Sherlock Recs in May

[swissmarg]

My favorite Sherlock Holmes fics for the month of May 2013. All recs are Sherlock/John and set in the Sherlock (BBC) verse unless otherwise noted. The links go to the recs, not the fics, although the recs in turn have links to the fics.

Sunday recs for 5 May 2013: 1 aphasic!Sherlock fic; 1 married!John series; 1 fusion with A Christmas Carol
Sunday, 12 May 2013: Something a bit different, as I didn't read any fics this week that I felt were good enough to rec, other than ones that have been recced recently by others. So, I will share a couple of recs that I wrote a while ago in preparation for reccing on 221b_recs but that others got to first.

Title: Safe Distance
Author: merripestin
Pairing: John/Sherlock
Length: 114,805 words
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: None
Verse: Sherlock BBC
Author's summary: The mother was apparently poisoned, the son seems to have killed himself playing Russian roulette. It's a murder and a suicide. Or is it a suicide and a murder? At least the case is distracting John from the fact that sex with Sherlock was probably a mistake right from the start. John will learn to cope, one way or another.

Reccer's comments: This is one of those stories that make you not want to start reading another one immediately afterwards, because a) you're afraid of being disappointed in comparison, and b) it gives you so much to think about.

This is a dual case/relationship fic. Although the case is original and well-done, the emphasis is probably more on the relationship in terms of tension and drama. The main premise is that John is firmly heterosexual, yet decides to enter into a romantic/sexual relationship with Sherlock. Although he is completely committed to the relationship from the start, he has serious doubts and hangups about having sex with a man, and has to talk himself into it several times. I found this to be one of the most realistic straight!John/Sherlock fics I've read, for that reason (Sherlock's sexual identity is never defined in this fic, but he never has issues with physical encounters with John, so it's never really explored). There is one scene that very much enters dub-con territory, though, if that is an issue for you.

Excerpt (not the dub-con bit):

Sherlock radiated heat. Sherlock was lanky and hard with muscle and bone. Sherlock in bed was like a heavy duvet stuffed with hat racks. A duvet that crawled back on top of you whenever you managed to slip out from under during the night, usually making a little satisfied huffing sound as it resettled.

So there was nowhere John could go to just get some space, no way to just get some air for a minute.

John hoped he'd learn to sleep through it all soon, because god knew he needed his rest if he was going to cope with the sex. John had been straight all his life. He'd managed, so far, to get through sex with Sherlock without completely panicking or descending into humiliating impotence, but he knew he owed that much success again to Sherlock's mostly-complete inexperience.

Sherlock, meanwhile, had apparently taken out his mint-condition libido from whatever box he'd been storing it in for thirty-odd years, and discovered that it not only still worked but ran like a bloody bullet train.

On top of the physical layer of things, there is the even more fraught emotional layer. It was with great skill that the author portrayed the paths of both men finding their way through this new relationship. They never really talk about what is going on with them, leaving them only able to react to their own perceptions of each other's actions and motivations, and boy, do they get them wrong! Still, somehow, this very messed-up way of being together works for both of them, giving them both what they want and need, even if they're both scared to death of losing it at any moment.

One of the really neat things about this story that I have to mention as well are the excursions into Sherlock's mind palace. Here's an example:

In Sherlock's deliberately structured memory, a hoe gouged the hotel's slanting, nearly furry wooden floorboards near the window, revealing an old fashioned pocket calculator with semen mucking up the keys; this represented the business man, who worked in agrarian supplies. In either side of the small wardrobe were American flags, one stuck in a jar of peanut butter beside a phlebotomist's syringe, the other fashioned into an apron over a satin ball gown; this represented the American man, finishing his nursing degree, and the American woman, supporting him with waitressing and occasional jobs dressing as a Disney princess at children's parties -- an idea so foreign and pleasingly bizarre that when Sherlock someday cleared this room to store something else, he planned to retain that item and store it elsewhere.

In Sherlock's memory, a green van was parked on the hotel bed, slimy river water slowly leaking from the seams around the doors. If he opened one of those doors he would see the room where he'd killed the assassin, with its own collection of images and reminders. That would have to be kept too; one did need to recall where one had hidden the bodies.

Then there's the case. I love it when a case brings Sherock and John closer emotionally; the 'easy' way to do it is by having one of them injured or in physical danger (which this fic also does), but I especially like it when the author is able to take it a step further, with the little parallels and situations brought up by the case sparking introspection and insights, and this fic succeeds in that respect as well. On top, of course, of being a very well plotted original case that has more danger lurking than is apparent at first glance. We are never allowed to forget, either, that this is a post-Reichenbach story, and that things that Sherlock did while he was away have a tendency, much like him, not to stay dead.

Finally, the sex. It's obviously a big part of this particular story. There's no big build-up, they just pretty much start right in and keep up an exhausting pace of two sessions a day (at least) all the way through. The thing that sets this fic apart for me, though (in addition to the above-mentioned very big doubts that John has over the whole thing) is the fact that it's not your standard hand job-blow job-anal sex progression. They try out several other things, and the act that they both thought would be either the big goal or the deal breaker turns out not to be so very important after all. It's sometimes a bit awkward, sometimes funny, but always, through everything, their love and respect for each other is paramount, even if they never get around to saying it out loud.

This story just made me happy in so many ways and is right up there with holyfant's The Fabric of Life and ivyblossom's The Quiet Man as my all-time favourite epic post-Reichenbach fics.

Title: The Great Sex Olympics of 221B
Author: xistentialangst
Pairing: John/Sherlock, John/OFC, Sherlock/OFC, John/OMC, Sherlock/OMC
Length: 58,615 words
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: None
Verse: Sherlock BBC
Author's summary: John Watson thinks Sherlock Holmes should admit that he, Watson, is more of an expert on sex than Sherlock is. But Sherlock refuses to concede the point. He comes up with an experiment plan that will resolve the issue. The results will determine who wins the prize. But sometimes even the best thought-out scientific study has unexpected consequences.

Reccer's comments: This is not as much of an orgy as it looks like from that list of pairings. It's really a Johnlock fic; it just takes them a while to realise it.

Excerpt:

“How much are you willing to bet that I know more about sex, and am better at it, than you?” He said in a steely voice. “Because I’ll bet anything you like.”

“As would I,” Sherlock said, his words equally metal-encased. “But how would we judge such a thing? It's completely subjective.”

“You’re the scientist. If you're so brilliant, figure out a way,” John said. “Meanwhile, I’ll think of what it is I want to win.”

“Game on,” said Sherlock.

Game on, indeed. What starts out as a point of pride (John wanting to prove his sexual prowess, Sherlock wanting to prove his intellectual superiority) quickly evolves into something much deeper than either of them bargained for. As the challenge gets underway, both men's reasons for continuing with it change, building to an inexorable climax.

The fic is rounded out with a nice pair of supporting OCs, well enough developed to make them sympathetic but not so overblown that they distract from our two favourite flatmates.

This fic absolutely delivers on every level. The UST (well, resolved, I guess), the emotions, the journey of discovery, the humour, the angst, the intellectual challenge, the sex (OMG such hot sex), the payoff.

Title: Long Ago and Far Away (Series)
Author: lotherington
Pairing: John/Sherlock
Length: 58,106 words (26 parts, most between 1,000-3,000 words)
Rating: G through E
Warnings: None
Verse: Vaguely Sherlock BBC
Author's summary: WWII AU in which John is an army doctor and Sherlock is a codebreaker at Bletchley Park. The fic spans their meeting in 1937 to the end of the war in 1945.

Reccer's comments: I'm pretty sure nearly everyone's at least heard of this series if not dipped in or – like me – been a rabid fan stalking their inbox for alerts to a new installment. Well, it's now complete, or at least complete-ish, as the author says, "There could well be more of this at some point, perhaps a sequel, or more interludes, or what have you, but for now the story I wanted to tell has been told." So if you have been putting off reading it for that reason, olly olly oxen free.

This is an utterly fabulous re-imagining of Sherlock Holmes and John Watson meeting just before the outbreak of World War II, and following them through the course of their relationship and the war until V-E Day in 1945. Each episode is a stand-alone, showing separate vignettes of Sherlock and John's lives during these years. There isn't really much plot to follow, other than the arc of the larger historical events they are swept along with. There's a bit of casefic, although not much; the war comes along and dominates the plot fairly thoroughly, sending John off to war and Sherlock to the enigmatic workings of Bletchley Park.

Here is an excerpt from the September 1943 episode, when they are able to see each other on a brief leave:

His shoulder stiff and sore and his leg and hand un-cooperative, John had only been able to take the dust sheet off the kitchen table and had been sitting there for much of the day, drinking London’s metallic water and staring at the marks in the table’s wood.

He’d been re-issued with a ration book but had had neither the energy nor the inclination to see about getting any tea or food in.

The front door opened and slammed shut.

‘John?’ Sherlock’s voice came from the bottom of the stairs. ‘John?’ The sound of heavy feet missing most of the steps and the front door clattering open was heard and Sherlock appeared in the kitchen doorway, breathless and grinning.

‘Ran all the way from Bletchley, did you?’ John asked with a gentle smile.

‘Mmm, I would have done, for you,’ Sherlock rumbled, swooping down and sealing his and John’s lips together, coaxing John’s chin up with two fingertips on the underside of it.

There are two things that really make this story stand out for me. The first is the profoundly deep love and devotion which the two men have for each other, both because and in spite of the situation they find themselves in, having to keep their relationship a secret (the anti-homosexual laws were still in place and enforced) and being torn apart by war.

The other thing is the very well researched, highly detailed immersion in England of the 1940s. The music, the fashion, the hairstyles, the furniture, the technology, the cosmetics... Every episode is studded with minutiae that transport the reader to the era, and the writing will make you never want to leave.

Open recs for May at 221b_recs: 1 ACD H/W pining!fic, 1 tennis AU sequel
Sunday recs on 19 May 2013 at sherlockbbc: 1 Harry ships John/Sherlock fic
Sunday recs on 26 May 2013 at sherlockbbc: 1 asexual!Sherlock/John kidfic, 1 John-is-dead-too (except not really) fic

P.S. You can find my past Sherlock recs here:
April 2013 - March 2013 - February 2013 - January 2013 - December 2012 - November 2012 - October 2012 - September 2012 - August 2012 - July 2012 - June 2012 - May 2012 - April 2012

...and my AO3 bookmark collections HERE.