An Archive of Our Own, a project of the Organization for Transformative Works
Just leaving the link right here. I can’t possibly say how much I enjoyed this work. I wish I could do more than simply recommend it!
Chapters: 19/19
Fandom: Supernatural
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Relationships: Castiel/Dean Winchester
Additional Tags: Alternate History, 1950, Torture, Minor Character Death, Psychological Manipulation, absolutely NO other pairings, many warnings apply due to prison setting, Threats of Rape/Non-Con, Attempted Rape/Non-Con, Period-Typical Homophobia, Blood and Gore, Mentions of Suicide, Clarification: NO rape takes place, Angst with a Happy Ending, surprisingly sweet and life-affirming romance
Castiel Novak is an inmate at a labour camp. Life is brutal and no one ever gets out. Castiel’s only goal is to go unnoticed by the barbaric guards, and the violent inmates. Dean Winchester is a soldier without a purpose since the civil war ended. Dean accepts an assignment at a labour-camp, under the mentorship of Alistair, the Commander. From the start, Dean and Castiel are drawn to each other, and their relationship develops in a way that changes their lives. But Alistair has his own plans for Dean, and Castiel is a complication. When Alistair fails to separate them through threats and violence, he turns to manipulation; feeding Dean’s confusion about his feelings for Castiel, and goading him into a terrible act in order to break him. As Dean and Castiel try to fight back, they uncover secrets that are more far-reaching than they ever imagined. In such a dangerous world, can they ever be together? Can they even survive?
A dystopian, alternate-history (diverging after the Great Depression in 1933) AU, set in America in 1950.