Fandom Appreciation Day 2 - Three Older Story Recs
My three story recs for Day 2 of the Fandom Appreciation Challenge. The goal was to rec three stories that are at least six months old. Here's what I came up with:
Title: In Chicago the Weather is Warm
Author: estrella30
Pairing: F/K
Rating: PG
Length: ~2000 words
Why I'm reccing this fic:
estrella30 is a terrific writer and she's penned a number of fandom classics, but I've always admired this story for its unique perspective on the events following "Call of the Wild." It's a rare Fraser-POV story (in second person, no less!) and we get four months of Fraser pining for Ray and finally deciding that a life half-lived isn't a life at all. I really like E's take on the issue of duty here, and what the North means to Fraser in that sense. It's an interesting story and a quick read. Give it a try if you haven't yet read it.
He looks at you for a moment, his eyes sharp and blue. Diefenbaker chose to say his goodbye earlier and remain at home, so there is nothing now to distract you. Nowhere else for you to focus your attention. He pulls you forward in a hug, the same slap on the back as the first time he held you, but now he whispers against your ear, "I'm gonna miss you, buddy."
Unlike the first time, this time you don't want to let go.
In Chicago the Weather is Warm
Title: Guns Don't Kill People
Author: qe2
Pairing: F/K
Rating: NC-17
Length: ~8,000 words
Why I'm reccing this fic:
As a veteran of the fandom, qe2 has a lot of terrific story credits to her name. I usually associate her stuff with smoking hot porn and great RayK character pieces, and so this story is a bit of a departure. It's a dark and complex look at Fraser's battle with depression, and the way in which Ray helps him get through it. "Guns" is a remarkably brave story, and Q does an excellent job of illustrating Fraser's emotional impulse to cut through numbness using sex and connection. The incendiary NC-17 scene halfway through left me pretty shaken: it's absolutely spot-on, in terms of Ray and Fraser's trust issues and their exploration of bondage, and the emotional details--anger, pain, tremulous hope, love, compassion--ring out clear as a bell. It's not exactly an easy story to read, but it's an amazing look at the F/K dynamic that also happens to be rich in psycho-sexual drama.
I keep my eyes on his as I slide a pillow under his hips and reach for the bottle we keep at the end of the bed. He watches the fingers I slick up, then switches back to my face as I slide those fingers towards his ass. When the first one hits his asshole, his head goes back and his knees jerk up around my hips where I'm kneeling between his legs. I push that finger in as far as it'll go, slow and steady, feeling him tighten down around me and then open in a rush of heat. Up close like this, I can see so much: the twitch and flutter in the ring of muscle around my finger, the skin of his belly slick with sweat and pre-come, the way his thighs tense when my finger hits him just right.
It's a lot to know about someone. That they want you this much. That they need you this much.
That that much want and need might not, in the end, be enough
Guns Don't Kill People
Title: even the dreadful martyrdom (a thousand times remembered)
Author: omphale23
Pairing: F/V
Rating: R
Length: 2,600 words
Why I'm reccing this fic:
This was an unlikely story for omphale23 to write. She'd signed up for my beloved Team Angst for last year's dS Match challenge, and I'd jokingly suggested she try writing Fraser/Vecchio (she had Vecchio issues). O took on the challenge and this beautiful, sensitive and lyrical piece was the result. The structure is extraordinary: O takes us through Ray's childhood and his present relationship with Fraser, and then, when things reach a climax, time move backwards again, into Fraser's childhood and his relationship with Ray. We see Fraser and Vecchio fall in love, find each other, and fall apart, and the way time and memory wears on each of them. Fraser finds a new strength to ask for more, to demand open, honest love, and we discover the reasons why Vecchio can't give him that. Each fragment reveals a new truth, a new, brilliant insight into these complex characters, and the both the beginning and the end of the story come as devastating blows that carry the result of devastating truth.
Fraser hates telling the story of how he came to Chicago. Someday he’ll learn, choose a summary that tells nothing at all while seeming to say everything. Until that day, he flinches with guilt and fumbles for the words, the right language to describe an ending without a beginning.
Ma tells stories to fill potential silences, sentences that nobody cares about that ramble on and only trail off when Ray sighs and leans back, takes another cookie. She hugs them too hard when they leave, is always asleep when Ray comes home early on a Monday morning.
even the dreadful martyrdom (a thousand times remembered)
Title: In Chicago the Weather is Warm
Author: estrella30
Pairing: F/K
Rating: PG
Length: ~2000 words
Why I'm reccing this fic:
estrella30 is a terrific writer and she's penned a number of fandom classics, but I've always admired this story for its unique perspective on the events following "Call of the Wild." It's a rare Fraser-POV story (in second person, no less!) and we get four months of Fraser pining for Ray and finally deciding that a life half-lived isn't a life at all. I really like E's take on the issue of duty here, and what the North means to Fraser in that sense. It's an interesting story and a quick read. Give it a try if you haven't yet read it.
He looks at you for a moment, his eyes sharp and blue. Diefenbaker chose to say his goodbye earlier and remain at home, so there is nothing now to distract you. Nowhere else for you to focus your attention. He pulls you forward in a hug, the same slap on the back as the first time he held you, but now he whispers against your ear, "I'm gonna miss you, buddy."
Unlike the first time, this time you don't want to let go.
In Chicago the Weather is Warm
Title: Guns Don't Kill People
Author: qe2
Pairing: F/K
Rating: NC-17
Length: ~8,000 words
Why I'm reccing this fic:
As a veteran of the fandom, qe2 has a lot of terrific story credits to her name. I usually associate her stuff with smoking hot porn and great RayK character pieces, and so this story is a bit of a departure. It's a dark and complex look at Fraser's battle with depression, and the way in which Ray helps him get through it. "Guns" is a remarkably brave story, and Q does an excellent job of illustrating Fraser's emotional impulse to cut through numbness using sex and connection. The incendiary NC-17 scene halfway through left me pretty shaken: it's absolutely spot-on, in terms of Ray and Fraser's trust issues and their exploration of bondage, and the emotional details--anger, pain, tremulous hope, love, compassion--ring out clear as a bell. It's not exactly an easy story to read, but it's an amazing look at the F/K dynamic that also happens to be rich in psycho-sexual drama.
I keep my eyes on his as I slide a pillow under his hips and reach for the bottle we keep at the end of the bed. He watches the fingers I slick up, then switches back to my face as I slide those fingers towards his ass. When the first one hits his asshole, his head goes back and his knees jerk up around my hips where I'm kneeling between his legs. I push that finger in as far as it'll go, slow and steady, feeling him tighten down around me and then open in a rush of heat. Up close like this, I can see so much: the twitch and flutter in the ring of muscle around my finger, the skin of his belly slick with sweat and pre-come, the way his thighs tense when my finger hits him just right.
It's a lot to know about someone. That they want you this much. That they need you this much.
That that much want and need might not, in the end, be enough
Guns Don't Kill People
Title: even the dreadful martyrdom (a thousand times remembered)
Author: omphale23
Pairing: F/V
Rating: R
Length: 2,600 words
Why I'm reccing this fic:
This was an unlikely story for omphale23 to write. She'd signed up for my beloved Team Angst for last year's dS Match challenge, and I'd jokingly suggested she try writing Fraser/Vecchio (she had Vecchio issues). O took on the challenge and this beautiful, sensitive and lyrical piece was the result. The structure is extraordinary: O takes us through Ray's childhood and his present relationship with Fraser, and then, when things reach a climax, time move backwards again, into Fraser's childhood and his relationship with Ray. We see Fraser and Vecchio fall in love, find each other, and fall apart, and the way time and memory wears on each of them. Fraser finds a new strength to ask for more, to demand open, honest love, and we discover the reasons why Vecchio can't give him that. Each fragment reveals a new truth, a new, brilliant insight into these complex characters, and the both the beginning and the end of the story come as devastating blows that carry the result of devastating truth.
Fraser hates telling the story of how he came to Chicago. Someday he’ll learn, choose a summary that tells nothing at all while seeming to say everything. Until that day, he flinches with guilt and fumbles for the words, the right language to describe an ending without a beginning.
Ma tells stories to fill potential silences, sentences that nobody cares about that ramble on and only trail off when Ray sighs and leans back, takes another cookie. She hugs them too hard when they leave, is always asleep when Ray comes home early on a Monday morning.
even the dreadful martyrdom (a thousand times remembered)