Fandom: THE SOCIAL NETWORK
Pairing: Mark/Eduardo
Length: 11,000 words
Author on LJ: longtime_lurker
Why this must be read: The delightful x-made-them-do-it fic! Incredibly hot, and wonderfully in character. A great, sexy, character study really. It reworks Eduardo's trip to Sao Paulo by making Mark's reason for not going to the airport that he's, well, been sexpollened. I think that's a pretty good excuse, as excuses go, actually.

He wraps a hand around the bottom of Mark’s asscheek and feels Mark’s mouth part wetly at the junction of his neck and shoulder, Mark’s cock stir feebly against his leg. Already. This is ridiculous, he thinks, just as Mark glances down and says flatly, "This is ridiculous."

Someone who didn’t know him that well might not notice anything off, certainly not at first glance. The rumpled, unwashed, wired-and-tired look is just business as usual, but his face...He doesn’t look sick, exactly, but he does look - just weird somehow, Dustin was right about that, weirder than normal Mark even, which is really saying something. He’s sucking slowly on a licorice whip, lips reddened and cheeks hollowing; his eyes are all dark and heavy-lidded, and they zero right in on Eduardo.

Fandom: KUROSHITSUJI
Pairing: none
Length: 1509 words
Author on LJ: nimori (no longer updated, see journal note)
Author Website: Nimori on AO3
Why this must be read:

Finny, Maylene and Bard are great characters in their own right, and this is a story to convince you that there's too little fic written from their point of view. They know less about the household than we in the audience do, but there are ways in which their perceptions may, paradoxically, be all the clearer for that.

The three, and Tanaka, decide that Sebastian owes them something more than his usual aloof patience, and challenge each other to make him laugh. The results are at once, and paradoxically, funny, warm, and chilling to the bone. This is one of those rare stories that's a pleasure to read the first time, and then gets stronger with re-reading: the better you know the characters the more of a punch it delivers.

His Butler, Mirthful

Fandom: KUROSHITSUJI
Pairing: Sebastian/Ciel
Length: 2213 words
Author on LJ: goodbyemyheart
Author Website: GoodbyeMyHeart at ff.net
Why this must be read:

Today is Ciel's birthday, and as Sebastian points out at one point in the first anime, nothing good ever happens to him on his birthday. So the day seems to call for fics in which bad things do not happen to him, and in which we can see him being not merely entertained, but happy.

For certain values of happiness, that is, because this is still Kuroshitsuji.

Late at night, Ciel and Sebastian talk about the nature of prayer, of Ciel's childhood and of his time in captivity, and of the moment of their first meeting. GoodbyeMyHeart is a remarkable writer, and her work here is gorgeous, from the images to the rhythms of her sentences. "Salvation" is about as schmoopy as Kuro properly gets, but in a way consistent with the darker elements of the canon -- which is to say, the sweetness is in perfect balance with the acid, so that we, like Ciel in this story, wouldn't want it any other way.


Salvation

Fandom: THE SOCIAL NETWORK
Pairing: Mark/Eduardo
Length: 12,000 words
Author on LJ: indecentexposed
Author Website: Master list
Why this must be read: Mark watches the deposition videos and... reacts.

“What are you going to be doing?” Mark grumbles, because showering involves both standing up and being somewhere other than his bed, which means it is arguably the worst idea Dustin has ever had. Including the Poke feature.

“Sitting outside the door listening to make sure you don’t fall in the shower and die,” Dustin says practically. “Also, finding you something to wear that doesn’t look like you stole it from a homeless person.”

“I like this shirt,” Mark says petulantly.

“I like it too,” Dustin assures him, “when it isn’t covered in liquor stains and drool.”

They hadn’t been friends anymore, not by that point, but nobody had bothered to correct Eduardo and Mark had clung silently to the words for days afterward. Weeks—months, even. They were a tacit promise, in his mind, that Eduardo was coming back. Eduardo was hurt and angry, but somewhere deep down they were still friends and eventually he would forgive Mark and come to California and everything would be the way it should have been in the first place.

It hadn’t worked out that way, of course. In the years since the settlement, Mark has been forced to acknowledge a series of increasingly unpleasant realities.

Sorry for the stop in daily recs. Because of some problems in my RL I don't have much time for LJ. :(

Fandom: WIZARDS OF WAVERLY PLACE
Pairing: Justin/Alex
Length: 2.344 words
Author on LJ: martyr4mylove4u
Author Website: none
Why this must be read:

The author shows the reader only few moments in the lives of Justin and Alex but there are enough. Combined with the writing style, which is more poetic than epic, it is the perfect mix to transfer a feeling of heartbreak and uneasiness with a touch of hope.

Pillars of Salt (LJ)
--> And that is how they should have seen it coming.

Fandom: BIG TIME RUSH
Pairing: James/Logan but essentially gen
Length: ~1,300
Author on LJ: rensahannou
Why this must be read: One of the things I love most about the show is how close all the boys are. They've been best friends basically forever, and there's a lot of fertile ground there for writers to play with. This is a short, adorable fic set back when the boys are still in Minnesota, and though it's got James/Logan overtones, it's mostly just a scene of teenage boys goofing off with each other in a way that feels 100% true to canon.

( excerpt )

Changing Seasons

Fandom: Wilby Wonderful
Pairing: Dan/Duck
Length: 1130 words
Author on LJ: helens78
Author website:AO3

Why this must be read:

Because Helen makes angst-free, non-sappy romance look easy.  Aside from admiring the author's technique (which is reason enough to read, trust me), this is one of those fics that can make you feel good at the end of a long day.  It takes an oft-repeated (for good reason) trope (Dan starting over, revamping the video store), and patterns it around two people falling comfortably and realistically in love.  There's also an understated sexiness that I love with Dan and Duck.

If You Have a Hammer

Fandom: INCEPTION
Pairing: Arthur/Eames, Ariadne/Yusuf (non-explicit), Dom/Mal (past)
Length: ~ 21,400 words
Author on LJ: anamuan; hizashikage (fic journal)
Author Website: Fic Indices
Why this must be read: A fairly common scenario in the fandom is to have Arthur move in with Dom and the kids after Mal has died. In this particular story, Arthur is also the person who tends to deal with anything Dom can't, which is quite a bit. So it makes sense that Arthur takes an interest in Mr. Eames, Phillipa's kindergarten teacher.

Okay, all joking aside, I love Eames as a kindergarten teacher. It would be like Kindergarten Cop, massive muscles and tiny children, without the Austrian accent and the tumor jokes. Can't you just see Eames, with his riotous love of color, those broad (tattooed!) shoulders, that quirky sense of humor, that smile? Well, that's part of what attracts Arthur, although it takes him some time to admit his interest in Mr. Eames is not only because Arthur's fixated on making sure Phillipa can get into a good college someday.

But, of course, by the time Arthur's decided to go for it, Mr. Eames has put on the brakes, having discovered that Arthur is living with Cobb and his two children. Misunderstandings abound, sexual tension is rampant, and the banter definitely counts as foreplay. Plus, the kids are pretty awesome in this.

The story has so many lovely bits: Arthur managing to be charmingly insulting; Arthur's planned hostile take-over of the PTA; Eames sending notes home while showing off his knack for forgery; Phillipa being a biter (you go, girl!); Arthur making apology pancakes. And yes, there's a happy ending ... you wouldn't expect anything else, would you?

( 'Hello, there,' says Mr. Eames when Arthur shows up outside the classroom door. 'Which classroom are you looking for?' Mr. Eames sounds very cheerful and energetic--the perfect kindergarten teacher--and Arthur knows immediately that it is all a lie. )

On LJ: The warp and the weft that hold life together

There's also a short time-stamp story: 1/2 Cup Sugar

It doesn't matter how old or new or (how popular) a story is, authors love feedback!