Dean doesn't have the guts to grab Sam from Stanford. Dean fails to find his missing dad. Dean can, however, hunt the ghost haunting his house.

Yeah, Dean buys a haunted house. On purpose. After a quick salt and burn of the bitter old ghost of Naomi Novak, Dean can finally have something in his life go right.

But the ghost isn't what Dean's expecting. The spirit he finds is a polite, broad shouldered, blue eyed man in a trench coat who, instead of throwing Dean through the window in a vengeful rage, asks Dean for help.

Dean agrees to assist Castiel, the Friendly Ghost, with moving on to the next life. Cas isn't like any ghost Dean had ever met. The usual rules don't apply to him. He's kind to Dean. He loves books. His cold touch brings mortals close to death.

The more time Dean spends with Cas, the less Dean wants to let him go. Cas is good company. Dean hasn't let himself get close to anyone in years. In a different life, Dean could have fallen in love with him.

Or maybe he already has.

Phantasma by thisisapaige

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For the 2023 @deancasbigbang !!

I was paired with @thisisapaige for this bang

A Lonely Vigil

Mature, 34.5k

Castiel Novak is twenty-six years old when he’s killed in the Civil War. The first soul to be laid to rest in the grounds of the new Lawrence Memorial Cemetery, his spirit remains in a liminal space—not in the living world, but not passing on, forever tasked with helping other spirits to go where he cannot.

His vigil over the grounds of his cemetery is a long and lonely one, unable to interact with anyone who still remains in the land of the living.

Until he meets Dean Winchester.