Acceptance by MsKathy

http://www.fanfiction.net/s/5350277/1/Acceptance
Word Count: 7,966

Official Description: Written for the TwiSlash Unveiled Femme Slash Contest – Leah struggles with her self-identity and Bella just wants someone to love. When Alice sets them up on a blind date, they each find more than they had hoped for in each other. Lemons, femme slash.

Check out the awesome video, made by chele681:
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NU_hjUHXLUQ]

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chele681 says:I’ll be the first to admit that I am a bit of a snob when it comes to reading femmeslash and it is with trepidation that I venture into reading a fic where I know it’s going to be attempted. To avoid the disappointment of finding ill-informed descriptions or contrived situations I make a general rule of not reading it much. There are, of course, exceptions to this rule for authors who know how to do it right.

MsKathy is one of those authors.

Acceptance is one of those stories.

Acceptance details the beginning of a relationship between Leah and Bella from the nervous first date, to instinctual first love, and it does it well; managing, without pretension or artifice, to tell the story of two non-stereotypical women who just happen to love women (and have mind-blowing wonderful sex with each other.)

Leah is strong and intelligent with a graceful balance of femininity and masculinity. She acknowledges the ongoing struggle with society’s stringent gender roles.

Bella, on the other hand, is a bit of a free spirit and is disarming with her philosophy on love and sexuality:

“I don’t fall in love with genders, I fall in love with people”

It would have been so easy for MsKathy to Make Leah a cliche’ and sacrifice substance as a shortcut to smut. Instead Leah is given the depth and complexity she deserves. Bella’s unique perspective on love and attraction challenges and intrigues her. In fact, Bella may be Leah’s divine partner because she removes gender from the equation entirely when falling in love, which allows Leah a freedom of self she might not find with anyone else.

There are no formulaic roles in “Acceptance,” just believable characters exposed slowly to each other and the reader. Their intimacy is earned. The citrus is hot, personal, and accurate. There really is no better kind as far as I’m concerned.

tampagirl81 says:
When I learned that the fic’s this week would be centered on femslash, I was a bit surprised. I was excited to see what the fandom had in the ways of femslash. I’ve seen plenty of amazing ExJ slash and even some ExC pairings. I read the one-shot, Acceptance and was instantly in love with these women. What I love about Bella is her philosophy of who you fall in love with.

“I don’t fall in love with genders, I fall in love with people,” I explained.

Her face crumpled a bit, and I tried to search for the right words. It felt like we were having a much bigger conversation under the surface, than just discussing sexuality.

“Facets of you are just parts and pieces that make up the whole of who you are, not a gender, not an identity.”

The way that mskathy phrased this idea is beautiful and real and I agree with it wholeheartedly. My heart hurts for Leah and how she struggles to accept who she is in her own body. I admire Leah because she may not be fully accepting of herself, it doesn’t stop her from opening herself up to the possibility of someone loving her for who she is.