☼ = fluffy and/or feel good fics
☂ = angst
☆ = great sex scenes
♣ = personal favourite
◄ = recently added
♦ = nothing special but worth a read
(use ctrl+f or command+f and paste in the symbol to search)
(thanks to anna for letting me use her fic rec layout)
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categories:
- tropes (soul bonding, sharing a bed etc)
- post-purgatory/purgatory
- long fics (over 20,000 words)
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Title: A Fleeting, Not Frozen, Moment with You ☼♦
Words: 12,430
Summary: After Castiel loses his grace, the Winchesters decide to break him into hunting as a human with a simple hunt in Iowa. However, things quickly go wrong, leaving Dean and Cas trapped. With Cas too new to his human body and time running out, Dean must take drastic action to keep them alive. Freezer!fic.
Thoughts: This made me feel warm and fuzzy, even though it really shouldn’t have, considering they spent most of the fic in a freezer. Usually, I don’t find myself attached to fics that aren’t 50000 words long, but I’ll remember this one for a long, long time. It’s just so well-written and perfect for a little Destiel fix.
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Title: Spirits of Another Sort ♣☆
Words: 12,000
Summary: Set during 6.09 ‘Clap Your Hands if you Believe. ‘Dean? Did you service Oberon, King of the fairies?’
Thoughts: The summary really doesn’t do this justice. It made me laugh and Dean and Cas are so in character it’s scary. It could have easily slotted into the episode and would have been a rather (hot) alternative. It definitely deserves more attention.
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Title: Undone ♣☼
Words: 9,686
Summary: A curse renders Dean completely dependent upon Castiel. Sam can only watch and wonder.
Thoughts: I don’t usually reread short fics unless they’re REALLY good. I actually didn’t find this one amazing and yet I keep going back to read it. All I can say is: go read it. It will hypnotise you.
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Title: Be Mine ☼
Words: 16,309
Summary: Set during and after My Bloody Valentine. Castiel confesses his feelings for Dean while dealing with a horseman, demons and a bloodthirsty Sam.
Thoughts: It might have been because I was reading this at 3am, but I couldn’t really hear the voices that clearly in this (I find the most important thing in a fic is whether you can hear the person speaking vividly). But I don’t think I’ve ever smiled so much while reading a SPN fic. Definitely a must-read.
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Title: Bring it on Home ☆
Words: 14,871
Summary: Cas is beginning to display emotions. This wouldn’t be so bad, were it not for the fact that the emotions seem to be centring themselves on Dean. Dean is oblivious, of course; Sam, on the other hand, is not. Sam’s never tried his hand at matchmaking before, but it can’t be so hard, right?
Thoughts: Okay, I’ve seen this on nearly every rec list I’ve been on, so it makes sense to have it on my own. It’s not the most perfect fic out there, but for some reason, it just sticks with you and you end up coming back to it.
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Title: Conservation of Space ♣☆
Words: 2161
Summary: There aren’t a lot of things more tortuously unpleasant than killing a succubus, exactly two minutes after she managed to cover you in whatever passed for her crazy pheromone crap.
Thoughts: Damn. Just… damn. The fucking imagery in this is flawless and it’s hot and perfect and God. Speechless.
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Title: The Day the World Went Away ☼♣
Words: 59, 658
Summary: After being reunited with Sam and leaving Lisa, Dean is finding that adjusting back into the hunting lifestyle is harder than he thought it would be. When a particular hunt goes badly, he gets knocked out, only to awaken five years in the future. Things are definitely different; Castiel is a hunter, Sam is married and things between Dean and Castiel have gone somewhere Dean really hadn’t expected. And somewhere in all of this there is a lesson to be learned.
Thoughts: This was one of the first Destiel fics I read and it was so long ago that I read it, but it was a fic that never really left me. I don’t remember it very much, but I remember I was mind-blown by it when I’d finished it. So yeah, definitely worth a read.
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Title: And I Will Walk on Water ☂
Words: 122,600
Summary: In which Dean discovers that the archangels didn’t finish their job after all, and that demons picked up where they left off.
Thoughts: Same with this one; I remember it, but I don’t remember the story. I do remember it being quite dark, though.
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Title: To Err Is Human; To Forgive, Divine ☂
Words: 30,000-ish
Summary: Castiel’s betrayal is unforgivable. Dean thinks so and Sam certainly thinks so. But will they find forgiveness in their hearts when an old enemy gets revenge?
Thoughts: strangenessandcharm constantly appears on people’s rec lists - she is pretty incredible. I remember being very irritated with Sam in this fic, but I seriously loved him for making me feel irritated with him. Any strangenessandcharm story you come across has to be read. They are, without doubt, the perfect SPN fanfictions.
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Title: Niceties ☆
Words: 4065
Summary: Dean is cursed, and has to have sex. Or die.
Thoughts: Yeah, yeah, I know. Sex!Pollen fic, how original. But I’m a sucker for all of them. I don’t rec a lot of short fics – as you can probably tell – so when I do, it means they are very, very good.
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Title: Hummingbirds ☼
Words: 23,700
Summary: Castiel is rendered mute after being taught a painful lesson, but that enables Dean to learn a few lessons of his own while holding onto something important for him. Elsewhere, someone really loves to count…
Thoughts: Hey, look, another strangenessandcharm fic. And this is flawless. It has a totally unexpected shot of humour and the characterisations are spot on. Not only that, but there is some beautiful fanart that could be drawn from some of the scenes she’s wrote in here. Cas is adorable, Dean’s a dick and I seriously just love everything about it.
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Title: Pretty Angel ♦
Words: 14,800
Summary: Michael has a plan to break Team Free Will, and it involves turning Castiel into a rentboy.
Thoughts: Okay, so this is a little AU, but it’s an AU that fits into canon. Honestly, I swerved around this fic a lot because I detest AU’s and I thought this was going to be on those fics where Cas was too human and Dean was too soppy. But god, I was wrong. It’s smutty, cute, angsty, and the fact that Michael watches over them isn’t as disturbing as you might think. It’s like, Cas and Dean develop as characters, but Michael actually develops the most. Seriously, this is fantastic.
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Title: Only Fools Rush In ♣☼
Words: 18, 161
Summary: Cas lets his feelings run away with him, Gabe is a total dick, Sam is concerned, and Dean has to make a choice. Or: Dean does something and in angelic tradition that means he’s become Castiel’s fiancé. Dean doesn’t know if he wants to get married, but he doesn’t want to let Castiel down either.
Thoughts: I love these forced-marriage-soul-bonding type fics, so this is definitely worth a read.
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Title: That Awkward Moment When… ♣☆☼
Words: 7200
Summary: All in all, with a full tank of gas and his radio turned up loud, Dean was in a pretty damn good mood. All that vanished into shock and concern when the sky lit up like daylight, as though someone had decided that black was so passé for nighttime.
Thoughts: Incoherent. Seriously, this is just… wing!kink to the max. Asdksllkglkhg.
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Title: With No Direction Home ☼♦
Words: 11,500
Summary: In which there’s a road trip, Dean realizes a lot of things, Sam gets it before him and Castiel (while being a BAMF in more ways than one) has a thing for Bob Dylan.
Thoughts: I should really start making notes about fanfictions after I’ve read them, so I can remember what to put here. But there’s a reason this is on my rec list, so it must have been good.
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Title: That Which Is Mine ♣☆☼
Words: 2038
Summary: Sam’s guilty, Dean’s bored, Castiel learns valuable life lessons.
Thoughts: Pie. Pieeeee. And it’s written by entangled_now, whose fics are always superb.
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Title: There’s Only One Sure Thing I Know ♦
Words: 20,000 approx
Summary: Dean doesn’t even get halfway through explaining before Bobby starts laughing. When he lets himself think about it for more than five seconds, Dean can almost see Bobby’s point: he’s faced down demons, witches, vampires, werewolves, ghosts, angels, and Satan himself and now he’s been defeated by the God damn Midwest..
Thoughts: I like this for the domesticity, ugh, it’s perfect. If Swan Song was the last episode of Supernatural, this is my headcanon for what happened afterwards.
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Title: Praise the Lord (Or Pass the Ammunition) ♦☼
Words: 28,500
Summary: When Dean dies yet again Heaven decides it’s been missing an angel and it’s time to fill the vacancy. It takes Dean a long, long time –and several miracles performed over cheeseburgers and lice– to come to terms with his new celestial life and his old earthly temptations. Featuring Dean’s new set of wings, human Castiel, beers at the Roadhouse, the Choirs of Heaven, a naked Sammy, Michael and other angels with bard inclinations, lame pick-up lines, Zachariah’s lion head, gaudy motels, and Oprah-worthy revelations that are way funnier in Enochian..
Thoughts: I actually wanted to avoid this fic, but I ended up forcing myself to read it. I’m glad I did – the way Dean interacts with the other angels is brilliant. I also love that’s it’s not entirely angsty, considering the topic, what with Dean being dead and all. Shame I can’t remember the ending, but I imagine it was amazing.
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Title: Wisely and Slow; they stumble that run fast for cienna ♦☼☆
Words: 15,090
Summary: Who the hell puts a cursed object in a 25 cent machine anyway?
Thoughts: Totally cliché, but jeez, it’s perfect.
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Title: Ghost Dance ☂♣
Words: 51,194
Summary: In post-apocalyptic isolation, Castiel nurses Dean back to something like his former self, but will a time come when Dean’s recovered –and rediscovered– too much?
Thoughts: Most of the fics I end up enjoying are those without too much angst – I read for amusement, not for pain – but this one, this one, hurts in the best way and yet makes me feel happy. So it’s a definite favourite.
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Title: Blood Is Freedoms Stain ♦☼
Words: 61,000
Summary: Set after 5.20 ‘The Devil You Know.’ It turns out Gabriel has more and better friends than he realised. Friends willing to do whatever it takes to bring him back - including manipulating a well-meaning, if somewhat naïve, Castiel. But perhaps the consequences, painful as they are and all the worse for playing out as the apocalypse nears its climax, are just the catalyst Dean and Cas need to admit their growing feelings for each other (and maybe even teach Gabriel a thing or two as well).
Thoughts: The thing that sold this to me? Sam and Gabriel’s little chat. You’ll know what I mean when you read it. It was just so… raw. And the story behind Gabriel’s vessel is wonderful. This is the first time I’ve enjoyed the storyline and side characters more than the Destiel.
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Title: It Came Upon A Midnight Clear ☂☂☂☂☼☼☼☼
Words: 12,436
Summary: They weren’t going to have Christmas this year. An unexpected guest changes things. Or, the one where Dean and Castiel do it on the couch.
Thoughts: Holy fucking shit, this actually punched me right in the gut. Most fics I’ve read lately seem to tug at my heartstrings, or leave that gentle ache in my chest, but this full on ripped my heart out and stomped all over it. This isn’t an angsty fic – I’d go so far as to say it’s romance/humor. But the ending… God, just go read it.
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Title: Things Dean Winchester Loves ☼
Words: 3622
Summary: Castiel makes a list, Sam gives good advice, and Dean takes a while to catch on.
Thoughts: AgAHghH fluffy feels, uGH.
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Title: Tripping ♣☼
Words: 45,000 approx
Summary: What do you do when the Universe itself seems to have decided you belong with your very stoic, very angelic, very MALE hunting companion? Dean’s about to find out.
Thoughts: If I had to pick a fic that represents Destiel, or is the Destiel fic, this would be it. There are a few minor hiccups with Cas’s characterisation, but apart from that, everything is perfect.
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Title: Cabin Fever ♣♦
Words: 4390
Summary: Set somewhere in season 5. Long story short; Dean and Cas get stuck underground, and Dean ends up giving Cas kissing-lessons.
Thoughts: Should have been cliche. Totally wasn’t. Amazing for a quick read.
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Title: Release ♦☂
Words: 2504
Summary: Dean refuses to acknowledge his affection/lust for Castiel which backfires horridly when an angel/monster/witch strips Dean of his control and leaves only the basic instincts. The animal inside Dean wants Castiel, wants him under him, submitting, his mate/bitch and he’ll do whatever he needs to get that.
Thoughts: Honestly, this is a lot better than it sounds. I don’t know what made me click on this, since I don’t usually like things like this, but I’ve guiltily read it multiple times.
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Title: The Lord’s Work ☼
Words: 4500
Summary: That obligatory sex pollen fic (though it also qualifies as fuck-or-die).
Thoughts: So I have a little problem with the characterisation in this - VERY MINOR - but apart from that, this was fucking brilliant. The ending is what does it for me.
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Title: Where All Paths Lead ☂
Words: 1300
Summary: Castiel will fall in love with Dean, and Uriel is the first to know.
Thoughts: The ending of this just kinda makes you sit there for a minute and go: oh…
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Title: The Vessel ♣☼♦
Words: 7500
Summary: When his vessel goes missing, Castiel turns to Dean for help.
Thoughts: Warm, fuzzy. Asdskg, the teasing in this is perfect.
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Title: Dean Doesn’t Listen to Eurythmics ♣☆☼
Words: 1941
Summary: Dean and Castiel share a bed. It starts out platonic, and then becomes something else.
Thoughts: A perfect short read. But omfg the ending, I dare you not to giggle.
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Title: Kissing It Bitter ♣☂☆
Words: 14,300
Summary: Castiel is afflicted, and Dean has a very difficult choice to make.
Thoughts: Okay, this summary totally does not do this story justice. I’ve already said to read everything by strangnessandcharm, but I’m highlighting this one. I don’t really like non-fluffy fics - I like fics that make me laugh. This one is the perfect non-fluffy fic, because it made me smile, despite it’s harsh plot. There’s sequels to it, that you have to read, because they're all the perfect balance of angst and humor. Asadkdgkg.
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Title: Where The World Begins ♣♣♣♣♣☼
Words: 49,300
Summary: In the aftermath of a battle against demons, Castiel rescues an orphan girl, who then forms an attachment to the fallen angel. Dean and Castiel take her into their care, traveling highways and back roads, killing as many demons as they can, while Sam searches for an alternate way to defeat Lucifer. Amidst trying to end the Apocalypse, Dean finds his life a strange combination of broken, crumbling cities and a half-domestic life on the road. In the quiet moments they make for themselves among the chaos, Dean and Castiel become closer not only to each other but to their ward, and Dean finds his life taking a turn in a direction he never thought it’d have a chance to take.
Thoughts: Holy mother. This is just.. I’m speechless. The whole way through, my chest felt like it was about to burst. Not because this is angsty - I was actually avoiding it because I thought it was full of angst - but because it’s so perfect and domestic and honestly, there could be a better canon AU fic out there. Wow.
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Title: Excite ☼♦
Words: 3333
Summary: Based off of this advertisement,
Thoughts: Why is this under my fic recs bookmarks and when did it get there? Seriously, this is both a mixture of hot and humorous, and it’s very much worth the read.
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Title: Epilogue ☂☂☂☂
Words: 27,724
Summary: Bobby is here, swearing somewhere above and behind him; and Dean is here, talking about 2014 like it’s a foreign country; and Sam is here, and is not Lucifer. Which means– Cas is no longer when he was. Lucifer sent him back. Coda to 'The End’.
Thoughts: I hate angst so so so much. But this made me smile and there’s no way to describe the ending other than 'bittersweet’. Wonderful, wonderful. I hate end!cas fics too, since you know it’ll just be depression the whole way through but I loved this very, very much.
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Title: Five Times Sam Didn’t Catch A Clue (and the Time They Finally Out and Told Him) ♦☼
Words: 5111
Summary: Sam has no idea Dean and Cas are in a relationship. Dean has no idea that Sam has no idea - has Sam not been paying attention?
Thoughts: Cute. Very cute. It’s awesome to see it from Sam’s POV and have him NOT knowing that there’s something going on between Dean and Cas.
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Title: Outrun My Gun ☼♦
Words: 33,070
Summary: “The two of you are so stubborn you’ve made Heaven blink.” Finally convinced that Sam and Dean will never say yes and accept their destinies, Heaven and Hell come up with a new plan, one that will redraw the Apocalypse and make everything run much more smoothly. All they need is Dean Winchester’s soul.
Thoughts: I think the reason I liked this so much was that it reminded me of my writing style. Except the characterisation in this is SO much better. The voices are so clear and the stuff they say could actually be something you hear on the show. There’s a few slip-ups - general things that usually irk me - but apart from that, it’s brilliant.
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Title: Just Kisses ♦☼
Words: -
Summary: “Just kisses,” he says, “no more than kisses, please, Dean, I’m not ready.” “OK, Cas,” Dean whispers, “just kisses.
Thoughts: no ejsi wo rd dsss
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Title: Car Maintenance 101 ☼☼☼☼☆♦
Words: 2518
Summary: Sam waggles his eyebrows suggestively. “Make up. Woo him. And I mean that just like it sounds…”
Thoughts: gUHHHHHH
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Title: Destiel, Actually ☼
Words: 15,973
Summary: Picture your typical rom-com cliché. Now picture Dean stuck in that rom-com cliché. With Castiel. Because that’s what happening to him - a crazy whirlwind of your typical-and-not-so-typical cliché’s. He’s playing the main lead in all of them and Castiel’s his counterpart. Of course, the culprit is obvious. Gabe’s enjoying himself too much, lying back on his favourite cloud with a tub of salted popcorn.
It was about time someone kicked the two knuckleheads into gear.
“And… ACTION!”
Thoughts: This is my own fic, so obviously I have no thoughts on it. I’d love to hear what you think though.
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Title: Firsts ☼
Words: 1635
Summary: ‘It’s platonic. Okay then. Dean closes his eyes, pictures Scarlett Johansson and closes the space between them.’
Or: Castiel asks Dean to take his first kiss.
Thoughts: This is my own fic, so obviously I have no thoughts on it. I’d love to hear what you think though.
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Title: What I’ve Overcome ☂
Words: 30,587
Summary: The souls are back in Purgatory and now the Winchesters have a blind, ex-angel on their hands. Dean insists that it’s going to take him a while to forgive Cas for what he’s done, but as the trio head across the states, fleeing from the monsters they once hunted, Dean ends up thinking about a lot more than forgiveness…
Thoughts: This is my own fic, so obviously I have no thoughts on it. I’d love to hear what you think though.
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Title: Core Of My Addiction ☼
Words: 3319
Summary: After accidentally discovering Castiel’s hair-pulling!kink, Dean finds himself unable to resist teasing the little angel whenever occasion calls for it. It’s all fun and games until Castiel takes things into his own hands…
Thoughts: This is my own fic, so obviously I have no thoughts on it. I’d love to hear what you think though.
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Title: Adventures In Solitude ☂
Words: 30,589
Summary: ‘Castiel was just another reminder of what had nearly come to pass. Of what his brothers and sisters had been planning. The brothers and sisters that he could no longer hear in his head. He was falling, slowly, and he wanted so badly for the Winchesters to be there to catch him.’
Castiel succeeds in stopping the apocalypse, but at a price. He loses his Grace and leaves the Winchesters. After Falling, he is found by a twelve-year-old hunter. For a year, he stays with Jude and her sister, Fae. He learns to be human, finds a new family.
It doesn’t last long. There’s an angel who wants him dead and Fae and Jude get dragged into the chase. They take two separate journeys and by what seems to be pure chance, Fae bumps into the Winchesters, unaware that her sister is travelling with the very person they’re grieving for.
Days pass, tension rises, secrets are revealed, stories are told, one last battle fought and what was thought to be coincidence starts to seem an awful lot like Fate…
Thoughts: This is my own fic, so obviously I have no thoughts on it. I’d love to hear what you think though.
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Title: Unsorted ☂
Words: -
Summary: “I did it for you. Always for you, Dean.”
(Or: Dean finally finds Cas in Purgatory [alternate to my other fic])
Inspired by this post.
Thoughts: This is my own fic, so obviously I have no thoughts on it. I’d love to hear what you think though.
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Title: Reunion ☂
Words: -
Summary: His throat closes up, he can’t breathe, his eyelids fill with unshed tears, his teeth clench together and he… he’s found him.
(Or: Dean finally finds Cas in Purgatory)
Thoughts: This is my own fic, so obviously I have no thoughts on it. I’d love to hear what you think though.
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Title: Dean’s Prayers to Cas ☂
Words: -
Summary: Some of Dean’s prayers that he made to Cas while he was in Purgatory.
Thoughts: This is my own fic, so obviously I have no thoughts on it. I’d love to hear what you think though.
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Title: Leap That Makes The Fall ☼☂☆
Words: - (There’s no word count, but it’s pretty long)
Summary: With no explanation for how or why, Dean and Sam find themselves with a fallen angel on their hands.
Thoughts: SO SO SO heart-warming. It’s a little angsty and whenever Dean and Cas start warming up to each other, it always ends with them fighting. And it’s brilliant, because you can feel yourself thinking 'for fuck sake, just work it out already!’. It builds up tension. Typical trope, but amazingly done. 100% worth a read.
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Title: Untitled ☼
Words: -
Summary: “Write down the top 5 things you want to learn as a human, and I’ll teach you how to do them.”
“You’re not serious.”
“Yup, I am.” Dean’s eyes brighten and he grins. “Hey, I can be like your, uh, your human Yoda.”
This, Castiel thinks, cannot go well.
Thoughts: so freakin’ cute omg
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Title: If On A Winter’s Night a Fangirl ☼
Words: 12,300
Summary: “Chuck,” Becky said, slowly and carefully and very, very seriously. “I think someone is trying to communicate with us through the fanfic.”
Thoughts: Jesus fucking Christ this whole thing is just ridiculous and brilliant.
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Title: As Easy As Pie ☼
Words: 5000
Summary: Witches are bad. Witches that make you live through every trope known to fandom are worse.
Thoughts: I’ve read this a few times before but never put it on my fic rec list. I keep going back to read it and I’m glad I found it again. Just reeeead it.
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Title: Give All My Secrets Away ☼
Words: 2450
Summary: When Castiel needs to stay with Dean while the hunter is vulnerable and unable to defend himself, he doesn’t expect it to end with confessions Dean doesn’t mean to give.
Thoughts: This is just so bittersweet and cute omg.
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Title: Idle Worshippers ☼
Words: 5523
Summary: Dean and Castiel get trapped in Bobby’s panic room, and Dean occupies the time by trying to calm Castiel. He discovers something about himself during the wait.
Thoughts: The tension in this is great eep. Cas is more like the Cas from Season 4, all snarky and grumpy, but it’s in a really good way. The character voices are really good.
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Title: DIY ☼
Words: 2131
Summary: Tension is high at the bunker in the first few weeks after Castiel falls, and for awhile, Castiel simply assumes that this is what it’s like to be human: an endless series of small irritations and arguments. It doesn’t occur to him that there are ways to make oneself less irritable and tense until right in the middle of the toothbrush argument.
Thoughts: “sometimes it is okay to put something that’s been in your mouth in someone else’s mouth.” GIGGLES
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