Multifandom Het Recs

Fandom: Agents of SHIELD
Pairing: Skye/Grant Ward
Title: he reaches over and he touches you, like a prayer for which no words exist
Author: catteo
Link: HERE
Rating/Warning(s): Explicit
Word Count/WIP?: complete
Recced By: redbrunja

Why This Must Be Read: (full disclosure: I betad this fic. That said, it's totally awesome and more than deserves to be recc'd.)

This is an excellent outsider pov on the Skye/Ward relationship - Kara's cool eye for details means that the reader is aware of all this tiny reactions that have so much meaning. Also, Kara feels like a present character in this - she has her own (platonic) relationships with Skye and Ward and isn't just there to wander around and watch the Skye/Ward ship unfurl.

Excerpt:

It's nine weeks to the day that Skye first showed up on their doorstep, when she walks in with bruises painting one side of her face, a bloodstain on her sleeve, and a bottle of whiskey clutched in her hand.

"Bad day at the office?" Kara's there alone, making dinner. Ward's off on some mystery mission that he refuses to talk about. Kara privately thinks that he's been trailing Skye. It's obvious that something’s seriously wrong, but Skye's not talking.

Fandom: You're The Worst
Pairing: Gretchen Cutler/Jimmy Shive-Overly
Title: Break Me From This Rule
Author: Ghostcat
Link: on AO3
Rating/Warning(s): E
Word Count: 14,810 words, complete
Recced By: Self-Rec

Why This Must Be Read: Gretchen and Jimmy are such unrepentant dicks but their romance has this confusing sweetness. I wanted to put that across, that strange combination, the harshness as well as the tenderness. Also, writing Lindsay Jillian was a gift because she has zero filter.

If you're into problematic people falling in love, The Brontës, mean spirited jokes, Los Angeles, and footwear-adjacent sex then this story is for you.

Excerpt:

Stab. Stab. Move food around. Stab. Stab. The screech of tines drag on the plate, the soundtrack to another two hour lunch. Lindsay sits across the table, talking. That high, staccato squeal providing a familiar, pleasant background to Gretchen’s spectacular hangover.

Lindsay’s lipstick is a dull housewife plum and as she monologues, her lips move in a series of perfectly delineated O shapes.

“—and I told her yeah, I'll do that, and now I'm stuck. What do you think? Should I sprinkle speed into the cunt's fondue?” She licks the sugar off of her spoon and leaves the utensil in her mouth. “Wed phthat pheven wawk?”

“Too complicated. Put eye drops in her Diet Coke.”

Lindsay takes the spoon out of her mouth and points it at Gretchen. “Oooh, good idea. You’re so smart. I love you.”

The spoon becomes a makeshift mirror and Lindsay uses it to inspect the curved reflection of her lips and teeth. Momentarily satisfied, she fishes her phone out of a quilted purse and types into it for a million years.

Gretchen’s delayed reaction hits. “Wait. Who are you drugging? I can't be an accessory. I have misdemeanor.”

Fandom: Gilda
Pairing: Gilda Mundson Farrell/Johnny Farrell
Title: Under The Snow
Author: Ghostcat
Link: on AO3
Rating/Warning(s): T
Word Count: 10,665 words, complete
Recced By: Self-Rec

Why This Must Be Read: A femme fatale who is way less deadly than the men in her life, a dangerous and unexpected husband, and a lifelong gambler who is tired of running. I've always been fascinated by the careful transformation of Margarita Cansino to Rita Hayworth and I knew I wanted to tie that into Gilda's story, since so much of it is how men willfully misinterpret who she is because they can't see past her image and their own projections to the woman underneath.

This story works without prior knowledge of Gilda and Johnny, though it helps of course. Three parts-- one narrated by Gilda (1941), Ballin (1946), and Johnny (1950). Featuring period details, dialogue, and locations in NYC, Argentina, and Chile. My first ever Yuletide story.

Excerpt:

A couple of days later, on a Saturday, she got a small white envelope in the mail. Miss Valence’s Elocution Classes at a place near Gramercy Park. All paid for. She was expected in two weeks and boy howdy, did she go. She was early, she was ready. She practiced. In a month, she’d mastered it, her new voice, pushed down deeper giving her a cool, low tone. A sultry girl should have a sultry voice. It was all in the lip shape. Where her tongue rested inside her mouth.

“Hello. My name is Maria De La Cuesta,” she practiced at home in the mirror. “My name is Maria De La Cuesta, how do you do?” she said to him at the club.

He looked up from his paper.

“Yeah, I know. Tiny told me on my first day.” He brushed his hair back, then lit a cigarette. The smoke-tendrils spiraled and beckoned around his face. “You don’t like it though.”

“No.”

“Then change it. What’s your middle name? All you Spanish broads have at least five.”

She slapped him. It happened so fast, she didn’t have time to feel sorry. The sound was like a whip crack. He smiled and rubbed his jaw.

“So you do have some Irish in ya. Okay, four.”

She geared up to do it again but he caught her hand.

“Easy, tiger. I might get to like it.”

Fandom: Blade: Trinity
Pairing: Abigail Whistler/Hannibal King
Title: don't you know i showed you my neck, just to see if you would kill?
Author: redbrunja
Link: HERE
Rating/Warning(s): Explicit
Word Count/WIP?: complete
Recced By: Me!

Why This Must Be Read: Sex and violence and death are naturally tied together in pretty much any kind of vampire fiction worth spending time with, and the Blade movies clearly take that theme and run with it. In this fic, I continued some of the delicious sex/death/violence themes with the two hottest characters in that movie (Abigail and King) who have a fantastic reserved queen/snarky lionheart dynamic. Then, there's 'using sex to kill emotional pain' and finally, a wee bit of 'found family' and 'life in the aftermath.' Basically, there are a lot of tropes happening in this fic.

Excerpt:

(FYI, this is from a nightmare sequence.)

"I brought you a snack, lover," Danica will purr, while Abby digs her feet futilely into the floor, until she's close enough for King to grab her, to pull her down to him. And he can't tell himself that it's the thirst winning, not when he moves slow enough to see fear and betrayal bloom in Abby's eyes. She'll end up under him, legs around his waist, and he can't tell if she's trying to buck him off or pull him closer. Either way, she'll be grinding against him, sparks of lust bursting from his crouch all the way up his spine. He'll have one hand tangled in her hair, and he'll use it to wrench her head back, pulling her neck into a delectable arc.

Fandom: Lewis (Inspector Lewis)
Pairing: Liv Nash/James Hathaway
Title: The Garden of Live Flowers
Author: seren_ccd
Link: archiveofourown.org/works/2146614
Rating/Warning(s): Gen
Word Count/WIP?: 2439
Recced By: Me!

Why This Must Be Read: This was the year that I wrote a few pre-ship fics and I'm reccing this one of mine because I simply enjoyed writing it. I liked exploring a possible what-if with a character that was only in one episode and the 'dishy' Sergeant Hathaway. The episode Liv was in led to one of the most delightful moments in Lewis (I will happily watch James Hathaway bow to ladies ALL DAY).

I enjoy writing fics that hint at all the possibilities and leave the reader feeling relaxed and warm and I hope that comes through in this fic.

*Mods, I need a tag for Liv Nash/James Hathaway, please! Thank you!