5 Spuffy One-Shots

[snickfic]

1. Winds Blowing Chill, by brutti_ma_buoni
Rulesverse
Buffy starts thinking about babies, but in the Rulesverse there are no quick fixes for the vampire reproduction problem, which leads to one of the more emotionally complex pieces of Spuffy babyfic I’ve ever read. Also: excellent Buffy voice.

2. mercy me (the night is long), by websofseaweed
post-NFA
Angelus is loose again, so Buffy goes looking to LA looking for him and finds Spike. This is not primarily a Spuffy reunion fic, but that's definitely a major element of it. First and foremost, though, this is Buffy grieving both the many people she's lost and all her past relationships. The characters - Buffy, Willow, Angelus, Spike - are all exactly themselves, and every word rings painfully, beautifully true.

3. Feels Like Heaven, by rebcake
post-series
As the summary says, "Buffy’s not in a good place. Dawn suspects Spike can help." This fic sets itself up to be a heartwarming hurt/comfort piece about Spike's presence healing some major emotional wounds of Buffy's, and then defies those expectations a bit. Excellent voices, as usual with Reb, and also has good-natured poking at the S8 comics without ever addressing them directly.

4. The Scientific Method, by rahirah
Barbverse
After being made a live demon by the Mohra blood, Spike tries out his new live tastebuds. Several times. This is hurt/comfort as written by Barb, which means there is snark, a suspicious lack of sympathy on Buffy's part, and just enough sweetness to satisfy.

5. Life in the Present Tense, by penny_lane_42
A long, delicious series of vignettes of Buffy, Spike, and Dawn living in Rome. Lirazel describes this as self-indulgent Spuffy fluff, but yanno, sometimes that’s just what a person wants. A rich, gorgeous, hopeful look at Buffy and Spike learning how to live again.

Comments

[petzipellepingo.livejournal.com]

All of these are gems by some of the best writers of Spike/Buffy. Thanks for posting.

[brutti-ma-buoni.livejournal.com]

Thanks for the lovely rec! These are a great selection.

[slaymesoftly.livejournal.com]

Absolutely wonderful selections. As Petzi said, "gems by some of the best writers in the fandom." They should be required reading for anyone new to the fandom.:)

[spikereader.livejournal.com]

Lovely set of recs, with a couple I haven't come across before, so thank you, and the others well worth a re-read.

[yourlibrarian]

Sounds like a good mix of story types here.

[rebcake.livejournal.com]

Ahhh. All of these stuck with me this year! Thanks for the rec, and for including my "defiant" story with such excellent work. I had not thought of "Heaven" as being hurt/comfort-ish until you mentioned it. I guess I wouldn't know exactly who was providing which part of the equation...

[snickfic]

I guess I wouldn't know exactly who was providing which part of the equation...

In the best h/c fics, it's mutual. *g*

[websofseaweed.livejournal.com]

OMG, thank you so much for including my fic in this awesome list! It means so much to me. -hug-

[snickfic]

You are so welcome! It really made an impact on me when I read it, not least because I'd never heard of you before. I love discovering new authors to be excited about. :)