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I didn’t think I’d be able to do a Yuletide rec list this year, but before I knew it I had a bunch of fabulous fics I wanted to spread the word about, especially because a few of them are from fandoms that I don’t think have been mentioned in the com's rec posts yet.

I’ve already flailed over my own gift, No Rules for Fools from the Hour fandom here.

Here are six more, arranged alphabetically by fandom.

Grimm
Wolves in Waiting
Author’s summary: Nick has a key, and a lock. (Nick/Monroe, E, ~5.7K)

I go back and forth on whether I really want this to be a sexual pairing, but this fic has definitely done a lot to help me make up my mind. Amazingly hot, but also filled with perfect character notes.

Jane Austen Fight Club
Jane Eyre Has a Posse
Author’s summary: After an initial success, Jane Austen's Fight Club has become tedious and routine. If fight club is to thrive, the ladies will need a serious intervention, Brontë-style. Featuring exciting crossover action! (All the Austen and Bronte heroines—all of them!, G, ~3.8K)

This story is hysterical, edifying, and pretty much makes all the literary criticism on why Austen was not on Charlotte Bronte’s list of favorite writers beside the point.

Regeneration
Where Unknown, There Place Monsters
Author’s summary: “He had the rest of the day to get through before he could talk to Rivers, but he was glad of that. It was right that the first confusion and pain should be borne alone."
This is what happens at the end of that day. (Prior/Rivers, M, ~5.2K)

It wasn’t written for me, but this story exactly fills one of my prompts. Even if that wasn’t the case, though, I would still adore it. I guess it has a somewhat limited audience, since it takes place at a very specific point towards the end of the second novel in the trilogy. But the language is pitch-perfect and the current of feeling is amazingly strong and intense. If you’re at all interested in the relationship Barker suggests between these two men, this story is a must-read—I don’t have the words to recommend it strongly enough.

Sherlock RPF
The Scene is Now
Author’s summary: They told him: "It will change you, if you let it." (Benedict, Martin, Amanda, M, 5K+ words)

Pitch-perfect fic featuring a confused and poignant Benedict—all UST, which is how I like this pairing. A flistie steered me to this fic, and I’m so glad she did.

Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy
Felicitations
Author’s summary: If this were a mission he would assume it was compromised
(Haydon/Prideaux, M, ~2.5K, book ‘verse, but I think expect it works for the movie)

Killer fic for a killer pairing. Great Jim POV and voice—and the ending packs an emotional punch.

Wicked Gentlemen

Bliss is an Abyss
Author’s summary: There are things worse than pain. A peaceful life in the country, for one, and an honest man. (Explicit, Harper/Sykes, ~1.4K)

Lovely snippet of post-novel Harper/Bellimai.

Happy New Year, all!

From Jane Austen today, my favorite bit of life advice from any of her works:

"My beloved Laura [said Sophia]...take warning from my unhappy End and avoid the imprudent conduct which has occasioned it...Beware of fainting-fits...Though at the time they may be refreshing and Agreeable yet believe me they will in the end, if too often repeated and at improper seasons, prove destructive to your Constitution...My fate will teach you this...I die a Martyr to my grief for the loss of Augustus...One fatal swoon has cost me my Life...Beware of swoons, Dear Laura...A frenzy fit is not one quarter so pernicious; it is an exercise to the Body and if not too violent, is I dare say conducive to Health in its consequences--Run mad as often as you chuse; but do not faint--"

(from Love and Freindship [sic], 1790)