Fandom: BAND OF BROTHERS
Pairing: slash (Roe/Heffron)
Length: 7500 and 16000 words
Author on LJ: redjacket
Author Website: -
Why this must be read: Even if I'm not a big fan of them (and this is a quite popular pairing), I really loved those pieces. Two post!war fics narrating the same stories, but with different POVs (the first one is from Heffron and the second by Roe).

Sometimes, though, sometimes, Babe catches Gene watching him, the way Babe watches him – as if he can’t believe they’re both there.

Years Later & Years Before

Fandom: HIGHLANDER
Pairing: Amanda/Tessa
Length: 1400 words
Author on LJ: keerawa
Author Website: Keerawa's fanfiction and vids
Why this must be read:

I have always been struck by the tension between Amanda and Tessa in the episode Lady in the Tiger, which leaves me slightly uncomfortable and feeling ambivalent toward everyone. This story takes that tension between Tessa and Amanda and builds it further before giving it a release. These are two beautiful and commanding women, uneasy in each other's presence yet drawn to one another, connected through their relationship with Duncan yet standing apart from him in this story.

Your Lips Say Yes

This probably isn't fair of me, to rec an entire sequence of stories, which I'm gonna do right now, but I'm going to start under the guise of the first one that's completed.  I honestly can't believe that no one else has rec-ced these!

Fandom: The Magnficent Seven
Pairing: Chris/Vin with suggestions of Chris/Vin/Buck
Length: ~4,200 words
Author on LJ: maygra 
Author's Website: http://www.assignations.org/maygra/
Why this Must be read:

Well, if you've read any of Maygra's stories, either in Mag7 or any of her other fandoms - Highlander, Supernatural, Fast and the Furious, et cetera - you know why: she's one of the best writers in fandom.  Her style is seamless yet evocative, her characterizations are wonderful, her stories are true story-telling - and she creates ingenious situations for bringing out the most wonderful responses from the characters.

The Shadow Riders universe is a Magnificent 7 alternative universe, and it's based in the supernatural - but also in the mythology of the Zoroastrian religion.  It's  a brilliant mixing of a very old religion and culture with vampires and werewolves and demons.  

It's also a brilliant universe for angst and very dark concepts.  I won't waste time here trying to explain the universe - I'm not certain that I could.  It's rich and elaborate and it comes out in clarity and depth within each of the stories - and the pieces of stories she has posted on her website.  The simple upshot is that while they are still peacekeepers, the seven end up finding a new calling, trying to capture an ancient demon who has been set free from its prison.  To do this, they are changed - Chris and Buck into vampires, Josiah, Nathan, Ezra, and JD into werewolves, and Vin into the human embodiment of part of the demon's soul - the one the other six are both protecting and also trying to keep imprisoned.

It's an intense universe, and the stories are all complex and layered with all the nuances of their changed and changing relationships, the conflicts brought on by sudden immortality and the new stresses in their lives - or un-lives, as the case may be, the discovery that their relationships with humanity has changed and their relationships with each other.

"Inter Vivos" is one of the short stories - compared to the  others - a vignette that begins to explain the way the dynamics have changed and are changing between the seven.

 

( An excerpt )I recommend the entire universe, incomplete as it is, and I would encourage you to flood the author with comments in hopes of drawing her back to it!!

"Inter Vivos" by Maygra

Fandom: NARUTO
Pairing: Naruto/Saki, Naruto/Sasuke, Naruto/Sasuke/Sakura/Ino, Naruto/Sasuke/Sakura/Ino/Hinata,
Author on LJ: Askerian
Length: Multiple stories+ ficlets from others (big)
Author website:Asuka Kureru
Why this should be read:

Since I could not decide on just one, I am declaring today Asuka Kureru day and rolling out my favorites. If they are slightly (ahem) unusual, just trust your driver and give 'em a go. Written before the new Naruto (very AU), this is a series of stories featuring Naruto & Sasuke, beginning just after Sasuke is rescued. Sent on a undercover mission, Sasuke & Naruto discover they have more in common than they ever dreamed. Warning: This series contains crossdressing, underage, voyeurism, exhibitionism, OOC, dubious consent and even more. It has multiple authors and artists who have donated their own work into the universe. If you can make it through these stories without laughing out loud, you are a strong person than I.

Kakashi's a porn junkie, Gai's... Gai, Anko... if I understand correctly... is a lush and a nymphomaniac, uh... Jiraiya, Tsunade... They all gotta cope. And Sasuke ... well, ...

Fandom: NARUTO
Pairing: None
Author on LJ: Askerian
Length: Medium-long
Author website: Asuka Kureru
Why this should be read:

For the most part, Hyuuga Neji was just another face in a giant cast. With few lines, he did not stand out until the chunnin 3rd exam preliminaries where he went head to head with his cousin, Hinata, nearly killing her. When Naruto and Neji engaged in battle at the main event, Naruto confronted Neji about the way he treated Hinata, forcing him to face up to his past and seeing the possibilities available, even though he was member of the branch family of the Hyuugas. Recovering from the battle, Neji learned his hatred of the Main Family may have been misplaced and considered that even a caged bird could find its' freedom.

Springing from that theme, Asuke gives the reader a fascinating character study without being dry or drool. Injured when he is 16+, with nothing to do as he heals, Neji is given a baby bird by Nurato to nurse.

Try The Bird and
The Bird: The Return of Mr. Downybutt
Send the author feedback!! Get much more fic!

Fandom: DUE SOUTH
Pairing: Ray Kowalski/Benton Fraser
Length: +/- 3200 words
Author on LJ: nifra_idril
Author Website: Here
Why this must be read: nifra_idril wrote absolutely splendid due South fic. (You should go read or reread all of it, I'm thinking. You deserve something nice like that, yeah? Yeah.) I particularly adore Catch my troubled head for its refreshing and intriguing presentation of Beth Botrelle. (SERIOUSLY. Beth Botrelle is broken in such an interesting way and so is Kowalski and they're both nuts and I can totally see having a beer or some painfully and invaluably non-alcoholic beverage with the two of them and it'd be really awkward and I wanna.) And the author is always so extremely good at surgically precise lovely hurt and bare-bones romance. I mean, the summary: “I want to stay,” Ray didn’t say./“Please stay,” Fraser didn’t ask him. That's a good summary.

( Excerpt )

Catch my troubled head

Fandom: NARUTO
Pairing: Naruto/Sasuke/Sukura
Author on LJ: Askerian
Length: Epic
Author website: Asuka Kureru
Why this should be read:

Quoting from the author, "In a diverging timeline where Naruto brought Sasuke back from the Valley of the End, Sasuke is eighteen, Sakura and Naruto seventeen. They're still teammates and a strange kind of friends, though nothing more -- Naruto still in love with Sakura, Sakura still in love with Sasuke, Sasuke still trying not to feel too much for either of them; and then due to Kyuubi's influence, here they are, the three of them in bed.

It would be problematic enough on its own -- Three-ways relationships are weird and abnormal; who should shack up with who?; who likes who best?; what is it going to do to their carefully balanced team dynamics? -- but that's only until they realize that they have bigger problems. Namely Sakura's not-quite-normal pregnancy, and all it brings with it -- the boys torn between "I'm not ready to be a father" and "what if I'm not the father?", her parents' disapproval, Konoha's council freaking out, her failing health and their powerlessness to fix it, Kyuubi's intentions. And then there's the Akatsuki's reemergence. More council plotting. And always the eternal questions -- who is the father of the child? Does it matter? Can they make it not matter? Can they really learn to balance their team and their relationship?"

One of the most ambitious Naruto fanfics I have ever read, Teamwork and it's many sequels is engaging, smart, hot, and downright fascinating. Almost every character plays a part as Team Seven move their relationship from friends to ... more! With Kyuubi playing a non-physical 4th in their threesome, Teamwork is brimming with angst as they struggle to re-define themselves as adults for themselves, their friends, family and the village. Each story is self-contained and there is lots of drabbles to span the space between them. Don't ignore the 2 prequels or the PWP to end all PWP's - Teamwork: The Night. But even without them, block out a few days and read Teamwork.

Please send the author feedback!! Get much more fic!