Fandom: HIGHLANDER
Pairing: Duncan/Methos
Author on LJ: hafital
Author Website: Hafital's Fanfiction Paradise

Why this must be read:
I would be remiss if I didn’t rec Hafital’s “So Tonight That I Might See” series. If you are looking for a wonderful romance between Methos and Duncan, one that’s real and moving and hot this series is exactly what you are looking for. Hafital is never heavy handed. She has a way of presenting each scene, each emotion so that it is vivid and crisp but not belabored. It hits you with just the right strength.

The first story in the series, “The Space Between,” opens with Methos helping Mac deal with the aftermath of the events of Highlander: Endgame (if you haven’t seen the movie, the story contains major spoilers for it), which is a fairly common theme, but this is my favorite among what I’ve read. This is not one of those stories where Mac and Methos fight and snipe until they finally throw themselves at each other (not that I don’t love that type as well). Instead they are sweet and gentle with each other as they slowly come together. The moment of Mac’s epiphany will leave you breathless. These stories blow me away with their tenderness which never descends into schmaltz. And they are really, really hot. Hafital does not skimp on the sex. Really, read everything she’s written, but start with these.

Here’s a small sample:

"Can you wait a little more? I'd like to see the other warehouse. It's not far."

Methos exaggerated a long suffering sigh. "If you must."

"I must. You're welcome to leave."

"I was kidding, Mac."

"I know. So was I." MacLeod tweaked Methos' nose. Their eyes met in the underwater-like light and even the dust motes seemed to pause in their eternal flight for the span of one heartbeat. Then Methos sneezed.

"Come on." MacLeod led the way out and Methos followed.


The Space Between
And In the Morning
Crash of Light

Fandom: THE WEST WING
Pairing: Leo/Jenny, Leo/Margaret (sort of)
Author on LJ: priya
Author Website: crossroads fanfic
Why this must be read:

The world needs more good Margaret and Leo fic, dealing with the deep and abiding (and mostly non-sexual) love between them, and this story is a great example of the genre. It deals with Leo and Margaret before the show begins, back when Leo was Labor Secretary, and he was doing his job high most of the time, and Margaret was looking out for him, and how he finally stepped over the line.

This story is sharp, dry and rings true, from the way work gets in the way of Margaret's social life to the way she deals (sympathy and guilt entwined) with Jenny when Leo shows up drunk at her apartment. And while I'm not a huge fan of first person narration, this seems like it could totally be Margaret's very quirky thought process.

This is a good exploration of why Leo and Margaret put up with each other -- because they've been through too much together not to.

A quote:
Look, it's not my place to ask questions, right? So I don't. I mean, he usually gets the job done, and well, at that. Everyone's got their demons, their skeletons in the closet. I've got 'em. The girl I replaced had 'em. My boss, the Secretary of Labor, he's got 'em. I don't make judgment calls, usually.

I got him the glass of water. It doesn't make a difference. He would've dry swallowed the pill if I hadn't gotten him the water. He wouldn't have taken it with scotch, though. I mean, he's not stupid. Sharp like a fox, him.

That was a mixed metaphor, wasn't it?

A Glass of Water by Priya

Fandom: FARSCAPE
Pairing:  John/Aeryn
Author on LJ: n/a
Author Website:?
Why this must be read:
 
John returning to Earth is an irresistable scenario, one that the actual series writers couldn't even resist, and when it's done well, it produces a tight, angsty story about the why you can't go home again. There are two different versions of this story, one told in a linear narrative and one told in a serious of memories with the realtime events unfolding around them. I prefer the linear version, although I think I'm in the minority.

Regardless, Ask Me Tomorrow takes John and Aeryn back to Earth in the first season, not long after A Human Reaction. The two are uneasy with each other, uneasy with being on Earth, and just as they are starting to relax, to trust each other and really explore their options, things go wrong very quickly. They're seperated, and things progress from there.

The story uses the characters beautifully, without sentiment or melodrama, playing on the fears that John reveals in A Human Reaction without completly villifying Earth's response to an alien presence, and the bonds between John and Aeryn, are drawn as very real, but tentative, silk thin and uncertain. The original character is believable and well conceived and the whole thing ends on an ambiguous, if hopeful note that fits the tone of the series very well.

So, Ask Me Tomorrow by Laura Folden.

ETA: And here is the alternate version, which upon rereading it, seems to have several scenes that other one doesn't, Ask Me Tomorrow (Memories Version)

Fandom: X-Men Movieverse
Pairing: general
Author on LJ: unknown
Author Website: The Sandbox

Why this must be read: This short story is a masterpiece! A series of vignettes describing the X-Men.

Another shining achievement for lachlanrose. She does what she does best with this story, she writes a lilting prose that just flows. It keeps you hooked on every word, and at the end, wishing for more.

The twist is that each description revolves around the central theme of black. Each one is given their own special shade of this absence of color.

Brilliant.

Shades of Black

 
Fandom: FARSCAPE
Pairing:  John/Chiana
Author on LJ: rubberneck
Author Website:fanfic by feldman
Why this must be read:

Since I can't just do a blanket rec for Feldman, (oh wait, I can - go now, read everything, hurry!!), I'm gonna recc Johnny on the Spot because Feldman does the near on impossible. She writes a sexy, heartbreaking John/Chiana fic, and never once is it about Chiana's secret love for John, or her self-sacrifice, frelling him while being secretly in love with him but willing to let him go.

This is a fic about two people in pain, having lost their ability to feel pleasure. It's something that Chiana wants back, and it's something John's just realized he's lost track of. They figure out, a little perversely, how to help each other. Set in Season 4, this is a damaged Chi looking for a way back to her sense of self, and a John dulled by the lakka, but still aware enough to realize things have to change. There isn't resolution found here, and while there's love, and there's sex of a sort, it isn't a fairy tale encounter. It's a healing through high tech, and a basic connection between these two more than friends.

It's also hot and sad and written in Feldman's gorgeous, vivid prose, perfect words and perfect pacing, and the unexpected twist and turn and drops of phrase and it's visceral and lovely and sparse and spare, and I said hot, right?

From Johnny on the Spot:


"You're sex on a stick, Chiana. You're a Sweet-Tart." He's tracking her mouth with his, just an inch away, letting her feel the heat of his breath. "You're la petite morte in black leather boots."

"I can feel you're hungry for it, too." She rubs her cheek against his. "You need it just like I do."

"You haven't lost it, Chi, you've just misplaced it. We'll find it." He drifts up her cheek to her temple, then down toward her ear, the words an excuse to skim his lips against her skin. She has a malty scent and is softer than flannel. "You're a butter pecan chocolate double-dip ice cream headache of porny thoughts. You've got an honorary Ph.D. For Unlawful Carnal Knowledge. You're pro'ly gonna give me a heart attack."

His suckling kisses bring the heat of her blood to the surface of her skin, and for a moment he's startled by the blue tinge. Nothing warm in that color. Then he thinks of a pot on a stove, blue flames licking at a copper bottom and it parses.

Fandom: ANGEL
Pairing: none
Author's website: Wastelands
Author's LJ: sanguinary

Why this must be read:
Ah, Fred. Fred, like Drusilla, is easy to charicature; she's into physics and math, she babbles, she likes tacos. That's all you need, right? I mean, the writers use her as all-purpose science girl, whether it's in her field or not. Well, there's a little more to her than that.

Sanguinary takes Fred's math skills and uses that to frame and interperet what she sees - which is, after all, what Fred does. Though this story is only a short slice of Fred, it captures the mix of madness/intelligence and innocence/perception that can make her an interesting character.

"Fred thinks about an obsession of hers."
Pi

Fandom: ROSWELL
Pairing: Tess/Kyle
Author on LJ: moonwhip
Author Website: http://www.geocities.com/moonwhip/fiction.html
Why this must be read:

There was a very short window of opportunity for Tess/Kyle fic that fit with canon: after Tess moved in with the Valentis, but before TPTB decided to turn their sparky-sparky flirting into a sibling-type relationship.

This is a good story to show what Tess was like *before* TPTB decided to tie up all their loose plot threads by making her evil. It would've been great if they'd let her stay conflicted, and stay with Kyle; to have Tess, the most humanphobic of the aliens, fall for a human, would've been a great story. Unfortunately, now we can only read about it.

Luckily, moonwhip decided to write it. To say too much about this story would be to spoil it; you have to immerse yourself in the POV here, perfect Tess: careful and smart and all tangled up, and *way* more human than she realizes.

When he stood up, scowling overdramatically, you spotted a stray thread of carpet clinging to his mussed hair. You didn't tell him about it. His imperfections remind you that he is human, that you could do without him-- that you don't have to. You rubbed your feet on the carpet and thought of taking flight.

Many Sweet Companions

Title: Release
URL: http://josephinesgate.net/josephine/Release.html
Fandom: Enterprise
Pairing: Archer/Hoshi
Author on LJ: Doesn't have one that I know of
Author Website: Josephine's Enterprise Universe
Why this must be read:

"If first contact hadn't been made in 2063, where would we be now?"

In early Enterprise, one thing that was made a lot of was Archer's belief that the Vulcans had held humanity back and, in this admittedly Hoshi/Archer fic, he is confronted, by Hoshi, with just that belief and a lot of excellent points are made. I read this fic when it was first posted and it has stuck with me ever since. When I think about Archer's feelings about the Vulcan race, this story inevitably comes to mind.

Fandom: SMALLVILLE
Pairing: Clark/Lex
Author on LJ: velvetglove
Author Website: Glovebox
Why this must be read:

Written for the Cure Title Challenge, this is a heartbreakingly tender and beautiful fic from one of my favourite SV authors. A business trip to Japan - an environment at once shockingly unfamiliar yet strangely evocative - causes Lex to reflect upon his fledgling love affair with Clark, the nature of Clark’s otherness and his own profound need to be saved and fear that he can’t be. There are unsettling undercurrents as Lex regards Clark’s alienness with a wonder that could so easily tip over into something darker. The overall tone, however, is joyous with Lex’s growing realisation that something wonderful and utterly life-altering has happened to him

The clean prose has both delicacy and strength and the evocation of Kyoto and environs is just beautiful. Love it.

Kyoto Song

Title: Laundry Day
URL: http://debc.ink-and-quill.com/viewstory.php?sid=11
Fandom: Enterprise
Pairing: Malcolm/Hoshi
Author on LJ: debc
Author Website: Scattered Thoughts
Why this must be read: In Shockwave (part two) Hoshi lost her shirt...Malcolm lent her one. Time to bring it back. A damn cute Reed/Sato story and it does, neatly, tie up that little loose end. It's a highly entertaining story.


eta: link updated

Fandom: GUNDAM WING
Pairing: none
Author on LJ: n/a, afaik
Author Website: Mission Acknowledged
Why this must be read:

Because it's one of the two best after-the-war non-romance GW fics. This one is an AU: What if Mariemaia had won the war?

The story itself is set 7 years after the end of Endless Waltz, in a world ruled by Mariemaia, with the pilots and everyone on their side have scattered all over the world and the colonies. And then things start to move...

The most interesting character in this story is Wufei, hands down, but everyone is handled very well. There's absolutely no danger of any fanon characterization, although they have been shaped by 7 years under Mariemaia's rule.

It's a very unusual story for the GW fandom: it's not focussed on the characters, but on the political events after the war.

Anatexis


I'd have loved to also formally recommend the other great political GW story, but it's still a WiP. But in case you're curious, it's here: Sainan no kekka