starandrea (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
starandrea) wrote in ![[community profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/community.png)
starsfic2010-07-05 12:57 pm
starandrea) wrote in starsfic2010-07-05 12:57 pm
Entry tags:
"it's not how good you are, it's how bad you want it" (mark wills)
This is why I have trouble with prompts: I get so distracted by the story that I forget what the challenge was. This was going to be about the Supernatural characters being in a band, right? Well, Dean has a microphone, Cas has an appropriate t-shirt, and Sam and Gabriel spend some time on the bus.
Actually on the bus, not "on the bus."
Bingo square #3: "Other, band"
(All prompts from![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-community.gif)
au_bingo ~ custom card.)
Stage Show
The roar of the crowd came from somewhere beyond blinding lights and the edge of the world, currently defined by the stage. Sam was surrounded by drums. He was pretty sure that was bad. Dean had a microphone, though, and he thought that was probably worse. Even if he was using it to yell instead of actually sing, Sam figured it couldn’t be long.
He stood up. He was done with this.
“Gabriel!” he shouted. The name was mostly lost in the chaos, but he was wearing a headset and he could tell everyone on the stage heard him. At least it wasn’t broadcast to the entire stadium. “Gabriel! Show yourself, or so help me, I’m carving your name into a wooden stake!”
Like it would matter, but he’d spent a long time planning ways to kill the trickster. He’d burned that face into his brain along with kill stats and potential weaknesses. Times like this it still wasn’t easy to think of him as Gabriel, the archangel who could only be brought down by another archangel’s sword.
The mic had gone dead, but he could hear Dean’s voice in his ear yelling for Cas. Of course. Because Cas was always on the line, always there in any universe, ready to swoop in the moment Sam faltered. Ready to take his place at Dean’s side.
He was aware he wasn’t at his most rational right now, but he thought maybe someone could cut him some slack.
Then Dean was next to him – or not-Dean – whacking him on the back of the head and twisting his headset out of the way as he leaned in close. “Really, dude?” Dean shouted in his ear, and Sam could almost hear him over the sound of everything. “What the hell did he give you?”
“Nothing!” Sam shouted back. Because it was true, not because it was the smartest thing he could have said. “Where is he?”
“Can you play?” Dean yelled. “Can you have your little freakout later, or is this a thing now?”
There was only one real answer to that. “This is a thing,” he insisted. “I need to find Gabriel!”
“Okay, dude, whatever.” Dean yanked his own headset back around and said, “Cas, Sam’s messed up on something. I gotta get him out of here.”
“If you’re not back in six minutes,” Castiel’s voice replied, “we’re going to intermission.”
“Yeah, okay.” Dean was already hauling him up, draping an arm around him like they were off on some other crazy stage adventure, and it was so weird that Sam just let him do it. Dean ignored the crowd, ignored the headset while Cas ordered everyone else around – presumably to cover – and hustled him off.
Really, Sam thought? Cas was Dean’s stage manager? That was kind of hilarious.
“Okay, look,” Dean said, shoving his headset all the way down around his neck. He waved away two security guys and even Cas, who swept past them in a flash of black jeans and a black t-shirt with the word “BOSS” on it. “I get that he’s all rebellious or whatever, and he’s not hard on the eyes when he loses the smirk, but anyone who screws you over like this is bad news, okay?”
“Dean, he didn’t do anything.” Sam ducked away when Dean reached for his head again, but he just pushed the headset down and did something that maybe silenced his mic. “I just need to talk to him.”
“In the middle of a show?” Dean demanded.
“Now,” Sam said, because he wasn’t taking as much flak as he’d expected but he didn’t want to lose momentum. He didn’t want to forget what he was doing just because Dean got all solicitous on him. “Right now.”
“You called?” Gabriel was lurking, and he had wings so of course security wasn’t paying any attention to him.
Dean saw him, though, and he scowled. “No groupies backstage.”
“He’s not a groupie,” Sam said with a sigh.
“I’m really not,” Gabriel agreed. “Trust me, I’m so far from being a fan.”
Dean glared. “Fuck my brother up and I’ll slice you into tiny pieces, asshole.”
“Okay, go,” Sam told him. “Go back to Cas. I’m fine.”
“You better be fine onstage in four and a half minutes,” Dean said.
“I will be,” Sam lied. “I just need to talk to him.”
Gabriel watched him go, bright amusement on his face. “He thinks you like me, Sammy.”
“Yeah, well, he’s about as real as the white rabbit,” Sam snapped, “so his opinion matters a lot. Tell me what’s going on or I’ll find a way to drag it out of you.”
“What’s going on is that I am trying to do you a favor.” Gabriel rolled his eyes like Sam was the one who kept messing everything up, which Sam didn’t appreciate in the least. “You fall on a sword for someone, they feel kind of an obligation, you know? You’re just so hard to buy for; you have no idea.”
“I don’t want any favors,” Sam told him. “Get me out of here right now, Gabriel. I mean it.”
“Yeah, sorry. No can do.” Gabriel frowned a little, like it still surprised him. “I’m trapped, see. So as much as I’d love to snap my fingers and send you back, it’s pretty much all I can do to keep you ahead of the net with me.”
“The net?” Sam repeated. “What do you mean, you’re trapped? Where are we?”
“Not entirely sure,” Gabriel admitted. “And if you don’t think that’s weird for me, we’ve obviously never met. I do know where we aren’t, and that’s anywhere good, so welcome to the bad side of being old enough to be this awesome.”
“The bad side,” Sam said. He wanted to add, there’s a good side? but he could hear the crowd noise climbing again and he really didn’t think they had a good enough story if Dean came back. “Look, let’s do this somewhere else.”
“Bet you have a bus,” Gabriel offered. “Wanna find out?”
If they didn’t have a bus, Gabriel had just snapped them into someone else’s really fancy traveling home. Sam had a lot of other things he wanted to know more, so he didn’t ask. “You’re trapped,” he said, trying to ignore their surroundings. “Why am I trapped with you?”
“Enemies,” Gabriel said, flopping down on the leather couch. “That’s the bad side. If you’re curious. Turns out some of them are still pissed about this war I started a while back. Funny thing, witness protection... not as effective as it used to be.”
“Gabriel.” Sam glared at him. “Why am I trapped with you?”
This time there was no eye roll, and Gabriel’s smirk had entirely disappeared. He stared back at Sam with an intensity that might have been disconcerting if Sam didn’t, oh yeah, order angels around on a daily basis. “You really don’t remember?”
“Would I be asking if I did,” Sam snapped. He didn’t bother to make it a question.
“You apparently took exception to Samael trying to kill me,” Gabriel said bluntly. “Threw yourself in front of the knife. Thanks for that, by the way. Looked really painful. Appreciate you sparing me.”
“I threw myself in front of a knife?” Sam echoed.
“You’ve got to stop repeating me,” Gabriel told him. “I think we can all agree, one of me is enough.”
“That’s ridiculous,” Sam said. “I’d remember. And seriously, getting between you and a sword? Does that sound like something I would do?”
“Sam, it sounds exactly like something you would do.” For just a moment Gabriel sounded tired, and Sam blinked. “Now if only me returning the favor was something I would do, it’s possible that I’d be a little better at it. As it is, we’re stuck with what we’ve got.”
He was surprised enough to ask, “Which is?”
“Which is me trying to keep my bloody sister from killing me over children that shouldn’t exist!” Gabriel snarled. “Your soul is trapped in her stupid game with me. I have no idea how to get you out, but I do know what will happen if you wind up between us again.” He didn’t wait for Sam to ask. “Serious non-existence. And not the fun kind with gags and binding, either.”
Sam frowned. Gabriel believed enough of what he was saying to joke about it. “Would it help if I said I’m not planning to jump in front of any more swords today?”
He didn’t think it would, but it was a start.
“No,” Gabriel said.
Sam shrugged. “Yeah,” he said, because who knew where that left them. “That’s what I figured.”
“Gabriel.” Cas’ voice was just suddenly there, in the bus with them, and Sam gave up on surprise. It didn’t look like he was getting answers any time soon. “You found him.”
“Go away,” Gabriel said irritably. “You’re just making it easier for her to track us down.”
“Cas,” Sam said, because this Castiel had wings and if he was really on the outside then there were things he should know. “Jophiel showed up and told me to leave Gabriel, to let him go. Those your orders?”
“No,” Castiel said. “That couldn’t have been Jophiel.”
“Yeah, it was,” Sam said. “I can tell the difference. She may be trying to help me, but she’s not worried about him.” He jerked his thumb at Gabriel, who looked totally indifferent.
“Everyone is trying to help you.” Cas might be talking to him, but he was definitely giving Gabriel the hairy eyeball. “Samael and Gabriel are both gone. You’re the only one we can reach, and it’s – ”
He vanished without any more warning than they’d had the last time, and Sam turned on Gabriel. “What was that for!”
Gabriel wasn’t lounging anymore. He was right up in Sam’s space when he turned around, phantom wings giving him all the height no one else could see. “Angel-free zone, kiddo.” Gabriel was staring past his shoulder, small and dwarfing Sam all at once. “We have two minutes and I have five questions, so keep your answers short.
“I’ve been hiding you places I know,” Gabriel continued, not waiting for him to agree. “Unfortunately, since the fallen had their happy family reunion, Samael knows what I know. Can I use your memories instead?”
Sam didn’t like the sound of that, but he wasn’t really sure why Gabriel was asking. If angels needed permission to ransack his brain, that was news to him. “Since when do you ask?”
Gabriel didn’t look up. “Yes or no, Sam.”
“I guess,” Sam said.
Traces of light like fire burst over the tops of Gabriel’s wings, and it was Sam who reached out when he stiffened. He was stone beneath Sam’s hand, but whatever the hell that was didn’t look comfortable. Gabriel ground out, “Yes or no, Sam.”
“Yes,” Sam said quickly. “You can use my memories.”
“Can I follow you into them.”
“Yes,” Sam said.
“Can you stop yelling for me every time you find yourself somewhere new,” Gabriel said. The light was cascading down his back now, orange lines like growing fractures in his silvery wings. “That’s like the opposite of not drawing attention.”
“Yes,” Sam said, even though he could see where this was going.
Gabriel’s voice didn’t change, but this one came out more like a question than the others. “Can you try not to get yourself captured, even by friendlies, until I figure out how you’re keeping Samael from killing me?”
It was the first time Sam was sure Gabriel felt fear. “Yes,” he said quietly. Because either Gabriel deserved to live or he didn’t, and apparently Sam had already made that decision for himself. He wasn’t about to go back on it now.
The terrible fire had reached Gabriel’s eyes, and of course that was the moment he chose to lift his head. There was no heavenly blue there, not even the bright white glow of barely contained angel. Just a steady orange burn as he held off whatever was trying to tear them apart long enough to ask, “Do you trust me, Sam?”
It was a little too much like staring back into hell – except that this time he knew who he was talking to.
He hoped.
“I’m working on it,” Sam said.
His fingers closed around empty air as he fell.
Actually on the bus, not "on the bus."
Bingo square #3: "Other, band"
(All prompts from
au_bingo ~ custom card.)The roar of the crowd came from somewhere beyond blinding lights and the edge of the world, currently defined by the stage. Sam was surrounded by drums. He was pretty sure that was bad. Dean had a microphone, though, and he thought that was probably worse. Even if he was using it to yell instead of actually sing, Sam figured it couldn’t be long.
He stood up. He was done with this.
“Gabriel!” he shouted. The name was mostly lost in the chaos, but he was wearing a headset and he could tell everyone on the stage heard him. At least it wasn’t broadcast to the entire stadium. “Gabriel! Show yourself, or so help me, I’m carving your name into a wooden stake!”
Like it would matter, but he’d spent a long time planning ways to kill the trickster. He’d burned that face into his brain along with kill stats and potential weaknesses. Times like this it still wasn’t easy to think of him as Gabriel, the archangel who could only be brought down by another archangel’s sword.
The mic had gone dead, but he could hear Dean’s voice in his ear yelling for Cas. Of course. Because Cas was always on the line, always there in any universe, ready to swoop in the moment Sam faltered. Ready to take his place at Dean’s side.
He was aware he wasn’t at his most rational right now, but he thought maybe someone could cut him some slack.
Then Dean was next to him – or not-Dean – whacking him on the back of the head and twisting his headset out of the way as he leaned in close. “Really, dude?” Dean shouted in his ear, and Sam could almost hear him over the sound of everything. “What the hell did he give you?”
“Nothing!” Sam shouted back. Because it was true, not because it was the smartest thing he could have said. “Where is he?”
“Can you play?” Dean yelled. “Can you have your little freakout later, or is this a thing now?”
There was only one real answer to that. “This is a thing,” he insisted. “I need to find Gabriel!”
“Okay, dude, whatever.” Dean yanked his own headset back around and said, “Cas, Sam’s messed up on something. I gotta get him out of here.”
“If you’re not back in six minutes,” Castiel’s voice replied, “we’re going to intermission.”
“Yeah, okay.” Dean was already hauling him up, draping an arm around him like they were off on some other crazy stage adventure, and it was so weird that Sam just let him do it. Dean ignored the crowd, ignored the headset while Cas ordered everyone else around – presumably to cover – and hustled him off.
Really, Sam thought? Cas was Dean’s stage manager? That was kind of hilarious.
“Okay, look,” Dean said, shoving his headset all the way down around his neck. He waved away two security guys and even Cas, who swept past them in a flash of black jeans and a black t-shirt with the word “BOSS” on it. “I get that he’s all rebellious or whatever, and he’s not hard on the eyes when he loses the smirk, but anyone who screws you over like this is bad news, okay?”
“Dean, he didn’t do anything.” Sam ducked away when Dean reached for his head again, but he just pushed the headset down and did something that maybe silenced his mic. “I just need to talk to him.”
“In the middle of a show?” Dean demanded.
“Now,” Sam said, because he wasn’t taking as much flak as he’d expected but he didn’t want to lose momentum. He didn’t want to forget what he was doing just because Dean got all solicitous on him. “Right now.”
“You called?” Gabriel was lurking, and he had wings so of course security wasn’t paying any attention to him.
Dean saw him, though, and he scowled. “No groupies backstage.”
“He’s not a groupie,” Sam said with a sigh.
“I’m really not,” Gabriel agreed. “Trust me, I’m so far from being a fan.”
Dean glared. “Fuck my brother up and I’ll slice you into tiny pieces, asshole.”
“Okay, go,” Sam told him. “Go back to Cas. I’m fine.”
“You better be fine onstage in four and a half minutes,” Dean said.
“I will be,” Sam lied. “I just need to talk to him.”
Gabriel watched him go, bright amusement on his face. “He thinks you like me, Sammy.”
“Yeah, well, he’s about as real as the white rabbit,” Sam snapped, “so his opinion matters a lot. Tell me what’s going on or I’ll find a way to drag it out of you.”
“What’s going on is that I am trying to do you a favor.” Gabriel rolled his eyes like Sam was the one who kept messing everything up, which Sam didn’t appreciate in the least. “You fall on a sword for someone, they feel kind of an obligation, you know? You’re just so hard to buy for; you have no idea.”
“I don’t want any favors,” Sam told him. “Get me out of here right now, Gabriel. I mean it.”
“Yeah, sorry. No can do.” Gabriel frowned a little, like it still surprised him. “I’m trapped, see. So as much as I’d love to snap my fingers and send you back, it’s pretty much all I can do to keep you ahead of the net with me.”
“The net?” Sam repeated. “What do you mean, you’re trapped? Where are we?”
“Not entirely sure,” Gabriel admitted. “And if you don’t think that’s weird for me, we’ve obviously never met. I do know where we aren’t, and that’s anywhere good, so welcome to the bad side of being old enough to be this awesome.”
“The bad side,” Sam said. He wanted to add, there’s a good side? but he could hear the crowd noise climbing again and he really didn’t think they had a good enough story if Dean came back. “Look, let’s do this somewhere else.”
“Bet you have a bus,” Gabriel offered. “Wanna find out?”
If they didn’t have a bus, Gabriel had just snapped them into someone else’s really fancy traveling home. Sam had a lot of other things he wanted to know more, so he didn’t ask. “You’re trapped,” he said, trying to ignore their surroundings. “Why am I trapped with you?”
“Enemies,” Gabriel said, flopping down on the leather couch. “That’s the bad side. If you’re curious. Turns out some of them are still pissed about this war I started a while back. Funny thing, witness protection... not as effective as it used to be.”
“Gabriel.” Sam glared at him. “Why am I trapped with you?”
This time there was no eye roll, and Gabriel’s smirk had entirely disappeared. He stared back at Sam with an intensity that might have been disconcerting if Sam didn’t, oh yeah, order angels around on a daily basis. “You really don’t remember?”
“Would I be asking if I did,” Sam snapped. He didn’t bother to make it a question.
“You apparently took exception to Samael trying to kill me,” Gabriel said bluntly. “Threw yourself in front of the knife. Thanks for that, by the way. Looked really painful. Appreciate you sparing me.”
“I threw myself in front of a knife?” Sam echoed.
“You’ve got to stop repeating me,” Gabriel told him. “I think we can all agree, one of me is enough.”
“That’s ridiculous,” Sam said. “I’d remember. And seriously, getting between you and a sword? Does that sound like something I would do?”
“Sam, it sounds exactly like something you would do.” For just a moment Gabriel sounded tired, and Sam blinked. “Now if only me returning the favor was something I would do, it’s possible that I’d be a little better at it. As it is, we’re stuck with what we’ve got.”
He was surprised enough to ask, “Which is?”
“Which is me trying to keep my bloody sister from killing me over children that shouldn’t exist!” Gabriel snarled. “Your soul is trapped in her stupid game with me. I have no idea how to get you out, but I do know what will happen if you wind up between us again.” He didn’t wait for Sam to ask. “Serious non-existence. And not the fun kind with gags and binding, either.”
Sam frowned. Gabriel believed enough of what he was saying to joke about it. “Would it help if I said I’m not planning to jump in front of any more swords today?”
He didn’t think it would, but it was a start.
“No,” Gabriel said.
Sam shrugged. “Yeah,” he said, because who knew where that left them. “That’s what I figured.”
“Gabriel.” Cas’ voice was just suddenly there, in the bus with them, and Sam gave up on surprise. It didn’t look like he was getting answers any time soon. “You found him.”
“Go away,” Gabriel said irritably. “You’re just making it easier for her to track us down.”
“Cas,” Sam said, because this Castiel had wings and if he was really on the outside then there were things he should know. “Jophiel showed up and told me to leave Gabriel, to let him go. Those your orders?”
“No,” Castiel said. “That couldn’t have been Jophiel.”
“Yeah, it was,” Sam said. “I can tell the difference. She may be trying to help me, but she’s not worried about him.” He jerked his thumb at Gabriel, who looked totally indifferent.
“Everyone is trying to help you.” Cas might be talking to him, but he was definitely giving Gabriel the hairy eyeball. “Samael and Gabriel are both gone. You’re the only one we can reach, and it’s – ”
He vanished without any more warning than they’d had the last time, and Sam turned on Gabriel. “What was that for!”
Gabriel wasn’t lounging anymore. He was right up in Sam’s space when he turned around, phantom wings giving him all the height no one else could see. “Angel-free zone, kiddo.” Gabriel was staring past his shoulder, small and dwarfing Sam all at once. “We have two minutes and I have five questions, so keep your answers short.
“I’ve been hiding you places I know,” Gabriel continued, not waiting for him to agree. “Unfortunately, since the fallen had their happy family reunion, Samael knows what I know. Can I use your memories instead?”
Sam didn’t like the sound of that, but he wasn’t really sure why Gabriel was asking. If angels needed permission to ransack his brain, that was news to him. “Since when do you ask?”
Gabriel didn’t look up. “Yes or no, Sam.”
“I guess,” Sam said.
Traces of light like fire burst over the tops of Gabriel’s wings, and it was Sam who reached out when he stiffened. He was stone beneath Sam’s hand, but whatever the hell that was didn’t look comfortable. Gabriel ground out, “Yes or no, Sam.”
“Yes,” Sam said quickly. “You can use my memories.”
“Can I follow you into them.”
“Yes,” Sam said.
“Can you stop yelling for me every time you find yourself somewhere new,” Gabriel said. The light was cascading down his back now, orange lines like growing fractures in his silvery wings. “That’s like the opposite of not drawing attention.”
“Yes,” Sam said, even though he could see where this was going.
Gabriel’s voice didn’t change, but this one came out more like a question than the others. “Can you try not to get yourself captured, even by friendlies, until I figure out how you’re keeping Samael from killing me?”
It was the first time Sam was sure Gabriel felt fear. “Yes,” he said quietly. Because either Gabriel deserved to live or he didn’t, and apparently Sam had already made that decision for himself. He wasn’t about to go back on it now.
The terrible fire had reached Gabriel’s eyes, and of course that was the moment he chose to lift his head. There was no heavenly blue there, not even the bright white glow of barely contained angel. Just a steady orange burn as he held off whatever was trying to tear them apart long enough to ask, “Do you trust me, Sam?”
It was a little too much like staring back into hell – except that this time he knew who he was talking to.
He hoped.
“I’m working on it,” Sam said.
His fingers closed around empty air as he fell.
no subject