A Few Little Fireworks, by Madmogs
Curses, given the title, I should have posted this on the fifth. Pretend I did!
Fandom: THE PROFESSIONALS
Pairing: Bodie/Doyle, Bodie/OMC
Length: 9237 words
Author on LJ: madmogs
Author Website:
Why this must be read:
This is another story that was temporarily lost. It was first posted back in 2005. Subsequently, the LJ community it was posted to. Thankfully, madmogs was good enough to repost it earlier this year and those of us who had not been around for the santa_pros comm got to read it at last. And hooray, because I loved it. I am having trouble separating out all the whys. I think a lot of it is to do with the madly unflappable Bodie - unflappable on the outside, at least - whether faced with a proposition to blow things up for money, a hulking nightmare of an antagonist from his past, or a determined Doyle who has something to say to him.
Bodie was enjoying himself, Doyle decided grumpily.
It wasn't every day that the mad bastard got to tell George Cowley that he and an unspecified number of other mercenaries had just been recruited by an Irish ex-merc to blow up one of London's department stores. Doyle had never seen Cowley's eyebrows raise quite that far before.
The dialogue and the narrative style are definitely another reason I enjoy it. Bodie's casual tone in a dangerous situation (the 'family pet' mention cracks me up every time I read it), his 'most sophisticated look', his rueful acceptance of the peril to his hubcaps - and then the switch into serious mode as he settles his mind on the job and enters the meeting place.
And certainly part of the reason that I personally enjoy it is that I do enjoy stories that are either non-con or very much into dub-con territory. And this story involves the Game as backstory and consequently, as the author puts it on the repost, there are some "deeply dodgy attitudes to consent"...
Pros fans know what this is all about. If you are not in Pros fandom, well, then, I imagine that all fandoms have their own little quirks. One of them in Pros is the concept of the Game, a violent game played by mercenaries in Bodie's past which pits two people against each other in a no-holds-barred fight. The winner gets to screw the other. (I spent some time trying to come up with a politer way to put that, but, well.) How voluntary this whole process is varies from story to story.
This story has a warning for non-con. I was going to say that I thought it was more dub-con, and then I realised what exactly the author is referring to, and, actually, yeah. Non-con.
So when we arrive at a situation where Doyle is listening on a wire as one of Bodie's new co-conspirators turns out to be an old antagonist, eager to re-establish a very old grudge, and then fists - and furniture - start to fly, we know why Doyle is worried:
Sure, he'd heard rumours about the Game--who hadn't?--but he'd never asked Bodie about it, telling himself that Bodie would only refuse to answer anyway. In a sudden lurching moment he discovered that he'd been lying to himself--he'd never asked the question, he discovered now, because he really, really didn't want the answer.
To complicate things still further, each partner is interested in the other, but neither initially plans to act on it. Doyle presumes that Bodie's jokey come-ons are just jokes and wishes they weren't. Bodie certainly does fancy Doyle, but has no intention of letting that get in the way of the partnership. But when the op is over, Doyle wants answers. And he's not leaving Bodie alone until he gets them.
Oh. I totally forgot to mention. Hot sex too :)
A Few Little Fireworks
Fandom: THE PROFESSIONALS
Pairing: Bodie/Doyle, Bodie/OMC
Length: 9237 words
Author on LJ: madmogs
Author Website:
Why this must be read:
This is another story that was temporarily lost. It was first posted back in 2005. Subsequently, the LJ community it was posted to. Thankfully, madmogs was good enough to repost it earlier this year and those of us who had not been around for the santa_pros comm got to read it at last. And hooray, because I loved it. I am having trouble separating out all the whys. I think a lot of it is to do with the madly unflappable Bodie - unflappable on the outside, at least - whether faced with a proposition to blow things up for money, a hulking nightmare of an antagonist from his past, or a determined Doyle who has something to say to him.
Bodie was enjoying himself, Doyle decided grumpily.
It wasn't every day that the mad bastard got to tell George Cowley that he and an unspecified number of other mercenaries had just been recruited by an Irish ex-merc to blow up one of London's department stores. Doyle had never seen Cowley's eyebrows raise quite that far before.
The dialogue and the narrative style are definitely another reason I enjoy it. Bodie's casual tone in a dangerous situation (the 'family pet' mention cracks me up every time I read it), his 'most sophisticated look', his rueful acceptance of the peril to his hubcaps - and then the switch into serious mode as he settles his mind on the job and enters the meeting place.
And certainly part of the reason that I personally enjoy it is that I do enjoy stories that are either non-con or very much into dub-con territory. And this story involves the Game as backstory and consequently, as the author puts it on the repost, there are some "deeply dodgy attitudes to consent"...
Pros fans know what this is all about. If you are not in Pros fandom, well, then, I imagine that all fandoms have their own little quirks. One of them in Pros is the concept of the Game, a violent game played by mercenaries in Bodie's past which pits two people against each other in a no-holds-barred fight. The winner gets to screw the other. (I spent some time trying to come up with a politer way to put that, but, well.) How voluntary this whole process is varies from story to story.
This story has a warning for non-con. I was going to say that I thought it was more dub-con, and then I realised what exactly the author is referring to, and, actually, yeah. Non-con.
So when we arrive at a situation where Doyle is listening on a wire as one of Bodie's new co-conspirators turns out to be an old antagonist, eager to re-establish a very old grudge, and then fists - and furniture - start to fly, we know why Doyle is worried:
Sure, he'd heard rumours about the Game--who hadn't?--but he'd never asked Bodie about it, telling himself that Bodie would only refuse to answer anyway. In a sudden lurching moment he discovered that he'd been lying to himself--he'd never asked the question, he discovered now, because he really, really didn't want the answer.
To complicate things still further, each partner is interested in the other, but neither initially plans to act on it. Doyle presumes that Bodie's jokey come-ons are just jokes and wishes they weren't. Bodie certainly does fancy Doyle, but has no intention of letting that get in the way of the partnership. But when the op is over, Doyle wants answers. And he's not leaving Bodie alone until he gets them.
Oh. I totally forgot to mention. Hot sex too :)
A Few Little Fireworks