Fandom: FARSCAPE
Pairing: John/Aeryn
Author on LJ: Unknown
Author's Website: Unknown

Why this must be read:

This is a golden oldie, right here.  One of the first long, action packed, John/Aeryn UST to RST I read that I enjoyed and kept coming back to.  It takes the idea of Aeryn still having emotional ties and yearnings to go back to the Peacekeepers and goes from there.  The whole crew is involved, showing the ensemble nature of the show in this fic.  The OC is well drawn and grey.  I didn't know whether to like him or hate him.  The J/A relationship is antagonistic with that sizzling undercurrent most of us see on the show. 

This idea was very new when it was written, drawing Aeryn as almost the villain in the relationship and doing what we all are familiar with now, pulling John and Aeryn apart to put them back together to pull them apart again. 

One of the first, one of the best.

Change of Heart

Let's go twofer the O'Reily brothers!

Fandom: OZ
Pairing:  none. O'Reily brothers.
Author on LJ: lisaluvsblair
Author Website: n/a
Why this must be read:

Lisa writes about Ryan and Cyril O'Reily with a sensitivity and passion that comes through clearly in vivid backstory portraits like Parted and its companion piece (my next rec), Numb.

Parted gives us a zoomed in look at a pre-OZ Ryan in the hours and days following the incident that left Cyril brain damaged. Ryan's worry, and helpless rage, and intense guilt over his own actions that fateful day, do battle with his desire to keep his cool -- to remain tough and strong, for both Cyril and himself. A battle that would carry forward into the brothers' days together inside OZ:

"It should be me in that hospital bed, not Cyril. Not Cyril, who had plenty of smarts, but preferred to play the quiet man, letting me provide the brains while he provided the muscle. Not Cyril, who had proven time after time that he had my back, no matter how much in the wrong I might be. It was never a question of right or wrong for Cyril, only a matter of blood. And now it looked like maybe he had spilled his blood for me for the last time."

Read Parted

Fandom: OZ
Pairing: none. Cyril O'Reily
Author on LJ: lisaluvsblair
Author Website: n/a
Why this must be read:

Numb is Lisa's follow up story to Parted. This time she looks at Cyril O'Reily post-accident, but now left drifting in this strange new state without his brother too, as Ryan is already on his way to OZ. The Cyril who emerges in Numb is wholly believable and heartbreaking for that -- Lisa lets glimpses of his life before the brain damage peek through cruelly: the people who treat him differently now, who avoid him. Cyril is conscious of the change, but unable now to quite process it.

The other standout in Numb is Ryan's wife at the time, Shannon. Lisa does a remarkable job of showing us Shannon through Cyril's eyes, bringing the flashes of level-headed tenacity we only got glimpses of in canon, into a dimensional character:

"I'm living with Shannon now. She said it's because Ryan is gone and she needs someone to be with her so she's not scared. I thought it was a joke and I laughed. Shannon isn't afraid of anyone, not even Ryan. Not even me, and I'm strong. I remember one time when I was mad at her for something, and I was yelling at her, really loud. She didn't care, she just threw her drink in my face and told me to get the fuck out of her house. I don't like to think about that time. I can remember things that happened, but I don't know why they happened. Like why would I be yelling at Shannon? Something about Ryan, but I'm not sure."

Read Numb

Fandom: YAMI NO MATSUEI
Pairing: Hisoka and Muraki (gen)
Author on LJ: incandescens
Author Website: Maya's Homepage
Why this must be read:

First person is a popular point of view in YnM fanfic, but in this reviewer's opinion can be difficult to write well (OOC-ness, if present, becomes even more glaring when in FPPOV). Maya is an author who is successful at this method of storytelling. This short mood piece, told through Hisoka's POV, is haunting and lovely. It explores the concepts of destiny and choice, and whether Hisoka, Muraki and Tsuzuki could ever have been anything but inescapably intertwined. The story flows gracefully along and is easy to fit into the YnM universe and style.

( Excerpt )

Read everything Maya has on her website, especially The Awful Truth (parody) and Nor Are We Out of It (multi-chapter, plotted, suspenseful and exciting).

Final Destination

Fandom: Smallville
Title: Lunch At The Gotham Cafe
Pairing: Lex/Chloe
Author on LJ: debc
Author Website: Scattered Thoughts
Why this must be read:

I've been a friend of debc for a long time and usually I'm hesitant about reccing friends but this fic absolutely demands reccing. She wrote it for slodwick's Stephen King Title Challenge It's futurefic which gives Chloe a life outside of Metropolis, in Gotham as the title suggests, but still working with her first love - reporting - and having a strong identity of her own. Meeting up with Lex we find out how her life has gone after Smallville and we see Lex as he will be. Strong, smooth, powerful and so very very Lex.

The relationship between the two is very compelling and very organic and the strong level of sarcasm you would expect between Lex and Chloe is very much present in the fic and the romance and sexual tension is positively delicious. For fans of either character, or the pairing itself, or just Smallville fans in general, it's a fic that's a blast to read.

Lunch At The Gotham Cafe

Currently debc's site is going through a recoding so the SV page isn't available but the fic can be found at Level Three which is where the above links will take you.

Fandom:CSI
Title: Rodeo
Pairing: Nick/Catherine
Author on LJ: alyse
Author Website: Unconscious Mind: Alyse's Web Collective
Why this must be read:

Nick and Catherine have a rather interesting dynamic on the show and a unique and fairly deep connection thanks to some very amazing episodes and alyse spins that off into a romance that works surprisingly well. Writing with a very strong Nick voice, alyse gives us a peak into how a relationship between Nick and Catherine might play out and it is excellent. Comfortable, sexy, funny and intense and real. It's not a airy fairy romance or over the top bodice ripping. It's an honest and real relationship and a slice of life fic that isn't to be missed.

Rodeo

Fandom: LOTRIPS
Pairing: Dom/Billy
Author's LJ: eyebrowofdoom
Author's Site: FOREHEAD SPACE

Why this must be read:

Mainly for the style. This is like watching a film: all show and no tell, and skilfully done. Also, because it's funny and cute.

Elijah stiffens in mid-wriggle. Billy turns and sees Dom in the doorway. Dom is not wearing his pyjama pants, on account of Billy wearing them: he is wearing trackpants. Dom has one foot forward, has not transferred his weight onto it. A blank blind has dropped over his face.

Billy smiles. He says, "I'm just explaining the facts of life to our young Elijah here."

He hears Elijah give a little huff. One of Billy's hands on Elijah's back beckons Dom over.

When Dom comes forward, his face has begun to move again, is no longer like a wax cast of itself. Billy pushes Elijah back into Dom, sandwiching Elijah between them. Billy's hands curl around Dom's bare sides. Now Dom smiles, and puts his arms around Elijah and Billy in turn.

Elijah says, "You know it's okay, you guys, you know, I just got a bit of a shock, but it's fine, I was just..."

"Shh!" Dom says, tightening his grip around the two of them. "Where are we up to in the lesson, Billy?"

Billy gives a bit of a shove back against Elijah, and feels the impact in his own hands on Dom's waist, his palms getting sticky against Dom's skin. Billy says, grinning, "I was just telling Elijah that sometimes, when Daddy and Daddy love each other very much..."

Dom grins back at Billy over Elijah's shoulder. He gives a long, slow sort of a wriggle against Elijah, and then Billy gives one as well, and then Elijah is saying, his voice high, "I know what Daddy and Daddy do, okay, I know already, you don't have to demonstrate!"

The Two Of Us, Versus You

A reminder: tomorrow is the 15th of the month and that means Crack Van Collisions, a.k.a. cross-over day.

Drivers, you may rec one fic that crosses over your fandom with another (no, this does not count against your maximum). Please post crossovers in the following format:

Subject: Fandom/Fandom (Rating)

Title: Title by Author
Pairing: (no abbreviations, please)
Author on LJ:
Author Website:
Why this must be read:

(link to story)

Thanks, all!

Title: Rain by LadyCat
Pairing: Spike/Xander (series eventually to be Spike/Xander/Brian)
Author on LJ: ladycat777
Author Website: Subtle Salvation

Why this must be read:
Because I won't have Internet access due to moving on the 15th, I'm posting this crossover rec tonight. I waffled between an Alex Krycek/Brian Kinney PWP and a QAF/Smallville PWP with Clark/Lex/Brian, but then I remembered this one, which I can't resist pointing out.

An AU based on "The Killer in Me" (7x13), if Spike had left when he offered, and Xander had settled in Pittsburgh after the events of season 7. This is a WIP series, but I'm recommending Rain (and the sequels Snow and Sun) because the story stands alone as a good, if unusual, crossover of two fictional universes. The tone of the Hazy Shades of Winter series is dark, but I like these characterizations of Spike and Xander out of their canon millieu.

Rain followed by Snow and Sun

Fandom: YAMI NO MATSUEI
Pairing: Muraki/Tsuzuki implied
Author on LJ: penelope_z
Author Website: down at the moment, but archive links are in her LJ sidebar
Why this must be read:

Featured Small Fandoms are lucky, because we get to overrun the van with our fic for a whole month before we have to move to the back with the dusty old shag carpeting. Muraki gets a lot of fanfic, but many writers tend to sugar-coat him or turn him into a caricature of supervillain/evil psychopath. It is rare that an author really captures the essence of Muraki. He is emotionally detached, yet fascinated by humanity, observant down to the smallest detail. He is beautiful and sensual, but also cruel and sadistic in a matter-of-fact way and he clearly gets off on the pain and suffering of others. He is a master manipulator who knows how to find and exploit the weaknesses of others. But even if you had never met Muraki, you would be able to know all of this about him just by reading PZ's story. PZ does him justice in such a superior way in this short piece that it makes me worry about the state of her own mind *g*. She scared the bloody hell out of me. Dark, sordid, gritty and delicious.

Abakareta Sekai