So, I was re-watching 5.13 the other day and the part where Michael was talking to Dean about Lucifer ("I practically raised him, I took care of him") kind of gave me this idea. Then I was chatting with the awesome Susangel and that small idea spawned into this monstrosity. Probably doesn't fit to well with what I've got going in this story so far…but it had to be done.

Also! Scoobert0 is effing amazing, you guys wanted a visual of Cas and the duckling, and she went ahead and made a visual! Go check it out here:

scoobert0. deviantart . com / art / Cas-and-the-Duckling-200912356 (get rid of the spaces and you're good) It's awesome, I can't stop staring at it.

Another quick note, part of this fic was inspired by crOwnlEssG and her fic Notes Tied to Balloons, go check it out. Seriously. Read it.


"For the record, I hate witches."

"She didn't even do anything to you Dean."

"Doesn't matter, she was turning people into toads, who the hell does that?"

"It was an accident, she didn't know the spell would have the kind of effect on people."

"She's still not entirely innocent either." Sam sighed and looked over to Cas who had been watching the brothers bicker like it had been a tennis match.

"All we have to do is destroy the book, give her a good talking to and she'll stop and the people who have been turned into toads will turn back to themselves?" Sam asked Cas, clearly done with Dean's arguing and ready to move on.

"Yes."

"Good, let's go then." Dean hopped out of the Impala and headed for the front door of their annoying teenage witch. He really hated witches; even if they meant good, they always ended up doing something bad in the process. What the hell kind of person turned people into toads?

Dean soon learned that obnoxious sixteen-year-old cheerleaders who had wanted to get back at her boyfriend for cheating was the kind of person that turned people into toads. Admittedly Sam had been right, it was mostly an accident. She'd mispronounced a few words and turned someone else into a toad, so she'd tried again when she realized her boyfriend was still human, ending up turning a different person into a toad.

The brothers gave her a good talking to, shot her some thinly veiled threats and took her book and the few authentic witchy ingredients she had managed to collect. On their way out of her bedroom Cas, who had been silent the entire time, paused by her dresser and picked up a container of what Dean had thought to be body glitter and added it to the pile in Sam's arms.

Obnoxious teenager promptly snatched it back, "No! You can't take that!"

Cas glared, "You don't know what will happen to someone if they come into contact with it."

"No way, I spent a month's allowance on this stuff, you can't take it." She glared at Cas who glared back, reached forward and snatched it from her death grip like there was nothing to it. Obnoxious teenager screeched something at Cas, made a grab for the glittery substance and somewhere along the line the top fell off and silvery-purple glitter shot out and right into Cas' face.

"Now look what you did! It's all wasted!" Obnoxious teenager sounded on the verge of tears and a temper tantrum, Cas, once again, glared at her but the affect was lessened due to the fact he had the glittery substance clinging to his eyelashes and hair.

"I hate you!" Instead of dignifying her with a response Cas knocked her out with a touch to the forehead.

"What the hell is that stuff Cas?" Sam looked how Dean felt, like he was trying to hold in his laughter because Cas looked absolutely ridiculous.

"It's...it..." Cas trailed off, his eyes fluttered and his nose scrunched up.

"You okay?" Dean stepped forward, prepared to catch Cas if he suddenly passed out due to whatever it was that had hit him in the face.

"I-I don't like this f-feeling."

"What feeling?" Cas shook his head, frowned and let out the most polite sounding sneeze Dean had ever heard. It didn't throw the angel's head forward or cause him to rock back on his heels like most sneezes, it just simply came out as a quiet, "Hehfft!" and caused Cas' eyes to squeeze shut.

"That was probably the most adorable sneeze I've ever heard." Sam snickered from behind Dean. Dean snorted and nodded, then stopped when a larger more violent sneeze came out of the angel, who promptly vanished afterwards.

"What'd he do? Sneeze himself off to India?" Sam shrugged and opened his mouth to respond, but was interrupted by the flutter of wings behind them. Dean turned and stared, what was in front of them was clearly Cas, but then again not Cas.

"What the hell happened to you?" Cas glared up at them, and in Sam's case way up. It was still Cas, Dean could tell, there was the same messy hair and the same wide blue eyes staring up at him, but he was distinctly child-shaped instead of man-shaped.

Dean couldn't help it. He laughed.

Cas glared again, which quickly turned into a pout, which was soon followed by tears. It only made Dean laugh harder, Castiel angel of the Lord was pouting and crying because Dean was laughing at him. Before Sam or Dean could say anything, the angel had vanished again.

"Dean! This isn't funny!" Sam snapped, looking a little panicked.

"No, it's hilarious Sam. Our angel has turned into a kid because he got glitter to the face!"

"Dean, we don't know how it's affected him, what if he comes across demons? Or other angels?" That thought sobered Dean up.

"We need to call Bobby, and Gabriel." Dean nodded and the two left the house and headed for the Impala, Sam already on the phone with Bobby, describing what happened. Dean tried calling Gabriel at the number he'd given them but naturally the archangel didn't answer, he never really did unless it was Cas calling.

"Bobby said he'll start researching and that whenever we manage to find Cas to get him up there. Anything from Gabriel?"

"Dick isn't answering his phone." Sam grunted and they reached the hotel, both started packing up their things when they got inside.

"How the hell are we supposed to find Cas? He could be in Timbuktu for all we know." Sam paused in his packing and looked over at Dean, "We could summon him? Didn't that work when you and Bobby tried?"

"I don't know."

"What do you mean you 'don't know'?"

"Well I don't know if it was Cas responding to the summoning that had him show up or the fact that he needed to talk to me in the first place that had him showing up." Sam sighed tossed his duffel onto the floor and opened his mouth to complain, but that's when Gabriel decided to show up with a kicking and screaming Castiel tossed over his shoulder.

"I'm too old for this shit FYI," Gabriel said over Cas' screaming, "I've already been through this with him before, I don't want to be doing it again!"

"Wait, what?" Gabriel sighed and shouted, "Castiel! Quit it!"

"Put me down!" Cas whined, little fists pounding on Gabriel's back. The oversized trench coat and suit get up had been replaced with jeans, a t-shirt, and little tennis shoes that actually lit up along the heel whenever they connected with something solid.

"Will you behave?" There was a moments silence and then Cas must have nodded because Gabriel set him down and Sam repeated his question, "What do you mean you've done this before?"

"Well Cas certainly didn't raise himself."

"Wait...you're telling me angels grow up?" Dean asked, looking down at Cas who was glaring up at everyone.

"Something like that yeah."

"And you were his...parent?" Sam looked like he was going to blow something in his brain, he'd always been curious about angels, constantly pestering Cas to tell him things, Cas never did of course and it drove Sam up the wall since it wasn't something he could just find a book on.

"It's more like being a mentor than a parent. But no, it wasn't my job to raise him, that fell on Anael, but little Castiel here was quite the handful so I helped out when I could." Dean stared up at the ceiling; this was all a little too weird for his liking.

"Anael, as in Anna?" Sam looked to Dean with a wide smile on his face, Dean didn't like that look.

"That's the one."

"Dude, you totally had sex with Cas' mom." Sam said in between laughing. Dean made a face and tried to not think about that, at all. Gabriel chuckled and said, "Like I said, I've already done this before and I'm not doing it again. Cas may seem like a sweet, innocent guy when he's all grown up but as a child, he was an epic pain in the ass. I've got him tethered to you two muttonheads so he won't go flying off to Heaven or anything. Also, don't piss him off."

"Why?"

"Remember Pompeii, Sammy?" Sam made a face at Gabriel's calling him 'Sammy' but nodded, even Dean knew about Pompeii.

"Well, that was one of Cas' temper tantrums back in the day." And with that, Gabriel vanished, leaving Cas standing in the middle of the hotel room with his arms crossed; glaring at the two of them like this was all their fault.

"Oh quit with the glaring, it's not like we made you pick up the glitter." Cas huffed, sat down in the middle of the floor and said, "You wouldn't let me keep the duck."

"That's what this is about? Are you serious?" Cas re-crossed his arms and continued glaring up at Dean while Dean glared back at him.

"Alright you two, break it up, we should head to Bobby's."

"Fine, but we're stopping for lunch on our way out of town. Come on grumpy, out to the car." Cas grumbled something under his breath but followed Dean and Sam out to the Impala.

Thirty minutes later found them in a diner on the outside of town, Dean and Cas sitting on one side of the booth while Sam hogged the other side. Their waitress had cooed at Cas for a few minutes and had finally given up on getting a reaction that wasn't a head tilt and blank look and had wandered off telling them to call her over when they were ready.

"Want anything to eat Cas?" Cas paused in kicking his feet against their booth and looked over at Dean, little eyebrow raised, then finally he said, "I want a root beer float."

"Dude, there's no way I'm giving you sugar when you're in that small of a body, you would end up vibrating into the next county."

"I want a root beer float!"

"To bad you're not getting one!" Cas' face scrunched up and turned a lovely shade of red.

"Dean, remember what Gabriel said?"

"No?"

"Dean, you shouldn't piss him off."

"Not my fault he's got a temper on him." Sam rolled his eyes and sighed, "Dean he's a little kid, they don't have the control that we do as adults. Cas has always been impatient and temperamental with us, especially you, now that he can't control himself it's going to be worse."

"Great."

"Just get him a damn root beer float."

"No way! I'm not rewarding this kind of behavior with a root beer float."

Every single piece of glass in the diner exploded.

Fifteen minutes after that they were piled back in the Impala with bags of take out and a root beer float. Thankfully, they weren't too far from Bobby's and would be there by tomorrow morning if Dean didn't stop. Cas was quiet in the backseat for a few hours, happily enjoying his root beer float and then happily flipping through one of Sam's books and practically rewriting the thing.

Then, "I could fly us there."

"No."

"But we could be there by now!"

"Not happening." Cas sighed and hung himself over the front seat in between Sam and Dean, "But this way is so slow."

"Doesn't matter, you're not flying us anywhere."

"I'm bored though." Dean rolled his eyes skyward, Cas was worse than Sam had been.

"Well, we could play a game?" Sam suggested, turning a little in his seat so he could look at Cas properly. Cas frowned over at Sam then wiggled over the seat to sit between the two of them, "What kind of game?"

"Uh, well…" Sam trailed off, shooting Dean a hopeless look. Dean shrugged and kept his attention on the road, the only games he knew that could be played in the car was I-Spy and twenty questions and he had a suspicion that Cas wouldn't appreciate those games like they should be appreciated.

"Oh, here," Sam pulled his phone out from his pocket and brought up one of the games he had loaded on it. Cas leaned over to look at the small screen while Sam showed him how to play.

"Get it?" Cas nodded and eagerly took the phone from Sam; he leaned back until he was leaning against Dean, his attention focused on the game he was playing.

"What game did you show him?"

"Solitaire." Dean snorted and went back to focusing on the road, trying to ignore the weight that was Cas' smaller frame leaning against his arm.

Cas moved back to his spot in the backseat when they stopped for gas, Sam's phone held in front of his face as he sprawled across the seat.

"Weird seeing him like this." Dean muttered to Sam while they waited in line to pay for their stuff. Sam looked out the door towards the car; Cas had a foot hanging out of the open back window.

"He's like himself, just without all the control adults have."

"So you're telling me he really does get bored while he's sitting in the backseat of the car?"

"Probably, he's an angel Dean; he can probably multitask like you wouldn't believe. He flies all over the world in a blink of an eye so yeah, I think he gets bored when he's stuck in the backseat of a car that takes days to make it to the other side of the country."

"We should get him a puzzle book then, for when he gets back to himself." Sam rolled his eyes at Dean and headed outside saying he'd call Bobby and tell him they were a few hours out.

When the battery in Sam's phone died Cas let out an exasperated sigh and tossed it back into the front seat with them and sprawled himself out on the backseat again. He was blissfully silent for several miles before he snickered and asked, "Are we there yet?"

Dean turned to Sam and said, "I'll duct tape his mouth shut if you hold him down."

"You didn't answer my question," came from the backseat.

"No, we're not."

Five minutes later, "Are we there yet?"

"No."

Ten minutes after that, "Are we there now?"

"No."

Thirty seconds later, "Are we there yet?"

"I'm going to shoot him."

"Dean, you can't shoot Cas."

"Are we-"

"Gabriel is putting you up to this isn't he? I know he is, I just don't know how." Cas stared back at Dean in the rearview mirror, all wide-eyed innocence that Dean didn't believe for a second.

"Just…entertain yourself for a little longer, we'll be at Bobby's in a few hours." Cas nodded and was quiet again for several miles, then he sucked his lips into his mouth and pushed them out with a pop.

Both Dean and Sam cringed. Cas leaned forward between their two seats and did it again. Dean's hands tightened on the steering wheel and Sam looked ready to toss Cas out the window. There was the sound of a flutter of wings and Gabriel appeared in the backseat.

"You two are so easy to mess with."

"I knew you had something to do with it!"

"Have to take advantage of little bro here willing to screw with you, he's usually too serious." Gabriel ruffled Cas' hair with a smile while Cas made an annoyed sound and swatted at Gabriel's hands.

"Well I have to admit the stick up his ass is growing on me after seeing him without it." Gabriel shook his head at Dean, produced a Mars bar and handed it over to Cas, who made a pleased sound and tore into it.

"Aw man, don't give him sugar!" Gabriel only grinned at Dean and handed Cas another candy bar.

Thankfully, Gabriel managed to keep Cas entertained for the remainder of their drive, he doesn't know what the two did but they had just stared at each other, occasionally smiling or laughing at the other. They were probably having a silent conversation that Dean and Sam would never be privy to.

When they finally reached Bobby's it was the middle of the night and Dean had never been so eager for sleep as he was in that moment.

Bobby greeted them at the door, took them all in then stared at Cas who stared right back from where he was leaning against Gabriel's leg.

"Who the hell picked out your shoes kid?" Cas frowned and looked down at his shoes, bounced once and took in the flashing red and blue lights in the heel and said, "Gabriel."

Gabriel raised his hands and said, "Flashing shoes are awesome."

"Idjits."

"Did you find out anything Bobby?" Sam asked as they followed the older hunter into the house and into the library.

"Yeah, the powder is supposed to be used in small doses, it'll wear off in a day or two. It's supposed to make whoever puts it on 'youthful'."

"And since Cas got a face full of the stuff…" They all turned to look at Cas who had moved over to the stack of books by Bobby's desk and was currently flipping through one of them, shaking his head and making disapproving noises at it.

"Something wrong with my books boy?" Cas looked up at Bobby, eyes widened before they narrowed and he said, "It's got everything wrong."

"How can everything be wrong?" Bobby moved over to where Cas was standing and took the book from him, flipping through the pages.

"Well, they're going to be at that all night so I'd go get your sleep while you can." Gabriel said, smiling at where Bobby was trying to talk Cas out of writing in the book and instead taking notes. Dean could see that Bobby really would stay up all night talking about this crap.

The sounds of Bobby and Cas arguing over his books followed Dean and Sam up the stairs.


Dean found himself down in the kitchen the next morning watching Cas devour bowl after bowl of Cocoa Pebbles. It was rather horrifying how quickly he was putting the stuff away, but Dean just couldn't look away. Sam was watching with the same horrified fascination while Gabriel sat grinning at his little brother wolfing the chocolaty cereal down.

"I can't look away." Dean muttered, Cas finished his current bowl, let out a hefty burp, grinned at Dean and hopped down off his chair.

"Damn Cas." Sam whispered, that had to have been at least three boxes that had been eaten like they were nothing. Cas simply grinned up at them and disappeared into the living room where Bobby was currently researching a hunt for another hunter. They could hear his gruff tones and Cas' lighter ones floating in through the doorway as they talked.

"Well…that was…interesting."

"That's putting it lightly." Dean nodded at Sam, Gabriel chuckled and vanished while Bobby yelled, "Why don't you two idjits come in here and help us out?"

Cas eventually grew bored during the day and took to wandering around the house, Bobby, not wanting him to destroy anything found some of the toys Dean and Sam had played with when they had been younger and stayed at Bobby's house on occasion. Cas had stared at the box full of Legos and action figures then had given Bobby a very unimpressed look and ignored the toys the rest of the day.

Then Cas found the bubble wrap.

Dean didn't know where he'd gotten it from, but the little angel was instantly enthralled with the stuff and it kept him busy.

Then, unfortunately for all of them, Cas figured out how to pop the little bubbles.

Pop.

Dean and Sam exchanged looks and Dean asked, "Seriously?" Sam shrugged and returned his attention to his laptop.

Pop.

"Cas! Take it outside man!"

Popopopopopopopopop.

Bobby pulled out a bottle of his good whiskey, Sam plugged his headphones in and Dean was left with listening to the occasional pop from the bubble wrap.

Pop.

"I'm gonna kill him." Bobby shrugged at Dean, refilled his glass and Dean cringed as another pop came from behind him. Bobby didn't seem to be too annoyed by it all, was probably used to when Sam and Dean had been kids and causing a ruckus wherever they went, and Bobby and Cas seemed to be getting along just fine lately.

Pop. Pop.

Dean spun around in his chair and glared at Cas who froze with his fingers about to pop another little bubble. Cas glared back at him, little chin tilted and jaw set. Dean would never admit it, but Cas was damn adorable this way, even if he was an epic pain in the ass.

"Don't you dare pop that."

Pop.

"That's it." Dean shot out of his chair headed over to Cas and snatched the bubble wrap from his hands, glaring down at him. Sam was chuckling from behind his laptop screen and Bobby was watching it all with an amused expression.

Cas' lower lip trembled, his eyes widened and filled with tears, "Oh come on. I told you stop!" Cas sniffed, wiped his eyes, clambered up to his feet, ran into the library, and climbed up into Bobby's lap. Dean's eyebrows rose, expecting Bobby to push Cas away or call him an idjit, but no, Bobby, the traitor, went about soothing Cas.

Bobby glared over at Dean and snapped, "You couldn't have asked him nicely?" Dean opened his mouth and only ended up shutting it, yeah, he probably could have not snapped at Cas. But seriously, the sound of bubble wrap got old!

Cas shifted in Bobby's lap until he was looking over at Dean, Dean frowned as Cas actually smirked at him and before he could think to warn Bobby that Cas was up to something Cas had snatched Bobby's hat from his head and had bolted into the kitchen with it.

"Why you little…" Dean snickered at Bobby and said, "Serves you right."

The rest of the day was spent keeping Castiel as entertained as possible, they'd learned if he got bored he got mischievous and when he got mischievous, bad things happened. It was hard to keep him entertained though since he wasn't a normal child, he didn't need to sleep or take a break, regular things that any child would love was unimpressive to an angelic being. He also had his angel mojo intact and he used that to his advantage.

Sam had been in the shower when Cas had used his angel mojo to turn off the hot water, leaving him under a freezing cold stream. While Dean could appreciate that little prank, he didn't appreciate Cas using it to make every bottle of beer impossible to open. Bobby also didn't appreciate that Cas had made it his personal goal to see how many times he could steal Bobby's hat. The older hunter tried to be gruff about it, but he couldn't quite hide his smile every time Cas managed to snag his hat and bolt off with a giggle.

Thankfully Gabriel showed up later in the afternoon, "This is why I always liked little Cas best. He didn't have the stick up his ass yet so he was always willing to let me kidnap him from Anna to go and mess with the other angels."

Gabriel managed to snag Castiel around the waist as he went running by, Bobby's hat clutched in his hands yet again. Cas grinned up at Gabriel and Dean took the moment to snatch Bobby's hat back and growled, "Please do something with him, he's driving us nuts."

"He'll be back to himself tonight."

"I don't care. Please, just do something with him. He's always got to be doing something." Dean was ready to just pass out, he'd been the one left chasing after Cas all day since both Bobby and Sam pulled the 'doing research, very important' line.

"He's just feeling cooped up; wanna go for a fly kiddo?" Cas nodded enthusiastically and the two disappeared without another word. Dean let out a happy sigh and went and collapsed on the couch.

"I'm never ever having kids now." Dean muttered to Sam a few minutes later. Sam snorted and nodded his agreement.

By the time the two angels returned to Bobby's it was nearing eight and they were all getting ready to sit down and enjoy some of Bobby's cooking. Dean was relieved to see Cas standing in his trench coat and suit combination, "Glad to see you grown up again man."

Cas nodded and looked down at himself, "It is good to be back."

Gabriel snorted, sighed and said, "I for one am going to miss having someone to help me mess with the Winchesters." Cas ignored Gabriel and moved into the kitchen, eyes full of his usual curiosity as he looked at what Bobby was cooking.

Dean paused in his journey to the fridge to grab a beer when Cas looked over to him, a faint glimmer of mischief in his eyes. Dean had only ever seen that look once before, standing in a motel parking lot pleading the angel to help with Lilith. His eyebrows shot up and Cas gave him a slight smile before turning and snatching Bobby's hat from his head and vanishing with a laugh.

Bobby was stunned into silence before he ground out, "Damn idjit angels!"

Dean could help it. He laughed.


So the bubble wrap was brought up from the latest part of crOwnlEssG's fic, where Cas was so into his bubbles that I just imagined him playing with bubble wrap, she told me to write it as a little "after" more modern way of playing with bubbles. So I did! Once again, go read her fic. It's awesome.