Title: Never Was a Stranger
Fandom: Teen Wolf
Pairing: Derek/Stiles
Categories: Time travel, future, hurt/comfort , magic!Stiles, first time, virginity, romance,
Length: Medium (8,915 words)
Warnings: Sort of underage, but sort of not. (see LJ rec for spoilery details.)
Author on LJ: dsudis
Author Websites: Dira Sudis

Author's Summary: Derek sighed and rubbed his forehead. "What if I told you I traveled back in time to protect you."

Review:
This opens with Stiles waking up to an altered world with no memory of how he got there, and I do have a soft spot for stories that drop me right into the thick of it. Despite the summary, it's Stiles who's time travelling, as the unwanted side effect of a spell cast in the future in order to find a way to keep the pack from harm. Luckily for Stiles, Derek is there to explain things to him, although really it's Derek's behavior that says even more than his words. They have a very different relationship in the future, one that Stiles is trying to wrap his head around while also trying not to freak out about his situation.

There are some lovely touches along the way, like the hurt/comfort, the moonlight app, and Derek becoming Stiles' first sexual experience even though he wasn't Stiles' first sexual experience... Time travel. It rocks.

Never Was a Stranger

Title: Noggin and the Vampire
Fandom: Buffy the Vampire Slayer/Noggin the Nog
Categories: humour, crossover, not-very-bloody vikings
Length: Medium (9,600 words)
Warnings: innuendo (the only reason it's not PG)

Author on LJ: speakr2customrs
Author Website: Speaker-to-Customers' Corner

Summary:
In the lands of the North, where the black rocks stand guard against the cold sea, in the dark night that is very long, the Men of the Northlands sit by their great log fires and they tell a tale.

They tell of Noggin, Prince of the Nogs, and how he journeyed far to the North, to the Lands of the Midnight Sun, to marry Nooka, Princess of the Nooks. They tell of Noggin’s wicked uncle, Nogbad the Bad, and how he schemed to make himself king while Noggin was away, and how he was exiled from the Land of the Nogs forever because of his wickedness. They tell of Graculus, the great green bird.

And they tell of Spike.

Review:
Noggin the Nog was a simple animation shown on BBC TV originally in the late fifties/early sixties, and repeated well into the seventies when I watched it. It was produced by Smallfilms, aka Peter Firmin and Oliver Postgate, who also produced such children's classics as Bagpuss and the Clangers. The summary above (actually the story introduction) gives you a perfect snapshot of the style they used.

This is my favorite "You must be joking" crossover story of all. People who know about Noggin (meaning most of UK fandom) can't believe that anyone would even try to write such a story. Surely the gentle, meandering pseudo-epic style of Noggin doesn't mesh well with the teen-drama style of Buffy and particularly not with the impatient and aggressive Spike?

Except it does. It's as incongruous as all hell, but the incongruity works. The plot is simple, but that's entirely in keeping with style of Noggin. It's that style that is the most impressive thing about this story. Speaker-to-Customers has done a very good job of keeping the storytelling even and gentle, just right for Noggin, while still allowing Spike to sail as close to the wind as he ever does. It's brilliant, in short.

If you're British, read this for the happy memories. If you aren't, read it to find out why we're giggling.

Noggin and the Vampire