Fandom: HORNBLOWER
Pairing: Hornblower/Kennedy
Author on LJ:inlovewithnight
Author Website: Exaggeration and Blank verse
Why this must be read: A "Missing Scene" fic set during Mutiny; Horatio and Archie find a precious moment of privacy in the midst of madness.

inlovewithnight writes with a duellist's hand; a subtle glide of beautiful, shiny words and it's not until she's done with you that you realize she's just had your guts out again. If you've been thinking on love, courage, loss, determination, and fragility this week, as many of us have, this fic, written for a hurricane relief donation, is likely to be just the sort of thing that you will like.

The guards, of course, were properly embarrassed at being presented with a stark naked prisoner...

Fandom: LOST
Pairing: Charlie/Claire
Author on LJ: literarylemming
Author Website: Lost Fanfic Archive
Why this must be read:

It's been Jossed a bit, but I still love this one. I warn you, I love my angst, and I love dark fic. This is about as dark as it gets, and it still sends shivers down my spine. The explanation for a particular throwaway piece of canon is brilliant, and the conversation between Locke and Claire is so very sinister. Spoiler warning (since I've been asked to say :) is probably up to 'The Moth'.

Hot Rain

Fandom: LotRiPS
Pairing: Viggo/Orlando
Author on LJ: _cee
Author Website: buddhist punk
Why this must be read:

No one does Vig/Orli quite like _cee does. Though this ficlet sets out to describe the things that Viggo does, it ends up painting an equally detailed picture of Orlando. It's realistic and funny and thoughtful all at the same time.

In the slightly more than six years they've known each other, Viggo has done many things both to and for Orlando. Not one of them could really be described as 'kindly'. Some of them could possibly be described as satanic, such as The Thing With The Horse - which Orlando refuses to speak of and Viggo can't speak of because when you mention it he gets laughing so hard that he does that snort-wheezing thing and turns blue and eventually falls down.

untitled 63

Fandom: POP SLASH
Pairing: a bunch mostly involving Justin Nick JC and Christina
Author on LJ: kissmeagain
Author Website: new words for the 1990s
Why this must be read:

This is such a fucking awesome story. I read it when it came out for the 2003 Don We Now Our Gay Apparel holiday challenge and it's stuck in my head ever since. I don't think anything I could say could really do this story justice. It's an au, I guess you could call it a high school au since Justin and Nick are both 17 in it but they don't actually go to school much, so. It's, well, it's almost like a gay Jay and Silent Bob mixed with Cruel intentions without the devious plotting and gratuitous stoner jokes. Nick and Justin have this fascinating and intricate friendship that's kinda fucked up and really, really interesting.

The popslash fandom is littered with AUs and I guess it's possoble that some people don't like them but I've always felt like these particular people are just perfect for AUs because they're so bendable. They don't have rigid canon backed personalities, they're uniquely transmutable. The interesting thing to me is seeing how different authors write their characters so differently. And in this story the characters just feel real. They're young and fucked up and so very much like people you know in real life. This is a fantastic read.

In the Event that We Do Adapt

note: you can also read the story with the author's commentary if you're interested.