The Winchester version of a happy ending after they get the demon. This is gen but it could just as easily be labeled non-explicit slash. Such a lovely story, good characterization, interesting, well detailed.

the only people for me are the mad ones

Light on the slash and heavier on the introspection. This is a post-Devil’s Trap story with an angsty, lightly written touch.

and feel what it’s like to be new

So I don’t read a ton of gen in this fandom (or any other really) because I’m OTP enough to prefer to see Sam and Dean be SamandDean, but Trollprincess is one of those authors whose fic is guaranteed to be good no matter what. In this one Dean gets cursed with that ancient proverb: May you live in interesting times. This is almost a five Sam’s that didn’t exist type story and it’s really fucking awesome. The kind of story which would make for a damned interesting episode.

Interesting Times

Slow, hot, and lyrical; absolutely perfect for the story’s desert setting. One of my favorite things about Jenn is that she does versatility so well, infuse a story with mood and setting until it oozes with atmosphere and everything is poetry and then in the very next story she writes, she’ll do the same thing with gritty hardness and realism.

The Touch of Your Hand

Set during one of the months Lyra wrote about in In Miles, In Laughter, In Strife this story is a brilliant, fun piece about what happens when a Satanist’s spell gives Dean angelic powers and Sam demonic powers for one month.

And we are here as on a darkling plain

I’m not generally a fan of the idea of Dean and Sam having had sex pre-series, but for some reason it works for me in this story. And I like the author’s summary because it’s pretty true to the story: Sam doesn’t think it will ever go back to how it used to be. But mostly, any plot this has is really just an excuse for the porn.

Falling Like Rain

I mentioned the fantastic pacing in my other recced story by Sinistral, No Sleep Til Bedtime, and I’m pretty much going to expand on that theme in this rec. This one is all about the mounting tension and lust, which, if you couldn’t tell by the stories I tend to rec most often, is a huge, huge turn on for me fic-wise. Any author that can make me feel what the character’s feeling pretty much takes the cake and this story is the perfect example of that. Both Jensen and Jared are fanfuckingtastic.

Fall

I am totally obsessed with stories that get into the circumstances around Sam leaving for college, and while I don’t often buy the idea that Dean and Sam ever had sex in the pre-college days, this is the kind of story I can buy it in. A refreshingly original take on the situation that so many fic writers have tackled. Much less about the sex than the relationship, this story is both heartbreaking and powerful enough to leave an imprint.

Light of a Match

This is cool. Toby and Leo on the campaign when Bartlett first runs. I like this because we see how Leo gets Josh on the campaign, and we see how Josh gets Sam and how Donna gets herself, and even how Toby gets CJ, but we never see Leo recruiting Toby so this is some good backstory. The voices are, if maybe not absolutely pitch perfect 100% of the time, pretty damned close. There are a lot of lines that I can just hear Leo saying and that is never a bad feeling.

Playing the Game

Canon gives us hints of Wilson not being the good, nice guy he seems to be and this story expands on that in some really cool ways. Missing scenes from eight episodes in which Wilson is at his manipulative best. I couldn’t remember all of the details from each of the episodes Descrime wrote about, but I remembered enough.

Shape of the Universe

Oh lord. There’s not a ton of stuff I’m actually embarassed to read but this is so shockingly hot and dirtywrong it’s just. I’m possibly a little broken.

Geography for Beginners

This is het, which, you know, I pretty much wouldn’t even read, let along rec except it’s Dean and it’s this fascinating, perfect, heartbreaking backstory of him falling in love a little and getting heartbroken by failure and it’s just good.

Listening to the Animal Within

Niz4 has a solid Dean voice and weaves the perfect amount of meta into her stories.

“I don’t know Sam…” And he can hear it in your voice – didn’t mean for it to sound so bleak – it makes him turn to watch your face. “Sometimes I feel like the fight is already lost, the rest of the employees got their pink slips, and we just never got the memo…”

The World So High

Holy, holy hell. (Every possibly pun intended.) The priest costumes get a workout in the best possible way ever. This is scorchingly hot. omg.

Obtaining Grace

The boys take a trip to India with Jeff. Quiet and atmospheric; beautifully written, evocative and real.

smarana

Also from the smutbox challenge, this is a hilarious bit of drunken debauchery.

Snoops

The smutbox challenge has been kind to me. This is yummy, yummy boys being boys and trying to show each other up porn.

What’s That in Metric?

Mmmmm car porn. Seriously. I don’t think I can possibly get enough of the many variations on the metallicar + dean + sam = sex theme.

Like a Hurricane

A little dark and angsty and very hot.

“Up! So maybe you’re not brave enough to get kinky with it, but you think about it, don’t you? Come on.” Dean dragged out the “ah” sound in “on” before finally biting it off at the end. “You’re a Winchester male. You have kinky thoughts, it’s a given, so give.”

Sam shifted. His knee bumped the steering wheel and not for the first time in his life he cursed being so tall. “Okay, so maybe I think about it.” Words so very soft in the night.

Conversations Over the Front Seat

This is totally shamelessly hot crossbow porn. Yum.

The Side Benefits of Archery