Crazy Rabbit

4 year old me: why must we do this

Fantastic old woman in the leopard print coat: "Why yes, my tooth IS real silver! Nobody ever asks me that. Do you like cats?"

Hallmark-esque movie style AU, where the Winchesters are farmers and have nothing supernatural ever going on. Sammy went off to pursue his dreams of becoming a lawyer in the city, and during the weeks to Christmas/New Year he goes home to visit Dean.

His boss/coworker, Castiel Novak, who's never really had family/close friends (a workaholic) is annoyed that he can't reach Sam but luckily found an address and goes to insist there's a case they need to work on.

Bonus points if Castiel finds Dean chopping wood shirtless in a barn during a snowy day/night.

Cas is a city man, first time in the countryside. He doesn't want to be here; every relative he's had has only ever told him horror stories about places like this. The smell, the people, the mannerisms, all of it was things that went against Castiel knew and grew up with. "Ruffience," his aunt would call them, along with other more colorful language

But this is an important case. He has a duty to his client, and he needs Sam Winchester to look through all the new evidence with him. He's frustrated with the man for up and leaving at such an important time (It's really not, they have another few weeks)

Every person he's asked in the small town uses phrases Castiel couldn't fully understand. The folks seem to know "the Winchester boys" and keep asking Castiel what he wants with "The Moose." Whatever that means

So here Cas finds himself, wandering through someone's property because he has no idea where this "Cabin in the Woods" is, but has a vague idea where he might find it

And instead, he finds a man who should be on the cover of a magazine, playing lumberjack

And boy, he plays it well

Dean Winchester, town sweetheart and resident menace to bakeries, is confused as to why there's a dorky lil dude in a trenchcoat sneaking around his side of the woods

"Not for nothin'. stranger, but last person I caught sneakin' around these parts got shot." He throws out an easy warning

He doesn't expect the scruffy lil dude to tilt his head and ask "By who?"

"What?"

"If people often get shot here, you should probably chop wood somewhere safer"

"... huh?"

"In fact, perhaps you should've informed the authroities-"

If we lean even further into the hallmark movie tropes you could have Cas hate christmas because he's never had anyone to celebrate it with and he usually just works from home during the holidays anyway.

So he learns the true meaning of christmas via the Winchesters and their friends and family

Cas slowly learns to loosen up - he starts in his full suit and coat, then ditches the coat, rolls up his sleeves, and eventually ends up borrowing Dean's clothes by the end.

Hannah, Cas's secretary, wont stop making passes at him (nobody knows he's gay) and she's very persistent with her messages and calls. There's a big miscommunication mix up where Dean thinks she's already his girlfriend and that Cas is clearly straight and he has no chance.

Cas is still trying to get his work done while he's staying in the Winchester's spare room, but he can't stop looking through the window and watching Dean brush down the horses. He keeps sneaking snacks to them and telling them not to rat him out to Sam for it. Cas can feel himself falling for him.

They do that thing where Dean teaches Cas how to chop firewood by standing behind him with his arms wrapped around, so he can grip his hands, guiding him into the motion.

and of course, we CAN'T forget about the cooking scene. It's a hallmark classic

Cas wants to help Dean in the kitchen, but has never cooked or baked anything for more than one person in his entire life.

It gets super messy, and they have a little food fight in the kitchen that ends with Dean pinning Cas's flour-covered hands to the counter. They're both laughing and out of breath, staring at each other. Then Sam interrupts, and they pretend it didn't happen

Dean, in the very beginning, thinks Cas is some snooty, silver-spoon city boy who thinks he's too good for a little dirt under his fancy shoes. And through the story, he learns that Cas is passionate about his job and dedicated to his clients. His clients are not just a single person, but organizations that help the environment, that the case is important because it could save lives in the long run

When Dean is caught admiring a particular pair of panties in the window at VS/PINK he tries to lie and say he was going to suggest Cas look in this store for something for his girlfriend. This is how he finds out Cas is not actually dating her, but planning on replacing her soon because of how uncomfortable she makes him with all the flirting (and this was really the last straw, the whole making 'hot lumberjack Dean' think they were dating thing). This is also how Dean finds out Cas is gay and Cas develops the sneaking suspicion Dean actually wanted those panties for himself. (Queue Cas' actual wet dream of 'hot lumberjack Dean' in the panties he was caught looking at in the mall and all his guilty weirdness the following day.)

Bonus points if Cas is stuck in town because of snow or car trouble or something equally cliche. Hallmark movies are all about that.

I can't decide which would be funnier - Sam being oblivious while Cas and Dean flirt and fall in love, then catching them making out and losing his shit cuz he doesn't know either of them were gay/ bi.

OR

Sam knowing they are both gay/bi and practically dieing trying not to laugh at both of them thinking they're at all subtle with their obvious crush or sneaky when they start fooling around. He loves them both, suspected this might happen if they ever met, and pretends not to notice anything is amiss. Acts oblivious when they jump apart or make up terrible excuses to be alone at the same time. Meanwhile he's texting Jess and Charlie with updates and they're all gossiping the whole time.

Bitch before enriched flour, neural tube defects like spina bifida were far more common. Even now, spina bifida clinicians and researchers are begging to have salt and maize fortified to reach groups that don’t use as much flour. Before iodized salt, the United States had a fucking GOITER BELT. Eleven years after the introduction of fluoridated water, a city in Michigan found the rate of dental caries among school children dropped a staggering 60%— in an era where tooth decay regularly fucking killed people

I’m literally not even going to start on vaccines, which are among the most successful and robustly studied public health measures in world history

see a therapist immediately

I actually used to hate it! Like, actually despise it! Yellow was too bright, too loud, discordant, unruly, and clashed with everything. Nothing like what I wanted in my life, nothing I wanted to be.

When I first moved away from home, everything I owned was black. Jet back. As black as I could get. Smooth, cool, sleek, discrete, calm, unassuming. Flexible, cohesive, agreeable black. Fashionable black.

I had a really, really bad time. Unrelated to the decor. It was my first year out of a toxic place I'd grown used to my whole life, my first year acknowledging a mental illness I'd believed to be normal, my first year fending for myself with very little money or sleep or companionship.

I'd grown up on instant white rice and unseasoned ground beef. One day I realized that everything I'd been raised on tasted like cardboard. While out on an assignment, I passed a tent with a woman selling spices, and bought myself some turmeric. I went home and tried making curry with it. It was so yellow.

Another time, my professor took us out to a modern art gallery. I wasn't sure what I was expecting, but when we got there, the whole building had been painted bright sunshine yellow.

The artist's theme was "happiness".

What it is. How we make it. How to share it.

All bright, lovely yellow.

The house I grew up in was beige. The walls were white. The appliances were post 9/11 stainless steel. My job was to be quiet, compliant, presentable and agreeable.

Black goes with everything. Black is neutral. Black is quiet, reserved, elegant and mysterious.

Yellow is warm. Yellow does what it wants. Yellow tastes sweet and spicy and hot and cool, like a summer breeze, like sunflower petals, powdery like dust on a long dirt road and soothing like well-worn linen.

I still like the look of black. I like the look of most colors. But I like the way that Yellow makes me feel.

Actively seek out things that inspire wonder

Look for the good parts. There are good parts. There are interesting parts. There will always be good and interesting parts.

Treat yourself kindly. This one is difficult.

Do things out of ridiculous whimsy.

Practice cog itive behavioural exercises to self-examine and address beliefs and behaviors that are causing suffering.

Don't argue when people compliment you.

Don't rush yourself, and don't assume it'll be like this forever when you have a backslide. These things happen. Over time, they happen less.

Be honest with the people you love and trust.

Tell people how much they mean to you and what you like about them.

Help others and find satisfaction in being the stranger that did something good

Consider speaking to a medical professional, my antidepressants and anti-anxiety medical took some time to figure out but life is WAY better.

Have a silly little craft or hobby.

Let yourself be bored sometimes. Stand outside in the rain and let yourself get wet. Go on a walk. Put your phone in a different room and wander off. Meet up with a friend and go on a long walk together to nowhere in particular

Start doing things because you want to and it feels good, not just because you think it's something you should say yes to.

Say yes to things.

Take a random day of the week and go into a store or a business you've never been in before.

Compliment strangers when something about them is striking.

Read books and watch movies that make you feel the exact right amount of ecstatic and embarrassed, and make all the silly noises about it.

Collect scraps of fabric and little trinkets and all the little textures and colours you love and stash them in a shoebox or something like a tiny dragon's hoard.

Start a collection of something small and inexpensive. Like corks.

Make food with ingredients you've never used before

Make long lists of all your favorite things- flowers, bugs, songs, foods, places

Start a trash-book to fill with scraps of neat wrappers and bits of paper and colored fabric from old ruined clothes

Imagine yourself as a alien from a dead and barren world who has just arrived on this planet for the very first time and imagine how excited you would be by every little thing