#am desperate for an au where cas is a single dad who falls in love with slightly-insane dean at christmas

[fuckspn]

i've had a couple drinks and i'm like fully going to bawl my eyes out. DESTIEL 😭😭😭😭😭

[deanxcasficrecs]

The ultimate Djinn Dream list

@olliaaron, I think you made a huge mistake by asking this :’D So, you wanted a few djinn fics where they live a domestic life and so on? Well, what you get is the ultimate Djinn Dream list featured by a few other creatures causing similar circumstances. This, my friends, this is hands down the longest rec I have ever made, and I sincerely hope I left nothing important out by accident.

Quite many of you have asked how do I find these, and my answer is always the same: I just read a lot. I scroll through different tags and start to read, and sometimes it just turns out to be a Djinn dream or some other spellwork like that, and then I’m just miserable (and happy at the same time because I love these fics). If you have some I didn’t include into the list, please do share in the comments!

SPOILER ALERT! Reading this rec will definitely ruin the storyline for you. 

Title: Out of My Head

Author: casual_distance

Rating: Mature

Words: 8,455 – Finished

Admin’s assessment: ★ ★ ★ ★ ★

Admin J’s notes: This is actually one of the fics I have found by an accident. No tags and no nothing that could tell this isn’t just an AU story but a Djinn fic, but I’m so glad I found it since it’s one of my favourite Djinn stories ever! It’s funny and I love the basic idea, and it feels so much longer than just 8k. It’s maybe not as domestic as you would have wanted, but oh well, it has Grease which is one of my favourite musicals, so I took a liberty to add it in… :’D 

Summary: Some romances, Dean finds during his senior year at Rydell High, are ostentatious, filled with public arguments and lots of singing, while others are hidden things kept tucked away.

( Read here ) 

Title: ‘Stonehenge’: Post-Apocalypse

Author: strangenessandcharm

Rating: Teen And Up Audiences

Words: 4,268 – Finished

Admin’s assessment: ★ ★ ★ ★ ★

Admin J’s notes: Breaks my heart every time I read this fic and Dean says to Cas ‘I don’t swing that way’. This fic seriously doesn’t feel like less than 5k, it’s so well-written. The characters, especially Dean, are very IC and it’s just amazing. 

Summary: Do happily-ever-afters work on angels? Castiel gets to find out, but it’s bittersweet…

( Read here ) 

Title: The Apple Pie Dream

Author: fleurofthecourt

Rating: Teen And Up Audiences

Words: 6,306 – Finished

Admin’s assessment: ★ ★ ★

Admin J’s notes: For some reason, I’m not a big Claire fan, and I quite often find Claire of the fics even more annoying. However, in this fic Claire was well-written and she didn’t bother me this much. Still, not my favourite Djinn fic, but hey, all the elements are there!

Summary: Dean Winchester is the absolute last person Claire wants to call. The man is a monster, no matter what the guy playing her make-believe dad says.

But the thing is, said make-believe dad is missing. And she’s kind of worried about him.

And she doesn’t know who else to call.

( Read here )  

Title: How Did I Get Here?

Author: ChasingRabbits

Rating: Explicit

Words: 7,882 – Finished

Admin’s assessment: ★ ★ ★ ★ ★

Admin J’s notes: Yet again one of the shorter fics that don’t feel short because everything is there: the sadness, the storyline, the character building… I wanted to add this one, even if it’s not a Djinn causing the trouble. All the elements are still there, so I personally feel that this fits in, except if you just have some weird kink for Djinns in general :’D

Summary: Dean wakes up in his bed feeling very, very odd. Though his boyfriend and son are where he left them, he can’t quite shake the feeling that something isn’t right. Worst of all, he can’t quite wrap his head around the fact that this is his life.

( Read here ) 

Title: Reality

Author: Jennilah

Rating: Teen And Up Audiences

Words: 11,225 – Finished

Admin’s assessment: ★ ★ ★ ★

Admin J’s notes: I’m a terrible person who took a star away because Dean was bisexual :’D Don’t get me wrong, I am one too, but the fic somehow changed after that and it wasn’t as good anymore. Besides, I like the straight Dean who only goes gay for Cas, because helloooo gay panic. 

Summary: Sam and Dean go on a search for their friend after they realize he’s been missing for two months. When they find Cas in a deep sleep due to a djinn’s poison, Sam slips into his subconscious to help get him out.

Unfortunately saving him comes with a few ramifications that nobody knows how to handle.

( Read here ) 

Title: The Story of You and Me

Author: the_diggler

Rating: Explicit 

Words: 54,953 – Finished

Admin’s assessment: ★ ★ ★ ★ ★

Admin J’s notes: You all probably know by now that The Path of Fireflies is my favourite fic ever, and let me tell you, this fic isn’t much behind. It’s similar in some ways, but definitely not a copy, and it touched my heart. I love the idea of the journal, and I just love everything in this one. One of my go-to fics.

Summary: Dean wakes up in a bed next to very human Castiel, and a journal in his own handwriting that tells him it’s two years in the future. The house looks like Bobby’s, and Sam lives there too… He just can’t remember how they got from the angels falling from the sky to comfortable domesticity. While there is much in the journal Dean doesn’t remember, there is much of their story he’s always known. And she settles into the routine of his new life and relationship with Castiel, it quickly becomes something he doesn’t know how to live without.

( Read here ) 

Title: Wishes

Author: Tanya Meridia

Rating: Teen And Up Audiences

Words: 807 – Finished

Admin’s assessment: ★ ★

Admin J’s notes: I actually managed to add a fic into this rec that I really didn’t find all the good. Let me tell you, I’m surprised because I was somewhat sure that I love all the Djinn fics I have in my folders. Maybe the thing was that the fic kind of ended before it even started :’D

Summary: Dean is taken by a Djinn and Castiel finds him.

( Read here ) 

 Title: Smells Like Roses

Author: BoMarlowe

Rating: Explicit

Words: 53,828 – Finished

Admin’s assessment: ★ ★ ★ ★ ★

Admin J’s notes: The first time I was reading this, I was a bit sceptical. I knew from the beginning that it was a Djinn dream, so I was thinking that maybe I don’t get attached to the characters and it will end up a bit flat. Oh boy, how wrong I was there. The truth is that I cried like a baby. This goes into the same category than The Path of Fireflies and The Story of You and Me, meaning it’s amazing.

Summary: Dean’s life is beautiful. He wants for nothing, has the pleasure of his family and friends, and is desperately, irrevocably in love with his husband. Everything is perfect, just as it should be. Then he wakes up.

( Read here )

Title: For One Single Yesterday

Author: wannaliveindeansdimples

Rating: Mature

Words: 5,120 – Finished

Admin’s assessment: ★ ★ ★

Admin J’s notes: I’m always adding comments to my own little excel file of fics I’ve read, and sometimes they’re very confusing. The only note for this one is: ‘I fucking loved the last sentence’. I think you need to read the fic to find out what was so special in that sentence :’D

Summary: Don’t imagine Cas being kidnapped by a Djinn.

Don’t imagine Sam being the one who goes inside his head to save him and finding that Cas’s dream world is living a normal life with Dean.

Don’t imagine them all hanging out and when Dean finally leaves them alone for five minutes Sam trying to explain to Cas that this isn’t real and Cas saying “I know.”

Don’t imagine Cas clinging to the Djinn Dean, begging Sam not to take him back.

Don’t imagine Cas waking up and Dean yelling at him for letting the Djinn get the drop on him.

Don’t imagine neither if them telling Dean what happened.

Don’t imagine the sadness Sam would see on Cas’s face everyday from then on and the pain when Dean goes home with random women.

Just don’t do it.

( Read here ) 

Title: The Apple Pie Life

Author: avenge_the_angel

Rating: Teen And Up Audiences

Words: 4,728 – Finished

Admin’s assessment: ★ ★ ★

Admin J’s notes: Sometimes a fic has all the potential: no big grammar errors, good idea, nicely written text, Djinn dream, a daddy Cas… and yet, it’s not my favourite. I don’t know what was off with this one, but for some reason it just didn’t make it into my favourites. 

Summary: A car accident took Dean’s memories. He can’t remember closing hell, or saving the world… again. He doesn’t remember his two children or marrying Cas. But he wakes up to a life he’s always wanted, a life he never thought he would have. He’s being handed a chance to have the normal life he should have had. But when has luck ever been on his side?

( Read here ) 

Title: The Day the World Went Away

Author: pyjamagurl

Rating: Explicit

Words: 56,658 – Finished

Admin’s assessment: ★ ★ ★ ★ ★

Admin J’s notes: Alright, yet again one of my favourites. I’m not ashamed to admit that I have a type when it comes to fics :’D This doesn’t have a Djinn, per se, but something else is fucking up the reality, so I decided that it fits. 

Summary: After being reunited with Sam and leaving Lisa, Dean is finding that adjusting back into the hunting lifestyle is harder than he thought it would be. When a particular hunt goes badly, he gets knocked out, only to awaken five years in the future. Things are definitely different; Castiel is a hunter, Sam is married and things between Dean and Cas had gone somewhere Dean really hadn’t expected. And somewhere in all of this, there is a lesson to be learned.

( Read here ) 

Title: Dream a Little Dream

Author: destieldrabblesdaily

Rating: Teen And Up Audiences

Words: 3,186 – Finished

Admin’s assessment: ★ ★ ★ ★

Admin J’s notes: No major sadness here as the fic is from Dean’s POV and Cas is the one captured, but some awkwardness as Dean ends up in Cas’ domestic yet sexy dreams. I heard that ‘domestic yet sexy’ in Dean’s voice as he was explaining Sam the Dr Sexy M.D characters. 

Summary: Written for the prompt: Castiel goes after a Djinn but gets captured, and of course his dream world is all about Dean and him being happy together, so he’s very disappointed when Dean and Sam save him and he wakes up…

( Read here ) 

Title: Gonna Be A Fireman When The Floods Roll Black

Author: misachan

Rating: Mature 

Words: 7,107 – Finished

Admin’s assessment: ★ ★ ★ ★ ★

Admin J’s notes: This is also one of the fics I found by accident., I was probably just out there looking for some firefighter smut but ended up with this :D I like the different approach, even if I’m not quite sure why that was Dean’s happy life. 

Summary: Firefighting is Dean’s dream job and he’s damn good at it - still, there’s something about his most recent call he can’t quite shake. Or to be more specific, a certain blue-eyed rescue he can’t keep out of his dreams. 

( Read here ) 

Title: Only if for a night

Author: mishcollin

Rating: Mature

Words: 11,393 – Finished

Admin’s assessment: ★ ★ ★ ★ ★

Admin J’s notes: I want to give a huge applause for the author for leaving the ending of the fic like it is. Points for the author for leaving it like that. I was just staring at the screen, thinking if they really did it. Good job!

Summary: Castiel is captured by a djinn. Dean goes slightly crazy, and Cas discovers a thing or two about himself. 

( Read here )  

Title: Catch the Wind, See Us Spin

Author: prettify

Rating: Explicit

Words: 12,000 – Finished

Admin’s assessment: ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ 

Admin J’s notes: This one of the most recced and most talked Destiel fic in this genre, but I personally prefer many other fics over it. It doesn’t mean, though, that I wouldn’t love it. It’s sad and I every time feel so bad for Dean, but there are fics that I find better (like, The Path of Fireflies, for example). 

Summary: Dean is given an out, but reality is a strange, fickle bitch.

( Read here ) 

Title: The Path of Fireflies

Author: museaway

Rating: Mature 

Words: 63,706 – Finished

Admin’s assessment: ★ ★ ★ ★ ★

Admin J’s notes: Ah, and here we go. I’ve got a question. Could someone get me a signed copy of this fic from museaway? What happens if I just tag @museaway? I promise to place the signed copy right next to my Enochian Dictionary that Misha signed. Let’s just face the facts, I have recced this fic for probably hundreds of times within the last years and I’m not even ashamed of that :’D This is the best fanfic I have ever read, and I started to read back in 2002. If you have somehow managed not to read this yet, go and do it now (even if it’s not a Djinn fic, but I think you get the idea why it’s in the list)

Summary: After his humanity is restored, Dean wakes up bed with Castiel, a wedding ring, and no memory of the past twelve years.

( Read here )

[shirtlesssammy]

13x22: Exodus

Then:

Gabe came back to save the day!

Now:

Sam’s alive! And Lucifer just wants to be part of the gang, and to get to know his son. Dean is in protective Mom mode and tells Gabe to kill Lucifer. All the anger and hostility causes Jack to fly off to safety.

To keep some semblance of order, Cas puts the angel warded handcuffs on Lucifer, while Lucifer tells the group that they have about 31 hours before the rift closes. Rowena’s holding down the fort, and not looking too positive about the whole situation. Also, Sam sets his phones timer for 31 hours. A: Won’t the battery run out before then? And 2: Shouldn’t you maybe set it for 29 hours or something just to be safe?

Dean checks in with Sam to make sure he’s ok, and he is. Dean just thought he lost his brother, and Sam just thought he died. This was a worthy hug.

Now Sam, can you at least clean your blood off your neck? Yuck.

Sam tells Dean that he will handle Lucifer.

Meanwhile, Jack’s off alone reeling from meeting Lucifer for the first time. He flashes back to the video of his mother (was this new footage or from earlier?), and Sam (so protective, so parental), and then to the security guard he accidentally killed and au!Kevin dying for the “cause”. Oh, sweet little nougat (at what age does he have to reach before we have to stop calling him our little nougat?).

Cas escorts Lucifer from point A to point B at the camp (like, where were they going?) Anyway, they take a pit stop so Luci can be snarky and Mary can punch the devil in the face (again). Yay!

Mary is 100% badass and I love her, but do you ever stop to think about how great it was for Sam to have Dean raise him and not Mary or John? They were a mess! Sam and Dean show up to tell Mary they need to start heading back to the rift to make it home in time. Mary tells them she’s not leaving. There’s work to be done here. She’s fought beside the people here. There’s too much to fight for. That goes over like a lead balloon. Sidenote: Mary’s makeup is on point in the AU. Maybe it’s not such a bad place after all?

Cas, Jack, and Lucifer parley and Jack wants to listen (UGH) to what Lucifer has to say.

Lucifer tells Jack that he can ask him anything. “Why does everyone hate you?” Lucifer makes some good points (and some icky rapey Buckleming points, ugh), but nope, nope, nope, nope, nope.

Back in Dean, Sam, and Mary land, Dean’s arguing against fighting the good fight, and asks Sam to back him up, but Sam being Sam, he agrees with Mary. “Wait, what?” Dean asks, incredulous. “Mom doesn’t want to leave these people.” Dean’s poor face. Sam suggests they bring them with, regroup, and come back stronger than ever. Just as Dean questions the ability to cram 25 people through the rift, a VERY dramatic Cas arrives to tell them Jack is now with Lucifer.

Lucifer has a one on one with Jack but TFW interrupts, trying to make it clear to Jack that they’re his family, not Lucifer. Jack then calls Lucifer his father (BIG UGH).

The group heads out to the basecamp.

Mary and Dean get some time to talk. Mary wants Dean to give Jack a break. Man, Mary’s conversation about Jack learning about Lucifer, and seeing him for who he is through his own eyes. Dean should be taking notes on how to think about his own childhood, and his own memories of John.

Gabriel, who was off scouting, comes running at the group alerting them to incoming angels. Battle stances commence, and then the angels just disappear into smoke. It seems the handcuffs don’t work in the AU and Luci just smoked them all, and then dissolved the handcuffs. Oops.

It seems the basecamp is Singer Auto Salvage --it’s not in Sioux Falls but it’s damn nice to see that sign again. And it’s not our Bobby (Goddamnit, where is he?? Andrew Dabb, how have you failed us on that storyline?), but he’s just as much a curmudgeon. Dean asks about Charlie and finds out Ketch and her went off to find an angel kill squad.

Lucifer and Jack continue the family reunion. Lucifer tells him all about the other archangels. Ok, Buckleming, you get one pass if you scripted that high five. It was funny and cute. I give 90% of the credit to Jack though. They meet up with Gabriel.

Gabe can barely hold in his hostility for Lucifer. GABE!

Charlie and Ketch find the angels, but it’s a trap! They’re captured.

Team Free Winchester try to convince the leadership at the camp to head over to Sam and Dean’s world. “You want us to follow you through some magic door that’s gonna blast us the hell out of here and into some fairy tale world where everything’s pretty?”  DUH. Just do it, Andy!

The AU campers will talk about it. At the end of the meeting, Bobby comes up to tell Sam, Dean, and Mary that Charlie and Ketch were captured.

Ketch and Charlie are having a great time hanging with angels. Eating angel food cake, playing ring toss with halos. The whole nine yards. Or, urgh, Ketch is getting tortured and interrogated for the resistance base location. Ketch snarkily resists their efforts, earning my grudging respect. (Boris: Ngl, watching Ketch get tortured was kind of poetic. But he’s on his big redemption arc so I guess it’s also sad. Remember folks: Ketch killed Magda!) Then they bring in the big guns. AU!Castiel, complete with insane lip twitch. AU!Castiel does not look well, as evidenced by his non-floofy hair and rogue eye that's probably gone bad from incessant “reprogramming.”

In the resistance camp, TFW interrogates the human that betrayed Charlie and Ketch. I only picked up on this in the rewatch, but Dean nods to Cas to start and stop his mind meld on the guy. I know this can be seen as teamwork but I'm sort of super duper gutted by that. I keep remembering how Cas oftens sees himself as a tool and I feel like he's in that role right now – an instrument of torture wielded by Dean Winchester.

Anyway.

shudder

Cut to Lucifer whining to Gabriel about how boring it is to wait for an attack. Gabriel is quietly amused at Lucifer's desire to rush out and be big and heroic to impress Jack. “I've known you since the stars were made,” Gabriel tells him and he thinks Lucifer’s full of shit. “Humans are innocent and beautiful,” Gabriel says (while I whisper to him that I suddenly really really love him). Lucifer’s motivation for his corruption of humanity was down to jealousy, plain and simple. Lucifer pulls a single man tear which... Whatever, Luci.

Back with AU!Cas, he hones in on Charlie. “Everyone has a breaking point,” he tells her before he tries to suck her mind out of her head. (I'm definitely NOT thinking about how AU!Cas hit his breaking point. He's broken. Shattered. A sharp blade of pain.) There's a ruckus outside, saving Charlie momentarily. It's Mary and TFW! They bust in and defeat the angels guarding Charlie and Ketch. Outside, Castiel confronts AU!Castiel.

Cas tells Castiel that he's grown used to humanity and that he prefers humans to angels. Despite this, they both agree that they're the same, and then Cas kills AU!Castiel. I have a whole headcanon about this scene. Ready? Okay. AU!Castiel is broken, tortured by Heaven into existing as a mere weapon. Cas sees this and recognizes his fate, his horrible scars and terrible weaknesses. He sees the soldier. He sees the broken person. And he kills him easily because he views it as both mercy and necessity. AU!Cas is irredeemable, so damaged is he. Now, all he can do is rest eternally in the Empty.

Let's take a hug break.

Cas shakes it off (OR DOES HE?) and everyone reunites at the camp. Bobby announces to the Winchesters that they're all planning to head back with them. Super! It's time for a PARTY BUS! Dean fixes a school bus (Natasha fans herself) and everyone piles onto the bus to head out. Sam runs after Jack and tries to keep him from fulfilling his promise to kill Michael. Sam wants them to regroup and plan a good attack and Lucifer agrees. Jack...listens to Lucifer and then calls him “father.” Yikes, Jack.

The vehicles, packed full of many of my favorite characters, head down the road to the rift. Eek! I sure am glad those rifts mostly only open just off of roadways. When they arrive Sam sees the rift is starting to close.

Rowena's exhausted on the other side, desperately trying to keep the rift open. Everyone files in and through. “About bloody time,” Rowena greets Castiel breathlessly. On the other side of the portal, angels zoom in. Michael arrives with an impressive wing display.

Lucifer and Michael begin to fight while Sam, Dean, and Gabe just....stand around picking their noses, I guess. Until Gabe decides to start fighting Michael. Michael pulls out his archangel blade and they fight. We're feeling pretty good about it until Gabriel gets knifed. NOOOOOOOO every time! 

Sam angrily pushes a weakened Lucifer away from the rift and then jumps through. The rift closes behind him leaving Michael and Lucifer behind in the AU.

In the bunker it's a PARTY. Sam thanks Rowena. Charlie and Ketch have forged a friendship (odd but I’ll allow it). Dean and Cas share emotional stares a.k.a. an “eyefuck.” Jack is sad.

Bobby gives the troops a rallying speech and everyone experiences warm and fuzzy feelings. I mean, I certainly do. Look at all their friends! Take that, Team “All My Friends are Dead.”

Back in the AU, Gabriel lies apparently (possibly? definitely?) dead on the ground with charred wings. Lucifer and Michael plot together to get back into the Winchesters’ world and strike a deal. Lucifer will get his son and Michael gets the world. Booo bad deal.

Party Quotes:

What do we do about Lucifer?

You are who you choose to be.

I am not your “sport”

That may be the dumbest friggin’ idea in a landfill of dumb ideas.

You want us to follow you through a magic door that's gonna blast us the hell outta here and into some kind of fairy tale world where everything is pretty?

For whatever reason, I got a good feeling about you two.

See you on the other side, bitches.

And you’re an ass clown.

Way to go, DAD!

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