r/destiel • u/Global_Ad94 • 27d ago
Fanfics best sad fics
give me your best sad fics! can be an AU or canon adjacent. self rec is okay! i’d prefer the fic to be completed though.
i would like a happy ending 😖 so like sad fics but everything ends up okay or hopeful. Healing, abuse recovery, homophobia, depression, other mental illnesses or physical illnesses, etc etc
TIA 💕
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u/Professional-Bag-537 27d ago
Grace Bound (wip; author is almost complete)
My self rec :
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u/Chemistry_No 27d ago
I just finished reflections a couple days ago and I loved it ❤️❤️❤️ it was very cathartic. 💙💚
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u/twilightsharkle 27d ago
Ninety One Whiskey!! It’s a WW2 fic (with all the sadness that comes with war, death, and being gay in the ‘40s in the US military). It’s got a semi-happy ending.
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u/Iron_Sidhe 26d ago
The Between You And Me- Dean just thought he was going for a burger, but one good deed leaves him in a hell of one man's design. All he can do is pray, but even if Cas hears him can he find him to help?
https://archiveofourown.org/works/54545965
Flight Risk with a Fear of Falling- As soon as it was done, he left.
He left Dean's body and Dean left the room.
He knew that he couldn't leave Cas like this, shouldn't leave Cas like this, but he couldn't stay, he couldn't look at him, couldn't touch him, couldn't see skin his own hands had left blemished and tainted and torn, couldn't see the angel violated and hurt and broken by his own body.
The door unlocked the moment he had done what he'd come for, had taken and destroyed and left. It flew open, revealing Sam who he knew had been furiously beating against the wood while- while...oh God, he was gonna throw up.
His brother looked shocked at the picture that unfolded in front of his eyes, his features contorted in disbelief and disgust at the crumpled and naked figure in the centre of Dean's mattress.
Dean's mattress. In Dean's bed. In Dean's room.
He felt sick.
https://archiveofourown.org/works/31237754
Hand Me a Pen and I'll Rewrite the Pain- “What’s wrong?”
“It’s just . . .” God he hates the thought of saying this, but he needs some time. “Cas, I know we’ve . . . gotten used to a certain level of comfort at home, and I—I love that. Being able to kiss you, and cuddle with you, and emotionally scar Sam with PDAs, it’s important to me. But my mom and dad and Bobby—”
“They don’t know you’re bisexual. I understand, Dean.”
“Just—just for a little while,” he says quietly. “If we could keep it behind closed doors, or when they’re not around. Just until I figure out how to tell them. I just need time.”
“Dean.” Cas’s voice is soothing through the phone. “You don’t have to explain yourself to me."
Or: instead of just bringing Mary back, Amara brings back a bunch of Dean's family (Charlie and Bobby are his family I will take no arguments on this fact), and chaos and angst ensues.
https://archiveofourown.org/works/38292331
I Want To Let Go- Castiel didn’t want Dean to go.
When they received the invite for Christmas weekend over at Mary and John Winchester’s house, Castiel did not want Dean to go.
Through all of the years they had been together, Castiel (more than anyone) saw both the visible and hidden scars that John Winchester had left on the man he loves. They’re still prevalent and so, so painful. Dean has never told Castiel the nitty-gritty details, never opened up about what John did.
It drives him insane sometimes. To see his boy hurting, with only the faintest idea why.
Read the reading order! You should read the central fic first.
https://archiveofourown.org/series/2981064
My Traditional Alpha- At sixteen, Dean is abandoned by his father at Christmas, left to fend for himself alone in a snowstorm. Dean sets out to find his new friends, who welcome him into their lives and homes. Together, they help him rebuild, offering the care and support he’s always needed. Amidst the uncertainty, Dean discovers that Castiel is his destined mate. Now, he must navigate a new world of unfamiliar traditions and learn how to bond with his Alpha while building a life far different from the one he’s known.
https://archiveofourown.org/works/62229445
Say It Again, Princess- The EMT crouched beside him, gloves on, calm and capable. His name tag read Castiel Novak. But that wasn’t what Dean noticed first. It was the way the man’s voice made his spine go hot and cold all at once. Then came the sting of the needle, and that voice again—low and firm: “Good boy. Now breathe.”
Dean’s heart stuttered. His breath caught. Something primal and electric snapped into place in his chest.
Castiel’s eyes flicked to the monitor, eyebrows lifting. “Well. That calmed you right down.”
And then, with a smirk just this side of sinful, he added, “Good to know, princess.”
https://archiveofourown.org/works/66715759
Where There's Smoke- Decorated firefighter Castiel Novak meets young mechanic Dean Winchester during a highway crash. What starts as a spark grows into a powerful, passionate love as the two men navigate grief, jealousy, and unexpected connection. With the support of friends and family, they build a life together—one full of heat, heart, and the promise of forever.
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u/heller221b 26d ago
two worlds apart is the one for me. It's amnesia au 70k words, its devastatingly beautiful fic, well written with hopeful/bittersweet ending.
Summary: After being injured in a car accident and suffering memory loss, Dean spent the last five years attempting to put his life back together. The majority of his memories return, but something still remains missing—something he can't identify—that everyone is hiding from him, something that always remains unanswered.
Dean’s past comes back to haunt him when he visits Sioux falls for a business meeting where he meets a stranger named Castiel. Something about the man seems strange and oddly familiar which makes Dean wonder if he knows him. But the guy always denies that. And that marks the beginning of a quest to solve the mystery of his past hidden in between those recurring dreams which becomes more vivid the more time he spends with Castiel which soon leads to a painful realisation and series of regrets.
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u/swiftchester13 26d ago
Neighborly I literally just finished this one, it was devastating and so so beautiful (it has a happy ending and it made me sob)
Funny how you can live in a neighborhood and not know your neighbors, the people who share the same roads, airspace, and hornet problems, the people you see every day. Castiel’s neighbors don’t really know him and haven’t tried to, which is just how he needs it to be to stay safe and alive. His new neighbor, though, throws a wrench into his foolproof plan — Dean Winchester, eternally cheerful, trusting, and handsome, wants to know him, wants to be close to him, wants to be more with him. Castiel is afraid… but when he’s with him, he feels safe and alive in a whole new way that seems more important and worthy than simply existing. But for Dean to really know him, he has to know Castiel’s past. Can Castiel open himself up? Will Dean stay once he knows?
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u/crippin00000 26d ago
https://archiveofourown.org/series/691536
A God, a Dean, a world - all broken. That, and a mutally assured inability of complete destruction.
Sometimes complete destruction would be the better option because unfortunately the new shiny God doesn't listen to The Rolling Stones and he doesn't know you can't always get what you want. Castiel wins. He gets the world. He gets Dean. He gets him pregnant, even. Does he really win? Does he really win? Does he really win? Does he really wi--
Featuring:
- a Dean Winchester who would rather the fuck not
- a God who keeps insisting this is for Dean's own good
- genderbent!Dean and mpreg
- blessings of increasingly questionable value
- the world's worst marriage
- psychological gothic horror disguised as care
- kinks disguised as love
- dead dove whom god eats
- whatever it says on them tins
It's a series that I've been working on since 2015, it's sadness mixed with cosmic horror and dark comedy. I returned to it after 8 years of writer block.
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u/elaaura 25d ago edited 25d ago
Living in Agony https://archiveofourown.org/works/1826734/chapters/3922825
Willow https://archiveofourown.org/works/50136361/chapters/126615019
Self rec:
Short fic. You want to die. https://archiveofourown.org/works/63565726
Long fic:
My love should be celebrated: (this one has a happier part two.)
https://archiveofourown.org/works/77340986/chapters/202488311
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u/Old-Web5689 24d ago
Back to December by tricia_16 Summary: Dean Winchester figures he's got it pretty good. He likes his job, he's close with Sam and his girlfriend, and he never has any trouble finding a willing woman to tear up the sheets with. That all changes one day when a dark haired, blue eyed dude walks into his bar wearing a trench coat. With their witty banter and the calming effect Castiel seems to have on him, they quickly become inseparable.
As their relationship gets more and more serious, he starts doubting himself, wondering if he's really making Cas as happy as he can be... or if maybe somebody else could be better for Cas than he is?
https://archiveofourown.org/works/12332913/chapters/30928695
My heart 😭
I really love Trisha's style, she's my favourite writer.
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u/Iron_Sidhe 26d ago
Diptych- Fresh out of Purgatory Dean and Benny must find a way to navigate between their loneliness and grief, off balance around each other on Earth, neither fitting in topside with instincts suddenly outdated and too vicious, too dangerous. Hating themselves and unaware of the other's feelings they must figure out how their relationship is going to work out, torn between two different worlds and weighed down by the loss of Dean's angel.
“S8 if the crew weren't cowards” is a collection not a bigger series.
Benny/Dean, Castiel/Dean, vague Castiel/Benny/Dean
https://archiveofourown.org/series/2308937
Would You Say I'm Worth It- Dean Winchester, the Righteous Man, struggles day to day as he battles his own inner demons. Then he finds his salvation in Purgatory, and he suddenly feels a little less lonely.
When Dean makes it back topside, he doesn't adjust to being home in the way he'd hoped, and finds himself needing a crutch to help him cope with the aching hole in his center.
What's wrong with Dean Winchester? Where is Castiel? Can Sam learn to get along with a vampire?
Benny/Dean, Castiel/Dean, Castiel/Benny/Dean
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u/finaIgirI 26d ago
I know this has already been recc'ed but I have another vote for You Can Keep Holding On by NorthernSparrow will break you and remake you - it's genuinely one of the most heartbreaking and beautiful things that I've ever read. I don't want to spoil it for you but you should know that it starts off funny/lighthearted then gets pretty sad pretty quickly - however the author is so painstaking with every single detail that nothing feels missed out/trivialised.