Title: Family Portrait
Fandom: due South
Pairing: Fraser/Kowalski
Categories: Slash, AU, family, kids
Length: Epic (~75,000 words)
Warnings: Minor character death (before the prologue), much sex.

(The author's website has gone the way of all things, but the story is still around on the archives.)

Summary:
"It says, and I quote, Constable, `Give this man something to do before I kill him and cause an international incident," Welsh said in a long-suffering voice.

"Ah." Fraser shuffled his feet. "I was, in essence, correct."

Review:
I seem to be on a historic jag at the moment, digging up all the stories that I dearly loved ten years ago or more. This one is a classic due South story unaccountably missing from epic_recs, so I get to set that aright too. I love this job :-)

The story re-jigs the set-up of season 3 of dS by changing Ray Kowalski's backstory just a little. In this reality, he and Stella had kids, but Stella died in a car accident. When Ray Vecchio goes undercover, RayK is assigned to take on his caseload and, as the above quote indicates, his Mountie.

Despite the humour inherent in any due South setup that leavens the story, this is far more a romance than a rom-com. Fraser is aware quite quickly of his attraction to Ray, something that his father (still a ghost) has definite opinions on, but can't see any future to it. Journey makes the point several times that Fraser has been left behind in his personal life so often that he doesn't even hope for a permanant relationship. For Ray it's a far slower realisation, something that he never expected; indeed, something that his kids see before he does, and don't so much as bat an eyelid over. And for Ray, for this Ray at least, family and belonging are very important.

The story is dotted with wonderful observations about Ray and Fraser, and that's one of the things that makes it one of my favourites. For example, there's a nice little insight early on into the different ways Ray and Fraser approach detective-work, partly done by discussion between the characters but then played out in a snippet of casework as they combine to identify the culprit and prove it was him. It all adds up to a very nice pair of character studies intertwining in a beautifully gentle romance.

Family Portrait

Title: Miscommunication
Fandom: Star Trek Reboot
Pairing: Kirk/Spock
Categories: Romance, fluff, humor
Length: Medium (3,405 words)
Warnings: None

Author on LJ: sinestrated
Author Website: sinestrated

Author's Summary:
Jim's brain gets scrambled during an away mission gone wrong, with interesting results.

Review:
This whimsical, smile-inducing story was one of my favorites from the recent heysweetheart Valentine's Day challenge. While not specific to that holiday, it delivers a charming, sweet and humorous "get together" story.

The characterizations are spot-on, with each character reacting as you might expect to the oft-hilarious nicknames Kirk gives them, and Kirk himself is obviously amused by the situation. I liked the way the nicknames tied into Kirk's's perceptions of the crew members, and what that revealed about him.

Miscommunication is a fun, fast read and a must for anyone who enjoys Spock, Kirk, and fluff. The opportunity to imagine Kirk calling Spock "sweetheart" in Chris Pine's sexy voice doesn't hurt, either.

Miscommunication

Title: Spark, Smolder, Catch
Fandom: Teen Wolf
Pairing: Derek/Stiles
Categories: First time
Length: Long (18,347 words)
Warnings: None

Author on LJ:  qthelights
Author Website:  AO3

Summary: When Stiles starts pulling down Derek's burnt-out house, Derek finds himself letting him. He doesn't know why.

Wherein Stiles and Derek are both broken and doing more damage might just be what they both need to move on.

Review: In "Spark, Smolder, Catch," qthelights delivers some of the best Derek characterization I've read. At the end of season two, Derek is clinging as much to his isolation and misery as to the burnt-out shell of his family home. When Stiles begins to tear down the old Hale house, Derek reacts first with anger, then with carefully unexamined acceptance, trying not to think about why he's helping Stiles dismantle the most tangible sign of his loss.

Despite his initial reluctance to examine his own motives too deeply, this Derek is self-aware in a way that really resonates with me. qthelights does an amazing job of using the setting to convey the emotion rather than lingering too deeply in introspection. The prose in this story is exquisite, atmospheric and often melancholy, but with a quiet current of hope flowing just below the surface. It is the perfect story to read with a cup of tea on a drizzly day. There is something cathartic in it, like exhaling when you've been holding your breath far too long. Whenever two broken characters find a way to help each other heal, I am 100% on board, and this is one of my favorite stories of the type. It's basically slash therapy.

Spark, Smolder, Catch