‘It’s nothing,’ he said, which was a blatant lie if ever I’d heard one. ‘In a minute -’ ‘With all due respect, sir,’ I said, ‘no chance in hell.’ Nightingale is sick and refuses to admit it. Exactly what it says on the tin, with a really good post-Lies Sleeping Peter POV.
Now, so many years later, Ged could look back on that boy's distress and feel pity for him, and at the same time he also found that he could see the errors that had been present even in the proper and genuine feelings of guilt that had eaten his child-self. Looking back, he saw both the lesson learned and the lesson failed: in order to reconcile with the gebbeth and vanquish the power of its shadow, it had been required of him that he relinquish his bitter resentment of the boy Jasper; and he had done it, coming sincerely to regret his stupidity and arrogance, his false instinct and easy assumption; but although he had felt shame then for his excessive display of force, it had taken him longer to understand the full measure of the wrong he'd done to Morred's lady, when he had called up her incandescent soul as a staging-ground for his foolish schoolboy pissing games. Ged figures some stuff out about being a person in the world.
Ostensibly this is about Bruce realizing that Cass and Steph are into each other and helping Cass out (he has many concerns about Gotham public school sex education) but mostly it's about Bruce trying to be a good batdad to his batkids and sometimes getting it awkwardly, hilariously right.
AU where Sirius and Remus grab Harry off the Dursleys' doorstep to raise him on their own, and how they're handling it in the aftermath of James and Lily's deaths. The sequel (https://archiveofourown.org/works/17062427) Put to Flight, is lovely too, about Remus and his Catholic guilt.
“Hey, I’m not the one who said I had to be here.” “And I’m not the one who spray painted a four-foot tall middle finger on Mrs. Gillespie’s shed.” (Or, Max and Hopper bond over one of the chief's favorite books.) Oh my heart. *sniffle*
And when he saw her for the first time after, saw her trying to manipulate Zuko into offering himself up as prisoner, and then giving hot pursuit when that failed, he thought only she’s crazy, and she needs to go down, because he thought of Zuko, saw that Zuko needed him, especially then. It is only now that Iroh realizes that she did too. That she still does. And he does not have the right words to say to her, not yet. But he will keep coming back until he does, and after. Iroh visits Azula in prison. GROSS SOBBING.
“What about you, Steve?” Dick asks, tipping his head back, eyeing him thoughtfully. “You’re military, right? You have trouble walking away from fights too?” Steve shifts in his seat and wonders what gave him away. He wonders how much Dick sees, how much intelligence and awareness he hides with pretty blue eyes and affable smiles and all those friendly, effortlessly charming mannerisms. “Just waiting for the next one,” he says. It’s maybe too honest for strangers, but all Steve has these days are strangers. Dick’s silent for a second and then he breathes out, takes a long drink of his beer. “I know a guy like that. Can’t say I’ve ever seen him happy.” Steve’s struck, for a second, by how alien that thought is to him. “Not sure being happy has much to do with it.” Oh Steve. This is really lovely - Steve's a mess, just out of the ice, and Dick is, as always, the best person the universe.
But still, it’s Miles behind the mask. This is a kid from Brooklyn moving too fast for his own skin, painting the world in colors so bright, it’s the least New York City can do to take some notice. Miles doesn’t just swing between the buildings. He rises. Lighter than the wind, the sirens, the sunlight reflecting from a million open windows. *sobs* Jefferson realizes Miles is Spider-Man and tries to figure out what to do about it. Oh my heart. This was so good.
I gave Destina the prompt: Steve/Thor, training, and she gave me this GLORIOUS little story that not only includes hot Steve/Thor, but ALSO Natasha's highly entertained outside POV on their shenanigans.
Twenty-something Lara Jean Song Covey is a grown ass woman who doesn’t run when she sees an ex she never quite got over, who still fucks her up with a look across a crowded room. No. Twenty-something Lara Jean Song Covey puts her chin up and walks straight into the fray. Excellent future fic that made me all achy in the chestal area.
Bucky’d dragged him out to Grady’s and gotten him drunk on two glasses of beer and pried the truth out of him: that Steve had overheard the doctor tell his Ma that he’d likely be dead by New Year’s. “Bull-shit,” Bucky muttered; he hadn’t known what else to say, he’d been so shocked and horrified. “What God damned horse-shit. What is he, a medium? He can’t see into the future – no one can. You just stay in the goddamned game, Steve. You got cards in your hand, fucking play ‘em,” and that New Year’s Eve 1935, when it turned out Steve wasn’t dead after all, they had decided to give the bars a miss and just stay in and play cards together. ♥♥♥
His hands are soft against her, one sliding under the edge of her tank top, feeling her heated skin as he slips his other hand into her hair; Nick knows, now, there’s no going back after this. It’s all or nothing, cards on the table, and Nick’s finally ready to gamble it all. Lovely bit of Nick/Cassie future fic.
"I want you on the Behemoth because you’re the right person for the job. Find a crew, people you trust. It’s time." The idea that he could try the same charisma shit on her that he pulls with the OPA faction leaders or the head of some Inner corporation he’s trying to sweet talk is infuriating. “Spare me the speeches, Freddy,” she scoffs, “they’ve never worked on me.” To his credit, he drops the act, his face hardening as it typically does when the two of them are discussing a particularly tricky deal. “Fine. I need you on the Behemoth because I need someone I can trust. But I wouldn’t ask if I didn’t think you were the best.” Damn the man, she won’t let him flatter her. Drummer is such a great character and I love the backstory built for her here - her anger and her pragmatism and her determination to do well by her people - as well as filling in her relationship with Naomi, and why it ended the way it did. I enjoyed this a lot.
