Your picks for everything fannish

For Want of A Back Porch by gryfndor_godess
http://gryfndor-godess.livejournal.com/72632.html
PG. Completed, ~21,000 words. Post-season 8. Spike's occasional visits to Buffy's place are all about business, aren't they? :) gryfndor_godess focuses on Buffy and Spike's tentative, small steps towards each other; her story is poignant, funny, with outrageous breaks through the fourth wall. ( The story was written a year ago, when fandom tried to guess what happens to Buffy and Spike in season 9; after the last batch of spoilers this story reads as a nostalgic "what-if").
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Dust by knifeedgefic
http://www.livejournal.com/tools/memories.bml?user=knifeedgefic&keyword=DUST&filter=all
http://www.fanfiction.net/s/6958651/1/DUST
http://www.bloodshedverse.com/stories.php?go=chapters&no=12728
WIP, 31 chapters, PG so far, NC-17 later. Alternate season 4. Buffy wakes in a Sunnydale that went utterly wrong... Everybody's asleep; the phones are dead; and there is no way out of the town. Buffy's only hope is a certain vampire who managed to stay awake and who was persistent enough to wake her up. Intriguing premise, genre storytelling par excellence, witty dialogues, funny insights into Buffy's and Spike's minds, overall creepy atmosphere -- the story's vitality and finesse make "Dust" one of the most exciting and gripping stories of the year.
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Obstacles by shapinglight
R, future!fic, Spike/Buffy. When Buffy turns 25, her slayer power is gone. She's an ordinary girl, she can't fight, can't slay vampires. And, worst of all, Spike is so afraid to hurt her he can't bring himself to make love to her. Shapinglight ingeniously rewrites Helpless premise adapting it to Scotland setting and older Buffy. The plotting is smart and the voices are spot-on.
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Joss swore many times that he'll never use time-travel in his stories until he finally caved for a while in Timebomb (AtS5x19). But ficwriters love time-travel stories. Why? Obviously, because Buffyverse characters change and time-travel fics are the best way to highlight these changes. Also - because it's fun and it tests authors' skills in plotting and character development.

1. Brave New World by jamesmfan

http://www.spikeluver.com/SpuffyRealm/viewstory.php?sid=19153

WIP, AU post-GID. After the confrontation with Shadow Men Buffy gets back only to find herself in 2033 where vampires are accepted as members of human society. When she stakes a vampire, she gets arrested and is accused of the murder. Spike, who works in a Humanoids United organization, is charged with her prosecution. The author focuses on characters but manages to create a very consistent and logical picture of the world in 2033.
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