"Clear as the Sun" (FFXII, Drace/Gabranth)

[h_c_anon]

Title: Clear as the Sun
Fandom: Final Fantasy XII
Pairing: Drace/Gabranth
Author: Deber
Recipient: Kestrel
Rating: NC-17
Summary: He already knows she is a good soldier; he has been studiously not noticing the fact that she is also an attractive woman.

Comments

[lassarina]

*squeals*

I. Oh. This is absolutely fabulous. The banter between them - about evidence and the like - is wonderful, and the deliberate way you wrote them helping each other out of armour, a piece at a time, is just...Oh. I really love how nervous Gabranth is, and how he asks her for reassurance though he doubts not that she could stop him, and...yeah. I am just going to sit over here and squee. Also re-read this. Wow. I mean, wow.

[lassarina]

^____^ Thank you! I -- I very nearly felt bad about spending 700 WORDS OMG on taking off their armor, but I was having such a good time! And it would have been such a shame to waste all that time I'd spent looking up the names for pieces, and studying character art to try to figure out which parts each of them wore.

I'm really falling in love with writing them together.

- Deber

[anonymous]

Thank you! I was sort of pleasantly surprised to find myself writing things about how the judges interact as a whole, and how their habits worked. It was a lot of fun to do. ^^

- Deber

[anonymous]

*breathless squeak*

I -- oh -- yes, this is -- I just don't have any words. all of it, from Drace and her squad to the details of the armor to -- to the sex, to the reciprocity of it and Gabranth surprising Drace by his decency, and the end, and I -- have tears in my eyes. This is wonderful.

-- Kestrel

[anonymous]

I'm so glad you liked it! I really wanted to focus on conscious and meaningful consent, for them -- they seem like a really good case for a deliberate, understanding-all-consequences yes, not just sex that people sort of slide into but rather sex that they choose.

And I'm glad it didn't wind up *too* heavy on the romance. I worried, especially after leading off with a quote like that. ^^;

- Deber

[mithrigil]

Echoing everything the others have said, reciprocity, camraderie, give-and-take, their mutual strength....conveyed so well, so very well. Beautiful work!

[mithrigil]

Thank you! I'm really falling hard for their dynamic -- there's something really satisfying about a pairing where they're both old enough and secure enough in their own competence to make informed decisions (not to mention have the patience to remove plate armor).

- Deber

[shahrizai]

*blubbers and flails around randomly* ♥♥♥

I love how you show how easy they've gotten with each other in friendship, but still the awkwardness of figuring out how to start the act. And the little details - acknowledging how he's different because of the foreskin, and using the 69 when so many fic writers do not, and how they are content with each other but not smooshy romantic...this rocks so, so much!

[shahrizai]

Thank you! I'm so glad the details worked for you -- I actually made the choice to have them 69 partly because I haven't seen it in fic very often (and also because it lets me avoid the birth control issue), and it seemed like especially in het we could use a little more diversity in our sex scenes. ^^
Credit to mithrigil for putting the idea in my head that boys in Landis weren't circumcised -- it seemed like such a neat way to touch on cultural difference.

...I'm so in love with this pairing right now. And so glad that other people are enjoying what I do with them. ^_^

- Deber