Strawberry by peevee (NC-17)
Title: Strawberry
Fandom: Check Please!
Pairing: Eric Bittle/Jack Zimmermann, Larissa Duan/Shitty Knight
Categories/Genres: First Time, BDSM, Fluff, Frienship, Hurt/Comfort, Romance, Virgin
Length: Medium (8688 words)
Warnings: N/A
Author on LJ: N/A
Author Website: peevee
Summary:
Without thinking too hard about anything, Eric gathers Jack’s other hand, places his wrists together, and, slowly, giving Jack time to pull away, pulls them up and over his head to pin them on the pillow.
Review:
A long time ago, when I was a baby shipper, my first serious introduction into slash was fanfiction based on 90s television. The Sentinel, Due South, and Stargate SG-1 dominated my formative fandom years, and squidge.org was my second home. Those fandoms, written by authors much older than I was, established in my mind that pitching and catching were a matter of choice, or sometimes convenience. Years later, the Teen Wolf fandom attempted to force me to believe that pitching and catching were suddenly bound up in dominance and submission and the Body Mass Index.
There seems to be something of a trend among newer fandoms where the larger or more cosmetically aggressive partner in a relationship is often assumed to take a physically dominant role in the relationship and/or sex. A trend that is not always borne out by the actual personalities of the characters involved. So reading Strawberry was a breath of fresh air, like returning to a place my heart considers home after many years living elsewhere.
peevee does not stretch Jack and Bitty's characterizations to fit their fledgling explorations into BDSM. Rather, peevee develops it as a part of their romantic relationship, the increasing physical intimacy paralleled by their increasing emotional connection. Jack seeks Bitty out not out of lust, but out of a deep sense of trust and affection.
Though Jack is technically the submissive, peevee never codes it as such, leaving off the labels that have come to acquire additional burdensome implications. He is not feminized, not given effeminate qualities. He remains quite quintessentially Jack, who happens to find comfort in being held down.
By that same turn, Bitty doesn't suddenly become an alpha male. He still bakes and fusses and is charmingly Southern, but an observant reader will notice the lack of question marks in his dialogue. He doesn't use forceful language, but he still commands in his own way.
Strawberry
Fandom: Check Please!
Pairing: Eric Bittle/Jack Zimmermann, Larissa Duan/Shitty Knight
Categories/Genres: First Time, BDSM, Fluff, Frienship, Hurt/Comfort, Romance, Virgin
Length: Medium (8688 words)
Warnings: N/A
Author on LJ: N/A
Author Website: peevee
Summary:
Without thinking too hard about anything, Eric gathers Jack’s other hand, places his wrists together, and, slowly, giving Jack time to pull away, pulls them up and over his head to pin them on the pillow.
Review:
A long time ago, when I was a baby shipper, my first serious introduction into slash was fanfiction based on 90s television. The Sentinel, Due South, and Stargate SG-1 dominated my formative fandom years, and squidge.org was my second home. Those fandoms, written by authors much older than I was, established in my mind that pitching and catching were a matter of choice, or sometimes convenience. Years later, the Teen Wolf fandom attempted to force me to believe that pitching and catching were suddenly bound up in dominance and submission and the Body Mass Index.
There seems to be something of a trend among newer fandoms where the larger or more cosmetically aggressive partner in a relationship is often assumed to take a physically dominant role in the relationship and/or sex. A trend that is not always borne out by the actual personalities of the characters involved. So reading Strawberry was a breath of fresh air, like returning to a place my heart considers home after many years living elsewhere.
peevee does not stretch Jack and Bitty's characterizations to fit their fledgling explorations into BDSM. Rather, peevee develops it as a part of their romantic relationship, the increasing physical intimacy paralleled by their increasing emotional connection. Jack seeks Bitty out not out of lust, but out of a deep sense of trust and affection.
Though Jack is technically the submissive, peevee never codes it as such, leaving off the labels that have come to acquire additional burdensome implications. He is not feminized, not given effeminate qualities. He remains quite quintessentially Jack, who happens to find comfort in being held down.
By that same turn, Bitty doesn't suddenly become an alpha male. He still bakes and fusses and is charmingly Southern, but an observant reader will notice the lack of question marks in his dialogue. He doesn't use forceful language, but he still commands in his own way.
Strawberry