Where Is God? - Sabriel

v (ery sorry this is so long)

Gabriel and I left school early together to go to his house to pick up things for them to stay the night, and then to pick up his younger siblings from school.

"Are you sure your parents are okay with all of us turning up on your doorstep?" He asks as he goes through the kids' drawers, folding pyjamas into a bag. He's been self conscious about coming to mine, I can tell. He puts up a front to hide his insecurities most of the time, but there are fault lines, and this is one of them.

"I'm absolutely certain. My dad isn't home at the moment, and I'm not sure when he'll be back, but I'm sure it won't be anytime today."

Gabriel looks at me, his eyes wide and searching. Something in his demeanour changes inexplicably.

"Your... your dad isn't around a lot?" He asks, voice sounding strained.

"He has these jobs and disappears for a few weeks at a time. So no, he's not really around a lot," I confide in him. "I actually don't like him that much. I don't really like talking about him."

Gabriel's lips twitch into a smile, eyes understanding. "Let's agree to never talk about our fathers then."

I tilt my head, watching him put the last few bits in bags. "Do you not like your father either?"

"You could say that," he mumbles. "Do you want me to take any food with us? There are a lot of us and I don't want to make you feed us all."

I stare at him incredulously. "Of course not. We'll feed you! Don't bring any food."

"Are you sure?"

"Yes, I'm sure, Gabe. I'm not going to invite you to my house and let you starve. Who do you think I am?"

He grins, but his insecurities are still just below the surface, shining through. "Yeah, you're a pretty nice guy."

"Yes, I am. You ready to go?"

"Yeah, come on."

We leave his house, going towards the kids' school. He only needed a backpack to put pyjamas in, so we're travelling light.

"What about your mum?" I ask him as we walk next to each other. We're walking close together, the backs of our hands almost brushing, but not quite. He's so close but so so so far away.

"Ahaha. Yeah. No," Gabriel says, voice dripping with sarcasm.

"What does that mean?"

"It means... I don't know," he says with a smirk. "The only reason I know I have a mother is because it's genetically impossible to not have one. I have no idea who she is and dad never talked about her, so I never asked. It's kinda weird actually, because I'm the third oldest, and I can't remember the younger threes' mothers either. They just kind of... appeared one day, I guess. I don't know if we all have separate mothers or the same one. Either way, fuck knows," he explains with a wry smile.

I smile sympathetically. "That's kinda weird yeah... do you mind not knowing who she is?"

He shrugs, taking a lollipop out of his pocket. I think he does that when he's anxious, and I realise maybe I've pushed too far, especially given his silence.

"How many siblings do you actually have, Gabe?" I ask instead.

"Uh... Five. That I know of."

"That you know of?"

He smirks and shrugs again, sucking on his lollipop. "Like I said, lots of mysterious women. Who knows how many Novaks there are running around the place?"

I laugh a little, doing a mental count of all his siblings I know about. "Wait, so there's Castiel, Michael, the two little ones we're going to pick up now. Who's the fifth?"