Author's note: Thanks so much to Larkafree, Maknatuna, Keefer, Maddy Love Castiel, FireChildSlytherin5, CherylB1964, random yet lovable, cyberbubble99, XxZessxX, Pizzapig, Kirabaros, Soulless666, SuperWhoLockGirl423, PercyJfan1802, Chichi-10018 and thornybrose for last chapter's reviews!

Special thanks to Treeni for beta reading!

You guys are all awesome!

8

The arcade Gabriel had chosen had a fairly big restaurant attached at one end. Being the cool adult custodian that the archangel had chosen to see himself as, he had just handed each one of the Winchester boys twenty dollars in quarters and had told them where they could find him. He'd be around if they needed something or wanted to join him for a sundae of their own.

Knowing that Sam and Dean would be busy spending money for awhile, Gabriel ordered the biggest sundae the restaurant had to offer. He wouldn't have needed to crank the charm up to eleven to get the waitress to make sure that all twelve scoops of ice cream would be chocolate flavored, but where was the fun in simply asking for things? Linda had flirted back all too readily, anyway. If the archangel hadn't had to watch the two children, he might have been tempted to take her home. Oh well, at least he was going to get his chocolate fix soon.

Unfortunately, Gabriel didn't even make it to the third scoop of ice cream before a certain dark-haired angel suddenly appeared right in front of the archangel. Luckily, the two Winchesters were happily spending their quarters at the other side of the building and nobody in the vicinity seemed to pay any attention to the newly arrived angel, either.

"I believe I have found the perpetrator," Castiel stated without further ado. The angel took his brother's hint to sit down immediately afterward, however.

"Hello to you too, Castiel," Gabriel replied in an exaggerated polite tone. It wasn't like he had expected his little brother to suddenly grown a sense for normal human behavior. The archangel seriously considered whacking Castiel over the head with a book about behavioral rules, but it wasn't likely to do much good. With his luck, it would make him forget the little behavioral rules the seraph did understand, like wearing clothes for instance. Actually, sending the blue-eyed angel to some pocket universe with 24/7 etiquette classes might be a good way to punish him for ever dragging Gabriel into the entire de-aged Winchester mess.

"It was Tarot who put the spell on Sam and Dean," Castiel explained, ignoring his brother's antics. Being in contact with the archangel as often as he was these days, the angel couldn't help noticing that allowing his older brother to dictate where a conversation was going would inevitably take up much more time than insisting to stay with the topic at hand.

"Tarot? Are you talking about little 'I like to watch time pass, because it's so calming'-Tarot?" Gabriel asked, honestly surprised by what he had just heard. In fact, he was surprised enough to forget all about the melting chocolate treat in front of him. As unthinkable as it usually was to the self-proclaimed trickster, sometimes there were things that were more important than chocolate.

"I have heard two of Zachariah's goons talking of him," Castiel confirmed with a tight nod.

Gabriel might have been gone from heaven for a very long time, but Tarot had still been among the angels who liked to take a neutral position whenever it was possible when Castiel had been cast out. It was highly unlikely that their brother had changed this dramatically, by himself. However, knowing of Zachariah's involvement gave both angels a pretty good idea of what might have happened.

"Alright, can't say I'm surprised that Zach would be involved in something like this," Gabriel shrugged with forced nonchalance, picking his abandoned spoon back up, if only to give his hands and mouth something to do. Thinking of the numerous things Zachariah might have done to one of his more pacifistic brothers, made him feel sick, so the archangel did what he did best and distracted himself with sweets.

"No offense, Cassy, but the whodunit doesn't get us far here. You got any really useful information?" Gabriel asked a few spoonfuls of ice cream later.

"It is possible that the spell will not last forever," Castiel answered, watching as his brother continued to devour his sundae in fascination. Eating was one of the things the angel was mildly curious about. It seemed pointless and like a waste of time to the angel, but there had to be something about it looking at how content Gabriel was. Castiel shook himself out of these contemplations to add the most important piece of information he had been able to acquire. "Apparently, Zachariah has made it very clear that he wants Sam and Dean found before the first of November."

"See? Now that is useful!" Gabriel exclaimed cheerily, plucking one of the cherries from the top of his sundae and popping it into his mouth. "Great, so we just sit back, relax and wait for the little brats to be huge thorns in the side again."

A week with the Winchesters didn't sound too bad to the archangel. They had already made it through two and a half days and he already was too attached to them as things were, so it was too late for damage control anyway. Having a couple more days with them and knowing what the deadline was would give Gabriel the chance to make the most out of the time they had. Plus there may just sort of be the fact, that he wasn't quite ready to give them up yet. The Winchester brothers were too cute as things were and they really deserved having a few more happy days in their lives.

"I am not sure that would be the wisest thing to do," Castiel objected, keeping his tone as respectful as he could. Gabriel clearly wasn't like most of heaven's ringleaders, but that didn't mean that the seraph wanted to anger him; especially since the archangel was still his best bet to keep Dean and Sam safe until they were able to defend themselves again.

"Why not? Look at it as a vacation, Cassy. When else will they ever get the chance to take a week off?" Gabriel retorted, waving a spoonful of whipped cream and chocolate sauce in front of his brother's nose as he spoke. Besides, the archangel really didn't like the thought of losing his two kiddies before he got the chance to show them a good time – more than he had already, anyway – and then to say good bye properly.

"I don't think that Dean would appreciate –" Castiel tried to protest. He never got the chance to even finish his statement, however.

"Right now Dean-o appreciates the hell out of a lot of things you wouldn't believe," Gabriel interrupted his brother in a definite tone. It really wasn't like turning the Winchesters back to their usual selves would make things better for them. In fact, it would mean to throw them back into the shark tank they came from. Yes, in the end it would be necessary, but they didn't have to speed up the process!

"I will try to locate Tarot and get him to reverse the spell," Castiel insisted, crossing his arms in front of his chest. He really didn't understand why Gabriel was as amused as he was that moment, however. Of course, the seraph didn't know just how much he had reminded his brother of the older Winchester just then.

"Do whatever you want. I'm not the boss of you," the archangel shrugged lightly, shoveling the last of the unmelted ice cream into his mouth. Gabriel could clearly see that his brother was not fully buying what he had just said, but he had been quite serious. Whatever Castiel was going to do was none of his business and he wasn't going to get any further involved into all of this for sure.

Alright, so maybe the archangel would have to put his foot down, after all. He hadn't thought that his little brother had meant that he would go and search for the other angel immediately!

"Woah, not so quick there, hotshot! You'll say hi to the kiddies and stick around for dinner first!" Gabriel demanded before Castiel could disappear on him and more importantly on the Winchesters. The archangel hadn't forgotten how Dean had reacted to the seraph's announcement, that he'd try to be back sometime the other day and he really didn't want to deal with a mopey preteen just because Castiel couldn't be bothered to show some manners and stay for a while.

For a moment it looked like the dark-haired angel was thinking about pointing out that Gabriel was not the boss of him, but in the end he only inclined his head. There was no need to unnecessarily upset the archangel who was still doing him a favor. Besides, Castiel trusted that his brother was taking good care of the Winchesters, but seeing for himself that they had everything they needed would be preferable.

The two angels heard the struggle before they got close enough to see the four brawlers. By the looks of it, the typical Winchester luck hadn't shrunk any when the two Winchesters had. That was the best explanation as to why two at least sixteen year old teenagers were trying to subdue the two younger children. To their credit it had to be said that Sam and Dean were making it very hard for the teenagers to restraint them.

The bulkier one of the attackers never got to throw the punch he had aimed at the older Winchester, because the very moment he raised his fist was the moment when Castiel sprung into action. The dark-haired angel didn't hesitate for a second, pushing the teenager away from Dean with enough force to make him fall back on his butt.

"You will not touch him!" Castiel growled in a menacing tone, letting his angelic authority bleed into his voice and fixing the fallen teenager with a hard glare. The angel put his hands on Dean's shoulders and moved the twelve year old slightly behind him to be in a better position to protect him. The older Winchester might have protested against the treatment – the 'I totally had this under control!' was already on his tongue – but Castiel's display of dominance and protectiveness had impressed him so much that he couldn't do anything but stare at the adult.

Gabriel didn't have troubles getting Sam out of the second teenager's hold after that. The younger Winchester and the slightly skinnier teen both were stunned enough by what they had just witnessed that they had stopped their ongoing struggle. The archangel also was pretty sure that he saw more than just a hint of hero worship in Dean's eyes. Unfortunately, he had to file that bit of information away under the 'Must tease Dean and/or Castiel with mercilessly later' category. As things were, they had other issues to deal with here.

"Alright, who wants to explain what this was all about?" Gabriel asked in an uncharacteristically serious tone, looking from one boy to the next. The narrowed eyes were reserved for the two teenagers, however.

"The son of a bitch stole Sammy's quarters!" Dean yelled accusingly, pointing his finger at the skinnier teenager. It was obvious that from the older Winchester's perspective, stealing from his younger brother was a capital offense. Gabriel was inclined to agree with him there. The two boys already had very little good things in their lives, so taking any of those they had from them was pretty bad. The archangel decided to pointedly ignore the fact that he hadn't always thought along those lines when it came to the brothers, however.

"Oh yeah? Proof it!" the teenager shot back, crossing his arms in front of his chest and trying to appear as tall as he could get, which incidentally was taller than Gabriel's vessel was. His friend had made it back to his feet in the meantime, as well. Together, the two teenagers very quickly regained their courage and arrogance.

"'S okay," Sam mumbled before the archangel could say anything to set the two jerks straight. The resigned tone the younger Winchester had spoken with only strengthened Gabriel's resolve to get the kid his quarters back, however. Dean apparently had similar thoughts on the topic, since Castiel suddenly had to keep the twelve year old from attacking both teenagers at once and all by himself.

"He doesn't need to prove a thing, because I believe him," the archangel spoke in a calm tone, stepping closer to the teenagers, "And you better give every last quarter back and apologize to those two before I get angry. Trust me, you wouldn't like me when I'm angry."

Not that Gabriel intended to level entire cities or send a plague down over something as petty as quarter theft, but there were more subtle ways with which he could show his anger. An assortment of non-lethal but very uncomfortable and unsexy diseases came to mind. That would have been particularly satisfying, given the fact that the teenagers were probably just at the beginning of their 'active' lives.

The time for subtlety was over the moment the archangel extended his open hand toward the skinnier teen in a clear demand to give the money back. The reaction Gabriel got was by far less vocal and by far more physical than he had anticipated, but that didn't keep him from catching the teenager's fist in his hand and squeezing until he the young hooligan was going to his knees from the pain. The archangel was careful not to cause any actual damage, but he didn't release the boy's hand until he scrambled to get the stolen quarters from his pocket and tossed them toward Sam. It wasn't exactly what Gabriel had had in mind, but it would have to do. Both teenagers were in too much of a hurry to get away to insist on the apology they still owed the Winchesters.

"Never underestimate us little people," the archangel commented, giving Sam a conspiratorial wink.

The younger Winchester only stared at Gabriel in awe. Maybe, just maybe, the possibility of always staying kind of short had just lost its sting a little.