#hang fire

Hang Fire by eachainn Rating: Mature Word Count: 78k

All their lives Sam, Dean, and their patched together family have been chasing after Azazel’s gang, for revenge and to prevent anyone else from having to watch their lives burn down around them. Killing him was supposed to be the end of it, but a botched and hurried end to years of their cat-and-mouse game means that not everything was tied up neatly. Ten years later, Sam and Dean are back on the trail of the ones they let live. Except they’re not the only ones with a longstanding grudge being hunted. Ten years ago, Castiel Novak had a good life. Then his town got caught up in the feud between the Winchesters and Azazel’s gang, and it burned down around him. Now he wants to find the ones responsible and make them pay. Especially the one who broke his heart.

With over 100k of fics, it takes some effort for a fic to be unique and have a new premise. Fortunately, this fic definitely fits the bill. Set in an alternate history where humans and centaurs have always coexisted, this fic is a Western that features Castiel as a small town sheriff just trying to keep the peace and Dean, the centaur who wandered into town one day and decided to stay. Unfortunately, Dean's past catches up with him in a big way, and it drives a wedge between Dean and Castiel that pushes Castiel to become a US marshal and Dean to become a wanted outlaw.

The angst is delicious: Cas is driven by betrayal and revenge, and Dean is trying to make up for the hurt he caused Cas all those years ago, along with trying to catch the last of Azazel's gang and put those ghosts to rest. Both deny that there's anything between them, but when they finally reunite, neither of them can manage to keep their eyes off of each other.