One-Shot Wednesdays: Quil's Guilt by Roses in May

Okay, so I've been toying with the idea of 'One-Shot Wednesdays' or something equally ridiculous sounding for a minute but have been put off so far by fear that I wouldn't be able to keep up with it.

But just recently I found a one-shot that was just begging to be recc'd, so I decided I'd try it out. I won't promise to post a new one-shot rec every week but if you do get them they'll come on Wednesdays.

Because it rhymes. I know, it's sad. I don't care.

So here's the story that inspired me to get over my procrastination and type up this little recommendation:

Quil's Guilt by Roses in May

Although I love all the wolves and their respective imprints, I generally stick with Jake/Nessie but today I was link-hopping and came across this little gem.

Roses in May takes a common concept in imprint-fanfic and expounds upon it. Claire, at the tender age of fourteen, is growing up and ready for Quil to be more than her best friend but he's just not feeling it.

Well, he is, and that as you'll see is the root of the problem. He's feeling it entirely too much for his comfort.

It's not uncommon in fanfic to see our beloved Jake and Quil, who have imprinted on children, struggle with themselves when their feelings start to change as their imprints grow and mature but few rarely explore it like Roses in May does in Quil's Guilt.

Claire, as most teenagers are, is convinced that she is completely right and completely grown and finds ways to tempt Quil more than he thought possible. Sometimes he slips up.

His inner-conscious and previous agreement with Claire's parents keeps telling him to wait until she's sixteen, but Claire and his hormones just won't take no for an answer.

Quil's Guilt is a one-part one-shot that is a part of a much longer story, with two multi-chaptered fics following. I have to admit, I consumed them all today so forgive me if they run together a little in my head.

Quil's guilt (as in the actual emotion and not the title) takes a physical and emotional toll on him as he just cannot seem to come to grips with things changing, so disgusted with himself that he even sends Claire away when she comes begging for his forgiveness after an incident where her teasing led Quil into a lapse of judgement.

I'm tempted to review the entire series, which defeats the point of One-Shot Wednesdays, so I'll try to keep talk of the other parts to a minimum.

We get some great Quil/Embry/Seth action (in the completely gen sense) with Jake and Nessie dropping in occasionally as background characters, not so much in the first part as in the latter two.

Roses in May writes pack-back-and-to as hilarious as I've ever seen it. The boys are firmly established as friends and you can feel it in their jabbing and joking - it doesn't get stiff. Very witty and not at all sitcom like; realistic to anyone whose friends thrive off a healthy dose of sarcasm in their daily lives.

To sum up, it's really worth the read. There are some issues that really end up coming down to opinion (how you feel about outside relationships post-imprinting, your opinions on age vs. maturity, etc.), that could be awesome for one reader or a turn-off for the next. This doesn't change the fact that good reader who's able to overlook a few personal-opinion peeves will be able to appreciate the really great story they'll get out of it.

With well-developed characters and a Quil who actually has a psychological process, Quil's Guilt really is a win. You get a caught between adult-and-teenage Quil and a teenage Claire who actually acts like a teenager and get to see how a relationship would begin to form between them.

To refrain from spoiling more than I already have, I'll leave you here.

Now go forth and read!

\*/

Here's all the info:

Quil's Guilt by Roses in May

When Claire pushes the boundaries of their relationship too far, Quil struggles with what everyone will think of him, and what he thinks of himself.

Where you can find it all:

Quil's Guilt on FF.n (It's rated T, but reads more like a light M to me.)

Oh, and on an ending note, sense it seems I must always have one: I found this fic link-hopping earlier today, like I mentioned but as I was typing it occurred to me the title might have been recommended to me by one of my readers. I tried to find the PM but couldn't, so I'm very sorry if it was indeed recommended to me by someone. Let me know who you are and I'll give you credit.