mGabriel 6
Jun. 6th, 2013 11:24 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
moonshadowsBreakfast at Ana's was...subdued. They'd all gotten at least a little tipsy before the party'd broken up just after midnight, even the pixie. Reinhardt was scrambling the largest egg Gabriel had ever seen, and he didn't feel up to asking what creature it had come from. It was enough to feed all of them except Hanzo, who was quietly sucking the juice out of what he said was a blood orange but looked...distinctly more bloody than orangey.
"You look troubled, Gabriel," Ana said as she passed him a plate of scrambled eggs and toast.
"I've been thinking about the Reaper," he answered. Beside him, Jack murmured thanks as he accepted his own plate. "It's not so great with understanding what's enough and what's too much, and it doesn't do words, but it's absolutely sentient. I don't know if I can communicate with it because we're so compatible or just because I'm not a dick who's treating it like an object, but..." He shrugged and took a bite of his eggs.
"What's it like?" Lena asked, beating Ana to the question.
"A two-year-old who can't speak," Gabriel answered dryly. "I wound up accidentally settling a dispute my first day-"
"Hana and Satya," Ana murmured, eyes wide.
"Yeah. Hana slapped me. Apparently attacking the Reaper is legal grounds for getting your soul eaten, but I kind of...freaked out because no one told me that was part of the job. Didn't eat it. Put it back. But the Reaper was startled and confused by my reaction. It knows that it was created to eat souls. It knows it was created to kill constructs." Gabriel stared into his eggs. "But that's not necessarily what it wants. It wasn't given a choice. I don't know if it started this intelligent or developed that over the centuries, but..."
"A sobering thought," Hanzo put in quietly. "To have one's nature decided by one's conception is, I think, something we can all relate to. But to not guide a new life into its path and teach it how to behave..."
Gabriel swallowed his mouthful of eggs and toast. "Yeah. Liao's a shitty mother."
Shocked silence descended on the table.
"Gabriel," Fareeha said delicately, "why did you bring up Liao?"
"Because she- oh. Fuck."
While he hid his face, Jack hugged him with one arm. "All signs point to her having been the original host for the Reaper. She described it to Gabriel as something sympathetic, a weapon that saved humanity. None of us know how old she is past ancient and she hasn't told anyone what she is, but she smells - and has always smelled, as long as I've known her - like old blood and clay."
"And rust and stones," Jesse added. "Got a good sniff when we almost-sorta rescued Gabriel. He smells like that, too, now."
"The Reaper was fighting djinn," Jack continued grimly. "One of them could have ripped it out of Liao, making her immortal until she got it back. Molly, the cat that's been in my family for generations, is a witch that had that happen to her."
Ana glowered at her breakfast. "She better not have been working with the previous Reaper."
Under the table, Jack squeezed Gabriel's thigh in silent warning. "She wasn't," the griffin said.
"I fully believe that if she had a shot at killing the Reaper - either the previous one or me - she would take it in a heartbeat to reclaim her power." Gabriel's voice was quiet.
Silence stretched until Lena cleared her throat nervously. "What makes you say that?"
He met her eyes. "Because it's afraid of her."
Again, silence stretched. This time, it was Ana who broke it.
"If there's ever a way I can help," she said grimly, "I expect you to tell me. Overwatch doesn't work with the Reaper as a general rule, but..." She laughed, the sound brittle and sharp. "I've been retired longer than Jack has."
"I appreciate that," Gabriel told her. "And I promise I'll keep you in the loop."
There was a flurry of exchanging phone numbers before people started leaving. Jack went back up to what was now their guest room and came back with a couple of thin books or journals under one arm. A last round of hugging Ana and being hugged by Reinhardt, and Gabriel teleported them back to the mansion.
===
Whatever the harpies had been up to the night before, Angela looked well enough when they met in the library for Gabriel's lessons.
"And how was your...celebration?" she asked awkwardly.
Jack slid the books or journals across the table to her. "Ana wasn't pleased to learn what you'd been up to the last decade," he said quietly.
It seemed like a drastic understatement to Gabriel, but Jack said he'd handle it so Gabriel was letting him handle it. Angela stared at the thin stack for a long minute, lips trembling, before she reached out with one hand to pull them to her chest.
"Thank you," she whispered. "I trust...you can teach Gabriel something today?"
"I'll take care of it."
"Thank you," she whispered again, and fled.
Once the library door had shut behind her, Gabriel turned to his mate with a curious look.
"You're learning about harpies today," the griffin said. "Like griffins, harpies are a very socially-focused species. But where griffins are expected to leave the pride they were born into and find - or make - one of their own, harpies are expected to stay with their flock. A harpy that leaves its flock does so only for the strongest reasons. Amelie's late husband, Gerard, was half human. He did his best to live up to his harpy side, but in the end, he was unhappy enough that he left to join Overwatch. This put Amelie in the position of having to choose between leaving her husband or leaving the flock, both actions going against her instincts."
"But...?"
Jack sighed. "She stayed with Gerard, but while he'd found a new flock in Overwatch, she didn't really want to devote herself to serving others, and she was denied membership. That left her without a flock. But Angela had left her flock, as well."
Gabriel frowned. "Why?"
"She's barren. She became a healer trying to heal herself, without success. She and Amelie bonded, as harpies tend to. So when Amelie...uh..."
"Went to the dark side?"
"Something like that." Jack flashed him a brief smile. "Angela chose her sister harpy over her adopted flock. But she hid that fact. As far as we knew, Gerard's death and Amelie's disappearance left her understandably depressed and she spent days, week even just brooding somewhere."
Things clicked together. "That's why she had a room at Ana's. Clinging to adopted flock."
"And now she's lost that. Aside from the fact that she'll probably be a wanted criminal, you and I are practically the only flock she has left aside from Amelie - and she's struggling with the fact that Amelie is..."
"A psycho murderer?"
Jack grimaced. "Something like that."
For several minutes, they sat in silence and Gabriel thought about the white-feathered harpy. Then he noticed that Jack was stroking his knuckles - petting the imaginary cat - and remembered the day Zenyatta had joined them at this table.
"Oh, shit," he muttered.
"Hm?"
"The Reaper has temper fits. She'd try to calm Amelie down, right?"
Jack nodded slowly.
"Only it wasn't Amelie she was calming, it was the Reaper. She bonded to the Reaper. And now the Reaper is no longer in Amelie, and it took its mild affection with it. It's in me, now. It likes you better, Amelie doesn't like her as much anymore, and I think she knows that." A moment later, he said, "Let's win her away from Amelie."
"You think she can be useful?"
"Well, that too, but mostly I just want to piss Amelie off by getting Angela out of that toxic relationship."
Jack stared at him for a moment before shaking his head. "You really are a protector. Well, I can't argue with that. Let's find some books on harpies, do a little formal studying, and then ask her over lunch of any Mantles had any kind of flying ability."
Gabriel leaned in for a kiss. "Sounds good, amorcito."
===
He'd had to explain what a taco bowl was to Boyardee, but the results were worth it. Angela was partial to salads, and he figured it would be another subtle thing that would encourage her to bond with them. Jack played along, but his salad was full of chicken and corn. So there they were, the three of them sitting around eating salads of various kinds for lunch. Angela looked like she'd been crying, but neither of them mentioned it.
"Question," Gabriel asked, scrubbing at a bit of salsa that had tried to escape by jumping into his beard. "Does the Reaper have any sort of flight powers?"
Angela's head came up and she blinked in surprise. "Flight?"
Gabriel stabbed at his salad again. "Yeah. You and Jack can both fly. I'm jealous."
"I..." the harpy shook her head. "I don't know. I never needed to check..."
Because Amelie could fly. The words hung unsaid between them.
"I've gotten up to dissolving both my arms into mist, and I can get my legs, but I keep getting stuck on my torso and head because I'm fighting my own survival instincts, so I figured maybe I could try something new instead of just hurling myself off the roof and hoping my survival instincts decided that mist was the better part of not getting splattered all over the courtyard."
Angela flinched. "Yes. Please do not do that. Although I can resurrect you so long as you died by your own hand or mine, I do not know what the Reaper would do in the brief period of time it took me to bring you back."
Jack switched to a spoon to scoop up the last bits of vegetable in his bowl. "So, back to the library after lunch?"
With a faint, hopeful smile, the harpy nodded.
=
"I gotta say," Gabriel announced, looking down at the courtyard some six stories below, "that while the idea of having giant black wasp wings is fucking hardcore, I don't think I'm psychologically prepared for that yet."
"Bat wings made of shadow, then?" Jack asked.
Gabriel nodded. Can we do this? he asked the imaginary cat silently. Its red eyes narrowed in pleasure, its little back paws flexed, and wings made of skin stretched across bone sprouted from its back. Behind him, Gabriel felt similar appendages on his own body. They felt a lot like the shadow tendrils - part of him but at the same time, not - and he spent a handful of minutes flexing them while Jack shook himself out of human form.
"Alright," Gabriel said in a low voice. "I'm gonna do it."
Jack raced him to the edge of the roof, ready to catch him if the wings failed, but the imaginary cat was exulting in having the freedom of flight once again and Gabriel was infected by its enthusiasm. He hurled himself gleefully into empty air, wings stretching to caress every tiny current. Sure, a part of him was shrieking in terror, but the imaginary cat had done this before, loved doing this, and Gabriel let himself surrender to it the way he wouldn't if it were rage the entity was consumed by.
He'd only expected to glide, but he found himself flapping, riding a thermal, basking in the afternoon sun and playfully slipping sideways to avoid the griffin in the air with him.
It's like I've taken a dog to a dog park for the first time in forever, Gabriel thought, grinning madly with the Reaper's enthusiasm.
Once the euphoric rush of excitement had worn down, he tilted his wings and glided back to the roof with silent promises that they'd do it again, now that he knew they could. A metaphoric cat tongue on his cheek was the Reaper's agreement, and he landed as easily and lightly as if he'd spent his whole life flying.
"We're doing this again," he announced cheerfully as Jack landed beside him and shifted back. "I want to be very comfortable with sprouting wings and flying."
Angela beamed at him. "I approve. You certainly seemed to take to it..."
Gabriel dismissed the shadow appendages. "That was entirely the Reaper; it's missed flying. Jack, you up for some practice? I've still got energy I need to burn off."
"I am, but then what will we do after dinner?"
"Angela, would you mind helping with some hand-on learning? I want to know how to help Jack take care of his feathers before he actually needs help."
The harpy looked pleasantly surprised. "I would be happy to assist. Preening is important for physical and social health." She frowned at the griffin, who looked abashed. "Living alone can not have been good for your feathers."
"It's settled, then." Gabriel leaned in and kissed his mate's jaw. "After dinner, I learn how to take care of your feathered butt."
Jack sighed. "I want to argue, but I can't."
Angela giggled behind one hand.
===
They chose the foyer for Gabriel's lesson for two reasons: first, it was more than wide enough for the griffin to spread his wings and second, the stone floor would more than tolerate the scratching of giant talons without damage. Jack kissed Gabriel and then ducked his head, tucking it briefly under his mate's, before retreating to shift to his natural form.
"We will start with the wings," Angela announced crisply. "The larger feathers are the most important for flight, although the smaller ones may be more annoying. Jack?"
Obediently, the griffin spread his wings, and almost immediately Angela looked displeased.
"Your wings are in a horrible state," she chided.
Lion heads preen badly, he rumbled. Gabriel translated for the harpy.
"Yes, but..." Angela's expression went from displeased to pained. "Oh. Of course."
More subdued now, she lectured Gabriel on the feathers and how to gently pull old ones, how to help new ones coming in, and how to smooth the vanes together and make sure the feather was positioned correctly. Now that he knew what he was looking for, Gabriel could see that Jack's wings were in rough shape. Once the lecture moved onto the hands-on portion, Jack sank to the floor with a moan of relief for the hands checking his wings over.
Angela pointed out the oil glands located at the base of each wing and demonstrated pressing gently to get a few drops of oil on her fingers, then spreading it over the feathers to coat them. Although Gabriel thought Jack's wings had been beautiful already, he couldn't deny that the sections they'd preened and oiled were even more beautiful. Poetic thoughts involving moonlight and clouds started drifting through his head while he and Angela each preened a wing, with Jack practically a purring puddle between them.
It was somewhat of a shock when, an indeterminate time later, the clicking that had been getting louder stopped and a cold voice demanded to know what they were doing. When he looked up, Amelie was glaring at them all with her arms crossed.
"I am teaching Gabriel how to care for his mate," Angela said in a tone of being defiant in the face of impending chastisement.
"Then why are you getting his scent all over your fingers preening his ratty wings?" the other harpy demanded.
Angela flushed slightly. "Jack hasn't been properly preened in ages."
"So?"
"It would take Gabriel all night to do it himself."
"So?"
"So I'm helping them," Angela snapped, face red with anger or humiliation or both.
"Why?"
The word was a verbal slap across the face, and the imaginary cat started hissing.
"Because it's our fault!"
Amelie leaned back as if struck. The imaginary cat stopped hissing in surprise.
"Mostly yours," Angela said shakily, "but also partially mine, because I helped you, and you killed-"
"It was what they deserved," snapped Amelie, yellow eyes flashing in rage. "They rejected me! Jack should count himself lucky he fled when he did, before I killed him and skinned him-"
Tendrils of shadow erupted from nowhere to bind her, tight enough that she would have screamed if not for the tendril gagging her.
Good, Gabriel thought at the imaginary cat, its eyes narrowed and tail lashing as it growled deep in its throat.
"Get out," he said in a tone of deadly calm. "Collect your things and vacate the premises. I want you gone by sunrise."
As soon as he released the shadow tendrils, Amelie snarled, "You can't-"
"I'm the Reaper," he interrupted. "This is my house, and you just threatened my mate. You are no longer welcome here."
"Fine," she sneered. "Angela-"
"Angela is welcome to stay," Gabriel interrupted again.
The white-feathered harpy seemed to be a breath away from tears, looking back and forth between the two of them.
"Which is it going to be?" Amelie asked in a low voice, eyes locked onto Angela's. "Are you going to abandon me, like everyone else?"
"I will not betray my flock for you." Angela swallowed. "Not again."
"Traitor-"
That's as far as Amelie got before Jack surged to his feet, wings up in a clear threat, the rumbling growl in his throat climbing to a roar that nearly had Gabriel pissing himself in pure, primal terror.
Fuck off and go to hell, translated the imaginary cat.
Amelie fled in the ringing silence, and Jack turned to face the trembling white-feathered harpy who was now absolutely crying. He lifted his massive head and licked her, right across the forehead. That seemed to be the last straw, because she fell to her knees and wept into his mane. Awkwardly, Gabriel knelt beside her to offer a comforting arm - and pet the broad feline nose of his mate with the other hand.
It took a few minutes for her to calm down, but when she did, her first words were an unsteady attempt to tell Gabriel how to preen the smaller feathers of Jack's back half.
"Angela." Gabriel hugged her. "You can show me tomorrow. Do you want to stay with us tonight? We can go to an unused room, make a nest on the floor, and sleep in a pile with Jack's wing as a blanket."
"I appreciate that," she breathed into his shoulder, "but I am afraid that Amelie will take her rage at me out on my journals."
The imaginary cat sat up and hissed. Gabriel agreed. "Jack? Stay with her. Keep her safe. I'll be back."
With his will and the Reaper's aligned, it was simplicity itself to dissolve into smoke and flow, quick as thought, across the floor and up the stairs. Down the hall, up more stairs, turn, flow, and slide under the door to the room the harpies shared. Amelie hadn't gotten here yet, and the journals were sitting on the desk along with several other papers. In fact, looking around, Gabriel could see a lot of things that Amelie could trash in the name of hurting Angela.
The door opened.
"What are you doing in my bedroom?" Amelie demanded.
"Changing my mind. Leave now, taking nothing with you but what you currently carry."
"Or what," she sneered. "You'll kill me? Eat my soul?"
Gabriel smirked. "Worse. I'll pluck you bald, tie you up, and drive you to the worst neighborhood I can find in Santa Barbara. Do you know what happens to pretty women in bad neighborhoods? Especially ones that can't fight back? I do."
Apparently Amelie did as well, because she scowled at him and darted out of the doorway, down the hall. Gabriel ran after her, easily keeping her in sight as she flung open a set of double doors, dashed through the room, and undid the latch on panes of tall glass that opened onto a sort of rooftop patio. One panicked glance over her shoulder was all the attention she spared him before she rushed out into the night and hurled herself off the edge.
Let's make sure she actually leaves, he told the imaginary cat, and ran after her.
He sported shadow wings before even reaching the apex of his jump. Seconds later, when he shifted angle and climbed without flapping, he realized he was using the wasp wings and grinned. Amelie heard him, glanced back, and began to flap desperately, clawing herself through the air to pass over the courtyard and dive for the forest.
"IF I SEE YOU IN MY TERRITORY AGAIN, I'LL KILL YOU!" Gabriel bellowed after her.
The flight back, retracing his path, closing the patio doors and returning to the foyer, was almost anticlimactic.
"Amelie's gone," he said as Jack looked up from the harpy preening one wing. "I chased her out so she didn't mess up any of your stuff. Offer still stands, and if you want emotional support for sorting through your things, Jack and I will be glad to help."
"You...you..."
Sighing, Gabriel sat by Jack's head. "I'm a protector. You're one of my people. Am I happy about the things you did in the past? No. Am I going to try to wheedle Ana into forgiving you? Also no. But if you're serious about regretting the things you did, then you're under my protection."
The harpy burst into tears.
===
They were just finishing Jack's wings when one of the golems peeked in, whistled that its creator was on his way, and retreated. Jack shrank back to human and moments later, the dwarf stepped into the foyer where the three of them stood, surrounded by old feathers.
"So ye kicked the other harpy out," he grunted. "Bout time. I've let the rock piles know that if she shows her face around here again they're to capture her and bring her to you."
"Good. Thank you."
The dwarf looked at the griffin. "Jack."
"Torbjörn."
"I make no apologies for where I am. I'm here because of the case, not because I liked working with the bitch who killed our friends."
"I believe you," Jack said evenly. "Do you have any contact with Overwatch still?"
The dwarf looked away. "Been out of contact with everyone for years. Even..."
Jack and Angela nodded grimly. Gabriel frowned. "Even...?"
"M'wife and kids."
"Unacceptable," Gabriel snapped. "Was it because of Amelie being the Mantle?"
Torbjörn nodded.
"I can bring you to visit them. They can come live here. Video calls can be a thing."
The dwarf looked at him as if trying to figure out where the catch was.
Gabriel crossed his arms. "I'm a protector. I don't want to be part of keeping a family unhappily separated. Tell me what you want to do."
"You'd let them move in?" Torbjörn sounded surprised, but hopeful. "I'd have to...renovate some rooms..."
"We have plenty of space. Take as many rooms as you need."
"There's eight of them."
"Then they might just make enough noise to make this place feel lived in," Gabriel told him with a grin.
Torbjörn gaped for a moment. "I'll have to....discuss it with the missus..."
"If you want to visit, I'd be happy to teleport you."
"I may take you up on that," he said slowly. "Thank you."
=
In the end, Angela opted to sleep by herself, although she did ask Jack and Gabriel to help her change the sheets and stay there while she bundled the other harpy's clothes into the old ones.
"She had an extensive collection of jewelry," Angela said as she smoothed the blanket out. "I will have the clothes laundered, and then if you are willing, I can contact a few people and potentially set up an auction. Such a thing is not unheard of, for a new Mantle to auction off the possessions of the old."
"Would it give you closure and or a feeling of vindication and or satisfaction?" Gabriel teased.
The harpy flushed delicately. "It would certainly be cathartic."
"Then do it. I'm going to let Overwatch know that Amelie's alive and on the run."
"Gabriel?" Angela turned to him, casting furtive glances at Jack. "Thank you for your support. I know I don't deserve it, not after the things I was an accomplice to, but..."
"You need a flock. Jack needs a pride. This is your second chance," he told her firmly. "Don't waste it."
She nodded. "Thank you again. In the morning, we will have lessons in the foyer and put the rest of Jack's feathers to rights."
"Sounds good." Gabriel hugged her. "Sleep well."
Angela sighed. "I will try."
===
"How, exactly, are you going to let Overwatch know Amelie's out there?" Jack asked dubiously as Gabriel emerged from the bathroom in sweatpants and a worn tee.
"Easy. I'm going to text Liao."
"Have you even talked to her since taking the Reaper?"
"Or figuring out she was the first Mantle? No." Gabriel tapped at his phone.
AMELIE ALIVE AND ON THE RUN. ALL YOURS. XOXO GABRIEL
"And sent, aaaaand..." Smugly, he put the phone on his dresser. "Turned it off. I'll leave it off for a day or two, give her time to give up."
"Part of me wants to chide you," Jack chuckled as his mate climbed into bed. "The rest of me agrees completely."
Gabriel sighed in contentment as Jack pulled him closer. "I know I'll have to deal with that can of worms eventually, but I'm already dealing with Angela and Torbjörn on top of the fact that I'm still in my transition month. And your feathered butt still needs to be preened."
"Thank you for caring," Jack said softly. "It's refreshing to have my griffin side accepted rather than tolerated. Shhhh," he continued as Gabriel tensed up. "Griffins don't fit well into human-shaped lives."
"It's still who you are," Gabriel growled.
"Ana used to preen me. Before we both retired. Spending so much time human means I don't need to be preened so much."
Gabriel hugged the arms hugging him. "You're my mate and I want to help."
Jack nuzzled the back of his neck and nipped one ear lightly. "And I'm more than happy to let you. I love you, Gabe."
Mollified, Gabriel brought one of Jack's hands up to kiss. "Good, 'cuz I love you, amorcito."
===
The next week was hectic. Angela confessed that Gabriel could probably access the Reaper's quarters already, since he was such a strong Reaper, but that Amelie had never been able to make the door open. Sure enough, it opened at his touch and there was a flurry of cleaning to remove the mummified corpse and make the room habitable. Torbjörn took Jack's measurements and constructed an octagonal nest box in between having Gabriel teleport him across the globe to see his wife and children, who were all eager to move into a mansion as long as they could take their stuff with them. Construction began on the east wing, preparing rooms for habitation.
Jack's feathers got preened thoroughly, which turned him into a giant pile of purring. Gabriel didn't stop grinning the whole day, partially because Jack was so content and affectionate.
All of this made a convenient distraction from the fact that rain had kept them all inside and unable to fly for the entire week.
Sombra started surfacing, ghosting around and making the occasional comment. Feeling the new Reaper out, Gabriel thought to himself. Which was fair, because he was trying to feel her out as well. He wasn't sure he made much progress, but he did get the wifi password. When he finally turned his phone back on, Liao had sent thirteen increasingly angry and frustrated texts, called six times, and left five voicemails. He ignored the voicemails the same as the others she'd left and called Ana instead to let her know what was going on. That involved weathering storms of cursing in Arabic when she learned both that Amelie was alive and why Amelie was alive, but the rest of it got her approval and she expressed interest in coming to visit when everyone was settled.
The week after was hectic in a different way as Gabriel teleported across the world repeatedly, ferrying children and piles of possessions into the mansion. He ate ravenously and slept like the dead, but it was worth it to see the look on the dwarf's face when Gabriel appeared with the last boxes and his wife. The children (eight of them, Jesus Christ) crowded around, babbling excitedly, while their parents kissed. The mansion felt alive with the entire family in it. Meals were loud and domestic, voices bouncing off the walls in the dining room and chasing any lingering gloom away. Both Jack and Angela seemed less tense, and Gabriel had to admit that he felt less tense, too.
He had people.
They had people.
When the weather was good, the three of them went flying. With the Reaper's help, Gabriel learned how to switch from wasp wings to bat wings mid-air and back again, giving him the maneuverability edge over the other two. The rest of the time, he focused on going to mist (both completely and locally when struck hard enough) because he still had issues letting go like that.
Ana came to visit, and Angela spent the entire day holed up in her room. Jack submitted to her stern demand to see his wings, and slyly commented in lion that mothers from any species were all the same as she checked them over. Gabriel had spent the previous evening preening his mate from shoulders to tail, however, and Ana beamed her approval for the state of his wings.
Then she chided him for not having a mane comb so Gabriel could groom his mane.
Gabriel went to Angela the next day to ask about the Reaper's finances. The explanations took two hours. Afterwards, he asked where one would get a mane comb. That evening, he decided, he would consult with the imaginary cat - who would be more than happy to help, he was sure - and teleport to Paris, the first place the Reaper had taken him.
=
When the rush of teleportation ended, he spared only a glance at the rest of the city before turning to the shop, relieved to see that it had just opened and no one was inside but Melina.
Was that Melina?
Gabriel opened his Sight and focused it on her. Yup, that sure felt like a sphinx. He closed the Sight and walked inside.
"Reaper!" The same Greek woman in her conservative-elegant dress hurried over. "To what do I owe the honor?"
"Melina, I presume?" Gabriel smiled at her with all the charm he could muster and bowed over her hand. "Gabriel Reyes. I wanted to thank you for your hospitality before. That was pretty much my first day as the Reaper, and the adjustment period involved more...spontaneous presentation of ability...than anyone was expecting. Hence my informal attire."
He grinned, and she giggled.
"I have since learned that the places I spontaneously teleported to were ones that had emotional significance to either myself or to the Reaper, and this was the very first place it brought me."
The sphinx covered her mouth briefly. "My shop? The Reaper itself likes my shop enough that this was the first place it brought the new Mantle?"
Gabriel nodded. "Have you designed for other Mantles in the past aside from Amelie?"
"Well, yes..."
"The Reaper itself likes your work." Gabriel grinned again. "Which means I better get used to wearing jewelry, I guess."
Melina eyed him appraisingly. "I believe you could wear a pectoral splendidly. Not many Mantles have the chest for it, but you do."
A pectoral, like the Egyptians? Something more than a necklace but less than armor. The idea appealed to him.
"I'm definitely open to that idea," he said, "but the other reason I came to talk to you..." boy, did he have her attention. "I'm looking for a griffin mane comb."
Her eyes narrowed. "For Jack Morrison?"
"He's my mate," Gabriel said quietly.
Melina sighed. "C'est la vie. I knew I had no chance, but a girl can dream, right? Please, come this way, and I will happily show you the pieces I designed for Jack." She gave him a sly grin. "Perhaps you will have more luck convincing him to wear them than I did."
She led him through a door into what he'd expected to be a back room but turned out to be more like an art gallery inside a cave. Waist-high pillars and blocks of stone were everywhere, with carved bits of nonhuman bodies on top to demonstrate how the jewelry was supposed to be worn. When he tore his eyes away from it all and hurried to catch up to Melina, he realized that she'd shed her human form and now walked on four paws, although she hadn't lost much height due to the length of her front legs. Golden-brown wings arched up from her shoulders, through the backless section of the dress she still wore. The way the material gathered at her hips meant that it somehow still looked elegant and fell over her hind legs rather than just hanging from her belly. It must have been designed for both forms, he realized.
The block of stone she stopped at had a pair of birdlike feet adorned with some sort of arrangement of golden rings and talon-sheaths connected by chains, and a pair of leonine forelegs wearing what looked like elaborate bracers in silver (or some more exotic white metal) with stylized lion-headed griffins on them. Blue stones matching the color of Jack's eyes were set as the eyes of the figures, and the edges were trimmed in enamel of the same blue. The griffins were enamel, too, he realized, with thin strips of metal forming lines as if the shape had been drawn and then colored in. He'd seen jewelry with that technique before, but nothing this big, and he let out a low whistle.
"This is amazing," he breathed. When he looked over, Melina's cheeks were pink. "I can see you made these specifically for Jack, but why is the rest gold?" He gestured to the rings-and-chains and noticed that there were some fancy earrings or cuffs for rounded leonine ears, as well.
The sphinx reached out with one delicate paw to caress the ear cuffs. "These were designed for another griffin, a Mantle who died about a century ago before I could show them to him."
Alfred. Well, that answered that.
"I'm new to supernatural fashion," Gabriel said. "Are these designs purely male, or would they be appropriate for a female as well?"
"Not all races conform to a gender binary," she answered crisply. "My designs are for all, unless specifically for an individual." Then she colored slightly. "Ah...these would be appropriate for a female as well. Why do you ask?"
"Jack's descended from Alfred's sister," Gabriel told her. "He has a female cousin who's also lion-headed and does not share his coloration. I was thinking maybe it would make a nice gift for her: the jewelry her great-uncle - great-grand-uncle? - never got to wear. His sister's turning two-fifty in April, did you know that?"
Melina was sitting on her haunches, both forepaws over her mouth. "Isabella is still alive? And Jack is her great-grandson?"
Gabriel nodded. "Jack and I are going to be at her party."
Immediately, the sphinx reached into a cubby in the side of the block and pulled out a box of golden wood lined with black velvet. "Luckily, these will fit both the forelegs of a griffin and the hind legs of a lion-headed griffin," she said as she pulled the rings and chains off their stone displays. "If you would kindly present them to Isabella as a present for me, I will gift you the ear cuffs for Jack's cousin and be content that my work was not in vain."
Reverently, Gabriel accepted the box and watched as the ear cuffs went into a second, smaller, matching box. "It would be an honor."
Once she had passed both boxes to him, Melina turned away and took several deep breaths. "Now. You inquired about a mane comb." She gestured him over to the other side of the block.
The comb she showed him was easily bigger than his hand, with teeth almost longer than his fingers. The handle was made from the stylized body of a lion-headed griffin, with the same blue stone for an eye and the same amazing enamel. The wing in particular was breathtaking, silver wire outlining every feather, but the way the wires sketched in the mane came a close second.
"Perfect," Gabriel breathed, unable to tear his eyes away until the sphinx removed it to place it into a box.
The box this time was silver lined with blue velvet, and Melina looked beyond pleased by his reaction.
"Store policy is that the price of any item may be reduced significantly by confessing a secret," she informed him. "This must be a truth that is not widely known and which you have no intention of publicly announcing."
Gabriel's mind immediately went to the vision of having dinner with Jack. "Eventually, I'm going to propose to Jack and I want you to design the engagement ring," he said. Then he grinned. "You'll finally get him wearing one of your creations."
Melina's mouth dropped open, and it was a long moment before she closed it to smile. "You drive a hard bargain, Gabriel," she purred. "I am going to enjoy working with you."
=
"What's in the box?" Jack asked as he slipped into the Reaper's bedroom.
(Bedroom. Damn thing was bigger than Gabriel's old apartment. He should get a couch and a TV in here.)
Gabriel spat out a mouthful of toothpaste foam. "Gift for your great-grandmother," he answered from the bathroom.
"It's beautiful."
"Melina made it for Great-Uncle Alfred, but he died before he could see it. The ear cuffs in the smaller box are for Louise."
"Gabe..." the griffin frowned at him from the doorway. "Why were you at Melina's?"
He swished a mouthful of water around and spat. "Introducing myself properly, since when she met me I was wearing a tee-shirt and sweatpants with socks but no shoes."
"Uh-huh. And this wouldn't have anything to do with Valentine's Day coming up soon?"
Gabriel gave his mate a minty kiss. "I know, you don't wear jewelry. It's alright, she knows you're my mate now."
Jack sighed and hugged his mate. "I'm sorry."
"Shh. You didn't do anything. Do you want to talk about Valentine's? It'll be my first time actually celebrating."
That got him a startled look. "It is, isn't it," murmured the griffin. "Okay. Let me brush my teeth and we'll talk about Valentine's."
Curled around each other in bed, they talked about activities, their expectations, what they liked or wanted to avoid. That led to talking about birthday customs and preferences, which led to talking about Isabella's party. And as they fell asleep, Gabriel smiled to himself thinking about the silver box hidden in the back of one of the desk drawers.
===
"Angela is living with you?" Ana said incredulously, a cold demand for Gabriel to correct her.
He and Jack both winced away from the phone.
"She's under my protection," Gabriel replied in a firm tone. "I have not forgiven the things she did. I'm giving her a chance to prove that she truly regrets them. There's also that I don't know the details of how the Reaper's supposed to do things, and the little fact that she can raise the dead under certain circumstances, and I'd really like to not have that ability floating around desperate for a flock. She'll stay in her room the entire time."
Ana sighed. "I don't like it, but it's your decision and I can't fault your logic."
"So you'll come?"
"Yes, Gabriel, we will come visit." Ana's voice was warm again. "I look forward to reconnecting with another old friend, and Reinhardt feels the same way."
Gabriel grinned at his mate. "And you can make sure I've been preening Jack right."
That got her laughing. "We'll see you in three days," she told them.
Once the call ended, Jack pulled Gabriel into his arms and nuzzled the side of his neck. "That went pretty well."
"Yeah. Definitely could have gone worse." He took a moment to just appreciate the simple pleasure of being hugged. "Hey, Jack?"
"Mm?"
"How long should I let my hair grow?"
The griffin leaned back to frown at his mate. "Why are you asking me?"
"Because I'm growing it for you," Gabriel said quietly. "You licked it, so I figured you wanted something to groom. Otherwise, I would have shaved it all off again."
"Gabe..." Jack looked like he couldn't decide if he was flattered or distressed.
"I haven't let my hair grow since..." He looked away. "Since I was finally recognized as being male."
Jack hugged him tightly. "Gabe, you don't have to do that for me. I won't ask you to change who you are."
"I want to do it for you," came the slightly-muffled reply. "I want...I want you in my life. I don't want to push you away or shut you out. I've never done this before. You're used to grooming as an affectionate gesture, and I want that."
For a long minute, there was only hugging and maybe some slightly-shaky breathing.
"Two inches," Jack murmured finally. "Maybe less. Just long enough to feel like fur. I'll let you know if it's too long."
"Thanks, Jack." Gabriel nuzzled his mate's neck, making the other man flinch and giggle slightly at the feel of his facial hair. The application of teeth and suction quieted him. "Let's sleep in the nest," Gabriel murmured when he was done giving the griffin a hickey.
"No arguments here," Jack said with lazy contentment. "But just so you know, you're gonna get licked."
Gabriel grinned. "Oh no," he deadpanned. "Whatever shall I do. I mean, besides enjoy that my mate can demonstrate affection in a natural way and revel in the amazingness that is a purring griffin cuddling me. How did I think I was content with my life before I met you, Jack?"
"Ignorance is bliss?"
"Ignorance is not bliss." Gabriel pulled away to give Jack a fiercely disapproving look. Then it softened. "Being with you is," he said gently, leaning in for a long, lingering kiss.
Jack hummed agreement as the kiss ended. "I can't argue with that."
===
The visit began remarkably well. Gabriel and Jack both got hugged warmly and half to death by Ana and Reinhardt respectively. Torbjörn and his family surrounded the guests in a chattering mob, the children taking to the half-giant like ducks to water and dragging him with them for a tour, leaving Ana in the foyer with Mantle and griffin.
"Let's see them," she said crisply, and examined Jack's feathers with the eye of a mother making sure a child really has washed. When she'd finished her inspection, she smiled at Gabriel and scratched Jack behind the ears. "Not a feather out of place," she said warmly. "I'm proud of you, but tell me honestly - how bad was it before?"
Jack's ears went back as much as they could and he whined.
"Bad enough that Angela was nearly in tears a few times," Gabriel answered solemnly. "When Amelie confronted her, she snapped back with It's our fault. She refused to turn on Jack for Amelie, and when Amelie called her a traitor, Jack told her to fuck off and go to hell."
Ana's eyebrow arched.
"...in lion. It was a very loud and viscerally terrifying roar."
Briefly, Ana giggled before looking thoughtful. "So. Not forgiveness, but a chance to make amends."
"Because she showed remorse," Gabriel repeated firmly. "I've seen too much shit happen because someone was being fucked in the head by an abuser. The Reaper nearly killed Amelie twice. She was one of the shortest-lived and weakest Reapers on record. But she was all Angela had until Jack and I stood up for her."
"It does take courage to break away from the flock," Ana murmured. "Perhaps...after lunch...I might talk to her?"
Gabriel smiled while Jack nudged the side of her head with his nose. "I'll ask if she's up for that."
The griffin shrank back to human and hugged his old friend. "I'll chaperone, if you think it will help."
"Thank you, Jack." Ana smiled dryly. "I think that would be a wise precaution."
=
Angela agreed, with a trembling smile, to talk to Ana with Jack there. Gabriel hugged her, took her lunch request, and came back to deliver her meal himself rather than let a golem do it. Lunch was loud and rowdy, in a cheerful way, and afterwards Gabriel and Reinhardt went outside to discuss chivalry as it could be applied to being the Reaper, while Jack and Ana went off to one of the mansion's sitting rooms. Gabriel had no idea what anyone said and didn't ask. Ana looked grimly thoughtful when they returned, and Jack looked...not happy per se, but maybe sternly optimistic.
Both Ana and Reinhardt were impressed by the Reaper's bedroom, and made it clear that they thought it was adorable the way the nest box had been placed in the center of the room.
"Your beloved should be the center of your life," Reinhardt boomed, clapping Gabriel on the shoulder. "And ha! Your bed is bigger than mine," he joked, elbowing Jack.
"I have wings," Jack pointed out playfully. "I stretch farther than you."
Ana was enchanted by the library. Reinhardt was enchanted by the armory. Jack got hugged again as they prepared to be teleported back to their own home, and Gabriel got hugged as he delivered each one.
Angela was subdued at dinner, but not unhappily.
As they lay in bed, fingers intertwined, Jack said, "Tomorrow's the last day of your transition month."
Gabriel sighed. "Yeah."
"What are you going to do when it's over?"
Grimly, he stared at the darkened ceiling. "My job."
"You look troubled, Gabriel," Ana said as she passed him a plate of scrambled eggs and toast.
"I've been thinking about the Reaper," he answered. Beside him, Jack murmured thanks as he accepted his own plate. "It's not so great with understanding what's enough and what's too much, and it doesn't do words, but it's absolutely sentient. I don't know if I can communicate with it because we're so compatible or just because I'm not a dick who's treating it like an object, but..." He shrugged and took a bite of his eggs.
"What's it like?" Lena asked, beating Ana to the question.
"A two-year-old who can't speak," Gabriel answered dryly. "I wound up accidentally settling a dispute my first day-"
"Hana and Satya," Ana murmured, eyes wide.
"Yeah. Hana slapped me. Apparently attacking the Reaper is legal grounds for getting your soul eaten, but I kind of...freaked out because no one told me that was part of the job. Didn't eat it. Put it back. But the Reaper was startled and confused by my reaction. It knows that it was created to eat souls. It knows it was created to kill constructs." Gabriel stared into his eggs. "But that's not necessarily what it wants. It wasn't given a choice. I don't know if it started this intelligent or developed that over the centuries, but..."
"A sobering thought," Hanzo put in quietly. "To have one's nature decided by one's conception is, I think, something we can all relate to. But to not guide a new life into its path and teach it how to behave..."
Gabriel swallowed his mouthful of eggs and toast. "Yeah. Liao's a shitty mother."
Shocked silence descended on the table.
"Gabriel," Fareeha said delicately, "why did you bring up Liao?"
"Because she- oh. Fuck."
While he hid his face, Jack hugged him with one arm. "All signs point to her having been the original host for the Reaper. She described it to Gabriel as something sympathetic, a weapon that saved humanity. None of us know how old she is past ancient and she hasn't told anyone what she is, but she smells - and has always smelled, as long as I've known her - like old blood and clay."
"And rust and stones," Jesse added. "Got a good sniff when we almost-sorta rescued Gabriel. He smells like that, too, now."
"The Reaper was fighting djinn," Jack continued grimly. "One of them could have ripped it out of Liao, making her immortal until she got it back. Molly, the cat that's been in my family for generations, is a witch that had that happen to her."
Ana glowered at her breakfast. "She better not have been working with the previous Reaper."
Under the table, Jack squeezed Gabriel's thigh in silent warning. "She wasn't," the griffin said.
"I fully believe that if she had a shot at killing the Reaper - either the previous one or me - she would take it in a heartbeat to reclaim her power." Gabriel's voice was quiet.
Silence stretched until Lena cleared her throat nervously. "What makes you say that?"
He met her eyes. "Because it's afraid of her."
Again, silence stretched. This time, it was Ana who broke it.
"If there's ever a way I can help," she said grimly, "I expect you to tell me. Overwatch doesn't work with the Reaper as a general rule, but..." She laughed, the sound brittle and sharp. "I've been retired longer than Jack has."
"I appreciate that," Gabriel told her. "And I promise I'll keep you in the loop."
There was a flurry of exchanging phone numbers before people started leaving. Jack went back up to what was now their guest room and came back with a couple of thin books or journals under one arm. A last round of hugging Ana and being hugged by Reinhardt, and Gabriel teleported them back to the mansion.
===
Whatever the harpies had been up to the night before, Angela looked well enough when they met in the library for Gabriel's lessons.
"And how was your...celebration?" she asked awkwardly.
Jack slid the books or journals across the table to her. "Ana wasn't pleased to learn what you'd been up to the last decade," he said quietly.
It seemed like a drastic understatement to Gabriel, but Jack said he'd handle it so Gabriel was letting him handle it. Angela stared at the thin stack for a long minute, lips trembling, before she reached out with one hand to pull them to her chest.
"Thank you," she whispered. "I trust...you can teach Gabriel something today?"
"I'll take care of it."
"Thank you," she whispered again, and fled.
Once the library door had shut behind her, Gabriel turned to his mate with a curious look.
"You're learning about harpies today," the griffin said. "Like griffins, harpies are a very socially-focused species. But where griffins are expected to leave the pride they were born into and find - or make - one of their own, harpies are expected to stay with their flock. A harpy that leaves its flock does so only for the strongest reasons. Amelie's late husband, Gerard, was half human. He did his best to live up to his harpy side, but in the end, he was unhappy enough that he left to join Overwatch. This put Amelie in the position of having to choose between leaving her husband or leaving the flock, both actions going against her instincts."
"But...?"
Jack sighed. "She stayed with Gerard, but while he'd found a new flock in Overwatch, she didn't really want to devote herself to serving others, and she was denied membership. That left her without a flock. But Angela had left her flock, as well."
Gabriel frowned. "Why?"
"She's barren. She became a healer trying to heal herself, without success. She and Amelie bonded, as harpies tend to. So when Amelie...uh..."
"Went to the dark side?"
"Something like that." Jack flashed him a brief smile. "Angela chose her sister harpy over her adopted flock. But she hid that fact. As far as we knew, Gerard's death and Amelie's disappearance left her understandably depressed and she spent days, week even just brooding somewhere."
Things clicked together. "That's why she had a room at Ana's. Clinging to adopted flock."
"And now she's lost that. Aside from the fact that she'll probably be a wanted criminal, you and I are practically the only flock she has left aside from Amelie - and she's struggling with the fact that Amelie is..."
"A psycho murderer?"
Jack grimaced. "Something like that."
For several minutes, they sat in silence and Gabriel thought about the white-feathered harpy. Then he noticed that Jack was stroking his knuckles - petting the imaginary cat - and remembered the day Zenyatta had joined them at this table.
"Oh, shit," he muttered.
"Hm?"
"The Reaper has temper fits. She'd try to calm Amelie down, right?"
Jack nodded slowly.
"Only it wasn't Amelie she was calming, it was the Reaper. She bonded to the Reaper. And now the Reaper is no longer in Amelie, and it took its mild affection with it. It's in me, now. It likes you better, Amelie doesn't like her as much anymore, and I think she knows that." A moment later, he said, "Let's win her away from Amelie."
"You think she can be useful?"
"Well, that too, but mostly I just want to piss Amelie off by getting Angela out of that toxic relationship."
Jack stared at him for a moment before shaking his head. "You really are a protector. Well, I can't argue with that. Let's find some books on harpies, do a little formal studying, and then ask her over lunch of any Mantles had any kind of flying ability."
Gabriel leaned in for a kiss. "Sounds good, amorcito."
===
He'd had to explain what a taco bowl was to Boyardee, but the results were worth it. Angela was partial to salads, and he figured it would be another subtle thing that would encourage her to bond with them. Jack played along, but his salad was full of chicken and corn. So there they were, the three of them sitting around eating salads of various kinds for lunch. Angela looked like she'd been crying, but neither of them mentioned it.
"Question," Gabriel asked, scrubbing at a bit of salsa that had tried to escape by jumping into his beard. "Does the Reaper have any sort of flight powers?"
Angela's head came up and she blinked in surprise. "Flight?"
Gabriel stabbed at his salad again. "Yeah. You and Jack can both fly. I'm jealous."
"I..." the harpy shook her head. "I don't know. I never needed to check..."
Because Amelie could fly. The words hung unsaid between them.
"I've gotten up to dissolving both my arms into mist, and I can get my legs, but I keep getting stuck on my torso and head because I'm fighting my own survival instincts, so I figured maybe I could try something new instead of just hurling myself off the roof and hoping my survival instincts decided that mist was the better part of not getting splattered all over the courtyard."
Angela flinched. "Yes. Please do not do that. Although I can resurrect you so long as you died by your own hand or mine, I do not know what the Reaper would do in the brief period of time it took me to bring you back."
Jack switched to a spoon to scoop up the last bits of vegetable in his bowl. "So, back to the library after lunch?"
With a faint, hopeful smile, the harpy nodded.
=
"I gotta say," Gabriel announced, looking down at the courtyard some six stories below, "that while the idea of having giant black wasp wings is fucking hardcore, I don't think I'm psychologically prepared for that yet."
"Bat wings made of shadow, then?" Jack asked.
Gabriel nodded. Can we do this? he asked the imaginary cat silently. Its red eyes narrowed in pleasure, its little back paws flexed, and wings made of skin stretched across bone sprouted from its back. Behind him, Gabriel felt similar appendages on his own body. They felt a lot like the shadow tendrils - part of him but at the same time, not - and he spent a handful of minutes flexing them while Jack shook himself out of human form.
"Alright," Gabriel said in a low voice. "I'm gonna do it."
Jack raced him to the edge of the roof, ready to catch him if the wings failed, but the imaginary cat was exulting in having the freedom of flight once again and Gabriel was infected by its enthusiasm. He hurled himself gleefully into empty air, wings stretching to caress every tiny current. Sure, a part of him was shrieking in terror, but the imaginary cat had done this before, loved doing this, and Gabriel let himself surrender to it the way he wouldn't if it were rage the entity was consumed by.
He'd only expected to glide, but he found himself flapping, riding a thermal, basking in the afternoon sun and playfully slipping sideways to avoid the griffin in the air with him.
It's like I've taken a dog to a dog park for the first time in forever, Gabriel thought, grinning madly with the Reaper's enthusiasm.
Once the euphoric rush of excitement had worn down, he tilted his wings and glided back to the roof with silent promises that they'd do it again, now that he knew they could. A metaphoric cat tongue on his cheek was the Reaper's agreement, and he landed as easily and lightly as if he'd spent his whole life flying.
"We're doing this again," he announced cheerfully as Jack landed beside him and shifted back. "I want to be very comfortable with sprouting wings and flying."
Angela beamed at him. "I approve. You certainly seemed to take to it..."
Gabriel dismissed the shadow appendages. "That was entirely the Reaper; it's missed flying. Jack, you up for some practice? I've still got energy I need to burn off."
"I am, but then what will we do after dinner?"
"Angela, would you mind helping with some hand-on learning? I want to know how to help Jack take care of his feathers before he actually needs help."
The harpy looked pleasantly surprised. "I would be happy to assist. Preening is important for physical and social health." She frowned at the griffin, who looked abashed. "Living alone can not have been good for your feathers."
"It's settled, then." Gabriel leaned in and kissed his mate's jaw. "After dinner, I learn how to take care of your feathered butt."
Jack sighed. "I want to argue, but I can't."
Angela giggled behind one hand.
===
They chose the foyer for Gabriel's lesson for two reasons: first, it was more than wide enough for the griffin to spread his wings and second, the stone floor would more than tolerate the scratching of giant talons without damage. Jack kissed Gabriel and then ducked his head, tucking it briefly under his mate's, before retreating to shift to his natural form.
"We will start with the wings," Angela announced crisply. "The larger feathers are the most important for flight, although the smaller ones may be more annoying. Jack?"
Obediently, the griffin spread his wings, and almost immediately Angela looked displeased.
"Your wings are in a horrible state," she chided.
Lion heads preen badly, he rumbled. Gabriel translated for the harpy.
"Yes, but..." Angela's expression went from displeased to pained. "Oh. Of course."
More subdued now, she lectured Gabriel on the feathers and how to gently pull old ones, how to help new ones coming in, and how to smooth the vanes together and make sure the feather was positioned correctly. Now that he knew what he was looking for, Gabriel could see that Jack's wings were in rough shape. Once the lecture moved onto the hands-on portion, Jack sank to the floor with a moan of relief for the hands checking his wings over.
Angela pointed out the oil glands located at the base of each wing and demonstrated pressing gently to get a few drops of oil on her fingers, then spreading it over the feathers to coat them. Although Gabriel thought Jack's wings had been beautiful already, he couldn't deny that the sections they'd preened and oiled were even more beautiful. Poetic thoughts involving moonlight and clouds started drifting through his head while he and Angela each preened a wing, with Jack practically a purring puddle between them.
It was somewhat of a shock when, an indeterminate time later, the clicking that had been getting louder stopped and a cold voice demanded to know what they were doing. When he looked up, Amelie was glaring at them all with her arms crossed.
"I am teaching Gabriel how to care for his mate," Angela said in a tone of being defiant in the face of impending chastisement.
"Then why are you getting his scent all over your fingers preening his ratty wings?" the other harpy demanded.
Angela flushed slightly. "Jack hasn't been properly preened in ages."
"So?"
"It would take Gabriel all night to do it himself."
"So?"
"So I'm helping them," Angela snapped, face red with anger or humiliation or both.
"Why?"
The word was a verbal slap across the face, and the imaginary cat started hissing.
"Because it's our fault!"
Amelie leaned back as if struck. The imaginary cat stopped hissing in surprise.
"Mostly yours," Angela said shakily, "but also partially mine, because I helped you, and you killed-"
"It was what they deserved," snapped Amelie, yellow eyes flashing in rage. "They rejected me! Jack should count himself lucky he fled when he did, before I killed him and skinned him-"
Tendrils of shadow erupted from nowhere to bind her, tight enough that she would have screamed if not for the tendril gagging her.
Good, Gabriel thought at the imaginary cat, its eyes narrowed and tail lashing as it growled deep in its throat.
"Get out," he said in a tone of deadly calm. "Collect your things and vacate the premises. I want you gone by sunrise."
As soon as he released the shadow tendrils, Amelie snarled, "You can't-"
"I'm the Reaper," he interrupted. "This is my house, and you just threatened my mate. You are no longer welcome here."
"Fine," she sneered. "Angela-"
"Angela is welcome to stay," Gabriel interrupted again.
The white-feathered harpy seemed to be a breath away from tears, looking back and forth between the two of them.
"Which is it going to be?" Amelie asked in a low voice, eyes locked onto Angela's. "Are you going to abandon me, like everyone else?"
"I will not betray my flock for you." Angela swallowed. "Not again."
"Traitor-"
That's as far as Amelie got before Jack surged to his feet, wings up in a clear threat, the rumbling growl in his throat climbing to a roar that nearly had Gabriel pissing himself in pure, primal terror.
Fuck off and go to hell, translated the imaginary cat.
Amelie fled in the ringing silence, and Jack turned to face the trembling white-feathered harpy who was now absolutely crying. He lifted his massive head and licked her, right across the forehead. That seemed to be the last straw, because she fell to her knees and wept into his mane. Awkwardly, Gabriel knelt beside her to offer a comforting arm - and pet the broad feline nose of his mate with the other hand.
It took a few minutes for her to calm down, but when she did, her first words were an unsteady attempt to tell Gabriel how to preen the smaller feathers of Jack's back half.
"Angela." Gabriel hugged her. "You can show me tomorrow. Do you want to stay with us tonight? We can go to an unused room, make a nest on the floor, and sleep in a pile with Jack's wing as a blanket."
"I appreciate that," she breathed into his shoulder, "but I am afraid that Amelie will take her rage at me out on my journals."
The imaginary cat sat up and hissed. Gabriel agreed. "Jack? Stay with her. Keep her safe. I'll be back."
With his will and the Reaper's aligned, it was simplicity itself to dissolve into smoke and flow, quick as thought, across the floor and up the stairs. Down the hall, up more stairs, turn, flow, and slide under the door to the room the harpies shared. Amelie hadn't gotten here yet, and the journals were sitting on the desk along with several other papers. In fact, looking around, Gabriel could see a lot of things that Amelie could trash in the name of hurting Angela.
The door opened.
"What are you doing in my bedroom?" Amelie demanded.
"Changing my mind. Leave now, taking nothing with you but what you currently carry."
"Or what," she sneered. "You'll kill me? Eat my soul?"
Gabriel smirked. "Worse. I'll pluck you bald, tie you up, and drive you to the worst neighborhood I can find in Santa Barbara. Do you know what happens to pretty women in bad neighborhoods? Especially ones that can't fight back? I do."
Apparently Amelie did as well, because she scowled at him and darted out of the doorway, down the hall. Gabriel ran after her, easily keeping her in sight as she flung open a set of double doors, dashed through the room, and undid the latch on panes of tall glass that opened onto a sort of rooftop patio. One panicked glance over her shoulder was all the attention she spared him before she rushed out into the night and hurled herself off the edge.
Let's make sure she actually leaves, he told the imaginary cat, and ran after her.
He sported shadow wings before even reaching the apex of his jump. Seconds later, when he shifted angle and climbed without flapping, he realized he was using the wasp wings and grinned. Amelie heard him, glanced back, and began to flap desperately, clawing herself through the air to pass over the courtyard and dive for the forest.
"IF I SEE YOU IN MY TERRITORY AGAIN, I'LL KILL YOU!" Gabriel bellowed after her.
The flight back, retracing his path, closing the patio doors and returning to the foyer, was almost anticlimactic.
"Amelie's gone," he said as Jack looked up from the harpy preening one wing. "I chased her out so she didn't mess up any of your stuff. Offer still stands, and if you want emotional support for sorting through your things, Jack and I will be glad to help."
"You...you..."
Sighing, Gabriel sat by Jack's head. "I'm a protector. You're one of my people. Am I happy about the things you did in the past? No. Am I going to try to wheedle Ana into forgiving you? Also no. But if you're serious about regretting the things you did, then you're under my protection."
The harpy burst into tears.
===
They were just finishing Jack's wings when one of the golems peeked in, whistled that its creator was on his way, and retreated. Jack shrank back to human and moments later, the dwarf stepped into the foyer where the three of them stood, surrounded by old feathers.
"So ye kicked the other harpy out," he grunted. "Bout time. I've let the rock piles know that if she shows her face around here again they're to capture her and bring her to you."
"Good. Thank you."
The dwarf looked at the griffin. "Jack."
"Torbjörn."
"I make no apologies for where I am. I'm here because of the case, not because I liked working with the bitch who killed our friends."
"I believe you," Jack said evenly. "Do you have any contact with Overwatch still?"
The dwarf looked away. "Been out of contact with everyone for years. Even..."
Jack and Angela nodded grimly. Gabriel frowned. "Even...?"
"M'wife and kids."
"Unacceptable," Gabriel snapped. "Was it because of Amelie being the Mantle?"
Torbjörn nodded.
"I can bring you to visit them. They can come live here. Video calls can be a thing."
The dwarf looked at him as if trying to figure out where the catch was.
Gabriel crossed his arms. "I'm a protector. I don't want to be part of keeping a family unhappily separated. Tell me what you want to do."
"You'd let them move in?" Torbjörn sounded surprised, but hopeful. "I'd have to...renovate some rooms..."
"We have plenty of space. Take as many rooms as you need."
"There's eight of them."
"Then they might just make enough noise to make this place feel lived in," Gabriel told him with a grin.
Torbjörn gaped for a moment. "I'll have to....discuss it with the missus..."
"If you want to visit, I'd be happy to teleport you."
"I may take you up on that," he said slowly. "Thank you."
=
In the end, Angela opted to sleep by herself, although she did ask Jack and Gabriel to help her change the sheets and stay there while she bundled the other harpy's clothes into the old ones.
"She had an extensive collection of jewelry," Angela said as she smoothed the blanket out. "I will have the clothes laundered, and then if you are willing, I can contact a few people and potentially set up an auction. Such a thing is not unheard of, for a new Mantle to auction off the possessions of the old."
"Would it give you closure and or a feeling of vindication and or satisfaction?" Gabriel teased.
The harpy flushed delicately. "It would certainly be cathartic."
"Then do it. I'm going to let Overwatch know that Amelie's alive and on the run."
"Gabriel?" Angela turned to him, casting furtive glances at Jack. "Thank you for your support. I know I don't deserve it, not after the things I was an accomplice to, but..."
"You need a flock. Jack needs a pride. This is your second chance," he told her firmly. "Don't waste it."
She nodded. "Thank you again. In the morning, we will have lessons in the foyer and put the rest of Jack's feathers to rights."
"Sounds good." Gabriel hugged her. "Sleep well."
Angela sighed. "I will try."
===
"How, exactly, are you going to let Overwatch know Amelie's out there?" Jack asked dubiously as Gabriel emerged from the bathroom in sweatpants and a worn tee.
"Easy. I'm going to text Liao."
"Have you even talked to her since taking the Reaper?"
"Or figuring out she was the first Mantle? No." Gabriel tapped at his phone.
AMELIE ALIVE AND ON THE RUN. ALL YOURS. XOXO GABRIEL
"And sent, aaaaand..." Smugly, he put the phone on his dresser. "Turned it off. I'll leave it off for a day or two, give her time to give up."
"Part of me wants to chide you," Jack chuckled as his mate climbed into bed. "The rest of me agrees completely."
Gabriel sighed in contentment as Jack pulled him closer. "I know I'll have to deal with that can of worms eventually, but I'm already dealing with Angela and Torbjörn on top of the fact that I'm still in my transition month. And your feathered butt still needs to be preened."
"Thank you for caring," Jack said softly. "It's refreshing to have my griffin side accepted rather than tolerated. Shhhh," he continued as Gabriel tensed up. "Griffins don't fit well into human-shaped lives."
"It's still who you are," Gabriel growled.
"Ana used to preen me. Before we both retired. Spending so much time human means I don't need to be preened so much."
Gabriel hugged the arms hugging him. "You're my mate and I want to help."
Jack nuzzled the back of his neck and nipped one ear lightly. "And I'm more than happy to let you. I love you, Gabe."
Mollified, Gabriel brought one of Jack's hands up to kiss. "Good, 'cuz I love you, amorcito."
===
The next week was hectic. Angela confessed that Gabriel could probably access the Reaper's quarters already, since he was such a strong Reaper, but that Amelie had never been able to make the door open. Sure enough, it opened at his touch and there was a flurry of cleaning to remove the mummified corpse and make the room habitable. Torbjörn took Jack's measurements and constructed an octagonal nest box in between having Gabriel teleport him across the globe to see his wife and children, who were all eager to move into a mansion as long as they could take their stuff with them. Construction began on the east wing, preparing rooms for habitation.
Jack's feathers got preened thoroughly, which turned him into a giant pile of purring. Gabriel didn't stop grinning the whole day, partially because Jack was so content and affectionate.
All of this made a convenient distraction from the fact that rain had kept them all inside and unable to fly for the entire week.
Sombra started surfacing, ghosting around and making the occasional comment. Feeling the new Reaper out, Gabriel thought to himself. Which was fair, because he was trying to feel her out as well. He wasn't sure he made much progress, but he did get the wifi password. When he finally turned his phone back on, Liao had sent thirteen increasingly angry and frustrated texts, called six times, and left five voicemails. He ignored the voicemails the same as the others she'd left and called Ana instead to let her know what was going on. That involved weathering storms of cursing in Arabic when she learned both that Amelie was alive and why Amelie was alive, but the rest of it got her approval and she expressed interest in coming to visit when everyone was settled.
The week after was hectic in a different way as Gabriel teleported across the world repeatedly, ferrying children and piles of possessions into the mansion. He ate ravenously and slept like the dead, but it was worth it to see the look on the dwarf's face when Gabriel appeared with the last boxes and his wife. The children (eight of them, Jesus Christ) crowded around, babbling excitedly, while their parents kissed. The mansion felt alive with the entire family in it. Meals were loud and domestic, voices bouncing off the walls in the dining room and chasing any lingering gloom away. Both Jack and Angela seemed less tense, and Gabriel had to admit that he felt less tense, too.
He had people.
They had people.
When the weather was good, the three of them went flying. With the Reaper's help, Gabriel learned how to switch from wasp wings to bat wings mid-air and back again, giving him the maneuverability edge over the other two. The rest of the time, he focused on going to mist (both completely and locally when struck hard enough) because he still had issues letting go like that.
Ana came to visit, and Angela spent the entire day holed up in her room. Jack submitted to her stern demand to see his wings, and slyly commented in lion that mothers from any species were all the same as she checked them over. Gabriel had spent the previous evening preening his mate from shoulders to tail, however, and Ana beamed her approval for the state of his wings.
Then she chided him for not having a mane comb so Gabriel could groom his mane.
Gabriel went to Angela the next day to ask about the Reaper's finances. The explanations took two hours. Afterwards, he asked where one would get a mane comb. That evening, he decided, he would consult with the imaginary cat - who would be more than happy to help, he was sure - and teleport to Paris, the first place the Reaper had taken him.
=
When the rush of teleportation ended, he spared only a glance at the rest of the city before turning to the shop, relieved to see that it had just opened and no one was inside but Melina.
Was that Melina?
Gabriel opened his Sight and focused it on her. Yup, that sure felt like a sphinx. He closed the Sight and walked inside.
"Reaper!" The same Greek woman in her conservative-elegant dress hurried over. "To what do I owe the honor?"
"Melina, I presume?" Gabriel smiled at her with all the charm he could muster and bowed over her hand. "Gabriel Reyes. I wanted to thank you for your hospitality before. That was pretty much my first day as the Reaper, and the adjustment period involved more...spontaneous presentation of ability...than anyone was expecting. Hence my informal attire."
He grinned, and she giggled.
"I have since learned that the places I spontaneously teleported to were ones that had emotional significance to either myself or to the Reaper, and this was the very first place it brought me."
The sphinx covered her mouth briefly. "My shop? The Reaper itself likes my shop enough that this was the first place it brought the new Mantle?"
Gabriel nodded. "Have you designed for other Mantles in the past aside from Amelie?"
"Well, yes..."
"The Reaper itself likes your work." Gabriel grinned again. "Which means I better get used to wearing jewelry, I guess."
Melina eyed him appraisingly. "I believe you could wear a pectoral splendidly. Not many Mantles have the chest for it, but you do."
A pectoral, like the Egyptians? Something more than a necklace but less than armor. The idea appealed to him.
"I'm definitely open to that idea," he said, "but the other reason I came to talk to you..." boy, did he have her attention. "I'm looking for a griffin mane comb."
Her eyes narrowed. "For Jack Morrison?"
"He's my mate," Gabriel said quietly.
Melina sighed. "C'est la vie. I knew I had no chance, but a girl can dream, right? Please, come this way, and I will happily show you the pieces I designed for Jack." She gave him a sly grin. "Perhaps you will have more luck convincing him to wear them than I did."
She led him through a door into what he'd expected to be a back room but turned out to be more like an art gallery inside a cave. Waist-high pillars and blocks of stone were everywhere, with carved bits of nonhuman bodies on top to demonstrate how the jewelry was supposed to be worn. When he tore his eyes away from it all and hurried to catch up to Melina, he realized that she'd shed her human form and now walked on four paws, although she hadn't lost much height due to the length of her front legs. Golden-brown wings arched up from her shoulders, through the backless section of the dress she still wore. The way the material gathered at her hips meant that it somehow still looked elegant and fell over her hind legs rather than just hanging from her belly. It must have been designed for both forms, he realized.
The block of stone she stopped at had a pair of birdlike feet adorned with some sort of arrangement of golden rings and talon-sheaths connected by chains, and a pair of leonine forelegs wearing what looked like elaborate bracers in silver (or some more exotic white metal) with stylized lion-headed griffins on them. Blue stones matching the color of Jack's eyes were set as the eyes of the figures, and the edges were trimmed in enamel of the same blue. The griffins were enamel, too, he realized, with thin strips of metal forming lines as if the shape had been drawn and then colored in. He'd seen jewelry with that technique before, but nothing this big, and he let out a low whistle.
"This is amazing," he breathed. When he looked over, Melina's cheeks were pink. "I can see you made these specifically for Jack, but why is the rest gold?" He gestured to the rings-and-chains and noticed that there were some fancy earrings or cuffs for rounded leonine ears, as well.
The sphinx reached out with one delicate paw to caress the ear cuffs. "These were designed for another griffin, a Mantle who died about a century ago before I could show them to him."
Alfred. Well, that answered that.
"I'm new to supernatural fashion," Gabriel said. "Are these designs purely male, or would they be appropriate for a female as well?"
"Not all races conform to a gender binary," she answered crisply. "My designs are for all, unless specifically for an individual." Then she colored slightly. "Ah...these would be appropriate for a female as well. Why do you ask?"
"Jack's descended from Alfred's sister," Gabriel told her. "He has a female cousin who's also lion-headed and does not share his coloration. I was thinking maybe it would make a nice gift for her: the jewelry her great-uncle - great-grand-uncle? - never got to wear. His sister's turning two-fifty in April, did you know that?"
Melina was sitting on her haunches, both forepaws over her mouth. "Isabella is still alive? And Jack is her great-grandson?"
Gabriel nodded. "Jack and I are going to be at her party."
Immediately, the sphinx reached into a cubby in the side of the block and pulled out a box of golden wood lined with black velvet. "Luckily, these will fit both the forelegs of a griffin and the hind legs of a lion-headed griffin," she said as she pulled the rings and chains off their stone displays. "If you would kindly present them to Isabella as a present for me, I will gift you the ear cuffs for Jack's cousin and be content that my work was not in vain."
Reverently, Gabriel accepted the box and watched as the ear cuffs went into a second, smaller, matching box. "It would be an honor."
Once she had passed both boxes to him, Melina turned away and took several deep breaths. "Now. You inquired about a mane comb." She gestured him over to the other side of the block.
The comb she showed him was easily bigger than his hand, with teeth almost longer than his fingers. The handle was made from the stylized body of a lion-headed griffin, with the same blue stone for an eye and the same amazing enamel. The wing in particular was breathtaking, silver wire outlining every feather, but the way the wires sketched in the mane came a close second.
"Perfect," Gabriel breathed, unable to tear his eyes away until the sphinx removed it to place it into a box.
The box this time was silver lined with blue velvet, and Melina looked beyond pleased by his reaction.
"Store policy is that the price of any item may be reduced significantly by confessing a secret," she informed him. "This must be a truth that is not widely known and which you have no intention of publicly announcing."
Gabriel's mind immediately went to the vision of having dinner with Jack. "Eventually, I'm going to propose to Jack and I want you to design the engagement ring," he said. Then he grinned. "You'll finally get him wearing one of your creations."
Melina's mouth dropped open, and it was a long moment before she closed it to smile. "You drive a hard bargain, Gabriel," she purred. "I am going to enjoy working with you."
=
"What's in the box?" Jack asked as he slipped into the Reaper's bedroom.
(Bedroom. Damn thing was bigger than Gabriel's old apartment. He should get a couch and a TV in here.)
Gabriel spat out a mouthful of toothpaste foam. "Gift for your great-grandmother," he answered from the bathroom.
"It's beautiful."
"Melina made it for Great-Uncle Alfred, but he died before he could see it. The ear cuffs in the smaller box are for Louise."
"Gabe..." the griffin frowned at him from the doorway. "Why were you at Melina's?"
He swished a mouthful of water around and spat. "Introducing myself properly, since when she met me I was wearing a tee-shirt and sweatpants with socks but no shoes."
"Uh-huh. And this wouldn't have anything to do with Valentine's Day coming up soon?"
Gabriel gave his mate a minty kiss. "I know, you don't wear jewelry. It's alright, she knows you're my mate now."
Jack sighed and hugged his mate. "I'm sorry."
"Shh. You didn't do anything. Do you want to talk about Valentine's? It'll be my first time actually celebrating."
That got him a startled look. "It is, isn't it," murmured the griffin. "Okay. Let me brush my teeth and we'll talk about Valentine's."
Curled around each other in bed, they talked about activities, their expectations, what they liked or wanted to avoid. That led to talking about birthday customs and preferences, which led to talking about Isabella's party. And as they fell asleep, Gabriel smiled to himself thinking about the silver box hidden in the back of one of the desk drawers.
===
"Angela is living with you?" Ana said incredulously, a cold demand for Gabriel to correct her.
He and Jack both winced away from the phone.
"She's under my protection," Gabriel replied in a firm tone. "I have not forgiven the things she did. I'm giving her a chance to prove that she truly regrets them. There's also that I don't know the details of how the Reaper's supposed to do things, and the little fact that she can raise the dead under certain circumstances, and I'd really like to not have that ability floating around desperate for a flock. She'll stay in her room the entire time."
Ana sighed. "I don't like it, but it's your decision and I can't fault your logic."
"So you'll come?"
"Yes, Gabriel, we will come visit." Ana's voice was warm again. "I look forward to reconnecting with another old friend, and Reinhardt feels the same way."
Gabriel grinned at his mate. "And you can make sure I've been preening Jack right."
That got her laughing. "We'll see you in three days," she told them.
Once the call ended, Jack pulled Gabriel into his arms and nuzzled the side of his neck. "That went pretty well."
"Yeah. Definitely could have gone worse." He took a moment to just appreciate the simple pleasure of being hugged. "Hey, Jack?"
"Mm?"
"How long should I let my hair grow?"
The griffin leaned back to frown at his mate. "Why are you asking me?"
"Because I'm growing it for you," Gabriel said quietly. "You licked it, so I figured you wanted something to groom. Otherwise, I would have shaved it all off again."
"Gabe..." Jack looked like he couldn't decide if he was flattered or distressed.
"I haven't let my hair grow since..." He looked away. "Since I was finally recognized as being male."
Jack hugged him tightly. "Gabe, you don't have to do that for me. I won't ask you to change who you are."
"I want to do it for you," came the slightly-muffled reply. "I want...I want you in my life. I don't want to push you away or shut you out. I've never done this before. You're used to grooming as an affectionate gesture, and I want that."
For a long minute, there was only hugging and maybe some slightly-shaky breathing.
"Two inches," Jack murmured finally. "Maybe less. Just long enough to feel like fur. I'll let you know if it's too long."
"Thanks, Jack." Gabriel nuzzled his mate's neck, making the other man flinch and giggle slightly at the feel of his facial hair. The application of teeth and suction quieted him. "Let's sleep in the nest," Gabriel murmured when he was done giving the griffin a hickey.
"No arguments here," Jack said with lazy contentment. "But just so you know, you're gonna get licked."
Gabriel grinned. "Oh no," he deadpanned. "Whatever shall I do. I mean, besides enjoy that my mate can demonstrate affection in a natural way and revel in the amazingness that is a purring griffin cuddling me. How did I think I was content with my life before I met you, Jack?"
"Ignorance is bliss?"
"Ignorance is not bliss." Gabriel pulled away to give Jack a fiercely disapproving look. Then it softened. "Being with you is," he said gently, leaning in for a long, lingering kiss.
Jack hummed agreement as the kiss ended. "I can't argue with that."
===
The visit began remarkably well. Gabriel and Jack both got hugged warmly and half to death by Ana and Reinhardt respectively. Torbjörn and his family surrounded the guests in a chattering mob, the children taking to the half-giant like ducks to water and dragging him with them for a tour, leaving Ana in the foyer with Mantle and griffin.
"Let's see them," she said crisply, and examined Jack's feathers with the eye of a mother making sure a child really has washed. When she'd finished her inspection, she smiled at Gabriel and scratched Jack behind the ears. "Not a feather out of place," she said warmly. "I'm proud of you, but tell me honestly - how bad was it before?"
Jack's ears went back as much as they could and he whined.
"Bad enough that Angela was nearly in tears a few times," Gabriel answered solemnly. "When Amelie confronted her, she snapped back with It's our fault. She refused to turn on Jack for Amelie, and when Amelie called her a traitor, Jack told her to fuck off and go to hell."
Ana's eyebrow arched.
"...in lion. It was a very loud and viscerally terrifying roar."
Briefly, Ana giggled before looking thoughtful. "So. Not forgiveness, but a chance to make amends."
"Because she showed remorse," Gabriel repeated firmly. "I've seen too much shit happen because someone was being fucked in the head by an abuser. The Reaper nearly killed Amelie twice. She was one of the shortest-lived and weakest Reapers on record. But she was all Angela had until Jack and I stood up for her."
"It does take courage to break away from the flock," Ana murmured. "Perhaps...after lunch...I might talk to her?"
Gabriel smiled while Jack nudged the side of her head with his nose. "I'll ask if she's up for that."
The griffin shrank back to human and hugged his old friend. "I'll chaperone, if you think it will help."
"Thank you, Jack." Ana smiled dryly. "I think that would be a wise precaution."
=
Angela agreed, with a trembling smile, to talk to Ana with Jack there. Gabriel hugged her, took her lunch request, and came back to deliver her meal himself rather than let a golem do it. Lunch was loud and rowdy, in a cheerful way, and afterwards Gabriel and Reinhardt went outside to discuss chivalry as it could be applied to being the Reaper, while Jack and Ana went off to one of the mansion's sitting rooms. Gabriel had no idea what anyone said and didn't ask. Ana looked grimly thoughtful when they returned, and Jack looked...not happy per se, but maybe sternly optimistic.
Both Ana and Reinhardt were impressed by the Reaper's bedroom, and made it clear that they thought it was adorable the way the nest box had been placed in the center of the room.
"Your beloved should be the center of your life," Reinhardt boomed, clapping Gabriel on the shoulder. "And ha! Your bed is bigger than mine," he joked, elbowing Jack.
"I have wings," Jack pointed out playfully. "I stretch farther than you."
Ana was enchanted by the library. Reinhardt was enchanted by the armory. Jack got hugged again as they prepared to be teleported back to their own home, and Gabriel got hugged as he delivered each one.
Angela was subdued at dinner, but not unhappily.
As they lay in bed, fingers intertwined, Jack said, "Tomorrow's the last day of your transition month."
Gabriel sighed. "Yeah."
"What are you going to do when it's over?"
Grimly, he stared at the darkened ceiling. "My job."