SPN Writing Challenge | @padaleckhi vs. @cutiepiejared
Prompt: Coffee Shop AU
Pairings: Destiel
Word count: 3k
Tags: Teen and Up Audiences, Fluff, Awkward Encounters, Doctor!Dean, Barista!Cas
[AO3 Link]
Summary: Cas's luck with attractive customers isn't the greatest, so Balthazar is determined to give him pointers when a cute doctor with green eyes comes into their cafe.
Author’s Note: I'm not going to lie, this is nowhere near what I originally planned when writing this fic. It was going to be longer a lot more angsty, but now we've got awkward coffee shop owner Cas and plastic surgeon Dean instead? Notes before going in: warning for a very, very, very, very, VERY unrealistic doctor encounter, probably cheesy dialogue, and unbeta'd writing, okay?
Let’s open a twenty-four hour coffee shop, she said. It will be fun, she said.
Fun? Fun, my ass, Cas thinks to himself as he cleans the espresso maker for the upteenth time that night. The burn on his hand from earlier throbs when he brushes it against the still warm machine, and he’s pretty positive that there is a nice line of chocolate sauce on his forehead from a latte gone wrong.
With a sigh, Cas throws the rag he was using in the sink and leans back against the counter. The clock reads 10:39 PM, and the first of the morning crew won’t be in until five. He can feel a headache coming on from the combination of overwhelming coffee stench, Gabriel’s playlist blaring over the speakers, and loud customers, so Cas breaks his own rule and leaves the counter unattended. He trudges over to the break room and throws open the door, then lets out a breath of relief once the noise is gone and he can hear himself think again.
When Anna came to him five years ago and asked him to open up The Celestial Cafe, he was completely enamored with the idea. It was always a dream to own a business, and Anna’s location on Fifteenth Avenue with the aged, brick walls and the rugged charm was too good to pass up. He never knew the amount of work that would be needed for running a twenty-four hour cafe would require though. Coverage for the night shifts was almost impossible to find, and usually fell to the him and Anna working with their brothers, Gabriel and Balthazar, until the morning people came in at five. The staff of college students they hired to work during the day could not figure out what “cleaning up” meant, and usually left coffee grounds spilled over the floor for Cas to vacuum when he came in at night. Plus, working with family wasn’t always the easiest walk in the park. While he loved each and every one of his brothers and sisters, being stuck in a six hour shift with them wasn’t always pleasant. Balthazar was usually too busy flirting with anything that walked to actually run the register like he was supposed to, and Gabriel’s constant snacking on the pastries they sold usually left sticky fingerprints all over the work area. If it weren’t for Anna’s calm demeanor keeping them all together, Cas is positive this place would’ve gone under long ago.
He breaks out of his reverie when he hears the door open behind him. Anna enters with her arms crossed over her chest and her eyebrows pushed down into a line.
“Cas, where is Balthazar?” she asks with a plastered on grin, but there is a clear tone of annoyance in her voice.
“Probably trying to chase down Beyonce while she’s in town,” he deadpans, walking out of Anna’s way when she angrily brushes by.
“He was supposed to be working the register tonight!” she exclaims. “I just came out of the back room and found a line of three people waiting to be served.”
Cas blushes and rolls back on his heels. “Uh, sorry about that, Anna. I was covering for him and I left my post.”
Anna runs her fingers through her hair and plops down on the break room couch. Her eyes have bags under them from the already long night and Cas walks over to take a seat next to her. “You shouldn’t have to cover for Balthazar when it’s not your turn to run register. Luckily I came by and was able to help before Gabriel got his hands on the customers. They were three very attractive ladies and I can only imagine the lewd things he would say to them.” She lets out a frustrated groan as she pulls her knees up to her chest and lays her head back on the couch. “Why is running a business so difficult?”
He reaches over and brushes the hair out of Anna’s face. “Perhaps we should get some actual help for the night shifts instead of relying on our erratic brothers,” Cas suggests with a head tilt.
Her lips turn up in a mischievous grin. “Then who would entertain us? Balthazar and Gabriel practically are a show unto themselves. How boring would three AM be without them?”
“It’d be like watching paint dry,” Cas replies, and Anna knocks him on the shoulder with her own. “As frustrating as they are, we do need them around to keep afloat.”
“Now that is a scary thought,” she says, then gets up from the couch before reaching over to ruffle Cas’s hair. “You’re a good brother, you know that?”
“Why, I am flattered!” a voice calls from the doorway. When Anna and Cas turn, Balthazar is there in an obscenely low cut black t-shirt, his work apron tied around his waist like a jacket. “I didn’t know that you cared, Anna Banana.”
“Don’t you dare call me that when you’re an hour late for your shift,” Anna says sternly as she points a finger at him. “We’ve got customers, you know.”
“And I’m sure that Cassy and Gabriel handled them perfectly while I was away,” Balthazar replies. He unties the apron from his waist and throws it on before continuing. “Besides, did you really want me coming into work unshowered after having a ménage à...what’s the French word for twelve?”
Anna’s nose crunches up in disgust while she glares at him. “Your depravity is beyond comprehension, brother.”
“And yet you love me anyway!” Balthazar calls loudly, and Anna just shakes her head before she leaves the room.
“Ah, sisterly love. There is nothing like it,” Balthazar says with a smirk, then turns his attention to Cas. “Now, let’s get down to real business. How angry did Anna seem before I came in?”
Cas picks at the flaking paint on the wall next to him and tries to avoid eye contact with his brother.
“That bad?” Balthazar questions when Cas doesn’t answer.
“She was already angry at Gabriel for eating all of the crepes. Your lateness just pushed her ever further.”
“Dammit,” he mutters under his breath. “I need her in a good mood tonight!”
“Do I want to know why?” Cas asks with a raised eyebrow.
Balthazar rubs the back of his neck and says, “I need to get off work for a R.E.M concert...on Black Friday.”
Cas just tosses up his hands and tries to push past Balthazar, but his brother is blocking the door. “You’re joking.”
“I wish I was, Cassy!” he exclaims, “but you need to understand. It’s a reunion concert! R.E.M will probably never tour again and I need to be there!”
“Not on Black Friday! It’s our busiest day of the entire year and it’s all hands on deck all day long. Anna will never let you go.”
“But I need to go to this concert,” Balthazar whines like a petulant child. He practically pouting now, his mouth pushed down into a hard line while he leans against the door frame. “Do me a favor and talk her into it, Cas.”
Cas can feel his eyebrows fly up at Balthazar’s obtuse request. “Do you really think that I am going to Anna on your behalf? Why would I do that?”
Balthazar grabs him back the back of his t-shirt and turns him towards the little window that looks out into the cafe. “That’s why,” Balthazar says as he points at a customer sitting by the window.
At first Cas doesn’t get what Balthazar is implying, but when the man with the dirty blonde hair turns around, Cas lets out a gasp. He’s gorgeous, with green-as-grass eyes that are amplified by his emerald scrubs, and visible freckles spattered on his nose and cheeks. His lips are pursed as he peers over at the unattended counter, and the pieces come together very quickly for Cas.
“He’s waiting for a drink, isn’t he?” Cas snaps at Balthazar. “How long has he been waiting there?”
“Don’t get your panties in a twist, Cassy! It’s only been...five minutes,” Balthazar says with a smirk on his face, and his eyes are lit up with mischief. “I took his order before I came to find Anna, and now he’s the perfect leverage. Talk to Anna and I will let you serve that Adonis his drink. Don’t talk to our dear sister, and I’ll do it instead. Do we have a deal?”
“Absolutely not,” Cas replies, but he can’t take his eyes off of the gorgeous man. “You know I’m no good at talking to the customers. My people skills are a bit rusty, if you forgot.”
Balthazar looks him up and down before pulling him away from the window and turning him around. “Cas, I know your experiences with attractive customers have not been great. I mean really, who spills an entire pot of hot coffee on the person they’re ogling? Only you, Cassy. Only you.”
Cas blushes, because Balthazar isn’t wrong. He’s got a reputation around the coffee shop for being the romantic imbecile. While Gabriel can wax poetic to the ladies he fancies, and Balthazar can get the number of any customer he likes, Cas usually ends up causing a disaster when he tries to flirt. He recoils when he thinks about the time he got distracted by a handsome dentist and ended up putting cayenne pepper into his drink instead of cinnamon, or the time he was mopping the floor and slipped on the water while talking to Daphne, a regular who had flirted with him a few times. Needless to say, Cas’s track record is laughable.
“What if I coach you through it?” Balthazar says, a wide grin appearing on his face. “I’ll be behind the register giving you notes, that way it cannot go wrong! It will be worth the rant you’ll get from Anna. Please, Cassy?”
Cas crosses his arms over his chest while he thinks about it. Initially, he knows that agreeing is a terrible idea, and that Balthazar will probably try to use it again later on to pull him into covering a shift or driving him home after a wild night out. He realizes that the chances of actually talking to the guy are slim to none too and that letting Balthazar take him his order would be the smart thing to do. And yet, when Cas peeks out the window again and sees the man looking at a cat video on his phone, he knows that Balthazar has him pinned.
“Fine,” Cas says with resignation. “I’ll talk to Anna for you-“
“Thank you!” Balthazar exclaims while he pulls Cas into a tight hug. “You won’t regret it, truly.”
“I doubt that,” Cas mutters into his brother’s ear, then pushes away. “Now, what am I bringing to that customer?”
Balthazar guides Cas out of the break room and back onto the main floor. “Coffee, dark roast with two creams. I’ll be with you the whole way. Now get on it!”
Cas grabs the bag of dark roast and begins brewing a fresh batch of coffee. He tries to distract himself while he waits by cleaning up the already clear work area, but his eyes keep going over to the customer. Is it possible that he’s even more handsome up close? His gaze trails over the man’s toned forearms, then down to his pristinely clean fingers. The scrubs suggest that he’s a doctor of some type, but what? Surgeon? Nurse? Pediatrician?
“Enjoying the view, buddy?” the man says from across the room, and only then does Cas realize that he was caught staring.
Shit. Cas tries to recover quickly, turning around to grab the now finished coffee from the pot and pouring it into one of their biggest mugs, but it’s like he can feel the man’s eyes on his back as he works. It takes everything in him to not cringe when he picks up two cremes from the pile and turns to face the guy again.
Without a word, Cas quietly makes his way over to the table and gently puts the coffee mug down on it. “Apologies,” he mutters before turning away, but a hand comes up and catches his wrist before he can escape this embarrassing experience.
“Wait, what are you apologizin’ for? I didn’t say I wasn’t interested,” the man says lowly behind him, and when Cas manages to turn around again a lewd smile is on the man’s face.
“Uh…was that a flirtation?” Cas replies, and when the man just nods back at him, he feels a blush rise to his cheeks.
“Take a seat…uh…”
“Cas,” he says a little too fiercely. “I mean, my name is Cas Novak.”
The man gestures for Cas to sit down, so he climbs into the chair across from him. “Well Cas, nice to meet ya. I’m Dean Winchester.”
“Nice to make your acquaintance,” Cas replies in an overly formal tone, and he berates his upbringing for sounding so uptight. Dean doesn’t seem phased though, and just leans back in his chair while he takes a sip of coffee.
“Do…you…come by often?” Cas asks awkwardly, eyes flashing over to Balthazar’s behind the counter. He catches his brother motioning for him to lean his elbow on the table, so Cas follows his gesture and prompts his chin up on his hand, feeling utterly ridiculous.
Dean laughs lowly and runs his finger around the edge of the mug, oblivious to Balthazar waving frantically at Cas behind his back. “Not really, no,” he replies. “Uh, the usual coffee shop I go to went out of business a few weeks back. Been looking for a replacement ever since, and I’ve gotta say Cas, yours is fitting the bill quite nicely.”
Cas can’t help it; he glances down at the table and plays with the edge of his apron, not knowing how to take the compliment. “Really? And why is that?”
“Well,” Dean replies, bringing his fingers up to count off of, “First, it’s a helluva lot closer to work than my last place. Second, your coffee is damn good, and third, you don’t play that bubbly pop music like every other place in the world. Seriously, a coffee shop that plays AC/DC is a winner in my book.”
Cas lets a timid grin cross his face at Dean’s praise. “I appreciate that. Most people just complain about my brother’s music choices. And by people, I mean my sister, Anna.”
Dean laughs loudly enough that a few people turn heads in their direction, and while Dean is busy glaring at the curious customers, Balthazar eyes Cas from the counter and brings up a piece of paper that reads ‘GET HIS NUMBER!!!!!’
“Uh…,” Cas voices out loud, and that brings Dean’s attention back to him. “Number!” he blurts out, and he can feel Balthazar’s secondhand embarrassment from across the room.
Dean quirks his eyebrows up and tilts his head to the side. “What was that?”
“Phone…number…uh…,” he trails off. Cas feels himself falling into the familiar territory of anxiety. His palms are beginning to sweat, his voice is cracking, and more than anything he needs to escape Dean’s presence and lock himself in the break room until Dean leaves. “I’ve gotta go; I’m sorry.”
Cas tries to escape from his chair, but his nerves get the better of him and he finds himself tripping over the foot of the table and tumbles to the floor. He can hear the cracking noise his nose makes when it collides with the ground, and the pain that follows brings a groan from his lips.
“Cas, you okay?” Dean calls out from above him, but Cas is too busy focusing on the fact that his nose is freaking broken.
“Ow,” Cas says pathetically, and the next thing he knows firm, large hands are on him as he’s hoisted into a sitting position. When he looks up, Dean is inches from his face, and the only thing Cas can think of outside the pain is his breath smells like vanilla.
Dean brings his fingers up to brush against his nose and Cas cringes at the contact. It creaks when touched, and from the look on Dean’s face, that isn’t a good thing.
“You need to get this checked out,” Dean says quietly, clearly trying not to draw attention to them. “Luckily I’m a plastic surgeon who works across the street. I usually only fix cleft pallets on kids, but I can patch you up, if you’d like.”
Cas gapes back, broken nose forgotten for that moment in time. Dean didn’t leave. He didn’t run like all the others when Cas got uncomfortably gawky, and now he is willing to fix up Cas’s nose? Who is this guy?
“No charge, if that’s what you’re worried about,” Dean says quickly. “Just consider it a first date…if you would like that.”
“Yes!” Cas says a bit too quickly, and he cringes when talking brings on a new round of pain in his face. “I would like that, Dean.”
"Great. But first," Dean says as he pulls Cas up from the floor, "we need to get you there. Can you walk?"
"The floor didn't break my entire body," Cas says lowly, and he can feel Dean's laughter next to him.
"Let's get out of here. Oh, and when you get back," Dean whispers in his ear, "you can tell your brother that I would've given you my number regardless of his crappy sign."
Cas freezes and groans out of embarrassment. "You saw that?" he asks.
"Did you forget about the mirror behind you?" Dean asks coyly, and Cas feels the butterflies of foolishness bloom in his gut.
"It's okay," Dean replies, leaning close once again to talk lowly into his ear. "I thought it was friggin' adorable, trying to impress me and all that."
Cas finds confidence that he didn't know he had and knocks his arm into Dean. "Are you going to fix my nose or not?"
Dean opens the door and gestures for Cas to walk through it. "After you, Charming."
As Cas exits the cafe with Dean close behind, he catches a glimpse of Balthazar holding up a sign that says "YOU OWE ME" in big, bulky letters, and Cas can't find it in himself to mind one bit. It's been a long time since Cas has felt this giddy, and when he walks down the street with Dean next to him, Cas feels like maybe opening the cafe wasn't a bad idea after all.
In season 6, 7, or 8 (I forget which) Dean establishes Castiel to be family. Why are shippers still shipping them then if they're family? (to use their stupid logic destiel and wincest are equally bad because they're family)
I don’t think those two situations can be compared.
Sam/Dean are related by blood and Dean/Cas can see each other as family and feel about each other that way, but genetically they are not related.
And the whole taboo about Wincest is how those two are related. Genetics makes it an incest ship, not feeling about each other like they are family.
What I found more funny is how in recent months when Jensen revered to Cas as family or brother (I think it was especially around JIB5 five when he called him “a bother in arms” or something), there were some D/C shippers saying how now they totally ship Wincest (since it’s also D/C now). Even people who kept on hating on the S/D ship where suddenly on the “Wincest” train.
