Yuletide Recs (Part 1/many, hopefully)

[thedeadparrot]

Whew, started making my way through the giant list of Yuletide stories. (2678? OMG?) Here's some of the stuff I have read and liked. I still have to go back and dig deeper into some of these fandoms, so there may be more (especially around HTGAWM and Captive Prince). Give me all your recs, too!

Five (1477 words) by Anonymous
Chapters: 1/1
Fandom: How to Get Away with Murder
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Characters: Wes Gibbins, Laurel Castillo, Michaela Pratt, Connor Walsh, Asher Millstone
Additional Tags: Yuletide
Summary:

A reflection on the Keating Five at the start of the semester.

This was my gift story! It's a really lovely bit of character studying. I am always in favor of lots of different POVs looking at the same thing, and I love the little bits of backstory sprinkled throughout this.

Winner Takes All (3804 words) by Anonymous
Chapters: 1/1
Fandom: Good Will Hunting (1997) RPF
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Relationships: Ben Affleck/Matt Damon
Characters: Ben Affleck, Matt Damon
Additional Tags: mostly gen with a little kissing thrown in for good measure, Bromance, Gay Chicken, Yuletide Treat, Bad Photoshop Jobs
Summary:

“Thanks for bringing my dick back into the spotlight, you asshole."

Matt and Ben play a friendly game with the media.

This delighted me greatly. There's obviously been a lot of effort put into the great fake news stories, but the best parts are the easy patter of the dialogue between Matt and Ben. It gives their relationship a lived-in feeling that I love.

The Wildest Dreams of Wild Men (7604 words) by Anonymous
Chapters: 1/1
Fandom: Good Will Hunting (1997)
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Relationships: Will Hunting/Chuckie Sullivan
Characters: Will Hunting, Chuckie Sullivan, Morgan O'Mally, Billy McBride
Additional Tags: Post-Movie(s), Friendship, First Time
Summary:

Will goes home.

Everyone knows my Boston feelings by now, I think, so this was bound to end up on here for that reason alone. But it's also a nice look at trying to refamiliarize yourself with a place you've left behind, how to settle into old-new relationships, romantic and not.

Unit Cohesion (4851 words) by Anonymous
Chapters: 1/1
Fandom: XCOM: Enemy Unknown (2012)
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Relationships: Central Officer Bradford/Dr. Raymond Shen/Dr. Vahlen
Characters: Central Officer Bradford, Dr. Vahlen, Dr. Raymond Shen
Additional Tags: Slow Burn, Threesome
Summary:

Bradford's job is to manage the temperamental geniuses upon which XCOM depends. They have history, however, and he's finding himself drawn into their present.

I love being surprised by stories. XCOM is one of those games where the main characters are ciphers who exist mostly to explain things to you, so when you stumble across fic that is about them having OT3 shenanigans, you go waaaaaat? And then you read it, and it is great. Really well-developed relationships and building steadily to the ending it earns.

Fraternity (8541 words) by Anonymous
Chapters: 2/2
Fandom: Captive Prince - C. S. Pacat
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Relationships: Auguste | Damen (Captive Prince), Damen/Laurent (Captive Prince)
Characters: Damen (Captive Prince), Auguste (Captive Prince), Laurent (Captive Prince)
Additional Tags: Alternate Universe - Fraternity
Summary:

Against expectations, Damen and Auguste become best bros and help each other discover their dreams.

This was a lot of fun! I have a weakness for college/high school AUs when they manage to replicate the character dynamics in interesting ways, and I really liked this one. And I am, as always, happy to learn more about and spend time with Auguste, whose presence looms large in canon.

Italy, the Amalfi Coast (1188 words) by Anonymous
Chapters: 1/1
Fandom: Luther (TV)
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Relationships: John Luther/Alice Morgan
Characters: John Luther, Alice Morgan
Additional Tags: Travel, Murder
Summary:

Alice is wearing a black swimsuit, a one piece, and the clean lines of her are shark-sleek and deadly but her smile’s all for him.

Italy, the Amalfi coast. There's blood in the water.

Beautiful imagery, and the author manages to capture Alice's strangeness very well.

Oh, and if anyone wants to guess my stories (3 in Yuletide, 1 in Madness), feel free to. I'll write you >500 words on anything you want if you guess correctly. I think I've blabbed about two of them to anyone who will listen, and my last two probably aren't anything that anyone would wander across by accident.