Fic Rec: You've Begun to Feel Like Home

[swissmarg]

Title: You've Begun to Feel Like Home and epilogue: Where Hearts Are Sure
Author: yalublyutebya
Pairing: John/Sherlock
Length: 24,677 words + 3,197 words
Rating: Mature
Warnings: None
Verse: Sherlock BBC
Author's summary: Sherlock Holmes is everything Father John Watson should probably disapprove of. He's an atheist, a rationalist, an addict, and gay. But none of those things is enough to stop him from being the most fascinating person John's ever met.

Reccer's comments: This is an AU in which Sherlock is still a consulting detective, but John is a Catholic priest. The story follows their relationship over the course of fifteen years, starting when they meet (Sherlock is fifteen, John is twenty-eight; but don't worry, there is no underage sex).

There are bits of canon (and new) cases worked in, including the famous pool scene from The Great Game, but John never becomes Sherlock's investigative partner. Instead, their paths cross both coincidentally – in hospital, at a crime scene - and when Sherlock seeks John out at odd intervals for medical attention, moral support, and simply friendship. They sometimes go years without meeting, but they have a connection that ignores space and time, and whenever their lives intersect again, it only deepens and strengthens their bond. What is so special is that we see how their relationship grows, while each man separately finds himself and figures out what is most important to him in life.

One thing I especially liked was how sensitively and sympathetically the topic of the church institution was dealt with. This is not a church-bashing fic, although the social and moral difficulties they face due to John's vocation are dealt with in an honest manner.

This is really a beautiful story of friendship and love. It does end up with them falling in love and consummating their relationship physically, but it is done with great thought and care, both on the part of the author and the characters. This is one of those stories that has you thinking about it for days afterwards and wishing that it could have gone on longer.

Edit 18 June 2012: There are now several sequels, turning this into a series: Too Close to Home (John/Sherlock, Mature)

Open Recs Weekends

[unovis.livejournal.com]

For the next few weeks, we're opening up the community to public rec posts on Saturday and Sunday.

We'll make a general post on Saturday for anyone to post recs in comments, if you'd prefer just giving a short description and a link. Recs may be for fic, art, vids, or podfic in any Sherlock Holmes 'verse.

If you'd prefer to make a rec in a separate post on these weekends, please follow our guidelines and template, and include relevant tags. Please note that we're more conservative when it comes to warnings -- put any comments you like about content in your review, but please keep "warnings" for main character death, non-con or rape, underage sex, or extreme violence.

Thanks, and please let us know if you have any questions.

Sherlock rec

[dessieoctavia.livejournal.com]

Title: Astronomy
Author: parachute-silks
Pairing: girl!Sherlock/girl!John, girl!Mycroft/girl!Lestrade, Harry/Everyone (but not very successfully), 'Anthea'/Irene Adler
Length: 8,729 words
Rating: PG-13
Warnings: none
Verse: Sherlock BBC
Author's summary: Everyone is female, for one thing. No, I don't know why I wrote them all as girls either, except possibly as a slightly desperate reaction to this show's female character problem. Um. And they go on holiday. And there is also A Scandal in Bohemia but with lesbians. And snakes. Look, I don't know why you're asking me, I'm just the writer.
It had been Harry's idea to take Joan on holiday. It had not, however, been Harry's idea to bring Joan's deranged flatmate, her equally alarming sister, a skull, two snakes, a box full of blood samples and a senior Scotland Yard official.
Reccer's comments: I'm particularly fond of genderswap fics, and BBC Sherlock has a lot of good ones. I chose this one to rec because everybody in it is female, and it's well written, and because it's got some nice humor in it and of course features Irene and Anthea, two of my favorite characters.

Note: Can I get a tag for anthea/irene? Thanks!