Templum Bellonae

Tim Drake is one screwed-up guy. Dick copes with this fairly well.

“If you don’t want to talk about your feelings,” Dick says, “then you’re just going to have to put up with the gentle healing sex. Those are the rules. Now hold still.”

Funny and kind of melancholy. I read this a long time ago, but having assumed it was written by an author I’d already rec’d, I didn’t go looking for it again until recently. And realized it wasn’t by who I’d thought. And that it was so much better than I’d remembered.

An unpretending time by LC

After Tim’s father dies, Bart is a little hurt that Tim won’t talk to his friends about it.

Bart sucks at patient. He can’t even stop himself from getting bored while waiting for the lights to come on, and waiting for Robin to talk is like waiting for light from other galaxies.

Third Wheel by Shrift

When Tim gives up being Robin, the other Titans can’t accept never seeing him again, so they decide to do something about it.

World’s Finest by Mara

In which Tim watches Kon a lot and is a repressed freak.

Night Watch by Weirdness Magnet

Tim and Kon talk about their week.

Guy Talk by Jack

This is a very awesome little story set in the same universe as Prufrock’s AU Conflicts of Interest. While on a pre-college road trip, Conner wakes up with no memory of the previous day.

Valley of Fire by Madelyn

Daniel is captured and will be sold at an upcoming market unless the rest of SG-1 can rescue him in time. And that so completely fails to describe anything important about this story, which is sort of slow and drowsy and not at all an action story.

consequences of falling by D

Xander needs a date for a company party. The only one available is…Spike.

“And you care about my professional endeavors?” Xander snapped. “Please. Look, Spike, I don’t know what the scam is, but—”

“No scam.” Spike’s eyes were eerily direct as they bored into Xander’s, his hand again a vise on Xander’s arm. “Bit of free food and tormenting rich old biddies who need some young blood—”

“You’re old enough to be their grandfather! Probably their great-grandfather!”

“—young blood to spice things up. Don’t make this a big deal, Harris, and no, you aren’t getting rid of me so you might as well just deal with it.”

Half-Windsor by Ladycat

This is a Spike/Xander story, continuing in Blue-Eyed Boy, with a Spike/Buffy epilogue, Some Scenes from the Later Life of Two Heroes (which continues in the in-progress Waiting Around.) I was just looking for some light, snarky, S/X fun when I stumbled across this, like fishing for trout and catching a shark instead.

After Not Fade Away, Spike is living with Illyria, mourning Angel and the rest of the gang, and isn’t really prepared when Xander, back from Africa and profoundly damaged, shows up in LA.

Over and above some really great writing, there are a few things I think this story does really well. Most S/X stories, profoundly as I love them, tend to gloss over Xander’s attitude toward demons in general and Spike in particular. This one doesn’t, while offering a plausible reason why Xander would get involved with him. I like that the story doesn’t take the easy way out, making Spike the answer to all of Xander’s problems. There’s also a certain amount of humour, even absurdity, which helps to lighten some of the darker moments.

The best thing about The Approved Mode of Payback and Blue-Eyed Boy is that they take a hard look at what the outcome of Chosen might have been, and sadly, their predictions seem all too plausible.

The Approved Mode of Payback by Herself

Mal and River have a difference of opinion. Spoilers for Serenity.

“I just wish everybody didn’t think I was so broken.” This time she didn’t look at him. Her voice sounded small, like it used to.

“You’re not broken,” he said, automatically.

“Tell that to my brother.”

“That’s not why he turned you down.”

“But it’s why you will.”

Mal had no words, only gaped at her.

“Go to bed,” she said, after a long minute.

And he did.

I Fall by Kass

McKay becomes attractive to everyone.

We Cannot Live Within by Trakkie

This is a great crossover of Dexter and Stargate Atlantis. Creepy and funny in turns, just like the show.

My name is John. John Sheppard. I don’t know what made me the way I am, but whatever it was left a hollow place inside. People fake a lot of human interactions, but I feel like I fake them all. I fake them very well. That’s my burden I guess. I don’t blame my parents for that, Mary and Nathan Sheppard did a wonderful job raising me.

But they’re both dead now. I didn’t kill them.

Honest.

John by kHo

Slight spoilers for Mélusine and The Virtu, but more to the point, the story won’t be very interesting if you haven’t read the books. (And by the way, all of Sarah Monette’s books are excellent, and likely to appeal to anyone who enjoys slash fanfic, so pick up a copy of Mélusine, The Bone Key, or A Companion to Wolves a.s.a.p.)

I really like this story. There aren’t many plausible ways to get Felix and Mildmay together, but this one works for me. Especially Felix’s reaction; let’s face it, there are very few things Mildmay could do to hurt Felix, but this one would be humiliating as well as painful, even though Mildmay didn’t mean it that way.

First by Scribblemoose

Oh my god, I love this story! John is a robot.

SGA fandom kicks so much ass.

The Difference Engine by Sam Starbuck

A fairly short, slightly angsty, delightfully romantic piece of fluff. In an attempt to put a halt to a demonic investment scheme, Spike takes part in a plan Xander hates.

Lt. Uhura and the Change of Life by Witling

Years after Chosen, Spike and Xander are both helping Buffy to train a houseful of slayers, when a somewhat traumatic event causes Xander to reevaluate his life. And Spike to come up with a cunning plan.

This story is nice and light, without too much angst. Season 2 Spike is the most fun to watch on TV, but in print, I like Spike the way he is here—snarky but mostly the fool for love.

The story continues in Parts 4-7 and Parts 8-12.

My Funny Valentine by Witling

Wow, it seems like such a long time since I’ve read any really good HP slash. And this story is awesome.

A plot by Voldemort’s forces leaves Harry without his magic, unable to defend himself from any attack. In an attempt to keep him safe, Dumbledore has him move into a London flat, with Snape as his only contact with the wizarding world.

I categorized this story as “humour”, even though it really isn’t, because I found Snape’s thoughts about Harry’s new neighbourhood hysterically funny.

Potter’s hallway resonated with the same rhythmic, primitive thumps he’d heard the week before. Perhaps it wasn’t music at all, but some sort of debased communication between the tenants. Snape stood outside the door and knocked.

There was a lengthy pause, during which he was able, to his chagrin, to make out a semblance of lyrics accompanying the din–an invitation to slump my hump, humpy hump, slump my dumpy hump, it seemed–and then, just as he was raising his hand to knock again, the door opened a crack. Potter stood behind it, eyeing him warily.

For the most part, though, the story is contemplative and a bit sad, but a wonderful read.

Sanctum Sanctorum by Witling

An episode tag for Suns and Lovers. With bondage. Better yet, reciprocal bondage.

Fair Exchange by Shan

(Link is to the first story in the series.)

This is one of my favourite Firefly fanfics. The whole cast is perfectly themselves. The plot goes AU sometime between Objects in Space and the Big Damn Movie. This story is a good example of how a few small changes can change everything, and it’s also total wish fulfilment for me, changing everything about Serenity that I didn’t love, and leaving all the parts I did. (Not that I would have preferred to see the movie happen this way, exactly, but I’m happy to see it explored in fic.) There are five stories in the series:

1. Two Gorram Days: while the others go off on a rescue mission, Jayne, laid up with a broken leg, is left to look after River. He finds this less difficult and more enjoyable than he expects.
   
2. Kinship: Simon and Inara become friends, River and Jayne get closer, and Mal is in a bad mood.
   
3. Bank Job: an alternate version of Serenity: Those Left Behind, featuring a girls’ afternoon in and the end of the Hands of Blue guys (Say what you like about Joss Whedon, the man can create some seriously creepy villains. Note to self: never watch Hush alone late at night ever again.)
   
4. Miranda: alternate version of the Big Damn Movie, with enough changes to keep you on the edge of your seat, even when you think you know what’s coming.
   
5. Prodigal: after Miranda, they all get to meet the family Jayne left behind many years earlier.

I don’t like Prodigal as much as the others, and there’s some squabbling at the end of Miranda that kind of annoys me (but much less than it would in another fandom, because Joss Whedon’s characters totally would intrude on each other’s private lives in just this way), but overall it’s an awesome series, set in a fandom that doesn’t have nearly enough fic. Dyce hits the characters’ voices perfectly, too.

Horseshoe Nails by Dyce

This goes AU after Season 3. Aeryn leaves Moya, and returns, but she’s a little fuzzy on what’s happened in the meantime. When they finally figure it out, she and John attempt to retrieve something from Grayza’s command carrier, with less-than-ideal results.

I like this story, but I’m not sure I’d have bothered to recommend it if it weren’t for the awesome follow-up fics, all of which I liked better. Here are all the stories in the series:

• The Future or Something Like It by Officersun524
• Future’s End by Kernezelda
• Future Interruptus by Kernezelda
• Days of Future Past by Officersun524
• A Shared Future by Kernezelda

Future’s End recounts the beginning and end of John’s time with Grayza. I don’t want to spoil anything, but I will say that I like the original characters, especially the most important one, and I like getting to see a bit of Braca’s point of view and feelings about Crichton, something that will continue in the other stories.

Days of Future Past and A Shared Future are alternate versions of the same basic events, both set after John’s rescue from Grayza.

Future Interruptus is a companion to Future’s End, filling in the details of the time John was with Grayza, from her point of view. I suggest that this be read last, even though chronologically it takes place earlier, for a couple of reasons. The most important is that it’s simply a better story than any of the others, and I think the later stories suffer a bit in comparison. Unlike the others, Future Interruptus is a character piece; although it has a plot, the real focus is on Grayza and the relationship she (thinks she) has with John. Maybe it’s just me, but I’ll take a good character-driven story over an equally good plot-driven one any day, and as an exploration of Grayza’s character, Future Interruptus is more than good; it’s superb.

(I’ve come to have more of an appreciation for her since I watched Rebecca Riggs, the actress who plays her, talk about Mele-On Grayza in clips from the Season 4 DVD on Youtube.)

The Future or Something Like It by Officersun524 and Kernezelda