chabaddon:

i’m rolling thunder, pouring rain

Yup that’s what I’ve been imagining too!  Wouldn’t that be interesting, if all the angels fell and took vessels instead of being born into human bodies?

Dean doesn’t know what to expect. Hell, he’s not even sure if there’s anything to expect; when angels start falling out of the sky like sparks from the butt-end of a cigarette, that’s when you know almost anything’s possible in this wide world after all.

Almost anything’s possible, he thinks in those gray hours before dawn, gunning the Impala down the highway and blinking through the fog across his vision, almost anything can happen now.

And he thinks about comets crash-landing inside vessels of skin and bone, stealing hands and hearts and eyes, angels crowding out each former soul and waking in the morning in a bed they hadn’t made. Almost anything’s possible, even once-infinite angels becoming slow-growing miracles that will rise out of the earth nine months from now, opening their eyes to the light of day as they are placed inside their mothers’ arms.

Almost anything can happen, but that’s the problem: Dean can see a new world rising up on the horizon, a world where every last truth he’s clung to in these years he’s spent fighting against the dark has disappeared between one heartbeat and the next, because angels are falling and his might be lost for good.

Dean falls asleep that night wondering if he will still have blue eyes the next time they meet.

A month goes by, and Dean wonders if he’d know Cas if he saw him again, and blue eyes and dark hair shouldn’t matter so much, but they do; Cas might be Cas without those things, but a Cas with brown eyes or silver hair might not be his Cas after all, a Cas that never touched his soul in hell or stolen his fries or leaned into his shoulder as Dean half-carried him to the car.

Anything’s possible, but Dean’s not going to hold his breath, he’s not going to hold out for the sight of a rumpled tan trenchcoat on the side of the street, or a static-lined phone call that starts with Hello, Dean and ends with Take me home.  Anything can happen, and Dean knows this better than most, and he knows better than anyone that a world where angels fall is a world where happy endings just don’t happen.

But because anything’s possible, he finds himself reading the newspaper every day, scanning the personals because what if?  And because anything can happen, anything at all, he makes the calls and steals Sam’s laptop and checks each voicemail every day.

The hardest part is knowing that anything could happen, and that’s what drives him up the wall, knowing that there might be a Cas out there somewhere for him to find, a Cas that still exists somehow, a Cas that still has Dean’s heart revolving around the very idea of him the way the earth turns around the sun. 

The hardest part is not knowing if searching is stupid or sensible, the most frightening part is the thought that Cas might have been under his nose the whole time, and Dean hasn’t found him because Dean never knew what he looked like in the first place; that Dean only knows Cas by those silly half-smiles and the wild hair and the set of his shoulders, that Dean doesn’t know him well enough to recognize him if he sees him, that Dean just plain doesn’t know Cas at all.

But anything can happen, and it usually does, and Dean spends afternoons in coffee shops, trying to catch a glimpse of every stranger who walks through the door, staring into every pair of eyes just in case he feels something, anything.  He doesn’t know what to expect, but he thinks he’d know the feeling once he felt it, so he gets a box at the post office in Lebanon, Kansas, and for weeks he runs an ad that only says I still pray to you every night.

Months go by and nothing happens, and Dean’s left waiting and hoping and not-hoping and he wonders sometimes if this isn’t faith after all.

Anything’s possible, but Dean doesn’t expect to know him in a heartbeat; he’s spent so much time worrying he wouldn’t recognize Cas if he saw him that he’s not ready for the gut-punch reaction of having Cas’s arms crawling tight and desperate up between his shoulders or Cas’s beard whisking across his cheek. 

Cas breathes in his ear, gravel and grit and road-dust weary, I looked everywhere for you, and Dean wonders how he ever could have thought he wouldn’t know Cas if he found him again.

But he says it anyway, dizzy with that feeling he’s always known he’d recognize and stupid with relief, Your eyes are still blue.

cadignan:

Title: All the Way
Author: cadignan
Artist: guu
Genre: college AU, romance
Pairing(s): Dean/Cas, Ruby/Anna, Sam/Jess
Rating: NC-17
Word Count: 81,000
Warnings: mentions of depression, issues that the Winchester family has in canon (alcoholism, death of a parent), see AO3 or contact me for more details
Summary: Castiel spends the first two weeks of college in much the same way he spent the previous years: alone with his books. He’s fine with it—he enrolled in college to learn, after all. Then in his first chemistry lab, he has the bad luck of being paired with snide, good-for-nothing Ruby, and the further misfortune of sitting behind Dean Winchester, the world’s most beautiful distraction. Ruby catches Castiel staring at Dean and makes him an offer.

Fic (or art) link: PDF with art | AO3

Ray’s writing is always brilliant and Guu’s illustrations are always fantastic and I’m off to read this right now because I can’t wait to see what they’ve created!  ♥♥♥

outpastthemoat:

things I will never get enough of:

1. katie’s hospital au
2. rae’s hobo!cas au
3. chris’s KGB au / cop au / scifi au

now with links!

crackedchassis replied to your post: things I will never get enough of: katies…

If Rae and Katie dont update those then I will never forgive them.

chris I am still not over DEAN ‘N CAS IN LOVE ON A SPACESHIP it breaks my heart that it was a one-shot because that was PERFECT

things I will never get enough of:

1. katie’s hospital au
2. rae’s hobo!cas au
3. chris’s KGB au / cop au / scifi au

weatherers:

AU where Dean is a police officer and Cas is a homeless man he keeps coming across. they talk sometimes and Dean never has the heart to chase Cas off a park bench for vagrancy or something, so he just occasionally buys Cas hot cocoa and Cas tells him stories about when he used to tour with his battalion around the world. Dean is impressed by the peace and gratitude he always sees in Cas despite Cas living with nothing but the clothes on his back.

on Christmas eve night Dean is heading home from a party at Sam and Jess’s house and he sees Cas walking across a bridge. it’s really late and there’s no one else around so Dean parks his car and tells Cas to come inside. Cas obliges and is very thankful and asks Dean to just drop him off next to the local cathedral (which is open for the homeless to rest from the cold), but Dean insists Cas spend the night at his place.

when he gets home, he gives Cas a razor, a toothbrush, and some sleeping clothes and shoves him into the bathroom. but of course when Cas comes out he looks ~very handsome~ and Dean is a little awestruck because he knew Cas was a nice guy but he never expected a sweet looking man beneath that huge trench coat and ugly old beanie hat and scruff.

they spend all night talking some more and Dean insists that Cas eat all the food he brought back from Sam’s and the whole time Cas is all flustered about it but Dean won’t take no for an answer! they fall asleep on the couch and the floor.

the next morning Dean wakes up and Cas is gone. he left his borrowed clothes and toiletries folded on the coffee table and the dirty clothes he came in (which Dean tossed into the washing machine / dryer for him last night) are the only things gone. Cas didn’t take anything but his own stuff— he even locked the front door before he left. there’s a small post-it note on the coffee table too that says, “merry christmas Dean. thank you for your kindness.”

so of course Dean is pretty taken aback since he feels like Cas is actually his friend now and he’s just wandering the streets again. he goes around Cas’s usual haunts but Cas is no where to be found. after a couple of weeks Dean meets with Sam at a coffee shop and tells him all about Cas and is unknowingly gushing about Cas’s life. Sam’s like, “woah dude, calm down. i’m sure your boyfriend’s alright.” and Sam’s just being funny but Dean is all offended like, “DON’T JOKE ABOUT THIS SAM, I’M REALLY WORRIED ABOUT HIM.”

well one day Dean is driving by the cathedral that Cas had wanted to be dropped off at on Christmas eve, and Dean’s not really religious but he feels like walking in to just be somewhere Cas likes being. he’s walking through the pews and there’s actually a lot of homeless and local people praying and the interior is beautiful. when he walks out he feels pretty humbled, and sees a line of folks in front of the soup kitchen attached to the side of the cathedral. well, being the curious sort, he looks through the window and lo and behold, it’s CAS at the back of the counter serving dishes with his hair in a net and his face still clean shaven.

Dean can’t help himself from rushing in and one of the priests by the front of the door goes, “oh dear, how can i help you officer?” but Dean just goes straight to Cas, who’s pouring a bowl of chili for an elderly woman.

when Dean says his name Cas looks up and so does the entire line. Cas of course breaks into a smile and says, “hello Dean. how have you been?” and Dean just smiles and says, “not bad.” so he walks away from the line to let Cas keep working, sitting on a table and watching Cas work and look really happy to be helping folks out. the priest he had ignored before comes over to Dean and says, “Mr. Novak is quite the person. he came in and asked how he could help us after Christmas ended— it felt like the lord himself brought him to us.” Cas apparently offered to help during the Sunday soup kitchens and to clean up the cathedral, and in exchange the priests practically forced him a residence in their commons and some second-hand clothes from the church donation drive. Cas has been helping around there for the past month or so and Dean is just really touched by the story and how healthy and happy Cas seems.

when Cas’s shift ends, he immediately walks over to Dean and asks if he’d like to take a walk. Dean obliges and Cas asks him how Sam and work has been. Dean starts kind of tearing up despite himself and Cas concernedly pats him on the shoulder and asks what’s wrong. Dean says, “sorry Cas, you’re just a great guy you know. and i was worried about you.” Cas just shakes his head and smiles.

so now that he’s got a hold of Cas again, Dean insists on Cas coming with him to meet Sam for lunch and doesn’t let Cas say no. he drives them to the diner and introduces Cas to Sam, who’s pretty surprised but genuinely glad to meet Cas. Dean of course is in a fantastic mood and keeps looking at Cas like he can’t believe it. when Cas leaves to use the restroom briefly, Sam leans over the counter and goes, “holy christ dude. you’ve got it bad.” and Dean is a blushing mess the rest of lunch, especially when Cas and Sam start making jokes about Dean.

well of course after that Dean visits the cathedral often to say hi to Cas and makes it a routine for them to have lunch together once a week. he even invites Cas to a family dinner and Mary is absolutely SMITTEN and keeps talking about how handsome Cas is, which makes John really testy, but after Cas shares some stories about being deployed, he and John bond over their service and John pats Cas on the back and Mary kisses him on the cheek before they leave. Sam just smirks like a bitch the whole night.

annnnd basically i haven’t thought it out completely yet but one day I figure Dean helps Cas clean up at the soup kitchen, and while they’re washing dishes they start kidding around and are laughing so hard Dean can’t help himself and leans over and just gently presses his lips to Cas’s. they pull apart and Cas looks so sweet and happy he kisses him again and that’s how THEY GET TOGETHER AND CAS MOVES IN WITH DEAN AND THEY BOTH HELP OUT AT THE SOUP KITCHEN STILL AND CAS GETS A JOB AS A LIBRARIAN AND DEAN AND CAS GET MARRIED AND LIVE HAPPILY EVER AFTER, THE END.

*weeps over rae’s hobo!cas au*

rae is the worst because I’m in love with her hobo!cas au and she talks about dean taking hobo!cas home for christmas and drinking hot cocoa by a fire BUT SHE DOES NOT DELIVER