I’ve made a whole bunch of Leverage OT3 fic rec posts, covering probably eighty different fics, but I decided to force myself to choose my top ten. These fics are not in order of preference, but rather the order in which I first encountered them.
The kinds of fics I like are ones with really sharp characterization, where you can hear the voices in your head, good banter between the OT3, and exploring each character’s issues without getting too angsty. I don’t like intense pining.
Please reblog with your own top ten Leverage OT3 fics if they’re different from mine!
This fic portrays a heart-meltingly sweet established relationship between Alec and Parker, then a story of how they invite Eliot into that relationship. It’s like they’ve built a home, and all they have to do is open the door.
“It’s all good,” Hardison promises, kissing her forehead and then the tip of her nose because he knows she calls it bunny kissing in her head. “We’ll make sure Eliot knows we still love him.”
The one where the OT3 go on a road trip and fall in love along the way. I love the road trip as a metaphor for Alec, Parker, and Eliot going on a voyage to discover one another.
Alec and Parker kept him in the middle, like they were afraid he was going to bolt, like it would be a bad thing if he left. They never stopped touching him, four hands on his body, lips, tongues, and he shut his eyes, and let them carry him, let them hold him aloft, floating on a buzz no whiskey could match. He let them fill him up until he couldn’t imagine what empty was.
I treasure this fic for its cleverly in-character banter, and for the way it shows Alec and Eliot dealing with a situation where they’ve distressed Parker and need to make it up to her.
Alec was kneeling outside his broom-closet, and speaking into the gap under the door. “Well, can I get you anything? A glass of water, maybe?”
“I’m fine!” Parker said back, muffled through the door, but loud and frustrated. “Go back to your orgasms!”
Settling into any new relationship for the long haul is hard, and even harder when there’s three people involved. This fic is about the ways Alec, Parker, and Eliot drive each other ‘round the bend – and how they learn to stay together anyway.
It was hard, living with people who were so touchy, Hardison told himself. He tried to ignore what he knew about the people he loved; that they survived by keeping the past in the past and the unspoken in the dark, and that Hardison wasn’t really capable of doing either of those things.
The story of how the OT3 get married. It’s such a homey, comfortable established relationship, showing just how the three have settled in as a unit.
They will say the things that need saying and slide the rings onto each others’ fingers. They will clean up before making their way home for what Parker will delightedly insist on calling “married people sex.”
This fic is a delightful romp of a crossover with the MCU, but I love it most for how it portrays Parker as mastermind and the OT3 falling into an easy rhythm of being a crack team of three and a stable relationship of three.
“It ain’t a rule, it’s a guideline,” Eliot insisted.
“We don’t mess with Stark,” Parker said, in the voice of one tolerating a loved one’s bizarre personality quirk.
“I don’t wanna get my ass blown off by a robot-suited aggressive billionaire who does not like hackers!” Hardison yelped.
This fic takes a kink, puppy play, and turns it into a profound metaphor about the nature of Eliot’s relationship to Alec and Parker. Or maybe it turns a profound metaphor into a kink. Either way, it’s both touching and sexy.
Parker makes a noise of agreement, and Eliot’s hand comes down to cover Alec’s where it’s pressed to his belly.
Testing a theory, Alec adds, “You’re our boy.”
Eliot’s hand clenches on his, only for a moment, but it’s enough for Alec to know.
“Yeah,” Eliot says. “I – yeah. That’s what I want.”
Think of this psychic AU as one where Eliot right after leaving Damien Moreau meets Alec and Parker at the end of season 3. Eliot is so broken, and Alec and Parker redeem him with the power of their love.
Parker kicked his ankle again, hard enough to make him notice her. “Hey,” she told him. “Dibs.”
Hardison stretched his long legs out under the table and tapped his foot to Eliot’s. “Dibs,” he said.
In this fic, Alec and Parker propose to Eliot before the Rundown Job and then go on a honeymoon in Las Vegas. It fits scarily well into canon for the Rundown Job to be the OT3 as newlyweds. Read this and accept your new headcanon.
Eliot tossed his hair back, looking back and forth between them. There it was again, that offer of everything he wanted and hadn’t thought he could have. The pictures were still on the projector, him with the two of them. “Yeah.” It was the only answer he was ever going to be able to give them. His voice came out rougher than he meant, and his eyes were not at all close to watering. Not even a little. “Of course I’ll marry you. Can I get a kiss first?”
My bee fly Karkat story that I’m not gonna write properly is about Karkat hiding out at Kanaya’s hive for reasons that aren’t fully explicated at this effort level. You’d almost think it was a mere friendly visit, except that Karkat, amidst the sunlit rooms and the bright colours and the zombie attacks, is growing very very hivesick, yet does not leave for home.
He’d tried matching Kanaya’s sleep schedule at first, but the result was him wandering through Kanaya’s tower in a haze of exhaustion and light-blindness, while Kanaya avoided his company in favour of frolicking through the desert. Now they meet each other crosswise, at gloaming and dawn, and make half-asleep/half-awake small talk over grubloaf seasoned with plants that Kanaya has harvested by chainsaw.
Someone was in Bruce Wayne’s office, and there was no graceful way to avoid them without making it obvious that he knew they were in there. There was a smell in the air like mulch and roses.
He had no frame of reference for what would constitute a normal amount of things to notice, and so chose to err on the side of oblivious moron.
If there’d been a smell like marzipan dipped in bleach, he might have chosen differently.
“Heya, Mister Wayne,” Harley Quinn greeted, sitting on his desk. She waved as much with her feet as her hands. He closed the door behind him.
Bruce considered his response. Hopefully his momentary indecision with regard to his facial expression could pass for surprise, or confusion, or fear. “Hello, Dr. Quinzel.”
“Don’t worry,” she said. “I’m not with Jay no more.”
“She’s with me,” Poison Ivy said.
“Hello, Dr. Isley.”
“I really prefer Ivy.”
“Dr. Ivy,” he corrected.
“Doncha love the way he says doctor?” Harley asked Ivy.
“Charming,” Ivy said. She did not sound charmed.
“I told her we oughta come talk to ya,” Harley explained, “on account of you’re a real nice guy an’ all.”
“Thank you?”
“I was just going to kill you,” Ivy added.
“Thank you. For not doing that.”
“Isn’t he just like a puppy?” Harley asked, pressing her hands to her cheeks.
@b-griveros: It was nice to do a first collaboration with Mar; she sent me the reference and I couldn’t get the image out of my head. I needed to draw. And then, with this new perspective Marilyn captures perfectly the atmosphere between them two. I f*cking love this woman and I’m thankful she’s been inspiring and motivating me to improve over the past months. Thank you so much for existing, Marilyn, and I hope everyone gets a little warm ache in the chest.
Rated: T for cursing. || Words: ~1400
“Come here.”
“Colonel.”
“Lieutenant, give me your hand.”
She didn’t lack the temptation, but – “At any moment, someone can walk in.”
“So Breda will let us know.”
“It’s really… it’s all right, I’m all right. Your coat… it’ll be enough.”
“No…” From his seat, he reached blindly for her hand. “Come here. ….just rest now.”
A mixture of determination, ire, concern, and adrenaline surged through her veins. Rebecca Catalina was hellbent on finding Riza, but even hell hath no fury like a woman on a mission to find her comrade-at-arms, her closest friend…
The only sister she’s ever known.
After victory was assured, amidst the mayhem, literal hours went on trying figure out which hospital Riza and the Colonel had been sent to and her heart plunged, desperation brimming at the cusp, because only Mustang’s wellbeing had been reported. What about his adjutant, the Lieutenant? She had asked. The blonde who was always next to him, where was she? She’s important too. If not more. The hours of radio silence felt like decades, and her exhaustion served to irritate her more than she already was. How difficult was it, really, to find someone who had been in the heart of it all? How do you misplace the decorated matchstick?
Do love the idea of Scanlan and Keyleth needing to be a two-person army 400 years after the end of the story to combat some threat. Scanlan with his salt and pepper hair, Keyleth looking nearly the same, and their friends are all gone. S’kind of kind an war-buddy reunion; both will probably be among the most powerful beings on the planet, even if they feel incomplete.
After the battle, after people disperse to their own mourning, Keyleth stands alone to breathe for a second. In 400 years she’s seen the rise of 20 or so generations of new Heroes. And except for a few like her– long-lived, hardy, and lucky… or cursed–their inevitable fall as well. Being the remaining one is what she does now.
A young druid fell not twenty feet from her a few minutes earlier. He was twenty-some years old. Younger than Vax had been.
There’s a long moment where she thinks about resurrecting the boy, but in the end, she grows flowers around him and lets the earth take him.
People in the encampment around her are bringing out food and ale and laughing too hard because they’re fortunate to be laughing. It’s the desperate happiness she’s seen countless times before. She leaves them to their celebrations because she’s not desperate or particularly happy.
Keyleth finds her way to the little old man singing under the window of the infirmary, where she expected him to be.
Coffee shop AUs redefine escapism from wild fantasies about dragons and space travel to the comforting ideal of having a steady job and supportive relationships.
For a generation who came of age during the Great Recession, living in a time of constant political trauma, it’s not hard to understand the appeal.
Alright, so here is a list of all the Voltron Legendary Defender gen fics that I’ve written. Just thought this might be easier for folks who just want to read fics with no shipping. I will try to update this list as I write more fics in the future.
10 year old Keith has not had an easy school year, but when his cousin, Shiro, inherits an old farmhouse, they both see it as a fresh start and move there. However, there is more to this place than meets the idea. With stories of spirits living in the forest, Keith’s new friends owning very strange cats, and mysterious hunters lurking around, Keith is certain something very strange is going on.
After the battle with Zarkon, Shiro finds himself in a ghost like state. Much to his frustration, no one is able to see or speak to him except for the Black Lion. As he ponders how to be restored back to normal, the Paladins find and bring home a stranger that they believe is the missing Shiro.
The Galaxy Garrison ask Shiro to speak with 11 year old Keith who they believe has dangerous knowledge. As Shiro becomes attached to the kid, he has no idea just exactly what kind of trouble the boy has gotten himself into.
Lance, Hunk and Pidge see many different kinds of aliens at the space mall, but when they catch a spy they discover something they never expected to see there. Blade!Keith AU
After the fight with Zarkon, Keith finds himself stranded alone on a strange forest planet. All hope seems lost when he gets bitten by venomous creature, but he finds aid from someone he’s not sure he can trust.
Note: This was written before season 2 and was playing with the Thace is Keith’s dad theory. So it is very AU from canon.
Turns out, in other realities, the paladins use a different kind of robot from the lions.
Little Princess – “It was that weird bracelet,” Lance snapped as he struggled to keep his voice down. “I found it on the shelf, handed it to Allura because it was sparkly and I know she likes that stuff, she puts it on,” he pointed to her with his thumb, “and wham! Next thing we knew she was a kid!”
“I still find it weird the clothes shrunk with her,” Pidge whispered.
“Pidge, that’s the least of our concerns right now,” Hunk stammered as he cupped a hand over his mouth.
Snowtron – It had all started with five words. Five words that changed the entire course of the day. Five words Allura never imagined she would hear any paladins say while piloting their lions.
Zarkon kept staring at the cell wall. He didn’t dare turn around. He refused to turn around. He would stare at the wall in their prison cell for all eternity if it meant he could avoid seeing Alfor’s glare.
Bribery – “Come on, Acxa, PLEASE.”Acxa twitched an eye as she looked up from her monitor and glared.
“For the last time, Ezor, no! I’m not going to the spa.”
Ezor pouted and huffed as she crossed her arms over her chest that reminded Acxa of a small child. “Oh, come on! It’s not fun if I go by myself!”
Keith has a deep, dark secret…he’s a big softie when it comes to animals. When Hunk, Lance and Pidge discover he’s been rescuing animals and bringing them on the ship, there’s only one thing they can do! Help him take care of the animals in secret without letting Shiro, Allura or Coran finding out.
After being away for three days, all Shiro wanted to was sleep. However, the was a problem he needed to fix before he could.
The White Wolf – (Voltron/Okami crossover) When team Voltron explores an old abandoned temple, Shiro finds the last thing he ever expected to find there. Don’t know if I’ll write more for this, but enjoy the silliness for now.
Allura liked children, she truly did! They could be quite adorable and even insightful under the right circumstances. However, dealing with children one on one was a completely different matter.
Shiro has been plagued by nightmares ever since he escaped the Galra. He had expected tonight’s nightmare to be the same, but then it took an unexpected turn.
“A shack, in the middle of a desert,” Lance commented dryly as he climbed off the bike. “Wow, Keith, best secret hideout ever. Tell me, does it come with or without rats?”
It wa a robot mouse. It was blue and white, stood up to Hunk’s knee, had tiny little doors for some tiny furry pilots, and the little helicopter blades on it’s back indicated it could also fly. Hunk could not find the words.
When Keith is told by his father he is going work along side with a young Altean named Shiro in order to protect Princess Allura he is less than thrilled. However, over time, Keith finds himself becoming more and more protective of his new friends, especially with the threat of Zarkon looming over their heads. (Blade!Keith and Altean Shiro AU)
Hey guuuuuys, you like hobo wizards? You like LIVING purple shiny teeeeflings???? Fanfiction you say…..ARRANGED MARRIAGES YOU SAY?!?!?! Then go get yourself to that there Ao3 and read yourself the gloriously written Betrothed by MeBeShe otherwise known as @matt-the-blind-cinnamon-roll in these parts. Pep’s pretty amazing! ❤
ME, A NORMAL CONTRIBUTOR TO FANDOM: So let’s talk about the pedagogical implications Thanos’s snap would have on the Sesame Street curriculum within the greater MCU.
I don’t know how pedagogical it is, but I guess now I’m thinking about Bert sitting alone in a room, missing Ernie.
That is absolutely the emotional core of what a post-Snap episode of Sesame Street would be about (I feel like Bernice would be missing too, and Bert would try to play chess with Rubber Duckie?), but for the episode to function there needs to be something they’re teaching the audience besides ennui, and that is where I’m really stuck.
Because the emotional core wouldn’t stick if it’s not supported by the structure of the show! But it seems like the Snap destroys basically all structures in place. But that makes the structure of Sesame Street that much more necessary. And then I spiral like this for a while.
Disclaimer: I have not watched a full episode of Sesame Street in a long time
Big Bird has been waiting for the store to open for a very long time now. He’s a patient bird, and he knows about waiting his turn, but his watch has the big hand on the three and the little hand on the nine and he’s pretty sure that Alan usually open the store when the little hand is on the seven.
Finally, when the little hand goes all the way to the four, the door opens.
“Hi, Big Bird,” Chris says, his eyes red and puffy. “We aren’t going to open the store today.”
Big Bird doesn’t understand; Hooper’s store opens every day. “Why aren’t you opening the store, Chris?” Big Bird asks. “I need beakpaste, I’m all out.”
Chris just looks sad. “Big Bird, did you hear about The Snap?”
“No,” Big Bird says, and the way Chris is talking is very scary. He feels like he might need to sit down. “I don’t even know how to snap!”
Chris steps out form behind the door and gestures for them to sit on the stoop. When they’re settled, Chris takes a deep breath before he speaks. “Well, a bad man named Thanos came to Earth. Do you know about Thanos?”
“Yes,” Big Bird nods He heard some of the grownups saying that name. “He fought with the Avengers.”
“That’s right,” Chris says. “And the Avengers lost their fight. Sometimes, even when grownups try really hard, they can’t do all the things they want to do, and sometimes that means that bad things happen.”
“Did a bad thing happen?”
“Yes,” Chris says, taking Big Bird’s wing in his hand. “Because of Thanos, a lot of people are missing. And Alan is one of them.”
Big Bird has to think about that for a moment. He went missing one time, when he was a blue bird in a circus, but his friends found him and brought him home. But something about Alan’s face tells Big Bird that this isn’t the kind of missing where your friends can find you.
“Is Alan dead, Chris?” Big Bird asks. “I remember when Mr. Hooper died.”
“The honest answer is that we don’t know. He might be. Or he might just be missing.”
Big Bird tries to understand that. “Missing?”
“Yeah,” Chris says. “He might come back some day, and he might not. We just don’t know.”
Big Bird wants to cry. He loves Alan, and he doesn’t want any of his friends to be missing. “Is anyone else missing?”
“Yes,” Chris says. “Some of your friends may be, or their parents, or yours cousins and uncles and aunts. A lot of people are. And it’s very scary.”
“What can we do?”
Chris is crying a little, a few small tears pooling at the side of his eyes, and Big Bird wants to do something, wants to say something, but he kinda feels like crying too, and doesn’t know what will help. “I don’t know,” Chris says. “I think the only thing we can do is be here for each other, and love each other, and take care of each other. When things are scary, and when bad things happen, the most important thing to do is look around at the people who are still here, and try to do your best for them.”
Big Bird nods. “Hey Chris?”
“Yeah, Big Bird?”
“Do you want a hug?”
Chris nods. “I would very much like a hug, thank you.”
Big Bird does the only thing he knows how to do; he opens his wings and wraps them around Chris, doing his best to be there for the people who are still with him.
hey. what the actual fuck and how fucking dare you.
I feel like I shouldn’t tell people that the only reason Big Bird doesn’t ask “am I going to go missing, too?” was that I didn’t know how to answer it without scaring kids. “IDK, dude. Maybe?” didn’t seem like the right answer.
hi i’m kitty i don’t know anything about star wars whoops
“What am I looking at?”
Lando leaned forward and laced his fingers together. “My taxes.” He paused, then gestured to Han. “Our taxes,” he corrected, with an unnecessarily rakish grin.
Leia squinted at the datapad. “Tax fraud.”
“Oh, no no no. Absolutely not. My accounting is impeccable.”
“I don’t see how it could be,” she said. “He’s a smuggler.”
“Hey,” Han began. He shut his mouth when Leia leveled him with a look. He opened it again to persist, but saw that Lando had a shit-eating grin as he watched their argument-in-potentia. Han glowered at Lando, and made him grin wider. Han huffed, hooking his thumbs on his belt.
“Legally, he’s a long-haul transport navigator,” Lando said, and Leia snorted. “Because he has a spouse at home—me—he qualifies for a higher income deduction as well as a few credits unique to the profession.”
“Wait, credits?” Han asked.
“Because he’s my dependent,” Lando continued, ignoring him.
“The hell I am.”
“That puts me in a unique legal position—not many people know about this, but in order to incentivize long-haul transportation, a spouse who claims a long-haul transport navigator as a dependent qualifies as a household caretaker, which is a kind of head of household that’s able to claim significantly more not only for themselves but for any other dependent spouses they may happen to have.”
“But his transport isn’t legal,” Leia said, fascinated. Han was pretending to understand the conversation, which would have been more convincing if he weren’t already fiddling with a kinetic sculpture on one of Lando’s shelves.
“It’s art.”
“What?”
“As far as my taxes are concerned,” Lando said, “Han transports art. They can’t prove that it isn’t. And I’m always careful to get the valuation right.”
“How do you know what I transport?” Han asked, indignant. A piece came off the sculpture in his hands. He looked down at it, then looked at Lando. He made a hasty attempt to reattach the piece. The entire sculpture collapsed. Han took his hands from it, and attempted to lean casually against the shelves with his elbow to block it from view.
“They call me,” Lando said.
“No,” Leia gasped, delighted.
“Yes,” Lando said, grinning again. “They know I’m his partner. They know I can’t be sure I’m getting my fair share unless I know exactly what he’s getting. So they call me.”
“What!” Han stood straighter, his brow furrowed and his face all twisted into an incredulous pout of anger.
“They might have been able to catch him smuggling,” Lando said to Leia, still not addressing Han.
“They would never,” Han sneered.
“But they’re never going to get him on tax evasion. There’s no way he would have been paying taxes on his own.”
“It never even occurred to me that he would,” Leia said.
“I’m right here,” Han reminded them.
“So you can see why I can’t divorce him,” Lando said.
“I don’t follow,” Leia said.
“My household caretaker status is the foundation of all of this,” he said, pointing to the datapad. “I divorce Han and the whole thing collapses.”
“Collapses how?” Leia asked, narrowing her eyes.
“Cloud City goes bankrupt.”
Han choked.
“How many people have you married?” Leia demanded.
“Leia, you know that you’re my favorite wife-in-law,” Lando said, “but I don’t think I’m comfortable discussing that aspect of my personal life.”
The pile of former-sculpture slid from the shelf, and clattered to the floor.
i'll apple your turnover 