Chapter Text
‘ “I don’t believe in magic”
The young boy said.
The old man smiled
“You will, when you see her” ‘
-Atticus
“What are your favourite insects, dear prince?”
“A bee!” the child replied happily.
“And you shall be one of them” she grinned from ear to ear.
-
Bees are scary, no matter if they know how to make delicious honey. Dean liked honey, but he did not like bees. Once, he had been wondering around in the castle’s garden, enjoying the flowers blooming for springs. During his little exploration in the garden, he found a bug making funny noises as it flew. With fur behind the head and pretty black and yellow stripes, flying from one rose to another. Feeling more curious with the pretty bug, he stepped closer with a hand slowly reaching out to feel the part that looks so fluffy. He grinned when the bug’s attention shifted from the flowers to him. The bug wants to play!
His smile fell when he felt a sharp pain on his hand.
His cries made Mary and Deanna came rushing, abandoning their tea and cookies.
“Dean? Dean! Tell mommy what happens” Dean barely looked at his mother kneeling in front of him, too focused on the pain.
“T-The bug bit me! Bug hates me!”
Mary looked around for said ‘bug’ only to find a bee lying on the ground near them, its sting no longer attached to the poor creature.
“Oh dear, you were stung by a bee” Gently his mother wiped away the tears and snot and Deanna gestured them back to the castle.
“Come, love. Let’s apply some salve and you’ll be alright”
Dean was not ‘alright’. The pain was unbearable and it made him constantly in tears. The place where he was stung was so swollen he was afraid that it might explode, no matter how many times Mrs Tran, the royal physician, comforted him that no, he’s not going to explode and no, his hand would not be swollen for the rest of his life. It would have made sword practice more difficult.
Three miserable days later, he was healed.
After that Dean never goes anywhere near the garden or anywhere with flowers, ever again.
-
(Dean: 7 years old, Sam: 3 years old)
“Come on, Sam. This is not funny!” Dean yelled, glaring at his giggling little brother disappearing behind a bush.
“Dean, catch, catch!”
He would have caught his little brother in no time. He was older and stronger than Sam after. But there was just one tiny problem.
Sam ran into the garden. The only part of the castle Dean would never enter. His mother couldn’t even make him attend all those fancy tea parties she organized in the garden. He would rather marry a goblin than stepping foot into that hellish place.
But Sam was in there, and Sam was always his exception. He had sneaked into his brother’s room to stay with him when his father had forbidden him to do so. “I want him to learn to be independent, Mary. It will start with him sleeping alone” King John had said. Dean would have obeyed, he had obeyed every word his father had told him, but Sammy did not like to sleep alone in the nursery room. It broke Dean’s heart to listen to Sammy’s cries in the middle of the night because he was too scared to sleep alone. Mary was already tired with all those duties she had and John would never come to comfort little Sammy, so Dean took the responsibility to make sure Sam cry less and smile more.
He feared the garden as much as he loved Sammy. If there were any alternative ways to get Sammy out of there he would have taken it but no one was around, not even the maids or the knights guarding the inside of the castle.
With shaky legs and heart beating rapidly, he took a step into the garden. And another. The soft grass crunched under his boots, the strong pollen in the air that was making him sneeze reminded him that it was spring. Spring means flowers, and flowers mean bees. That made him take a cowardly step back.
The resolution of finding Sammy faltered a little, but his concern for his safety made him pushed himself forward. The bee had stung him before and he didn’t want Sammy to experience the same fear and pain as he did years ago. Not under his watch.
“Sammy, it’s not safe in here! If you come out now I’ll give you my dessert today!” When there was no answer, he panicked and yelled louder. “Sammy, please!”
He searched high and low, searching for his baby brother. Did he fell into a hole like Alice did? Or did the evil bees kidnapped Sam to get revenge for their fallen soldier when it died after stinging Dean?
The child gripped onto his wooden sword tighter when buzzing filled the air. It was the sound of evil.
“I-I am not afraid of you, bee!” the little prince unsheathed his sword and swung it around in the air.
The buzzing did not stop, it got closer and closer, close enough for Dean to hear what was said under those buzzing.
“You are not afraid of me?” a voice said along with the buzz. It sounded like a boy, hopeful and scared as well. But they can be deceiving.
“No! I will slay you if you do not give my brother back, evil creature!” The buzzing increased.
“Please don’t slay me! I did not take your brother nor am I an evil creature”
Dean tried to find the source of the voice and buzzing, swinging the sword aimlessly in the air again as if trying to look threatening.
“Then show yourself!”
The stranger did show himself, in the form of Dean’s deepest fear.
A bee.
He was afraid. He wanted to run to his mother’s safe embrace or hide behind Ellen with her holding the knives protecting him. But Sammy needed him, there was no time for fear.
“Where is my brother?” he asked the bee.
“I’m afraid I do not know.” The disappointment and fear on Dean’s face must be obvious because the bee was offering his help again. “I will help you find your brother! I am very good in searching!”
Despite the fear, Dean was desperate for help. He wouldn’t be able to find Sammy alone, not if Sammy went into the maze garden. The bee can fly, maybe he can fly high enough to spot where Sammy was.
“You will help me?” Dean asked hopefully.
If the bee was a human, he would be nodding his head eagerly.
“Of course!” there was a pause and hesitation “But you have to give me something in return”
“Anything” Dean answered immediately, not wanting to delay any second of finding Sammy.
“You have to give me a kiss” the boy made a confused sound.
“A kiss?”
“Yes, a kiss”
The prince frowned at the request. He didn’t want his first kiss to be with a bee and he didn’t want to get pregnant because of a kiss. Charlie had told him that he could get pregnant if he kisses someone who was not his family. But Sammy needed him. Maybe kissing a bee and get pregnant wouldn’t be as bad as seeing Sammy in tears. He didn’t know what pregnant was, he would have to ask his mom later.
“Okay”
The bee buzzed happily.
“What’s your name?” Dean didn’t want to give his name to a bee, but he needed the help.
“Dean,” he said grumpily. The bee did not seem to mind, he was still radiating with happiness.
“Hello, Dean. My name is Castiel”
Then they both started searching for the youngest prince.
It was late in the afternoon when the bee declared that he found the small prince sleeping under the shade of the tree. Looking so peaceful while clinging onto a lollipop stick.
“Sammy!” Dean cried as he shook his little brother’s shoulder.
The little prince grunted, mumbling a no before going back to sleep. He must be tired, Dean couldn’t blame him. From a distance, he could see Rufus, the royal gardener, pushing a cart full of dirt. Before he could call him for his help, the bee buzzed again.
“Dean” he flew lower “Dean you promised” Now Dean was annoyed. His main priority now was to take Sam back to the castle before it gets too dark, not giving a kiss to a bee that might sting him.
“I’ll give you a kiss tomorrow! Right now I need to take care of Sammy”
For a moment Dean felt guilty with the way the bee’s fainter buzzing.
“Okay,” the bee said before flying away to hide among Mary’s bushes of roses.
The prince called out for Rufus, and they went back into the castle. By supper, Dean had already forgotten about the little bee.
He would not have remembered it at all if not for Sammy’s question during breakfast a day after he met the bee.
“Dean will kiss bee today?” little Sammy asked innocently while Mary raised an eyebrow. Deanna looked amused. He must have heard what he said to the bee yesterday.
“I…” he lowered his head, not knowing what to answer. A part of him wanted to go back and fulfil the promise, another part of him did not want to go back to the garden ever again.
“But Dean promise!” his brother argued, shaking his fork around with a stern face. Well, as stern as a three years old could be.
Dean was ashamed that his brother knew he was going to break a promise. Mary smiled kindly, taking the fork away from Sam.
“Dean, I don’t know about the kiss, but a promise is a promise. It is not my decision to make you fulfil it or not, but I know you will choose the right decision. Now come on Sam, why don’t you tell mommy about your adventure yesterday?”
Sam beamed.
“Bunny’s name is Gabwiel, Gabwiel gives me a lollipop!”
After planting a kiss on Dean’s forehead, she carried Sam out of the dining to find his nanny.
He didn’t want to break a promise, knowing how much his mother dislike people who break their promises. Father had broken a lot of his promises, but they knew it was unavoidable because the kingdom would always come first.
For the rest of the morning, Dean spent it by pacing around the entrance of the garden. Torn between avoiding his fear or be a man and fulfil the promise. With a determined face, he marched into the garden. He needed to be a good example for Sammy. He’s a big brother after all.
Before he could search for the bee, the bee found him first.
“Dean?” the voice called timidly. “Dean!” he called again, this time louder and happier.
“Hey, Cas” the prince gave him a lazy wave before lowering his head to stare at his boots.
“You came back!”
“Well, I did promise” he stood straighter “And a real prince does not break his promise”
For the first time he looked at the bee, really look at him and not just glancing at him. The bee was bigger than the other bee he had seen before, fluffier too. The black and yellow stripes and the fur behind the head were the same. Castiel’s wings were larger too, batting rapidly to keep him floating around the air.
Dean looked away shyly before looking back at Cas again.
“Come closer, Cas,” he said, tilting his head higher as he closed his eyes. Waiting for the kiss to come. He felt a bump against his lips. Then it turned into something softer and warmer like- Dean gasped- like a human’s lips.
He opened his eyes, green orbs met beautiful blue orbs that would put the sky and ocean to shame. The blue eyes were staring back at him.
“W-Who?!” Dean mumbled against the lips, pulling away quickly to grab his wooden sword.
“Wait, Dean! It’s me” the boy in front of him was unfamiliar, but the voice was.
But it couldn’t be him, the one he knew was a tiny bee with black and yellow stripes and wings, not a boy with messy black curls and blue eyes.
“Cas…?”
Cas smiled when he was recognized.
“Hello Dean”
When he came back to the castle hand in hand with a strange blue eyed boy, many people tried to peek into Dean’s bedroom to take a glimpse of the boy. Mary and Deanna were even more bewildered when Dean invited Cas to join lunch with them. Sammy was just happy there’s another boy to play with.
“Well, what a pleasant surprise” Deanna blinked. The way how Castiel gracefully bowed as if he had been introduced formally before was even more confusing.
“I apologize for joining in such a short notice, my name is Castiel”
“Well, a friend of Dean is always welcome to join us”
The adults watched as Castiel pulled a chair for Dean before taking a seat himself.
“Mom, can Cas stay with us? He has nowhere to go”
As much as Mary and Deanna wanted to question the boy who appeared out of nowhere with their boy, they couldn’t say no. At the mention of nowhere to go only soften their hearts. They could always get someone to find information about a boy named Castiel.
“Of course he can, Dean. He will be under your care”
Dean nodded, patting Cas on the back.
“I’ll take good care of you, Cas.”
“As I will to you”
In the middle of their lunch, Dean remembered something.
“Oh right, mom! I’m pregnant”
Mary’s goblet clattered onto the ground, spilling the wine.
“E-Excuse me?”
“I kissed Cas and he turned into Cas! And since I kissed him, I’m pregnant right?”
It took a while to explain that no, Dean he won’t get pregnant with just a kiss. And another to explain what does pregnant means.
Charlie was grounded for lying to Dean.