A friend of a friend who recently got into Supernatural asked me for a list of my top 10 destiel fic recommendations, since diving raw into the tags felt more than a little intimidating — which, you know, fair. Anyway, I went a bit overboard and ended up with a top 66 instead of a top 10. Thought I might share it here too, in case anybody’s interested.
EIGHTBITPALE’S DESTIEL 101: A FIC REC MASTER DOC
Short & Sweet (<10k) — bite sized treats under ten thousand words
Goldilocks Oneshots (>10k) — single chapter fics with substance
Multi-Chapter (<50k) — fics with multiple chapters and less then fifty thousand words
Multi-Chapter (>50k) — fics with multiple chapters and more than fifty thousand words
Freak Corner — fics of all shapes and sizes that are a little… how you say, intense?
Dean’s coworkers vs the heteronormative agenda by cowboydeanwinchester
In a post-canon universe where nobody dies and everyone gets domestic, Dean works as an auto mechanic, where his tendency to be vague and cagey about his private life leads his coworkers to make a range of wild assumptions. Funny and feel-good.
How to be a better friend by writing_words
Cas comes out as gay and also in love with Dean, Dean tries his best to navigate this. This one really cracked me up at certain points. Set late canon, vaguely?
Bite sized look into Dean’s weird cocktail of repression and impulsivity that culminates in a first kiss and marriage proposal all in the space of 10 minutes.
The Mixtape, Or: Six Things Your Learn in Thursday School by Amiril
I can’t explain what this fic is. Just click on the link and be delighted.
Attached to his hip by sabarah23
General | multi | 9k | 1/1
Outsider POV, snapshots across the course of Dean’s life. “5 times Dean was a dad in spirit only, and 1 time it was in name, too.”
Phone a friend by noviembre
General | multi | 7k | 1/1
Post canon au. POV outsider. “The hunting community, after the apocalypse that never happened.” POV character is a very endearing OC.
Preaching to the choir by piesexuality
Canon divergent, set in s9. POV outsider. While a newly human Cas is living in Idaho, he runs into some Mormon missionaries. They mean well….
Not for a lack of trying by rhinestoneangels (almondrose)
Au where theres no monsters and no hunting, just a big messy family. “One Wednesday a month, the Singer-Harvelle-Winchester-Turner-Mills-Hanscum-Fitzgerald-Kline clan all get together for family dinner. Since the Roadhouse is closed anyway, and nobody wants to host all those wild animals at their house, they meet up here.”
The supernatural bullet journal AU by enochianprayer
Set late and post canon. Fix it of sorts? Multimedia epistolary fic in the form of a collection of journals, letters, postcards, and notes. This one is tons of fun.
Trying to know somebody you’ve never met by watchriverdale
Episode fic, 12x11 Regarding Dean aka the “dean gets amnesia” episode. Basically just “what if Cas was in that episode”. Short sweet and sad.
Oh my darling by rhinestoneangels (almondrose)
Pre relationship mutual pining. “An angel faces the task of peeling an orange, with various results.”
White dress shirt by fleeceframe
AU canon divergent from Cas’s death at the end of s12. Coda for 13x06 Tombstone. Emotional hurt/comfort, panic attacks. Basically what would have happened if Dean confessed after Cas’s resurrection.
Aspersorium by fleeceframe
Vaguely late/post canon. Cas POV, in a really well done way. “The one where castiel imagines them all a peaceful cowboy life and helps dean wash his hands.”
I loved you first (collection) by kalmialatifolia
Explicit | mlm | 8k | 4 works
Connected fics, out of chronological order, incidentally written. “Or, Cas saves himself from the Empty, and comes home. This is not the end.”
Regarding love by myaimistrue
Episode au: 12x11 Regarding Dean — what if Cas was there? Good old fashioned heart wrenching angst.
Untitled Cas-using-Grindr ficlet by noviembre
Set in s9. The plot is pretty much in the title.
General | mlm | <1k | 1/1
A list of Waffle Houses that Sam and Dean Winchester legally cannot return to. Cracked me up.
Cas gives up his grace to save Sam from a near-death experience. Dean has a Muppets themed crisis.
Song of Songs by piesexuality
Post finale fix it. Bit of weepy angst. They listen to Indigo Girls, and Cas gets a tramp stamp. Incredibly sacrilegious.
To the bone by bluehorses
Post finale fix it. Mourning/grief, internalised homophobia, repression, hurt/comfort, sharing clothes, first kiss. Cas comes back, Dean copes.
Occursus by pallasperilous
Post finale fix it. Set in the Roadhouse in Heaven. Reuniting, established relationship. Long conversations about cosmologically obscure angel lore. Conversation heavy.
Piledriver by pallasperilous
Post finale fix it ish? Coda? Grief/mourning, confessions, introspection. Second person & Dean POV. Cas is dead and then he isn’t, and it requires some coping.
Funny bone by pallasperilous
AU canon divergent, no angels. Set in the Bunker. Crack treated seriously, fluff, bad pick up lines. Mild gore. The premise is essentially, “what if Cas was a cursed sentient skeleton stuck in the basement of the Bunker? And what if he couldn’t stop complimenting Dean’s ass?”
Composition of an epic by imyourhoneybee
General | multi | 2k | 1/1
Post canon fix it au, everybody lives/nobody dies. POV outsider. Cas and Dean, hunting legends, own a bar in the middle of nowhere. Every now and again, they host a visitor with questions about the Winchester myth.
Ambiguously late/post canon. Mild crack and fluff. Love confessions, getting together, except they were already together (unbeknownst to Dean). Cas takes great pleasure of enlightening him.
Goldilocks Oneshots (>10k)
You’re fooling yourself by cowboydeanwinchester
Dean and Cas retire from hunting to raise baby Jack. Despite the fact that they literally live together and coparent, Dean is still struggling to admit the things he really wants. Sweet and angsty and domestic, this fic is like a well written lifetime movie.
Explicit | mlm | 11k | 1/1
Mid-series canon divergent retirement au. Cas leaves Kansas behind and moves to a shitty seaside town in Texas. Every year, Dean drives out to see him. Packed full of yearning and well written tension, and also porn. Be aware: this is not fluffy, it is sharp.
Explicit | mlm | 16k | 1/1
Canon divergent from s9. Mostly set in the bunker. Also set at Christmas! Schmoop, getting together, phone sex. Really made me feel my feelings.
I CARRY YOUR HEART (I CARRY IT IN MY HEART) by unicornpoe
Explicit | mlm | 26k | 1/1
Set late canon. Cas is cursed by some random witches into an endless sleep, and in a fit of homosexually induced insanity, Dean volunteers himself up as his vessel while they try to break it. This fic is extremely sad in some sections, but is also ultimately about crazy huge gay love and what it means to trust another person.
There’s only one sure thing that i know by blinkiesays
Explicit | mlm | 20k | 1/1
This is a weird one. Published in like 2010, right after season 5 finished. Set after Swan Song, Dean sort of gets… literally stuck in the American Midwest. Just read it, I swear it makes sense in context.
Men of good fortune by ImYourHoneyBee
Hear me out: this is a destiel hob gadling/sandman au. “The year is 1367, and Castiel’s older brother Gabriel bullies him into going to a local tavern to connect with humanity. In this tavern is Dean Winchester, a man who refuses the very idea of death after watching his family die of the plague. Fascinated, Castiel accepts Gabriel’s offer of an experiment: how long can one man live before seeking death?” Spoiler! Long enough to shag him.
Set during 05x03 Free To Be You and Me. After failing to successfully get him laid before the end of the world, Dean takes Cas on a Totally Platonic Just a Dry Run Dudes Being Dudes Not-A-Date. As friends, obviously.
Profoundly bonded (by law) by sobsicles
Explicit | mlm | 20k | 1/1
Post-canon fix it. Slow burn. This fic is 30% sexuality crisis and 60% home improvement. The premise? “What if Cas asks Dean to marry him, and Dean can’t think of a reason to say no.”
Now, baby, I’m sure by allyellow
Post canon fix it. “18k of a lake house, a baby Jack, and forcing Dean and CAs to talk to each other.” At one point, Claire wears a Women Want Me Fish Fear Me hat, which is the inspired gospel truth.
Sinnerman by a_good_soldier
Mature | multi | 11k | 1/1
Post canon au. Unpacking of various traumas. “Dean listens to Nina Simone, reads Anne Carson, and makes out with a dude (sort of).”
Listen, I tell you a mystery by bathilda bagshot
Split timelines, canon era and pre canon. Heavily features Dean’s relationship with Mary, with background Anna/Mary. This one slaps.
Explicit | mlm | 14k | 1/1
Canon compliant-ish, s6. Mutual pining, miscommunication. Angel true forms, first aid and injuries. “No matter what awaits him in Heaven, Castiel knows there is always a place for him in a salvage yard in South Dakota.”
Maybe i like pleasure pain by tothewillofthepeople
Post finale canon divergent. “This is a character study and a vehicle for metaphors, more prose than plot… After the perfect darkness of the Empty, CAs finds the world a little overwhelming. Dean tries to help.”
Proverbs 13:12 by starlingcas
General | mlm | 16k | 1/1
Takes place mid s14, episode coda between 14x05 and 14x06. Dean and Cas get stuck in a net. That’s it, that’s the premise.
Pins and feathers by theskywasblue
Explicit | mlm | 19k | 1/1
Post finale canon divergent. Miscommunications and misinterpretations, one bed, beach vacations, working out the confession. “Dean gets his toes-in-the-sand ending, but there are still some things he needs to work out.”
The shape you take by noviembre
Explicit | multi | 10k | 1/1
Vaguely late/post canon. “Fellas is it gay to ask your male best friend if he’d have sex with you if you were a woman? Also, follow up, is it gay to have sex with your male best friend if you’ve been temporarily cursed by witches into a female body so you can have the excuse of heterosexuality? Dean Winchester investigates.”
A turn of the earth by microcomets
Mature | mlm || 95k | 18/18
Time travel fic, preseries Dean and s10 Cas. Slow burn, totally amazing dialogue. Cas punches John in the face at one point, which is deeply gratifying.
Explicit | mlm | 45k | 7/7
Time travel au, s15 Cas gets thrown back in time to preseries Dean instead of being sucked straight into superhell. Yearning ensues etc etc. John Winchester hate abounds.
The lover’s choice by watchriverdale
Post finale fix it. Instead of fucking off to be an impartial god or whatever, Jack decides that his dads need more friends — so he resurrects a laundry list of the Winchester’s various dead loved ones, which somehow leads to destiel. In the author’s words: “this IS a fix it but unfortunately they all have man disease god bless”.
Seek to know you better by ahurston
Explicit | mlm | 33k | 9/9
“Dean and Cas, a long stretch of highway, and 36 questions empirically designed to make two people fall in love. As if they weren’t already.” Ft. Slow burn, mutual pining, one bed, a metric tonne of dialogue, and a minor case fic background plot.
Protect and serve by dothrakishieldmaiden
Explicit | mlm | 50k | 11/11
AU. Police officer Dean Winchester is assigned to a protection detail on Assistant District Attorney Cas Novak. Dean’s one job is to keep him alive, which proves to be a lot more complicated than it sounds. This one is just good old fashioned fun.
Of the unlocking and the lift away by unicornpoe
Post canon fix it. “A year and a half after Cas is saved from the Empty, Dean is living out his days alone on a piece of farmland in rural Kansas. One day, Cas shows up on his porch.”
Fenario by ftmsteverogers
Explicit | mlm | 47k | 10/10
Post canon fix it. Slow burn. Sam and Dean drag Cas back from the Empty by the skin of his teeth, and then figure out how to live their lives. Features a really interesting exploration of Jewish identity. There’s also a lake house, if that helps.
Our new skin by intothesilentland
Explicit | mlm | 24k | 3/3
Post canon fix it. Not much plot, a lot of yearning and adjusting to the whole not being dead thing. Features a prayer that made me cry.
Fatherisms by rhinestoneangels (almondrose)
Teen | multi | 12k | 20/20
Au where Claire Novak was a baby when her father got taken as Castiel’s vessel and Dean raises her; told in snapshots over the course of the whole show. Equal parts heartbreaking and soft.
And neither do you by callsigntango
Mature | mlm | 45k | 12/12
Finale rewrite with a better monster, a hell of a lot more horror, and way higher emotional stakes. Very plotty, very angsty, totally brilliant.
Strandlines by aeli_kindara
Explicit | mlm | 40k | 4/4
Time travel fic. Road trips. Absolutely insane unhinged relationship dynamics. “It’s September 18, 2008. Castiel is being deployed to rescue Dean Winchester from hell. Instead, he lands in Dean’s motel room in 2003. Things go from there.” Made me feel my feelings about balls of twine.
Time has come today by teen_dean
Set late canon. Time travel. Case fic. “Cas fetches 19 year old Dean from 1998 to help the team with a griffin hunt in 2020. Dean Winchester, being allergic to self-reflection, doesn’t love the mental tightrope walk that comes from having his past self around. Teen-Dean’s got even more to reckon with: there’s this live-in angel, storied secrets his older self won’t face, and a future he could never have predicted.”
Let the old ways die by opal_bullets
Modern au (no supernatural). Musician!Dean, Producer!Cas. Antagonistic strangers to friends to lovers. “A Begin Again and A Star is Born double fusion au.” This one is really good fun, it feels like watching a movie.
Everybody needs the light by opal_bullets
Pre canon divergent, fix it of sorts. Spooky Great Lakes road trip vibes. “In the summer of 2005, a gruesome hunt leaves a lonely and hurting Dean to take refuge in a remote Minnesota motel. He only means to stop for the night, yet finds himself compelled to stay. Maybe it’s the view, or maybe it’s Castiel, the guy who runs the place. Dean’s falling for him fast, but there’s more to complicate the matter than his family business. Something strange is afoot in the Northwoods — is Cas just caught in the crossfire, or is he the one standing at the centre of it all?”
So much tangled thread by imogenbynight
Explicit | mlm | 37k | 6/6
AU, Pilot!Cas, Soldier!Dean, Tailor!Dean. Time travel, also? Magic. WWII. “In 2008, Dean takes over his late grandfather’s tailor shop in Normal, Illinois, and discovers an old leather flight jacket in the attic belong to MIA WWII soldier Lieutenant Castiel Novak. As he learns more about Novak, Dean starts to wish he could have known him — but certainly doesn’t expect that wish to come true.”
Map of the World (1/4 works in the Down to Agincourt series) by seperis
This fic is absolutely god-tier. Ostensibly it’s an endverse au where s7 dean gets dropped back into the endverse timeline right after the events of the s5 episode and literally cannot escape, but really it’s a post apocalypse/survivalist au. The writing in these fics is insane. It’s detail oriented on a scale that I’ve pretty much never seen outside of classic Russian literature, and it’s also the single slowest burn I’ve ever read. Like, they-don’t-kiss-until-200k-in slow burn. This fic will consume your soul, break your brain, and change your life.
Let’s take a drive by sobsicles
Explicit | mlm | 122k | 12/12
Post-canon in an au where the finale didn’t suck. Jack decides that the best way to cope with his newfound godhood is to de-age himself to approximately 5 years old, and Dean and Cas have to parent him about it. Despite the extremely tropes premise, this fic manages to be a genuinely painful and realistic exploration of grief, guilt, and repression. It’s also a very well executed slow burn!
Aching in the absence of you by sobsicles
Explicit | mlm | 95k | 10/10
Longfic set post finale but minus the love confession from 15x18. This is a masterclass on character work for both Dean and Cas, a slow burn with a lot of “the gang works out their issues” but also plenty of plot to keep it moving. Miscommunication trope done well.
Oh sooner of later it all comes down to faith by sobsicles
Explicit | mlm | 62k | 3/3
Post finale fix it where they all meet again in the newly renovated Heaven. The course of love does not run smooth. This is listed in my bookmarks as “the get his ass bible”, “his” referring to John Winchester. Again, I’m fairly sure he gets punched at some point in this fic.
I want to do with you (what spring does with cherry trees) by sobsicles
Explicit | mlm | 74k | 8/8
Post canon slow burn fix it. Widower arc. Cas is dead, and even though it doesn’t stick, it takes him a hot minute to come back. This fic contains scenes that made me cry like an absolute baby when I was sixteen.
A million little times by ricochetdean
Explicit | mlm | 124k | 6/6
Post canon finale fix it. Slow burn. Cas comes back from the empty post-confession with his memories scattered to the wind, and struggles to slot into the family life that is slowly coming together in the bunker.
And this, your living kiss by opal_bullets
“Very few people in the world know that the celebrated and reclusive poet Jack Allen is just Kansas mechanic Dean Winchester, a high school dropout with a few bucks to his name. Not that it matters anymore; life has left him so wrung out he never wants to pick up another pen. Until, that is, a string of coincidences leads Dean to audit a poetry course with one Dr. Castiel Novak. The professor is wildly intelligent, devastatingly handsome… and just so happens to be academia’s foremost expert on the poetry of Jack Allen.” This fic is a seminal fucking text. This fic changed my life. It’s probably one of the most romantic things I’ve ever read.
Take the bones, begin anew by juststandinghere
Mature | mlm | 103k | 13/13
Post canon fix it. Domesticity, fake relationship, moving in together, extremely slow burn. Cas smokes weed on multiple occasions. “A year in the life” format.
So says the sword by komodobits
Explicit | mlm | 85k | 11/11 | graphic violence and body horror!
Canon adjacent alongside s4 and 5. In depth look at Cas’s experiences, posted to protect the Michael Sword at the end of the world. This one goes to some wild places. Kind of fic that has you getting up and pacing around the room.
Profoundly different by amireal, tiamatv
Explicit | mlm | 191k | 17/17
AU from s4. “What if the fallen angel Dean and Sam ran into was Castiel, not Anna?”. My note on this bookmark is “I averted the apocalypse and all I got was this loving angel husband”.
The ripping of seams by ricochetdean
Explicit | mlm | 117k | 7/7
AU from s4. “When Castiel raises Dean from Hell, his handprint bestows them with an accidental bond, and what starts as a decision to help Dean through his Hell nightmares, becomes an attachment neither of them is willing to break.” The vibes in this one are immaculate.
Dean saves the world and now he gets to be happy (collection) by fleeceframe
Explicit | multi | 52k | 4 works
Post canon fix it. What can I say, the winchesters have an evermore listening party and it’s somehow played seriously.
Something suddenly everywhere by noviembre
Post finale fix it. Widower arc 2: electric boogaloo. Dean retires from hunting to be a full time sad cowboy.
Peace came upon me (and it leaves me weak) by outdean
Explicit | mlm | 74k |10/10
Post finale au. “Nearly a year after Cas’s death, Dean finds himself, of all places, at an AA meeting.” Angst, grieving, general painstakingly slow healing of wounds. Cassie appears at one point! Cas tries pot!
To be restored by serenityfails
Explicit | other | 48k | 7/7 | Graphic violence!
Post Cas’s death in s13, the Empty sends him back in a female vessel. The fic that ensues is a brutally complex exploration of the psychological implications of this for both Cas and Dean. It gets pretty fucking intense at certain points, and also goes to some pretty horny places. Pretty sure when i read this fic it permanently altered my brain chemistry.
Crossing Lines by sometimeswelose
Explicit | mlm | 147k | 21/21 | Graphic violence and major character death!
“Two Deans, one Cas — it’s not as sexy as it sounds OR an ethics lesson from Hell OR the one where Dean from the past meets Dean in the present. They’re not sure they like eachother very much.” Casefic. Gets crazy.
Pick the pink orchids (they’re still in bloom) (part 2 of you see me in the lovely garden tending) by fleeceframe
Explicit | multi |12k | 1/1
This one’s straight up sex. In the author’s words: “the one where Dean’s a little insecure about his sexual history with women, Cas wants to know about it anyway, Dean loves eating pussy, and Cas loves Dean.” It’s actually very sweet — just totally filthy, too.
You drink light with your hands all winter by amiril
Teen | mlm | 1k | 1/1 | no archive warnings apply. This is just an absolutely insane fic
“I can’t keep doing this.” God says it like this as thought it is He, not Death, who is bound by nature’s laws. He says it as though the world is not what He wants it to be. He says it as though He means it. “Please,” Death says. There’s a scythe heavy on his back, and a bundle of souls in the crook of his elbow. “Please, Sammy.”
Ninety One Whiskey by komodobits
Explicit | multi | 401k | 20/20 | graphic military violence, character death (not MCD)!
WW2 ETO infantry au. World’s slowest burn. CombatMedic!Dean, ArmyLieutenant!Cas. The story is a long, slow moving, and absolutely absorbing description of a wartime relationship, including realistic levels of violence, homophobia, toxicity, and all other associated miseries. That being said, it’s a fantastic read if you can stomach that. It’s a classic for a reason.
A trick of the light on the face of your daughter (and/or your son) by serenityfails
Explicit | multi | 57k | 6/?
Set vaguely late seasons. Dean gets hit with a spell that turns him into a woman for the foreseeable future. He reacts to this in a spectacularly dysfunctional series of ways. Reading this is an unfathomable gender experience.
kaledo-art
areudirty
dededos
theartofmadeline
dailybridgerton
