AN: General disclaimer. Characters you recognise, I don't own; characters you don't, I probably do. This is not a chaptered fic so much as a series of ficlets I've written, for one reason or another, about my headcanon for Gabriel's past. Most of them are either pre-Fall or Earthbound eras. No pairings.

mischief

There were tiny little messenger angels everywhere, almost all still fledglings but given to Gabriel to train. These were the siblings that delighted in enthusiasm, in passion, in love. Gabriel flicked his wings and sent one spinning into the middle of a sun, and a moment later the smaller angel burst out of it again with a corkscrew, his Grace radiating delight and glee and his body trailing wreathing streamers of gas and heat after him. Another two darted in close to Gabriel's wings, radiating the 'me! me! me!' demand so strongly they didn't even need words. Broadcasting amusement, Gabriel cupped them both and tossed them into another sun.

He felt Raphael approaching long before the other Archangel's shock radiated through space. Most of the younger angels faltered, hiding in the sun and in amongst Gabriel's wings. Those that didn't still stopped uncertainly, hovering behind Gabriel. "What are you doing?"

Lazily Gabriel catapulted a half-dozen of his siblings into the nearest sun, turning to broadcast bright, innocent amusement at his older brother. "We're making space-paintings," he answered guilelessly, and with a sweep of his wings scattered dust and particles all around the area. With a flick of another set he picked up Anachiel. "Go on, show your elder brother!"

With a ripple of his Grace that was the equivalant of taking a deep breath, Anachiel let himself be thrown into a sun. A moment later he burst out of it with chunks of plasma and gas cupped in his wings, and as he spun, rippling delight and laughter, he flung it all outward as if scattering it on the black canvas on space.

"Isn't it beautiful, Raphael?" Gabriel asked, and hid his laughter as he felt his older brother's Grace waver between acknowledgement of that undeniable fact and the chastising them for leaving sun-particles scattered everywhere. Gabriel spread his wings, whispering, unheard by Raphael, to his siblings still hidden within them; then he said cheekily, "Want to give it a try, big brother?"

He didn't really get a chance to answer. Fledglings exploded from all over Gabriel, mobbing a startled and rather alarmed Raphael all at once. With a thrust of his wings, his Grace humming with amusement, Gabriel helped them shove Raphael into the sun behind him. It flared brighter than anything the cherubs could produce and each of them shot out of it in all directions, followed by swirling trails of heat and gas, and calling joyfully to one another on ripples of their Grace alone.

The star dimmed as Raphael hauled himself out of its centre, his wings dragging particles after him, and Gabriel laughed again, long and loud, at the irritation in his brother's Grace. With flicks of his wings Raphael tried to get rid of the clinging gas, but he was still well-covered by the time two more angels swelled out from Heaven into the space.

This time there wasn't a single one of the cherubs which didn't hide, pressing up against Gabriel so closely it was hard to tell where he ended and they began. His wings rustled reassuringly along them.

"Gabriel," Michael said, his tone and Grace filled with passive but fond exasperation as he watched Raphael gather his Grace and apply it with more force to the particles still on him, causing them to slide off easily. "If I recall, it was Father's order that you train our younger brothers. Not ... what areyou doing?"

"Space-painting," Gabriel said promptly, just as innocently as before. Beside Michael, Lucifer wasn't even trying to hide his own amusement as he regarded Raphael, though he didn't say anything. At least, not out loud; but Gabriel felt a tendril of his brother's Grace reach out with a silent suggestion.

'Have you considered that Michael may deserve a similar bathing?'

The nearest of Gabriel's wings curled tight to his central body in hidden mirth. 'As a matter of fact, brother, I have.'

"How were you to know Father didn't have anything planned for this solar system?" Michael asked patiently.

"I asked?" Gabriel suggested, deliberately making it a question, and then abruptly both he and Lucifer flipped their wings and sent their eldest brother into the second and larger of the two suns in the solar system. The sun exploded; Michael erupted from it with a roar, dripping plasma and gas, and sending a wave of it back on a spluttering Raphael. The two un-bathed Archangels fled, cherubs cupped protectively in the younger's wings. Gabriel's Voice boomed laughter all over the cosmos while Lucifer held his amusement tightly close, tempered to a blinding edge which only fed his younger brother's mirth.

~ finis