recs and links

"Well, what's this idea of yours, then?" "Oh, right." James tugged Sirius a bit further down the corridor, stopping beside a statue of Brunhilde the Belligerent. Sirius offered her a polite nod, since she was nine feet tall and armed like a Viking. "Remember that time, with the sneezworts?" "Which time with the sneezeworts?" Sirius asked. "When Remus, um," he turned to watch Mary MacDonald walk by -- no tits, fabulous legs -- and James' huffed loudly and smacked him in the shoulder. "Sorry. When Remus lost his eyebrows, or when Peter walked backward and spoke Gaelic for a week?" "Welsh, wasn't it?" "Does it matter?" "Not really, no," James said, letting his rucksack sag to the floor. James's potion doesn't go exactly according to plan. Hilarity ensues. MWPP at their hilarious best. ♥

Five books people gave Barbara Gordon. This is lovely, and a nice twist on the original 5 books Barbara Gordon put on hold at the library.

Lovely look at Mai as she matures over the years.

“God,” he said, “Why didn’t I ever do this before?” “I was wondering the same thing,” Steve said. “I was-- scared, I guess. That you wouldn’t feel the way I did.” “Well, that was stupid of you,” Bucky said. “and stupid of me-- god, look at you.” There was the thing he hadn’t been thinking about, the unspoken worry that had plagued his romantic life since 1942. “But you knew me before-- all this,” Steve said. “You’re the only one who did.” Bucky’s eyes went soft, and he leaned in to kiss Steve again. “Haven’t forgotten a minute of it,” he said, “even if it’s not all in the right order anymore-- and one thing I can tell you, Rogers, is that you haven’t changed a bit, except on the outside.” “Still as stupid as I ever was?” Steve asked, quirking up the corner of his mouth. “You got it in one,” Bucky said, and he put his hand down Steve’s pants. Oh my heart. So the Winter Soldier starts killing people in NYC and the case is handed off to the Avengers, and Steve discovers that it's Bucky and oh man, this is so much what I want from stories dealing with the Winter Soldier - Bucky's slow recovery and Steve by his side and yes. SO MANY STEVE AND BUCKY FEELS OMG.

Cordy makes Xander feel safe. Aw, I liked them so much as a couple.

Scott's POV when Alex and Charles rescue him. Lovely. (remix of Dig for Fire)

This remix of The Leadership Breakfast from Steve's POV gives us him and Darcy as adorable friends and shows what was on those ripped out pages of Steve's sketchbook.

Really lovely story of Meg and the way the Doctor weaves in and out of her life, because *of course* he does. I mean, I'm not familiar with Doctor Who, but this makes perfect sense to me from Meg's POV.

Zuko, trying to handle life as the Fire Lord, in the aftermath of the war. this is a really nice look at how difficult it must have been, and Zuko is wonderfully in character, irritable and hopeful all at once.

Lily and Sirius have a quiet conversation shortly before the Fidelius is cast. Heartbreaking and lovely.

part of her space military!au series (just read the whole thing). Steve proposes 13 times before Bucky says yes. Oh, my heart.

Rule 63!Steve and Bucky wash up on the Canadian shore and share a first kiss. Really lovely.

"Merlin's balls, you always were a maudlin drunk," Remus says. It's gentle, though, almost affectionate. Sirius wonders about that. The fondness. If it's for the boy he was or the man he is, or some better possibility of him Remus held onto. At some point, he should ask about it. Might be a bit awkward, he supposes. "You never did like talking about that stuff," Sirius says, and that's true. Remus was always secretive, always guarded, even if the secrets he was guarding weren't the ones Sirius imagined they were. Maybe they should have that conversation, too. "You talked enough for both of us on any subject." Sirius and Remus and those first few days at 12 Grimmauld Place, learning that even though they're both broken, there's still something between them that can grow and heal. Oh, my heart.

For the longest time, he had been the only person in Steve’s life, the only constant. At least, that’s what he had always felt about it. Steve didn’t really have many friends, and Bucky hadn’t... Well, he hadn’t always encouraged Steve to look elsewhere, when it came to other people. (Disastrous double dates notwithstanding.) They had been everything to each other. Bucky finally figures out why he's jealous. ♥

Your life is the best story! Just start your blog today!

bamf katara vid

Tony doesn’t find most people that interesting. Spider-Man is definitely interesting. It’s not even the secret identity thing – SHIELD is full of people who may or may not be using their legal name during interactions with Tony. Spider-Man’s not even the only person Tony’s ever worked with without seeing their face (he really hopes Fury knows who was on the other end of those Helicarrier conference calls). The secret identity doesn’t hurt the intrigue, but its main effect is just to make Tony so curious that he pisses the kid off. ‘Kid’ is still a hazy concept, but he’s definitely got the age narrowed down to ‘younger than me, old enough to drink’ which is fair enough. “There must be people who know,” Tony says. “Why must there?” Adorable bantery Tony/Peter that remembers Peter is a science geek.

This has been coming for fifty years. He shouldn't be surprised at all, except there were days he thought it would never happen, that they would both die bitter and alone and ruined, that everything they had, all of the potential between them, all of the magnificent emotion and overwhelming love would wither, would extinguish. He knows he shouldn't have doubted--he was the optimistic one. He was the one who held out hope. But it's never been easy, not since those first few months when they were buoyed by lust and discovery and pure wonder at all of the time they had in front of them. So much time, spiraling outwards, and they were so damn young. Breathtakingly lovely story of Charles and Erik retiring and finally having a life together. *happy sigh*

The brilliance of light against the warmth is the first thing he notices, pressing against his face. He thinks it must be someone’s hands, because it’s foreign at first, but no one touches his face, not since his mother, really. Steve dreams of Peggy and Bucky in the ice, and tries to come to grips with the future when he wakes up. Delicate and lovely and absolutely heartbreaking. Oh, Steve...

Last week, over 600,000 Macs were infected with a new trojan called the Flashback trojan, and even if you've updated your software, you could still be infected. Here's an app that will check your computer for the trojan, and how to remove it if you find you're infected.

Someone comes back, and it's Bucky, except that it's not. He remembers everything and trusts nothing, and Steve doesn't really blame him. Aside from everything else (assassinations and brainwashing, bits of him cut loose and never returned, seventy years in the darkness and his face still yesterday-fresh), Steve knows that he's not quite the person Bucky's remembering either. Loss'll do that to you. Really lovely, slow and sweet Steve/Bucky.

Starbuck vid

"Barton." Even half-asleep and muffled in a pillow, there was a note of command to her voice that made him stop dead in his tracks, halfway across the cabin. "Stop pacing, or I'm going to break whatever bones are left intact in your body." "There are six and a half paces from one wall to the other," he told her. "The half keeps throwing me off." She made a low frustrated noise and sat up, the thin blanket sliding down from her shoulders. "Take smaller paces, then," she told him. "Or better yet, get over here and get some sleep, like you were ordered to." He shook his head. "We're getting debriefed when we get back," he said. "I can't forget anything." really lovely story of Clint and Natasha's partnership.

Peeta only comes at dawn, just at the break when the sheen of the sky is barely lifted from darkness. Katniss is awake, of course, up in her room. She sleeps with her door open nowadays. (She doesn’t sleep at all.) She listens to his movements downstairs, the step of his bad leg twice as hard against the wood. She listens without saying a word. Lovely post-Mockingjay story focusing on Katniss's slow healing process.

Steve and Tony get de-aged. Coulson, Clint, and Darcy take turns babysitting. I enjoyed wee!Steve and wee!Tony being adorable. (could have used more Darcy; also, why no Pepper?)

Really lovely snippet of Bucky/Natasha.

Winter is a bad time for dragon fever, said the doctor. Mother said, There's no good time for it. The doctor said, Well. Mako listened at the stairs. He was supposed to be in bed, but Bolin kicked in his sleep and Baolan would not sleep at all but cried instead all night. (Colic, the doctor said.) Mako had crept out, light as a cat. No one would know. He was good at it. One possible backstory for Mako and Bolin. Have tissues handy.

"Did it hurt?" she asks, unlike her, to ask of anything that’s not about the mission, the Motherland, the enemy and their headcount, her eyes on his arm, her face impassive and her voice level, but he thinks he knows a tell or two by now, and her eyes, they give her away every time, and he closes a metal fist, says, "Still does." Sharp, shivery Bucky/Natasha set while he's still the Winter Soldier. Oh my heart.

"Feeling warmer?" she asks, mouthing the words over the curve of his hipbone, and he shivers again, feeling goosebumps rising on his arms, and she smirks. "You're still shaking, there, hotshot." And he laughs, he has to, because this is why he loves her, the wit and the warmth and the knowledge that she’s not just another shade of grey, not with her bright hair and brighter eyes, not with her laugh and her smirk and the smiles, the tiny ones that he suspects are just for him. “I’m just glad you let me come in from the cold,” he tells her, and there it is, that smile, slow and sweet like honey, and he thinks he can almost taste it on her lips when he kisses her. really lovely Bucky/Natasha

Steve has some trouble with learning to use a cellphone. Luckily, Darcy is an awesome and patient teacher. This is adorable.