My top Sherlock fic recs

Originally posted at LiveJournal on July 19, 2012

So apparently I'm still on this lovely Sherlock cloud, and despite all my protestations of Imma go back to my regularly scheduled life aaaany day now…my brain is still running in a constant (though perhaps more quiet) loop of SherlockSherlockSherlockCumberbatchSherlockFreemanSherlockReichenbachSherlock-Season3Sherlock…

Or if you'd like a visual representation, it's a bit like this (the four panels in the middle).  Or also this:

...which is a bit frighteningly accurate.

I did watch an episode of NCIS the other day.

But guess which fandom has the most fic recs in my deviantArt journal?  I knew entering the Tumblr-sphere was a dangerous move, but man have they given me some lovely Johnlocks to read!

These are my top five:

• "Five Times John Woke Up Next to Sherlock (and one time he did something about it),"                            by TheShoelessOne.

Excerpt: He didn't remember falling asleep. His dreams had been something else, though. A brogue little man in an expensive little suit, buzzing in his ear. Red fireflies across Sherlock's face. The blooming orange of explosion, like budding lilies that snapped fire at his heels. Trapped underwater, chlorine in his nose, mouth, head still full of the buzzing, something clutching at him, dragging him, wrapped around him.

He didn't remember falling asleep, and certainly not in a hospital. His mind fumbled, key turning but engine flooding as he tried to start it again and again.

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This is my favorite kind of Johnlock -- the kind that builds steadily toward the relationship without being too obvious with the feelings, and that keeps the characters very firmly in character.  There's hesitation without melodrama, and the payoff is absolutely lovely -- it's one of my favorite scenes in any Sherlock fic.  There's no dialogue in those final paragraphs, so you get this sense of intense calm mixed with anticipation (but, again, without melodrama).

This is the story I return to the most, when I need my Johnlock fix.  The length is just right, there's a very nice balance of detail and subtlety, and very believable characterization.  The sudden, brief shifts to Sherlock's p.o.v. were confusing at first, but they fit better on second read.

• "Two Coffees One Black One with Sugar Please," by Linpatootie.

Excerpt: The second night John learns Sherlock talks in his sleep. He is teased out his slumber by a few slurred syllables which soon grow into what turns out to be a vaguely incoherent monologue about tea. John listens, fascinated, if vaguely annoyed that apparently Sherlock doesn't even shut the hell up when asleep.

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One of the sweetest, fluffiest, and funniest Johnlocks.  Especially one particular scene in Part 3 -- I call it the Epic Johnlock Snuggling Scene of Awww-someness.  You could argue that the core of the story is in Parts 1 and 2 -- or maybe 1 - 3, depending on what you consider the most important conflict to be resolved.  Part 4 is more like an epilogue (a very sweet epilogue, though, especially Sherlock's blog post at the end…)

I do think John's put-upon-ness in Part 3 gets a bit old, but overall, the characterizations felt just right.

• "Needing is One Thing (Getting is Another)," by ladyflowdi and mirrorskippy.

Excerpt: John thinks that Sherlock doesn't have any self-preservation instincts, that they went the way of his social skills and any sense of perspective. Sherlock doesn't necessarily disagree, though he would perhaps couch it in different terms. It's not a death wish - John himself covers that territory with frankly alarming regularity - but more a distracted and at times criminal negligence, a natural result of the distance from his mind to the mundane realities of everyday existence.

They spend a minute and six seconds submerged in the pool, and Sherlock is forced to ignore the minor game of semantics so he can reevaluate his entire argument. John holds him down, stares at him, calm, so strangely calm, like he knows what will happen next when that's patently impossible. 

Tell me why you're like this, Sherlock thinks. What do you know that I don't?

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Season 2 intro spoilers ahead.  Having joined the fandom halfway through Season 2 (the U.S. airing), I can only imagine how everyone reacted to the actual resolution of Season 1's cliffhanger.  In all of the post-GreatGame/pre-season-2-premiere stories I've read, the assumption is that Sherlock will shoot the vest.  I admit, that would've been an epic start for "A Scandal in Belgravia," and the BeeGees save does seem epically anticlimactic in comparison…but then, it does fit Moriarty's soooo changeabllllle character.  And it's hilarious.

Still, I love ladyflowdi and mirrorskippy's version of events.  In addition, of course, to John and Sherlock, I love the characterization of Mycroft, and his understanding of how Sherlock became who he is.

• "The Important Bit," by Rayndrop. (oh hey, looks like she's also written fics for Labyrinth, Beauty and the Beast, and…The Magic School Bus? …A Magic School Bus/Dr. Who crossover? O_o ...Ok, I'm intrigued.)

Excerpt: John wishes he could pinpoint the exact moment he stopped correcting people who assumed they were a couple. It was a difficult kind of thing to put a finger on. He would have liked to question and analyze it and worry it like a loose tooth, that one particular moment, but he can't and it's very irksome.

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Usually, I'm more of a romantic-etc-(wink wink)-Johnlock kind of girl, but I could definitely see their relationship the way Rayndrop does.  "Because," as she says in her author's notes, "the really important part is that they're soulmates whether or not they fancy each other. Because they defy category. Because if anyone is going to tell society that it and its constrictive, insufficient definitions of friendship, romance, and marriage can go hang, it's going to be Sherlock Freaking Holmes."

Be prepared for some tearjerking moments.

• "Staircase Wit," by splix.

Excerpt: It was a puzzle of no small irritation that Sherlock hadn’t yet been able to work out the pattern of bullying adopted by the thick-witted, foul-smelling, spotty group of snot rags he was forced to call his schoolmates. He’d attempted to apply logic and mathematics to the problem, considering as many variables as he could: school schedule, time of day, days of week, instructor mood, assignments, barometric pressure, temperature, occurrence of compulsory chapel, days of sport versus days of rest – there was nothing for it, not yet anyway; until further data presented itself, he was compelled to conclude that the bullying was totally random. It was annoying and undignified, but he’d sort it out eventually. Until that glorious day arrived, though, he was reduced to scurrying around like a rat in an effort to avoid a thrashing. Mostly, he managed; today, he hadn’t.

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Another great 5+1 story that you even forget is a 5+1 story -- i.e. it works wonderfully by itself, and not just as a meme response.  It's a beautiful, believable, and sometimes heartbreaking character study of Sherlock at six significant moments in his life.  Six moments when he's overpowered, the last time very nearly fatal.  Re: the Johnlock, naturally there are some great sexytimes :) , but there's this one moment before that, when John calls Sherlock "love," seemingly without realizing it, and it's such a small moment but so achingly sweet.