The Bee Charmer

It had been a quiet summer, more peace and quiet than the whole rest of Dean's life put together, actually. He was used to dealing with his idiot kid brother and his grousing father, used to spending all his time keeping Jo, the little girl down the street who followed him around like a lost kitten, out of trouble and keeping his Uncle Bobby and his dad from getting piss drunk and shooting each other. He'd badly needed some peace and quiet, and so he'd gone to stay with Anna Milton—an old friend of his mother's—for the summer.

Anna's family was a strange bunch. There were a whole lot of them, for one thing, and they were all kids and no parents. Sure, most of them were grown, but it was still odd for a bunch of brothers and sisters to live together in one house well after they'd reached adulthood. They were what Dean's mother used to call eccentric: they all had strange names, and they kept to themselves for the most part.

Anna had four older brothers and three younger ones, and an older sister named Hester who was severe and silent, and who rarely said anything to Dean but seemed to dislike him the instant she laid eyes on him. He stayed out of her way. Of the four older brothers, Michael was the eldest of the entire clan. Raphael was younger than Hester but older than any of the other boys or Anna. He was a very severe person, but his younger brothers could have him in stitches if he thought no one important was watching. Gabriel and Lucy were both older than Anna, although Gabe usually acted like the baby of the family. He had an unquenchable sweet tooth and seemed unable to go a single day without playing a prank on one or another of his siblings. They all groaned and yelled and made him clean up his messes, but it was clear as day that they all loved him for it.

Dean had teased Lucy about having a girl's name only once, and the look he'd gotten from Michael had made it very clear that he'd better never do it again. He wondered what God-awful name the guy had been given, that he would actually prefer to be called Lucy, but he didn't ask. Lucy was weird, even by Milton standards. He was forever asking questions and debating his older brothers. He would routinely throw up challenges to the kinds of ideas that Dean tended to just take for granted, usually ending in long, drawn-out debates with Michael about the nature of right and wrong. He reminded Dean of his own little brother, Sammy.

Dean didn't see too much of the younger three boys at first. Uriel was a joker like Gabe, but he grew shy around strangers and buttoned right up. As soon as he noticed Dean was in the room, he would shut his mouth and narrow his eyes and look so much like Raphael that Dean almost had to laugh at him. He managed not to, but just barely. Inias was by far the youngest, not more than seven or eight years old. He kept close by Hester's side, but sometimes he would smile at Dean from behind her skirts. Once, he even waved.

Dean had yet to meet the last member of the Milton family, even though he'd been with them for over a week. When Dean asked Anna about it she just smiled and said, "Oh, Castiel? He's probably out following the path of the flowers, or climbing trees, or talking to bees."

At Dean's questioning look, she merely smiled.

The Miltons lived in a big old house way out past the edge of town, down a long dirt road you'd have to know not to miss. Their world was bordered by trees and fields on every side; it was at least a day's drive to get anywhere. Dean wasn't sure how anybody stood that kind of isolation on a daily basis, but the Miltons seemed to do all right that way…and, Dean had to admit, it was relaxing the hell out of him. Sure, they were an odd bunch and, like any family, they had their quirks and their freaks and their fights…but those were their fights, not his. He wasn't in the thick of it, he was only a bystander. He could observe quietly and then graciously pretend nothing had happened, like any good house guest. It was a relief, considering how many times a day he was used to breaking up fights between his dad and his own argumentative little brother.

Dean spent his first few days just enjoying how it felt to go to bed when he felt the urge and wake up with the sun. It streamed through the gauzy white curtains of the guest room windows and fell on his eyelids, warming his face and coaxing a smile out of him before his eyes had really even fully opened. He always slept like a rock and woke feeling fresh and ready for the day, and the day never disappointed.

He went fishing with Michael and Lucy and traded jokes with Gabe, who seemed to come along only for the sunbathing. He'd stretch out on the dock on his back with his legs crossed in front of him and his elbows propping him up behind and just smile up into the sun, eyes closed. He seemed to have a sixth sense that told him whenever an errant sibling—or guest—was coming to splash him. Even Michael, who could move so silently it was almost eerie, couldn't sneak up on him.

"Try again, big brother," he'd say, opening one eye and smirking up at a dumbfounded Michael.

"Castiel is the only one who can sneak up on Gabe and Michael knows it," Lucy needled him lightly as Michael returned sullenly to their perch on the bank.

"Yeah, well…lucky for Gabe, Castiel's too busy being one with nature to come play with his brothers." Dean thought Michael was inordinately bitter for someone who had merely failed to prank the prankster, but then again, that was Michael. He didn't take defeat very well.

It was sixteen days into his stay before Dean met the infamous Castiel.

When he woke up, he thought it must be cloudy. He missed the warmth of the sun hitting his face and turning the insides of his eyelids red. Immediately he began contemplating what a day trapped in the house with the entire Milton clan would be like. He'd managed to avoid Hester so far, and he didn't fancy the thought of spending all his waking hours under her disapproving stare. Seriously, he had no idea what he'd done to offend the woman—

Dean froze. He'd felt a puff of warm air against his skin, accompanied by the soft sound of a person sighing. His eyes snapped open.

There was a boy standing by his bed, leaning over him and blocking the sunlight from the window. He was slight and slender, but not exactly delicate. His heart-shaped face was deeply tanned and slightly smudged with dirt, as if he'd just come in from a trek in the woods. He'd been staring intently at Dean as he slept, head tilted slightly to one side. He had dark, messy hair that fell over his forehead and stuck up in odd places. His eyes were very blue.

"Didn't anyone ever tell you it's rude to stare?" Dean grunted, pushing himself up into a sitting position and squinting as the movement put the sun full in his open eyes.

"No," the boy said, in a voice that was both very soft and very gravelly. It made him instantly seem older than he looked. Dean shifted uncomfortably under his stare.

"Well, it is," he said finally, feeling like the world's biggest idiot.

"I apologize," the boy—it had to be Castiel—said flatly. "I thought it was time we had a conversation. I am Castiel."

"Sure you are," Dean said, resigned that this weird kid wasn't going to let him sleep any longer or leave so he could get up and get ready for the day any time soon.

"And you're Dean Winchester," Castiel said matter-of-factly. "The boy from Kansas come to visit for the summer. Anna's…friend."

"Right," Dean said. "Well. It's been real nice meeting ya, Cas, but I'd kinda like to get dressed in private, so…"

Castiel tilted his head a little farther, brow furrowed, before his expression suddenly cleared.

"Would you like some privacy?"

"Yeah, that'd be great," Dean said, fighting the urge to roll his eyes at this, the latest addition to the weirdness that was the Milton family. This guy made Lucy look ordinary.

After he'd dressed and shaved—he hadn't been blessed with Sam's freakish, abnormally smooth cheeks, and he actually hated having any kind of beard—he shuffled downstairs to the bright little kitchen, where the Milton siblings were slowly filtering in from their various corners of the house. Gabe was already at the stove, overcooking the sausage and putting too much cinnamon and sugar on the toast. Uriel had let his hair down enough, sans Dean's presence, to fall asleep again with his head on the table. He was drooling a little. Anna was leaning on the counter in front of the coffee pot, watching it drip just a little too intensely. Anna was barely human before she'd had at least a cup of plain black coffee, and watching her, Dean could suddenly see how that staring thing might run in the family.

The rest of them were nowhere to be found. For all her severe demeanor, Hester was anything but an early riser, and Dean was pretty sure Lucy liked to spend an hour pacing in his room before coming down. He seemed the type.

Dean plopped himself in a chair and reached for a box of cereal.

"Hey Anna," he said. "Leave some elixir of life for the rest of us, okay?"

"Unnhh," was Anna's only response.

Castiel appeared just as Dean was finishing breakfast. He slipped in silently and sat down between a fully awake Uriel and Lucy, who looked as if he'd been up for several hours already. Dean did a double take; Cas had cleaned up. His face was clear of dirt smudges, his hair had been flattened out a bit, and he'd changed into, of all things, a white button-up and a pair of suit pants. Judging by his siblings' incredulous expressions, this was not normal Castiel attire. Dean raised an eyebrow at Anna, who merely hid a knowing smile behind another sip of coffee. He gave her a half-hearted glare and turned his attention back to his cereal.

No sooner had Dean rinsed out his bowl and placed it in the sink than he felt hand grasp his sleeve and drag him backwards, away from the sink so fast he nearly stumbled and fell.

"Hey! What—"

"Have fun, boys," Anna called through her laughter as Castiel dragged Dean out the front door.

When they were almost at the tree line Castiel stopped so suddenly that Dean almost ran into him. Releasing his sleeve, the strange boy turned to him and reached out a hand.

"Come with me?"

"Uh…" Dean hesitated. "Where are we going?"

"I just want to show you something," Castiel said, eyes wide and earnest and fingers wiggling slightly in invitation. Without really considering it, Dean reached out and grasped Cas's hand in his.

His skin was warm and oddly textured, smooth in some places and heavily calloused in others. He squeezed Dean's fingers and shot him a quick smile that was all white teeth and worrisome mischief before turning and pulling him into the trees.

They walked on for almost ah hour, Dean stumbling a little. He knew his way around the woods, but not these in particular, and Cas was in a hurry. More than once a tight grip on his arm was all that stopped Dean from falling to the ground. He wondered what on earth could be so urgent on a Sunday morning.

When they had gone a couple of miles, Dean started to hear a strange whirring noise up ahead. He glanced at Castiel, but his bright eyes and the odd, determined twist of a smile that turned up the corners of his lips gave nothing away. The whirring grew louder as they went, until without warning they broke from the trees into a large, open field. The sun was bright in the sky overhead, which was the hard, brittle blue of an Alabama summer. A slight breeze ruffled the grass, which had been bleached to a paler green by the constant sunlight and the dry weather. There was a single tree in the field, and a few yards from that was the source of the noise Dean had been hearing.

It was a huge beehive, literally buzzing with activity. The air around it was clouded darkly with bees. Dean could barely take his eyes off this slightly horrifying sight as Cas lead him over to the tree and sat him down under it. It was cooler in the shade, and the breeze immediately had the sweat cooling on his skin. He looked up at Castiel. His face was thrown into dappled shadow by the leaves and branches of the tree, but he was haloed in sunlight and the shimmer of distance bees. He leaned down into Dean's space, eyes sparkling with a secret joke that Dean thought he very much wanted to know.

"Watch," he said softly, and then he turned his back and started for the beehive with quick, confident strides.

Dean held his breath. He wanted to call out to Cas to stop, but before he could make up his mind to actually do it Cas was all but obscured by the cloud of bees. Dean's words stuck in his throat, and he could only watch.

The hive was in an uproar. They buzzed angrily, converging on Castiel en masse. Cas showed no signs of distress or pain; he simply kept walking, right up to the hive itself. He stood on tiptoe and reached a hand up and inside. Then, movements still slow and deliberate, he pulled back and seemed to fiddle with something at his hip for a moment. Finally, he turned around and walked, a little more slowly, back towards Dean with a proud smile on his face.

Dean's mouth ached. He realized he'd been biting the inside of his cheek.

Castiel walked right up to him, completely free of bees, and held out a glass jar with a flourish. It was half-full of honey.

"Here you are, sir," he said jovially. "This is for you."

Dean couldn't speak for a moment. When he finally did, his voice was harsher than he'd meant it to be. "Wh…why did you do that? You coulda been killed!" Castiel immediately looked crestfallen.

"I'm sorry," he said gently, drawing back the hand holding the jar to cradle it against his stomach. He tilted his head down, but his eyes never left Dean's.

"Don't you want the honey?" He asked in that same gentle voice. "I got it just for you." Dean was too busy scanning the bared skin of Cas's arms, neck, and face for tell-tale welts. Noticing this, Cas gave him a small, reassuring smile and leaned in a little.

"It's all right, I do it all the time. I never get stung." His voice dropped a little, seemed suddenly very small against the backdrop of the hive and the breeze. "Don't be mad at me, Dean."

Dean finally spoke. "Ah, Cas. I'm not mad at you."

"You're not?" Cas seemed immediately appeased. He smiled that small smile again and sat down across from Dean under the tree, crossing his legs and placing the honey jar between them. He found Dean's eyes again.

"Is it bad…what I did?" Dean scooted forward until his knees were almost touching Cas's.

"Nah." And there was that smile again, but tinged with uncertainty.

"Really? You looked as if you thought me insane." Dean smiled a little at that and shrugged his acquiescence, but at Cas's worried look he quickly reassured him.

"No, no, I'd heard there were people who could charm bees. I've just never seen it done…before today." It occurred to him that he and Cas were kind of staring at each other, but he couldn't bring himself to look anywhere else. "So...Cas Milton, the bee charmer. That's what you are."

Cas really smiled at that, and Dean was once again presented with a lot of teeth and eyes fuller of mischief than even Gabriel's. It could so easily be a disconcerting smile, but Dean felt himself charmed instead. He wondered for a crazy second if he might be part bee.

Cas's smile softened a little. He unscrewed the jar and stuck a finger in to scoop up some honey. It was paler, clearer than the honey that Dean was used to seeing in stores. Cas presented his sticky, honey-coated finger to Dean.

"Would you like to taste it?"

Dean leaned forward without really thinking about it and took the offered finger into his mouth. The honey melted on his tongue, filling his mouth with the flavor. It was light and sweet, with an unfamiliar tang that he thought tasted like white dandelions. He pulled back, and his eyes locked with Cas's and wouldn't look away.

"Well…" Cas asked. "Did you like it?"

"Y-yeah," Dean said shakily, before leaning forward to kiss Castiel's lips.

His eyes were wide open as he pressed against Castiel's bottom lip with his tongue, tentatively asking permission. Cas's eyes were open, too, and Dean watched them go a little wider with surprise and then crinkle at the corners in a smile before they closed and Cas opened his mouth to kiss Dean back. Then there was a hand in his hair, pulling him closer, and a lean body leaning forward into his until he was on his back, hands gripping Cas's elbows, fingers sliding under the rolled-up sleeves before he moved to grip his waist instead. He had one moment of hazy certainty: he was definitely part bee, because this strange boy had charmed him without even trying. After that, all thoughts were dedicated to memorizing the shape and texture and taste of Cas's lips against his.

He tasted like fresh honey.

Author's Note: I really, really don't know, guys. It's like my brain has been consumed by Destiel and the ideas I keep getting are just weirder and weirder. Ever since I caught up on season seven the bee thing has been nagging at me, and then the other day I saw a clip from Fried Green Tomatoes and this just clicked in my head. It's one of the weirder, more AU things I've written, and I guess it's technically a crossover...is it? I dunno. Anyway, I hope you enjoy it!

- The Raisin Girl

PS: This is totally and completely un-beta'd. All mistakes are mine. I didn't even edit it that much, I just read through it once and then posted it. Oops, hope it doesn't suck.