Who You Calling Ho Ho

[gedry]

Title: Who You Calling Ho Ho

Author: Gedry
Pairings: Sam/Gabriel
Rating: PG-13

Word Count: 1163
Disclaimer: These characters do not belong to me. I am making no profit from this fanfiction.
Spoilers:  None
Warnings: None
Summary: For devon99 who asked for established Sam/Gabe with cursed de-aged Sam who gets too much candy.


No beta!  So sorry.

Who You Calling Ho Ho

It’s not like Gabriel is lacking in experience; hell he has four kids of his own.

Well, four that he’s sure are his.

That’s his story and he’s sticking to it.

But raising a kid in this day and age is just HARD; especially when the kid is the shrunk down version of the person you play tonsil hockey with every day.

Gabriel’s moved past the ‘Oh Sam is so cute like this’ stage like yesterday.

Or maybe the day before that.

It’s a good thing this fucked up spell is only going to last for two more days.

The really sick thing is that Dean loves it.  Something about his brother being his little brother again that makes Dean just light up and roll joy off in waves.

Gabriel had Cas drag him away this morning after he fed Sam a box of Lucky Charms for breakfast.

And a doughnut; and a chocolate bar; followed up with cookies.

Gabriel thinks he hates Dean a little tiny bit.

Sam’s eight year old brain only half way recognizes him as some sort of protector or possibly parental unit.

There’s no memory of them being together and it hurts so bad down inside Gabriel’s very grace to be denied that connection.

He misses Sam so much.

Yesterday Sam tore down the curtains; lit fire to the trash can, put a PB&J in the DVD player, and tried to drown himself.

That was all before lunch.  They spent the afternoon at the library which seems to be the only place Sam really likes to be at this age.

Sadly this is not going to be an option today.  The kid is vibrating on the sofa from the amount of sugar and possibly caffeine in his system.  Dean may have snuck him a cup of coffee on his way out the door; the bastard.

“Sam?” Gabriel asks “Are you feeling okay?”

It’s like the damn breaks.

“Sure Gabriel” Sam starts and once he gets going it just pours out “I’m doing fine but I think Dean is going to miss me today.  Do you think Cas will take care of him? He seems sort of sad sometimes you know.  Not like sad like someone died sad but like sad like he misses someone really bad.  Do you ever miss anyone like that Gabriel?  Cuz you seem really sad sometimes too like you need a hug or something and sometimes I get the feeling like you don’t really like me all that much but then you’re always really nice to me so maybe I’m wrong.  Can we go to the park?  I want to get out of here and do something fun with you.  Maybe I can make you smile more; you look really nice when you smile.”

Gabriel is momentarily stunned.

“Cas will take care of Dean,” he offers.  “Cas will always take care of Dean; I promise you that.  I’m not sure why Dean is sad right now but I’m sad because I miss someone I love very much and he’s not here right now.  It’s not your fault and I’m sorry if you thought that I didn’t like you.  I like you very much Sam; I just haven’t always been really good at showing it.”

He reaches out and carefully pets the unruly mop of hair sticking out all over Sam’s head.

“I would love to go to the park with you,” he whispers.

Sam stumbles over his lanky gangly limbs as he leaps off the couch to grab Gabriel tightly in a huge hug.  It’s with no small amount of chagrin that Gabriel notices even at eight the younger Winchester isn’t really all that much shorter than he is.  Life is totally unfair sometimes.

Sam gives him a detailed description of the proper function of an EMT vehicle when they pass by one on the way to the little park just inside of downtown.

For some reason he also remembers how to perform stitches with dental floss and the correct way to mix a double half caffeinated latte with extra chocolate syrup and caramel whipping cream.

The woman behind the counter at the coffee place was not pleased with being corrected by a child.  Gabriel makes a mental note to do something terrible to her later.

You can’t take the tricks out of a trickster; Archangel or not.

Plus she called him ‘pops’ like he’s Sam’s dad or something.

He’s older than time itself but he didn’t think he looked it until just then.

The climb on the jungle gym and see who can go higher on the swings; he pushes Sam in a circle on the merry-go-round until the poor kid stumbles off holding his stomach and needs to flop in the grass for a bit to pull himself together.

There’s a running commentary of everything that’s been happening for most of the day and Gabriel starts to understand why Dean is attracted to Castiel’s long bouts of silence.

Sam is a talker.

He rolls them back to the hotel and stuffs him with food before putting him to bed.

The next day is sort of a rinse and repeat with the added bonus of bouts of mind numbing pain that Sam experiences as the spell wears down; and then finally late into the night as he tosses and sobs into Gabriel’s shoulder dissipates completely.

And suddenly, Gabriel is the little spoon again.

He doesn’t mind.

“You love me,” Sam mutters into the top of his head and ignores how Gabriel stiffens against him.

“I never said that,” the angel defends.

“You said you were missing someone you loved very much,” Sam corrects gently.

Gabriel bites his lip hard; he never meant to be the one to say it first.

“Thanks Gabriel,” Sam says as he presses a kiss to his forehead.

“For what?” Gabriel asks; now totally confused.

“You never once told me to shut up.” Sam sighs as he stretches all muscled lines and tight skin now.  “My whole life it was always ‘you talk too much; you’re being too loud; nobody cares; shut up Sam!’ you never made me feel like that.”

“You’re welcome,” Gabriel offers tiredly; feeling vulnerable and exposed.

“All I ever wanted was someone I could talk to,” Sam grins “I love you too.”

Gabriel gets distracted with the gentle warm pressure of Sam’s lips and the solid strength of his arms.

The next time Dean tries to cut Sam off for talking too much Gabriel makes him speak incessantly for two days without being able to lie.

Dean learns to keep his mouth shut after that.