Chapter 15 Gabriel
Gabriel
“This is fucking ridiculous,” Levi ranted, pacing back and forth with the tablet in his hand.
Gabriel was sitting at the table and staring at the second tablet. So much for the bucket list and fun things. So much for sleeping, which he’d actually rather come to enjoy, even though it seemed like a waste of time. So much for doing anything other than delivering messages.
There were triple the number of missives from the day before, and most of them were definitely not urgent. It was like Levi’s memo had made every angel decide they needed to prove their importance, so they’d all sent messages that they deemed urgent.
“I suppose we’d best get to work,” Gabriel murmured.
Levi walked over, resting a hand on Gabriel’s shoulder. “Fuck, no.”
Gabriel looked up at him, surprised. “What?”
“I said, ‘Fuck, no.’ We aren’t delivering a single fucking message on here. The angels wanna play games? They think they’ll bury you in messages? Oh, I’ll show them games. We’ll bury them in paperwork until they give up. We can play this game, too,” Levi answered.
“But replying to them all will take ages. We could probably just deliver their messages more quickly.”
Not that Gabriel wanted to be overrun with work, especially since he was quite enjoying trying new things. But he did have a job to do.
“Oh, Buttons, you’re not nearly devious enough. We’ve been thinking about this all wrong. I have such ideas.” Levi was grinning maniacally now, and he sat down next to Gabriel, starting to type away on his laptop.
“What should I do?” Gabriel asked.
Levi looked up and smiled. “I got this. Have some coffee and enjoy the morning while I get up to some devious afterlife work. Maybe read some books or watch some television—those are both bucket list items of things humans enjoy, so you’ll still be working.”
Gabriel felt like he really ought to be helping with whatever Levi was doing, or at the very least delivering messages. But Levi’s head was bent over the tablet again, and Gabriel believed he really did have this under control.
He trusted the demon. Levi had taken their partnership and this job seriously from the start, and he’d actually provided invaluable help.
Gabriel had hated the idea of a partnership, but he was thankful for it now.
Levi made him better at his job. He trusted Levi to do what was right, because he knew Levi cared just as much as he did about the messages.
It sent a feeling of warmth through him.
He really did have a partner—an equal partner—and it was wonderful.
Gabriel got up and headed toward the kitchen.
As Levi had said, completing bucket list items was also work he was supposed to be doing.
First, though, he could definitely make them some coffee.
Maybe he’d even try cooking them breakfast. Surely it couldn’t be that hard.
He’d watched Levi do it plenty of times.
He took out the pan and spatula he’d seen Levi use, and then he took out the eggs.
He grabbed some cheese as well, but he wasn’t going to push his luck and try a full omelette.
Surely just making eggs with cheese would be simple.
He looked around and found the toaster and bread.
Yes, Levi often gave them bread, too. He cut some slices and placed them in the toaster oven.
Huh. It probably needed to be hot. There were dials and numbers and things, but Gabriel wasn’t really sure what meant what, so he just used his angelic power to heat up the toaster. Yes, that would do fine.
Now, for the eggs. He took out one, looking at it. He’d seen Levi crack them before he added them to the pan. So Gabriel did the same, smashing the egg against the counter.
The shell cracked—or perhaps broke into a hundred tiny pieces was a better description. There was egg all over the counter, the floor, and his hand.
Well, that wouldn’t do. He cleaned up the mess with a blink and took out another egg. Obviously, he needed to gently tap it against the counter to crack it. So that’s what he did.
Only nothing happened. So he did it again. And again. And perhaps he was getting a bit frustrated, because the next time he tapped it, he must have done so a little too hard again, because there was egg all over everything. Again.
How could it be this hard to crack an egg? Humans did it every day. He’d watched Levi do it every morning. He took out a third egg, ready to try again, when the smell of something burning hit his nose. He turned around to look at the toaster, and…
Oh. He didn’t think the bread was supposed to be on fire. He hadn’t seen that happen when Levi made it.
With a sigh and a wave of the hand, he put out the fire. He walked over and looked at the toast, and he definitely didn’t remember it being quite so blackened when Levi had made it. It was fine, though. The toast could wait. He still needed to get the eggs done.
He walked back over to the pan. He recalled that sometimes Levi cracked the eggs on the side of the pan. Perhaps using the counter had been his mistake.
He took the third egg, bringing it down onto the side of the pan, being sure not to use too much force. He almost cried out in happiness when the egg cracked and didn’t end up all over the counter. Instead, it went into the pan. Along with a bunch of pieces of egg shell.
Huh. He didn’t remember eggshell being in their omelettes, but he didn’t remember Levi picking pieces of shell out of the pan either.
With a shrug, he used his angelic gifts to turn the fire on under the pan—only he didn’t make the same mistake as with the toaster. It obviously didn’t need to be quite as hot.
He watched the egg, pleased to see it begin to congeal as it cooked in the pan.
This was where Levi usually did some stirring, so he put the spatula into the pan to move the egg.
Only the egg that was already cooked didn’t move.
It was just stuck there, on the bottom of the pan.
He pressed harder, and some of it scraped up, but there was still a layer of egg stuck to the bottom of the pan.
Then the smell of burning hit his nose again.
Gabriel almost muttered something very un-angel-like. Half the egg wasn’t even cooked! How could it be burning? He turned off the heat with the half-cooked, half-burned egg in the pan. He stared at it for a moment.
“Buttons, is everything ok?” Levi called out from the couch in the living room. “It smells like—”
“Yes! Everything is fine!” Gabriel answered.
He put the eggs and cheese back in the fridge and used his powers to clean out the pan and dissipate the burned smell.
Perhaps cooking wasn’t something he needed to tackle today.
He remembered one of the shops in a nearby town that had coffee and pastries, and he decided perhaps that was a better idea.
Maybe he could look around in a book store while he was out, and then he could read while Levi worked.
“I’m just popping out for a moment. I’ll be right back,” he called out, walking into the room where Levi was still working.
When he was standing in front of Levi, the demon pulled him down by his shirt, gave him a quick kiss, and said, “Ok. Hurry back.” Then he focused on the tablet and was typing away once again.
Gabriel stood there for a moment. That had felt… comfortable. Levi had been so sweet, but so absentminded about it. It made Gabriel feel warm and squishy-soft inside.
He had work to do, though, and he could surely provide them breakfast (even if he needed to purchase it) and get some books to begin his next task. He wouldn’t let Levi be the only one who was being productive.
“Whachya reading?” Levi asked him.
Gabriel looked up, blinking. Oh. It was dark outside, and somehow he hadn’t even noticed.
He straightened up—he had been slouching rather magnificently on the couch, but Levi had assured him earlier that humans got “comfy” when they read.
“I’m sorry. I should have been helping,” Gabriel said, putting down the book.
Levi plopped down next to him, pulling him into a hug. “Nope. I didn’t need help. I’ve been done for a while, but you seemed really absorbed in your book.”
“Oh. Well, yes, I can see why humans enjoy reading. It’s like you get to experience a whole different life while you sit on the couch and eat snacks. It’s amazing.”
Levi laughed. “Not everyone includes the snacks part, but yes, it is a way for humans to experience other points of view. They get a whole range of emotions from reading. Shows and movies can be similar. Humans really are wonderfully imaginative beings.”
Gabriel nodded in agreement.
“So, what’s your book about?” Levi asked again.
“Oh, well, it’s really quite fantastic,” Gabriel said, picking it back up.
“There’s this duo of mages, only they aren’t in love with each other, and they’re fighting these evil monsters that come through portals, and the one is dating a shifter.
The mages aren’t treated right by society, but the shifters and the mages are going to fix that.
And the mages have suffered all these horrible things in their past, but they’re still strong, loving people. It’s the third book in the series.”
Levi was smiling at him. “You’ve been busier than I have if you’re already on the third book. How did you pick this one?”
“When I popped out to get us breakfast this morning, I stopped in a book store. The person who worked there asked me all sorts of questions, then he suggested books for me to read. He was very excited to share his favorite books.”
“Yeah, humans are like that. A lot of them like to share their joy with others,” Levi answered. “Maybe I’ll read the books, too, and we can talk about them.”
“I would like that.” Gabriel blushed at the offer, but he really would like that. He had gotten quite absorbed in reading, and it had given him immense pleasure. He would like Levi to get the same pleasure, and it would be fun to discuss the people in the books with him.
It was obviously time for dinner, however, and he hadn’t sent a single message today. He sat up straighter, saying, “I suppose it’s time to tackle some of those messages.”
Levi snorted in amusement. “Nope. I’ve taken care of that.”
The demon looked quite mischievous, and Gabriel knew he ought to be worried, but instead he was curious about what trouble Levi might have gotten up to.
He raised an eyebrow in question, waiting for Levi to explain.
“You saw how many messages there were. Obviously the angelic group was fighting back on your memo, so I fought fire with fire. I drowned them in paperwork, and I even set up a chatbot to handle requests. It’s rather ingenious, if I do say so myself.”
“Paperwork? Chat bots?” Gabriel asked. He wasn’t sure what Levi meant.
“Yup,” Levi answered happily. “If they try to send you a message, they get an automated reply asking if it’s urgent.
If they say yes, they get another automated reply that asks why it’s urgent.
If it meets those requirements, there’s a form to fill out, and then another automated reply.
If they have questions, there’s a computer that answers them and generally makes their life difficult.
Most of them will give up and deliver the message on their own rather than jump through all the hoops I’ve set up. ”
Gabriel was both impressed and also slightly concerned. “What about the serious messages, though? I have to deliver some messages.”
“Of course you do. I’ve set up keywords and certain answers that will deliver the message to you.
It isn’t perfect, but anyone who’s really determined could still get their message through.
They just won’t waste the time and energy if it isn’t urgent.
If they can waste your time, then we can waste their time.
” Levi shrugged, obviously not the least bit bothered by the thought of wasting angelic time.
“Are you sure we’ll still get important messages?” Gabriel asked.
“Yup. But I’ll tell you what—we can look through the messages that got rejected each day to make sure they should’ve gotten rejected.
We won’t always need to do that, but it will make sure things are running as they should be.
I can make dinner and you can start checking today’s messages.
Then after dinner we can deliver any urgent ones. ”
Gabriel agreed (because obviously he wouldn’t be making dinner—cooking was not something he could master in one try). He sat down to start sifting through messages, and Levi headed into the kitchen, humming as he went.
He had quite a bit to go through, and he knew he’d have at least some messages to deliver tonight, but the prospect of dinner with Levi and then company for the deliveries made everything seem that much more interesting. And perhaps tonight when they were done, he’d get to read more of his book.
Humans really were amazingly creative creatures. And resourceful, as well, since so many of them could cook. It was quite astonishing.