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#also his grief over cas waking him up in the empty
dothwrites · 9 months
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byzantium, otherwise known as THEE cas episode
cas and dean out in the hallway at the very beginning... that's their SON! that's their KID! cas giving dean his support and then dean holding cas back from going after sam... they know how to support each other! and then cas staying in jack's room, unable to leave... dean, sam, and cas all retreat into their private grief because they never learned how to do anything else.
sam's breakdown over the trees for the pyre is SO relatable. the pathos of trying to do this one thing and then not even THAT works out...
and then that wake scene. ironically, this episode pictures the most smiling and laughing ever in a supernatural episode. they share candy bars! because jack like nougat! the fact that cas eventually just gives up drinking out of the glass and just starts drinking directly from the bottle. like yeah, we've all been there before dude. and then dean drinks enough to pass out at the table. the winchester coping methods man.
jack's happiest memory! is the trip to dodge city! (and yes, i did absolutely notice the drink that had two straws. and the ONLY explanation is that dean and cas were simply sharing)
LILY! WE LOVE LILY! (also weird that sam apparently exchanged phone numbers with her? but that's okay) her "wtf" expression when she sees the batshit things that the winchesters do on a regular basis is also very relatable.
KELLY! Kelly baby i miss you so much and i will always love you forever. her grief and happiness at seeing jack in heaven...
i forgot that dean was so opposed to the soul magic. and i guess he was right to do so. but it's also a mark of winchester hubris that they refuse to let any of their immediate family just be dead. death is something that happens to other people, not sam and dean.
also, naomi is like "we have no angels" yet they keep on finding redshirt angels to kill. odd. naomi is always such a bitch and i love her so much. she's so delightfully pragmatic. her decisions are completely logical WITHOUT heart.
i'm always weak for an entity of death/the underworld that is impartial and sassy with it, so of course i was always going to love anubis.
cas' sheer JOY at seeing jack... he's a DAD! HE'S A DAD! and then we get a cas and kelly reunion. (i really did deserve to see them platonic co-parenting jack. it would fix me, i think)
erica cerra is KILLING IT as the empty. she manages to look sooooooo unhinged and terrifying. absolutely wonderful.
(wonder if all the prayers make cas' eyes roll back or is it just dean's?)
cas, you self-sacrificial idiot. i love you so much and i understand exactly why you did it but you IDIOT. i love you so much it's such a CRUEL deal and i love it so much. cas isn't ever a happy entity, but this deal consigns him to misery and it's so BRUTAL.
the fact that cas consistently tells the people around him that he loves them and that NO ONE ever says it back to him. i am chewing broken glass.
i am WEAK to entities of death that are fair and impartial but also compassionate. anubis i love you naomi i love you too, you snarky bitch
sam, dean, and cas sitting with jack... THAT'S THEIR KID <3
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saintsir4n · 9 months
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8
WARNINGS: DEATH
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1914
GRETA Jurossi was laid to rest on the twenty-first of February, leaving broken hearts and souls in her wake.
Her funeral was only a week after, full of cries and sorrow-filled faces.
Grief reminded people what the cost of loving someone was, but to Tommy Shelby, he saw it as an itch that he couldn't scratch, it infuriated him to no end.
Something he wished he could sever ties with but he knew it also served as a way to remember his best friend.
He met Greta at seven years old and he didn't understand the hold she would have over his life. He's parted with plenty of women before, flings and even the brief nights in brothels but he never imagined parting with such an integral part of his world. It only brought up more painful memories of his mum... well they never truly left him they couldn't.
Eden proposed over the countless nights she spent consoling him that Greta was being cared for by his mother, but he thought it was a load of shite.
Tommy didn't believe in a higher power, only what was on earth, people did what they wanted because they could and won't stop until they had everything.
Bending wills wasn't impossible; it was gruelling.
And gruelling was how it felt to attend the funeral of the woman who was there for him when others were not.
Now, standing at the edge of the grave looking down at the casket, he poured Earth over it, before joining a mute Freddie. The Thorne man hadn't said a word but his presence was enough.
Freddie lost his best friend too, in other ways they were closer, closer than she and Tommy, not like he would ever voice that, mainly because he struggled to find his voice, which worried many.
His voice, like Tommy was his weapon, could be wielded to start a revolution or merely pull him to meet his end.
But that couldn't be said for Greta, her actions were kind and delicate, sometimes too precious for this world and perhaps that's why she was taken. God takes the best first, leaving the savages and sinners to each other.
Jeremiah was allowed to carry out the sermon, preaching about the lord almighty, some chose to find solace in his words, others looked for a deeper meaning, meanwhile, Tommy knew his heart wouldn't ease, it couldn't.
He was beside Greta until the end and was glad the casket was closed, knowing no one wanted to see the woman in such a way, wanting to remember her good moments instead of her final ones.
Turning to the left, Eden shuddered at the look in Tommy's eyes, they were once puffy from crying but now they raged.
His temperament grew worse at the sight of the Changrettas and how their presence was welcomed by her the Jussosis whilst he had to beg for scraps of their affection.
The Dawkins', Jussosi's, hell even the Thorne's, they all initially treated him like a weed, but not even a bloody blowtorch could make him relent. He would show them all what he would become much to their contempt.
Feeling Eden's hand grab him, his gaze never wavered off the soil filling up Greta's grave.
As he helped Greta in her last moments, Eden was helping him.
With anything and everything he needed, she was there, being with him when he couldn't sleep, meaning she didn't, which led to consequences at work, she was messing up, fortunately, her mother sorted it out, but not without putting her reputation on the line. Eden felt awful, horrible even but didn't know what else to do.
She couldn't fail Tommy at a time like this, because she loved him.
His sorrow-filled expression fell as did the tear which kissed his cheek after Jeremiah's service concluded and silence clasped them all.
Soon his eyes returned to their daunting and empty nature.
He paid his respects to the Jussosi family, even though he felt their lack of sympathy when speaking to him. Although they never wanted him around, they could admit his value, especially during the last stages of their daughter's life. He'd convince them their friendship was worth it and it was.
Kitty showed him the most care when she hugged him.
"Thank you," the brown-eyed girl muttered and mustered up a pained smile. "For everything."
For the first time, Tommy realised how much Kitty looked like her younger sister, tanned skin, thin brows and plump lips, even how her thick brown hair shaped her face reminded him of Greta.
It was all too much.
"Nothin' to thank me for," and with that Tommy walked back over to his family, who were they for support, which he did appreciate.
Eden conversed with her godfather for a while, keeping an eye on Tommy.
He was so caught up in his thoughts he didn't feel the impending winds sweep through the cemetery.
Death scared him, he was so close to it but it never had him in its grasp. It took his mother, his best friend, hell he even wondered if it took his father, not like he would care much.
"Tommy want to come back to mine, I could make somethin' for you?"
He snapped his head towards Eden, startled by her voice, then quickly remembered that she's been there the entire time, asking and checking if he was alright, it was overwhelming and was starting to irritate him, but he liked it. It showed she cared, let her look after you Tom, not everyone has it as good as you, Freddie constantly muttered in his ear about his fortunes but as of late, he couldn't seem to see them, not anymore. Why care if everything would just be taken away?
Dropping her hand he shook his head and rejected any other affection she tried giving him, and she attempted not to take it personally.
He shrugged off her attempts to hold his hand, kiss or even hug him, ever since that day at the cut, he hadn't been the same, she realised that shortly after they returned to his house he would just act like nothing happened, despite weeping in her arms like a newborn, she didn't mention it and it's not like he even voiced his appreciation nor did he show it.
His brothers and sister made sure to know the value she had in Tommy's life, and so did Polly even more so now they were all at the end of Tommy's angst, in different ways, whether it was the betting shop or at home.
Tommy twisted all his sadness into anger and resentment.
Why bother to care about the things he had when they were all going to leave him in the end?
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a/n:
sofia loren as 𝗸𝗶𝘁𝘁𝘆 𝗷𝘂𝘀𝘀𝗼𝘀𝗶
sorry this chapter was more tommy based, of course in canon we know because of his survivor's guilt and how death doesn't scare him, he pretty much lets his ambition control his every being even if it hurts those around him. however that was after the war and since this is how tommy was before the war, he hasn't experienced much just yet, therefore he's scared, not just for his family, but obviously for eden as well, so he's being very off.
next chapter might be a little rough.
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stoneantler · 3 years
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Cas studies fic recs!!
Most of these turned out to be Cas angst, which is a kind of Cas studies, right?
these are organized by length. the stars note which fics are my absolute favorites.
Under 10k
Stories Are Made of Mistakes by wildhoneypie ✨
thee human Cas fic, featuring Cas being weird and idiosyncratic and Dean being completely head over heels in love while having no idea they’re dating, 6k
Occursus by PallasPerilous
post-s15e20, set in heaven, featuring Cas and Dean having an insane little conversation about angel trueforms and the handprint, 4k
Gone through the glass again by communistmishacollins
the author calls this: “A three part love letter to Castiel Gayngel of the Lord.” featuring human Cas and his human friends, 4k
Get Out In Times of Declared Emergency by Jayne L
Cas deals with the aftermath of being possessed by Lucifer and the resulting depression, 6k
built to roam by sleepyvan
author’s summary: “Cas’ Farewell Tour.” pre-s15e28, in which Cas tries to take a little of what he wants most before the empty takes him
Between 10k and 50k
Cuckoo And Nest by komodobits ✨
a fic about Dean needing Cas to stay and Cas needing Dean to tell him he’s wanted, my ultimate comfort fic, 10k
Scratchmarks by Bookkbaby
do you want some angst in your endverse threesome fic? do you want 2014!Dean with emotional intelligence and endverse!Cas hurting loudly? this fic is for you, 11k
The River by hal_incandenza
an incredibly good rewrite of s15e9 “The Trap,” dealing with Cas’s grief over losing Jack and Dean’s control issues with god, featuring bamf!Cas and hurt!Cas, 16k
Kingdom Come by ahurston ✨
author’s summary: “Cas wakes up on the coast of Maine. He makes his way home.” post-s15e18, Cas comes back from the empty and Dean comes to get him, 17k
He Can’t Sleep by 6or3dom ✨
ANGST angst angst, featuring human!Cas and Dean try to make their relationship work and it mostly goes poorly, they’re both astoundingly fucked up and for once it’s Cas struggling to talk about what’s wrong, 18k
The Tunnel of Love by xylodemon
a soft lovely get-together case fic, not strictly Cas studies but well worth a read, 21k
These Are Not Real Problems by Annie D
author’s summary: “Castiel used to be a god. Dean took that away from him, and now Castiel’s stuck in a hell of his own making. Future!fic, post-season 6.″ 30k
if it all fell to pieces tomrrow by spocklee
author’s summary: “After the Empty, Cas has to spend time alone. Orpheus tries to convince Eurydice over the phone that it’s okay to turn around now.” Cas struggles with being happy after coming back from the empty, 42k
To Be Restored by serenityfails
post-s15e18 fic where the empty sends Cas back in a different vessel, there’s a lot of Dean struggling with gender and sexuality, not strictly Cas studies but gives me a lot of trans!Cas feels, 47k
Superheroes verse: part 1 There’s A Limit, part 2 It’s The Fall That Kills You, part 3 Superheroes, part 4 Hole In Your Soul by strangenessandcharm (on dreamwidth) ✨
This series is from 2009 and it’s the first spn fic I remember reading. Lot’s of angst and whump. Cas becoming human in the worst way and Sam struggling with a magical sickness. It doesn’t have to be read in order and part 4 is my favorite.
Over 50k
These Forsaken Lands by destielpasta ✨
post-s9e18 a case fic about Cas’s guilt for what the did to heaven and his run as god with a side of MoC!Dean, a bittersweet ending, 53k
Galveston by lunarriviera
Cas built a life away from Dean, then Dean walks back into it, also a love letter to Galveston, Texas, 56k
Tall Grass by aeli_kindara
thee gardener Cas fic, featuring slow burn and found family, not strictly Cas studies but well worth the read, 57k
A Winter’s Tale by NorthernSparrow ✨
author’s summary: “Cas is sick and Dean finds a journal that Cas kept about his time alone as human.” a season 9 au that tries to make Cas’s time as a human more realistic (an subsequently much more angsty), gen!fic with a focus on Dean and Cas, epistolary, 64k
Memories Bring Back Memories (Bring Back You) by sobsicles
a fic that answers the question, “who are Cas and Dean without their memories? who are they to each other without all their baggage?” 66k
the cost of a thing by quiettewandering
a case fic where Dean and Cas have already fallen apart and they learn how to come back together, 74k
Human AUs
Honey-Baked by mishaminion69 and sydkn3e  ✨
a human!au where Cas and Dean are childhood friends and live in a cabin together and Cas is a stoner and Dean loves him dearly and they keep getting in their own way, a get-together fic, 89k
Love, Take Your Toll by aileenrose
a human!au where Cas is a lonely toll worker and Dean is his favorite motorist, 8k
BONUS
Down to Agincourt by speris ✨✨✨
A fic that’s about learning how to live with yourself after the world has already ended, Yes, it’s a million words and a WIP. Yes, it’s completely worth it.
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taegularities · 2 years
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Hello hello valentine :3 can I request a Cotton Ca— oh that’s not released yet HAHAHAHAHA MY B, a RY drabble of your favourite moments between Taekook :3 thank u my love 😍
not you forgetting that cotton candy isn't out yet 😭 my clown smh. thank you for requesting, baeee !!! it's also unedited </3
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off my chest
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pairing: platonic Taehyung x Jungkook fic: ruin you wc: 1k warnings: coping after a break up... sad tae. crying. that's it.
ask my characters/request a drabble how and what you can request <3
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“Will you answer if I asked you again… what the hell we’re doing here?”
Behind Jungkook, Taehyung climbs the last of the steep hill heaving a sigh of relief. Hiking isn’t for him, he decides. Perhaps he should’ve fought harder to stay home; to talk about life and how it has screwed him over so suddenly.
“Alright,” Jungkook breathes, squinting into the sun as he walks over to a low boulder, “you worked hard. So I shall tell you now.”
“Thank fuck.”
Taehyung takes a seat next to where Jungkook settled, letting his legs dangle mere inches above the green ground. The nature stretches wide in front of them, the few clouds floating slowly and peacefully above their heads, the fresh altitude air crisp and pleasant.
The deep inhale wakes his brain, and for the first time in weeks, he feels somewhat content. He reckons that this is what Jungkook intended in the first place.
“You need to get out of your apartment, Tae. You’re too young to be falling into grief like this… and your place isn’t big enough for your mind.”
“I go out plenty.”
“The campus doesn’t count. And you’ve only been going to finish your final exams. Other than this and job hunting, what have you been doing these days?” Jungkook questions, bringing his legs up to fold them.
Taehyung imitates his friend’s action, placing his arms on his thighs as he leans forward and answers, “There’s nothing to do for me. It’s not like I want to feel this way–”
“I know, but,” Jungkook interrupts, clicking his tongue as he looks into the summer-y emptiness of the world, “honestly. She doesn’t seem to care, so you shouldn’t either.”
“I've just never felt that way before, man.”
“I know.”
“She really didn’t need to do that.”
“Yeah…” Jungkook scours his mind for something effective he can say, his tongue poking the inside of his cheek in thought. “Fuck it. You deserve better. Yejun can go and choke on a dick.”
Jungkook’s mocking tone and choice of words elicits a laugh out of Taehyung, but the older man can’t help but scoff in annoyance as he answers, “She probably is.”
“Well, her loss for missing out on your quality dick.”
“Thanks, dude…”
With a wink and a lopsided smirk, Jungkook pats Taehyung’s back, pulling up his body from the boulder before he comes to a stand. He brushes the dirt off his ass, gesturing for his heartbroken pal to follow lead as he says, “Let’s try something.”
Almost involuntarily, Taehyung gets to his feet carefully, brushing his light hair from his face. The wind keeps blowing it back into his eyes, warm and comforting, and Taehyung buries his hands in the pockets of his shorts as he breathes in the scent of flowers and grass.
“Think about something that hurt or annoyed you in your relationship,” Jungkook begins, looking at Taehyung’s golden profile, “and then scream it into the void.”
“You saw that in some movie, didn’t you?”
“And what if I did?” Jungkook chuckles, nodding towards the descending hill and the wide fields. “Okay, lemme start.”
Taehyung looks at his friend in question, wondering what he’s going to yell out before Jungkook takes a deep breath, calls his girlfriend’s name and then voices, “Stop freaking waking me up at 8AM on weekends!”
The words are sudden and hilarious, and Taehyung breaks into a laugh until he feels himself tearing up. Placing a hand on his friend’s shoulder, he watches the bunny grin expand, asking, “I thought you two were doing great!”
“I mean, we are! Thriving. But that doesn’t mean she doesn’t rile me up now and then.”
“Ah. Send her my love, I guess.”
“Will do.” Jungkook uses his hands as a funnel, licking his lips before he continues, “And let me play Overwatch the whole Sunday, what’s the problem?!”
The scene seems absurd and comical, and Taehyung grimaces when Jungkook’s voice echoes back to them as though someone is yelling back from the ground. But there’s not a soul in their ultimate proximity, and if someone is staring up to the top of the hill with wondering eyes, Jungkook doesn’t seem to care.
“Your turn.”
“I–” Taehyung starts; but then he gulps, nibbling his lower lip for a moment before he finally gives in. “Okay. Alright. Uh–” He searches for a habit he disliked about his ex, staring at the clouds in the distance before he nods. “The shade of your lipstick never matched your clothes.”
“Nice,” Jungkook praises, nodding in reassurance, “what else?”
“You make terrible omelettes!”
“Yeah! Louder!”
Taehyung’s courage increases with each word he utters, his heart thumping in his throat as he voices everything he kept hidden for so long. “And you’re not as good at lying as you think you are.”
He pauses for a moment, her face flashing into his memory yet again; a tender smile veiling such malevolence, such poison. Sniffling, his tongue runs over his dry lips, and then he screams, albeit quieter, “When you started drifting away, I noticed immediately.”
Jungkook glances over to his friend, his face falling when he realises that Taehyung’s cheek is glistening in the sun, a single tear escaping his eyes that he wipes at right away. He shifts closer to his older friend, draping a consoling arm around his shoulders.
When Taehyung speaks again, the volume of his voice returns to normal, and with a dropping head, he says, “I gave her everything.”
“And you’ll give your everything to someone again one day. Someone who deserves it all, too. Okay?”
Taehyung’s fingers brush back his hair, staying pressed against his scalp for a moment as he murmurs, “Yeah.”
“It’ll be okay.”
“Yeah,” he repeats, sitting back down to his previous spot with a heavy heart. “It’ll be okay.”
“You’ll find something to distract yourself with in the meantime. Until then,” Jungkook suggests, nudging Taehyung’s shoulder playfully, “I can make you some actually good omelette. I’m amazing at it.”
As the fresh wind dries Taehyung’s eyes and gives way to something resembling hope, he believes for the first time in days that things could be alright. It might take mistakes, trials and challenges to get there.
But as long as some relationships in his life don’t change, there will be no final doom.
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this took some time to write so 🤡 leave a like if u enjoyed it !! <3
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myaimistrue · 3 years
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del myaimistrue’s underrated destiel fic recs part 3!
as with part 1 and part 2, these are all fics that aren’t necessarily as popular or well known as more common recs. they all have less than 10k hits on ao3 OR were published pre-2015 OR both. this a good list y’all i’m excited to share them with you :) leave a comment and kudos for the author if you enjoy a fic!!
list under the cut, organized by word count!
children get older (and i'm getting older, too) by flightsofangels
2k. fics that make you sob hysterically. this is SOOOO sweet. it’s a little story written for transnatural week (if you’re looking for some really fantastic fics, check out their ao3 collection) in which dean and cas discuss their experiences with gender. featuring dad dean and cas, and so many good moments between tfw 2.0.
through the stars by LoversAntiquities
2k fic about dean’s fortieth birthday, on which he wakes up with swollen hands from his arthritis. just a quick sweet story about how loved dean is, and the gifts sam and cas get for him will make both you and dean cry!
if you are hungry then take note by a_good_soldier
2.2k. basically i’m never tired of post-canon curtain fics, and this is one of the best. cas writing poetry is EVERYTHING to me. dean as a mentor to queer kids is also incredible. just a really sweet, soft story about growing old in the safety of your home with somebody you love <3
Clear as a Bell by charcoalcas
2.3k human cas sickfic! he gets chickenpox and dean takes care of him which is as sweet as you think it’d be. it’s the night before their anniversary (september 18th) as well, and they talk about the very beginnings of their relationship. super cute and fun to read!
so comfort came by Newtondale
4k post-canon fic. dean reckons with the concept of retirement now that he and cas aren’t regularly hunting anymore. very sweet little fix-it. dean and cas are so in love <3
love, now and forever by LoversAntiquities
5.4k. michael leaves dean’s body and cas is left to pick up the pieces in a small cabin while they wait for their family to arrive. hurt/comfort is my personal favorite trope to read and this is heavy on both the hurt and comfort. very heavy at the beginning (dean is not in a good place) so be careful, but it has a really sweet ending.
of fire and circles by deanspurpleflannel
7.9k. post 15x18 toddler!jack fic in which the bunker burns down. i left a rambling comment on it the first time i read it because it made me feel sooooo much. dean’s grief over cas was expertly written, and the claire & dean & jack dynamic was perfect. plus it’s a fun twist on the cas returning from empty trope! will bring a tear to your eye by the end. 
All other nights are black, all other hours are cold by jamjarjane
9.7k. SUPER sweet getting together fic with lots of pining. dean is very touch-starved and cas knows it. the last two scenes are so tender and so beautifully written--the want and the love between dean and cas are palpable. 
Flying in Circles Inside a Jar by prosopopeya
11k season 5 getting together fic. i am such a sucker for kripke era deancas, and this one is so perfect at capturing that dynamic. super fun and sexy and in-character. fully laughed out loud multiple times while reading, with plenty of sweet moments to balance it out!
Repose by Thalius
a 14.4k season 6 fic. cas needs a break from the civil war and heaven and comes to see the winchesters at bobby’s house. the push and pull between dean wanting to take care of cas while still being afraid to deal with how he feels for him is perfectly illustrated here. also it has super interesting takes on soul-touching/angelic healing!
Fight or Flight by ellispark
this is a 23.1k canon divergent season 12 story that has basically everything i love in a supernatural fic. established deancas! interesting mary character work! hurt/comfort! compelling plot! great sam moments independent of dean and cas! family drama! plus the non-linear narrative is a super interesting choice that is so fun to read. seriously one of my absolute all-time favorites
until the end and after by Philyra912
27.9k. literally one of my new favorite deancas fics of all time, and possibly my favorite post-canon curtain fic. set a year after they save the world, dean and cas are living in an old farmhouse together and making a life… except they aren’t technically together. it’s so in-character and so gentle and so good. seriously 10/10 in every regard. 
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clairenatural · 3 years
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destiel, 1.9k, post-series human!cas. this isn’t fully angst but it is me addressing castiel’s trauma since the writers never will. hurt/comfort-esque. cw for the stuff he went through at the beginning of s9. also: stargazing.
Castiel’s grace burns up when they pull him out of the Empty, but he doesn’t care—he doesn’t even notice, really, not when Dean is clinging to him, and kissing him like he needs him to breathe, and filling the gap his grace left with a love that feels even more holy.
It hits him halfway back to the bunker, when he’s riding shotgun and Sam is asleep in the backset and a passing streetlight bathes Dean’s freckles in yellow-gold. He’s been in love with Dean Winchester as a human before, and it was overwhelming, all mixed up in guilt and panic and a bone-deep betrayal he’s been trying to forget. But this time—this time is different, right? This time…it’s okay. It has to be. He’s not quite sure what he’s allowed, just yet, but he takes the risk anyway and reaches out for Dean across the bench seat. Dean meets him half way, catching his hand with his own, and it calms Castiel’s newly-human heart.
He wakes up the next morning, in Dean’s bed, and he’s forgotten how nice sleep is. Real, human sleep, on an actual mattress—memory foam, he remembers Dean proclaiming, excited. It’ll remember you now, too. He tries not to remember the concrete floor of the gas station, and his cold, thin sleeping bag, because now—now, he’s warm. He reaches out for Dean, who is still asleep but moves on instinct, lifting an arm so Castiel can curl up against him. He lets his bones sink into the warmth of Dean, the comfort of the mattress. He tries to remind himself he’ll never sleep on a storage room floor again.
He stays in bed even longer than Dean, which Dean calls impressive when he returns to the bedroom with coffee. Castiel plays it off as being exhausted, which is true, but he’s also trying to commit the feeling of the mattress to memory.
When he drains his coffee and finally decides to go brush his teeth, he stares for a long time at the toothpaste tube. Long enough that Dean comes looking. He leans against the bathroom door with a smile, raising an eyebrow at the sight. “It’s not gonna bite you,” he starts, and pushes off the doorframe to walk closer. “You have done this before, right? You know—last time?”
Castiel blinks and then nods. It’s just toothpaste. “You know, the first time I did this, I—” he pauses to smile, attempting levity. “I squeezed the tube directly into my mouth,” he chuckles then, trying to joke at his helplessness, and he thinks Dean will too—and he does smile, eventually, but not before a look halfway between guilt and grief crosses his face. Castiel isn’t meant to catch it, but he does—he sees all of Dean. He knows every expression better than he knows his own.
Dean doesn’t respond to his toothpaste comment, but he does wrap his arms around Castiel’s middle from behind, more securely than the situation demands, and he hooks his chin over Castiel’s shoulder with a hum. Castiel stares at the whole picture in the mirror, himself and Dean and his toothbrush, and he can’t help but smile when Dean brings a hand up to brush his thumb across his cheek. “You’re already gettin’ peach fuzz,” he murmurs. “Remind me to teach you to shave sometime.”
The smile falls as something thick settles in the pit of Castiel’s stomach. He remembers stumbling his way through a razor. “Oh. I, um. I taught myself.” The last time is unsaid.
“Oh.” Dean’s arms loosen around his waist, and the stricken look is back. “That’s—awesome.” He smiles, but it doesn’t reach his eyes.
Castiel turns his head to try and look at him, but Dean is already stepping away. “I’ll let you get to it,” he mumbles, and claps Castiel on the shoulder as he leaves the bathroom.
He watches Dean leave, then stares at the empty doorway for a few long seconds before turning back to his toothbrush. His hands are shaking as he squeezes out the toothpaste.
When he wanders into the kitchen a few minutes later Dean is waiting for him, armed with more coffee and a plate of scrambled eggs and bacon, and he grabs Castiel by the shoulder and guides him into a seat at the table before sliding in across from him. He’s smiling—he’s eager—and it’s such a tone shift that Castiel briefly wonders if a witch snuck into the bunker while he was brushing his teeth.
But he knows this. He’s seen it before, with Sam—how Dean will set a meal down in front of him in the library and won’t leave until he takes a bite, waiting for approval. It’s love.
“Dean, you didn’t have to—”
“Yeah, I did,” he cuts him off in a tone that’s not unkind, but is final. “Wanna take care of you,” he shrugs and covers up the intimacy of that statement by reaching over to steal a slice of bacon, and Castiel hears the I love you buried under all the layers, so he smiles and eats. Predictably, it’s delicious.
“This is much better than molecules,” he commends, because he knows Dean’s waiting for it, and Dean grins and it’s beautiful and all the weirdness of the morning is forgotten.
They talk, and they eat, and they laugh, but when Dean clears the dishes he sits back at the table with a much more serious expression. “Alright, come on. What do you want to know?”
Castiel raises his eyebrows. “About…?”
“Being human.”
Oh.
He doesn’t know how to respond to that. He’s already stumbled through all the basic human functions, albeit clumsily, and he’s trying to figure out a way to explain to Dean that being homeless gives you a painful crash course on how to survive without putting that sad expression back on his face when he realizes Dean is still talking.
“Listen, Cas. I know I fucked up last time, alright? Big time. I should’ve been there to teach you to brush your teeth, and shave, and—and tie your freakin’ shoelaces, and I can’t take that back now, okay? But maybe I can—I don’t know. Do it better, this time. I know you already got most of it figured out, but I could—”
“Dean, it’s alright.” He reaches out to place his hand over one of Dean’s, which he’s been fidgeting on the table. “I forgive you.” Dean looks up, then, and they make eye contact, and Castiel does forgive him. Of course he does. There was never another option.
Dean breaks the eye contact but he moves his other hand on top of Castiel’s and squeezes. “Yeah, well. Doesn’t mean it’s okay,” he grumbles, and Castiel loves him for that.
“You can teach me to cook,” He offers, after a moment, and Dean looks up at him with a genuine smile. “I never got much further than PB&J.”
“Hell yeah,” Dean is already standing. “Come on, let’s go.”
Castiel blinks up at him. “Go?”
“To the store,” Dean rolls his eyes, as if this was obvious. “I ain’t gonna teach you to cook with whatever we have lying around.”
He’s already off before Castiel can clarify he just wants to start with grilled cheese. Dean buys the fanciest cheddar in the store anyway.
Castiel manages to burn it on both sides.
“I’m sorry,” he stares down at the mess, mournfully, and manages to look pitiful enough that Dean picks up the blackened sandwich to take a bite anyway. He grimaces when Dean chokes on it, but he’s trying so hard to not visibly react that it makes Castiel’s heart warm, and by the time Dean finally gets the lump washed down with beer, he’s staring at him with a wry smile.
“I've fed Sam worse,” is his only comment, and Castiel can’t help but huff out a laugh, and then Dean is grinning back, setting the plate down, and reaching out to pull him close. “Tomorrow we’ll tackle spaghetti.”
Castiel scoffs. “Do you enjoy burnt tomato sauce?”
“Sure do.” Dean tilts his head down, and Castiel meets him in the middle. He tastes like burnt toast, but Castiel smiles against his lips and grins into the space between them when they separate to lean their foreheads together. “What’s next, Cas?”
“Teach me how to drive.”
Dean pulls back farther, surprised. “You can drive.”
“Not well.”
Dean snorts, then sighs. “Yeah, sure. Tomorrow though, alright? It’s getting dark.”
Castiel considers him for a moment, then nods. “Then drive me somewhere. I want to see the stars like this. Human.”
Dean hums and presses a kiss to his forehead. “That we can do.”
He misses the contact as soon as Dean steps back, but then Dean takes his hand and leads him into the garage, only letting go long enough to climb into the car. They drive through the sunset until the stars are peeking out, and Dean pulls onto the shoulder by a field far enough outside town to avoid all light pollution. He climbs onto the hood and Castiel follows, sitting close enough that their shoulders brush.
Castiel can feel Dean staring at him but doesn’t look back, not yet—he’s staring straight up, at the stars. He misses them, aches for them like he aches for his wings, but he also feels warm in their presence. The stars are solid. They are unyielding. They are trustworthy.
“How you feeling, Cas?” Dean asks after a moment, quietly, not loud enough to disturb the silence. Castiel hums before responding.
“Small.” He feels Dean shift, leaning into his shoulder.
“Small?” He questions, and he can hear that Dean’s worried. He shouldn’t be.
“Small,” Castiel confirms, tearing his gaze from the night sky to smile warmly back at Dean. “Back then—” last time  “—it was terrifying, being this small. I thought I was going to drown. The stars were out of reach. I longed for them.”
“And now?” Dean has shifted, angling himself so he’s facing Castiel.
“The stars are out of reach, but they’re still there. And you are also still here,” this time, “and you are not out of reach.” Anymore. Ever again. He reaches out for Dean’s face, stroking his thumb along his cheekbone. “I’m small. But we’re small together. And that makes it alright.”
Dean stares at him like he does sometimes, like if he blinks Castiel might disappear, and then he leans forward and kisses him like that first time, like if he stops he’ll forget how to breathe. He pushes Castiel down onto the hood of the car and doesn’t break for air until the metal groans under the pressure. When he backs off, then, it’s still not far—not out of reach.
“What’s next, Cas?” he asks, and Castiel knows what he’s asking. And that’s the thing—the biggest thing—he wants to forget about last time. 
He looks up at Dean, who looks like he’s holding his breath. He thinks maybe he can still let Dean teach him that, too, if he wants him to. He thinks he does want him to. 
“Let’s go home,” he replies, finally, and Dean breaks into a grin before the words are fully out of his mouth, “and you can show me.”
971 notes · View notes
rowyn-writes · 3 years
Text
A Mother's Love Part Two
Warnings: Pregnancy, fluff, major angst, implications of depression
Pairings: Dean x Wife!Reader
Characters: Dean, Jack, Sam, Reader, Cas (Mentioned only)
Word count: 3k
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You sat on the couch of your childhood home, staring blankly at the T.V. Your knees were pulled up to your chin as you had your arms wrapped around your legs. It had been three weeks since you left the bunker, and you felt empty inside.
Your mother sat beside you, a cup of tea and honey in her hand and a concerned look on her face. "Darling, you have to eat something. I know you haven't been feeling well, but you still need to stay healthy." You didn't respond to her as she set the cup of tea in your hands.
Everything felt numb. It was like you didn't feel any emotions at all. The world felt dull. Like all color had been stripped and it left you in darkness.
"Sweetheart, what happened?" She asked softly. Even though you had been with your parents for almost a month now, you had never fully discussed what happened with Dean.
"Mom, please-"
"No, Y/N." She put her foot down. "You call me one day, clearly upset saying that you and Jack were going to stay here for a while. You get here and you don't look like the daughter that I knew. You've changed."
You scoffed at your mother's words. "I'm getting a divorce, of course I've changed."
She sucked in a breath of air. "Y/N. What happened?" You gave your mother a brief rundown of what happened with you, Dean and Jack. "Oh, honey." She sympathized. "I am so sorry. You know that you and Jack are welcomed to stay as long as you like. I know your father is excited to have a grandchild."
Your heart skipped a beat as you looked up to your mother. "What?"
"Jack, of course." She explained. "Look at them. Your dad's so happy. It's about time you give us a grandson."
"Lord knows you couldn't count on Chris for that." You rolled your eyes. "He can't keep a girl to save his life." Your smile began to fade slightly as your stomach did flips. Your mom noticed your green complexion and ran to grab a trash can. It was nearly too late as you felt your dinner from last night coming back up. She held your hair back as you did so, calling for your dad to get a wet washcloth.
You felt a cold cloth across your forehead, cooling your body. "Mom!" Jack said worriedly. "Are you okay?.
"She's okay, kiddo." Your dad assured him. "She's just not feeling too well." He mumbled skeptically.
You sat back against the couch, holding the rag to your head. "Jack," Your mom called. "Why don't you and I go make some cookies?"
Jack smiled at the idea, looking to you for approval. "You don't have to ask me, sweetheart. Go have fun."
You mother dipped down to whisper something unintelligible in your dad's ear before going to the kitchen.
"Y/N," He shook his head. "Why didn't you tell us sooner?"
"Because I don't want it to be real." You muttered. "I don't want to think about the last thing that Dean said to me or the look on his face. I want to wake up and for this whole thing to be a dream. But I know it's not. I won't wake up next to him tomorrow and I don't get to tell him how much I love him." You chocked on a sob, covering you mouth with your hand so Jack wouldn't hear.
"Oh, my sweet girl." Your dad said softly, pulling you into his side. "I am so sorry, my darlin'." You rested your head on his shoulder as tears slipped down your cheeks. "That's not it, though. Is it? There's something else."
"Papa, I think I'm pregnant." You confessed. "I'm late and I've been sick all week."
"Have you taken a test yet?" He asked. You shook your head. "Okay, I'll tell you what. I'll go by the drug store and get a couple of tests, just to be sure, and I'll grab you some food on the way home. How does that sound?"
"Great." You said with a small smile. He kissed the top of your head before grabbing the keys and heading out of the house.
---
Five.
Five tests that had come back positive. Each one that you looked at made your heart sink more and more. "Oh god." You whimpered. "Damnit."
"What does it say, sweetie?" Your mother questioned from the other side of the door. You slowly opened it up and showed her the positive pregnancy test.
"Are they all positive?" You nodded.
"What am I gonna do?"
"I think you should call Dean-"
"No." You said firmly. "I'm not calling Dean. He made it very obvious that he didn't want anything to do with me anymore."
"Y/N," Your mother spoke firmly. "I'm not justifying what Dean said or did in the moment, however, he was just as hurt as you were because you were leaving with Jack and you didn't know how long you would be gone. I really think you should call him. I think he would want to know you're pregnant with his baby."
You sighed at her words. You knew she had a point. She was your mother, she's always right. "What if he doesn't care?" You whispered. "What if he hears my voice and hands up on me?"
"Then that's his loss, honey." She cooed. "The least you can do is try."
---
MEANWHILE, AT THE BUNKER;
"Dean." Sam shook his brother. "Dean. C'mon dude, wake up."
Dean groaned as his eyes peeled open. "What?" He grumbled.
"You've been sleeping in here all night." Sam said, crossing his arms. "You should probably get some rest in your own bed, or at the very least, the couch. And charge your phone while you're at it, it's dead."
Dean stretched add he looked at the empty whiskey bottle set on the table and the picture of your wedding day beside it. It had been a rough few weeks since you had left. "You know I can't go sleep in that damn bed." He growled.
"Dean, I offered to switch rooms with you-"
"I don't want to switch rooms!" He snapped. "I want my wife back."
Sam frowned as he looked at his brother. He looked awful. He hasn't shaven in weeks, his hair's a mess, and there were dark circles under his eyes.
"Why don't you call her, Dean?"
"Because, after what I said, she'll never take me back. I was too harsh on her. Plus my phone is broken."
"One, you have ten phones, and two, yeah, you were a complete ass." Sam agreed. "You should have seen her when she left here. I had never seen anyone so. . . Broken before. You know they sparkle she had in her eyes?" Dean nodded. "It was gone. Her entire face seemed dull, almost like she had aged ten years."
Dean put his head in his hands, feeling defeated. "What have I done?"
"I don't know, but you had better make it right."
---
"Still no answer?" Your father asked. You had called Dean three times now and still no answer.
"Nope. Not a sound."
"I'm sorry honey," Your mother sympathized, rubbing your back. It's that anything we can do?"
"Yeah," You nodded. "I need space. I need to spend more time with Jack before the baby comes. I just want to know what it's like to be a mother."
"Of course." Your dad agreed. "Take the keys to the cabin in Colorado. I know that's a lot of good memories there and no pesky neighbors to worry about "
"Thanks, dad." You smiled. "We'll be outta here soon."
"You don't have to leave in a rush, kiddo. You know that we love having you here."
"I know."
---
"Why are we going to your parents cabin in Colorado?" Jack asked curiously as he peered out the window.
"Uh," You bit your lip as you tried to come up with a suitable lie to tell Jack. You hated how much you were lying to Jack lately, but you knew that he wouldn't understand the things that you were going through. "I just wanted to show you the place and stay up there for a little while. It's nice and quiet, you'll love it. It's cold up there and it's snowy in the winter. I used to go sledding all the time when I was younger and then my parents would call me in for hot chocolate and a movie. We can do that together. How does that sound, Jack?"
"It sounds great, Mom!" He smiled goofily. Every time he called you 'Mom,' your heart melted. You loved that Jack felt so comfortable around you to call you his mother. You knew that you would never be able to replace Kelly, and you would never want to, but you did want to make him feel safe and loved. You wanted Jack to know what a mother's love feels like. Jack blamed himself for the death of his mother, and you understood his grief, but you had told him time and time again that it wasn't his fault. Kelly wanted to go through with the pregnancy and refused to listen to anyone else's opinions on the matter. You just wished he understood that.
You felt a tear roll down your cheek, quickly wiping it away. "What's wrong, Mom?" Jack questioned. "Is it about Dean?"
You glanced over at Jack in surprise. "Why would you say that?"
"Well, Sam and Dean aren't here, and Dean hasn't called you to check up on you since we left. I know that whenever you go on a hunt by yourself, Dean calls you everyday to make sure you're okay."
You sighed heavily as you looked at the road in front of you. "Dean and I are. . . Going through a tough time right now. That's why I wanted to get away for a while. And I didn't want to go by myself, so that's why I wanted you to come with me."
"Are we ever going back to the bunker?"
"I don't know. . . It's a difficult situation, Jack. Right now, I don't think that I will be going back home anytime soon. But if you want to go back, I'll take you back. I don't want to make you do anything you don't want to do."
"I want to stay with you." He said firmly. "But I also want you to be happy. You don't look happy anymore. You don't smile or laugh the way you used to. You sit on the couch watching reruns of Friends, and I've heard you crying at night. Sometimes I think you forget that I don't sleep very much."
You said nothing in response, knowing that Jack was right. You wanted to call Dean one more time, but you knew it was fruitless. He wasn't going to answer. But you did have Sam. When you finally arrived at the cabin, you sent Jack to unpack while you dialed Sam's number. After three rings, he finally picked up.
"Hello, Y/N? Are you okay? How's Jack?" He asked in one breath.
"Hey, Sammy. I'm fine, and so is Jack. I just wanted to call and make sure that you haven't gotten killed by anything."
"Nope, we're still alive." He gave a small chuckle. "How are you, Y/N, really? Don't lie to me, because I know when you're lying."
"I miss him." You sniffed. "Being away from him hurts me." Your voice cracked, forcing you to clear your throat. "We've been married for five years. And I know that to the average person that doesn't seem like a long time, but we're hunters, Sam. You know how hard it is to stay in a relationship in our line of work. I've been in love with him for half my life, and now, for us to be in this situation, it sucks, Sam. I can't think of any other word to describe it. It really fucking sucks."
Sam was quiet for a moment as he listened to you cry. "I'm sorry this is happening, Y/N. I never thought that this would happen to you and Dean. But I've known Dean my whole life, and I've known you since we were twenty, so I think that I'm entitled to make a judgement on this." You let out a small laugh. "You two have been in love longer than you've been together, but both of you have been to dumb to realize it. You argue like cats and dogs because you're so certain about what you believe in. You're both so passionate about things that you never let up. And now that you're finally together, you have been so happy. Dean has never felt this way about anyone that he's been with, male or female. He loves you so much, Y/N, that it kills him. You have both come too far to for things to end like this. I'm going to tell you the exact same thing I told Dean; fix this."
"I want to, Sammy, I just don't know how."
"Stop hiding, for one. You can't fix something when you're hundreds of miles away." You groaned as you felt a wave of nausea was over you. "Y/N?" You quickly made your way to the bathroom. "Y/N? What's going on? Are you okay?"
You leaned against the wall once you were done throwing up. "Yeah, yeah, Sam, I'm okay."
"What was that about, then?" Sam questioned. When you didn't answer, he began putting the pieces together himself. "You're pregnant."
"SHH!" You hissed. "Don't say that!"
"Why not? Because you don't want Dean to know?" He spoke coldly.
"Sam, please, don't say anything."
"How long have you known, Y/N? And how long do you plan on keeping this from Dean?"
You sighed as you pinched the bridge of your nose. "I've known for a couple of days, okay? And I don't know when or how I'm going to tell Dean. He made it very clear that he didn't want anything to do with me the last time we talked. Besides, I tried to call him and he didn't answer my calls, so don't try to pin me off as the bad guy here."
"When did you try to call him?" The hard edge in Sam's voice disappeared.
"Three days ago, when I found out I was pregnant."
You could hear Sam let out a small laugh. "Three days ago I came in the kitchen to find Dean passed out on the table, hung over as hell and holding on to the picture of your wedding day. And beside him was his broken phone. His main phone, which I'm assuming is the one that you called?"
"Yeah. . ." You said meekly.
"Hang up and call his second phone. Please, will you do that for me?"
"Yes," You nodded, even though you knew he couldn't see you.
"I love you, Y/N/N."
"I love you too, Sammy." You sighed as you hung up the phone. You were terrified to call Dean. You hadn't spoken to him since that night all those weeks ago. You were still hurt, and you knew that Dean was hurting as well, and all you wanted was to hear his voice. You took a deep breath as you dialed his second phone number.
It rang five times before going to voicemail, making your heart sink. Not a minute later, the number called back. "Hello?"
"Y/N." Dean's voice said gruffly. "Sam told me you were going to call."
"Did. . . Did he tell you anything else?" You asked.
"Just that I needed to talk to you. What's going on?"
"I miss you," You confessed. You needed to tell Dean everything, and that included telling him how you felt. "I hate the way things ended between us, and I know that it wasn't solely on you or me. But I love you, Dean, and I will never stop loving you. And I know it's unfair I left and this is how I'm trying to get you back; over the phone. I would much rather be doing this in person. But I love you, Dean, and I always will. No matter what you say or do, I love you."
You could hear Dean struggling to breathe correctly. "Where are you?"
"My parents cabin, wh-"
"I'll be tomorrow morning." And with that, he hung up.
---
You paced back and forth in the living room, biting your nails. Dean didn't say what time he was going to be here, but he just said that he would be here in the morning. You had stayed up all night thinking about him. About the way his hair fell into his face after a shower, and how he always smelled like whiskey and firewood. The way his eyes would crinkle at the edges whenever he laughed, really laughed. But your favorite thing was when you had just finished a hunt, and you would go to lie down in bed, Dean would pull you close to him and whisper how much he loves you.
A sharp knock at the door snapped you out of your trance. "Who is it, Mom?" Jack asked, peering around the corner.
"Why don't you come see, kiddo." You wiped your sweaty palms on your jeans before opening the door to reveal Sam and Dean. "Hi," You smiled. Sam was the first to come inside and hug you. He grinned as he pulled away, ruffling your hair.
"Why don't I take Jack into town for a little bit while you guys work this out?" He suggested.
"Yeah, yeah, that sounds good. Jack, go put on your shoes, you're going into town with Sam for a little while." Jack beamed at your works, hurriedly putting his shoes on a following Sam out the door.
"Hi," You said once more after Sam and Jack were gone. Dean didn't say a word as he hugged you tightly. You melted into his touch, feeling comfort in his embrace. The familiar smell of whiskey and firewood filled your nostrils. You closed your eyes to savor this moment. "I missed you."
"I missed you too."
.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-
taglist:
@vicariouslythruspn @mimaria420 @fofisstilinski @daphnen21 @katwed @anunstablefangirl @desimarie12 @alderpine @rebeccaitsnotwhatyouthink @akshi8278
Also, yes, there will be a part 3
300 notes · View notes
icefire149 · 3 years
Note
Fluff prompts. 51 + destiel :)
Heyyyy there <3 I'm so sorry how long this took to write. Between my own life throwing hurdles, THIS FIC.....this fic just kept throwing me in the trunk and taking control of the car. I'm so sorry it sprung a million miles away from fluff immediately. I don't know why when I mediated on the prompt my mind went this way and didn't stop. I hope you still enjoy what ended up happening anyways <333
#51 “I will love you forever and when ‘forever’ ends, I’ll love you some more.”
Dean’s heart stopped the moment they fell through the portal rift. His body hit the bunker floor with a loud thump, but so did Castiel’s. It wasn’t until a moment later when Cas wiggled to sit up, slamming the palm of his hand onto the floor as he gasped for air, that Sam felt his stomach drop.
“Dean?” Sam shouted, dropping to his knees at his brother’s side. He shook Dean’s shoulder with increasing roughness.
With wide eyes, Cas pushed forward searching Dean’s face for any sign of life. “He was…..Sam, he was just-”
“He’s not breathing.” Sam muttered in shock before surging forward to start pressing on his brother’s chest. “What did he do, Cas! A deal?”
“No!” His whole body started trembling. What he wanted was to lay his hands on Dean’s head and wake him up, but there was nothing he could do now. His fingers lightly grazed across the bandage Dean quickly taped on his neck. There wasn’t an ounce of grace left.
Squeezing his hands into fists, Cas glanced around the room. Besides the three of them and the bowl the brothers must have used for the spell, the room was bare. “Where’s Jack?”
Sam kept his eyes glued to his brother’s face. His jaw tightened. “A lot’s happened since you died. Jack’s God now so he left.”
“He’s what?” Furious, Cas pushed Sam’s hands aside and took over compressions. He slammed a single fist into Dean’s chest, rocking the man’s whole body from the impact. Still, Dean didn’t wake.
Cas leaned close, listening and feeling for breath against his skin. His mouth quivered as he sat up feeling for a pulse. “No,” his voice commanded.
He started compressions, pressing harder than Sam dared. Dean’s limbs convulsed. “You failed, to mention, that you let, our son, become God,” he growled in between beats, letting his eyes trail up to Dean’s face. “You promised, me, forever! You promised. You promised.”
“You’re….breaking his rib cage,” Sam’s voice broke. His eyes were wide with horror as he watched his brother’s chest concave more than he thought possible. “Cas?” Sam’s voice shook. He rested a shaky hand on the angel’s shoulder.
“You don’t, get to die,” Cas mumbled, ignoring Sam’s presence. His hands paused for a moment as he took a deep breath. The sound of his own heart racing was like a loud boom, pounding on his eardrums. “Jack Kline, you will come home right now.”
Cas resumed compressions. Again, and again. He blinked the beading tears away, but they quickly filled his eyes. His hands, the bunker, Dean….they all blurred away as he kept beating to the rhythm of his nightmare.
The tears ran hot down his cheeks while he blinked. He needed to keep Dean in his sight. Dean was his beacon home. Sniffling, Cas couldn’t stop.
Sam withdrew his hand. “Cas?” his voice was so small and afraid like several decades were suddenly torn away.
Then as Cas pressed, he finally turned to glance at Sam. His voice cracked, "We're gonna need an ambulance."
At that, Sam flew to his feet, feeling for his phone before spotting it on the nearby table. He was unlocking it when a blinding light filled the room.
"Castiel?"
“Fix him.” Cas didn’t look up. He kept pounding on Dean’s chest. His compressions had only lessened a fraction in strength.
But Jack didn’t move from where he stood on the other side of Dean. His gaze moved over to Sam, and the fear circling there twisted the hunter’s gut into knots. “But I…..” Slowly, he dropped down to a knee, and then the other. “Cas,” his voice cracked. “There’s a bigger picture that I’m apart of now. I promised to protect it. I promised not to interfere.”
“And I, promised, to protect you,” Cas answered, halting compressions. He remained hunched over Dean with his hands still pressed over his heart. The angel’s eyes squished shut as quiet sob tore through him.
New tears slid down his already soaked face, hugging his jaw. “I can’t do that without saving him one more time. He promised me forever.” His gaze slid up to meet his son’s with fiery determination. “Jack, it’s too soon to be his time.”
“Okay.” Jack laid his hands next to his father’s. He closed his eyes, and breathed.
Dean gasped awake with three sets of eyes staring at him from above. The angels withdrew their hands.
Sam fell back into the chair at his side. His whole body sagged with exhaustion. “Thank you.”
“What happened?” Dean’s stare bounced back and forth between everyone. He slowly sat up, and Jack collided into him first.
Pressing his chin into Dean’s shoulder, Jack collapsed into him. “I’m sorry. I’m so sorry.”
A few coughs tore through Dean’s body, but he kept a hand on the center of Jack’s back the whole time. When his breathing settled, Dean hugged him back. Also with his free hand, he laid a hand on Cas’ knee.
“I felt it….when I healed you. Everything,” Jack confessed quietly. “Your heart gave out.”
Dean snorted at that. “That’s not much of a surprise, kid.” His eyes met his brother’s. “Sammy’s been telling me for years the bacon was gonna get me.”
“No.” Jack hung on tighter. “It was grief. The loss of Cas…….me. It weakened your heart, but I knitted it all back together again.”
“Oh.” Dean’s grip on Cas’ leg tightened.
“I didn’t know you would miss me.” The words came out quiet enough that Dean wasn’t sure if Jack meant to speak them out loud. And then Jack started to let go, but Dean held on tighter.
“I’m an expert at messing up….heh, well, everything in my life, but yeah, of course Jack. Of course, I missed you.”
-
The rest of the day felt almost too good to be true. They all climbed into the impala -Dean drove much to Sam’s dismay- and they went out to their favorite diner closest to the bunker.
Over their favorite meals, Jack began going over his progress and plans for all of creation. There were several parts where his excitement was palpable, but he clearly was trying to be mature about the situation under Cas’ scrutinizing eye. Sam followed after, explaining in detail the spell work him and Rowena poured over crafting the past several months. Intermittently, Dean cut in to proudly point out where his research came in handy and how him and Eileen went about gathering the ingredients.
Afterwards, Jack looked up from his dessert with chocolate syrup smeared at the corner of his mouth. His eyes narrowed as he studied Dean closely. “Now that Castiel is free, what are you planning on doing now?”
Surprised, Dean leaned back in the booth. “That’s not my call.” He wrapped an arm around Cas’ shoulders. “Any ideas?”
“No more dying,” Cas answered firm, taking a long drink from his beer. His steely gaze slowly moved to each person at the table. “That goes for all of you.”
“And you too,” Jack pressed.
“Of course.” Cas shivered involuntarily. “I’m not planning on returning to the Empty any time soon.”
“You shouldn’t, ever,” Sam answered. “That was the push behind removing your grace. Without it the Empty shouldn’t have any claim over you.”
“Thank you,” Cas answered, picking at the label on his beer bottle.
“You’ll never go back.” The tone in Jack’s voice lifted Cas’ gaze to his. “When the time comes, you’ll have a place at my side. Forever.”
Smiling softly, the tension drained away from Cas’ body. “Thank you, Jack. That’s an honor.”
“You’ll all have an important place,” Jack continued happily. “Mary too. And my mother.”
-
That night had a difficult start. Jack reluctantly left for Heaven. He promised to return for the following weekend to discuss his duties further with Cas. And Cas, he held onto his son for so long that Jack in between his laughter had to appeal to Sam and Dean for help getting free.
It wasn’t long later that Sam got up from the library chairs they were all located at and rested a hand on Cas’ shoulder. “I’m so glad you’re back. Sleep well.”
��Goodnight Sam,” Cas answered. He watched Sam cross over to Dean and punch his shoulder teasingly.
Once Sam was out of sight, Dean’s gaze landed on Cas. Dean rubbed the back of his neck. “Today, uh, didn’t exactly go as planned, but….I’m glad it happened.”
Cas’ stare hardened. “Dean, you died.”
“And I got better.”
Sighing, Cas’ gaze fell to his lap. He chewed at the inside of his cheek. “I can’t do that again.”
“Well, I can’t watch you die for….what? The fourth? The fifth time?”
Wincing, Cas nodded. “You asked me earlier….or rather, Jack asked you, what we’re planning on doing next and-” He sat up straighter in his chair and held Dean’s stare. “I want us to retire from hunting.”
Gobsmacked, Dean blinked. “Retire?”
“Doing research. Providing assistance on the phones….that’s all still acceptable and I’m willing to compromise on that.”
Dean chuckled, “Okay.”
“Okay?” Cas repeated, not quite believing what he was hearing.
“Yeah.” Dean nodded with a grin. “I’ve been bugging Sam for a couple years now about retiring…..especially if Jack could make things better...like the future that you saw.”
“Oh.” Cas tilted his head a bit. “I didn’t realize that you took that to heart.”
“I didn’t at first,” he admitted. “You died, and I figured that it was all one huge manipulation. Gabriel’s illusions. Lucifer’s lies.” Cas nodded, and Dean continued. “But then, you came home and….it became hard not to see so much of...you in him.”
“He’s a good boy, but I’m afraid that you’re placing too much….credit? On my shoulders.”
Dean’s grin widened. “Jack’s good, because he has the best father to emulate. There’s nobody else that fights….and sacrifices...to do the right thing like you.”
The corner of Cas’ mouth curved. “And they’re probably better off for it….”
“Cas, come on.” Dean sighed. “Okay, you did your big speech about how you see me….well suck it up, because you need to learn to see yourself the way everyone else sees you.”
Cas rolled his eyes.
“I’m serious,” Dean pressed. “Like yeah, things don’t always go as we planned. I sure as hell know Chuck didn’t plan on being fired and left in the dirt, but….the point is that, you’re probably the best guy in existence.”
That knocked the air out of Cas’ lungs and slapped a goofy smile on his face. “You’re biased.”
“That doesn’t mean I’m wrong, and I’m not.”
Cas shook his head, but that smile was still firmly there. “Thank you, Dean.”
“Come on,” Dean said standing up. He reached a hand out towards the angel. “It’s time for bed.”
Without hesitation, Cas took his hand but he didn’t rise from his chair. He stared at the marvel that was Dean’s skin pressed against his. It was callused in a few places, but still softer than Castiel imagined.
His gaze lifted up to meet Dean’s and a pang of anxiety wrapped around his chest. The joy slipped from his face.
“What’s wrong?” Dean’s grip tightened.
“What if I don’t wake up? Statistically, there’s a chance I’m still asleep in the Empty.”
Dean tugged Cas’ arm, and the angel let himself be pulled forward and engulfed in Dean’s arms. They clung onto each other tightly.
“You’re here,” Dean pressed. “This is real. I’ll remind you every day if I have to. I meant what I said when you woke up.”
“And then you almost didn’t get to fulfill that promise.”
“I would’ve,” Dean said, in a matter of fact. Pulling back, his eyes trailed over every inch of Cas’ face. He brought a hand up to cup the angel’s cheek, and then Dean leaned forward to press a kiss to Cas’ forehead. “Where ever my soul would've ended up, nothing was gonna change. I’d still love you.”
Cas raised an eyebrow. “So you’re promising, forever-forever?”
Chuckling, Dean dropped his head so his forehead was on Cas’ shoulder. “Yeah,” he breathed, laughing still. “When forever ends, I’ll just love you some more.”
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milfcodeddean · 3 years
Text
Memento Moratus Sum
Emma Haunts the Necklace- The Fic <3
Starts more post/concepty and becomes a fic bc I did not plan on this it was stream of consciousness!  I have not seen all of the later seasons and it was hard to keep track of what plot points to mention even of all the seasons I have seen!
AO3
Emma dies and Dean keeps her necklace to have something to remember her by, partly out of grief for what could have been partly as an act of emotional self flagellation. He wears it under his shirt, a secret, just like any thoughts he has about his dead daughter. 
Emma is a ghost because she didn’t do enough to be a monster and earn her place in purgatory but she isn’t human enough for heaven and she’s anchored to the necklace.
She follows Dean around silently, quickly learning enough about ghosts to know if she reveals herself too soon or ever really then Dean is going to burn the necklace.
During season seven Dean is haunted by two ghosts, Bobby, who is actively reaching out for him, and Emma, who is a silent observer. I think Emma hides from Bobby, he’s a hunter and she doesn’t want him to tell Dean about her, OR Bobby sees her before she knows ghosts can see other ghosts and they talk and he pities her but agrees to not let Dean know
Dean is wearing the necklace when he goes to purgatory. Emma is still a ghost here but it’s different, and she’s been watching this man for months now, he’s her world now. She keeps some of the monsters away, she makes him wake up when there are threats at night, she watches him befriend a monster and burns with pain at the knowledge that maybe she could have had that. Maybe she didn’t need to kill him, maybe he would have loved her not just as a dead hypothetical but as her.
Dean comes out of purgatory with an extra extra passenger. She watches with a sense of smugness as he rages at Sam, she pretends he’s also mad over her. She doesn’t like Sam’s attitude towards Benny either. She gets to see her great grandfather and she sees him die. She talks to his ghost, he calls her granddaughter (forgetting the great) even after learning she’s an amazon, before he gets reaped.
There’s an empty room in the bunker she pretends is hers. She moves objects in there, never quite decorating, but practicing telekinesis where Dean won’t see it and making up a fantasy of a life she could have had. She still never minds being tethered to Dean, especially now as he doesn’t sleep around and spends less time in bars where she’s left uncomfortably watching. She likes going to the grocery store, she likes watching him cook, maybe a few times she’s kept a pot from boiling over or a bag from falling. She’s learning to live from watching Dean, he doesn’t know it, but he’s teaching her life skills. She doesn’t know the names for the dishes he teaches her to make or the parts of cars or guns but she etches the motions he makes into her mind. She likes Charlie, she wishes she could meet her, and she likes larping. She imagines herself as an Amazon warrior of antiquity, armored in bronze.
She tried to wake Dean and Charlie out of their djinn dream but nothing worked, she tried to fight the djinn to no avail either. When Dean and Charlie hugged she wished she could be in their embrace too.
She’s glad it’s Bobby’s ghost they use for the trial, she’s so glad she never revealed herself.
Sam is slowly growing on her, she doesn’t love him but he means enough to Dean that she would try to stop him from dying.
She knows about Gadreel. She hides harder now, afraid too of the new angel in the bunker. Castiel she likes, Castiel she watched in purgatory and she watched beat her father bloody in the crypt and she understood brain washing and the control of authorities. She almost reveals herself and her knowledge of Gadreel when Dean kicks Cas out of the bunker, but her hesitation lasts too long.
She’s tethered to Dean so she isn’t there when Kevin dies. Kevin had been another one she enjoyed observing, she envied him his mother in so many ways, Linda had been everything Lydia hadn’t been. When Kevin dies he’s haunting the bunker too. It’s almost like having a friend. He pities her, but she’ll take anything, he’s sort of her age in some ways and she teaches him how to be a ghost.
Crowley almost gives her away. He knows she’s there, but he saves her presence as a bargaining chip against Dean, a surprise tidbit to bring up later.
The father of murder can see her too. Cain keeps his eyes on her father most of the time, but the spark in his eyes and smirk when he sees her and her bloody pink shirt cut straight through her.
Her father dies. She wants to run to him, to fling her arms around him and greet him with her bloody lips and stained shirt and tell him she forgives him and she loves him and she’s sorry he’s dead but can she at least spend some of eternity with him and she wants to teach him to be a ghost and she wants to tell him so many things she’s noticed. But Crowley does something that locks her voice and powers and keeps her from the room.
Demon dean leaves the bunker with Emma’s necklace ripped off and dropped beside a bedstead.
Sam picks up the necklace. Emma hates him touching it but it’s all she can hope that he doesn’t destroy it. She doesn’t know if he recognizes it, but he doesn’t throw it away, and brings it out to show Castiel as evidence for Dean’s absence. Castiel names it as Amazon gold, recognizes it as Dean’s, but does not know it’s origin. Emma has to hear her story from her murderer’s lips. She almost shows herself, but she’s afraid Sam will cast the necklace into a fire. If they could do that to Bobby, they’ll do it to her. But she doesn’t feel like a vengeful uncontrolled spirit, perhaps it’s the Amazon magic, but she feels calmer than she ever was during her days of life.
Her necklace stays in the bunker, she watches demon Dean from a distance at first, she tries to comfort him strapped to the chair but he calls her a hallucination and lets something between a sob and a laugh out before turning away. She tries, she wipes his brow, she begs him to become human again or to die, she tries to keep the devil’s trap intact. Still she is called a hallucination. It’s almost nice to be important enough that he’d hallucinate her.
When Dean, normal human dean, is back, he fixes the necklace with pliers and holds it staring at it in his hands. He’s alone in his room. Emma gently puts her hands over his where they are clasped around her anchor to him. She doesn’t know if he can feel her. Her name comes from his mouth in a breathy whisper, wet and rough, a word unused to being spoken. He bends over himself, weeping with the necklace pressed to his mouth. Emma weeps as well. He would not weep if he did not love her, but he is a hunter and she has to chose between this silent spectatorship where she can pretend she is living in rooms beside him, or the knowledge that if he knew she was haunting him, he would burn the necklace to send her on.
She doesn’t know if there’s another afterlife for failed amazons, and from what she understands of Heaven, hers would be something pathetic like the day she met Dean before she died, or an eternity as a ghost watching him weep.
She hates watching Dean with Amara those few days. She hates the burning wretched envy risking corrupting her as he holds a baby girl that isn’t her. She hates that Amara loves Dean. And she hates even more that Amara brings back Mary instead of her.
She never realized that she wanted to be brought back and resurrected so badly and that it was even an option until she watches Dean reunite with Mary.
Dean mentions her to Mary- almost - he says he had a kid, and the cut off gesture to the necklace means her. Emma stopped minding that Dean never spoke about her. She didn’t want him to talk about her with Sam, and she quickly realized he didn’t talk about his grief with anyone. But he did wear her necklace, and sometimes he took it out from under his shirt and rubbed his thumb over the metal and she would pretend it was his thumb stroking the back of her hand. Dean didn’t talk about her and she didn’t need him to. But now he had, and with his mother. And he implied he had thought about what he would want for her, that he wouldn’t want his life of violence and moving for her.
Emma likes Mary as a warrior woman, but can’t help but understand Dean’s pain when she leaves. She understands being the surprise child older than a parent wants too much.
She tried to help Dean as she always has, but the British Men of Letters terrify her. She knows they would either keep her to study or destroy her and she can’t trust anyone to keep her secret from their spying.
Later it seems the world collapses again. Cas dies. Angels don’t have ghosts, she can never meet him. And Kelly has eyes only for her son until she is reaped. Emma wishes she could comfort Dean or that she could truly leave him to his grief. She turns away as he ties Castiel’s body with yellow curtains. She stands beside him watching the pyre.
She doesn’t understand Dean’s attitude towards Jack. She’s watched jealously how Dean interacts with Krissy, with Claire, with the orphan boys at the home, and she has her fantasy of how Dean would have treated her had she lived. The jealous part of her doesn’t want Dean to like Jack, but most of her wants Dean to go back to acting like how she expected him to, she wants the man she could pretend was being her father. And she watches Jack enough to be afraid of their similarities. To see herself in him. And if Dean hates him, would he have hated her. Does he only wear her necklace because she’s dead.
She watches silently when Dean finally breaks, confronted, and tells Sam that he sees her in Jack. She hears how he loves her. She watches Sam realize the enormity of his crime and apologize. She accepts the apology, even if it wasn’t meant for her ears. Dean doesn’t see her, but she sits beside him on the opposite side of Sam on that floor.
Something has changed.
Sometimes, it seems like Dean is glimpsing her out of the corner of his eye. He stares at the steamy bathroom mirror while he’s shaving, right at the red smear on the pink of her shirt. He nicks himself, swears, and swipes a hand through the steam, through her image. He does double takes in the rear view mirror, glancing twice at the backseat where she sits, pretending she’s part of his road trips.
Jack brings back Castiel. Jack has powers beyond what Emma could have imagined. And Jack is both nice and not fully indoctrinated into hunting ways. Emma also likes Jack, she understands so much about him, and she likes the shows he watches, she likes the way he’s nice, and in her elaborate fantasy of what if she was alive, she decides he’s her brother.
It’s hard to find a time when Jack is alone but near enough to Dean and the anchoring necklace that she can talk to him, but it happens.
Emma focuses everything she has into appearing, a heavy grounding feeling she hasn’t felt since Dean was a chained demon. The words catch in her throat, unpracticed at speaking, but she blurts out to Jack that she’s his sister, the words spilling fast, that she’s Dean’s dead daughter, she doesn’t tell him that Sam killed her, she’s seen Sam with him, their closeness she can’t decide if she envies or not. She tells him she’s an Amazon, how she’s dead but anchored, how she doesn’t have a heaven or purgatory or hell, how she wants to come back. She tells him that she likes his shows and she tells him she loves Dean and Castiel and she finds things she likes about Sam. He doesn’t look at her with pity. He looks at her with a bright spark to his eyes.
But he doesn’t resurrect her. At least not right away. Apparently he’s been too recently warned off from the idea of asking for forgiveness rather than permission. He thinks she should reveal herself to Dean first, before they decide. Emma hates the idea, she spent all of these years afraid of Dean destroying her anchor, and now she’s afraid of his rejection, what if he resents her watching him all the time, what if he blames her for not doing more. What if he wants her gone instead of brought back.
The Amazons,in their scant days of raising her, taught her to be brave.
Jack asks the family to stay after dinner.
Emma takes a deep breath, more for the instinctive motion than for a need for air, and materializes.
There’s a beat of silence and then a mess of noises. Dean drops a mug, Sam’s chair skids, everyone one is talking at once.
Emma can’t find words to say to Dean, she wants to stare at him as she always does, but she can’t bear to see rejection on his face. She waits and Jack opens his mouth to introduce her but then her name comes from Dean’s lips. It’s like that dark night where they wept in his bedroom again. She has called him many variants of father in her mind in several languages, but it is the most childish “daddy” that slips out.
No one else in the room matters, he looks at her, meeting her eyes instead of the gorey wound, and she gets eye contact without having to pretend she is what’s in his sight line.
He doesn’t ask if she’s a ghost or if she’s dead or any of the silly civilian questions. He only manages “how” before fumbling for the necklace, and she nods confirmation. She wonders if he’s planning on burning it.
He asks how long and suddenly words spill forth, she tells him she’s been here the whole time, watching, she says she sorry about Bobby and Kevin and Charlie and Kelly and Cas and Benny she tells him the ones she helped with being a ghost, she tells him about watching the others move on, she says she’s sorry she couldn’t do more when he was a demon and something in his expression breaks, she says she’s sorry she never showed herself.
He holds up a hand, stopping her before she apologizes again, and says he remembers her when he was a demon, that he had thought she was a hallucination, she nods and cries anew.
She wants to tell him that she’s watched him and loves him and even if it’s embarrassing she wants to say she’s pretended to be alive with him, and she wants most of all to ask if he loves her, to hear it said to her face.
Instead he asks weakly why she’s here now.
She says she wanted to come clean about haunting him, says she’s thought about it for years and was scared he would burn the necklace, says she’s learned about ghosts from him and she’s never felt vengeful, she doesn’t feel corrupted, and maybe it’s because she’s a monster. His face twitches at that word.
Jack interrupts, changing the air in the room and suddenly both she and Dean remember their audience. Sam’s eyes are wet and he looks something close to afraid. Emma hopes the look on Castiel’s face is softness for her too and not just Jack.
Jack offers to bring her back, tells Dean that they didn’t want to do it behind his back. Emma turns invisible again out of the sick swoosh of anxiety that overwhelms her. She barely hears through her ringing ears that Dean desperately agrees and says yes, fumbling to take the necklace off and pass it to Jack.
She’s going to have to wait a few days. Jack is going to bring her back where her body is, and that’s more than 24 hours of driving away, and Dean wants to be there.
It’s a weird car ride, they know she’s there, and she sits between Castiel and Jack in the back of the Impala. They had her pick a set of Jack’s clothes to replace her bloody shirt, they have food and water for her. Emma doesn’t have a name for the emotions she’s feeling and they’re almost overwhelming.
They don’t have to dig her up to bring her back, Jack’s powers allow for that at least, and Emma is glad, she’s watched Dean dig up enough graves to imagine what she’ll look like.
Then Jack’s eyes glow bright gold.
It’s like what she imagines being born feels like. Overwhelming and dark and bright and both blissful and painful. And then she is gasping with real lungs and the sunlight is bright in her eyes and she can feel the textures of her clothing and the grass.
And then arms and hands are on her, Dean is pulling her to her feet and into his embrace in one motion.
She’s never been hugged by him, and it’s better than her jealous imaginings when he held others. She never wants to let go, she feels safe and warm and loved and his hand is on her hair and she can smell him and feel his heartbeat.
He finally lets go and steps back to look at her, keeping a hand on her shoulder and cupping her cheek with the other. There are streaks of tears matching her own on his face. His hands leave only to be replaced by Jack.
Jack’s hug is different but enthusiastic, there are no tears, he is beaming, part proud, part delighted, she can’t help but smile back. He calls her sister and she accepts him as brother.
Castiel does not embrace her, but his greeting his warm and his eyes match his smile. He clasps her hand between his and Emma’s heart swells.
She knows Sam doesn’t know how to look at her or how to talk to her. She doesn’t know what she wants from him either. She knows hes sorry, she’s heard it from his own lips, not to her, but to the only other person to whom it would matter. She smiles hesitantly at him, instead of glaring, and waves.
Then she slips her hand back into Dean’s and lets him pull her into another hug. She feels light and giddy and afraid this is all a dream. If she died and this is heaven then she would accept that too.
But it’s real, she changes out of her bloody shirt and into a blue one of Jack’s, she drinks water for the first time in years and eats fruit snacks from a packet pulled from Castiel’s trench-coat pocket, and a cereal bar.
A few hours later they stop at a nicer diner than Emma usually sees them eat at, and Dean tells the hostess it’s his daughter’s birthday and Emma gets to order foods she’s been curiously watching people eat for years off the menu. The restaurant gives her cake.
Emma’s cheeks hurt from smiling, and Dean’s eyes have not lost their cheerful crinkle and Jack is beaming and even Sam and Castiel look endlessly pleased.
Later there will be harder talks, about the things she’s witnessed, later she’ll talk about haunting their steps, about the years of questions built up, later she’ll realize she doesn’t remember how to sleep and Dean will sit and try to stroke her hair and talk softly and it’s nice but not enough. Later it will be Castiel who explains how to become human, how to adjust to having a body, how to sleep and how to tell if you like a food or not. Later she will argue with Dean about her usefulness on hunts and he will tell her how scared he is of her dying again. Later Mary will come back and die. Later Jack will die and a demon will wear his corpse and she will hate and fear it, later God will tell her she is an interloper in his story.
But for now Emma has a family and a piece of cake and a table of smiles.
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castielle-deanna · 3 years
Text
Destiel fanfic masterlist
My Destiel fanfics in decreasing word count order:
Hold me tight or don't (Explicit, words: 37,677)
Tags: Canon Compliant up to 15x13 // First Kiss // Domesticity in the Men of Letters Bunker // Conversations in the Impala // falling!Castiel // New Relationship // First Time // Castiel is Jack Kline's Parent // Castiel and Dean Winchester in Love //Art Embedded //soundtrack
Summary: With Jack’s soul now back, the four inhabitants of the Bunker are working on establishing a new routine. Between hunts, God’s wrath hanging over their heads and Castiel’s dwindling grace, the angel is not particularly eager to mention his deal to the Winchesters. With everything that’s going on, allowing himself to be happy sounds impossible anyway, right? Wrong…
With art by the fantastic @lizleeships
“Why now?” The angel asked quietly, taking a small step back.
Dean's fingers tightened on the tie he'd been holding onto as if it was a lifeline. “You said we were real. I want to believe it.”
“Even if it ends in pain?”
“Cas, everything I do ends there, eventually. There is always a bigger, heavier, smellier shoe waiting to drop. Holding back in fear of it doesn't make it any smaller, lighter or... or... “
“Less odoriferous?” Cas offered.
“Is that even a real word?”
“It is, indeed.”
“Sometimes you sound like you eat dictionaries and Victorian novels for breakfast,” Dean shook his head, grinning.
My unintended (Explicit, words:10,202)
Tags: Angst with a Happy Ending // Post-Episode: s15e20 Carry On // FUCK CANON! // Saving Dean Winchester - Retconning the finale - The fangirl business // Castiel/Dean Winchester First Kiss // Castiel/Dean Winchester First Time Having Sex // Slow and Romantic Sex // Bottom Castiel/Top Dean Winchester
Summary: At first, Castiel is ready to honour his part of the deal with the Empty, but then Jack shows up with distressing news...
With art by the fantastic @jeanne-de-valois
Cas heaves Dean into a bridal carry, struggling under his weight, but still he shifts slightly when Sam moves closer to help. He knows he needs to stop keeping Sam away, because it’s not fair, and it’s not what Dean wants anyway, but Sam accepts it and simply hangs back with a nod before he speaks again.
“I also know it’s not my business, but… do you think you could talk to Dean once he’s up for it? I’m not blind, or stupid. You two have to stop only holding each other like that when one of you is hurt or dead.”
Love me right (Explicit, words: 2,436)
Tags: Established Castiel/Dean Winchester // Porn with Feelings // Dean Winchester Wears Panties // Light Bondage // Panty Kink // Wing Kink // Top Castiel/Bottom Dean Winchester // Light Dom/sub // Dom Castiel/Sub Dean Winchester // Light BDSM // Dean and Castiel watch porn then recreate it
Summary: Dean asks to be tied up - who's Cas to say no to that? Written for a prompt by @winchester-reload on Patreon: "Thee Pink Panties"
“I want you to tie me up,” Dean blurts out one morning, closer to being asleep than awake still. He has no idea if Cas is even in the bedroom with him - for once, the angel is not curled around Dean with his whole body, their limbs entwined to the point where they can’t tell where one of them ends and the other begins, cliché as it is.
There’s no reply, so Dean lifts his head and blinks the grogginess away to look around. Cas is in the room, sitting cross-legged on the green couch by the wall with an open book in his lap but he’s staring at Dean with eyes so comically wide Dean would think it humanly impossible if he wasn’t seeing it with his own eyes.
“For fun,” Dean adds in hopes that Cas catches his meaning. The angel looks slightly less taken aback at that, but he still appears confused and tilts his head as if a slightly different angle would help with unraveling the mystery of Dean's words. “During sex, Cas.”
Rewind the exit (Teen And Up Audiences, words: 2,408)
Tags: Post-Episode: s15e18 Despair // Fix-It // Grief/Mourning // Angst with a Happy Ending // Castiel and Dean Winchester in Love // Grieving Dean Winchester // Grieving Sam Winchester
Summary: "Rewinding the exit wound, I'm holding on to you 'Cause I need words like anyone, and I need love like everyone With those words I'm strong enough, and I need love like everyone." (Rewind the exit by Volbeat) Obligatory 15x18 fix-it.
The Bunker is haunted. It's haunted by two faint apparitions of humanity who mostly pass each other by in the corridors like ships in the night, silent and distant.
Dean prays. Every morning, every evening, and most waking hours between the two, he prays. He doesn't know if Cas can hear him, but the faith that he can is all Dean has, so it has to be enough.
It's not enough. Yet Dean clings to it, because if he doesn't have that, he doesn't have anything.
Bite me (Mature, words: 1,407)
Tags: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence // Vampire Dean Winchester // Mild Blood!Kink (comes with the territory) // Castiel/Dean Winchester First Kiss
Summary: After Dean gets turned into a vampire during S06E05 - Live Free or Twi-hard, instead of going to Lisa's, he prays to Cas. Written for a prompt by winchester-reload on Patreon: "Vampire!Dean having a Cas snack"
“I can get you through this, and then we’ll burn any other bridges as we get to them,” Cas says earnestly.
“That’s not how the saying… you know what, never mind. I don’t want to get through this! I told you to kill me!” Dean pushes Cas away, but the angel holds onto both of his shoulders to stabilise him until Dean shakes him off in defiance. “Fucking stubborn angel, why can’t you just do as you’re told?”
“Because I’ve decided to disregard stupid orders!” Cas shoots back, and his previous stoicism is gone entirely. His eyes flare faintly with the light of his grace as he shrugs off his trenchcoat and goes to work on loosening his tie.
I wanna get you back again (Mature, words: 1,176)
Tags: Post-Episode: s15e18 Despair // Canon Divergence // Castiel/Dean Winchester First Kiss
Summary: Dean breaks into the Empty to save Cas. Written for a prompt by winchester-reload on Patreon: "Come on and lay it down/I've always been with you/Here and now/Give all that's within you/Be my Savior"
“Am I wrong in assuming that our friend who has the fashion sense of a flasher wasn’t the only one in love?” Balthazar smirked.
“Huh?”
Balthazar rolled his eyes. “Bit slow on the uptake, aren’t we? You know what, don’t answer that,” he shrugged, rolling right over Dean’s indignant splutter. “I’m talking about Castiel.”
“I know!”
“So which part of my question was confusing then?”
“Fuck you, Feather Boa, the Empty is trying to push me out and you want to chat?” Dean scoffed, trying to stomp his way past him.
“Your trenchcoated boyfriend is that way,” Balthazar said dryly, pointing to his left.
Forward is just the way ahead (General Audiences, words: 1,091)
Tags: Alternate Universe - Tattoo Parlor // Baby Jack Kline // Castiel is Jack Kline's Parent // Tattoo Artist Dean Winchester // Single Parent Castiel
Summary: Tattoo artist Dean falls for client. Written for a prompt by winchester-reload on Patreon: "Cas getting tattooed by Dean (or the other way around)"
“So,” Dean began, “It’s a simple black design, correct? Four rows of symbols?”
“Yes. It’s actually a warding-slash-protection spell in Enochian, the language of Biblical angels. There’s… well, there’s a story to it,” Cas chuckled.
“Is part of that story that you were named after an angel?”
Cas’ chuckle changed into full-blown laughter. “Yes. I have to say I wasn’t expecting you to know that. In fact, all my siblings have angel names, except for Luke, but only because they wouldn’t allow my parents to officially name him Lucifer…”
Waffles or kisses (Mature, words:1,026)
Tags: Domestic Fluff // Domestic Castiel/Dean Winchester // Established Castiel/Dean Winchester // Domesticity in the Men of Letters Bunker (Supernatural)
Summary: Cas tries to make breakfast for Dean - it doesn't quite work out... Written for a prompt by winchester-reload on Patreon: "Great British Bake Off contestants with fewer clothes and lots of flour!" I have nefariously tweaked the prompt to allow me to play in the canon!verse.
“You look like one of the Great British Bake Off contestants, but with fewer clothes... and lots of flour, what the hell are you even doing?” Dean guffaws.
“Is that Dean?” A slightly tinny female voice comes from somewhere underneath the bowls, and it takes a moment for Dean to recognise it.
“Hi Jody!”
“Am I on speaker?”
“Yes,” Cas says, rolling his eyes. Dean finds that his behaviour is not unlike Miracle’s after the dog got caught chewing Sam’s 3rd pair of slippers to shreds, and the comparison draws another laugh out of him.
“Hi, Dean,” Jody says warmly. “Nice to hear your voice, though it would be even nicer if you were the one calling, rather than hijacking a conversation between Cas and I…”
Dean ducks his head as Jody’s “mom voice” tries to work its magic on him. “I’m not hijacking anything! Can someone explain why my kitchen and my… Cas are head-to-toe covered in flour?”
“I was trying to make waffles for breakfast,” Cas replies barely audibly, looking down, shoulders drooping.
With those words I'm strong enough (Mature, words: 703)
Tags: Dean Winchester Deserves to be Happy // Dean Winchester's Birthday // Established Castiel/Dean Winchester // Non-Explicit Sex // Castiel and Dean Winchester in Love // Dean Winchester Says "I Love You" // Pillow Talk // Dean Winchester Lives // fuck 15x20
Summary: It's Dean's birthday and Castiel doesn't waste a single second to wish him a happy one (Utter finale denial and slight sap below.)
“Where did you go, my love?” Cas asks, ruffling Dean’s hair, curling a longer-than-usual strand of it around his index finger.
“Thinking.”
“Uh-oh, that’s never a good thing,” Cas deadpans and Dean whacks his upper arm with very little force. “Ow.”
“Sarcastic asshole in one moment, drama queen the next,” Dean grumbles, and he fully intends to kiss it better, but before he could get around to it, he’s pushed onto his back and there’s a former angel of the Lord straddling him with a grin on his face.
Domestic (General Audiences, words: 462)
Tags: Domestic Fluff // Established Castiel/Dean Winchester // Fallen Angel Castiel // Suptober 2020
Summary: Middle-of-the-night Destiel chat. Just a lightning-quick ficlet as my first and possibly only entry to Suptober 2020. The prompt was 'domestic'
“Of all the human things, the constant need to urinate is the worst,” Castiel complained as he slid under the covers with a yawn.
“The worst?” Dean huffed in sleepy amusement. “Being shot is worse. Broken bones. A toothache…”
“They are worse, but they are temporary. Urinating is permanent. I will have to put up with it for the rest of my life.”
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dothwrites · 3 years
Text
15.19--freedom
“Freedom’s just another word for nothing left to lose/Nothing, don’t mean nothing if it ain’t free, no, no”--Janis Joplin
---
Freedom. 
Dean rolls the word around on the tip of his tongue and tastes how it feels. Freedom. 
It’s a strange concept, especially since he always assumed that he was. Ever since Apocalypse Version 1.0 was averted, Michael and Lucifer locked in the cage, thanks very much, he’s always assumed that he was the one calling the shots. No matter how badly he fucked up (and he fucked up a lot), he could at least take comfort in the fact that those were his choices. No one’s hand up Dean Winchester’s ass, no siree. 
And then Chuck came and ripped that certainty away from him in one quick motion and then...everything was suspect. Sam, Mom, Jack...Cas. Every word, every action, every emotion... He couldn’t trust anything, so he trusted nothing.
He still wakes up from nightmares with those words echoing in his head: You’re dead to me. He bolts upright, almost puking, because he can’t believe his past self, he can’t believe that those words came out of his mouth, to Cas, to Cas of all people--
He splashes water on his face and notices that his hand is shaking. His stomach churns in warning, but he doesn’t think he’s going to puke. However, he also doesn’t think he’s going back to sleep tonight. 
He and Sam are in the bunker, but he knows they won’t stay. It’s too empty now, their voices echoing through the halls and rooms. Maybe once, he would have been all right with that, would have even enjoyed it, but now, he can’t bear it. He remembers all too well how it felt to have Jack’s voice bouncing through the kitchen as he talked about the latest movie they had watched, or how it felt to just feel Cas behind him as he moved through the kitchen. 
Every time he makes his breakfast, he’s reminded of what he lost. Every time he and Sam come back to the bunker, there’s the sinking disappointment to find themselves alone once more. Dean ends up spending most of his days in his room because anywhere else freaks him out. He can’t stop whipping his head to look over his shoulder, halfway convinced that he’ll find someone standing behind him. He’s always disappointed when he finds himself alone. 
He and Sam are going to leave the bunker behind. He doesn’t know when and he doesn’t know what for, but he knows that it’s going to happen. 
He asks Sam one afternoon why he hasn’t left yet. Eileen is waiting for him, biding her time a hell of a lot more patiently than Dean would, and Sam still isn’t going to her and starting the American dream life. And one afternoon, Dean either runs out of fucks and gathers up his last little shreds of courage, and asks him. 
“So when are you going to move in with Eileen? I can’t imagine that she’s going to wait for your gigantor ass forever.” 
Sam looks at him from across the table. There’s a book open in front of him, but Dean doesn’t think that he’s read a word. He knows that he’s been stuck on the same screen on his phone for several minutes. Without the pressing urgency of saving the world, things just seem so...pointless. Which is not necessarily bad. But it means that he and Sam spend a lot of slow, lingering afternoons like this, with just the two of them wandering through the bunker and occasionally bouncing off of each other like two very faulty pinballs stuck in a malfunctioning machine. 
“She’s fine,” Sam says, which isn’t an answer. “She understands what’s happening.” 
Dean’s glad that someone understands because he surely has no fucking clue.
---
His life falls into a kind of routine. Wake up, make breakfast. Find pointless chores to do around the bunker. Make lunch. Watch some bullshit shows on TV. Make dinner. Have a beer. Fall asleep. 
He feels like the worst kind of retiree, devoid of purpose. 
Sure, there are occasional hunts, but he doesn’t feel the need to go on them. The world is turning, same as it always did, and there are other hunters in the world. If that’s one thing that he learned through these past years, it’s that he doesn’t have to do everything. 
(Plus, he and Sam literally defeated God, so he thinks they deserve some time off.)
The forced retirement doesn’t make him happy. The bunker is the cleanest that it’s ever been and he doesn’t feel happy about it. There’s a gaping hole in his chest that’s shaped like the rest of his family, and he can’t sleep at night. He makes dinner and all he can think about are the empty places at the table. 
Sam sticks his head into Dean’s room. It’s a regular day, though Dean doesn’t bother to note either the actual date or the day of the week anymore. Time blends together in an endless cycle of waking, chores, and sleeping, because without a purpose to hold him together, he’s slowly falling apart. 
“I’m going to head out,” Sam says. Dean notices that he doesn’t put a timeline on his departure. “You should get out too.” 
Dean raises his eyebrows but doesn’t ask the obvious question: Where would he go? Sam, slightly chagrined, scuffs his feet against the floor. “Maybe go see Jody, Donna, and the girls? See if Charlie and Stevie want a third on their hunt? Bobby said something about building up his library here.” 
“Yeah,” Dean says, with absolutely no intention of following through on any of those suggestions. He’s not quite wallowing in his own grief and filth (every time he tries to crawl back into a bottle, he just remembers the pinched look at the corners of Cas’ eyes whenever he would find Dean halfway through a bender, and that memory effectively nixes any desire he might have had to crawl into the nearest bottle), but he’s not exactly the poster boy for healthy coping strategies either. 
“Dean.” 
Dean hates that note in Sam’s voice, the oh-so-soft and sensitive tone that could soothe widows and lull children. He hates even more that it’s being turned on him, hates most of all that he derives comfort from it. 
“I don’t get it,” Dean finally says, because if Sam is leaving then he might be losing his chance to ask his question aloud. “I don’t get...I mean, Jack could have brought him back. He could have done it. I could have asked him. I was right fucking there, and I didn’t ask.” 
He’s dissected those moments in his head until there’s nothing left, and he’s forced to cobble them back together like some Frankenstein of memories just so he can take them apart all over again. Why didn’t he ask Jack to bring Cas back? Why didn’t Jack do it of his own free will? Jack knew how he much he needed Cas; hell, Jack brought him back once before when he wasn’t God. So why couldn’t he do it then, when Dean needed him the most? 
“I don’t know,” Sam says, still in that same soft voice. “Maybe...maybe it was like Mom? I mean, Cas made his choice. For better or worse, he made it, and maybe Jack thinks that we need to respect it?” 
A thick lump rises in his throat. Cas’ face replays in his nightmares, tear-stricken and yet smiling, peace and grief shining in his eyes. I love you. Like it was the easiest thing in the world to say at that moment. Like it was all he’d ever wanted to say. 
“I never...” Dean swallows, but he doesn’t manage to chase away the horrid feeling rising in his chest. “I never said it back to him, Sam. I never...all those times he said it to us, and I never...he died, thinking that no one loved him. The one thing I want, I know I can’t have, is what he said to me.” 
Dean doesn’t necessarily have a list of his regrets (there are too many to really list), but if he did, then he knows this would be at the top of it. Cas sacrificed himself, Cas let himself get taken, Cas died, and all to save someone who he believed didn’t love him back. 
How could he not know? 
Dean knows he’s not necessarily Mr. Subtle; he knows Sam knows. Their enemies damn sure have seemed to figure out through the years exactly where Dean’s heart lies. How could Cas, as brilliant as he was, as insightful, as compassionate as he was, not understand that Dean’s been lost on him, quite possible since the first time he walked through those barn doors? 
Sam’s face goes on a journey and it ends up at about the same place that Dean feels. Maybe now Sam understands why it’s so much effort for him to just make it out of his room. 
“He thought it was worth it,” Sam finally says. “Even if he thought...At the end, it was still worth it to him.” 
You were still worth it, is left unsaid, but Dean hears the echo nonetheless. There’s an accusation there which he doesn’t want to confront, but he has to nonetheless. 
“I can’t stay here anymore,” Sam finally says. “I can’t...” When he looks at Dean, his eyes are glistening. There’s a plea for understanding in his face. “There’s a whole world out there that I haven’t gotten to see since...since Stanford really. Since ever. I can finally go out there and walk around and not worry that something’s going to come after me. I can finally...” Sam rubs a corner of his shirt between his fingers. “You always said that I wanted a normal life, and I did, for a while. Then, when I figured that it was never going to happen, I stopped myself from wanting it, because what was the point? When everything we had got ripped away from us, what was the point of anything? But now...” 
“If you start now, then you can probably make Des Moines by night,” Dean offers. It’s all he can say, but it’s enough. 
Sam smiles, his eyes glassy. “I’ll call you when I get there.”
It’s not a goodbye, but it is. It’s the bonds of desperation and codependency snapping and shattering and reforming into something else. Dean doesn’t know how to love his brother in this new world. All he knows is that Sam deserves to live the life he’s deserved. 
Dean closes his eyes. 
When he opens them, Sam is gone.
---
That night, he goes up on the roof of the bunker. It’s cold, but not unbearable. There’s a light drizzle falling which strengthens to a gentle shower the longer he stays outside. 
Dean closes his eyes and looks up at the sky. Out here, the stars shine clearer than ever before, visible even through the rainclouds. 
He can’t help but think of Jack. His son. He can say those words now, acknowledge that Jack gave him everything he really wanted; the chance at a family, the chance to erase some of his father’s sins. Jack was gentle, he was kind, he was loving, he was theirs. And then he was gone. 
Cas, Jack, Sam...
“What am I supposed to do?” Dean asks the rain, the same wild pain rising up in his throat. “What am I supposed to do now?” 
---
He makes it back inside, damp and cold, and strips himself. He should shower, but he can’t be bothered, so he falls into bed naked and shivering. Not like it matters; no one is around to see him anyway. He falls into a fitful doze and is only awakened hours later by the soft sounds of someone moving around his room. 
He bolts upright, snatching his gun out from underneath his pillow, because old habits die never. He blinks the sleep out of his eyes as his heartbeat catches up with his adrenaline. “Sam?” he asks, and then, more tentatively, “Jack?” 
His desk lamp blazes into the life with a soft snap. Dean’s heart leaps into his throat. 
Cas smiles at him, the same as always, sadness always lurking in his eyes and at the corners of his mouth. Dean finally understands why he looks that way. 
“Hello, Dean,” Cas says. The sound of his voice sends shivers down Dean’s spine, but the hair on his arms doesn’t rise. Dean understands then. 
“This is a dream.” He lowers the gun. His heart slows to normal and disappointment is bitter in his mouth. “You’re not really here.” 
Cas’ mouth lifts in a lopsided smile. “It’s as real as you make it.” 
“Don’t fucking Dumbledore me,” Dean mutters. He rubs at his temples. Somehow, even lucid dreaming has lost its appeal. Talking to Cas isn’t appealing when he knows that he’s just talking to his own subconscious. 
“I fail to see what a fictional wizard of questionable sexuality has to do with this.” 
“Good to know that my subconscious has your sense of humor down.” Dean glares at Cas. “Why the fuck are you here, anyway? It’s a dick move, even for my brain.” 
“Maybe because I’m the person you want to see? I don’t know. It’s your head, not mine.”
“Yeah. No offense, but I think I’m just going to go back to sleep. Or wake up. I don’t know. Whatever it is, I don’t need to see you anymore. It’s just...It really hurts, all right?” 
“I’m not real, so you’re not really hurting my feelings.” 
“Good. Well, now that we have that sorted out.” Dean punches his pillow as a punishment for betraying him, before he turns back to Cas. “I miss you,” he says, because he’s weak and always has been. 
“Dean.” The sound of Cas’ voice always manages to make Dean stop and now is no different. He turns around and looks at Cas. 
Somehow, Cas looks more solid around the edges. The lines around his eyes are more pronounced, and if Dean turns his head at just the right angle, he thinks he can see grey silvering at Cas’ temple. 
“Sam was right,” Cas says. “I made a choice. That’s what this was all about, ever since the beginning. Making choices, running our own course, picking our own path.” 
“Yeah, thanks for rubbing it in,” Dean mutters. The last thing he needs is his subconscious reminding him that once again, Cas decided that he wasn’t good enough to stay with. 
“But that doesn’t mean that you can’t make a choice as well,” Cas continues, ignoring him. “There’s nothing to stop you. You can make whatever choices you want and take the consequences that come with them. And if you make the right choices, then maybe...” Cas bites his lip, looking almost nervous. “Then maybe I can make some choices too.” 
Dean opens his mouth to argue--Cas is dead, the time for making decisions has come and gone--but his subconscious is a dick, and before he can say anything, his dream fades away in a wash of black. 
---
Dean wakes up energized. His eyes open into the same room, but it’s different somehow. It’s ridiculous, because the bunker is underground, but it’s almost like he sees the sun shining through his windows. Even the air tastes different. For the first time in weeks, he gets out of bed without dreading every step away from his mattress. 
He glances at his phone. There’s a message from Sam along with a picture. In it, Eileen and Sam smile at the camera, their heads pressed together at the temple. There’s still a shadow of sadness in their eyes--they’ve all lost too much to be truly carefree ever again--but they look good. Happy. Whole. 
Cas’ words echo back at him, both from the dream and from those last, horrible, terrifying moments. 
Everything you did, you did for love. 
You can make a choice. 
Dean starts towards the library. 
---
It takes him three weeks of almost non-stop research to cobble together enough spells to make something that has the potential to work. This isn’t his strength; Sam is much more suited for this type of work, but he won’t bring Sam in on this. If this thing goes really damn badly, then it has the potential to wipe him off the face of the earth, goodbye Dean Winchester. If this thing does what he’s halfway expecting it to, which is nothing, then he’ll have gotten Sam’s hopes up for nothing. He’s not going to expose Sam to either danger or disappointment, not when Sam’s finally managed to get to some kind of happiness. 
If everything goes well...
Dean won’t let himself think about that. 
He spends two days smoothing out the kinks in the spell, double and triple checking his translations. He gathers his ingredients, and then spends another hour pacing around the library. His stomach is roiling, and his nerves are jittery. He can’t bear to stop, but he can’t bear to move forward. 
The memory of Cas’ smile spurs him into action. Cas went to his death a willing martyr for a man who he believed didn’t love him back. He can’t let that stand. If anything else, Cas has to know. 
The drive to Pontiac, Illinois takes him the better part of a day. The impala springs forward across the asphalt, almost like she’s eager to eat up the miles after her forced retirement. Dean pushes hard down on the gas pedal, urging her forward. One way or another, this is going to come to an end tonight. 
It takes him a while to find the barn. The last time he was here, he wasn’t in his right mind, still reeling from the horrors of Hell and the confusion of finding himself alive. He’d been scared and angry, lost and so very alone. And then an angel had walked through the door and told him that good things happened, that he deserved to be saved. The last little bit might have been a line fed to Cas by a bunch of dickhead superiors, but the sentiment behind it had stayed long after those superiors were all dead. 
They replaced the doors which Cas shattered and painted over the walls which Dean and Bobby covered with sigils, but if Dean looks carefully, he can see the shadows of them behind the new coat of whitewash. He touches them gently for a second, remembering Bobby and all of the years which led him back to this place. Then he pulls out his can of spray paint and proceeds to deface the barn all over again. 
When he’s done, he sets up the ingredients on the table. The table is where it was all those years ago, facing the doors to the barn. He doesn’t quite believe that Cas is going to pull the same trick, storming through the doors in a shower of sparks, but he can always hope. 
“God...Jack,” Dean corrects himself with a wry twist of his mouth, “I really hope this works. Cas, wherever you are, I really hope you have your ears on.” 
Dean looks at his translations and begins to speak. He’s hoping that intention counts for something as his tongue stumbles over the unfamiliar words. His heart beats an uncertain pulse in his chest. This has to work. It has to work. 
He puts every ounce of belief into his voice, every bit of the faith Cas once accused him of not having. I have faith, he thinks, putting force behind his voice, sending his words rocketing into the dimensions. I believe in us. 
What’s real? 
We are.
The last syllables roll over his tongue, followed immediately by a peal of thunder. The barn shivers, a ripple rolling through the air to settle over Dean’s skin. Electricity crackles in the air, filling him with potential. 
“Castiel?” he calls to the darkness. “Cas?” 
There’s no answer, but the spells and research had been unclear on whether or not there should be an answer. He would prefer knowing that Cas was listening, but in absence of certainty, he’ll have to have faith. 
“Cas, I really hope you can hear me,” he says. The words bring back the memories of Purgatory and a time when he and Cas could barely look at each other. He pushes those memories away and concentrates on the truth he can feel in his heart, the same truth which has guided him through the years and all the way from Lebanon, Kansas to the small barn where it all began all those years ago. 
“I know you made your choice. I know you were happy. But...it’s not the same without you. I’m not the same without you. I wake up and think about you, and you’re the last thing I think about before I go to sleep at night. Every moment, you’re there because you’re not there. I look at all the places you’re missing and I can’t help but think that everything would be better if you were there.”
Dean swallows. “I miss you,” he confesses to the night. “Cas, I miss you so much. And I want you to come back. Not because I need you or because there’s something to fight against, but just because I miss you and life is better when you’re around.” He thinks of what Sam told him before he went. “There’s a new world out there, and I can’t think of who I would rather explore it with than you, but in order to do that, you’ve got to make a choice, all right?” 
His heart is pounding so hard he thinks it might explode out of his chest. “I want to share my life with you. I want to figure out this world together. I want to be able to look at you and hold you and experience everything with you. Cas, I want to tell you what I should have told you every single day for years. I’m sorry that I never told you while you were with me. And I’m sorry that the first time I say it, I’m not going to be looking at you, but it wouldn’t be our lives if something about this wasn’t shitty, right?” 
Dean takes a deep breath. “I love you, Cas. Not because of what you can do or how useful you are. I love you because of who you are and how hard you try. And I want to say it to you, every single day, for years to come. I’ve made my choice, Cas. Now you just need to make yours.” 
Silence overtakes the barn. The only sound is the faint whistling of the wind through the slats of the barn and the quick rasp of his breathing. There’s no flap of wings, no deep voice growling in his ears, no pop of electricity. 
“Please, Cas,” Dean whispers, closing his eyes to try and stop the burning behind them. “Please.” 
Thunder rolls through the barn, shaking through the wood down to the dirt floor. Dean’s head jerks upright as he scans the barn. “Cas?” he calls, hardly daring to hope. “Castiel?” 
A thin, golden thread rips open in the air before him. It looks almost exactly like the rifts between worlds which Jack used to create, but that’s not possible. 
It’s not possible, but Dean dares to hope anyway. 
“Castiel? Cas?” 
A single hand reaches out through the golden tear, and then Dean is moving, he’s practically tripping over his own feet in his haste to reach the rift. “Cas, Cas, please,” he’s saying, not quite aware of the words which are tumbling from his mouth. “Please.” 
Until his fingers grip the hand, he’s not sure that it’s real, but that’s solid flesh and bone underneath his palm. Dean pulls, feeling resistance on the other end. “No,” he grunts, reaching into the rift. His hand touches skin, and his resolve grows. He didn’t come this far only to lose. They haven’t come this far only to fall apart. 
“I want you,” he says, as though the force of his words can rip through the veil. “Cas, please, come home, Cas, please--” 
With an almighty heave, he pulls once more and then he’s falling backward, another body tumbling against his in an ungainly pile of limbs and bodies. There’s skin and there’s warm, and there’s weight. Out of the corner of his eye, Dean sees the rift close up, as neatly as if it were never there at all. 
He doesn’t care about that. He can’t, not now. 
Dean looks down at the body sprawled across his lap. There are miles upon miles of naked skin for him to peruse, and he hopes that he’ll be able to do so later at his leisure, but for now, all he can concentrate on are those two luminous eyes blinking up at him. 
“Cas?” Dean asks, hardly daring to believe. His hands cup Castiel’s face, fingers sweeping a few locks of dark hair off of his forehead. 
Castiel blinks at him, his dark eyelashes fanning over his cheeks. A slow smile creeps across his face, like the dawn spreading across the horizon. “Dean,” he says, his voice the same as it always was, but this time it’s better, because it’s a voice that Dean never thought he’d hear again. 
“Cas.” It’s the only word Dean seems capable of saying, but words don’t seem important anymore, not when he can lean forward and press his lips to Cas’, not when he can taste the small sigh of surprise on Cas’ lips. “Cas, I missed you so much, oh god, Cas, there’s so much I want to tell you, there’s so much I want to do--” 
Cas interrupts him with another kiss, his arms threading around Dean’s shoulders to pull him closer. Gentle fingers tug at the hair at the nape of his neck, and Dean thinks that he could live in this moment forever. 
But before he does that, there’s something else which needs to happen first. Dean pulls away, ignoring the small whine of protest from Cas. 
“Cas, there’s something I need to tell you,” he starts, only to be interrupted. 
“I know,” Cas says, his face splitting into a wide, gummy smile. No shadow lurks behind his eyes, no hint of tears glisten in his eyes. There’s just happiness, radiant and absolute, gleaming from his face. 
“I heard your prayer.” 
Maybe once upon a time, Dean would have been satisfied with that answer, but not anymore. 
“I love you,” Dean whispers, pressing the words into Cas’ skin with gentle kisses over his temple and cheeks. “I love you, I love you, I love you, and I’m going to tell you every day until you get sick of it.” 
“You’ll have to try for a very long time,” Castiel answers, his fingers tracing along Dean’s jaw. “I like hearing those words very much.” 
Dean can’t help but kiss him again. As he does so, he feels the lost and scattered pieces of his heart knitting back together until he can finally breathe for the first time in months. “Come on,” he says, once he surfaces for air. “Let’s go.” 
It only hits him then that Cas is naked. Apparently rebirth and snagging people out of alternate dimensions results in a distinct lack of clothing. Dean’s eyes want to travel over the skin revealed to him, but he waits. There will be time, he realizes with a tiny thrill of delight. He and Cas have all the time in the world.
He manages to find a blanket to wrap around Cas’ shoulders. It will do until they get out to the car where he has a spare set of clothes. For now, he helps Cas to his feet. Cas looks around him, his eyes wide and huge, as though he’s overwhelmed with the world around him. 
“Where are we headed?” Cas asks as they head towards the door. The Impala waits outside, beckoning them forward once more. 
Dean grins as the cool night air washes over them. It’s gentle and soft, eternity held in the breeze. There’s a world held within the palm of tonight, a world held within the rest of their lives. 
“Wherever we want,” he answers, stepping out of the shadow of the barn and into the world. 
As they walk towards the Impala, a light rain begins to fall. 
---
“Before, I wanted to say: "I found love!" But now, I want to say: "I found a person. And he belongs to me and I belong to him.”― C. JoyBell C.
917 notes · View notes
deanwasalwaysbi · 3 years
Text
Okay but when tho. when. but when? When did Dean spread Cas's ashes in the meadow?
They burnt the pyre at the end of Episode 1 and Cas respawns in the meadow at the end of Episode 4. (x) That narrows things considerably.
There are two sets of possibilities:
Dean Sam and Jack spread the ashes together or
Dean spread the ashes on his own and told Sam about the place he'd chosen.
Both hurt. Cont. under the cut.
The boys spent episodes 1 and 2 in crisis mode and, although they took the time to build the pyre in Lost and Found (13x01), I don't think that they took the time to select a carefully chosen spot then or during the event of The Rising Son (13x02). Oh but wait - what's this? The fight between Jack and Asmodeus happens in a beautiful meadow. But it's in Wyoming and while I think it would be very touching for Dean to have spread the ashes in a field where Jack chose 'good' over 'evil', I would think Dean would want him a bit closer to home. Not to mention there's no windmill, not brooke, and the whole doorway to hell thing.
It's possible he spread them between the end and the beginning of the next episode, which starts with Dean empty, listening to music on his bed. (go ahead and canon that it was his mixtape if you want extra pain, you masochist).
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It's possible he spread them between the end and the beginning of the next episode, which starts with Dean, listening to music on his bed with *this* face. (go ahead and canon that it was his mixtape if you want extra pain, you masochist).
During Patience (13x03) Dean goes off alone. Dean was in a dark enough place that he told Patience to stay in the closet, but then Jody corrected him and really made him think. (x) At the end of the episode he was yelling at Sam about how Jack had gotten Cas killed. "Maybe you can forget about that, but I CAN'T!" Dean could have spread the ashes alone on his way home, and gotten upset enough to explode at Sam. "You know, Dean, he -- he feels things more acutely than any human I've ever known. So it's possible he could work through this. One day, he may explode and let it all out and breathe deeply and move on."
This is looking pretty likely. Although it would mean that Dean brought Cas's ashes with him, either for the express purpose of deciding what to do with them or because he just couldn't leave them behind (ANGST).
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The end of The Big Empy (13x04) is really the first time that Dean is REMOTELY in a decent place all season. Sam Jack and Dean all went through the closest thing any Winchester is ever going to get to family therapy with Mia, the Shapeshifting Grief Therapist. Sam's grief is focused on Mary, Dean's on Cas, and Jack's on Kelly.
Dean tells Jack he did a good job and Jack has this whole 'my abusive dad said he's proud of me' moment. Dean actually says, "good job today, Jack" but by that time it's day time, and the fight happened at night, so technically, it's the next day. The boys are driving back from Madison WI, over ten hours from the NE. They could have stopped together on the way back, and taken the time to spread the ashes together, as part of the grieving process after therapy with Mia, ... but that also implies that Dean took the ashes with him when he left the bunker.
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They also could have gone together after this point, but Cas wakes up right then in the episode and you could take that to mean no additional time has passed. This would mean that they spread the ashes immediately before he woke up and if they had just dawdled a little bit longer Cas wouldn't have had to walk, and dean would have gotten the shock of his life. It's a bit hilarious and definitely a fic prompt for anyone who wants to break Dean's brain.
Cas walked from the Meadow to the payphone. On the one hand that pay phone was in walking distance, but on the other hand it takes him from the end of episode 4 to the end of episode 5 to make that phone call. <That was a long walk, or Cas was taking his sweet time in that meadow with some bees. 🐝> They pick Cas up in darkness and then drive straight to the bunker where Jack is already awake. So it wasn't an insignificant drive, but I would also think Dean wouldn't have spread them TOO far away from home. Maybe the sun was about to come up, maybe they just stared into each other's eyes for hours on end for old times sake while Sam was silently freaking out, wondering wtaf was going on. There's really no way to know.
At the end of Advanced Thanatology (13x05) They get the phone call on the way back from Grand Junction, Colorado, a 9+ hour drive from the West. It's day when they leave, night falls by the time they get the call, and it is still dark when they reach Cas. [oh god if Dean had stayed dead after he died in this episode he wouldn't have known Cas was resurrected.] [unless Cas went to his heaven I guess but we'll ignore that for the mo.]
OKAY SO GROUP THINK OPINION TIME When and where did Dean spread Cas's ashes? Did they do it together or was Dean alone? Did Dean spread them with Sam and Jack there or did Dean tell Sam about the place he chose for Cas with such detail that Sam recognized it from Cas's description during their reunion? After 13x03 or on the way home from 13x04?
Give me your opinions on note, tag, or reblog
Or, if you just want more pain, here's my old breakdown of the entire widower arc from before I had manners, masochist (x)
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chaoticdean · 3 years
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(click on the banner for HQ, Tumblr somehow keeps fucking it up)
31 days and close to 39k words written later, here’s my Suptober20 master post! I can hardly believe that I managed to write everyday for a month, and I once again want to thank all of you for tagging along and being the nicest cheerleaders in the whole damn world. 💜
A special thank you to @winchester-reload​ for hosting this massive challenge and being the nicest gal around ✨
LINK TO THE SERIE ON AO3 | LINK TO MY TUMBLR TAGGED POSTS
(individual posts under the cut because this is a very long fucking post)
#1 — On the road again
The thrilling quest of gouda cheese — wc ~ 900 — Castiel is in charge of grocery shopping today, which could be a great thing if Dean could stop making him run back to the store multiple time. When his boyfriend decides they’re suddenly in urgent need of a special cheese, Castiel in turn decides he’s had enough.
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#2 — Earth
A plastic and cardboard affair — wc ~ 1.2k —  In which Castiel suddenly becomes hyperaware of the looming environmental catastrophe ahead and decides to start changing things in the bunker, and Dean... Well, Dean is sleepy, AND HE JUST WANTS TO CUDDLE.
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#3 — Demonic
Demonic skills — wc ~ 1.4k — Before Cas, Dean could always count on his abilities in bed to get him out of conversations he didn’t want to have. Now, though, not so much. (also known as “post-coital pillow talk with Cas”).
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#4 — Branded
Etched into my bones — wc ~ 500 — Against all the odds, Dean is the one who suggests it. He claims it’s just a mean to an end, but Cas knows better. After all, he’s the one who gets to witness the man behind the hard shell he shows to the world every single day, and he’s grown to love the soft side of Dean Winchester. 
(Darkest Roads!verse)
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#5 — Daydream
Dr. McHandsy and the curious case of the white lab coat — wc ~ 1.5k  — They’re on a case and undercover, and that’s reason #1 why Dean shouldn’t be sitting here drooling over his partner. But really, who thought putting Castiel in a doctor outfit would be a brilliant idea?! 
He’s gonna kill Sam.
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#6 — Mask
A study in scotch and pampering — wc ~ 1.3k — If anyone had told Dean Winchester years from now that he’d be content letting his husband paint his face with foreign matter (not that kind of foreign matter, you kinky bastards) that smells like coconut and feels like whipped cream, he would’ve had the biggest laugh out of it. Nowadays, though, if that’s what it takes to get Cas to talk, he’ll do it in a heartbeat.
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#7 — Domestic
The shirt in the dispute (and other laundry feuds) — wc ~ 2.1k — It all starts off with a sordid affair of mixed laundry, and somehow it’s World War III in the Men of Letter’s bunker (or the one where Castiel messes a batch of laundry up, and Dean’s Led Zeppelin shirt bites the dust)
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#8 — Heartless
Ohio and the open secret — wc ~ 1.5k — Dean desperately tried to get Sam to pass on this case, hoping to finally get some alone time with his boyfriend for the first time in a while, but his giant moose of a brother decided to tag along anyway. Now they’re stuck in the same bedroom in Ohio, and Castiel is about to lose it, so Dean takes the matter into his own hands.
(it doesn’t go as planned)
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#9 — Electric
Ocean waves — wc ~ 1.2k — It’s been 5 years now, and somehow they figured out their shit. A house on a the shore, a ring on their fingers, and despite everything Dean still wakes up to find Cas wrapped up in a panic attack on random nights, doubts and anxiety eating him alive. But they aren’t alone in the panic anymore.
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#10 — Sweet Rides
Home is wherever I’m with you — wc ~ 600 — Until a few years ago, Dean didn’t have any home. He grew up in shitty motel rooms and inside the Impala, on the road and in-between schools. As he finally allow himself to fall into Castiel’s arms, he reflects on all the places he can call home, now.
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#11 — Rock & Roll
Sharp Edges — wc ~ 1.6k — Castiel told him he loved him right before getting swallowed up by the Empty. Sam asked him to talk to someone, anyone really,, but words won’t come out, and how is he supposed to tell anyone how it feels to lose everything? So he writes. Letters on napkins, motel notepads, paperback books. He writes as he goes through every steps of grief, until finally there’s a light at the end of the tunnel.
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#12 — Rewind
Leading me, going home — wc ~ 900 — Dean and Castiel reflects on their past and what they would say to their past self if they had the opportunity to rewind. (also known as “Castiel uses too many Harry Potter quotes, which gets Dean to prevent him from ever binging the movies again”)
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#13 — Ladies
The promise in the cocktails — wc ~ 800 — When a joke involving colorful cocktails designed to put his brother into misery turns into a promise for more steamy nights with Cas, Dean thinks he might have won the lottery (and God bless strawberry daiquiris).
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#14 — Fun & Games
A fever and the whipped boyfriend — wc ~ 1k — Being in love with a being as old as the Earth is all fun and games until said ex-angel gets sick for the first time of his entire (overwhelmingly long) life and turns into an actual, honest to god, gigantic baby. Lucky for Cas, Dean turns into perfect boyfriend mode. 
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#15 — Third Eye
The blonde-haired witch and the little push — wc ~ 2.8k — It’s not the first time Dean’s ever had to listen to someone referring to Castiel as “his boyfriend”, but it sure as hell is the first time he has to sit through a diner listening to a witch referring to Cas as his husband without even batting an eyelash, like it’s the most normal thing in the world.
Which would be fine if it didn’t cause actual shivers to run down his spine.
(or the one where a friendly witch gives Dean the little push he needs)
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#16 — Switch it up!
The spices in the suit — wc ~ 1.7k — Dean doesn’t know when he started taking advices from Sam when it comes to his love life, but after tonight he thinks he might be more mindful of Sam’s wiseness in the future. Especially if it gets him all the way to the backseat of the Impala with a former angel in his lap.
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#17 — Autumn invading
Storms never come to stay — wc ~ 1.6k — Dean finds Cas in the wood behind their house, hours after they had a fight. They’ve been together for a long time now, yet fears still run deep. 
(Darkest Roads!verse)
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#18 — Dark & Stormy Night
The wayward gang and the questionable cocktail — wc ~ 1.9k — Castiel comes back to the bunker after a day on the road to find the wayward gang scattered over the map table for what appears to be a cocktail night. Sam wanted piña colada, but Dean Winchester bartender extraordinaire decided to go for something darker and stormier...
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#19 — Pour one out
As days fade (and night grows) — wc ~ 1.9k — Castiel wakes up alone and cold, and decides that he’s had enough of Dean shutting him out. They’ve lost Jack, but it doesn’t mean they have to lose themselves too. 
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#20 — Home
The fire in my bones — wc ~ 1.1k — It’s not a secret that Dean Winchester isn’t particularly good with words, but when he fucks up and unintentionally hurts Cas, he knows he has to do better.
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#21 — Fear
If I let you go, would you hold on? — wc ~ 1.6k — Castiel gets hurt on a hunt trying to protect Dean, and Dean is tired of having to wake up everyday not knowing if they’ll both be alive the next morning or if one of them is going to sacrifice himself to save the other. Finally, he makes a choice that will set he course of their future together.
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#22 — “I cursed the gloom that set upon us, but I know that I love you so...”
Just a little rain — wc ~ 800 — Leave it to Led Zeppelin and Dean’s slow dancing skills to soothe the pain of letting your kid leave to tour the world.
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#23 — Favorite
You feel like the sun on my face — wc ~ 700 — Dean awakes to Castiel sliding into bed after he just came back from a hunt, and somehow it’s kind of the best feeling in the world.
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#24 — Family business
Wherever we are is where I wanna be — wc ~ 1.4k — It took them a few months, but once Dean and Castiel decide to move across the country and into a home of their own, everything falls into places. 
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#25 — Villain
The blue tie in the bathtub — wc ~ 1.2k — Dean has been a pain in the ass all day, so Castiel decides to drag him into the bathtub and tie his hand up the shower rail before teaching him a lesson.
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#26 — Walk of shame
And I would walk 500 miles — wc ~ 1.3k — The one where they think they’re being subtle, but they’re actually being really loud (and Sam happens to have functioning eyes, too.)
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#27 — Banquet
Drunk on love — wc ~ 800 — Dean’s analogies are usually spot on, but maybe he’s had a bit too much whisky to be clever tonight (or maybe the fact that Castiel’s mouth is currently glued to his throat is preventing him to think clearly, who knows?)
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#28 — Hellscape
Adventures in Christmas shopping — wc ~ 500 — Castiel wants to go Christmas shopping, and Dean being a very whipped thoughtful boyfriend decides to tag along. It doesn’t go well.
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#29 — Fragile
Anytime you reach for me — wc ~ 700 — A look into what sex used to mean to Dean before Cas, and how his world has been turned upside down ever since he got in bed with a former angel of the lord.
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#30 — Dress-up
Entertainment in soapy water — wc ~ 800 — Castiel just went down the garage to see what Dean is up to, but when he catches a flash of red right above the waistband of Dean’s shorts, it seems like his boyfriend might have dressed up just for him to see.
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#31 — Carry On
Scar tissue — wc ~ 1.6k — There are arguably a few things that Dean dislikes more than anything else in the world, but nothing compares to what it feels like to wake up in an empty bed in the middle of the night, and the insane bolt of fear laced with anxiety than runs through Dean’s chest when he realizes he’s got no idea where Castiel is.
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quwarichi · 3 years
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heard from your mother au - The Ripple Effect
this is my early birthday gift for @schmuzz1 Ever heard of the ripple effect? you probably did but let's go over it once more; the ripple effect is like if you took a rock and threw it into a lake. Where the rock would hit and sink a ripple would be created, and from there it would only grow bigger and bigger, taking over more space, until the water settles again.
HFYM is the ripple effect ficsonified. The premise is simple, for those who watched the episode Despair in the last season of Supernatural. Castiel confesses his love to Dean, gets taken by the Empty. He wakes up in 2003 in a motel room, without his memories and only a memory saying “Don’t do this, Cas” which helps him figure out his name is Cas, and that he’s a hunter. Simple.
Then he meets Dean.
Now, we’ve all read various pre-series fics, haven’t we? It’s a token when giving fans a time-gap that we don’t know much about, they’d try to fill it as best as their imagination limitations will help them. So what is so special about HFYM?
In a word; Cas.
Meet this angelic being, who without his memories fully believes his humanity, and drives around the US not looking for answers, exactly, but just trying to help out to the best of his ability. By putting Cas in a setting pre-series, and letting the readers know that this Cas is their Castiel, the story already kicks into gear with a race to see when and how Cas will affect the story.
We didn’t know about angels until season 4. We didn’t THINK there was a better way to kill demons other than the Colt until season 3. Characters and themes that we would’ve taken years to get to know in the show are being used and constantly appear throughout what HFYM would call season 0 (or is that just me? make some noise). But Cas changes all of that just by being. For this next part, I recommend you stop reading this post if you haven’t read this fic, go read it in its entirety, and come back here after you’re done and had time to adjust.
We good? Good.
Pamela Barnes, the love of my life and a five-episode cameo in the Supernatural show. In HFYM, she acts as Cas’ best friend most of the time, teaching him the highs (hehe) and lows of having what they all figure is a really developed psychic ability. Bringing Pamela in chapter 16 was not only a brilliant use of character but a ripple effect. But I get ahead of myself. To understand why Pamela is suddenly there, we need to identify the biggest ripple of them all; Dean fucking Winchester.
Dean and Cas, from the start, develop a sort of kinship. It’s reminiscent of their first meeting in Lazarus Rising, where Castiel rescues Dean but also has its own charm. Here, Cas has no idea he’s an angel, and that’s why humanity is so strange to him. Dean views Cas as a weirdo that is not to be trusted, and later as a weirdo that he can kinda trust but make sure to watch his back around him.
In a way, they’re mirrors. Cas’ effortless way of creating acquaintances highlights just how isolated Dean is from people because of John’s influence. Whenever they’re together, Dean finds himself surrounded by others too, but apart it’s clear that Cas (to much of my, and probably his, surprise) is the social one.
Quoting the fic tags: “like maybe if he [Pre-series Dean Winchester] got a boyfriend he would have calmed down” is the very abstract explanation of the ripple effect. By being isolated for so long, without even Sam to keep him company, Dean couldn’t develop properly, resulting in the Dean we get in season 1. But ripples (courtesy of Cas) reach him and that’s where it all comes together. By meeting Cas pre-series Dean is given two things; one, no more isolation, time to grow sunshine. Two, a romantic subplot.
Now I don’t know how much you know about media - but romantic subplots are usually very character forwarding if done right. The best thing about the romantic subplot in HFYM is that it’s not immediate. Fuck no. It’s built on months of friendship and a bond forged in hunting, in putting each other’s lives in the other’s hands like it’s nothing. When they finally get together (I did the math, they get together when the story is like, halfway over. 52% to be exact) it makes sense because you watched them forge the bond and thus pushing their character development further. Romantic subplots are one of the best ways to push a character to their limits (looking at you, chapter 49) and then break those limits. So the biggest ripple was basically Cas and Dean thinking “huh, lemme smooch” and then doing it instead of eye fucking for twelve years.
But that’s not what I’m talking about, exactly. The biggest ripple effect that Cas did with Dean is that when season 1 starts (did I mentioned this was a canon rewrite? We love multitasking), when Dean goes to get Sam for Jericho and everything is put into hyperdrive, Dean is different. It affects how people around him act, especially Sam. The first season is very Sam-driven, but the main character will be changed by changing the “supporting” cast. It doesn’t help that Cas ripple effect number 2932#: Save Jess has definitely quelled the grief-rage thing that Sam has going on in canon since she’s not gone, and is actually around them for a while before leaving to work with Bobby and Jo. Sam immediately notices that something’s different about Dean, but he can’t put a finger on it. Requoting tags: “he would have calmed down”. Gone is the aimless rage and loss that makes him reckless and drinking too much. Gone are the women chasing days because he’s in a committed relationship. Heck Dean has a bit of self-esteem now, having bagged that (points at frog-shirt wearing Cas) and it affects the story in the way he and Sam interact.
Sam can feel that Dean’s hiding something from him (Cas) and it makes a rift between them because he doesn’t get who’s this hunter Dean hangs out with that is definitely replacing Sam in Dean’s eyes - the same guy who used weird powers to save Jess from a demon. Dean is still hurt over Sam leaving for Stanford and anxious about him finding out about Cas and John and everything. Basically, take season 1 brother dynamics and throw a live grenade in the mix. That grenade is Cas, btw.
Ripples, man.
Cas affects the story - he gets Dean to get back in touch with Bobby because he’s looking for an explanation for why he heals from mortal wounds like it’s nothing, why he doesn’t need sleep, and why he’s never hungry. Bobby connects Cas to Pamela, thinking Cas is an odd psychic, and Pamela becomes inherently important in the way that she helps Cas control his powers and provides his first real… non-platonic experience (off-screen, dw they’re friends) that later helps him discern what Dean is to him. Through Bobby, he also meets Ellen and Jo, in the Roadhouse. He goes on hunts alone, and finds a knife that helps him save a possessed girl named Taylor who is later a part of an actual episode (Hookman) and there’s recognition, she’s not just a standby person and that connects with Jess’ storyline, that connects with Sam’s storyline that connects with Dean’s storyline. By being him, Cas creates ripples everywhere he touches because he’s not supposed to be there.
The otherwise undisturbed surface is broken because Cas is there to break it and create ripples that connect with each other, all unknowingly, and the way it’s constructed is incredible.
I could add more about Dean’s bisexuality journey or realization, or how lack of trauma makes Cas a lot more narrative-free but it could all come crashing down on him if he remembers the past, or how Sam and Jess are so interesting like yes girl flesh out the revenge reason we see in three episodes, but this is getting long and I could always make new posts about this fic that I love so much.
Happy birthday, Jenn, you’re an incredible friend and writer and I’m so lucky to have found you in this mayhem of a fandom.
Go read heard from your mother (she don’t recognize you) on ao3, you magnificent people.
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thisvictoriangirl · 3 years
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We deserved a better ending. 
No, scratch that. We deserved a GOOD ending. 
One that doesn’t feel like betrayal or mockery or a big, fat fuck you to us. I cannot, for the life of me, stand by as they serve us a pile of steaming hot shit and expect us to swallow it.
So you know what?
In our ending, Dean doesn’t forget Castiel.
He dreams of him instead, blinking tears from his eyes when he wakes up in bed, and breathes out in shaky sighs. This state of mourning, this flood of still-fresh grief, Dean knows it intimately. Knows it like he knows the lines in his palms, knows it like he knows the quirk of Cas’ smiles and the blue of his eyes and the break of his voice when he had said, “Goodbye Dean.” 
It isn’t the first time Dean has lost Cas, but it certainly feels like this time will stick.
Miracle jumps on the bed. Startles Dean into sitting up and holding onto him,  then begins to lick his tear-stained face until Dean can’t help but grin, however weak. Dean indulges the dog with a hug before standing up to face the day. Some days, it is easier to celebrate the fact that they have won against Chuck. Other days, it is difficult to even live through it.
(But Dean is worthy of healing. He is worthy of good things, of new chances, of love. Cas had said so, and Dean believes no one else if not Cas. 
So Dean stands up, and Dean tries.)
In our ending, Sam comes back from his morning jog to see Eileen waiting at the bunker’s door. What follows is a tearful reunion, and Eileen smiling up to her ears as Sam sweeps her up into a embrace and cradles her face in his big hands like he can’t quite believe he is allowed this one good thing again.
“You’re here,” he chokes out. 
Eileen nods and signs. “I’m here.”
In our ending, Dean gets to watch his brother be happy and in love.
He gets to see Sam thrive and flourish, gets to see Sam become someone other than what they had clumsily stitched and carved themselves out to be in the midst of their trail of blood and tragedies. Someone bright and soft and alive. Someone free.
In our ending, Dean misses Castiel with each breath he takes.
But in our ending, Dean also lets himself live.
He hits the road once more--not for hunts necessarily, but rather to check up on Garth, and Donna, and Jody and the girls. He stays with them for a short while, passing on all his tips and tricks about hunting to them. 
In our ending, when Dean comes back to Sam, it’s to say goodbye to him.
It is not a sad goodbye. Not a permanent one. But they get to live their own lives now the way they hadn’t been able to before, and Dean knows if Cas were here, he’d want them to take that chance.
So the brothers part ways.
Dean opens up a bar. 
Sam and Eileen get married and have a boy that they’ll name Jack, and Dean becomes the cool uncle who visits as much as he can and spoils the kid rotten. Dean tells Jack Winchester the coolest monster stories, so detailed that Jack would swear his uncle really lived and fought against them. Sometimes, Jack gets his uncle to tell him about Castiel. The Castiel stories are the best ones, even though they make his uncle look a little heartbroken.
In our ending, maybe Dean still dies first.
But he dies in his sleep at the age of 67 on a mundane Thursday morning. There are no monsters there. No demons from under the bed, and no hellfire to burn him alive. Just a slow, shallow breath and one last sigh before he goes to Heaven.
In our ending, Dean’s heaven is his bar. He only really realizes his death in two ways: one, he has become his 30 year-old self again, with strength on his bones that he hasn’t felt for what seems like forever; and two, there is a hauntingly familiar stranger seated on one of the bar stools, wearing a trench coat that Dean would swear is supposed to be buried deep within his closet. 
When the stranger turns to face him, Dean holds back his heartbreak.
“Hello, Dean.”
Cas’ smile is a soft one. His eyes, ever-bright in their shade of ocean, lights up radiantly at the sight of Dean. He’s the most beautiful thing Dean has ever seen.
“Cas,” Dean starts, tongue sticking to the roof of his mouth. There are tears already welling up in his eyelids. He doesn’t know whether to cuss out Cas first, or ask him how he got out of the Empty, or choke on the words that have built a home in his chest for more than two decades now, ever since Cas has spoken his truth before he left.
I love you too. I love you too, Cas, I love you too I love you too I love--
“Dean,” Cas says, and it’s a tender thing that breaks Dean’s heart all over again. “Did you have a good life?”
It could’ve been better, Dean wants to say. You could’ve been in it. As it is, Dean just nods shakily, tight-lipped. If he lets himself speak, Dean thinks he might completely shatter apart.
Cas stands, and walks towards Dean. Every step closer that he takes has Dean holding his breath. 
It is Cas who reaches out first. A tentative hand against the shape of Dean’s face, thumb caressing his cheek.
But it’s Dean who breaks, first. It’s Dean who leans in and bumps their noses together and kisses Cas desperate and aching, calloused hands made soft-touched in the way they mold themselves over Cas’ jaw. “I love you,” Dean breathes out in the quick second before Castiel presses back in and kisses him just as fiercely. “You son of a bitch, of course I love you too.”
In our ending, they kiss and kiss and kiss some more, and then they break apart laughing, with tears in their eyes that Dean will later on deny. In our ending, they might also slow dance to some old, cheesy love song that’s playing on the coin-operated jukebox by the bar entrance.
In our ending, Dean gets to be happy.
In our ending, Castiel gets to be just as happy, too.
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tearsofgrace · 3 years
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long past dawn
word count: 1.3k, tags: angst, sonny (bad boys), bi!dean, idk sam calls sonny i guess, and that’s it, oh also destiel, also it’s kinda trash but i am too tired to fix it
also on archive
Sam knew Dean would hate him for it. Would snatch the phone from his hands and glare at him and probably avoid him for the rest of the day. Looking through his stuff was right up there with talking about his feelings in terms of unpardonable offenses.
But Dean was gone. Forever this time.
And Sam wasn’t having the wake alone. He couldn’t do it alone or he would throw himself right into that goddamn fire and burn right next to his brother.
He didn’t know what he’d expected to find on Dean’s phone. He was- had been so guarded all the time. Kept everything close to his chest until it exploded and took his heart out with it. And he’d never been able to stop it. Sometimes he could pry some of it away and help Dean through it, but not really. Not enough.
It hadn’t been enough. To save him. Dean’s death was on him. Because it had been Dean’s choice… he wasn’t stupid enough to miss that. Dean had wanted to die right then. And Sam hadn’t been able to change his mind. It wasn’t a fucking rusty nail that killed his brother. Dean killed himself.
Sam clenched his teeth and forced back the tears gathering in his eyes, leaning back against Dean’s dresser and opening the messaging app.
He scrolled past the texts between him and Dean and hovered over Cas’ name. It didn’t seem right, somehow. Hell, most of the time just being in the same room as them didn’t seem right. He always felt- had felt like he was intruding. Like he was interrupting something personal and private and beautiful that wasn’t meant for his eyes.
He scrolled past it, not even reading the last sent message, and landed on Jody. The messages were several weeks old--the only people Dean had actually talked to recently were him and Cas. Another sharp pain went through his body and he slammed his hand on the ground, trying to control himself.
He could get a handle on his grief for five fucking minutes. Dean deserved that much. Dean deserved a hell of a lot more than that much.
He didn’t really understand the messages with Jody. They were out of context. They must have called first. She encouraged him to just talk about it, to be open about it, but he had no clue what “it” was so he clicked away.
There was a thread with Claire. He opened it and nearly lost himself, the tears hot and heavy behind his eyes, ready to escape. But he didn’t let them. Dean offered Claire advice, if he had to guess it was about Kaia. Told her just to talk to her about it. Told her that it didn’t have to be awkward now that she was back from the dead. Told her to grab onto any happiness she could find and never let go.
“Shoulda taken your own fucking advice,” Sam muttered before clicking away.
When he looked at the next name, he frowned thoughtfully. Sonny… that was the name of the man who ran that boy’s home. Dean hadn’t ever told him what really happened there. Sure, he’d given him some story about a girl and a life away from Dad and some semblance of happiness. But there was something else. Something big.
Sam took a deep breath and clicked into the messages, hands shaking slightly. Without reading them, almost on impulse, he hit call.
He held the phone to his ear and waited on baited breath as it rang. Once. Twice. Then a soft click.
“D-dawg?” The voice sounded tired, as if he’d just got up. Sam glanced down at his own phone as saw the time. One in the morning. Shit. “Something wrong?”
“Uh, this is Sam, Sonny.”
“Sam,” Sonny repeated. He was awake now, but now worry was laced into his voice.
“Dean’s-” he started. But he couldn’t get the words out. He hadn’t said them to anyone yet. He would call Jody, Donna, Claire, Bobby, everyone who cared about Dean which wasn’t even a list; it was a goddamn novel- he would call them tomorrow. So he still hadn’t spoken the words. Hadn’t made it real.
“Is he okay?”
“No,” Sam said fiercely. “No.”
“What happened?” Sonny’s voice was steady but it had already dropped a little, something thick and broken behind it.
When Sam didn’t answer, Sonny asked again, this time commanding, sure. So Sam told him. He told him about Jack. Told him about Chuck. Told him about Cas, or what little he knew. Then he told him about that day. About the vamp hunt. About Dean’s choice. The choice that ended it all.
When he stopped talking, when it was all out in the open, Sonny was quiet. For a long time. The sound of his breathing barely audible through the phone.
“Well, shit, kid,” he said finally. “I’m sorry,” he stopped for a minute, as if holding back tears. “I’m sorry you had to go through that.”
“Me too.”
“He was a good man. The world was better with him in it.”
Sam smiled in spite of himself, smiled through the tears he hadn’t realized were streaking down his cheeks. “That would mean a lot to him.” After a brief pause, he kept talking. He didn’t know why this man made it so easy, why he felt so safe with someone he’d never even known. “He was applying for a job. Did he tell you? Is that what he called about? He was gonna be a mechanic.” He laughed bitterly. “A normal life.”
Sonny breathed in sharply and Sam could almost see him nod. “Yeah, he told me. Wasn’t gonna do that ‘til he rescued the angel, though.”
“Cas?”
“Did he ever tell you?”
He didn’t have to say it. What he really meant. “No. No, he never said. But I knew. The way he looked at him…” he trailed off, fondness and despair twisting together in his heart.
“You know,” Sonny said, his voice for the first time was shaking slightly, “There was a boy. Here. At the home. That’s why he didn’t want to leave. That’s why he had to stay. But he chose you.”
Sam nodded, not really surprised, but not really sure what he was meant to do with that either. “He was a good brother. Father, mother, too. He raised me.”
“He did a damn good job.”
Sam ran a hand through his hair and leaned forward. “We’re having a- I don’t know how much you know about hunters. But we’re giving him a hunter’s funeral. In a few days. I know he would have wanted you there.”
“Of course.” Another pause. Another well of unspoken questions. Then the one Sam knew would be coming. From each and every person he called. “Can you bring him back?”
He sighed heavily and let himself slump back against the bunker. “Not this time.” Then softer, to make himself believe it, “Not this time.”
Sam fiddled with the zipper on his jacket. He didn’t want to get off the phone. Didn’t want to confront the empty bunker and Miracle’s whines and the bottle of whiskey in the kitchen. But he had to. “Thanks for what you did for him. You gave him a place to be himself. I don’t think he ever really found that again. Not with Dad,” he snorted, “But not even with me. Not completely, anyway.”
“We all do the best we can,” Sonny said, his voice empty.
“Yeah,” Sam agreed. “I should have stopped him, though. Saved him.”
“This isn’t on you, kid. Don’t think for one second this is on you.”
Sam laughed bitterly again and shrugged to the empty room.
“I’ll see you in a few days.”
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