Only the Most Beautiful
The gorgeous, gut-punching, life-affirming fics I come back to time and time again. Sometimes it's love, unrequited or fulfilled. Sometimes it's friendship, family. Sometimes it's angst and horror and unhappy endings, sometimes everything is soft and nothing hurts.
Mostly Marvel, with some other gems. Use the bookmarks to see the full list of works with collector's commentary. Skip to the best-of-the-best if you want to be like that, but they're all the best.
(Maintained by WaterMe)
(Open, Moderated)
Random works
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half the night you’re a dependable chap (then the too white teeth all night) by voxofthevoid
Fandoms: Captain America - All Media Types
16 Apr 2019
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Steve Rogers is a sad fucking man, but he’s a soldier down to his bones, and Bucky’s always been weak to that particular combination of tragic eyes and fistfuls of blood.
That’s why he’s plastered to the walls and incapable of looking away from Rogers’s heaving chest and cracked knuckles. He doesn’t speak a word, doesn’t even dare to breathe loudly until a vicious punch from Rogers sends the poor bag flying across the room, spitting sand everywhere. There’s no startled sound from Rogers. He doesn’t even freeze, just huffs like he’s inconvenienced by his inanimate victim’s inability to withstand the pounding.
Bucky bites his tongue so he doesn’t offer himself as a replacement.
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Bucky makes a bad decision that snowballs in predictable fashion.Series
- Part 1 of couldn't get the boy to kill me
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When Julian volunteered to spend six months on Cardassia he set in motion a chain of events which forever changed his life - and Garak's.
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"I see you found us a couple of wounded birds," the man says to Kaylee. The words are dismissive but his tone is kind.
"They're headed for Judah," Kaylee says. "And they're broke."
Series
- Part 6 of Author's Favorites
- Part 4 of Firefly fanworks
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The Sweetest Days by how_long_must_we_live
Fandoms: Star Wars - All Media Types, Star Wars Original Trilogy
22 Aug 2017
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Summary
It had begun as a dare.
“Hello there,” the whore called out.
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the kubler-ross theory by antivenom
Fandoms: Spider-Man - All Media Types, The Amazing Spider-Man (Movies - Webb), Deadpool - All Media Types
03 Dec 2017
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Summary
Peter loses Gwen in a split-second of motion.
It takes much, much longer for him to find himself afterwards.(In which Peter deals with a loss that immobilizes him and permeates through every drawn breath. In which his grief is a visceral abstraction that he can touch, that he can feel. And in which, with a little help, with time, with acceptance, with anger, with sadness, with Wade, he learns how to live in a world without her.)
Series
- Part 1 of the kubler-ross theory
Random bookmarks
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Summary
"I see you found us a couple of wounded birds," the man says to Kaylee. The words are dismissive but his tone is kind.
"They're headed for Judah," Kaylee says. "And they're broke."
Series
- Part 6 of Author's Favorites
- Part 4 of Firefly fanworks
- Language:
- English
- Words:
- 3,783
- Chapters:
- 1/1
- Collections:
- 1
- Comments:
- 32
- Kudos:
- 93
- Bookmarks:
- 18
- Hits:
- 1,122
Bookmarked by WaterMe
26 Jun 2021
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Book of Ruth x Firefly. I didn't know it could work so well, but here we are <3
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Bookmarked by WaterMe
02 May 2021
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Bookmarker's Notes
There's this John Darnielle quote about his song "This Year" that I think about a lot, about being seventeen and wearing his dad's old coat with a bottle of whiskey hidden in the lining and sitting behind a pinball machine with a girl, drinking until he's tipsy enough to face driving home and getting the shit beat out of him by his step-dad.
I keep meaning to write about it, because every time I listen to the album it hits me right in the chest and I think about it for days. And I may still write about it, but this one may have done a better job of it than I could have.
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bruises (on both my knees for you) by antivenom
Fandoms: Spider-Man - All Media Types, Deadpool - All Media Types
11 Aug 2019
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Summary
Peter wasn’t altogether convinced that Wade’s flirting had been anything more than a way to get underneath Spider-Man’s skin.
Wade wasn’t altogether convinced that Spider-Man’s air of disdain wasn’t just a cover up because he was ashamed of returning the feelings.
So, when Peter calls Wade’s bluff at the same time that Wade calls Peter’s, they both end up with their dicks in their hands. (No pun intended)(Okay, actually, it was definitely intended).
Either way, nobody’s coming out of this unharmed.- Language:
- English
- Words:
- 12,942
- Chapters:
- 2/2
- Collections:
- 2
- Comments:
- 92
- Kudos:
- 1,573
- Bookmarks:
- 354
- Hits:
- 17,003
Bookmarked by WaterMe
24 Dec 2019
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Peter thinks about that first time, that 'get the fuck off'. He’s thinking 'you were asking me to leave' and 'stop it' and 'take your fucking gloves off'.
"Oh,” Peter breathes, and steps into him. He balls his hands into Wade’s uniform at his sides, head on Wade’s clavicle, and holds on.
It’s a little like stepping into freefall.
(Dysfunctional and painfully real. "it's not miscommunication when you can't even admit it to yourself". Lordy, I don't miss being young and stupid.)
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trouble is i don’t wanna let go by cheekysstyles
Fandoms: Spider-Man - All Media Types, Deadpool - All Media Types
12 Apr 2020
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Summary
Usually when Wade pictured Spidey straddling him and panting from exertion, it wasn’t quite like this.
or Wade wakes up to Spiderman literally holding an entire building up so it doesn’t crush them. Both of them realize pretty quickly the building is coming down anyway.
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John Winchester dies with seven dollars and fifty-three cents in his pocket.
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An Indiana Jones AU fit that isn't at all what I set out to write or that you want to read.
Series
- Part 9 of AU Alphabet
- Language:
- English
- Words:
- 5,013
- Chapters:
- 1/1
- Collections:
- 1
- Comments:
- 26
- Kudos:
- 63
- Bookmarks:
- 11
- Hits:
- 591
Bookmarked by WaterMe
26 Apr 2020
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"His hair is golden too, like those delicate little hairs on his knuckles, and Dean is reminded of something his father once grumbled - no grown man has blond hair - and Dean’s own hair had been nearly bleached with sun when he came back from the Philippines, and he had worn a hat for months before brown finally crept back to dominance.
"Dean is suddenly, achingly aware of the solid heat of the man, the bulk of his body and the width of his shoulders."