December 2021 Fic Recs

[forestsofpine]

Happy 2022, all! 🎊

Here are some of the fics I enjoyed in December:

MDZS/CQL Fanfic Recs

Better Things To Do With a Flute in Wartime, Nie Mingjue/Lan Wangji/Wei Wuxian, WIP, explicit

Wei Wuxian stabs somebody with his flute. Nie Mingjue tries to fix things with his dick. Lan Wangji pines in a non-communicative fashion.

Or: in the fourth month of the Sunshot Campaign, Nie Mingjue notices that Wei Wuxian is showing symptoms of imminent qi deviation. He takes steps to try to mitigate the fallout—and the course of the war changes, first slowly, then much less slowly...

By the River-side, Lan Wangji/Wei Wuxian, 3k, general audiences

The youngest shidis, however, weren’t sharing a room with Jiang Cheng, who could swim like a tadpole.

“What’s a tadpole?” asked Wei Ying.

“It’s a frog,” said Jiang Cheng. “Don’t you know anything?”

dissonance, Lan Xichen/Jin Guangyao, 17k, explicit

The truths Meng Yao knows are:

One: the world of classical music is as dangerous and dark as the cultivator courts in the bedtime stories his mother used to read to him each night, hoping to scare him into behaving as much as to put him to sleep.

Two: his father would applaud him with one hand and throw him to the wolves with the other.

Three: Meng Yao will be the best damn pianist this orchestra has ever seen.
*
Meng Yao has scored a seat as the philharmonic's solo pianist for their season opening gala. He'll do whatever it takes to prove himself - including the handsome first chair clarinet.

the lives of birds, Lan Wangji/Wei Wuxian, 15k, explicit

Gently, Lan Zhan says, “You can start a garden. It’s a good time to prepare, winter is ending.”

“Fine!” Wei Wuxian cries dramatically. “I guess there’s no time to think about it. The seasons have forced my hand.”

“I look forward to your harvest,” Lan Zhan says, pleased.

Or: post-canon wangxian start a garden by the jingshi.

reach for the dream (it’s yours for the taking), Lan Wangji/Wei Wuxian, 11k, mature

Wei Wuxian's 3-point plan for the 2020 Tokyo Olympics goes something like this:

1. Win a medal,
2. Go to that hot spring with the monkeys,
3. Stop being in love with his best friend (maybe by having hot victory sex with his seven (7!!) IOC-issued condoms).

soft and black and velvety, Lan Wangji/Wei Wuxian, 8k, mature

This is Lan Wangji's life: he has a sensible early dinner and then studies in the lounge six nights a week, and then on the seventh he pretends to study, gathers data on the precise way Wei Wuxian’s tongue darts out to lick his gloss-shiny lips after he does shots of Goldschläger, and then jerks off in the shower secure in the knowledge that Su She will never hear him over his own off-key singing.

It’s fine. A little hopeless yearning and some ruined biochem notes. It’s the “college experience” Xichen advocated so furiously with their uncle for Lan Wangji to have, probably.

or: a matched pair of love poems to clove cigarettes, stompy boots, corsets, and college-common-lounge-based goth yearning

Straight at the Sun, Lan Wangji/Wei Wuxian, 33k, explicit

"Wei Ying–” Lan Zhan started, voice a little bit hoarse. Wei Wuxian turned his face towards him, smiling.

“Aiyo, let me guess. You’ll take responsibility?” He snorted softly, putting on an air of nonchalance. “Don’t worry about it too much, Lan Zhan! We’re both men, right? Sometimes men do these kinds of things with their friends, so you definitely shouldn’t worry about it!”

or, wwx and lwj have sex and pine

A Thousand Things, Lan Wangji/Wei Wuxian, 108k, mature

Wei Ying can’t find his words. “What would I do in Gusu?”

The man’s mouth quirks in what Wei Ying cannot interpret as anything but a tiny, smug smirk. “Learn.”

Wei Ying has made a fine life for himself. He’s got his jiejies and his talismans; he doesn’t need anyone’s charity. But spending a whole year in Gusu? That’s hard to turn down.

Nirvana in Fire Fanfic Recs

that ruthless love, various ships, 160k, explicit

Liu Yuzhuang marries Xiao Jingyan, and gets more than she bargained for. Lin Shu, haunted by both the future and the past, finds again and again that he is loved.

The Witcher Fanfic Recs

when midnights break their sleep, Geralt/Jaskier, 16k, mature

The first Snapchat that anyone ever sends Geralt is a picture of his own irritated face.

shrike_princess: can u believe this dumbass finally got a snapchat bc a cute boy asked him nicely

"It wasn't even that nicely," Geralt says flatly.

AKA: The one where Geralt is a bartender and Jaskier sings karaoke.

Crash Landing on You Fanfic Recs

The Season of Us, Ri Jeong-Hyeok/Yoon Se-Ri, 4k, general audiences

The first year Jeonghyeok is a recital pianist (again), he does nothing.

Cherry Magic Fic Recs

Liquid Courage, Adachi Kiyoshi/Kurosawa Yuichi, 2k, explicit

"We're celebrating," Kurosawa informs him, grabbing Adachi around the wrist so he can see images of him hand-feeding Adachi dinner and dabbing at the corners of his mouth with a napkin. Adachi laughs to himself as Kurosawa hails a cab and takes them both back to his apartment.

RPF Fanfic Recs

The Kalends, Zhang Zhehan/Gong Jun, WIP, explicit

Zhehan is supposed to go to Rome with Sifan, but at the last minute Sifan bails, nattering on about his father and family expectations.

Yuri on Ice Fanfic Recs

I had a brief but highly enjoyable fling with Yuri on Ice back in 2017ish and still sometimes read some Victuuri or Otayuri when a summary catches my eye, but on December 30th for some reason I woke up with a craving for Victuuri a/b/o and spent several hours devouring about half of lazulisong's yuri on ice series, some of which I'd read back in 2017 and some of which I had not. In one morning - the second to last day of the year, no less - I went from having read two Victuuri fics in 2021, to 18. 😆

The series is a collection of fics set in the same fandom rather than in the same universe (although there are several sub-series included that do share a universe), so feel free to pick and choose what interests you. It certainly doesn't have to be the a/b/o, although the a/b/o is funny and tropey in the way that I like my a/b/o. Whether omegaverse or canonverse, I'm especially partial to lazulisong's outside POVs - she writes a great exasperated Yakov in you're like heaven to touch (3k, mature, not a/b/o), for example, and her Yurio POV is consistently hilarious.

Happy reading!