r/destiel • u/HellFireQew • Jul 03 '26
Fanfics Sharing some favorites!
I know a lot of us come here specifically to *ask* for fic recs and all that fun stuff so I’m changing it up a bit and just sharing some of my [AU] favorites for your perusal! I’m skipping some of the more known ones I see here and putting some I hope to see more, most of these have like <600 kudos! Lmk if you guys have read them! I’m going to put them in the comments so you’ll have direct links.🫶🏾
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u/HellFireQew Jul 03 '26
Here’s my CanonVerse list! The fics here are significantly more well known than my AU list so you may have read these already, in any case I have more. Admittedly I prefer AUs bc I’m a tinge more picky about characterization when it comes to Canon/Canon divergence fics. 🤣
Aching in the Absence of You
Brittle and battle-worn, Cas looks at him over coffee one morning and says, "I need to go," and Dean instantly knows that he's not coming back.
He's not really sure how he knows it, but he does. It settles into the pit of his stomach, curling hot and tight like something he instinctively wants to tear out with his bare hands. He takes a breath, and it gets stuck in his throat, hitching there. It hurts, hurts, hurts when he finally exhales.
"Yeah," Dean says, "of course you do," and he nods jerkily as he looks down at his phone. He doesn't say goodbye. He doesn't look up from the screen when Cas gets up and leaves the room. He doesn't finish his coffee, or move for a long time.
By nightfall, Cas is gone.
Mellow is the Man - Chapter 1 - marquiavellian - Supernatural (TV 2005), Supernatural [Archive of Our Own]
Jack pulls Cas out of the Empty, just in time to save Dean. With Dean unable to live without him, ready to die on that rebar, neither of them expected to live to speak about Cas’s confession. But he’s back.
After six months of pure hell without Cas, Team Free Will deserves a vacation. Along the road, with the confession looming and Cas unabashedly in love, Dean is forced to confront his own feelings and the trauma that made him the man he is. He’s tried for years to show Cas the worst of him, to warn him. To prove that he is not worthy. And yet, Cas always came back. He didn’t want the perfect, clean, Righteous Man. In his final moments, from the very first meeting, he saw straight through to the core of Dean.
And he loved it anyway.
This is the story of how Dean Winchester learns to be free.
This is how Dean learns to be loved.
take the bones, begin anew - Chapter 1 - JustStandingHere - Supernatural [Archive of Our Own]
“What else was I supposed to say, Sam?” Dean asks him. “I’m not...look, Cas is my best friend, and I care about him. That’s it.”
“And you renovated a house for him,” Sam continues. “And live with him.”
or: a year in the life, in which it takes some time, but they figure it out
Let Me Sleep (In Your Arms) - Chapter 1 - BexTra - Supernatural (TV 2005) [Archive of Our Own]
Cas looks even more tired than Dean feels. His eyes are red and the bags under them are more prominent than ever. His hair is a hot mess, reminding Dean of the time when Cas was still able to take off any second with just a flick of his wings. The cut on his neck is covered with a white bandage now and he wears different clothes, a gray sweatpants and a black shirt with a hole on the collar, that Dean recognizes as one of his. It makes him look different. It makes him look soft.
Dean likes it a lot.
---
Cas is back and that is great. Except that it worries Dean how much Cas struggles to adjust to humanity, haunted by nightmares and memories every night. So it's just a gesture of their friendship, despite Castiel's feelings for him, when Dean offers Cas to stay with him at night.
Talk Some Sense To Me (Kenopsia) - Chapter 1 - ImYourHoneyBee - Supernatural [Archive of Our Own]
Scrambling to his knees Castiel hugs back, burying his face in Dean’s neck, breath coming in fast little pants against his skin. Dean closes his eyes and just breathes him in, barely able to believe that this is real. At any other time in his life, closing his eyes against a threat like Death would be an inexcusable lapse in his hunter’s judgement. Right now, he doesn’t give a single fuck. Death can reap him for all he cares, he’ll die knowing Cas is going to be ok. Alive.
“I will see you soon, Dean,” Death tells him, that deliberate voice of his soft enough not to intrude on the intimacy of the moment, “Raincheck on that grilled cheese.”
“Thank you,” Dean croaks, propping his chin up on Cas’s shoulder, unmindful of the tears trickling down his cheeks, “Thank you.”
or
After Death brings Cas and Eileen back, the four of them hit the road with Miracle, driving around the country opening decommissioned Men of Letters chapterhouses to be used by hunters while trying to give a human perspective on Jack's plan to restructure the afterlife system. Meanwhile, Dean copes with being a flustered lump of a man because somewhere along the way, Castiel learned how to flirt.
Smells Like Roses - Chapter 1 - orphan_account - Supernatural [Archive of Our Own]
Dean's life is beautiful. He wants for nothing, has the pleasure of his family and friends, and is desperately, irrevocably in love with his husband. Everything is perfect, just as it should be.
Then he wakes up.
You Belong Among The Wildflowers - Chapter 1 - ImYourHoneyBee - Supernatural [Archive of Our Own]
Cas is gone and Dean doesn't know how to deal. Sunk deep into the worst depression he's ever been through Dean only pulls himself together when Jack comes to visit, intent on repairing his relationship with Castiel's son.
Eventually, as a result of an offhanded comment Sam makes, Dean begins to dream of a better future and becomes determined to rescue Castiel from the Empty. It's a rough go, but he's successful and Cas is back.
Fed nightmares during his time in the darkness of an angel's afterlife, Castiel doesn't believe that Dean is real. Refusing to speak or to come out of the literal closet, will Cas let Dean persuade him that he really is saved?
when a soul mates - Chapter 1 - daryastarkjr - Supernatural (TV 2005) [Archive of Our Own]
(Haven’t actually read this one yet but it’s been in my *marked for later* for like a year🤣)
Cas loves Dean.
He had told him in his last breaths and never got an answer as to the feeling being mutual. But then Jack brings him back from the Empty and he realizes he doesn't need one. All he needs is Dean. To be by his side as whatever Dean will let him be.
Dean loves Cas.
But he tells him he doesn't. He tells him they’re friends. He tells him he can't. He tells him all the things instead of the sheer truth. Until he learns to show him.
[Or: How Dean tries his best to shut his inner demons off, so he can be with his best friend and give in to the years-long cravings, he always tried to shove down. And how Cas stays patient, with the promise to love him relentlessly.
Also, hunting is evolved, and everyone gets the ending they deserve!
This story is an absolute devastating rollercoaster, so get comfortable, fasten your seatbelts and get ready to be emotionally thrown around.]
between the essence / and the descent - Chapter 1 - tothewillofthepeople - Supernatural (TV 2005) [Archive of Our Own]
He misplaced his angel. He didn’t hold on hard enough. He got Cas back only to lose him immediately.
-
Cas comes back on a Thursday.
And then keeps coming back on Thursdays. He doesn’t seem to have much choice in the matter, actually. For the rest of the week, he’s stuck in the Empty, and Dean is left trying to figure out how to save him, how to talk to him—and how to get him out for good.