Saying Gabriel was aggravated was an understatement. He couldn't believe Michael had put him in charge of looking after the fledglings. It was far below what the archangel should have been doing with his time. He watched as the fledglings flew around, enjoying their time in the garden.

The archangel just sat there brooding. His eyes scanned over the group and he spotted one of the fledglings by himself inspecting one of the flowers. This was odd. Usually the fledglings were learning to control their newfound wings, not studying the flowers. Gabriel decided to go and check it out.

As he neared the fledgling, he noticed it was Castiel, the youngest of all of the fledglings here. Gabriel had never really had much contact with his youngest brother but he had heard things about him from his other siblings. The kid had a tough life ahead of him. Gabriel stood next to him and looked down at the flower with him.

"Flowers more interesting than flying?"

The fledgling looked up at Gabriel. A slight look of fear grew on the young fledgling's face.

"Don't worry kid. I'm not going to hurt you."

"But Mikey yelled at me the last time I looked at the flowers. He said I was s'posed to fly and to ignore the flowers. But I can't."

"Well Mikey can be a meany-face sometimes. I'm speaking from experience." Gabriel grinned as he noticed one spread across Castiel's face. "I'm Gabriel by the way." The angel had never spent time with this little fledgling so he wanted to be sure that Castiel knew who he was.

"I know dat Gabwiel. Mikey said mean things about you."

Gabriel took a seat so he was closer to Castiel's height. The archangel smiled over at the fledgling who seemed to be studying him as intently as the flowers.

"He said you don't care about anyone but you."

Gabriel let out a sigh. "He was lying. I care about all of my brothers and sisters."

"But lying is a sin and Mikey would never do that."

"It's because he probably thinks that of me. He doesn't see everything you know. Like how beautiful the flowers are for instance."

This caused a grin to spread across young Castiel's face, which in turn caused Gabriel to smile. He now understood why this little angel would grow up to be one of the most important angels in history. The little fledgling then started to go on a rant about how pretty how the flowers were and how different. Gabriel just sat and listened completely forgetting that there was a whole garden full of younger brothers and sisters he was supposed to be attending to.

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Gabriel headed back to the garden for another day of watching the fledglings. This task had gotten a little easier since he started spending time with Castiel. There was just something about the way that fledgling seemed to be so excited by some of the simplest things intrigued the archangel. He'd grown quite fond of his youngest brother.

Today the archangel was lying on his back, young Castiel next to him, as the fledgling chattered on about the trees. Gabriel looked over at Castiel as the fledgling yawned. It made Gabriel miss the days when he still needed to sleep to grow. It made avoiding Michael so much easier sometimes.

He tensed up as Castiel scooted closer to him as he drifted off into sleep. Gabriel was not used to this so he didn't know what to do about the little fledgling that was now using him as a pillow. When he looked down at Castiel he smiled though. He slowly brought his arm around his youngest brother. Regret started to fall over Gabriel as he thought about how important Castiel was going to be to the future of human kind. All that came out was a simple "I'm sorry" which would never make up for what was to come.