sakura_no_miko

Title: Sacrament (and the rest of the Father Charles series)

Rating: NC-17

Pairing: Erik/Charles, Raven/Azazel

Warnings: For the entire series: religious angst, explicit sex (gay), homophobia (historical context), PTSD, Holocaust, character death (spouse and child), grieving, warfare/combat/violence, permanent character injury/illness, pregnancy and abortion issues (historical context), allusions to suicide, infidelity

Other notes: alternate universe, religious fic, family, adoption, kink meme fill, 1960s, historical fic, character study, don’t let the warnings scare you off,

Length: 10k

Summary: It’s still the early 1960s. Charles grew up devoutly religious, went to seminary and took orders. Then he meets Erik Lehnsherr, the devout Jew and Holocaust survivor who is so fiercely protective of his charges that it moves Charles’ heart – and the first time their eyes meet, Charles has to confront the greatest temptation he’ll ever know, and the church’s teachings about what love is.

Well, I promised a serious religious fic, and it doesn’t get more serious than this: in this AU, Charles is truly devout. Not “well, this is a modern take on religion,” not “pagan cult AU,” not any sort of crack. Nope. Charles is a full-on priest, and takes his vows completely seriously, to the point where he really is troubled over something as simple as falling in love.

This is a fic series you cannot stop reading, and I wanted to end my week of religious fic on this one. Oddly enough, I almost didn’t read it. I came across the description and thought to myself, “mm, this sounds a bit melodramatic. Not sure I’d be interested…” But I clicked anyway, and once I realized there were sequels, any attempts to sleep that night were well and truly over.

On the one hand, I don’t want to spoil this fic, because it goes in incredibly interesting directions–not only Erik and Charles getting together, but them living through the turbulence of the 1960s and 70s, the Vietnam War, the challenges of being a gay couple in that historical period, family issues, Erik’s past traumas…

It’s bloody amazing. There’s nothing else to say. The length and the heavy subject matter may seem a bit daunting, but this is a fic where the characters grow and their relationships grow and a family grows. You ache alongside the characters and pray for them to make it through.

And, well, this is the perfect fic for my religion week, because Charles is a good Christian man through and through. I honestly don’t understand the type of faith he has, although I know there are certainly people who feel as strongly as he does. I feel more for Erik, particularly in the fourth part, which has one of my favorite scenes in the fic. That’s what good writing does–not just good “fic,” and not just good “literature” or whatever other fake distinctions people make. This is a story that makes you feel and makes you question and gets you to feel empathy for someone completely unlike yourself. That’s just good writing.

I’ve recced this author at least twice already, for The Winter of Banked Fires and Engima, so definitely check out those two fics as well.

(Looking for more fic recs?)
Originally posted on tumblr on 09/01/12