Beside and Near (Lavinia/Darius)

Another week, another rec! Time to shine some light on an up-and-coming pairing, featured in two fabulous fics by the talented when-i-caught-myself. Ladies and gentlemen, I present:

Title: Near

Summary: This is the story of how Darius and Lavinia first met. Keep her near; she's all you need. Nothing is the the same now; after they silenced you for good you found myself near her. She is all you need now. Oneshot.

Title: Beside

Summary: This is a companion piece to my other story, Near. When you saw him beside you you knew there was something new. To be at his side couldn't be any less wonderful.

*Catching Fire and Mockingjay spoilers ahead*

My Recommendation:

"Near" starts off dark, without another way to put it. Darius' perspective on the pain of being turned into an Avox, and the humiliation of old friends from District Twelve seeing him in that light. The emotion is captured beautifully, with a focus on his sentiments and not just the actual events. The piece also fills in gaps in the canon without flaw, realistically so that you can see it actually being the way it happened. It's the sort of story you confuse with the actual books.

Lavinia and Darius' relationship gets off to a firm, non-cliche' start. The exploration of the connection between them is nothing short of perfect - wonderfully sweet and adorable, though of course we know how it ends. You can quickly see the bond forming between them:

I don't want to elaborate further, even though Lavinia is probably the last living person that will truly understand me.

Thankfully, she doesn't pry. She writes three very simple words. "Are you okay?"

I nod. "Yes." Even if it might not be true, I don't want to seem weak.

Instead of writing, she gently puts down the pad and pen and takes one of my hands in hers. Her hands seem so small compared to mine, but they are slender and strong. Our fingers entwine together, sharing warmth. Even if we could still talk, we didn't need to say anything.

We sit down on the small bed. She edges close to me and rests her head on my shoulder. I lean my head on hers. We both feel lonely, but not now.

"Beside" is the companion, the piece written in Lavinia's perspective. What's nice is that it's different from "Near". It's not just a retelling; the voice is distinctly different, the view on what happened refreshing instead of exactly the same. Her internal reactions perfectly match her behavior in the original piece, so the two oneshots compliment each other just as they should, as well as adding to the actual series.

As Lavinia/Darius is still a fairly rare pairing, hopefully these fics get enough attention to bring it into more light... and hopefully then we'll have more wonderful fics like these!

There you have this week's post - go on and check out these fics, and I'll be back with more next week. Shalom to you all~

RIse Above The Crowds (Delly/Peeta)

Hey, all! Finally back with another rec for you guys.

Title: Rise Above The Crowds

Author: curiosa

Summary: Delly believes in dreams and freedom and being the best person that anyone can be, but most of all, Delly believes in Peeta.

My Recommendation:

This fic goes to show something about the author, because you would have really had to pay attention to Delly in Mockingjay to pull off characterization like this. For as little of the relationship developed between her and Peeta in the real books there is, this fic builds on it all wonderfully. This section particularly shows this:

“Why do you care what anybody else thinks?”

Peeta’s sat on the edge of her bed, staring at Delly with what looks like increasing confusion.

She wrinkles her nose at his reflection, staring flatly back at her own and sighing. “I don’t care,” she says, even if they both know that’s not true and she’s always been bad at lying. “I just want to look nice for once, you know?”

She knows what everyone says about her behind her back: Delly Cartright, the plump and pale girl with messy hair that’s barely worth a second glance over.

“You do look nice,” Peeta says and then moves restlessly from the bed, stretching out his legs and walking away to look at some of Delly’s old photos.

She tosses back her hair; pulling it up so the curls don’t look so scraggy and then lets them flop back lifelessly onto her shoulders. She likes her eyes, she thinks, a tone of blue and green, somewhere in between the two, which mix together and bring out the best of both her parents.

“You do look nice,” says Peeta, repeating himself, “won-der-ful,” dragging out the syllables and letting them catch at the edges of his teeth. “Always.”

He lets his head flop onto her shoulder and tucks his chin into the crook of her neck. Winking at her as the inevitable smile starts to unfurl on her lips, her hands moving to shove him away from her, laughing, tutting at his silly behaviour and grabbing for her coat that he’s got wrapped around his sleeve, waiting.

Peeta is perfectly in character, and a pro of the fic is that Peeta/Katniss is not completely ignored. This new relationship shown is just so beautiful, and a tragic glimpse at their future as it could've been. It's not completely unrequited love--just two different kinds of it that are contrasting with each other. (And let's face the facts: little kids are just plain adorable.)

Rise Above The Crowds is a highly ambitious piece for a focus on such a rare pairing, and it pulls it off beautifully. Even as a oneshot, you feel you suddenly know everything there is to know about these two. Just wonderful.

Farewell for this week; happy Spring!