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crack_van2007-11-05 05:42 pm
nos4a2no9.livejournal.com) wrote in crack_van2007-11-05 05:42 pm
Before Dawn by Mia (NC-17)
Before Dawn by Mia (NC-17)
Fandom: DUE SOUTH
Pairing: Fraser/Kowalski
Author's Website: Mia's Fic
Author on LJ: n/a
Why this must be read:
This is a sweet and sad story in which Ray wakes early, breaks a lamp, and startles Fraser awake. Everything builds from the small-slice-o'life beginning into a delicate emotional and sexual balancing act. Not many authors (professionally published or not) could handle the kind of juggling Mia executes with this story: her Fraser and Ray are fragile and beautiful, compromised and innocent, crushed under the weight of past disappointments and borne aloft by what they find with one another. This story has always made me think of waves lapping on a beach: pain surges and recedes, old heartaches and difficult new truths are introduced, and then the tides turn and Fraser and Ray are washed back to where they started.
This is a short story, sure, but Mia somehow finds the time to examine what Ray's low self-esteeme and that clingy, needy side of himself he can't quite conceal have cost him. Fraser's sad romantic history is nodded at but not dwelt upon, and there's a wonderful, delicate tenderness between the characters that comes through like the clear, sweet peal of a bell. This story makes a good case for the notion that even painful experience can be worthwhile if you learn something from it, and that kind of thinking would probably appeal to two guys who have had their hearts crushed a couple of times and are just learning to reconnect.
Anyway, this story offers pretty much everything you could want in a Fraser/Kowalski fic: beautiful writing, insightful characterization, and some almost indecently sexy NC-17 action. I promise, after reading you'll be left with that good kind of ache that settles deep in your chest. Y'know, that one. The one that you get only after you've finished a great story.
I close my eyes, concentrating on the gentle pressure of Fraser's hands, the clean-sweat smell of his body and the sheer physicality of his nearness. We lie like that for a long time. He seems content to hold me, and I can't think of a way to break the silence.
Finally, I find my voice. "I'm sorry." I swallow. "I should've got the food first, but I broke the lamp, and then you woke up. And then I should've just gone with the flow when you were jerking me off. I just- I don't know what I was-"
"Don't." It's just a whisper. He cradles my cheek, runs his thumb down my jawline. "You don't have to-" He shakes his head. "You don't have to do all of this, you know. Breakfast, rising before dawn. You don't have to do anything. It's enough for me that you're here."
Before Dawn, by Mia.
Fandom: DUE SOUTH
Pairing: Fraser/Kowalski
Author's Website: Mia's Fic
Author on LJ: n/a
Why this must be read:
This is a sweet and sad story in which Ray wakes early, breaks a lamp, and startles Fraser awake. Everything builds from the small-slice-o'life beginning into a delicate emotional and sexual balancing act. Not many authors (professionally published or not) could handle the kind of juggling Mia executes with this story: her Fraser and Ray are fragile and beautiful, compromised and innocent, crushed under the weight of past disappointments and borne aloft by what they find with one another. This story has always made me think of waves lapping on a beach: pain surges and recedes, old heartaches and difficult new truths are introduced, and then the tides turn and Fraser and Ray are washed back to where they started.
This is a short story, sure, but Mia somehow finds the time to examine what Ray's low self-esteeme and that clingy, needy side of himself he can't quite conceal have cost him. Fraser's sad romantic history is nodded at but not dwelt upon, and there's a wonderful, delicate tenderness between the characters that comes through like the clear, sweet peal of a bell. This story makes a good case for the notion that even painful experience can be worthwhile if you learn something from it, and that kind of thinking would probably appeal to two guys who have had their hearts crushed a couple of times and are just learning to reconnect.
Anyway, this story offers pretty much everything you could want in a Fraser/Kowalski fic: beautiful writing, insightful characterization, and some almost indecently sexy NC-17 action. I promise, after reading you'll be left with that good kind of ache that settles deep in your chest. Y'know, that one. The one that you get only after you've finished a great story.
I close my eyes, concentrating on the gentle pressure of Fraser's hands, the clean-sweat smell of his body and the sheer physicality of his nearness. We lie like that for a long time. He seems content to hold me, and I can't think of a way to break the silence.
Finally, I find my voice. "I'm sorry." I swallow. "I should've got the food first, but I broke the lamp, and then you woke up. And then I should've just gone with the flow when you were jerking me off. I just- I don't know what I was-"
"Don't." It's just a whisper. He cradles my cheek, runs his thumb down my jawline. "You don't have to-" He shakes his head. "You don't have to do all of this, you know. Breakfast, rising before dawn. You don't have to do anything. It's enough for me that you're here."
Before Dawn, by Mia.