Congrats on 500 followers!!! My one word prompt is BEES!!
Every Saturday, Dean goes down to the local farmers’ market.
It’s not, contrary to Sam’s gloating, because he’s ‘finally realized that you can’t live entirely on cheeseburgers, Dean,’ nor is it because he has the money to buy produce that’s locally grown (he doesn’t, but he still tries to buy a thing or two here and there).
No, he goes to the farmers’ market because of the beekeeper.
The beekeeper is new to town, and had moved himself and his apiary into the old farming property down by the river. Dean had found out about his stall, ‘The Business of Bees,’ when Sam had dragged him down to the farmers’ market two months ago so that he could buy his organic kale, or some shit. Honestly, he doesn’t remember much from that day apart from piercing blue eyes and a voice like whiskey over gravel that has stuck with him every night since.
Ever since he discovered the farmers’ market and the eclectic, attractive beekeeper, Dean has been head over heels. He knows that he’s into this guy, and he would love to take him out to dinner sometime, but… he’s got absolutely no idea how. All the guys he’s ever been with have started out as friends or hookups, but to ask a stranger out on a date?
Dean views himself as a confident man, but he’s got zero experience in this area.
So he does his best to muddle his way through—maybe it’ll be easier if they start out as friends?
The second time he had visited (without his nosy moose of a brother), he had found out that the beekeeper’s name was Castiel. Every week after that, he would make a few minutes of small talk, then buy a jar of honey before his cheeks could get too red and beat a hasty retreat.
Castiel’s jokes are terrible and he’s always grumpy before he’s had his morning coffee and he doesn’t understand half of the pop culture references Dean makes, but that’s okay, because Dean is smitten and he spends his whole week looking forward to Saturday, when he can talk to Cas and see him smile.
(And then go home and stare forlornly at the ever-expanding shelf of honey that he’s collecting, because even though there’s no way he can eat it all himself, it’s weird to hang around and talk to the guy without buying anything, right?)
The weeks turn into months, and a few minutes of small talk gradually becomes over an hour of talking, interrupted only whenever Castiel has to serve another customer. Dean watches him smile and talk with animation about his bees and his honey and thinks, wow, I really am fucked.
Today isn’t the right time to ask Cas out—the guy seems nervous about something, and Dean doesn’t want to catch him in a bad mood just in case everything goes pear-shaped, because even if Cas doesn’t want to date him, he hopes that they can at least stay friends. It’s starting to get late now, and Dean has been here for almost two hours. Before he can make his usual honey purchase and say goodbye to Castiel for another week, though, Cas stops him in his tracks.
“I have something for you,” he says, his cheeks tinged faintly with pink as he rummages around behind his table. When he pops back up, it’s with a small, cloth-wrapped bundle in his palms. Dean tries not to shiver at the brush of Cas’s fingers as he hands over the gift.
It’s solid, but not heavy, and Dean can feel Cas’s gaze on him as he unwraps the cloth with curious fingers, draping the fabric off the edges of his hand to reveal the gift.
In Dean’s palm is a heart-shaped beeswax candle. Engraved carefully into the wax in cursive are the words: Bee mine?
It’s cheesy and adorable and when Dean leaves the farmers’ market another hour later with the candle in his pocket, Cas’s number in his phone and a date scheduled for tonight, he can’t keep the smile off his face.
