Castiel looked up from his book as the bell above the door tinkled. The man who walked in was unlike any customer he'd ever had before.
He was probably in his late twenties, with spiked dusty-blond hair and bright green eyes ringed with black eyeliner. He wore tight black jeans and scuffed black Dr Martens, and he had a guitar on his back. The bare skin visible under his black t-shirt (advertising a band that Castiel had never heard of) was covered with intricate tattoos which snaked up the man's neck, covered his arms and reached the palms of his calloused hands. His wrists were decorated with a multitude of leather bracelets and he wore a necklace with an Aztec-looking gold amulet. His many facial piercings glinted in the summer sunlight that streamed in through the doorway. Holding the door open with one silver ringed finger, he turned to look outside.
"C'mon Sweetie, let's go choose some books." His voice was low and fruity, with a twinge of a faded Texan accent.
Castiel drew his eyes away from the man's defined biceps and saw a little girl, no more than three years old, totter in through the open door. The man swept her up in his arms and she giggled happily as he walked over to the desk.
Castiel swallowed thickly. "Hello, how can I help you?" He said, trying not to stare at the man's gold flecked eyes, so expertly outlined in black. He noticed a large white gauze bandage on his left arm.
"Hey," the man replied. "Do you have a kids' section?"
"We do," Castiel smiled. "It's right over there." He pointed to the corner to his left which was painted a grubby white and had posters of children's books on the wall.
The man sighed in relief. "Thank God! We've been to the library and three other bookshops in town and none of them have the right stuff for her age group. I wanna get her reading some picture books before she starts preschool in September. "
Castiel smiled awkwardly again, watching as the man put the child down and let her run over to the red and blue beanbags in the corner. She giggled manically, throwing herself onto the closest one. The man followed and picked out a couple of books from the low shelves, showing them to the toddler. She nodded in approval and the man bought them to the counter.
"Oh, I forgot to ask, can we loan them?" The man asked. "Money and space are a bit tight at the moment," he explained.
Truthfully, Castiel had stopped loaning books out a year ago, after getting multiple copies of 'Fifty Shades of Grey' back, suspiciously stained. However, he still had the stickers and stamp in his desk drawer, which he took out, saying, "Of course. How long would you like them out for?"
The man hesitated, unsure.
"We usually loan for a month. Does that suit you?"
"Yeah, that's fine."
Castiel nodded in confirmation, twisting the numbers on the stamp to get the correct date. The last time he'd used the stamp was the 24th of February 2012, a year and five months ago. The man noticed.
"You don't loan stuff often?" He asked.
Castiel blushed and relayed the 'Fifty Shades of Grey' story as he stuck the bookshop's sticker in the fronts of the books and stamped the date and date of return.
"Ahh," the man chuckled. "Okay... I promise I won't jack off to 'The Very Hungry Caterpillar'!"
"That would be much appreciated," Castiel grinned, his blush subsiding. He felt at ease with this man. He handed him the stack of books which the man put carefully into the guitar case on his back, something Castiel hadn't previously noticed.
"C'mon munchkin, let's go eat dinner," he called to the little girl. She shook her head and buried herself in the tangle of multi-coloured blankets.
"Kids, huh?" The man sighed. "You got any?"
Castiel shook his head. "Is she yours?" He asked, curiosity getting the better of him.
The man tensed. "Yes," he replied tersely, and Castiel winced, wishing he'd held his tongue.
"I - I'm sorry, you just -" Cas stuttered nervously.
"Don't look the type?" He interrupted. "Yeah I get that a lot."
Castiel's cheeks reddened. "Please forgive me," he uttered, embarrassed. "I'm very sorry." Their eyes met.
The uncomfortable look on the man's face faded as quickly as it had appeared. "Don't be," he smiled. "Forget it happened."
They paused, both turning to watch the toddler squeal and dive into the pile of blankets.
"How old is she?"
"Three and a bit," the man replied, a proud hint to his voice. "Her name's Elsie."
"What a lovely name," Castiel replied. "I'm Castiel."
"Castiel..." the man said slowly. Castiel savoured the man's voice tasting every letter of his name. "I'm Dean."
They smiled, an awkward silence descending upon them. To break it, Castiel pointed to Dean's left bicep. "What happened?"
"Oh, nothing happened. I'm getting a tattoo finished. It's a solar system going around my arm, but I haven't got it coloured yet. I'm going back on Monday to get it finished," Dean explained.
Castiel didn't really know what to say. "That sounds, um, interesting."
Dean snorted, amused. "That's what people say when they don't like something."
"No no no, I'm sure it will be amazing. I've never had a tattoo though, so I'm really out of my depth here," Castiel hurried, trying to salvage the conversation.
"You've never even thought about it?" Dean asked.
"Honestly, I haven't. Why?"
"There's this great place about ten minutes from here called Bradbury's Body Art. I could get you a discount if you wanted," Dean offered, an open smile on his freckled face.
Castiel felt his cheeks heat up again. "And why would you do that?"
Then, without missing a beat, Dean said, "Because, I like the look of you, Castiel." He smirked and turned to pick his daughter up from the mountain of blankets, tucking her under his tattooed arm, the one without the bandage. He nodded a goodbye as he pushed open the door. The bell rang loudly. "See you in a week, Castiel."
Castiel frowned. "But the books aren't due for a month," he called as Dean left the shop.
Seconds later, Dean's head peeked through the slowly closing door. Warm, slanted light pooled in the doorway. "Who says I don't want to see you earlier?" He grinned, leaving Castiel, open mouthed and stunned into silence, listening to the ring of the bell in the warm summer evening.
