crack_van | I Live to Serve by Lizzie (PG)

Fandom: THE PROFESSIONALS
Pairing: Bodie/Doyle
Length: Short Story
Author on LJ:

caffyolay
Author Website: Lizzie's stories via Palelyloitering
Why this must be read: Lizzie is one of my favourite Pros writers - her lads are warm and affectionate with each other, somehow even when they're at odds, but they've lost none of their canon-selves, even in AU.

I Live to Serve is a version of House Party, posted online for the first time for the 2010

discoveredinalj Halloween challenge. In this AU story, Bodie is butler to Cowley's lord of the manor, and Doyle the innocent house-guest... or so it seems... *g* This is a fab little story for the run-up to All Hallow's Eve...

Excerpt: I set tea and cup cakes in front of the ladies and turned to survey the other occupant at the opposite end of the room. Sprawled across a sofa he was reading what emerged to be a volume of stories of the supernatural; Gaslit Nightmares. Each to his own.

He looked up, frowning, as I approached with a second tray.

"Don't I get cup cakes?"

Leg pulls - the bane of a butler's life. I learnt very early in my career never to retaliate in kind, people suddenly lose their sense of humour when bettered in jocular conversation by a servant. I thus kept my reply very non-committal.

"No, sir. Cook considers coffee and walnut cake to be more appropriate for the gentlemen."

"No licking off the icing and sucking on succulent cherries for me then, eh?" Wide green eyes regarded me innocently. "It's just as well I've always preferred a dish of nuts to a bowl of cherries."

I Live to Serve