Chapter Text
Dean figured if he hadn’t met his soul mate by thirty five he probably didn’t have one. Most people had found their soul mate by the time they were twenty one, a few people waited a bit longer. After thirty they said your soul mate had probably died. No one ever said you just didn’t have one. No, they always thought it was better if you could have had one but had tragically missed the chance.
Dean preferred to think he didn’t have one instead of mourning someone he had never met.
So he didn’t exactly expect to walk into someone at the grocery store and get a wicked migraine and have the world explode into chaos but that’s exactly what happened.
He staggered back and grabbed at the bin of- fuck, what were those? Limes? They were too small to be oranges. What colour were limes? He knew there was a colour people always said with limes.
“Ow.” The complete stranger said.
“Yeah.” Dean agreed. He caught sight of the sign in front of the display. Definitely limes.
“This is…” The complete stranger struggled to find his words.
“Horrible.” Dean filled in. Look, they were already speaking for each other. Just like soul mates were supposed to.
“Yes.” The complete stranger agreed. He closed his eyes.
Dean thought that was a great idea. He closed his eyes too. He’d figure out what colour limes were once his head stopped pounding. “I guess this means we’re soul mates.”
“Or we’re both suffering from massive and sudden cranial trauma at the same time.” The stranger said. “I’m Castiel.”
“Dean.” Dean said. He slowly opened one eye. The world was still chaotic and full of colours he couldn’t match names to. He looked over at Castiel. Castiel had cracked open one eye too. Whatever colour that stared back at him it was intense. “…purple?”
“What?” Castiel asked.
“Your eyes.” Dean said. “Purple, right?”
“Everyone tells me they’re blue.” Castiel said.
Dean glanced over at the wooden stand of the vegetable bins- everyone said wood was brown- then looked back at Castiel’s eyes. “Well, they ain’t brown.”
“And yours are? Brown, I mean.” Castiel said. He squinted at Dean.
“My mom says they’re-” Dean snapped his head up. “Lime green!” He knew he’d figure it out eventually. He stared at the limes. So that was green. Huh.
“Lime green.” Castiel contemplated.
“What? No. I mean. Yeah my mom says they’re green but I was looking at the limes.” Dean said. He pointed over to the bin to highlight the fact.
Castiel swiveled his head around to look. “Green.” Castiel said mystified.
“Yeah.” Dean said. “Green.”
A small ring of people was forming around them. Dean realized they probably looked like a couple of freaks staring at the limes talking about green.
“Apples.” Castiel blurted.
“Huh?” Dean looked back over to find Castiel staring at the next row over.
“They’re red.” Castiel said. “Right?”
“…uh…yeah. I think so.” Dean said. He looked over. Some of them were…red? Maybe? But some of them were definitely green. …and a lighter green?
“And bananas, they’re yellow.” Castiel said. He craned his head around to scan for the bananas.
Dean followed his gaze. They both frowned.
“They’re the same colour as the limes.” Castiel said.
Dean looked between the bananas and the limes. He definitely agreed, lime green and banana yellow but…they were both the same colour. Maybe yellow was just a different shade of green…or maybe everyone was lying to him about it? Maybe it was some big, soul mates only joke?
They meandered through the fruit and vegetable isles trying to piece everything together. Oranges were easy. Orange. Mangoes were either red, orange, and green or they were the light green but now that he had figured out orange he thought it might be light orange. Blueberries were easy. Blue berries. Strawberries they were sure were red. Peaches they couldn’t agree on. Were they orange or …some other colour they hadn’t figured out yet? Some of them looked light orange.
They argued about it. Then decided arguing about whether peaches were orange or light orange or something else was ridiculous and that they were drawing a crowd.
They agreed to get their own shopping done and then meet up in front of the store. They traded phone numbers just in case.
Dean asked the cashier what colour her shirt was. She said it was green. It didn’t look like the limes. It looked more like the colour of wood, brown. The cashier assured him it was also green. He shrugged. There was a lot of green in the world.
He found Castiel standing outside.
“…I think my car is red.” Castiel mused.
“Mine too. I think.” Dean said.
They set off together. Dean’s car was easy to find. There weren’t many classic cars in the parking lot.
“That’s not red.” Castiel said.
“Really dark red?” Dean suggested.
“We’re idiots.” Castiel declared.
“Thanks.” Dean said.
“There has to be an app for this.” Castiel set his groceries down and took out his phone. He tapped the screen frantically until he made an uh hah! noise. He took a picture of Dean’s car.
They waited.
“It’s black.” Castiel declared.
Dean looked his car over. Black. Huh. He looked up at Castiel. “Your hair’s almost the same colour.”
“Is it?” Castiel touched his hair. “I was told it was dark brown.”
Dean shrugged. Maybe black and brown were related colours….but then what about the cashier’s shirt? That had looked brown too.
Castiel helped him put his groceries in the trunk then they went on a search for Castiel’s car. Which was easy. He clicked the button of the key fob to set the alarm off. They followed the sound to Castiel’s car.
Castiel stared at the lively colour. “It’s green.”
“Why is everything green?” Dean muttered as if the colour was personally offending him.
Dean helped Castiel load up his groceries then they agreed to each go home, drop their groceries off, and meet at the park in a half hour. It turned out they lived a block away from each other. Castiel had moved into the neighbourhood two weeks ago.
Dean drove home. Well, he drove to his brother and sister-in-law’s house because maybe he wasn’t quite the definition of a responsible adult at thirty five. Sam and Jess could deal with the bills, he’d pay rent.
The drive sucked. Too many colours.
He parked the car and hauled the groceries inside. He stopped in the kitchen. Sam was sitting at the kitchen table screwing around on his phone— and wearing a light orange shirt.
“Hey. What colour is your shirt?” Dean asked. He put the grocery bags down on the counter and squinted at Sam’s t-shirt.
“Yellow.” Sam said absently.
So light orange was yellow. Dean tried to fit that into the world. How did people mistake green and yellow? Bananas were definitely green. “Why do people say banana yellow? They’re green. Like, lime fucking green.”
“Green?” Sam said confused. “They probably aren’t ripe-” His eyes went wide. “You met your soul mate!? Where are they!?”
“Uh, yeah.” Dean said. “And he’s probably at home putting his groceries away.” He frowned at the groceries. “Wait. Fruit changes colour?”
He had known fruit changed colour but he had always thought it just got more whatever the colour was, not a totally different colour. He had figured things like bananas just got more yellow over time. How the hell did they change into a completely different colour?
“You’re worried about fruit?” Sam said incredulously. “Dean! You found your soul mate!” Sam launched himself out of his chair and dragged Dean into a hug. “Do you realize how lucky you are to find your soul mate this late?”
“Yeah, yeah. I’m a lucky spinster who finally met their man.” Dean squirmed out of the hug. He checked his watch. If he wasn’t going to stand up his soul mate on their first date he had to get going. “And I’m gonna stay a spinster if you don’t let me put the damn groceries away and go meet him.”
“I’ll do it!” Sam said. He grabbed a can off the counter and flung the cupboards open. “You go meet your soul mate!”
“Soul mate?” Jess asked, wandering into the kitchen. Her eyes lit up. “Dean! You met your soul mate?”
Dean sighed as he was dragged into another hug. It took him a whole minute to pry Jess off him. Thankfully by then Sam and Jess were babbling about how wonderful and amazing and fantastic everything was now the he had found his soul mate. Dean took the opportunity to ditch them.
He slipped out of the house and headed for the park. It wasn’t until he got there that he realized the park was a bad idea. There were people there and now they were a sea of colours; most of which he couldn’t name. Also, shit tons of green. Grass, plants, leaves. All green. Why was everything green?
Dean shook his head at all the green then tried to call up what his soul mate actually looked like but he had been so caught up in everything suddenly being in technicolour that he couldn’t actually remember. He knew he had dark hair and that he had said it was brown but then maybe it was green or black. He had thought the cashier’s shirt was brown but she had said it was green. Did people have green hair?
He thought it over. He didn’t think he had ever heard of someone with green hair…unless it was dyed. Did his soul mate dye his hair? Shit. How was this supposed to work?
Dean looked around again. There wasn’t anyone standing around looking lost. “This is ridiculous.” He pulled out his phone and phoned his soul mate.
He got a relieved hello. His soul mate told him where he was standing. Dean looked around. There was a man standing by a tree waving at him. Dean started towards him. He narrowed his eyes at his shirt. He was pretty sure Castiel had changed his shirt but what if shirts just suddenly changed colours too?
“I was starting to get worried.” Castiel said. He motioned to the people in the park. “All the colour is distracting. I wasn’t sure you’d be able to find me.”
“Yeah.” Dean agreed. It was nuts. How did people live like this? Why did they think it was such a great thing?
“…so…I guess we should…get to know each other?” Castiel said. He spread his hands and shrugged. “I mean, what else do soul mates do when they first meet?”
Dean shrugged. Sam and Jess had disappeared for two days. Sam and Jess still swore all they had done was talk. Dean had never believed them. Why would someone just talk with their soul mate for two days? Why not just get down to the good stuff? But now he was starting to see why maybe having a bunch of sex with a stranger while his head kept spinning at all the colours around him wasn’t a great idea.
“There’s a paint store down the street.” Castiel said.
Dean turned his head and stared. “Huh?”
What the hell was that supposed to mean?
“There’s a paint store.” Castiel repeated. “We could go look at colour swatches.”
It took Dean a full twenty seconds to understand what Castiel meant. He burst out laughing.
Castiel scowled at him.
Dean settled himself down. He gave Castiel a friendly punch to his shoulder. “Yeah. Alright. Let’s go look at some colours.”