Entry tags:

!complete, dean winchester, tinkerbell

Who: Dean Winchester dean & Tink tinkhatespink
What: Landscaping estimate.
When: Backdated, Wednesday, June 10, after 4 PM
Where: Tink's house
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Dean is a bad landscaper. Tink is a faerie. I don't think there shall be any untoward goings on here.
Status: Closed/Completed GDoc

~*~

Money was not something Dean was great at---which was why he had a business partner who'd flunked out of MIT to run the money side of things. He was fantastic at the whole number crunching thing. There were equations practically falling out his ears every time he started talking about how they were doing which was why Dean never actually understood how they were doing in any of their 'business meetings.' He tended to call them "The State of the Failing Union Addresses."

They were definitely sliding down on whatever sliding scale existed for small business start-ups.

Could he even call what he had going a start-up after as many years as he'd been plugging away at it?

Dean tended to shrug it off when he could. He loaded his trailer with the standing mower, three variant weed-removers, a pusher for extreme slopes or sharp angles, shears for hedges, pruners, shovels, spades, rakes, a hand truck, a lawn spreader, and a box of varying assorted things he'd used at least once over the years. There was no reason he couldn't be prepared when he showed up. It was better to have it and not need it than need it and not have it. Dean would have said he'd heard that from his old man once, but he actually thought he'd heard it on some Saturday morning cartoon when his old man had been off on a bender so it'd just been him at home to make Sammy a bowl of cereal and keep him entertained.

Life went on.

Going up to the house, Dean could tell he was going to have to do a quick clean blast cut across the front lawn to till up the dirt, probably get a spreader to drop some more top soil and then go back over it with a hand truck seeder because that grass? It was not coming back. There was no resurrecting it. He wasn't a freaking angel or anything. That'd likely take him two hours there. The rose bushes could be pruned down, tilled and bedded down tight with a healthy dose of feed; they'd be right as rain again. He could get his ladder out for the fruit trees. Some pruners and maybe a lopper here and there? They'd be gorgeous. Dean figured another hour to two hours there.

Whistling, he shook his head as he pulled his truck to a stop. The old guy had been in the family too long to think about. They'd had a nickname for him for a while, but he couldn't remember it. One of many memories from his childhood he didn't need. Dean helped himself to a once over at the backyard by circling the house -looked nice enough considering the state of the yard- and gave in to the urge to pinch the bridge of his nose. No way was he clearing those bushes and brambles without resorting to hard, manual labor.

He strode back around to the front to go up to the front door and knock, leaning against the jamb while thinking of how he was going to pose to her he usually got paid by the hour and she had a lot of hours grown up around her. Dean hoped Tink really wanted her lawn work done because he could definitely use the cash infusion. Her place wouldn't get him back into the black, but it'd go a long way toward making him feel as if he weren't going to have to work 12-hour shifts at the garage to pay his bills.

Being a grown-up sucked.

~*~

Hey, there's something Tink and Dean had in common. Tink wasn't great with numbers or taxes or payroll. She hired an accountant to do that sort of thing for her. And for the Garage. Along with a Marketer, too. Most of the other stuff she could handle--staffing, ordering, etc.--but she needed help with all that legal crap. Her Accountant was awesome because she did the insurance and all that stuff too.

The good news, though, was that business was booming. Tink's Garage was doing so well, Tink had to hire extra help. That was a good thing, right? Actually, everything in Tink's life was going fairly well. Anders was moving in, business was good, her dreams had stopped, but she had plenty of Pixie Dust. It seemed like things were looking up.

Not only that, but Tink's pay hadn't been hurt in the process. She was still earning the salary she was accustomed to, but with the added benefit that she was now rent-free. The house was paid off--no mortgage--so aside from water, garbage and taxes she didn't have a ton of expenses. Hence extra money for yard work.

She answered the door a moment later, still wearing cover-alls from work (though the arms were tied around her waist now, showing off a sort of white wife-beater tank top underneath) and broke into a grin.

"You must be Dean."

~*~

Young.

Dean's first impression of Tink was she was young. His second was less flattering and more an overview of what kind of woman he perceived her to be at first glance. She definitely got ruled out as a casual fling. There was something a little too innocent about her for his tastes. Tink had the 'marrying kind' look to her. Dean wasn't the kind of man who wanted to mess around with that type of woman. Casual was the only way he went in life. He didn't have enough to offer a woman for anything longterm.

She also had the speak patterns of someone not intending to be flirtatious which either meant she batted for the other team -unlikely- or she was taken.

Taken was a good possibility. Women who looked like her? They didn't stay single long. He knew that well enough even if they weren't his type. Dean made it his job to know as much as he could about every type of person, not just women. It was the only way to go to get paid for the kind of work he did. Mechanics, lawn guys, manual labor workers in general? They were a dime a dozen. They also came a Hell of a lot cheaper than Dean Winchester. He sold his personality as much as his skills. It was something he'd learned from his father.

"I would be Dean," he agreed with a grin, "You would be Tink and I would be about to tell you I, like people in many respectable professions and at many respectable establishments, am paid by the hour. Your place?"

He tipped his head in the direction of the unkempt front lawn, eyebrow raised, "That's a lot of hours. You want me to do it in chunks? I'm not busy, so I could give you the rest of the week to finish it up, but it's going to be more than I initially thought. You've got a great place. Big. Just you here?"

Couldn't hurt to ask, Dean figured, might as well know for certain rather than leave everything to speculation.

~*~

Hey, Tink was like... twenty-six? Whatever, not that young. And she wasn't ever getting married. She didn't think. Far faaarrrrr too awkward for something like that. Though she was one of those women who was drop-dead-gorgeous (when she cleaned away the engine grease and sweat from working in the shop) but had no idea how attractive she really was. The cover-alls didn't do a whole lot to flatter her figure, but she didn't really need much for that.

Dean, on the other hand, was a handsome guy. The kind of guy that Tink would have no idea how to speak to if they weren't talking cars or work stuff. He was the kind of guy that normally made Tink tongue-tied. Until Anders came along, anyway. Now she was a lot less awkward. The pressure was off. Mostly.

"Hey, whatever it takes to get this place liveable. And then maintain. I mean, I like to have a nice yard and I wish I had more of a green thumb... but a girl knows her limits, right?" She glanced around the yard. "Well, my boyfriend's here, too, and our cats, so... The place practically echoes. I can't imagine what it was like when the Old Man was here kicking around on his own."

~*~

Boyfriend. Check on the Off-Limits List. Dean toned down the charm as he grinned. He could work with her as a client only. A guy could never have too many friends, especially pretty blonde friends. It was odd to think she lived in a house so big with only one other person, but it could have been nice if it was a family home.

"The Old Man? Your dad? You inherit the place? I sorta did that with my old man's garage---if you count getting to stick around as a mechanic after he lost it gambling as inheritance."

Dean laughed because it was honestly funny to him. John Winchester had been a man who was who he was with no respect or consideration for anyone else. There were some who'd blame him for how he'd lived. Some who'd hate him for it even, Dean knew from personal experience. Most, if they took the time to think about it, would envy him the freedom he'd had in his lifetime.

It was rare to live a life free of concern for the thoughts or opinions of others. Dean tried, but failed more often than not since he knew he had to eat. People paid for work. He couldn't alienate everyone while still putting food in his fridge and Jack Daniels in his freezer. A little give went a long way in the world and Dean could give without feeling as if he were compromising himself.

That was the real difference between him and his old man: one of them knew giving in to someone else was a compromise of self while the other didn't care.

Ticking his head to the side, Dean motioned for her to come out to walk the lawn with him, "Well, I can get started with a rough estimate on the front for you. Shouldn't be hard to go over if you've got time?"

~*~

Oh, he could definitely flirt. Tink most likely wouldn't get it, anyway. But this was a professional relationship, so best to keep it that way. Tink wasn't thinking along those lines, anyway. As attractive as Dean was, she assumed he was out of her league, anyway. And she had Anders.

"No, he was my boss. But he didn't have any family, so he sort of adopted me as his heir." Tink explained. "So I got the house and the business. Overnight I became a business and homeowner. It's a completely different league." She was quite overwhelmed a lot of the time.

"Um... that's... a shame?" Tink responded when Dean started laughing. She raised an eyebrow. "Well, yes. Let's do an estimate and all that." She followed after him, glancing around the yard. "We'll have to do the front and the back, and the back is worse. Though, it's mostly just clearing out old, dead plants. Then we'll see about... putting in something new."

~*~

"Shame isn't something either me or my old man ever really worried over. Gotta have standards higher than Winchesters to have shame. Me? None at all. I know my limits. I know where to stop because of where the lines are for polite society. Doesn't mean I always do it or I do it for any other reason than I chose to for myself."

He whistled slightly as he headed back out into the front. Pointing at various things to explain what would have to be fixed and for how much. Dean tried to explain seeding prices without getting too technical. There were parts of the lawn which could use some patching to get it looking solid green again. No one wanted their yard to have giant dead zones in it as if it were infected with some kind of plague. There was a lot of room for improvement in the front, but the running estimate still only put him at a little over nine, possibly 10 hours, depending on whether he could call in help or not.

Dean paused to hook his thumbs in his belt loops as they landed back in front of the house once more. The tips of his ears were slightly pink as he realized how much time he'd spent talking. His brother would have given him Hell over liking to hear the sound of his own voice, not to mention how he'd been talking about grass and hedges with a beautiful woman instead of anything even remotely more interesting to someone else.

"Sorry if I'm getting too much on you. I have a tendency to talk a lot when it comes to this kind of work. I really do love it. Seeing a place turn into a home someone feels proud to call their own. I can't imagine spontaneously inheriting a business and a house, but I did spontaneously inherit the care of my younger brother. I take family serious. Home, too. Your home should feel like a living, breathing part of you. You look too alive to live in a place like this, in my opinion. I think I could really make it work for you. My rate is negotiable, too. I can be coaxed down on my price if I'm given a little more leeway for what I want to do with things. It's the people who want everything on a list exactly as they listed it who get the full rate."

~*~

Tink nodded, listening with a little smirk on her face as she followed him around the yard. Something about this Dean fellow reminded her of Peter. Not the bad one from her Dreams, but the one she practically worshipped. He was bright and sunny, talkative. It reminded her of Peter’s enthusiasm, his child-like grace and poise. She was attracted to him--in a purely platonic way, of course. Nothing could come between Tink and Anders.

“Hey, that’s okay,” Tink said, beaming brightly. She was a pretty happy fairy herself. “I like what you said about… living in a home. Like, making this place a home. I mean,” she was thinking about Anders and Sir Pounce now, and Lady Widge, too. “I’ve started to put together a family here. I want to have a nice place for them to live.”

She leaned against the railing on the stairs up to the front door and turned to face him. “You know what’s best. I’ll refer to your expertise. I don’t have all the money in the world, but I can afford to have a nice yard, I think. With your help, I bet we can come up with something that’s both interesting work for you, and a pleasant end product for me, too.”

~*~

"I can work with you. Reseeding isn't expensive. I can do all the hard labor myself along with a kid I pay a fair wage for an honest evening's work. He's a little eccentric, but he likes to work. I like helping people as much as I can. Good people."

Dean clarified it as an afterthought. He knew too many people who weren't good people to say he'd help anyone. There were people who were evil in a way which had nothing to do with what line of work they were in and everything to do with what was in their hearts, their intentions, their willingness to hurt others for their own gain. He was a man who'd do a lot to survive, but he wouldn't stoop to that level.

Winchesters saved people. They weren't the kind who took them down like prey in the dark.

His old man had fallen on hard times in the end, but he'd done better than all that.

"Would it be alright if it took me a few days to get stuff together and bring my buddy out? We can work any time you're willing to let us in the yard. I prefer dusk myself. Less heat means I'm less of a hazard to you when I'm working up a sweat. No one deserves to have to shake my hand after a day of full sun here."

~*~

Tink nodded. She knew what that meant. Helping people. That's one of the things she did, too. After all, if the Old Man hadn't given her a job at the Garage, she would probably still be living in her parents' house, leeching off them. She was a woman in a male-dominated profession, and she knew it. She knew how lucky she was, how uncommon this sort of thing was.

"Oh, yeah, absolutely. I'm not going anywhere." She and Lady Widge were here to stay. They'd waited quite a while for a pretty yard, they could wait a few more days, for sure. She gave a little laugh. "Well, I'm not exactly the kind who comes out with ice cold lemonade for the dudes working in her yard, but... I can stock up on beer and pizza for you and your friend."

~*~

Dean gave a laugh as he shook his head. She was fun. He had a feeling the guy she was with was one lucky dude. One of these days he'd settle down himself. Maybe. It was hard to think of something like a real relationship when he'd hardly had the chance to see one and his entire life was one trainwreck after another.

He always felt as if there were something missing though---which could have been a good woman.

It wasn't like Dean would know.

"I appreciate it. My pal? Can't drink. I just don't recommend it. We're fine with water. I try to avoid drinking on the job since I can be a friendly drunk. Putting it mildly."

He would get together with Nux to set things up. They'd manage to do alright for Tink, Dean had no doubt. She seemed light-hearted enough to understand he couldn't work magic overnight. Some clients? They thought he had a freaking magic wand or access to serious hoodoo to make their place go from rags to riches in one visit.

Crazy.

Waving at her, Dean turned to head back to his ride, "I'll get in touch when I'm ready to come out with my guy. We'll take care of you, Tink. Thanks for the business. Hope your days stay smooth."

Nice girl. Dean could handle working with her for a while. Could be fun.