Apparently I have a thing for hurt/comfort…
I’ve read some amazing fic recently. My favorites from the past few days:
* Suck It Up by strangeandcharm
Supernatural, post-S4, Dean/Castiel, NC-17.
Author’s summary: Dean’s hungry. Dean’s very hungry.
My notes: Vampire!Dean. This is ultra-dark, scary, disturbing, and angsty, with a good plot and [highlight for spoiler] a delightful schmoopy ending. You get all the traumatic angst of Castiel breaking down trying to save scary vampire Dean, and then all the traumatic angst of re-humanized Dean having to deal with his memories of tormenting Castiel and Sam. Excellent characterization of Dean and Castiel, with awesome Sam characterization, too.
* All the King’s Horses and All the King’s Men by alyse
Dark Angel, post-S2, Alec/Logan, R.
Author’s summary: Logan had grown used to the quiet in the evenings, but that was before he took a sharp left into Surrealsville, population two. (From the prompt, “Alec having seizures and Logan helping him through it.”)
My notes: Fantastic, visceral, vividly-detailed hurt/comfort with wonderful characterization. Great exploration of Alec’s vulnerabilities; perfectly tolerable even if you hate Logan.
* Every single Dark Angel fic by aflightoffancy. To be honest, they’re not actually all that good, but they’re fantastically satisfying. They’re all Max/Alec romantic adventures, with great plots, great banter, and ridiculously indulgent hurt/comfort (obviously, for some of us, that’s a plus). Unfortunately they tend to make Alec a little too perfect and to sideline Max more than I’m comfortable with, but on the plus side I’m totally in favor of their dismissal of Logan. These stories are exactly what I was craving after yelling at my screen for most of Dark Angel season two.
(I don’t know if anyone else will get these references, but basically what these fics do is turn Alec/Max into a classic Spike/Buffy shipfic-it’s all about how they’re equals and can have adventures and banter and Max can be her true self and how Alec can match Max on a level that Riley Xander Logan never could. And they turn Alec into Lymond*-so it’s all about getting through Alec’s charismatic mask to the epicly traumatized woobie underneath, and hurting him gratuitously while reveling in how superhumanly competent he is.)
* I feel like I’d be a lot more successful at getting people to read the Lymond books if I could just explain that past all the obscure Renaissance literary references and convoluted 16th century politics lies the greatest hurt/comfort epic ever written.
Originally published at rusty-halo.com. Please comment there or at Dreamwidth.