sometimes you need a story

Pretzels
Dean/Ellen, NC-17, 900 words

a/n: Written for Porn Battle VII to the prompts chocolate, pretzels. Set during early season 4, 'ware spoilers. Thank you to musesfool for the beta.

( His eyebrows go up. He couldn't have telegraphed that question louder if he tried. )

Title: When the Hour Turns Over
Author: dotfic
Rating: Gen, PG
W/C: 2,100
Disclaimer: Never were mine. Never will be. I keep writing this stuff anyway.

a/n: Many thanks to luzdeestrellas for the beta.

Summary: In which Dean turns thirty.

( Sam was no longer working. He'd put his laptop away and lay on his side with his long body stretched out on the bench, hair over his face. He'd used his jacket as a pillow. At rest, with the tension gone from his face, Dean thought his brother looked really freakin' young. )

Title: The boy's still running
Author: dotfic
Rating: Gen, PG-13 (for language), post 4x10
W/C: 2,700
Disclaimer: None of them belong to me.

a/n: Title from Oysterband. Fic grew out of some wacky speculation I had about Castiel here. Thank you to meko00 for her comma-wrangling and beta skills.

Summary: There are a few things Sam still doesn't know about his brother's time in hell.

( Sam waited for a long time while cars rushed by, the breeze ruffling the grass. He waited, his shoulder inches from Dean's back, the hood of the Impala growing cool beneath him. He waited while Dean stayed turned away from him. )

Title: Bleodsian
Author: dotfic
Rating: Gen, PG
W/C: 2,600
Disclaimer: Not mine. I promise I'll put them back where I found them when I'm done. Maybe.

a/n: Thank you to innie_darling for the sharp-eyed beta. Set well after 4x10. Speculation, because I had this theory, but no spoilers. Title is the Old English word for the sprinkling of blood during pagan rituals, and the origin of the word "blessing."

Summary: Sam and Dean have a job to do. Some outside interference complicates things.

( Dean was sick of demons. What he really wanted to do was blast a ton of rock salt through a spirit, watch its form go poof. It was satisfying, simple, no actual human body to worry about. He didn't want to have to watch anything bleed tonight. )

Title: More Than the Flames of Me
Author: dotfic
Rating: slash, Dean/Castiel, NC-17
W/C: 2,200
Disclaimer: *laughs helplessly*

a/n: Title from Walt Whitman. Thank you to the wonderful smilla02 for the beta-read and encouragement.

Summary: Castiel has a purpose here, a mission. But there are things Castiel wants.


( He has lost track of his tie; Castiel isn't sure when he removed it or where it landed. That is part of what is frightening about Dean. )

Title: The Lazarus Phenomenon
Author: dotfic
Rating: Gen, PG
W/C: 1,000
Disclaimer: Not mine. And yet, here we are anyway.

a/n: Ten drabbles, one for each episode of season 4 so far. Drabble titles are from Easter 1916 by William Butler Yeats. Thank you to musesfool for the fine-tuning.

Summary: Sam can't think too much. If he does, he'll break apart.

( Nothing, now, will be enough. )

Title: Never Travelled
Author: dotfic
Rating: slash, Dean/Castiel, hard R
Spoilers: for 4x10
W/C: 1,900
Disclaimer: No, they don't belong to me. I'm doing what I like with them anyway.

a/n: Many thanks to smilla02 for the beta-reading and enabling encouragement, and for helping me with the title (from ee cummings). Set at some point after 4x10.

( Dean feels like he's waiting to be graded or some bullshit like that, judged and assessed and what does Castiel know about kissing anyway? Zero. Zip. Zilch. )

This was written for the h/c meme tvm hosted right before Lazarus Rising aired, originally posted here. It's my take on an event we were bound to get, and we did. Canon jossed me thoroughly.

( Dean hasn't once asked Sam for anything else. )

It is the birthday of the talented and adorable innie_darling. Sweetie, I hope you are enjoying a few day of doing absolutely nothing and whatever you want.

Title: Unexpected Company
Author: dotfic
Rating: Gen, PG-13, preseries
W/C: ~7,200
Disclaimer: They all belong to people who aren't me.

a/n: Written for innie_darling's birthday. This started with a double drabble I posted earlier this year, It's Just One of Those Days. Insightful beta reading by smilla02, who nudged and poked and guided and refused to settle for less.

Summary: The one where John has wings, Sam is a toddler, Dean is seven, and Bobby is in way over his head.

( Worrying over people, that never came to any good. Liking them, that was fine, and Bobby was never one to turn away anyone who needed help. But the sooner the Winchesters were gone, the better. )

A bit late, but under the wire. Happy birthday to the smart and lovely embroiderama, wonderful fangirl and a terrific writer. We've had the hurt, here's my attempt to write some comfort.

Sleepless
Gen, PG
w/c: 1,000

Summary: Insomnia sucks. Sam and Dean have a late-night conversation.

a/n: Written for embroiderama's birthday. Set a few days after "Metamorphosis" and way more comfort than we're going to get between them in canon. Thank you to innie_darling for looking it over for me.

( His own heartbeat was all Sam could focus on for a moment and he thought maybe Dean was talking in his sleep, or maybe he'd said something else. Or maybe he hadn't spoken at all, and he was hearing Dean's voice in his head, the way he had during those four months. )

Title: Swim Into the Smoke
Author: dotfic
Rating: Gen, PG-13, sexual references. Coda for 4x04
W/C: ~1,100
Disclaimer: Yeah. I know. Next question?

a/n: Title is from Conrad Aiken (poem here). Lots of thanks to luzdeestrellas and batyatoon.

( Right now, you don't have to deal with how he looks at you, the doubt and worry, and worse, the confusion, as if he's trying to figure out who you are. )

This was posted at spnflashfic back in August (wait, where did the time go?) and I never got around to archiving it. So if you missed it the first time around, here it is.

Title: Cross My Heart
Author: dotfic
Rating: Gen, PG-13, preseries (Sam 12, Dean 16)
w/c: 1,500
Disclaimer: Property of not me.

Summary: Sam finds a way to magically protect Dean on hunts. This can't end well.

( Dean's okay, he's going to be fine, Dad says, but Sam doesn't believe him. )

Title: Our Own Shadow Hides Light
Author: dotfic
Rating: PG, Sam and Dean gen, mild Dean/Castiel. Set a few weeks after 4x02
W/C: ~1,800
Disclaimer: Still not mine.

a/n: Thank you to smilla02 for the polishing and hand-holding. Much pie to musesfool for helping me find a title (which is from Christina Rossetti).

Summary: A story of Sam, Dean, memories, Castiel, cheeseburgers, and pie.

( You've been remembering, Castiel said, voice low and quiet. )

Title: Then I'll Wave and Say Goodbye
Author: dotfic
Rating: Gen, PG, preseries, pov of guest character from 4x02
W/C: 900
Disclaimer: Property of Eric Kripke and The CW.

a/n: Title from Gracie Allen. Thank you to innie_darling for the wonderfully helpful and speedy beta. Written for spn_xx gen flashfic challenge #27.

( It was better when she didn't know their names. )

Title: The Taste of Water
Author: dotfic
Rating: Gen, PG, coda for 4x01
w/c: ~800
Disclaimer: See, I keep thinking they're mine, but they're not, they belong to the CW and Eric Kripke.

a/n: Many thanks to janissa11 for the careful polish and smilla02 for audiencing.

( This was what you were hoping for, wasn't it? When you told him to keep on fighting? )

Title: Now Hollow Fires Burn
Author: dotfic
Rating: Gen, PG-13, season one
W/C: 6,500
Disclaimer: Property of Eric Kripke and the CW.

a/n: Set between Route 666 and Nightmare. My gratitude to the maintainer(s) of the season one timeline on the Super-wiki. Title from A.E. Housman. Thank you to innie_darling for the beta read and the extra nudge and to pheebs1 for listening to me blather about the fic in email.

Written for vichan for spn_summergen 2008, run by the patient and awesome mahoni and ignipes. Originally posted here.

Summary: The house has no violent history, no cold spots, no strange noises. But there's something not quite right about it.

( Dean laughed in that way that made Sam feel like he was eight years old, always following his big brother. )

Title: Until Dawn
Author: dotfic
Rating: Gen, PG-13, preseries (Stanford years)
W/C: 3,100
Disclaimer: Eric Kripke and the CW's, not mine.

a/n: This references events that took place in Long Past Dark, but can be read on its own. Many thanks to luzdeestrellas for the insightful beta comments.

Summary: Demons, rock salt, holy water, and beer. Just another father and son road trip.

( The windshield wipers swished back and forth. Dad had gone quiet, not the closed-off, terrible silences of that past fall, but the kind of sneaky quiet that fell over him sometimes when he was thinking hard. Dean's fingers twitched, wanting to turn on the radio or a mix tape, needing the noise, the familiar rhythms. )

There's an entry from me over at spnflashfic in the "Potions and amulets" challenge, Cross My Heart. Gen and preseries and not at all angsty. Okay, a little. But not so much that would fill you with despair. There might be a tiny bit of Dean whumpage and Sam angsting...okay look, I meant for it to be comedic when I got the plot bunny...

Title: Epilogue
A coda for A Thin Chain of Next Moments
Authors: batyatoon and dotfic
Rating: Gen, PG-13, AU, futurefic
W/C: ~3,000
Disclaimer: Not ours. But does that stop us any?

a/n: You do have to read A Thin Chain of Next Moments, an AU breaking off with canon after "Crossroad Blues," in which Dean made a ten-year deal to save John, to read this. If you have already read it, thank you. We made you a present. (Also, we wrote the beginning of this before the season 3 finale aired. Standard disclaimers about having been jossed/kripked apply.) Big thank yous to iamstealthyone for the thoughtful beta, and again to destina for her support of this AU.

Summary: Time's run out for Dean, but Sam and John aren't ready to give up.

( Demons lie, he knows that; he's always known that. )

Title: Eight Times Dean Was Unexpectedly Kissed (In Multiple Universes)
Author: dotfic
Rating/pairing: PG-13, het and slash. Dean/Layla Rourke, Dean/Tony Stark, Dean/Ellen Harvelle, Dean/Martha Jones, Dean/Jack Harkness, Dean/OFC, Dean/Victor Henriksen, Dean/Haley Collins
W/C: 1,600 (eight double drabbles)
a/n: Thank you to batyatoon, pheebs1, mclittlebitch, and smilla02, for various kiss approvals, and to marinarusalka for tweaking and approving the whole bundle.

( Layla Rourke )
( Tony Stark )
( Ellen Harvelle )
( Martha Jones )
( Jack Harkness )
( Jill Hernandez (OFC) )
( Victor Henriksen )
( Haley Collins )