recs and links

Steve Rogers: accidental hipster taken to its logical, and wistfully funny conclusion.

"I'm sorry, for some reason I wasn't expecting a definition of inexperience that included your girlfriend, your 'best friend' and eight chorus girls at once," Tony cracked. Steve's got a very conditional definition of virginity. Even Tony's a little scandalized. Hilarious. Also, Steve/the USO ladies FTW.

Lin learns to bend steel. Lovely.

The ways that Lin Bei Fong learns to earthbend. Lovely.

Sometimes, to cry, to scream, you need to stand in the middle of a thunderstorm and let the rain mix with your tears and the thunder mute your voice. And sometimes, to shake apart, you need to live in an apartment that stays only barely above freezing. Here, in this small apartment, he can sit by the fire and shiver in the cold. He can shake apart and hold up his frostbitten fingers as proof that he’s not trembling. She just packs extra layers and drinks a lot of coffee. When he wants to know why there’s never any coffee when he looks she tells him it will stunt his growth. Natasha takes Clint to Russia to mourn and heal after the movie. Nicely sharp yet empathetic Natasha POV.

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Short, sweet post-movie Darcy/Coulson.

Really good, unsentimental look at Natasha's backstory.

interview with Elizabeth Wein re: Codename Verity? Read after finishing the book. Spoilers?

Bruce and Tony have a surprisingly heartfelt conversation during a barbecue. Plus, excellent thumbnail characterizations of everyone else. I draw a million sparkly hearts around this story.

Brilliantly done story of the way Calvin and Hobbes' lives intertwine. Oh heart.

Steve and Bucky and art through the years. this made me all achy in the chestal area for them. Oh, Steve.

Everybody who's dealt with Bruce Banner for more than five minutes and isn't a moron knows that Bruce is a genius. Y'know, really really really goddamn smart. Almost as smart as Tony. And once they've been around a while, they figure out that Bruce is quietly a super funny guy. But what most people don't realize about Bruce is that he's absolutely fucking devious. Tony loves that about him. Most of the time. Exactly what it says on the tin. SCIENCE BROS ARE THE BEST BROS. This is adorable and hilarious.

Clint Barton is Peggy Carter's grandson. Full of "Oh, Steve" and a lovely Steve-Natasha relationship.

Lovely look at Steve's relationships with Peggy and Bucky and what he's lost. (could use a good beta)

Steve goes on a road trip and the Avengers eventually become a team. Oh Steve. Oh my heart. *sniffle*

Awesomely fun vid full of explosions and (spoilers)

Adorable Bruce & Tony: SCIENCE BROS story in which there are lasers, water balloons and all manner of science geekery and team bonding.

"You should fight Nat, then," Clint pants. He doesn’t have superhuman stamina, and the sparring has lasted long enough that he’s lying on his back on the mats, staring at the rafters. "She could teach your bullies a thing or two about how to fight dirty." Steve gives her that wholesome, all-American grin that was plastered on trading cards and recruiting posters. "I don’t doubt it. You kind of remind me of my girl, you know." Natasha raises an eyebrow, and Clint snorts. "You’ve never known any girls like her, I promise." "Peggy Carter," Steve says dreamily. "She once shot at me. Claimed it was to test my shield, but we both knew better than that." Natasha and Clint try to fit themselves into the Avengers. Lovely.

Steve puts his artistic skills to good use post-movie (spoilers, obv.). Oh, heart.

Clint and Natasha deal (or not) with what happened in the movie. Lovely. And the sequel: http://archiveofourown.org/works/412017 far from here we are all right. In which Natasha recruits Betty Ross as a way of neutralizing the hulk.

Bucky's having a hard time sticking to one language and he's afraid it means he could just revert back to being Winter Soldier at any moment. Steve and Natasha try to help in their own ways.

"Something tells me that ten year old me wouldn't think that was a very good excuse." "Ten year old you didn't save the world today." Bruce smiled, looking at Tony out of the corner of his eye. "I'm not saying he never did, because it wouldn't surprise me in the least. But today? He doesn't get an opinion." Tony & Bruce, geeking out over Tony's little trip at the end of the movie. Oh, heart.

The less said about awkward team dinner number five, the better. Suffice it to say, it involves a puff pastry danish, a dark alley in Prague, three wisdom teeth and a toe bone, Spanish assassins, a plaster bull, a real live bull, Nazi treasure, awkward, stilted bonding over tragic pasts while trapped in a drain pipe, and sixteen hours Tony will never get back and does not want to think about, thankyouverymuch. And a whole lot of drinking? Just, like. Not enough. Just really not enough drinking. Hee! This is adorable. Awkward Avengers mealtime rituals.

When Bruce asks to see the arc reactor, he doesn't expect Tony to strip off his shirt and proposition him. Oh, Tony. Oh, Bruce. This is hilarious and lovely.

Pepper and Coulson don't go directly to LGA after that scene in the movie. She and Tony help him unwind first. Lovely and snarky and believable.

Highly enjoyable AU noir detective story with Peggy Carter as our fearless detective, Darcy as her snarky assistant, and Steve and Bucky as the last two honest cops in town.

Steve and Bucky share a bed and a first kiss.

Tony and Pepper slowly introduce Bruce into their relationship. Oh heart.

The Avengers stitch and bitch. Adorable.