With a regular scedual of a jam packed busy week, Sundays were Christine's only real day off. No work and no school haliluja. She usually utilized the time off by running errands, catching up on homework, and or other personal projects. But the crown jewel of treats on her Sunday scedual was the hours of extra sleep she got in the morning. Chris could easily go days with little to no sleep, but on Sunday, all the lost hours were to be caught up.

So one could probably imaging her dismay when at 6 in the morning, she was jolted from her slumber by booming music.

Redbone's come and get your love was blaring through her apartment at an ungodly volume. Chris held tight to her chest as to calm her pounding heart, and her eyes struggled to fight against the morning light coming in from her window.
She rolled out from under the warmth of her covers and stumbled barefoot into the living room, trying hard to find the source of the music.

"Morning sugar!" Gabe called over the tune from the kitchen. Seeing as the song had successfully gotten her out of bed, he lowered the volume slightly.
Christ rolled her eyes and shuffled her way into the kitchen to find Gabe leaning against the counter with a big glass of chocolate milk in hand.
Lining the counter behind him was a wide array of sugary looking breakfast foods. Pancakes, muffins, cinnamon buns, donuts, and at least a dozen boxes of poor tarts.

"Happy day off. Hope you're hungry." He turned to beam at his creation.

"Gabriel. It's 6 freaking a.m.. This couldn't have waited?" She groaned.

"Spare me the daggers toots and grab some brekky."

He moved aside to let her swipe a muffin and watched her slowly make her way to the living room.
She plopped down on the sofa and began eating, trying her very best to keep her eyes open and her head from bobbing.
Chris watched Gabriel steadily pace around her apartment, thoughtfully munching on a cinnamon bun. He had studied her living space countless times before, but found himself drawn to a particular little wall shelf that always caught his attention.
"Is this your family?" He asked, pointing to the shelf.

Christine rolled her head lazily to the side to see where he was looking. "Oh. Yeah, that's them." She confirmed less then enthusiastic.

Gabe studied the photos. One was of a young man and woman sitting on a porch swing holding a toddler between them, who he could only guess was Christine.
The second picture looked professionally taken with a considerably older and unhappy looking Christine and her parents, but with five more younger looking kids around them. All of them wearing matching sweaters and forced smiles.
The third and last picture was of Christine in a navy colored cap and gown, proudly holding a high school diploma. All five of the kids gathered around her with thumbs up.

"These are all your siblings?" He asked dumbfounded.

"Yep. Every one of them."

"I guess I'm not the only one who came from a big family." He teased.
Chris offered a tiered smile.
"I got out just in time for the twins to hit their teenage years. Thank God."

"What's their names?" He continued, turning to look at her.

Chris took a deep breath, closing her eyes and resting her head on the back of the couch. "Well... I'm the oldest. Then there's Cameron who is a senior, Carter is a sophomore, Logan is finishing up middle school , and the youngest are the twins, Hailey and Hannah who are I think in fifth grade." She listed off.

"Damn. Your parents stayed busy." He joked, but elicited a bitter snort from Chris. "Yeah right. More like does their own thing while me and Cam busted out asses raising them all." She said bitterly, opening her eyes to see Gabriel's look of sympathy.

"I mean, don't get me wrong... I love every one of them. It's just... It shouldn't have been my responsibility when I was struggling with staying in the top five and work a job I hated..." She paused trying to find her point.

"And your folks should've pulled their weight?" Gabriel added.

Christ shook her head absently. "I don't even think it's that. They handled them as well as any parents with six kids could... and I don't wanna say they should have stopped, but.... and I get this sounds so selfish of me but screw it. Im just grateful to be out. To have this place and to have the job I do."

Gabriel knew what she was dancing around. It is a big part of the reason why he made her so nervous. She saw him as a direct threat to all she had worked for. The banana peel on the side walk.
She couldn't risk a slip up, or give into any distractions.

"You're right, that does sound selfish." He deadpanned. Chris shot him a surprised and angry glare.
Gabe laughed aloud and held his hands up in defense. "I'm kidding, geez."
"But I agree with you. And not just cuz I'm trying to get on your good side. That is a lot to handle."

Christine, pinched off a bit off muffin and fed it Molly, who had settled comfortably at her feet.

"What about you?"

"What about me?"

"What about your family? You told me about your ... brothers... What was it lik-"

"What was it like growing up in heaven?" He finished with raised brows.

Christine nodded. She was a bit nervous about possibly putting him in a bad mood like the first night they talked about his brothers. But it seemed fair enough... she had indulged him.

"At the start it was all pretty quiet. Me and my closet four brothers were running heaven at the time, and dad had made a little hobby out of creating things besides angels. Took some trial and error, a little sugar spice and everything nice and boom. He came up with humans."
Christine listened carefully. This info was better then anything she could read out of a text book.
"And as you already know, miss theology minor, not everybody in the family was as into his project as he was. So when he said drop everything and devote yourselves to these tiny little ...things..."
Gabriel paused.

"And then Lucifer." She continued quietly.

"Yeah. Lusifer happened." His distant eyes seemed to come back to earth a bit, obviously making an effort to keep this casual.
"The family drama has been off and on since the beginning... Like with most families. But..."

"But what?" Chris pressed.

Gabriel rubbed at the back of his neck. "Dad up and left and has been gone for a while now, and it's all gotten pretty out of whack."

"Wait... wait a sec. So... God is missing?"

"Yup, or he was. But heaven still isn't exactly out of the shitter yet."

"Is that why you're..."

"Is that why I left? That's a big part of it. A few molinias ago I got sick of it all. So I dropped and went under witness protection as a pagan."

"A pagan?" This got her attention. Christian lore wasn't the only thing her degree covered.

"A trickster. You'v heard of Loki."

"From Norse mythology, yeah. That's you?" She asked, trying very hard to keep the excitement of of her tone. Who else but her could know that the messenger archangel Gabriel and Loki the mischief god were the same person?!

"Guilty." He flashed her a grin. "But now, even being a trickster would draw to much attention. Iv been romping in and out of pocket universes of my own creation as a human." He explained.

"And you... don't mind living with humans? You said a lot of the angels didn't seem to like us all that much." She trailed off.

"Well, it's like with you and your siblings. You didn't ask for the rograts to be made in the first place. You love them, but it's still a responsibility you didn't ask for."

Christine thought about this, and it made since. It was strange, hearing her life being compared to that of a celestial beings.

"For me personally.... For a long time, I didn't really see the point of humans. They seemed to have to many issues to be worth all my time and all my dad's love."
Christine turned her gaze up at him to see him looking back at her pictures.
"But eventually, and especially recently... Iv come to see the beauty in them."