Fandom: INCEPTION
Pairing: Arthur/Eames
Length: ~ 4800 words
Author on LJ: knowmydark
Author Website: Fic on AO3 - not updated; Fic Masterlist on LJ
Why this must be read: knowmydark tends to be known for her angst fics, but she's also written some lovely romantic (and comedic) pieces. In this one, set pre-dreamshare, Arthur and Eames are friends (and criminals) who take turns watching one another's backs. Essentially, whenever a contract is put out on one, the other picks it up, and then proceeds not to kill him. There are flaws in the arrangement, however--there are only so many times you can not kill someone--and sometimes another hitman gets a little too close for comfort.

What this story gives us is a look at Arthur and Eames' unique relationship before they got into dream-sharing. I like stories that give us a glimpse of who they were before Cobb, Mal and all the rest, and this fic has great banter, genuine friendship, and the very start of their dream-share experiences. It's amusing, but there's also an undeniable charm to the story in how well the two characters know and trust one another, and appreciate each other's quirks.

( 'Just to make sure we’re on the same level,' says Arthur, 'I have to tell you that I’m meant to be killing you.' )

On LJ: When Two Suns Are Shining (the battle becomes blinding)

Podfic version: When Two Suns Are Shining (the battle becomes blinding) by emilianadarling

Podbook version: When Two Suns Are Shining (the battle becomes blinding) by cybel

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

Fandom: THE SOCIAL NETWORK
Pairing: Mark/Eduardo
Length: 72,500 words
Author on LJ: moogle62
Author Website: Masterlist
Why this must be read:

A bakery AU. Where Mark is Mark and Eduardo runs the bakery round the corner from facebook. It's got a very sweet, warm feeling to it, like the best kind of treats. Delightfully written.

Mark is a sad workaholic:

"Yeah," says Chris, "but there's a difference between going from your car to your house to your car to your office, and not dying from lack of Vitamin D."

"That's not a thing," says Mark.

"If anyone could manage it, you could," Chris says. "Please go outside."

"I live in California," Mark says. "I don't think I've got SAD."

But then he meets Eduardo.

"What?" says Mark, king of social niceties, pushing his headphones down around his neck.

"Hello again," says the guy.

"Hi."

"I'm Eduardo."

"Obviously."

Eduardo smiles, which is confusing, because usually people do the exact opposite when Mark says something like that. "Okay," Eduardo says, "but you don't come with a sign."

"Mark," says Mark, still slightly thrown. "Why are you looking at me?"

"You're the only one in here," says Eduardo. "I mean, that, and you came flying in here so fast I thought maybe you were being chased by angry bees or something."

Fandom: KUROSHITSUJI
Pairing: none
Length: ~ 1000 words
Author on LJ: amanuesis1
Author Website: Despoiling Harry
Warnings: Spoilers, for the end of the second anime series; also, major character death
Why this must be read:

To say that the second anime series, and its ending, are controversial within Kuroshitsuji fandom is perhaps something of an understatement. In contrast to the ending to the first series, the ending to the second series (if you take the series as a whole as anything more than a dream) tells us Ciel and Sebastian will have further adventures; it also leaves us with no more than hints about what has actually happened to our characters, what any of it means, or what sort of future lies before them.

This is not, obviously, a situation any self-respecting fandom can leave alone. To finish the final episode of the second series, if you've become invested at all, is to make strangled noises at the screen – noises that translate, roughly, as What was that I can't even – and go to work at once on some way to fix it (whether by "fix it" you mean "Ack, no, you can't stop there, this is going someplace we need to see!" or "Ack, no, you are totally not going to that place! Here's where you're really going!"). As that range of possible meanings for "fix it" suggests, he end of the series is so strange, and the information we're left with so ambiguous, that it doesn't impose any single dominant narrative of what's likely to come next for our protagonists -- indeed, it tells us almost nothing, even by implication. Which is wonderful for the fandom: instead of resulting in people writing the same story over and over, the irresistible urge to Do Something with the second series ending has given us a rich and varied subgenre.

My next few recs are all post-series-two fics; but that's all they have in common -- that, and my admiration for every one.

* * * * *

Sebastian, as we know, is extremely good at fixing broken situations. In “A Distinct Lack of a Spoken Apology,” he does just that, with a little help from an old friend. Visceral and bloody and at the same time strangely sweet, this isn't a story that gives us a happily-ever-after by any ordinary definition. But from Ciel's own point of view, as well as from Sebastian's, it's hard not to see it as a kind of victory.

A Distinct Lack of a Spoken Apology

Fandom: KUROSHITSUJI
Pairing: Ciel/Sebastian
Length: 2254 words
Author on LJ: unknown
Author Website: SharpestRose at AO3
Warnings: Spoilers for the end of the second anime series
Why this must be read:

Ciel takes his first soul and his first contract, and in so doing finally confronts truths he has been hiding from himself, and perhaps from Sebastian as well.

“All Cats are Grey in the Dark” gives us a luminous and exquisitely-drawn vision of Ciel and Sebastian as they adjust to a new and unanticipated mode of life: one that they did not choose, but can choose to make their peace with. It's not the future either of them intended, but it's a future that might, in the end, allow them each some measure of happiness.

All Cats are Grey in the Dark

Fandom: Wilby Wonderful
Pairing: Duck/Dan pre-slash
Length: 1772 words
Author on LJ: hanarobi
Author's website: AO3

Why this must be read:

This is one of the many excellent character pieces on Duck. What I like about this one is that we see Duck's mind racing, and we see a different kind of vulnerability in him here.  Hanarobi has really tapped into the everyman quality that makes Duck so easy to relate to.

And Even the Angels Would Weep