Title: For the Love of the Game
Fandom: Katekyou Hitman Reborn
Pairing: Yamamoto Takeshi/ Hayato Gokudera
Categories: Character Exploration
Length: Medium (8000 words)
Warnings: Violence

Author on LJ: metisket
Author Website: Dreamwidth AO3 Tumblr

Author’s Summary:
In which Yamamoto wanders through life smiling, joking, and terrifying bystanders.

Review:

How could exploring the character who joined a criminal organisation by asking seriously if he could play the mafia game be anything less than gripping?

Yamamoto is introduced as a popular schoolboy with a devotion to baseball. He is virtually a beacon of normality compared to the flashily murderous people Reborn introduces to Tsuna’s life. Yet, he greets these people with a cheerful smile, while Tsuna quivers in far. His father may be an sword-wielding assassin, but Yamamoto’s blithe unconcern is still pretty odd.

For the Love of the Game looks at how a post-canon Yamamoto might be affected by his experiences. How does he relate to the people in his life? What makes him afraid? Why is he still smiling?

As always, Metisket’s writing is very engrossing, giving a fascinating look into the POV character’s reaction to what is going on and an equally fascinating portrayal of the people they are interacting with.

This is set post-series, so if you’re not familiar with Katekyou Hitman Reborn, you are unlikely to follow what is happening at all. (Katekyou Hitman Reborn is not particularly deep, but it takes great pleasure in coming up with unlikely concepts and failing to justify them in any way, which stacks into being quite complicated.) For the Love of the Game isn’t more violent than canon, but it treats the violence a lot more seriously.


For the Love of the Game

Title: Hazy
Fandom: Marvel MCU
Pairing: Bucky Barnes/Steve Rogers
Categories: Angst, Friendship, Post-Canon,
Length: 1.5 minutes
Warnings:

Author on LJ:
Website: Minuiko on Tumblr

Summary: If I forget who I am would you please remind me?

Review: This is a beautiful lyrics comic. The colors and art are amazing. And Minuiko picked the perfect song to use for Bucky and Steve's relationship

It is fairly short but definitely worth a watch.

Comic
Video

Title: Defender
Fandom: Haven
Pairing: gen
Categories: friendship, kids, bittersweet, pre-canon, child pov
Length: Medium, 2,820 words
Warnings: Bullying (perpetrated by a teacher, no less) and prejudice, cruelty to animals, implied childhood abuse (physical or psychological) and implied neglect (pretty much canonical). Some blood.

Author on Livejournal: n/a?
Author Website: Kalliopeia on fanfiction.net

Summary: Nathan and Duke, age seven, shave their second grade teacher's cat. Come for the shenanigans, stay for the implications. Not intended as a fluff piece.

Review: Again I bring a fic that to all intents and purposes should be fluffy, and comedic, and cute, and in actuality definitely isn't. The adorable moments and the funny moments (there are a few) are far outweighed by the depths of Haven's history and vast divisions lurking in the background underneath. From a seven year old perspective of innocence, nothing is spelled out, so this fic rewards canon knowledge for what exactly is going on between the adult characters. There are some downright disturbing implications between the lines, to be honest. We know what happened to this relationship next, but not exactly what happened to degenerate things to the level of the Tacks Incident.

But everything is so simple and innocent here, in this snapshot of a childhood event between two friends supposed to be on opposite sides of the town's divide. The basic idea, of seven year old Duke deciding to be the defender of Nathan, is just too heartbreaking in context.

You may get another bonus Haven rec from me today or tomorrow, if I have chance, to celebrate this week's return of the show's (probable) final season.

Defender

Title: Winters Children
Fandom: Marvel MCU
Pairing: Steve Rogers/Bucky Rogers
Categories: AU, Kids, Friendship, Family, Romance
Length: Epic (67k)
Warnings: PTSD, Child Abuse, Domestic

Author on LJ: neery
Website: Neery's Ao3

Summary: When their attempts to recreate the super soldier serum failed, Hydra started trying to breed Captain America clones from his genetic samples. Unfortunately, the serum's effects aren't passed down genetically, so instead of an army of tiny Captain Americas, they get a bunch of tow-headed, asthmatic, allergic, immuno-compromised little Steves.

And then the Winter Soldier stumbles across Hydra's failed experiment...

Review: Baby Steve Roger clones and actual realistic PTSD issues, What more could a girl want?

Neery did a great job with this fic. I read the whole thing in a night. Each of the Clones has their own interests, issues, and personalities. Something that is amazing in a fic about a bunch kids, much less a bunch of clones.

I love Bucky in this. He's so in fully rendered and his thought processes are so right for somebody dealing with past imprisonment and brain washing. And to see him deal with raising a bunch of tiny Stevens is just too cute!

Winter's Children

Title: An Ordinary Meeting
Fandom: Sherlock Holmes
Pairing: Gen
Categories/Genres: Slice of Life, Friendship, Humor, Action/Adventure
Length: Long ( 27,235 words)
Warnings: N/A

Author on LJ: N/A
Author Website: aragonite

Summary:

Lestrade meets the man mad enough to room with Sherlock Holmes.

Review:

If you like Sherlock Holmes in literally any of its incarnations, you need to read this. Period. My favorite chapter is Honey and Onions, Both because of the sheer unbelievable hilarity and also the way in which aragonite has Lestrade and Watson recount their story. It's messy and haphazard and incredibly improbable, and yet aragonite shows in The Art of Reports that it's completely true, if heavily abridged. If you need more convincing, I leave you with this delightful snippet:

"It is illegal to perform obstruction in highways, bridges or rivers!" Lestrade paused again to spit filthy water out from the middle of his diatribe. If you feel the need to perform such an activity, you must first file for a permit at your public Police-station!"

For some unfathomable reason, it worked. The steersman blanched; he hurriedly stuffed his revolver into his coat and used both hands to wrench the cabin back to align with the current...

An Ordinary Meeting

Title: We must unlearn the constellations to see the stars
Fandom: Justice League & Justice League Unlimited (Cartoons)
Pairing: Shayera Hol/John Stewart
Categories: Fluffy, Romance, Friendship.
Medium: Art - Digital
Warnings: No warning apply.

Author Website: Themisto
(on AO3)

Summary: Post-battle rest. [original summary] Part of the Rare Pair Fest 2015 Exchange.

Review: First I need to say how much I love Justice League and how I rooted for Shayera and John to get together. With that disclaimer, I can add that the artist’s style is amazing and totally captures the essence of their relationship. For anyone that watched Justice League, what makes John and Shayera good is that their romantic relationship develops as they fight to protect humans and defeat the villain of the week - it’s usually in the aftermath of a battle that they share companionship moments.

The picture illustrates just that, the two levels show their emotions and frame those little scenes we see in the show, adding a lovely pairing - first we see them in rest after the battle, then we see the sweet kiss. I really like the view from behind of them and the context of where they are, and I love even more their expressions in the first part.

Props for the gentle coloring and the style, so close to the canonical one.


We must unlearn the constellations to see the stars

Title: Internment Camp 317
Fandom: Star Trek: Deep Space 9
Pairing: gen
Categories: action/adventure(ish), hurt/comfort(ish), team, friendship
Length: medium, ~9,000 words
Warnings: none

Author on Livejournal: bjewelled
Author Website: Bjewelled

Summary: Julian Bashir spent a month in Internment Camp 317 as a prisoner of the Dominion, and he never really spoke much about it later...

Review: “You are going to help us,” Tain said, implacably. “I can understand your reluctance to reveal how you are going to help us, but you really don't have a choice. While I've been able to secure the hardware components needed for transmission, I still need to decrypt the code walls around the power system so that I can divert sufficient energy for our needs. That's where you come in.”

Julian frowned. “I'm a Doctor,” he said, “Not a mathematician.”

“Come now,” Tain said, faint annoyance audible in his voice, “You and I both know you have certain hidden talents which you seem to be rather embarrassed about.”

So this fic is a few years old but I read it for the first time the other day, following someone else's bookmarks, and it rocks my socks because it ties the genetic enhancements thread to canon. Or at least, as much so as I think it's ever possible to tie that into canon, and into Dr Bashir's characterisation, given how in 4 and a half seasons canon had never so much as tipped a sly nod towards it until it sprung that upon the viewership in what generally always seemed like a one-off episode where continuity had left the house, street, and was heading way out of the quadrant.

Martok and Tain and the rest of the prison camp inmates are nicely written and the fic hinges on its capacity to illustrate Dr Bashir's growing relationships within the little group. In fact, of Julian interacting with a diverse bunch of species with differing points of view, who aren't so much interested in the rigid point of view of the Federation on... certain very personal subjects that might be considered illegal and taboo.

It feels odd to label it 'team' fic when it's not the DS9 team in question, but nonetheless, it's about how this little group become knit together by necessity to survive and eventually escape. And how Dr Bashir gains an odd freedom, of sorts, that he's never actually had among his Federation compatriots, in the midst of all this strife.

Internment Camp 317

Title: Card Captor Sakura
Fandom: Card Captor Sakura
Characters: Sakura, Kero, Yue.
Categories: Creature/Wing, Friendship
Medium: Art
Warnings: No warnings apply.

Author Website: hart-coco(Deviantart) | hart-coco (Art Tumblr) | hart-coco(society6)

Summary:Card Captor Sakura will be my favourite childhood series forever. Great memories! [original summary]

Review: This art blew my mind! It’s incredibly shiny and pretty and I absolutely love the expression on their faces. Sakura is full of innocence in her smile and the intensity in both Yue and Kero is amazing. Another thing that is amazing is how the levels work in the picture, coming from Yue, then to Sakura and lastly to Kero.

There are other detail worth mentioning: Sakura and Yue holding hands, the cards spread around all of them, the movement in both Yue and Kero on their wings, the lovely sparkly sky in the background.

The artist also had a lot of other amazing fanarts, so check them out!

Card Captor Sakura

Title: Shelter Me Series
Fandom: Leverage
Pairing: Parker/Eliot Spencer/Alec Hardison
Categories: Action Adventure, Friendship, First Time, Hurt/Comfort
Length: Long (20k)
Warnings: Off screen torture

Author on LJ: http://thingswithwings.dreamwidth.org/
Website: Ao3

Summary: Eliot's their hitter, and taking on any physical threats to the team is his job, but there's something beyond professionalism – even beyond the obvious fact that Eliot relishes the fight itself – in the way he puts his body between Parker or Alec and any potential threat. Alec has a good view of Eliot's back on a lot of jobs, and he reads something in the tight line of Eliot's shoulder, in the slow turn of his foot as he steps into a fighting stance.

Something possessive.

Review: This is an interesting take on both a post-canon fic and a fic for our favorite trio of thieves to get together.

Even though the fic is narrated from Alec's POV, it is very much centered around Eliot and his changing role in the team. I'm glad to see it after the recklessness that was shown in the Rundown Job, our only Canon evidence of how a team of just Eliot, Alec, and Parker would function.

The romance is nice and slow building, and different enough to feel right for people who see the world as differently as Parker and Eliot seem to. The first fic covers their getting together.

The second fic in the series is kink heavy so make sure you read the tags

Shelter Me Series

Title: Black Water Rising
Fandom: Agent Carter
Pairing: gen
Categories: casefic, action/adventure, hurt/comfort, huddling for warmth, team, friendship
Length: long, 29,221 words
Warnings: none

Author on Livejournal: sholio
Author Website: Sholio on AO3

Summary: An apparently abandoned Hydra facility turns into a deathtrap for Peggy and the SSR team. Set after 1x08.

Review: It really could not be more of a stereotypical villain lair if they'd taken the design straight from one of those execrable Captain America comics, Peggy thought, shining her torch above and around the empty, echoing halls. And it was entirely cleaned out. Not a stick of furniture, not even so much as a bolt. When Hydra cleared out, they really cleared out.

This is a solid gen adventure that delivers something I'd very much had the desire to see after watching the series -- our three favourite SSR agents working together and respecting each other for their strengths and understanding each other's weaknesses, all of which get showcased during the course of the story. It's a great teamfic full of banter and tropeyness (but never too much to take over the story) which makes me wish there was more of its like out there.

Thompson's *cough* still a prat, but he's their prat and still wants to do the right thing, even if he always(?) falls down with the execution, even if we're still not sure he'd come through in the crunch, but he gets the chance to be brave and tenacious here and show some real strength. Sousa gets to be quietly smart and self-sacrificing. Peggy is competent and in-charge despite the nominal ranks, but also permitted to be human, isn't invulnerable or without fear. Above all it's teamwork that enables them to survive their situation in this fic, and every member of the trio playing their part.

Black Water Rising

Title: Mommy Dearest
Fandom: Teen Wolf
Pairing: Derek Hale/Stiles Stilinski
Categories: AU, Romance, Friendship
Length: Super! Epic [150439 words]
Warnings: Homophobia, Drug Addition (side theme), Minor Violence.

Author Website: BeyondtheKilljoy(on AO3)

Summary: Stiles was supposed to be put in weight training, but due to scheduling problems he was dropped into Health. It was fine, really, it was up until the point where Coach assigned the baby project. And the kicker?
His partner was the reclusive, intimidating Derek Hale - so it really wasn't fine anymore; especially with a baby who wouldn't give him a moment of rest if Hale wasn't there. However, when the project forces him to get closer to Hale than he would even imagine possible, he learns new things about the Hale family and maybe begins to see Hale in a different light.
Even if he'd totally be the mom. [original summary]

Review: Oh, this fic! It’s so cute to see Stiles and Derek in high school and they both learning each other. Seriously, this fic goes over Derek and Stiles learning to take care of a fake baby for their Health project and developing an amazing friendship - this makes you teeth roth with all the sweetness.

At the same time, the sweetness is cut by the homophobia issues and underlying tension between the Argents and the Hales; the Sheriff is quite present too, coming along with another side plot - a drug cartel that keeps on killing people and no one knows who they are.

Derek is probably my favorite in this fic, because he is less jaded, even if he still has the gruffy side of the canonical Derek. His interactions with his family kids and uncles, the sweet way he treats Stiles and how fierce he gets when Stiles gets hurt, just adds up on his cute points. The Hale family is very well put together, thought for Laura’s fans,her behavior it’s quite odd.

This fic is adorable and deals with homophobia in an amazing way. So sit, read it and enjoy a very refreshing High School Au.


Mommy Dearest

Title: Regression

Fandom: Haven
Pairing: gen-ish, early seasons canon-level Audrey Parker/Nathan Wuornos
Categories: casefile!, adventure, angst, friendship, amnesia (sort of), hurt/comfort (sort of)
Length: medium, 14,717 words
Warnings: Implied past childhood abuse (heavily hinted in canon), and it's rated mature for a catalogue of dark themes but nothing heavily described.

Author on Livejournal: n/a
Author Website: author unrevealed (author link will be added when the challenge is revealed).

Summary: In the beginning it was almost funny. Audrey figured the photo of Duke clutching the teddy bear should be worth free coffee-the good stuff-at least once a week. If only it hadn't brought up the past quite so viscerally.

Review: The crying stopped and Duke stiffened. "Uh, Nathan? Care to fill me in on why I am half naked and crying into your chest?"

It's a Haven casefic! Here's a Trouble that regresses people, psychologically, back to the worst times of their lives. From Duke's initial somewhat amusing/simultaneously embarrassing/even horrifying re-experience of childhood, to the awfulness of poor, poor Dwight under the influence, to Nathan's struggle at the climax, that's a Trouble which paves the way for some truly interesting things to be explored.

The Troubled Person is an interesting original character in his own right, with history and motives that feel human and true. The story isn't afraid to look into a few dark corners. But it's got a vein of humour and acknowledgement of the ridiculous of the Troubles and Haven in general running through it, that never lets it get *too* dark. (Plus, bonus appearance by Dr. Lucassi, who has to be one of my favourite understated minor characters of the show.)

It's labelled Audrey/Nathan plus Duke & Nathan and reads in line with a gen-ish season 2 type canon piece, and ends with a sleepover on the Cape Rouge, so really how you want to interpret the relationships in it is up for grabs.

This fic is a product of the recent Troubled Tales fic exchange, so it is currently author anonymous.

Regression

Title: of the nature of the wound
Fandom: Check, Please!/Hockey RPF
Pairing: Eric Bittle/Jack Zimmermann, Larissa “Lardo” Duan/Shitty Knight, Patrick Kane/Jonathan Toews, Jamie Benn/Tyler Seguin, Past Kent Parson/Jack Zimmermann
Categories/Genres: Angst, AU, Drama, Epistolary, Established Relationship, First Time, Fluff, Friendship, Humor, Romance
Length: Long (33936 words)
Warnings: Homophobic language by hockey players

Author on LJ: N/A
Author Website: buchanan

Summary:

His first year in the NHL isn't easy, but Jack has spent his entire life playing through the hurt.

Review:

Note: While Check, Please! doesn't require knowing anything about hockey beyond the fact that it's a team sport played on ice, of the nature of the wound does require a functional knowledge of professional hockey and how its seasons are scheduled. Being a hockey RPF crossover, this fic does incorporate real hockey players, and knowledge of those players provides useful context for their roles in the fic.

A lot of the Check, Please! fic I read tends to be of the lighter variety. Humorous and/or cute, and generally threaded through with the pervasive sense of, 'oh, you adorable boys'. Considering how light-hearted the canon is, it's probably not surprising that the fanfiction I choose to read follows in that direction.

of the nature of the wound is not one of those fics. It's also not an easy fic to get through, namely because it focuses on Jack's anxieties about being a closeted professional hockey player. You could, uncharitably if honestly, call it Jack's downward spiral of anxiety and loneliness.

buchanan's fic exemplifies the proverb “it is always darkest just before the dawn” in that it feels very much like the very beginning of a story that we are not (yet) privy to, not just in terms of Jack and Bitty's burgeoning relationship, but also the NHL as a whole upon the coming out of one of its most recognized hockey duos. Hopefully more of that will unfold in buchanan's expected sequel.

And now that I've given you a lot of reasons not to read the fic, I suppose I should mention why I am actually reccing it: buchanan does a fantastic job of weaving the fluffy and fictional Check, Please! microcosm into the much colder real world, where people change and move past who they were and sometimes grow apart, and where they succeed, fail, break, and struggle to mend what is broken. Jack Zimmermann does not feel like a fictional character as buchanan writes him. Nor does Eric Bittle, nor even Chowder, who is something of a caricature even in the comic's canon. It truly is a testament to buchanan's grasp of emotional complexity that I clung, riveted until the end, in spite of the fic's darker tone and truly annoying ten-line section breaks. (No, seriously, keep a finger on the space bar or page down key.)

of the nature of the wound

Title: Two Plants and a Girl
Fandom: Trigun
Pairing: Meryl Stryfe/Millions Knives, Vash the Stampede/Milly Thompson
Categories/Genres: Action/Adventure, Amnesia, Angst, AU, Drama, Family, Fluff, Friendship, Humor, Hurt/Comfort, Kids, Post-Canon, Pregnancy, Romance
Length: Epic (74,073 words)
Warnings: Minor (OC) character death, Non-descriptive mention of child molestation, Descriptions of gore

Author on LJ: N/A
Author Website: Thunk

Summary:

Meryl becomes more important to Vash than he wants to admit. But Knives sees it. Knives capitalizes on it. But he finds it increasingly difficult to exploit the Insurance girl, for reasons far too old, and not buried deep enough.

Review:

I'm not entirely sure how I've gone this long without reccing this fic. Probably because it's posted on FF.net. No, don't run away! It's good, I swear!

Two Plants and a Girl is an AU fusion of the Trigun anime and the backstory that's revealed in the manga. It picks up from where the anime leaves off, with Knives slowly recovering from his fight against Vash in the anime's finale under the watchful eyes and tender mercies of Vash, Meryl, and Milly.

What I really appreciate about this fic is that Thunk knows their stuff. The bits and pieces of background and worldbuilding incorporated into the fic are sourced from the manga and thoroughly contemplated, providing a much more nuanced and believable Knives than the anime's straight-up-psycho interpretation. He's still an unrepentant asshole, but his canonical actions have weight and meaning and consequence that don't sit easy with him even a century later.

Thunk also presents a reasonable and quite logical plan to give Knives and Vash what they both want, pushing compromise rather than conflict in an anime/manga that basically centers around the conflict between the two. That's not to say that Thunk sucks all the friction out of their relationship, however.

Thunk also deals with Knives' massive damage with deft storytelling. The pacing of the story, which jumps over various stretches of time, can make it seem contrived on occasion, but the emotional depth of the events and the consequent growth of Knives' shriveled little soul signal to the reader a rocky but definitely substantial progress that is satisfying to watch.

There are some moments that are oddly OOC, mostly related to the forced early attraction between Knives and Meryl, and the very end, when Knives is so overcome with guilt and grief that he becomes a weepy parody of himself, but barring those, the interaction between the two is pretty damn great.

If you ever watched the Trigun anime and clicked away from the finale wondering, well, now what?, you absolutely read this fic. Yeah, I know it's on FF.net, but would I ever lead you astray?

Don't answer that.

Two Plants and a Girl

Title: Everything we Know about you guys is Wrong
Fandom: Teen Wolf
Pairing: Derek Hales/Stiles Stilinski
Categories: AU, Domestic, Friendship, Supernatural
Length: Medium (16k)
Warnings: Kidnapping

Author on LJ: devildoll
Website: Ao3 | Tumblr

Summary: For Throwback Thursday I dusted off an old ficlet request fill I started back in 2012 when an anon asked for a How to Train Your Dragon AU. This isn’t quite that, but there is a dragon. (And a happy ending!) It’s ultimately Derek/Stiles but mostly Derek/Original Dragon Character, and is for general audiences. Hope you like it anyway. :D

Review: Hilarious and fast paced, this fic reminds me of Patricia Wrede's Dragon series.

Derek gets kidnapped by a teenage dragon who is convinced he is her princess. It follows his amusing attempts to survive on various stolen baskets of food and clothing.

Even if you are only minorly connected to Teen Wolf canon, so even if you aren't very familiar with the fandom this might be a nice, fun romp to spend a half-hour on.
Everything We Know about you Guys is Wrong

Title: You'll Get There in the End (It Just Takes a While)
Fandom: Star Trek XI
Pairing: Jim Kirk/Spock, past Nyota Uhura/Spock
Categories/Genres: Post-Canon, Drama, Romance, Angst, Pon Farr, Bonding, Friendship
Length: Long (33465 words)
Warnings: N/A

Author on LJ: seperis
Author Website: seperis

Summary:

"Spock. Just say 'I don't trust Starfleet not to mess up the only captain in the fleet who I can train up to my expectations and enjoys running into danger wearing a blindfold as much as I do'."

Review:

The format of this fic is a little confusing at first, jumping back and forth between two progressing timelines until they meet in the middle. Not to mention, seperis refuses to hold the reader's hand and explain everything in small sentences with smaller words. You'll Get There in the End (It Just Takes a While) demands that the reader think as they read and slot the pieces together. It's not always easy, and there are some recurring threads that are not particularly obvious as such, but in the end, when the story pulls in its loose threads and weaves them all together, there's a sense of satisfaction and accomplishment that few authors manage to create in their fic.

The thing is, I can easily imagine this fic being written chronologically, rather than alternating between the immediate post-movie and the onset of Jim's 'pon farr'. It would still be good reading, but it's unlikely that I'd find it fascinating enough to rec it. Its format creates a tension that vibrates like a plucked instrument string through the entire length of the fic, a quiet hum that grows in intensity right up until the climax, when the separate timelines resolve into a single chronological narrative.

seperis also makes the conscious decision not to include any sort of internal contemplation of emotion through the bulk of the fic. As odd as it was to read a romance fic where there was no mention of romantic emotion between Jim and Spock, it gave the climax that much more energy by contrast, their emotions distilled and crisp rather than worn smooth by repetition.

Unfortunately I can't give any sort of recommendation on the rest of The Reboot Series, as I haven't had the opportunity to read it. But going by the quality and complexity of You'll Get There, I'm guessing it's definitely worth checking out.

You'll Get There in the End (It Just Takes a While)

Title:Hold my Bones
Fandom: Bandom
Pairing: Gabe Saporta/Pete Wentz
Categories: Angst, Family, Friendship, Hurt/Comfort
Length: Long (22k)
Warnings: Past Sexual Assault, Past Child Abuse, Homophobia, PTSD, Anxiety, Panic Attacks

Author on LJ: inlovewithnight
Website: inlovewithnight

Summary: After Pete's summer at boot camp, Pete's parents move their family to New Jersey, where Pete meets Gabe Saporta and Gabe's dad. Contains on-screen panic attacks, discussion and descriptions of child abuse, references to child sexual abuse, dysfunctional family dynamics, teenagers exploring their sexuality (mentally and emotionally, not sexually). Upbeat ending with the implication of happy lives. Co-authored with lalejandra.

Review: This fic is primarily comfort, following Pete's period in Bootcamp. Still make sure you read the warnings first.

This is a touching take on highschool AUs. Pete is the new student at Gabe's school and Gabe finds himself helping Pete not only with school, but with dealing with his trauma.

InlovewithNight does a great job fully fleshing out ever character in the story, even the side characters. Despite its serious premise the story is ultimately very sweet.

Hold my Bones

Title: /multishippingcardboardbox
Fandom: Glee
Pairing: Blaine Anderson/David Karofsky
Categories: Romance, Fluffy
Medium: Art
Warnings: No warnings apply.

Author Website: olsnaggletooth (Personal Tumblr) | indehart (Art Tumblr)

Summary: No original summary.

Review: I was watching season 6 of Glee, yes finally! And I kind of got all fuzzy feelings about Blaine/David; I’m not happy how they portrayed it, but I’m glad it happened, because at least we get more canon slash and inspiration for fanworks.

This is my first art rec, and obviously I chose a Blaine Anderson/David Karofsky fanart. I loved it because it’s funny and sweet and Blaine isn’t gelled to hell. He is however adorable in one of my favorite Blaine outfits, the one he used in Rachel’s Party, back in season 2.

It is a lovely half bust drawing, colored and pg-rated. The artist’s style is super cute and the blush in their cheeks gives such a depth to the drawing.

/multishippingcardboardbox

Title: All You Have To Do Is Open Your Eyes
Fandom: The Losers
Pairing: Carlos “Cougar” Alvarez/Jake Jensen
Categories/Genres: Pre-Canon, Friendship, Romance, Humor, Fluff
Length: Medium (5054 words)
Warnings: N/A

Author on LJ: torakowalski
Author Website: torakowalski

Summary:

“Okay, no,” Pooch says, holding up his hands, “there is no way I’m gambling for money against you and Cougar.”

Jensen frowns, leaning across the table to make wide, concerned eyes at Pooch. “Is it because we’re just that fucking good?” he asks.

“No.” Pooch knocks the edge of the pack once, twice against the table. “It’s because I’m pretty sure you can read each other’s damn minds.”

Review:

There's a lot of things I like about this fic. The characterizations, the instinctive way Jensen just gets Cougar, the amusing (if brief) additions from the rest of the cast. I love how concise the fic is and how colorfully the characters are written; they pop out of the text in full 24-bit color, bright and enchanting. The overall tone of the fic is light and cheerful, but shaded with just enough of The Losers' canonically characteristic darkness to give it a bit of heft.

But mostly I just want to rec this because of the third to last sentence, in which Cougar tells Jensen that he loves him in such a natural and Cougar-ish way that I literally read this fic repeatedly just to get to that one sentence.

All You Have To Do Is Open Your Eyes

Title:the things you carry
Fandom: Tamora Pierce - Protector of the Small
Pairing: Gen
Categories: AU, Friendship, Post-Canon,
Length: Medium (6k)
Warnings: Canon typical violence

Author on LJ:
Website: Ao3TumblrOriginal Fiction

Summary: After Kel breaks orders and invades Scanra to rescue her Haven civilians in Lady Knight, she is found guilty of treason in wartime.

She escapes with the help of friends and does the only thing Kel could ever conceive of doing in that instance-- she keeps fighting Tortall's war.

This is Kel, however; she is always willing to fight her battles alone, but people will always rise up to fight alongside her.

Review: Protector of the Small, is one of my favorite series. I reread it every few years. Which is why I was so pleased to find this fic. Ink-splotch really nails Kel's voice.

The story is amazing in all its little details that build up on each other, until the ending is both fitting and inevitable. A new Tortall after the war, but perhaps a better one as well.
the things you carry