Archive of Our Own ^beta

“We should get a pet,” Becky announced one morning out of the blue, when the five of them were crowded into the kitchen.

Becky, who always ended up cooking – not, as she had quite primly informed Dean when he made the insinuation, because she was a woman, but because none of them could cook anything that didn’t come out of a tin – stood at the stove in one of Chuck’s shirts and a pair of silky pyjama shorts, unbrushed, now-natural brown hair tucked up into a pony-tail and feet bare on the linoleum.

“What?” Sam asked blankly, accepting a mug from Chuck, who had been tasked with coffee-making duty that morning, and watching Becky skilfully fold an omelette onto a plate and set it aside.

“A pet,” the young woman repeated, now cracking four fresh eggs into the pan. “For the kids. I think it’d be good for them.”

“There’s enough crazy around here without adding pets,” Dean muttered, swiping his hands down his face, shoulders already hunched in resignation – once Becky got an idea in her head, there was no stopping her.

“Um, Becky,” Chuck said hesitantly. “I don’t think–”

“Every little kid should have a pet,” Becky said firmly, folding her arms across her chest and turning to glower at her fiancé.

Adam plucked the spatula from the bench behind her and took over supervision of the eggs without prompting, obviously sensing the oncoming debate. He divided his attention between the eggs and the sizzling pan of bacon Becky had put him in charge of earlier, poking it dutifully at it with a pair of tongs when it hissed in a particularly threatening manner.

“It’s important, Chuck. It teaches responsibility and compassion, and there are plenty of studies that show that pets are extremely helpful in therapy for emotionally stunted or damaged children – it could help teach the boys to express love and affection in healthy ways,” Becky continued, lifting her chin stubbornly, mouth curled into a tight little scowl. “It might even help Sam and Dean–”

“Hey–!”

“– and I talked to Castiel already and he agreed with me that–”

“Okay, okay!” Chuck interrupted, lifting one hand in surrender. “We’ll, uh, think about it.”

Becky glared. Chuck swallowed hard, eyes widening worriedly as he scrambled for a way to appease her. He was, however, saved by the loud and sudden arrival of Gabriel in the kitchen. The four-year-old cannoned into the room with a shriek of delighted terror, weaving through the sea of legs with surprising grace and circling the table to struggle onto Sam’s lap. Sam reached to help him automatically, settling the tiny former-archangel onto his knees and wrapping an arm around him to keep him from slipping off again.

A few seconds later, Lucifer skidded in, blue eyes wide and tiny white teeth bared in a wickedly gleeful smile. He took one look at Gabriel perched on Sam’s knee, smiling smugly as he fisted his small hands in Sam’s shirt front, and stiffened with indignant rage.

“Geddown!” he cried, stamping his foot. “Gab’iel geddown! Tha’s mine.”

Dean groaned, ducking to slip his hands under Lucifer’s armpits and lifting the bristling child up to settle him against one side. Lucifer squirmed and wriggled, making indistinct noises of complaint as he struggled to free himself and continue towards his brother and ‘his’ Sam.

“Hey,” the hunter said sharply. “That’s enough, kid.”

“Lemme down, Dean!” Lucifer demanded, smacking Dean in the chest with one hand. “Wan’ Sammy.”

“Lucifer,” Dean said flatly. “Do you wanna go on the naughty step? Because I will put you there – don’t think I won’t.”

He grimaced faintly at the words ‘naughty step’, as though it physically pained him to use the phrase, and Sam hid a smirk behind Gabriel’s messy hair.

“… No,” Lucifer admitted sulkily, glaring at Gabriel, who stuck his tongue out in retaliation.

“Don’t you start, buddy,” Dean said. He pointed threateningly at Gabriel, raising his eyebrows in warning until Gabriel pulled his tongue back into his mouth and pouted.

“Thawwy,” Gabriel muttered, not sounding very sorry at all.

“My apologies,” Castiel murmured, stepping into the room and settling against the counter behind Dean as Raphael and Michael trailed in behind him, more sedate than their brothers. “They proved more difficult to contain than I anticipated.”

Adam snorted, looking up with a faint smirk as he transferred the last of the eggs to a paper-covered tray. “You couldn’t keep four kids under control for an hour? Not even with all the angel powers you got?”

“They are… crafty,” Castiel replied stiffly, refusing to look at Adam, who laughed and turned back to his task.

Raphael crept across the room, silent as ever, and attached herself to Becky’s leg, pressing her cheek to the outside of her pseudo-mother’s thigh. Becky smiled down at her, settling a hand affectionately on the side of her head and cheerfully bidding her good morning. Raphael murmured something back quietly, and tightened her grip. Michael, meanwhile, glanced first at Chuck, and then at Adam, looking anxious and indecisive for a moment before guiltily edging towards Chuck.

“Alright, all of you except Adam and Fae – out,” Becky ordered, waving the spatula. “This kitchen isn’t big enough for ten people. Breakfast in the living room in ten minutes.”

Nothing more was said on the topic of pets for almost two weeks – even with six adults to juggle them, taking care of four four-year-olds is a lot of work, especially with Adam starting college again and Becky and Dean working during the day while Sam caught up on the sleep he had missed out on working the nightshift. Chuck’s perpetually frazzled air had deepened, and Sam had a sneaking suspicion that if not for Michael and Raphael’s relatively quiet personalities, Chuck might have had a complete breakdown by now – handling Gabriel and Lucifer’s chaos was difficult enough.

It was Dean who brought it up this time, to Sam’s surprise. It was late on a Thursday night, after the kids had gone to bed and just as Sam was getting ready for his shift.

Dean was sprawled out on one of the armchairs, staring blankly at the murmuring TV and nursing a bottle of beer in one hand while Cas perched on the end of the sofa closest to him, wearing some of the casual clothes Dean and Becky had managed to talk him into cycling through to help preserve the illusion of normalcy they were trying to project to the community. Becky had curled herself into Chuck’s side and was watching the movie with sleepy eyes, smiling unconsciously as Chuck’s thumb rubbed a small circle on her shoulder. Adam had passed out on his bed half an hour before with Michael snuggled into his side, exhausted after a trying week of work and college classes.

“Uh, I’ve been thinking,” Dean said suddenly, breaking the comfortable near-silence. “About–” he gestured vaguely at Becky with his beer bottle. “–what you were sayin’, about getting a pet for the kids.”

Sam stared, vaguely aware that the others were staring too. His brother had a faintly embarrassed look on his face, but there was a tiny frown at the corner of his mouth and a firm set to his jaw that Sam had come to recognise as a sign Dean had made up his mind.

“I think it’s a good idea,” Dean continued, taking a sip of his beer and glancing away from the TV to gauge their reactions. “Kids should have pets growing up.”

Out of the corner of his eye, Sam saw Becky’s face soften and twist with a strange mixture of delight and sorrow – it was the same look she wore any time he or Dean said something about their ‘inner angst’, or whatever she called it, and Sam was grateful that Chuck cut her off before she could speak.

“You’re right,” he agreed, somewhat ruefully. “It would be good for them to have something to, um, bond over, I think.”

“Do we really have time, though?” Sam asked sceptically. “I’m all for giving them something to bond over, or whatever, but they’re not old enough to look after a pet on their own and we’re stretched pretty thin as it is.”

“Not a puppy,” Becky agreed. “Maybe a kitten? Cats are pretty independent, and so cute!”

Dean looked disgusted. “Are you nuts? No way.”

“Why not?” Becky asked, eyes wide with hurt. “I like cats.”

“Yeah, but for Luce and Gabe? How long d’you think it’d take before someone pulled its tail and got scratched?” Dean argued, and then added, almost too quiet for Sam to hear. “Cats are evil bastards.”

“I also like cats,” Castiel said idly. “They’re majestic creatures.”

Dean’s expression twisted, like he was torn between sticking to his opinion and rushing to reassure Cas that he didn’t really hate cats. Sam coughed to disguise a laugh, wondering exactly when his brother had turned into a teenage girl, and arranged his face into a mask of innocence when Dean shot him a dark look.

“So not a cat,” Sam said diplomatically, once he was sure he could speak without laughing. “And no reptiles. A bird?”

“Are birds a good idea?” Becky wondered. “I don’t think birds are a good idea. It might be distressing for Luci.”

“Okay, no birds.” Sam winced. “So, what, a guinea pig? That doesn’t leave many options.”

“What about a rabbit?” Castiel asked quietly. “Raphael is fond of the stuffed ones and Gabriel prefers the pyjamas with bunny patterns even though they are for girls. I think they would like a rabbit.”

Sam blinked in surprise and considered the suggestion: small, but not so small or delicate that the kids could hurt it easily by accident, so long as they were supervised; fairly low-maintenance and probably a pretty easy-going kind of pet, which would be good considering how excitable Gabriel could be; able to be kept indoors as well as outdoors.

Judging by the slightly-surprised, considering expressions on the others faces, they’d come to the same conclusion Sam had – a rabbit was probably their best choice. Castiel was smiling faintly, evidently pleased to be on the receiving end of so many approving looks – Dean’s in particular.

“Yeah, Cas,” Sam said, rolling his eyes, after he realised Dean wasn’t going to say it. “That’s perfect.”

It was the following week that they broke the news to the kids. Predictably, Gabriel reacted loudly and enthusiastically. He shrieked, making Sam wince and lean away from him instinctively as Gabriel rocketed to his feet, clambering onto the arm of Sam’s chair to scurry along the back of the sofa. Becky caught him and set him on the floor again before he could slip and hurt himself, giving him a fond, exasperated smile – the lecture wasn’t worth it when Gabriel was in this kind of mood.

“A bunny!” he shouted, eyes wide and excited as he bounced across the room to tug on Castiel’s jeans. “Caths! Caths! Didja hear? We’re gonn’ get a bunny!”

“Yes, Gabriel,” Castiel replied gently, placing a hand on his now-younger brother’s head to stop him bouncing up and down. “I know.”

Sam watched Gabriel tremble with excitement for a moment, grinning at his enthusiasm, before turning back to look at the other kids. Lucifer was frozen in place, eyes comically wide, mouth parted in surprise and hair, as ever, spiked up in all directions, giving him the look of a startled kitten. Sam felt his heart melt slightly at the sight.

Michael had gone ramrod straight beside Adam, expression filled with a sort of muted wonder, as though he couldn’t quite believe it and thought if he showed his happiness someone might reveal the cruel joke.

Raphael, from her position on Chuck’s lap, was blinking curiously up at her father, calm and unreadable as ever.

“Really?” Michael asked, voice shy and hushed as he turned his eyes on Chuck. “We’re really gonna get a rabbit?”

“Yep,” Becky confirmed, smiling brightly at him. “Adam and Sam are gonna take you down to the store to pick one out later today – but only if you’re good, okay?”

“’Kay!” Gabriel agreed, drowning out his siblings.  

“I getta name it!” Lucifer declared, jumping to his feet.

“Tha’s not fair!” Gabriel protested, wrenching himself away from Castiel. “I wanna name it!”

“Nuh-uh! I bags’d it!”

“No you di’n’!”

“Yes I did!”

“You di’n’ say you bags’d it!”

“You all have to agree on a name,” Chuck interrupted, stopping the argument in its tracks. “This bunny belongs to all of you.”

Adam snorted softly and Chuck pinked slightly with embarrassment, but didn’t look at the blond.

“Don’t you have anything to say to your dad?” Becky asked, folding her arms expectantly.

Gabriel and Lucifer looked at her in confusion for a moment, but Raphael turned to wrap her arms awkwardly around her father’s chest.

“Thank you,” she said solemnly, leaning up to kiss his cheek.

Michael smiled shyly, leaning into Adam’s side again. “Thank you.”

“Thankyouthankyouthankyou!” Gabriel shouted, launching himself onto the sofa beside Chuck and flinging his arms around his neck in a stranglehold.

“Inside voice, Gabriel,” Chuck wheezed, wincing slightly.

He wrapped his free arm around Gabriel’s back, extending the other to pull Lucifer in when the blond took Gabriel’s initiative and clambered onto the sofa. Michael bit his lip, looking torn, until Adam rolled his eyes and nudged him off the armchair towards his father. The dark-haired boy shuffled across the room and joined Raphael on Chuck’s knees, tucking his head under his chin and smiling with radiant joy.

I’m going to kill Becky, Sam thought darkly, scowling.

He was standing outside the pet store, one hand keeping a firm grip on a sullen Gabriel’s small hand to keep him from getting into anymore trouble. He had already gotten so excited and loud in the pet store that the frazzled clerk had kicked them out for scaring the animals and disturbing other customers. Sam had agreed to take Gabriel outside while Adam took the remaining three, who were also excited but being much calmer about it, to look at the rabbits.

It took him a moment to realise that something was wrong. His first hint was a tiny sound from Gabriel he wouldn’t have noticed if not for years of training himself to notice the little things – a soft little huff of air, and then a high, quiet noise of distress. Sam glanced down and felt his stomach drop at the sight of Gabriel biting his lip, eyes downcast, cheeks red and wet.

“Hey,” Sam said softly, feeling awkward and uncertain – usually it was Dean, Becky or Adam handling the kids when they got upset. “Hey, Gabe, don’t cry.”

“No fair,” Gabriel said, voice hitching. “I wanna pick too.”

Sam sighed, crouching down to Gabriel’s height and wincing slightly when his knees cracked. “Gabriel, we told you in the car you had to behave yourself in the shop, didn’t we?”

“Yeah,” Gabriel mumbled, turning his face away, mouth trembling. “I di’n’ mean to be bad… ‘m thawwy…”

“I know,” Sam told him after a moment, dipping his head to catch the boy’s red-rimmed, bright golden eyes as Gabriel scrubbed stubbornly at his face. “And it’s okay, but you’ve got to learn to do what you’re told, Gabriel.”

Gabriel nodded, lower lip still trembling, and Sam lifted his arm to pull him into a hug, cupping his head with a hand. Something in his chest tightened with a mixture of fear and wonder as he realised anew just how tiny and fragile the former-angel was; his hand covered the back of Gabriel’s head entirely, pinkie finger brushing against the warm nape of his neck.

“If I take you back inside, do you promise to be good?” Sam asked.

Gabriel nodded again, face buried against Sam’s neck.

“I mean it, Gabriel.”

“I will! I promiths!”

“Alright,” Sam said. “I’m going to carry you, okay? So you can’t run around again.”

“Okay,” Gabriel said, voice muffled, and wrapped his arms tightly around Sam’s neck to be lifted.

The clerk gave them a half-terrified, half-furious glare when they re-entered, but Sam shook his head and gave her an apologetic look and she bustled off to deal with a group of customers near the fish tanks.

The store was a decent size, but not huge. It boasted four main sections: a section for the various cages, bowls, foods, and other pet-care related items; a section filled with shrieking birds, ranging from finches to brightly coloured parrots to mean little lovebirds, which had very nearly torn Gabriel’s attention away from finding the rabbits on their first tour of the shop; an alcove full of aquariums and colourful fish, which Michael had found mesmerising and had even shyly asked Adam to boost him up to see properly; and lastly, the room where the kittens, puppies, rodents and rabbits were stored. There were rats, mice and hamsters racing frantically on wheels, or else scurrying about and climbing the walls of their cages, and a small tribe of guinea pigs calling out in strange wailing squeaks. There were kittens tied in a sleepy knot, and batting playfully at jangling toys in their pens, and puppies tumbling over each other and mouthing at each others’ feet.

And, towards the back, there was a pen filled with hopping bundles of fluff. Adam was crouched by the pen, looking in on – Sam realised when Michael’s dark head appeared above the wall – Gabriel’s siblings as they played with the rabbits.

Adam looked up at the sound of Sam’s footsteps and then stood, raising an eyebrow inquiringly at Gabriel and shrugging when Sam only shook his head. Gabriel had emerged from Sam’s neck by now, strangely subdued, and when Sam approached the pen he made no move to get free.

“How’s it going?” Sam asked, half to his brother and half to the kids he was supervising.

Michael was standing with a slightly larger rabbit held carefully against his chest, nuzzling his face against its ears and smiling widely the way he only did when he didn’t realise he was doing it. Raphael and Lucifer were both sitting down – Lucifer cross-legged with a rabbit on his lap, running his fingers repeatedly through its ears to feel the velveteen softness against the webbing between his fingers, and Raphael with her legs folded under her, surrounded by a small pack of rabbits that sniffed her skirt and hands and rested their paws on her knees to investigate the intruder. She was smiling with quiet, genuine happiness that made her almost seem to glow, and when one of the rabbits butted its head against her palm, she petted it obligingly.

Lucifer looked up at Sam, beaming. “Look, Sam! He likes me!” Lucifer turned his attention back to the rabbit, smiling brightly. “He’s soft!”

“I had to tell Luce not to pull their ears, but no major disasters,” Adam reported. “You gonna put Gabriel down, too?”

“Do you want to play with the rabbits?” Sam asked, looking down at Gabriel.

“Uh-huh,” Gabriel said, nodding against Sam’s chest and allowing the former-hunter to set him down with his siblings.

“What the hell happened?” Adam asked quietly, watching Gabriel shuffle cautiously towards Michael and reach out hesitantly to touch the rabbit he held. “What did you say to him?”

“Nothing,” Sam replied, at the same volume. “I think he was just worn out from the excitement.”

“Well thank Go– Somebody he’s not bouncing off the walls anymore,” Adam muttered, dragging a hand through his hair. “Can you keep an eye on ‘em while I go get the cage and shi- uh, stuff in the car?”

“Yeah, sure,” Sam said, as Gabriel carefully arranged his arms under Michael’s and watched, wide-eyed, as his brother transferred the rabbit to his care. “Just let me know when you’re done, man.”

Adam made a vaguely affirmative gesture and left, missing Michael’s momentary frown. Sam knelt by the side of the pen, watching as Raphael picked up one of the friendlier rabbits and kissed its head.

“So, do you guys know which one you want?”

“I wan’ this one,” Lucifer said immediately, holding up his rabbit – a small, dark brown one with an incongruous white spot at the tip of one long, floppy ear. It flailed slightly in alarm, and Lucifer quickly put it back on his lap, looking guiltily at Sam as if hoping he hadn’t seen.

“I like them all,” Raphael said, holding her rabbit close to her chest.

“What about you, Michael?” Sam asked, when the eldest of the four said nothing.

“I don’ mind,” Michael said, shrugging one shoulder. “You pick.”

“Nah, you should pick,” Sam replied, trying for an encouraging tone; they were working on getting Michael to express himself, but it was slow going and they often had to prod him several times before he’d offer even the smallest opinion. “Which one do you like?”

Michael bit his lip, and after a long pause, nodded towards the one Gabriel was now holding. It was solid black, except for a bright flare of white on the underside of its fluffy little tail, and had uneven ears. One was standing up, alert, while the other flopped sideways, apparently uncontrolled – Sam was fairly sure rabbits weren’t supposed to have ears like that outside of cartoons, and wondered if one of its ears had been broken.

“Me too. I like him,” Gabriel said, looking up at Sam hopefully. “C’n we get him?”

“I don’t know,” Sam said. “You’ll have to ask Raph and Luce.”

Gabriel turned around immediately, and Raphael set her rabbit aside before standing and reaching out to pet Michael’s choice. Lucifer remained stubbornly seated, expression mutinous, and Sam groaned quietly, already anticipating the argument.

“Why’s Michael getta pick?” Lucifer snapped, cuddling his rabbit stubbornly. “I liked this one first!”

“You all get to pick,” Sam corrected, as calmly as he could. “But if we pick your rabbit just because you like it best, that’s not fair to Michael, Gabe and Raph, is it?”

“So?” Lucifer asked, glaring. “I wan’ this one.”

“This is a pet for all of you, Lucifer, not just one of you.”

“You c’n pick a name,” Gabriel said suddenly. “If we get this bunny you c’n pick histh name.”

Lucifer paused, expression becoming thoughtful instead of furious, and Sam spared a moment to be grateful for Gabriel’s occasional diplomacy.

“Really?” Lucifer asked suspiciously, eying his siblings warily. “Promise?”

Gabriel looked at Michael and Raphael in turn, receiving a small nod from each of them, and then turned back to Lucifer and nodded again. Lucifer’s expression cleared of all mulishness, and he gave his rabbit one last look before setting it aside and getting up to join his siblings around the black rabbit.

“I s’pose he’s okay.” Lucifer muttered, crossing his arms and scowling.

By the time Adam returned with the shop keeper, having finished loading the supplies into the car, Lucifer was smiling, arms full of sleepy rabbit, and wondering aloud what name he would give their new pet.