Official Description: AH. A few peeks into the volatile, passionate, and occasionally sweet love affair between Edward Cullen and Leah Clearwater.
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You may have read mjinaspen’s sexy and fun Edward/Bella fic, Reality Minus Expectations. Hair of the Dog is a different beast—this is not your mama’s fanfic. No, no, no. Fasten your seatbelts, you’re in for a bumpy ride if you decide to go on this journey with MJ.
Hair of the Dog was originally a one-shot written for the “A Picture is Worth 1000 Words Contest,” and those of us who ‘ship Edward and Leah are lucky that mjinaspen has continued HotD. If you haven’t ever read an Ed/Leah story, you’ll want to give HotD a try.
In the five chapters posted, we’ve only seen Edward and Leah together as a couple in flashbacks. Meanwhile, in the present they’re breaking up. Leah is yelling; Edward is drunk and somewhat clueless.
“Do not laugh at me, you sonofabitch!” Leah smacked the drink from my hand, splashing perfectly good whiskey down the front of my pajamas and sending the glass careening to the tile floor.(ch 1)
“Have you been crying?” I asked, slightly befuddled. I had never seen Leah vulnerable, sad, or scared. (Edward, ch 1)
It’s not easy to find anything redeeming in Edward, although in some of Leah’s memories we do get glimpses of his good guy side.
When Cullen and I were good, we were really fucking good. I could get fired from my job, wreck my truck, or get my hair caught in the coffee grinder, and he would always hold me up, make me feel better. (Leah, ch 2)
Early on the seed is planted that they are only together for the sex—steamy, hot, amazing, rough sex.
I had no idea why she was always so pissed off at me. Luckily, she fucked as passionately as she fought. (Edward, ch 1)
“Like I said,” I inserted myself into Jake’s rant and sat back into my chair. “I lived it. But he’s an amazing fuck.” I shrugged, nonchalant. “It wasn’t easy walking away knowing what I’ll be missing between the sheets is all I’m sayin’.” It felt hollow saying that, but what else was there, really? (Leah, ch 3)
MJ writes a mean lemon. Some of the most erotic moments have Edward barely touching Leah during foreplay. The sex is creative yet realistic. Trust me, you’ll be wanting to try some of Edward’s moves with your significant other. I wanted to quote some of the sexytimes here but gave up trying to choose what section to highlight—there are just too many amazing moments, so I’ll let you discover them when you read the fic.
Sex may be the glue that has kept them together, but that’s not all they have. Unfortunately, Edward and Leah are terrible communicators. Throughout the flashbacks we’re given little hints that both Leah and Edward have been holding things back from each other during the course of the relationship. They both wear these masks, neither wanting to let the other one in on what they’re really thinking. They share such a spark, not just sexually, that you can’t help but hope that they somehow figure out how to be together without taking each other’s heads off.
MJ makes some wonderful allusions to each of their canon characteristics; best of all she does it without bashing you over the head with the usual fic clichés. Leah says that Edward is incapable of personal growth; it’s a nice parallel to vampire Edward’s unchanging nature. Leah is angry and bitter, much like canon Leah is over Sam’s betrayal. What MJ gives Leah that Stephenie Meyer did not is dignity in her anger. Leah is also introspective; she can admit that she shoulders some of the blame for their fucked up relationship.
After reading chapter 5, I wondered if the title refers not only to the best way to get over a hangover, but perhaps a way for Edward and Leah to get over their dysfunctional relationship. I can’t wait to find out if Edward and Leah will take the hair of the dog by giving their relationship another try, or if the story will ultimately be about Leah restoring her self-worth and sense of self that her time with Edward damaged. Either way, I’ll be back for as many chapters as MJ writes.
So, I am negl, I do not read fics that have Edward fucking someone that isn’t Bella if I can help it. But, in this case, I really couldn’t help it. I love MJ and the girl writes some seriously fuckhot lemons. She is the reason that I came up with my 5-chapter rule.
With that being said, she’s so much more than hot lemons and superlative smut. She evokes emotions, even when you don’t want to feel them.
I just wanted to close my eyes and wake up with Leah riding me in ignorant bliss.
“Okay,” I shrugged.
“Is that all you have to say for yourself?”
What did she want me to say? This happens every other week. I do what I do, and she gets pissed.
“Leah, you fucking knew who I was when you moved in here.” I lit another cigarette to keep me warm. “And I never promised you a goddamned thing.”
“I see.” She straightened her posture and gripped the edge of the doorframe. “So what you’re really saying is, you have no common decency, and I shouldn’t expect any. Is that it?”
She stood still and watched as I silently finished my smoke, stubbed it out, and leaned my head against the wall to wait for my rescue.
“Yeah,” she breathed and shifted her weight. “I guess that’s it.”
I read Hair of the Dog when it was a o/s in the “A Picture is Worth a Thousand Words Contest” and figured I could make it through a thousand words of Leahward. Plus, it has an OJ-reference. If you can handle the non-canon pairing, I implore you to check this story out. It’s hot. It’s real. It’s MJ. How could you not? She makes me want to break my own rules.
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