kimberleyqaf posted this morning that she is writing a sequel to Out of the Shadows. Which is this gorgeous little AU thingy full of the love, and the only escort!Justin story I've ever read that worked for me. (Don't judge it until you've read it. Or maybe I should say, don't judge ME. ;)

I'm so happy. I had to squee.

If you haven't read Out of the Shadows... here is a tiny taste:

“Yeah,” Michael joined in the teasing. “Is the unattainable Brian Kinney saying he has a boyfriend?”

“You know I don’t do boyfriends,” Brian replied.

Justin only smiled and enjoyed the banter, uncaring how Brian chose to label what they had.

“Then who’s the guy in your lap?” Ted joined in.

Brian held Justin’s gaze and smiled. “That’s Justin."

Go tell kimberley to hurry. Oh, and she broke her toe, so lavish it with love. I don't think you actually need your toe to write, but I'm sure the pain is distracting.

Still looking for true love, our Sunshine. Doesn't seem to be finding it. Stubborn enough to keep looking, that's Justin all over, but I think our little family have all been surprised how fast he dumps one and moves on to the next. After all, I was supposed to be the one with the commitment problem, right? Which is pretty fucking funny, since he was my first, my only, and will certainly be my last. -JustVisiting, "A Matter of Time"

Brian nodded.

“If I don’t. Seriously. If something goes wrong. I need you to do this again.”

“Do what?”

“This. Love. Let someone love you.”

“Fuck you.”

“I mean it Brian.”

“So do I. Fuck you.”

“But if I’m not here.”

“Then that’s it, but you keep talking like this and I’m calling the whole fucking thing off. I’ll see you in a couple of hours. You don’t believe that, they’re not even allowed to start.”

“I know. I’ll be fine. I know that. I just need to hear you promise.”

“Then we’re going home now.”

“Brian.”

”I’m not gonna start lying to you now. You want me to promise I’ll put myself through this again. Bullshit. Once. You. So I’ll see you in a couple of hours.”

“Okay.”

“Justin.”

“Yeah?”

“I do love you. Can’t love anyone else. Don’t ask me to.” -Vamphile, "Keeping it Together"

The responsibility we bear to each other is overwhelming. I don't think Brian and I are like regular people. I don't think we love each other like regular people do. Maybe I shouldn't say shit like that, but that's what I think.

Okay, I know I'm not the most experienced guy in the world, and Brian's more of a virgin than I am when it comes to being with someone--being with one someone. But I have Ethan to go by, and I see how other people are, and I just, sort of, know it's true. Ethan and I had regular, every-day kind of love. It was nice and steady and, God, unbelievably comforting, but it wasn't life and death. It wasn't all-consuming. We weren't something totally different and totally better for being with one another. Brian and I become something different for being together, we're so much more who we're supposed to be when we're together than when we're on our own. - Myrna, "If You Needed Me"

Since several people want to know if they need to learn martial arts or get a small firearm and a carry permit, I must confess that the lovely season 1 story, "Sex in Seven Stages," was the fic in the icon challenge whose author, etharei, I intend to have killed. As I said in the comments to the story, it's nothing personal. It's how I show my love.

My eye catches a glimpse of something dark grey under my sofa, and I don’t look, because I know it’s a sock from some retail store that’s entirely the wrong size for me and stinking with dried sweat that’s not mine. And I don’t know what that is, what to call it when stuff-that-isn’t-mine starts cluttering up odd corners of my home, my space, and I don’t just dump them in the trash.

It just made my heart hurt, in a good way.

I'm also very proud to have beta'd vlredreign's "Insurrection," which is short, emotionally powerful, and beautiful.

You will be on time this time. This time you’ll call his name, and he’ll duck.

There were several other stories I really liked, most notably "Catching Fire" by flashfly. I would say it's probably the favorite of most people, and might have been mine, except I always have trouble with other writer's post-513 fics, which has nothing to do with their stories and everything to do with my own creative process - I invest mentally and emotionally like woah in the Xieverse, it's the only way I know to do it. So when someone else writes one, no matter how good it is, there's a wall between me and that story, a little mental censor going, "Well, interesting, but of course THAT'S TOTALLY NOT WHAT HAPPENED."

I'm sure you can see how that can ruin a good read.

And of course, I heap roses on my lovely wife _alicesprings for running the qaf_challenges community and doing all the hard work involved with making these work so well. Since we're married I see how hard she works behind the scenes, and I'd say it isn't pretty, but the truth is, everything she does is beautiful.

She's the pretty wife.

I have always disliked fanfiction. Not just Brian/Justin or Xena/Gabrielle or other TV-couple fanfic, I mean ALL OF IT. I read a lot of sci-fi/fantasy series that have extensive fan writing, even some that have been approved of and published by the actual series authors - both Marion Zimmer Bradley (the Darkover series) and Mercedes Lackey (the Valdemar books) have edited anthologies of stories set in their worlds written by other authors. And I still don't read them (although I always buy them for the author-written stories in them). Only in the one instance of which I'm aware when MZB said she considered a story authored by someone else "canon" did I read it.

So I was doing a little mini-rant about this the other day to a real life friend who loves the Brian/Justin fandom, and she listened for a bit and said, "OK, that's fine, but do one thing for me. Go read this story and then look me in the eye and tell me you hate all fanfic."

She sent me a to a story written by plumsuede at the extremely amusingly-named Museum of Self-Entertainment, called "Framed." It was written last summer, so I'm sure everyone who normally reads fanfic has read it and is now rolling their eyes going, "Girlfriend, that is SO last year, where have you been?" But all I can say is I now know why people read fanfic and what "GUH" means. And why this icon exists.

Do they take away your lesbian membership card when you go all melty over Brian/Justin fanfic? And is there Xena/Gabrielle porn fanfic this erotic well-written? And if so, will someone PLEASE tell me where it is?