221b_recs | Fic Series Rec: Piecroft Chronicles, by iwantthatcoat

Title: Piecroft Chronicles (Locked to AO3 users)
Author: iwantthatcoat
Pairing: Sherlock Holmes/John Watson, Sherlock Holmes/Sherlock Holmes
Length: A Practical Affair, 19,114 words; Flowers and a Fruitbasket, 5,339 words.
Rating: Explicit
Verse: Sherlock BBC

A Practical Affair (aka Piecroft Won’t Let Me Bring the Lottery Tickets: A Tale of Self-Love)
Author's summary: Sherlock has the same ridiculously high standards for himself in his new sex life with John as he does elsewhere in his personal and professional life. He lacks experience, and though he knows John won't care one bit, Sherlock still does. Fortunately, there is someone who understands exactly what he needs to do and why...and he won't even have to explain himself. Which is a good thing, because Mycroft won't let him. It would break timetravel regulations, after all. A Timetravel Selfcest Fic.

Reccer's comments: This story’s premise could have been just a simple ground for hot PWP (Sherlock is insecure about his lack of sexual experience now that he’s got together with John, so he goes back in time to meet his younger self and get sexual experience with his preself) and that would have been more than fine. But the author digs in to really explore the feelings and ethical challenges, and it turns into a deeply emotional story about memory, lack of memory, self-love, self-knowledge, and hard choices.

Bratty, desperate, lonely, honest university-age preself!Sherlock is so compelling here, as an amoral moral center. The interrogation he does of the older Sherlock is absolutely gripping. The prolonged sexual explorations between older Sherlock and his younger self are intensely erotic, made all the more so by their sharp, clear-eyed analytical edge - and by the unexpected emotional vulnerability both versions find themselves feeling. The relationship between the Sherlocks takes full control of the story, and it’s an amazingly skillful dance of arousal and gut-punch.

Flowers and a Fruitbasket

Author's Summary: From A Practical Affair: "If it were the following year, I just might have deleted this information, but for now, you can thank the good folk at the College of Medicine for not noticing the non-medical student sitting in on their Thursday morning lectures on body systems."

"God yes, thank you," he stammered. "I'll send them flowers."

Sherlock, true to his word, has sent the Department Chair some flowers upon his return to the present-- a reward for allowing his past self to have audited some very helpful anatomy lessons. Imagine his surprise to see an email from his preself requesting he head back in time yet again, and to bring that doctor he wasn't allowed to so much as hint at the existance of with him. (What beats timetravel selfcest? A timetravel selfcest threesome! Coming soon in the third instalment of the Piecroft Chronicles ) But first things first... what does he tell John? Part Two of the trilogy.

Reccer's comments: The extremely hot and satisfying second tale brings John and Sherlock together at last. Bit-not-good Sherlock hadn’t been planning to tell John what he’s done - but telling a selectively edited and artfully embellished version of the truth turns out to be better than letting John think Sherlock had practiced on someone else. It’s hot, it’s complex, and it’s a little bit bittersweet as these two awkward, damaged men still fall short of perfect bliss - it’s good to see John being able to see through Sherlock’s deflections, in a loving way. Did I mention it’s hot?

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MODS may I have a tag for pairing: sherlock holmes/sherlock holmes?