The Flat

From Fanlore
Jump to navigation Jump to search
Fanfiction
Title: The Flat
Author(s): DVS
Date(s): 1993
Length:
Genre(s): slash
Fandom(s): The Professionals
Relationship(s): Bodie/Doyle
External Links: The Flat

Click here for related articles on Fanlore.

The Flat is a Bodie/Doyle story by DVS.

It was published in To Friends and is online.

Reactions and Reviews

Doyle has secrets, but life carries on apace in CI5. This has the real feel of CI5 for me, and the lads are characterised beautifully – the banter is all them – and yet it's great to see below and behind this, a little into Doyle's past and how it mixes with who he is today. And what he really wants.[1]

DVS has a knack for conveying the sense of day-to-day life on the squad mingled with relationship stories, mostly first times. I really enjoy the banter she writes for Bodie and Doyle, reminiscent of their canon interactions. This long story showcases her talent for lodging the characters in the CI5 world while at the same time following along tightly in Doyle's pov as he deals, in his time off, with his burgeoning feelings for Bodie. Doyle's feelings have ignited memories of his art school days, when he and six friends rented a flat they each paid equal shares for and had entirely to him/herself for one full day of the week. Some art got done there in the old days, but a good deal more partying and sexual antics happened, including homosexual experimentation with each other. When Doyle meets one of those old mates and discovers the fellow is still part-shares in a similar flat set-up, Doyle decides it's the perfect opportunity to exercise his itch for Bodie in re-exploring male-male sex.[2]

DVS has a knack for conveying the sense of day-to-day life on the squad mingled with relationship stories, mostly first times. I also really like the banter she writes for Bodie and Doyle, reminiscent of their canon interactions. This long story is one of her best, showcasing her talent for embedding the characters in the CI5 world while, at the same time, following along tightly in Doyle's pov as he deals, in his time off, with his burgeoning feelings for Bodie.

Doyle's feelings have ignited memories of his art school days, when he and six friends rented a flat they each paid equal shares for and had entirely to him/herself for one full day of the week. Some art got done there in the old days, but a good deal more partying and sexual antics happened, including homosexual experimentation with each other. When Doyle meets one of those old mates and discovers the fellow is still part-shares in a similar flat set-up, Doyle decides it's the perfect opportunity to scratch some part of his itch for Bodie by re-exploring male-male sex without his partner's finding out.

Which, naturally enough, is a false hope! One of my favourite moments in Pros fiction is when Bodie is revealed there, in the flat, watching...

All in black, as if he were on a night job, standing by the table with a face like granite, like thunder, like a bit of hell carved out of flesh.

...and then there's his reaction.

Virtually everything about this story pleases me. Even Doyle's renewing acquaintance with art in the flat doesn't irritate me the way some looks at Doyle's arty side do. I think that's because DVS writes the characters as gritty and tough. That sense of them carries over from the times they're at work to how they are off the job, no matter what they get up to. They have consistency, remaining in character when they express gentler emotions or go into arty regions. This story's a lovely read for me.[3]

References

  1. ^ from rec50, June 2006
  2. ^ from a 2004 comment at Crack Van
  3. ^ 2010 comments by istia, prosrecs, Archived version