Flame and Shadow
Characters/Pairings: Ron/Pansy, past Ron/Hermione, past Ron/OC, past Pansy/Draco, Harry/male!OC
Warnings: Non-romantic het sex. One night stands. Swearing. I wouldn’t rec this for anyone under 18.
Summary: Sometimes, the best relationships come from one that was never romantic.
Comments: I saw the pairings, and kind of boggled (only kind of, because let’s face it. In a fandom where I personally have read Harry/Giant squid and Draco/Giant Squid in the same fic, Ron/Pansy is nothing.) But I gave it a chance because god knows I haven’t been finding much in my other fandoms lately, and it was well-written and interesting. I like the continual contrast between Hermione, who’s everything Ron expected a girlfriend to be - prim, proper, organized - and, well, Pansy. Pansy, who gets drunk, has one-night stands, swears, is messier than Ron. Ron doesn’t have any illusions about Pansy, nor her about him, and it’s just an oddly well-balanced relationship that I enjoyed.
One-shot, complete.
Second Place
Characters/Pairings: L/Mello/Near
Warnings: Sex. Mello and Near feel like kids to me compared to L, so some warning there, too.
Summary: L evaluates his successors.
Comments: It’s Harukami, so you know it’s good.. It’s dark, complex, with lots of issues for a one-shot, and intriguing insights into characters I don’t know much about. (Since I stopped reading Death Note at chapter 58,. I can’t tell you how IC they are, but Harukami’s usually good about keeping characters IC in the strangest of situations, so I’m assuming they’re in character.
One-shot, complete.
Deadly Sins
Characters/Pairings: …Basically figure half the cast of Naruto.
Warnings: None
Summary: The seven deadly sins, as personified by the Naruto characters.
Comments: This is just wonderfully, beautifully done. The ones that are supposed be funny amuse the crap out of me. (Lust in particular cracks me up). I like the Shikamaru ones (because who else would you pick for Sloth and Gluttony than Shikamaru and Chouji) because the author does a nice Shikamaru that’s very much what I saw in the series. The author just does an excellent job of matching up characters to sins, and it’s a nice series of drabbles.
Series of drabbles, complete.
Trial and Error
Characters/Pairings: Naruto
Warnings: None
Summary: Before he met Iruka, before he joined Team 7, Naruto was alone.
Comments: Naruto’s childhood breaks my heart, and this is just such a well-done fic about it. In all honesty, in the series, my two favorite characters are Naruto and Lee. Because they’re just so strong, no matter what anyone puts them through. And this is a thoughtful and well-done look at how Naruto’s life might well have been, and how Naruto’s so Naruto in his reactions to it. And I get disturbingly maternal about Naruto childhood fics.
Multi-chapter, incomplete.
Nine Men And A Little Lady
Characters/Pairings: Mary Sue and the entire Fellowship. Some hints of relationships, but mostly Legolas being traumatized by the mind-controlling chick after him.
Warnings: None
Summary: The story of the Tenth Walker. Or a girl magically transported from Earth. Or Aragorn’s twin sister. Or Galadriel’s granddaughter.
Comments; A wonderful, wonderful, Mary Sue parody that never fails to amuse me. The ending journal entry kills me every time. I’m usually not a fan of Mary Sue parodies, but this is just very well done, and I enjoy watching the Fellowship vaguely aware that they’re being brainwashed.
One-shot, complete.
a Charm
Characters/Pairings: Kurogane/Fai
Warnings: Sexual situations
Summary: Kurogane wants Fai’s body.
Comments: At first, I was really iffy about this story because I thought the author was going to go for a weak Fai who’s letting himself be used by Kurogane for sex because he doesn’t think that he deserves any better, but the last scene absolutely won me over. It’s just - it’s cute and funny and it fits their dynamics so, so perfectly.
One-shot, complete
Paper Cuts
Characters/Pairings: Watari/Tatsumi
Warnings: None
Summary: (Stealing author’s) Sometimes, Watari wishes he had a dark, angsty past that he could wave under Tatsumi’s nose and catch his attention with.
Comments: This is just a wonderfully cute and sweet Tatsumi/Watari fic that I absolutely adore. I love the characterization, and the insights on Tatsumi’s character - on how Watari just defies categorization for Tatsumi, because he doesn’t understand anyone who isn’t a protector or a protectee. I love how Watari’s easily the most mentally stable of the shinigami, but sometimes almost wishes he weren’t because he knows Tatsumi well enough to know that he doesn’t fit into his easy categories. And the ending was almost unutterably cute.
One-shot, complete.
A Thousand Thousand Years
Characters/Pairings: Ginji, Ban. Kind of Ginji/Ban.
Warnings: None
Summary: Ban takes Ginji to a museum to see tje dinosaurs.
Comments: This is just utterly cute. And fluffy. And the part where Ban is mentally rhapsodizing about the way Ginji looks when he’s in awe of something that anyone else would find entirely normal damn near gave me a toothache.
One-shot, complete.
Art of Losing
Characters/Pairings: Sasuke/Naruto, Sakura, Kakashi.
Warnings: Yaoi
Summary: The problem with being the smart one is you know when you’re being left behind.
Comments: As I’m sure anyone who’s been paying attention knows, I’m not really a SasuNaru fan. But I liked this. I liked Sakura’s discontent with being left behind. I liked watching her quietly begin to accept that her teammates had left her behind. (I’ll admit I’d like a sequel where the boys find Sakura and comfort her by telling her to join in, but that’s because I’m a pervert). I think what I liked about it was the author did a good job of portraying how I think Sakura (pre-time-skip Sakura, more) would react to finding them in a relationship.
One-shot, complete.
Way of the Apartment Manager
Characters/Pairings: Naruto, OC, Iruka. No pairings.
Warnings: None
Summary: When Naruto moves into an apartment of his own, the apartment manager finds she can’t quite leave a six year old boy alone.
Comments: I like this fic, despite the OC. Mainly because it’s an amazingly well-done OC, and I admire anyone who can actually get me to like an OC considering how much I tend to dislike them. But it’s just - the OC is by no means perfect, and she fills a nice little gap in the universe. She is by no means Naruto’s mother, nor does she have any pretensions of wanting to be his mother, but the way she finds herself reluctantly taking Naruto into her care and starting to grow emotionally is nice. It lets me satisfy my occasional desire to mother Naruto and it also… I don’t know how to put this. Almost as important as Naruto being a hero, in the series, he’s a catalyst. He won’t let the people around him give up any more than he’ll ever give up. And that is a lot of what I like about him, and the author does an excellent job of using him to force her OC to grow.
Multi-chapter, incomplete.
Small Mercies
Characters/Pairings: Terazuma/Wakaba
Warnings: Yuri sex.
Summary: When Watari’s potion finally works, Terazuma and Wakaba take advantage.
Comments: I have an utterly irrational fondness for Terazuma/Wakaba, and this is wonderfully, wonderfully done. The characterization is nice, the sex isn’t bad, and it’s just a nicely done PWP on a too-rare pairing.
One-shot, complete
Coming Home
International Relations
Gender Relations
Drunken Relations
Characters/Pairings: Sanzo, Goku, Hakkai, Gojyo, Tatsumi, Watari, Tsuzuki, Terazuma.
Warnings: None, really
Summary: A group of Chinese shinigami meet the Japanese ones.
Comments: This is a series of drabbles that alternately amuse me and fascinate me. THe characterization is just nailed, and the Sanzo-ikkou just works so interestingly with the YnM characters. And Hakkai and Tatsumi cooking together and talking is just a wonderful, wonderful, wonderful idea.
Series of drabbles.
Hisho no Kage (and sequels)
Image
Better to Light a Candle
Networking
Hokkaido
Characters/Pairings: Tatsumi/Watari. A little Watari/Tsuzuki.
Warnings: Sexual situations
Summary: Tatsumi suffered an accident and exists only in shadows. What happens when a certain hyperactive blond learns?
Comments: This is just beautifully, magnificently, done. The author has a wonderful grasp of all the characters, and the situation is nicely handled. And there are just some lines in there that make me want to worship the author’s grasp of the character and wish that I could write half that well. “During their most recent case, Tatsumi permitted injury to his partner.”
Ongoing series of drabbles and a one-shot.
Matters of Principle
Characters/Pairings: Relena/Dorothy
Warnings: Yuri. Vaguely non-consensual.
Summary: Relena and Dorothy discuss pacifism.
Comments: Like every other fangirl on the planet, I was in the Gundam Wing fandom many, many years ago. Relena/Dorothy is the only pairing I retain even the vaguest of interest in and this fic is very well done. And I like the vaguely unreal and dangerous feeling this fic gives.
One-shot, complete.
Antagonize
Characters/Pairings: Kakashi, Iruka, Asuma/Kurenai
Warnings: None
Summary: At the end of poker night, Kakashi misunderstands.
Comments: I don’t believe I didn’t rec this the first time I saw it. But this cracks me up, because it’s so obvious and Kakashi is just deliberately misunderstanding to watch them squirm, and I like watching people squirm.
One-shot, complete.
A Thousand Cups of Wine
Characters/Pairings: Jiraiya, Orochimaru, Tsunade.
Warnings: None
Summary: A legendary betrayal should start with a good friendship.
Comments: I like the way this author characterized them. They’re a bunch of kids still, without really knowing what their goals in life are. But they want to be stronger, and they all have vague desires, but for now, getting drunk together comfortably is enough. And I like Sannin friendship fics.
One-shot, complete.
Three Bouquets
Characters/Pairings: Ino/Sakura, Neji, Hinata
Warnings: None
Summary: Neji and Hinata come to the Yamanaka Flower shop as Ino broods.
Comments: I don’t know why this appeals to me. It isn’t particularly well-written, it isn’t particularly special, but for some reason, I like it. I like the way she writes Hinata, I like the way Ino’s almost absentmindedly…not admiring, but something close to it, Neji, even while she’s brooding about Sakura. And I have a massive weakness for Neji/Hinata interaction fics.
One-shot, complete.
In honor of my three hundredth post, I am doing something new. This is an anti-rec for a fic so bad it’s funny. I have an utterly irrational fondness for this fic, and this is why:
“her mom was ordering her icecream when all of the sudden BOOM! THE ICE CREAM PLACE BLEW UP!
That day sakura mom died and part of her father spirt with it.”
How can I not love a fic wherein ice cream places randomly blow up and kill character’s parents?
Of Mothers And Sex Advice
Characters/Pairings: Seishirou/Subaru, Setsuka.
Warnings: Sexual situations
Summary: When Seishirou finally brings Subaru to his bed, he finds he has a too-helpful ghost giving him advice.
Comments: I like this fic. It’s absolutely hilarious, and I like the vaguely threesome vibes I get from it. (You know, I actually think I read a true Subaru/Seishirou/Setsuka threesome once. I just wish I could remember where). Setsuka’s “helpful” advice cracks me up.
One-shot, complete.
Peeking Inside the Looking Glass
Characters/Pairings: Watanuki/Doumeki. Yuuko.
Warnings: None
Summary: Doumeki looks to the future, and likes what he sees.
Comments: Yes, I am unashamedly stealing recs from Tomomichi. But only the ones I like. Anyway, I would have seen this when I went through fic_on_demand later on. But this is just…I don’t see Doumeki/Watanuki fics very often, and Doumeki POV is even rarer. And I love Yuuko more than words can say, but I like Watanuki and Doumeki as well, and it’s nice seeing a quiet little fic that has a nice grasp of their characters. Doumeki’s underreaction to what he sees is just nicely done, and I like his little talk with Yuuko.
One-shot, complete.
