Just a Kiss (Professionals story)

Bodie/Doyle Fanfiction
Title:	Just a Kiss
Author(s):	Sebastian
Date(s):
Length:
Genre:	slash
Fandom:	The Professionals
External Links:	online here
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Just a Kiss is a Bodie/Doyle story by Sebastian.

It was a one of the very earliest circuit stories and is online.

Reactions and Reviews

bodie and doyle get drunk at a ci5 party. i'm not sure if i'm reccing it for being sweet, or unintentionally funny, or charmingly plotted along through the beginning. the unintentionally funny bits are, well, pretty good. but i enjoyed it even beyond that! go on, then.

Another 'party' story, sweet, silly and lots of fun.

Strange things can happen at the company do, particularly when a couple of blokes have had more to drink than perhaps is wise. And there's always somebody watching… Beautiful writing from Sebastian, funny, sweet, and always hot.

The story is about: At a CI5 only holiday party, Bodie and Doyle, along with most other attendees, drink to excess and are nearly legless. Bodie, feeling soft and safe tries to convey to his partner just how "partnerie" he was feeling and ended up kissing is forehead, a comforting gesture. But with Doyle's questioning he plants even more kisses until he kisses Doyle full on the mouth.

Next day our lads don't remember but someone saw and rumours and teasing abound.

Cowley is not shy about relating all that he had been told. The best was that he told them to not do that in public again. (Permission granted. )

That set's Doyle to thinking it was unfair to be accused of something that they didn't do and began to wonder what it would be like to do 'it'. Bodie is surprised but aroused.

Next morning, Doyle calls ridiculously early for a run and Bodie goes. They run the cemetery and then Doyle flaunts and seduces Bodie – to Bodie's pleasure. :)

Lots of buttons for me in this one.

• Go to a party together.
• Getting drunk together.
• In a squiffy state bare their feelings.
• When sober, not remembering much.
• Curiosity and unfair teasing pushes Doyle into new discovery.

I love these situations. . . .There is enough scenes within the episodes that I can envision the lads together so easily. (I am very shallow).

I've always been fond of this story. (Now, Sebastian is one of my favorite writers, and I love her use of language, and I do see that this isn't one of her best written stories, but we'll skip over all of that. *g*) I'm fond of it for many of the same reasons that you list. I love the drunk scene, and how Bodie's thoughts progress with all his soppy affection. (I can see that happening. I think Bodie might be an affectionate drunk on occasion, and who better than with Doyle? *g*)

I adore the scene with Cowley. This bit: "Aye!" Cowley blazed. "Kissing him! You want to kiss him, 3.7, you take him to the privacy of your own home! Just slays me. It's Cowley to me--he's objecting to the public display, not to the act itself. That just seems so right to me.

I also love how they work out what happened, and their conversation in the corridor. I think Doyle's right. Once they've opened this idea, they will go through with it, sometime. It's in their natures to push the boundaries, and there is all that emotion underneath.

And then, of course, I love the run, and the way they come together, and the melancholy that follows. That sort of complexity is part of the reason why I love Sebastian. Another writer might have had them come together and be happy from that moment onward, but she is far more realistic, to my mind. They've gone ahead and experimented--went through with the idea they've had; seen what it's like. And then there's the aftermath, that can be melancholic, where they don't know what is in front of them, now that they've done this, or even what they want. I think she really nails the aftermath feeling there. But she takes them (and us) out of that, by having them take that further step of emotional vulnerability, admitting how they feel. And then truly new possibilities open up for them, and the bond that connects them is strengthened. It's a very nice, very satisfying ending.

My favorite part of this story isn't what happens on the run, or in the corridors of CI5, but at the party. This was written by someone who knows what it feels like when you get tipsy, and then drunk, and then legless--the way a thought seems obvious, but only to you, and the way limbs don't quite work as they ought to, and the odd sense of loving everyone that makes the most reserved person lose that reserve. While plenty of authors know what it feels like to be drunk, it's a lot harder to write it so that it both makes sense to the reader, yet comes off as incoherent the way a character is thinking/acting/relating to others. This may be the best bit of writing Sebastian has ever done, for you are thoroughly inside the characters, yet able to stand outside them, drunk and sober at the same time. I'm not a huge fan of Sebastian (often too bittersweet for my taste, as in Et in Italia Ego), but what happens in this story is so evocative of drunkenness that I'm not sure I've ever read a better get-drunk-kiss-and-forget-it-the-next-day scene. And those are plentiful (one of my favorites in the get-drunk-but-remember-it stories is "On a Hot Summer Night" by Alexandra--I don't find her drunk scene as convincing, but her take on Doyle and Bodie in the weeks that follow is spot on, Doyle gnawing at it, Bodie begging him to forget).

Ah, such a fun story! I totally agree with fjbryan's admiration for the depiction of a drunk Bodie and Doyle. You can see Sebastian's deft hand in all the little nuances: the characters are simultaneously instantly recognisable as their canon selves, yet just a couple of steps sideways because of their intoxication. What I mean is, they're not two generic drunk guys; they're very clearly Bodie and Doyle, who are, in this specific instace, drunk. Sebastian paints them with economic finess, evoking them without the need for heavy description or narrative intervention. She lets them set the scene and carry the story at the party mostly through dialogue.

Doyle finding his own jokes hilarious is even more amusing when he's drunk! The silly "bottles don't have legs, but do have necks" they manage to observe is equally amusing in just how lame it is, but how much it amuses both of them. We readers get an added layer of amusement knowing how sharply perceptive these two are when not hazed with drink.

Sebastian's my favourite author, and while I tend mostly towards the angsty end of the spectrum, I love the sheer fun of this light tale, a multi-grin reading experience. Along with other bits already mentioned, I love some of the fun imagery, such as Bodie's giving McCabe a shake in the restroom before dropping him, like a bulldog with a chew toy. *g*

One of the reasons this flimsy tale works so well, I think, is the way Sebastian skilfully evokes actual canon moments that provide, in a sense, steel girders on which she builds this frothy little story. The party makes me think of the one where they're drunk in Servant of Two Masters, as does the graveyard run, obviously. Bodie's and Cowley's interaction, well, any number of times! Doyle's love of his own wit evokes Female Factor, plus various other eps where he's not pretending to be drunk, but still finds himself amusing.

Evoking canon in her characterisations and in showing Bodie's and Doyle's relationship is a typical quality of Sebastian's work--one of the reasnos Sebastian's fic works so beautifully for me--and that quality's overtly on display here.

And because she evokes the canon characters in their behaviour and their interactions, this story comes across as outright plausible. I don't feel there's anything in it that couldn't happen, in these circumstances, and none of it would violate their actual canon selves in the least, including Cowley's reaction.

That's the real, basic fun here: that she makes it feel completely viable, down to the reactions of the other guys on the squad, and Doyle's decision to investigate further and Bodie going along with it.

The fic's a great little slice-of-life for the canon Bodie and Doyle while it simultaneously rewrites their on-screen relationship. Lovely!

I love this story, especially the party scene where they're all affectionate and relaxed with each other and managing to forget, just for that time, that they're two, tough, macho men, but partners/friends who like each other *a lot*.

Why this must be read:This story is a light, fun piece by this author. I love the concept of too much alcohol, our lads, and lack of inhibitions. Yeah, another kink for me. . .so shoot me. :) This is short enough to read on your coffee, or tea break.