Fic Rec: You Promised Me Two Years

[swissmarg]

Title: You Promised Me Two Years
Author: prettyvk
Pairing: John/Sherlock
Length: 42,302 words
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Major character death
Verse: Sherlock BBC
Author's summary: John isn’t scared of Sherlock or of the adults around them. But he is scared of this Message. He is scared he’ll be there, in two years, right next to Sherlock, watching and unable to do a damn thing when he dies. Because the true Message was, “Don’t expect to make a career out of this interpreter thing. I’ll die in two years.” For the first time in his life, John wishes he’d never taken the Cassandra Tests.

Reccer's comments: This is a wonderfully creative teenlock/boarding school AU in which Sherlock is a Prophet (like an oracle, not a religious leader with a following) who speaks only in riddles, and John is his interpreter. This is what a conversation between them looks like:

( Excerpt... )

Part of the fun of reading this is trying to figure out all the associations of Sherlock's words, and how John gets to the meaning within them. But it's not all as cryptic as this. Sherlock's proclamations are usually clarified in the text, either by John or another of the characters who are able to understand them (and there are several).

The main reason that I'm reccing this, though, is the story of the prophecy given in the summary. How does it affect the course of John and Sherlock's lives? What does it mean for their relationship? And, most importantly, can anything be done to change Sherlock's fate?

Moriarty of course can't help becoming entangled in it all, and I loved how the author sprinkled in bits and pieces from the first two Sherlock series, without rehashing any of the actual cases or plots.

The resolution was a fantastic tying-together of several threads, and without wanting to spoil the ending, all I can say is don't be scared off by the character death warning. It is all for a purpose.

By the way, I'm tagging this with asexual Sherlock, although it's never stated, as he seems to me to be portrayed that way in this fic. There is sex, though, and it's not dub-con. I'm also giving this an underage tag as Sherlock is 16 at the beginning when he and John begin their relationship, although no actual sex happens until he is 18.