Better Than Ice Cream (NC-17)

[luzula]

Fandom: DUE SOUTH
Pairing: Frannie Vecchio/Irene Zuko, Ray Vecchio/Irene Zuko
Length: 4800 words
Author on LJ: hth_the_first
Author Website: AO3 page
Why this must be read: This fic proves that you can be in due South for years and years and still discover unread gems. Because I just discovered this the other day, and wow. I feel so much love for both Frannie and Irene here. I usually don't quote when I rec, but this time I think it may be the most effective way:

...why was it always the sisters and the daughters that got hurt and hurt bad when some goddamned man in this neighborhood had to prove his macho? And the bright-eyed, bright-feathered, fragile-fierce girls, girls like Frannie Vecchio, didn't have a basketball court to go to, didn't have any safe, pure way to sweat out the pain and trample it into the dead concrete and leave it there. They were supposed to go to church or get jobs waiting tables or working perfume counters, and be good, and stay down, and God help them if they wanted to wear black lace and talk fast in shrill voices and fuck until they blacked out.

Better Than Ice Cream