, Gabriel. We'll be fine." Which would have been perfectly reassuring, if he hadn't shot a nervous look at his brother in the same breath, and Gabriel shook his head, digging in his heels. Oh no. Not this time. He'd lost enough bloody brothers of late, and though it wasn't like he didn't trust Fenrir, not exactly, but he still wasn't about to abandon Castiel to his company ...
Castiel moved. Shaking his head at them, with the strangest expression on his face, an expression Gabriel could swore he'd seen, somewhere else, facing something else, and Castiel stepped back while Loki and Jor were blocking Gabriel's path. Stepped back, turned around, and walked slowly and steadily right up to the wolf's jaws. While Fenrir watched him curiously, while the wolf looked at him with wary, feral eyes, Castiel walked up to him, and held out one hand, as Jor had to him moments ago. Castiel held out a hand.
A shudder rolled through the wolf, as if Castiel had struck him, and a flare of shock and something else, something ancient and pained, twisted his features. Fenrir stared down at the hand the angel held out to him, and back up at Castiel's face, and trembled.
"It's good to meet you, Fenrisulfr," Castiel said quietly, his head tilted as he frowned, brows furrowing faintly. "Forgive me, if I have offended?" Confused, placid. Not a hint of fear, and Gabriel, once his heart climbed back down out of his mouth, could see the effort that took, could see the slight tightness of his little brother's jaw, the faint lift of the chin that Castiel seemed to have picked up off the Winchesters. Gabriel could see the knowledge of a threat in Castiel's stance, the hum of fear in his Grace, and the quiet, complete refusal to show it as he greeted a monster as family.
Fenrir stared at him, stared at the kid for a long, long time, while the three of them watched from the steps, coiled tight and ready for when someone moved. Even Loki, though Gabriel honestly wasn't sure which one the god was poised to defend. Actually, he honestly wasn't sure which one he was poised to defend.
Then Fenrir raised one massive paw, very, very slowly, very carefully, keeping Castiel's gaze the whole time, and gently batted the angel's hand down. Castiel controlled his flinch, tilted his head for a second in narrow-eyed consideration while Fenrir shrugged in wary explanation, and nodded. Once, quietly, to himself. He didn't raise his hand again.
Beside Gabriel, Jormungandr breathed out in relief.
"Come in if you're coming," Fenrir muttered, gruffly, and stood aside to let Castiel pass. The angel smiled, suddenly, letting the tension slip from his shoulders, and moved to Fenrir's side. He stopped once, just long enough to look back and ask "Well? Are you coming?", and walked inside with a very bemused, and reluctantly amused, godwolf.
On the steps, Gabriel traded looks with his lover and his step-son, taking in Loki's almost annoyed shock, and Jor's stunned amusement, and felt the bubble of fear in his chest burst, quietly, and fall away.
"Don't worry," he told them, suddenly fighting the urge to bounce on his heels. "He confuses everyone like that." He shook his head, feeling the grin slip out. "Always was the weird kid in the family ... don't know where he gets it from ..." And Loki glared at him, shaking his head and muttering under his breath about 'insane bloody angels', and stalked off into the hall. Jor waited for a second, sharing a small smile with Gabriel, before he shook his head and headed off after his father, and his brother, and his new best friend.
And Gabriel? Stood quietly for a second, in the cold and the snow of another world, on the steps of somewhere he'd begun to call 'home', and grinned stupidly to himself.
Okay. So the game hadn't gone exactly as planned. That was okay, though. Gabriel didn't count it as a loss.
More ... a very promising draw.
Tags: