Sublimierung by Xparrot (PG)

[elmey.livejournal.com]

Fandom: MAN FROM UNCLE
Pairing: Napoleon Solo/OFC, pre-slash
Length: 3,100 words
Author on LJ: xparrot
Author Website: Xparrot on AO3
Why this must be read:

Before you go eewww, Napoleon/OFC--look at the title again. You'll like this story!

Xparrot has been writing MFU for about a year now and I could have picked just about any of her stories to recommend. She has an easy, fluid writing style and a knack for letting you see that deep feelings run beneath the bright surface of Illya and Napoleon's banter and squabbling. I decided to rec Sublimierung because, well, because who can resist a combination of MFU and, um, Nietzsche?

Napoleon going on a date and thinking of Illya is almost a trope in MFU fiction. This is a very clever take on that. Napoleon is on a date and doesn't need to think about Illya, Illya is already so much a part of his psyche that he's just....there. The story is charming and funny, Xparrot takes full advantage of the mix of absurdity and drama that MFU canon allows its writers; but underneath it all is a poignant yearning, Napoleon reaching for something that isn't quite clear to him yet.

It was Illya's turn to write up the mission report, and with usual Russian efficiency he tended to mentally compose those during free moments on the mission itself, typing them up later from memory. So Napoleon wasn't surprised when after a half hour of meditative silence, Illya finally asked, "What is the psychological term for the successful defense mechanism? The transformation of energies towards an alternative goal?"

"Like, say, world domination?" Napoleon eyed his partner suspiciously. "Are you psychoanalyzing THRUSH kingpins again?" Illya had recently been rereading Freud, and applying it to their foes with unsettling conclusions. A THRUSH-man's Oedipal complex was not something Napoleon cared to contemplate in detail, especially not when he had met some of the mothers in question.

"Vytesnenie," Illya muttered to himself. "Displacement? No, that's not quite it. I know there's a word for it..."

"It might come to you faster if you weren't hanging upside down by your ankles."

The effect of Illya's arched eyebrow was scarcely diminished for being inverted. "Napoleon, if I couldn't think hanging upside down, I'd hardly have time to think at all."

Sublimierung

Comments

[georgiamagnolia.livejournal.com]

That was an excellent suggestion, thank you for driving a great van!

[elmey.livejournal.com]

I'm so glad you liked it! I think you'll like her other stories as well.