Lucifer had been a dick, but Gabriel still remembered what he had been, once. His favourite older brother. The one who taught him all his tricks. The protector. Everyone always focused on the dynamic between Michael and Lucifer, and forgot about the other angels; Dean's asking Gabriel to kill Lucifer was like asking Sam to kill Dean, and the most irritating part was that Dean had never seen it.

Whatever the differences between that and this, they didn't make the betrayal that Lucifer would actually do it any less sharp.

"Then you should have left earlier, like I did," Gabriel pointed out, pulling the container back with a shrug and finishing the cake himself. Despite the lightness of his voice there was an undertone--not a warning, not bitterness, but something dark. Balthazar had stopped caring, had he? Gee, Gabriel wondered what had happened to others who went the same route.