you are the only one i love by you_idjits
Wordcount: 10,675
Rating: T
Summary: Dean insists on going on a hunt in Maine. Sam insists that he bring Cas as backup. After the hunt, they get snowed in at a bed-and-breakfast. The owners are named Gladys and Agatha and Doris and Ruth. No, seriously. Dean’s pretty sure this can’t be real life, this has to be an episode of the Golden Girls, or something. No way in hell he and Cas are sharing a snowy Christmas with four old ladies, a couple on their honeymoon, and a white-picket-fence family of four. It’s actually so awful. Sam will never let him live this down.
It’s just starting to finally get warm and sunny where I am, so what better time to recommend a snowed-in at Christmas story? Though it takes place around the holiday season, I wouldn’t really call this a Christmas fic-- it’s much more about Dean and Cas’ relationship than it is about the holiday. Having them snowed in together is a perfect way to force them to finally confront their feelings for one another, and the canon-timeline of this story (early S10, Dean has the Mark of Cain and Cas’ stolen Grace is rotting inside him) only adds to the urgency of their situation.
The style is sparse but lovely, reflecting Dean’s inner turmoil as he grapples with his feelings for Castiel and whether they can lead to anything but more pain for both of them. A few classic misunderstandings add to the tension, and things get a bit worse before they get better, but the way they eventually come together is sweet and slow and feels perfectly earned. As a bonus, the original side characters are well-drawn and funny and serve an important purpose in the story.
