#the art here was drawn around the time they fled to Rome after her father's death and one of the others was consoling her

[decarbry]

Can we hear about Cosette? Seeing her makes me feel nostalgic! (I read warrior cats as a kid, and probably would have made a non-warrior cats universe OC if I realized I could do that)

AWW ABSOLUTELYYY I was not expecting an ask about my OC HAHA <3

So I made Cosette back around 2015 when I was active in a lot more RP groups and this one was basically Warrior cats but with big cat species and centered in/around Roman cities. You had your typical "clans" of wild cats and then one clan of city cats that were kept by the humans and trained to hunt the wild cats and capture them for use in fighting rings. Cosette was born to two of the more elite hunters in the city (Caelina, who was mine, and Scaeden, who belonged to staniqs on dA) and was raised with her brothers Helios, Icarus, Manes, Libero, and Regilius to capture the loose cats that had run away from where they belonged with the humans in the city.

She was named after a previous leader of the hunters who lost her position in disgrace, with the belief that she would reclaim the name and give it back its honor and pride. Cosette never really cared about any of that, or even being a hunter; she was a carefree spirit that just loved to play and make friends, and learned to fight well but rarely wanted to use it on any of the enemy cats.

So a big war broke out between the wild clans and the hunters (where before they were just attacking the wild clans here and there where opportunity arose) and one night a big battle occurred and her father was killed by one of the wild cats. Scaeden was a huge presence with the hunters (I can't remember if he was leader at the time or second in command?) and the death hit the family hard, so a big group that included Cosette, Caelina, Helios, and a handful of non-family but close friends snuck onto a ship in the middle of the battle to flee to Rome where they all became a small found-family of deserters hiding out away from everyone else. It essentially made them targets of the hunters in Rome, ironically. The young flourished while the adults kind of withered. Cosette's mother Caelina becomes terminally ill and is killed when she confronts the brother of the cat that killed Scaeden, the younger group of the found-family breaks apart when Cosette learns that one of them informed the hunters of their whereabouts, and that was about where the development of the story ended.

[revwinchester]

Throughout Time

Summary: Gabriel finds himself drawn to the same soul as it is reborn across the world and throughout history.  After falling in love with the woman housing the soul and losing her, Gabriel can’t allow himself to go down that road again.  But when the soul belongs to the reader, a hunter working with the Winchesters, she pushes him to drop his guard and let her in.

Pairing: Gabriel x Reader, Gabriel x Kali

Word Count: 3385

Warnings: Implied smut (nothing explicit happens in the body of the story but it’s definitely implied heavily at times), reader character death/reincarnation, light language, some angst (ok, a good deal of angst), but it’s got a happy, fluffy ending!

A/N: This is for the @gabriel-monthly-challenge February Prompts.  There was an art prompt that I used, as well as the statement/word prompt, Aliferous (meaning: having wings), and the dialogue prompt: “When I said I’d never fall in love, I think Aphrodite took it as a challenge.”  This was a beast of a fic to write for some reason and I hope y’all enjoy what I came up with this month.

The art (which I’m pretty sure was made by @lacqueluster) and the fic are below the cut!

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Throughout Time -

Being a Trickster was fun.  Gabriel had only really been at it for a century or so but leaving heaven and the incessant bickering behind had done wonders for his self confidence and roaming the earth dishing out amusing punishments to deserving humans was definitely a good time.  The Nordic people had called him Loki, a name he still loved and intended to return to, in Greece he was known as Dolos, but here in Rome he was called Mendacius.  

As Mendacius, he was invisibly strolling through the city, listening in on conversations and munching on a sweet cake as he looked for his next victim.  He peered down a side street and froze in his place when he saw her.  

She was the most beautiful woman Gabriel had ever seen and he was so intently drawn to her.  He’d heart stories of angels having gracemates, some of whom were humans, but he’d always dismissed it as tales the caretakers would tell the fledgelings.  Now, he wasn’t so sure as he gave up his quest for a new target for his trickery and, instead, followed the woman.  Her flowing garments looked familiar, however he couldn’t put his finger on why since he hadn’t been in Rome long.  It wasn’t until she reached her final destination that he recognized her garb - she was one of the priestesses of the temple of Vesta.  She was a Vestal Virgin.  

“Crap,” he muttered under his breath.  Of course he would find himself so intrigued by not only a mortal, but one who had taken a 30 year vow of chastity.  By the look of things, she couldn’t be more than a third of the way through that vow.  Perhaps if he spoke with Vesta… he didn’t know the goddess well but it was worth a shot.  Gabriel tore his eyes away from the woman and made his way to the seat of the goddess to plead his case, hopefully without giving away his secret identity.  

“What have you to offer me, little godling?” Vesta asked, her voice full of condescension toward the trickster god.  “There is nothing you could give me in return that would be worth one of my priestesses.  Though,” she mused, “I do enjoy watching you squirm.  Perhaps I’m due for a new priestess anyway.  Perhaps I should plant an idea in the mind of her colleagues, an idea that she’s been unfaithful to her vows.”

Gabriel tried to reason with Vesta but there was no use in it.  Before nightfall, the woman he’d so quickly and thoroughly fallen in love with was being led from the temple and thrown into a pit where she was buried alive and left to suffocate.

Gabriel fled again, just like he had done when he left heaven.  He returned to Greece and found solace with an old friend.

“Do not weep, Dolos,” Aphrodite offered, “for she will live on, even after her death, and you shall love again.”

“You’re too good to me, Aphie, but you’re wrong.  I’ll never fall in love, not again.  It only ends in pain.”  Gabriel wasn’t solely thinking of the woman who he’d gotten killed but he couldn’t explain that to Aphrodite, not without giving up his secret and his cover.  Between the love he’d had for his brothers, who would never stop fighting, his father, who had abandoned them all, and this woman, who had died because of him, Gabriel had learned the truth: to love was to be filled with pain.

Gabriel made his way East, exploring parts of his father’s creation that he had not yet encountered.

----

Things had been good for Loki.  Early in his eastern exploration, about two decades in, he had met Kali and fallen into an easy (and rather physical) relationship.  Neither was in any danger of developing feelings beyond sentimentality and Loki found it was nice to be surrounded by a thriving religion that wasn’t centered around his father.  Even in his final days with the Greeks and Romans, Christianity had begun sneaking in.

After about eight centuries with Kali, a blink of an eye, really, for immortal beings like them, Gabriel decided to see more of the continent.  Though he became known by many titles and names throughout the continent - huli jing, kitsune, kumiho, Sri Thanonchai - he never kept good track of where he was.  Rather, he had more of a general idea of his location while he dished out justice to deserving humans.  So he couldn’t say where in Asia he was when he saw her.  Sure, her skin was a different tone, the color and texture of her hair had changed, and even the shape of her eyes was different from those of the Vestal Virgin but the soul that shone through them couldn’t be dismissed.  She was here and, once again, Gabriel found himself drawn to her.  

She loved the sky, he learned.  Her father was an astronomer and had passed his knowledge to both her and her brother.  Her brother continued the family business while her culture dictated that she care for her aging parents.  She fulfilled her duty with a heart full of love and her eyes turned toward the sky.  

Gabriel carefully used some of his powers to ease some of her burdens so that he could spend more time with her, hearing the stories that her father had told her about the stars and their places in the heavens and sharing some of what he knew.  After sharing a tale about Yì Xiù, or Wings, one of the twenty-eight mansions and her father’s favorite constellation, she asked him, “Would you… May I present you to my father and brother?”

Gabriel knew the courage the question took and the even greater amount of gumption it would take to introduce him, in the vessel he’d taken from a Western man, to her family. He spent one final night gazing at the heavens with her before he stole away, making his way back to the West.

----

No one really believed in the old gods anymore now that Christianity had become pervasive, but Gabriel slipped back into his Loki persona anyway.  With a few notable exceptions, the Norse pantheon had always been his favorite.  As Loki, the most powerful of the trickster gods, he could use some of his archangel powers while still staying under the radar of his angelic brethren.  As Loki, he could indulge in the earthly sweets he’d come to love.  As Loki, he encountered her.  

He had stood by the statement he’d made to Aphrodite centuries ago and he didn’t intend to go back on that now, yet he found himself drawn to the woman.  She had the same eyes as the Roman priestess  he had loved.  

She was a sculptor, an odd thing for a woman in this time period.  Her physical features reminded him more of the Roman woman but her spirit, it seemed, remained unchanged in each of her iterations.  Gabriel was happy to serve as her muse and model for a time and, inevitably, they began to share a life and a bed.  It all caught up with Gabriel when she showed him her most recent piece; though he had never shared his celestial ancestry with her, she had depicted him with wings.

“You are my angel,” she confessed.  

That night, Gabriel left.  He didn’t wake her, just slipped out into the night, retreating once again to Asia, to Kali, intent on a good time.  He’d won, he told himself as he cheekily suggested that he and Kali memorize and perfect the Kama Sutra.

----

Throughout the 1800s, Gabriel decided to travel around Africa.  It was a huge place and Gabriel was fascinated by the diversity in the people and the terrains throughout the land.  He crossed the Sahara Desert on foot, simply because he could, before snapping himself onto some of the tallest dunes in the Namib Desert.  Gabriel also explored the savannah, observing the wildlife, watching lions hunt and nearly getting caught in a stampede, all the while humming a tune that wouldn’t be written for more than 150 years.

Gabriel didn’t purposely avoid human contact while he explored some of the various parts of the continent but he found that he had a clearer vision of the natural order of his father’s creation if he stayed clear of the routes the humans would generally take and the areas that they tended to gather and dwell.  So his surprise was understandable when he encountered a small community well off of the beaten path. Gabriel approached the people with care and he put up no resistance when they surrounded him and herded him toward where their leader was dwelling. Though he had never heard their language before, he could understand their words. The people had been driven from their land by force and now feared he was a spy.

When he was presented to their leader, a young woman, he knew immediately that everything would be fine. It was her. By now he'd know the soul that glowed within her anywhere, no matter what face she wore. He spoke with her and promised to help her people regain their home.

Gabriel assisted her in planning during the day and in the evenings, he shared stories with the people who gathered around the fire, earning himself a name among the tribe: Anansi. He told them tales of some of his better tricks as well as stories of a woman whose soul was reborn over and over again as searched to bond with its true partner. As he weaved that particular tale over the course of many nights, the leader began to grow sad and quiet.

The night before they were to retake their home, Anansi asked her about it.

“The woman in your tale,” she replied, “she lives time and time again, greeting her love in each life only to find herself dismissed. Before your arrival, I had not loved and, yet, I cannot help but find myself within her story.”

Anansi stayed the night with her, resolving that perhaps this time, he could stay. She was created to be with him, and he with her, he reasoned.

The next morning, the people reclaimed their land. Anansi had assured her that he could take care of it on his own but she had insisted that they all take part. She lead the bulk of the people while he and a much smaller group worked in tricks and traps. The people were somber upon their success and Anansi couldn't fathom why until he drew near enough to see the pyre they were preparing. She lay there, honored among the dead. Upon the pyre’s completion, Gabriel in his rage called down fire from heaven to consume the bodies before he disappeared.

----

After finding her and losing her in a place that he thought would be deserted, Gabriel decided he would do best somewhere where he was surrounded by people and he made his way to London.  However, his plan quickly backfired and only about two decades after he’d lost her, the glow of her soul found its way into his life again.  He’d never met her so soon after losing her before and he buried his grief in her ample breasts, still swearing to himself and to any god that would hear him that he would be the ruler of his emotions.  

She was an author now and their exploits worked their way into her fiction.  However, after being told that her writing was “too unladylike,” she chose to publish under a masculine pseudonym.  Only one of her pieces was published under her own name but Gabriel was sure that all of her works would survive the test of time.  

Maybe it was the residual emotions from the last time he had found her but, for the first time, Gabriel felt compelled to reveal his true self to her.  However, he knew that if he went through with it, there would be no going back from that moment.  If he stayed beyond the revelation, he would stay forever.  Rather than explain it all to her, Gabriel called his wings into her plane of vision.  He held back enough of the grace that would normally come with the vision so as not to harm her.

Instead of being repulsed, like Gabriel had feared she might be, she was intrigued.  She had always loved to watch the birds as she wrote and, she confessed, had longed to for the freedom of flight.  That night, after the streets had cleared, Gabriel pulled her into his arms and took to the skies.  He brought her back to her home exhilarated and exhausted and watched her fall asleep, a smile on her face and a story brewing in her mind, before he disappeared once again.

Feelings are dangerous; to love is to court pain, he assured himself.  Those words were his mantra as he took off and created a pocket dimension to hide in.

----

“Why do you hate me?” Y/N asked.

Gabriel had just wandered into the library and the question caught him off guard.  Dad, did those hurt.  “What?” he asked through a mouthful of sugary, heart shaped candies.

“You tease and prank Sam and Dean, you have a deep, brotherly affection for Cas, and you even seem to respect Crowley,” she explained, “but you rarely ever look at me, let alone speak with me.  And I don’t know why it bothers me, but it does.  A lot.  Way more than I’d care to admit.”

Gabriel swallowed the candy and looked into her eyes, past her body and stared deep into her soul.  “I don’t hate you,” he sighed.  “I could never hate you.”

“Then…” she began, her voice trailing off as she considered whether or not she wanted to keep pressing.  

Gabriel couldn’t blame her for her hesitation, he hadn’t said more than a sentence or two to her at a time since he’d arrived at the bunker about a month ago.  He smiled at her, maybe for the first time in this incarnation, in the hopes of encouraging her words.

“Then why don’t you ever want to be around me?  Why don’t you ever talk to me?”  Her voice sounded hurt and Gabriel hated himself for doing this to her.

“Because I… we… I, I can’t let it win.  If I’ve learned anything in my existence, it’s that love only leads to pain and I can’t do that to myself.  I can’t lose you.  Not again.”  Gabriel knew that, while he was laying all of his cards on the table, he wasn’t explaining the situation well but it was the best he could do in the moment but he had a feeling he was going to need to do better.

“What do you mean you can’t lose me again?” Y/N’s was curious; she wanted to understand him, like she always had.

Gabriel took a deep, unnecessary breath and, for the first time, told her everything.  Tales of her soul, of the Vestal Virgin, the astronomer, the sculptor, the village leader, and the author all poured out of his mouth.  Once Gabriel began speaking, it was like he couldn’t stop.  “We belong to one another; you’re my gracemate or, I guess, humans call it soulmates.  I’ve been drawn to your soul throughout my entire existence,” Gabriel explained.  “Because we haven’t bonded, your soul has been reborn over and over and each time I find you.”  Gabriel shifted his gaze from her face to his hands, unable to look directly at the beautiful soul that blazed within her.  “But I’ve lost you enough that I stopped allowing myself to love you.  Every time I let my guard down, you died.  So whenever I felt us getting too close, I’d run.  It’s what I’m good at.”

After a pause that felt like an eternity but, in actuality, probably only lasted a few seconds, Gabriel moved to stand.  He felt the itch to escape again, he needed to leave the bunker.  Y/N would explain to Sam and Dean and he could pop out, tell Cas, and disappear.

However, Y’N’s hand shot out and stopped him.  “Don’t run, Gabriel, not this time,” she asked, her all too familiar eyes searching out his as her voice caressed his name.  “Please.”

Gabriel sat beside her at the table and she laced her fingers through his.  He looked down at their joined hands and had to laugh a little.  “You know, when I said I’d never fall in love, I think Aphrodite took it as a challenge.”

“Aphrodite?  Like the actual Aphrodite?” Y/N asked him but she brushed the question off and spoke again before he could answer.  “Look, I’ve got an idea but I need you to promise me something.”

“Anything,” Gabriel replied, his voice quiet.

“Don’t go anywhere.  I want to talk more - we need to talk more and, preferably, before Sam and Dean get back from their trip into town - but I need to go to the kitchen first.  Promise me you’ll wait here for me.”

Her voice was so sincere and Gabriel knew he was a goner this time.  He agreed to stay in his spot until she returned and he watched as she disappeared into the bunker’s kitchen and listened while she began opening the cabinets and moving around the space.  

While he waited for Y/N to return, Gabriel took stock of everything that had happened that afternoon.  He had told her everything and she hadn’t run.  Surprisingly, neither had he, and it seemed like Y/N might care for him in return.  While Gabriel was lost in thought, Y/N reentered the library and pulled his attention back to her presence by setting down a crazy looking milkshake.  The glass was topped with whipped cream and candy and cake, all covered with sprinkles and cherries.  Gabriel looked up at her inquisitively as she pushed the milkshake closer to him and then held out a hand with her intention of leading him to a different room clear on her face.

“I was planning on trying to win you over with one of these but I accidentally let my mouth jump ahead of the plan,” Y/N explained as Gabriel took her hand.

Y/N had her own milkshake, not quite as elaborate but still quite fanciful in one hand and Gabriel allowed himself to be led through the bunker.  There was a smaller secondary library deeper in the space and that’s where Y/N took him but she didn’t stop at the tiny table in the room.  In fact, she marched them right up to one of the bookshelves in the back before she dropped his hand and handed him her milkshake.  

Gabriel stood confused as she began tugging at one of the bookshelves, watching as it gave way, revealing a small, secret room.  “I found this place a few months ago when Sam and Dean left me behind after I had sprained my wrist on a hunt.  It’s become my haven and I haven’t wanted to share it with anyone else before tonight,” Y/N told the angel as she took her milkshake back from him and ushered him into the room.  

They sat across from one another at the small table in the room and she leaned in, placing a hand on top of one of his.  “So, how many times have we fallen in love?”

“Five.  This is the sixth time I’ve met you,” Gabriel answered carefully as her fingers played over the top of his hand.

“So, sixth time’s the charm, then, I guess.”  Gabriel could tell Y/N was working to keep her voice light.  She was afraid that he was going to run and, yet, she was still speaking her mind, “Stop looking at me like I’m going to break, Gabriel.  I’m an archangel’s soulmate, not a damsel in distress.”

Gabriel huffed a laugh at that.  “I’m just not used to you living much beyond me making the decision to stick around.”

“Well, something tells me I’ve never been quite as stubborn as I am now,” Y/N replied, “and I have no intention to die any time soon.  Especially not before you tell me more about this whole gracemate thing.”

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