recs and links

Their relationship as it stands has one mathematical certainty: It will end in twenty-five days. At that time, her sojourn as his sober companion will end. Either Watson will pass out of his life forever, or Holmes will have to devise another option. Maddeningly officious as she can be, stern and demanding as he sometimes finds her, he has absolutely no intention of letting her pass out of his life. Whatever he has to do to keep her around, he’ll do. Holmes even briefly considered using again. A relapse into the warm deceitful embrace of heroin would mean another (hopefully briefer) stint in rehab and then another six weeks of sober companionship, wouldn’t it? But he’s rejected this plan. Relapsing would be the same as saying to his father that Joan Watson had failed. He wants to keep her around, but won’t throw her under the bus. Really excellent look at Sherlock trying to figure out how to get Joan to stay after the six weeks is up, and their relationship in the bargain.

“It’s okay, Alfred,” Dick said far too cheerfully for someone caught in a fireman’s carry by the Batman. He gave him a jaunty wave; Alfred was unsurprised to find his hand covered in blood. “This is not my first rodeo!” He paused, then said, “Which is funny because I’m pretty sure this has also happened to me at a rodeo.” Bruce grunted, placing Dick gently down on the table. “He’s lost a lot of blood,” he said by way of explanation. Alfred gave him a withering look. “I rather hadn’t noticed, sir,” he said. “And you? Any gaping flesh wounds I should be aware of?” “I’m fine,” Bruce said tersely. He removed his cowl and looked at Dick with an expression that wasn’t worried so much as it was resigned. “Take care of him.” “I always manage to, sir,” Alfred said. Alfred and Dick, taking care of each other. Oh, my heart.

Five reasons Clint shouldn't date Kate. This is adorable.

Sirius works in a coffee shop with James. Remus is a customer. Oh, my heart. This story is really lovely - melancholy and measured, full of heartbreak and hope and a happy ending. *sniffle* OTP OF OTPS.

"It's entirely possible that olive just couldn't stand being parted from you while you were indisposed. And I can't say I blame it." She preened a bit at the compliment, then narrowed her eyes. "As nice as that theory is, I rather think it's you we should be investigating for the olive—specifically your stomach." She poked him in the suspected region. "Darling, do you really think I'd eat the olive and leave the martini?" She contemplated that for a moment. "No, I suppose that's not your style." "Thank you." He picked up the martini glass again and swallowed the rest of it—just to be sure the missing olive hadn't turned up while they were talking, of course. Adorable Nick/Nora that gets the banter down perfectly.

Nightingale finally tells Peter about Ettersberg. Really well done. Sensitive handling of a difficult subject that's in character as well as moving, heartbreaking and yet hopeful at the end.

Really good look at M and her relationship with Bond.

Bucky leans further into Steve’s side and closes his eyes. He’s shivering. Cautiously, Steve lifts his arm and wraps it around Bucky’s waist, squeezing carefully. “You always hold me like I’m gonna break,” Bucky complains. “You know, I’m pretty much indestructible.” “Not to me,” Steve says, nonsensically. He wants to ask how Bucky would like to be held, but even thinking it makes his heart pound too hard. Really lovely first kiss for Steve and Bucky, after the heat goes off at the tower and they have to huddle a little for warmth.

Clint's got a new partner and a dog and no idea what he's doing, but things seem to be working out all right.

Wendy and Ida, with an assist from Lacey, save the city when the Middleman is incommunicado. Adorable and wacky, just like the show.

Fun ensemble story that also features Shraeger/Walsh and still manages to sound exactly like the show.

It’s her idea to name her daughter Bacon. Most people wouldn’t name their daughter after popular breakfast meat, or Elizabethan philosophers, but it had taken one look at her Intro to Philosophy syllabus freshman year to make the ironic connection between Calvin and Hobbes, and she’d had to explain to her roommates why she was laughing so hard. Pitch perfect slice of Calvin & Hobbes/Hobbes & Bacon.

Kenneth had struggled with the mysteries of chapter books, but Aaron—Aaron could comprehend tactical reports and weapons manuals and speed-read his way through thick paperback novels. The first volume of poetry he'd read had left him stunned, near breathless at the realisation that there could be songs without music. Aaron/words=OTP!

"Look, I know you two have this fraught thing happening, where Casey's the guy and you're the other guy, but the fact of the matter is that ESPN and Fox have four Caseys apiece pulling in males eighteen to thirty-four." Sam leveled a finger at Dan. "You're the reason women eighteen to forty-nine are sending us panties in the mail. That's where we're gonna make our play." "We have a fraught thing happening?" Casey asked faintly. "Women send us panties in the mail?" Dan asked doubtfully. "Lots of panties," Natalie sighed. Dan and Casey both looked at her. "We screen them out. The last thing you need is to get a box of strange women's panties every month." "A box a month? Nice." Dan hesitated and made a rewind gesture with his hand. "Wait, the women are strange or the panties are strange?" Really excellent Dan/Casey that nails both the banter and the characters perfectly. Oh, Danny.

“Hey, Jess is the one who dumped you for her best friend and then invited you to the wedding and insisted that you bring a date even though she knew you weren’t seeing anyone. You’re just lucky I took pity on you and decided to let you tote me around as arm candy for the evening.” “Yeah, thanks for that,” Clint mumbled. “It definitely wasn’t the judgemental looks from all the party guests or the talk about Taking Advantage Of Your Youth And Hero-Worship that Steve tried to give me that drove me to drink.” “Oooo, sarcasm,” Kate drawled, and she clinked her bottle of wine against Clint’s glass and then gulped some down. Ahahahaha Hawkeye & Hawkeye, drunk and hilarious up on the roof.

It was some time later that Brenda and Paco turned up, Brenda's cheeks suspiciously red, Paco's expression suspiciously smug. "Dude," he said, taking a seat next to Jaime on the couch with no apparent regard for the fact that Traci was sitting in his lap. "We've come up with a chart." "A chart?" Traci sounded amused. "I came up with a chart," Brenda corrected her boyfriend. "An illustrated map of what counts as hanging out time and what counts as date time." "So what are we doing now?" Jaime asked. "Hanging out," his friends said together, and Paco passed him a brightly coloured piece of paper. Jaime wondered if they'd had to go and buy the paper and a set of markers, or if Brenda just carried them around for emergencies, and decided it was better not to ask. Paco and Brenda are having a hard time distinguishing dates from making out. Jaime's not sure why it matters. This gets the voices just right.

Brief but lovely look at Marta and Aaron after the movie.

Really lovely story of what happens after the movie ends.

'Mother has a strong will and a dry tongue,' she said, 'but to drive a mage to spell her death? That-- Wait, there's no mage on the Overfell but the one at Re Albi.' 'Yes,' said Beech. 'The wizard Aspen.' 'I don't know his name,' said Apple impatiently. 'She never told me that, but Re Albi-- Yes, she said that the mage there had taken a dislike to her because she was a woman.' 'It can't just have been that,' exclaimed Spark. Apple swung her head like a bull to look at him and said, 'For some men that's all that's needed.' Really fantastic post-Tehanu story - I love getting to see Tenar and Ged from Apple's POV, and this story brings both Apple and Earthsea to life, as well as capturing the characters vividly.

"Seems like the Aurora is playing games with our dreams again, Cicely. I woke up this morning after dreaming about a visit from our old friend, Joel Fleischman. And I'm not the only one — Ed Chigliak and Maurice Minnefield both report that Dr. Joel greeted them in their dreams last night too. Looks like we might be doing some shared dreaming, Cicely! Feel free to call in and let us know if you met up with our former doctor in your sweet dreams. "Spend some time on the big old internet, and you'll find out all you ever wanted to know about meeting in dreamspace and astral projection, all kinds of stories from all kinds of people, all about the journeys their minds take while their bodies have checked out. True stories? Well, there's nothing quantified, nothing qualified, nothing proven, but here in Cicely, many of us have had our share of strange dreams, counting yours truly. "So, maybe we all had a visit from Dr. Joel last night. Are we all getting sick? Is our collective subconscious trying to tell us it's time to see a doc? Or were we all trying to tell Dr. Fleischman something, through the combined power of our dreams? It could be any and all of those things. This is KBHR, and you're listening to Chris-in-the-morning, Cicely. Let's get dreamy." Perfect sequel to the show.

"My grandfather has a motorbike garage in Manchester,” Maddie said. She couldn’t remember the last time she’d had an actual conversation about more than the terrible food or the conditions of the last flight. But she was enjoying this one with a girl who also loved engines even though her accent was more BBC than a mechanic's. *sniffle* This is really lovely, and I was so pleased to read a story where Maddie makes another friend.

In which Benji Dunn has a meet-cute on an aeroplane, falls in love, qualifies as a field agent, and nearly gets blown up far too many times. This is a really lovely look at Benji and Will before, during and just at the end of MI: Ghost Protocol.

“Holy cats!” Oliver said, dropping the sponge. There was still conditioner in his beard. “I think you mean, holy bats,” Bruce intoned, drawing his cape a little closer around him. Ollie aimed the sponge square at his face. Batman creeps on friends and enemies alike in the shower. HILARIOUS.

"Look. I'm in a long-term relationship with my shield." He finally looked up, a rueful smile on his face. "Or SHIELD, you know, whichever. And you've been having a succession of torrid love affairs since I met you." She felt her eyes widening and opened her mouth to protest, but he continued. "I think it's with the quinjet at the moment. Or there was a T6 you flew above 37,000 feet. Or –" She felt her mouth starting to break into a smile. "It's not a series of affairs, Captain. One long affair with the wide-blue sky; we just invite in other partners occasionally." Steve and Carol are friends with benefits.

A selection of scenes from classes Troy, Abed, and Annie have taken at Greendale. Pitch perfect and hilarious.

Nick and Cassie, on a roadtrip, feeling their way through to getting together. Lovely, with excellent banter and characterization, and hot too.

Really fantastic casefile from Nightingale's POV, that really captures his character, and also gives us a great look at Peter - and magic - from an outside POV.

“Get in the car, loser,” she says. “We’re going superheroing.” -- Getting in the car was a mistake. Mary Jane isn’t sure why she does it. (That’s a lie; she gets in the car because Gwen, better maybe than anyone else, knows how she’s felt for the past couple of months. It’s just that Mary Jane has never gotten up the nerve to go to her -- it’s too painful, swallowing her pride like that. Her pride feels like all she has left.) *cries* Yes, I want to see MJ and Gwen and Jessica team up to fight crime, please. Marvel, get on that now.

"She even kind of looks like bacon. Like, all red and streaky and - " "Ew," Susie had said, in a tired voice. "And also ew. And did I mention ew? And shut up. What is even wrong with you, Calvin?" "Hey," Calvin said, still mostly gazing in rapt adoration at the thing that had just pushed out of Susie's body, Jesus fuck, and also yes did happen to be the most wonderful thing ever to dream of existing, "you married me." "I did," Susie admitted. "And I even renewed vows after four years of living together." That had been to make a point to both their parents. "And then I had a baby with you. On purpose. Very on purpose." "Exactly," he said, beaming at her. Susie worries a little about the fact that Bacon talks to her stuffed animals. This is wonderful.

Miles meets up with Peter again after he falls into the 616!verse. I want to hug everyone in this story, but mostly Miles and Peter. *sniffle* I loved Miles getting some time to learn and Peter having someone to teach.