Because I can’t be in a fandom five minutes without complaining (Looking for Dean/Cas recs)

Okay, so, one of my biggest disappointments about SPN fic is that I’ve found so little Dean/Castiel that works for me. When I first saw the show, I thought Dean/Castiel would totally be my ship. They’re both smoking hot, they’re both complex characters, and they have amazing chemistry, with a relationship that is intense in both positive and negative ways.

But here’s the thing. Most Dean/Castiel fic that I’ve read either:

1) Focuses on Castiel, with Dean as the supporting character. I like Castiel, but Dean is my OTC. He’s the thing that makes me fannish, so I’m not going to enjoy a fic unless it’s at least 51% Dean-focused.

2) Turns Castiel into a woobie, a martyr, a saint, or a fainting delicate flower. First of all, if anyone’s going to be whumped (yes please), it had better be Dean. (See #1.) And second, Castiel is one of the most powerful beings we’ve ever seen on the show!

Also, Castiel is a total dick a lot of the time. He makes Dean torture Alastair! He sells Anna out! He lets Sam out of the panic room! He’s an arrogant elitist who considers himself to be a superior being, and he’s also prone to mopey self-pity when he’s unhappy. (He’s got plenty of positive qualities, too–he has an immense sense of compassion, an endearing naivety, and he eventually turns out to have a will strong enough to defy everything he’s ever believed in favor of what he knows is right.) I like Castiel a lot, but the thing that makes him interesting is that he’s a complex character. Stories that erase his personality are not interesting to me. (The same goes for Dean, btw–I’ve definitely run from Saint Dean stories that take all the fun out of the character.)

3) Make Castiel head over heels in love with Dean from the moment he pulls him out of hell. Look at Castiel’s first episodes–he’s a total dick, dripping with contempt and threatening to throw Dean back into hell. Yes, he also stares a lot with the big pretty eyes and slowly develops compassion for Dean and respect for Dean’s moral choices, but that’s what’s interesting–that it’s a process, not wuv at first sight.

4) Slightly less annoying, but fics that get all into the religion stuff and make a big deal out of Castiel’s existential crisis aren’t interesting to me. I just don’t get and don’t care about religion, and would even say that I have an aversion to it–I’m an atheist with a family who spent much of my childhood trying to force me to be a Catholic, and I still have a really visceral negative reaction. Religious themes show up often in Castiel-focused stories for obvious reasons, but it bothers me when the stories take religion super seriously and make it a big focus, because one of the things I thought was cool about the show was how ultimately irreverent it was toward the ~sacredness~ of Christian canon. So yeah, even though it makes sense that Castiel would spend a lot of his time thinking about god, I really, really do not want to read about it.

5) Easily erase Sam from Dean’s life. I get sad when stories have Sam and Dean grow apart, and I don’t want to read stories where Sam’s gone and Dean deals with it. Much of what I love about Dean comes from his relationship with Sam–it’s such a huge, defining part of Dean’s character. Dean has interesting relationships with both Sam and Castiel, so they’re going to have to coexist if I’m going to enjoy the story. (I mean, if it’s a long fic. If it’s a short story or, y’know, porn, Sam doesn’t have to be around.)

I should note that I’m not complaining that these fics exist or that other people read them. If they’re what you’re into, that’s cool. They’re just not what I’m looking for.

Anyway. But I still think Dean and Castiel are super hot and I love their constant eyesex. Can anyone recommend Dean/Castiel fic that doesn’t hit the tropes above?

Originally published at rusty-halo.com. You can comment here or there.