A Funny Thing Happened on my Way to...

re-read Hawks and Hands by dira sudis.

For the uninitiated (OMG if you are, you are so going to thank me), 'Hawks and Hands' is an EPIC due South AU, and if you like:

due South
Hockey
Canadian actors
pretty men having sexy times
Quebecois (sp) accents
excellent writing
long reads
AUs
or any combination of the above, you will love this.  You will most likely also love anything else ever written anywhere by dira.  SO. Friday night I was struck by the compulsion to re-read 'Hawks and Hands.'  I did not care that I was 2.5 sheets to the wind, or that it was 2 hrs past my normal bedtime, I had to run to AO3 and search on dira sudis.  Unfortunately, that's about when my head started swimming, so I decided it could wait until morning.  Which came at the normal weekday time of 0500. Oi.  Since I was wide awake, I resumed my search.

I found that dira sudis has been posting a lot lately in MCR (I'm sure were_duck  already knows this and can tell me what the best stories are, but I suspect she'll just say "everything!")  AND dira has recently completed a SERIES in the Vorkosigan 'verse!  I immediately started with the grabby hands.

The World That You Need  is amazing and wonderful and hot and totally true to the characters and doesn't even have a cameo appearance by Miles!  The series is the run-up to the time period of "The Mountains of Mourning" preceding that by no more than 2-3 months. It's all about what Cordelia and Aral are getting up to while Miles is getting ready to graduate.  There is some great outside POV work too - with Armsman Pym and various other armsmen and servants weighing in on the foibles of the Vorkosigan family.  And there is polyamory, in a pristine (Betan), adult form that is far more idealistic than anything I ever experienced.  But I am an idealistic sort, and a dreamer, so this story hits all my happily-ever-after buttons. Hard. I've always admired Cordelia, and dira has magnified that admiration. 

On top of all that, there are even more Vorkosigan 'verse stories by dira sudis! I spent all weekend browsing through the 480 currently posted to AO3 in that fandom, read everything by dira, re-read a couple of old faves by sahiya/lightgetsin, and marvelled that I hadn't thought to explore this fandom in more depth sooner.  I'm always delighted to come across Vorkosigan fanfic, but I've never seriously sought it out.  Do not ask me why. It's a terrible oversight.  Needless to say, the 'Hawks and Hands' re-read will have to wait for another time. 200k+ words is not something to take on lightly.