I'm not the best at reccing, and I'm not the most prolific reader, so I'm gonna see how I go with a single page and what are, IMHO, the important fics from my AO3 bookmarks 🤣
For more of what I read and mark 'rec' in my bookmarks, check them out here. I'm pretty generous with my rec ticks, so if you want to get more specific as to what hits the spot, filter for recs with notes.
a footnote regarding the HP fandom
Crush by sonofabiscuit77
Fandom: Supernatural
Pairing: Sam/Dean
Wordcount: 60,790 words
Authors Summary: Five years after the apocalypse didn’t happen and Sam and Dean have settled down, or as much as the Winchesters can ever settle down. Sam is a college professor and Dean a well-respected small business owner and they’re learning how to balance work, hunting and dog-ownership while coping with the metaphorical and literal scars of war. Life’s not perfect, not for a (sort of) out and proud couple in small town USA with a lot to hide, but they’re dealing, that is, until Dean employs one sexually-confused teenager who develops an unhealthy obsession with both of them. Switching between five years earlier and now, we learn how the boys came together, how they made it through the big fight and whether they’ll ever manage to find that flighty temptress, happily ever after.
My Comments: Partially outsider POV, this is a nice long read. I enjoyed seeing the fuckedupness and also the perfection of the boys relationship from an outsiders perspective.
I Can Tell You How It Ends by anactoria
Fandom: Supernatural
Pairing: Benny/Dean
Wordcount: 64,015 words
Authors Summary: Sent back in time to 1959 to retrieve a magical key, Dean runs into a pre-Andrea Benny, and narrowly avoids killing him. Now he’s stuck playing nurse to an injured vampire and trying to unfuck a timeline he shouldn’t even be in yet. How much more complicated could things get?
My Comments: I've been craving a Benny fix-it that scratches my particular itches for a long long time. Also, what a fantastic author. Excuse me while I download and read everything anactoria has ever written.
The Last Shreds of Resistance by flyingsolo_flyingfree
Fandom: Supernatural
Pairing: Sam/Dean
Wordcount: 22,049 words
Authors Summary: As much as he fervently tries to avoid it, Sam has imagined all the different ways it could happen, all of the ways he and Dean could finally give in.
As it turns out, it's a witch named Audrey.
My Comments: A very lovely sex curse fic with a blissful ending.
Winchester Rule #34 by BewareTheIdes15
Fandom: Supernatural
Pairing: Sam/Dean
Wordcount: 4,072 words
Authors Summary: Theoretically Sam gets his sexual education at a series of middle and high schools crisscrossing the United States. How it actually goes is a little something like this.
My Comments: I heartily enjoyed this one.
Sock Puppet by Shadowscast
Fandom: Buffy the Vampire Slayer
Pairing: Spike/Xander, Xander/OMC
Wordcount: 42114 words
Authors Summary: A couple of years post-NFA, Xander is living a very ordinary life in L.A. He has a job, an apartment, and a very nice boyfriend. However, the arrival of a figure from his past (okay, who am I kidding—you all know it's Spike, right?) throws everything into question.
My Comments:
I don't often read longfic (yes, I consider 40k to be longfic) in one sitting, but this I devoured in an afternoon. I don't often read Buffy fic these days either, but I clicked on Sock Puppet out of curiosity, and I just kind of never unclicked, if that makes any sense.
It's a compelling read, and very very well written. There's also a very interesting DVD commentary that you can find here.
Sid and Nancy by themegalosaurus
Fandom: Supernatural
Pairing: Sam/Dean
Wordcount: 2296 words
Authors Summary: When you’d committed to spending perpetuity with your undead brother, it turned out to be pretty hard to think of reasons not to fuck him.
My Comments: This fic is totally relevant to my interests. Wincest with monsterfucking? Hell yes.
Reunion by JaneDavitt
Fandom: Supernatural
Pairing: Sam/Dean
Wordcount: 342 words
Authors Summary: Set during the first episode, and written the day after the pilot aired. I posted it to an LJ comm, since moved to DW. This was my entry: supernaturalfic.dreamwidth.org/968.html. Credited as the first Supernatural fic, and so the first Dean/Sam fic too, which is something I only discovered much later. "Dean's taking a much-needed shower and Sam's remembering too much."
My Comments: I rec this fic a lot. I'm passionate about fandom history, and so having this first SPN fic and first fic ever of my OTP so accessible is huge.
There's also a certain amount of schadenfreude in proving that wincest was the first ever SPN ship and was absolutely accepted in fandom from the very beginning.
Punxsutawney by astolat
Fandom: Supernatural
Pairing: Sam/Dean
Wordcount: 8871 words
Authors Summary: ∗ astolat thinks any plot worth doing is worth doing TWICE
My Comments: Groundhog Day style time loop fic, made extra awesome with the catatonic event in the middle.
The above was my original note on the bookmark in 2013. Not sure where I was going with the catatonia thing, perhaps I had a kink? Regardless, I reread this year (2022), and it's still fucking awesome.
You really can't go wrong though with astolat.
Owned by JordanGrant
Fandom: Harry Potter
Pairing: Harry/Draco
Wordcount: 420305 words
Authors Summary: 'The Malfoys have always been owned by the Potters. Strange? Yes. But true, and coming true again. Harry finds himself with no alternative but to claim Draco for his very own slave.' Canon-compliant through DH, but ignores the epilogue.
My Comments: I first read Owned about a million years ago (okay, like probably 10 years ago). It was one of those fics that stick with me, in that scenes replayed in my head on occasion, even after so long.
When I stumbled across it on AO3 a few years ago (it came in via Open Doors I believe), I immediately downloaded it and shoved it in a TBR folder.
If I'm gonna be completely honest, I don't think I actually ever thought I'd reread it. It's over 400k (and my attention span is non-existent) and it has significant BDSM themes, not something I'm into these days.
But I opened it out of curiosity one day, and the damn thing sucked me in all over again. Pretty much nothing else happened for a couple days while I mainlined the damn thing, and I had a couple really really late nights, too.
So anyway. Definitely recommend if you're up for a Harry/Draco slavefic that's actually kinda romantic as fuck.
All Along The Watchtower by leonidaslion
Fandom: Supernatural
Pairing: Sam/Dean, Dean/OMC
Wordcount: 28915 words
Authors Summary: When the world explodes in a heatless, formless flare of red light, Dean isn’t awake to see it.
My Comments: Fucking fantastic. Apocalypse fic, for a start, then the dubcon and the bitchiness on top. Chefskiss.
Acid by applecrumbledore
Fandom: Supernatural
Pairing: Sam/Dean
Wordcount: 14927 words
Authors Summary: Sam said, "You know I wish you just wanted to fuck me? That would be easy, they've got words for that kind of messed up." That just made Dean's pits sweat. He felt like Wile E. Coyote running into a tunnel painted onto a mountain face, little birds circling around his head. "Uh." "What do you know about Jeffrey Dahmer?" He'd been having a good day.
My Comments: I stayed up till after 3am reading this. So so good and so so hot.
The Disturbia Series by leonidaslion
Fandom: Supernatural
Pairing: Sam/Dean, Dean/OMC
Wordcount: 391927 words
Authors Summary: Not all of our scars are worn on the outside ...
My Comments: The Bright Lights of Disturbia is not my usual kind of reading material. One of the reasons for that is the fact I fucking disappear if it's good. Depending on length it can be days at a time. BLoD is 370k+, and I was good for exactly nothing else for 3 entire days 🤣
BLoD is compelling as fuck, and the writing is impeccable. It's also fairly dark, content-wise. If you're sensitive, you're gonna need a canary for this one.
These are some flawed-ass characters. Sam, as POV, is epically, epically flawed, in ways that fit perfectly with canon. I wanted to throttle him most of the way through simply for being such a dumbass that he couldn't see how stupid he was being.
Dean is epically fucked up, because of the events in the fic. On occasion I found him quite pathetic, and IMO out of character. However, by the end of the fic, after he'd sorted his shit out, he was back to being more like the Dean we know.
With John I swung wildly between hating him and actually, yes, his actions are entirely understandable.
BLoD has plenty of plot action, though not a whole lot of sex. There are reasons within the story for the lack of it, however.