Note: Ficlet written while at work, sparked by the first sentence popping into my head. Set sometime in the future.
"I sometimes wonder why we never hooked up."
The sentence is spoken into the dusky darkness of the beach behind Dom's New Zealand house, the one he always said he'd buy. He's been living in it for several years now, on and off between movie shoots, charity work, and visits with friends and family all over the world.
A lot of that time Billy has been living in New Zealand, too, only he has never bothered to buy a house and prefers to stay with Dom instead. One of the guestrooms has become Billy's room quite some time ago, although they never talked about it. Dom simply never put anyone else in it, and with time more and more things of Billy's were left behind after visits, to be used the next time he came.
Dom kind of likes the arrangement, that way he always knows that Billy will come back. He even gave Billy his own house key to keep, so he can come when Dom is in LA or Manchester or somewhere else.
And somehow all of this had brought them here, to this night, sitting on the beach with a couple of beers and one of these scented candles that keep mosquitos away, and to something that could be idle speculation but doesn't feel that way at all.
Yet Billy's voice is calm, pensive, as if this is something he's been giving a lot of thought (which he might have, Dom thinks -- after all, it's Billy, and Billy always thinks things through, at least the important ones), and he's looking out onto the sea, almost black in the night, with glittering white where the breaking waves are reflecting the moonlight, and not at Dom, as if he's not afraid in the least of what Dom might say.
Dom can't really make out Billy's expression, it's obscured by the shadows of candlelight dancing over his face, but he's pretty sure Billy is smiling softly, and can't help but smile, too, a small smile that feels comfortable on his face.
"The timing was never quite right, I guess," he answers finally, also quite calmly, as if he's been thinking about this for some time, too (which he has, often even, just not enough to do something about it). But he's kind of glad that Billy has brought it up now.
Lately Dom has been thinking that kind of thoughts about Billy more and more frequently, so much that it has turned into a distraction and sometimes even the cause of some embarrassment, especially since Billy's arrival a week ago.
Dom has not felt so young in what seems like ages, in the first time of the shooting, when he had nurtured a hopeless crush on the handsome, charming and funny actor who was playing the Pippin to his Merry. But Billy had had a girlfriend then, and when they broke up, their friendship had been too important to Dom to risk over some overactive hormones.
Dom still thinks that there might have been a chance later, in the time after the Fellowship premieres -- if only Dom had not been sleeping with Elijah right then, a casual thing, but something he suspects might have put Billy off. It has always been like this -- looking back their relationship seems to be a long chain of missed opportunities and lost chances.
Dom wonders what has changed now, what has made Billy bring it up. But deep down he doesn't really care, not when Billy has turned his head and is looking at him now, eyes still smiling, even if his face is serious.
"Maybe we shouldn't have let bad timing stop us."
He says it quite matter-of-factly, but Dom (who knows him better than pretty much anyone else) sees the tiny flicker of uncertainty and finds that he likes that he can still make Billy nervous. He can't help but smile at the thought.
"Maybe not, no."
And before Billy can say anything else, Dom leans over and kisses Billy, whose lips stretch in a startled "Oh!" (Dom is quite certain that Billy has some kind of script for this conversation in his head, but he's not going to let that get in the way, no matter how much Billy pouts) but then turn soft and kiss back readily.
If Dom had known it would be this easy, he'd have done it ages ago.
But as it is, he's simply happy to be here now, on the beach behind his (their) house, kissing Billy (who is quite enthusiastic now, and on his way of pressing Dom into the sand with cool hands and surprisingly warm body) and planning how to move them inside without letting go.
Second chances have never tasted so good.
~~~
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