Best Short Grief & Mourning Fanfics
Grief & Mourning novellas — 10k to 50k words, polished and contained. Curated from AO3, ranked by kudos.
Top 11 Short Grief & Mourning Fanfics
Ranked by AO3 kudos. Each fic is tagged with grief & mourning and falls in the 10,000–50,000 words range.
Homefront
by copperbadge
Steve Rogers is a capable leader, a kind and cheerful man, a good friend, a strong role model, and a loyal soldier. He's also teetering on the edge of suicide.
The Late Llewellyn Drake
by wanna_have_fun
BILLIONAIRE DOOFUS DRAKE FOUND DEAD IN MANSION ON ANNIVERSARY OF WIFE’S DISAPPEARANCE; PRESUMED SUICIDE Webby stared at her laptop screen in shock. She knew that name, though she hadn't heard it in years, since before... well. Before a lot of things. Before everyone got quiet and started walking on
Unlucky, My Dear
by Anonymous
The moon is full, but why would Sirius notice? He's just hoping that grief will feel better at ninety miles an hour.Remus is deteriorating, and that's the way of things. He's proven himself unsafe, so he's just fine, thank you, living far away from everyone and everything. At least, until a motorcyc
rage against the dying of the light
by shatteredwriters
“When I got the notice for the draft board, I knew–well, I thought I knew–what it entailed,” Hawkeye said, words cracking with subdued emotion. “War meant death, right? Blood and gore, loss, bombs and bullets, death and…more death. So much death.”B.J. stayed quiet, throat tight and eyes misty.“It wa
The Waves Will Carry You
by bowditch
After AWE, Elizabeth and James fall together and try to find a future amidst so much death. She's not sure what she wants, and he's learned what he can't have-- they're left figuring out what they can piece together and who they are after everything. Or, a story in which Elizabeth sleeps a lot and l
Fortune’s Favour
by Voyageuse
Nearly a year after the events in Devices and Desires, Kate Miskin and Adam Dalgliesh consider what they were to each other and what they could now be ... if only they are brave enough. Spoilers for series 3, episodes 5 & 6.
and there was only ash
by spicygrass
In the wake of the recent Azure King terrorist attacks, Batman is left shaken and grieving. This only worsens when he becomes responsible for one of the victim's sons. With the rise of a new threat, Kunikida's strife is perpetuated as Rokuzou weasels his way into the case. Kunikida is Batman. Rokuzo
Y fuiste tú mi baile inolvidable
by Freakizoid
Some months after defeating Chuck and saving the world once more, the Winchester brothers are pulled into an FBI investigation in Wolf Trap, Virginia, where a series of ritualistic murders begins to imitate a case already closed.
It Comes In Waves
by FluffyMae
When Hitoshi’s mom dies he feels like he’ll spend the rest of his life grieving, but when his dad decides to fly home for the summer to visit his sister and Hitoshi’s cousin, Kyoka Jiro, he falls in love with the only boy on the island that he isn’t allowed to have.
Sleepless Deprivation
by LucidPercy
Anthony can now see Elijah’s ghost, but Elijah isn’t doing so great. None of them are really. There are a lot of things they need to work out, but I’m sure they will be okay. They have no choice but to be.
Willing to bite the bullet?
by meowkiwikat
I couldn't remember what I had for lunch yesterday. It was a ridiculous thing to be thinking about. Out of everything my mind could have clung to, it chose lunch. Not my last conversation. Not my last smile. Not even my own death. ------ Or a story of you (yes, you) joining the love bullet squad!
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About Grief & Mourning
Stories that sit with loss: characters mourning a death canon rushed past, or grieving losses that aren't deaths at all — homes, futures, versions of themselves. Grief fic ranges from raw immediate aftermath to the strange long tail of missing someone for years.
Canon kills characters and moves on; fandom holds funerals. Readers return to grief fic because it treats mourning as a story worth telling rather than a scene to survive.
Common scenarios: A character finally crying at a grave two years too late, or the survivor of a duo learning to do alone all the small things they used to do together.
About This List
This list of 11short Grief & Mourning fanfics spans 288,284 total words. Kudos range from 3 on the newest entries to 15,123 on the most established. Most entries are ongoing works, so subscribe on AO3 for update notifications. The most common rating is Explicit (3 of 11 fics).
Recurring tags across this list: Grief · Emotional Hurt/Comfort.
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