Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

Raphael had always been easy to spot from a distance, you could tell it was him from the bright auburn curls, the wide smile and the warm laugh so loud with joy you could hear it from any distance. 

As Gabriel stood next to Raphael amongst the stars his brother had created they were both silent, with no wide smiles, no cheerful laughs that were brighter than the lights of heaven, just silently staring out into the bright nebula. 

“There’s going to be a war, isn’t there?”
 
Gabriel looked over the angel to his right, who had finally broke the silence between them. He wasn’t sure how to answer his brother's question, where honesty would only lead to worry but leaving him out of the loop could be dangerous. 

“I’m not sure, something is brewing and I don’t think anyone really knows what” he replied with a half-truth, better than nothing, better than everything. 

“Do you think she knows what?” Raphael asked back. 

“Yes” Gabriel gulped “I'm quite sure she does” 

Raphael’s brow furrowed as he scowled down, his foot kicking away at nothing. 

“Why doesn’t she tell us then? Why does she leave us wondering till it’s too late to do anything?” The auburn-haired angel muttered back.

This left Gabriel with a sense of unease, he had seen what happened to Lucifer, most angels had, and if they hadn’t they were bound to see the couple of angels that fell from the height of heaven not long after him. 

“I’m sure she would tell us if we really were to know” Gabriel paused not sure where to take his words from there. Silence filled the pair soon after. 

“People will get hurt Gabriel, even us” the younger archangel had whispered out. 

The angel turned to Raphael only to be met with the sight of the worried archangel, with arms wrapped around himself and his wings a disorganised mess. Gabriel really wished he hadn’t said anything. 

“I won’t let them” Gabriel responded to the younger’s worries. 
“I swear to you now Raphael, not a hair will be touched on your body or mine” 

He sighed, clenching his arms tighter.

“I’m sure you will Gabriel it’s just” Raphael exhaled, annoyed at not being able to find the right words. 

“No matter how I much try I can’t understand”

Gabriel raised his eyebrows, listening to the angel's worries come out. 

“You can’t understand what?” 

Raphael vaguely motioned to what surrounded them. 

“Her. Her plans, her creations I just don’t understand why she lets them suffer for things she won’t share” he scowled.

Gabriel reached around to wrap an arm around his brother's shoulders.

“I’m not sure Raphael, Her plan is great, it is wonderful and it’s all we need, and if we must suffer slightly for the result then it must be for a reason” he had hoped these words would soothe his brother’s mind, but they had not. 

Pulling his brother tighter to him and laying Raphael’s head on his shoulder, he continued. 

“Even so I won't let you suffer for it, not even the tiniest bit” he looked down at Raphael as he said this, preening the ruffled-up parts of the younger one’s feathers. 

Raphael nudged his face into His brother's shoulder further but otherwise seemed more relaxed. 

“Are you sure Gabriel” 

Gabriel smiled at the angel. 
 
“I’m sure of it” he answered back.

“We’ll be alright”

They weren’t, 6000 years had passed had he still felt insanely foolish for swearing about something he couldn’t hold through on. 

Gabriel had mourned for him longer than he probably should, he wasn’t sure when Michael or Uriel had managed to move on, but he thinks he’ll be forever stuck in that moment. 

It’s almost like one of those human contraptions that play on a loop, if Gabriel isn’t focused on work or anything then he starts thinking and then that leads to remembering. 

It was almost sickening when Raphael’s corpse was wrapped in a white sheet and carried off, it was similar to that of a newborn human being swaddle before handed off to its mother, except Raphael’s life wasn’t beginning it had just ended, and he wasn’t going to his mother, their mother was nowhere in sight through the war. 

At the point in the war when he had died, the battle was too far in action to have time to give proper burials, and so the bodies were normally carried to the farthest point of conflict and left until there was enough peace to properly mourn. 

Raphael’s corpse never made it too there. Nor did the corpse of the person who carried him. 

Gabriel leaned back into the couch Beelzebub had picked out for their home, leather similar in style to those you’d see in a human tattoo shop but comfier. 

With nobody to send off the archangels had made a memorial of sorts instead, nearby to ones of similar nature for other ranks who had passed in battle. Raphael’s was for him and him only, seeing as he was the only archangel who was killed in the war. 

Gabriel had spent countless days there sitting, from what he had seen of earth's culture the archangel’s tomb effigy reminded him of a painting he had seen, of the girl in one Shakespeares plays that certain principality had gotten fond over in his time. The hair surrounded the stone's head similar to that in the painting and Gabriel had yet to decide if that was a good thing or not. 

He could feel the seat next to him fill in and a couple of flies landed on his shoulder. 

“Your quiet angel, what is it?” He could hear Beelzebub's voice call out from next to him. 

He turned to look at them. 

“Sorry dear, was thinking” he smiled slightly at them. 

“No, you weren’t, not the good kind anyways, you always make a slight noise, normally humming” They looked him in the eyes with a stare that said nothing else but “tell-me-what’s-wrong-or-else”. 

He sighed and leaned into Beelzebub’s warmth.

“Do remember much about the war, before you fell?” he asks staring up at them. They stiffened slightly at the question but nodded. 

“A little” 

He continued, “My brother, Raphael, the archangel, he..” he paused for a moment. 

“He passed during it” Beelzebub clutched onto his hand. 

They didn’t answer for a long while. 

“I’m sorry” they finally spoke. 

“It’s alright now Beelze, It’s been 6000 years, but I sometimes can’t help but think what he was thinking of before he passed” he replied, rubbing their hand with his thumb. 

“I swore to him Y’know” he gulped “that he was safe, that he wouldn’t suffer and that we’d be alright” 

He stopped as he took in Beelzebub’s face, he wasn’t too sure what they were thinking but it was like some sort of horror or guilt they weren’t revealing. He continued to voice his thoughts. 

“I wonder if he was mad at me, in those final moments, if he was annoyed I couldn’t keep to my word, that I wasn’t there to protect, I know I am” Beelzebub inhaled sharply before moving to play with their rings. 

“I know he wouldn’t be” they answered back 

Gabriel chuckled softly before bringing up Beelzebub’s hand to lay a kiss on it. 

“How do you know?” He smiled at them, expecting them to smile back up but instead, he was met with a face of concentration yet slight unease, as if they couldn’t decide whether or not to say what they were thinking. 

“I just do” they quickly replied, if Gabriel had an alarm system in his head it would be blaring out, reading “code red: something is wrong with Beelzebub”. 

“What is it dear? What’s wrong?” He turned to face them fully, one leg on the couch. 

“I don’t know if I can say” they replied quieter this time. 

He shook his head. 

“Beelze, there’s no heaven or hell anymore for us, We’re done with them now, you can tell me anything, even if you swore not to, to some demon” he smiled warmly at them as he said this. 

They shook their head quickly and laid their hand over their mouth as if to stop it from opening up and telling him all. 

“I can't, it wasn’t just any demon I swore it” 

Gabriel’s eyebrows creased with worry

“I don’t care if it was Satan himself who made you swear to it, I would gladly take him on if it means you’d be more comfortable telling me” 

They smiled at Gabriel sadly but shook their head. 

“It wasn’t satan, angel” 

“Then who was it? Whoever it was I can deal with them if they’re making you feel this torn over it” he gripped their hand comfortingly. 

They look at him before blurting out an answer that would change everything. 

“It was him, Raphael”

Gabriel had never had silence sting quite like this. Everything almost came tumbling down in his mind, his brother? Raphael? Fell? The same angel who would heal a fledgling’s broken wings? The same one who would shout him over the show him his newest addition to god’s garden? Fell? 

He wasn’t sure what to think, he was relieved, so incredibly relieved all he could think about was how he survived and where was he, was he safe? What if he wasn’t? What if within the time this conversation took place something terrible had happened to him and he was taken from him again by death?  

All of these thoughts blurted out and before he knew it Beelzebub was guiding him to sit back down. 

“You need to try and calm down, you won’t be able to understand what I’m saying if you aren’t,” Beelzebub said softly. 

“How” he stopped trying to breathe “How do you know him? Where is he now?” 

Beelzebub looked down.

“He helped me when we fell” they explained. 

“I recognised him from the stained glass window of the archangels by one of the offices and I knew him as he was the ginger one always trailing after you”  

“He was kind even after he fell, as much as a demon can be of course” They had a sour look on their face that showed up whenever the fall was mentioned, and so Gabriel asked another question. 

“Do you still know him? Can you take me to him?” He asked desperately. 

Beelzebub looked at him and nodded, and before Gabriel knew it they were on the streets of Soho London at about 11 pm. 

There was a slight drizzle of rain and puddles had begun to form on the side of the street. 

Further along the dark road Gabriel could spot the sleek black-coloured Bentley belonging to the demon Crowley, and it didn’t hit him why they were walking towards it till they were only but a couple of feet away from the automobile. 

“Beelzebub you’re telling me that…” his thoughts trailed off as everything pieced together, the hair now shorter and darker from burning sulphur, the high cheekbones sprinkled with the lightest freckles, the nose, the mouth, everything. He felt stupid for not realising he was Raphael, his poor little brother when it was so blatantly obvious since the start. 

“Yeah, he’s the one” and with that response, Gabriel ran the last distance to the car to peer into the passenger seat window, in hopes that familiar face would peer up at him with that bright wide smile once more. 

Instead, he was met with a sight that was not pretty

Chapter Text

There, with his head tilted against the window legs curled up to his chest, was Crowley or Raphael, if you could even refer to him as such.

There was no angelic grace to be seen with the way he was passed out in the passenger seat of the black Bentley. Bottles were thrown half-heartedly into the back seat, a couple remained in the front. His bolo tie hung over the steering wheel and his plants had started decaying in the back. A song was quietly playing from the car's stereo but Crowley didn’t seem to hear it.

Gabriel peeled his eyes away from the image of the trashed interior of the car onto a small green bottle he could see grasped in his brother's hand, its old worn label peeling off from age. It was different from the others in both size and shape, the bottles of wine in the back all had long green necks with fancy labels and clean, polished-looking glass surfaces, whilst this one was small about the size of a palm and its glass had a dusty look, similar to sea glass.

He could hear Beelzebub's sharp inhale and that was his cue to open the door.

Crowley leaned his head to rest against the headrest as the car door slowly swung open. Shaky breaths came from the demon's mouth and Gabriel could faintly hear him mumbling.

He looked to Beelzebub as to what to do next but even they had a puzzled yet concerned look on their face.

“Ta’e wa you wan jus- jus, not the plants”

Crowley’s drunken mumbles became slightly clearer and Gabriel leaned to place a hand on his shoulder. Crowley began to shake his head and turn away at the offending attack.

“Raphael it’s me, it’s me, it’s Gabe” he whispered to him.

Intoxicated mutters of “no” filled the air as Crowley shrunk in on himself.

“I’m goo’ I’m good ‘ere” his black sunglasses lay on his face but slipping underneath them he could see a water-like substance run down his high cheekbones. Tears.

Gabriel was lost as to what to say, he didn’t know how to comfort him or how to take it all away, if he could, he would. In a heartbeat

The Bentley continued to sing out lyrics of some song that Gabriel could faintly recognise from his time in the bookshop.

‘Bring it back, bring it back,

don’t take it away from me’

Gabriel tried to wrap his thoughts around what was going on and quickly come up with something to say in response to Crowley’s continued mutters of “m ‘kay”

‘Because you don’t know what

It means to me’

He finally found the courage to speak.

“No Raph, you’re not okay, you’re not good here. Not at all” he rasped out.

“C’mon we’re gonna move you, we’re gonna take you somewhere good, just hold on to me”

Gabriel began to pull Crowley up and out of the car, arms underneath his armpits to support him, but before he could start walking with him he felt the demon stop and lean into the angel's chest. Cold, shaky hands clutched the back of his light grey jacket and he could feel the smaller body shake before he heard the choked-out sobs.

Gabriel looked down at the head that buried itself in the crook of his neck, the weight of the drunken demon pulling them both to the wet, cobbled ground.

He could feel the man’s sobs shake his frame and the sound of it made Gabriel feel like he had to hold back his own. He could faintly see Beelzebub crouch down next to them from the corner of his eyes.

He lay a hand on the back of Crowley’s head and gave a few comforting shushes, hoping that god would take pity and quieten Crowley’s pain for his brother. He could hear the faint sound of the small bottle crashing against the curb of the street after falling out of Crowley’s hand. He held onto his brother tighter.

“He left”

“He left me”

Gabriel’s eyebrows creased in confusion.

“What?” He softly asked his brother.

“He left and it was cause of me” Crowley’s sobs breaking the sentence apart. “If I didn’t tell him, if I didn’t k-“More heart-wrenching sobs stopped him from finishing the sentence.

“Raphael look at me, look at me, nobody’s leaving, nobody’s gonna leave you” Gabriel replied not truly understanding his brothers cries. Crowley buried his head deeper into his neck as if he was trying to hide away and escape something.

“I loved him, I loved him more than Earth, I loved him more than anything” Crowley gasped out, Gabriel pulled away to hold his brother's face in his hands. His defining auburn hair which lay length-wise just under his jaw, stuck to his face with salty tears and his pupils were blown wide, something not typically a symptom of drunkenness.

“Gabriel” Beelzebub said.

He looked over to them as if to ask what.

“He’s not just drunk, he’s poisoned” They held up the label of the small cracked bottle, it read out.

‘𝐿𝒶𝓊𝒹𝒶𝓃𝓊𝓂”

Gabriel’s eyes widened, and he looked back down at his sobbing younger brother, if stayed too long in his system then he would discorporate, perhaps even quicker with the amount of wine in his system to join it. He couldn’t bear the thought of what hell would do to him if Crowley lost his corporal form.

“Raphael, listen to me carefully, We need you to sober up, now, please brother” Gabriel pleaded. Crowley's chest seized before he started repeating “no” again, more tears leaking from his eyes.

“Yes you can Raph, you have to,” Gabriel said.

“No no, please, please” Crowley cried on, clutching his hands into the fabric of the angel's jacket.

“Please don’t make me, I can’t, not now” Crowley pleaded.

“I don’t want to think, please” he quieted down as sobs racked his frame.

“Gabriel if he can’t do it himself we will have to make him do it the human way” Beelzebub looked over to him, they had a look on their face, like they were debating whether or not to come closer to the demon in his arms.

“If it will help him, we’ll do it” Gabriel concluded.

Beelzebub's face scrunched up before they whispered an apology of sorts to the drunken man. Before they snapped their fingers.

Gabriel had quickly managed to lean Crowley out of the way before the contents of his stomach poured out from his mouth, a foul sharp smell filled the air as Crowley heaved over onto the pavement, a choking sound followed as his vomiting was interrupted by his sobs. Eventually, Crowley was done and leaned into the warmth of his brother’s shoulder. They sat in silence, not for the first time that night.

Gabriel reached round to pat Crowley's back before he guided him off the ground.

“Come on, we will take you somewhere safe, somewhere far off from here” Gabriel soothed.

“I’ll keep you safe this time.”

Crowley had managed to walk a couple of steps away from the car before Gabriel decided to just carry him. He couldn’t help but wonder if this was what it would have been like to hold him then, a white sheet wrapped around a pale, cold body, carrying him to his final resting place. No one noticed if he gripped his brother's passed-out body tighter.

“We’ll take him back home, he can rest there.” Beelzebub supplied, eyes looking anywhere but the auburn-haired demon in his arms.

Gabriel glanced down at his brother, pale skin stretched over old bones, ginger hair in a greased-stressed mess, freckles gone, no wide smile. You could have mistaken him for the corpse he was 6000 years ago.

“Yes, yes I think that’s best.”

Chapter Text

Gabriel had laid Crowley down on the guest twin-sized bed Beelzebub and he kept in the spare bedroom. He tucked him in similar to how he did when Crowley was just a fledgling.

His brother lay there, hands cold and pale, face flushed with drunkenness and his reddish hair splayed out on the white pillowcase. His eyes were closed and he was far into sleep, you could almost mistake him for being peaceful if it wasn’t for his hands clenching tightly onto the bed sheets or the way his neck was turned that Gabriel just knew would cramp up during his sleep.

He sank into the chair he pulled from the desk in the corner and soothed his thumb over Crowley’s veined hand. Crowley’s left hand slowly loosened its tight grip on the sheet which brought peace of mind to the angel.

Gabriel was convinced he could write a list of all the questions he had about Raphael/Crowley, and wrap it around the world twice with the length of it.

He couldn’t even begin to ask his wonders aloud, he wouldn’t know where to start. It was out of character for him. He was always quick to speak, quick to answer, quick to respond. Whether it was keeping on top of God's challenges and orders, relaying them to the lower stationed angels, or if it was before the fall, guiding Raphael by the hand, explaining their creator's plans, or new creatures and plants names for the garden, or why their older brother lucifer had been so distant. The point is that Gabriel was completely lost on what to do, there was no sweet auburn-haired angel to guide anymore, nor any work to bury and hide himself in.

He looked over to the now fallen Raphael and felt a wave of grief, not the same type that filled him before, different, he wasn’t mourning Raphael’s life, his soul, but instead his happiness and what remains of his brother.

Gabriel had met Crowley before, he was snappish, sarcastic and full of spite, unless the angel Aziraphale was around. Gabriel’s heart swells with pain for what could have happened for him to fall, for him to be this shell of the kind, bright, young angel that Raphael was.

He felt two hands softly land on his shoulders, slightly massaging them through his light grey jacket. He lifts his head to be met with Beelzebub’s welcoming face. Gabriel swears they must have been sent to him by the lord as a way for him to find peace. For Gabriel, Beelzebub is the only thing he’s managed to hold on to, but maybe that’s because Beelzebub holds onto him just as tight.

“Has he always been” Gabriel gestures his hand to the resting demon. “Like this?”

Beelzebub thinks over their answer “Kinda, I mean the little shit’s always been one to drink but I’ve never seen him this bad, there was one time he got dragged back to hell, for stopping a girl from joining us, some point during the 19th century, damn bastard drunk the same poison then as he did tonight, if I can remember he discorporated halfway through being dragged down, made the trip a lot quicker.”

Gabriel grimaced at the thought of the demon antics, he heard Beelzebub sigh and glare at Crowley as though they had had to deal with things like this for far too long.

“You said he helped you when you both fell,” he said. “Please Beelze, please tell me more, if, of course, you can.” He leaned back and held their hand, he could hear their heart thudding deep inside their chest, they mobbed round to sit at the end of Crowley’s bed. Facing the archangel.

“It won’t be easy, Most angels from lower ranks can’t remember much of their fall, or that of before, but I can try to explain what I can.”

They took a sharp intake of oxygen before they started talking.

When angels fell in the war it was incredibly uncommon to fall by yourself, typically it would be in groups of about 10-120 angels at a time, This led to the bottom of hell becoming crowded very, very quickly.

Hundreds and hundreds of what would now be called demons, piling on top of each other, grasping at anything within reach, hot boiling sulphur sticking broken limbs together. The smell of burnt skin and feathers filled the air.

Eventually, after more bodies showed up, people began to use them in aid of their Climb, with no sympathy for those who wailed or prayed for forgiveness.

The fallen angel, who would soon go by the name Beelzebub, dug their sharp nails into the rocky walls of hell, They couldn’t remember how long it had been since they were sent down here, but they could no longer see the pile of demons at the bottom of the pit, who had given up on any chance of escape.

Their fingers bled from the rough texture of the stone wall and what used to be their wings sizzled black from the sulphur that remains. Every now and then you could hear the screams of angels falling, before you would see them plummeting past you, sometimes knocking people from their grasp on the wall as they did.

Very quickly you learned that no matter how mad you were, how spiteful, how selfish, everyone else was feeling that just as much as you were. So it came as no surprise that people started kicking and pulling other demons off the sides of hell, so they could get higher up themselves.

Beelzebub would be lying if they said they hadn’t played dirty tricks like that, but it was hell, you couldn’t survive if you didn’t.

They climbed up some more, their legs heavy, their left one limp and broken from their fall, but they continued. They placed their right hand upon a thin ledge, immediately shivers went down their spine, and their instincts were screaming at them to remove their hand, they pulled themselves up to look at the ledge and were met face-to-face with a small snake, its yellow eyes piercing as if to say “don’t come any closer” and it’s black and red scales shimmering from the fire that lit up the depths of hell.

Their stare-off lasted a couple of seconds, both of them frozen, unsure whether or not to wait for the other one’s move.

Suddenly the snake shrunk its neck back into a defensive stance and Beelzebub turned as cold as the corners of hell, where he’ll fire had yet to reach. Suddenly the snake sprung out, jaw opened wide, and Beelzebub squeezed their eyes tight. They felt something grip their ankle and a sharp scream sound out, They inhaled quickly waiting for the pain to come but it never did,

They peered down to see the snake's fangs dug deeply into the hand of a demon who had attempted to pull Beelzebub down and off the wall, the demon yelled out in pain before losing their footing and falling back into the pit they had climbed up from.

Still frozen, Beelzebub waited for the snake to latch its jaw onto them next. They could feel it slither up their back, curling around them so it wouldn’t fall too. Its head rested on their shoulders and Beelzebub’s eyebrows shot up as the snake hissed out its command.

“Continue up”

And so Beelzebub did.

It wasn’t long before they made it to a small cave, the perfect place to recover for a while until they were ready to continue their ascend.

Beelzebub had their back to the cave and was staring at the snake, who was curled up near the front of the cave, looking down at the demons climbing up.

They weren’t sure what to say, In hindsight, it was rather stupid for the animal to help them, demons don’t help others, why should they when no one else would help them? Beelzebub could very easily push the snake off from the edge of the cave where it sat, prove the thing a lesson on what is and is not going to pass in hell.

Again, there was something about the thing that still warned Beelzebub off, so instead they sat down and let the snake take watch. They still couldn’t help but let their thoughts buzz about wild in their head, it surely couldn’t hurt to let some of them slip out.

“How does an animal like you even fall? Is it because you’re one of Lucifer's creations? Are there other such creatures down here?” They asked with a snarl, hoping to perhaps scare the creature into answering.

The snake whipped its head around quicker than the speed of light, Beelzebub swears if it were an angel or demon like them it would have a very affronted face on.

“Animal? Animal?!”

It hissed out dangerously

“Why is that not what you are? A creation made by one of the higher-ups? A snake is it?”

Beelzebub hissed back, confused about the snake’s reaction.

If a snake could scoff it would’ve have.

“I am no animal, not like that anyway”

Before Beelzebub could ask more the snake had started to shift, slowly changing form. Before Beelzebub knew it a long, auburn-haired demon was sitting hunched over where the snake once was, its sickly yellow eyes remained.

“An animal? Really, and lucifers creation? Don’t tell me he’s taking credit for that one”

The former snake rambled on, his hair whipping the air and he stormed about the cave, Beelzebub couldn’t quite place it, but he felt familiar, not in the way they’ve met them, but in the way they should’ve seen them before, that everyone knows them.

“I mean, he talked about it a lot so I just kinda assumed, look I’m sorry, actually I’m not- do I know you?” They interrupted themselves, unable to hold back their curiosity.

The snake/demon’s eyebrows raised in shock before they scowled over at Beelzebub.

“No, you don’t” they snapped back.

Beelzebub wasn’t going to take that as an answer.

“Bullshit, you’re so bad at lying who are you?”

“Stop, you don’t know me, end of”

They stared each other down, praying the other would back off before the other, Beelzebub scanned the Demon's face, seeing if they could see under the surface.

This lasted for who knows how long as Beelzebub shuffled through their few memories until it hit them.

Countless times they had walked through the halls of heaven, and countless times they had walked past the array of stained glass windows decorating the walls, but there was one that always drew their attention.

A massive piece, depicting God's very first angels, the archangels.

Lucifer and Michael stood at the top, their stern exteriors glancing down at you, you could almost feel their power and grace through the piece of art.

Gabriel stood in the bottom left of the stained glass window, his dark hair curled down to his shoulders and his purple eyes shone with confidence. In the bottom right stood Uriel, their hair cut short and their eyes shown kindly down at whoever was viewing the glass art piece.

And standing in between them all, was the archangel Raphael, a toothy grin spread wide across his face, his auburn hair curling against his cheekbones and the corner of his eyes crinkled in glee, his golden irises glistening with the light of the stars shining through the window.

It was those same eyes that were glaring into Beelzebub’s at this moment.

Except there were many changes from the bright, young, angel in the stained window.

Those golden eyes were now a more sickly yellow, with slits for pupils, his skin a sickly pale shade with slight snake-like scales on his cheekbones and forehead, and his cheeks had sunken into the point of looking corpse-like. But alas it was still him.

“Raphael?”

Immediately, like a fledgling who got caught in a lie, the fallen angel paused before panicking, reaching over to shake Beelzebub’s shoulders.

“Shhhh! Don’t say it so loud!” Raphael angrily whispered, quickly leaning over the edge of the cliff to make sure no one had overheard.

“You know people aren’t a big fan of higher-ups nowadays, fallen or not?” He shook their shoulders some more.

“I saw a throne get torn apart at the bottom of the pit, torn apart! By bare hands!” Raphael exclaimed. “The only higher-up they don’t mind is Lucifer himself and that’s because he started this mess”

“A mess? This isn’t a mess this is freedom!” Beelzebub bit back.

“This isn’t freedom, this is torture, eternal torture.” Raphael glanced down, kicking a stone as he did so.

He sighed before continuing, “It doesn’t matter, we’ve fallen now, no amount of climbing will get us away from here.”

Beelzebub thought for a moment before an idea clicked into place.

“But it will show us as capable” they announced. “Think about it, if we show we have to power and the strength to pass and take over everyone else, Lucifer might give us some power around this place, keeping us safe from the same fate as that throne”

Raphael looked back up at them “I don’t what power? I want away from all this!”

“Then I’ll make you a deal” Beelzebub barked back in response. “If you watch my back as I continue my climb, then I’ll make sure your little archangel thing keeps hidden, so you can continue, slithering and crawling about hell as much as your little heart desires.”

Raphael looked at them wearily, “you swear?”

Beelzebub holds out their arm, “You have my word.”

And so Raphael shifted back into his scaled form, wrapping himself around their arm as they continued their ascend.

“And I did, I kept my word till now, I got my higher-up status, he got his hidden identity, and it was left as that.” Beelzebub finished off.

“Did satan ever find out?” Gabriel asked.

“No, I’m not sure he ever did,” Beelzebub said, before smiling and chuckling lightly.

“I gave him his name Y’know? Crawley started as a nickname but when satan eventually asked for the name of the demon on my shoulder I panicked and just said Crawley without really thinking, believe me” They laughed, “he was not happy.”

“I can’t imagine he was, explains why he changed it” Gabriel laughed back.

“Oi! It was a clever nickname! Cause he was crawling about hell when I found him!” Beelzebub teasingly elbowed the archangel.

“Clever? It’s simply just noticing how he moves! You gonna start calling me walkey?” Gabriel bellowed out in joy.

After both their laughs died out Gabriel went back to watching over Crowley, making sure nothing could possibly disturb the demon. You could honestly confuse the angel as a watchdog in this moment. He could hear Beelzebub pull up a chair before laying their head on Gabriel’s shoulder.

“He’ll be alright” they sighed “I’m sure of it”

“How can you be?”

They smiled into the archangel’s shoulder.

“He’s been through hell, literally, he can take on anything.”

And with that the room was filled with a comfortable silence, Crowley’s short breaths filling the room with background noise, the sound of it reassuring Gabriel that his brother is alive, and would be well soon.