Oh, my. This was really rather fantastic. I really did love Snape here. And the whole relationship fell together quite smoothly.

I've read Julia the Younger before, and this is definitely the best thing I've read by her. More coherent and better put together.

Thanks for the rec.

Yeah, one of the first fandom fics I ever read (actually the first Spike/Xander fic) was "We're Not Gay. We're Just Friends. Who Have Sex" by Julia the Younger. It's a first person POV fic switching between Xander's and Spike's POVs every hundred words or so. Still was a pretty good story, despite all that. I remember getting though it twice, and it led me to read solely Spike/Xander for probably six months. But I still HATE first person POV.

That's great, 'cause it's both one of the most written and one of the best written pairings out there in the Buffy'verse.

So, I'm going through my recs and re-reading some of them to make sure they're something you'd like. By the way, Connor-wise do you prefer gen, Connor in a pairing, or someone else (usually Angel) in a pairing with Connor as a main character?

Okay, for recs, savoytruffle has written some good long fics that are especially good because of the weird way she uses other canon characters. There's Your Trouble (http://spanderfiles.com/arvs/savoytruffle/tyt.html) is an alternate universe Xander fic, wherein Xander as we know him is no longer in the world we know so well. And the world we know so well suddenly has a totally different Xander. The au!Xander part of the story is really very good, but the original!Xander half is even better because of the alternate universe. And in case there isn't enough insanity, the author's written a cute little companion piece, Rupert's Angels (http://savoytruffle.livejournal.com/77070.html). (Sorry about the lj link, only place I could find it.) With both pieces, there's over 35,000 words.

If you like human au's (and who doesn't) then eyezrthewindows is for you. Changing His Religion (http://spanderfiles.com/arvs/eyezrthewindows/chr.html) is a great denial!Xander fic (24,000 words), and Plausible Deniability (http://www.angelfire.com/vamp2/fics/arvs/eyezrthewindows/plausibledeniablity.html) is a great oblivious!Spike fic (12,000 words). They both feature a killer Faith, and these are two of the stories I come back to time and again in this fandom.

And in case you've already read all of these (which is certainly possible as none of them is exactly new) how about a story in the pairing of Wesley/Doyle? I know, I know, crazy, right? But crazy or not there are multiple fics with this pairing. In fact, I can name four off the top of my head. But the one that really matters, the one that's worth reading, is Skelping (http://www.crackedverse.com/stakes/fic/skelping.html) by mpoetess. Warning, this does happen AFTER Hero, thus Doyle is NOT ALIVE. And he does not become ALIVE by the end of the story. But it's still a remarkably good story with an interesting secondary pairing. (16,000 words)

And now I think I'll try to go back to bed, though god only knows if I'll get any sleep.