Dom and Liberty were happily seated at a secluded booth in the corner of a New Zealand hot spot. Liberty was wearing a knee length shimmering black skirt and light purple silky tank top; her hair was flowing down her back in a bundle of curls and Dom couldn’t take his eyes off her. He was dressed casually in a pair of nice pants and a deep blue crisp linen shirt that brought out the color in his eyes; his hair was spiked in odd directions, but it suit him just fine.

He reached across the table and gently took her hand; it startled her, this sudden contact, but her lips broke into a smile as she watched him. “It’s nice to be just the two of us,” he said, watching her apprehensively; it was as if he were nervous, though Liberty thought that impossible because she had never seen him nervous around her when it was just the two of them.

“It is,” Liberty conceded, “Too bad we can’t do it more often.”

Dom laughed, “Yes, well, the life of a hobbit is a busy one.”

“How true,” she smiled and pulled her hand out of his to grasp her menu and set it down at the corner of the table. “I think we need to talk.”

“Nothing good ever comes after those words,” Dom cleared his throat and set his menu on top of hers before running a nervous hand through his sticky hair. “Alight, Miss Liberty Crane. Hit me.”

Liberty’s eyes got large for a moment before she realized he was just using the expression and didn’t actually want her to hit him, “It’s just, well---” Dom craned his head to look around her and she trailed off, feeling dejected. “What?” She asked him, “Are you stalling? Or is something wrong?”

His gray eyes fell back on her; he looked as if he’d seen a ghost. “Ermm…” he looked behind her again and then back at her, “I swear I just saw Raya.”

“Raya is at home with Orlando,” Liberty sighed, “Probably doing couply things.”

“Couply’s not a word, love,” Dom remarked off-handedly.

“Thank you, Elijah,” she shook her hair out and stood up, “I’m going to go to the lady’s room. You sort yourself out and I’ll be back.”

Dom grabbed her hand and hauled her back into her seat, “No, no, no. This is supposed to be romantic. Don’t leave the table in a huff.” His eyes pleaded with her as he ran a thumb across her hand. “What is she DOING here?”

“I highly doubt she’s here,” Liberty said, but followed his gaze anyway, just to see for sure. “Alright where is she?“

“That girl next to the tall bloke,” Dom replied, as inconspicuously as he possibly could, given that he was hunched over the table and staring at the restaurant’s other patrons as if he were on safari. Liberty turned back to him, an eyebrow raised. “Dom, that girl is blonde.”

Dom shook his head, “I don’t know, Libs…when she entered the room I got all shuddery and sweaty. I know she’s here, I can just feel it. She’s always disturbing the force, every single time I see her.”

“Disturbs the force,” Liberty deadpanned, “You watch far too much Star Wars. You and Elijah should get out more.” She stood up, pointed to the bathrooms, and walked away.

“Pippin to Elfboy, do you copy?” Billy said when Raya picked up her cell phone on the first ring.

“Billy, I refuse to have you call my lovely boyfriend, ‘Elfboy’.” She threw some blonde hair over her shoulder and looked idly around the restaurant.

“Raya, I mean---Thelma! You have to play along!”

“That’s a hideous name,” Raya complained.

Suddenly there was a large thud on Raya’s end of the line and Billy jumped, “What was that?”

Orlando cleared his throat, “They spotted her, we think, and she bent down to fix her sandals.”

Billy nodded seriously, “Elfboy, what is the visual on Delta L?”

“Stop talking in code, Billy, I can barely understand you when you speak using regular English.”

“It’s PIPPIN!” Billy hollered into the phone, “Honestly, you two, we’ll be found out if you don’t play along!”

Orlando, sporting his blond Legolas wig in a pony tail at the top of his head and wearing a violent purple dress shirt and black pants, took Raya’s hand and followed the waitress to their table which was, thankfully, at the opposite side of the room from Dom and Liberty. Raya’s long blond wig was immaculately curled at the ends making her look almost more sophisticated than her regular do; she was wearing an inconspicuous little slinky black dress with matching sandals. She felt that she’d need to tone down her normal wear so they wouldn’t be noticed; Orlando, however, would do nothing of the sort.

“ELFBOY!” Billy yelled suddenly into Orlando’s ear, making him fall off the chair he was just sitting down upon.

“WHAT?!” Orlando hissed, “Peregrin Took, you fool of a Took, you made me fall off the bloody chair!”

“I actually like the full name better than just plain ‘Pippin’,” Billy mused, forgetting for the moment why he had yelled in the first place.

Orlando gave Raya a withering look that she ignored. “What was the matter, anyway?”

“I am outside the restaurant, in the garbage bins and I have a clear view of Delta L’s table, I’m pretty sure they’re watching you.” He paused, “Yup, yup they are.”

Raya ducked under the table, making Orlando giggle silently to himself. “Look, we’ll ring you if Dom or Liberty storms out, okay?”

“Wait---” but Orlando shut the phone off and handed it under the table to Raya, who put it in her purse.

“You know,” Orlando mused, looking over the menu, “I rather like this, perhaps you should hide under the table the whole time.”

Raya slid back into her chair, looking angry, “I did not get this blonde wig fitted to hide under a table.”

“Er, right,” Orlando stated awkwardly, “Let’s order, shall we?”

Liberty walked back to her table and cleared her throat when she saw Dom was still staring at that blonde woman.

Dom looked up at her in surprise, “Oh, hey.” He brushed some invisible lint off his shirt and waited while she sat down, “How was the loo?”

“Emmm, fine,” Liberty remarked, “Did you order?”

“I didn’t, I was waiting for you.”

“Well, perhaps we should leave then.”

“Why?” He focused his full attention on her now.

“Because I really need to talk to you and that apparently can’t be done in a public place where there are blonde women flitting about.”

“Aw, Libs, come on,” he took her hand and pouted, “I’m sorry. You’ve got all my attention now, okay? I just didn’t want Raya to come in here and ruin our night out together.”

“She can’t unless you let her, and she’s not even HERE.”

Dom nodded, “Yes, you’re right.” He dropped her hand and picked up his menu, “Mmm, everything looks so good.”

Dom managed to avoid ‘the talk’ while he ate his dinner; Liberty noticed his eyes flicking behind her every so often but she let it go, she wasn’t sure why he hated Raya so, but it was his prerogative, she supposed.

When it was time for desert, Liberty couldn’t wait any longer. She was going to ask him, point blank, if he really did love her of if he had just been saying that in the heat of the moment. “Dom.”

He looked up from the desert menu, surprised at the urgency in her voice, “What is it?”

“Do you love----Elijah?” She looked in shock as Elijah strutted into the restaurant, Billy at his heals.

Dom laughed quite loudly, “Of course I do, don’t you?” He followed her gaze and was happy to see his two best friends walking towards them.

Liberty, defeated, flopped against the back of her chair and blew some hair out of her face.

Billy’s cell phone rang just as he approached them. “Hello?” he asked pleasantly.

“PIPPIN!” Orlando hissed into Raya’s phone from the other side of the room, “What are you DOING here!?”

Billy smiled at Liberty and Dom and turned around to face Orlando, he made a slitting motion across his throat, but said happily, “I’m just here to see my good friends Lib and Dom. What are you doing?”

“What about the plan?” Orlando asked angrily. “It was YOUR idea!”

“And mine,” Raya said to him; he nodded at her.

“Abort,” Billy said, shrugging; his voice was light and airy but he was looking sternly at his elf-friend.

“ABORT!?” Orlando hollered so loudly that the entire restaurant turned to look at him, including Lib and Dom; Liberty’s eyes narrowed at him and realization dawned.

“You guys are spying on us!” she accused, looking pointedly at Elijah.

He held his hands up, “I’m not! I just escorted Billy! He said he needed a date!”

Billy smiled at everyone and cautiously put his phone in his pocket. He looked cool and collected, but when he spoke next, his voice was anything but. “ABOOOOOOOOOOORT!” He screamed at the top of his lungs and flung himself towards the front door. Raya and Orlando, in the craziness that followed Billy’s outburst, managed to escape out the back without being spotted.

Dom and Liberty left the restaurant soon after, having decided to skip desert and walk around for a bit, as the night was still young. He slipped his arm around her as they walked comfortably along, and she didn’t try to bring up the subject of the ‘l’ word again. She knew he was uneasy about it and would just try to dodge the question altogether.

“So it was fun, even though it sort of got crashed,” Dom said, laughing slightly as they made their way up the apartment stairwell to Billy’s.

“Yeah,” Liberty replied, smiling, “I had a good time. It was the first date we’ve had in…a while.”

“We haven’t really gone out much since we’ve been ‘going out’ have we,” Dom grabbed her hand and kissed it, “We should do it more often.”

“I’d like that.”

“How’s tomorrow afternoon, then? I’ll have a half hour break at some point, you could come and skulk about the set for awhile.”

“That would be fun,” she said, grinning at him as they approached the door. From the quiet inside, it seemed Billy had gone to bed earlier than he normally would have. “Do you want to come in, or---”

Dom glanced at the door and then back at her, “Er, that’d probably be a bad idea.”

“Why?” Liberty asked him, genuinely curious.

“Because, though I’ve held off this long, I don’t know how long I can handle being this close to you without jumping you. I’m not sure I can resist the urges any longer.”

Liberty let out a big, “HA HA!” of laughter that caused Dom to fall against the opposite wall in shock. He had been being serious and she thought it was funny. She quieted down, “I’m sorry…I just…I didn’t know you felt that way. I wasn’t sure what this was to you exactly.”

“What the relationship was to me?”

“Is it a relationship?” she countered.

Dom chuckled lightly and kissed her forehead, “It is, yes. As far as I’m concerned.”

“That’s good to know.”

“I’m sure,” he laughed. “So I’ll give you a ring tomorrow when I get a moment and you can drive on over.”

Liberty nodded, “Okay, sounds good. Wait. I can’t drive here.”

“Why ever not?” He looked highly amused and falsely curious.

She swatted him playfully on the arm, “I’ll go on the wrong side and run someone over. Maybe I’ll get lucky and it’ll be Anaka.”

“Hey hey hey,” Dom laughed, “Get Vig.”

“Alright,” she yawned, “I gotta crash. I’m exhausted.”

“Yeah, me too,” he ran his hand along her cheek and then cupped her face in his hands and kissed her so hard that it made her head spin; when he broke away she stared at him in surprise. “I told you about the urges.”

“And here I am thinking you’re just kidding,” she shook her head.

“I would never kid about my urges, love, trust me.” He winked at her and started walking away, “I’ll see you tomorrow.”

*

“What was so important, anyway?” Viggo asked, sipping his coffee and leaning casually back in his seat. He had the day off, since he’d be working that night at Helm’s Deep, and since Liberty had barely seen him since she’d arrived, she invited him out for coffee; the hobbits were all hard at work until later that night. Viggo would also serve as her ride to the set later on.

Liberty heaved a huge sigh, “He said he loved me, before we bungee jumped, and I wanted to know how he meant it.”

“You think he loves you as a friend?”

Liberty shrugged, “I have no idea, to be honest. I’m just surprised that he feels so strongly for me.”

“How do you feel about him?”

She hadn’t expected this question and didn’t have a prepared answer, “I like him a lot; I’m attracted…amazingly attracted to him, I’m all swoony over him, but I don’t know if I could call it love yet.”

“Yet,” Viggo pointed at her with his free hand, “There’s the keyword.”

Liberty raised an eyebrow, “I didn’t even realize I said yet.”

Viggo smiled at her, “You probably already know how you feel about him, you may just be scared.”

“Scared.” Liberty nodded, “Now THAT is a keyword.”

“He’s probably scared too,” Viggo commented, taking another sip of his coffee.

“How do two scared people get together, then?”

“You stop being scared, bite the bullet, and admit your true feelings.” He leaned across the table towards her, “You gotta grab the bull by the balls and just go for it.”