Long Way To Fall

There was silence in the apartment for a good ten minutes before the phone rang again. Sighing, he reached over and pulled the receiver to his ear, not even bothering to say hello. Greetings weren‘t needed when you knew who was on the other end of the phone line, just waiting to hear your voice.

"Do you kick balls?"

He groaned loudly, a smirk on his face. "Shut up."

"Mr. Woods, you did a film called Flipper…"

"Dominic."

The British man stopped speaking in his appalling German accent and gave over all his attention. "Yes, Elijjjjjjjah?"

He always does that. He liked to put heavy emphasis on the ‘j’ for reasons no one could figure out other than to be different from everyone else and how they said ‘Elijah’ like normal people. (Or, as Dom would say, the boring way.)

"Are you ever going to stop calling my apartment eight times a day just to ask if I kick balls?"

There was a moment of silence while Dom contemplated this; Elijah could hear the sounds of people in the background and he figured Dom was still on the set, waiting for the day to end. Dom often called Elijah during breaks, as they were aplenty, and it wasn’t like Elijah minded.

Sometimes Elijah would have liked to have talked to Dom seriously about things, but more often than not these days their conversations were about balls rather than world peace.

"Nope, I don’t think so," Dom said eventually, and Elijah could hear the smirk in his voice.

Elijah leaned back in his chair and popped the top of a soda; he chugged half of it down and wiped his mouth on his sleeve.

"Thirsty, Lij?" Dom questioned, amusement clear in his voice after Elijah burped loudly down the line.

"Talking to you so much makes a guy thirsty."

"Ah." Dom chuckled.

"How long until your next scene?"

There was the rustling of papers (Elijah figured Dom was pretending to check his schedule) and then Dom said, "Ten minutes."

"That means you’ll be calling again in…" Elijah looked at his watch, "thirty minutes?"

Dom laughed a throaty sort of laugh. "You know me so well."

"It’s hard not to," Elijah mumbled in mock disgust, "The way you go on about yourself."

"I know you love me. Don’t try to deny it."

Elijah laughed slightly. "I wasn’t."

There was the sound of Dom’s name being called and then Dom was saying he had to go and Elijah was saying he’d talk to him later, and then the line went dead.

It went on like this for weeks. Daily calls, sometimes ten or eleven of them, but all for short periods of time. It was like they had to stay in contact that much just to remind themselves that the other existed, somewhere miles and miles away, often separated by an ocean.

Of course, this could be explained away by saying they’d spent the better part of four years together, often never leaving the other’s sight, and so when they had to be apart because of their work taking them to different countries and cities and states, it was normal to want to cling to each other, since the friendship had been so strong.

Or, there was always the possibility that there was more going on beneath the surface that neither of them spoke about, or addressed, but it was always there just waiting to be brought out when they were ready for it.

Hawaii was a long way away from Los Angeles. A short plane ride, sure, but it seemed like they were on different continents sometimes.

Which was probably the reason for the phone calls. Probably.

"Wassssssuuuuuuup!"

"Dude, you’ve been watching too much TV again, haven’t you."

"That commercial is, like, a year old."

"My point exactly. You shouldn’t be quoting it."

"How’s the shoot?"

"Oh, man! I died today!"

Elijah raised an eyebrow, stubbing out his cigarette so he could concentrate fully on the conversation. "You what now?"

"Died," Dom repeated as if Elijah were very slow.

"Really?" Elijah lit another cigarette and leaned back in his chair (the chair he had started calling The Dom Chair because he only sat in it when he talked to Dom). "The fangirls are going to cry. I hope you know that."

Dom chuckled. "I miss you, mate."

"I miss you too, mate," Elijah replied, his voice gentle.

"Oh, I’m needed on the set. I’m very popular, as you know. Love you brother. Big kisses."

Elijah smiled fondly at the phone, as if Dom could see him. "Love you too. Bye."