See, more of the little things, and full points for a sensible take on The Stella, AU or not:
He could imagine how that would have infuriated a woman like Stella with her sharp wits and her complexities.
That is picture perfect. Plus I have a thing for sympathetic portrayals of The Stella. After all, she's just a woman who finds out she's grown apart from her childhood sweetheart. That's a normal person, not a witch. Well done.
The sex is also - as usual, I should say - incredibly tender and hot. And another thing that I found fresh (and you have to love AUs for allowing this sort of thing) was setting it in Fraser's apartment, which of course wouldn't be possible under normal circumstances. The parallels with his experiences with Victoria are nothing short of heartbreaking, actually.
When Ray sat up and leaned over to look at him, Fraser didn’t move or change the direction of his gaze, afraid that he might change his mind. Ray sat still for a long time, staring at him while Fraser tracked the crack that looked like the veins of an aspen leaf, the same one he’d stared at every night since he’d come here, that he’d focussed on in the aftermath of Victoria when the pain in his back had been nothing compared to the pain in his chest. He kept his eyes on its symmetry until the very last moment, when Ray’s mouth was only a few centimetres from his own; then he looked and saw that Ray was smiling.
That thing about the pain in his back being nothing compared with the pain in his chest? Ouch.
I can really see this characterisation of Fraser. It's believable and all the more heartbreaking for it. For someone that keeps everything hemmed in all the time, once the floodgates open God help them, really.
Despite all his vows to the contrary, despite having sworn that he could never let himself be this vulnerable again, he’d fallen in love. God help him, he’d fallen in love with a man he’d known for two days. This kind of impulsive reaction had almost killed him last time...
He could imagine how that would have infuriated a woman like Stella with her sharp wits and her complexities.
That is picture perfect. Plus I have a thing for sympathetic portrayals of The Stella. After all, she's just a woman who finds out she's grown apart from her childhood sweetheart. That's a normal person, not a witch. Well done.
The sex is also - as usual, I should say - incredibly tender and hot. And another thing that I found fresh (and you have to love AUs for allowing this sort of thing) was setting it in Fraser's apartment, which of course wouldn't be possible under normal circumstances. The parallels with his experiences with Victoria are nothing short of heartbreaking, actually.
When Ray sat up and leaned over to look at him, Fraser didn’t move or change the direction of his gaze, afraid that he might change his mind. Ray sat still for a long time, staring at him while Fraser tracked the crack that looked like the veins of an aspen leaf, the same one he’d stared at every night since he’d come here, that he’d focussed on in the aftermath of Victoria when the pain in his back had been nothing compared to the pain in his chest. He kept his eyes on its symmetry until the very last moment, when Ray’s mouth was only a few centimetres from his own; then he looked and saw that Ray was smiling.
That thing about the pain in his back being nothing compared with the pain in his chest? Ouch.
I can really see this characterisation of Fraser. It's believable and all the more heartbreaking for it. For someone that keeps everything hemmed in all the time, once the floodgates open God help them, really.
Despite all his vows to the contrary, despite having sworn that he could never let himself be this vulnerable again, he’d fallen in love. God help him, he’d fallen in love with a man he’d known for two days. This kind of impulsive reaction had almost killed him last time...
Wonderful.
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