And now back to your regularly scheduled reccing...

Title: A Meeting of Equals
Fandom: The Sentinel
Pairing: Jim/Blair
Categories: Angst, AU, Epistolary fic, pre-slash
Length: Epic
Warnings: n/a

Author on LJ: n/a
Website: http://www.visionsofprettyboys.com/home.htm

Review:
After the fight over that first chapter, Blair runs away from home. Well, sort of. What he really does is go off to find himself another college where he can finish his dissertation and maybe take stock of his life and decide what he wants to do next. He stays in touch with Jim the entire time and the story is from Jim's POV, watching from a distance as Blair digs deep into himself to find the man he really wants to be.

Okay, so I'm going to just come right out and say it: I have a huge issue with the fact that, while Blair spends the entire story learning about himself, apologizing to Jim, and coming out a better and stronger person, Jim spends most of the story acting like an asshole. And his entire apology (coming near the end of the story, after something like three months of passive aggressive silence) is two lines long and doesn't actually include the word 'sorry' anywhere. Because of this, I dithered over whether I should rec or rant about this story since the moment I first read it.

In the end, I'm reccing this story because Blair's personal journey is the focus of the fic and it is *incredible*. While he is sometimes too hard on himself, he does a brilliant job of dredging up his worst traits, facing them head on, and deciding what to do about them. It is a moving story of personal growth and you can't help but root for him as he slowly becomes more comfortable with himself and with the changes he's decided to make in his life. By the end of the story, I wanted to cheer out loud and hug Blair silly (seriously, it's like watching Rudy or one of those other silly sports movies that shamelessly manipulate you so that you are grinning like a fool at the end). A must-read for all Blair fans.

A Meeting of Equals