[Fic] Sunflowers
Title: Sunflowers
Author: youaregonecas
Wordcount: 1.907
Fandom: Supernatural
Rating: Explicit
Pairing: Castiel/Dean
Tags: au, domestic au, kid fic,florist!cas, single father dean,
Summary: Dean doesn't quite have his shop figured out just yet. Benny perhaps helped him to set up and get everything inside without losing little miss energetic, but he couldn't have Benny watch her all the time. Deciding to buy flowers for Lisa, he goes into the local florist, scoring both flowers and a date.
Author's Notes: For cherrymish aka Loz. "Happy early birthday sweetheart! c: I know that officially your birthday will be on the first, but considering that you’ll be in Wales, I am posting this a few days early. (and yes, that anon was me. I wanted to surprise you! c: )"
[AO3] // [Tumblr]
Helianthus or sunflowers is a genus of plants comprising about 70 species in the family Asteraceae.
The common name, "sunflower," also applies to the popular annual species Helianthus annuus, the common sunflower. This is symbolic of spiritual faith, and worship because we follow our belief system as the sunflower moves to face the life-giving rays of the sun. In Chinese symbolism, the sunflower (and sunflower meaning) deals with long life, good luck and is considered very auspicious. Its yellow color signifies vitality and intelligence. It's a symbol of happiness too.
In esoteric Christianity, the sunflower is a symbol of God's love. The sunflower as a symbol can also represent the unwavering faith that guides the soul to the highest spiritual attunement.
The sun shone in through the shop windows, casting long shadows on the floor where the flowers were standing neatly organized. They looked gorgeous today, now the sun was out but not too bright. It was on days like these that he especially loved having the shop and all the flowers to look after. They made his day better, made him smile. Made him forget his brother and how much of a jerk he was lately, made him forget the figures.
The bell dinged, announcing his first customer of the day. He had opened up a little later than usual, which had caused his usual morning crowd to stand in front of closed doors. Castiel knew that they would either be back the next day or in the afternoon. If anything, they were used to it on Mondays.
So he was kind of surprised when the door rang and it wasn’t one of his usual people that checked to see if he had opened. A pair of big green eyes looked at him from just the top of the counter. Their fingers gripped it, trying to haul herself up to look at him.
“Hi there little one. Is one of your parents here with you?”
“Daddy told me to come on in,” she said, “Ben needed a diaper change. He’ll be right in!” She scrunched her nose at the thought. “I’m Mary!”
“Well Mary, I’m Castiel.” He went around the counter so she didn’t have to stretch so far. “Has your daddy told you what he wants?”
“Flowers!” Mary said, a smile on her lips. Cas couldn’t help but smile at her. “Mommy’s birthday is soon and daddy wanted to surprise her.”
“Well, that’s kind of your daddy. What does your mommy like?”
“Pink,” she muttered, pensive, “and yellow, yellow too!” From the way that the girl had been staring at the sunflowers in the corner, he had a feeling that it was more her that liked yellow flowers. “There’s daddy!” Castiel looked up as the doorbell rang again, only to see Dean Winchester - the guy who had opened his architect’s office a few days ago - walk in, a six month old on his arm. The little guy was looking around with curious eyes and a smile on his lips. Reaching for flowers.
“You must be the father,” Castiel said with a smile, watching from the side as Mary reached for the pedals of one the sunflowers. “Your daughter told me you’re looking for something for your wife?”
“She’s their mother, not my wife. Long story,” Dean smiled, “not exactly one for telling right now, but yes, it’s her birthday. Thought I’d get her a bouquet, about twenty-thirty dollars?”
“Coming right up! Little Mary here told me she likes pinks, reds and yellows, do you want me to use those colours? With the summer season here, we have a lot of those.”
“Yeah, that should be fine.”
Castiel gathered a few flowers together, showing them to the man for approval before taking them back to his counter to gather together. From the corner of his eyes, he saw the little girl reach for the sunflowers again, a smile on her lips.
“How’s the business coming along?” he asked, slightly curious. He had seen them move in his furniture the other day. “I saw you move in.”
“It’s, coming along? Slow, with the kids there all the time, but we’re getting there.”
“You don’t have a partner to look after them?” That was probably the suckiest and most obvious way of asking if anyone was single in the entire history of him being an awkward potato and the other man knew it. The slight grin that stretched across his lips as he shook his head said enough.
“I don’t, Benny helped us out until we moved here, still need to find someone to take care of little miss energetic.” Mary had dwindled off course, looking at the flowers again with a smile on her lips, reaching out to touch the leaves but never actually touching. “Come Mary! Leave the flowers be. Ben is easy. Put him in his playpen and I can draw and work - it’s not too big a deal.”
“If you want to, you can drop her off here some days.” The words left his mouth before he could stop them. “She clearly loves flowers. She can help me out with tiny things, like tying a bow or something. Like, if she wants to.” Stupid Castiel, stupid.
“Yeah, we’ll see. I’m Dean by the way. Winchester.”
“Castiel.” He reached out his hand to shake Deans, “Novak.” He quickly pulled the plastic around the flowers and taped them shut. “You like this right?”
“Yeah, it’s perfect. Thanks!” Dean payed and made to leave.
“Hold on,” he muttered, coming from behind the counter to grab three sunflowers, some greens and a few peachy toned flowers. He cut them to children’s size and wrapped them up. “Think Mary would want a little bouquet of herself to give to her mommy? Or keep?” Mary’s eyes lit up at the sight of the flowers, looking at her father with questioning eyes.
Dean only sighed, affectionate smile on his lips as he watched his daughter, hands clasped around the flowers and nose almost pressed in them. “Sure. How much do I owe you?”
“Nothing. It’s on the house.” Just seeing that little girl happy was enough and after all, Dean had just spend thirty bucks on flowers just for his kids biological mother - Cas didn’t really care about the whole situation - so a little extra would be nice. What would he lose now, ten bucks? It wasn’t that big a deal.
“At least grab a coffee with me?” Dean was smiling at him now, instead of his daughter. “Like, maybe later? They are spending the night with their mommy Lisa ”
“That would be nice, Dean.” Castiel couldn’t help but smile as Dean stretched out his arm and told him to write his number down on his hand.
“See you Cas!”
“See you Dean.”
Dean and Cas texted during the next few days, shy at first but quickly gaining confidence. They met up for coffee twice and did nothing but talk. Deanseemed to be hesitant at first whenever Lisa was brought up, but eventually opened up, told Cas how Lisa and he used to date, until she opened up about being aromantic but bisexual. About how they parted ways on friendly terms and how she had offered to carry a child for him and his former partner when the adoption procedure didn’t approve them.
The heartbreak when his partner left him for somebody else during the time that Lisa was pregnant but the joy that having Mary brought. Mary who looked like a little carbon copy of her father, with just a few characteristics of the donor egg.
After two years, he had taken the leap again, added little Ben to their family. How he felt more complete now, less lonely.
On the third time they went out, three weeks in, the kids were there. Cas played with Ben for what seemed like forever, letting him bounce on his legs and sleep curled up against his chest, while Dean tried to get the last bits of cake from around Mary’s mouth.
“I should get going,” Dean whispered over Mary’s head, who was in her turn curled up against her father, fast asleep. “Get these two to bed.”
“I’ll help you get them in the car,” he whispered back before gathering Ben closer to his body and getting up. He left a probably slightly too big tip on the table, but he had to thank them somehow for the little crown that they had found once the waitress found out that Mary was almost turning three.
Ben didn’t stir for a minute as Cas buckled him in his car seat, pressed a soft kiss on the top of his head and closed his side of the car door gently. Mary only woke up enough to mumble ‘bye Cas!’ before sleeping again.
“It was a long day,” Dean sighed, leaning back against his car. “It was fun tonight. We should do this with the kids more often.”
“We should. Dean, can I kiss you?” Castiel didn’t know where the bravery came from, but it was there and he was petrified that he had read it all wrong.
“Oh thank god. Yes.” Dean pulled him closer, arms loosely around his neck. All the tension in Cas’s shoulders left the second their lips met and it was even better than he had imagined. Dean’s lips were soft and gentle, their foreheads resting together. “I wanted to kiss you after the last time.”
“Me too,” Cas breathed against his lips, nuzzling closer before stepping back. “I should walk home before it’s too cold.”
“You’re not open on Sunday’s, right? Do you want to stay over? My house is just a five minute drive.” The unspoken it would be nice to wake up next to someone was there.
“Yeah. Okay.”
Dean didn’t wake up until eleven am, which was suspicious in its own. What was even more suspicious was that he wasn’t crawled on by children trying to find their spot on his bed. His hands reached out to find Cas, but the sheets came away empty. His heart sank at the realization that Cas had gone home.
He sleepily patted into the kitchen, ready for a cup of coffee with extra sugar to give himself at least a little bit of a boost before getting the kids out of their cribs.
The kids were already up, Mary changed into a peach dress that Dean had completely forgotten they owned. She sat at the table, eating somethingthat seemed to look like… pancakes? Which was a tiny victory in its own with how picky she lately was. His sleepy brain couldn’t guess who would know how to make her pancakes though.
“Look at that Ben, you daddy is up,” Castiel said across the room, Ben cradled in his arms. “Hi there, I left you some pancakes on the stove, they should still be warm.”
“You’re an angel,” Dean muttered, taken aback by the rush of love he felt run through him. That was his son, with his boyfriend and the picture just, it fit. The puzzle pieces where there. It felt right. “How long have you been up?”
“Eight. Mary was up and a little later Ben too, I figured that you should get to sleep in for a change.” Castiel walked over, almost as if he was unsure.
“Thank you,” he mumbled, pulling the other man closer and pressing a soft kiss on his lips.
“You’re welcome.”