Yuletide reveal: 2 stories, Shetland and The Sting (1973)

I know it's been almost a week since official reveals, but I've been solidly down with a doozy of a cold. At last, I can concentrate and read and even think! Yay.

I wrote one assignment and one treat for Yuletide this year:

North of Everywhere (8316 words) by Dorinda
Chapters: 1/1
Fandom: Shetland (TV)
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Relationships: Duncan Hunter/Jimmy Perez
Characters: Duncan Hunter, Jimmy Perez
Additional Tags: Cooking, Pining, Post-Season/Series 05, Everyone Thinks They're Together, Feelings Realization, Getting Together, First Time
Summary:

There was a part of Jimmy—still too strong a part, the one who lived alone, stood alone, drew the firm line round himself—that kept wanting to say, Thanks but you didn't have to do that. Thanks but you're already welcome to stay. Thanks but I'm used to shifting for myself.

Thanks, but.

He shook it off as best he could. And instead, he walked behind Duncan as they both left the kitchen, and put his hands on Duncan's shoulders.

I love the crime show Shetland, which just ended its 5th season (and with a lovely present for the Jimmy/Duncan shippers)--it's beautiful, atmospheric, well-cast and acted, interesting dynamics among the characters. And I especially love the relationship between Jimmy Perez, the lead, a widower with one daughter, and Duncan Hunter, the ex-husband of Jimmy's late wife as well as the biological father of Jimmy's daughter. They're different in such interesting ways, but they work so hard at their co-parenting, and as Cassie grows up and leaves home, their de facto marriage still remains.

I had never tried writing Shetland before, but at last I felt brave enough to offer it, and I had a great time! I wanted something gradual and cozy, and I wanted Jimmy not to realize just quite how married he is (and how married he wants to be) until he's neck-deep in it.

I also wrote a treat:

The Breath at Your Shoulder (2705 words) by Dorinda
Chapters: 1/1
Fandom: The Sting (1973)
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Relationships: Henry Gondorff/Johnny Hooker
Characters: Henry Gondorff, Johnny Hooker, Alva Coleman
Additional Tags: Yuletide Treat, Con Artists, 1930s, Dreams and Nightmares, Survivor Guilt, Emotional Hurt/Comfort, Family, Found Family
Summary:

By the time he finally felt he might be sleepy, it was the truly wee hours. And over the quiet breathing of a dozen other people, he recognized Hooker's voice at once.

Too soft to be a shout, too thin and high to be a groan. It was as if Hooker was on a train heading the other way, and this quiet keening noise was all Henry had left as he faded into the distance.

I am no great shakes at coming up with prompts when I sign up for challenges, but I greatly admire those who are. And I found myself struck by nahnahnahnah 's prompt for The Sting (1973), reminding me that Johnny was so close to Luther's family. I had never considered the likelihood of his survivor's guilt before, and I enjoyed getting to do that.


Plus, the authors of the gift stories I received were:

* Exorcist story: every saint has a past (every sinner has a future) is by fabulous_but_evil

* Guardian treat: The Light is by trascendenza

* Exorcist treat in Madness: Pray For Us Sinners is by CousinShelley

* The Sting treat: smiles were made, dear, for people like us is by indigostohelit, and may I add here again that if you haven't read it yet--I get it, there's a lot to read, and it's almost 19K--I encourage you to download it and give it a whirl!