rhysiana

I'm definitely not going to do all of these, but I've been thinking about what I'd rec for this one ever since I started gleefully opening tab after tab of other people's recs yesterday, so I guess I have to now.

This past year's fic reading was kind of defined by getting really irritated at Teen Wolf canon, which is more of a "when am I ever not?" event, but in this case specifically in the inconsistency of its characterization of Peter Hale, and how, by having him work with his own worst enemy in S4 for no apparent reason, they managed to break the entire basis of the show back to the very first episode.

Fortunately, the fandom is far more thoughtful than that, so here are three Peter-centric recs:

1) all the pain of yesterday by spikedluv, Peter Hale/Chris Argent - Amazing rewrite of S1 where an already widowed Chris moves back to Beacon Hills with Allison and discovers Peter didn't die in the fire after all. The last thing he expects to find is Peter in a coma.

Reasons I love this fic: Does such a great job of closing so many of the stupid plot holes left by canon, plus it features all of the adult generation as people who were friends before, who have lives and backgrounds and don't feel like they just met five minutes before the cameras showed up for filming. And there is mystery-solving, and angst and fluff and humor all in one!

2) What Goes Around by KouriArashi, Peter Hale & Stiles Stilinski, eventual Derek Hale/Stiles Stilinski - An AU built on the premise that Sheriff Stilinksi dies trying to apprehend Kate after the Hale house fire, and Peter meets Stiles at the funeral. When Stiles swears serious vengeance against all hunters, Peter recognizes a kindred spirit and offers him the option of teaming up with Peter to do just that, or staying Beacon Hills and trying to be a normal kid. Thus ensues a training montage of Peter raising Stiles and teaching him everything he knows, plus getting him training for the things he doesn't, and an extremely viciously satisfying string of takedowns of corrupt hunters.

Reasons I love this fic: Canon was extremely light on anything that felt like real justice, thanks to the writers' love of bringing villains back from the dead, so this story satisfied that desire exceptionally well. It's also a great example of how to write likable (not to mention internally consistent) morally gray characters, which again the show never figured out. Plus it feeds my love of the use of media in fic, in that we get to see the hunters' reactions to Peter and Stiles' actions through their message board posts. Basically, I love everything about this fic, from the content to the structure.

3) Naughty Hookers (Swathed in Wool) (series) by pprfaith, Peter Hale/Stiles Stilinski, entirely non-canon-based human AU - Happily single lawyer Peter Hale who suddenly finds himself raising his sister's children (Laura, 10; Derek, 6; Cora, toddler) meets Stiles Stilinski, brightly tattooed yarn store owner who's the only one who's gotten Derek to talk by choice since the accident. Snark and romance and fluff ensue.

Reasons I love this fic: I confess I looked askance at Steter as a pairing for a good while, and it's still not really one of my main ships, but this AU 'verse? It is perfect. The reorganization of the characters' relative ages without anyone feeling at all OOC, all of the canon high school crew now pursuing their lives as creative adults who nevertheless remain tightly bound to each other through chosen ties of found family, the way that found family readily adopts newcomers in need, and did I mention it has the best asexual-in-a-relationship representation I've ever read? I love this AU so much I can barely articulate why; it is my happy place. I've read it twice already, and I'll probably do it again soon.