They Never Learn

Let's talk about angels. Pretty big topic, right? A pretty controversial one at that.

So, angels are pretty badass, okay? They're soldiers. Warriors of God, all that good stuff. Ruthless, wrathful. Here to do the work of God.

Wait, hold on a second. Did you say something? You already knew all that? 

You've already heard this story before? Huh. Guess I should've known. Hmm.

Well, in that case, I'll bet that you don't want to hear that story again, huh?

To be honest, I don't either. I guess that just means it's up to me to tell you a story you haven't heard then.

Right.

Wait. . .Here, I got it. Let's go back, er, a while, shall we?

Heaven wasn't always full of strong, wrathful soldiers. The angels weren't always obediently doing whatever it was that God commanded. They were, however, always a dysfunctional family.

"Gabriel!!" A voice yelled, echoing. Castiel easily recognized the angry voice.

Here we go again. Castiel thought, rising clumsily to his feet.

The voice was close; he could hear the angry muttering not far from where he was.

Before long, he saw just what he thought he would, for the most part. He recognized the familiar angel standing there. He also recognized the frustrated expression on the angel's face. God knows he's seen it enough times. 

What he was not prepared to see, though, were the angel's wings: the feathers a blindingly bright red.

"Balthazar?" Castiel asked, voice small and quiet, like usual. "What happened to your-" Balthazar focused his look on Castiel, making the younger angel stop mid sentence.

"My wings?" Balthazar finished Castiel's question, flicking his strangely colored wings. "Gabriel happened to them." Castiel had figured that much. This wasn't the first time something like this had happened, and those two brothers always seemed to be at the heart of it.

"How about you give me a hand to get my wings back to normal?" Balthazar said, pointing a finger in Castiel's direction.

This resulted in the young angel only able to tilt his head and narrow his eyes.

"You want my help?" Castiel questioned.

"Sure." Balthazar stated simply. "Why not? And, I don't really think any of our other brothers or sisters have any more patience for me or  Gabriel."

"I don't think I'll be of too much help." Castiel muttered sheepishly.

"What was that? You'll have to speak up, brother." Balthazar said, taking a step closer to Castiel, who cleared his throat.

"I said, I'm not sure I'll be of too much help." He said, slightly louder this time.

"Really are a rather shy one, aren't you?" Balthazar chuckled quietly, while Castiel looked up at him with his big, blue eyes. "Don't worry. It's nothing hard." Balthazar continued.

"I'm sure Gabriel used some sort of spell. What I'm not sure of is what spell, exactly. All I need you to help with is figuring out what kind of spell he used, and how to reverse it. Simple enough, right?" Castiel shrugged. "You seem pretty intelligent, this should be no problem." Balthazar went on.

The two brothers had spent a good deal of time looking for the way to reverse the spell Gabriel had stowed upon Blathazar. Balthazar had seemed fairly impressed by how much the young angel already knew about everything. Castiel had always been eager to soak in new information about that sort of thing, and spent much of his time doing so.