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"Then I suppose I'll go looking for it later."

He sidestepped the kitchen and departed through the door to Gabriel's bedroom alone, rolling his eyes as he looked the room over. He propped himself against the frame of the door.

"Do you bring all your conquests here?"

"Sometimes we go to their place instead," he says, trying not to bristle at Lucifer's tone. Just because big brother apparently has something against sex like this doesn't mean Gabriel does.

"You know, if you get laid every once in awhile, you'd probably be less cranky. Same goes for Michael." A slight testing of boundaries to see what his brother is willing to put up with.

Ruffled feathers. Lucifer shifted very slightly on the spot, moving from resting on one foot to the other. Not many things made him uncomfortable, but he could tell that Gabriel was pushing, and it put him distinctly on edge.

"Really? And who should I be sleeping with? Pagan demi-gods? Demons? Humans? Don't make me laugh." It honestly didn't sound like he was at risk from it. "We're archangels, Gabriel; or have you forgotten? We're better than that. Better than them."

"No, I haven't forgotten. Even if I've spent most of my time lately pretending to be anything but." He folds his arms across his chest uncomfortably, but keeps going. "I think we should probably skip having this argument again."

"Yes, let's."

He pulled away form the door, approaching Gabriel instead, catching his gaze.

"You still haven't answered my question."

"About what? Who you should be sleeping with?" Gabriel's suddenly wary due to Lucifer's approach. "Pretty sure the only ones you consider good enough are other angels."

"Other angels..." He tapped at his lip, pretending not to give Gabriel the full beam of his attention, but really just deeply enjoying watching his feathers ruffle. Gabriel had a lot of gall; he was mouthy, and he'd presented himself as a challenge before, put himself right in the line of fire. He wasn't going to make the mistake of thinking that he was all talk, though. There was more to his little brother than that. His attention snapped right back. "Why? Are you volunteering?"

He's changed quite a bit in the intervening time between when Lucifer could handle him relatively easily.

Gabriel gives him an even look, semi-regretting saying anything. "You looking for me to?"

That was very interesting. He folded his arms again, cocking his head to one side, but never taking his eyes off him. It was a penetrating stare.

"Sleep with me? Seems unlikely. You're afraid to even touch me."

"Well, we both know why that is, don't we?" he says bitterly.

His eyes start wandering the room. The way his brother is staring at him is making him uncomfortable and he's tempted to find somewhere else to be.

"Yes yes. I brought it on myself. I'm a monster."

Lucifer exhaled a sigh, then turned his back, finishing his short tour of Gabriel's home, looking disgusted at the bathroom, then coming back into the bedroom, hitting switches and looking in drawers.

So if Gabriel has any mood lighting. Any sexy music. Lucifer is about to find it.

It's a bathroom, what does he expect? It has a few things in there, both for the benefit of hunters to point them in the direction he wants them to go and for whoever he brings to his apartment. Same for most of the rest of the apartment, really. Give the hunters what they're looking for, and they won't dig deeper.

Gabriel ventures to the doorway so he could watch his brother. "You may want to watch out for surprises. Left one or two for hunters. Not enough to kill them, but enough to make 'em jump and swear a blue streak."

A case in point being the drawer that was in the process of being opened with the very real looking viper striking at his brother's hand but not actually leaving damage.

Lucifer actually jumps. It's not his fault, he was thinking about other things, his mind elsewhere, most of his attention on Gabriel rather than his tricks. So the snake lunges, and Lucifer actually snatches his hand back, and then catches himself doing it.

"Well, that's embarrassing. I think I'm losing my touch."

Okay but that was actually really humiliating.

"You don't happen to have a band aid for my pride in here, do you?"

"Snake's harmless. Good for a heart attack but won't actually poison anyone," Gabriel says, trying to hide his amusement as the snake settles back in the drawer. A gesture later, and the drawer is closed.

"No band-aids for anyone's pride, sorry." He'd be tempted to wish he caught that on video if it wasn't for the fact that big brother would just promptly destroy it the moment he found out about its existence.

Well, at least Gabriel now has a story to tell other people that isn't about how his big brother killed him, so that's got to be a turn up for the books. He drew away from the drawer, and sat on the edge of the bed instead. His eyes hung on Gabriel still, and he tipped his head to one side.

He reached out and patted the bed invitingly. If it could be called invitingly with Lucifer doing it.

Yes, he does. He might even tell it to a Winchester sometime. Should be good for a laugh from at least Dean.

Gabriel raises his eyebrows as he moves closer and sits on the bed. "You aren't going to cling like a barnacle, are you?"

He's still nervous at the prospect of getting to close to his brother but he's forcing himself to shove it down.

"I wouldn't dream of it."

But Gabriel had actually sat down--which alright, didn't mean that he looked like he was about to fly out the nearest window in panic, but it was still a very fine line.

He reached across. His hand settled on Gabriel's knee.

Gabriel's pretty sure that someone would notice a guy jumping out of a tenth floor window in a crowded and busy city.

He manages to limit himself to just looking down at his brother's hand and then looking back at him, eyebrow raised as if to ask 'well?'. Lucifer's move.

Pish posh. It's New York City. People don't even notice a messenger bicycle before it hits them right in the face.

Gabriel looked back up at him, and Lucifer felt the question. His jaw tensed briefly, unsure of what his next move actually was. Fate wasn't really talking to him, recently.

He didn't know what he was doing, so he withdrew his hand suddenly, like Gabriel had slapped it.

You're giving Gabriel all sorts of mixed signals here, big brother.

"Either you want to get grabby, or you don't. Pick one." Even as he talks, he has the sudden realization this was difficult for Lucifer too. On the one hand, good; it should be. On the other...

Gabriel scoots back on the bed, laying on his back and folding his hands behind his head in a show of casualness he doesn't entirely feel. "What do you think are the odds of being locked into this room until we got our shit sorted if anyone we know knows we're both in the same spot?"

He did want to get grabby. Where was that decisiveness now, anyway? But Gabriel leant back on the bed, just lay there looking like he didn't care less, didn't care what Lucifer did. He wasn't sure whether he believed the casualness he was seeing.

"I think if they locked us in here," he said, casting an upward glance. "Then one of us would die. And since I promised not to hurt you, it'd have to be me."

He stretched out beside his brother slowly - very, very carefully, propping his head on his hand so that he could look uncomfortably down at Gabriel.

"I don't want to kill you. I never did," he says quietly before there's a fleeting grin as he realizes that he just quoted a movie. He should probably watch it again sometime.

"There's no booby traps on or in the bed, if that's on your mind." Deliberately misinterpreting Lucifer's discomfort, yep.

"I don't care what you want. I'm not staying in this apartment with you for the rest of the next eternity. I'd sooner take the cage again."

But there was light dancing in his eyes. He had a sense of humor too, and though perhaps it wasn't so refined as Gabriel's...

He laid his free hand in the center of his brother's chest.

"It's been a long time."

Gabriel gives his brother a mock-outraged look. "Are you saying that my company sucks? That's it, not gonna share my candy bars with you."

Gabriel looks down at his brother's hand and then back up at his face. "Yeah, it has."

It was like he was given permission to cast aside some of what had gone before. All the killing... But now he folded into Gabriel, and folded his hands across his chest, and rest his chin on the back of them, looking up at him. Cool eyes, absolute attention and focus.

"Longer than it should have been."

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