Unfit for Society Recs

Elementary

Building Bricks Without Zipper Masks by gynomancy
Joan and Sherlock negotiate the D/s elements of their relationship. Hot and sweet and very in character.

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Sports Night


You and Me and the City Makes Three by innie_darling
Dan and Dana and NYC = OT3.

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Suits

take your cues by abvj
Really lovely Donna/Harvey story in which Harvey bides his time until he doesn't. and the sequels: Equilibrium and a minor acclimation

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Avengers

call every girl we ever met maria by irnan
Adorable and achy story in which Tony and Pepper have a baby.

Chess Pieces by rayruz
She ran her fingers along the short hairs on the back of his neck, murmured his name against his skin, reminding him who he was, reminding her who he was to her. She could not put the pieces back together for him, it was a job he could only do himself. But Natasha would gladly hold him together for a long as he needed her to. Nice look at the progression of Natasha and Clint's relationship. (Some tense slipping in places, but it didn't ruin my enjoyment.)

Child's Play by enigmaticblue
Sweet series in which first Bruce, then Tony, then Steve get de-aged and the other Avengers have to babysit.

Coming Home by bethbethbeth
It takes Bruce a couple of conversations with Tony and Pepper to figure out what they're really saying. Oh, Bruce.

Five People Clint Barton Killed, and One He Spared by Margo_Kim
Intriguingly dark Clint backstory.

Five Times An Avenger Accidentally Woke Natasha Up by Margo_Kim
"You wanna stay at the Tower, then?"

"I'm not saying that," Clint said. She raised one eyebrow without opening her eyes. "Fine, I am saying that. What do you say?"

Natasha didn't bond well. People disagreed with her. She disagreed with people. She'd accepted a long time ago that she was better suited to a solitary life where the only visitors to her world were people offering her jobs and people like Clint who came and left as she pleased. So she knew that any fondness she felt for her team—for the people she had recently worked with, she meant—was misplaced sentimentality, the dangerous side effect of post-victory euphoria. Everyone was best friends after you had saved the world together. It was important not to overemphasize these feelings or do anything to improperly encourage them, not when impartiality was so important to her safety. Natasha knew that perfectly well.

So she blamed her answer on her sleepiness. "Sure," she said.

Clint stiffened a little. "Really?" he asked, and he sounded so incredulous that she was a little offended.

"Why not?" She cracked open one eye and fixed him with it. "I mean, if you're gonna be such a girl about it."

Clint laughed and wrapped his arms around her. "You're going to regret that in the morning."

"I regret this already," she said. really lovely look at Natasha and how she settles into being on and living with the Avengers.

Flesh Beneath by Isagel
"All the things I've been through, sometimes it seems like they ought to have left marks. Sometimes I look in the mirror and it feels like a mockery that there aren't any. The war, all those battles, the people I fought them with... There should be something to say it was all real, that I can't just forget it."

Oh.

Steve looks... Steve is looking the kind of manfully stoic he looks when he is trying to be Captain America more than Steve Rogers and not quite succeeding. It makes her want to strip the persona away, peel it off down to the bone of what he truly is, make him give that soft, unflickering strength up to her, exposed and bright and hers to care for. She thinks perhaps they are approaching a point where he'd let her, but she hasn't dared to take the step yet. She can't mess this one up.

"Scars don't have to be on the outside," she says. "If everyone can't see them that doesn't make them any less real." Steve wishes he had some permanent scars. Natasha is happy to oblige. Ridiculously hot. (do read the tags/heed the content notes, though.)

glory to be earned by sundancekid
Sif and Steve have to share a bed. Sadly, nothing untoward happens, but they do have a nice conversation and Steve feels more comfortable afterwards.

Here, Warm This Up For Me (This Heart of Mine Has Been Too Cold) by sarcastic_fina
Hot, sweet, funny Darcy/Johnny Storm.

hey, remember that time when by pollyrepeat
Steve harnesses the power of the internet to get Bucky back, and uses the power of stories to help him get better. Aw.

i found a martyr in my bed tonight by lanyon
Steve really likes Bucky in the Captain America uniform. Hot. (comicsverse)

In the desert, where the cities are made of gold by caughtinanocean
"I can't have kids with you, Steve."

"I know the birds and bees don't work like that with the parts we've got, Buck," he replies, voice fond, and maybe a little bit gentle.

"It's not just that, Steve. Someone else could adopt—not me. The first thing I do when I get startled is go for the nearest weapon. It still takes me hours to get over the daytime flashbacks when I have them—and that's with you there to help me through it."

His grips the railing, hard. "And the nightmares—a little kid shouldn't have to deal with something like their dad waking up screaming almost every night. Kids are supposed to be able to crawl into bed with their parents if they get scared at night. Our bed would be too dangerous for that—because of me." Sweet and achy. *sniffle* Oh, Steve. Oh, Bucky...

indelible by dytabytes
Her back, usually a plane of creamy white dotted with freckles, is covered with a sprawl of equations. They're beautiful. Force and motion are charted in stark black ink, curling around her shoulder blade and meandering across her ribs. The math is elegant, but even more intriguing is that none of these equations are finished and something in Bruce can't let those variables hang there in space, unsolved for.

Pepper glances over her shoulder at him, winks as she gestures to the integral that's dipping down under her waistband.

"You like it?"

"Yes." His voice is raspy from the sudden dryness of his mouth. "Very much." sweet, smart, Pepper/Bruce(/Tony).

like catalysts, we make things happen by BlackEyedGirl
"Bruce."

"Hi."

"What day is it?"

"Thursday." He wouldn't have been sure of that this morning, but Tony has newspapers delivered to the apartment, despite the fact that he presumably hasn't read print media in years.

"Excellent," Tony says. "Stay though the weekend this time. I have to give a speech to the board tomorrow – I need something to look forward to."

"You're sure it's okay?"

Tony shrugs. "If it wasn't, the elevator would have locked you out."

Bruce doesn't know if things are simpler with Tony or so much more complicated that a whole system has been designed to make them understandable. The second would fit Tony more than the first. Bruce tries to figure out where he belongs in Tony's life.

make one dream come true (you only live twice) by beardsley
'So what you're trying to tell me is that Sergeant James Barnes, Captain America's second in command and decorated war hero, but more importantly missing in action and presumed dead for the past seventy years — you're telling me he somehow managed to survive a thousand-feet fall into freezing water, defected, and became the world's most notorious assassin,' and he sounds so unimpressed and incredulous that Steve thinks maybe he's been wrong all this time, maybe he's been lonely and desperate and grieving and instead of dealing with it like a civilised human being he started committing random acts of treason for the first person who looked a little like his dead best friend.

'And what's more,' Fury goes on, staring Steve down, 'you're trying to tell me that based upon this assumption, unsubstantiated with any sort of facts or evidence or Earth logic, you decided the best course of action would be to let the world's most notorious assassin evade capture, aid him in escaping from SHIELD custody, and engage in property damage amounting to forty thousand dollars during your secret gay tryst.' Fury makes a face. 'I can't believe I just said tryst.'

'When you put it like that,' Steve admits, hanging his head like a kicked dog, 'it does sound kind of, you know.'

'I should probably be glad you didn't elope. Agent Hill, pull up the footage.' Hilarious and AWESOME story of how Steve has some 007 style adventures on his way to getting Bucky back. I draw a million sparkly hearts around this story.

maybe tomorrow will be better by meinterrupted
Cute story in which Steve and Darcy huddle for warmth.

more than one and one makes two by meinterrupted
Sweet, hot Clint/Darcy.

Old Man Shoes and Scientist Heart by MarieLikeToDraw & SidneySussex
Incisive, meditative look at Bruce and his demons.

Old World Made New by harborshore
Reunionating! Tony and Pepper! Steve and Bucky! Bucky and Natasha! *hearts*

paint my face, earn my keep, clean my kill by sundancekid
Really wonderful look at Natasha via the English idioms she collects.

Performance Review by Margo_Kim
Nick Fury has an assignment for the Black Widow. It's all very spy v. spy.

Robot Pants-Off Dance-Off by Lallybroch
Sweet, funny, hot story of Steve and Darcy getting hit with sex pollen and the team's reactions.

Skin by sabinelagrande
Lovely, achy Tony/Pepper/Coulson.

Such Lost Creatures by lar_laughs
They aren't kissing but it's a near thing. She can't take a breath without it having come from his mouth. Suddenly, she's dizzy with expectation. They've been dancing around this sort of physical intimacy since they met, their fear of each other still too new to just fall into it easily. All they've had were casual kisses that ended almost as soon as they begin or light touches that barely graze the skin. Will he? Won't he? She sees the same questions in his eyes from time to time as they continue to chart out their relationship. Should they stop at friendship or take it further? And what will become of their closeness if true physical intimacy doesn't work for them? It would be more comforting if one of them had answers instead of just the infernal quest. Clint and Natasha slowly try to figure out their relationship. Lovely.

Swing In A Minor Key (It's Just) by redbrunja
Amusing and surprisingly hot Coulson/Darcy.

The Woman in the Crosshairs by Frea_O
Clint has a secret hobby. It takes Natasha a while to catch on. Sweet and funny.

this world that i found is too good to be true by lanyon
Hilariously adorable Darcy/Sif.

Unintended Side Effects by Margo_Kim
The serum started his body anew and was kind enough to ignore it during the war (or maybe just the fact that Steve could go months on end without seeing a woman helped him avoid this problem). And after they'd found him and, well, thawed him, sex hadn't been high on his list of priorities. Trying not to lose his mind in a world he had never imagined was a bit more of a pressing issue. But life's settled down now. He's adjusting. He has a routine. He lives a pretty sedate life, besides the frequent attempts by aliens and supervillians to take over the world. But on the whole, Steve has a chance now to relax. And his body—one particular part of it—has taken advantage of that.

And Natasha—Steve is not prepared to handle Natasha. Steve can't help his reaction to Natasha and Natasha enjoys making him uncomfortable. Hilarious and sweet and hot.

Up to Speed by windsorblue
Steve is a little bewildered at Bruce and Tony's nerdfighting over Star Trek v. Star Wars. Adorable.

What You Really, Really Want by penknife
How Pepper first meets the Hulk. Or, charity dinners and other catastrophes. Tony, Bruce, and Pepper go to a charity dinner and things go somewhat awry. Luckily, the Hulk is there to save them. This is lovely.

A Woman Of Edges by tielan
"Steve." She waits until he has her attention – full and undivided – and what she was about to say comes out not quite the way she intended to say it. "You terrify me."

As declarations of love go, it's not very good. And Steve stares at her for a stunned moment during which she can hear someone's hoot of laughter across the room and randomly hopes it's not because someone's sneaked a parabolic mike into the room and is training it on them.

His mouth twitches. "It's mutual, you know. You… You're just…scary." Then rushing a little as though she might order him shot him down, he adds, "We could agree to terrify each other."

"I don't think that makes it better."

"It's a risk," he acknowledges, "for you more than for me."

"And we're not the risk taking kind."

"Not the reckless kind. I'm happy to leave that to Stark and Thor, personally. But if we don't take unnecessary risks, we don't always play it safe, either. Or we wouldn't be doing what we're doing."

"Judiciously dangerous." The words escape her lips before she can stop them. And then Maria wants to laugh – at his expression, at their conversation, at herself.

Then a twinkle comes into Steve's eye – a gleam of laughter, bright as day. "I'll be judiciously dangerous if you will." Smart, sweet Steve/Maria Hill. I'm still not sure how I feel about this pairing, but this story makes it work.

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