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This story contains adult content of a sexual nature. Do not read if you are under the age of 18. Please also note that this website's Terms of Use apply to you, even if you choose not to read them.
Title: When the Cat's Away
by Lobelia
This is the continuation of 'A Helping Hand' and 'We Can Do
More'.
Pairing: Dominic Monaghan / Billy Boyd; Dominic Monaghan / Orlando
Bloom
Rating: NC-17.
Spoilers: The Two Towers, The Return of the King
Warnings/Content: RPS.
Feedback: Yes, please, I love feedback!
Disclaimers: I do not know these people. I am not making money.
The events described in this story did not happen.
Summary: What happens after Billy and Dominic separate during
the NZ shoot. Dominic misses Billy. He ends up mucking about with
Orlando. Climax on a beach.
Author's Notes: Thanks so much to Lisa for doing yet another wonderful
beta job! Miraculously, no sand flies on this NZ beach. Shooting
calendar mostly invented.
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It was the last day of the Fangorn location shoot.
Filming stopped at precisely two-thirty in the afternoon, and the actors trooped off to costume and make-up. Their bags were already stowed on their respective buses. All around them, the encampment that had sprung up in the forest clearing for the week was being dismantled.
When Dominic and Billy emerged from the costume tent -- the last ones, as usual --, they hardly recognised the place they had been staying in for the past four-and-a-half days. Tyre tracks criss-crossed the half-empty clearing. A few yards away, two men were attempting to load a large roll of cable onto a lorry. A woman rushed by with a box of light bulbs. Further off, they could see their trailer being hitched to a truck.
Dominic and Billy had shared that trailer these past four nights. And what an extraordinary series of nights it had been!
"Well, there goes our trailer," said Billy.
Dominic moved close to him and touched Billy's hand with two of his fingers.
"Yeah," he said. "Funny how it's only been four days since we got here."
Billy curled his hand around Dominic's fingers, not moving his eyes away from the sight of their trailer disappearing down the dirt road at the end of the clearing.
"Good to have a bit of a break from the feet, anyway," said Billy and laughed half-heartedly.
"Yeah," said Dominic. He couldn't laugh; his throat felt too dry.
They were silent. Dominic moved a bit closer so that their shoulders and hips touched.
"When do we leave?" said Billy.
As if on cue, a woman with a clipboard appeared, hurrying towards them.
"Mr Boyd? Mr Monaghan?" she called. "You leave in fifteen minutes." She consulted her notes. "Mr Boyd? Minas Tirith. You're in that yellow bus over there. And Mr Monaghan ..." She flipped over a sheet. "Dunharrow. You're in the blue-and-silver coach, just behind that car."
"I see it," said Dominic.
"There are some last-minute refreshments in catering," the woman said. "Don't be late, please." She hastened off.
"Fifteen minutes," said Billy.
An empty feeling spread through Dominic's stomach, and his lungs seemed to constrict. He turned to look at Billy. Billy looked sad and lovely. And also very, very tired. He looked as tired as Dominic felt. This was no wonder. They hadn't exactly done a lot of sleeping during the previous night.
Memories of what they had done instead came to Dominic out of nowhere, and he started to feel dizzy.
"Billy," he said.
"Yes?" said Billy.
"Nothing," replied Dominic. He ran his fingers up and down Billy's arm and swallowed.
"I'm going to miss you," he said in a low voice and looked down at his shoes. "I am really going to miss you. Shit, this is stupid."
"There you are!" a voice called out to them, startling Dominic. It was Orlando. He was laughing and waving, and when he reached them he threw his arm around Billy's shoulders.
"Sad little hobbits," he said. "Don't look too gloomy. You'll only be separated for a few weeks."
Billy was due to leave with Ian, to film scenes in Minas Tirith. Dominic was off to Dunharrow with Orlando, Viggo and John.
"Come on, let's get some last-minute coffee," said Orlando. He slung his other arm around Dominic's shoulders and pulled the two friends along.
The others stood around near a trestle table which was all that was left of catering. They were chewing soggy sandwiches and sipping coffee. They looked a forlorn little group among the general bustle.
"I hate these last minutes in a location," said Ian. "They're so in-between."
Dominic couldn't get out a single word. He stood next to Billy and tried to swallow some coffee past the tightness in his throat.
And then it was time.
The yellow bus stood to the right and the blue-and-silver coach across the clearing, to the left.
There was a big good-bye scene. Ian hugged John and said, "Thanks for keeping me awake all those nights with your snoring." John laughed and replied, "Not at all. You deserved every minute of it." Then Ian embraced and kissed Viggo and Orlando; and Dominic hugged Ian; and John patted Billy on the back; and Orlando gave Billy a kiss on the cheek and a squeeze; and Dominic ... Dominic couldn't bring himself to touch Billy.
"Bye, then," he said. His voice was faltering.
"Bye," said Billy. He looked for a second as if he were going to move towards Dominic but then didn't. "See you in two months."
Ian raised an eyebrow. Nobody else seemed to notice anything amiss, what with the general hugging and kissing. The silver-and-blue contingent moved off in the direction of their coach, and Billy and Ian walked towards their own bus.
Dominic was the last to climb into the coach but just as he got to the top of the steps he said, "Hang on." He jumped back down to the ground.
"Forgotten something!" he called out to the driver. "Sorry, won't be a moment."
He ran back at a mad pace. The yellow bus was still there. Billy stood beside the bus, digging through his luggage, looking for something.
"Billy!" Dominic shouted, running up to him.
Billy straightened.
Dominic stopped. He stood and looked at Billy; then, in one swoop, he enveloped Billy in his arms and pressed his face into Billy's neck. Billy sighed and his arms tightened around Dominic's back.
"Dear Billy," whispered Dominic into Billy's ear. "See you very, very soon."
"And you," said Billy. "And don't fall over any tables."
"No," laughed Dominic. "I'll try not to."
Now that he was finally in Billy's arms he found it impossible to pry himself away. He had got used to this, to feeling Billy in his arms over these past few nights. And he didn't want to get used to being without it. It was also very difficult not to bite Billy's neck or lick Billy's ear but he just managed to stop himself from doing those things.
"This is so cruel," he said.
"Dearest Dom," said Billy.
The bus driver came round the side. "You found your bag then?" he asked Billy.
Billy and Dominic pulled apart.
"Yes, thanks," said Billy.
"I'd better go," said Dominic.
"Bye," said Billy.
"Bye," replied Dominic inanely.
"It's been ... " said Billy and smiled helplessly.
"Yes, it's been ..." repeated Dominic and smiled, too.
"Can I shut this door then?" said the bus driver.
"Yes, yes, sorry, " said Billy.
Billy walked around the bus and climbed up the steps. Dominic waited until Billy appeared at one of the windows. There was time for one blown kiss and a wave, then the motor started up and the bus drove off, leaving a cloud of dust in its wake.
Dominic took a deep breath. As he walked back to his own coach, he felt a Billy-shaped hole between his arms. His eyes were aching.
Orlando had kept him a window seat on the coach. Viggo was next to John. Everywhere else was taken up by technicians, and by the hobbit and dwarf stand-ins.
The coach moved off. Merry and Pippin were separated, and so were Dominic and Billy.
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"Don't you want the window?" Dominic said to Orlando.
"Nah," replied Orlando. "More room for my legs this way." By way of demonstration, he stretched his legs into the aisle.
"Fair enough," said Dominic.
"You look like shit, mate," said Orlando. "No offence."
"Great; thanks. You've got a real gift for cheering a bloke up, you have."
"No, really. Do you want an aspirin?"
"I'm all right. I'm just knackered, that's all."
"Is that your bag there?"
"Yeah, that's my sort of hand-luggage thing."
"Not bad. Can I see it? What are all these compartments for?"
It was actually quite soothing, sitting there next to Orlando and making idle conversation. The coach rumbled down the dirt track, then made a sharp right-hand turn onto an asphalt road. In front were the backs of another pair of seats; on one side was the window; and on the other side sat Orlando, inspecting Dominic's flight bag. Outside the window, to their right, strange New Zealand trees and plants were passing by. Soon they had the ocean on their left.
Dominic reached across and pulled his map out of one of the side pockets of the bag.
"What's that?" asked Orlando.
"Map," said Dominic.
"You're very organised," observed Orlando.
Dominic opened out one corner of the map.
"Just checking to see where we are and where we're headed," he said.
Orlando bent over the map as well, and their heads touched as the coach swayed gently from side to side.
Dominic placed his finger on one of the squares.
"See? We're here. That's the forest where we were. The exact spot isn't on here, of course; need a bigger-scale map for that. And here ..." He traced the line demarcating the road. "Here is where we're going."
"Where are Elijah and Sean?" asked Orlando.
"Mount Tongariro," said Dominic and folded the map out further. "That's here."
"It's a pity we're not going there," said Orlando, craning his neck. "Did you see those photos Peter had? The place looks amazing."
"Wonder how they're doing," said Dominic.
When they had first been separated from the other two hobbits, he and Billy had missed them terribly. Suddenly, Dominic realised that he actually hadn't thought of Elijah or Sean for at least the last three days. Ever since that first night with Billy, in fact.
"Is your mobile working again?" he asked.
"It was always working," said Orlando. "It's just that there are no radio masts around here. We've been in the middle of fucking nowhere."
"Yeah, but that's sort of cool, isn't it?" said Dominic. "That's what New Zealand is all about, isn't it?"
He folded up his map and tucked it back into the bag. Then he shoved the bag under his seat and leaned his head back against the seat. He could feel the tiredness seeping up from his legs into his upper body.
"What was it like sharing with Billy, anyway?" Orlando said out of the blue.
"Oh, you know," said Dominic. He felt an absurd blush creeping across his face and looked out of the window.
"Snuggling up together in that big comfy bed," said Orlando.
"It was only because there was a bloody leak over the couch." Dominic was grinning; he couldn't help it. He also had to fight the urge to tell Orlando everything that had happened. His heart felt so full of Billy that it would have been easy to spill it all out and to confess, 'And we kissed, and we fucked, and it was like nothing I've ever, ever done in my life, and I can't think of anything I'd rather do.' But he managed to restrain himself.
Instead he said, "What about you and Viggo then?"
"What?" said Orlando, taking out a pack of cigarettes and shaking it up and down absent-mindedly. "What about me and Viggo?"
"What was it like sharing a trailer with Viggo?"
"Ppph," Orlando puffed out a breath. "It was fine. It was actually quite interesting. I got a bit of an insight into the man, you know."
"Like how?"
"Like, 'I need to meditate at four-thirty in the morning', or like, 'I'm going to sleep outside in my sleeping bag tonight'. And ... other stuff."
"Really? Viggo slept outside?"
"He did one time."
"Did he still have his costume on?" asked Dominic and chuckled.
"No. But maybe he'd hidden his sword under a shrub or something."
Dominic looked around but Viggo was sitting near the front of the coach and couldn't overhear their conversation.
"Anyway," Orlando said slowly, turning the cigarette pack round and round in his hands. "I think he's a really interesting ... man, you know. He's sort of a bit weird, and also intense ... I don't know, hard to describe."
"Hm," went Dominic.
He waited for Orlando to say something more but Orlando had lapsed into silence.
After a while, Dominic said, "You know, Billy and I were talking about this, who should be sharing trailers. And Billy thought you should've been put in with John, not Viggo. Because of the Legolas-Gimli thing."
"Oh yeah, great," said Orlando. "Didn't you hear what Ian said?" He lowered his voice. "John snores like a steam engine."
"But, you know, because of the on-screen relationship," Dominic persisted. "Billy and I were saying that everyone who has an on-screen relationship with anyone else should be made to share a trailer with them."
"That somehow seems more fun for you hobbits than for me," said Orlando.
"Oh, don't be unfair," said Dominic and grinned. "John's really sweet."
"But I'm never in any shots with him," said Orlando, veering off the topic. "It's always the stand-in. I never get to act with him."
"But you rehearse, don't you?" asked Dominic. "To get it right?"
"Yeah, that's true," admitted Orlando. "But it's not the same. Anyway ..." He lowered his voice further. "He's old."
"So? You're old. You're thousands of years old."
"You know what I mean."
"No, I don't. Ian's old."
"That's not what I meant. I meant about sharing a trailer. And they don't want to share with us, didn't you notice? They don't like ... I don't know, I'm sure they're embarrassed or something."
"I can't think much would embarrass Ian," said Dominic. Then he had to blush again because he had himself, in fact, tested Ian's capacity not to be embarrassed only the day before.
"Fuck, I really need a smoke," said Orlando.
"No, you don't," said Dominic.
"Oh, don't start that again."
"Just put them away," said Dominic. "Fiddle with something else."
"Yeah, with what?" asked Orlando.
They both giggled. But Orlando did put the pack away. He had a small canvas bag stowed under his seat, and out of that he proceeded to pull his mobile phone.
"I thought you said we're still out of range," said Dominic.
"I'm going to play Tetris," said Orlando.
"Oh, am I so boring?" said Dominic.
"I can talk and play Tetris at the same time," said Orlando, starting to press the keys with his thumb. "It's not as if it requires a whole lot of brainpower."
"No, or you wouldn't be able to play it," said Dominic.
"Shut up, you," said Orlando affectionately.
"You were asking for that."
"You said to fiddle with something else."
Orlando slumped down in his seat and leaned his knees up against the seat in front. Dominic shifted around, pulled a T-shirt out of his bag, rolled it up into a cushion and leaned his head against the window.
"How long till we're there?" he asked.
"Three hours or something. Four hours," said Orlando, making frantic clicks with his thumb.
It was pleasant, chatting about this and that with Orlando. Perhaps it was even a tiny bit of a relief, after all that intensity with Billy. Dominic felt exhausted by the intensity. And Orlando was nice and un-intense. He was glad that Orlando, at least, was going to be around during the coming weeks.
'I wonder what Ian and Billy are talking about right now,' he thought, idly gazing out at the trees and plants passing by outside the window. The motor rumbled monotonously, and the coach rocked to and fro. Apart from the engine sounds, it was rather quiet. Most people seemed to be asleep. The sun slanted in through the coach windows on their left. The seats, the ceiling, Orlando's head -- everything lit up with a golden light.
Dominic closed his eyes. Immediately, images of Billy came floating past his eyelids. Billy lying helpless with lust underneath him, his head back and his mouth open. Billy glistening with sweat and whispering, "Yes, more, more, like that." And then he remembered not an image of Billy, but a feeling. Billy moving inside him, incredibly, unbelievably, Billy licking his ear from behind, and then losing it and, with his face pressing into Dominic's shoulders, gasping and shaking and going, "oh, oh".
Maybe it hadn't been such a good idea to call up those memories at this particular time because now Dominic had an erection.
He crossed his legs and rearranged his hands. 'Stupid', he thought. But he also had to smile, a private little smile. And then he couldn't help but smile a little more, and then he actually let out a short snort.
Orlando's head lolled against Dominic's shoulder.
Dominic moved his neck. Orlando had fallen asleep, knees still up against the seat in front, phone loosely cradled on his lap. Dominic smiled. He reached across carefully and removed the phone. He turned it off, then he couldn't think of what to do with it; he didn't want to bend forwards to put it back in the bag because that might dislodge Orlando. So he stuffed it down the side of the seat, wedging it between the side of the coach and the arm of the chair.
Orlando's head felt warm against his shoulder. Tufts of hair grazed Dominic's cheek. Orlando made the tiniest whistling sounds in his sleep, and once he twitched his nose as if tickled in his dreams.
'I mustn't forget where I put the phone,' was Dominic's last thought before he, too, drifted into sleep.
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It was dark by the time the blue-and-silver coach rolled up into the parking lot in front of their motel. The black tarmac gleamed in the light of the overhead arc lamps. The whole scene looked dismal, and Dominic wished he were back in his cosy trailer in Fangorn Forest, with Billy in his arms.
Orlando was still asleep against Dominic. In the course of the coach ride, he had slipped down so that his head was now resting against Dominic's chest. Dominic had put his left arm around him, and the arm was starting to feel numb.
Everyone else on the coach was getting up, rummaging around in the overhead compartments, gathering up bags and papers, and talking in drowsy voices. It had been a long day for everyone but most of all, perhaps, for Dominic. He hadn't had much sleep the night before, after all.
"Orlando," Dominic said. "Orli. Wake up." He nudged him gently with his arm.
"Hm," grumbled Orlando.
"We're here, come on, wake up," said Dominic.
"Huh?" said Orlando and jerked upright suddenly. He stared about him with bleary eyes. Then he focused on Dominic.
"Oh, right," he said and shook his head. "Sorry, mate. Deep asleep. Was I lying on you there?"
"Yep," said Dominic. "Keeping me nice and warm."
In fact, Dominic's shirt had a moist patch of sweat where Orlando's head had pressed against it.
Orlando scrabbled under the seat for the bag. Dominic remembered just in time that he had pushed Orlando's mobile phone down by the side of the seat and fished it out. They hoisted their bags onto their shoulders and stumbled out.
Viggo and John were waiting together in the parking lot for the rest of their luggage to be unloaded from the back. Viggo yawned and put a friendly hand on Orlando's shoulder.
"All right?" he asked.
"Yeah," Orlando said. "Just tired."
"Well," said John. "At least we're all in our own bedrooms tonight. And real proper showers, too!"
That reminded Dominic yet again of the trailer he had shared with Billy. Thinking about their trailer just made him want to cry, and wanting to cry made his head hurt. He felt cramped and sticky from having slept on the coach and sitting in one position for so long, with Orlando on his shoulder and chest. He stretched his arms.
Soon, they had their bags, got their keys, trudged up a flight of stairs to the first floor and found their rooms. Orlando's was next to Dominic's. Dominic could see Orlando conferring with Viggo about something at the top of the stairs. Then Viggo disappeared into his room, and Orlando joined Dominic on the landing.
It was one of those motels where the landing consists of a long balcony along the outside of the building. One by one the lights went on in the various rooms.
"There's food and stuff from catering, apparently," said Orlando. "Do you want to get some?"
Dominic shrugged and struggled with his key in the lock.
"I must say I'm getting a bit sick of that stuff," continued Orlando. "Shall we just go out and grab a bite somewhere?"
"Okay," said Dominic. "But not too far. I can barely walk, I'm so tired."
"Good. I'll get you in -- what? Half an hour? I just want to have a shower."
"See you then."
Dominic entered his room and dropped his bags on the carpet. There were twin beds: one in the corner against one wall, the other one in the centre of the room. Each bed had a colour photograph of some New Zealand landscape location above it. There were bedside lamps, a television, a desk and chair, an en-suite bathroom. The wallpaper had a floral pattern on it.
Dominic went up to the photos and checked whether he'd been on a shoot at any of the locations. He didn't recognise the places, though. Then he sat down heavily on the centre bed.
Nothing wrong with the room. As such. A bit bleak, a bit motel-like but luxurious compared to their primitive little trailer. The only thing that was really wrong with this room was the fact that it was so empty. There was no Billy in it.
Dominic fell back onto the bed and put a hand over his eyes. His head was throbbing, his left arm felt dislocated, his very blood seemed tired and sluggish, and there was no Billy. This was awful.
Well, no use lying there. He gave a huge sigh and hopped up. Then he had a pee and a shower, shaved and stared at himself in the bathroom mirror. Orlando was right: he did look like shit.
One good thing about coming here was that there was no shooting the next day. After working non-stop for ten days, they were even going to have two days off. How useless those two days now seemed! Dominic had no idea what he would do with himself, now that Billy wasn't there. He couldn't remember the last time he'd spent a day without seeing Billy. Sometime around Christmas? Ages ago, at any rate. And there was the prospect of weeks and weeks of the same emptiness.
"Stupid, stupid," he muttered and hit his hands against the rim of the porcelain basin.
He dug through his bags, trying to find some clean clothes, and got dressed. Because he knew he'd fall asleep instantly if he lay down on the bed, he sat down at the desk and riffled listlessly through his shooting script. Then he ended up just sitting and staring blankly at the lace curtains in front of the window, with thoughts of Billy streaming through his mind.
They were mostly thoughts of Billy in bed, although he also had flashes of Billy as Pippin earlier that morning, their last morning together. Luckily, there had been no actual acting required. They just had to do a whole lot of reaction shots, and shots walking through the forest in various directions and sitting about in trees, and finally some still photographs. In between takes, Billy had always moved to stand very close to Dominic, and when nobody was looking, they had interlaced fingers behind their backs.
They hadn't done much talking. They'd done enough of that during the night.
Dominic closed his eyes. Even thinking about it in this motel room, after all that had happened, he still continued to be surprised by Billy, and what he and Billy had done together. He remembered that first night when Billy had suddenly reached around him and enfolded Dominic's cock in his hand. Just thinking about it sent shivers up and down Dominic's spine.
Well, it was back to the five-fingered friend for him.
There was a loud knocking at the door and Orlando's voice, "Are you ready?"
"Come in!" yelled Dominic.
Orlando came in, his hair damp and a dab of toothpaste in the corner of his mouth.
"You know what?" he said immediately. "The other coach has just arrived."
"What other coach?"
"You know. With all the other people, all the new people." Orlando drew aside the curtains and peered out. "Look, here they come. Quick, quick, who are these people again?"
Dominic joined him at the window.
"Well," he said, "from what I remember there's Bernard who plays Theoden, and then there's Karl Urban who is Eomer. You know him, don't you? And the woman who plays Eowyn is called Miranda."
"Karl!" cried Orlando. "Oh, good. Of course I know him. From those Rohan scenes. You weren't there, just Viggo and John and me. What about the others? Are they from New Zealand, too?"
"I dunno," said Dominic. "Bernard's not. He's from Manchester."
"I knew that," said Orlando. "You'll have something to talk about. Oops, here they come." He jumped back from the window.
They heard voices and steps. Figures walked by in the dark, laughing and talking.
"Let's go out and say hello," said Dominic and moved towards the door.
"Maybe they want to come with us, get a bite," said Orlando. "Don't I have to do a lot of riding with Eowyn?"
"Oh, great, you'll be talking horses all evening."
"Mm, my favourite topic. Come on, before they disappear into their rooms."
"Just before you go," said Dominic and reached up to wipe the toothpaste from Orlando's mouth with his forefinger.
Then he opened the door. He felt awake again, adrenaline pumping through him at the thought of all those new scenes with all those new actors. He remembered the shooting script; there were some powerful scenes involving Merry, Theoden and Eowyn. He couldn't wait to meet Bernard and Miranda.
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The others were going to join them in half an hour or so. Orlando and Dominic entered the pub just across the road from the motel and chose a good-sized round table near the rear. The pub was fairly nondescript. Ageing posters of 1950s beer ads were hung in metal frames on the panelled walls. But there was a lively group around the pool tables round the back, and several people were talking and laughing at the bar.
They ordered spaghetti with mushrooms from a list of three or four items, all chalked on a small blackboard and all misspelled.
"My round," said Orlando. "Let me get us some beers."
"Yeah, great, your round!" laughed Dominic. "While there's only the two of us!"
"You've got to get in early," grinned Orlando and loped off to the bar.
Dominic was left, contemplating the salt and pepper shakers.
'I must ring Billy,' he thought.
He looked up, watching Orlando at the bar. Orlando was getting involved in some sort of conversation with the barkeeper, and then with one of the patrons. No doubt someone had figured out that he was with the movie. A third person joined them; there was much waving of hands. Dominic smiled and settled in for a longish wait.
He conjured up Billy's face in his mind. It was the image of Billy's face at the moment when he entered him, not so long ago, last night -- or, more probably, in the early hours of that same day. Billy's face had been flushed and beads of perspiration stood out on his forehead. When Dominic had first pushed the head of his cock into him and nearly fainted with desire, Billy had flinched, and two involuntary tears had collected in the corners of his eyes. Dominic had bent down and licked them off, and Billy had looked at him with such eyes, such eyes! And then Dominic had dared move a little, and Billy had taken a sharp intake of breath; Dominic had stopped and then again moved a tiny bit and at a different angle, and then Billy's face had suddenly opened out like a flower, his mouth rounded in a moan, and his gaze cracked as pleasure spilled across his face. Dominic felt Billy's cock stiffen against his belly, and he couldn't help it, he had thrust in deep, and Billy clutched at his hips, and he had done it again and again, and he had pumped Billy's cock, and Billy's semen had spread out all over his stomach and collected in a puddle in his navel, and ---
"Here we go, mate," said Orlando and set a beer down in front of him. Dominic started and nearly upset the glass.
"What's up with you?" Orlando asked. "You look all hot and bothered."
"Just need a beer, mate," said Dominic and crossed his legs. He had an erection -- again.
"Cheers, then," said Orlando and lifted the glass to his lips.
"Cheers."
They drank. Afterwards, Orlando had foam on his upper lip, and for some reason the image of the foam became muddled up with the image of Billy's semen in Dominic's brain. He stared at Orlando's mouth.
"What?" Orlando said.
"Nothing," said Dominic. "I was just remembering something."
Orlando looked at him sharply but said nothing. The moment passed.
Dominic asked, "Can I borrow your mobile?"
"Course," said Orlando. "But I left it at the motel. Who did you want to ring?"
"Billy."
"Oh, fun," said Orlando. "I didn't know Billy had a mobile."
"Shit," said Dominic. "Of course, he doesn't."
How ridiculous. How was he going to get onto Billy? Find out his hotel from personnel tomorrow or something. What a bore. Dominic sighed.
"You all right, man?" repeated Orlando.
"Yeah, yeah," said Dominic.
"Missing Pippin?"
"Well, you know."
Orlando licked his upper lip and the foam disappeared onto his tongue and then into his mouth. Dominic caught himself staring again and took another swallow of beer. The beer was cold and rushed to his head in a pleasant way. The people at the bar were laughing loudly at some joke.
"Did they corner you?" Dominic said. "Did they know you're from the movie?"
"Yep."
Dominic waited for more but Orlando didn't continue, just sat there silently with his beer, looking towards the door. He didn't look exactly disconsolate but there was something slightly melancholy about the set of his mouth.
"You know what, it's quite nice that we're here, just the two of us," said Dominic. "I'm glad." In his present frame of mind, drunk with memories of Billy and with his cock still hard, he was feeling rather elated and benevolent towards the whole world.
Orlando smiled at him. "You're in a good mood this evening," he said.
Then his eyes lit up. He stood up and waved across the room. Viggo had appeared at the door. Viggo waved back, beckoned to someone outside, and Karl, Miranda and Bernard followed him into the pub.
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That first night in the pub went on longer than anticipated. They sat around until late, having discussions about how their characters fitted in with each other and how the Dunharrow scenes slotted into the rest of the story. Dominic discovered that both Bernard and Miranda had arrived with quite fixed ideas about the sort of hobbit Merry was, and they spent a good two hours going over the various characteristics of the book's Merry, the movie's Merry and, finally, Dominic's Merry. Miranda and Viggo got up to much innuendo about Eowyn and Aragorn; and Orlando, Viggo, Karl and Miranda all got deep into an argument about whether riding with both hands holding the reins or with one hand left free for doing battle was the more effective.
Everyone laughed excitedly and drank more than planned, and Miranda and Orlando had a competition over who could hold their liquor best but stopped after the fifth round.
That night in his motel room, after having got ready for bed, Dominic thought about writing something in his journal but then just reached over and flipped the bedside lamp off. The room didn't go completely dark; a faint fluorescent glow came through the lace curtains from the arc lamps outside.
Dominic lay on his back, staring up at the ceiling. Little grey motes floated past his eyes. He felt slightly sloshed which was not unpleasant. He sighed, closed his eyes and moved his hand into his boxer shorts. As he stroked himself, he thought of Billy's body wriggling underneath him and Billy's fingers laced around the back of his neck, holding on for dear life.
At the moment of orgasm, however, Dominic thought of nothing. His mind was a blank.
The next morning, they were on set for only a few hours and a briefing session. Peter went over all of their relationships again, and afterwards Viggo and Miranda arranged to have lunch to go over their scenes.
"Finally," laughed Viggo, "after all that fighting and orc-chasing, I get to do something romantic and emotionally complex."
"Lucky you," said Dominic. "Twice in one movie, too." He was referring to Liv as Arwen, of course.
He turned around, and there was Orlando next to him. His eyes were following Viggo and Miranda as they disappeared down the driveway, off the set.
"Shall we have lunch together then?" Dominic said.
"What?"
"Shall we go and have some lunch?" Dominic repeated.
"Yes. Lunch. Um," answered Orlando abstractedly. "Sure." He passed a hand over his thatch of hair. "But ... let's just stay on set."
"Fine by me," said Dominic.
"You know," said Orlando, as they ambled over to catering. "Let's do something. We've finally got some days off. Maybe we can go somewhere. Didn't Karl say there was a good beach near here? We're not doing anything on set till Peter comes back."
"Peter?" said Dominic absentmindedly. "Where's he going?"
"Minas Tirith set. Going to brief Billy and Ian and that lot Weren't you listening before, just after our meeting finished?"
"No, what? Minas Tirith? Billy?" said Dominic. It was true. He hadn't been listening; he'd been daydreaming again.
"Yep," said Orlando. "He's going now. By helicopter."
Dominic stared. Then he shouted, "Shit!" and turned to run. "Sorry, got to go! See you later."
"Hey, aren't you going to have lunch?"
Dominic ran across the set until he spotted Peter.
"Are you flying across to the Minas Tirith set this afternoon?"
"Yes, why? I'm leaving in about twenty minutes. You knew that, didn't you?."
"Twenty minutes? Could you ... um, say hello to Billy from me?"
"Of course, no problem."
"And could you," Dominic recklessly went on, "could you perhaps take something to him?"
"Sure," said Peter. "As long as it's not a surfboard."
"No, it's his ... ah, mobile phone. He left it in my bag by mistake." Dominic was improvising wildly but Peter didn't seem to notice.
"Yeah, just give it to me," he said, turning to go.
"I ... I've got to get it from the motel," finished Dominic and raced off.
He'd just had a mad idea. He ran off the set, down the road, round a few corners until he came across something that vaguely resembled a high street of sorts. It was at this point that he discovered, to his dismay, that the place they were in seemed pretty much a one-horse town. There was virtually no shop of any value on the main street at all.
Not giving up, Dominic sped down the entire length of the street, pulse racing. On a corner, right at the other end, was a small hardware store. There was a sticker on the door, advertising a particular mobile phone brand.
Dominic pushed open the door.
"Ye-es?" drawled a woman, standing behind a counter piled with display boxes containing hose nozzles and screwdrivers of various shapes and sizes.
"Hello," said Dominic, out of breath. "Do you sell mobile phones?"
"Yes," said the woman in a non-committal voice.
"Could I have two, please?"
"What kind?"
"I don't know, any kind. What have you got?"
The woman rattled off a few labels, and Dominic named one at random. She shuffled to the back of the shop and emerged a few minutes later with two shrink-wrapped items. She had a young man in tow.
She slammed the phones on the counter.
"What sort of plan do you want?" she asked. "Pay as you go? Monthly?"
"Pay as you go," Dominic said quickly. "Just a couple of cards, please."
The woman opened a drawer and slapped two cards on the counter. "We only got these," she said. They were the most expensive kind.
"Fine, fine," said Dominic, going insane with impatience. "How much is that?"
The woman named an exorbitant price but Dominic didn't care. He nodded, then he patted his pockets, patted them again in a panic and murmured, "Shit." He looked up and said, "I'm awfully sorry about this but I've left my wallet in the motel. Could I ... I'm in a real hurry; could I just leave my name with you and come back in ten minutes with the money?"
The woman stared at him as if he were Santa Claus, then she picked the phones up again and stepped back from the counter.
"Oh, no, please," pleaded Dominic. "I do have the money. And I'm not going to leave town or anything. I'm going to be here for a few weeks; I'm just down the road with the movie set ..."
"Movie set?" interrupted the young man and came out from the shadows where he'd been lurking. "The Lord of the Rings movie? You with that?"
"Yes," said Dominic hurriedly. "I am, and we're here for ..."
"What do you do there? Are you one of the actors?" interrupted the man.
"Yes, I am," said Dominic. "Could I please take those ..."
"Aw right!" said the man enthusiastically. He shoved the woman aside and snatched the phones out of her hands. "Course you can have these."
The woman started to protest. "Shut up, mum," the man said and turned back to Dominic, grinning. "Who are you? Are you one of the orcs?"
"Actually ...," Dominic started to say. Then he thought, 'No, I can't tell him I'm Merry; he'll keep me here for hours.' So he finished the sentence, "I'm an orc, yes."
"Aw right!" said the man again and leaned on the counter. "Which one? A named orc? An uruk-hai or one of those Moria bastards?"
'Oh no,' thought Dominic, his heart sinking. 'Not a Tolkien fanatic.' He should have known. On closer inspection, he noticed that the man was wearing a T-shirt with a picture of the White Tree of Gondor on it.
"Just give me the phones," he said. "Please. I'll come back in ten minutes. I promise. I'll tell you all about the movie then," he added in desperation.
As if in slow motion, the man put down the phones. Dominic grabbed them.
"Is that all right then?" he cried, and without waiting for an answer sprinted out the door.
"Hey, what's your name, anyway?" the man called out after him.
Dominic ran back up the street, across the set, up to Peter's trailer. He sat down on a rock, tore off the shrink-wrap, flipped the pages of the instruction booklet and frantically started to program in the details needed to register. He was still scratching the fucking number off the card when Fran, Peter's partner in crime, emerged from the trailer and starting walking towards a car.
"Where's Peter?" Dominic cried out and followed her, trying to punch in numbers and run at the same time.
"Oh, he's gone already," said Fran.
"Gone?" wailed Dominic.
"Yeah, to the helipad; I'm going there now. Anything the matter?"
"Could you take this?" said Dominic, thrusting one of the phones into her hand. "Could you give it to Billy?"
"Sure," said Fran, dropping the phone into her handbag and moving off.
"Tell him," said Dominic, running along beside her, "tell him that it's his phone and to ring me."
"No probs," said Fran.
Dominic stared after the car as it disappeared down the road. In his other hand he was clutching the second phone. The handset was wet with sweat.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
Dominic waited on tenterhooks all afternoon, counting out the quarter-hours and telling himself, 'Now they'll have landed at the site. Now they'll have their briefing meeting. Now she'll give him the phone.'
Finally, evening fell. Dominic, in his room, keyed in Billy's phone number.
The phone rang forever. Finally, someone picked up. "Yes?" It was a woman's voice.
Dominic nearly dropped the phone. "Uh ..." he stuttered. "Fran?"
"Yes?" the woman repeated.
"I was trying to reach Billy," said Dominic.
"Oh, sorry, is that Dom?" said the woman. "Sorry, I completely forgot about that. Look, we're still in a meeting; I'll give it to him later, okay?"
Well, that could be hours. Dominic flopped back onto the bed, feeling frustrated. He'd also had to spend a tedious half hour in that godforsaken hardware shop, discussing orc-lore with the Tolkien dag from hell. Plus the phones had cost a fortune.
That night he took the mobile to the pub with him but Billy didn't ring.
So he went to bed, feeling despondent.
At some time during the night, Dominic woke up. There was an insistent jingling sound in the room.
"What the ..." he thought. Then he remembered the phone. He sat up, heart beating, and scrabbled maniacally around on the bedside table. The phone wasn't there but he managed to knock the lamp off. It crashed to the floor with a bang. He swore, struggled to get out of bed and turned on the overhead light. There was the phone, under the bed. He flung himself down on the floor and grabbed it.
It stopped ringing.
Bleary-eyed, Dominic stared at the little display. After a while he found Last call and re-dialled the number.
"Hello?" said a voice.
Dominic's insides turned to water. He sighed into the phone.
"Is that you, Dom?" said Billy.
"Yeah," murmured Dominic happily.
"Sorry to ring so late," said Billy. "We were out. You weren't asleep, were you?"
"No. I mean, yes, but I don't care."
"I wanted to say thanks," said Billy. "Thanks for the phone. That was such a sweet idea."
"It's so nice to hear your voice," said Dominic in a voice barely above a whisper.
"And yours," replied Billy, equally softly.
"Oh, Billy," Dominic said. "Billy."
They didn't say anything for a few seconds, just breathed down the phone line.
"So, how's Minas Tirith?" asked Dominic finally.
"Good, good," said Billy. "It's, well wow, it's fantastic. Wait till you see it. And the people, they're really great. John Noble, he's Denethor, he's fantastic. And David Wenham, he's the guy who plays Faramir -- had you met him before?"
"No," said Dominic. "Why would I have?"
"He's been doing scenes with Elijah and Sean. They say hi, by the way. Anyway, he's also great. And ..."
"Where are you now?" interrupted Dominic. He didn't want to be hearing about how great all these new friends of Billy's were.
"Oh, I'm in bed," said Billy. "Where are you?"
"Next to the bed. On the floor, would you believe." Dominic got up and slipped back into bed, pressing the phone to his ear as if it were a lifeline.
"On the floor?" Billy laughed.
"I sort of ... Well, the phone woke me up. I was in a state."
"Dear Dom," said Billy.
"What are you wearing?" asked Dominic, sliding down deeper among the covers.
Billy giggled. "I'm wearing my pyjamas," he said.
"Are they clean again?" asked Dominic.
Billy was giggling like mad. "Yes, they are," he said. "There's a laundrette here."
They both knew why the pyjamas had needed a clean. The last time Dominic had seen them they had been sticky with semen.
"What are you wearing?" asked Billy.
"Just some undershorts," said Dominic.
"Sounds nice."
"Yeah."
"Are you touching yourself?" whispered Billy at the other end of the phone.
"Do you want me to?" asked Dominic. His hair was starting to stand up, as was his cock.
"Why don't you?" said Billy.
Dominic did. He said into the phone, "But you're not here, to take over."
Billy giggled again because that, too, had happened. And only four days ago!
"Are you touching yourself, Billy?" Dominic asked.
"Yes."
"God, fuck, I wish I was there with you," groaned Dominic.
"I felt really lonely last night," said Billy. "It felt funny, being alone in a bed."
"It sucks. Are you still holding your cock, Billy?"
Just saying the words "cock" and "Billy" in the same sentence made Dominic sweat.
"I am," whispered Billy. "I'm stroking it. I'm wanking off, really fast."
"So am I."
"Let's try and come at the same time," said Billy, panting slightly.
"Ow, don't make me laugh."
They didn't say anything for a while then, just breathed and gasped into the phone.
"Now," said Billy.
"Wait."
"Hmmm."
"Okay," said Dominic.
"Beep," went the phone. The display had gone blank. Billy's voice died in his ear. Dominic had forgotten to recharge the battery.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
The next day, Dominic and Orlando went on an outing to the coast. Viggo came along, as did Miranda and Karl. Dominic day-dreamed about Billy throughout their trip. He thought about Billy while the others were chatting in the car; he thought about Billy during lunch; he thought about Billy on the way home. It made him feel giddy. The memories of Billy were casting an erotic glow over almost everyone else in sight as well. Dominic was noticing people's bodies; he was putting his hands on the shoulders of all and sundry; and at one point in the afternoon he found himself flirting, literally flirting, with Karl.
It was as if Billy had awakened some sort of passion in him that was now floating around in a vacuum, looking for an outlet.
To round off the day, they ended up in the pub across from their motel again. The barkeeper saluted them in a friendly way when they came in.
"I'm starting to feel quite at home here," said Miranda. "You all on for beer?"
Miranda appeared to be quite aroused. She was throwing her head back a lot and laughing, putting her hand on Orlando's shoulder and calling him 'cutie'.
After a while, Viggo got up and said, "I'm heading back."
"I'll join you," said Karl.
"Actually," Dominic said who had left his phone to recharge all day in his room, "I'll go as well." He was eager to ring Billy.
"Oh, okay," said Orlando.
Just as the three of them were stepping onto the pavement in front of the pub, Orlando came up and pulled Viggo aside. The two of them exchanged words while Karl and Dominic stamped their feet and smiled at each other. After a few minutes, Orlando came across, put his arm around Dominic's shoulder and said,
"Well, I'd better go and look after the warrior princess."
"I don't think she's the one who needs looking after," laughed Dominic. "I think she might well drink you under the table, judging from last night."
"We'll see," smiled Orlando.
Back in the motel room, Dominic couldn't reach Billy on the mobile. After spending long minutes listening over and over to the phone company's brisk automated answering service, he gave up and rang his mother instead. She didn't pick up, either; he should have known, it was still too early in Britain. She was probably in bed and had pulled the phone out of the wall.
Dominic sat on his bed for a while, staring at the patterned wallpaper. Then he had a shower, brushed his teeth, sorted his clothes into dirty and clean, then got out his writing pad and pen, and sat up in bed, propping all the pillows in the room against his back. He started to draft a journal entry, described the new location and the new colleagues, but then ended up writing page after page of stream-of-consciousness nonsense about Billy. He wrote and wrote, and every few pages he tried the phone again.
"Where the fuck is he?" he muttered and wrote some more. What was the point of having that stupid phone? It was frustrating. He had thought of so many things to ask Billy, too. What had Billy talked about with Ian on the bus? Had he read the part of the script dealing with Merry and Pippin's reunion yet? Had he bought himself a new toothbrush? And did he know how much Dominic was missing him?
It was past midnight when Dominic finally let pad and pen drop to the floor, turned off the lamp and slid down underneath the blanket. He reached into his shorts and took his cock in his fist. Slowly, almost lazily, he started to move his hand up and down. He pushed his head back into the pillows, closed his eyes and imagined he was with Billy. He even formed the words with his mouth, "Billy". Then he started to move faster and was just starting to have that pre-come floating feeling when there was a knock at the door.
Dominic was so startled he nearly fell out of the bed.
There was a loud whisper outside. "Dom? Dominic, are you awake?"
"Oh, fuck, Orli!" cried Dominic. "Go away."
"Just let me in for a minute." Orlando's voice sounded as if it were wrapped in cotton wool.
"Orli, go away! I'm busy."
"How can you be busy? At this time of night?"
"That is precisely it. I'm busy ... sleeping."
There was more insistent knocking.
"Oh, for fuck's sake," grumbled Dominic. He had lost his erection, anyway, so he got up and padded to the door.
"Sorry about this. Look, could I just ask you a favour?" Orlando pushed past him into the room.
"You're drunk," observed Dominic.
"Yes, well, not half as drunk as Miranda. She's next door in my room."
"Ooh-la-la," said Dominic.
"Could you just help me out here, Dom?"
Dominic raised his eyebrows and said, "I can't imagine that you need any help in dealing with Miranda."
"Shut up. Listen. She's passed out."
"Passed out?"
"Yeah, she's definitely had a few too many. She's passed out in my room, on my bed."
Dominic laughed. "I thought Miranda could drink like a newt! Well, goes to show that everyone has their limits, I guess. So, what's your problem?"
"Well, what am I going to do about her?"
Dominic shrugged. "Just put a blanket over her and let her sleep it off."
"But where do I sleep?"
"You've got twin beds in your room, haven't you?"
"Yeah but I don't ..." Orlando looked embarrassed. "I don't want her to wake up and think that I've taken advantage of her or anything."
Dominic burst out laughing. "Orli, mate!" he cried. "I'm telling you that if she wakes up and finds out that you haven't been trying to take advantage of her, that's when she'll be really upset!"
"Yeah, yeah," said Orlando. "You weren't there; she's been crawling all over me."
"Really?"
"And after you left she got totally plastered," said Orlando. "She started saying I was cute about twenty times a minute."
"Well, you are cute," Dominic said. Whoops, where had that come from?
Orlando threw him a quick glance.
"Can I stay here tonight?" he said abruptly.
"What? Why?" asked Dominic.
"I just don't want to sleep in there with Miranda," said Orlando.
"Don't be ridiculous."
"I know it's ridiculous. Look, I even know that. But still, couldn't I just stay here? Please, please. I can sleep in that bed at the end there." He was pouting now and also swaying slightly on his feet.
'This can't be just about Miranda,' thought Dominic.
"Oh, all right," he said. "I'm getting quite used to sharing. Here we go round the mulberry bush." He bit his lip.
"So, um," said Orlando. "I'll just get my things and I'll leave a note for Miranda. Have you got a bit of paper?"
"Sure." Dominic bent to pick up his notepad, tore out a sheet and handed it to Orlando. Then he carefully stuffed the pad into his bedside drawer.
Orlando asked, pen poised, "What'll I write?"
"Just write, 'Dearest Miranda, I can't resist your charms but after thinking about it for a bit I thought I'd go next door and take advantage of Dominic instead.'"
Orlando giggled. "I will, too, if you're not careful," he said. "No, really, what do I write?"
"You can hardly hold that pen. Here, give it to me."
"What are you writing?"
Dominic read it out, "'Sweet dreams, Miranda. I'm next door. See you on set. O.' That all right?"
"O? What's O?"
"O for Orli, you great dolt. Honestly, 'what's O'!"
"Yeah, yeah," mumbled Orlando and sat down on the bed. He put his head in his hands.
"I don't feel too good," he said.
"Don't go to sleep there," Dominic said. "That's my bed."
But Orlando had already fallen back onto it and was closing his eyes.
"That's my bed," repeated Dominic. "Use the other one."
"Okay," groaned Orlando and heaved himself up again. "I need to piss."
"As long as you don't throw up," said Dominic. "Why don't I just go and deliver this note?"
He slipped into the next room. True enough, there was Miranda, carked out on the bed. The room looked exactly like Dominic's. Except that the photos above the twin beds were different. Dominic looked at the pictures for a few seconds. One of the locations rang a bell but he couldn't place it. He then pulled a blanket over Miranda and tugged her shoes off. He left the note on the bedside table, dug around in the other bed for some pyjamas, couldn't find any, turned off the light and tiptoed back into his own room.
Orlando was on his bed again, snoring. He'd kicked his shoes off but apart from that was fully clothed.
Dominic stood inside the door for a minute, looking down at him. Then he sighed. He didn't like sleeping right up against the wall, and that's where the other bed was. Well, he'd just have to put up with it for one night.
Orlando was wearing a jacket over his T-shirt. Dominic thought briefly about taking it off for him but then decided against it. He bent over Orlando and looked at his face. How strange to have another person in his bed again. It was cheering, though, not to be alone. Even if it meant enduring Orlando's snores.
Dominic nudged him on the shoulder and stroked his cheek a few times to make him shut up. Orlando grumbled something in his sleep, swiped his hand at his cheek and turned over onto his side. Good, he'd stopped snoring.
Because it had felt kind of nice to touch Orlando's face, Dominic did it again, slowly trailing his fingers along Orlando's cheekbones and along his jaw, and then along the smooth expanse of his skull over his ears. There was something about Orlando's face, something wan, that Dominic hadn't noticed there before. Perhaps it was just because he was drunk. But perhaps it was for some deeper reason.
'I should pay more attention to him,' thought Dominic. 'I'm getting too obsessed with my own stuff.'
"Hm," grunted Orlando and swatted at his face. He didn't wake up, though.
Dominic realised he was spending longer than absolutely necessary looking at Orlando. It was the fault of these confounded erotic thoughts he was having all the time. He wanted to give Orlando a kiss on the cheek. If it had been Billy, he would have done so. Even before Billy and he had done things, he surely would have kissed Billy on the cheek. And wasn't he always kissing Orlando on the cheek as well?
Somehow, Dominic couldn't quite remember what he had done before everything got so sexually charged. All he knew was that giving Orlando a kiss on the cheek right now seemed quite impossibly charged.
So he didn't do it. Instead, he pulled the bedspread over Orlando, turned off the light and crawled into the other bed. The sheets felt cool and unused.
Dominic closed his eyes. He was going to think of Billy but then it seemed perverse to be having lurid fantasies about Billy with Orlando so close by. Also, he was distracted by the snuffling noises Orlando was making in his sleep. Then he had to laugh at himself, remembering how he had been unsettled by the sight of foam on Orlando's lip in the pub.
When the mobile phone rang a few minutes later, Dominic sprinted out of bed and turned it off without answering. He didn't want to wake Orlando.
Or that's what he told himself.
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Dominic and Orlando were at the beach. They had discovered this particular beach a week ago, during their first two days off at the Dunharrow location. In fact, it was Viggo who had discovered it and they'd all been there in a car borrowed from one of the technicians. But Viggo wasn't with them today; he'd gone off to some forest for the weekend with Karl.
"It's very much like that Fangorn one you are always going on about," Karl had promised.
Orlando said that he couldn't give a stuff about some stupid Fangorn look-alike. Dominic, too, didn't feel like forest. He felt like beach. Even though they'd left their surfboards in Wellington, they could still body-surf. So that's what they had come to do.
Except for them, the beach was completely empty. It had taken them two hours to get there in their four-wheel drive hire-car, and when they had reached the place they had just driven the car onto the sand and run down to the waves. All that was visible was the horizon and the sea in front, and the beach and the strange, leafy vegetation of New Zealand behind. Here and there, driftwood lay scattered on the sand.
"It's almost a little eerie," Dominic had said.
"Those trees look as if dinosaurs could come out from behind them," Orlando had agreed.
Then they'd thrown themselves into the surf.
One hour later, Orlando was still in there but Dominic had jogged back up to the car, extracted towels, snacks and beer and settled in near one of the larger pieces of driftwood. He ate a bit, drank a bit, then he lay back on his towel and closed his eyes.
The sun was hot and coloured the insides of his eyelids orange. There was the pleasant feeling of water drying on his skin. He shifted a little to make a hollow for himself in the sand.
Inevitably, his thoughts drifted to Billy.
Dominic threw his arm across his eyes. He was starting to feel drowsy. The rhythmic thunder of the surf was the only sound he could hear, that and his own heartbeat.
He let the Billy-thoughts wash over him.
Billy wriggling underneath him, moaning with pleasure. Billy's face, flushed and with his hair plastered to his forehead. Billy looking at him with glazed eyes, clutching Dominic's hips. And the feel of Billy, the deep-down, dark-hot feel of Billy all around Dominic's cock. Dominic getting a hard-on, just remembering how Billy had felt and the sounds Billy had made when Dominic moved up and down inside him.
"Hey, hobbit," came Orlando's voice, and droplets of water landed on Dominic as Orlando arrived next to their towels.
Dominic opened his eyes and squinted against the sun. Orlando was a black silhouette against the sky. He seemed to be looking at Dominic's crotch.
Dominic felt the roots of his hair starting to prickle. He quickly turned over onto his stomach.
"Don't mind me, man," said Orlando and laughed. "No need to hide your hard-on from me."
"Ha-ha," Dominic said but he didn't turn around.
A soft shower of sand sprayed across Dominic's back as Orlando flopped down onto a towel next to him. There was the metallic sound of the tab being pulled on a tin of beer, and then the sound of gurgling as Orlando drank.
"So," said Orlando after a while. "What brought that on?"
"Oh," said Dominic. "Just thinking of something."
"Or someone?"
"Well," Dominic began but then stopped. He had been on the verge of telling Orlando about Billy at several moments during the past week. He'd always pulled back, though. Sex with Billy -- that was just not the sort of thing he talked to Orlando about.
"It's not as if it isn't obvious," Orlando said. He propped himself up on his elbows and tipped his head back to drink some more from his can. A rivulet of beer trickled down his chin and throat.
"What do you mean? What's obvious?" asked Dominic, taken aback.
"That you're in love with someone," said Orlando. He wasn't looking at Dominic any longer. It seemed almost as if he were embarrassed. He spent some time screwing his can into the sand on the other side of the towel.
For a while, neither of them said anything. The surf continued to pound in the distance. The sun continued to warm Dominic's back. Dominic's cock continued to be hard. He shifted about on his towel to get more comfortable, brushing his knee against Orlando's leg. Moving it away again quickly.
"I need my hat," said Orlando. "I'm going to get a fucking sunburn on my head like this."
Dominic laughed. "Yeah, the hazards of cutting-edge haircuts!"
"Too right," said Orlando. "Did you bring the hat from the car?"
"I didn't see a hat," said Dominic. "What hat?"
"What do you mean, you didn't see a hat?"
"Why don't you just put your T-shirt round your head? Or a towel? And stick some lotion on."
"Oh yeah, and look ridiculous."
"You look ridiculous, anyway."
"Oh, shut up," said Orlando fondly.
"You were asking for that," replied Dominic.
This was safer territory, joking about Orlando's hair. Dominic's hard-on had almost shrunk back to normal.
Orlando did pick up his T-shirt and draped it around his head, turban-style. And he did look ridiculous.
"Who's to see, anyway?" mumbled Dominic into the sand.
"Well you, Dom," said Orlando.
"You must be very bloody vain to worry about me," said Dominic. "Anyway, sweetie, you know I think you're cute no matter what you wear on your head."
Orlando smiled and blew him a kiss.
And the hard-on was back.
Now that was bizarre. Dominic was always saying such things to Orlando -- well, maybe not calling him 'cute' and 'sweetie' all in the one sentence, but close to it. And Orlando was always blowing him kisses. So why was he getting a hard-on? The mysteries of the flesh.
"So," said Orlando, looking at the horizon. "Is it true then?"
"Is what true?"
"That you're in love."
"Is that what everyone's saying?" Dominic said.
"No, you dingbat," said Orlando affectionately. "No-one's saying that. Just me. I was just noticing ... that you've been different. And thinking what the reason might be."
"Oh," said Dominic. He suddenly found it difficult to focus his thoughts. They seemed to have flown apart in fifty different directions and he was left with only fragments.
"Anyway," he finally managed to get out. "I'm not in love ... I think ..." He stopped in confusion.
"Don't worry, man," Orlando changed his tone of voice, looking down at Dominic with smiling eyes. "We don't need to talk about it. Forget I ever said anything. Also ..." Orlando averted his eyes. "I've had weird stuff going on as well."
"Weird stuff?" asked Dominic. His throat felt dry. "What kind of weird stuff?"
Orlando lay down on his back, one arm over his eyes, the other resting on his stomach. Dominic couldn't see his eyes, only his mouth and the tip of his pink tongue licking his lips. All of a sudden, Dominic found himself imagining what that tongue would taste like and how it would feel to pull it up into his own mouth.
God. His hard-on was throbbing into the towel underneath him, rubbing against the still slightly damp material of his bathing trunks. It was making Dominic's head swim.
Still, he couldn't tear his eyes away from Orlando's lips. They were moving. Dominic hadn't heard a word.
"What?" he said.
"I was saying about the trailer," said Orlando.
Not the trailer again. Shreds of Billy-thoughts blew about in Dominic's head but they refused to cohere into anything that made sense. It was as if the sunshine and the wind and the drowsy voice of Orlando were burning the sense right out of Dominic's mind.
"You know, in that Fangorn forest or whatever it's called in real life. When we were sharing trailers. Before we came here. And we were in those trailers together."
'Get to the point,' Dominic thought. At the same time, he feared what point Orlando might be leading up to.
"Anyway, there was this weird thing," Orlando said.
Dominic's heart skipped a beat.
"What weird thing?" he asked.
Silence.
"You mean," said Dominic slowly, his eyes still fixed on Orlando's mouth. "You mean, like a weird sex thing?"
More silence.
Far away, a gull cried out.
Then Orlando's voice, quiet and strangely mellifluous. "Yeah. Like a weird sex thing. Um."
"So," Dominic said, careful to keep his voice neutral and his face pressed into the towel, looking at Orlando only from the corner of his right eye. "Was it ... like a touching kind of sex thing?"
"Yeah," said Orlando, in an equally neutral voice. He still had his arm over his eyes.
"Like ..." Dominic went on, and now he had to struggle to keep a tremor out of his voice. "Like a kissing sort of sex thing?"
"Could be," said Orlando.
A breeze tugged at Dominic's hair and made every hair on his back stand up.
"Like a ... more-than-that-even kind of sex thing?" he said and held his breath.
"Maybe," answered Orlando, his voice barely audible.
Dominic could sense the tension between them as if it were a live thing. His cock was pulsating, and his balls felt like two tight nuts trapped between his thighs. Orlando was licking his lips again, and his tongue looked impossibly pink and wet.
Dominic glanced down the length of Orlando's body and noticed that Orlando had a hard-on as well. He closed his eyes and groaned inwardly, then opened them again to drink in the sight of Orlando.
"Well," he said, and it came out sounding strange and hoarse. "There was a weird sex thing in our trailer, too."
If Orlando now sat up and laughed, if he cracked a stupid joke and took another swig from his beer can -- the tension would evaporate and they could both have a good laugh together and then run down and go for a second swim in the waves.
But Orlando didn't. Instead, he moved his arm to his forehead and turned his face, his eyes, his lips to Dominic.
And smiled.
"Really?" he said.
Dominic swallowed. He couldn't think of a single thing to reply.
He couldn't think, full stop.
The thing was that they hadn't even mentioned Billy's or Viggo's name once during the last few minutes. The conversation didn't quite seem to be about sex with Billy or Viggo. Instead, the conversation seemed to be just about sex. Sex, pure and simple.
As it were.
Maybe if Dominic just said "Billy", that would break the spell. They could confess their separate adventures to each other, and then have a laugh and run into the waves.
The trouble was that, at this precise moment, Dominic couldn't manage to think about Billy in a very focused way at all. Not at all.
"You're not saying anything," Orlando whispered.
"I know," Dominic whispered back.
Why were they whispering? Why was Orlando looking at him so intently? And why was Dominic's throat so dry and his heart beating so hard, and why was Orlando saying -- well, what on earth was he saying? It sounded like, "You're looking at me very ..." Surely that was a superfluous thing to say? Surely there was no absolute need to be speaking about how Dominic was looking at him?
"Very what?" breathed Dominic.
"Very ... seductively" whispered Orlando.
And why were Dominic's eyes falling shut? Why was the sun so hot and his body so out of control? And Orlando's body so close that Dominic could almost smell the salt on Orlando's cock.
Dominic's hand was floating towards Orlando, as if pulled by magnetic force and without any will of its own. Dominic intended just to touch Orlando's leg lightly, a gesture that could be turned into a friendly pat, but he miscalculated the distance and his hand landed somewhere high up on Orlando's thigh, perilously close to his crotch.
A pat was now out of the question. He should move the hand, and quickly, but it wouldn't budge. Dominic's muscles seemed to have atrophied and the hand stayed where it was. Orlando's skin felt hot under his palm, hot and alive. He could feel the pulse in the hollow where Orlando's leg joined his pelvis.
There was only so much Dominic could take. He opened his mouth and, with his eyes still closed, moved towards Orlando's face and blindly, dizzily, searched for Orlando's lips.
Then he felt that tongue on his own and it sent an electric shiver from his nape down to the very base of his spine. There was a small moment of surprise because it felt so different from Billy's tongue. Orlando moved in a different way and he tasted of beer and salt. But God, it was good to be kissing someone again. And then the long strokes of Orlando's tongue against his own and along his teeth and along the insides of his cheeks drove all thought of Billy from his mind.
They lay like that for minutes, years, quite still, nothing moving apart from their tongues and their breath mingling in their mouths. The sun beat against Dominic's closed eyelids.
After a while, Dominic felt a hand on his temple, fingers splayed against his skull, pulling him into the kiss, and then moving down and lazily encircling his ear, and that made him empty a long and sinuous moan into Orlando's mouth.
Every nerve of his body seemed to come alive and now he couldn't keep still any longer, he had to move, he needed to press his groin against Orlando's thigh. His hand, again without accord, slithered into Orlando's crotch and closed around Orlando's cock, hard through the damp fabric of the bathing trunks. Orlando's tongue stopped moving, and Dominic felt the hand leave his ear, slide down into the waistband of his trunks and grab hold of his own cock, and God that felt good. His cock was as hard as a steel bar and leapt in Orlando's fist.
"God, fuck, Orli," he gasped.
Orlando then rolled onto Dominic, licking the insides of Dominic's lips, and his ridiculous T-shirt was falling over both their heads and getting tangled in their kiss.
Orlando on top of Dominic felt long and fluid, and the chain around his neck swung against Dominic's throat. A memory of Billy's body flashed briefly through Dominic's mind. And when he tugged at Orlando's bathers and finally took Orlando, naked and hot, into his hand, that felt unfamiliar as well, and gave Dominic a tiny jolt. But it also felt good. It felt more than good, it felt exciting as hell, and the shape and feel of Orlando's cock made his head spin with desire.
After that, he didn't think about Billy anymore.
Their hands were now next to each other, and so were their cocks, and their bare chests were sliding against one another, slick with sweat, and their kiss was getting completely reckless. They were riding each other, one from below, one from above, as if they were riding a wave.
Dominic opened his eyes.
Orlando's head was a dark oval against the blazing sky.
After a few seconds, Dominic's pupils adjusted and he could see Orlando's face. He, too, opened his eyes.
Orlando stopped moving and looked down at Dominic.
"What are we doing here?" he whispered.
"We're just ... having a weird sex thing" said Dominic, out of breath. "Don't stop."
"Okay," Orlando said. "Just asking."
Dominic laughed but it was a shaky laugh, and then they were grinding against each other again, open-mouthed and glassy-eyed, and Dominic tried to kiss Orlando but found that he couldn't because he was moaning too loudly.
Everything got a bit blurry at that point. There was Orlando's fist around Dominic's cock, and he had his hand full of Orlando's cock, and there was a lot of sand underneath him, and also quite a bit of noise coming from somewhere close by, and then he came onto Orlando's stomach, and it was a bit confusing whose hand was whose down there, and whose semen was whose, and who exactly was doing all that moaning and sighing.
After a while, the contours of things returned. There was the bit of driftwood. Further away there was the sound of the sea. Above was the sky, so blue it hurt Dominic's eyes.
Next to him lay Orlando. He must have rolled away at some point. The T-shirt around his head had quite fallen off. His skin glistened and his chest was heaving. He had his head on his arm; he was looking at Dominic. He looked very much like Orlando, only somewhat more dishevelled and also somewhat sweeter than usual.
But maybe that was just Dominic's own breathlessness clouding his vision.
Dominic closed his eyes. 'I seem to be having sex with my friends a lot these days,' he thought fleetingly. He opened his eyes again.
Orlando was still looking at him, smiling and, yes well, looking cute. So much for Orlando being un-intense.
Dominic touched a finger to Orlando's lip, then leaned forward and gave him a kiss. He meant it to be one last kiss, a sort of farewell and full stop under the proceedings but for some reason it went on longer than planned and ended up involving tongues and holding each other's faces.
"Well," Dominic said after that kiss and took a deep breath. "Wow."
Orlando burst out laughing. Dominic followed suit.
That was a relief. They could still laugh about it.
"D'you think it's something about New Zealand?" said Dominic. "Do you think there's some sort of, I don't know, aphrodisiac-thing in the air or coming off the plants that's making us do strange things?"
"Yep," said Orlando. "I blame the plants. That's my line, and I'm sticking to it."
Dominic laughed again.
"That Fangorn was full of weird trees, come to think of it," said Orlando.
"Yeah, we'd better get back to the city, and fast," said Dominic.
"Oh, I don't know," grinned Orlando. "I could get used to these plant fumes."
"Hm," said Dominic.
"Where's the towel anyway?" asked Orlando. "I seem to be covered in sand."
Their towels were scrunched up near their feet. Dominic's skin felt gritty, and there was a sticky pool on his belly. His thoughts were all over the place.
"Let's go for a swim," he said.
"Good idea," said Orlando and jumped up. "Did you bring my fags from the car? I could do with a smoke."
After the swim, Dominic's head felt no clearer. He shook out his towel and lay back down. His mind was a kaleidoscope. Disconnected thought fragments swirled by: 'Orli', 'beach', 'sex', 'Billy', 'fuck'.
Dominic put his hand over his eyes. He thought his head might explode. Better not to think at all. Better just to lie there, with his cock soft and sated, and his mouth still tasting of Orlando's tongue.
Orlando had been to the car and now came strolling back, a cigarette between his lips. He was also sporting his hat, an Australian brimmed affair. He spent quite some time rearranging his towel, shaking the sand off and smoothing the corners down, then he sat down carefully, spreading the T-shirt over his groin.
He drank from his can. He dragged at the cigarette. Dominic, lying on his stomach, watched him through his eyelashes.
"You'll get a sunburnt bum," said Orlando. "You should cover up."
"Hm," said Dominic. He crawled over, dragging his towel into the narrow sliver of shade cast by the bit of driftwood. 'Should I be putting on any clothes?' he thought vaguely.
"So," went Orlando, turning the cigarette over between his fingers.
"Yeah, um."
"What," said Orlando and cleared his throat, "what was that all about?"
"It ..." began Dominic without any distinct idea of what answer there could possibly be to that question.
"And don't you say 'weird sex thing' again," said Orlando.
"You started it," mumbled Dominic. "You talked about weird stuff in Fangorn."
"Yeah, well," said Orlando, "that was different."
"You are right, that was different!" cried Dominic fervently. He was practically shouting. "Fangorn was completely different. Completely!"
Then he laughed, rather hysterically. He leaned over, dug his sunglasses out of his shorts and put them on. Pushed his fingers through his damp hair. Looked over at Orlando.
Orlando, tinged blue by the sunglasses, was chewing his lip. He continued to rotate the cigarette between his fingers and then suddenly yelled "Fuck" because a flake of hot ash had burned his hand. He stabbed the cigarette out in the sand.
"You all right?" said Dominic.
"Never better," replied Orlando and smiled at him. It was a lovely smile, warm and friendly and somewhat wistful.
"Oh. Right," said Dominic. His scattered thoughts slowed down. He laughed again but not so maniacally and not because anything was funny but just for the heck of it.
"You know," he said, "you look just as ridiculous with that hat on as you did with the T-shirt."
"I'll have you know I look gorgeous in this hat," said Orlando. "What looks ridiculous are those blue shades of yours."
"I'm glad we did that," burst out Dominic. "I don't care. I liked it."
"Sblomie," said Orlando. "You crack me up. Is there another beer?"
Dominic laughed again. A ring of gladness seemed to be spreading outwards from him into the world around. The sun sparkled on the sea. Tiny white clouds drifted in the sky, hundreds of miles above them.
He could almost smell the plant fumes wafting over the beach from the trees and shrubs on the long, lonely New Zealand coast.
The End.
10 March 2002
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