As Time Goes By by Yahtzee (PG)

[thefakeheadline.livejournal.com]

Fandom: Angel: the Series
Story URL: As Time Goes By
Pairing: Angel/Cordelia, Buffy/Angel, Buffy/Xander, Wesley/Fred
Author on LJ: http://www.livejournal.com/users/yahtzee63/
Author Website: Yahtzee: Genre Edition
Why this must be read: I should first say that I'm not particularly a fan of these pairings - I rarely search for stories featuring them, at any rate. But this story is so well-written and so much *fun* to read that I almost forgot I wasn't really an Angel/Cordy 'shipper in the middle of this story.

The author describes the story as "a pastiche fic inspired by Casablanca," with a future, noir-ish LA as the backdrop. Its center is a version of Cordelia I dearly miss: warm, funny, honest, and more heroic than she'd like to think. This is also the rare story with a love triangle presented with sympathy to all of the characters involved. There's also a fabulously intricate and satisfying plot, which I probably should avoid spoiling here. *g*

I should note that the story goes AU midway through Angel's season three and Buffy's season six.

And, to steal a page from the person doing popslash recs, the relevant supporting cast:

My Angel show summary is here if anyone needs a refresher.

For Buffy herself, I recommend checking out ethrosdemon's Buffy summary here. The Buffy capsule summary, I guess, would be: blonde chick. Kills vampires. Angel's One True Love, when he's not being distracted by his *other* true loves.

Anne: Runs a shelter in LA for runaway teens.

Gavin: A lower-level Wolfram and Hart employee. His skills seem to be mainly in administration, so not much with the scary. Gets killed off midway through season four.

Holland: One of the W&H lawyers killed by Darla and Drusilla in season two. The company apparently keeps you under contract after death, and he returned shortly after as a ghost-type thing to show Angel that everyone is damned, especially him. This is what caused the soul-icidal (*rim shot* Okay, that was bad.) sex with Darla.

Comments

[imation23.livejournal.com]

Seconding the rec. Wonderful, rich, epic fic. The Cordelia characterisation in particular is astonishing - Yahtzee manages to portray her changes while remaining true to her character, something even the writers didn't manage to do in Season 3.

I should also add that you should look out for cunning little touches that Yahtzee put into the fic, to make it parallel the film. If you look carefully, the fic is done in black and white. No colours. Also, she obeys the 'Hayes Code' - I asked her about it and she told me that it was a code that filmmakers had to obey in Ye Olden Days. No sex, no kisses lasting for longer than a certain time, etc.

The thing I liked most about this fic was the feeling of stepping into a different world. Highly recommended.