It's in the early days after Cas fell, when he still is healing from his all-too-human wounds, that Cas discovers one of God's more forgotten creatures: bees.
Dean and Cas have taken to having their lunches outside the bunker, away from the smell of old paper and rusted metal that permeates their new home. Dean makes PB&J and helps Cas limp out to the garden. Dean wants to sit on a bench, but Cas - hell-bent on exploring every facet of the human experience - insists on sitting in the grass with the flowers.
Dean watches as Cas runs his fingers through the grass, sorts through each individual speck of dirt, feels the flower petals and leaves.
"Each feeling is different," Cas explains one day, when he's accidentally touched a poison oak leaf. "It's amazing."
Dean looks up from Cas' itchy hand he's just rubbed lotion on and sighs. "Yeah, I guess."
Dean doesn't really think about the extent of Cas' newfound explorations until Cas gets stung by a bee.
"I don't understand, Dean." Cas furrows his brow and looks over at the bee (which Cas outright refused to let Dean kill) that is on the table besides them. "Why is it dying?"
Cas, (who was a freaking angel, who probably created bees) for some reason that extended far, far beyond Dean's comprehension, knew nothing about bees.
"I don't know, Cas." Dean shakes his head and looks over at the bee. He's never really considered the life of such a small, seemingly-insignificant thing. He's killed things a thousand times that size, so the fact that something as petty as a bee had him feel even the slightest bit of compassion was downright ridiculous.
But still, watching that bee die a slow, agonizing death hurts way, way more than it should.
And the way Cas just stares at it like it's about to miraculously recover and fly away is so hopeful and innocent.
And then it hits Dean - just as the bee dies and the last bit of hope leaves Cas' face - that bees don't mean to sting, it's just in their nature. They're scared, so they do what they can to save themselves.
Dean finds Cas in the garden the next morning with a bowl of sugar water and a swarm of bees surrounding him.
Dean doesn't have the heart to break up such a sweet scene, so he just smiles and shakes his head and prays the ex-angel doesn't get himself into any more trouble.
Fast forward a week, and Dean is tired of putting aloe on all Cas' bee stings.
Dean counts 53 bee stings in all, and he thanks God Cas (or rather, Jimmy Novak) isn't allergic.
Cas nods, but his eyes never leave the bees.
I don't know how to finish this, but I thought it was a good little drabble on it's own. Thanks!