recs and links

How Pepper first meets the Hulk. Or, charity dinners and other catastrophes. Tony, Bruce, and Pepper go to a charity dinner and things go somewhat awry. Luckily, the Hulk is there to save them. This is lovely.

“All the things I've been through, sometimes it seems like they ought to have left marks. Sometimes I look in the mirror and it feels like a mockery that there aren't any. The war, all those battles, the people I fought them with... There should be something to say it was all real, that I can't just forget it.” Oh. Steve looks... Steve is looking the kind of manfully stoic he looks when he is trying to be Captain America more than Steve Rogers and not quite succeeding. It makes her want to strip the persona away, peel it off down to the bone of what he truly is, make him give that soft, unflickering strength up to her, exposed and bright and hers to care for. She thinks perhaps they are approaching a point where he'd let her, but she hasn't dared to take the step yet. She can't mess this one up. “Scars don't have to be on the outside,” she says. “If everyone can't see them that doesn't make them any less real.” Steve wishes he had some permanent scars. Natasha is happy to oblige. Ridiculously hot. (do read the tags, though.)

Hot, sweet, funny Darcy/Johnny Storm.

Sif and Steve have to share a bed. Sadly, nothing untoward happens, but they do have a nice conversation and Steve feels more comfortable afterwards.

Nick Fury has an assignment for the Black Widow. It's all very spy v. spy.

Ladies and gentlemen, we present Episode 1 of BATGIRL: SPOILED! We want to thank everyone for waiting so patiently while we ironed out the last few wrinkles. What you are about to watch (or have just watched) is the first of two episodes designed to establish the rest of the series. In about 30 days you should see Episode 2, which will resolve this episode's cliffhanger. Then we will begin exploring Gotham along with Stephanie as she tries to recover from her "No Good Very Bad Day." We filmed both episodes together, and Episode 2 is in post-production right now. We can't tell you exactly when it's going to drop, but like Episode 1 at Comikaze, we're looking for a comics convention to host the official premiere. News coming soon, folks! We would also like to thank everyone who was involved in making this series possible, and who has shown their support thus far. This episode is "streets ahead" of what we produced for the teaser/trailer and we are aiming for Episode 3 and beyond to be "streets ahead" of these first two installments. We are learning the art of producing on a micro-budget (i.e. - nearly nothing) and each time we warm up the cameras it gets better and better. Another big shout out goes to our star, Marisha Ray (@Marisha_Ray), for fighting for days of shooting in that very hot suit (literally and metaphorically). We may have almost killed her, but we have it on good authority she thinks it was all worth it. Please like, share, and favorite this episode. Please tell your friends. So many people have sacrificed so much to make this happen and we want to get the episode out to as many people as we can. We appreciate your help, too! In the next few weeks we'll be releasing an "FAQ" that explains why we made the choices we did in this episode and the series. Do you have questions you want answered? Tweet them at us care of @batgirlspoiled. Our website www.batgirlspoiled.com is having a minor technical issue, but it should be up soon along with cast and crew bios and more. Stay tuned! Please visit us on Facebook (http://www.facebook.com/BatgirlTheWebSeries) and become part of the community. After all this work it feels strange to put this out into the world. We hope you like it. We certainly do. Thank you for all the Stephanie-love. We'll be eating waffles tonight in celebration... or perhaps donuts. Mmmmm bat-pastries. BATGIRL: SPOILED is in no way affiliated with DC COMICS or WARNER BROS. BATGIRL: SPOILED is a not-for-profit web-series and not intended for sales of any sort.

Adorable and achy story in which Tony and Pepper have a baby.

“Bruce.” “Hi.” “What day is it?” “Thursday.” He wouldn’t have been sure of that this morning, but Tony has newspapers delivered to the apartment, despite the fact that he presumably hasn’t read print media in years. “Excellent,” Tony says. “Stay though the weekend this time. I have to give a speech to the board tomorrow – I need something to look forward to.” “You’re sure it’s okay?” Tony shrugs. “If it wasn’t, the elevator would have locked you out.” Bruce doesn’t know if things are simpler with Tony or so much more complicated that a whole system has been designed to make them understandable. The second would fit Tony more than the first. Bruce tries to figure out where he belongs in Tony's life.

Intriguingly dark Clint backstory.

"I missed you, you know," Sirius said, or that was what he thought Sirius said, and if there was an odd note in his voice, Remus's ear had grown accustomed to scrolling past Sirius's odd notes. He turned to look at Sirius again, raising his eyebrows, a little touched. "I missed you too." But Sirius shook his head, still looking at the floor, and finally seemed to take in a deep breath before raising his eyes. "No," he said, a little louder and clearer, with the tone of a man taking his first step off a cliff. "I said, I miss you." If Remus's mind did not stop at that statement, it at least slowed to a leisurely crawl. For a moment all he could do was stand and stare at Sirius, his wand dangling from one hand, half of him -- he hated to realize -- waiting for the punchline, even now. Sirius seemed to have shrunken a little inside himself at Remus's silence, and he wasn't looking at Remus anymore, but he kept talking nonetheless. "I don't know what that means," he said, again to the flagstones. "To you or me. I don't know whether you'd want me to be that much a part of your life again or not, and frankly I've been too much of a coward to ask. I don't even know..." He trailed off, sighed, and looked into Remus's eyes again. God, Sirius's eyes. "I don't expect anything from you, not at this stage. But there it is." Remus took a long, slow breath, and let it out again. He waited until he was sure Sirius was done speaking, and then said, "I love you," which was not what he'd expected to say, but it seemed appropriate to the situation once he'd said it. "I always have. I never stopped." Sirius's hand had gotten pressed across his eyes somewhere in the last three sentences, and he looked wearier than ever. "I'm sorry," he said, with something not entirely unlike a laugh in the middle. Remus shook his head, which Sirius couldn't see with his hand across his eyes, but never mind that. "Don't be. I'm not." Sirius let his hand fall away, gradually, although he still wasn't really looking at Remus. "It doesn't make me unhappy, Sirius. There've actually been times when -- loving you has been the only thing that's made my life worth living. Don't be sorry to me for that." Remus and Sirius, during the last year of the war and then during OotP. Oh my heart. *sobs*

"I'm not your boyfriend, Sirius," Remus said instead, in what he hoped was a very patient and reasonable tone of voice. He turned his attention firmly back to his essay, but not in time to miss Sirius's reeling back, clapping a hand to his chest probably hard enough to bruise. "You're breaking up with me?" He drew a long wounded, shuddering breath that was almost too convincing. "Fie, Remus! Fie and also alack! I should have known all along that you'd only break my heart." "You haven't got a heart," Remus told his parchment, another fine line digging its way between his brows. "You have a chunk of coal slag with arteries." "And you're breaking it!" It was hardly even worth noting that he never missed a beat. Sirius hit all the beats. No beat was safe. He shifted up onto his knees, shuffling even nearer on them, making Remus nearly splotch ink on his face. Not that he wouldn't have deserved it. "Tell me what I can do to make it up to you. I'll leap mountains and trim forests and drink oceans, and, er, eat meadows." Remus's composure finally cracked at this last, though, and the laughter had snorted its way free before he could even think of stopping it; Sirius bounced to his feet in victory. "Get my tongue stuck to polar ice caps! Urinate in deserts until they become meadows, then eat them!" "You ought to be locked up," Remus informed him, through occasional shaking shoulders, with a hand sealed over his eyes. "I mean it. You are gravely ill." "Only with love for you," Sirius said, and managed to sound so almost solemn enough about it that it dried the laughter in Remus's throat. Sirius becomes Remus's boyfriend as a drunken joke but Remus wants more. Hilarious and full of achy pining and then kissing. *happy sigh*

Incisive, meditative look at Bruce and his demons.

Lovely, achy Tony/Pepper/Coulson.

Steve is a little bewildered at Bruce and Tony's nerdfighting over Star Trek v. Star Wars. Adorable.

It takes Bruce a couple of conversations with Tony and Pepper to figure out what they're really saying. Oh, Bruce.

Her back, usually a plane of creamy white dotted with freckles, is covered with a sprawl of equations. They're beautiful. Force and motion are charted in stark black ink, curling around her shoulder blade and meandering across her ribs. The math is elegant, but even more intriguing is that none of these equations are finished and something in Bruce can’t let those variables hang there in space, unsolved for. Pepper glances over her shoulder at him, winks as she gestures to the integral that’s dipping down under her waistband. "You like it?" "Yes." His voice is raspy from the sudden dryness of his mouth. "Very much." sweet, smart, Pepper/Bruce(/Tony).

"Steve." She waits until he has her attention – full and undivided – and what she was about to say comes out not quite the way she intended to say it. “You terrify me.” As declarations of love go, it’s not very good. And Steve stares at her for a stunned moment during which she can hear someone’s hoot of laughter across the room and randomly hopes it’s not because someone’s sneaked a parabolic mike into the room and is training it on them. His mouth twitches. “It’s mutual, you know. You… You’re just…scary.” Then rushing a little as though she might order him shot him down, he adds, “We could agree to terrify each other.” “I don’t think that makes it better.” “It’s a risk,” he acknowledges, “for you more than for me.” “And we’re not the risk taking kind.” “Not the reckless kind. I’m happy to leave that to Stark and Thor, personally. But if we don’t take unnecessary risks, we don’t always play it safe, either. Or we wouldn’t be doing what we’re doing.” “Judiciously dangerous.” The words escape her lips before she can stop them. And then Maria wants to laugh – at his expression, at their conversation, at herself. Then a twinkle comes into Steve’s eye – a gleam of laughter, bright as day. “I’ll be judiciously dangerous if you will." Smart, sweet Steve/Maria Hill. I'm still not sure how I feel about this pairing, but this story makes it work.

I always had this dream that I was going to be this switch-hitter, that I was going to be one year writing a book like Drown and the next year writing Shadow of the Adept, and it never came to be, I moved so slow. And then of course what ends up happening is that what I’m known for is always my mainstream work, because unfortunately I’m pretty bad and seem to be very slow at my genre work.

“I can't have kids with you, Steve.” “I know the birds and bees don't work like that with the parts we've got, Buck,” he replies, voice fond, and maybe a little bit gentle. “It's not just that, Steve. Someone else could adopt—not me. The first thing I do when I get startled is go for the nearest weapon. It still takes me hours to get over the daytime flashbacks when I have them—and that's with you there to help me through it.” His grips the railing, hard. “And the nightmares—a little kid shouldn't have to deal with something like their dad waking up screaming almost every night. Kids are supposed to be able to crawl into bed with their parents if they get scared at night. Our bed would be too dangerous for that—because of me.” Sweet and achy. *sniffle* Oh, Steve. Oh, Bucky...

Steph wants to drive the Batmobile. Bruce finally lets her. The car's not the only thing that gets revved up. (Steph is still Robin at this point, if that's an issue for you. Also could use a line edit.)

Cute story in which Steve and Darcy huddle for warmth.

Steve harnesses the power of the internet to get Bucky back, and uses the power of stories to help him get better. Aw.

Hilariously pitch-perfect story of the Avengers fighting off Loki in Ankh-Morpork.

The Winter Soldier is on the run and no one is more surprised than he is by the fact that he is accompanied by a little boy who seems convinced that he is his father. Oh Bucky. Oh Stefan. OH MY HEART. This is really lovely - full of hope and melancholy and a really great kid POV.

A blur of blue up the front of Jayne's t-shirt, and there is a noise like someone hitting a steak. Jayne staggers, cross-eyed with the effort of looking at the thing astride his nose. The creature butts him again. "Crivens, isnae many Bigjobs can tek a second heidful o' Wee Begbie." says a small admiring voice, just before he passes out. Exactly what it says on the tin. Absolutely HILARIOUS.

Brief, adorably hilarious Middleman/The Tick crossover.

Coulson asks Natasha to go with him to High Holy Days services. It doesn't go quite as well as he'd hoped, at least not the first time. Really lovely - quiet and meditative with a great look at who Natasha is.

Really lovely, leisurely paced story in which Tony and Pepper slowly seduce Bruce into staying in New York, and then having a relationship with them.

All Shirley could think was that Andre would never have taken her here. She hadn’t had a rocket pop in years. She understood, all at once, that she loved her group more than she loved Andre, and that she would have to end things, because she couldn’t breathe in her own house anymore. She took off her shoes and put her feet into the water. “It may look like I’m having a nervous breakdown,” she said, “but I really do think I’m going to be fine.” “I know,” Troy said. He took her hand. “Everybody knows that, Shirley.” Excellent story about Shirley, that makes great use of Britta, too.