#bluerecs

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Fic Rec Friday — walking with spiders by atrata

"Let's be clear," he says. "It's going to be a long time before I believe anything you have to say."

Bruce and Natasha after Age of Ultron.

Everything @atratum writes is gold (my unshaped form and this fierce vein are required reading for brucenat shippers who read M). In just over 5,000 words, this AU fic highlights all the dark impulses and trust issues we love about her takes on the characters.

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fic rec friday — ain't’ no sunshine (when you’re gone) by flotationdevice

Illya has been called away for a mission, and Gaby is categorically not moping. No less than 9000 words of Gaby moping, structured loosely around the five stages of grief.

This is a stunning piece featuring Gaby coming to terms with just how much she wants Illya in her life. Just lovely. Go read!

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fic rec friday — frog in a blender by feldman and thassalia

When she notices Banner's attention she doesn’t discourage it, because he lives a similar lie. Pretend this is safe, pretend he’s containable, pretend that unchecked aggression doesn’t tend toward slaughter. She can give him that much, as easily as letting him turn her foot over gently in his warm hands and build a hypothesis that she’d rather he left alone.

Hope you like the picspam even half as much as I love this fic @handypolymath and @thassalia!

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Gaby/Illya + More Fic Recs

In before midnight! Wanted to do something for fic writer appreciation day!

Help Yourselves and Help Each Other by krakens http://archiveofourown.org/works/5155175

Their fourth mission takes them to America and ends up being slightly less of a disaster than their first three.

Mission fic of the best kind, where Gaby gets to show off her stuff. She has plenty of reasons to keep her distance from Illya and plenty more to keep getting drawn in. Gaby and Napoleon friendship development and a touch of jealousy from Illya thrown into the mix.

setting: a few months post-movie rating: teen & up words: 16,053

some things never sleep by adolescentwolf http://archiveofourown.org/works/4789088

Waverly flips idly through her file, and she has half a mind to grab it from his hands. She’s never seen it, but she finds being so closely examined, so critically documented, very annoying. “No more quarrels with Kuryakin, then?” he asks. “Your early reports painted a less-than-flattering picture.”

Gaby keeps her voice even when she replies, “It just took time.”

The vignette styling depicting the 60s spy life — Gaby solo and working with her boys — is really engaging. It’s a slow burn until shippery heart eyes but the glimpses of stronger feelings work so well I’m not complaining.

setting: some time post-movie rating: teen & up words: 13,490

Please Hold by MilkshakeKate http://archiveofourown.org/works/6501205/chapters/14881987

When Illya returns to Moscow, Gaby doesn't expect to miss his voice.

I think we can all agree that Illya’s gravelly tones and Gaby’s sexkitten rasp are fundamental parts of their appeal. This fic capitalizes on that immensely, while also chipping away at the real and metaphorical distance between Gaby and Illya with every phone call. Immensely satisfying.

setting: sometime post-movie rating: mature words: 18,092

Car Trouble by MilkshakeKate http://archiveofourown.org/works/6043615/chapters/13857172

En route to meeting Solo at their backup rendezvous location, Illya and Gaby are stranded in an Alpine blizzard. Both of them, soaking wet and freezing, hole up in the tiny broken car to practise their elemental exposure survival training (absolutely necessarily) while waiting for the blizzard to pass.

Didn’t I say I’d be reccing every single one of MilkshakeKate’s fics? This one is glorious, so much so only the author’s tags can really do it justice: Fluff Sharing Body Heat Resolved Sexual Tension Snow Snowed In First Kiss, oh no we are so cold and wet look at our clothes... gosh...........gotta... take em off ( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°) for the mission ( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°) Car Sex Porn with Feelings First Time Oral Sex Cunnilingus eat it illya god damn Slow Build Slow Burn

setting: sometime post-movie rating: mature

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Gallya + Long Fic Recs

I was inspired by a writer appreciation list going around to do a Gallya fic rec post! Just wanted to give a shout out to a few longer fics I’ve enjoyed recently. 

The Golden Goose by MilkshakeKate

Gaby Teller is sick of having her bright ideas swept under the rug. She's saved her boys' skins countless times, and for what? To watch them take the gold? No. Gaby has a better idea: to lure her partners to U.N.C.L.E., to prove her mettle in the field, and to pick apart the infuriating enigma of Illya Kuryakin before he's gone for good.

Get ready, because eventually I will be recommending everything MilkshakeKate has written, ’cause she’s my fave. This one appeals to me on a number of levels. The central premise is Gaby asserting herself and demanding recognition for her contributions, which I am all about. Plus, the characterization is so confident and smart and sexy.

setting: sometime post-movie rating: mature words: 31,988

twelve stops and home by encroix

The things you chase can trap you as much as the things you leave behind. How Gaby and Illya chase each other, run from each other, and find each other in twelve movements.

The sparse prose styling is still so lush. Little details about Gaby and Illya’s pasts are peppered in throughout, making the characterization fascinating to read.

setting: directly post-movie rating: explicit words: 32,127

The Kiss You Deserve by jackofsometrades

The KGB had impeccable timing. Illya had been called away within twenty-four hours of their mission concluding in London, which meant from the moment she’d kissed him, they’d had precisely three days to figure out what the hell they meant to each other. And one of those days had been spent staking out a godforsaken warehouse in Shadwell.

(An expanded one-shot that sends the team across Europe after another Nazi scientist, made trickier by the fact that UNCLE is competing with the KGB, Gaby and Illya have started working out some of that tension, and there's a Mossad spy in the mix.)

The flashbacks to the film in the first chapter are lovely. Gaby is feisty and Illya is introspective, a great combo. The OFC Mossad agent bounces off the characters in a wonderful way.

setting: a few months post-movie rating: mature words: 31,494

More recs soon!

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An Archive of Our Own, a project of the Organization for Transformative Works

@hulksgiving (sistermercury) just updated her fic “On the Edge of Safe,” which is one of the first brucenat fics I ever read and one  of my favs! I can’t tell you how much I adore the “Bruce and Nat in a cozy cabin hashing out their neuroses and getting busy” plotline. A++++!