Title: Green Corners
Author: rustling-pages
Artist: harplesscastiel
Rating: Teen
Pairings: Dean/Cas (past Dean/Lisa)
Wordcount: 75000
Warnings/Tags: Threat of Main Character Death, Elemental Magic AU, Friends to Lovers, Slow Burn, Platonic Bedsharing, Grief and Hurt/Comfort, Familiars, Gardening with Magic, Myth Arc
Posting: 11/1/2018
Summary:
After the death of his son, there is nothing left for Dean other than his garden market. His days are tough, the nights are tougher, but at least there’s a reason to get up in the morning. And with the new boom on do-it-yourself garden magic, his business is going okay.
Amidst the passing of time, there is only one thing that distracts him from functioning like a normal human being: Diagonally across the street, in the display window of that traditional Herb and Potion shop, plants are dying in masses.
Storming in to confront the owner goes differently than he imagined, though. Castiel Novak may be the kind of guy who wears old-fashioned mage robes and keeps his shop in sweltering heat, but he’s also a talented herbalist, the kindest soul Dean has ever met, and utterly beautiful.
Not that Dean is ready for anything other than friendship.
(Not that Cas doesn’t get sick a bit too often.)
He opens a door and for a moment, Dean is almost blinded by the sudden intensity of green light after the dimness of the shop.
It’s a greenhouse.
Smaller than Deans’ more commercial collection of glass buildings, and indefinitely more art-nouveau, but definitely a well-maintained greenhouse.
“Step through, please.”
Dean is spurred back into action and stumbles the rest of the way inside, while Castiel carefully closes the door behind them. “To keep the bees out of the shop,” he explains with a fond twinkle in his eyes, as they follow one of them buzzing pleasantly past them.
Dean finds his voice long enough to say, “You have bees in a greenhouse.”
“They live in the garden, but I like to let them in occasionally.”
The pleasant humid warmth is a far cry from the bone-dry heat of the shop, but it does explain the fire. Dean’s best guess is a sort of hypocaust under the terra cotta floor.
The amount of plants in here is bordering on too many, but much like within the shop, it’s a well-maintained crowdedness. Row upon row of plants are anchored into pulley mechanisms, to easily select which flower bed one works on.
To call this greenhouse elegant would be an understatement.
“Shit, I’m such a douche. You’re a herbalist.”
“I am.”
But, “What’s with the plants in the display?”
Castiel looks down on the small pot he’s still carrying, and the sadness sitting in the crinkles of his eyes grows more pronounced.
“They’re the ones I can’t save.” And suddenly, Dean feels very small. “I do my best, but as you know, sometimes there is no cure and they waste away. My abilities allow me to feel which plants are beyond my help, even before they begin showing their disease.”
Dean nods numbly.
“So you put them into the window.”
“Yes. I figure the least I can do for them is make sure they are appreciated by someone other than me, if only for a short time.”
He smiles at the little Umbrian basil, and now that Dean knows the full story, he understands it’s the loving goodbye of a parent who needs to ease the passing. He feels almost sick, suddenly, thrown back to a hospital room and watching Lisa hold Ben’s hand as his heart stops beating.
“That’s…” He gulps down memories, pulls himself back into this healthy green world. “I’m honestly such an asshole.”
And Castiel lays a hand on Dean’s upper arm and very earnestly says, “You’re clearly very passionate about plants, Dean. I could never fault anyone for caring too much.”
And it just figures that the one guy Dean chooses to take out his own problems on is one of the kindest people he has ever met. And also has the most gorgeous eyes Dean has ever seen.
“What minerals are you putting into your soil?”, he asks to distract them both from whatever moment they just shared.