Fandom: NARUTO
Pairing: Naruto/Gaara
Author on LJ: Sonyei/Shyanna's LJ
Length: Long (11 chapters)
Author website: Shyanna
Why this must be read:

I have a treat for you today. One of my favorite WIPs, Calligraphy, was completed during Christmas. An epistolary fiction, Naruto & Gaara grow-up through the cards and letters they share as pen-pals. Yes, I know the premise is ridiculous but Shyanna makes it work by keeping the characters true. The letters weave between the episodes and first series. And when it starts to get too cutesy, war comes to the Hidden Village. This moves seamlessly through laughter and tears. I hope you enjoy it as much as I have.

It started out as a project beneath the not so watchful eyes of their teachers. A promotion of peace between the younger generations of their villages. It ended as wedding vows.

Fandom: BATTLESTAR GALACTICA (NEW)
Pairing: Gen.
Length: 6,000 words
Author on LJ: falafel_musings 
Author Website: The author's LJ
Length: 2,215
Why This Must Be Read:: falafel_musings, a well-respected writer from the Lost fandom, is a relatively new author to the BSG fandom, but she has very quickly gotten a sublime feel for the characters.

This insightful piece takes place during post-New Caprica Season 3. It's a Chief Tyrol POV fic, but in many ways, Tyrol also acts as a symbolic camera, taking "snapshots" of many other crew members in the bar and the burdens (or lack of burdens) they are carrying after the trauma of New Caprica. It's sweet and disturbing and clear-eyed all at once, and is both a look at the choices the Chief has made in his life, and at the scars the veterans of New Caprica still haven't quite left behind.

Excerpt:  Then there’s Jammer. Galen thinks Jammer would have loved it here at Joes. He can imagine himself striding through the bar with Jammer under his arm. He can see the kid’s face lighting up as he sees the flashing of the pinball machine and hears the clink of the balls on the pool table. Yeah, Galen can still remember Jammer’s face. He had a sweet face. Sweet kid. Oh Gods...what had happened since then?


A Night at Joe's

Fandom: NARUTO
Pairing: Kakashi/Iruka
Author on LJ: The Hoyden's LJ
Length: Long
Author website: the Hoyden
Why this must be read:

How can you not read a fic that starts The first time Iruka met Hatake Kakashi, he was still on some pretty good painkillers? Naruto, the anime series, is full of humor and this author captures the laughter perfectly. Somehow, when Iruka wasn't looking, Kakashi moves into his heart. And darn it, I was sure Kakashi belonged with Gai but she convinced me Iruka was his one true love with just one story. Enjoy How to File Form 39-B, then try her other fic. You won't regret it.



How to File Form 39-B

Fandom: BATTLESTAR GALACTICA (NEW)
Pairing: Dee/Baltar
Length: 2,837 words
Author on LJ: poisontaster 
Author's Website: her LJ
Why this must be read: This is a delightfully mischievous fic rooted in the early, relatively more innocent days of BSG, when they still had time and energy to even consider consequence-free hookups. This fic had me laughing throughout.

The lovely and no-nonsense Anastasia "Dee" Dualla, Galactica's communications officer, is completely NOT interested in amorous pursuit by resident scientist and self-important playboy Gaius Baltar. However, Baltar has realized that he is sorely lacking in allies on Galactica, so he decides to start an unfettered and rather public campaign to woo her, much to Dee's bemused, slightly embarrassed annoyance. However, as she realizes that she is extremely frustrated with the lack of action from her other romantic prospects - Billy Keikeya and Lee Adama - she begins to wonder if a little long-overdue frak - even with the likes of Baltar - might be in  order.

It's nigh impossible nowadays to believe a Dee/Baltar pairing, but this fic sells the idea well, with a lot of silly fun, and with Dee gleefully coming out on top by the end, in an amusing surprise twist. There are light touches of banter among the crew, and also intermittent comedic snarking from Head!Six, Baltar's possibly imaginary guardian angel who hangs out on the sidelines with popcorn.

( Excerpt )

Ingenuous

Fandom: DOCTOR WHO
Pairing: None
Length: 963 words
Author on LJ: brewsternorth
Author Website: http://brewsternorth.net/
Why this must be read: I don't normally read Academy-era fic. But this fic just had a way of screaming DOCTOR at me. I could believe that this was how the Doctor got started. It's a wonderful what if, and as the author says: Perhaps it happened like this.

( excerpt )

A Cat, A Flap

Fandom: DUE SOUTH
Pairing: Ray Vecchio/Ray Kowalski
Length: +/- 5000 words in The Power of Grace. Nine stories in the Lost & Found 'verse.
Author on LJ: catwalksalone
Author Website: Here
Why this must be read: Okay, so when this was written it was third in a trilogy that has now, delightfully enough, grown prologues and pre-prologues and intermissions and so it's now, like, five-teenth-and-a-half and still one of my very favorite Ray/Ray fics of the rip-you-to-pieces-and-make-you-love-it school (*waves school flag wildly*). The whole Lost & Found 'verse is awesome -- porny and heartrending and funny and dorky and stunning and adorable by turns -- but The Power of Grace is the story that I love most forever and ever and it can stand alone if need be. So you should read it. Now. And also the rest of the series, too, if you know what's good for you. (Cat's fic is good for you. As is Vecchio. Vecchio in this story is very, very good for you.)

Oh, and this was written for the vecchiofest (AMAZING fic came out of that fest) prompt "If you break down, I'll drive out and find you/If you forget my love, I'll try to remind you/Stay by you, when it don't come easy." Ouchy good prompt. Ouchy good fic. Yes.

( Excerpt )

The Power of Grace

The Lost & Found 'verse in chronological order (not order written):
Wait for the Sunrise
Prologue: No Sure Thing
Push and Push and Push Till it Hurts
Growing Pains
Restoration: What's Lost is Found
When the Borders Bleed
One Hundred Eighty
The Power of Grace
A Passing State of Mind

Fandom: DUE SOUTH
Pairing: Ray Kowalski/Benton Fraser
Length: 7300 words
Author on LJ: green_grrl
Author Website: Her fic index.
Why this must be read: Another rec from the most recent DS Match, this time we return to the Whimsy side of things and I lose my head with glee. Because in this fic classic due South culture clash (complete with casual American comments being interpreted with unfortunate literalness) goes to OUTER SPACE and INSANE things happen and it's all very funny when it's not quite sad and then only LOVE (and Fraser's wits) can overcome. \o/

Um, which is so say: Robots and aliens? Yes. Fraser's priorities being the same as the Frptznfti's? Not so much. Happy reader/reccer flailing happily? Very much so, yes.

( Excerpt )

I can see the stars from a million miles (or at the original DS Match post)

Fandom: STAR WARS
Pairing: Anakin/Padme, Luke/Mara, etc.
Length: Several novel series.
Author on LJ: none
Author Website: Wawoot's Personal Site
Why this must be read:

A long time ago, in a galaxy far, far away... things are so peaceful that the Jedi have little to do... largely due to the tremendous popularity of the reality holo-broadcast, JEDI... during this heinously boring time of peace, the producers of JEDI have resorted to staging much of the action in order to keep the show exciting for their avid viewers...

This is crack!fic the way crack!fic should be done. There isn't a scene in the entire six film epic that goes unmocked. But the author's real love for the franchise shows very clearly, making this a hilarious and light-hearted read.

(Some of the later chapters become a bit repetitious, but the first few novels worth of chapters are a lot of fun and shouldn't be missed.)

Bad Boys, JEDI Style

Fandom: TORCHWOOD
Pairing: Jack/Ianto
Length: 33,000 words
Warnings: Angst, H/C, discussion of drug use and suicide
Author on LJ: pecos
Author Website: Chimerafic
Why this must be read:

pecos is better known as a LoTRiPS writer, but lately she’s been dabbling in Torchwood. In this story, set shortly after “Countrycide,” she presents her version of how Ianto Jones evolved from a pathetic woobie* dogsbody to the snarky, scarily competent operative of season two — or rather, how his colleagues’ perceptions of him began shifting from the former to the latter. As Jack discovers, Lisa was neither the first nor the worst of Ianto’s secrets...

( Letter to myself, Ianto Jones: If you’re reading this it’s because I have had some warning that I’m going to be ret-conned )

Speaking of Jack, I particularly like the way pecos shows him interacting with an Ianto who is willing, but not as well informed as he thinks he is.

( “Since when do we listen to Owen?” )

Writing Truth in Blue (first chapter; each installment links to the next)

* In the version of this fic posted on the author’s journal, chapter 9 has a brief prologue titled “Definition of a Woobie,” which reads in part:

Woobies are creatures of infinite patience and wisdom, who have a nature at once deceptively strong and resiliently fragile. Woobies have unusual restorative powers, evolved to compensate for the many, many times that the cruel and unusual universe unthinkingly heaps pain after pain upon them. And because of their wisdom, this extensive experience with suffering, and their deft powers of perception, woobies are, of course, always right...

Surprisingly, woobies are extremely tasty when grilled with a citrus marinade.