I Have Opened My Yuletide Parcel!

[opalmatrix]

And it is a shiny new piece of Gentlemen of the Road fic. It's a buddy hurt-comfort story that manages to be surprisingly tender without selling out Zelikman's bitter cynicism nor Amram's world-weariness. And there are horses (we find out where Hillel came from) and a cave and storytelling and bittersweet memories. It's really wonderful and quite Chabon-esque!

• On Friends, Partners and Other Unattractive Beasts

Be patient with the link, or even put it off to read a bit later: Archive of Our Own held up quite well while everyone was uploading their stories, but the load of thousands of fans reading things and making comments is pounding the server.