Fic: Of Camping in October and the Perils Thereof

[erushi.livejournal.com]

Sneaking this in while it's still Friday 9.14pm Pago Pago Time. *g* My apologies for its relative short-ness.



The end of summer paints rose-tinted memories of childish fancies and make-believe. When they are awarded their first week-off in months, Doyle suggests that they go camping and spends the next three hours comparing sputters and squawks with the thump-a-thumps of the lid of a boiling kettle.

On hindsight Doyle will wonder why it had even occurred to him that camping might have been a Good Idea.

The tent is nothing at all like they had come to expect, all five-by-seven feet of it wrapped in shiny blue canvas, a child’s sketch of a pyramid made real at four feet high. Bodie makes his displeasure known with every peg hammered into the ground. There are dark references made to the dangers of sleeping on grass, vague observations on the process of evolution and the ties that bind man and bed, and Christ Doyle my thumb.

“Expected better of you, mate. Y’know, after all that fighting and tough-living in jungles.” This is said over gauze and antiseptic and clear trails of once-ice that drip into the ground. Four cans of beer in the tiny cooler are no longer quite as chilled, and Bodie’s glare is baleful.

“Expected wrong, didn’t you? ’sides, it’s always hot in Angola. No one in England camps in bloody October. And I think we only brought one sleeping bag.”

Four o’clock creeps into five, slips into six. The sun has begun to set, compact cherry streaking blood-colours across the sky, when Shouldn’t have dragged you here, I’m sorry Bodie trips over the heels of You could always kiss it and make it better, y’know. Laughter startles a pigeon trying to roost; it rustles its wings and coos its displeasure at the stupidity of these humans.

Doyle is careful to pay every attention to the details, pink tongue swabbing at the crease between thumb and finger before red lips mouth their way from base to bandaged tip, white teeth scraping just so; he was eight and eating a sticky bun outside the gates of primary school when a wandering priest had impressed upon him the importance of caring for the sick and injured. When he looks up Bodie’s eyes are hooded, lashes casting shadows on his cheeks in the flickering firelight, black crescents on white hillocks.

Much later he will notice a small hole in canvas, near the roof of the flimsy domed wall and between the strangely elongated dark figures that jerk and thrust in the flickering light of a torch to the rhythm of a ticking watch and then not. He will wonder if a person can get burns from canvas like one gets carpet-burns. Then he will stop wondering at all.

Breakfast is baked beans stuck to the bottom of metal tins and bites of over-cooked sausage punctuated by sips of tepid tea. Bodie has a hand on his lap, gauze-wrapped thumb tracing idle circles over worn denim stretched tight over even warmer skin, and Doyle thinks he might come to grow sentimental over the smell of burning bacon after all.




Title: Of Camping in October and the Perils Thereof
Author: Erushi
Slash/Gen: Slash
Circuit Archive / Pros-Lib: Yes please.
Disclaimer: The lads don't belong to me etc.
Fanon prompt: Bodie's mercenary past involved a lot of fighting and tough-living in various jungles.

Comments

[byslantedlight.livejournal.com]

Yeay! You did it! I nipped downstairs to make some coffee and when I got back there your story was - well done you! *vbg*

And beautiful as ever... I love the dreaminess of it, and you conjure where they are brilliantly as well. Yeay - and thank you!

[erushi.livejournal.com]

*headdesk* And of course I see this comment only after I send out that e-mail. *sheepish grin*

Yay I made it! Though I'm not quite sure if I ever want to write in the morning without coffee again. *totters downstairs to make her cup*

Thank you so much for reading, and for your lovely comment - I think I'll go about today with a smile now. *g* Camping has always struck me as a rather surreal activity, despite the number of camps I've been on, so I couldn't help but write the lads in a similar experience. I'm glad it worked for you!

[sc-fossil.livejournal.com]

What a lovely romance. You certainly put me in that camp with your words. Very nice. I love camping, as long as it's not me doing it. Thanks.

[schnuffi.livejournal.com]

ROFL! I absolutely love this. I love camping too - did that often with the family when I was a kid. Packing the motor bikes and off we went. The best thing about camping is the fire though. Watching the sparks dancing and the smell of burning wood *sigh*

And of course Bodie had to hurt himself *snicker* Love the description of their shadows dancing over the tent walls and roof. Glad you posted this - thanks!

[heliophile-oxon.livejournal.com]

This is so sweet - but with those burnt-beans-type details to make sure it's not too sweet - and I'm so glad it didn't rain that night, with even a tiny hole in the tent ... could have been a disaster! Poor Bodie with his complaints and his bashed thumb, lucky to have Doyle to kiss it better for him so very thoroughly - attention to the details, pink tongue swabbing at the crease between thumb and finger before red lips mouth their way from base to bandaged tip, white teeth scraping just so - yum!

[solosundance.livejournal.com]

oh joy ... just the one sleeping bag *g* I love the idea that Doyle was initially charmed with the idea of camping and although Bodie probably knew exactly what it was going to be like, he came anyway. Love lads-style is just the ticket on this rainy coldy day. This was very warming, thank you!

[callistosh65.livejournal.com]

You have some lovely lines in this - that whole last paragrpah is wonderful. You got camping food exactly! And this too a child’s sketch of a pyramid made real at four feet high. Marvellous description of the tent. Thank you, I loved the setting and the lads in it.

[norfolkdumpling.livejournal.com]

Just gorgeous. So many beautiful, lyrical moments in this, but I particularly just love the gentle sense of peace you always manage to inject into your fic. It makes me feel very contented. *dreamy sigh*

Four cans of beer in the tiny cooler are no longer quite as chilled, and Bodie’s glare is baleful

So difficult to choose a favourite idea amongst so many - but this, I think, is mine.

Thank you for a very satisfying read ♥

[snailbones.livejournal.com]

Beautiful! So lovely and atmospheric. I love your writing, and I can't begin to pick out one part I loved more than another... maybe your description of Bodie's eyes and lashes?

Thank you!

[saintvic.livejournal.com]

This was absolutely gorgeous. Love your poetic use of language it is really evocative and atmospheric and gives us such a detailed and compelling view of the scene. And I love how you set that atmosphere from the very first line.

Think this worked with the prompt very well too and I'm with Bodie *cough* in saying no to camping. Although if I was going to come across the two of them at a campsite I might endure it.

[andreathelion.livejournal.com]

Beautifully done :) I really enjoyed reading Bodie & Doyle's camping trip *g*
Thank you!

[erushi.livejournal.com]

Thank you! I'm glad you enjoyed reading it, as I'm pretty sure Bodie and Doyle enjoyed themselves! *g*

[erushi.livejournal.com]

His eyes and lashes are things of beauty, aren't they? It's almost unfair how a bloke can have them so stunning!

But yes, thank you for reading and for your lovely comment. It's always wonderful to know that people have enjoyed the fic. :)

[erushi.livejournal.com]

I love camping, as long as it's not me doing it.

Amen to that. *g*

Glad you enjoyed this!

[erushi.livejournal.com]

And glad you enjoyed this! I have very mixed feelings about camping - it can be fun, but it can also be very, very bothersome. *g* Doesn't matter Bodie gets hurt, so long as Doyle's there to offer him some TLC, don't you agree? ;)

[erushi.livejournal.com]

Think I've been on enough camps to know just how camping food usually is. *g*

Thank you for reading and for your lovely comment - I'm incredly glad that you enjoyed this. :)

[erushi.livejournal.com]

Aw, hon. *blushes madly* I'm glad my fics make you feel that way! And I'm incredibly flattered that it's difficult to choose a favourite idea from amongst all of them.

Thank you so much! ♥

[erushi.livejournal.com]

*blushes very, very madly* Thank you for this wonderful, wonderful comment. *hugs comment tightly*

Honestly? If you're going to keep flattering me so, I shall stop being such a wuss and respectfully ask if I may add your esteemed person to my f-list. *g* I do love how your Pros fics always take on such a unique angle, and anyone with Good Omens as their LJ layout immediately finds their way into my good books, so...

Erm, I'll shaddup now. Again, glad you liked this! I admit I have very mixed feelings about camping, though having the lads at the campsite would certainly make me look at the whole process in a much more favourable light. *g*

[erushi.livejournal.com]

Doyle certainly does know a thing or two about paying attention to detail - 'twas what coppers were trained to do after all. *g* Glad the balance worked for you, and thank you for reading and for your lovely comment!

[erushi.livejournal.com]

Bodie probably couldn't resist the chance to tell Doyle "I told you so", only things didn't quite work out the way he envisioned. *g* Just as well Doyle was there to offer him a spot of TLC, don't you think?

Thanks for reading and commenting! I'm glad you enjoyed this.

[saintvic.livejournal.com]

I shall stop being such a wuss and respectfully ask if I may add your esteemed person to my f-list.
You are not being a wuss at all I've had the same thought for a little while now and kept forgetting *hangs head in shame* Would love to be friended and I will friend you back if that is okay. *does happy dance*

I am afraid it would take the presence of Bodie and Doyle (or Sam and Gene) to make me go camping. I was supposed to go a couple of years ago but just booked us all into b and b's instead. *grin*

[erushi.livejournal.com]

You are not being a wuss at all I've had the same thought for a little while now and kept forgetting *hangs head in shame*

I'm simply horrible at this whole friending business, so I guess we're even. *sheepish grin* Consider yourself added back!

I've had to go for many a camp when I was younger, being part of a uniformed group for a decade and all. And there were those ridiculous 'character building' things which my schools kept making me go for too. Habit has made them tolerable, but I'm still a snug rom and comfy bed kind of girl. Unless, of course, our two favourite pairs of lads are there. Then I'd be right where they are, spyglasses in hand. *g*

[saintvic.livejournal.com]

And done! *g*

Then I'd be right where they are, spyglasses in hand.

And maybe some video equipment, we would make a fortune. *G*

[draycevixen.livejournal.com]

Bah! From the way you talked about it I was expecting to find a woefully undernourished little ficcie under here and just look at it! *hugs little ficcie*

You hooked me with "vague observations on the process of evolution and the ties that bind man and bed, and Christ Doyle my thumb."

If this makes any sense at all, I swear I can hear the silence of their campsite.

Lovely. Thank you! ♥

[erushi.livejournal.com]

Aaww. *squishes you* Well, you do have to admit that 'tis a short thing as the length of DiaLJ challenge ficcies go. Glad to have made the campsite so immediate for you, Petal. Thanks for reading! *heartls