deancasbigbang:

Title: Hop(e)s and Honey

Author: Dogsled

Artist: Coplins

Rating: Explicit
Pairings: Dean/Castiel, (one sided Cain/Castiel, former lovers Balthazar/Castiel (they share a friendly kiss), minor Hannah/Gadreel, and off screen Jess/Sam)
Wordcount: 22000
Warnings/Tags: beekeeper!Cas, brewer!Dean, summer romance, so sweet it hurts your teeth, nature loving Castiel, fluff, meet cute, there are puppies, horse riding in cowboy hats, dandelion wishes come true
Posting: 11/20/2018

Summary:

Castiel is the youngest heir of Shurley Honey, but his elder brothers seem determined to take the company in a direction that Cas finds shocking; Michael’s plan to thin their much respected 100% natural product with corn syrup fills Castiel with disgust. Still, what can he do but focus on the work?

Finding homes for his new beehives leads Castiel to the Winchester farm, where Dean grows hops and apples and brews his own craft beers and ciders. With little brother Sam moving away to pursue married life in California, Dean is faced with the unfortunate prospect of no longer being able to sustain his grandfather’s farm on his own.

Two legacy businesses collide, and in the midst of them a beekeeper and a brewer fall in love. Can they survive a long dry summer, beehive theft, cougars, and honey entrepreneur Cain Adams, whose pursuit of Castiel has more than just a business partnership in mind? For Castiel and Dean, a new life waits for them only if they can find the courage to meet each other halfway.

What new honeyed elixir will become of them during this summer of romance?

---

The two horses clattered underneath the house, then traversed the courtyard where Castiel’s car was parked. They crossed the narrow bridge across the stream, then turned down a winding footpath that cut into the orchard. Ancient fruit trees lined the path, gnarled boughs passing just overhead with a fine smattering of late blossoms and sparse new leaves.

Castiel hummed happily. Bees and butterflies were flitting back and forth, birds were singing in the trees, and up above them, hundreds of feet over the orchard, a bald eagle was flying in ever wider, ever higher circles.

“Do you see a lot of wildlife here?” he asked.

“Sure, all sorts. There’s like uh…deer and rabbits and stuff.”

Castiel almost laughed. “And stuff?”

“Pretty much,” Dean answered, smiling. “I don’t know. What sort of animals are you thinking of?”

Castiel cocked his head. “Foxes, pheasant, turkeys? Um…other sorts of predators, I suppose. There are still mountain lions in this area, yes?”

“Sure. There’s a big cougar that lives up on the ridge. She doesn’t come down here often, though.”

Castiel frowned, staring at the back of Dean’s head for a few moments, then lifting his gaze toward the ridge as though expecting to see the big cat silhouetted against it.

“Sometimes cougar will raid beehives,” Cas explained, unable to keep the concern from his voice. “But we can put in electric fence to protect them. Bear are somewhat more difficult to keep away. They are smart enough to realize that if they rush the fence, it breaks, and a broken fence can’t zap them any more.”

“No bears here,” Dean told him, glancing back. “At least there’s rumours sometimes, but that’s all they turn out to be. Maybe just escaped exotics, you know?”

Castiel pondered over it, thoughtful. Bees liked a good high take off, so it made sense to put the hives above the orchard. But it would introduce a higher level of risk. They’d be safer in the courtyard obviously, but it was the lowest point in the valley, and there would be all sorts of disturbances that close to the house.

No, the bees would have to live on the slope, but cougars were part of the natural world, and finding a way to coexist with them was a small price to pay. If Castiel wanted an environment that was suitable for his bees, then not unusually, that kind of paradise was good for other creatures as well. Besides, the Winchester hop farm seemed so perfect in every other way, he’d be damned if he let one little kitty cat stand between him and honeybee paradise.