Fanfic Rec: "Fool's Gold" (Brokeback Mountain)

[flowrs4ophelia]

"I thought a you, Jack said, and Ennis didn’t think about what that might mean - whether it meant I-was-on-my-way-to-see-you-so-you-was-on-my-mind or what. He wasn’t thinking about anything at the time, because Jack’s voice sounded like it had that summer so long ago. Cocky and shy, all at the same time. Later, Ennis came to wonder whether it had been the name – Fool’s Gold – that had put Jack in mind of him, like some kind of promise made and then broken. But that was later. That moment he thought of nothing else than the way Jack felt in his arms and the way it seemed as though he might’ve swallowed a live ember for all the burning in his guts."

A sad story about Ennis driving alone on Christmas Eve and getting stranded when his car breaks down. And who is he thinking of the whole time? Well, no surprise. The way it switches back and forth from the past to the current is done very well. It's one of the most melancholy BBM fics I've read; there's so much loneliness in it. It's also one of the longer ones I've read through, but the writer has a very distinct and mature style and it's completely enjoyable from start to finish.
The writer herself rated this NC-17, which I guess is fair enough - it does get pretty dirty in just a few paragraphs and a lot of people would consider it worth that rating. However, I don't think it ever gets to the point of tastelessness, so I'm marking it as R here. It seems like in fanfiction, descriptive gay sex automatically merits an extreme rating, and I don't really get this. This particular story certainly doesn't have anything in it worse than A History Of Violence.

Title: Fool's Gold
Author: frayach
Rating: R
Summary: It’s the first Christmas after Ennis’s divorce and he’s got an idea that this year things might be different.
Link: You gotta turn it upside down...