Chapter 39

"Lucifer!" Gabriel calls through the halls of the bunker. (Hehe that rhymes) No answer. "Lucifer!" Nothing. "Luci!" Nope. "Luce!" Nada. "Luci, where are you?"

He'd hop between rooms to look, but he hasn't seen Sam and Jess yet today, and with his luck, he'd stumble upon them in bed before he finds his brother. Sam would probably be in his room, but it sort of became both their rooms, so maybe Sam left it alone in case Gabriel went in there. As if he would even consider going in there again.

"Luciiiiiii!" Gabriel whines. "Pay attention to me! I'm bored!" Did he pick up on Lucifer's childish ways, or vice versa? "Where are you?"

He wanders the halls until he decides that his brother is ignoring him, and decides to knock on all the doors before peeking inside.

Knock. Empty. Knock. Empty. Knock. Empty. Knock. Emp — not empty. Lucifer lies on the floor on his stomach, an Xbox controller in his hand. In front of him, the game is displayed on the wall instead of a tv. He doesn't even look up when Gabriel enters, his gaze on the people he's shooting instead.

"Here you are! I've been looking for you forever!" Gabriel exclaims, sitting next to him. "Whatcha playing?"

"Call of Duty zombies," Lucifer replies without looking up.

"Ooh, fun! I wanna play!" Gabriel says excitedly.

"No."

"What? But — but you always let me play with you," Gabriel reminds him. "You can't just... not!"

"Go away, Gabriel," Lucifer mumbles, clearly not really focused on his brother.

"But I wanna play zombies!" Gabriel whines. "Gimme a remote!"

"It's called a controller," Lucifer tells him.

"Whatever. Why can't I play? You always let me play with you! Luci, why —"

"Because I said so!" Lucifer practically yells in frustration.

"But —"

"I told you to leave me alone!" Lucifer snaps. "Go talk to Michael or something."

"Can't," Gabriel tells him. "Mikey's in the middle of something." Well, hopefully. Knowing him, it's not going to happen any time soon. "I'd tell you, but I think he might kill me."

"I honestly don't care," Lucifer replies. "Just leave me alone."

"But ?" Gabriel whines, reminding himself of little Anna from when Elsa didn't want to get up, before they made an Olaf. He spends too much time watching movies. It's a problem.

"Because," Lucifer replies, his voice dangerously low, "if you don't, I will break each and every one of your vessel's bones, one at a time, until they are shattered beyond recognition."

Knowing his brother like he does, Gabriel decides that leaving is his best plan of action. "Mm'kay, well, I'm gonna go..."

He teleports away with the flap of his wings, appearing in the war room again. Sam and Jess are here now, and Gabriel carefully avoids looking at them, eyes locking with Michael's instead. Gabriel tilts his head inquisitively, and Michael shakes his head slightly. Gabriel nods once in understanding and walks up to him.

"Hey, Mike," he greets his brother, then adds, "Hey, Jo," as an afterthought.

"Hey," she replies with a polite nod of her head.

"Do you need something?" Michael asks.

"Yeah, actually," Gabriel replies, then continues in a whining tone, "Luci's ignoring me! Make him stop!"

Michael sighs. "We're not fifty anymore, Gabriel. If you and Lucifer aren't getting along, sort it out yourselves. I'm not the peacemaker anymore."

"But he's being mean!" Gabriel whines. "He's always being mean. Not my problem."

"But —"

"Why would you to hang out with Lucifer?" Jo asks as if the idea is ridiculous, and, to her, it is.

"Because he likes ," Gabriel replies, then adds, "Usually. I don't know about right now. A happy Luci is a fun Luci, though."

"'Lucifer' and 'fun' don't belong in the same sentence."

"Okay, what is going on with you two?" Gabriel asks. "I mean, I get that he got you killed, but come on. He's not bad."

"he's not," Jo says sarcastically.

"You know what? I'm not even going to bother," Gabriel decides, throwing his hands up in exasperation. "You two are beyond help. So, I'm gonna go try to get Lucifer to talk to me, and you two go back to be you two."

"Why?" Jo inquires. "Lucifer obviously doesn't want to talk to you. You might as well hang with us. At least we like talking to you."

Gabriel just shakes his head. "Nah. I've gotta go save Lucifer from his inevitable death by loneliness."

He claps Michael on the back and gives Jo a smile before flying back to see Lucifer.

"Luci, I'm home!"

Lucifer just groans. "I really hate you sometimes," he mutters under his breath. "Can't you just leave me alone?"

"Nope!" Gabriel plops down next to his brother. "So, can I play now?"

Lucifer sighs and hands Gabriel his controller. "Knock yourself out."

Gabriel cocks his head in confusion, but it all makes sense when Lucifer disappears. Well dammit! Gabriel puts down the controller down on the floor and stands up.

Now where does he go? Where would go is the better question. But he's far from made himself at home here. He doesn't have a safe haven here. Welp, that makes this much more difficult. He'd ask Michael, but he's already decided he'll leave his brother and Jo alone. Michael probably wouldn't know, either, now that he's thinking of it. So how's he supposed to find his brother?

Gabriel decides to just hop through rooms, because why not use his angel perks? Nope, nope, nope, nope, nope, nope, nope, nope, nope, nope, nope, nope, nope, nope, nopenopenopenopenopenopenopenopenopenope —

"Oh my gawd," Gabriel groans. He's literally been trying to get his brother's attention for . It's practically sundown by now. Wait, is it?

He flies around for another few seconds until he finally finds a clock. Wow, he spent a lot less time looking for Lucifer than he thought. This is around sunset, right? It's early in the winters in North America? He's been so many places, it's hard to keep them straight.

Can he watch the sunset? Would Chuck let him, if he's just sitting on the roof? Probably not, but it's worth a shot. He flies up to the roof with a single flap of his wings.

Seriously? All that hard work, and Lucifer was on the ?

He hasn't missed the sunset yet, which is nice. He's seen enough of them to be able to guess that he still has about five minutes until the sky begins to change colors.

Gabriel walks over to his brother silently. The older angel looks up at him from his spot lying on the roof on his back, sighing to himself. Gabriel lies down next to him wordlessly. Lucifer watches him out of the corner of his eye for a moment, but when it becomes clear Gabriel isn't going to bother him, he returns his focus to the sky.