Waiting for Mr. Sternmacher (NC-17) by Clare Chew

[bluster.livejournal.com]

Fandom: THE MAN FROM U.N.C.L.E.
Pairing: Napoleon/Illya
Author on LJ: lyrebird
Author Website: Lyrebird*Mound
Why this must be read:

I read this story months ago in the zine Clandestine Affairs 2 and loved it. I was really pleased to see that Clare had put it online as part of the Incognito e-zine project.


It's part of an UNCLE agent's job to role-play. They often have to hide who they are in order to convince people that they're someone else. But what if hiding behind a role became the only way you could find to express your true self, your own desires? What if the only way you could allow yourself to have what you wanted is to pretend to be someone else? This is where Napoleon and Illya find themselves. Just how long can you pretend to be someone else without cracks appearing in the facade?

This story has created more than a little discussion on a list or two about what it means and what it says about Napoleon and Illya. Each reader seems to take away a slightly different take on the story, and isn't that what good fic does? And yet, this is also an incredibly hot story. There's sex, sex, and more sex. Good sex. It's a delight to find a story that can alternately make me ponder the inner workings of Napoleon and Illya while also shorting out my brain with hot sex. This makes this a treasure of a story and one I you'll read more than once.

Waiting for Mr. Sternmacher