She figures, given the way things are going, that eventually they'll have to pretend to kiss in an alley to avoid detection or something.

That always happens in the movies, and they've already gotten past the mastering-the-martial-arts-montage parts and the someone-almost-discovering-what-they-do parts and the someone-actually-discovering-what-they-do parts (Lacey leaves first aid kits around the loft so Wendy can patch up her owies after being eaten by a space bear).

The making-out part is the next logical step, and Wendy expects it.

What she doesn't expect is that he starts it, pressing her against the alley wall and shielding her with his broad back as the bad guys scope out the dark street, his cheekbone pressing against her nose, and they stand that close, breathing hard from the chase, and then he's turned his head a little and she thinks it's for recon until his mouth is on her mouth.

"If I were a man, I'd totally fuck you," Amanda said - she was a little tipsy, so Marc knew that at least part of that sentence was the alcohol talking, but the sentiment was still one he felt deserved a hug.

Gokusen

Stupid Ideas
by toujourspret
http://community.livejournal.com/springkink/660170.html

[ Shin/Kumiko * PG13 * 1/1 ]

Poor, poor Shin. I’d feel bad for him if I didn’t enjoy watching him squirm. *g* Funny, in-character, and an all around great read.

“Er.” His voice was dry, surprised.

“Er,” she repeated. Her eyes were wide, pupils shot and somehow unseeing, even as they stared at him.

“Er,” he tried to start again, but couldn’t. He fumbled for his jeans on the floor wildly, almost flailing. She knelt and carefully scooped up his shirt, handing it to him. His voice came back to him. “Just what the hell did you think you were doing?” he demanded, panic raising his voice to a squeaky yell.

Then there was the matter of her strange, unflinching loyalty to them. Their education was important to her. Their lives were important to her. It bothered him. He could see the way the others were slowly warming up to her, still putting up a front of disinterest, although their hostility was long gone.

And Shin knew he was headed the same way.

If he was wrong about her - if they were all wrong about her, and she was just like all the rest... it would be different this time. It would hurt. So for his own sake and for everyone else's as well, he wanted to figure her out.

Too bad the only way to do that was to go to school.

It was a good thing he was taller than she was. Otherwise, there is no way any of this would have worked. Even the jacket. Especially the jacket. Really, Shin was spending entirely too much time not thinking about his jacket and how much of her thighs he could see. He was also working really hard on suppressing what he had seen before he gave her his jacket.

There is something about Yankumi that makes a deeply hidden, very nicely buried part of Sawada Shin want to well up and spill all over everything.

It is a deeply uncool part of himself, and Shin would really rather forget all about it.

Valentine's Day, This Year
by koshiroryuu/puipui
http://community.livejournal.com/lifeonmartha/573684.html?style=mine

[ Martha | PG13 | 1/1 ]

I love Martha, and I will never, ever tire of stories dealing with The Year That Never Was. This story is both heartbreaking and hopeful, and nearly made me cry because it's *Martha,* and what she did was incredible.

Martha Jones is one of the very few people who remembers the first time Valentine's Day this year happened, and she's the only one who remembers it from below, who felt the ground and smelled the air. She's the only one who knows. She met people and touched people and talked to people, and sometimes, at night, she lies awake and racks her brain to remember anything about them that she can, anything at all, that isn't one big blur. But she talked to so many people that year, she saw so many faces, and it all just ran together after a while, and so that whole day was mostly a rush, nothing different, with nothing to tell her that all of those faces would need remembering someday, nothing unusual to make her stop and actually look.

The simplest solution
by orange_crushed
http://community.livejournal.com/shinkumi/86697.html

[ Shin/Kumiko | G | 1/1 ]

All of my absolute favourite Shin/Kumiko stories share some things in common: a dense Yankumi, and Shin, longing and patient. It's a thing. *g*

This is slow, quiet, and utterly beautiful.

Now he’s sitting at her table, watching her grade papers with a deadly expression; his socks are spread out on the heater and it feels funny to be barefoot before her, exposed like this, even though they’re only toes. They were caught in the sudden shower and he’d given her his jacket, and she’d dragged him home for tea and dumplings. Probably just to thank him. She’s dense like that.

She looked up at him guiltily before looking away once again. “Eh?” she muttered nervously. “I don’t know what you’re talking about. I came here—"

“Because you heard I was alone on my graduation night,” he finished for her, his voice tinged with a small amount of bitterness. “Because you heard my parents weren’t even at the ceremony,” he added. “Because you heard that they weren’t even in town. Because you felt sorry for me and being the wonderful teacher that you are—"

She stood up, interrupting his tirade as she looked at him with fire in her eyes.

The silence stretched between them before he said, “I think you should leave.” He’d be damned before he became anyone’s charity case. He could feel an angry flush warm up his entire body. The very idea, the very thought that anyone would pity him was galling enough, but the fact that it was her was just added insult to injury.

Everyone knew Shin's idea of the perfect woman. She would have to be beautiful - everyone in 3D knew Shin was handsome enough to be an idol (although maybe that was only in comparison to the rest of them) so there was no way he could end up with some plain-looking girl. She would be smart, too - Shin was a genius (by comparison, at least, and perhaps even in fact) and there was no way he would want some stupid girl he'd have to explain everything to. She couldn't be too lively, either, because Shin thought that was troublesome. She shouldn't be poor - because that just wouldn't look good - but she couldn't be super rich, either, because then she might be pretentious (and Shin had left home because he didn't like rich, pretentious bastards).

"That's it," Shin muttered, pushing back his chair in the middle of the math lesson. She had completely over-looked the umbrella-name doodle with the heart on top that he'd drawn on the board. Thought the chocolates were something of a thank you card. "I quit."

"Sawada?"

“Artemis said you used my tambourine.”

“He wasn’t there.”

“Maybe someone else told him,” says Minako shrugging. “Is it true?”

“So what if it is? Was that your question?”

“No,” she says. “I wanted to know why.”

geekturnedvamp

Half a Moon is a fourteen day multifandom challenge celebrating female characters, which will run from February 1 through Valentine's Day. Fanfiction, vids, recs, art, picspam, icons, meta, fanmixes, and outside links fitting the theme of this challenge are all welcome--the only rule is that the primary focus must be on a female character or characters.

The FAQ/intro post is here. [. . .] There are no set themes or prompts, and you don’t have to post something for all fourteen days. While we hope to see a mix of new and older stuff, if you want to crosspost or repost appropriate content which was originally created for other purposes, that’s cool too. Basically it’s all about having another place to celebrate the awesomeness of the women in our favorite fandoms, so: halfamoon. And of course, please feel free to spread the word!

Avatar

Male Bonding
by rawles and ali_wildgoose
http://community.livejournal.com/avatarfic/99636.html
http://www.pagesleftblank.net/words/avatar.shtml

[ Sokka, Zuko, Katara (Suki, Mai) | PG13 | 1/1 ]

I've never been the biggest Zuko fan; the times when I most enjoy his character are the times when he's being a giant dork. Here, Sokka and Zuko are both such *boys*--and dorks, of course. I love their interaction in this fic: their competition and their grudging understanding of one another (and poor, long suffering Katara in the background).

"Why would anyone want to do something that idiotic in the first place?!"

Sokka shook his head. It had not taken Sokka long to discover that, in addition to his many other flaws, Zuko also wasn't very bright. "You're such a donkeychicken," he said, scoffing.

"I am not!" Zuko yelled immediately. "And this is stupid and I'm not doing it."

Sokka crossed his arms and smiled. "That's all right. I understand. You're royalty. Oh, I'm sorry. You were. Whatever. You're not used to the real world where you don't have servants to do everything for you." Zuko's face reddened, his fists clenched at his sides. "It's fine. Not everyone can be a real man. The world needs scared little momma's boys, too. All part of the natural balance of things."

"Well, you're stupid and your ponytail makes you look like a moron!"

"Uh-huh." Sokka took a moment to stretch, then pinwheeled his arms to loosen up. "Look, since you're so scared, how about you just watch so that later you can actually be useful and tell everyone what I did?"

Eyeshield 21

Model Athletes
by peroxide-fic
http://peroxide-fic.livejournal.com/133918.html
http://www.fanfiction.net/s/3904345/1/Model_Athletes

[ Jyuumonji, Kuroki, Togano | PG13 | 1/1 ]

Most of the ES21 fic I read are centered on Hiruma and Mamori, but I adore all the other characters just as much. And while I have a ton of excellent Hiruma/Mamori to rec, I don't have very many recs for the other characters It's a good thing that this fic is so damn *good,* then. I love the humour in this story, as the Hah Brothers attempt to prove to everyone that they are still badass thugs.

Of course, things don't go quite as expected.

But as far as Jyuumonji and company are concerned, the whole thing is very detrimental to their carefully cultivated reputations as high school delinquents.

“A teacher smiled at me yesterday,” Kuroki grunts, and looks disgusted as he pokes at his first bento; it has a smiley face drawn in mayonnaise on it.

“My grades are average,” Togano adds sadly.

Jyuumonji mutters in complete understanding, “Yesterday some kid asked me to help her get her kitten out of a tree.”

A pause.

“Huh?”

“Huh?!”

Jyuumonji glares. “She said her brother goes to our school and takes her to all the games, okay?! Gimme a break.”

A pointed look.

Then, a sigh. “Yeah, I got the stupid cat out of the stupid tree.”

Kuroki and Togano make appropriately manly noises of sympathy when they hear this.

The Young Riders

Leave Your Hat On
by skitz_phenom
http://community.livejournal.com/springkink/393966.html

[ Kid/Lou | NC17 | 1/1 ]

I was just a child when The Young Riders first aired, but I’ve remembered the scene where Kid first discovered Lou’s secret over all these years--and bought the DVD set on the strength of that memory alone. I’ve mentioned this on my primary journal, but I don’t think I’ve expressed quite how much I love women who crossdress on this journal. Because I do.

While I love stories about women who secretly crossdress, very few stories--*especially* the romances--deal with the fallout once the secret is out. Here, Kid loves Lou, but he also wants the man who doesn’t actually exist. We have angst, and want, love and frustration all wrapped up in a stolen moment with Kid and Lou.

( smutty excerpt )

Skip Beat!

Empathy
by Adali
http://community.livejournal.com/skip_beat/20407.html
http://www.fanfiction.net/s/3655672/1/Empathy

[ Yashiro, Shouko, Ren, Sho, Kyoko | PG | 1/1 ]

Skip Beat! is currently one of my top three series in any medium, but the fandom is miniscule. This is one of the first Skip Beat! fics that I stumbled across, and--to my joy--is both well-written and entertaining. I liked seeing Ren (and Kyoko) through Yashiro’s point of view. I’m terribly amused by the predicament Sho finds himself in, as related by Shouko.

“It was that obvious, was it?” She fiddled with her chopstick before setting them down deliberately and folding her hands, as though to keep them from moving restlessly. “I’m, well, have you ever had trouble working with someone?”
 
Yashiro hesitated. Ren wasn’t troubling to work with, per se, but… “I guess.”
 
“Maybe trouble isn’t right. The man I manage, I thought I had him figured out, but…”
 
Now they were on firmer ground. If that was what she meant by ‘trouble’, Yashiro could relate (a bit too easily). “I know exactly what you mean. As managers, we spend so much time with our artists, and then they seem to enjoy doing unexpected things.”

Up until now, Ren had always (privately) laughed at people who came back from the president's office, their rebellion neatly shattered in the face of the president's Disappointment. Ren was beginning to regret that, as well as not doing everything in his power to avoid Disappointing Lory. Seriously, seriously regretting. If feudal lords had looked at disgraced samurai the way Lory was currently looking at Ren, then ritual suicide suddenly made a lot more sense. It was a look Ren never, never wanted to see again.
 
Even though he wasn't the target of the Disappointment, Yashiro was obviously uncomfortable too. "Maybe you should just agree, Ren," he whispered. Of course he should: the other option was ritual suicide, and appealing as that looked, 'other option' was just a euphemism for 'cowardly, sure-to-get-you-haunted-by-Lory-in-the-next-life-too option.' Ren was eventually going to lose this battle, give in, and do exactly as Lory said. But he wasn't ready to go down yet.

“I don’t think I’m doing anything, why?”

“Is that so?” Yashiro’s voice perked up, and a smile spread over his face. “Well, Ren is always lonely at Christmas,” he said, pleased with how well the lie rolled off the tongue. He knew full well that Ren would spend most of his break reading. “And you know his eating habits, he’ll spend all Christmas eating instant noodles. Do you think you could drop by later and keep him company for a bit?”

“Umm, okay,” Kyoko said, her voice uncertain. Somehow, she couldn’t see Tsuruga-san pining away on Christmas Eve, but she didn’t really feel like being alone on Christmas either. Stupid couples. Stupid romances on TV. Stupid Shotaro. She sighed, looking out the window. “If I’m going to go, I better leave soon – it’s snowing pretty hard.”

He will also never forget how she reeled in horror when he finally admitted that she had become his One True Person (her words). It was the first and only time so far that he'd told her - for all his feelings, it had still been embarrassing when she'd fled, shrieking her dismay for the rest of the production crew to hear.

Avatar

And Then They Lived
by sadieko
http://sadieko.livejournal.com/338896.html?style=mine
http://community.livejournal.com/tophxiroh/516.html

[ Iroh/Toph, Zuko/Mai | PG13 | 1/1 ]

This isn’t a relationship I’d ever imagined as a *pairing,* and may squick some people badly, but this is *glorious.* Despite being wildly implausible, Toph and Iroh’s voices still ring true. I *adore* both Iroh and Toph’s interaction with Zuko, because Zuko is a giant dork and I like seeing him suffer. heh.

“Isn’t he like five hundred years older than you?” Sokka asked. He had his hand on his chin as he worked his way through some serious mental calculations, but by the look on his face, the answers he was coming up with were deeply disturbing.

“I think it’s only about a hundred or so,” Toph corrected him as she messily pinned her hair back, “But he is at least twice as old as my father. Hey,” she said, waving in Katara’s direction, “Make sure you mention that in the letter to my parents.”

Hamma watched all of them, people and animals alike, and considered her own situation carefully in light of what she saw. Her fellow prisoners were no help; if any of them had the ability to escape, they would have done so long ago. But the rats and the guards held a key. There were really only two sorts of people, Hamma decided: the powerful and the powerless. And the only way to gain power was through strength: brute physical force, or bending, or intelligence, or an iron will.

You are alone in this locked cell in this rocking ship of steel and it is this fact more than anything that humiliates you.

Had you left in the previous raid, you would have been with Akna the healer and Chupun, your neighbor. Had you submitted to the raid before that, you would have been in the comfort of the great Pikatti, who could pin an otter seal 100 paces away with his ice daggers, and perhaps that brave young son of Kara who had only begun his first lessons before the Fire ships docked. But, while as you have failed as have your family, friends and heroes, you have no one to hug, no one to talk to, no one to share your fears.

And you hate these men of flame and metal for making the life of the last Southern waterbender painful as well as meaningless.

Waking Hours
by kittu9
http://kittu9.livejournal.com/47436.html?style=mine

[ Christine, Virginia, Tony | PG13 | 1/1 ]

This story remembers that fairy tales are often dark, and the people imperfect. This story is creepy, and deeply disturbing: Christine slowly looses control, and slips over the edge.

It’s subtle at first—one doesn’t reach precipices like this without a journey of some sort, even if the quest is just another late-night run to the All-In-One Mart—and Christine can at first ignore it.

(But she is so unhappy, and deeply sickened by her child, as one possessed. The bitterness leaks out a little more every day.)

We Never Close
by c-elisa
http://c-elisa.livejournal.com/36743.html

[ Mystique/Leela, Mystique/Destiny | PG | 1/1 ]

How awesome is this? A crossover with Futurama which manages to be funny without being silly. The interaction between Mystique, Leela and Fry was well-handled, but I liked the story for what it does with Mystique--old, far from Earth, with her lovers and enemies lost to time.

“Not a sewer mutant. That’s an urban legend. The superpowered kind.”

“Like in the twentieth century? They’re extinct.”

“I’m the last.”

“Oh,” she said sympathetically. “I know how that is.”

“Were you an X-Man?” Fry said, excited.

“Wasn’t everyone?”

“Did you destroy New York?”

“Not personally.”

“Are you evil?”

“That depends on which historians you believe.”

Ouran High School Host Club

And Thus, Kyouya Hates Her
by kay_obsessive
http://community.livejournal.com/museandblabber/3869.html

[ Kyoya/Haruhi | PG13 | 1/1 ]

I say this every time I rec an Ouran fic, because it remains an absolute truth on my part: Haruhi is ‘shippable with just about any character. She is deeply important to all of the members of the Host Club, and brings out a different side to, and impulses from all of them.

Of all the the Host Club members, Kyoya’s relationship to Haruhi is the trickiest to manage. This fic is very *Kyoya* in tone: control over self and others is valued above all, and he tries to keep his emotions under a tight rein.

Kyouya decided very quickly that unrequited [love, lust, curiosity, distraction] did not suit him at all.

Its worst sin was the utter destruction of his concentration. He catches her in the corner of his vision, and his eyes pull away from his lists and ledgers to follow her until he can no longer do so without turning his head. His ears have become tuned to her sounds, and he can pick her out merely by her footfalls and is painfully aware of her presence in a crowd. He touches her as often as Tamaki or the twins these days, though he is far more discreet about it. Quite simply, he is damnably and ineluctably drawn to her.

Storm Hawks

[ untitled ]
by lacewood
http://lacewood.livejournal.com/132967.html

[ Storm Hawks ensemble | G | 1/1 ]

Okay, so Storm Hawks is a children’s show--it still shouldn’t be so *ridiculously* hard to find good fics for the fandom. Thankfully, I stumbled across this fic which delivers some of the backstory canon shies away from, and remains in character.

Finn couldn't have told you what exactly he'd been expecting the Condor to look like, but logically, logically, cool, awesome, and babe magnet had been somewhere on the list of adjectives he'd had in mind.

"Resident of Atmos' biggest junkyard", on the other hand, had not.

"It's a piece of junk," he said, unimpressed. "This is the Condor?"

"Well, it says so right there on the hull," Junko pointed out.

Doctor Who/Pern

Saving Jade
by Azar
http://azarsuerte.livejournal.com/360891.html
http://azar.ink-and-quill.com/ficdw.php

This blending of universes works surprisingly well. The writing itself is excellent, and Martha’s reaction to the fire lizards is wonderful. I grew out of Anne Anne McCaffrey’s novels some years back, but I admit that there’s a teenage girl inside of me who is still in love with the idea of fire lizards.

They both heard that something at the same moment--a musical, animal, alien cry that pierced her to the bone with its sheer beauty. The Doctor's smile trebled in size, his eyes darting about for the source of that haunting call. "There!" he cried finally in delight, pointing back up toward the cliff.

Martha's eyes followed and her breath caught. At first, the figure perched on the rock seemed like a golden statue. Then it spread delicate, gleaming wings and cried out again.

"Oh my God. Is that--?"

The Doctor grinned, drinking in her awe as though it were nourishment. "Is it what?"

"A..." Her mind having gone inexplicably blank, she struggled to find the word. "...a dragon?"

Doctor Who

Hitchcock Bottle Blonde
by LizBee
http://lizbee.livejournal.com/667476.html

[ Ten/Rose, Romana, Martha, Donna | PG13 | 1/1 ]

I’m not an Old School Who fan, but I’m still not thrilled with the direction to show took towards the end of the second season, and into the third. LizBee has opinions on New Who as well, and she turned them into fic: brilliant, wonderful, funny fic.

The fic makes fun of everyone, but there’s still affection evident towards the characters. And while Rose wasn’t my favourite character, I love what this fic does with her, and hope that she ended up with a happy ending somewhere along these lines.

The realisation was this: she was going to have to kill the Doctor.  Either that, or break open the walls between dimensions and retrieve Rose Tyler from alternate universe oblivion.  But in the short term, killing the Doctor was going to be easier.

Something occured to him and he abruptly turned, grinned at his reflection, and winked.

Oh.

That was rather endearing. Charming, even.

Perhaps, on second thought, it wasn’t all Martha’s fault. Perhaps the poor girl couldn’t help herself. Shaking his head, he clicked his tongue. He was older and wiser and the superior species on top of that; he should have known better even though he really didn’t know - wow. Dropping in a graceful tumble to sit cross-legged, he tilted the mirror down on its stand until it was about an inch from his face. Winked again. Really, maybe he ought to be more careful. He tried winking with the other eye. Just as charming. Raised an eyebrow. Oh dear – more so. Perhaps a wink without the smile…

Aladdin

On Electric Girls, And Worn Down Toys
by Muffytaj
http://muffytaj.livejournal.com/311355.html

[ Jafar/Jasmine | PG13 | 1/1 ]

I don’t seek out fanfic about my childhood favourites for the thrill of seeing them “corrupted” (note the cries of “my childhood!” that frequently accompany such fics), but when I run across such a story, I usually do give it at least a quick glance. This is why I do: good, solid writing; the characters are made a bit darker, a bit more adult, without loosing all semblance to who and what they are in canon.

Jafar always thought Jasmine would look better in red. Once he happened to mention something along those lines to her, and from that day on she only wore blue. The next time she appeared before him, she flipped her long black hair in a decidedly provocative way, as if daring him to comment.

Pirates of the Caribbean/Harry Potter

Parrot
by Penknife
http://community.livejournal.com/crossover_hp/66932.html

[ Jack Sparrow, OCs | PG | 1/1 ]

This is a crossover that works brilliantly. I’m charmed by Penknife’s vision of Jack at Hogwarts--he’s so incredibly *Jack Sparrow,* despite being made a part of the HP world.

"Jack Sparrow," the boy says. "This is my parrot." He holds up what looks like an egg. It might be a parrot's egg. It might, for that matter, be a rock.

"Sparrow isn't a wizarding name," the blond boy says. "What were your parents?"

"What were yours, mate?"

"Wizards," the boy says witheringly. "I don't suppose yours are."

"Much more better," the boy says. "My da was a pirate king, you see, and he carried off the queen of the mermaids. Never minded a bit of fishiness." He waggles his fingers suggestively. They don't look webbed to Daniel.