Gabriel was naturally a curious individual, and always one of the first to charge blindly into the unknown whenever something new or exciting presented itself to him. Which was why he was currently swimming around a sunken ship in shark infested waters with no one but his best friend Dean to keep him company.

The aforementioned fish was trying - and failing - to get Gabriel to head back to Atlantica, but the merman wasn't paying attention. He was focused on a strange silver object he had found on the floor. It was long and glinted in the low light when he tilted it.

"I wonder what this is," he mused aloud.

"Who cares?" Dean hissed. "This place is giving me the creeps. Let's just get out of here."

"Dean, don't be such a guppy," Gabriel teased, shoving the silver thing into his bag.

"I'm not a guppy," Dean muttered sullenly behind him, and Gabriel chuckled. One wave of his long golden tail sent him to the other side of the room, where he picked up another oddity. This one was made from the same material as the ship, although it had a hoe in one end and was pointed at the other.

"Shark!" Dean shouted suddenly, voice full of panic, and Gabriel turned around just in time to see the beast smash through the window, very nearly catching Dean in its jaws. Eyes wide, Gabriel grabbed Dean's fin and pulled him to a weird square hole in the ceiling, and they slipped through it just as the shark's bulk crashed into where they had just been.

They swam furiously to where they had entered the ship, a small round window that had no clear-coral in it. Gabriel pushed Dean's chubby body through the hole, then swam out after him. The shark simply tore through the side of the ship, jaw open wide.

It chose to follow Dean instead of Gabriel, chasing the frantic fish all across the water surrounding the ship. Gabriel, who had been swimming to the surface, looked back when he heard a small yelp.

His eyes widened in horror when he saw Dean free-floating, a dreamy look on his face, next to the long thing sticking out of the top of the ship. The shark noticed, too, and set a course straight for the defenseless fish. Clutching his bag tighter, Gabriel propelled himself through the water and just barely managed to grab Dean before the shark got there.

It growled angrily and gave chase, but merpeople were much faster then sharks and Gabriel easily outpaced it. He looked back over his shoulder, pleased to see the monster turning away in search of easier prey. Panting, he glanced down at his friend.

"What happened?" Dean asked groggily. Gabriel rolled his eyes fondly.

"Nothing happened," Gabriel said. "We're just going to see Crowley."

Dean pulled a face, but quickly stopped when Gabriel glared at him. The little fish blamed Crowley the seagull for Gabriel's obsession - "It's not an obsession, Dean, it's a perfectly normal amount of interest!" - with the human world. Not that he'd ever say it to Crowley's face, because no doubt the gull would eat him.

"Fine," Dean grumbled. "Let's get this over with."

Gabriel led the way to Crowley's secluded rock, a rock that never moved despite the fact that it wasn't tethered to anything and was floating in the middle of the ocean. When asked about it, Crowley would simply say, "My mother", as if that answered anything. It took them a while to get there, almost an hour. Gabriel approached the surface carefully, remembering the stories he'd heard when he was little of merpeople who went to the surface and were never seen or heard from again.

With Dean fidgeting anxiously beside him, Gabriel let the tip of his head break the water. When nothing immediately attacked him, he let his whole head emerge and swam over to where the ornery old seagull was waiting for them, perched in the middle of his nest of kelp and feathers.

"Well, well," he said when they approached. "Long time, no see. What's going on, merboy?"

Gabriel scowled at the nickname. "I'm not a merboy. I'm sixteen."

Dean and Crowley shared Looks.

"Right," the seagull said, only slightly sarcastic. "Well, is this a social visit or did you bring me anything new?"

Gabriel immediately brightened and lifted his bag, setting it down on the rock.

"You should have seen the ship," he said dreamily as Crowley shifted through the items in the bag. "It was huge! There was stuff everywhere!"

"Everywhere, you say?" Crowley held up the silver thing. "Then why did you only collect this and the snarfblat?"

"Snarfblat?" Gabriel asked, but Dean interrupted.

"We would have gotten more, but there was a shark!" he said indignantly. Gabriel slapped a hand over his mouth and leaned forward, bringing his entire upper body onto the rock.

"What's a snarfblat?" he asked eagerly.

Crowley pulled out the made-out-of-ship-thing-with-the-hole. "This," he said dramatically, "is a snarfblat. It dates back to prehistorical times when humans used to just sit around like the idiotic lumps they are and stare at each other all day. As one can imagine, it got very boring. So the snarfblat was invented, to create fine music. Allow me to demonstrate."

Gabriel's eyes widened and he paid no attention when Crowley sucked on the snarfblat instead of blowing, and started choking on water and kelp.

"Music!" Gabriel groaned. "The concert!"

"That was today?" Dean gasped.

"My brother's going to kill me!" Gabriel exclaimed. He grabbed the snarfblat from Crowley and shoved it into his bag. "We've gotta go. Thanks, Crowley!"

"Shut up," the gull gasped, eyes watery and voice raspy. Gabriel chuckled and dove beneath the surface.

"We've gotta hurry," he said. He held out the bag towards Dean. "Get in."

Dean glared at him. "Why?"

"Because I'm faster than you and if I don't have to wait for you then we'll get there faster."

Dean huffed, but swam into the bag. Gabriel made sure it was settled securely at his hip before waving his powerful tail and letting it propel him towards home.

… oO()Oo …

"I just don't know what I'm going to do with you," Michael said, sounding very disappointed. Gabriel ducked his head, ashamed. Michael resumed his pacing. "I give you nearly everything you ask for, I always have, and all I ask in return is that you do the duties required of you as a prince. Is that so difficult? Castiel has been working on this concert for a very long time-"

"More than a long time!" an angry voice interrupted, and the small red body of Castiel, the court composer and Michael's advisor, appeared on the king's shoulder. "This production was to be the pinnacle of my career, Gabriel, and now, thanks to you, I am the laughing stock of the entire kingdom!"

Dean peeked his head out from behind Gabriel and glared at the crab. "It's not his fault!" Castiel turned his gaze onto the fish and, as usual, he immediately became flustered. "I- that is- there was a shark! Yeah, a shark! And it chased us all around the ship, and then the seagull was being a know-it-all again-"

"Ship?" Dean's eyes got wide and he withered under the glare Gabriel sent him. "Seagull? You've been going to the surface again! Haven't you?"

"Nothing happened," Gabriel protested, but Michael didn't listen.

"How many times have I told you that humans are dangerous?" he demanded. "And yet you still go! Do you think I want to see my youngest brother speared on some fish eater's hook?"

Gabriel frowned a little in confusion - Youngest brother? Wasn't he Michael's only brother? - but anger quickly chased it away.

"I'm sixteen!" he snapped. "I'm not a child anymore!"

"Don't you take that tone of voice with me," Michael threatened.

"But if you would just listen-"

"Silence! I am your king, and as long as you live under my ocean you'll obey my rules! I am never, ever to hear of you going to the surface again, is that clear?"

Gabriel narrowed his eyes and his face scrunched up in anger, but he didn't say anything. He let out a frustrated yell and spun around, dashing out of the throne room with Dean hot on his fins.

"That could have gone better," the fish said sarcastically. He stopped when he saw the look on Gabriel's face. "What's wrong?"

Gabriel flipped onto his back so that he could face Dean while he swam.

"He treats me like a child!" he said angrily. "I can take care of myself, I've proved that time and time again, yet he still doesn't trust me."

"To be fair, he is right about humans," Dean said.

"But I've never even seen a human!" Gabriel exclaimed. "How long have we been doing this? And how many times has one of those land-walkers caught us?"

He huffed angrily and crossed his arms. For a while, no one said anything.

"You still have your bag, right?" Dean asked tentatively when the silence became a little awkward. Gabriel nodded. "Let's go put the stuff into the grotto, then."

Gabriel brightened at once and he changed direction, heading to the palace garden. Dean followed, a relieved sigh leaving his lips. They greeted every merperson they passed, Gabriel's hold on his bag tightening every time they did.

When they made it to the garden, they slowed, as if they were simply enjoying a leisurely swim through the relaxing atmosphere. The garden was full to bursting of various sea plant life. Large fronds of kelp, miniature coral reefs, anemones, starfish… all of them waved cheerily in the slight current as they passed.

They waited until they were sure no one was looking before slipping through the kelp forest and over to a small boulder. With a grunt of exertion, Gabriel pushed the rock aside and let Dean go in first before slipping in after him. He left the entrance open a crack - it wouldn't do to get trapped, and the other opening, the one at the top of the cave, was too small for him to fit through.

Gabriel sighed happily as he sank to the sandy floor. He pulled out the snarfblat and the silver thing and held them up, one eye closed as he considered them.

"Where should I put them?" he asked. Dean shrugged.

"Who cares?" he replied. "It's not like you have much of a system going on here."

Gabriel glanced around at the mess of human stuff lying haphazardly around the grotto, some of it on the floor and most of it on the natural shelves built into the rock, and realized that Dean was right. He hummed thoughtfully and eventually decided to set them next to his collection of fish hooks.

Dean made a face at them.

"Why do you have those?" he asked disgustedly. It was a question he asked every time he saw them.

"Why do I have any of this stuff?" he asked, arms wide as he indicated the hundreds of items littering the small area.

"That is what I would like to know." Gabriel spun around at the new voice, and his eyes widened when he saw Castiel scuttling towards them. "What is all of this, Gabriel?"

Gabriel chuckled nervously. "It's just a few things I've collected over the years," he said.

"This is not 'just a few things'," Castiel said. "This is dangerous. Humans are dangerous. If your brother knew about this-"

"You aren't going to tell him, are you?" Dean asked, for once not stuttering in the face of the stoic crab.

"Please don't, Cas," Gabriel pleaded. "I'd be in so much trouble! He'd never let me out of the palace again!"

Castiel narrowed his eyes at the nickname. "Gabriel, you are obviously unable to withstand the pressure underneath all of this rock. Come with me back to the palace, and I'll…"

He trailed off when he noticed Gabriel was no longer paying attention. The merman had his eyes trained on the small hole in the roof of the cavern - more specifically, on the huge shadow passing overhead.

Ignoring Cas' calls, he swam out of the grotto. He sighed impatiently as he waited for Dean and Cas to exit, then he pushed the boulder back into place and looked towards the surface. The shadow was almost gone by then, and Gabriel swam fast to catch up.

He breached the surface and gasped in surprise and delight. It was a ship. A very large ship. Even with how far away from it Gabriel was, he could see the humans milling about on top. Strange, colorful lights were bursting into existence just above the ship, looking almost like an anemone, before they fizzled out.

Beside him, Gabriel could hear Dean and Cas surface.

"Gabriel, what are you-" Cas started. Gabriel looked at his thunderstruck expression and grinned.

"I'm going to get a closer look," he said. He ignored Dean calling his name and dove back under the water, getting right next to the large vessel. SIlently, he pulled himself completely out of the water and sat on some hanging… thing.

He smiled in wonder as he watched the humans mill about. They were all loud, laughing and talking and singing. His smile dropped when he noticed a strange hairy creature coming towards him. He froze completely, hoping that the hair covering its eyes would let it walk past him, but its large nose sniffed him out.

It grinned at him, tongue lolling, and licked his cheek. Someone whistled and the creature ran towards the sound, leaving a shocked Gabriel behind. He regarded the creature curiously. Michael had always told him that humans were cruel, bloodthirsty murderers, but how could that be true if they lived with such friendly beasts?

"What's up, merboy?"

Gabriel turned, not surprised to find Crowley sitting on the railing next to him. He ignored the nickname in favor of turning back to the humans.

"I've never seen a human this close before," he whispered. One in particular caught his eye. He was tall and had long brown hair. His eyes were full of laughter as he blew into a snarfblat, dancing with the creature who had licked Gabriel before. "I've never seen the appeal of creatures without tails, but that one is very easy on the eyes."

Crowley smirked at him. "Got ourselves a little crush, have we?"

One of the humans walked out into the middle of the ship. He was shorter than the handsome one, and older, too. His face was partially obscured by a short, grey beard.

"Alright, everybody shut the hell up!" he shouted, and everyone quieted. He nodded, satisfied. "Now, it's this idjit's birthday and I got him a present."

The one who the human had called 'idjit', the one with the snarfblat, smiled.

"Aw, Bobby, you shouldn't have," he said. Bobby ignored him and reached towards something that another human had hauled out. He pulled off the white sheet covering it, revealing a large stone statue. It looked like Idjit, though bigger by about two feet. The hairy creature growled at it.

Idjit's face twisted.

"Ah, well, it certainly is… interesting," he said politely.

"It's the worst thing I have laid eyes on in my life," Bobby said. "But if you just get married already, I'll personally hand you a hammer and let you destroy it."

Idjit laughed. "Oh, come on, you aren't still mad that I didn't fall for the prince of Glauerhaven, are you?"

"It isn't just me, Sam," Bobby said. "You're eighteen today, and your coronation is in six months. If you don't have a queen or king before then, the kingdom will continue to be run by the Council until you find one."

"I don't want to marry just anybody," Sam said, sitting down on the edge of the boat right above where Gabriel and Crowley sat, listening. "I haven't found the right person yet. I want to marry for love."

"You haven't been looking hard enough," Bobby said drily.

"Believe me, Bobby, when I find them, I'll know," Sam replied. "It'll just hit me, like lightning."

At that moment, lightning struck the water about a mile from the ship, closely followed by thunder.

"Hold fast!" one of the humans shouted. "Storms a-comin'! Secure the riggin'!"

Finally, I'm getting this up! It's taking me a lot less time than my Supernatural Tangled AU did, but I always did love The Little Mermaid more than that sad excuse of a Rapunzel movie.

Anyway, I hope you guys liked it! As always, comments are greatly appreciated. The next chapter should be coming soon, so keep your eyes peeled.