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: Redeem the Blood
Fandom: Farscape
Pairing: gen
Categories: dark, family, character study
Length: 2,456 words/medium
Warnings: Rape/Non-con in backstory, and prior to events in the fic.

Author on Livejournal: alara_r
Author Website: Alara J Rogers on AO3 | Alara Rogers on ffn

Summary: Scorpius, a Peacekeeper, and a baby. No, not romance, not humor and not fluff.

Review: "You may not thank me for saving your life, later on, you know. In fact, there's a good chance you may curse me for it. You might be better off if I disposed of you now."

As the summary says, nothing about Scorpius is ever truly going to be fluff, but this is an intriguing little fic about motivation and where the character comes from that does convincingly sell the idea of him deciding, after his own fashion, to make himself a family.

Most of what is here is still extraordinarily bleak. But all the same, Scorpius and baby, and it's kind of heartwarming too, in a weird way.

Redeem the Blood

Title: Let's Get Married!
Fandom: Jojo's Bizarre Adventure
Pairing: Kakyoin Noriaki/Kujo Jotaro
Categories/Genres: Kidfic, Alternate Universe, De-Aged, Fluff
Length: Short (16 pages)
Warnings: N/A

Artist on LJ: N/A
Artist Website: しょうちき
Translator Website: nenatranslates

Summary:

(The summary is in Japanese. Assuming most of epic-recs' patrons don't read/speak Japanese, I won't paste it here.)

Review:

Basically, this comic is an AU version of a canonical fight in Stardust Crusaders, where Jotaro and Kakyoin are transformed into children by Alessi's Stand and left in Josef's care while Polnareff and Abdul battle Alessi. Their characterizations as children are extrapolated from the brief hints that Holly Kujo and Kakyoin himself provide in the canon.

I'm no less a sucker for authors filling in the blanks when it comes to backstory than I've always been, so reccing this, (once I'd discovered the translation!) was a no-brainer. It's difficult to take Holly Kujo's description of a young Jotaro at her word, considering the kind of personality he has as a teen, but the artist writes it straight, depicting Jotaro as an outgoing, empathetic child. In sharp contrast is Kakyoin, whose early emergence of his Stand, and the complications that Kakyoin canonically, if vaguely, implies to have followed, have made him a cynical and angry young boy determined to be alone by choice rather than be hated and left behind.

Interestingly, it's this portrayal of Kakyoin that I can see being enslaved, possibly even willingly, by Dio, who may have been the first person to not only acknowledge, but understand and appreciate Kakyoin's Stand.

Though how Jotaro went from being a sweet child to a stone-faced delinquent is still anyone's guess.

Let's Get Married!

Title: misdirection
Fandom: Teen Wolf
Pairing: Derek Hale/Stiles Stilinski
Categories: Au, Kids, Fluffy, Slash, Romance.
Length: Medium [4576 words]
Warnings: No warning apply.

Author Website: bleep0bleep(on tumblr) | bleep0bleep(on AO3)

Summary: Derek's just moved back to Beacon Hills with his young daughter, whose newest favorite thing is Mr. Stiles and his magic shop. Derek likes Stiles a lot too, except he's a bit worried about how Stiles' magic is... actually real, and the local pack and their Emissary might find that a problem.[original summary]

Review: After all the super epic fics, I present a tiny fic that has an amazing idea. I love Canon Au or Canon Divergence and this fic deals with Derek coming back to Beacon Hills with his kid and Scott’s pack is already settled in place.

Derek’s daughter and Stiles hit it off and Derek, well the poor guy just flounders around the fic, trying to pick up what is happening and having no idea what he is doing. The fic is full of little details that relate to the canon, from colors to Derek undying need to protect people, even the ones he doesn’t really know.

It’s super sweet and amazing, with a pinch of humor and in the rom-com style; definitely a fic to read after all the angst and plotty fics.



misdirection

Title: After The Storm
Fandom: Teen Wolf
Pairing: Derek Hale/Stiles Stilinski
Categories: Kidfic AU,Slash.
Length: Epic [41357 words]
Warnings: Mild Graphic Violence, Investigations and Cop persecution.

Author Website: matildajones(on AO3)

Summary: Derek's mind flits to Stiles’ face. It’s a hard face to forget and for some reason Stiles is one of the only things Derek can think about without feeling like he’s lost something.
Erica grins. “When are you going to see him next?”

“He’s a cop,” Derek says gruffly.

“So?”

Derek remembers being at the station, he remembers all those fucking people who thought he had killed his own sister. Laura. He hates all of them, and says as much aloud.

Erica hums. “Sounded like you didn’t hate him.”
--
Dealing with the death of his sister, Derek spends most of his time helping out his family. He meets Stiles and as soon as Derek's willing to admit his attraction towards him, he discovers that Stiles is dealing with his own problems at work. He needs help - help that Derek's all too willing to give. There's something about Derek with his strange, glowing eyes and quick ability to heal that makes Stiles trust him when maybe he shouldn't. [original summary]

Review: First of all: Stiles is a cop. Second: Kid Fic. And third and most important: impossible not to love this fic. I’m serious, it’s so good it will give you cavities - because sweetness is never too much. And at the same time, there is plenty of drama and action to put you in the tip of your seat, just wanting to know who is the bad guy.
Clearly this is an AU, where werewolves are still real, and selected members of the Hale family are still alive. Stiles slowly finds out about the supernatural, at the same time he lives a not so easy life as cop. Allison is more present than Scott in this fic, and she is Stiles’ super badass partner, which me makes me super happy! It rare for me to like Allison, and this fic totally gave me sneaky feels on her part.

The kid fic part I announced is super cute, and full of surprises. Derek is the sweetest taking care of the kids and Stiles is all marshmallow in seeing the big guy being soft. The only thing that may seem slightly off in this fic is how much Stiles trusts Derek so fast around the kids, but if you go feeling in the blanks, the experience isn’t too jarring.

In the end, this fic is a super good read and has some nice surprises or at least some nice touches, for those that are quicker in finding the end before it arrives.


After The Storm

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: Objective Data
Fandom: Star Trek XI
Pairing: Jim Kirk/Spock
Categories/Genres: Pre-Canon, Alternate Universe, Outside POV, Kid Fic, First Time, Matchmaking, Romance, Fluff, Humor
Length: Long (22368 words)
Warnings: N/A

Author on LJ: N/A
Author Website: walkandtalk

Summary:

A young Vulcan decides to find a mate for his guardian, Spock. After careful calculations, Cadet Kirk is obviously the superior choice.

Review:

Senik, a nine year old Vulcan Yenta, decides to hook up his cousin Spock and Cadet Jim Kirk for fun profit science. It's hilarious.

Writing children convincingly is a tall order for writers. It's one thing to slip into the mindset of an adult character, someone fully formed with their own unique patterns of reasoning and behavior. But to strike the perfect balance of naivete, innocence, and perceptiveness that belongs solely to children seems to escape most writers, per my observations as a reader. Most seem to either fall short of or overshoot their character's intended age, turning a maturing child into a babyish caricature of a child or giving a child maturity and wisdom much too far beyond their years. Some authors even manage to do both simultaneously.

walkandtalk has a slightly easier job of it, since Senik is Vulcan and can already communicate on the level of adults. But there remains a childishness to his perception. There is lightness and innocence in him that separates him from the many adults he interacts with. Senik is slyly obstinate in a very specific way, weaseling without malice around the rules laid upon him by the adults in the way that children do. It is perhaps that, more than anything else, that cemented walkandtalk's characterization of Senik in my mind as one of the most convincing portrayals of a child I've ever read.

I haven't yet finished reading Objective Data's sequel, Subjective Assessment , but from what I've read so far, the collection of timestamps seems to be a perfectly adorable continuation of Spock, Senik, and Jim's (mis)adventures.

Objective Data

Title: Draco Malfoy and the Trials of Single Parenthood

Fandom: Harry Potter
Pairing: gen-ish, background Ron/Hermione, Harry/Ginny
Categories: drama, kidfic, diary, angst, humour
Length: long, 26,588 words
Warnings: I don't think so? See the bit about cynical-me and sobbing.

Author on LJ: estora
Author Website: estora on AO3

Summary: Draco Malfoy: ex-Death Eater, former bigot, divorcee, and single father. His wife left him for Viktor Krum, his children worship the Weasleys who clash with the décor, something is rotten at Hogwarts, and he doesn't really know what he's doing. But maybe he's getting the hang of it.

Review: HP isn't really one of my fandoms, but reccing it last week made me want to re-read the previous really good HP fic I remembered reading. This rec is uncharacteristic for me, since I emphatically don't seek out kid fic. Yet evidently this story has some mysterious capacity to melt the cynical and hard-hearted. It has a couple of things working against it, actually, because I'm not a fan of the faux journal/diary style of narrative, and yet I did find that here I could get used to it after a while and still like the story very much.

Harry's generation are now in their mid thirties. As the story starts out it seems that Draco is still a prat, but a prat who loves his kids -- enough to disregard his own dignity and humiliate himself in front of his old enemies to provide parental comfort to them. And over the course of the story we get to see him mellow somewhat through the fronts he has to present and the stands he has to take for the sake of his children.

Perhaps the reason it works so well is that despite putting such an unlikely (and-yet-somehow-not) character in this situation, despite the magical world twist, the problems are real problems and the fic doesn't overplay things for angst, but takes on its situations with a genuineness and honesty. The impact of a parental separation. The way the parents' politics and actions and status impact upon their children. How parents have to fight for their children when they are different.

I suspect this has something to do with why this story reduced me to a sobbing mess in at least three places even on re-read. Really I don't know how to explain that.

Don't let that dissuade you from reading. It's actually a pretty funny story, too. Bring on the running jokes about Draco's receeding hairline.

Draco Malfoy and the Trials of Single Parenthood

Title: My Way Home Is Through You
Fandom: Glee/Harry Potter*
Pairing: Kurt Hummel/Harry Potter
Categories: Romance, Crossover, Kid Fic.
Length: Epic [233913 words]
Warnings: homophobia, bullying, past Suicide Attempt, war flashbacks, nightmares and discussion, mentions of cutting, torture, pstd.
Author Website: orphan_account (on AO3)**

Summary: Kurt Hummel wasn't really looking forward to his Junior year. At least, not until he met Harry Black and his son Teddy. Suddenly, things are a lot more interesting, though not always in a good way. {original summary}


Review:
So I needed a break from 1D and this fic just jumped at me. A crossover between Harry Potter and Glee, where everything from Harry Potter happened and it’s been a few years since the war, while Glee cannon follows season 2. Harry and Teddy Lupin are the main characters to crossover, but we do see Ron and Hermione and the best surprise Ginny Weasley and Daphne Greengrass.

The best thing about this fic is the fact Harry is just such a cute and precious dad and Teddy overwhelms me with how well written he is. I love kid fic where the fic is important, but at the same time the central plot is still interesting and this fic just delivers both: we have a lovely romance plot full of drama and sweetness and we have the family unit Harry and Kurt start creating.

Harry is more sassy than Kurt and so damaged that it makes me truly happy to see the growth he gets along the fic, and how healthy portrayed his relationship with Kurt is, which makes the fic move along really well, without turning into a Sabrina novel. There is plenty of bullying and Kurt having to deal with it, but Harry helps him get confidence and Kurt returns with the comfort we all know Harry always needed.

Will is his usual terrible self, so Harry gets a lot of Glee mentoring time, which is both hilarious and delicious - specially when he sang What makes you beautiful and made me cry, because I can’t get rid of 1D. Harry helps not only Kurt, but all the Glee kids and Shannon, which made my heart melt and wish they found a great guy for her.

Anyhow, this fic is cute and funny and full of dramatic content, so it’s just that well rounded reading. I love the fact the author managed to discuss the HP canon in a subtle way, while still charging the war, the nightmares and the flashbacks with the importance they deserve. All Glee character are well represented, Rachel is her annoying self, Finn plays the big brother so awkwardly and Santana is quite amazing, which is no news, but always worth mentioning.

So just go on, read it, comment, and let me know what you thought. It’s one of the best crossovers I read and one of the best in both fandoms.

My Way Home Is Through You

* This review was cleared up with dreamsparkle, who claimed Harry Potter.
** the orphan_account is a place for any writer to post and be anonymous, so other works may be by multiple authors.

Title: Other Plans
Fandom: Stargate Atlantis
Pairing: John Sheppard/Rodney McKay
Genres: AU, Romance, Hurt/Comfort, First Time, Kid!fic
Length: Super Epic (108,691 words)
Warnings: Descriptions of past child abuse, serious injury to a main character

Author on LJ: dragonlady7
Author Website: bomberqueen17 @ AO3

Author's Summary:
Life's what happens when you make other plans.
Rodney McKay gets back from his unjust Siberia exile and takes a consulting gig that lets him work from home. He picks a random city, gets a cat, and starts cultivating his eccentricity. His upstairs neighbor is an insanely hot guy whose cop uniform either means the obvious, or that his night job is a stripper. Rodney doesn't care which, he's busy becoming the old lady with the twitching lace curtains who watches everything. (And, yeah, thinking about what that strip routine might look like. Are those real handcuffs?)

John Sheppard quit the Air Force in a last-ditch attempt to save his marriage, since there was a kid on the way. It didn't work, and in fact backfired spectacularly, so now he's left with child support payments and a mortgage on a house he doesn't live in (his dad's a dick), an ex-wife who still loves him enough to yank more little bits out of his heart every chance she gets, a kid he gets to see for a few hours every other week, and a job where he gets shot at almost as much as the one he used to love that he quit. (He's a cop. He's okay at it. That's a hard adjustment to make.) But at least his new downstairs neighbor is hilarious.

Review:
I am deeply in love with bomberqueen17's work. I really enjoy how she writes John and Rodney, both as characters and as people in a relationship. Her writing style is engaging, her plots carry momentum and keep the reader interested, and the sex is hot. It's a nice mix of fluff and angst, too. Most of the fic focuses on John and Rodney as their relationship unfolds, as Rodney learns more about John's struggles. John's son has a strong presence in the fic, even when he's not in a scene itself, because John is a devoted father and much of what he does is with Joey in mind. With kid fic, it's always important to me that I actually *like* the child, and Joey is absolutely adorable and I look forward to his appearances.

Other Plans is technically the first fic in a series but the next installment is a work in progress. However, OP ends in a satisfactory place, though the author does make mention of plot arcs that are to be continued in the series. Nothing sticks out in my mind as unresolved in such a way that I want to tear my hair out. As for the warnings, as the author puts it: "There is no non-con or sexual abuse of a minor *in* this story, but there is discussion of it happening to a character in the past."

Other Plans

A day late and probably a dollar short too. Fortunately I work in sterling :-)

Title: Second Chances
Fandom: Harry Potter
Pairing: Draco/Harry
Categories: Slash, romance, kidfic, non-canon compliant.
Length: Epic (96,000 words)
Warnings: Sex, depression, suicide attempt

Author on FictionAlley: Kishijoten

Summary:
For the first time in over a decade, Harry Potter crosses paths with Draco Malfoy. Both have changed a great deal, but what do those changes mean to them - and to each other?

Review:
This is another one of those stories that is over a decade old — well before Half-Blood Prince came out, so don't expect canon compliance — that has stood up to the test of time.

At heart it's a love story initiated and complicated by children. Harry is single, and a teacher at Hogwarts; Draco is divorced, and his youngest twin children have just started their first year. They meet when Harry notices that Adrian Malfoy, who has been sorted into Hufflepuff, is suffering from severe depression. What follows is a slow-burn romance, with parent and teacher bonding over the child's problems and desperately trying and failing to maintain their professional distances.

The strength of this story is in the characterisation. Harry and Draco are still recognisably themselves, but equally have changed in the way that you might hope a decade of maturity would give them. They don't instantly fall into agreement with each other, but then neither do they instantly dismiss each other either. The children are clear and distinct individuals, the right sort of mix of angel and demon for their ages, and really they are the ones that drive the story through. Harry and Draco are driven together by the children, and when their romance hits a bump, as it frequently does, it is almost always because of the children too.

Don't be too scared by the warnings. Bear in mind that I'm reccing this, and I'm a depressive with a real hot button about suicide. Without wishing to minimize either, the writing doesn't over-dramatize the issues and as a reader you do still feel in control.

This is a very good example of fanfiction romance, and I have no qualms recommending it to you even after all these years. Go on, enjoy yourselves.

Second Chances

Title: exactly how this grace thing works
Fandom: Batman
Pairing: Gen
Categories/Genres: Bodyswap, Kid-fic; Family; Domestic
Length: Long(23k)
Warnings: De-aging; Body-Modification; Past Character Death

Author/Artist on LJ: irnan
Author/Artist Website: irnan's Ao3

Summary: Dick gets de-aged. You'd think this would be a routine thing.

Review: This is an interesting take on the de-aged character genre. Dick is de-aged to before he met anybody in the bat-family and has to deal with the fall-out of all the decisions the bat-family has made through the years. This allows him to be more honest about the different ways that Bruce let him down, without getting into the nitty-gritty of why Dick wouldn't have said anything in the first place.

The fact that older!Dick had a life and a family that includes many different people isn't glossed over, but by making so that baby!Dick doesn't have the memories that go along with the family ties, it allows both Dick's to find a place for themselves that isn't controlled by other people's expectations of them, or even their own feelings of 'having' to take Bruce's place. This is basically a story about getting a second chance to find your true path.

exactly how this grace thing works

Posting a little early this time, due to real life stuff. So nice to be early instead of late! Haha-ehh.

Title: run, run, fast as you--
Fandom: Welcome to Night Vale
Pairing: Carlos/Cecil Palmer, Carlos/OMC
Categories/Genres: Asexual, Romance, Drama, Angst, Hurt/Comfort, Kids,
Length: Super Epic (106978 words)
Warnings: Stalking, Domestic abuse, Sexual assault, Violence, Threats of suicide, Threats of murder

Author on LJ: N/A
Author Website: branwyn

Summary:

The night that his research partner (and sort-of ex) shows up at his apartment with a gun, Carlos decides to take a mysterious but exceptionally well funded two-year research posting in a town called Night Vale.

A story in which Night Vale is there for the people who need it, Cecil's propensity to wear his innocent heart on his sleeve is perceived as a threat (until it isn't) and no one is allowed to hurt the Scientist. No one.

Review:

I love branwyn's villain in run, run, fast as you--. Don't get me wrong though, I hate the character's goddamn guts. He's just one of those villains that you have such a visceral reaction to that you want to reach through your screen and wring his ugly neck with your bare hands. But I love the way branwyn has created him, a monstrous product of our world instead of Night Vale's, and the way he colors every single scene in the fic, present in mind if not in body. He's a malignant specter, a festering poison, and the perfect foil to the sweet purity of Carlos and Cecil's developing relationship.

And what a development it is. The story is told from Carlos' perspective, from the events leading to his decision to take the research position in Night Vale, deviating slightly from canon after the events of One Year Later, and culminating in the dramatic finale roughly one month later. It runs concurrent with the canon, a somewhat more realistic (by non-Night Valean standards) retelling of Cecil's slightly dramatized reporting. Through it all, Carlos struggles to move past the trauma of his previous relationships and their respective nasty fallouts, slowly coming to accept the sincerity of Cecil's feelings for him and learning how to care for Cecil in turn.

Some familiar faces make up the rest of the cast. Tamika Flynn is her usual stellar self. Old Woman Josie and Erika make a few charming appearances. Even Cactus June is fleshed out in the fic, beautiful as ever and bluntly forthright. But more notably, there are a few unique additions of branwyn's own creation, like the Orphanarians, the Librarian-like guardians of Night Vale's orphans. One of whom is a girl named Nijeia, who has been twelve for a long time and is only let out of the Orphanarium to work as one of Carlos' research assistants. She befriends Carlos and eventually Cecil, blunt and a little crass and very, very pre-teen, but still a child under her experience and bravado.

run, run, fast as you-- isn't without its weaknesses, though. The Carlos whump can seem overbearing to those who are sensitive to it, a byproduct of the narrated story actively focusing on all the worst experiences Carlos endures. Cecil is perfect, almost to the point where his perfection strains the suspension of disbelief. Also, the final defeat of the villain is rather anticlimactic, considering that it happens very thoroughly off-screen and was not nearly as violent a reckoning as I personally wished it had been.

But on the whole, branwyn's fic is one of the stellar works of the Welcome to Night Vale fandom. Don't let the tags scare you off, because this is definitely a must-read.

run, run, fast as you--

Title: Seasons May Change
Fandom: Glee
Pairing: Kurt/Blaine
Categories: AU, fluff, friendship, kidfic, a little angst, romance
Length: Epic (40,000)
Warnings: None

Author on LJ: n/a
Author's website: alianne on tumblr

Summary: From the time he's five years old, Kurt's best friend lives right across the street – at least for the holidays. (A story about friendship, loneliness and love, told through a series of summers and winters.)

Review:
This is a beautiful story about growing up and growing into a relationship. Told entirely from Kurt's point of view, it takes us from his very earliest years through meeting his best friend, losing his best friend, and regaining his best friend and now boyfriend. It's about Kurt discovering himself and discovering what it means to have one person who means the world to you.

Told through snapshots from the summer and winter of fourteen years of Kurt Hummel's life, this fic starts out as the cutest, fluffiest thing you've ever read until it becomes a dramatic and moving story of commitment and love. Kurt and Blaine grow up together and get to keep each other throughout their entire lives, be each other's ports in the storms, each other's forevers. Their romantic relationship is beautifully based on the lifetime of experiences they share.

Kurt's voice is wonderful, perfectly in character--even as a child he still holds an air of tiny superiority--and over the years he develops seamlessly into the amazing character who graces our television screens today. Blaine, too, is excellently written, bright and eager and as always, eternally loyal.

This made me giggle and cry a little, but mostly squee a lot. Especially if you're a Kurt stan, I can't recommend it enough.

Seasons May Change

Title: With Six You Get Eggroll
Fandom: due South
Pairing: RayK/Fraser, RayV/Stella
Categories: Slash, romance, kids, post-series
Length: Long (31,000 words)
Warnings: Kissing. That's as heavy as it gets.

Author on LJ: cesperanza
Author on AO3: Speranza
Author Website: Speranza's Fiction

Summary:
Ray burst out laughing. "Benny! You've developed a sense of humor!"

"Yes, Ray." Fraser lowered the gun and showed him an amused look. "Six immaculate conceptions will do that to you."

Review:
I'm running late, so you're getting another one of my old favourites. This time it's a Speranza story that is unaccountably not yet listed; unaccountably because it's by far my favourite of hers.

The basic premise is that things happened a little differently at the end of the series finale. If you cast your minds back, you may recall that the Vecchios headed south to run a bowling alley, Huey and Dewey opened a comedy club, Welsh stayed behind his desk, Thatcher became a Canadian intelligence operative, Turnbull ran for public office, Ray and Fraser went off in search of Franklin's Hand, and Francesca had six immaculate conceptions. In this slightly alternate universe, everyone swaps. Now the Duck Boys have the bowling alley, Frannie is Chicago's favourite comedienne, Meg stays at the Consulate, Turnbull of all people becomes the spy, and Welsh is the one running for Mayor. Ray and Stella decide on a Canadian adventure honeymoon, and stop off at a certain log cabin on their way out. Where they find that Fraser and Kowalsky have adopted. Six times, because "With six you get eggroll."

The writing is beautifully lyrical, and puts you at your ease despite the general air of chaos that surrounds any well-grounded due South story. And with six kids of widely varying ages, there is plenty of chaos. The kids all have different problems, some more than others, and Ray and Benton have to act as a team to deal with them. This isn't a perfect family, not by any stretch of the imagination, and the story doesn't try to disguise that. It feels real, in that way that good fiction makes you want to believe in the characters despite, or perhaps because of, their faults.

And that's it. There's no great plot, just a slice of family life. Quirky family, but could a due South family be anything else? It's still one of the most loving and inspiring stories I've read, so it's my pleasure to pass it on to you now.

With Size You Get Eggroll: illustrated version or text only.

Title: Family Portrait
Fandom: due South
Pairing: Fraser/Kowalski
Categories: Slash, AU, family, kids
Length: Epic (~75,000 words)
Warnings: Minor character death (before the prologue), much sex.

(The author's website has gone the way of all things, but the story is still around on the archives.)

Summary:
"It says, and I quote, Constable, `Give this man something to do before I kill him and cause an international incident," Welsh said in a long-suffering voice.

"Ah." Fraser shuffled his feet. "I was, in essence, correct."

Review:
I seem to be on a historic jag at the moment, digging up all the stories that I dearly loved ten years ago or more. This one is a classic due South story unaccountably missing from epic_recs, so I get to set that aright too. I love this job :-)

The story re-jigs the set-up of season 3 of dS by changing Ray Kowalski's backstory just a little. In this reality, he and Stella had kids, but Stella died in a car accident. When Ray Vecchio goes undercover, RayK is assigned to take on his caseload and, as the above quote indicates, his Mountie.

Despite the humour inherent in any due South setup that leavens the story, this is far more a romance than a rom-com. Fraser is aware quite quickly of his attraction to Ray, something that his father (still a ghost) has definite opinions on, but can't see any future to it. Journey makes the point several times that Fraser has been left behind in his personal life so often that he doesn't even hope for a permanant relationship. For Ray it's a far slower realisation, something that he never expected; indeed, something that his kids see before he does, and don't so much as bat an eyelid over. And for Ray, for this Ray at least, family and belonging are very important.

The story is dotted with wonderful observations about Ray and Fraser, and that's one of the things that makes it one of my favourites. For example, there's a nice little insight early on into the different ways Ray and Fraser approach detective-work, partly done by discussion between the characters but then played out in a snippet of casework as they combine to identify the culprit and prove it was him. It all adds up to a very nice pair of character studies intertwining in a beautifully gentle romance.

Family Portrait

Title: Tiny Houses
Fandom: Teen Wolf
Pairing: Derek/Stiles
Categories: angst, mpreg, kids
Length: Epic (77,138)
Warnings:  rape/non-con, mpreg, graphic descriptions of violence, body horror, attempted abortion, adoption, suicidal thoughts, and permanent injury.

Author on LJ:  N/A
Author Website: AO3
Summary: "So this is what Stiles does. He lies in Scott’s bed and waits for Melissa to say she’s found someone to get it out of him, to cure him of the wrongness and the bad, and he dreams.

God, he dreams.

He dreams of fire and swollen bellies and that scene in Alien, of giving birth to jackals through his urethra, the whole horrific nine yards. His head is a terrible place to be, he can’t imagine his stomach is much better, why anyone would want to put a thing inside of it."


Review: Mind the tags because this story deals with some heavy topics. It starts off with a non-consensual (for both of them) sex scene between Derek and Stiles, and only gets darker as Stiles realizes that he's pregnant with a fetus he doesn't want and can't get rid of. Even if mpreg typically isn't your thing, I would encourage you to take a chance on this one. The body horror elements highlight how strange and wrong the pregnancy is for Stiles, and give the story a sense of realism, if realism can involve werewolves and dark magic. This story feels very emotionally honest to me. Between his depression and horror during pregnancy, his feelings of inadequacy, loneliness, and guilt as a parent, and his complicated relationships with Derek and the other pack members, Stiles goes through an intense emotional journey in this story, and we're right there with him. Yet despite all of those heavy emotions, I never think of this as a story of pain so much as a story of healing. Reading it feels a little bit like tearing yourself open and stitching yourself back together again. There is a hard-won happy ending after all of the angst, and it doesn't feel tacked on or out of place, but as necessary and inevitable as spring following winter. By the time I reached the end, I didn't want the story to be over. It gave me that feeling I used to get reading my favorite novels as a child, like I had fought with these characters, had bled with them, and healed with them, and I could happily have kept reading about them forever. For that reason, it's one of those stories I've returned to again and again.

I also highly recommend the podfic by Jinxy. It's 11 hours long, and I think I've listened to it three times now. She brings an incredible depth of emotion to the performance, and I loved her use of music and sound effects.

Tiny Houses

Title: hadn't built up my defenses
Fandom: Welcome to Night Vale
Pairing: Carlos/Cecil Gershwin Palmer
Categories: Alternate Universe, Pre-Canon, High School, Romance, Drama, Mystery
Length: Medium (12177 words)
Warnings: N/A

Author on LJ: N/A
Author Website: AugustaByron

Author's Summary:

Carlos hates the desert, and he hates sand, and he hates Night Vale, and he hates his dad's stupid job with its stupid transfers. He hates the idea of spending an entire school year in this boring town.

Review:

hadn't built up my defenses is the 'beginning of the beginning', (to butcher a common phrase), another way things might've begun in the grand saga of Cecil and Carlos. In it, Carlos is transplanted into Night Vale after his father is transferred to the town for mysterious reasons. Even more mysterious still is Carlos' first day at the high school where he, (to butcher a rather less common phrase), 'falls in crush, instantly' with Cecil, the boy assigned to show him around his first day. The story progresses as most boy-meets-boy high school romances do, with the usual gory horror of Night Vale life plodding along in the background. Still, it manages to hint at deeper, more terrifying mysteries that foreshadow the events and persons introduced in the canonical episodes.

But what makes this fic more than just any old high school AU is the way AugustaByron creates a Carlos-centric story that parallels the later canonical Cecil perspective. Carlos is attracted to Cecil's most prominent feature from their first meeting, an attraction that goes unrequited for some time, through a partner project and a not-date. And just like in canon, it's Carlos who initiates their relationship. Unfortunately, the very mystery that brought Carlos to Night Vale in the first place is what throws a wrench in their fledgling romance, a wrench that tightens down the bolts of their respective destinies, setting them both down the paths that will later lead them to the Night Vale we've come to know and love, warts and viscera and all.

hadn't built up my defenses

Title: No Magic Would Save Me
Fandom: Avengers Movie Verse
Pairing: Gen
Categories: AU, Angst, Domestic, Hurt/Comfort, Family, Kids
Length: Long (20k)
Warnings:Child Abuse, Past Sexual Abuse of a child.

Author on LJ: arsenicjade
Website: Taste of Poison

Summary:Once upon a time, an angel with the unlikely name of Pepper came to the circus, and took Clint away.

Review: This is a mildly steampunk AU. I'm saying mildly, because the Steampunk is more implied, than expressly stated. Particularly because this is a regency AU, where it's hard to tell if the whole world is steampunk, or if it's just Tony's brand of crazy.

Clint is a boy who lives and works in the circus. He's badly abused (See Warnings), until one night he is rescued by Pepper and Tony. He then returns to Pepper and Tony's Manor, where the rest of the story takes place.

Through his eyes you get to see, various members of the Marvel Movie Universe, including Bruce the cook, and Natasha the invisible security guard.

What is most impressive though, is Arsenic's ability to keep themselves limited to using only Clint's tight perspective. Which lends an air of whimsy and sweetness, to this somewhat dark tale of a hurt little boy.

That being said, please don't ignore the warnings. They are there for a reason.

No Magic Would Save Me