With a Whimper

Son of a bitch. There was not enough alcohol in the world for the Winchesters to ply Adam with in order to make him forget everything they’d told him. They almost wished they’d kept their mouths shut because the look on his face was unbearable, to say the least. Even though originally they agreed to tell him everything, they’d eventually only tried to tell him as much as they dared. But even when they tried to give him the censored version, Michael or Bobby would jump in and add little bits and pieces to the story, which earned them each enough glares to last a lifetime. It wasn’t that they didn’t trust Adam, but at the same time, they had to be careful. The last time they’d tried the whole ‘hug it out and love each other’ routine, Adam had turned on them and ran to Zachariah.

Adam was sitting on the couch with one hand on his chest and the other in his lap as his head pounded with all the new information he’d just absorbed. Castiel. Crowley. Purgatory. Apocalypse. Raphael. Lucifer. They were all names, places, and things that Adam had always thought irrelevant to his life or not known about altogether. They didn’t mean a thing to him earlier, but now it seemed as though they were about to become a part of his every day vocabulary.

Castiel. Crowley. Purgatory. Apocalypse. Raphael. Lucifer.

Sam. Dean. Bobby. Gabriel.

Michael.

Adam.

They were supposed to just be names in the pages of his life, and only a few of them were supposed to be meaningful, important. Now, however, it seemed that he’d have to learn to accept them all for what they stood for. Absorb everything. Learn.

“This is crazy,” Adam mumbled as he ran a hand through his hair. He was still stuck on a few parts of the story. “Why would Cas keep looking for Purgatory if you’re back?” he asked Michael. “I mean, it’s up to you whether or not the Apocalypse happens, and if you’re saying no, I don’t see why—”

“Because Castiel thinks he has something to prove to me,” Michael interrupted from his spot leaning against the wall across from Adam. Next to him in the doorway, Dean’s eyes flicked towards him as he spoke. “He knows I won’t let anything happen to this planet, or to the people living on it. But somehow he feels...underappreciated.” He nodded, sure he used the correct term. “By opening Purgatory, he can prove himself to be much more than a low-ranking angel.”

“And you agree with him?” Dean asked, questioning the tone of Michael’s voice.

Michael frowned. “Of course not. I’m merely suggesting that I understand why he feels this way. But he’s my brother, Dean, and he’s hurting himself by aligning himself with Crowley. I would rather he stop this venture as soon as possible.”

“You couldn’t convince him?” Sam asked. When Michael shook his head no, Sam frowned. “And it didn’t occur to you to threaten him? Use that big brother brawn you’ve got going on?”

“I am not going to influence my brother’s decisions with threats when you’re the ones who convinced me of free will’s existence in the first place,” Michael said with a dark expression on his face. “Castiel is choosing his own path, and while I’m not happy that I cannot verbally convince him to cease and desist, I would never think of laying a hand on him, of forcing him to submit to my will.”

“But you would do that to Raphael?” Dean asked challengingly.

Michael rounded on him. “Pardon me, Dean, but it sounds to me as though you want me to kill Castiel.”

“I’m just a little confused as to why only one of your brothers is an exception to the free will clause,” Dean says.

“Don’t avoid what I just said.”

“The same goes for you.”

They glared at each other and for a second Adam was worried that Michael would turn his oldest brother into a pillar of salt just for kicks. “Guys, guys, keep the testosterone level to a minimum, okay? We don’t need any more fights.”

“Then tell your brother here to keep his opinions to himself,” Michael said. “You here know nothing about the relationship between Raphael and I, and I expect it’ll be that way for quite awhile. The only one you need to concern yourselves with is Castiel. Try to speak to him, convince him otherwise, but don’t hurt him if he doesn’t agree to see things your way. Dean,” Michael addressed him in a lower voice, “I know you must feel betrayed, but try to keep your personal feelings out of this.”

“My personal feelings?” Dean repeated incredulously, and Adam could almost see the smoke coming out of his ears as he stepped forward to get into Michael’s face. “My personal feelings. Are you friggin’ kidding me?”

“You were very close with Castiel, Dean. It’s not a secret, even to those of us on other planes of existence.”

“You’re telling me to keep my personal feelings out of this when you’re the one who’s being influenced by them and causing all these problems in the first place?”

“Dean!” Sam warned. “Enough. Don’t go there, okay? It’s none of our business.”

“The hell it isn’t! He’s our brother too!”

“What’re you guys talking about?” Adam asked, standing up from his spot on the couch. “What did I do?”

“You didn’t do anything,” Sam said as he turned to his younger brother. “Don’t worry about it.”

Dean looked livid. “Don’t tell him that! He has every right to worry about it! He’s just as involved. After all,” he shoots Michael a filthy look, “you’re always practically tripping over yourself to help him. Is there something you wanna tell us, Mike?”

A heavy silence followed in which Adam looked at Michael, confusion rimming his eyes. Michael looked away, couldn’t bear to look at him and give a straight answer. Bobby didn’t even step in to say anything, and that’s when Adam knew that he was just as curious to Michael’s answer as the rest of them were. Dean was right. There was something unusual about Michael’s treatment of Adam. But it had to be something normal, right? Just some kind of angel-protecting-his-former-vessel thing. But... if that were true, why would Michael protect Adam and not Dean? Wasn’t Dean his true vessel, the reason Adam had been used as bait the first time around? It didn’t make any sense.

Unless this all had nothing to do with his being a vessel at all, and had something more to do with that kiss from earlier...

“Michael,” Adam began, “what’s going on?”

Michael shook his head, face taut, as he stared at Dean. “There’s nothing to tell.”

“Bullshit,” Dean spat. He then mocked, “There’s nothing to tell. Are you kidding me? You haven’t told us jack. Why’s Raphael after Adam? What’s his endgame?”

“You already know the answer to that, it seems,” Michael said quietly.

“Yeah? Well I’d like to hear it from you. Directly.”

Michael shook his head. “I believe the floor is yours.” He swallowed hard and his gaze steeled as he regarded Dean with a kind of cold curiosity. “Tell us, Dean. Why is it you think I have feelings that are under the influence of an outside source?”

The smirk that crosses Dean’s face – cocky, overconfident, with a hint of anger and frustration – is one that Adam hopes never to see again. It’s downright creepy, no other word for it. “You like Adam.”

Michael frowns a bit and shrugs one shoulder, a very human gesture that Adam found he’d picked up on from...from him. “I do. That is no great secret. He’s nice and—”

“No. You like Adam.” Dean’s eyes are dark. “In a way that you’re not supposed to.”

Adam’s breath hitched in his throat. Well. They’d kissed. Shit. They’d kissed. Of course the rest of them would figure it out sooner or later, what with Adam’s penchant for always getting involved in shit that he didn’t want to deal with.

In a way that you’re not supposed to.

What did that mean? Were angels not supposed to love humans? Adam hadn’t paid that much attention in religious school. Then again, he wasn’t sure angel-human relationships was something normally brought up at Sunday school. It didn’t seem like a very common question.

Michael’s face was unreadable which was probably a good thing because one wrong blink or twitch of the lips and Adam was pretty sure Dean would’ve tried to hit him. Instead, he merely looked Dean in the eyes and said, “I have not had much firsthand experience with you humans. Mostly I’ve watched from my seat in Heaven and merely regarded you as one would an interesting specimen in a jar.” He looked apologetically over at Bobby for some reason, but the old man didn’t look too friendly at him. “As angels, we’re not supposed to...to feel. Doubt. Regret. Sadness. These things hinder us and can keep us from doing our duty, so we’re not supposed to feel or show emotion, lest it change and control us.”

“But?” Adam had a feeling there was supposed to be a ‘but’ inserted in there somewhere.

“However,” Michael amended slowly, “when one has had long-term contact with humans, sometimes things...change.”

“Like how Anna’s life on Earth as a human helped influence Cas?” Sam asked.

“Or when an angel starts to become human,” Bobby interrupted gruffly.

Everyone turned to him, bewildered.

“Bobby, let’s not change the subject now...” Dean started to say.

“I ain’t changing the subject if we’re already veering in that direction. I was reading something in one of those old texts Cas brought me awhile ago, and I stumbled across something you’re not gonna like.” He looked pointedly at Michael before going over to the bookshelf and pulling out a thin book no more than about fifty pages. Adam looked at it curiously while Bobby continued. “Getting in and out of Hell for an angel isn’t easy, but it can be done. Obviously,” he added, looking to Dean as an example. “But the Cage is something different.”

“Of course it is. It had to be strong enough to bind Lucifer forever. I made it myself,” Michael said, crossing his arms over his chest. “I don’t see how that’s new, revealing information.”

“Okay, well listen to this, smart guy,” Bobby snapped. “Didja ever think how much power you’d have to use up, an angel getting out of the damn Cage?”

Michael frowned. “It took quite a lot of energy but obviously it’s possible. I’m here, aren’t I?”

“You damn near burned yourself out is what you did,” Bobby said. He looked a little annoyed that he was doing all the legwork, but honestly, if he didn’t know they were grateful by now... “You not only had to break yourself out, but Adam too. And you were escaping from the Cage, which even though you designed, is still a damn near perfect prison.”

“Burned himself out?” Dean asked. “What does that mean?”

“It means Michael’s permanently burned up a lot of his own grace during his little jailbreak,” Bobby explained gruffly. “He’s closer to human now than archangel.”

Everyone turned to look at Michael, who was standing there with a slight smirk on his face as though he didn’t believe a word of it.

“Bobby,” Michael sighed, “that’s not—”

“Don’t tell me it’s not possible. It’s here.” He held up the thin little book. “Along with some names you might recognize, names of angels who have burned up in the past.” Bobby opened the book to a dog eared page and begins reading. “Armen, Flauros, Gadreel, Verrier...”

“Stop it,” Michael said through clenched teeth. His fingers were curled into fists at his sides, as though he’s physically wounded by the names.

“Sammael, Marut, Gressil...”

“I said stop it!”

“Bobby, that’s enough,” Adam shouted, standing up from his seat on the couch. “I think he gets it.”

“Do you?” Bobby asked as he rounded on the younger boy. “You do realize this means that Michael’s running low on juice and you’re the strongest thing in the room right now, right? That pretty soon if Michael can’t control his popping back and forth to Heaven and using the rest of his grace, he’ll turn completely human? He won’t be able to poof back up to Heaven to take baths in the Garden or whatever the hell else it is angels do up there. He’ll be stuck with us. Mortal.”

“Impossible,” Michael said, but he sounded far less sure of himself now. Adam could almost see the registry of names running across his eyes as he thought back to what Bobby had said about angels burning out their grace.

Sam was looking at Bobby, perplexed. “I didn’t even know that was possible,” he said. “Burning out.”

“Oh yeah, it’s possible all right,” Bobby said with a nod. “Not too common though. That’s why you rarely, if ever, hear about it. It takes a lot of mojo and determination to actually use up that much grace, not to mention you’d have to do something incredibly difficult and stupid.”

Here Bobby glared at Michael, who caught the gesture with dark eyes.

“What do you want from me?” Michael snapped uncharacteristically. “You would rather I’d just left Adam down there to rot? Left both of us down there?” He turned to Dean. “You and Sam were never coming to get him. We all know that. I did what nobody else had the nerve to do.”

“You did it for selfish reasons,” Dean retorted, and the tension in the room went up to eleven. “You only saved Adam because of your sick, twisted obsession with him.”

“It’s not obsession,” Michael said, his voice gaining in volume as he struggled to maintain the upper hand in the conversation. “He’s my former vessel and I have a duty to protect him.”

“You said you couldn’t use him as a vessel anymore. There’s no need for you to protect him.” Dean’s eyes were glittering as he verbally cornered Michael. “So why are you?”

Michael stood rooted to the spot, unable to look anybody in the eye, especially Adam, whom he seemed to be avoiding with amazing tenacity. Adam knew, of course, that Dean was right and that there was something else underlying everything Michael had done up until now, influencing his every decision with regard to Heaven and the Apocalypse and Raphael. He also had an inkling that he knew what it was – or more specifically, who, and he knew that Michael would rather not talk about it in front of everyone else. So without further ado, Adam reached and grabbed Michael’s hand before hauling him out of the room.

“Hey! Where d’you think you’re going?” Dean shouted.

“We need to talk,” Adam called over his shoulder as he dragged Michael up the stairs after him and led him back into his bedroom, where a large tarp covered the windowless frame to keep most of the bugs out. He closed the door behind them and faced the archangel with his arms crossed over his chest. “You and I both know what’s going on.”

“Adam—”

“You started it,” Adam warned. “So don’t you dare try and avoid it now. It’s true, isn’t it, what Dean’s saying?”

“Dean isn’t saying anything.”

“Fine. Implying then. ‘In a way you’re not supposed to.’ This is...” He tried to find the right words for it other than ‘fucked up.’ “This is serious, isn’t it?”

Michael’s face was impassive. “What’s serious?”

“This. Us. Our situation.” Adam sighed. “Damnit, Michael, Bobby just said you’re turning mortal. Doesn’t that bother you?”

“Bobby is mistaken.” Michael didn’t sound or look too sure of himself.

“Bobby’s good at what he does, and what he does is look into obscure shit and find out what’s up. You’ve been acting weird lately. Doing things you don’t normally do. Acting like a bigger prick than usual. Showing emotion. You’re turning, too.”

“Adam, enough.”

“Is that why Raphael’s pissed at you? Because you’re turning into one of us?”

“Raphael doesn’t know about what is or what is not happening to my grace. He’s only angry because I refuse to fight Lucifer and begin the Apocalypse.”

“Why won’t you?”

“Do you want me to?” Michael raised an eyebrow.

Adam blanched. “No, of course not! I just want to know why you won’t.”

“Isn’t it enough that I don’t want to have to kill my own brother?” Michael’s voice suddenly dropped in volume and Adam could’ve sworn he heard it crack a little.

He backed up a few steps and sat down heavily on the bed, looking more and more like a kicked puppy than Castiel ever did, and something inside Adam’s chest loosened. He breathed and wanted to go sit next to him. But he didn’t. Instead, he stood in front of him, arms still crossed, waiting for an elaboration. Michael granted his silent request.

“I love all of my brothers. Even Raphael. Even Lucifer. He can be... shortsighted, I’ll admit. Blind, even. Stubborn. But he’s still my brother. He was once the most beautiful in Heaven, did you know that?” Adam shook his head. “Morning Star. That was his name. He outshone us all. But when he Fell... he lost his light and broke my heart. Broke my Father’s heart.” Michael sighed. “He never once apologized for what he did to us and how he tore Heaven in half, and he never came to talk to me about his... actions. We used to be close, but afterwards...” He trailed off again, shaking his head. “Afterwards, we were never the same. Each of us felt betrayed by the other one. Though I suppose, Lucifer was in the right, seeing as I built his prison and sealed it behind him...”

Adam’s arms were starting to unfold until they fell limply at his sides.

“Lucifer will always be my little brother, no matter how old he gets or how split things are between us. I may grow angry with him, may grow weary of his stubbornness, may lash out at him verbally or speak out against him with others, but I will never lay a hand against him. Especially not based on some silly destiny written for me.”

“Because you believe in free will now, right?” Adam asked.

Michael nodded. “Yes. You taught me that, while you were my vessel.” He looked up at Adam with bright eyes. “Thank you. It was a lesson I didn’t know I needed.”

Adam shrugged one shoulder and looked away modestly. “I didn’t exactly plan on teaching you anything. I was just trying to keep you two from totaling each other.”

“Mm, yes. Totaling.” Michael was slow to say the unusual verb. He locked his fingers together with his elbows resting on his knees and continued. “Raphael doesn’t understand the bond between Lucifer and I. I doubt he ever will. Perhaps he is impaired by jealousy, but I cannot say anything for sure except that he won’t stop until we destroy each other. For him, our Father’s word is truly law. I am just as rebellious, just as evil now in his eyes as Lucifer is.” Michael’s eyes darkened. “Perhaps it is a good thing I’m turning human. It’s a Fall, but it’s not so painful.”

“You think you deserve this for saying no to God’s plan for you?” Adam asked incredulously. When Michael nodded, he shook his head. “No, I don’t believe that. That’s bull.”

“I beg to differ, Adam. And I’d appreciate you not calling my Father’s plan bull.”

Adam held up his hands in mock surrender. “Sorry, didn’t realize you were still all about the master plan.”

“I’m not, I just don’t like you humans saying negative things against my Father.”

Understandable when your father was God. Adam finally decided to sit down on the bed next to him, making it creak under their weight, and he sighed. “Look. I get it. You don’t want to take it up with your brother. You just want to let things lie as they are, right?” Michael nodded. “And Raphael doesn’t understand that?” He shook his head. “What a prick. Sorry,” he added quickly, “I forgot. He’s your brother too.”

“He was never as close to us as the rest. Never quite seemed to fit in. Admittedly, Lucifer used to joke that he thought Raphael was adopted.” The corner of Michael’s mouth twitched into what Adam could’ve sworn was the beginning of a smile. “I reprimanded him for saying such a thing but in truth, I thought it was a bit funny.”

“More than a bit,” Adam said with a chuckle that he couldn’t control.

Michael caught his eyes and started to grin before Adam’s snicker turned into a full laugh and made the archangel let go and laugh openly as well. The smile on his face was the fullest it had been in... well, in quite a while, actually. Adam couldn’t even remember the last time Michael had full on grinned, let alone made any kind of noise that wasn’t a sound of disbelief or discontent. It was refreshing to see him let loose, even though it was a small act and a normal human reaction. Adam was just glad to see Michael doing anything but glowering; he was almost afraid his face would be stuck that way.

“See?” Adam said, wiping a little tear from the corner of his eye as he nudged Michael’s shoulder. “Humanity’s not so bad. That’s the happiest I’ve seen you since we escaped.”

“I’m capable of happiness. I just never show it.”

“Yeah, because that’s healthy.”

“It’s normal for angels.”

Adam rolled his eyes. “Well, I’m an angel, aren’t I? I’m not hiding anything.”

Michael sighed. “You’re different. You’re used to expressing yourself. That kind of natural instinct won’t go away immediately. It might not ever disappear, come to think of it.” His lips twitched into another smile. “You’ll always be the angel who expresses his emotions. It’ll be strange for the others.”

“Well, the others can suck it.”

Michael snorted. “You humans say the oddest things.”

“But you love us anyway,” Adam teased. “I mean, where else would you get this kind of humor?” He waited a beat, sitting shoulder to shoulder with Michael, before he backtracked a bit, trying to catch the archangel off guard enough so that he’d give him a straight answer for a change. “But you still didn’t answer my question. What did Dean mean when he said that you like me in a way you’re not supposed to? Are we...not supposed to be friends?”

Michael frowned and looked at Adam. “What? Of course not! We’re allowed to have that kind of connection. It’s another rarity, but it happens and it’s not forbidden.”

“But other connections are?” Adam asked.

“Well... yes.”

“Like... love, for instance?”

Michael’s face remained unreadable as he tries to clear it like a slate. He didn’t meet Adam’s eyes as he said, “Why would you ask that?”

“Well,” Adam drew out the word to its fullest extent, “I just assumed from the way we kissed earlier...”

He shut his mouth as Michael snapped his head in his direction. Again, he was surprised that he didn’t feel any whiplash, or if he did, that he was able to just brush it off as nothing. “That was a mistake. A... spur of the moment thing.”

“Yeah well, your spur of the moment thing hasn’t exactly left my mind.”

Michael cocked an eyebrow unwittingly. “Is that so?”

“Man, we full on...” Adam scoffed a bit and shook his head in disbelief. “You haven’t thought about it at all? You’re the one who started it.”

“And I regret it.”

“Oh, is that so?” Adam couldn’t quite keep the rage out of his voice. “Why? I’m a bad kisser? Or is this more of that ‘angels can’t show emotion, can’t be with humans’ crap?”

Michael smirked a bit. “You’re a very satisfactory kisser, Adam. I don’t think you have reason to worry in that respect.” Adam snorted a little but he was blushing furiously. “I regret... I regret dragging you into this mess in the first place.”

A warm hand found Michael’s forearm and squeezed lightly. “It’s not a big deal,” Adam lied.

Michael saw right through it. “You don’t expect me to believe that you don’t mind being a part of this again? Adam,” Michael shifted so he was facing the human, a frown on his face, “you always end up here. No matter what you do or how much you try to run, you’ve always ended up with the Winchesters. Don’t tell me that doesn’t bother you. I know how much you want a normal life. I’ve been in your head, remember? I know. And they can’t give that to you. I’m sorry.”

“Don’t be sorry for what you can’t control.”

“But I can control how I feel about you, and for not being able to recently, I am sorry.” Michael bowed his head as though in mourning.

“Whoa, hold on a minute.” Adam held up his hands. “Are you admitting that you like me?”

Michael suppressed a sigh. “I’ve always liked you, Adam. But this is...unacceptable.”

“You mean the kissing.”

“Raphael is using you to get to me,” Michael breathed, finally admitting the worst. He spoke not only for Adam’s benefit but for his own; he’d been afraid of saying so out loud because that meant confirmation, definition, absolution. He hadn’t wanted to face the facts before, but there was no avoiding them now, not after what Raphael had tried to do to Adam. “He knows I don’t want to fight Lucifer.”

“Have you told him why?” Adam asked.

Michael shook his head. “No. He’s not interested in that 'why.' He’s interested in why I’ve changed my mind. Become soft, as he says. Weak.” He looked up and caught the blue eyes of the youngest Winchester. “You have a greater influence on me than Raphael likes.”

Adam’s chest felt swollen; whether with fear or excitement, he wasn’t quite sure. “I don’t understand,” he said, and really he didn’t. “I just...”

Michael suddenly pushed himself off the bed, both hands running through his hair in frustration. His eyes darted back and forth between Adam and the door as though he were contemplating just making a run for it and pretending they never tried having this conversation. It seemed to be going all over the place and Adam was having a hard time keeping up with the topic at hand – him, Raphael, Lucifer, the Apocalypse. They were all interconnected, and he knew that, and he had a suspicion why, but he wanted to hear the words from Michael himself, wanted the kind of affirmation only he could provide.

Michael’s hand dropped to his sides and he looked helplessly at Adam. “I’ve got to say, sometimes I find you humans beings really... disappointing. And grotesque. And foolish. Just up-and-down foolish, foolish across the board. Ignorant and unkind and trivial and generally repulsive.” He caught the shocked and partially mortified look on Adam’s face and continued. “But somehow, Adam, you manage to be pretty spectacularly un-foolish, and it’s fairly impressive considering the multiple lives you’ve lived. Watching you makes me want to be un-foolish, too. Starting now. And I’m still working on it. But... I think I’m doing all right for a beginner, if I do say so myself.”

Adam sat there staring. He didn’t seem to be capable of doing anything else. His eyes were wide but they looked sad for some reason and the growing silence was making Michael a little uncomfortable as he shifted his weight from foot to foot. Part of him wanted to just turn on his heel and leave, but he couldn’t very well do that with Adam sitting there like he’d been slapped.

“...Well?” he asked at long last. “Are you not going to say anything?”

Adam shook his head but a tiny smile was ghosting across his lips. “You started out insulting me and then you gave me a compliment. I’m not sure what I’m supposed to say, to be honest.”

“Say you don’t hate me for getting you involved. For making you a target for Raphael. For giving him and his followers reason to chase you and hate me.”

“Hey.” Adam stood up and opened his arms, wrapping Michael in a semi-awkward embrace. While Adam hugged him, Michael just stood there, arms at his sides, not quite sure whether or not he should return it. “It’s like you said – I would’ve gotten involved at some point anyway, right? I always end up here.” He sighed into Michael’s neck. “I might as well adapt.”

Michael’s frown deepened, if possible. “What’s that supposed to mean?”

“It means,” Adam said as he pulled away from Michael, hands still resting on his shoulders, “that I think it’s about time I learned how to use these new powers of mine. The next time Raphael comes for me, I’ll be ready.”

“Adam, no.” Michael shook his head. “It takes years, even decades to learn how to properly harness all of an angel’s powers, let alone an archangel’s.”

“Who said anything about learning all of them? I just need basics. Spitting fire or throwing shards of ice or whatever stunts you guys pull.”

“They’re not ‘stunts.’”

Adam chuckled. “Tricks then. Abilities. I just need to know a few things so I can at least defend myself. I’ve never been able to do that before,” he added quietly, thinking back to the ghouls and to Zachariah.

It was Michael’s turn to try and comfort Adam. He cupped his cheek in his hand and stroked it with his thumb soothingly. Michael sighed. “Raphael will come back better prepared,” he warned gently. “He doesn’t know what you are yet, but he knows he couldn’t kill you normally the first time around and there’s no telling how long it’ll take him to figure out. It could be months, or it could be days. Hours even. We’ll never know until he comes. And he might have backup. He might bring some of his followers.”

“We can take them,” a new voice said from the doorway.

Adam looked over his shoulder as Michael turned and saw Sam standing there with his hands bracing either side of the doorframe. He didn’t look too happy with Michael’s hand on Adam so the archangel quickly dropped his arm and shuffled backwards, head bowed respectfully. He didn’t want to anger the Winchesters, not now.

Sam stepped into the bedroom, unabashedly interrupting the two of them. “Whatever it is you need us to do to prepare, we can do it,” he offered. “Raphael won’t get to Adam. I promise.”

Adam frowned. How much of that had Sam heard? He looked to Michael questioningly but he had wiped his face of any previous emotion. Adam had to hand it to him: he was really good at pretending not to give a shit.

“You think you can stop him?” Michael asked doubtfully, one eyebrow raised. “A ragtag group of humans, a newborn angel, and his loathed brother recently broken from Hell?”

“Better than nothing,” Sam said defensively.

“You still have Castiel to worry about,” Michael said with a shake of his head. “Castiel, and Crowley, and Purgatory. Don’t load too much onto your plate, Sam. You might not be able to handle it all.”

“What, you think I’ll crack?”

“I don’t know,” Michael admitted. “But I’d rather not lose you in the process. You are... a good person, Sam, despite what others may say or think.” He awkwardly stepped forward and placed a hand on Sam’s shoulder, looking up slightly at the taller man. “I don’t want you to sacrifice yourself, physically or mentally, just because you think you aren’t good enough. You try and you try and that’s more than what many other humans do nowadays. Do not sell yourself short.”

Sam’s face was a mixture of sad, shocked, and touched; no doubt he hadn’t expected this to come from Michael, as the two of them were never exactly what you’d call ‘close’ or ‘friendly.’ He opened his mouth once to speak but nothing came out, so he closed it and merely cleared his throat, thinking of what to say. Eventually, he took up Michael’s words. “You’re right. I do try. And that’s what we’re gonna do. We’re gonna try our damndest to fight back. We can get rid of Raphael and save Cas. I know we can.”

Adam nodded at his older brother from behind Michael. “I’m game. Let Raphael try and stab me again, see what happens to him.” He meant it partially as a joke but a spark flares in his eyes for an instant as he thinks about how lucky he was that the butcher knife hadn’t done any actual damage to him. He knew if Raphael figured out what he was then he wouldn’t be so lucky next time.

Michael turned to look at him and studied his face momentarily, eyebrows creased in concern and worry as he quickly calculated the consequences of embarking on this path. War was already breaking the horizons in Heaven and there was nothing stopping Michael now from choosing sides. If he hadn’t spent years in the Cage, he probably would’ve been fighting alongside Raphael for his cause. After all, they’d once been on the same wavelength, causing in the same vein. But as Michael couldn’t afford to think like that anymore, the next logical move would be to side against Raphael, which meant helping Castiel. Michael couldn’t do that either. Castiel was bringing ruin down upon himself and everyone could see it but him. He couldn’t stop him, couldn’t influence him, so there was only one course of action left to take: he had to fight Raphael, yes, but without siding with Castiel. A third front. A third fight. The fight for the humans and everything they stood for and believed in. It was the only way to physically stop Raphael and maybe even get Castiel to change his mind and see things in a new perspective. To save him from himself.

All of this was processed in a second or two at the most. Michael blinked and unglazed his eyes from thought before nodding slowly.

“If we must fight,” he said, “then we must fight. I will do everything I can to help and protect you all. I will teach Adam how to use his grace.” He looked at the human and forced a smile. “Whenever you’re ready.”

Adam grinned. “Bring it.”