Title: Lazarus series
Author: cassyl
Word Count: 3032
Rating: R
Summary: As Sherlock’s falling, he realizes that something’s gone wrong. Luckily, John has a trick or two up his sleeve. “Pushing Daisies” fusion.
Oh, what a great idea for a crossover. This appears to be an incomplete series, but I like where it’s going. John and Sherlock’s reactions to the situation are perfect and the (inevitably angsty) sexual tension is quite enjoyable.
Title: all this longing
Author: belovedmuerto
Word Count: 5067
Rating: M
Summary: It is enough to know that he’s still alive. It’s too much, knowing that he’d been alive the whole time.
I really liked this take on Sherlock and John’s relationship post-Reichenbach. Belovedmuerto did a great job juggling the anger, love, want, fear and hope they experience after Sherlock’s return.
Title: Butterfly
Author: dogpoet
Word Count: 4873
Rating: M
Summary: Sherlock borrows John’s razor, ostensibly for a case. John gets turned on. A misunderstanding ensues. And then a mystery is solved.
Crossdressing fic! This is very hot and wonderfully characterized.
Title: Where I Cannot Find You
Author: withoutawish
Word Count: 22212
Rating: M
Summary: When Hamish is diagnosed with cancer, his parents have two entirely separate ways of coping.
Well, this is heartbreaking. It stuck with me for days after I read it, though—Sherlock, John and Hamish have a fascinating, wonderful relationship and although it’s incredibly sad, it’s also very emotionally satisfying.
Title: Certainty
Author: joolabee
Word Count: 7317
Rating: M
Summary: You can’t kill an idea, can you? Not once it’s made a home. There.
Painful, subtle post-Reichenbach fic about grief, trust and healing.
Title: Pull the Stars from the Sky
Author: roane
Word Count: 67867
Rating: M
Summary: It’s the fall of 2000, and to help him out after his military career has ended due to injury, John Watson’s sister Harriet gets him a job as US tour manager for rising star of the industrial scene and enfant terrible, Sherlock Holmes. Sherlock’s not long out of rehab and there are plenty of doubts as to whether he’s serious about recovery. Plus, the music industry is shaking in its boots over the Napster mess. All John has to do is keep the money coming in and make sure his star doesn’t screw things up. After the army, that should be easy, right?
I absolutely love long, elaborate AUs, and this one did not disappoint. It’s romantic, funny and interesting. I especially liked the characterization of Sherlock and John at 23 and 28—they were different enough to be believable but still recognizable as the characters we’re familiar with.
Title: If I Fell
Author: thedeadparrot
Word Count: 4000
Rating: M
Summary: Sherlock knows that John sleeps with men. That much is obvious. What Sherlock doesn’t know is whether or not John likes to fuck them or be fucked or if he likes to pull hair or leave teethmarks or if he likes being on his knees or if he likes forcing people onto their backs. Sherlock doesn’t know if John wants to fuck Sherlock, of all people.
“John kills a cabbie for Sherlock, and he smiles pleasantly afterwards, and Sherlock realizes that there are layers to John that he missed in that lab in St. Bart’s, layers upon layers upon layers.” Contemplative and hot. I love this vision of dom!John and sub!Sherlock—it adds a fascinating new dimension to their relationship. And the bit with the dog tags—yes, please.
TItle: Never Look Back
Author: thedeadparrot
Word Count: 5590
Rating: M
Summary: “Thus always to tyrants, then?” John says, inspecting the polished metal. Just yesterday, it had been smeared with blood and entrails, dripping a putrid, ugly green onto the floor. “I like it.”
This update of Neil Gaiman’s fantastic Sherlock Holmes/H.P. Lovecraft mashup A Study in Emerald is wonderfully creepy and messed-up. I found Sherlock and John’s relationship particularly engrossing.
Title: here, our minutes grow hours
Author: the_arc5
Word Count: 7088
Rating: PG-13
Summary: In between corpses and embezzlement cases and grand thefts, it’s all very comfortable and domestic. Which means it’s only a matter of time before something explodes.
This is a lovely getting-together fic with spot-on characterization and great dialogue.
Title: Continuity
Author: lavvyan
Word Count: 1628
Rating: PG
Summary: Hope is the most dangerous emotion.
So much pining in this one, but there’s a lovely, fluffy ending. I thought the characterization, which can be tricky in fics like this, was done very well.
Title: Spaces Between
Author: aubkae
Word Count: 7644
Rating: M
Summary: John watches Sherlock wander through the flat staring at everything like it’s all new, touching random objects as if they can tell him something he doesn’t already know. Their eyes meet. They look away.
Delicate and slow-building post-Reichenbach fic. Very romantic.
Title: Ulysses and other tales
Author: Moranion
Word Count: 6317
Rating: M
Summary: Sherlock Holmes thinks he knows the world, but the journey is long, the years pass and John Watson will always be a riddle.
A lovely, romantic first time fic. It’s almost more of a character study of Sherlock than anything else—I enjoyed the focus on his relationship with his body and sexuality.
Title: Body of Evidence
Author: call_me_ishmael
Word Count: 3422
Rating: R
Summary: Genderqueer Sherlock, for this prompt: Someone doesn’t subscribe to the gender binary. Maybe they’re genderqueer. Maybe they’re two-spirit. Maybe they’re androgynous. Maybe they feel like a third gender. Maybe they’re fluid, and one day she feels female and the next day he feels male. Or even something I haven’t mentioned — there are infinite possibilities.
This is wonderful—sad, but sweet and optimistic.
Title: The Fabric of Life
Author: holyfant
Word Count: 156380
Rating: M
Summary: The fabric of life rearranges itself around the re-emergence of Sherlock.
This fantastic fic has kind of absorbed my life over the last few days. It’s a painful, romantic post-Reichenbach fic about grief and intimacy. I loved the OCs and found the internally-focused, lyrical style really engrossing.
Title: Instrument of Glass
Author: Handful of Silence
Word Count: 2840
Rating: PG
Summary: Sherlock doesn’t lose his heart after the Pool. Instead, he gives it away to the one person he knows will care for it.
“You can be heartbroken, heartless, heart-sick, light-hearted, you can lose it, or set it on something, you can take heart, or wear it on your sleeve. Which, as an idea, you feel is quite idiotic. It could get dirty, become lost, and that’s not mentioning the fact that wearing a human organ about the size of a fist as some sort of cuff-link would be monstrously unappealing.” A lovely, poetic, often funny meditation on Sherlock’s heart. This is a great character study—Handful of Silence’s Sherlock is analytical, strange, awkward and endearing.
