Big Bang Masterpost: "In This Secluded Spot I Respond As I Wouldn't Dare Elsewhere"
Written for the 2010 Dean/Castiel Big Bang
Title: In This Secluded Spot I Respond As I Wouldn't Dare Elsewhere
Author: rhymephile
Fandom/Genre: High school AU, romance
Pairing(s): Dean/Castiel
Rating: PG-13 (rating changed from R to PG-13 August 2013)
Word Count: 34,040
Warnings: Homophobic slurs; bullying with some violence
Artist: samara_draven
Art link: Art Masterlist
Summary: It's 1995, and Castiel's high school years are destined to be difficult: home-schooled until eighth grade, he is awkward, shy, and socially inept. The weird kid with the funny name would rather isolate himself and draw in his sketchbook than deal with the constant bullying he faces every day. Things only get worse in his junior year when he excels in home economics class, leading the captain of the baseball team, Alastair, to start taunting him for being gay.
Then new student Dean Winchester arrives at Flour Bluff High School, sharing many of Castiel's classes. Castiel has seen his type before -- handsome, athletic, arrogant, and sure to be the most popular kid in school. But Castiel eventually learns that he and Dean have more in common than he thought, and they form an unlikely friendship.
Author's Note: I couldn't have done this without the helpful suggestions and last-minute beta from mf_luder_xf, the thoughtful advice and cheerleading from shoelacedreamer, the prodding from siberian_skys, and I definitely would have given up without the support from my partner, L. They've all done a lot for me. Any resulting errors are mine alone.
Thanks to samara_draven for her wonderful accompanying art.
The feather graphic used for the section breaks was created by me. You can download it here. Credit would be appreciated, but not necessary.
Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5
Read the whole thing in one file at AO3
Read this story in Russian
Читать этот фик в переводе на русский язык at AO3 by -Wintersnow-
В этом укромном месте я откликаюсь так, как больше не рискну нигде
ETA February 1, 2012: With the death of Megaupload, the PDF of my story is no longer available there. I have, however, uploaded to SendSpace, which can be found here. If SendSpace doesn't work for you and you would prefer another download provider, please comment and I'll upload somewhere else.
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