Bouquet

Chapter Ten

Life was good. In fact, Castiel thought happily, life was great.

He couldn't remember the last time things had been this good. He woke up in the mornings, and didn't find himself wishing he hadn't had to get up. The flower shop was doing well, his plants at home had survived to see spring, Gabriel was moving in with Kali, the weather was beginning to warm.

And there was Dean.

Dean, with his beautiful green eyes and galaxy of freckles. With his sense of humor and his love for cars and secret soft spot for romance (Dean swore up and down that it didn't happen, but Castiel had caught him crying when they watched Titanic). His Dean.

Castiel was sure that had Dean not decided to buy that bouquet from the shop back in February, things wouldn't be going this smoothly.

Sure, things hadn't been necessarily bad before. They'd been average. He had just been existing, going through the motions. But since Dean had shown up, things had brightened. Cas was alive, felt like he was walking on air. Like he was soaring through the clouds, where nothing could touch him.

Of course, that didn't mean things didn't get shitty sometimes.

June third started like any day. Customers came and went throughout the morning and afternoon. Castiel and Gabriel ate lunch in the back room and chatted between orders.

It was ten minutes to closing when Dean came.

"Hey," he said, eyes lighting up when he saw Cas.

Cas smiled. "Hello, Dean." He leaned over the counter towards Dean for a chaste kiss.

Dean obliged him happily.

"Dean-o!" Gabriel came rushing out from the back room. "How are you? Here, made you some pie." He thrust a container into Dean's hands.

"When did you make pie?" Castiel asked him.

"Oh, you know. Earlier." There was a gleam in Gabriel's eyes that Castiel didn't trust.

"Thanks. What kind?" Dean cracked the container lid open, and then looked up to glare at Gabriel. "Really?"

"What did he do?" Cas said, peeking into the container.

Instead of pie, there was a paper cutout of pi. Gabriel grinned. "I made pi. Among... other things."

"April Fools Day has been over for months," Cas said, "so you can stop trying to be as obnoxious as possible to everyone."

Gabriel shrugged. "I'm not being obnoxious. And if I am, it's only towards Dean since he wasn't here April first."

"It's June, Gabriel," Cas said, deadpan.

"It's June?" Dean said. "Shit, it's June. Sam's coming in, like, four days."

"When does his flight land?" Cas inquired.

"Sometime in the afternoon. I've gotta check with him about that. Probably should also clean the apartment."

"Do you need any help?"

"With cleaning the apartment?"

Castiel nodded.

"My super hot boyfriend could potentially help," Dean said, "but not his trickster brother."

"Come on, you're going to have a party and not invite me?" Gabriel complained. "I'm hurt."

"Why don't you go do something, Gabriel?" Castiel suggested, giving him the look.

Gabriel rolled his eyes. "Fine." He headed back into the back room.