I ended up writing two stories for Yuletide this year:

Spy Game (2001) (Tom/Nathan): Cloak or Dagger
Now each of them is the fox, as well as the hound.

Rio Bravo (1959) (Colorado/Dude): I'll Marry You Some Time
He hasn't sung in a long time, but it's coming back to him.

I'm extremely glad I got to tackle both of these stories (despite the attendant sturm und drang from deadlines and so forth)! I'll be going back in to add thanks to my betas in the story notes sections, but I wanted to say a few things here:

For "Cloak or Dagger", I owe Wa (wa/itsthewa) for the original impetus, from years ago, and for the sort of in-depth character discussions I adore. sakana17 and klia gave it a thorough going-over, and sakana17's knowledge of Hong Kong and the history, nature, and Romanization of Korean names came in extremely handy! It was the best of coincidences.

For "I'll Marry You Some Time," marycrawford and merryish were very kindly available at the eleventh hour. ♥ I'm also grateful to the original requester, chase_acow, for asking for it! I've always loved Rio Bravo (1959) dearly, but I had never actively slashed it. All it took was someone asking, and bing! The gears were meshing. And now I adore Dude even more than I did before, if that's possible.

If you like older movies, and/or westerns, and/or high competence, and/or storylines where people come together to help and support each other in a chosen family, I strongly recommend you watch it! It has wonderful characters and relationships across the spectrum: Chance trying hard to take care of things without endangering anyone else, Dude bravely climbing out of a very bad couple of years (and Chance & Dude have a strong and tender longstanding friendship), Stumpy as the mother/father-figure, Feathers taking no guff (and knowing just how to make Chance blush), Colorado finally deciding to make something his business, Carlos able to put his foot down in his own hotel even to the sheriff. And should you want to slash Colorado and Dude, the material is there!

My Dear Yuletide Writer,

Welcome! Yay for you! Thanks for playing! Please don't worry--if you enjoy writing the story, I know I'll enjoy reading it. I'm just happy you're here, in one of the small fandoms of my heart.

I like lots of different things, so if you have a pet idea you want to run with, please do go for it! But, if it would be helpful for me to ramble on a little more about my preferences,( rambling ahoy. )

In the end, what I'd really like is for you to have a good time--I'm guaranteed to have fun with my present no matter what, as I would love to spend time with any of the characters/fandoms I asked for. So no worries! It's a gift freely given and gladly received, and I thank you in advance for jumping in and playing the game.

If you're the sort of writer who likes to have extra grist for your brainstorming mill, I've jotted down a few thoughts on the characters from my chosen fandoms this year--I Spy, Peacemakers, Trapeze, and Spy Game (2001)--and a few random prompt ideas, just in case you'd find that helpful. Let me emphasize, though, that none of this is required or asked for or pushed upon you in any way. I just wanted you to have more for your brain to munch on, if your writing process benefits from that sort of thing, but disregard any or all of it at your whim!