Dammit, research has shown me that the disappeared writer was one of my favourites with AUs, even though the way I was plundering AO3 meant I wasn't paying attention to authors (and if I had, I could have read everything she wrote! but I have addressed that issue recently and independently). She wrote the enhanced healing D/C where Dean was a cage fighter paying of Sam's debt, and Cas was a doctor pulled into the underworld of cage fighting initially reluctantly. She wrote the one where the Welding School (Dean) moves into the same buildings as the ballet school (Cas). And at least one PWP I remember enjoying too...needless to say, the other cached summaries look interesting too.
Don't make that error, boys and girls! Explore the author's (or the artist's--someone went through and liked 15-20 of my pictures--tickled me pink to know someone took the time to go through everything) whole work. I need to make sure I read everything couchcarrot has written--that AU where Cas is the wacky next door neighbour and Dean has trouble coming out, but secrets of his own grabbed me hard.
Which reminds me--Juliebird, I know you read this author--she was on FF.NET mainly--she wrote an AU of *everything* and anything, and usually made all her premises...jollysnidge! I set up alerts on her LJ, which was scattershot at best with that one porn is illegal and Dean is straight (Cas is the model who becomes his porn star who becomes...) AU. Do you know if she's still writing? She was doing a lot of original work which cut down on her fic--I feel like a heel for never trying her original work, since her fic was pretty creative (I felt she did a good job of writing Cas' character into all sorts of disparate environments, which is the first place AUs (and not just AUs) fail). But she was scratching an OTP itch, and...yeah. Some people I'd try faster, but not novels at first. I'd need short stories to lure me in.
Ah, well. I haven't rec-ed much fic recently, because at first I was reading everything, and then I was reading much less.
I just got an alert on Familiarity, where Dean and Sam discover they are witches, and Cas and Gabe are their familiars (the S/G hasn't made me barf yet) and Dean is resistant to explore his more considerable power and Castiel is resultantly miserable, which reminded me I was enjoying it and was eager to know the next developments--right now it's 8 chapters of a WIP, so if you're WIP-allergic, now's not a good time.
Ink 'Til I'm Human is a short and introspective post-fall first time D/C piece. I'm liking a lot of the post fall D/C.
Halfway by anythingtoasted (pastrymisha on tumblr--my favourite new D/C follow) is post fall--it's complete. It's a slow and sad story of Cas's journey through (into?) becoming human. I was addicted to this after the first chapter I found on tumblr--it'll be much less fraught reading 8 complete chapters. I do and don't envy you if you do.
PWP: Pie Without Plot is a slow burn (not sure if they're together yet) D/C WIP which is some of the things I hate (they stop hunting and domesticate), but it's sweet, and good lord--the descriptions of pastries and other baked delights--it might be worth it just for those. If you don't ship D/C, 17 chapters in (I see they've written two more since I last looked) it could still be a fun read.
Together They Fight Crime is abandoned (no 2013 updates, anyway, but it's an interesting premise. All the people we know as angels are teenaged psychics, and they're herded and used and abused by the government. Dean's a hunter for the FBI. Paths cross, hurt/comfort (major whump) ensues. D/C, of course.
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