Fandom: STARGATE: ATLANTIS
Pairing: Sheppard/Weir
Author on LJ: mylittleredgirl
Author Website: out of the badlands
Why this must by read:

This is the obligatory survival fic - John and Elizabeth stranded on an alien planet, an assortment of injuries between them, and no obvious way back to Atlantis. Little Red captures the characters and their interaction so perfectly you'll wish you could see this on the show.

Ascent

Fandom: Harry Potter
Pairing: Remus/Sirius
Author on LJ: rageprufrock
Author Website: glitterati
Why this must be read:

Well, first off, a confession: Pru is one of my favorite writers of, like, ever. She has a terrific gift for character voices, especially the snappy dialogue banter of so many of my favorite pairings. Like this story, for example. Vector is a charming story about post-Hogwarts Remus and Sirius near Christmas, before all the Bad Things happened, in that slight window of time that offers so much possibility for all of our favorite characters from the Maurauders era.

It's sweet and engaging and funny, and given all the snow currently piled outside my door, offers the perfect escape. I prescribe reading with a cup of tea and a soft blanket.

And it had been a wonder, toward the middle of seventh year, when Remus had started wearing dark brown gloves to classes instead of gray ones. Where apologies and contrition and tears and stalking the Lupin household over summer had failed, Sirius found success in Remus' innate goodness, in being tired of being angry, and in cold weather. There'd been no exact moment, no declaration of forgiveness, just a weary rebuilding of tumbled walls, and Remus' eyes more hazel than black looking over a newly-repaired section, as if gauging Sirius' behavior.

He stared at Remus, silent and still and appreciative, feeling the full impact of what they'd survived in that moment.

Vector

Fandom: STARGATE SG1
Pairing: Jack/Daniel
Author on LJ: n/a
Author Website: Brothers in Arms
Why this must be read: 

Jack flirts with Daniel.  In Latin.  Just maybe not the type of Latin you'd learn in school.

Well, I haven’t tried out all my Latin." Jack cleared his throat. "Ego te amo. Dormi mecum."

Daniel raised both eyebrows as he reached for the door knob. "Oh, I can top that one. ‘Ego te amo’ to you, too. And ‘pedicabo ego vos et irrumabo.’"

Latin for the Novice

Fandom: VERONICA MARS
Pairing: Logan/Veronica
Author on LJ: haleyj_the_bat
Author Website: hjtheb_writes
Why this must be read: Veronica didn't exactly get the most enjoyable holiday season this year, but this fabulous story takes off from that on a hot little tangent when she begins to receive little gifts that remind her of her relationship with Logan.

Happy Hanukah, Veronica

Fandom: THE PROFESSIONALS
Pairing: Bodie/Cowley
Author on LJ: Not any more, alas!
Author Website: Jane Carnall's site

Why this must be read

Now, after some cautious preparation, we are entering the weird and perilous fields of the infamous B/C pairing! This is at last the fateful story who, in less than two hours and, to her own stark astonishment, turned upside down the fannish affections of an innocent reader who, until then, had been perfectly happy and satisfied with the regular and quite obvious one, the OTP Bodie/Doyle pairing (I simply wasn't very convinced by the physical charms of the green eyed golly but, as long as it came to fanfiction reading, it didn't matter much).

I think now I was hooked first by the style: clear and transparent like these calm, sky blue waters, through which the gaze gets at the bottom so easily you could believe the rocks and sands are almost at hand, and yet you know how this delusion is deceptive. The bottom is much much farther, beyond your reach.

So many examples come to mind. This is one:

Bodie was attractive. Very attractive. Very dangerous. Attractive because dangerous, and, for Cowley, dangerous because attractive.

It's difficult to say something so right with so few words. Another one:

It was a wonderful morning -- for Bodie, it could have been raining and it would still have been a wonderful morning. He felt good all over, keenly aware through his whole skin of the morning breeze and the summer's sky and the tactile memory of holding Cowley.

Is it just plain, as it may appear, or more significant than the simple meaning of the words?

And another passage I deem as one of the most moving I ever read:

Cowley remembered, afterwards, the dark hair crisp as feathers against his fingers; remembered tracing the line of one scar that curled around Bodie's ribs like a whiplash; remembered the sleepy, still-confident, smile on Bodie's face as he hooked an arm around the other man's waist and fell into a satisfied sleep. These things he could bear to remember, though they seared him; for the rest, it would have been better if he could have forgotten what must never happen again.

Wistful, bittersweet, heartbreaking. I am not very receptive to the pathetic, romantic stuff that I personally feel as counterproductive in regards to emotion but such matter of fact statements remain in my memory where they resound again and again with full gravity. And did I say how I loved the verses which are used to introduce the chapters? And how perfectly the whole poem fits the development of the characters' moves and feelings?

Perhaps I make a mistake by quoting some of the finest bits of the text, it could spoil the pleasure of discovery; but, on the other hand, as most people in this fandom are likely to be repelled by the basic idea of the pairing itself, I must entice them by something else...I'd like to know if other readers are as sensitive as I am to the suggestive power of understatement.

Before reading the story, you ought to cast a look on these complementary informations:( Read more... ) Lest These Dark Days

Title:Nobody
Fandom: Star Trek: Enterprise
Pairing: Reed/Sato
Author on LJ: N/A
Author Website: N/A (just an ff.net account)
Why thismust be read:

I'm not a big Reed/Sato fan. I enjoyed it and kept it as one of the pairings I read during my Enterprise years but I never got really head over heels into it. But with that said, CJ's fic could make me go head over heels for it. This one is just a beautiful slice of mission which picks up on the 'invisibility' theme of the secondary officers and runs with it. Carrying through that is a lovely emotional theme that lies just under the surface and comes through in some great description. Like a lot of her work, it's lovely.


Nobody

Fandom: DUE SOUTH
Pairing: Fraser/ofc, implied Fraser/Kowalski
Author on LJ: lalejandra
Author Website: Apostatize
Why this must be read:

lalejandra writes beautiful, straightforward, often heartbreaking stories. She tends to...well, hurt our boys--especially Fraser. You're never assured of a happy ending when reading one of her stories, but they're so good, you won't mind. Much.

In this post-CoTW story, Fraser is living in Chicago with Ray but they're not together. Fraser's feeling restless and unsettled and learns a few things about himself he "never knew".

( Excerpt )

Knowing

Fandom: SUPERNATURAL
Pairing: none
Author on LJ: alethialia
Author Website: none found

Why this fic must be read: Because it has bantering! Alethia has written an wickedly funny fic featuring Dean and Sam bantering (and sniping) at each other. I couldn't stop laughing at lines like these:

“You are never going anywhere alone again! You go out on a burrito run and the next thing I know, I’ve been hit over the head with a baseball bat and tied up by Chatty Cathy, a secret expert at double-knotted bowlines and, oh yeah, a maniacal killer!”


A Stand-Up Man