God, as if I have any time for reading (*the Muse screams: WRITE!WRITE!WRITE!*) But these fics demanded it of me and I thought I'd share the joy/pain:

Under a Haystack

There's something primitively satisfying about seeing your favorite boys from fandom play daddy - this we know. So it should be no surprise that watching Sam protect an age-regressed Dean is just too awesome for words. And yet, I usually shy away from age-regression fics. I don't know if I've ever seen it done right before now - usually, when an authore de-ages a character... they lose the character. At least that's been my experience, but janissa11 totally captures Dean as I can imagine him being at 7. This is a wonderful, fun and touching read. I'd rec it to anyone.

Not Her Type

What a fun little ficlet :p Dean/Abby done just right. I'd love it if there was more of this!

Just Another Kid

And it makes perfect sense to me to follow up a crossover rec with this fic right here. Because crossovers are all about seeing things from different perspectives to me, and this fic - written from an outsider's POV - gives me the Winchesters from that perspective. Love it.

Horses, Freedom and Cheap Perfume

And while we're on the subject of different... An NCIS crossover with Chris Kane :p Gibbs hauls him as a murder suspect. Good things he's a close friend of Tony's. How can I even express my love of this idea without inappropriate gestures?

ETA: And I can't forget this...

A Fashionable Profit

Dean as a Calvin Klein model :D This would be fun on its own, but the interaction between John and Dean - and between John, Dean and Sam - and between the family and the outside world... That's what left me with a huge ass grin when I finished reading this fic.

"Look out the window to your right if you want to be scarred for life," Sam said.

"Please don't," Dean said, but of course, John did.

"Christ," John said. "What the hell are they doing putting that across from an elementary school?" Then he leaned down a little further, and saw the rest of the poster. "What the--Dean, that's you."

"Tell him what he wins," Sam said.

John glared at his younger son in the rearview mirror, but put the car in drive. "I'm not happy about this. I think me and Calvin Klein are gonna have to have a talk."

"You can't kill Calvin Klein," Dean said.

"I said talk," John said.

"When you say talk you mean kill," Dean said.


:D

I've got to give you this one gen rec today:

i thought the world was fragile by annabeth_fics

Dean dies on a Tuesday. And Sam's not so good with promises. And demons learn the downside to giving a Winchester one of those neat little mental switches Ava thought were so great.

Wow.

I've gotta make a few author-specific fic recs, because fleshflutter's stuff is just that good for it.

Five Ways Dean Winchester Didn't Die - just, damn. Read the title and imagine what could be done with this. It is.

This Thing of Ours - the Winchesters as an organized crime family.

I Don't Like Tuesdays (Tell Me Why) - this is post-Mystery Spot Sam for me. It so, so is. All broken and beautiful, yes.

And a single vid rec...

#1 Crush - perhaps the most appropriate song for Sam/Dean (or even Sam and Dean) in existence.

Oh God, you guys. There's been a lot of great fic going around - with codas to 3x11 and entries to abouttwoboys still popping up...

So here are my favorites of the bunch, SPN and J2 - some drama, some romance, some comedy. Maybe something will strike your fancy as well :)

Fervorless as I by kroki_refur. In February, Sam Winchester dies for the second time. This is so amazingly, crazily heartbreaking! Written with Refur's remarkable ability to jump back and forth along a timeline without once losing you, while amplifying the angst to heretofore unforseen levels :) Read this! (Spoilers for 3x11)

Me & Jesus Don't Talk Anymore [link to InsaneJournal]. Creepy, creepy fic that sort of sneaks up and gets you. I love it when they do that :p

Something Borrowed, Something Blue by belyste. J2 set to the premise of The Wedding Date :D which I didn't like as a movie, but loved as a premise, and it works for J2 maybe better than any other fic I've seen at abouttwoboys so far. Also read belyste's Can't Point the Way to Your Heart when you get a chance - J2 set to the premise of Hitch :D I swear, these movie-based J2 AUs are like crack. Really good crack! You can't get off the shit. It hurts to go without!

I Don't Want to Be In Love (But You're Making Me) by keepaofthecheez. Oh. The great thing about keepa's J2, is it's like a whole other world unto itself. And you want to live there. And take lots of pictures, 'cause the boys are always doing something really hot in keepa's world! Virgin!Jared and Playboy!Jensen. And Mike, Tom and Chad in some of the funniest roles they've been cast into for a J2 fic ever :D Lovely!

Stand By Your Man by thehighwaywoman. The Wedding Singer starring our boys :D This is such a lovely fic, with such a nice angsty little interlude between the happy and the happy ending :)

And this is not from abouttwoboys... In fact, I haven't yet read it. But I have it on good authority that Ramble On is one of the best SPN gen fics out there. So. Gonna give that a shot.

( Thoughts on Malleus Malificarum. )

And speaking of disquieted... Go read fleshflutter's In the Valley of the Shadow. Sam/Jess/Madison/Dean. This is so deliciously disturbing... in that slow-building, subtle way that is so much freakier than a quick, in-your-face creepy.

OMG, y'all :D I've gotta give one more rec tonight: Old Country. Ha! :D Sam and Dean become English barons by inheritance. In the Wizarding world. This is, like, everything my Supernatural-obsessed, HP-loving heart could ask for. Set post-Deathly Hallows and All Hell Breaks Loose.

If you don't think you want to read this, consider: Dean. An owl. The Impala.

*loves*

Five Times Bela Talbot Feared for Her Life (And One Time She Was Actually Right). What a great little piece by tigriswolf. Honestly, I like Bela more than any other female we've ever seen on Supernatural - pain in the ass bitch that she is :p The key to this fic is the brevity of the glimpses into Bela's life - proof that there is a real person lurking beneath the cold calculation, leaving you wanting more. Followed by the kind of quick, clean end you can just picture for her.

“Listen to my voice,” he says, “and tell me if I’m serious.”

Hopefully I'm not giving anything away that you couldn't have figured out on your own having seen Fresh Blood and thought about the title of this... But one of the many reasons I like Bela is the perspective she gives us of Dean.

"The legend is so much more than the man."

Sometimes I forget - insulated by the show's focus on Dean and Sam - what a name the Winchesters have made for themselves in the outside world. Bela reminds me of that - and of how dangerous the boys can be under the right circumstances. Also, how adorable :)

Dean: Tell me I can shoot her.
Sam: Not in public.

:D

And while I'm reccing here, anyhow... here are a few more good reads I've had recently :)

The Infectious Love of Eric Kripke by nemo_88 J2, NC-17. Supernatural gets moved to Showtime... and Wincest becomes canon! :p Heh. Yeah - now imagine Jare and Jen's reaction!

Also: Lingering in the Golden Gleam - J2 Family Man style :D

And my one vid rec: Cowboys From Hell - a general Supernatural vid by ladymanson. Great editing, Pantera, and our favorite clips of the boys being badass :) What's not to love?

ETA: One more link... to The Human Condition, a Human AU BtVS/AtS archive!

Oh, this vid is a work of genius! :)

Ma Winchester, everybody. Our modern day, mojo-working Ma Baker :p

*loves*

And here's a bit of squee-worthy fic:

Open Source by poisontaster John/Matt Live Free or Die Hard! It so had to be done.

Ripped From the Headlines by rememberbefore J2 AU. Such a feel-good fic.

It's a Major Minor Thing by lightontheblue. J2 roleplay as Sam/Dean!

This, That and Them by mijmeraar There are so many kinds of sweet in this :) Fun, funny, beautiful J2.

I got a bit of a surprise yesterday :p I went to visit my youngest sister and her fiancee(*hurrahs for fiancee - he is awesome* ;) and I discovered an interest in something I never thought I'd be interested in.

A video game.

I don't play them generally. I'll happily waste an hour with my children if they've won some video game time and want me to play Mario Bros. or such :p But the shoot-em-up, gory stuff? Na-ah.

However, my sister and her other half play them a lot. And one of those games is Devil May Cry.

Wow, guys. I admit - though I don't play games as a rule, and I don't condone violent games for children, I have often applauded the use of storytelling in modern-day video games and I am impressed by the quality of the video game graphics these days. Both those things come together in a game called Devil May Cry 3, which tells the story of a half-human/half-demon named Dante who hunts demons to avenge his mother's death (sound familiar?;) and has an (evil?) twin brother named Virgil. (You can find out more about the storyline here).

So I browsed around some DMC communities and guess what I found? Supernatural/Devil May Cry crossover :D Here they are, if you're interested:

Kind Connections and Wrong Way by rocknload Sam and Dean go to kill a monster. They end up buying him a drink instead.

Stupid Games by zaleho

Holy crap! I had this rec tagged to the end of my last post, but then I actually read through a bit more of the series. Collegebound by mute90. Sam & Lex at college together. This fic is art :D Read it.

*loves*

In the midst of reveling in MW!love the other day I found The Sentimental Conversation on YouTube - the first in a triptych of short films. Part 1 is Rex starring you-know-who. Strange, confusing - a little scary, to be honest - but Michael's gorgeous, so I am willing to face my fears ;) And make icons. Just a few are under the cut.

( cut cut )

Then I did a bit of reading in various fandoms. Jenwyn updated The Boy Disease (le squee!) and my Angel: After the Fall has finally come in (le double squee! ;) And I discovered this amazing crossover of Supernatural and X-Men that has me bouncing in my seat like my little boy on sugar :D

mute90's X-verse is so dramatic and edgy and suspenseful. It builds the story of the Winchesters in the X-men world just perfectly in a series of ficlets. I'd recommend it for anyone with even a cursory understanding of either fandom.

(You Papa!Winchester fans pay particular attention to Not Normal and Soldier Boys. They inspire that mixed reaction of Aw! and *shivers* that only John can pull off :) - being the simultaneously loveable and badass daddy that he is.)

And if you're interested in more SPN x-over goodies, check out And That Was That, Skywalker and Strangers.