fic rec: General Rules (And How You Broke Them)

[andrea-deer.livejournal.com]

Title: General Rules (And How You Broke Them) (on AO3)
Author: taylorpotato
Pairing: Lestrade/Sherlock
Length: 4.452 words
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: N/A
Verse: BBC
Author's summary: Out of all the Alphas in the world, Sherlock has only met one that he finds tolerable—Detective Inspector Lestrade. Actually, tolerable might not be a strong enough word. It's possible that Sherlock likes Lestrade a lot more than he should, but that's not something he would admit out loud. At least, not until he's in heat.

Reccer's comments: This is an AU, Alpha/Beta/Omega verse AU, to be precise. One of my all time favourites in this verse. What wins this fic for me is that A/B/O AUs sort of tempt writers into dub-con (at the very least). Some readers prefer these AUs for that reason and obviously there's nothing wrong with that, however I love it when there's an AU, which is written in a certain way, uses certain cliches, and the author of the fic goes: yeah, and how about I change it a bit? And I'm a great fan of those AUs in which at least one of the characters, to stay in character, can't follow AU cliche.

So, basically: Gregory Lestrade is above your silly A/B/O cliches and he is going to do the right thing.

fic rec: Comme des Enfants

[verdant_fire]

Title: Comme des Enfants
Author: Eliane
Pairings: John/Sherlock, Mary/John, Sholto/John, John & Harry
Length: 7287 words
Rating: Mature
Warnings: none
Verse: BBC
Author's summary: Harry comes out when John is nineteen. It takes John twenty more years to do the same.

Reccer's comments: This fic is an excellent character study of two things: John's relationship with Harry, and his sexual identity as a closeted, homoromantic bisexual.  Both of those things are treated with empathy and honesty, and it's easy to imagine this John and Harry fitting into canon.  This story is a lovely, closely observed look at John's past and the personal growth that allows him to move on from it.