Alone/Together by HF (PG)

[http://users.livejournal.com/_elvie/]

Fandom: THE MAGNIFICENT SEVEN
Pairing: Chris/Vin
Author on LJ: aesc
Author Website: on the qt
Why this must be read: I could have chosen any of HF's stories - she writes brilliantly in everything from angst to crackfic - but this was one of the first C/V fics I ever read and I still think it's one of the best.

The notion that love is something new to Vin and something once had and lost to Chris has been explored a frillion times in fanfic, but HF makes it wonderfully fresh by paring things down to the bare essentials of Chris, Vin and a restless night filled with memories, questions and the promise of Vin figuring out how to be in love and not lose sense of himself - but not having to do it alone.


You... you got a chance at all this before," Vin said quietly, gesturing around the room, his hand ending up touching his own chest. "You know what it’s like t’ give someone everythin’, someone you never owed nothin’ to, someone you wanted t’ be with just ‘cause you loved ‘em so damn much you couldn’t be without ‘em. You know what it’s like t’ lose yourself in them, t’ become a part of them. I ain’t talkin’ about sex... I’m just talkin’ about how you just know them.

"I... I never got that chance, Chris."

Then it hit Chris, like a bullet square between the eyes.

He’d had a deep, loving relationship before with Sarah- a relationship made formal by marriage and consummated by a son. It didn’t matter that they died; the time he had spent with them, treasuring Sarah’s sharp mind and her soft body, looking for hints of the Larabee genes in Adam’s face when he held his son in his arms for the first time, fights that ended with hot embraces and quiet words... He knew all that.

Vin didn’t have the foggiest idea what such a relationship might be like, and Chris had taken it for granted that he did have that idea.

And Vin was scared.

Alone/Together