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Lucifer sighed as he looked at his two youngest children who’d come running to him in the kitchen and demanding his attention. He’d forgotten how exhausting 8-year-old angelic boys were to raise. “Yes, Samson? William?” He asked, ruffling their hair.
“Mama, Papa needs you in the bedroom. Says he can’t understand how to fold the bed the way you do.” Samson said, bright eyes round and innocent.
“Alright, let me go help your father. Don’t touch anything, boys.” Lucifer sighed with a passing warning as he set the pot to a simmer. Lucifer wondered to himself why after all the years that had passed, why Gabriel was unable to make the bed the same way each time.
William simply smiled at his mother, his tawny wings shifting against his back. As soon as Lucifer was out of the kitchen, he was hurrying over the cupboard to dig through the copious amounts of jars and bags filled with healthy snacks. “I know Papa keeps the good ones back here,” he murmured.
Samson looked at his watch, his dark pink wings shuffling quietly in nervous alertness, “Hurry up, Will. Mama will be here any moment and I’m tired of watching Orange is the New Black with Uncle Cas.”
“Calm down, ‘Son.” William hissed right before he laid his hands on the prize. “Got ‘em.” He pulled out the Ziploc bag filled with fresh jam-filled thumbprint cookies and tossed them over his shoulder. “Catch”
Samson caught the cookies and tucked them under his jacket, smoothing out the lines. “Need help putting everything back?”
William threw a smirk over his shoulder and snapped his fingers. All the bottles, bags, and jars slid back into place and the door shut without him touching it. “Mischief managed.”
Samson grinned. “Excellent, let’s go.” He said. “To the Batcave!”
“As far as I’m aware,” a low gravelly voice said from behind the twins, “The entire bunker is a Batcave.”
Samson startled and whirled around to look up at their uncle. “Hiya, Uncle Cas! See, for me and Will, Batcave is just our room,” he explained.
“Ah. I see,” Castiel said as he stepped further into the kitchen and crossed his arms over his chest, “and you need an entire bag of cookies in your room?”
“Cookies? What are those ?” Samson scoffed as he discretely shifted the pilfered pastries. “You know our parents only give us healthy snacks. Like carrots.”
“And ranch dressing. You can’t forget the dressing, ‘Son.” William politely added. “Except I don’t like almond milk kind. It tastes wrong.”
Castiel shook his head with an amused sigh, “And the Oreos that your Uncle Dean gives you from time to time?”
“Those are wafers, Uncle Cas! They’re not Oreos.” Samson protested. “And Uncle Dean gives those to us for not ‘making him tie his head in knots’.”
“They are sweets regardless of what you call them.” Castiel held out his hand to Samson and expectantly gestured toward the bag, “And you do vex your Uncle when you set your mind to it. Now give me the jam cookies or we will see how clean you can make the telescope without assistance from your grace.”
Samson sighed, conceding defeat and dug into his jacket for the cookies. He handed the bag to Castiel with an exaggerated pout.
“Hey, I worked hard to find those.” William protested. “Can we at least have one?”
“Please?” Samson added, eyes going doe-like and innocent.
“Yeah, please Uncle Cas?” William joined in, his expression quickly matching his brothers.
Castiel stood there with a bag of cookies in his hand, trying to resist the looks on his baby brothers’ faces until he couldn’t take the pitiful stares anymore. “You may have only one and I’ll let Lucifer know so he doesn’t give you dessert on top of this.”
“Can we please get two then? Supper’s a long ways away and we’d be extra good until then.” Samson bargained, pouting now.
Pulling out two cookies, the seraph held them out of their reach, “You will do all of your homework, including your history lesson on the first Angelic Wars that you’ve been putting off, and do it without complaint.”
“Agreed.” William quickly said and held out his hand to which Castiel dropped the treats into his hand.
Samson held out his hand in silent agreement, frowning to himself. He never was able to keep history facts straight which made complaining about history a common past time of his.
Castiel nodded and laid the remaining cookies in Samson’s hand before shooing them off to their room, “Now go study and no more mischief.”
Samson nodded, nibbling absently on one of his cookies. “Thanks, Uncle Cas,” he said and wandered off to go locate his history texts, wondering idly if he could get away with screaming. Screaming wasn’t complaining, right?
Looking to score a few brownie points with his Uncle, William turned a charming smile to the angel and said in perfectly clear Enochian, “Thank you.” With a giggle, the young boy scurried off after his brother, leaving an amused Cas behind in the kitchen to figure how much trouble he was going to be in with Lucifer for breaking the no sweets rule.
About two hours later, what sounded like an angry shout issued throughout the bunker library. The sound was followed by a very frustrated Samson who stormed out, abandoning his books as he made his way to the room he shared with William. Shutting the door, he flopped onto his bed and pulled out his charcoal and sketchpad, furiously drawing.
A few minutes later, William slipped into their room and climbed up on the bed beside his brother. “Why does studying make you so angry?” he asked softly.
“I hate history. Especially Celestial History.” Samson grumbled. “Give me Enochian, or battle strategies, or literally anything else, and I’m fine. History? Forget it. I’m liable to put the Angelic Wars in the same time frame as the American and French Revolutions. And the fact that when I do get history, it’s a glossed over period that literally no one studies. Like Tudor England. Or when Mama and Papa helped create the animal, or what it was like when Uncle Michael raised them. But other than that? I’m too stupid to get it right.”
“You’re not stupid,” William sighed, hugging his brother reassuringly, “You remember all of that be because Mama has told us those stories since we were babies. We just have to figure out a way for you to remember other stuff. Maybe I should read them to you at bedtime instead.”
“You think that’d help, Will?” Samson asked, looking at him with a thin thread of hope. “I really don’t want to have Papa look disappointed at me like last time when I got the Dominion and Powers rolls mixed up.”
“And you won’t. I’ll help and if we have to, we go to Uncle Cas or Uncle Mike.” William squeezed him tight and added a smile.
Samson leaned into his brother, returning to his sketching. “Thanks, Will.”
“You’re welcome,” William said as he released his hold on Samson and in a rare attack of mischievousness, he swiped a finger through the top of the drawing.
“Will!” Samson protested loudly, batting at his twin’s hand in retaliation, “Whyyyyy?”
The youngest of the twins giggled and rolled off the bed, snatching his brother’s charcoal box. “Can’t catch me!” He taunted before disappearing with a flap of his wings.
“Will!” Samson called after his twin, also disappearing and on the hunt for his brother.
A few moments later there was a miscalculation on where he’d be landing and William ended up appearing above the top of the stairs leading down into the map room. He didn’t realize his mistake until it was too late for him to correct and he plummeted to the marble floor beneath, the contents of the charcoal box scattering across the concrete. Thankfully he didn’t land on his head but one of his wings took most of the brunt of his fall. There was a sickening crunch when the ulna broke from the impact. William’s first breath drawn was used to fuel his shriek of pain that brought their parents running from every corner of the bunker.
Samson appeared right at his brother’s side a moment later and felt instant panic wash over him. Unsure of what to do, he knelt beside him and fought back the tears welling up in his eyes. He hated to see his brother in pain, let alone injured from their roughhousing.
Sam was the first to arrive, out of breath, and dropped to his knees beside the boys. “What happened?” He asked, gently picking William up from the floor as the boy could do nothing but sob while his hand clutched at his shoulder in an attempt to reach his wing. “It’s okay, little guy. I’ve got you,” he murmured just as he saw Lucifer tearing through the door.
Gabriel came dashing into the room with Lucifer appearing directly beside Sam a split second later but beating him to their son. Carefully maneuvering around Sam, Lucifer held William’s wing in his hand, inspecting the damage before concentrating, healing his youngest child slowly but gently.
“Samson, what happened?” Sam asked again while looking at the boy expectant of an answer.
Gabriel stroked his fingers through William’s hair as he watched Lucifer work and waited for his son to answer.
Samson avoided looking at his fathers and mother as he focused on watching his brother. “I was drawin’ in our room and Will was watching and then he snagged my charcoal box an’ took off. I guess he misjudged.” He explained quietly, a single tear tracking down his cheek.
“ ‘m sorry.” William whimpered into Sam’s shoulder, clutching onto his father’s shoulders.
“It’s okay, jellybean. It was an accident.” Gabriel said softly to Samson as he looked to Lucifer. “Clean break or is this going to be a tricky one?”
“He’s lucky, it was a very clean break,” Lucifer said, stroking a hand down William’s back. “It’s alright, little dragon, you’re okay. Hear that? You’re okay.”
Lucifer’s words only caused William to curl tighter against Sam. He was more scared and embarrassed than in pain now that his wing had been healed.
The hunter pressed a kiss to the side of his head and rocked him gently. “I know, Will. I know. It hurt and you were scared. It’s okay.” Looking up, he hooked his arm around Samson’s waist and pulled him against his side in an awkward hug near William’s head. “It’s okay,” he reiterated for Samson’s benefit and kissed his cheek.
“I’m sorry, ‘Son. I just wanted to play,” William sniffled.
“S’okay, Will.” Samson mumbled, bringing one of his wings to cover William, even though he knew that Sam would keep his brother safe.
“Come on.” Sam gave William a tight hug when Lucifer had withdrawn his hands with a nod, “You’re right as rain, so why don’t you and Samson go back to your room and rest. But don’t forget to thank your Mama for the healing.”
William reluctantly pulled away and wiped the tears from his cheeks as he turned to Lucifer. “Thank you, Mama.”
“You’re welcome, little dragon.” Lucifer murmured, leaning over to kiss the top of his son’s head.
Samson stepped out of Sam’s hold and came over to draw William into his arms and wings. “C’mon, Will, let’s go study.” He said softly. “I wanna get my math homework done.”
Nodding, the little angel followed his brother back to their room.
Sam let out a deep breath like he was relieving tension once the boys were out of earshot, “Can we have girls next time? These two are wearing me out between the pranks and getting hurt.”
“No more children.” Lucifer groaned, rubbing the heels of his hands into his eyes. “Not until the grandchildren. And those won’t be coming for quite some time.”
“That you know of,” Gabriel teased. “Mikey and Gumdrop have been disappearing more and more lately.”
“Don’t tell me things like that,” Sam said, pushing himself up to his feet and holding his hands out to the others to help them up.
“I will impale Michael’s ass with his own angel blade if he gives me grandchildren before I am ready. I DID NOT give my daughter permission to be a mother yet!” Lucifer turned a wild-eyed look at Gabriel.
Gabriel smirked as he took Sam’s hand and started to stand up. “Many a slip between the cup and the lip, Heylel.”
“At the least I hope she finishes college. I wouldn’t mind a grandchild before I’m too old to enjoy them.” Sam added.
Lucifer groaned, following Gabriel’s example and rising with Sam’s assistance, “Enough talk of children. I’m going to go make the bed.”
“I guess that’s my cue to start figuring out dinner,” Gabriel said as he headed for the kitchen.
After dinner, Samson curled up next to his brother and rested his head on his shoulders, eager to try out their plan.
“Just so you know, I’m not doing funny voices like Papa,” William warned as he opened the old tome.
Samson shook his head as he watched the yellowed pages turn. “I prefer the way Mama does it anyways,” he said softly, “But don’t tell anyone that. Especially Papa.”
“Do I look mean? I’d never tell him something like that.” William said and then cleared his throat to begin the story. “The first rebellion was not, in fact, that of Lucifer Morningstar, although he may have been the perpetrator of doubt… “
Samson smiled and curled up tighter into his brother.
Castiel was making his own way to bed when he heard William’s voice, softly talking about the first angelic wars and he paused. He smiled to himself, having understood Samson’s struggle with history all too well. It used to make him confused too until Gabriel had read it to him like a story when they were much younger. He patted the door of his baby brothers and continued on his way. “Good boys,” He murmured to himself before heading off to bed.
A few doors down the hall, in the nest, Lucifer snuggled more into Sam as the human read to him much like their sons were doing just now. But instead of history lessons, Sam was reading him one of his favorite romance novels. Gabriel’s head rested on Lucifer’s shoulder, snoring away. Lucifer struggled to stay awake because he loved listening to Sam read. Eventually, he succumbed and drifted off.