Note: Ficlet thingie for kiltsandlollies' birthday, using one of baisleac's quotes. So it's 2-in-1, really. Or 3-in-1, if you count the fact that I've been wanting to write about Billy reading for ages. 🙂
Remix: Whee, ella_minnow remixed this fic - oh so beautiful! Go read Marginalia if you have a Billy!book (or book in general) fetish like me...
Dom had never been a big reader. It just hadn't been very important to him and his life had always seemed too busy to waste precious hours lost in another world. This world was exciting enough, thankyouverymuch.
But then two things had happened: He had started reading The Lord of the Rings and, almost simultaneously, he had met Billy. And suddenly reading was not boring anymore. Middle earth proved to be just as fascinating and exciting as the real world -- and the way Billy handled a book turned out to be one of the most beautiful things Dom had ever seen.
Dom was quite sure Billy would handle a lover exactly as he handled a book. Already the way Billy's fingers cradled a book, no matter whether it was an expensive new hardcover or a cheap, dog-eared paperback, holding it as if it was the most precious thing in the world, sent shivers down Dom's spine. He could only imagine how those knowing fingers would feel touching skin instead of paper, exploring the curves of living flesh instead of turning a page oh so softly and dextrously.
Dom was quite sure a man could be undone easily by the touch of these hands.
Billy's hands followed Dom into his dreams. But what haunted him even during the day, twisting something inside him in a way that was almost painful, was the look on Billy's face. Billy forgot everything when he was reading. A volcano could erupt, Elijah could play his most deafening 'discovery', or a hundred six-foot Maori stuntmen could mill around creating mayhem -- Billy didn't even notice. Not when he was lost in the pages of a good book, his eyes blind to anything but the page in front of him. He was completely relaxed, his guard down, and his face a clear mirror to whatever emotions the book evoked in him while the world around him disappeared. It was the most captivating thing Dom had ever seen and he could spend hours just watching Billy's reactions, dreaming that one day, Billy might focus this loving attention on him instead of black-on-white letters.
Dom was quite sure a man could fall in love being looked at like this.
Billy's love for books, his passion for reading, became the focal point of Dom's growing attraction to the man who played his Pippin and was, in many ways, his Merry. But because he found himself at a loss as to what could possibly cause Billy to look up from his book and notice, really notice, Dom, Dom started to read as well.
He reread The Lord of the Rings, this time not just skipping the parts where Merry and Pippin didn't appear but really trying to understand everything that was happening. This soon caused him to pick up a copy of The Hobbit -- and when he started on The Silmarillion because he felt the need to know all of the backstory and read it through during breaks in one week of shooting, Dom realized that he was hooked. He stopped looking at Billy all the time and instead got lost in Middle earth, forgetting everything around him.
In time, he might even have forgotten the longing in his heart. Until one lunch break, when Billy's slim fingers firmly closed the book Dom was holding, and Dom looked up, ready to yell at Billy for interrupting him so rudely in mid-sentence. But then he met Billy's gaze and he felt hot recognition shoot through him and he shivered as Billy's dextrous hands covered his own gently.
Dom had become a world for Billy to discover.
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