recs and links

Christmas at the 99! Gets all the voices perfect. (I especially love Holt here.)

Peralta accidentally acquires a baby. This is adorable. (CAPTAIN HOLT! ♥)

The world only ever seemed to meet him halfway on how it was supposed to be. “Some people just don’t know how a mystery is supposed to work, Hobbes.” He opened the bottom drawer of his desk, and pulled out a can of soda. It was probably only fair. Sometimes he only met the world halfway himself. Calvin & Hobbes grow up to be private detectives.

"You asked me to come, I'll come," Eric says. These boys and their doubt. Like they don't know he loves them as much as they love him. Like they have no clue how much he cares. Smash has a request for Coach Taylor. Oh my heart. This is a lovely snippet of the future for both of them.

When Steve and Jensen change places, Bucky learns they both have a type. Hee!

Jack and David, ten years on. Lovely.

Darling story of Kamala and Anya teaming up to fight bad guys and becoming friends. Oh heart.

Really lovely look at Cass seeking out an old friend, with Steph's help.

After many years away, Ümmühan returns to Astineh. Lovely and elegiac.

Abigail goes to meet the Genus Locii of Ettersberg. Lovely.

Lovely look at Joe being a dad to Barry.

Mercy of Kalr has a gift for Breq. Oh this is lovely.

Peggy Carter meets Veronica FitzOsborne in New York after the war! Heart!

lovely Mr. Butler POV on Phryne and Jack's UST

lush, sweet Achilles/Patroclus

Maia learns to play chess. oh heart.

The Emperor's nohecharei never leave him alone. The Emperor's bride has her own thoughts on the matter. Csethero makes life a little easier (and more interesting) for herself and Maia. Lovely.

The annual Fort McGee Family Fun Festival has always been a victim of sabotage. But not this year, with Private First Class Randy Hill on the job! Oh this is great - it reads just like an episode, with Derrick as an agent of chaos and Randy being the best Randy he can be. Oh bles.

Excellent casefic set between Broken Homes and Foxglove Summer (so no spoilers for the latter). (There is some weird formatting stuff going on though - extra spaces inserted in a lot of words)

He'd known she was beautiful, once, back when he'd still thought of such things, before her cool professional manner and his growing bitterness had pushed all the whimsy out of his mind. She is radiant now, arms flung wide, face tipped back to drink in the sun, spinning in the sand and sea as her hair flies around her face. On an island paradise with their only transportation sailing steadily into the horizon and civilization a good five-hour hike away, Aaron thinks he's never been surrounded by such beauty before. He thinks he finally knows what happiness feels like. Aaron and Marta, living in the aftermath. Lovely.

Colin's ten-year journey to bring Polly home. Excellent story, filling in the part of the story the novels didn't give us (without some of the more annoying tics). Definitely recommended, but carve out some time - it's 83k words long.

Rosa and Amy's book club. awesome!

"I'm perfect," Gina says, because obviously. It's like Rosa isn't even trying to be a detective anymore. Gina's got it going like Queen Bey. "You woke up like this?" Rosa cocks a smile. Gina nods and takes her coffee. She feels like one of those teachers in an after-school specials when they finally teach a kid to read. "Flawless." Rosa is Wonder Woman, because of course she is. And Gina is her Wonder Girl.

"For a date," said Jaime, as he started to recover - only to narrowly miss flying directly into a billboard advertising some kind of shampoo. "You can't just- invite me out on a date with you and your girlfriend-" "We totally just did." "Yeah," Jaime said. He tried to pass the anxious tension in his voice off as a cough, but he didn't think it was very successful. Taking a deep breath, he landed on the ground on his front lawn, only stumbling a little bit before he found his footing. "... Yeah, okay." Tactical advantage: Paco Tejas. "Shut up," Jaime muttered viciously. Adorable story in which Jaime starts dating his best friends. He's a little awkward about it, but Khaji Da is on board.

“I haven’t,” Amy says, distracted by the fact that she’s almost panting against the side of Rosa’s face, “With a girl—a woman,” because, yeah, Rosa’s not a girl. Rosa has possibly never been a girl. Rosa probably came out of the womb as a grown ass woman wearing tasteful leather, and Amy has always been kind of jealous of that, except she’s not jealous right now. She is definitely something other than jealous.

Steve leaves letters for Bucky when he thinks Bucky's not going to come back. Oh my heart.

Very hot and sweet Steve/Bucky/Natasha.

Lovely, meditative look at Bucky dealing with Steve being away on a mission.

Steve and Sam visit the 99. Absolute HILARITY ensues.

Bucky recovers slowly, Steve tries to deal, and also goes on the Daily Show. I enjoyed this (though the narrative calls him "Buck" instead of "Bucky" too often for my liking, but I realize that's a personal pet peeve).