Hoziernatural Recs: Destiel
Sign-ups for the 2025 round of the Hoziernatural Multi-Ship Bang will open March 1st!, and people will soon be working to create a whole new batch of Hoziernatural content! However, for those of you who would like something to read between now and posting, we have some recs to fill that need 💚💙
Everything listed below is Destiel, but if you're a person of varied taste, then stay tuned for our Wincest, Rare Pair, and Gen/Character Study rec lists!
A Call to Motion by @banshee1013 with art by @nickelkeep
Pairing/s: Castiel/Dean Winchester, Dorothy Baum/Charlie Bradbury, Gabriel/Rowena MacLeod, Jessica Moore/Sam Winchester
Additional Tags: Alternate Universe - Dance, Modern Dance AU, Dancer Castiel, Dancer Dean, College Student Sam, Strangers to Lovers
After seeing Sam safely accepted to the University of Kansas in Lawrence, Dean finally feels like he can start pursuing his own dream - which just so happens to be Modern Dance after having passed by the studio on his way to work. Then his instructor, Rowena, tells him about an opportunity at a dance company in Kansas City, which he discovers is run by Gabriel Shurley - brother to Castiel Shurley, the man who's audition for the Paul Taylor Dance Company in New York inspired him to pursue his new-found passion.
Castiel Shurley is adrift - moving to Kansas City with his brother to help run their cousin Balthazar Angeles' dance company after a falling out with his Artistic Director - and lover - in New York. The dance company is a wonderful, talented group, but Castiel found his love for dance shattered along with his heart.
That is, until a green-eyed, bow-legged, incredibly gifted novice dancer appears for auditions, and Castiel feels the urge to dance - and love - return to him.
Angel in the Shortwave by @columbocas with art by @squirrelofcelestialintent
Beta: @squirrelofcelestialintent
Hozier Song: Angel of Small Death and the Codeine Scene
Pairing/s: Castiel/Dean Winchester
Warnings: Graphic Depictions of Violence
Additional Tags: Top Castiel/Bottom Dean Winchester, Castiel is Saved from the Empty, Time Travel, Alternate Universe - Time Travel, Sex Worker Dean Winchester, Patricide, Canon Universe
Summary: Castiel escapes the empty into a parallel universe. There he meets a young Dean turning tricks. Post-The Winchester's Dean searches for Cas.
Be Like the Love that Discovered the Sin by @grim-work with art by @deancodedcastielenby
Pairing/s: Castiel/Dean Winchester
Additional Tags: Awkward Flirting, Angst, Kissing, Falling in Love, Dean Winchester has PTSD, s5e3 Free to Be You and Me
Once, in Tennessee, when he was in middle school, someone told Dean he was a child of God.
During “Free to Be You and Me,” Dean and Cas talk without doing much talking, and try to invent something new.
Cold Lake Water of My Heart by @cautiouslycas
Hozier Song: To Someone From A Warm Climate
Pairing/s: Dean/Cas + Sam/Jess
Warnings: Religious Trauma, Cult Like Situation, Conversion Camp, Religion (active mentions of the church in fic), conversations with a priest, Cas’s father is a priest, drug addiction (Side storyline - Sam), rehabilitation (Side storyline - Sam), hostage situation, violence, threats, gun, beatings, torture, mentions of parental abuse, depression like state, anxiety, depersonalization (in a way), canon typical violence
Additional Tags: slow burn, neighbors to lovers, taking care of each other, fluff, Sheriff Dean, finding each other
When Castiel moves town, the last thing he expects is to strike up a friendship with the local sheriff. However, stubborn Dean Winchester just about manages to break down his wall.
But just when they’re comfortable, Castiel’s past comes back to haunt him: family members he’s sure he’s banished return and Dean is forced to face the curtain: that he might actually love his new strange neighbor.
Face the Burning Heat by @mbqnoyolo with art by @witchy-worm
Beta: @mattzerella-sticks
Pairing/s: Castiel/Dean Winchester
Characters: Castiel, Dean Winchester, Sam Winchester, Jack Kline
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Additional Tags: Grief/Mourning, Post 15x19, Angst, Established Castiel/Dean Winchester, Domestic Castiel/Dean Winchester, Angst with a Happy Ending, Angst and Feels, POV Multiple, Anal Sex
Dean wrestles with himself and his memories of a better time after Castiel’s sacrifice while Sam tries to reach his brother in his grief and Jack waits for answers that may never come.
honey you're familiar (like my mirror...) by @deaniewithalittleweanie
Pairing/s: Castiel/Dean Winchester, Minor Rowena MacLeod/Sam Winchester
Warnings: Mentions of Body Horror, Canon-Typical Violence
Additional Tags: Body Swap, Canon Divergence, Canon-Typical Behavior, Castiel Bears the Mark of Cain, Smut, Dark Crack, Angst, Ambiguous/Open Ending, Season 10, Nightmares, Wings, Every possible angle on a body swap fic all in one, Tone Shift, Bottoming from the Top, Masturbation
Summary: While desperate for a cure for the Mark of Cain, Dean wakes up in a dark alley no longer in his own skin. Now occupying Castiel's body, he has to grapple with being an angel and no longer having control over the Mark. Meanwhile, Castiel now has to learn to control the rage that comes with bearing the Mark in a body that is already at its breaking point with it. Dean can feel everything Castiel used to feel and vice versa, making the chemistry between the two of them all the more volatile.
Love & Terror by @sevensugars with art by @celestial-space-bee
Hozier song: Abstract (Psychopomp)
Characters: Dean Winchester, Castiel, Sam Winchester
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Additional Tags: Canon-Typical violence, Alternate Universe- Canon divergent, Dreams and Nightmares.
At some point, things were linear. Cas fell. Dean fell - in love with him for good. Cas did, too. It gets all jumbled, though, after Cas disappears into thin air during a run-of-the-mill ghost hunt.
Dean, granted free access to an archive of his memories, slowly starts losing himself in a search for clues until he jumps from one memory to another. The further away he is from his life, the closer he feels to Cas as he has come to know him, but there are dark shadows haunting (hunting?) him, Cas hasn’t held him in weeks, and Dean’s slipping,
slipping,
slipping.
Mad Dog Caged by @mbqnoyolo with art by @squirrelofcelestialintent
Beta: @ididitallofitforyou
Hozier Song: Like Real People Do
Pairing/s: Castiel/Dean Winchester
Additional Tags: PTSD, hallucinations, nightmares, first kiss, post attack dog spell, hurt!Cas, homemaker!Dean
Summary: Dean and Cas are recovering in the Bunker while Sam puts as much distance as he can between himself and the brooding men. The Attack Dog spell has Castiel lurching from reality to hallucinations and Dean struggles with trying to care for him despite his own terrifying flashbacks of Amara, the Mark and Purgatory.
Nothing Fucks With My Baby by @rauko-creates
Pairing/s: Castiel/Dean Winchester
Warnings: Canon-Typical Violence
Additional Tags: Protective Castiel, BAMF Castiel, BAMF Dean Winchester, Murder Husbands, Hunter Husbands, Established Relationship, Canon Universe
Summary: I was feeling an intense need to listen to Hozier's NFWMB on repeat while writing about Cas smiting the shit out of everything in the way to get to Dean and slaughtering everything that dared to lay a hand on him. Not that Dean's a damsel in distress in this situation; he's actually holding his own just fine. Cas is just intense.
Rebirth by @thisisapaige with art by @thestarsmakemedream-art
Pairing/s: Dean/Cas, minor Sam/Eileen
Characters: Dean, Cas, Sam, Missouri
Warnings: Animal Death (It’s a mercy killing), Grief/Mourning, Fire
Additional Tags: Alternate Universe - Fantasy, Creature Castiel, Angst With a Happy Ending, Nature and Magic, Enemies to Friends to Lovers (the enemies is short lived), Mary Raises Dean and Sam, Fairy Tale Vibes
The Lawrence villagers say that there’s something in the woods somewhere. Something big. Something scary. Something that will swallow your children whole if they venture inside. No one who goes in comes back out.
Mary Winchester builds her farm at the edge of the woods to raise her two sons. Her youngest, Sam Winchester, born with weak lungs, always stares into the trees. It’s as if it’s calling him. Not long after Mary succumbs to the fever ravaging through the village, Sam walks into the woods and disappears.
Dean grieves the loss of his family. Suffering the same illness that took his mother, Dean hears a scream on a dark winter’s night. It’s a scream he cannot ignore. He runs into the trees to investigate.
Something is watching Dean. He can feel it. The creature is coming for him. Dean expects to die, expects to be eaten, expects to become one of the cautionary tales exchanged by the villagers.
But Castiel, the creature of the woods, is nothing like Dean’s expectations.
Remember Me, Love, When I'm Reborn by @lazarus-rose with art by @deancodedcastielenby
Pairing/s: Castiel/Dean Winchester
Warnings: Canon-Typical Violence, Character Death
Additional Tags: Parallel Universes, Post-Canon, Post-The Winchesters, Angst With A Happy Ending
Summary: In some ways, Dean thought his death would solve things. He thought it would give him a chance for a happy life in Heaven surrounded by his family, but he was wrong. So he decides to take a ride in his Baby and find that missing piece that keeps him from being happy. Almost everywhere he goes, there is one constant – Castiel. He sees his angel, over and over, finding him in different worlds with different versions of Dean and then watching over him from afar.
Back on Earth, Dean didn’t have the words for the feelings inside him, but his afterlife might just provide him with the strength and wisdom to hold on to true happiness when he finds it.
Swan Upon Leda by @kelsstiel with art by @marvfortytwo
Beta: @deaniewithalittleweanie
Hozier Song: Swan Upon Leda
Pairing/s: Castiel/Dean Winchester
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Additional Tags: Alternate Universe - Hospital, Kid Fic, Slow Burn, Emotional Hurt/Comfort, Happy ending, Minor Character Death, Explicit Sexual Content
Summary: Pediatric Surgery Fellow Dean Winchester meets baby Jack Kline and neuropsychologist Castiel Novak his first week on the job. Dean’s been accused a time or two of caring a little too much in the past and it’s hard not to care about the neurotic adoptive father and his medically needy preemie. After a series of run-ins between the pair, Dean and Cas develop a friendship that everyone else around them suspect more from immediately, though it takes them a little longer to get the memo. When Dean struggles with a particularly devastating patient loss, their mutual understanding of loss and love bring them closer in a way that neither of them could have expected.
The Love, The Dark, The Light, The Flame by @raimykeller with art by @nickelkeep
Pairing/s: Castiel/Dean Winchester
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Additional Tags: Angst With A Happy Ending, 15x19 Alternate Ending, Dean Winchester Saves Castiel from the Empty, Homophobic Language, Getting Together, Fix-It, Dean Winchester Has Self-Esteem Issues
After Dean, Sam, and Jack defeat Chuck, Jack opens a portal to let Dean try to rescue Castiel from the Empty. The Shadow will let Castiel go on one condition: Dean has to solve a case.
Dean is transported back into his 19-year-old body to hunt whatever monster is killing young, gay teens in San Francisco. But, Dean must face much more than supernatural monsters if he wants to free Castiel from the grip of the Empty and eternal slumber.
Unknown As Any Angel by @lazarus-rose with art by @youknowthelines
Hozier Song: Unknown / Nth
Pairing/s: Castiel/Dean Winchester
Characters: Dean Winchester, Castiel, Alastair
Warnings: Torture, Body Horror, Blood and Gore, Manipulation, Violent Sex, Mentioned Past Prostitution, Cannibalism
Additional Tags: Demon Castiel, Eventual Demon Dean, Unreliable Narration, Horror, Switch Dean/Cas, Dark Castiel, Protective Castiel, Hurt/Comfort
Summary: Damned to Hell after selling his soul for his brother, Dean suffers every day under Alastair’s knife, but still tries to remain steady in his resolve to stay human and not become like the demons he despises. He does, however, have one comfort—a demon who, to Dean’s eyes, appears more like an angel, Castiel.
Wasteland, Baby! by @deaniewithalittleweanie with art by @deancodedcastielenby
Hozier Song: Wasteland, Baby!
Pairing/s: Castiel/Dean Winchester, Aaron Bass/Dean Winchester
Warnings: Canon-Typical Violence, Drug Use
Additional Tags: Post-finale, Dean Winchester Saves Castiel from The Empty, Endverse (5x04: The End), Endverse!Castiel
With his dying breath, Chuck releases the Croatoan virus onto the world the Winchesters just tried to save from him. Fueled by rage, Dean rescues Castiel from The Empty, but the angel comes back with a screw knocked loose and most of his grace depleted. To both of them, Castiel’s confession before his death is best left unspoken of. In a world of destruction, chaos, and death, Dean has resigned himself to being chained by reality for the rest of his days.
That is, until Sam finds a lead on restoring a very weak Jack’s powers. The mission has Dean, Castiel, Jack, and Charlie criss-crossing the continental United States on the hunt for power and a cure for the virus that has destroyed civilization as it once was, all the while trying to repair the broken bonds between all of them.
