Author's note: Thanks so much to Larkafree, Maknatuna, Maddy Love Castiel, Lewlou15, RachelPhobia, FireChildSlytherin5, kb18142, eiahlaie, Kirabaros, random yet loveable, XxZessxX, CherylB1964, Chichi-10018, PercyJfan1802, Ana loves Cas, Akira of the Twilight and baileylovesyou0400 for last chapter's reviews!

Special thanks to Treeni for beta-reading!

15

"You know, Castiel, I think I owe you an apology or two," Gabriel commented casually, taking a chocolate covered donut out of the box he had standing in front of him on the kitchen counter.

It was too early for either one of the Winchester boys to be up, so the archangel had invited his own little brother to come over for a talk. The week, in which Dean's undeniable love for the seraph was forcing the two angels to meet up very regularly, was drawing to a close and recent events had forced Gabriel to think about a lot of things he had avoided like the plague before. Speaking to Castiel about at least a few of those matters seemed only fair.

"I don't understand," the blue-eyed seraph admitted, tilting his head in confusion. Castiel was pretty sure that he was the one who still owed the apology. He had never expressed regret for tricking Gabriel into witnessing Tarot's interrogation. Not that the angel planned to apologize. Castiel had done what he had done out of conviction that Gabriel needed to face a few uncomfortable truths. The seraph couldn't, with a clear conscience, say that he was sorry for opening the archangel's eyes. As Castiel understood it, an insincere apology was not worth a damn thing, in the first place.

"Of course, you don't," Gabriel replied dismissively, "When did we ever admit that we were wrong about anything? Lucifer was not the only archangel who was way too prideful for his own good."

The archangel took a straw out of one of the cabinets and used it to suck the jelly filling out of the donut, under the thoroughly bewildered gaze of his brother. When the archangel was certain that he had removed most of the filling, he took a plastic syringe he had snapped into existence along with the donuts earlier and filled it with hot sauce. Of course, Gabriel could have made the donuts appear with the filling he wanted, but a big part of the fun in playing pranks was always in the preparation.

"I haven't been a very good brother to you - or anybody else really – in the past few centuries," the archangel sighed deeply, turning to look into the blue-eyed seraph's eyes for a moment. "Hell, I probably never was, as much as I'd like to believe otherwise."

Gabriel turned back toward the box of donuts after he had finished speaking. Admitting to his own shortcomings as an archangel and a brother in general was by no means easy for him. He decided working on a few more donuts with "special filling" was a good way to distract himself from feeling uncomfortable. Besides, having only one donut at the breakfast table when the boys emerged from their rooms would look suspicious. Gabriel needed at least three or four to make the scene look normal.

"You always were kinder than most," Castiel stated awkwardly, after a few long moments of silence. The seraph didn't know what to make of his brother's sudden confession and he didn't know what kind of reaction the archangel expected from him. In all honesty, Castiel had been fond of Gabriel before his older brother had disappeared from heaven. However, years and years of absence without a word had taken away from the fondness a little. However, as things were, Gabriel was the only archangel in existence who gave Castiel hope that not all of them wanted the Apocalypse to run its course.

"Thanks, Cassy," the archangel chuckled, turning around to pat his brother's shoulder amicably. "But looking at some of the douchebags you're comparing me to, that doesn't mean a lot."

Of course, there were a lot of angels who were perfectly nice and peaceful beings. They had all been created as God's soldiers, but some embraced the lifestyle more than others and some were willing to fight for the things they believed in, while others were just willing to fight blindly for whatever reason their commander told them to. It was too bad that most of heaven's higher ups were colossal jerks these days.

"You have done much more than I expected for Sam and Dean and I am very grateful for it," Castiel said seriously. Something about his brother's last statement made the seraph feel like he was supposed to let the archangel know how much he appreciated that Gabriel had chosen to not only watch the two Winchesters, but put energy into giving the two boys a good week.

Castiel wasn't quite sure what the donuts his brother had tampered with, or the bowl of cereal the archangel had taken out of the freezer a moment earlier were all about, but the blue-eyed angel assumed that they were part of something his older brother was preparing for the Winchesters.

"Bro, I didn't say that because I expected you to suck up to me," Gabriel clarified in an amused tone, "I am trying to tell you that I'm sorry for not helping you out more."

The archangel deliberately avoided saying that he was going to change something about that in the future, however. Gabriel had started to think about some things differently and he was making plans, but he hadn't made a final decision concerning his future involvement with all things Apocalypse related. There was no use allowing Castiel to get his hopes up, when the archangel might have to crush them again later.

"One more thing; I know I said you'd better not mention anything about the incident to me ever again," Gabriel added after a short moment of silence, "But what happened to Tarot?"

As much as the archangel dreaded the answer to his question, he felt that he had to know. Gabriel had given Castiel completely free reign to do with Tarot however the blue-eyed seraph saw fit. So in a way, whatever happened to the sandy-haired angel, was the archangel's fault as much as Castiel's.

"I have found a safe place for him," the dark-haired seraph replied, keeping his answer short until he could be sure that Gabriel wanted to know more. The look the archangel gave Castiel looked a lot like one that the seraph had seen his brother give the younger Winchester when he wanted to encourage the boy to speak on, so he felt he could give Gabriel some of the details. "I have appointed him to be Bobby Singer's guardian. The arrangement should be beneficial for both of them."

It took a few moments until the information the archangel had just been given sunk in completely. The solution Castiel had found didn't sound bad to Gabriel. In fact, it sounded pretty damn good. The archangel was tempted to question how his blue-eyed brother had made sure that Tarot wouldn't be able to either run away or get captured, but it sounded like the Winchesters had woken up and were on their way to the kitchen. Gabriel would have to trust that Castiel had made sure that any knowledge Tarot might acquire at Bobby Singer's house couldn't fall into wrong hands until he got the chance to ask.

"Morning, boys," the archangel greeted the two Winchesters in an upbeat tone. Gabriel couldn't help the grin that spread over his face when he saw that Dean had chosen to wear a woolen cap to cover his still pink hair with. The color had already washed out some, but the older Winchester hadn't had enough time to get rid of it completely before he had gone to bed the previous night. Dean had considered covering his head even before he had overheard Castiel talking to Gabriel. Knowing that the dark-haired adult was going to be around for breakfast too had cemented the boy's resolution not to show even one pink hair. He also vowed to go to the bathroom as soon as they were done eating and not come out again until he had his normal hair color back!

The fact that Castiel was staring at the blue cap, clearly baffled, made everything even funnier. The seraph never got to voice the question that was on the tip of his tongue, however.

"You don't get to say a word about my cap, Cas!" Dean grumbled, shoving his little brother's shoulder hard when the brat dared to giggle, "You're wearing a trench coat inside!"

Castiel inclined his head and kept quiet. It stood to reason that wearing a woolen cap inside was no less conventional than wearing an overcoat inside, just as the older Winchester had just said. Besides, the more time the seraph spent among humans, the more he realized that fashion was something he simply didn't understand.

Gabriel shook his head in amusement and put the plate with his special donuts on the tablet. Just as the archangel had expected, the younger Winchester didn't look quite as happy about that kind of breakfast as his older brother did.

"I've got some cereal for you instead," Gabriel told Sam with a nice smile, putting the bowl with the frozen milk and lucky charms combination in front of the eight year old. This probably was one of the most harmless pranks the archangel and trickster god had ever played on anyone, but he really didn't want for the munchkin's day to start with a scare or being really upset. In this case, it was all about the gesture of playing some sort of prank on him.

Sam's reaction when he tried to eat his breakfast and instead found it frozen solid wasn't exactly spectacular, but the boy's deep frown and the confused noise that escaped his lips was everything Gabriel had wanted, anyway. As expected, Dean laughed at his younger brother, for the first time that morning forgetting about his pink hair. Just a moment later the older Winchester's mood abruptly changed, when he grabbed one of the donuts and bit into it.

"Get Dean-o a glass of water, will you, Cassy?" Gabriel asked sweetly, trying not to grin too much as Dean sat open-mouthed, fanning his burning tongue with his hand. Not that water was going to do anything against hot sauce related pains, but getting Castiel to use the faucet was the one missing puzzle piece.

Again, putting duct tape on the faucet in a way that made sure that the next one to turn the water on would get sprayed wasn't the sophisticated or elaborate kind of prank, but it definitely got the job done. Castiel was too baffled to react immediately and thus got much wetter than Gabriel had anticipated, making the prank even more successful.

Both boys just stared at the dark-haired adult for a moment before they broke into laughter, everything concerning frozen cereals and hot sauce donuts forgotten for the moment.

"Okay, guys," Gabriel stated still chuckling, once the laughter had died down a little, "By my count, you have both played two pranks at each other, so you're even. Let's call what I just did the final battle and declare this war over."

Dean huffed and crossed his arms in front of his chest. However, he was looking at his baby brother expectantly. If Sam was willing to call a truce, so was the older Winchester. The hair dye prank would have forced Dean to come back with something really big to top it and he wasn't quite sure if he would have wanted to play a really mean prank on his brother, anyway. The only thing that didn't sit quite right with Dean was that, as things were, Gabriel had won the war. Then again, the adult hadn't even been a part of it and it was impossible to win a game you didn't play. The older Winchester thought he could settle for knowing that nobody had won.

Sam didn't have to think for a long time before he nodded seriously and offered his hand to his older brother to seal the deal. Ending their little prank war before it got really out of hand and before Halloween sounded like a really good idea.

"Alright and now for the real breakfast," Gabriel announced, clapping his hands for emphasis. There were more than enough ordinary donuts left and the archangel hadn't forgotten that he had promised ham and eggs to Sam the previous day.

"Dude, you should take the coat off, it's all wet!" Dean told Castiel when the seraph moved to reclaim his seat next to the older Winchester. In a way, seeing the adult without his trench coat would be seriously weird. The twelve year old had never seen Castiel without it before, which actually was strange to begin with.

"Are you going to take your hat off, if he loses the coat?" Sam snickered, nearly squeaking when his older brother pinched his upper arm viciously in retaliation. The younger Winchester had to admit that he sort of deserved it. Sam glared at his brother while rubbing his upper arm, anyway.

"It might be the wise thing to do, Dean," Castiel pointed out casually, shrugging off his trench coat and hanging it over the back of his chair, "You are perspiring."

"So? Maybe I like to sweat. Have you ever thought of that? Can't a guy sweat in peace?" the older Winchester ranted, looking at the dark-haired adult challengingly. Dean was fully prepared to argue his point some more, even if he knew that it was ridiculous. Somehow, the older Winchester really hated the thought that Cas might see his pink hair and laugh at him, so preventing that from happening was worth having an absurd discussion.

"I understand," Castiel replied completely seriously to everyone's surprise, "Wearing the hat is an expression of your free will."

Gabriel had been in the process of cutting a grapefruit in half, when he had to stop and put the knife aside while biting his lip so he could laugh out loud without being in danger of accidentally cutting himself. It only took a few moments for Sam to laugh along.

"Never mind them, Cas," Dean huffed, putting a hand on the adult's shoulder and smiling at him, "You really get me."