#((i gave myself the permission to add stuff not directly serving the plot as a pacing tool and build-up))

[thatlittledandere]

Of Course I Dare!

Pairing: Naruko Io/Zaou Ryuu

Summary: “They do say that kisses given in a game of Spin the Bottle don’t count, but I understand if he still doesn’t dare do it–“

Ryuu slammed his hands on the table and loudly exclaimed: “Of course I dare!” No way would the notorious playboy Ryuu Zaou ever let anyone imply he would chicken out of a kiss! He turned to Io with a determined expression, trying to keep up his confidence.

"Let's do it, then!"

Words: 2354

ao3

Kinugawa-senpai’s words from the training camp echoed in Ryuu’s mind (again) as he was getting ready for school. How could he have been so observant!? Okay, so maybe Ryuu did like Io a little more than as a friend. Oh, to hell with it, who was he kidding? Of course he did. Ryuu Zaou, the master of romance, knew a crush when he had one. Which was often.

But he thought he’d gotten pretty good at hiding his feelings for boys. No better teacher than past experiences. (Ryuu remembered all too well the consequences of confessing to Seito-kun in sixth grade and how they had affected his self-esteem, and was glad he was getting over it.) So how in the world had his senpai (or, judging from Yufuin-senpai’s shameless accusations, senpais) noticed? Sure, he and Io hung out a lot and Ryuu was rather open about the appreciation he had for Io and yeah, he got a little touchy every now and again, but the other members of the club didn’t even know he was bi! There should have been no way!

Ryuu shivered at the word “bi” he had used in his head. He was still getting used to this whole “maybe gays are not that gross after all” thing. Unlearning attitudes was hard, even if learning about bisexuality on the internet probably saved his life. Or his emotional well-being at least. After years of intense self-doubt, denial and even loathing he sort of accepted that side of himself now but…

Io was Io! Ryuu’s best friend! Ryuu was used to falling for people quickly, on public transport, or during group projects in school, or festivals, or whatever, but he’d been close to Io for quite some time, so why now? Why somebody he saw every day and had to act platonic with? He was an open person with his heart on his sleeve, dammit! It wasn’t fair!

… Shit. At this rate he’d soon be late again.

Despite the morning’s distracting thoughts, Ryuu’s day went by completely normally. Nobody suspected a thing. He really was good at this. No wonder, having had months of practice. After settling on a seat in their clubroom, Ryuu flipped out his phone to see a received message from his latest conquest.

Yoshiko: Had fun on our date! Let’s meet up again sometime? You COULD even get a kiss ;) maybe

But how would kissing Io feel like? Ryuu looked back to the kisses he had shared with girls before: the tender brushes of lips, the pecks and bites, the play fights with tongues and licking the insides of each other’s mouths. Hands caressing backs and shoulders, light touches on cheeks and playing with the other’s hair.

Ryuu: oh, arent you eager ;)

Awkwardness after failing to read the mood. The occasional teeth clattering, bleeding after a little too forceful biting and unwanted giggles at inappropriate times due to being too damn ticklish. Can’t have the good without the bad or not-so-good.

Yoshiko: Stop teasing. I know you’re even more impatient than I am.

Kissing, especially on the lips, was something Ryuu considered almost sacred. A way to stop them from being scared, sad or annoying, a way to confirm whether there were deeper feelings involved or not, a way to find surprising sides of people. Almost always a pleasant experience. Always different.

Ryuu: got me there :P hbu next saturday? coffee sound good?

But Io was Io. Not only was he a boy, he was also someone Ryuu had known for a long time, who he knew better than anyone else, who he could do anything – or nothing at all – with, and would always have a good time.

Yoshiko: Gotcha! You know where I live, meet me at 7!

Ryuu knew where Yoshiko lived, yes, but he didn’t know how. He didn’t know how she behaved when she first woke up in the morning and and what was the last thing she did before going to bed. He didn’t know what her parents or siblings were like. He didn’t know what type of shampoo she used, if she brushed her teeth before or after breakfast and if she preferred hot or cold water in the shower.

Ryuu didn’t know any of those things about any of the girls he had dated. He didn’t even know those things about his friends. He had never asked.

But if anyone were to ask those mundane, seemingly meaningless details about Io’s life, Ryuu could answer in his sleep. Io was different.

Breaking out of his own world, Ryuu heard his friends discuss meeting at Kurotama bath the next weekend for a slumber party. (Ryuu missed the start of the conversation, but had a strong hunch it was Yufuin-senpai’s idea.) No specific reason needed; just friends hanging out, chilling, maybe playing some games.

“I have a date on Saturday, but if it’s on Friday, I can make it!”

Ryuu: cant wait!

Friday came and Ryuu made his way to Kurotama, where Yumoto somehow managed to convince everyone to gather around the table to play Truth Or Dare. Something about a chance to learn more about each other, Ryuu thought he had said; the room they were in was kind of hot, Io had opened two top buttons on his pajama top and Ryuu was preoccupied with his collar bones and a hint of the chest he already knew was well toned but damn–

“Ryuu?” Io’s voice broke through Ryuu’s thoughts and he really hoped Io hadn’t seen him staring. Ryuu hadn’t even noticed he’d been zoning out. Damn it, this was becoming a bad habit.

“The bottle is already spinning,” Io kindly pointed out. Ryuu turned his head on the bottle, which stopped at Yumoto.

“Yay!” he squealed. “I choose dare!”

“Damn, what can you even ask someone like Yumoto do?” asked Yufuin-senpai and leaned on his arms. “There’s nothing fun in bossing around someone who doesn’t have a sense of shame to begin with.”

Kinugawa-senpai looked at Yumoto seemingly in thought, his hand cupping his chin. “En-chan has a point, Yumoto is a bit of an unexplored territory...”

“Get a passing grade on your next Japanese test,” suggested Io with a completely straight face. Even Ryuu couldn’t tell if he was being serious or not; it was a ridiculous dare but, knowing Io… He might even mean it.

Yumoto huffed in exasperation. “Aah, Io-senpai, that’s so boring!”

“And aren’t dares supposed to be acted out immediately?” asked Kinugawa-senpai. “Plus, we’ll have no way of making sure he actually does it.”

“True. Hey Yumoto, I dare you to make up a believable excuse for me to ditch this chick next Monday!” was Ryuu’s input.

Yumoto smiled cheerfully and answered without blinking: “Tell her you have a family emergency! She can’t say no to that!”

“Sweet, thanks! Let’s hope she won’t ask for details”. Ryuu didn’t like standing girls up and he liked lying even less, but he had two dates on Monday and had to prioritize. This one was kind of annoying and draining company anyway.

Ryuu didn’t see Yufuin-senpai’s face, he was typing a message, but senpai sounded taken aback. “Eh, you’d think Yumoto had done this before.”

“… I don’t think I want to know,” said Io. With the voice Ryuu knew well, the one that told he really didn’t want to know. Strange how even that sort of voice could sound so endearing coming from Io.

“Me neither,” said Kinugawa-senpai. “Let’s just spin the bottle again.”

Yumoto spun the bottle, and the whole club kept their eyes on it intently until it eventually stopped.

“It’s Io-senpai!”

“I choose truth. I don’t want to embarrass myself,” said Io. Ryuu, who knew what a private person Io was, felt a rush of pride for his best friend for finally trusting their other friends enough to be willing to reveal something – and maybe a little jealousy that he wasn’t the only one he trusted anymore. But then again, none of others could ever have such a strong bond with him, and Ryuu was happy about that. He knew it was selfish, but wasn’t liking someone a little selfish in the first place?

“Right, is there something in your life you especially regret?” asked Yufuin-senpai.

Io averted his eyes from him and – did he just shot the quickest glance at Ryuu? In any case, he suddenly looked a lot more self-conscious.

“My preteen years were… not the proudest.” He spoke, now apparently making a point of not meeting anyone’s eyes. “I tried really hard to blend in with the adults and make them take me seriously by using expressions and vocabulary uncharacteristic to someone my age and by being overly serious and assertive about everything, even when I didn't really know what I was talking about. In retrospect, I was only making a fool out of myself.”

“Is that the eighth grade syndrome…?” commented Atsushi.

“People do call it that, yes.”

Ryuu snorted, and immediately felt bad after seeing Io flinch the tiniest bit. Oh no. Now he hurt him. Io confided in them all and told something he was embarrassed about and his best friend laughed at him. When would Ryuu ever learn to control himself…

“Okay, I get why you would think that’s sort of uncool,” he started quickly, aiming to relieve the tension, “But you knew all those fancy words when you were real young! It’s just one more proof of your intelligence!” He was glad to see Io untense a little.

After that, the game continued like a game of Truth and Dare usually goes, everyone making up equally stupid dares (Kinugawa-senpai had to stuff ten marshmallows into his mouth and say all their names) and learning more truths about each other (Yufuin-senpai admitted to sometimes singing on his free time but wouldn’t give a sample).

Then the moment Ryuu had been waiting for with both fear and excitement came and the bottle stopped at him. He immediately announced he’d be choosing dare, and shot the others a wide, confident grin, daring them to bring it on. God, he had been waiting to show what he was made of!

His grin melted when he saw the way Kinugawa-senpai was looking at him like he had an evil masterplan. Yufuin-senpai shot Kinugawa-senpai a look that clearly conveyed the message “don’t”, but he pointedly ignored it. How characteristic, his “dark side” was emerging…

“Very well. I dare you to kiss Io.” The devious grin from the training camp made a reappearance, much to Ryuu’s dismay. "On the lips."

“What!” Ryuu yelped. He felt his face heat up and turned to look at Io, who looked positively scandalized. They just wouldn’t catch a break tonight, would they…

“Ki… Kinugawa-senpai, it would be too improper to force Ryuu to do something this… intimate against his free will! This is a game where he is in no position to refuse, it’s unfair!”

“Maybe,” admitted Kinugawa-senpai, sounding to Ryuu like he was trying to sound like he might have regretted it. Which he obviously didn’t. “They do say that kisses given in a game of Spin the Bottle don’t count, but I understand if he still doesn’t dare do it–“

It sounded like Kinugawa-senpai was about to continue, but he didn’t get a chance to do so. Ryuu slammed his hands on the table and loudly exclaimed: “Of course I dare!” No way would the notorious playboy Ryuu Zaou ever let anyone imply he would chicken out of a kiss! He turned to Io with a determined expression.

“Well…” Ryuu chuckled, trying to keep up his confidence, and gulped. “Let’s do it, then!”

It… Wasn’t what he was expecting. Not at all, and Ryuu wasn’t sure how to feel about it. There were no fireworks, no explosions in his heart or brain, it didn’t feel like the world around them disappeared or like they were floating through time and space. Nothing like the big getting together in a romance movie or manga.

Ryuu had just done what he usually did: approached slowly, making sure what he was doing was alright; looked at Io’s eyes and lips in turns under his own gradually closing eyelids; noted what Io seemed to be feeling about all of this (he read Io well and was quite confused about what he found; he thought Io had looked somehow… Expecting? Maybe even excited? Hopeful? Unbelieving?? Why?) and finally closed his lips around Io’s lower one, closing his eyes entirely and moving his lips. (For his great relief, Io returned the kiss.) Nothing unusual. Yet this wasn’t like the other times - not only because his partner was of the same gender and Ryuu’s very favorite person.

It was not magical or phenomenal, just natural. Like this was how things were supposed to be, like this was something they had been supposed to be doing for so long. The surrounding world or their friends didn’t disappear: Ryuu was still aware of their presence, he just found himself not caring. He didn’t feel like he was ascending to the Heavens; actually, he felt even more in touch with everything and more present in the moment. This was, on some fucked-up level, his natural habitat. He belonged there, and didn’t want to let go.

But in order to not blow his cover, he had to. Keeping this up any longer could be weird. So, trying his hardest to act natural and nonchalant and not show his reluctance, Ryuu ended the kiss. Only centimeters away from his face, Io opened his eyes slowly and stared at Ryuu blankly, his gaze hazed and unfocused. Ryuu had never seen Io this out of it, and although his own mind wasn’t at its sharpest either and his emotions flew all over the place, he felt a strange sense of pride for being responsible for it.

It was even better when Io’s face broke into a wide, content smile. And if Ryuu’s ability to read Io was still there, several of the emotions the kiss had made him feel were mutual.

Maybe he would have to do some inventory on his calendar app.

#boueibu #ioryuu #ship captain atsushi #aka my favorite ioryuu trope lmao #fucck dammit i've had this incomplete for ages like it's ridiculous #i'm... a bit self-conscious about all the dialogue tbh #i don't write it all that much (i think?) #but nah i'll probably get over it eventually #or be even more 'ew cringe' the futre will tell #this got a lot longer than anticipated?? #i mean my usual fic is like somewhere around a thousand words how did this more than double #((filler that's how)) #((i gave myself the permission to add stuff not directly serving the plot as a pacing tool and build-up)) #anyway what is #what is coherent causation and structure #this feels like it's just some pieces violently slammed together with no coherent plot or goal or anything #i had a point i swear #i just #fuck i #i must have dropped it officer i swear i have it #my stuff

[seenashwrite]

Walkthrough for “There But For The Grace”.

If interested - Go read it first before continuing on. This is about the plot point stuff (i/e - hints for the end, amongst other things) and the theological drops I sprinkled throughout.

I genuinely did not intend for this to cause brain freeze. Hoo-boy. Many sorry. There’s about a 40/60 split at this point of the “got its” vs. “didn’t quite got its”, so that’s on me. Not that it was incredibly necessary to catch the loop-di-loop in order to like it, though you might like it more once you know.

So I'll walk you through my thought process in the least disjointed manner I can manage. Which... hoo-boy, part deux. Tagging folks who commented on the story/to me directly, certainly no expectation on my part for you to read and/or reply. Seriously. Legit. Etc. And stuff.

This took longer to write than the story. #no lie

Okay, lotsa screencaps, so I don’t (a) end up c-p’ing the whole damn thing, and more the reason (b) so can underline. 

And for ALL our brains’ sakes, I’ll call our dude Michael, and other world’s dude Mike from here on.  Plotting stuff in red, theological stuff in blue, randoms (Nash Be Nashin’ and SPN canon stuff) in green.

The title is from that proverb “There but for the grace of God go I”, and as ye olde wiki explains....

....and then, there’s this:

Hopefully you picked up on something being “off” with how I was writing ol’ Mike as the story went on. I got slightly tricksy in some places on purpose regarding characterization, but hey - Mike and Michael are essentially the same angel in concept, just on different planes, right? And stuff apparently took a left turn when the apocalypse went through over yonder. So while they didn’t really re-tell the history of Apocaland beat-by-beat (thank Chuck), the inference I got is that the basic shit went down - he boots Luci after he rebels, etc. Blah blah blah, y’all know this.

Quote from Michael:

So maybe Mike came at it from the same angle when he killed his Luci. Who knows. Though I will say - if it was some sort of duty for him and not pleasure, I wouldn’t think there’d be boasting about pulling Luci apart, nor would the knee-jerk be to string him up and torture him, at least, if he’d suddenly re-appeared before me one day. YMMV.

This is good summary from the wiki, whoever wrote it did a bang up job:

Michael is meticulous. He slow-plays things. It’s not about being power-hungry; he had power. He was essentially God. For him, this is tied up in honor and loyalty and righting wrongs and all that jazz.

Again - that hesitation. He never stopped loving Lucifer - and Lucifer never stopped loving any of them, we see this big time in the Elysium ep when he “killed” Gabriel. Much internal conflict with these folks. And then there’s Mike, who iced (our) Gabriel and tortured (our) Lucifer in the blink of an eye. 

There’s my characterization base of operations.

---> Could be interpreted as Michael or Mike - applies to both. Mike would find pleasure in taking inventory of what he planned to rule, how we aren’t worthy of anything but being subjects; Michael is perhaps glad to see plenty of justifications for what he feels he’s still destined to do.

---> “Learned” for Mike = the observing we saw in the finale, comparing-and-contrasting to his world; “learned” for Michael could be (a) via Dean’s mind, and / or (b) what he could’ve seen from Mike’s mind when he whooped his ass, a.k.a. Nash’s Sneaky Twisty Thing, re: Michael is now in Dean’s body. 

So, how is that, Nash? you may ask.

Dunno.

Perhaps the distraction of Mike getting wailed on by Michael allowed Dean the opportunity to eject him, maybe Dean’s been wearing Mike down mentally. And though Dean/Sam - being the ideal hosts - have greater tolerance than us regulars, it’s gonna leave them weakened, it’s just got to. Hell, just being possessed by fill-in-the-blank leaves ya with the weeble-wobbles for a bit. Primo chance for Michael to set up shop in Dean.

Then, Nash, since angels need permission, how’d Michael do that? you may ask.

Occam’s razor --> Dean gave Michael “the soul”/”the entity”/whatever permission, and that goes across the realm, alt timelines/dimensions/whatnots. Or, maybe Dean chose the lesser of the two evils, so to speak - he’s boned at this interval anyhow, so if the opportunity arose, if it’s me, I’m choosing the frying pan over the fire - at least I’ve bought myself (and my loved ones, and the world) some time. Either of those work for what I intimated in the story.

Bottom line: however it went down, that’s for your imagination to choose.

A point that’s called back to later, as well as Nash Be Nashin’, RE: I’ve no idea why they opted to dress him in that style. There’s other stylings that are stark contrasts to Dean’s without going full-court-press cosplay, but whatevs. In any event, assuming my premise is taken - that the worlds played out the same for the most part and the ‘20s were a fave and would explain the wardrobe - this can apply to both Mike and Michael.

For those of you fortunate enough to have missed slogging through Sunday school, allow me: S&G was apparently a hotbed of sin, and they were gonna get the fire-and-brimstone treatment. Abraham asked angels who visited him if they’d spare the righteous, because there was at least one group there who was: his nephew Lot’s family. Two more angels were sent to investigate, Lot was awesome to them, welcomed them in without knowing they were angels, etc. So when time came to fire things up, the angels fessed up about who they were and why they were there, and told them (Lot and his crew) that they needed to just leave and not look back. And whoopsie, Lot’s wife found out that wasn’t metaphorical, as when she turned to get one last look at her home going up in flames, wha-BAM! She got turned into a pillar of salt.

So here might be the first subconscious “Hmmm” from your mind - that doesn’t really sync up with what we know of Mike. I don’t think he gives a shit about how much he sins to get what he wants. I bet he can’t even spell benevolence. Read this in Michael’s voice, though, and I hear that whole justifying thing again, the “don’t really want to, but got to” mindset.

See above, RE: “...but I labored more abundantly than them all”. Plus, speaks to arrogance, applicable to both Michael and Mike.

---> “The” earth, eh? ;) 

---> Theology-wise, Michael’s only named a couple times, if memory serves... actually most of them are name dropped just a handful of times... did they namedrop Gabe as the one who told Mary she was preggers? I’m not looking it up.

Anyway, theologians have assigned certain “messages” delivered and punishments as being enacted by specific angels, I won’t go down that road here, I’ve no clue how they managed to arrive at those conclusions. Point is that Michael was a guardian, of heaven and of certain places/people on earth, depending on where God assigned. I wanna say Daniel and the lion’s den was one of them. Not looking that up, either.

---> "Temporarily”, hmmm.... that other world looked plenty definitively apoca-sized to me. In any event, floods is a ref to the Noah story, and if memory serves, Michael is thought by some to have been the “angel of death” that struck down the firstborn sons during the plagues of Egypt.

Also also - I’d speculate he’s taken on some self-imposed blame for Lucifer sneaking into the garden and tempting Adam & Eve, as he is so convicted in SPN land about righting the wrongs Lucifer brought upon the world, and that’s the event that kicked shit off. 

---> O.T. (old testament) God took no shit, got smitey on a dime. New Testament God (a.k.a. - post-Jesus time) flipped a switch to a more fatherly figure. 

---> The absence thing is SPN canon.

---> The differing legends is me thumbing my nose at their neglect of both their own canon and theology. #dammit Dabb

---> So, again, choose your poison - Luci getting into the garden, then Michael having to wage battle in heaven to boot him (and, let’s be real, he likely had followers that got nailed, too), etc. etc. etc.

---> The plans refer to the stuff up there from the wiki - that was an intricate damn plan. Deceptive, sure, but again that whole “bigger picture” mentality. 

---> RE: beloved - yeah, that’s not sounding like the Mike we’ve been presented with.

Now that’s a pretty detailed thing to know about a random coffee joint in a random town in a random state in a strange world, wouldn’t you say? ;)

---> Trinities, trifectas, triples - threes are trendy numbers in stories and legends and oral tradition, so it comes up here multiple times, as well. And he’s talking about Jesus, of course, and the green Nashy line is me thinking “Wonder what he thought about Amara?” 

(’Cause I’m of the thought that Amara + Chuck = God, yin-yang and all, but from the very black-and-white Michael’s perspective, I could see him playing nice but not buying into it, and I mean, he was part of the crew that banished her on Chuck’s orders, so there you go. He may not have even been privy to the scoop that they were the corporeal forms of light/dark, maybe just of the understanding that she was his meddling aunt, and of course he was gonna do whatever his dad told him to do. Anyhow, I think that adds additional texture to why it frustrates him so much that Luci couldn’t fall in line, why Luci always had to ask questions. ---> and that’s just me, there’s no way y’all could’ve inferred it from just that, you’re not psychic, I’m just sharing. I digress. I’m good for some heavy digressin’.)

There is a specific things-come-in-threes story that’s my baseline, but I’ll tell you further down after #3 hits.

On we go...

The chick we come to know as Grace does not catch his eye because she is pretty or sweet or in need of assistance or pouty or flirty or super-smart, or even beautiful or too shy and bookish, but if she’d just take off those damn glasses and let her hair out of that ponytail she might be, whatever trope you wanna throw on her - she’s a sinner, another hopeless sinner in a long line of humans who were/are fucking this joint up.

---> There’s several feet-washing stories in the Bible. I hate feet. That’s not in the Bible, and has no bearing here. Add it to your Nash factoids. Moving on. 

The one I had in mind is below, and Imma c/p the pertinent parts because lazy. Bolding is mine, natch. In Luke 7....

36 One of the Pharisees asked Jesus to eat with him, so Jesus went into the Pharisee’s house and sat at the table. 37 A sinful woman in the town learned that Jesus was eating at the Pharisee’s house. So she brought an alabaster jar of perfume 38 and stood behind Jesus at his feet, crying. She began to wash his feet with her tears, and she dried them with her hair, kissing them many times and rubbing them with the perfume. 39 When the Pharisee who asked Jesus to come to his house saw this, he thought to himself, “If Jesus were a prophet, he would know that the woman touching him is a sinner!”

40 Jesus said to the Pharisee, “Simon, I have something to say to you.”

Simon said, “Teacher, tell me.”

[parable]

44 Then Jesus turned toward the woman and said to Simon, “Do you see this woman? When I came into your house, you gave me no water for my feet, but she washed my feet with her tears and dried them with her hair. 45 You gave me no kiss of greeting, but she has been kissing my feet since I came in. 46 You did not put oil on my head, but she poured perfume on my feet. 47 I tell you that her many sins are forgiven, so she showed great love. But the person who is forgiven only a little will love only a little.”

48 Then Jesus said to her, “Your sins are forgiven.” [...] “Because you believed, you are saved from your sins. Go in peace.”

The other 4 gospels - Matthew, Mark & John - tell a similar story. (But in John’s the woman isn’t a random - it’s one of the sisters of Lazarus, the guy Jesus raised from the dead. #cool trivia digression)

 --> “Hot as hell” and “thank God” is just Nash Be Nashin’.

--> Start of the main trinity (1A)

--> Again, he’s not digging on her because she’s so awesomesauce in some typical way; she’s a dichotomy to him, sin with sweet. He’s a black-and-white kind of guy (and pretty much every angel we’ve met). It’s interesting to him, that seeming heel-turn. We’ll call back to those verses above here in a bit, with respect to how he feels about her as he spends more time with her.

Quickie trinity.

Nash Be Nashin’.

Recurring theme, forgiveness; also - that sound like Mike to you? At least, at this point? Eh. Maybe. If he’s trying to manipulate. But on the other hand - if this were Mike - has she got something he wants/needs? Manipulate Dean, sure; manipulate rando server chick? Possible. But nah. 

---> Would Mike ask that? Why would he care? But Michael might, trying to get a bead on this human. ‘Cause remember, this is an angel who has had sparing contact with humans since he’s been in charge, he’s been dispatching angels for the heavy lifting, he’s not been boots on the ground takin’ care of business for quite awhile. His only in-depth contact has been the Winchesters, and that was only when he had to step in.

---> Also, close siblings recurring theme (close because able to joke around as well as later, when she mentions he’d vent to her about his time in war but not to the same degree as he did the rest of their family)

---> the main trinity of this story, part deux (and don’t get ahead of me; fine, I’ll do it for you: no, Michael having the nickname I mention later isn’t Biblical)

---> Lucifer was called The Morning Star (see also dictionary, re: “luciferous”)

---> Now that would be a really pretty damn specific thing for Mike to know. 

---> The keep an eye out - again, reinforcing the theme that Michael whiffed not seeing the Lucifer thing coming; also lawbreakers looking out for the authorities, a contrast with an authority - God/Michael/et al - looking out for wrongdoers. 

---> Park with a sandbox, Nash Be Nashin’

---> Bit tricksy; could go to Mike coming from his world to here, could be Michael feeling like this is a world he doesn’t know anymore after all his time in the cage; regardless, sets a tone of “She gets me”

Whether you cotton to my assertion that Michael may feel guilt for not seeing the Lucifer stuff coming and preventing his initial ingress (Eden), it’s theology 101 that Lucifer brought all things evil and sin and demon and hell and blah blah blah to humankind. And Michael beat him in heaven, but it’s been less offense and more defense ever since; reacting to Luci vs. bringing the game to him. Which is what Michael was finally doing, when the Winchesters didn’t agree to be vessels and let it play out like he’d planned.

So, Saint Michael on the theology end, ruling heaven in Chuck’s absence on the SPN canon end, and Michael’s arrogant, to be sure. He assumed his plan would go off without a hitch, and maybe if it’d been the Hardy Boys instead of the Winchesters, it would’ve [shrugs]

---> Nash Be Nashin’ - trying to poke your subconscious to think about that shot of them falling into the hole, to the cage

---> Could we describe Mike as “broken”? I couldn’t. More to the point, does he behave as if he might consider himself “broken”? Hmmm.

---> I guess that last bit could go either way; for me, I’m thinking of how Lucifer must’ve behaved in the cage, which we got a taste of via Sam’s hallucinations, and perhaps it being too quiet once he was gone. Sometimes being left alone with your thoughts is a bad time.

Again, canon - Lucifer never met a quiet moment he didn’t wanna fill.

So this is just me doing a second sin in the sin trilogy for Michael, as well as adding another piece of common ground between him and Grace with the nickname thing. The only Biblical truth there is the whole “Mark of the Beast” thing. Next time you get drunk or lit on whatever, read you some Revelations, it’ll either knock you out the rest of the way or give you fantastic nightmares.

What I just said, RE: second part of the Michael Lies Super Easy When It Comes To This Chick trilogy. I mean, not really - it’s coming from a good place, he doesn’t want to scare her, and if he told her the truth, where would he even start? Especially with her not being religious. He’s so far behind the eight ball, he’s under the pool table.

---> So here’s the trinity tale that’s the base for why I put this in the story. It’s in all four gospels (Matthew/Mark/Luke/John), and it’s about how at the Last Supper (which happens right before the crucifixion of Jesus goes down), they’re talking about how one of them would betray Jesus (re: Judas), and an apostle named Peter speaks up.

(Oh! Speaking of, there’s another triple play for ya - Jesus ends up on a cross between two criminals. Okay, back to the passages)

Matthew:

Peter replied, “Even if all fall away on account of you, I never will.”

“Truly I tell you,” Jesus answered, “this very night, before the rooster crows, you will disown me three times.”

But Peter declared, “Even if I have to die with you, I will never disown you.”

Mark:

Peter declared, “Even if all fall away, I will not.”

“Truly I tell you,” Jesus answered, “today—yes, tonight—before the rooster crows twice you yourself will disown me three times.”

But Peter insisted emphatically, “Even if I have to die with you, I will never disown you.”

Luke:

But he replied, “Lord, I am ready to go with you to prison and to death.”

Jesus answered, “I tell you, Peter, before the rooster crows today, you will deny three times that you know me.”

John:

Peter asked him, “Lord, where are you going?”

Jesus replied, “Where I am going, you cannot follow now, but you will follow later.”

Peter asked, “Lord, why can’t I follow you now? I will lay down my life for you.”

Then Jesus answered, “Will you really lay down your life for me? Very truly I tell you, before the rooster crows, you will disown me three times.”

---> Grace be shinin’, Nash Be Nashin’

---> What made him kiss her / risk the “sin”? She walked with him. (”Lord I am ready to go with you...”). She listened. She comforted him. She forgave him when he asked for it (re: for scaring her). She believed he wasn’t a horrible “person”. Prompted him to consider there might be a place/time where he wasn’t (see below, RE: “perhaps”). 

A la.... 

But the person who is forgiven only a little will love only a little.” Then Jesus said to her, “Your sins are forgiven.” [...] “Because you believed, you are saved from your sins. Go in peace.”

---> You may’ve noticed I didn’t call him Michael until Dean was gone during the kiss - that was on purpose. Because that was him making that decision, no (potential) Dean influence on board. And I didn’t have him call Dean by his name, being very distant throughout, until they talked about brothers, their common ground. He’s finding common ground with humans - a new kind of hallowed ground - versus being solely their guardian or their punisher, depending. This is (likely, hopefully) a good thing.

---> RE: sin - see below

---> This is your call to make - was it actually apple-flavored lip balm? Or was it strawberry/random fruity-flavored lip balm like Dean thought, and it just tasted like apples to Michael?

In any event, RE: “tasted like sin” - apples have been commonly used in art/stories as representing the fruit Eve ate from the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil back in the garden, a.k.a. - the original sin

HOME STRETCH!

[Full disclosure: based on early feedback, from here on out - if you were an early reader - you may notice there’s been a few tweaked lines since original publish, so I may be about to clarify things that are now - with the tweaks - obvious to you. I’m just sayin’.]

By this point, I’d hope you’d been kinda thinking, “I appreciate Nash’s effort to make Mike be not a complete asshole, but holy moly I have been suspending my disbelief like a mo-fo as this went on, why does he give a shit about this chick or about chatting with Dean all friendly, etc.”

---> That “Why didn’t we....” part should scream “THIS ISN’T MIKE”. I hope.

---> It’s been about 10 yrs. since Stull / when Michael took the dive

---> “Is there...” / “Perhaps” -- and maybe it’s this one. Maybe it’s the world he’s always known, but not been part of; remains to be seen. He’s a different dude. This ain’t the same angel that went into that cage. Like Chuck said - he’s a mess. Or maybe, now, could we say... was a mess? Hmmm. Different, though. Definitely different. Not terribly un-canon, not a huge jump to make, in my mind. 

And, you know, The Cage was Luci’s big punishment, right? And he’s fine. Anytime we saw him, in the caboose version or just-been-sprung, he’s been same-ol’, same-ol’. So maybe it’s simply an isolation room, and it’s only been BAD-bad for Sam and Adam and Michael, because Luci was there messing with them, because he’s bored off his ass. That’s why I posit The Cage may not be anything beyond blank space, as it were, if Luci’s not present. 

What Mike would “likely” bring? Nah. Mike’s on the express train to domination. He’s not messing around.

Nash Be Nashin’. I am, on occasion, poetic. “His” is a callback to “my Michael”, and the “g” in “grace” is lower case on purpose. [clears throat, c/ps from up yonder....]

Grace don’t come in just one form, yo. There’s lots floating out there. Just gotta pay attention. Know what to watch for.

And here’s the hammer:

Hmmmm....

---> Dean knows Mike’s been thinking of it; to quote Black Widow, that’s not a question that needs answering.

---> “Still”? “Do-over?” - Mike’s had his apocalypse. Do-over of what? That implies Mike’s tried to pull off Apocaworld, Part Deux here, and... he hasn’t tried at this point. He’d said they were already looking into what all other worlds they could get to before Jack’s birth caused our rift and they saw an opportunity for a better way, but Mike’s not taken a run at our world; Michael has. (Bit of a misleading, open-to-interpretation / could apply to Mike line, though, I grant you.)

---> “over there” - already mentioned “head to the cage”, ergo “there” is “cage”

---> “act” / “figure it out” - thaaaat’s nooot Miiiike, your subconscious sings!

---> Say I’m Mike. 

I’m a tactical mofo. I know how to spot an enemy, it’s why I was gonna take out Jack emotionally if I couldn’t cripple him or kill him. I hit this new world. I’m inside a very handsome I MEAN powerful bod. I am locked and loaded. What’s first on the agenda now that I’ve got the ammo?

I take out potential threats. Dean’s an obstacle, true, but he’ll be tucked away going night-night for at least a bit, and I can likely wash-rinse-repeat as needed. Obstacle, though - he’s not an inherent threat to me. Lucifer’s out of the way. Raphael’s out of the way. Gabriel’s out of the way.

Oh. Oh noooes, FML: I’m not out of the way. 

And holy shit - the holiest of all the shits - I could take myself out. Isn’t he in the Fort Knox of binding-thingy-traps-whatever?

But wait. Waaaaait, wait - that cage must be made of aluminum foil, I can see Dean’s memories. Some tacky decoder rings opened it up, his brother Sam got pulled from it, then the angel of death got Sam’s soul out of it, rando witch called up the caboose of it like it was Uber, Lucifer popped Dean and his crew in-and-out of it, and didn’t that demon Crowley use parts of it for some ill-explained ingredient to hold Lucifer hostage like it was melty MacGuffin cheese? Is there not a doorman or something?! Can they get pizza delivered down there, too, I mean TF?

Ooooh, now this is interesting. Chuckie told Dean Michael’s beyond his repair. Lucifer said Michael’s a mess... well. Consider that source. But still. Risk not too high, reward could be very high.

Yeah. I’m totes arrogant enough. This is gonna be a cake-walk.

---> Except... time moves differently in the cage, we know that. So Lucifer’s been gone for... hell, who knows how long. What state Michael might be in now is a mystery. He’s had time to regroup, at the very least, without his chief antagonist lording over him. So is it implausible that Michael could be the key to nailing Mike’s ass to the wall? Might it even be probable? 

The board of directors at NashHole, Inc. voted “Yeeeeessss”.

Again, bro-love, evergreen recurring theme. So, here it is:

If I’m Michael, my perspective would be that Mike can handle his world how he pleases, and he did. But now he’s on my turf. I’m taking great umbrage with this power-hungry twin of mine coming over here and having the audacity to make decisions, take over my destiny, etc.

And then another part of it - Michael’s not only had a lot of time in the cage to get his mojo back, he’s also had time to process the whole situation, what led him to this place, the part he played. I’d imagine a part of him is still gripping onto his convictions, while on the other hand starting to realize that there are parts of this world - and people in this world - that already make it a paradise despite all that Lucifer/demons/the supernaturals have done. 

Maybe an apocalypse isn’t the answer. Maybe Lucifer doesn’t have to die. Bottom line, that ain’t Mike’s call to make; it’s Michael’s.

Last thing!

Handful of you asked about how Mike would’ve opened the cage, how a fight would’ve gone down if Michael’s still in Adam, what about Adam, and my answer is - does it matter? I know, I know, that sounds snotty; it matters in the sense that you asked, so it matters to you. Where I’m coming from is that this isn’t what the story is about, not for me. But hey - you fill in those blanks however your heart desires, truly. Or pretend that twist at the end never happened, and think of this as Mike the whole way through. :) 

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That cage is made of chewed gum and pipe cleaners, a hamster could get in there, I’m done, I’m DONE, okay bye.

@ellen-reincarnated1967  @waywardjoy  @copperseraphim @bumbleball13  @inlovewith2dcharacters  @impandagrl  @theoriginalvicki  @mrswhozeewhatsis  @littlegreenplasticsoldier  @butiaintgonnaloveem  @salt-n-burn-em-all  @sixtysevenandwhiskey  @anticipate1003  @juppschmitz  @smi727  @casismybae  @jalove-wecallhimdean  @salvachester  

#Nash Responds #Nash Elaborates #and all over your faces #it's long #but interesting I hope #on god I didn't mean to make this complex #I wrote it over a few days #like maybe three hours #quick for me is my point #the graphic was more time consuming #so I assure you #'twas not intended #as a deep dive #oof #I'm so apologizing #Queueby Dooby Doo #Dad's on a blog post and #he hasn't been queued in a few days