Soldier Boy

Chapter Twenty

They stayed like that for a while, not moving. Just breathing each other in and taking in the fact that they finally had each other back.

When they finally pulled away, they moved inside, the other kids already sitting around the living room in silence. When the three youngest saw their brothers, they leaped up. Cas launched himself at Gabriel, both hugging each other tightly. Anna buried her face in Lucifer's chest, her arms wrapped tightly around him as she cried a bit. Lucifer cradled her to him, shushing her quiet sobs as he rubbed her back.

Balthazar hugged Gabriel once Castiel moved away, also having missed his older brother. They'd been close when he'd run off, and Balthazar was probably the only one who had known why Gabriel had run. He'd known it was coming longer than anyone had realized. Balthazar had known he'd wanted to run ever since Lucifer ran.

Balthazar and Gabe separated, moving back to the couch with Castiel. Anna wasn't letting go, so Lucifer just scooped her up in his arms and sat on the couch with her in his lap as her arms just tightened around him.

Amara sat awkwardly among them, the remaining five children all looking at her with confusion. Chuck stood before them, drawing their attention back to him in the middle of the group.

"Now, I need to straighten some things out with all of you. There will be no more beating each other up. If you go out with friends or to someone else's house, I will be notified. No more sneaking out. Also, no one in this house will be discriminated against by anyone else for who they are attracted to. No one administers any punishments but me. Do I make myself clear?" Chuck said, his voice stern and commanding.

All the children nodded in agreement.

"Now, Michael, Raphael, I want you both to apologize to all of your siblings individually," Chuck ordered once he'd been satisfied that all his children had agreed.

With grumbling from Raphael, Michael started. "I'm sorry, Lucifer, for beating you up when I found out you were gay. I'm sorry, Gabriel, for making you feel afraid in your own home. I'm sorry, Balthazar, for beating you up if you sassed me and yelling in your face when you had headaches. I'm sorry, Anna, for yelling at you when you had headaches and making you be afraid as well. And I'm sorry, Castiel, for hitting you and yelling at you so much." Michael apologized, actually sounding sincere. Perhaps he hadn't known that what he'd done had been wrong.

When Raphael didn't start, Michael elbowed him with a well-meaning glare sent his little brother's way.

"I'm sorry, Lucifer, for treating you bad. Sorry, Gabriel, for being a jerk. Sorry, Balthazar, for punching you and stuff. Sorry, Anna, for being scary. Sorry, Castiel, for beating you up." Raphael apologized grudgingly, sounding considerably less repentant, but still with some level of sincerity.

Chuck smiled at the two, then turned to look at all of them again. "Now, I want you to meet your aunt, Amara. She'd my older sister. I haven't seen her since we were in high school. We were separately when she ran away," Chuck said, looking to his sister with a sad smile.

All the children turned to the mysterious woman, curious. "Why did you run away?" Balthazar was trying to be as polite as possible. Even Lucifer and Gabriel didn't know, and they'd spent years with her.

"My parents ignored me, and I couldn't take it anymore," Amara admitted, her voice tight even after years of time to come to terms with it. The children winced; sure, Chuck never explicitly ignored them, but sometimes it felt a bit like that. Especially the month after their mother died, the month after Lucifer ran off, and the month after Gabriel ran off. The bitter, sad feeling still housed itself in their hearts, years later. It was a horrible, but bearable feeling. Like a dull ache that never went away and became a sharp, unbearable feeling when they thought about it too long.

"Our parents... They didn't understand her," Chuck tried, but failed, to explain further.

"They idolized your father- for good reason- and lost interest in me. Then I started acting out to get attention. That's when they thought I'd taint him. They hated me and made your father hate me, too. Everyone ignored me. I was tolerated, but I could feel their disdain. So I left," Amara told them honestly, shrugging by the end. Chuck's head was bent in shame at his weak nature as a child, having gone along with everything his parents had said. They'd made her out to be the villain, but really, she was the victim of emotional neglect.

"I'm so sorry, Amara," Chuck murmured, letting all of his guilt and sadness shine in his voice.

"I don't blame you, baby brother. You were a naive child. I blame those two." Amara spit the word, as if it disgusted her. Chuck averted his eyes, unable to look at her fiery gaze. It was hard for him to think of his parents like she did- they'd both loved him, had cared for him, and made sure he wanted for nothing as a child. It was hard to remember that wasn't the experience Amara went through, and that her childhood had been robbed from her.

"If you want, you boys can still go to college," Chuck murmured, changing the subject, his eyes moving to Gabriel and Lucifer, who sat next to each other and apart from Raphael and Michael. Anna was still curled up in Lucifer's lap, and Castiel and Balthazar sat near them.

"Really?" Lucifer asked hopefully, having dreamed of getting to expand his knowledge and better himself more than the uneducated mechanic he had been. It had been an honest living, but a hard one. Chuck nodded, smiling.

Lucifer had always been a shining star in school, living up to and even exceeding the expectations that the teachers had set based on Michael's success. Michael had been the golden boy in school, taking all sorts of advanced classes and maintaining his GPA- a 4.0. Lucifer had dreamed of becoming a doctor, and had been crushed when he had to give that up for one major reason: you had to finish high school to go to college.

Now, he could. He just had to take some classes to finish up school.

His life could finally get back to normal.

Or at least, as normal as your life gets with the name Lucifer.