#Because while they knew that Michael is a dork (Raphael more so than Gabriel) they didn't expect him to open up to anyone

[michaelmilligan]

At some point I need to write a Midam highschool AU where Adam is like 'wow this guy is sooo hot, but he's also a jock. Kinda cringe. :/' And then it turns out that Michael is thee biggest dork who doesn't know how to people and only hangs with the 'cool kids' because they're the only ones who approached him and let him tag along. He's the captain of some sports team (football? volleyball? not sure) but he doesn't even like the sport that much, he just did that because his dad signed him up for that sport at some point and then being good at that was the only thing that Michael was ever praised for by his dad. But at this point his dad is home so rarely that Michael is losing his only motivation to play, so while he could probably get a sports scholarship, he doesn't want it and instead just wants to study economics (thinking that will please his dad).

Anyway, the point of this post was that Adam gets to know him better and goes 'Wait he's hot and a dork?? I'm in love.' And Michael, who has never dated anyone who was actually interested in him outside of his looks and him being the [insert sports team here] captain, goes 'What do you mean you like me for my personality??? Error 404, site not found.' But then he's soooo happy, because Adam actually likes him. :) And he's also a little dorky and they can be dorks together. :) And yeah, the other 'cool kids' don't get wtf is going on, but they suck anyway and Michael doesn't care about their opinion, so he just walks around school with heart eyes and carries Adam's books for him and is soooo doting. No one can understand what happened because wasn't this guy kind of a brooding, loner type of person?? (No one realized he was just shitty at approaching/talking to people and all it needed was someone to be a safe haven where he could say what he wanted without being reprimanded or ridiculed. The 'cool kids' hung out with him, but he barely talked to them either because they were so fucking judgy about everyone else he didn't dare say much because they were the only ones who he thought 'tolerated' him and he didn't want to fuck that up. Now he has Adam though, AND Adam's friends who are also dorky and fun.)

So yeah, I just think they're neat and they should get a highschool AU.

[lexsssu]

Shall We Date: Worship Me AU - Uriel (Avatar of Chastity)

What if the MC gets transported to the Celestial Realm instead? What if the angels were the love interests?

GENERAL HCs

Uriel — “The Flame of God/God is my Light”

Has a penchant for perfection

Give him a task and you bet your ass he’ll come back finished with results so phenomenal you’re sure that if you did it, there’s no way it would turn out this great

Reserved, but not exactly anti-social

It’s not that he doesn’t want to talk about himself whenever people ask about him, but it’s just that he thinks there are a million other things that are worth more to converse about than his exploits or the things he enjoyed

Chastity doesn’t just mean staying pure by abstaining from sexual relations and the lack of temptations one experiences, but being placed in the face of temptation and yet staying true to one’s morals. This is why Uriel doesn’t condemn anyone who decides to engage in such acts, whether within the sanctity of marriage or not, whether it is done because all parties hold sincere feelings for one another or not.

Gone is the ancient time and the rules that once applied then cannot be the same for current times. This is why Uriel has made it his mission to continuously study about humans, to stay up to date with the way they thought and felt so as he can better serve as a guiding beacon to them

When he’s not busy with his regular duties, you would normally find Uriel at the Celestial realm’s library with stacks of reference books on his table. Time is nothing to them, which is why for him it felt as if humans changed too quickly in so little time

An ideology that may have taken decades or centuries to form is but a blink of an eye to them which is why Mr. Perfectionist can’t help but immediately want to be informed in the hopes that it will help him improve himself

If he doesn’t keep adding and updating to his knowledge then how can he even hope to be one of the guiding virtues of humanity with outdated ideals?

Ideals can and will change over time, but his morals are the one thing that Uriel will never change.

His mind and body may be corrupted over time, because eternity is such a long time indeed, but the morals that made him who he is, what HE is will always stay the same

Tbh you can’t tempt this guy with anything

If you do manage to “tempt” him, know that you didn’t actually succeed but he just liked/pitied you enough to go with whatever fuckery you wanted him to commit

That's why he normally agrees with whatever bullshit his twin brother, Gabriel, tries to wrangle him into

Uriel ain't doing it because Gabriel tempted him, but because he loved his twin so much that he's willing to indulge him whenever he wanted to fuck shit up

Gabriel is the one who starts messes and Uriel is the one who just lets him be, because he's a supportive big brother

...Much to most of the other virtues' ever increasing stress

Is an advocate of "actions speak louder than words"

He's a serial head-patter

Will boop your nose when he notices you're a bit too lost in your thoughts

Azrael is normally the victim of his headpats and nose-boops

Since he makes it his job to know all that IS known, he finds some modicum of interest in that of the UNknown

Things like extraterrestrial beings for example. Basically, anything that didn't belong to any of the 3 worlds was within his scope of interest

If you check his YouTube history you'll see it's filled with UFO sightings, conspiracy theories, UMAs, etc.

Probably joined that raid in Area 51 while undercover—

Asks Gabriel to bring him souvenirs and pictures whenever his job takes him to a location near hotspots for UMAs, UFOs, and other strange otherworldly phenomena

Reminds Azrael every now and then to inform him if he ever ferries a soul that had come across any UMA and ask them about their encounter

As the virtue of chastity, it's up to him to teach the little cherubims about the birds and the bees as part of their training to become full-fledged angels

More often than not, his terminology and clinical way of explaining has traumatized most of the little ones…

...much to Raphael's increasing stress

"And then the man will place his pe*** inside the woman's va**** where he would start thrusting continu—"

What's worse is that he even has diagrams for it

So many little cherubims lost their innocence to Uriel-sensei…

He doesn't purposely try to annoy Raphael unlike Gabriel, it's just that his actions and way of going about things aren't the way most people would fo it and what's worse is that he unintentionally traumatizes people

And it's usually up to Raphael to do damage control on all the virtues' behalf

Raphael almost killed him that day he had to give that talk to Luke and his batch

"...What's wrong about telling them what happens between a man and a woman? It's biology and something that's done frequently by humans"

He doesn't see the point of beating around the bush when their purpose was to teach the new recruits about humanity and everything about them, including how they reproduce

Favorite food is pancakes…

...because they look like flying saucers

Uriel enjoys stargazing at night, not just to look at the heavenly bodies but to spot any UFOs if he's lucky enough

He isn't particularly bad at cooking, but he's not great either

Pancakes are what he's most confident in cooking and he makes the best darn ones in all of the celestial realm

If he's the only one left at home and you're sick, don't expect chicken soup and be ready instead for a stack of warm and fluffy pancakes topped with some butter and generous helping of syrup, whipped cream, berries, and etc.

When the day finally comes that he falls in love with someone...the 3 worlds will know true fear—

But legit though, all those millennia of being a single pringle and practicing so much restraint flies out the window when this man finds himself utterly and deeply in love with you

JP VA: Daisuke Ono

ENG VA: Matthew Mercer

ROMANTIC HCs

He's read so much about the different forms of love and has felt them all except for romantic love so he's a bit rattled at first

Probably coops himself up in his room for a day or two to get his bearings

When he does finally step foot out of his room, there isn't any obvious changes at first but you can't help but feel that there's something different about Uriel

Uriel is now a man on a mission

As perfectly as he executed his tasks for millennia, as fierce as he wielded his flaming sword during the Great War against the rebels, and as ruthless as he was when he faced the truly wicked…

…Uriel will have you

Of course, regardless of how much he wanted you to become his that didn't mean he suddenly turned into some sort of barbaric brute that kidnapped women for sport

He will study you so thoroughly that at times it almost feels like he knows you more than you know yourself

The little mannerisms you make during your everyday life that escape your notice? It's a given that Uriel has seen and already safely filed them away in his mind for future reference

"...She likes pointing with her lips?...Cute…" What he wouldn't give to catch you doing that while he was with you so he could partake of your lips as well—

Once he’s interested in you, only God knows at this point what has to be done for him to even lose a small bit of it

You have essentially become a key figure in Uriel’s world

Uriel always has you at the back of his mind to the point that it could even be called obsessive

However, he’s still the virtue of chastity so you don’t have to worry about him ever forcing himself upon you or anything of that sort

He’s super clingy and sorta weird, but he loves you and the last thing he wanted is for you to become sad because of him or anything else

Though he honestly can’t deny that seeing the myriad of expressions on your face, from happiness to sadness, to surprise, excitement, anger, and etc. was one of his favorite hobbies ever since falling for you

Despite his earnest wish to make you his, Uriel surprisingly takes a long time to even confess

He’s a perfectionist so it’s a given that he’ll take everything into account, including how he’ll make you fall for him first before he even thinks about confessing

Bothers Raphael for some “research material” on how to woo you a.k.a. borrow some romance manga despite Raph’s initial protests

For the sake of his own sanity, Raph begrudgingly lends Uri his stash of romance manga

It’s both hilarious and somewhat disturbing to see how taken he is with something other than work and UMAs

Amused: Michael, Cainabel, Gabriel, Simeon

Scared/Disturbed: Raphael, Luke

Neutral/Confused: Seraphiel, Azrael

Secretly plays the alto saxophone, but doesn’t deem his skill worthy enough for you to hear so he practices when he’s absolutely sure that no one is there to hear him when his skills aren’t yet up to his standards

Lowkey jealous when you hangout with the demon brothers and tries to find ways to distract you from hanging out with them

“ I seem to have seen a creature most extraordinary earlier. I believe it was one of the UMAs detailed in the tome for mysterious dwellers of the nether. Mayhaps you’d like to accompany me on a hunt? ”

His face is as straight-laced as it always is, but if you knew him long enough and looked closer, you’d notice that his ears seemed to have the slightest twinge of redness to them.

Honestly speaking, he tries to be a smooth and cool boi when it comes to you, but this dork seems to lose all his tact when faced with the radiance of your eyes and the intensity of your smile

With how long it takes him to make everything perfect before he woo’s you, time and space itself will cease to exist before he finally deems himself ready

So you have to do the wooing yourself and show him that you love all of him, imperfections and quirkiness included

[tricksandtales]

Chapter 11: Of Prophets

I will raise up for them a prophet like you from among their brothers. And I will put my words in his mouth, and he shall speak to them all that I command him. - Deuteronomy 18:18 

 -------------------------

True to his word, Gabriel hadn’t been gone too long. But his appearance back in Riley’s apartment had not been very long. He’d been ducking his duty too long that day, and he needed to get back to Heaven.

So, Riley was left alone in her apartment with her thoughts.

She stayed the night, went back to her work the following morning. And went out of her mind with worry. Gabriel hadn’t had told her what had happened, shrugging it off as a normal mission.

Even though she knew the boys were fine without her, had survived before her and would likely survive without her, she still hated the idea of being gone for long.

So she left. She went home.

Because that was what the bunker had become: home.

-----------------------------

The guys returned that evening. They found Riley in the kitchen, surrounded by several dozen chocolate chip cookies. Jack was delighted and started chowing down on them. Castiel wasn’t fazed. Sam was a bit surprised but shrugged it off.

Dean was the only one to discerned something was wrong, though he waited till the others left the kitchen before saying anything.

“You okay, Rye?”

“Yeah. Fine. I was just worried. Gabriel took off cause he said you guys ran into issues.”

Dean smiled back, “Nothing huge. Some werewolves. Sam got a tad messed up and Castiel was busy with Jack, so we called your Whiskey.” He walked to the fridge and pulled out two beers – one he handed to her. “We tend to worry lots of people though. Welcome to the club.”

“Shut up, dork. I’m growing attached to the lot of you. Teasing aside.” She mock glared, “So I’d rather you don’t die out there.”

Dean sat down at the table and patted the chair next to him, “No promises, but we try to survive. We’ve survived a lot.”

“I know.”

“But you’re still worried?”

“I’m not sure I’ll stop being worried.”

“Yeah, it doesn’t really stop in this line of work.”

Riley took a long drink of her beer. “Is it strange I wish I’d been able to be there to help? Even though I’d probably end up being a detriment. It bothers me that I can’t help. I don’t want to be a hunter. But at the same time, I don’t want to be useless.” She leaned over and rested her head on Dean’s shoulder.

“No. It’s not weird.” He wrapped one arm around her shoulders. “I’m worried about everyone that I’m not able to see. Like Mom. I want to protect everyone. Even though I can’t most of the time. Family’s weird that way. They get to you.”

“Family, huh?”

“Yeah. Family. You’re stuck with us at this point.”

Riley sighed, “Good.” The two sat for a few minutes, drinking their beer. “It feels like I’ve been here a long time, but it’s been a little over a month.”

“Time’s relative. Hunters decide quickly who they want to be around. Never know when you’re not going to see someone again. And this life…. Well it sort of drags you in. Hunters try to retire, but we’re not cut out for the whole white picket fence thing.”

Riley let a breathy laugh. “Yeah, this life sucks.”

“Sometimes. But it’s go the best people.”

Sam wandered back in at that point, laptop tucked under his arm. “You two okay?” He asked, eyeing his brother and Riley.

“Yep.” Riley answered. She pulled away from Dean and reached for another cookie as well.

 Sam frowned, then walked over to her and patted her head.

 “Are you petting me?” Riley asked, amused.

 “Comforting.” Sam said, “I’m comforting.”

 “Hugs work better.”

 Sam looked slightly taken aback, as he tried to figure out how to hug her while she was sitting and juggle his laptop.

 She grinned, “For future reference.” His shoulders sagged in relief.

 Sam set up at one of the remaining chairs, grabbing a cookie, and flashed her a smile. “So, get this.” he started, “I found an article about a strange faith healer in Minnesota. Maybe another angel? Might be something else….”

 “Might be worth looking into.” Dean looked thoughtful

 “We can head out in the morning.” Sam said.

 “Castiel might want to just go and see.”

 “True.” Sam said.

 “So, any luck on the prophet?” Riley asked.

 “Not yet.” Sam answered.

“Will a prophet really be able to help save Heaven?”

“We need them to read the angel tablet.” Sam said. “None of the remaining angels actually know how to create new angels. But when Michael came over from the alternate world he brought the angel tablet with him. We need a prophet to read it.” He explained. “We’re hoping it will say something about the creation of angels.”

“So, is that what prophets normally do then? Translate?”

“Partially. But not really. Normally they speak of events to come, on instruction from Heaven.”

 “You know… prophecy.” Dean replied cheekily.  

 “That doesn’t make any sense. You guys can talk to all the remaining angels.”

 Sam pursed his lips, “Now. There were a heck of a lot more before the fall.”  

 “Yeah, lot of help the remaining ones are.” Dean muttered.

 “What he means is that all angels are supposed to know the names of all prophets, past and future. Their names were written down by Metatron. But after Kevin, uh… Kevin Tran, one of the last prophets. When he died Metatron allegedly ended the prophet line, ensuring no new prophet would be called upon.”

 “Except it didn’t end.” Dean added.

 “We think Chuck did something around the time his sister showed up.” Sam said.

 “Or, you know, Amara killed Metatron.”

 “Either way,” Sam continued, “a new prophet awakened. So, since the rules for prophets are kind of thrown out the window at this point, well….. we’re looking for anything at this point.”

 “And the angels are no help. Since the names are no longer known.” Dean added.

 “We’d hoped Gabriel would know.” Sam added. “Since the prophets are tied to archangels, with the archangels acting as their protectors when the need arises. Each prophet has an archangel.”

 Riley did not like the emotion that she was feeling, “So with Gabriel being the only archangel left?” ‘Tad over reaction there, girl.’

 “He’d be tied to the prophet, but Gabriel hasn’t exactly ever been the sharing type when it comes to Heavenly things. But still, he’s said he hasn’t felt the tether that would come from being tied to a prophet.” Sam sighed.

 “Could any of the other archangels be alive?” Riley asked.

 “No.” Sam answered.

 Dean though looked thoughtful. “Michael.” He muttered. “Last we saw, our Michael was in the cage. Technically he could still be alive.”

 Sam looked nonplused.

 “Do we like Michael?” Riley asked.

 “No.” Dean answered.

 “Michael was in charge after Chuck left. He commanded the Heavenly Host,  issued the orders, spoke to the prophets.” Sam started to explain.

 “He wanted to use me as a meat suit.” Dean added.

 “He took over our half-brother, Adam, and tried to fight Lucifer. Wanted the biblical show down.”

 “The whole apocalypses thing.” Dean offered. “Lucifer was wearing Sam at the time. But Sammy was able to break through, grab Michael and drag them both into the cage.”

 “You got out though.” Riley said, studying Sam.

 “Cas pulled my body out, and Death pulled my soul out.” Sam looked rather uncomfortable.

 “Woah.” She frowned, “There as a lot packed into that sentence. Death?”

 “Yeah. Long store.” Dean grinned.

 “How long were you there?” Riley asked, afraid of the answer. “And I’ll want the rest of the other story at some point.”

 “Earth time, over a year. But that’s more than 120 years in Hell time.” Dean answered for his brother.

 “That sucks.” Riley replied. She’d known it wouldn’t be good when she asked. She offered her beer to Sam, but he shook his head.

 “So, Michael was in the cage. Heaven lost stability and it resulted in a civil war. Surprisingly between  Raphael and Castiel, among others.” Dean finished. At Riley’s questioning look, he mouthed ‘later’.

 “Michael could still be in there.” Sam looked thoughtful. “Though he’d have to be mad by now. It’s been a really really long time.”

 “What about Adam?” Riley asked.

 “I tried to get him out.” Dean replied, “When I bargained with Death. But he’d only save Sam.” This of course was only half true, as Death had offered to save one, but had not specified which. Dean just didn’t think either of the others needed to know that part.

 “Lucifer escaped.” Sam was still thinking, but now out loud. “The cage was damaged when Amara was released. And Lucifer got out on his own, after he was imprisoned the… third time.”

 “What happened with the second?” Riley whispered to Dean.

 “He tricked Cas into acting as his vessel and escaped.”

 “Oh.” There was still an awful lot she didn’t know.

 “He wasn’t in the actual cage the third time though. The spell was recreated with his vessel. He never did go back.” Sam muttered. “So it’s possible Michael is still in the Cage, which is damaged. So like how Lucifer was sending me visions, maybe Michael was able to form a bond with the new prophet. Helping that person to hide, or….” He trailed off. “I need to check the lore.”

 Dean and Riley sat, watching as Sam ran off toward the library. “We won’t see him for a while.” Dean offered.

 “Yeah. I figured that. Have you met a prophet before?”

 “More than we probably should have.” Dean supplied.

 “Oh, what happened to the last one?”

Dean visibly winced. “Amara ate his soul, Asmodeus brain washed him, Castiel gave him a lobotomy. We left him here while we went to the other reality with Rowena. She forgot about him. He died because he couldn’t take care of himself anymore.” Dean at least told the truth, even if it wasn’t a pretty truth. “We buried him two states over.”

“Any others?”

“The one before that was murdered - Kevin. And the one before that was Chuck.”

“Ah.” Riley sighed, “Not a great gig then.”

“Nope.”

Riley watched Dean take another swig of his beer. She wondered how much blood the boys had spilled. How much death and destruction they’d caused. They had saved the world, but half their stories suggested they might be the reason it got fucked up in the first place.

Her first thought about them, that they were rough around the edges, needed to be updated. It was more they were jagged around the edges. Sharp and painful, destroying much of what they touched. It was an unfortunate metaphor, but Riley was fairly sure it was accurate.

She really did like them. And as Dean had said, they were basically family. But the brothers were fear inducing sometimes. She wondered if they were the monsters the actual monsters told their children about. ‘Don’t eat too many humans or the Winchesters might lob off your head.’ It was a sobering thought. But she couldn’t find even a drop of fear herself toward them. Especially with Dean making a stupid face at her, drawing her attention.  

“So the tablet will tell how to make more angels?” She asked.

 “We think so. Plus it should tell the angels how to restore their wings. When the angels fell, they lost most of their abilities.” Dean replied. “Cas would like that.”

 “I wondered about Castiel’s wings, I didn’t want to ask though.”

 “Yeah, all the angels that fell have broken wings. You can see it when they pull them as a show of power.”

 “They’re like that all the time.” She murmured.

 “What?” Dean was staring at her.

 “Oh. That’s right. I’ve just become kinda used to it now. I can see their wings. Mine too.”

 “Your what?”

 “Wings.” Dean looked unnerved at her response. “You remember I’m technically an angel right?” She stretched them out to their full span behind her – not that he could see them. “So I have wings. Thus the flying lessons”

 “Huh. I mean it makes sense.” Dean said. “You never said anything.”

 “I said I was learning to fly.”

 “True.” He nodded, taking a bite of another cookie. “So you can see all the other’s wings, just like, hanging around.”

 “Yep. Though they’re like shadows, translucent.”

 “Hey Cas.” Dean called. Castiel appeared at his shoulder, almost touching.

 “Hello, Dean.” His voice was gravelly.

 “Dude. Personal space.” Dean sighed. “Can you see other angel’s wings?”

 “Yes. At least partially. Our wings to do not fully exist on this plane of existence, only a portion of them. Angel’s can bring their wings through to this plane, but it takes a lot of power. Which is why I only do it partially. It also tends to burn out mortal’s eyes.”

 Dean started at him. “So you can see Riley’s wings?”

 “Yes. And Jack’s.”

 “Jack has wings?”

 “Yes. Of course.” Castiel answered.

 “Huh.”

 “Does this help?” Castiel asked.

 “Yeah. Thanks Cas.” Dean responded.

 Castiel looked miffed. “You realize I am actually very busy Dean.”

 “I think there was something else he wanted to mention.” Riley added, though Dean sent her a perplexed look. “About a possible angel sighting?”

 “Oh yeah. Though Sam has actual information.” Castiel nodded, then he disappeared again. Most likely to find Sam.

 Riley laughed, “You realize you summoned him and he came. He’s like your own personal angel. Like ask Jeeves, angel edition.”

 Dean groaned, “Stop. I really don’t want to go there.” He leaned back in his chair, “I’m thinking beer and hanging on the couch. We can “research”. No reason we have to coop ourselves in the library tonight. Like Sam.” He stood, grabbed another couple beers from the fridge.

 Riley got up to follow him, “I can help research if you need.”

 “If by that, you mean I can kick your ass at Mortal Kombat, then yes you can help research.”

 Riley laughed.

 “C’mom kid-sister, bring the cookies.” He requested. Riley rolled her eyes as she followed him out.

[enby-angel]

A Pair of Sad Bisexual Sods

Author: Willow Angel (willow0angel; Willow_Angel) Fandoms: Supernatural, Sherlock (TV) Rating: General Audiences Warnings: N/A Category: M/M Relationships: Castiel/Dean Winchester, Sherlock Holmes/John Watson, Background Relationships Tags: mentioned sabriel; Mentioned Adamandriel; Mentioned Michifer - Freeform; Alternate Universe- No Supernatural; Mechanic Dean; Mechanic Dean Winchester; english teacher castiel; castiel novak - Freeform; mentioned relationships; Mentioned Characters; Bar; rough day; Casual drinking; no triggering stuff; John is so done with Sherlock; But yet he still loves him; John Watson Loves Sherlock Holmes; Dean Winchester Loves Castiel; Closeted Dean; Closet Bisexual; they really are a pair of sad bisexual sods; John and Dean have a heart-to-heart; Strangers; Strangers to Friends; They help each other out; Friends to Lovers (not Dean and John good lord); i wrote this at 2am; I'm sorry if this sucks; but i had to write it; Destiel - Freeform; Johnlock - Freeform; Mentioned Sam Winchester/Gabriel - Freeform; Mentioned Adam Milligan/Samandriel; Mentioned Lucifer/Michael - Freeform (because I ship that in AUs thanks to fanfiction); Fluff; just fluff

Summary: AU. Dean Winchester went to a bar after a rough day. John Watson went to a bar after a rough day. Somehow, these two strangers help each other find the loves of their lives.

Ao3 Link: http://archiveofourown.org/works/8152624

---

It was just a bar. How both of them managed to get there at the same time is a mystery, one that will probably remain unsolved. The ways of the universe are yet to be discovered.

The first one to slide onto a bar stool was a fierce-looking man, who looked like he could use a few drinks. Trained green eyes scanned the area around him, and whether he was looking for a girl to hit up or just for the sake of looking around, nobody will know but himself. There were a couple of grease stains on his flannel, and silver rings clinked against a beer glass as he took a gulp. He sighed and rubbed his eyes with one hand. This man had two possible names, but we shall call him Dean Winchester.

"Rough day?" asked the second man, who took a seat beside him. This man looked a fair few years older than the first, though he might have been older than he looked. He spoke with a British accent, and he too looked weary and in need of a drink. He ran a hand through sandy blonde hair as he ordered a beer for himself. This man only had one name with many titles, but we shall call him John Watson. "You look like you're ready to kill someone."

Dean snorted. "Is it that obvious?"

John grinned. "Takes one to know one."

Dean grinned. "That's fair," he said, drinking a bit more. "Anyone in particular?"

"My flatmate," John answered, rolling his eyes. "God, he's a pain in the ass sometimes."

"I know the feeling," Dean said.

John chuckled. "How about you?"

Dean shrugged. "Eh, bunch of stuff. Job, brother, job, friend, job again, nothing in particular."

"Good god, what kind of job do you have?"

"Mechanic," Dean replied. "Got some really rude customers recently. Act like they know everything about cars when really they don't know squat, and then they try to tell me how to do my job... I'm sure you get the point," he finished, taking a particularly big mouthful of his drink.

"Blimey, mate," John laughed. "I didn't know being a mechanic would be such a hard job."

"Where do you work?" Dean asked.

John paused and tried to put words into order. "Sometimes I'm a doctor, and other times I'm running after my brilliant yet manic consulting detective of a flatmate."

Dean raised his eyebrows and whistled lowly. "Whoa, you're busy, aren't you?" John rolled his eyes, and Dean stopped. "Wait, consulting detective? What the heck is that?"

John shrugged. "Exactly what it sounds like, I suppose. He's an unpaid homicide detective. Whenever the police find themselves at a loss - which is quite often, fortunately for him - they consult him for help. He's solved almost every case he's been put on."

"Now my job seems boring compared to yours," Dean commented with a small laugh. "That must be painful."

"Both physically and mentally, yes," John said. "The most painful part is that Sherlock doesn't realise how bloody brilliant he is. He also doesn't realise how bloody oblivious he is sometimes." He stopped, and then laughed. "God, I must be tired. Spilling my life story to a stranger."

Dean shrugged. "Believe it or not, sometimes it helps." He finished his glass and raised his hand for another drink. "I'm all ears."

John rubbed his eyes and signalled for another drink himself. "Sherlock Holmes is a bloody brilliant man. He can figure out everything about you just by looking at you, down to the minute details. He sees the finer details of everything, which is why he's such a good detective. He knew I'd served in Afghanistan just by looking at me for about two seconds while he was in the middle of one of his experiments. We agreed to be flatmates and then he started dragging me along to his cases, which have ended up with me literally running after him. One of the people we were chasing turned around and shot me twice in the leg, once [1] ."

"Jesus," Dean said. "That ain't healthy."

"You're telling me," John said, taking another drink. "But I just can't help trying to keep up with him, you know? It's like I've become addicted to the adrenaline rush. Besides, I like to write about the cases we work together, and I love writing about his 'deductions', as he calls them." He drew quotation marks in the air as he spoke.

Dean raised an eyebrow at him. "Now, I might be reading this the wrong way, but it seems to me like you're chasing after him in more ways than one."

John snorted. "Well, it's more obvious to you than it is to him, that's for sure."

Dean smirked. "Is he more used to seeing you with chicks or something?"

"Maybe." John rolled his eyes. "I have been with a couple of blokes before, but that was back in my high school days. It might also be because he's 'married to his work'." He sighed, taking a large gulp of beer. "He's also just an ignorant git."

"So, you are in love with him, then." It wasn't a question.

"Yep." John took a drink. "I'm in love with a maniac that never knows when to stop talking. I'm in love with the man that's saved my life more times than I can count, you have no idea."

"You should tell him."

John choked on his drink. "Are you mental?" he coughed. "I just told you he said he's not interested."

Dean shrugged. "Hey, worst he could say in your situation is 'no', right? Kinda sounds like he'd keep dragging you along to your cases anyway."

John looked at him, his blue eyes showing weariness and pain and heartbreak beyond his years, before looking down into his glass. "Well, I suppose you're right."

Dean grinned, taking a drink.

"What about you? Got your eye on someone?"

Dean looked over at him, hesitant to explain.

"Come on," John prompted. "You owe me."

Dean sighed, supposing that he was right. "Okay, fine. Yeah, I do, I guess."

"Guy or girl?"

"Guy," Dean admitted after a slight hesitation.

John laughed. "Good to know I'm not the only one," he said.

"Yeah," Dean said. "Except my problem is, I've never been with a guy before. I'm twenty-seven and I'm not even out of the closet yet."

"Nothing wrong with that." John shrugged. "What's his name?"

Dan grinned, and looked straight ahead. "The friend I mentioned earlier, Castiel," he said. "Castiel Novak. You might know the name, the Novaks and the Shurleys are all related somehow and they made up half of the high school when I went."

"Isn't Castiel an angel of some sort?"

"Yeah, the Angel of Thursday," Dean explained. "And if this guy isn't an angel then I don't know who is. Well, most of his family is named after angels, and they've got a big-ass family, and it's a small world after all. My little brother Sam is dating and living with his older brother Gabriel, and my other little brother Adam is dating his cousin Samandriel."

"That's a mouthful."

Dean snorted. "You have no idea. There's Uriel, Raphael, Balthazar, and a whole bunch more. Can I also take the time to point out that Cas's older brother Michael is dating a guy called Lucifer?"

"Good god."

"Yup."

"So, tell me about Castiel."

Dean smiled, looking down at his hands and spinning the glass around on the bar. "Like I said, this guy is somehow an actual angel. He's a dork, but somehow he's still adorable. I had a crush on him in high school, just after he came out as pan, and then he left for college. But now he's back and teaching English at the high school here and... We started talking again, we met up for coffee to catch up after so long, and I guess I just fell in love with him again. I did have a girlfriend while he was gone, but that ended not long before he got back." Dean wasn't sure why he was still talking. "And I've never been with a guy before, like I said, and I have no idea what I'm doing."

John suddenly laughed. "We're a pair of sad bisexual sods, aren't we?"

Dean laughed with him. "Cheers to that," he said, and they did.

"Tell him," John said. "Go on. If he feels the same way, then you'll figure it out together. Like you said, worst he can say is 'no', right?"

Dean smirked and downed the rest of his drink. "I guess so." He looked over at John, who was looking at him with an intense and observant gaze. "I'll tell Cas if you tell what's-his-name, sound fair?"

John's gaze turned to a glare. "His name is Sherlock."

"And that's a girl's name," Dean said, rolling his eyes. "Sound fair?"

John raised his eyebrows. "I don't even know your name," he said, and Dean sighed.

"Dean Winchester," he said, holding out a hand.

"John Watson," was the reply, along with a firm handshake. Definitely military. "And yes, that sounds fair."

"Tell you what," Dean said. "Next week, right here, same time. I'll tell you how it went."

"Sounds good."

~~~

A week later, when John Watson slid onto the bar stool next to Dean Winchester again, Dean was smiling into his drink.

"Hello again, Dean," John said, ordering a beer. "Judging by your smile, I'm guessing it went horribly wrong?"

Dean laughed. "And judging by yours, I'm guessing it went the same?"

John joined in laughing. "Congratulations," he said. "On both the boyfriend and coming out of the closet."

"And congratulations on yours," Dean replied. He pulled his phone out of his pocket and flipped through the photos, and showed the screen to John upon finding the picture of Castiel he'd sneakily taken while on their dinner date. Castiel's eyes were shining a piercing blue, and he had a surprised smile on his face at having a photo taken of him all of a sudden, dark hair sticking up all over the place and his trench coat hanging over the back of the chair. "This is Cas, in case you were wondering."

John smiled, and took put his own phone. After a minute, he showed Dean a photo of a man that must have been Sherlock. Curly black hair, extremely pale and looked very tall, although that might just be the coat. His eyes were just as piercing as Castiel's, but they were a mix of green and blue and grey and yellow. His expression showed that he was irritated at having his photo taken, but he just couldn't stay annoyed at whoever was taking the photo, which would be John.

"I guess we both got lucky, huh?" Dean said, putting his phone away and working on his drink.

"I guess so," John murmured. After a minute of silence, John went on to say, "Thank you, Dean."

"No worries, we're even," Dean replies with a shrug. "You helped me, I helped you, no big deal."

There was silence, and then Dean couldn't help but start to laugh, John joining in after a moment.

This, my dear reader, was a story about how two strangers helped each other find the loves of their lives, and how they both gained a friend for life along the way - all thanks to fate putting them both in the one bar at the same time after a rough day.

And this, my dear reader, is the conclusion.

~~~

[1]: Reference to "The Three Garridebs" from the Arthur Conan Doyle stories. Go and read it, it's awesome, and one of the only times that Sherlock Holmes shows emotion in the ACD canon. Basically, a case of a very convoluted imposter leads Holmes and Watson to the basement of an old house, where the imposter, ‘Killer Evans’ is trying to hide his counterfeiting press (not much real about this guy). Holmes confronts him, and Evans appears to agree, only to shoot Watson twice in the leg. Watson’s not badly wounded, so it all turns out okay in the end.

(Summary courtesy of acme146 from chapter 8 of Dreams and Visions.