birdsofshore: (curlew)
birdsofshore ([personal profile] birdsofshore) wrote2014-09-22 06:41 pm

Fic: Unguarded (Draco/Albus Severus, ~15k, NC-17)

Title: Unguarded
Author: [livejournal.com profile] birdsofshore
Summary: Staying with Scorpius for the first time proves to be more eventful than Albus expected, right from the moment when he walks in on Mr Malfoy shaving.
Pairing(s): Draco/Albus Severus (age 43/17). Brief mention of Harry/Ginny. Mention of past Draco/Astoria.
Rating: NC-17
Warning(s): Powerplay, talk of cutting with a razor. This makes it sound really angsty – it isn't.
Word Count: ~15300

A/N: I've been looking forward to talking a little more about this fic, purely because I enjoyed writing it so much and found it fascinating how different it felt to other things I was trying to work on beforehand. It really brought home to me the joy that comes from writing something that's going well, as opposed to the drudgery and uncertainty of struggling on with something that simply isn't working. I simply could not leave this fic alone, or vice versa, and I had to make myself stop, because, honestly, it felt like I could have gone on forever.

I feel a little afraid that I will never write anything that feels this way again, nor anything that people liked so much. But, I'm going to try to stop thinking about that and just feel happy that I got such pleasure writing this.

I forgot to give credit in my original A/N to the fabulous website The Art of Manliness. They have some great resources about shaving and I also lifted some of Draco's dialogue and state of mind from their article here.

Straight razor shaving has meditative benefits. It’s a craft that requires you to slow down and really focus on what you’re doing. After a few times of shaving with a straight razor, you just might start to notice yourself entering an incredibly manly zen-like state.

You’ll feel like more of a bad ass. You’ll be shaving with a tool that can double as a lethal weapon. Putting razor-sharp steel next to your throat every morning reminds you that you’re alive.

I also found watching shaving videos completely fucking addictive and hot quite inspiring. This one is a favourite of mine. It doesn't hurt at all that the barber is so cute.



And this next one leaves me quite weak at the knees. The guy getting the shave just seems so blissfully into it, and he's so pliant in the female barber's hands, nnngh.



Both of these videos are actually SFW, which is ridiculous, considering how erotic they are (in my admittedly weird opinion :D).

I can also finally say thank you to my lovely betas! [livejournal.com profile] lumosed_quill, [livejournal.com profile] omi_ohmy and [livejournal.com profile] raitala were a joy to work with and so encouraging and helpful. Thank you so much. It was terribly indulgent having 3 betas, but, OMG, fun. ♥

Thank you again to [livejournal.com profile] gracerene for this wonderful prompt. Shaving kink will never not be irresistible to me and it was perfect for this pairing.

Thank you to [livejournal.com profile] vaysh and [livejournal.com profile] kitty_fic for running such a stonking little fest! ♥  I think H/D will always be my OTP, but god, this is a seductive second. I adored [livejournal.com profile] lumosed_quill's description of DM/ASP as being "the ship for H/D people who are a bit WRONG." :DD

And thank you to [livejournal.com profile] capitu, who guessed my fic and sent me an email consisting entirely of the words "oh my god" written about twenty times :DDDD


Unguarded

[identity profile] lumosed-quill.livejournal.com 2014-09-22 06:58 pm (UTC)(link)
THAT was probably the problem with Bang, LOL. It should have been Draco Bang ;-)

I've actually had this exact thought about what might have been the issue with your piece! You would kick a Draco Bang's pretty pretty arse!

[identity profile] lumosed-quill.livejournal.com 2014-09-22 07:16 pm (UTC)(link)
I didn't mean to insinuate that you *couldn't* write Harry, because I very much LOVE how you write Harry! Just meant that you were SO in Draco's head for the dm_asp piece that maybe your preference at that time of writing was strongly Draco. I hope I didn't just offend you, bb. <3 I almost didn't join the harrybang, because the only idea I had was very much Draco's life, too. But then YOU came along with your party game talk. ;-)

[identity profile] lumosed-quill.livejournal.com 2014-09-22 07:28 pm (UTC)(link)
Oh, that's fantastic! :-D

Yeah, I think one or the other of them just pipes up more readily here and there, and we all just have to follow that. And when the Draco voice is strong in you, young Jedi, boy the fuck howdy is it STRONG. You've got the strongest Draco voice I've ever read.

[identity profile] sophie-french.livejournal.com 2014-09-22 09:37 pm (UTC)(link)
I just can't focus at all on what you're saying with this icon.

I'm just drooling on my keyboard.

Sorry. :P

*useless comment is useless*

[identity profile] lumosed-quill.livejournal.com 2014-09-23 04:42 pm (UTC)(link)
Blame [livejournal.com profile] capitu. ;-) :-)