More fic! to read! Yes - this means you.
Wow, you guys, we're on a roll. The good fic is pouring in again. I can't say it enough, you guys, all of you, writers in this fandom, you AMAZE me.
So, I don't often read chaptered fic until it's all posted unless I know the author, I just don't like getting shafted when it's abandoned in the middle :P So when this one popped up all finished and shiny I went and started reading, thinking I'd leave it in a tab and read it over the weekend. But then I couldn't stop reading until I was finished! This story is intense. There is drama, angst, humor, romance, loyalty, and misunderstanding, and *warning: abuse, date rape drugs and all they imply, healing, and just -love, pure love. The pacing is wonderful, it never feels rushed- and yet it doesn't drag on forever. The characterization is just divine, I loved everyone, but I especially fell hard for Spencer in this!
Fragile Thingsby starflowers
It doesn't take long for a boy as pretty as Ryan to gain the wrong sort of attention while living alone in LA, and Ryan's sheltered life living on a tour bus with body guards and constant company does not prepare him for a world of predators just waiting to take advantage of a boy with perfect bone structure, who has always had something of an addiction to attention. Alone for the first time in months, Ryan seeks out the wrong sort of company, without knowing that the results will threaten his band, his friendships, and his own fragile control over the things that really matter.
and a bit of a lighter excerpt:
Home was Vegas, with Brendon and Spencer. But there were memories there he would rather not relive, and maybe, he thought, this could be home too. Skylights and gardens and his own crystal glasses, his bed he built himself, that looked something like a gothic romance novel heroine’s bed, because it was black chrome, or wrought iron, or something, looking like the gates to the Beast’s castle in Disney’s Beauty and the Beast-Brendon would have declared it the perfect bed for handcuffs, silk scarves, dirty sex. It had poles for a canopy, though, like a princess bed-except that Ryan hadn’t draped it with a canopy at all, partially because he couldn’t be bothered, a little because he was sure that was pretty gay, and mostly because then he wouldn’t be able to see the skylight.
It was quiet there, though, despite the fact that he had a stereo installed and was always playing music. Nothing ever moved.
He thought about getting a cat. Cats were easy, right? Put food out, clean up shit, rinse, repeat, have someone to wake you up in the morning, all fluffy and snuggly. Maybe a kitten. A little hissing, spitting, secretly adoring kitten like Spencer.
Hmm, yes, Ryan decided, and the deal was done. He’d bring home a kitten. Something to talk to, anyway, because Brendon was too busy to call, and Spencer didn’t have much to say.
So he went to the animal shelter the very next day, and, after forty-five minutes inside, came out with his new companion.
It wasn’t a spitting, hissing Spencer kitten. It was a massive, smelly, strange-looking half-grown puppy, some mix between German Shepherd, Doberman, and wolfhound, that had, apparently, been neglected and as a result was starved for attention, needy, hyperactive, and overly affectionate.
In short, rather than Kitten Spencer, Ryan came home with Puppy Brendon.
Read it, then tell me what you thought, please. This one is going to stay with me for a long, long time. Surely I'm not the only one!
So, I don't often read chaptered fic until it's all posted unless I know the author, I just don't like getting shafted when it's abandoned in the middle :P So when this one popped up all finished and shiny I went and started reading, thinking I'd leave it in a tab and read it over the weekend. But then I couldn't stop reading until I was finished! This story is intense. There is drama, angst, humor, romance, loyalty, and misunderstanding, and *warning: abuse, date rape drugs and all they imply, healing, and just -love, pure love. The pacing is wonderful, it never feels rushed- and yet it doesn't drag on forever. The characterization is just divine, I loved everyone, but I especially fell hard for Spencer in this!
Fragile Thingsby starflowers
It doesn't take long for a boy as pretty as Ryan to gain the wrong sort of attention while living alone in LA, and Ryan's sheltered life living on a tour bus with body guards and constant company does not prepare him for a world of predators just waiting to take advantage of a boy with perfect bone structure, who has always had something of an addiction to attention. Alone for the first time in months, Ryan seeks out the wrong sort of company, without knowing that the results will threaten his band, his friendships, and his own fragile control over the things that really matter.
and a bit of a lighter excerpt:
Home was Vegas, with Brendon and Spencer. But there were memories there he would rather not relive, and maybe, he thought, this could be home too. Skylights and gardens and his own crystal glasses, his bed he built himself, that looked something like a gothic romance novel heroine’s bed, because it was black chrome, or wrought iron, or something, looking like the gates to the Beast’s castle in Disney’s Beauty and the Beast-Brendon would have declared it the perfect bed for handcuffs, silk scarves, dirty sex. It had poles for a canopy, though, like a princess bed-except that Ryan hadn’t draped it with a canopy at all, partially because he couldn’t be bothered, a little because he was sure that was pretty gay, and mostly because then he wouldn’t be able to see the skylight.
It was quiet there, though, despite the fact that he had a stereo installed and was always playing music. Nothing ever moved.
He thought about getting a cat. Cats were easy, right? Put food out, clean up shit, rinse, repeat, have someone to wake you up in the morning, all fluffy and snuggly. Maybe a kitten. A little hissing, spitting, secretly adoring kitten like Spencer.
Hmm, yes, Ryan decided, and the deal was done. He’d bring home a kitten. Something to talk to, anyway, because Brendon was too busy to call, and Spencer didn’t have much to say.
So he went to the animal shelter the very next day, and, after forty-five minutes inside, came out with his new companion.
It wasn’t a spitting, hissing Spencer kitten. It was a massive, smelly, strange-looking half-grown puppy, some mix between German Shepherd, Doberman, and wolfhound, that had, apparently, been neglected and as a result was starved for attention, needy, hyperactive, and overly affectionate.
In short, rather than Kitten Spencer, Ryan came home with Puppy Brendon.
Read it, then tell me what you thought, please. This one is going to stay with me for a long, long time. Surely I'm not the only one!