Rawhide fic recs

stephantom:

snoipahjoe
replied to your post “i can’t believe how many times i’ve reread the same handful of rawhide…”

There’s rawhide fics?? Oh man I haven’t read em yet

Yes! There is! And I’ve been kind of wanting to make a reclist for a while tbh, so here we go.

Most of my favorites are by Poohblaze. She does a nice mix of fluffy, plotty, silly and dramatic, much like the show, and I like her take on the characters and their relationships. (She writes Rowdy & Favor as clearly meaning a lot to each other, but in a way that could be interpreted as purely platonic if that’s how you see them… or as potentially full of unresolved romantic and/or sexual feelings, if that’s how you see them). Asterisks mean highly recommend.

Long, action-adventure fics that feel like they could be episodes on the show:

• **Incident of the Long Afternoon – Boss and Mushy go to the bank. Things happen. Characters: Favor, Mushy, Wishbone, Rowdy. (Rowdy/Favor if you squint.)
• **Philadelphia Story – Rowdy and Pete visit Mr. Favor’s home. Might be helpful to watch s3e15: “Fish Out of Water,” where we meet his family but it’s not totally necessary. Characters: Rowdy, Favor, Pete, Gillian & Maggie Favor (Favor’s daughters), Eleanor (Favor’s sister-in-law).
• *Incident of the Quarantined Town – Favor wakes up from an illness. Things have happened. Then more things happen. Characters: Favor, Wishbone, Rowdy.
• Incident of the Ramrod – A man who used to ramrod on a previous cattle drive with Mr. Favor shows up. Characters: Rowdy, Favor, Pete, Wishbone.
• Incident of the Hacienda – Favor and Jesus go off to buy some cattle. Things happen. Characters: Favor, Jesus, Rowdy, Pete, Wishbone. 

Short, fluffy fics:

• *I’ll Be Home For Christmas – Just Rowdy and Favor stuck in a jail cell. (Rowdy/Favor if you squint.)
• Jim Story – It’s Jim Quince’s birthday. Quince, Scarlet, Collins. Quince/Scarlet if you squint.
• Winter Blues – Again, Quince/Scarlet if you squint.
• Strays – The drovers aren’t where they’re supposed to be. Quince, Scarlet, Wishbone, Mushy, Rowdy, Clay Forrester (he joins the team in season 4 or 5, I think? replacing Pete as scout), Jesus and Favor.
• Best Day – Rowdy takes a tumble while he and Mr. Favor are riding ahead of the herd.

• For The Guy Who Has Everything – Rowdy tries to get a birthday present for Mr. Favor. Appearances from Quince, Scarlet, Wishbone. (Rowdy/Favor if you squint.)

• River Cave – Pete and Favor get caught in a rainstorm while scouting.
• Looking For Miss Laura – Favor, Pete, Wishbone, and Rowdy sit around a saloon table at the end of a drive. 
• *My Fair Rowdy – OK, this is actually a pretty long one, but it doesn’t feel like it quite belongs in the “could be an episode” category, because it’s shorter, sillier, and fluffier, but it is more involved and complicated than the others in this category, which are mostly one-shots. This references an event from S2E9: “Stalking Death” (and also makes references to Rowdy’s dad, who we meet in S4E1: “Rio Salado”). Characters: Wishbone, Mushy, Rowdy, Favor, OCs.

Missing scenes or followup scenes for episodes:

• Missing Scene Ficlet for S1E9: “Incident of the Town in Terror” – Favor tries to help Rowdy through his fever.
• Followup Ficlet for S1E12: “Incident of the Missing Chubasco” (and S1E15: “Incident of the Calico Gun” too) – Rowdy and Favor talk.
• *Followup Ficlet for S2E5: “Incident at Jacob’s Well” – Pete, Wishbone and Mr. Favor chat. Rowdy joins them eventually. (This one stands well on its own without the episode actually.)
• *Folloup Ficlet for S4E12: “Twenty-Five Santa Clauses” – the drovers end up celebrating Christmas in August. Rowdy and Favor talk.

That’s not even everything by Poohblaze – she’s prolific! – but those are my favorites. There’s stuff on fanfiction.net from other authors, of course, but I haven’t looked at much of it. And there’s more at this archive site too.

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That archive site is connected to this yahoo group, and some fic posted there never made it to the public archive, including fics by my other favorite Rawhide fic author, Mirna (mcicioni on AO3). Her fics are all Rowdy/Favor slash. So, if you are like me and that’s a thing you want, it might be worth making a Yahoo account and joining the group just to get those fics!

• **Incident at Halfway – News of an old acquaintance’s death gets under Gil Favor’s skin. Rowdy tries to help him figure things out. Rowdy/Favor! Explicit!
• *Incident of the Pan Pipe – The crew comes across a group of Mexicans on the run from a corrupt cattle baron. Rowdy, moved by their plight, tries to do something for them. Things happen. Rowdy/Favor, explicit. 
• *Incident of the Misplaced Romans – A group of Italian drovers introduce the crew to some novel concepts, like workers’ rights and free love. Rowdy finds these ideas fascinating; Favor’s not so sure. Rowdy/Favor, explicit.

• *Incident of the Philologist – Favor invites Rowdy to visit his home in Philadelphia with him.

• Intramuscular – Rowdy is bitten by a rattlesnake.

• Seasons – One-sided pining on Favor’s side.

More recently, she’s posted a couple fics on AO3.

• **Vida Nueva – Takes place during season 8 when Rowdy is the boss of his own drive, told from the point of view of scout Jed Colby.
• **The Buchanan Herd – Sequel to Vida Nueva, Rowdy/Jed.

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… OK, here’s just a few more by various other authors.

• The Surprise by YLJedi – The boys try to get Mr. Favor a birthday gift.
• Abandoned by Corbin – Rowdy can’t understand why everyone’s avoiding him (angsty, but there’s a twist).
• Stranger Than Fiction by Ash – Pete and Rowdy run into trouble with a Kiowa party.
• Rowdy by missmess11 – A short story offering a possible explanation for Rowdy’s name.
• Dust by iolauss – Short character study of Rowdy and Favor over time.