“And Never Been Kissed” by thehoyden, twentysomething (AO3)

Pairings: Sid/Geno
Word Count: 166,710

Warnings: Super slow burn leading to explicit sexy times

Author’s Summary

Sid didn’t introduce himself in the hallway, and he certainly doesn’t assume that people know who he is. So it would only be polite to thank Malkin again, this time more personally.

He could write him a letter. An email? No, a letter.

My Thoughts

I know you may not read RPF, but if you’re tempted, this is the fic that I hand out to anyone interested in hockey, or who wants to get into this particular pairing and enjoys amazing writing with epistolary feels. This story is almost 200k words, and yet I’ve read it at least half a dozen times, and consider it the basis of my fanon* for these two. This co-written piece covers a lot of ground, starting when the boys meet as teens and taking readers up through the present, all from the POV of Sid. The authors achieve a delicate balance between the bumbling, dorky, emotional hockey-bot that Captain Canada has been since he was 16 with Geno’s sweet, oblivious, Russian expat that works to endear readers to them both as individuals, as friends, and as teammates.

If you’re a Destiel fan, you might recognize twentysomething from the numerous fics written for the Dean/Cas pairing, a couple of which have been featured on this blog. The attention to detail in this story is amazing, so much so, that you really can’t rush through it. Don’t read NBK if you’re looking for a fast fix of smut, although there is plenty of it, if you’re patient. Everything about this story moves naturally and smoothly to the inevitable ending and it’s so, so beautiful–probably my favorite hockey RPF of all time.

xoxo C. Diva

Geeking out over on Twitter, Tumblr.

*Disclaimer: It goes without saying that fanficiton is not true to life. With RPF, fanon is fanon and canon is real life*

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