Southlands fic rec
Thanks to fourfreedoms, I'm now craving Southland, Ben/Sammy fic. Though I might just keep reading Keep Your Heart Strong over and over. If you watch Southland, don't bother with this post, just go over there now! It's on AO3 too.
I absolutely love it when there's so much of who a character is deep down, what makes them tick, tied up in who they're attracted to. And this story resonates with Ben's background: his daddy issues, his casual sex habit and need to be in charge, his partner issues after Cooper. It's all wrapped into the way he behaves, the things he says, the awkwardness he feels when Sammy's looking around his apartment, his underlying fear he's fucked up. The way everything happens because Ben gets drunk after a rough day on the job and because he doesn't think of consequences.
“You always talk so much?” Ben replies irascibly, uncomfortable with the intimacy of easy conversation engendered in this moment, on this bed, lying underneath this roof. Fucking is not like that for him.
That just encapsulates Ben for me: he's used to fucking and running, not intimacy and friendship and fucking.
And fourfreedoms gets Sammy right too, a guy who'll mock Ben for picking mocha paint for his bedroom, but puts together a careful Tupperware lunch for little Nate and knows when not to push.
Add to that the feel of the piece, authentic like the show, the incredibly intimate feel of the sex scene (these days I often skim sex scenes, because they don't add anything to the story, but here the sex is telling us about them, it's essential to the story), and the hopeful ending, and I'm in love!
I absolutely love it when there's so much of who a character is deep down, what makes them tick, tied up in who they're attracted to. And this story resonates with Ben's background: his daddy issues, his casual sex habit and need to be in charge, his partner issues after Cooper. It's all wrapped into the way he behaves, the things he says, the awkwardness he feels when Sammy's looking around his apartment, his underlying fear he's fucked up. The way everything happens because Ben gets drunk after a rough day on the job and because he doesn't think of consequences.
“You always talk so much?” Ben replies irascibly, uncomfortable with the intimacy of easy conversation engendered in this moment, on this bed, lying underneath this roof. Fucking is not like that for him.
That just encapsulates Ben for me: he's used to fucking and running, not intimacy and friendship and fucking.
And fourfreedoms gets Sammy right too, a guy who'll mock Ben for picking mocha paint for his bedroom, but puts together a careful Tupperware lunch for little Nate and knows when not to push.
Add to that the feel of the piece, authentic like the show, the incredibly intimate feel of the sex scene (these days I often skim sex scenes, because they don't add anything to the story, but here the sex is telling us about them, it's essential to the story), and the hopeful ending, and I'm in love!