It's ten o'clock in the morning and Dom stands staring at his empty suitcase on the bed, thinking about what on earth he's going to pack for the trip the cast and crew are going to make tomorrow. After their initial filming in and around Wellington's studios and parks, now they are just one day away from being flown into Queenstown on the South island where the Fellowship minus a wizard will start filming the Anduin River scenes.
He turns around and examines his open closet, picking up various items, trying to remember the weather forecast that had been printed on their call sheet for the first two days on their Queenstown location. Mostly dry, but with occasional heavy showers, it had stated. Then again, a crewmember had mentioned the fact they were going to the South Island, and as far as the weather was concerned, anything would go there. Dom looks at the clothes in his hands, shrugs, and drops them in his suitcase rather unceremoniously. He sits down beside it, pushes it to the edge and yawns profusely. Then he stretches out on the bed and closes his eyes.
When he's completely honest with himself, his mind is not yet set on packing for his first serious location move. After three months in the country he realises he is finally growing accustomed to the place; that he is finally settling into his own house, that he likes his new bedroom and his new bed, and that his head is no longer spinning with the anticipation of working on such a huge project or the tension that always comes along with making new friends.
I've certainly made new friends , Dom thinks, and even more than that. He grins at the ceiling and curls up on his side as his favourite subject seeps into a chain of dreamy memories.
Elijah had left him breathless on the day they met, breathless and deliciously annoyed. Elijah had haunted his dreams, either asleep or awake; had enchanted him with his fathomless blue eyes and his girlish giggle; had rendered him speechless each and every time he smiled at Dom from a distance across the soundstage. Elijah had caused him to wait and wank through many needy and desperate hours spent awake in the dead of night. Elijah had made living and breathing nearly impossible after that one drunken, stupid night, as he kept away from Dom, only offering him a shy smile and a glittering sea of blue contradictions. Elijah had held him close through a feverish haze of insecurities and had tried to push him away in a weak attempt to ignore whatever emotions they might share.
In the end, Elijah had kissed him on a moonlit beach as the tide came in, leaving Dom as breathless as when they first met, and apart from the incredible softness of the boy's lips on his and the insane heat of their tongues pushing and sliding against each other, the only thing Dom can really remember is the fact that Elijah had never let go of his hand as they spent the entire night walking across greater Wellington to the door of their trailer on the studio grounds, barely in time for Feet.
Dom opens his eyes and scratches the exposed skin between his jeans and his t-shirt. He remembers how he, not having slept a wink that night, had felt the weariness in his bones and the scratchiness in his eyes. Yet every time he looked at Elijah, who wasn't doing much better, he had smiled with the memories of their date and their kiss and their long walk across town, and his tiredness was easily forgotten.
The only one already present in the Feet trailer had been Billy, and the Scot had raised his eyebrows just the slightest bit, not saying a word, just accepting two hugs before returning to his newspaper and his tea.
Dom stretches luxuriously before curling up onto his other side, prodding a pillow into place under his head.
Billy is another fine example of a friend who had turned out to be more than a friend. Billy had quickly morphed into a real brother, someone who doesn't need words all the time to understand how Dom feels. Billy had shared some long nights with him; drinking, talking, being quiet as he himself had rambled on about scrawny-assed, annoying Yanks who should be knocked off their Hollywood-actor-pedestals, hugging him tight in the hallway every time he went home, pinching his bottom or smacking a kiss on his cheek, telling him to lighten up.
Billy had made him understand that he shouldn't judge Elijah solely on what the boy dared to show of himself to others, seeing he was only eighteen years old and probably just as intimidated by the novelty and enormity of their mission as the next person. Billy had persuaded him to find their common ground, and as soon as Dom had snatched up the key to Elijah's greatest passion, the floodgates of the boy's affection for him had been well and truly opened.
Suddenly, the doorbell rings loud and long and Dom immediately shoots into an upright position, his heart beating in his throat.
"Fuck," he mutters, scrambling to his feet, pulling his t-shirt into place. He checks his watch and realises he's been daydreaming a little too long. "Fuck," he mutters again and reaches out to open the front door, revealing Orlando, surfboard safely in the back of the pick-up, smile firmly in place.
"Hey, Dom," he starts, and then inclines his head slightly. "Man, you look like I woke you up or something."
"No, no, you didn't," Dom mutters quickly, gesturing for Orli to step into the house, already turning his back on him to search for the necessary things to accompany his friend to the beach. "I was just thinking about something, a-and trying to pack for Queenstown, and erm... I kinda lost track of time."
"No worries, mate," Orli beams, remaining poised in the door opening. "Just collect your gear and we"ll be off. I'll wait in the car with Astin, okay? Billy and Elijah will join us there."
"O-okay," Dom answers, turning to smile at Orli as he mentions Elijah's name. "I'll be out in a bit."
"Cool," Orli states and closes the door, leaving Dom to hastily sort through the mess in his bedroom, in search of a recently acquired brand new wetsuit and other surfing equipment.
It had been an uneventful drive to the beach with Orli talking almost non-stop about the brilliant swell he had witnessed crashing onto the beach from his kitchen window that morning and Sean trying to keep the lanky Brit's attention on the road at the same time. Dom had taken up residence in the backseat and had tried to do some more daydreaming about Elijah's kissing skills while the old married couple playfully bickered away in the front, but it had been to no avail. Before he knew it, both parties needed his input or impartiality to settle either their surfing- or traffic related disputes.
And no matter how unbelievable his stories always sounded, this time Orli had not exaggerated with his incredible descriptions of today's waves on Wellington's south easterly beaches. They unload the boards and bags from the pick-up and stroll past a rickety old beach house that serves as a makeshift changing room and shelter in case of sudden rain. They make their way down to the sandy beach, enjoying the gradual warmth of a watery sun that is slowly but steadily trying to break through the hazy morning clouds.
�"ook at that," Orli beams proudly as soon as they've turned a corner, trying to make sure the other two know how right he was on the way over in the car. "Look at that sight. Isn't it beautiful?"
"Definitely," Sean agrees, huffing as he shifts his surfboard from one shoulder to the other, lifting a hand to his forehead to shield his eyes from the sun that is growing stronger by the minute, causing the ocean to glitter a majestic silver under its rays.
"Very," Dom murmurs, running a hand through his short hair, watching how, down on the beach, Elijah tries to hitch his wetsuit up over his shoulders, throwing in some choice curse words from the looks of it, causing Billy to double up with laughter before lending him a hand.
"Let's join Bill and Lij down there," Sean suggests and starts walking again. "And see if they brought something to eat, because I'm starving."
They hurry up along the path down to the beach, and when they reach the shoreline, Billy and Elijah are already in full battle dress, ready to take on the waves.
"See you guys in the water," Billy announces as he picks up his board. "First wave is mine."
"You think so?" Elijah grins, as he lifts his board from the sand as well and starts walking. "We'll just see about that."
Billy breaks into a run, laughing out loud when Elijah does the same, feigning a chase, leaving the others in various states of surprise and undress on the sand.
"I meant standing on top of the board, you squeaky Yank," they hear Billy calling out to Elijah, both of them already throwing their surfboards down onto the water.
A hearty Fuck you is the last thing heard over the crash of the waves, and two laughing faces disappear from sight as the duo starts to paddle out into the ocean.
"Right," Sean states, pulling his shirt over his head. "I don't know about you guys, but I'm going to catch exactly one wave and then there are a book and a nice tuna sandwich with my name on them waiting for me right on this towel." And with those words he pulls a beach towel from his bag, which he unfolds and spreads out on the sand. Before they can say anything, Sean zips up his wetsuit and stalks off towards the sea, leaving both Dom and Orli to stare first at Sean's retreating back, and then at the enormous towel he just left behind.
"Winnie the Pooh?" Orli asks, incredulous, before they both burst out in hysterical laughter. "Oh man," he adds, winking at Dom. "He's gonna get some grief over that." Then Orli zips up his suit, throws his sunglasses on top of his own bag and decides to join the other three in the water. Bill and Elijah are already a good distance away from the water's edge and Sean is bravely throwing himself into the surge.
"Coming?" the mohawked Brit calls over his shoulder, offering him a broad, happy smile.
"In a minute," Dom calls back and gestures for him to run along, returning the smile, watching how Orli is the last one to join the bobbing figures in the water, quickly joining Sean and paddling alongside the American, out to where Billy and Elijah are sitting straddling their boards, waiting for a good wave to come their way.
Dom watches his friends in the water for a while, watches how slowly but undeniably the tide is coming in, then bends down and pulls his own towel and a bottle of water from his bag, unscrewing the cap and taking a good swig, his eyes trained yet again on the action in the ocean.
They hadn't been surfing for a very long time, it was actually their second or third time doing it without an instructor, but they were slowly getting better at it. Especially Orli and Billy, who seemed glued to their boards at times, leaving Dom to wonder when he'd be able to finally pull it off, Sean to mutter something about having to be a responsible father and Elijah in silent, wide-eyed awe.
Dom likes watching Elijah try, though. He likes watching that wiry, teenage body trying to keep up with the strength of Orlando's tall frame or Billy's experienced agility. He likes the way Elijah always transforms into this Terrier-like pup; never giving up or letting go, never quite succeeding, but always playful and good-natured about it.
He especially likes how Billy lets the first wave of the day pass, leaving it for Elijah, probably because he's waiting for a bigger one, and most of all because Dom knows how very fond the Scot actually is of the dark-haired, squeaky Yank.
Elijah catches the wave, and stands up in time to ride it before it's at its highest point, but he doesn't make it all the way back to the beach. Dom grins when he sees a spluttering Elijah emerge from the surf, his hair pasted flat against his head, his eyes squinting against the sunlight. Dom waves, doubting if Elijah can even see him without his contact lenses in, then finally zips up his own wetsuit and jogs off to the shoreline, carrying his board on his head with both hands.
"You okay?" he asks, dropping the surfboard on the sand and reaching down to adjust the ankle strap that should keep it in close proximity.
"Of course," Elijah beams, straightening up and pushing his hair away from his face. "The sea is great, man, get your ass out there!"
He punctuates by giving Dom a little push and soon he finds himself surrounded by the froth of the waves crashing on the water as he tries to climb on top of his board and paddle towards Orli and Sean.
He doesn't even notice Billy surfing graciously past him.
Dom shifts his sunglasses to the tip of his nose, puts his journal and pen down on his bag and looks around. Next to him, Sean is fast asleep, snoring softly under the cap he pulled across his face, the book he brought along laying upside down on his chest. The sun has climbed a lot higher in the sky, quickly gaining in strength, and Dom decides it's time to pull out the sunscreen. He doesn't want to explain Merry-with-the-burned-nose to Make-up day after tomorrow, when the hobbit has presumably spent many days underground in the Mines of Moria or underneath the sheltering leaves of Lothlorien's forest.
As he opens the tube and starts to dab his nose with the oily substance, Elijah walks up to their spot on the beach, his board wedged under his arm. He leaves it on the sand a few yards in front of them before dropping down on his large beach towel with a deep sigh, wrapping himself in a second, smaller towel, shivering a little.
"So c-cool," he says through clattering teeth, pulling the towel tighter around himself. "B-but cold too."
Dom grins and rubs a hand between the boy's shoulder blades.
"S-Sean's asleep?" Elijah asks, softer this time, leaning into Dom's touch as he quivers again. "H-He can't get used to those ungodly hours f-for Feet, and I c-can't blame him. Hmmm - that's g-good."
"Is it?" Dom grins some more, enjoying the ripple of Elijah's back muscles underneath his fingers. "Are you going back in anytime soon?"
Elijah shivers once more and shakes his head.
"Then you should get out of the suit, Lij," he offers again. "And towel off. And eat something and take a snooze in the sun. Sean and I here are big fans of that, as you may have noticed. We'll just leave the showing off to those who actually can, right?"
Elijah smiles and allows the towel to slide from around his shoulders, scrabbling at his zipper with cold, shaky fingers. After he has finally pulled the zipper down with considerable force, he stands up to strip out of the suit completely, leaving nothing but a pair of tight trunks. Before Dom can so much as even look at Elijah, the boy is wrapping the towel around his body once more and drops down on the sand again, still shivering.
"Just lie down for a bit," Dom advises and hands him the sunscreen. "And put this on... I'm certain Frodo hadn't been sunbathing before he left for Mordor. You could even try to catch some sleep and I'm sure the sun will warm you up nicely."
"You know what would warm me up nicely?" Elijah whispers playfully, accepting the tube from Dom's hand and leaning towards the Brit a little. All playfulness immediately forgotten, Dom stares into Elijah's sparkling eyes, feeling how a bolt of white heat shoots straight towards his groin. His cock swells quickly in the loose confines of his shorts and he breathes deeply.
"What?" he asks, his voice pathetically hoarse all of a sudden, then quickly checking behind him to see if Sean is still asleep.
"Another one of those kisses," Elijah continues, ever so quietly, as he drops the sunscreen on his towel and looks up at Dom through his lashes. Then his eyes dart to the left, probably making sure if Orli and Billy are still trying to test each other's surfing prowess, until he realises he actually can't see a thing and, slightly frustrated, he frowns.
"The dynamic duo still busy?" he asks instead, and Dom gazes out into the distance, spotting Orli and Billy with their backs to the shore, paddling out into the surf again. He nods and turns his head back.
"Still busy," he confirms and lifts a hand to cup Elijah's cold cheek. "Quickly then - we don't want to disturb Seanie here..."
"Don't you worry," Elijah giggles and scoots a little closer, nudging Dom's arm, then snuggling into a gentle, sun-warmed embrace. "When he sleeps, he sleeps. Like a log. Now kiss me, please?"
Dom tilts his head a little and dips down to nuzzle Elijah's neck, pushing his nose up against the shell of his ear, and as he flicks his warm tongue against a cold lobe, Elijah emits a short groan, somewhere deep in his throat. Then Dom remembers he's supposed to do this quickly, and he lifts his head again to press his lips against the boy's already slightly open mouth.
Elijah's tongue pushes inside Dom's mouth immediately, greedy and impatient, and Dom slides his hand from Elijah's cheek to his neck, pulling him in closer, parting his lips even more under the pressure of that urgent tongue. He gasps into the kiss when he feels Elijah's nimble fingers brush a nipple through the fabric of his t-shirt, then slide lower until his hand disappears underneath the garment where he starts to stroke the soft hair on Dom's stomach.
Elijah opens his mouth a little wider and curls his tongue around Dom's, making wet, almost squelching little noises, and suddenly Dom realises he should break it off, because all he wants to do now is push Elijah down onto the sand and run his lips along that seemingly endless, strong neck. All he wants to do is rip away Elijah's towel and cover his chest in bites and licks and kisses and Dom knows he will do all of this without caring about what the others might see or hear.
With a groan he tears his lips away from Elijah's hungry mouth and silently endures the uncomprehending, utterly blue gaze that is fixed on him as soon as Elijah opens his eyes and realises what has happened. It lasts less than a second, though, before they smile at each other, and Dom quickly scans the ocean, finding Orli and Billy still with their backs to the beach. Elijah glances past Dom and watches Sean still snoring on his towel, his book slightly more askew on his bare chest.
"Why'd you stop?" Elijah whispers as soon as they are looking at each other again, and Dom smiles as he hears the frustration still present in the American's voice. He is quite familiar with that frustration.
"I would have eaten you alive," Dom murmurs, licking his lips, and he picks up the abandoned tube of sunscreen. "But lose the towel and lie on your stomach and I'll rub your back."
Obeying immediately, Elijah smirks up at his friend as he turns onto his front, impatiently pushing the towel down and presenting Dom with a pale expanse of soft white skin, causing Dom to swallow hard.
"I wouldn't mind you eating me alive," Elijah whispers again, resting his head on his folded arms. "But I'm sure you couldn't have done it without waking Sean."
Dom smiles and squeezes a dab of cream onto Elijah's back, making him yelp with the cold sensation. As soon as Dom pushes his hand through the slick, oily mass, however, dividing it across his back before he starts working it in with a firm, determined grip, Elijah moans softly into the crook of his arm and shifts his legs, then closes his eyes.
"You like that, don't you?" Dom teases on a whisper, lying down next to the boy, his mouth close to Elijah's ear and his hand never stopping its slow circular motions on the small of Elijah's back. "You're like a big lazy cat, you know that? Next thing you want me to scratch behind your ears and feed you milk..."
Elijah giggles again. "Don't be such a hypocrite, Dommie," he whispers back. "Like you think it's such torture to rub my back and ogle my ass."
"You're quite right," Dom grins and briefly slides one finger underneath the waistband of Elijah's trunks, brushing the silky skin at the top of one cheek. "And who can blame me, because I have never seen a Hobbit with such an exquisite tush before. This Frodo character is really annoying, you know," Dom continues conversationally, pulling his finger back from underneath the elastic band, resting his hand on Elijah's shoulder, getting more comfortable lying on his side. "He has it all... Lovely skin, soft lips, silky hair, nice clothes, sumptuous smial, a wealthy uncle... And on top of all that, he has the most amazing arse in the whole Shire. Very annoying character..."
Elijah giggles and opens his eyes, staring at Dom for a few long seconds.
"Dom?" he then whispers, and Dom huddles a little closer, scratching a nail through the hair in Elijah's neck, making the boy shiver.
"What?" Dom asks, just as quietly, careful not to wake a still snoring Sean on his other side.
"I'm hard."
Dom raises his eyebrows playfully at the candid confession and stares into Elijah's wide-open eyes, pupils dark and sparkling. He smiles, somehow strangely aware of his breathing, his heart beating wildly behind his breastbone, wondering if Elijah can hear it. He watches the boy shift once more; rearranging his legs underneath the towel he shrugged off earlier, lifting his hips slightly to accommodate himself.
"I know," Dom starts, but before he gets a chance to tell Elijah of his own predicament, glad as he is that he can hide it in his baggy shorts, suddenly the entire world snaps back into life. Within three seconds Sean wakes up with a groan and a stretch, his book shifting off his body and against Dom's back, and a dripping wet Billy and Orlando join the others on the beach.
Dom watches how Elijah quickly closes his eyes, nestling his head deeper into the crook of his arms, pretending to be asleep; while he himself pulls his journal into his lap, trying to cover up any evidence that might still be visible.
"We need food," Billy and Orli announce simultaneously, and Dom grins as he pushes the bag with provisions in their direction.
"Try not to wake Elijah," he mutters and sits back against his own bag, watching how Orli, Billy and Sean dig into the fruit and sandwiches. He offers them a distant smile, but sighs with the loss of the moment he just had with Elijah.
The front door clicks shut and Dom drops his bags on the floor. In the distance he can hear the pick-up driving off in the direction of Orli's house and as he walks into the kitchen to grab a beer from the fridge, he wonders if Elijah is already at home.
He moves to the couch and plops down on it, kicking off his trainers, groping around for the remote. With the sound on mute and his feet on the coffee table, Dom can't help but think of the great day he just shared with his friends and his face lights up with the memory. As usual the surfing had been fantastic, but the fact that Elijah had wanted to be close to him, snuggling up on his towel and purring like a contented kitten after a lazy back scratch, had been truly mind-blowing.
What's more, they had kissed right there under Sean's sleeping nose, too wrapped up in each other's lips to care, and Elijah had moaned into his mouth, had leaned into his kiss, had told Dom how he was hard from it and all Dom could do was look at his friend, look at the boy who should be more than just a friend.
Patience, he tells himself and with a strange form of pride he remembers the moment he had the discipline to pull away, once he felt the strength of the fire that Elijah caused to flare up in him. His cock had been rock hard for almost an hour, and only because he decided to go for another round of surfing did his predicament disappear.
Elijah had eventually fallen asleep for real, and Dom had covered his back and shoulders with another towel, preventing him from burning his skin. Sean had finished his book, while Orli and Billy had been in the water more than out of it, looking like they could still take on another round of waves as the day was drawing to a close. And now they were all back home, preparing for tomorrow's flight.
Dom gets up and pads into the bedroom where his suitcase is still lying on the bed, random items of clothing scattered inside it, the drapes still closed from the previous night. Dom yawns and sets his alarm a couple of hours earlier, so that he can finish packing tomorrow morning.
He quickly undresses, takes a shower and brushes his teeth, and to his mildly amused surprise he notices that he's too tired to even think about the real life action he shared with Elijah today. Back in the bedroom he puts the suitcase on the floor and crawls naked under the duvet.
It's only ten o'clock in the evening when Dom closes his eyes.
And as he sleeps he dreams of blue eyes and the incoming tide.
Chapter Sixteen
Expanding Universe Index
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