Transcript: Track 14: Only One Bed!
Episode 14 posted March 19, 2021
Links to all fics mentioned can be found on the main episode post.
Transcript corrected by kaede.
Jump to:
- Human Error by jemariel
- Lammas Night by pherryt
- Dean Doesn’t Listen To Eurythmics by Annie D
- Other recommendations
[Intro music]
Ellen: [00:00:00] Hi, everyone. Welcome to the 14th episode of Mixtape Book Club Podcast. My name is Ellen,
MalMuses: And my name is Mal.
Ellen: In each episode, we take a look at a different trope or subgenre in the huge collection of Destiel fanfiction on AO3. Back in episode five, we looked at Fake Relationships in Destiel fic, but today we’re going to take a look at a slight variation on that theme. And this one is about there only being One Bed.
MalMuses: The fics that we’re going to discuss today are Human Error by jemariel, Lammas Night by pherryt, and Dean Doesn’t Listen To Eurythmics by Annie D.
Ellen: And as always, links to all the fics we’re going to be talking about today will be available in this episode’s [00:01:00] post on mixtapebookclub.com and also included in our collection on AO3, which is going to be linked in that post as well.
So, bed sharing in fics, it seems to be a favourite trope for a lot of people. We had a lot of people this week who said that they were excited about this episode, and it’s not generally the focus of any fics, it’s sort of spread out in over a lot of different types of fics, so it’s just a small part of each one, kind of thing.
So like the fanlore.org site, which is part of AO3 says, that bed sharing can be implemented platonically or shipperly, which I quite like as a turn of phrase.
MalMuses: [ Laughs ] Like anyone wants to read platonic, There Was Only One Bed. [ Laughs ] What’s the point of that? Yeah, it’s, it’s kind of crossing, kind of crossing the line from fun fic into just like, this is awkward camping. Like what, what are we trying to achieve with platonic bed sharing? I don’t know.
Ellen: [00:02:00] I’m sure that, I’m sure it can be a lovely thing as well to be sharing a bed with someone without any funny business going on. But, in the case of Dean and Cas, it’s usually in fics what provides a push towards them admitting their feelings for each other or at least like realizing that the other one may have returned some of their feelings.
MalMuses: Yeah. And it doesn’t always have to be like, specifically like, a physical sex thing, like I’ve read plenty of bed sharing things where, you know, nothing ever happens when they’re bed sharing, but that emotional reasoning, like you just said, is, that’s what pushes them over the edge and gets them there.
Ellen: That’s right. It’s a catalyst. I guess it’s not explicitly stated anywhere in canon, but it’s fairly generally accepted that both of them are quite touch-starved, like neither of them ever, I mean, Dean, [00:03:00]Dean will hook up now and then, although he had, he didn’t in later seasons much at all.
MalMuses: Mm-hmm.
Ellen: And like, Cas barely gets a few hugs here and there from various characters, but they barely ever get any kind of touch from anyone. So being able to share a bed together is like, you know, kind of a big thing for them even, you know, without the, the relationship side of it.
MalMuses: Yeah. It’s something that they both kind of need in their own way, I think.
Ellen: Yeah.
MalMuses: And it gives you, it gives you the option to, you know, have that kind of adorable closeness between them, with or without it being sexual at all. But also the, the other route of just having it being incredibly awkward, [ Laughs ] which is also quite, quite fun to read sometimes, I think. I’ve read quite a few There Was Only One Bed sort of stories where it’s that Cas has just become human, and so this is really his first experience of sharing a bed with somebody.
Ellen: Yep.
MalMuses: [00:04:00] And he’s not, I’d say not enjoying it necessarily, but it’s awkward for everybody.
Ellen: Yes. So we did ask the PB chat why this was their favorite trope, basically. And it mostly came down to the cuddling. [ Laughs ] So to, to make them vulnerable enough to end up cuddling each other or spooning or drooling on each other or you know, the fact that it removes boundaries that might happen when they’re awake or when they’re, you know, lucid, I suppose, that they wouldn’t otherwise have.
MalMuses: We’re all a bunch of saps, we love a cuddle, in a fic, I think.
Ellen: That’s right.
MalMuses: So, and there is that wonderful moment which a lot of these fics represent where one person wakes up and the other person is kind of all over them or has rolled to the middle of the bed, [00:05:00] or is in some way, in their space, in a way that’s sort of uninvited.
I mean, I guess it’s always a certain amount invited because you’ve let them share the bed with you. But they get a little bit more than they bargained for, I suppose. And there’s that wonderful moment where they wake up and they don’t know whether to enjoy it or panic, or wake the other person up, or let them sleep, or there’s all these decisions to be made.
Ellen: Yes. So, a combination of sexual tension and just like, really soft intimacy, that’s like kind of a perfect combination, really.
MalMuses: Yeah. There’s a reason why it works so well in fanfic. We get it like, the best parts of everything.
Human Error
Ellen: Yeah. So the first fic we’re going to talk about is called Human Error and it’s by jemariel. It was published in 2019 and it is 33,000 words and it’s Explicit. [00:06:00] And it’s got a fairly short summary which goes like this:
Cas is human now and things aren’t going to plan. Not that Dean had a plan. Nope, no plans of any kind. Anyway, what’s a Winchester to do when everything he tries seems to blow up in his face? Go hunting, obviously.
So, as usual, jemariel is so good at capturing the characters and their voices. So good at that. So this newly human Cas is just really good.
MalMuses: Oh, he’s so delightfully grumpy in this fic.
Ellen: Yeah, he’s just really fed up with everything to do with being human, it seems like.
MalMuses: Yeah. Yeah, that’s reasonable. He’s not having a good ride of it so far, and some things are definitely his fault for overreacting, and some things, eh, some things are pretty valid, probably.
Ellen: Yeah.
MalMuses: So.
Ellen: [00:07:00] And also, Dean just doesn’t know how to cope with him being like that.
MalMuses: Yeah, I mean,
Ellen: He’s trying to show him the good things about being human, but he just, Cas isn’t really into it.
MalMuses: Yeah, I mean, Dean does the thing that he does in a lot of fics, and in canon plenty too, where he tries to do something without communicating what it is that he’s trying to do.
Ellen: Yeah, yeah.
MalMuses: So, it’s a very, very kind of classic Dean and classic grumpy human Cas here, which are two kind of characterizations that I really enjoy, so.
Ellen: Yes. I think in this trope in general, there’s quite, there’s a lot of fics that have bad communication in general. I mean, in general, there’s terrible communication in all Dean / Cas fics just because that’s how they are. [ Laughs ] But, in this case normally, like, they’ll be sharing a bed and then they’ll get flustered or whatever and then they just won’t talk about it for ages. You sort of end up screaming at them like, What are you doing?!
MalMuses: [00:08:00] Number one most in-character canon trope, I think, for those two.
Ellen: Yes.
MalMuses: Poor communication. But I like the way that it interacts with this particular trope, because I guess the bed sharing kind of intensifies things and accelerates it so that the miscommunication is kind of a real big tipping point for it.
Ellen: Yeah.
MalMuses: Yes. Even if they’re not communicating with their words, sometimes their bodies do it for them.
Ellen: Yes, that’s right. So yeah, this one, they’re, they’re hunting on their own and accidentally get a motel room with only one bed in it. Which I think is a big thing, like, I don’t know if you were, if you were actually trying to get a motel room where, and you accidentally got one with a double bed, I think most people in real life might go and see if they could get a twin bedroom.
[00:09:00] But obviously, for the like, you know, purposes of fic they don’t want to do that. So, you know, with one bed. But yeah.
MalMuses: And I think it’s generally believable a lot of the time that Dean doesn’t want to do that because at least subconsciously, he would rather share with Cas in the first place.
Ellen: Yeah, maybe.
MalMuses: So in, in some, in some fics it’s, it’s a very conscious decision that, okay, he can, he can have this even if he can’t have anything else. He can have this. And this is a good excuse.
Ellen: Yes.
MalMuses: Yes.
Ellen: There’s also, is this the one, oh God, now they’re all blurring into one, is this the one where they get drunk and then actually have sex, like, just like, by accident kind of thing because they’re drunk?
MalMuses: Yes. Yes.
Ellen: Yeah. Okay.
MalMuses: Very much fully consensual,
Ellen: Oh yeah!
MalMuses: ‘Cause there was definitely kind of an almost kiss even before that, when they were both sober, but then the drinking happens.
Ellen: Yeah. So then they like, just alcohol removes their final inhibitions, so they actually have sex. [00:10:00] And then later they’re like, Oh my God, what have we done? But, you know,
MalMuses: Yeah. But Dean manages to put his foot in it by talking too much. [ Laughs ]
Ellen: Yeah, that’s right, yeah.
MalMuses: It’s such a Dean thing to do, like he doesn’t talk for years, and then suddenly blurts out exactly the wrong thing.
Ellen: Yes! Oh, and it’s just so good when they finally work it all out, and obviously, like, jemariel’s like a master at, at smut, basically, so this has got some really, really hot stuff in it.
MalMuses: Yeah, very nice.
Ellen: So by the time, when they actually get together in the end, it’s, it’s really, really good. So definitely recommended this one. And the other thing that I love about this one is Sam, because he,
MalMuses: Poor traumatized Sam.
Ellen: He knows what’s going on like right from the start, but he, you know, by the end, he’s just like, Oh my God, finally you guys! But it’s taken so long, [00:11:00] and yeah, he’s like the chief shipper.
MalMuses: This poor man has had to put up with so much over the years. [ Laughs ]
Ellen: Yes. And we definitely need to have that episode about Sam needing brain bleach, I think.
MalMuses: Yeah, that has to be an episode because it’s such a trope.
Ellen: Yeah.
MalMuses: Poor Sam. But, one of my other favorite things about this fic is that it actually uses my absolute favorite case fic trope, which is a Wendigo hunt.
Ellen: Oh yeah?
MalMuses: They were always one of my favorite kind of monsters from the canon lore, but I like that jemariel twisted it a little bit and did something slightly different with it in this one.
It’s probably not a, like, a spoiler to the fic in any way, necessarily, to say that they end up with more than one monster to hunt down. And I, I, I just like that kind of taking the very normal Canon casefic that we’re used to having as like a [00:12:00] background for things and just adding a little extra twist to it just to give them a little, a little something extra to work with. But yeah, I love Wendigos.
Ellen: Yeah. I guess if people like, I think a lot of people might be turned off by casefics in general, because sometimes they have a lot of action in them and don’t have a lot of relationship stuff, but this one, the case itself is actually quite in the background. Like, they are on a case, but they don’t talk all that much about what’s happening in the case itself. It’s very focused on the relationship.
MalMuses: Yeah, you’re focused more on them, that’s right.
Ellen: Yeah, yeah. So don’t let that turn you off.
MalMuses: Yeah, we’re definitely in bed with them more than we’re out hunting with them.
Ellen: [ Laughs ] Yes. That’s right. That’s what we’re here for.
MalMuses: [ Laughs ] Let’s not pretend otherwise. Oh, there is actually also something that I should mention for people who are kind of Hurt / Comfort fans. There’s some pretty quality Hurt / Comfort in this.
Ellen: Yeah.
MalMuses: [00:13:00] The comfort is definitely somewhat begrudging for Cas to start with because he doesn’t, doesn’t really like this, this human thing of pain and injury and isn’t really on board with letting Dean help out as much as Dean wants to.
Ellen: Yeah.
MalMuses: But yeah, I know a lot of people are very into a little bit of Hurt / Comfort in the fics. So.
Ellen: Yep. Yeah, this definitely has that.
Dean Doesn’t Listen to Eurythmics
MalMuses: So, the second fic that we’re going to quickly talk about, because it is a very short fic, it’s under 2,000 words, but it’s also very much a fandom classic, I felt like we couldn’t not mention this one when we’re talking about this trope. And it is Dean Doesn’t Listen to Eurythmics by Annie D (Scaramouche). It was published in 2010, so it’s kind of a, one of those early days Destiel fics.
Ellen: Yeah.
MalMuses: [00:14:00] A couple, a couple of years in, so there, there are definitely earlier ones, but this one is, is kind of still a classic that I recommend now. So.
Ellen: Yeah.
MalMuses: So it is short, 1941 words, it is Explicit, and the summary is just:
Dean and Castiel share a bed. It starts out platonic and then becomes something else.
Ellen: Which is literally what happens.
MalMuses: Yeah.
Ellen: It’s not, it’s not very long, but they’re sharing a bed in the motel room and, and Cas basically uh, they wake up in the middle of the night and Cas is like, humping Dean. That sounds so awful when I say it like that, but that’s all they do.
MalMuses: I don’t think that sounds awful.
Ellen: No, it sounds great. But obviously Annie D like, says it in a much nicer way. [ Laughs ]
MalMuses: Yeah. Beautiful writing here.
Ellen: Yes.
MalMuses: Not just, woke up humping.
Ellen: Yeah. But, but yeah, it’s quite hot, and like, the fact that Dean is like, [00:15:00] at first he’s like, Oh my God, what’s going on? And then he’s like, actually, I’m kind of into this. And,
MalMuses: It turns out he’s more than kind of into it, but yeah,
Ellen: Yeah, and and Sam is still in the room, so he needs brain bleach again. [ Laughs ]
MalMuses: Just digging his head under the pillow. Poor Sam. This fic actually opens up with another one of my kind of favorite, like very minor, I wouldn’t even call it a trope, it’s just a thing that happens in fic a lot, which is Sam and Dean playing rock, paper, scissors to decide things.
Ellen: Yes!
MalMuses: And there’s always that question of whether Dean kind of always lets Sam win, unless it’s super important.
Ellen: Yeah.
MalMuses: He rock, paper, scissors, scissors is, oh, that’s a hard word to say. [ Laughs ] Rock, paper, scissors his way into bed with Cas accidentally.
Ellen: Yeah. There’s not much more to say about this one. It’s,
MalMuses: [00:16:00] No, I mean, there’s really nothing else that we can say without giving you a blow by blow of exactly what goes down,
Ellen: Uh-huh, uh-huh,
MalMuses: But it’s, yeah, it’s short, it’s hot, it’s, you know, canon and simple and has all these wonderful tropes. It’s a great fic, there’s a reason why it has, I think, nearly, is it nearly 20,000 kudos by now?
Ellen: Yep.
MalMuses: Lots of it. So yeah, definitely a classic, one that everybody should check out.
Lammas Night
Ellen: So, moving right along, the next one is called Lammas Night, and it’s, now, you, earlier you said this as pherryt, but I was reading it as ferret.
MalMuses: Yeah, I think that’s probably what it is.
Ellen: I’m not sure. I apologize if we’re getting it wrong. But, you know.
MalMuses: Reading AO3 names out loud, [unclear]
Ellen: We’ve got like this bane of our lives relationship with reading people’s names out loud.
MalMuses: Yep.
Ellen: [00:17:00] But anyway. It’s pherryt with a PH and a Y. This fic was published for DCBB, Dean / Cas Big Bang 2017. So it has artwork in it by Grandel. It’s 50,000 words long and it is Explicit as well. The summary is a little longer, it goes like this:
Dean and Sam Winchester have spent their whole lives on the road. All they ever wanted was to pass the wizard trials and find a place to settle down like normal people for once. But the trials leave Sam less than well and Dean jumps at the first offer they get. What better way to start their new lives and give Sam a chance to recover than as the official wizard for a small, simple town?
There was no way that Dean could have anticipated that the sleepy little town wasn’t as idyllic as he’d been led to believe. That the job entailed more than Chief Crowley would ever admit. That their lives were in mortal danger. [00:18:00] And, oh, that’s right, the ghost of the last wizard who’d undertaken the post was now courting him. So much for the simple life. Dean must now decide by Lammas Night if he will banish or resurrect the ghost of Castiel. But no matter which way Dean decides, they still need to find out what happened to Castiel and why. And will they be next?
Phew. That’s a great summary. [ Laughs ] So yes, Cas is a ghost at the start.
MalMuses: Yes.
Ellen: You can probably guess that he does resurrect Cas.
MalMuses: Yeah. I don’t think that’s a spoiler because there’s no kind of Unhappy Ending or, you know, Main Character Death or anything tagged on this.
Ellen: Yeah.
MalMuses: It’s probably pretty clear that Dean makes the right decision.
Ellen: Yeah. And after that, there’s some really, obviously this is a fantasy AU where they’re wizards and they’re living in a, in a town, but after they, they sort of do this resurrection spell and they’re both kind of unwell kind of thing, [00:19:00] they’ve got no energy left or whatever, they spend, they share a bed for ages, I think, in the story, but because they both need rest for a while, but there’s no external relationship angst in this. They’re, they’re together, like they bonded right from the start, right?
MalMuses: Yeah.
Ellen: It’s just really nice kind of sweet relationship in this one.
MalMuses: Yeah, it was, it was very satisfying on the relationship front, I guess. And I don’t know, I don’t know how the writer did this, but they did a really good job of it, but it generally felt like there was already some kind of bond between them, even before Dean managed to resurrect him.
So, is it a spoiler? Is it in the tags? Let me see. Oh, there it is, it’s right there in the tags. So, there’s definitely a connection, at least on a sexual level, there before them, before Dean resurrects him.
Ellen: Oh, yeah. That’s right.
MalMuses: There is some, ghostly encounter in this.
Ellen: Yes. Yes.
MalMuses: [00:20:00] Which is nice, because I think the way that the author managed to do it, a lot of things like that when they’re written, there’s always kind of a question, like it feels like slightly like dubious consent, like is it kind of, is it really wanted by both of them? But somehow they managed to avoid this,
Ellen: Yeah,
MalMuses: In this particular fic, for me it all felt very kind of sweet, actually, I liked it.
Ellen: Yeah. Yeah, it was sweet. And, and they also, like with this profound bond kind of part of it, they actually both end up with a handprint in this. So, lovers of the handprint.
MalMuses: Yes, I love it.
Ellen: You know, they both get one in this one.
MalMuses: I love it when they both have a handprint or when it’s flipped and Cas has one or something like that.
Ellen: Yeah. So Sam is in this one as well as Gabriel. There’s no Sabriel, they’re not, they’re not together in this, but,
MalMuses: [00:21:00] So we actually end up with not Explicit, but kind of some implied Sam, Eileen-ness.
Ellen: Yeah, that’s right. She’s involved as well, isn’t she?
MalMuses: Yeah.
Ellen: Yeah, because the four of them are there for most of the fic, there’s a lot of sort of bickering that goes on in this one between the pairs of brothers and whatever. I quite liked that. That was quite in-character, I thought.
MalMuses: Yeah, I always kind of like the dynamic of Cas and Gabriel being written as brothers and mostly liking each other and having that familial bond, but just being such different people.
Ellen: Yeah!
MalMuses: That it’s, it’s difficult for them to get, kind of, get along very easily.
Ellen: Yep, they do. And they have, I think the world building in this one in particular was really great, like there’s, you know, the spells that they do are all in Latin and they’re quite beautiful, kind of poetry as well, if you read the author notes to find out what they were.
MalMuses: Mm-hmm.
Ellen: [00:22:00] Yeah, and the world that they create has a lot of canon things in it as well. Like, you know, angel blades and lots of different characters pop in and out. So yeah, I thought it was really well done the way that the canon was woven into it.
MalMuses: Yeah, like this fic is just under 51,000 words, like 50,800, but they managed to fit a lot of plot in here, I feel like, without it ever kind of feeling overwhelming.
Ellen: Yep.
MalMuses: Like, I still felt like the fic was mostly focused on the relationship between the two of them, but that kind of plot was definitely there, like, pulling its weight the whole way through. So even with all the plot, there’s still a lot of bed sharing in this, like, it continues throughout the fic, in a, sometimes it’s very kind of sweet and innocent and gives us those, those kind of cuddly vibes that we want, and sometimes it’s not so innocent.
Ellen: [00:23:00] Yeah, that’s right. That’s right.
MalMuses: So we get sharing a bed, we also get tub sharing in this one.
Ellen: Yeah.
MalMuses: Additional, additional sharing. Two grown men in a bathtub. We even,
Ellen: Yeah, there’s an interesting diagram, in the author notes
MalMuses: I did, yeah, I was just about to say that. I love that they included that.
Ellen: Trying to work out how they fit in one bath.
MalMuses: [ Laughs ] I’ve definitely drawn like little stick men and stuff before for people that have been like beta reading like fics and stuff.
Ellen: Yeah.
MalMuses: I’m like, right, this, this is what I’m trying to describe.
Ellen: Well, sometimes you just need to work out where the limbs are going to go, I guess.
MalMuses: Mm-hmm.
Ellen: And drawing, you know, really helps.
MalMuses: Yeah, I just love that the author decided to include it in the author’s notes so we could all appreciate it.
Other Recommendations
Ellen: Yeah, absolutely. So we’ve got a few more of the fics that we can recommend in this trope that people have recommended to us or that we’ve read before and enjoyed.
One of them is called [00:24:00] Ready to Fall and it’s by lemonsorbae. I think this might have been in our Fake Relationship list. You know, in that other episode, because it’s basically, they’re, they’re at university or whatever, at college and Castiel’s plans for the summer fall through, so he goes home with Dean to Kansas, for the summer basically. And when they get there, like, it becomes apparent that Dean’s family believes that they’re a couple when they’re actually not, they’re just best friends. So even though Dean is in love with Cas at this point. So this is entirely from Dean’s point of view and lots of miscommunication. And the funny thing about this particular fic is that he does go through the whole three months of the summer break, which I still find amazing because in Australia we only have six weeks summer break. So having a whole three months off, it just blows my mind.
But anyway, that’s, that’s an aside. [00:25:00] They’re basically cuddling, they’re sleeping in the same bed, cuddling, they, you know, eventually end up kissing, like just as a, like, would you like to practice kissing kind of thing. And Dean still doesn’t believe that any of it’s real, but they’re just having, he’s just helping Cas out. It’s lovely,
MalMuses: Definitely in denial.
Ellen: Yeah, it’s like, it’s good for that kind of deep, like if, if the, I guess if the miscommunication and denial aspect annoys you, then maybe don’t go for this one, but otherwise it’s really lovely kind of tension all the way through this one. So I quite enjoyed it.
MalMuses: Excellent. So if you enjoyed the first fic that we talked about, that was a hunt gone slightly wrong with a lot of bed sharing worked in, then another fic that I could recommend is [00:26:00] One Cold Night by xylodemon. The summary for this one is very straightforward. It’s just:
“‘Dean, are you alright?’ ‘And, yeah, I’m just,’ Dean shivers again, his teeth clack together. ‘Jesus Christ, it’s cold.’”
So, this is one of those lovely, getting snowed in, sharing the bed, kind of case fics. It’s very cold, they’re on a hunt, they get caught in the snow and feelings emerge.
Ellen: Yes, as they do.
MalMuses: As they do. Yeah. And this one is, I think it’s, it’s about 15,000 words, if I remember off the top of my head, 16,627. It’s a lovely fic, really kind of goes into those, those nice tropes that we all love. So I can definitely recommend that one.
And a second recommendation, if you want something shorter for this trope that’s an AU, would be Stay With Me by nickelkeep. This is about 7,000 words, and it has some, some kind of archaeology, anthropology stuff going on. [00:27:00] It’s quite fascinating. nickel actually managed to work in the “Lovers of Medina” in this one, which is pretty cool.
Ellen: Ohh!
MalMuses: So it’s kind of a, starts off as a, one night sharing a bed kind of deal, and then obviously eventually turns into something more. It could be a little bit angsty for a moment there, but only brief in a, in a fic this length.
Ellen: Yep.
MalMuses: So, yeah, so if you want something that’s for this trope and short, but is an Alternate Universe, then nickel has you covered on that one. I actually think nickel has quite a lot of different bed sharing fics or fics with elements of bed sharing in, so definitely check out their profile if you want to find a bunch more of those.
Ellen: Another one that I would recommend that I actually read this afternoon and thought it was amazing is called Heart-Shaped Bed by insominia. This one was written last year and like in the middle of the quarantine kind of business, [00:28:00] as part of one of the PBExchange, you know, events that they have.
So, it’s not very long, but it’s, it’s basically that’s I’m not sure, now I’m thinking, are they, I don’t think they’re college students, but they, they live sort of in the same location on one side of the country and they, and Cas is really into stargazing and they end up driving across the country to California, like right in the middle of when things are kicking off with COVID and they get, they, they’re going to stay at Cas’s brother, Gabriel’s apartment in, in California.
[00:29:00] And they get stuck there in quarantine because they’re not allowed to go anywhere obviously once they start quarantine, and Gabriel’s apartment has this heart-shaped bed that has, you know,
MalMuses: That’s so Gabriel!
Ellen: These buttons, like this velour cover and like, it’s just, it’s so funny. It’s just, he’s got like a drawer full of sex toys and like, it’s just, everything about it just screams Gabriel.
So they end up, you know, gingerly kind of changing the sheets and hiding stuff, but, and then they have like a really lovely, fluffy kind of bed sharing experience where they eventually, you know, admit that they’re in love with each other and stuff. It’s just really, it’s an amazing fic to read, a feel good kind of a fic to read, so.
MalMuses: Oh, that one sounds nice, I’ll have to,
Ellen: Yeah, it’s worth it. And there’s also, if you’re into Podfics, there’s a podfic available of this one. It’s read by NerdyNerdenstein. So I didn’t listen to the podfic, I just read the text, but, but yeah, if you like your smut read to you, [00:30:00] then you can do that with this one.
MalMuses: [ Laughs ] Yes. Well, you mentioned that that was a kind of a quarantine story. So I think there is one final fic that we must mention. It’s quite a recent one. And it’s by castielslostwings, and it’s called Let’s Stay Together.
Ellen: Oh, yes.
MalMuses: It’s about twelve and a half thousand words, and it features our boys as touch-starved COVID nurses.
There’s this, you know, both lonely, both desperate for human contact and really only having the option of each other and, embracing that option wholeheartedly.
Ellen: Yes, I loved that one.
MalMuses: Yeah, it was a great story. I really enjoyed it. It is Explicit. The twelve and a half thousand words. But also just, just very lovely, it was a very kind of heartwarming fact to read.
Ellen: Yeah.
MalMuses: [00:31:00] Because everybody needs a cuddle sometimes.
Ellen: Yes. One more I wanted to mention which the folks in the PB chat said we had to mention was, is Put Up Your Dukes by saltyfeathers, which I feel like we’ve mentioned before in another episode for a different trope. But,
MalMuses: Yeah, I feel like we have,
Ellen: This is a case,
MalMuses: Which was one of the reasons I didn’t want to go into it in more detail, but
Ellen: Yeah, I, I love, this is like one of my favorite fics ever, because it’s just so, the tension is just so good. But yeah, it’s basically a case fic in the end where they, they do end up, they start off by sparring in the, in the bunker and, you know, get too close, but then they go on this case and end up having to share a bed and you know, things escalate.
[00:30:00] But there is this scene where Dean is like, the bed is against the wall and he’s on like the wall side of the bed and he’s got to try and get out from under Cas’s body or something like, he’s, you know, they wake up in the middle of the night and they’re cuddling, basically, and he’s got to try and get out of it without waking Cas up.
And it’s just really great. Saltyfeathers is great at writing like that kind of Dean freakout, you know, like that, how he just goes a bit crazy when he tries to work out how to get out of stuff.
MalMuses: Yup.
Ellen: But yeah, that fic is worth a read. Like, I just reread it, actually earlier today as well, just to remind myself, ‘cause I was sort of thinking about it going, I don’t remember bed sharing in this one, but no, it’s really good. I remember how good it is now.
MalMuses: Definitely one that should be a regular reread, I think.
Ellen: Uh-huh.
MalMuses: Okay, so we’ve, we’ve, I see we managed to mention quite a few fics this time.
Ellen: [00:33:00]We have. Okay, well links to all of the fics that we’ve talked about today can be found on the blog post for this episode on mixtapebookclub.com. And if you’d like to get in touch with us to tell us about your favorite bed sharing fics or one of the fics that we’ve talked about, you can send us a message on any of our social media accounts.
They’re all at MixtapeBookClub, or you can email us contact (at) mixtapebookclub.com. Or if you’d like to chat with us in Discord, you can do that on the Profound Bond server, and I’ll put a link to that in the notes as well. And we have our own channel there, and you can come and chat with us and answer our questions when we ask lots of questions in there.
MalMuses: Alright, next episode we’re going to be discussing one of my personal top tier, absolute favorite tropes: Two-Person Love Triangles with our guest Ben, known on AO3 as bendingsignpost.
Ellen: Yes. I’m so excited!
MalMuses: Yes.
Ellen: [00:34:00] It’s not only my, one of my favorite tropes as well, but it’s also one of my favorite authors. So it’s all just fangirling from here on in. So thank you everyone for listening today and we’ll talk to you again soon.
MalMuses: And as always, remember that the story isn’t over until we say it is.
[ Outro music ]