Fic rec: Crashin' and Burnin' (element78)

They say you don't know what you got until you lose it. And Dean's about to experience the deep truth first hand.

Title: Crashin' and Burnin' 
Author: element78
Rating: T
Genre: Humor/Romance
Soundtrack (chosen by reviewer): John Lennon - What You Got

Plot summary
Dean and Cas, having just recently celebrated their second anniversary, are the couple you think you can find only on magazine pages under the heading 'Does love at first sight truly exist?'... until Dean, being Dean, suddenly snaps out of the reverie and realizes that living happily ever after with someone you love (and a cat) is not how he's always expected his life to look like - and turns to the only remedy he knows, cheap alcohol and even cheaper sex. Can he ever make up for the mistake and convince Cas that he never stopped loving him? And if so, at what cost?

Crashin' and Burnin' is the kind of story you'd read curled up in your chair, with a cup of warm coffee, nibbling at candy of your taste and listening to the sound of rain drumming on the windows. At least these are the things I associate with the happy smile and warm, fuzzy feelings this fic left me with, commonly induced by a good romantic comedy (even though I can't be certain here, since I watch 0.8 romantic comedies on average per year), having someone curled up in the chair with you or just being a half-crazy Destiel shipper, the choice is yours. What I can tell for sure is that the author, element78, stays true to her subtle, tongue-in-cheek sense of humour, down-to-earth and believable storytelling and dialogue and once again demostrates her strength in the AU fan fiction field, which she does not envision as an excuse to take our boys and girls and do whatever she wants with them (making them absolutely unrecognizable in the process), but rather as an opportunity to explore the facets of their characters which we rarely get to glimpse on the screen.

That being said, as a reader very familiar with her work, I had a chance to get to the inevitable (alas, only a human sitting at this desk) and think a little about how Crashin' and Burnin' stands compared to the rest of element78's Supernatural stories, not as much in terms of the storyline as in character development. What I find quite extraordinary is how in every single story the author captures all the crucial personality traits of canon Dean, Sam or Castiel, takes an educated guess on what the rest could be like and manages to make it all run more smoothly than a Swiss watch. No matter whether you go for I70, Parallax or the latest Crashin' and Burnin', the grip element78 has on her characters is firm, highly individual and very rare to come across in the sea of Supernatural fan fiction writers.

Before I wrap the review up, allow me to comment on the two supporting characters of the story, Sam and Balthazar. While the latter might not even have a single line of dialogue, his mere presence lightens up every scene he's in and he's always a joy to read about (plus, it was about time Dean got a taste of his own medicine). As for Sam, if there is an award for the Best Fictional Brother, he has my vote and full support, because let's not be shy about it, Dean would be screwed to seven hells without him, canon and fandom wise. Their relationship is what holds the show together and we all know it.

In conclusion, I can imagine that I will come back to Crashin' and Burnin' every now and then, when I feel that I need to be reminded that no one has done anything so bad that they can't be forgiven.

Read Crashin' and Burnin' HERE.