Underrated Sherlock fics, Part 3

[swissmarg]

This is the third installment of my recs for fan fics in the Sherlock (BBC) fandom that I feel are deserving of a wider readership, based on their kudo count on AO3.

My qualifications for this list are:

- Fic complete
- Last chapter posted prior to October 1, 2014
- Fewer than 200 kudos as of this posting
- Earned a 'favorite' from me on AO3

In case you are interested, here is Part One from October 2013 and Part Two from May 2014.

In order of length:

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A Reichenbach return in which Sherlock and John were lovers before he left. With dysfunctionality, pain, and loads of feels.

There's So Much Labour Just in Breathing Lately (12708 words) by Susan
Rating: Explicit
Relationships: Sherlock Holmes/John Watson
Additional Tags: Angst, Post-Reichenbach, First Time, Sherlock Series 3 Spoilers, Romance, Grief/Mourning, Grieving John
Summary: The dreams he hated most – the ones that left him a sweating, shaking mess when he woke – were the ones in which Sherlock was just Sherlock. Laughing or drinking tea. Sitting across the table from him at Angelo’s eating pasta. Trailing his open hand behind him on the way to the bedroom. “C’mon, John. I’m about to have my way with you.”

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Post-series 3 with the baby, Sherlock and John together, and what I think is a really great role for Mary. No fluff! The first part of the series is a little 3K oneshot, so read that first.

All but the Things that Cannot Be Torn (28500 words) by zundaerazylym
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Relationships: Sherlock Holmes/John Watson
Characters: Sherlock Holmes, John Watson, Baby Watson - Character, Mary Morstan, Greg Lestrade, Mycroft Holmes
Additional Tags: Angst, Hurt/Comfort, Friends to Lovers, Case Fic
Series: Part 2 of In the East Wind
Summary: As John struggles to find equilibrium yet again, Sherlock is called in to investigate a series of seemingly random killings, connected only by the weapon and the lack of any other evidence. The further he gets into the case, however, the more it becomes evident that someone is keenly intent upon driving him away at any cost. Takes place immediately after the events of Behind Every Great Fortune.

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This is a very poetic kind of soulmates fic (although without any magical component). It's about friendship and love and forever:

The Voice of Your Eyes (30103 words) by bbcsherlockian
Rating: Explicit
Relationships: Sherlock Holmes/John Watson
Additional Tags: Alternate Universe - Different First Meeting, Unresolved Emotional Tension, Friends to Lovers, Time Skips, non-canon ages, Drug Abuse, Minor Character Death, Frottage
Summary: Sherlock Holmes and John Watson don't meet at Barts. They meet twenty six years earlier amidst fields of slaughtered cherry blossom and the sound of a dying violin. (i do not know what it is about you that closes and opens; only something in me understands the voice of your eyes is deeper than all roses)

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Something a bit rarer, a Potterlock crossover with John and Sherlock as adults. This is fun and insightful and really quite clever:

The Next Great Adventure (38981 words) by wanttobeatree
Rating: Explicit
Relationships: Sherlock Holmes/John Watson
Additional Tags: Action/Adventure
Summary: Thirteen years since the Battle of Hogwarts, people are dying mysteriously. Dementors roam the streets once again. Sherlock is a Squib, John's Auror days are long behind him, and there's a new Dark Wizard on the rise. It could be dangerous.

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I recced this more extensively on 221b_recs back in March 2014. A really well researched casefic with gorgeous relationship aspect. Not absolutely necessary to read the first two parts of the series, but they help set the scene and aren't too long, and are also inexplicably low on kudos so give them a look as well. It's really very well done.

The Gladstone Ritual (49741 words) by Velma68
Rating: Mature
Relationships: Sherlock Holmes/John Watson
Additional Tags: Case Fic, Mystery, ACD Musgrave Ritual, Bibliophilia, Books, Libraries & Librarians, Illustrated, English Civil War, Welsh Character, Post-Reichenbach, Treasure Hunting, Monks & Monasteries, Dom/sub Undertones, Murder, Original Character Death(s), Middle Ages, Postcolonial, Alternate Season/Series 03
Series: Part 3 of Bibliophilia
Summary: Much has been buried, much lost. But loyalty endures. Sherlock and John find their way to help an old friend.

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This is one part of an incredibly well developed Alternate Canon series with eventual established Johnlock. You don't need to read the parts in order, or even read all of them at all. This one can stand alone anyway. None of this series has very many kudos, which I don't understand at all as these are very solid and diverting fics, especially the longer casefics, of which there are several such as this:

Absentminded (56381 words) by ScopesMonkey
Rating: Mature
Relationships: Sherlock Holmes/John Watson
Additional Tags: Mystery, Case Fic, Christmas fic, Crime, Amnesia, injured John, Murder Mystery, Murder, Secrets, wedding anniversary
Series: Part 65 of Sugarverse
Summary: With the Christmas season right around the corner, Sherlock is called in to investigate the case of a man whose assault has left him without his memory.

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I'll admit, this one is probably not for everyone. It is fairly literary and makes you work for it, but it's worth it. The author is doing incredible things with world-building and the whole Alpha/Beta/Omega trope in this whole series. The series this is part of is not a sequential story, but rather the fics all fit into the same Alternate Universe. For best results, you should read The Romance of Mystery, Book One and The Romance of Mystery, Book Two prior to this, which are also highly, highly underrated.

Tanto Monta - Cutting as Untying (It Amounts to the Same) (62181 words) by fresne
Rating: Explicit
Relationships: Sherlock Holmes/John Watson, Sherlock Holmes/Jim Moriarty, Sherlock Holmes/John Clay, Sherlock Holmes/Original Male Character(s), John Watson/Original Female Characters, John Watson/Original Male Characters
Additional Tags: Omegaverse, Alpha/Beta/Omega Dynamics, Dubious Consent, Knotting, No mpreg, world building, Anal Sex, Oral Sex, Mating Cycles/In Heat, Omega Sherlock, Alpha John, Alternate Universe, Miscommunication, MaleOmega/MaleAlpha
Series: Part 7 of Phrygian Choices
Summary: Sherlock began to turn into a desert when he was nine. Desertification took years, but grain by grain his Memory Palace turned from a primordial forest into scrub brush and sand. Only mad dogs and Englishmen could love the desert that he'd made of himself. When John was fourteen, he stayed out late one particularly nasty March night at the rec centre reading a book. The results of that choice left him feeling like an ill fitting cog the rest of his life. Or equal opposites in balance.

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This series of three connected casefics, with John and his military background at the heart of the mystery, should tick so many people's boxes. Well written and engaging, with developing relationship. The first part actually has a pretty good kudo count but it drops off in parts 2 and 3 which doesn't make sense to me because that's where the relationship stuff starts to pick up! Anyway, try it out:

The Secrets of John Watson (75194 words for all three parts) by tumbleweedchaser
Rating: Explicit
Relationships: Sherlock Holmes/John Watson
Additional tags: Military, Alternate Universe - Original, BAMF John, TRF Aftermath, Case Fic, New Tenant, mention of mary morstan - Freeform, Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Eventual Smut, Sexy Times, BAMF Sherlock, Original Characters
Summary: Part One: Sherlock and John take on a new case that brings John's military history and secrets to the table. The detective is forced to understand that there is a great deal more to John than jumpers, tea, and a love of adrenaline.

Comments

[kitmerlot1213.livejournal.com]

I love posts like this because it helps me to find awesome Sherlock fics--thanks :):)

[swissmarg]

I hope you find something you enjoy that you haven't tried yet!

[ariss-tenoh.livejournal.com]

The only one I read was "the secrets of John Watson" and I think I know why readership fell afterwards. By the end of the fic and the way the author made John almost perfect and elevated him to impossible heights... well, I didn't feel like this was the same John from the TV series with his human flaws that made me relate to him.

But that's just my opinion. No offence to you if you liked the fic^^

[swissmarg]

Thanks for the input, maybe it will help others decide whether to read. I think I'm fairly forgiving for stuff like making John uber-BAMFY. There's other stuff in fics that makes me hit the back button though, even if it's a basically good plot, like bad punctuation. Everyone's got their thing. :)

[ariss-tenoh.livejournal.com]

Yes, the BAMF John aspect was the reason behind my reading it too. There needs to be more fic for that.

[sjames-centre.livejournal.com]

Thanks for the rec. I'm proud of that story and I do wish more people read it - I think it's hard to be a new writer in an established (and huge) fandom.