#bubblemish

For @bubblemish - winner of Best Mobile Theme in my tumblr awards - who requested a destiel professor AU :) this kind of got away from me at 5.6k omg.

Five times literature professor Castiel Novak clashed with physics professor Dean Winchester and one time he didn’t.

1.

Castiel sighed as he sipped his tea, the scent of warm spices and an unmistakeable rose undertone creating a satisfying sensation of bliss. This, this was what he needed. Three hours of grading college sophomore papers on Dickens might sound like sheer hell to some people, and they’d be right. For all he loved teaching Literature at KSU, it was clear some of the students had taken the wrong kind of tips of Dickens – who had been paid by the word – and used the most complex sentences for the most basic point. It was a little tedious at times.

Which was why this little tea-centred haven was one of the finer points of Castiel’s lunch break on Wednesdays. He had a scheduled research period for his own papers, and often made the drive across down to settle here with his laptop and briefcase. The welcoming aura of the tea shop along with the countless flavours made for a perfect, relaxing afternoon.

He closed his eyes, inhaling deeply, and was just about to take a sip when he was startled by the abrupt sound of a drum beat and loud, accompanying music.

A moment later, he recognised it as the beginning to a Led Zeppelin track, and opened his eyes, looking around for its origin. Everyone in the tea shop turned in his direction, glaring. Befuddled, knowing the music definitely wasn’t coming from him, Castiel rose, looking under his seat and discovering the source of the disturbance.

A ringing cell phone. An ancient one at that. Castiel may have been out of touch with modern technology, but even he knew that phones hadn’t flipped open since the early 2000’s.

He stared blankly at the ringing phone, wondering how to silence it. When the song progressed into the unmistakeable wailing of Robert Plant and the glares of the surrounding customers became more pronounced, Castiel flipped open the phone to seek a way to end the call and his subsequent misplaced embarrassment.

Of course, flipping the phone answered the call, so now Castiel was uncomfortably holding a phone while hearing a muffled voice call out in greeting.

Hesitantly, he pressed it to his ear. What else could he do?

“Hello?”

“Hey, uh, you have my phone?”

Castiel’s lips parted in realisation, and he awkwardly shuffled on the spot before promptly retaking his seat. “Ah, yes. It appears you left it under the seat in the Tea Caddy.”

“In a tea caddy?” The voice repeated in disbelief. “I don’t even own a tea… oh! You mean the frou-frou tea place that my brother dragged me to this morning?

Castiel bristled. “Yes,” he replied, testily. “The frou-frou tea place which I am clearly a patron of, allowing me to find your cell phone in the first place.”

Silence.

“Ah.”

Castiel waited.

“No offence, man. Tea just isn’t my thing. No judgement here,” the man on the other end of the phone added, hurriedly. “Could you just hand it over to one of the staff there and find out when they close? I teach at KSU and I can’t get back there until my last lecturer finishes at six.”

Surprised, Castiel paused for a moment. “They close at five thirty on Wednesdays. Did you say you’re a professor at KSU? As it happens, I teach Literature there, and I’ll be back within the hour if you’d like me to bring it. You could retrieve it from my office at six?”

“That would be great,” the man sighed, obviously relieved that he wouldn’t have to wait until the next day to retrieve his phone from all the way across town. “So I just head to the Literature department and I’ll find your office?”

“Yes. Second floor, end of the hallway, first door on the right. Professor Castiel Novak. If you’ll excuse me, my tea is getting cold. I will expect you shortly after six pm. Goodbye.”

He hung the phone up awkwardly, staring at it for a moment before pocketing it and reaching for his tea. He pulled a face at the temperature. Cold. Pursing his lips, Castiel rose to order a fresh cup. He’d even order something extra fancy, in defiance of his supposed colleague’s condescending tone about Castiel’s favourite tea shop. Thinking about it again made him grit his teeth, and he pushed all thoughts of the rude stranger out of his head as he headed to the counter.

Perhaps something soothing was in order. Lavender, maybe.

[read the rest on ao3]

[buy me a coffee?]

Aaahhh I forgot about gravity falls��

So Says the Sword by komodobits

IDK what would qualify as a sad ending for you, but I can say first and foremost that the fic is properly tagged (meaning: no MCD).

The fic is kind of an alternate take on canon - canon-adjacent/divergent, if you will. It’s also true to the type of story Supernatural is, which means that it’s not very fluffy. It would fit right in with the the tone of the show, tbh. Which means that it isn’t really fun fun happy times for Dean & Cas, but I think you can guess that by the summary of the fic.

I thought the ending was VERY satisfying and very fitting. I did not feel sad after reading it - rather I was kind of on an adrenaline rush from reading such a goddamn epic masterpiece.

The work of this author (who also wrote the war epic Ninety One Whiskey, Muscle Memory, and Kind of a Forever Deal, among other things) tends to be a bit bitter-sweet, with hopeful, but not super happy endings. I think their strength lies in drawing out big emotions from you, and they do an amazing job of portraying a character’s inner voice, their perceptions and their emotions. They’re also really good at descriptions (of feelings, actions, environments), which is something I’m very jealous of because that is hard to do.

Point is, without spoiling the ending, let’s just say that if you can handle the level of “tragedy” in canon, you’ll be OK here. Don’t expect a cookie-cutter fairytale happy ending, but something closer to what would actually happen on the show.