@deancas-sweetheart Challenge
prompt: Dean calls Cas “sweetheart”
pairings: destiel, gadreel/sam mentioned
word count: 1.3k
tags: no warnings apply, coffeeshop!au, owner dean, customer castiel, meet-ugly, valentine’s day, small misunderstanding leads to fluff
ao3
“Uh, Dean?” Krissy’s voice raised above the Metallica on the speakers. Dean looks up from the dough in front of him.
“What’s up?”
“There’s this guy yelling at Kevin, so…” She trails off, gesturing over her shoulder.
Dean’s brow furrows and he wipes his hands on his apron as he steps through the doorway. Krissy was right, there’s some dark-haired guy at the counter, frowning deeply at his cashier Kevin. Kevin Tran is an AP student, a cellist, and a future editor. There’s not a mean bone in his body; this guy is barking up the wrong tree if he thinks he can yell at any of Dean’s employees, but especially Kevin.
“Sir,” Dean intervenes, placing a hand on Kevin’s shoulder. “How can I help you?”
“Are you the manager?”
Dean cocks an eyebrow. “I’m Dean Winchester and I’m the owner. Welcome to Heaven Sent.”
“Great, so can you please tell your barista that there is, in fact, a difference between a skinny and a regular vanilla latte?”
Dean looks to Kevin, who grimaces.
“I forgot and I put the whipped cream on both of the drinks. He also got a regular chai latte.”
“But you used the non-fat syrup and milk in the skinny one?” He asks.
“Yeah,” Kevin affirms with a nod. “Promise.”
“All right.” Dean claps his hands together, grabs a spoon, and reaches out for the offending not-that-skinny vanilla latte. “Easy fix, sweetheart. Hold your horses.”
The guy just crosses his arms and squints at Dean, like he’s going to remove the whipped cream with his tongue instead of the spoon. Dean is sure to make a show of carefully removing all of the whipped cream from the top of the guy’s drink and giving it a new lid. Then, ever the cheeky asshole, he pops the spoon into his mouth with a wink. He slides the newly-skinnified beverage over the counter to their customer.
“Thank you,” the man says tersely, handing a credit card to Kevin, who dutifully completes the transaction. Dean leans against the counter and licks the spoon clean. He watches the customer leave and pats Kevin on the back for handling it like a champ. Luckily it’s the slow part of their morning so the kid can take a quick break and sit down. Dean returns to his kitchen to finish scooping the dough into muffin pans. And thinks about that guy’s ass in his dress pants, his shoulders under that beige trench coat.
So what if the customer was super pissed for no good reason? Dude was hot. Dean could appreciate that.
: : : : :
Valentine’s Day is a busy time of year for places that sell yummy baked goods, and Heaven Sent is no exception. Dean's had plenty of cake and cupcake orders to keep him busy and he was grateful to get some extra help from his brother-in-law Gadreel during the week.
But on the big day itself, things are relatively calm. Dean methodically restocks the front end while Krissy is on her lunch break, humming mindlessly and thinking about what flavors he’ll be introducing in the next few days. He hears the bell of the door chime and calls over his shoulder that he’ll be ready in just one moment. With that weird popping noise in his knees, Dean stands and smiles at—
At the gorgeous but angry customer from a few days ago.
“Uh, hello,” Dean greets him with an awkward wave. “Welcome to Heaven Sent.”
“Hi.” Those blue eyes twinkle as his mouth snaps shut. He tries again. “I have—. That is, I was here a few days ago. If you recall?”
Dean clears his throat. “You ordered two coffees and got upset with my baristas.”
“Er, yes.” Now the customer looks a bit flustered. He’s so damn cute Dean can hardly stand it. “That’s why I wanted to come in today, actually. To apologize.”
Dean blinks at him. “To—? What?”
“I am sorry for being an assbutt. I was ordering for someone else and she was already having a difficult day so it just—. It was very frustrating to think of yet another thing going wrong. But I still yelled at a teenager for putting whipped cream on a coffee, of all things. I completely overreacted.”
Never in a million years would Dean have guessed that this is how today was going to go, but he wasn’t about to argue.
“That’s really nice of you, man. I appreciate it. Kevin would, too, but he’s not in today. I’m happy to pass on your message, though…” He trails off, hoping the customer will catch on.
“Oh, I’m Castiel. Please call me Cas,” he supplies.
“That’s a unique name,” Dean tells him, leaning forward against the counter.
“It’s an angel's name,” Cas replies with an air of ‘I hate having to explain this to every single person I meet but such is life.’
“Figures,” Dean winks at him. “You don’t get a face like that without some kinda divine intervention.”
Cas flushes bright red and he smiles with his eyes locked on the ground. “I could say the same for you, Dean Winchester.”
Dean grins, his heart beating hard against his ribs with joy. It feels nice to successfully flirt with someone so perfect. Who apologizes for yelling at a barista anyway? People yell at folks in the service industry plenty and never give any apologies, so this guy is clearly something special. Except…
“So, uh, your lady.” He hates to ruin a moment but Cas definitely purchased a skinny latte for a person who uses female pronouns, and he really doesn’t want to offend. “Was the latte okay?”
Cas looks confused for a moment, blinking back at Dean. Then his face clears. “Oh, you mean Hannah.” He waves his arm dismissively. “It was fine, really. She was just so wound up about the cake tasting and the final dress fitting being on the same day, I just wanted to do something nice, you know?”
Oh shit. Not only was he hitting on a taken guy but a soon-to-be-married guy.
“That does sound stressful,” Dean says honestly, slowly standing up and away from where he and Cas had been leaning toward one another over the counter.
“Yes, I’m afraid we both got our mother’s neuroses,” Cas continues with a small smile. “But Hannah is meticulous and considerate; I knew she could handle the bride’s nerves just fine. I was more nervous about the other bride’s reactions to the cake tasting. I was sure she was going to hate the coffee cake that her fiancée wanted, but it all worked out in the end.”
The gears in Dean’s brain are stuck, unmoving. He jumps to the only part of the conversation he knows that he understood. “Coffee cake? For a wedding? Really?”
Cas heaves a deep sigh. “I don’t understand it either, but planners don’t get to have such opinions when it comes to clients’ whims. Surely you understand; I know for a fact you’ve had at least one crazy customer in here complaining.” He smiles brightly at Dean and it clicks into place.
“You’re a wedding planner. And Hannah is your?”
“My partner,” Cas fills in. “In utero and in business.” He laughs at his own joke, and Dean wishes he could catch the sound in a bottle for a rainy day.
“Twins, huh? That’s cool. Got a younger brother myself, actually.” Dean relaxes again, very relieved to know that Cas is not engaged. Well, just to be sure—
“Got any other partners I should know about? It is Valentine’s Day, after all.”
Cas blushes again, smiling. “No, no one. I, ah, I had forgotten the date. Most people don’t get married on Tuesdays, anyway, so.”
“Cool.” Dean smiles widely. “Never made a wedding cake myself, but I got some other sweets here if you’re hungry.”
“Yes, that would be great, Dean. Do you have any pie?”
“…Marry me.”
Cas laughs, flush high in his cheeks. “That’s a terrible proposal, Dean, really. I’m afraid you’ll have to do better than that.”
“All right, sweetheart, if you insist.”
Little did either of them know that on a sunny Valentine’s Day five years from that moment, Dean would ask Cas once more for his hand, and this time Cas would say yes.
