"Since when were you all friends again?" Were the first words out of Bobby's mouth the next day when he dropped by to announce he was heading home and found the four of them sat around the same table, eating.

"'Friends' is pushing it a bit." Dean grumbled lowly, shooting the archangel on Castiel's other side an acidic glare.

"Since Deano declared his undying love for my baby bro," Gabriel said brightly, ignoring Dean and clasping his hands, leaning towards the hunter and batting his eyelashes. "It was sooo romantic!"

"Bite me, jackass." Dean snapped, glaring at the now snickering archangel.

By the time he'd got back to the motel it was fast approaching five in the morning and too exhausted to deal with any of Gabriel's remarks, Dean snuck straight into his room and collapsed on the bed. Castiel had appeared a moment or two later and hovered, looking so awkward and unsure that Dean had to laugh and pulled the angel down next to him. He'd fallen asleep with his head resting on Castiel's shoulder, and somehow woke up with his legs tangled with the angel's, one arm slung over his waist and breathing deeply into Cas' neck, the taste of the angel's skin on his lips.

Which was of course how Gabriel found them before they could right themselves. It had led to an ungodly amount of teasing that Sam did fuck all to prevent, and when that grew old Gabriel switched to Dean's 'romantic' confession of the previous evening. By the time Sam had returned with food, Dean was spitting with rage, Gabriel was laughing maniacally and Castiel was sat at the table watching the chaos with an expression of bemused curiosity.

"Not gonna ask," Bobby shook his head, jostling the book he carried in his arms and successfully diverting their attention. "You figure out who it was, then?"

Sam opened his mouth to reply but was saved the trouble at the flap of wings from the kitchenette. Bobby whirled around as both Dean and Sam rose to their feet. Gabriel and Castiel stayed where they were, only glancing up with slight interest. Balthazar stood in the cramped area, back to his usual grinning self instead of the soldier brimming with the wrath of God that Dean had met last night.

"That would be me," He answered with a slight bow of his head. He looked up and caught Bobby's narrowed eye and smirked. "Balthazar, angel of the Lord, doubling as a match-maker for his idiotic brothers."

"Wait, weren't you actually in this thing too?" Bobby asked, holding up the book.

"Of course. I couldn't just leave these four to themselves – they'd still be stuck at stage one if I had. I couldn't interfere with the curse and its effects directly, so I just.. Helped speed things along."

He then crossed the room, plucked the book from Bobby's arms and placed it on the table. Gabriel, who was closest, began to flick lazily through the pages, stopping especially to smirk at the section where Dean had been rescued from the ice. Dean flatly ignored him and it, his attention only being diverted when Gabriel flicked back to the start to reveal a picture of himself in merman form, tailed versions of Castiel and Balthazar before him.

"Hey Deano, you want us to give you and the picture a moment of privacy?" Gabriel asked, waggling his eyebrows.

Dean responded by flipping him off, an action Gabriel only winked at. He continued turning pages slowly, reading the excerpts from Dean and Castiel's story with much more interest than he showed his own, and had just turned onto the section that described his rescuing of Sam from the ship when he stopped cold. His eyebrows furrowed and he stared at the page hard, before letting out a quiet chuckle and leaning back in his seat, folding his arms and grinning up at Balthazar.

"I'm an idiot." He muttered, shaking his head.

"Finally, something we agree on." Dean said in a snarky tone, ignoring the scowl Sam shot him.

"Ha ha." Gabriel replied, deadpan, before pointing to section of text and looking up at Balthazar. "Your merman self told me all about how humans would spear me if they saw me, right? So why'd you give me the tools for getting a human's attention?"

Balthazar smirked. "I was amazed you didn't spot that immediately, Gabriel."

The archangel shook his head, grinning. "I guess I was kind of thrown by the tail you'd given me."

"You weren't the only one." Sam muttered. "I thought I'd finally gone crazy."

"So it was a curse?" Bobby asked, now eyeing the book with a lot more reservation than he had shown it in days.

"Relax, Singer, that book was my own personal touch. I knew you'd come looking for your precious boys, so I thought I'd keep you posted on what was going on." Balthazar replied with a smirk. "But yes, the curse was designed to choose anyone who fit into specific guidelines for the stories I wanted it to tell."

"And you chose fairy tales." Sam said.

Balthazar shrugged. "They fit the purpose I intended them for. Very appropriate."

"Wait a second. What about all those people that disappeared before we got here?" Bobby asked, but Balthazar waved him off nonchalantly.

"All returned, safe and sound to their rightful homes. Not a scratch on them, I promise." He tapped the open book and winked across the room at the old hunter. "Just let me know if you ever want your own fairy tale, Singer."

And with that, he vanished. Bobby huffed out an irritated breath of air, shaking his head and muttering something about 'idjit angels'. Sam picked the book up and began to thumb through it, a tiny amused smile on his face. Dean watched him as he reached for his beer. There wasn't enough incentive in the world that would make him feel the smallest desire to read that stupid thing. As far as he was concerned, he was forgetting about his whole experience. His eyes darted to the side in time to catch Castiel take one of his fries and felt a grin tug in the corner of his mouth. Okay, forget most of this experience.

Which was, of course, when Gabriel decided to pipe up by saying, "Well Sammy, you're the expert on fairy tales. How about we act out Red Riding Hood and the Big Bad Wolf next?"

The book slipped from Sam's hands and landed with a bang on the floor as his face turned scarlet, Dean promptly inhaled half his beer and began to choke, and there was an almighty thud and curse as Bobby's knee collided with the table leg.

Castiel only blinked at their reactions, an expression of puzzlement on his face, before turning to his brother and announcing, quite loudly, "I believe with Sam's size that would be rather fitting."

And just when the hunters thought it possibly couldn't get any worse, Gabriel winked. "Oh, you have no idea how right you are, Cassie. Hey, maybe you and Deano could try Sleeping Beauty!"

"Actually, I believe I would prefer the story Balthazar chose to give us. I haven't yet had occasion to thank Dean properly for ridding me of the curse." And as he spoke, he turned to Dean with what was, without doubt, the hottest fucking expression the hunter had ever seen. The angel's eyes were dark and serious and suggestive, and the smallest of smirks was curling his lips.

And really, the only option Dean had at that point was to grab his angel by the tie and lead him from the room to see if this virgin could give as good as he got.

Author's Note: I hope you enjoyed this! I'm not particularly happy with the ending, but nothing better was coming to mind. I originally had another ending where Becky Rosen was involved, but it just wouldn't form in my mind, so I left it at Balthazar working alone.

I do have another Supernatural fic semi-planned out, but to avoid another year like this one, I'm gonna wait until I've graduated from Uni before I start it xP

Thanks for all the reads, reviews, faves and follows :) It really does mean a lot :D