A/N: Based on the prompt by 'Hampala67' on the Profound Bond discord server. (originally posted by 'ege' on instagram)

Dean eyed the small cream-colored house across the street, a few hundred yards in front of him, curiously as he walked along the sidewalk. He was on the way back from his friend Charlie's house after they'd played a few video games together. It was a nice and sunny midsummer afternoon on a Saturday and so he hadn't seen the need to take his car, a beautiful 1967 Chevy Impala. Instead, he'd opted to take the short fifteen-minute walk by foot.

The air was fresh and sun warm on the side of his face, and as he listened to the peaceful sounds of birds chirping and children playing in their backyards, he wondered why he didn't take walks around his neighborhood more often. The little suburban part of the outer city was really nice like this and he honestly enjoyed the exercise and chance to stretch his legs a bit. Of course he'd never admit that out loud. His health-nut of a brother would never let it go again and maybe even force him to accompany him on his crazy morning runs.

It had been when he'd turned into his street and was still a few houses down from his own cozy one-story home, that he noticed the car in the driveway of the cream house. The family that had lived there had moved out at the beginning of summer and last week Dean had noticed that the 'for sale' sign had been removed, so he had already gathered that the house must have finally been sold. Now there was an unfamiliar car in the driveway, an ugly 1978 Lincoln Continental in a beige color, and there were flower pots on the windowsills. By the car and the very clearly color coded flower combination, Dean assumed that the person that had moved in must be an old lady or couple.

As he walked closer, he noticed a little wooden stand just inside the open entrance gate. It wasn't much, just a table with a sunshade overhead, but it still had Dean curious. After only a moment of hesitation, he glanced left and right and then quickly crossed the street. The table had multiple glasses of honey as well as a small porcelain piggy bank on it. The piggy bank was in the form of a bee. There was a sign taped neatly onto the table.

'Hello, dear neighbors, I am a hobby beekeeper and make my own honey. Feel free to take a jar home with you. I can promise that it is very delicious. My bees are in excellent health and very happy, and I provide them with a wide variety of healthy wildflower options. For payment, please put the amount that you deem appropriate into the honesty box. I hope you enjoy your delicious local honey. Sincerely, C.'

Dean snorted quietly to himself at the sign. It was written in an intriguing mixture of overly formal and charming words. He wondered what C. stood for. Even though he had never been much of a honey guy, he decided to buy a jar. Support your local producers and all that jazz.

He was just trying to decide how much money to put into the bee bank (bee-bank, ha, get it?), when a sudden voice from the direction of the house startled him. "Guten Tag! Would you like to see the bees?"

Dean blinked in surprise, not sure if he'd heard correctly at first. "Uh, what?" he asked eloquently.

"Would you like to see the bees?" The voice repeated. It was deep and rumbly, a sound that sent shivers down Dean's spine. He noticed that one of the windows was open and he could just make out a person behind the translucent white curtains.

Dean rubbed the back of his neck as he chuckled sheepishly. "Uh, no thanks, man. I'm good. Not much of a fan of bees." Just the thought of those crawling and buzzing little monsters made him shiver.

"Oh," came the deep reply from inside. It sounded unreasonably disappointed. There was a bit of shuffling inside the house and just as Dean wondered whether he should just forget about the weird interaction, take his honey and leave, the front door opened. Out stepped one of the hottest guys Dean had ever seen in his life.

He had messy dark hair that looked like he'd just gotten out of bed, tan skin and eyes so strikingly blue that Dean could see their color even from a few feet away. He was wearing a light blue shirt, dark pants and a beige trench coat that made Dean wonder how the guy wasn't sweating his balls off.

"Are you sure you don't want to meet the bees? They are very well-behaved, I promise."

Dean was very sure, but the guy gave him such a disappointed look out of his amazingly blue eyes, squinting just a little against the sun, his head cocked to the side, that Dean probably would have agreed to anything. "Uh, you know what, sure," he heard himself say.

He might have regretted his words under normal circumstances, but the other man broke into a wide gummy smile and most of Dean's brain power was focused on how cute the guy looked.

"That makes me very happy," the man said seriously and without another word, he turned around and walked towards the backyard, apparently expecting Dean to follow him. Dean hesitated only for a moment before doing so.

The backyard was vastly different from the front. Where the part of the house that faced the street was well-groomed and professionally decorated, the majority of the back was taken up by a field of seemingly random flowers of all colors and shapes.

"This is a wildflower meadow for the bees," Hot Guy explained as he led Dean past the flowers and into a little corner at the back of the garden. "They need a multitude of different pollen to stay healthy, and it also gives their honey a unique, sweeter taste."

Dean just nodded mutely, not really sure what to say to that. The flowers were nice and gave the backyard a nice smell, but he had never been much of a guy for noticing things like that. So why did he notice now, he wondered.

They arrived at a small clearing that was framed by the meadow, a fence and a few bushes, leaving only the small entrance they had come through. In the middle stood three bee hives. Each painted in a different vibrant color. "Those are my bees," the man declared proudly.

Dean stared at the hives. Bees were steadily coming and going and there was a constant buzz in the air. Even though they were still a few feet away, it was already making him uncomfortable. When the silence stretched on for too long, Dean let his gaze flicker to the man, who was clearly waiting for a reaction. "Uh, cool," Dean tried to sound sincere and not like his skin was crawling just watching the little insects. "They seem…nice."

The man gave him that gummy smile again, and Dean instantly felt a bit better about this whole thing. He kinda wanted to make him smile more. "They are. Come on, I'll introduce you to them." And before Dean could react, he had somehow been grabbed by the wrist and tugged directly next to the blue hive in the middle.

Dean stiffened instinctively and held his breath. He expected the bees to get irritated by the intrusion on their territory and attack, and was already preparing himself to run. If necessary, he'd drag this crazy guy with him. But to his surprise the bees didn't seem bothered by them at all and not a single one of them attacked. Dean slowly let his breath out again.

The man, meanwhile, had casually opened up the hive and was pulling the trays of honeycombs out by hand. Crazy. The guy was absolutely crazy.

"Uhm, shouldn't you have some kind of gear for that?" He finally choked out as the man presented him with a golden honeycomb that still had countless bees buzzing inside, around and crawling across it.

"Oh no, my bees are very friendly. And they know my scent. They won't attack me," Blue-Eyes said reassuringly. Somehow, Dean wasn't reassured at all. "Meet the bees," the man declared proudly. "Bees, this is-" He hesitated, apparently only now realizing that he didn't know Dean's name.

"Dean, my name is Dean."

The guy smiled. "Meet Dean."

The way he said his name in that deep voice of his made shivers tingle down Dean's spine. "Pleasure to meet you," he said. He wasn't talking only to the bees.

"So, what is your name?" He asked when the other made no move to introduce himself.

"Oh, my apologies, how rude of me. I am Castiel," the man introduced himself. "I just moved in five days ago. I am a professor at the local community college and in my free-time, I tend to my bees and the garden."

Dean had to suppress a laugh at the formal introduction. Instead, he let an easygoing grin slip onto his face. "Welcome to the neighborhood. I live only a few houses down, have been in this city for almost six years now. I work at the auto repair shop downtown."

Castiel dipped his head. "It is very nice to make your acquaintance. Thank you for taking the time to meet my bees. No one else I have offered it to has said yes."

Yeah, wonder why, Dean thought sarcastically.

Suddenly, before Dean could stop him, Castiel dipped his bare hand right into the beehive. Dean let out a very manly shriek as Castiel's hand reemerged covered in bees, with his fingers cradling a whole bunch of them in his palm.

"What the fuck, man!?" He choked out, instinctively drawing back as Castiel brought the bee-covered hand closer to him.

"You don't have to be afraid, Dean. They won't sting you unless you directly threaten them." Cas - yeah, Dean had decided that his whole name was too much of a mouth full – carefully scooped the bees aside and from his fingers back into the hive. It did in fact look like none of them were feeling threatened by his movements.

When Cas had removed a considerable amount of bees, Dean could see what was cradled in the middle of his palm. A bee larger than all the others, with slightly darker coloring. "Is that…?"

"Yes, this is the queen." Cas smiled down at her. "Dean, I want you to meet Hannah. She's the queen of my lavender hive. I've had her the longest of my three queens. Would you like to hold her?"

Dean, who had been nodding along to the introduction while keeping a suspicious eye on the big insect, froze at the question. He actually wanted nothing less than to hold a tiny crawly animal with a vicious stinger. But as he opened his mouth to politely decline, he made the mistake of looking into Cas' hopeful face. His expression was so open and honest, that Dean just couldn't be the reason it would crumble in disappointment.

So he sighed in defeat and steeled his resolve. "Sure, man. Give her here."

Cas carefully shifted the bee from his own finger onto Dean's tense hand. Dean held his breath at the sensation of tiny legs on his skin. Please don't sting me, please don't sting me, he prayed silently.

Meanwhile, Cas' face had shifted into a fond expression. He looked at Dean with such happiness and pride, that Dean almost felt good about the bee on his hand. To try and distract himself, Dean asked Cas what exactly he did at the college and they got talking.

After what must have been fifteen minutes of them doing nothing but talk, while the bee crawled lazily across Dean's hand until it was perched on the pip of his finger, Cas started carefully stroking down the bee's back. At first, Dean was taken aback, but he quickly accepted it like everything else that was happening today.

"Look, Hannah likes you," Cas said after a moment.

"How can you tell?"

"She's rubbing her feelers against your finger. See? She's scenting you. If she doesn't fly away, that means she accepts your scent." He sounded incredibly happy about that fact.

"Well, looks like I'm a natural at this beekeeping thing," Dean said. It was supposed to be a mixture of a tease and a joke, but Cas nodded seriously in agreement.

For a moment they stood in silence, while Cs carefully took Hannah back and repositioned her in the hive. When he turned around again, he was licking his lips in a gesture that had Dean's eyes instantly drawn to them

"Thank you for being so open with the bees. None of my other neighbors have seemed to like them. I am glad that you do not seem to share their aversion towards them. Would…would you maybe like to help me in caring for them sometime?"

Dean's heart skipped a beat. Was Cas asking him on a date? That kinda sounded like a date. Even though he wasn't as fond of the bees as Cas seemed to believe he was, the chance to spend more time with him, no matter how, sounded great. He seriously wouldn't mind a date with this gorgeous man.

So Dean drew in a deep breath and collected his courage. "Sure, I could do that. And how about we go out for coffee afterward?"

Cas' answering smile was blinding as he answered, "I'd like that very much." And Dean decided that he could probably get used to the bees.

A/N: I hope you enjoyed reading. Stay tuned for more. I plan to make this a series.