"Art ill, Csethiro?" Maia pitched his voice low for her ears only. Her hand tightened on his, and he heard her quick, nervous inhalation before she said, "No, merely pregnant." Maia and Csethiro have all the babies.

His shirt opened down his front, showing golden skin like some kind of blue-collar wet dream come to life—he was brown even in the middle of winter and he smelled like motor oil and had hair that spiked out from his head, bushy and unruly and ridiculous. He radiated heat. Some idiot part of her hindbrain wanted to soak it up. -Megumi, Sano; family, Christmas, and sex on couches. M.

"The morning of Csethiro's wedding found her beating her nerves to death." The Goblin Emperor. Maia and Csethiro, post-book.

"In case you hadn't noticed, my life has turned into a bad 80s B-movie!" -Misao deals with spies, throws knives at arms dealers, and makes out with Aoshi, not necessarily in that order. Set in the "Babies and Bullets" universe. Rated for language and sex.

"[S]omething wild churns in him still, a dangerous edge to his moves, a wildness that has found an equal and willing match in her. She will meet him, thrust for thrust." Mako Mori/Raleigh Becket, post-movie. Not very spoiler-y.

"Tell me, Aleran," Kitai says as she marches into Tavi's office with Derius hanging off one hip, "why I just had to eject a naked woman from your bed." -Moments, conversations, and raised eyebrows ranging from FoC to FLF and beyond.

"They're already Kenshin-and-Kaoru in Misao's social vocabulary, and usually so pink with satisfaction it would be embarrassing if everyone didn't already know they were going to end up married someday." -In which Kaoru is pregnant, Aoshi is confused, and Kanryuu is very, very foolish. A Christmas fic two months too late. Kenshin/Kaoru, Aoshi/Misao. Rated for sex.

"He'll smile to himself years later when Calderon's true parentage comes to light: no wonder swearing fealty to Princeps Gaius Octavian had been as easy as breathing. He'd already done it in his heart years and years ago." -On Max. Spanning the length of the series and beyond. Ostensibly Max/Veradis but more accurately Max/Sudden Future Opportunities That Hadn't Existed Before.

Cymnea did not have what one might call a poetical disposition. -Cymnea, Zara, and years. Cyril pops in, too!

"I'll do it, so long as no one walks away with recorded evidence. I don't need this getting me fired if pictures end up on facebook, or worse—" she levels a glare at Misao—"on Okina's hard drive." -Kenshin, Kaoru, and wayward strippers. Modern AU. (Warning: they talk and talk and talk. Politics, poetry, and the occasional Dan Aykroyd movie. You have been warned.)

"Her name feels like sun on his lips." For Aiyaa. Why Surya found such difficulty using his words. Rated for language. Meenakshi/Surya.

"I'm a big believer in parameters." She knows she sounds smug. It's delicious. -How Misao got her self-respect back. Also featuring Aoshi and various Oniwabanshu. Part II of the "As the Universe..." series.

Tension crackles across the school, and even Kaoru—oblivious, sporty, no-nonsense Kaoru—can feel it. -obligatory high school AU. Kaoru being a grump, various characters, and not nearly enough exposition.

Wildwood Dancing. "Skin glows in the light of flickering candles. He puts his mouth to it, like he had wanted to for years and years, like he will never tire of doing for even more." -Dreams and waking, fantasy and reality. Costi/Jena.

Perhaps he can move to embrace Antillus because he loves her like Max never can. It is a drop in the ocean of all that Crassus owes his brother, but—it's something. A beginning, maybe. -A family deals with change; friends kind of make up. Set after FLF.

"It is a place for wayward ladies of the night," James said, "but nobody will be trying to kill us, which I really think is the deciding factor." -the Marauders, Death Eaters, and a brothel. What could possibly go wrong?

Veradis takes one look at Antillar Maximus and his bewitching smile and thinks, "This man will break you in two." -Max, Veradis, and years. Set pre-Academ's Fury to post-First Lord's Fury. Rated for language and sexy times.

Swimming to consciousness is a depressingly familiar sensation. -Max after the mess at Mastings. Spoilers for Captain's Fury. Rated for Max's potty mouth.

A father should know why his son saw fit to run for a legion not his own when the time came for that boy to become a man on the edge of a gladius. -Max and his father in the aftermath. Spoilers through First Lord's Fury.

#26 -- color: She sits huddled in on herself, looking washed out in grays and purples in the colorless predawn light. Primarily NejiHina.

He wants to pepper her face and neck and shoulders with kisses, light as butterflies. He wants to curl his hand snugly around her waist and breathe her in. He wants, more and more. -Yoh, Haruna, and fluff. T for Yoh, who genteelly pervs in secret.

One would spot the other from afar, and react in a manner more suited to a situation in which one was being charged by a particularly hungry bear, and positively flee in the other direction. --Hanabi, Hinata, Neji, and books. NejiHina.

Naruto has had many fathers over the years. --Naruto on the father-figures in his life. Not particularly happy. No pairings.

Minato, for the umpteenth time since meeting and falling disastrously and hopelessly in love with Uzumaki Kushina, realizes that he Just Doesn’t Get It. --Kushina watches True Blood, and likes it. Rated for themes and implications. MinaKushi.

Stop drinking," she writes, as she curls up on her bed. "Keep in mind that excessive consumption of alcohol will result in cirrhosis, neural damage, and will, heaven forbid, turn me into Shishou." --Sakura after 'Improper'. Sakura/Sai, Sasuke/Naruto.

Hinata was eighteen, squeamish, and clad in nothing but a black minidress, red satin pumps and the shreds of her dignity. --A nightclub, a margarita, and a push-up bra. NejiHina. EDIT: Rating upped because there is more groping, as groping is always fun!

Itachi didn’t know whether to curse or bless the DNA that had given him the second-best Sharingan in the Uchiha clan and the photographic memory that came with it. Because, really, hot damn. --Why Sasuke is such a bully in 'Of Marriage and Diplomacy'.

“Kushina, love, is this one of those things I can blame on your uterus?” --Kushina reads Twilight, and is not quite pleased with what she sees. MinaKushi, but mostly Kushina being RAWR FEMINIST NINJA.

She still paints him, though, as lovingly as she would if she were caressing his skin. --Kira, on herself, Rei, and nightmares.

She faces his madness alongside him, unflinching, watches him slay his demons and holds whatever tatters are left of him in the aftermath like he’s actually worth a damn. --Glimpses into Rei's head. Rei/Kira, like duh.

Uzumaki Kushina had a problem. And that problem was that she wanted to screw Namikaze Minato every which way that was possible. She was also willing to attempt ways that were anatomically impossible. --MinaKushi, and discussions that go nowhere. Maybe.

Kushina honestly didn’t know whether to laugh, cry, or go after the little Uchiha brat and his family with a chakra-infused frying pan. --chibi!Naruto asks why his parents aren't married. Rated for coarse language and adult situations. Kind of.

He’s been a naughty boy, he knows, but that’s okay. The most his mom will do is take away his TV privileges for, like, five minutes or something, and his dad…well, his dad is kind of locked in a bathroom right now. --Family drama and chibi!Naruto, oh my!

She still smells like lilacs, though, and something you can’t exactly name—something musky and inviting and frightening all at once. --Minato, Kushina, and meetings over the years. Spoilers for, uh, the identities of Naruto's parents, I suppose.

It’s a bit stupid, he thinks—she’s transparent as glass and opaque as cement. A riddle topped with that mop of silk-fine hair and sprinkled in blushes that start from the very tips of her ears. --Haruka, on Yura, Q-ta, and show-biz. Kind of.

If anyone were to ask Chizuru when she had fallen in love with him, she would not be able to answer. --Raikoji Chizuru, from a short prequel story in Vol. 1 of the VIZ publication. Slightly creepy infatuation, but with Kenshin, well, what did you expect?

Life would indeed be quieter without her around, but he perversely finds the silence deafening. -Naoki, and twenty-five things about him. Spoilers through the end of the series. Slightly edited because the author a. knows better now; and b. ought to be hit over the head with a shovel for abuse of commas and adverbs.

He will come, as will they all, and then, there will be eternity. --A very dead James contemplates life, death, family, and the breakage of heavenly noses. Rated for, like, one bad word, just in case.

As far as love goes, theirs has been easy. Yukari/Hiroyuki, Yukari/George. Rated for mentions of sex and some coarse language.