I actually didn't use but just happened to miss > at the end of one of my tags. LJ happened to do the rest, sadly. Thank you for pointing that out though! Everything was showing up completely normally on my end so you saved me from html-failure. ;)

I can understand what you mean about certain pairings throwing you off, though. I'm usually extremely flexible when it comes to pairings - het, slash, whatever - but in some fandoms I have a personal preference that I just can't shake. It really cuts down on the amount of fic you can read and makes you feel like you're missing something, even if you know you'd likely not get into it anyway.

What's your pairing preference (or do you prefer gen)? I'll admit I don't have many femslash fics stashed away in my buffy folder but then I never really enjoyed Willow/Tara or Willow/Kennedy fics and that's the majority of what I've found. They just don't work for me. :(

Thank you for the tip, by the way. I usually just use the rich text feature on my journal but it's handy to know for the future. :D

Wow, I thought I'd be told to piss off. ^^

I'm actually still stuck on Buffy herself, sadly enough. I mostly just read Buffy/Spike and Buffy/Angel(us). I like Buffy/Faith but can never find anything really good, and I don't mind the odd pairing like Buffy/The Immortal or Buffy/Darla (I've never seen anything good for that either. There is a sad dearth of lesbian!Buffy fic.)

I also don't mind a bit of Angelus/Darla or Spike/Dru ... provided it's really damn well written. Other than that, I just can't do it. And that's a lot of pairings.

And even within the few that I like, I tend to be kind of picky. I have huge issues with the way a lot of Buffy/Spike shippers view that relationship, and when their writing reflects those views it really bothers me. A lot of B/A gets too sappy for my tastes. So that cuts out another big chunk of stories that are supposed to be really good.

Despite all this, Buffy's still one of my favourite fandoms. Maybe that's why I'm so crazy about it to begin with, actually. Or maybe I'll just blame Joss.

Yeah, damaged!Buffy is kind of unfun. (Though I think I prefer her to uberbitch!Buffy, who never truly existed in canon. Honestly, guys... *grumbles*)

Buffy/Angel(us), huh? Well, my favourite writers for that are Margot le Faye (http://pages.prodigy.net/leighschneider/margotsfemfic.htm) and Maquis Leader (http://www.maquisleader.com/). Some of Margot's stories are better than others and they all seem to contain a lot of gratuitous sex (she's been described as a woman who can make reading the phone book sound erotic), but when she's good she's great. A few of my personal favourites are Crap Shoot (http://pages.prodigy.net/leighschneider/crapshoot.htm), Sensual Sensitivity (http://pages.prodigy.net/leighschneider/sensual_sensitivity.htm), and In the Blood (http://pages.prodigy.net/leighschneider/intheblood1.htm) (which by all rights should suck, but it always gives me the warm fuzzies.) And then of course there's the infamous Silken Cage Series (http://pages.prodigy.net/leighschneider/capture1.htm), a fun epic which could be summarized as 'Angelus kidnaps Buffy. Lots of sex ensues.' XD;

Maquis Leader has done a ton of good stuff, but his/her best is probably The End of Days (http://maquisleader.com/buffy/endofdays.htm). Leader's characterization is unique. One of its peculiarities is that Angelus is aware of everything Angel does and can talk to him. Again, there's some gratuitous sex, but it's all good fun. Margot's not for everyone, but I'd recommend just about everything Leader's done.

Courting Sin (http://community.livejournal.com/kitteninthedark/23128.html#cutid1) by Leni is a piecemeal remix of Season 2 in which Buffy and Angelus get together. I'd be surprised if you'd never heard of The Christabel Chronicles (http://lesanctuaire.dreamhost.com/chronicles/) by Nymue, but it's an old school (and sadly incomplete) epic in which a spell gone wrong sends Buffy to 18th century London and she ends up in a three-way relationship with Angelus and William. Another such epic is The Wicked Seduction of a Vampire Slayer (http://www.angelfire.com/sd/cruelobsessions/Wicked.html) by Claudia D. Christian. It's set during Season 2; Angelus' obsession with Buffy takes a slightly different path, leading to misery for all and a very different outcome. I haven't read this for years so it's probably not nearly as good as I remember, but I had to mention it. I recall it being a bit of an emotional roller coaster.

Oh, and since you're tired of damaged!Buffy you ought to read elisi's As You Were + One (http://elisi.livejournal.com/299325.html). Remember that awful episode in Season 6 where Riley caught Buffy and Spike together? This is how it might have gone had Angel been in the neighborhood. It's well written and provides some much-needed closure.

And as long as I'm on the topic I also have to mention Vampire Winter (http://distortingmirrors.notanothersite.com/vampirewinter.html) by DeborahMM. Post-series, Angel and Spike are passing through Rome and meet with Buffy for the last time. It's not something I really enjoyed, but the writing's fantastic and it'd be remiss of me not to mention it.

And I think that's about all the good B/A(us) stories I know of ... which is a little sad, actually. One of these days I'm going to have to try to get back into Buffy fic again and give the internet a thorough scouring, because I'm sure there's more than that.

No, don't shut up! I just learned something real useful because you didn't. *points at the next emphasis*, so thank you!