LINKDING

<blockquote>Keith has had two hours of sleep and eaten one basket of heat-lamp-marinated mozzarella sticks in the past day when he catches the Classics department’s hottest grad student in his arms.</blockquote>

<blockquote>When Keith was younger, he used to wish that his soul would lead him to Shiro, that wherever Shiro went, Keith could follow him forever—that he’d be hearthbound to Shiro instead of a place, or none. They were both orphans without a home. Maybe theirs could be each other.</blockquote>

<blockquote>Yuri tucks his face into his outflung arm. "I haven't done anything with anyone." Since it's Otabek, he doesn't have to explain. He can just look at the way the grass bends under his arm, trace his eyes down the blades into the shadow of his body. "You didn't tell me how it doesn't work. I want to know." Otabek sighs. "It doesn't fit." As if Yuri could resist that challenge.</blockquote>

<blockquote>Victor used to glance in the windows of marque studios and look at the flash on the walls sometimes, with curiosity more than longing. What would it be like to feel someone else’s soul? There are songs about it on the radio. Romantic. In his actual life, it’s always Yakov saying, “get over yourself, get more sleep, stop daydreaming on the ice.” Or it was.</blockquote>

<blockquote>Grandpa likes to call Yuri's cat—his other cat—Matroskin, because she talks so much. Maya hid under Yuri's bed for their first two months of cohabitation and yowled every time he kicked his shoes under there. She’ll cuddle up to Yuri now as long as they both pretend it’s not happening. That’s the proper order of things when it comes to humans and cats.</blockquote>

<blockquote>A year ago, Victor would never have dared to do something like this. Yuuri would have flinched, pulled away, been convinced Victor was making fun of him. Now Yuuri just smiled and said, "Think about what? My husband coming to bed in a wig and flannel pajamas? No, I don't think I did."</blockquote>

<blockquote>Patty took Abby by the arm and gently towed her into the booth, where they could pretend to have some privacy. Holtzmann was warming up her soldering iron and Erin was trying to teach Kevin how to use his iPhone contacts: the privacy was mildly less illusory than usual. "What's the deal with the three of you?" "We're scientists?" Abby said. "Unless you meant to include Kevin." "Bless that child, no." Patty gestured from Abby to Holtzmann (gleefully affixing things to other things with molten metal) and then to Erin. "I mean, this situation." "We all believe in ghosts?" Abby tried. "We all have Ph.D.s?" Patty looked up at the ceiling for a moment. "Is this some kind of Sisterhood of the Traveling Lab Coat or do you have a history?" "None of us wear lab coats," Abby said.</blockquote>

<blockquote>Patty covered her face with her hands. She needed a few moments to compose herself. "I'm not joining some ghost swingers club." "Maybe I could help out," Holtzmann said, voice dipping low. "You gonna use that badge printer to make membership cards?" Patty said. Holtzmann swung her leg to the floor. "No, instead of the ghost."</blockquote>

<blockquote>Poe's young lovers are trying to kill him.</blockquote>

<blockquote>"How'd you learn all this stuff, anyway?" Finn says. Rey says, "Hand me the conductive grease." Finn doesn't move; she snaps her fingers. "Come on, it's the blue tube, the one—" "Oh, yeah, I see." He slides it to her across the ship's floor. "So? How did—" "Like that," says Rey.</blockquote>

<blockquote>For thirty-four weeks, five days, ten hours, and sixteen minutes, your time and your body were your own.</blockquote>

<blockquote>Here is a fic in which Sam, Natasha, and Bucky bake Steve a birthday cake</blockquote>

<blockquote>The Young Avengers' band is also called The Young Avengers, because they're very subtle. They've written three songs together: "Destroy You," "Superpowered," and "Unnatural Love," which, given the percentage of people in the band with the same equipment fucking each other, you might think was about gay liberation, but actually chronicles the time Loki read them the juicy parts of Flowers in the Attic on a trip up the coast.</blockquote>

<blockquote>"What are you doing here?" she hisses beneath her breath as the other sales associate busies herself conspicuously at the register. "I have this under control. I know what I’m doing." "You are posing as…" The Winter Soldier lets his voice drop. "A very personal stylist.” Hawkeye rolls her eyes. “I am a personal stylist. I have a resume and everything.” "You picked out Barton’s clothing once?" The Winter Soldier says. From the fitting room, the Little Spider calls, “Can I try these in teal?”</blockquote> ➤ also on ao3 at http://archiveofourown.org/works/2507933

<blockquote>A few hours before, Steve was Captain America, flying a plane into the ice to save his country, save everyone. There's no United States of America on Earth anymore, but there's one on Mars.</blockquote> ➤ I am so into this

<blockquote>Kate has definitely considered what would happen if she ended up in a dude's body before, but it was, like, Noh-Varr, or maybe James Deen. Somebody whose ride you'd want to take for a test drive. Kate loves Clint, but let's be real: there's only one place she's going to carry this metaphor, and that's the car wash.</blockquote>

<blockquote>Thor pulls his phone out of his pocket and lifts it above them to capture a picture of the moment, their hair lit by the sun, Jane's soft smile next to his beaming grin. The Rise filter suits the image perfectly. "I shall title this 'THE CENTER OF THE UNIVERSE,'" Thor says, typing carefully on the touchscreen. "With the small image of your planet, flanked by sparkling stars." "Well, we abandoned a geocentric model of the galaxy hundreds of years ago," says Jane. "'THE CENTER OF MY UNIVERSE,'" Thor says. He amends his caption and selects the options to crosspost from Instagram to Twitter and Facebook.</blockquote>

<blockquote>verity: man I am pretty sure the dupont nylon shortage is the grounds for a fic verity: imagine what steve would do to get peggy some nylons lazulisong: imagine what bucky would do to get steve nylons for peggy</blockquote>

<blockquote>A for effort, H-A-W-K-E-Y-E, Kate says as soon as she frees herself from her harness. They really need to come up with a real sign instead of just fingerspelling all the time. Maybe a miming drawing a bow, then pointing to the eyes. Something cool. You have to get over your boner for that boomerang arrow. "Did you just sign 'angry penis'?" Sam says, distracted from his unresolved sexual tension with Natasha. "Whatever," Kate says. She flips her hair. "I'm learning."</blockquote>

<blockquote>"Are you planning to launch some kind of alternative energy initiative?" Tony says the next time Steve sees him. That takes Steve a few seconds to process because he's busy punching an alien in the face.</blockquote>

<blockquote>Bucky goes to the big Trader Joe's in Union Square for toilet paper and peanut butter cups. When he gets out, his minder is across the street, conspicuously reading a newspaper in the middle of the sidewalk. Bucky has to squint to make out the headline, which is CAPTAIN AMERICA ARRESTED IN ZUCCOTTI PARK. "Oh, come on," he mutters beneath his breath.</blockquote>

<blockquote>Bucky becomes Natasha. Natasha becomes the Winter Soldier.</blockquote> ➤ I AM SO HAPPY RIGHT NOW. THIS IS SO GOOOOOOOOOD

<blockquote>Natasha goes public, but she doesn't exactly go straight.</blockquote>

<blockquote>"The army offered you wings, Stark offered you a spot on his payroll." Natasha thumbs the join of the cardboard sleeve on her cup. "You've declined. I wondered why." "I have a job to do here," Sam says. He pushes off the floor with one foot, rocking his chair back against the wall. "Pretty important one, actually."</blockquote>

<blockquote>The last time Mako was inside Gipsy Danger was six months ago. She's standing over them in the mess now, cleaned and polished, already looking more statue than amazon.</blockquote> ➤ in which Mako and Raleigh are bros and Hermann and Newt go for a marriage of convenience. ➤ Also everything is lovely and perfect because VERITY IS THE BEST

<blockquote>Amélie fixes each thing that strikes her in her mind, absorbs its light; becomes the medium.</blockquote>

<blockquote>Anne rolls her eyes. "Is your aunt really going to know if you cheat on your nonfiction with some hot prose on the side?" "It's the principle of the thing. I've got my pride," Emily says. "Ah, yes, Murray pride," Anne says, warming to the topic. "Also known as, your family is so ridiculously stubborn that whenever I think about them I thank God I'm an orphan." "I'm an orphan, too," Emily points out. "I thank God I'm adopted," Anne says.</blockquote>

<blockquote>It was just Rodney's luck that the guy with the strongest expression of the ATA gene on Earth was some lanky alpha who couldn't follow an order as basic as "don't touch anything."</blockquote>

<blockquote>The thing about the Gate translator was that after the first few weeks, you stopped thinking about it most of the time, until something happened like Ronon bumping shoulders with Teyla after a particularly uncomfortable meeting with a village elder and saying, "Bros before hoes."</blockquote> ➤ Or: atlantis galaxy has a/b/o dynamics. John and Rodney are oblivious.

<blockquote>John felt like Atlantis was home from the moment he stepped through the Gate. He just didn't expect that the city would feel the same way. In which Ancients come and go, Rodney reinvents Babelfish, Ronon resumes his career in library science, and Teyla is awesome.</blockquote>