Archived fic rec - Imitation

[sakura_no_miko]

Title: Imitation

Author: Uakari

Fandom: Tsubasa Reservoir Chronicle

Rating: NC-17

Pairing: Kurogane/Fai, Sakura/Syaoran

Warnings: explicit sex (gay, het), unintentional voyeurism, exhibitionism, references to infidelity, insecurity

Other notes: established relationship, domesticity, angst, old age

Length: 15k

Summary: “If the father does it, the children will imitate!”

 

Oh, I’ve been bad with writing, and good with pseudo-depressed laziness. But I’ve found the best thing to do is just start up again. So, hey, if you haven’t read my fic recs before–despite them being the whole point of this blog–well, they’re coming back. Slowly, but surely, they are coming back.

So, I started as a fairly hardcore anime fan. There were years when I could tell you about every single manga on the Barnes and Noble shelf, quote you lyrics from all the popular songs, and talk your ear off on obscurities like the Year 24 Group. Still, by the time I was in college, I was more concerned with trying to keep my anime club together than actually watching any of the shows, and then I got into the Star Trek reboot and suddenly realized I had years upon years of American tv to catch up on, and I really haven’t gotten back to anime.

But probably the biggest fandom I was in, anime-wise, were the many works of CLAMP. When CLAMP announced they were going to write a new story where everything was basically going to be thrown into a shared universe, it was really exciting.

Then, Tsubasa Chronicles. A story that was so amazing when it started, and so incoherent when it ended. I mean, I remember chasing down spoilers from the latest scanned chapters and being baffled. It got–weird. Really weird. Clones and reincarnation and alternate universes simultaneously weird. That said, I did write fic for it back in the day (all rendered non-canon later), and I remember reading a handful of good fics.

This fic is just–amazing. Partly because I soured a bit on the original story, and partly because it’s just been so long since I read Tsubasa fic–or anime fic in general. Still, I read this fic and everything just clicked. The author uses the world-traveling to link together a series of events and their effect on Fai, as he starts to feel insecure about his relationship with Kurogane. There’s this great sense of time in this fic, and how the characters have grown older–which was missing a bit from the canon story, since there were tons of people who were immortal and cloned and magically de-aged. It also takes a look at the bleakest aspects of the ending, where

*spoilers*, each of the three main guys ends up basically cursing themselves, and the Syaoran in this fic has to continue traveling endlessly, never able to stay in one world for long. There are some shades of “the adventure goes on” and “at least we’re traveling together,” but it’s still pretty bleak. Not as bleak as what Watanuki got, but… *end spoilers*

Well, coincidentally, a Tsubasa/xxxholic fic also caught my eye…but that’s for tomorrow.

I love the sense of domesticity and habit in this fic. I mean, I love reading the fumbling first time fics, too, but it’s so fascinating to see a couple who have been together for a while, who laugh at each other, who know things without having to say them. At the same time, that sense of knowing and not talking ends up working against them, since Fai ends up totally misinterpreting things.  I love that Fai is afraid of how happy he is, and how well things have worked out. I’m kind of surprised the author calls this a fluff fic, when I’d probably call it an angst fic, but it does have a sort of warm feeling to it.

(Looking for more fic recs?)
Originally posted on tumblr on 12/14/13