Supernatural: Meeting the Angels

Chapter 11

The day seems to drag on for Michael. Even in the one class he is usually guaranteed someone to talk to-the one class that has other people in it-Lucifer's too busy talking to Dean to even acknowledge Michael with more than quickly "Hello" as he entered the room. Michael doesn't mind too much, though. He loves his brother, but he can get pretty annoying. At least now his remarks are directed at someone that will return the favor. Michael is actually fine with sitting alone. He's not a big people person anyway.
The thing that surprised Michael the most during the day was seeing Castiel in the hall. He knows Castiel enough to know that he would always take the most efficient route to his classes. It's just who he is. Michael also knows he's stick to a schedule, so he wouldn't have been any earlier or later than usual. Why has Michael never seen him in the hall? Better question; why was Castiel not going the same way as usual? Michael knows it wasn't him that caused the chance encounter, because Michael knows it wasn't his own fault. He sticks to his route, just as Castiel usually sticks to his.
Why does Michael even try to figure the kid out? It's nothing major, just a slight switch in his usual route. There's probably nothing to figure out, anyway. He might as well just drop the subject now.
With the last few hours of school, Michael searches the web for something to read. He isn't looking for anything in particular. It's just him trying to pass the time until school ends. He stumbles across an article about another disappearance. He's about to check out the missing person when he remembers that him hacking into government servers could be traced back to him on a school computer. It was way easier yesterday when he just copied the names of the people and searched them from home, but since he was way too much time to kill, he decided to try to find out more about the person legally. He digs through pages of articles on people with the same name until he finally finds know from a newspaper's site, talking about the ten year anniversary of a series of fires in Kansas. The article is pretty old, but it's still there, so Michael checks it out. The missing person's family is mentioned, and Michael goes through the names. There have been disappearances from families other than the ones in the article, but the only family on the list that hasn't lost someone is the Winchesters. That's too much of a coincidence to ignore, but it's too strange to act on. If only Michael listened to Chuck and Amara and didn't go searching for supernatural things that have happened. It never would have brought him to the article on the disappearances, and he wouldn't be stuck in this position at all. Michael sighs regretfully to himself and closes the tab. Maybe all he needs are some cat videos on YouTube to cheer him up.

In a strange turn of events, the entire family ends up walking home together. Anna and Lucifer bicker in the front and Castiel and Michael walk silently in the back of the group, leaving Gabriel alone. Well, he's surrounded by people, but he still feels alone. He takes chews his Starburst thoughtfully. What should he do? Ten minutes is way too long to be alone. He turns around, walking backwards down the sidewalk.
"Hey, guys!" Gabriel says energetically. When isn't he energetic? "How are you? How was school? Anything fun happen today?"
"Fine, fine, not really," Michael responds. "In that order."
Gabriel frowns and looks over at Castiel. "How 'bout you?"
Castiel just shrugs. Come on, people, hasn't something happened to you? Gabriel is getting a it discouraged. No one can have that boring of a life that they literally have nothing to say.
"How about you?" Michael asks.
"School was awesome!" Gabriel exclaims. He goes on the talk about everything that happened, from the small fight he saw in the hallway to the stupid assignment he got in class. Nothing is too small to talk about in his eyes. Michael and Castiel just watch him, no visible reaction to any of his stories. Gabriel doesn't mind. He still has something to do on the walk home, and that's all that matters to him.
When they get to the house, Gabriel is about to go in until he notices Anna and Lucifer just standing outside. Gabriel stands behind them, confused.
"What are we waiting for?" he asks.
"Shush," Anna hisses. Gabriel does as he's told. "Hear that?" she whispers.
Gabriel does hear it. It's something he'd never heard before. Chuck and Amara are fighting. They never fight. More than that, though; they're yelling. They yell at the the kids all the time, but never at each other. Even though Gabriel can't make out the words, he knows it's a passionate argument by the time of their voices.
"I don't think we want to go in there," Anna says.
"They'll stop fighting if they see us," Lucifer says. "I'm sure of it."
"Just because they wouldn't be fighting doesn't mean they'd be fun to be around," Anna reminds him.
"Well, what else do you want to do?" Lucifer demands. "Just stand around outside for an hour or so?"
Gabriel interrupts, his suggestion less to help the group and more to have fun. "We could see if we could go over to the Winchesters'. I'm sure they'd let us hang out with them for a while."
"Gabriel, you can't just ask someone if you can go to their house," Michael tells him. "It's rude."
"Sam told me we should hang out later," Gabriel protests. "I don't see why we shouldn't."
Anna nods. "Yeah, I'm sure Dean wouldn't mind either. He's pretty chill."
"Yeah, sure," Lucifer agrees.
Everyone looks at Michael. No one bothers to ask Castiel; he wouldn't go against the three of them. Michael glances around at all the eager faces, everyone waiting for the person in charge to decide. Michael is always in charge, though Gabriel isn't sure why.
Michael sighs. "Alright. You can ask, but if they say no, it's not my problem."
Gabriel grins proudly. He knew he could get Michael to agree. He whips out his phone and calls Sam, who finally picks up on one of the last rings.
"Hey, Gabriel!" Sam greets him.
"Sam! Long time no see!"
"It's been hours!"
Gabriel chuckles. "Hey, there's s bit of an issue at our house, so any chance we can hang out with you guys?"
Sam's voice changes at that; it becomes serious as he says, "What do you mean, issue?"
"Just a little civil brawl," Gabriel replies vaguely, quoting Shakespeare without thinking about it. Stupid English class, getting in the way of his normal dialect. "Nothing too big, I'm sure, but still not something I'd like to be a part of."
When Sam hears that, he seems to calm down a bit. "Oh, okay. I'll ask Dean." Gabriel hears muffled talking and then, "Dean says 'sure' but we can only fit three people in the back of the Impala, so we can't pick you up."
"The Impala?" Gabriel repeats, confused. What the hell is an Impala? It sounds like the name of a Broadway musical.
"Dean's car," Sam explains. "If you guys can get here on your own, though, feel free."
"Alright!" Gabriel agrees. They do have a car, even if they don't bring it to school. It barely fits the entire family, but if it's just the five of them, the only problem is choosing seating. Wait, there's one more problem. "Where do you live?"
Gabriel mentally writes down the address and room number and tells Sam they'll be there soon. He hangs up and relays the good news-Sam said yes-and the bad news-picking seats.
"Shotgun!" Anna and Lucifer both say at once. They glare at each other.
"Okay, how about Lucifer drives and Anna sits shotgun, so you both get the front seat?" Michael suggests.
"But I want shotgun!" Lucifer complains. "I don't want to have to drive!"
Michael sighs. "Alright, either you drive or you both sit in the back and I drive."
"Lucifer, you're driving," Anna announces.
"No way," he protests, probably just because Anna wants him to drive. "Come on, back of the car for you."
Anna glares at him as she crawls into the very back row. Lucifer sits in the middle row directly in front of her, so they can't argue because they can't really see each other. Gabriel crawls into the seat next to Lucifer in the middle. He doesn't really like he idea of sitting up front. Sure, he can drive, but if he doesn't have to, he would like to avoid the possibility of being attacked by the air bags. Michael hops in the driver's seat and pulls out his keys. Why he had those on him, Gabriel will never know. Castiel sits shotgun, which seems to piss Lucifer off even more because Castiel doesn't even care about sitting shotgun.
"Hey, you lost your chance to sit up front," Michael reminds him, and they're off to Sam and Dean's house, using Michael's phone as a GPS. It's a good thing he has it, because when Chuck and Amara realize they're late, Michael will be the one they contact.
Apparently, their house isn't really a house at all. It's not even an apartment, as the room number would make it seem. They're living in a motel, of all places. It doesn't even seem like a good one, either. It's pretty worn down, even from the outside, and Gabriel isn't sure he wants to see the outside. Michael leads them to the room number they were given, and Gabriel knocks on the door.
Almost immediately, Sam opens it, a big smile on his face. They share a hug before Gabriel steps in, followed by his siblings. Dean is sitting on the old, worn out couch that looks like it's also a pull-out bed, and not a very comfortable one at that.
This is where they live? Gabriel had expected them to at least appear to have a home, but there are suitcases stacked by the door as if they're ready to leave at any time. Nothing seems to have been taken out other than the laptop on the table, which is too small to be used for much. There are four chairs around it, but if each person sitting in one had a plate, they'd be pretty close to overlapping. Over all, it seems like the crappiest place in the city to stay, and it's far from a suitable permanent home.
"Welcome to our humble abode," Dean says, looking up from the couch and gesturing with his arms lazily. "Make yourselves at home, and no fighting, because I don't want to be held responsible for anything that gets broken."
"Wouldn't your parents be held responsible?" Lucifer asks. "You know, being the adults of the place?"
"Our dad's away on work," Dean explains, "so I'm the adult here, which means I make the rules, so... Don't do anything stupid, basically."
"He might have a bit of a hard time with that," Anna mutters. Lucifer glares at her, and she gives him an innocent look. Gabriel just rolls his eyes. Not this again.