Templum Bellonae

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

What if s5 Angel had involved Angel keeping Wesley as his own personal sex slave? What if Spike joined in? What more would I really need to say to explain why this concept appealed to me?

And what more is there to say about why I’m recommending this?

Pet by The Brat Queen

And its sequels, Memory Shines Like Teeth and Moonlight and Prometheus Unbound.

I’m not exactly the biggest fan of incest, especially father/son incest, but a lot of the good Connor fics online seem to be Angel/Connor, and this is one of them.

After NFA, Angel gets depressed and Connor gets enraged. And Illyria is perfectly in character, except that her random monologues are actually interesting and relevant. I like her so much better in fanfic.

Angels and Insects by Lynne

The notion of comfort and family is pretty damn tricky. Damned if you do…

Two decades on. Not that dark, but there’s no happy ending.

Last Men Standing by Kita and Mayaan