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Michael didn’t “fidget”. He was an archangel, a soldier of a God, the current leader of Heaven. He led armies, rained the might of heaven upon blasphemers, and sang the songs of angels. He didn’t
fidget
. Yet, here he was, fidgeting
shifting
uncomfortably as he stared at the little angel before him.
Castiel.
The angel was an unusual one, obviously. Not just any angel could weasel their way into both Gabriel and Lucifer’s good graces. Gabriel said that he liked the ones with some personality in them, the ones he said were “handcrafted” and not “mass-produced”, which. Rude. Lucifer drawled on about how he liked angels with some “fire in ‘em”. Aka, the ones that annoyed Michael the most. Raphael--who was, admittedly, a bit boring--claimed that as long as the angel followed orders, he didn’t really care. Liar. Even he had shown some interest in Castiel--but then again, it was kind of hard not to. See, the fledgling’s innate curiosity wasn’t the only odd thing about him. The child had black wings.
Now, colorful wings are not in themselves a curiosity. The Seraphim always had some color in their wings, and there were even a handful of regular angels that had colorful wings. Castiel wasn’t a Seraph, though. And no angel had wings like his. The most pigment he’d seen on an angel’s wings were Anna’s, and even then, the red was mostly covered by rich browns. Most angelic beings had pure white wings--not a single one had had rich, almost iridescent black wingspans. Their coloring was nearly on par with an Archangels--something Michael would never admit, of course. It’s just. What the fuck. They were eerily similar to the now-dead Archangel Cassiel’s wings--long story short, about three other Archangels had been killed in the fight against The Darkness--and if God was somehow using this fledgling as a tribute , well… in the words of Gabriel, “Dick move, bro.” An unlikely possibility, but one that made Michael all the more uncomfortable.
Michael closed his eyes and pinched the bridge of his nose. He didn’t want to be stuck babysitting the little fledgling. Really, he and Raphael avoided them altogether. But Lucifer had just insisted that they bring Castiel along on one of their routine checks on Earth (had to make sure everything was following God’s plan and all), and five minutes after they all arrived on land… poof. Gabriel and Lucifer had flown off to who-knows-where, probably planning on doing who-knows-what. Leaving Castiel here. With him.
Michael groaned.
Childish, yes, but he couldn’t be The Adult all the time. And it was just one little fledgling here with him, so--
Wait.
Michael whirled around, suddenly very aware of the fact that Castiel had been completely silent while Michael’s eyes had been closed. The child was gone. How--he’d been right here . Couldn’t take just a moment for his self-pity. Fucking--fledglings. Worse yet, curious fledglings who couldn’t just stay put for like five seconds. Maybe Lucifer and Gabriel were fucking around with him. It was terribly in character, unfortunately.
“Lucifer? Gabriel? Do you have Castiel?” He turned slowly, trying to see through the jungle thicket that surrounded him. Today had been important, at some point or another--the first fish would drag itself onto dry land and lay its eggs. For this reason, Michael and the others had landed in a lush green jungle situated close to the ocean. The smell of sea salt was usually pleasant, but Michael was in one of those moods where everything is terrible all the time, and that included the ocean. “Gabriel, I swear to God…” Michael muttered to himself as he pushed his way through the trees. “Castiel?” He called, tentatively. No response, though, because nothing can ever be easy now, can it?”
Michael continued to grumble to himself as he went, making various oaths against fledglings, angels, and his brothers, when he heard a distant splashing. Not waves-against-rocks kind of splashing, either. Running-through-the-waves type splashing. Castiel . Michael hurried out of the thicket and was startled into stillness when his feet quite suddenly hit the sand. He was never going to get used to this place. Earth . Castiel, though, seemed to be less stilted by the natural world. He was running around on the sand, occasionally splashing in the very shallow pools of water littering the beach. Michael heaved a sigh--half annoyance, half relief--and marched over.
“Castiel.” He called, putting on his best you’re in big trouble, mister face. Castiel startled and looked up, mouth forming a silent ‘O’. He hadn’t slowed down, though, his feet still moving through the hot sand gracefully. Michael was about to command the fledgling to halt and return to him, when he saw it. It . He’d barely had time to snap his wings powerfully--propelling him closer to Castiel--and grab the angel’s shoulder. Castiel’s foot was raised mid-step, toes dangling over a small, scaled creature pulling its way onto the sand. Michael heaved another sigh--this one very much a sigh of relief --before tugging Castiel away from the little fish.
“Don’t step on that fish, Castiel,” He chastised. “Big plans for that fish.” He angled a stern look at the angel. Honestly, though, it definitely came across more as tired . The angel looked at the fish for a moment before turning back to the archangel.
“Plans?” He asked, cocking his head to the side slightly. The question was clear, but Michael just rolled his eyes.
“You will learn about it when you are older.” He answered, knowing that it definitely wasn’t what the angel wanted to hear. After a second, Castiel mimicked the expression, rolling his eyes and letting out a huff of frustration. Michael blinked in surprise.
“I’m thousands of years old.” The fledgling muttered, pouting slightly. Michael scoffed.
“And I’m eons old, so.” He retorted. Castiel huffed again, but relented. Michael nodded, satisfied, and spun on his heel, motioning for the angel to follow. He only made it a few steps before Lucifer and Gabriel were landing in front of him, grinning ear-to-ear.
“Howsit goin’, Michael?” Lucifer drawled.
“Did we miss the fish?” Asked Gabriel, surveying the beach.
“Lucifer, Gabriel. So kind of you to grace us with your presence.” Michael muttered. Then, after about .2 seconds of deliberation, he dropped the whole Eldest Brother bit. “Seriously you two, what the fuck? Where did you even go?” Gabriel shrugged, while Lucifer just grinned.
“Not important. Anyway--is it out yet?” God, Lucifer so was impatient.
“Yes. It’s over there.” Michael turned and pointed at the little gray blob, which had made its way to a small pond of water and was probably preparing to lay its eggs.
“Gross.” Gabriel said, before immediately marching over to touch it.
“Such an odd little thing,” Lucifer remarked, trailing after him. Michael agreed, but he was still kind of pissed so he didn’t say anything. Castiel was really too large to properly carry , but Lucifer still grabbed his arm and swung him onto his back, situating it so that he was sitting on the archangel’s shoulders. ‘Piggy-back ride’, he called it (though swine did not yet exist). Castiel immediately protested to the new arrangement, but Lucifer ignored it. He continued his trecc to the little fish, stopping on the edge of the pool where it resided. “I don’t understand why Dad made this such a thing , y’know?”
“Overhyped.” Gabriel agreed with a short nod. Michael just rolled his eyes. He wouldn’t verbally doubt his father, of course, but privately, he somewhat agreed. This whole humanity project seemed a bit frivolous, but. Whatever. This was their Father they were talking about--what else could they expect?
“I just.. Want to step on it. Or something. This whole thing is so dumb.” Lucifer muttered, angsty as always. Michael snorted.
“Castiel already did.”
“ What .”
“Almost. I almost stepped on it, but Michael stopped me from killing it--”
“Barely.” Michael retorted. “I wouldn’t be surprised if you did wound it.” Castiel squinted at him, as if trying to decipher if what he said was a joke or not. He looked slightly worried. Gabriel leaned over the water and let out a low whistle, shaking his head.
“Wow, Cassie. You seen this thing? Shoulda just put it out of its misery.” He joked. Castiel crossed his arms on Lucifer’s head, glowering around at all of them.
“This is not funny.” He muttered. Lucifer cackled.
“We’re your big brothers, kid--get used to it.” And Michael decided, as he watched his brothers stare at the little fish (sans Raphael, who hadn’t deemed the event important enough to attend) that he didn’t mind being included as one of Castiel’s ‘big brothers’. Not really.