LOTRips – When Fortune Knocks
Mar. 30th, 2004 03:01 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
hackthis_archiveThis idea (complete with opening sentence) came to me last night at 6:03 p.m., but I didn’t really have the means or the incentive to work on it at the time. I told it (yes, the idea) that if it could stick around until this morning, and still be coherent and cohesive, that I would give it a shot. Who knew?
Thanks to![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
esorlehcar who unknowingly inspired this story.
LOTRips
BB/DM; DM/EW; BB/Other
When Fortune Knocks
1. Closed for Repairs
There’s an important distinction between loving someone and being in love with them, and Billy would reckon that Dom’s still young enough to not quite know the difference. Loving someone is saying the right (read: nice) things and going home by yourself at the end of the night. Being in love with someone is sleeping on their front steps or threatening to tie yourself to their rubbish bins until they let you in so you can be with them. Being ‘in love’ tends to negate, or at least dim, all the filthy habits and doubts and thoughts about how things should go.
There’s a line between love and ‘in love’, and while it’s clear from the pleading and the strong words that Dom’s got a vague notion about the latter, Billy’s pretty certain that Dom’s really only suffering from the former.
Billy would reckon that Dom’s not necessarily in love with Billy as much as he’s confused about being away from home for such a long stretch and not having any of his mates about. Billy would say that Dom’s at the height of his neediness phase, which all twenty-somethings have to muddle through, and Dom will get over it. Dom will get over Billy, and everything will go back to normal, because Billy and Dom are mates. They’re really good mates, and Billy’s not about to wreck that over a slight fancy or whatever it is that Dom’s suffering from this week.
It’s not even a question of anybody being bent, or not being bent, or whatever it might be. It’s just an attraction, like Elijah’s attraction to Astin, and like all attractions it’s nothing substantial. With enough time and space and discouragement, Dom will get over it and move on. He’s too young to know what he wants anyway, and Billy’s too old to play whatever games Dom might have up his sleeve. Dom may say he loves Billy, but at the end of the day he’s not in love with him, and that makes all the difference.
2. Out for Lunch
The horrible thing about assumptions is that they tend to make an arse out of everyone involved, and if Billy had known that Dom was going to run off to Elijah just because Billy and Dom had a wee disagreement, well -- well, then maybe their friendship isn’t quite as sturdy as Billy thought it was. Maybe they have much bigger problems than the wee American who can’t even let them have a five-minute conversation without popping up out of nowhere. It’s not just about the fact that Dom’s moving to California instead of coming home. It’s about the fact that every time they try to have a conversation about something or someone or maybe even them, it just all goes to ground. Either Dom refuses to sit still long enough for Billy to get out what he wants to say or Billy’s frustration gets the better of him and he winds up talking irrelevant nonsense.
They shouldn’t have this sort of misunderstanding between them, and it’s like Dom’s started talking in German all the time again - the way he does when he gets really excited or upset - and Billy. Billy doesn’t come with a built in translator.
He thought they were past all this; he’d thought the love thing was put to bed, but apparently it’s not. Billy does love Dom -- just not like that. And Dom has said he’s all right with that, but maybe he’s not, because Elijah’s paranoid about something to do with Billy, and there can only be so many explanations for the possessive flashes Elijah pretends aren’t in his eyes. Except as far as Billy’s concerned, Elijah’s got nothing to be so insecure about. He’s the one who Dom’s agreed to move home with. He’s the one who’s won Dom when Billy didn’t even know there was a game afoot. Of course, that’s what Billy gets for assuming they were safe as houses in the first place -- he’s made an arse out of himself without any help at all.
3. At Home – But in the Garden
The best relationships are the ones that can evolve with the times – Billy read that in Ali’s Cosmopolitan, and he would have to agree, if he were actually admitting to reading women’s magazines anyway. Which he’s not. But that’s not really the point, is it? The point is that all good relationships require compromise and give and take, and more give and take. For example, Ali’s been tremendously understanding about the press and the media and all the articles in the Mail about where they’ve been and what they’ve been doing for the various installments of the film. Ali’s accompanied Billy all over the globe for dinners and parties and openings and various things that most girlfriends or boyfriends or other friends might not be so keen on. Ali’s been a trooper. She’s done everything she can to be there for Billy when he needs her and that’s a brilliant thing. As far as Billy can tell, they’ve got a good relationship. They’ve managed to make it work so far, despite everything that life’s thrown at them.
Another example of this sort of evolution is Billy and Dom. They’ve been together for ages, they’ve been best mates for as long back as Billy’s memory wants to go. Their friendship has withstood Elijah and Ali, and a lot of Billy’s mates have disappeared when they’ve found someone new. Billy knows he wouldn’t even be thinking about the word ‘evolution’ if Dom wasn’t constantly talking about the environment and the trees and the Discovery Channel, and his plans to save the planet from the bottom of a bottle of whiskey. Billy knows that Dom’s got the planet’s best intentions at heart. Billy knows that Dom’s got the best intentions for everything he does, which is why Billy almost did his nut when Dom holed himself up in Elijah’s flat and refused to leave the sofa or to stop drinking or playing video games or whatever it was that he was doing that day.
Billy and Dom are mates, and mates should be able to tell each other when they’re losing the plot, but Dom refused to talk to him, and Elijah never really let Billy in on their relationship anyway. It was all a disaster unfolding on a global stage, and scale, and there’s nothing worse than having every mistake in your life documented by the media. There’s a part of Billy that blames Elijah for whatever problems Dom had, because Dom was never so unhappy when he was with Billy, Billy knows this. Dom was never in the spotlight as much either. There weren’t nearly as many openings and premieres or invitations when it was just them, and maybe Dom needed that sort of validation. Billy knows he couldn’t be the one to give it to him. Billy knows that he wasn’t quite able to give Dom what he wanted, but Billy wishes he could give Dom what he so desperately needs.
Billy wants Dom to have this brilliant relationship that will evolve and grow with him and adjust to the man that Dom’s becoming, because it’s pretty obvious - at least to Billy - that whatever’s going on between Dom and Elijah isn’t working out right. It’s just that maybe it wouldn’t work out right with Billy either, and then where would Dom be?
4. Opening the Door
There have always been reasons why it’s bad idea for Billy to be involved with Dom: too old, too young, too involved, too straight, too much of a novelty, too not-ready-to-fuck-up-the-best-thing-he’s-got-going. Lately, however, the things between them have begun to fall away – Ali, Elijah, Dom’s inability to motivate himself – and Billy’s really beginning to sense that they need to redefine their relationship.
It’s not about the looks that Dom has never stopped sending his way, or the way that Dom curls up beside him on the sofa when they watch telly at night. It’s not even about the fact that Dom has stopped telling Billy he loves him.
Or it’s not just about that.
What’s changed is that since Dom’s stopped telling Billy he loves him, he’s started trying to show him that he’s in love with him. Plane tickets to Los Angeles and Honolulu and tickets for book openings and gaming premieres and all kinds of things that Dom knows that Billy loves. There have been letters in the post and journals left open on Billy’s bed with red arrows saying ‘Read This Now’, and it can’t get much more obvious than that. These are things that Dom’s doing without being asked because he wants to -- because he wants Billy by his side.
Billy knows that very rarely does fortune knock on your door twice, and he knows that the only thing more rare than fortune visiting twice, is getting another chance to fall in love.
-end-
Betas by the brilliant tag team oflalejandra and serialkarma
Also: I’d like to pass on this Neville!fic recommendation by_hannelore that bonibaru sent my way. It’s a beautiful story.
Thanks to
esorlehcar who unknowingly inspired this story.LOTRips
BB/DM; DM/EW; BB/Other
When Fortune Knocks
1. Closed for Repairs
There’s an important distinction between loving someone and being in love with them, and Billy would reckon that Dom’s still young enough to not quite know the difference. Loving someone is saying the right (read: nice) things and going home by yourself at the end of the night. Being in love with someone is sleeping on their front steps or threatening to tie yourself to their rubbish bins until they let you in so you can be with them. Being ‘in love’ tends to negate, or at least dim, all the filthy habits and doubts and thoughts about how things should go.
There’s a line between love and ‘in love’, and while it’s clear from the pleading and the strong words that Dom’s got a vague notion about the latter, Billy’s pretty certain that Dom’s really only suffering from the former.
Billy would reckon that Dom’s not necessarily in love with Billy as much as he’s confused about being away from home for such a long stretch and not having any of his mates about. Billy would say that Dom’s at the height of his neediness phase, which all twenty-somethings have to muddle through, and Dom will get over it. Dom will get over Billy, and everything will go back to normal, because Billy and Dom are mates. They’re really good mates, and Billy’s not about to wreck that over a slight fancy or whatever it is that Dom’s suffering from this week.
It’s not even a question of anybody being bent, or not being bent, or whatever it might be. It’s just an attraction, like Elijah’s attraction to Astin, and like all attractions it’s nothing substantial. With enough time and space and discouragement, Dom will get over it and move on. He’s too young to know what he wants anyway, and Billy’s too old to play whatever games Dom might have up his sleeve. Dom may say he loves Billy, but at the end of the day he’s not in love with him, and that makes all the difference.
2. Out for Lunch
The horrible thing about assumptions is that they tend to make an arse out of everyone involved, and if Billy had known that Dom was going to run off to Elijah just because Billy and Dom had a wee disagreement, well -- well, then maybe their friendship isn’t quite as sturdy as Billy thought it was. Maybe they have much bigger problems than the wee American who can’t even let them have a five-minute conversation without popping up out of nowhere. It’s not just about the fact that Dom’s moving to California instead of coming home. It’s about the fact that every time they try to have a conversation about something or someone or maybe even them, it just all goes to ground. Either Dom refuses to sit still long enough for Billy to get out what he wants to say or Billy’s frustration gets the better of him and he winds up talking irrelevant nonsense.
They shouldn’t have this sort of misunderstanding between them, and it’s like Dom’s started talking in German all the time again - the way he does when he gets really excited or upset - and Billy. Billy doesn’t come with a built in translator.
He thought they were past all this; he’d thought the love thing was put to bed, but apparently it’s not. Billy does love Dom -- just not like that. And Dom has said he’s all right with that, but maybe he’s not, because Elijah’s paranoid about something to do with Billy, and there can only be so many explanations for the possessive flashes Elijah pretends aren’t in his eyes. Except as far as Billy’s concerned, Elijah’s got nothing to be so insecure about. He’s the one who Dom’s agreed to move home with. He’s the one who’s won Dom when Billy didn’t even know there was a game afoot. Of course, that’s what Billy gets for assuming they were safe as houses in the first place -- he’s made an arse out of himself without any help at all.
3. At Home – But in the Garden
The best relationships are the ones that can evolve with the times – Billy read that in Ali’s Cosmopolitan, and he would have to agree, if he were actually admitting to reading women’s magazines anyway. Which he’s not. But that’s not really the point, is it? The point is that all good relationships require compromise and give and take, and more give and take. For example, Ali’s been tremendously understanding about the press and the media and all the articles in the Mail about where they’ve been and what they’ve been doing for the various installments of the film. Ali’s accompanied Billy all over the globe for dinners and parties and openings and various things that most girlfriends or boyfriends or other friends might not be so keen on. Ali’s been a trooper. She’s done everything she can to be there for Billy when he needs her and that’s a brilliant thing. As far as Billy can tell, they’ve got a good relationship. They’ve managed to make it work so far, despite everything that life’s thrown at them.
Another example of this sort of evolution is Billy and Dom. They’ve been together for ages, they’ve been best mates for as long back as Billy’s memory wants to go. Their friendship has withstood Elijah and Ali, and a lot of Billy’s mates have disappeared when they’ve found someone new. Billy knows he wouldn’t even be thinking about the word ‘evolution’ if Dom wasn’t constantly talking about the environment and the trees and the Discovery Channel, and his plans to save the planet from the bottom of a bottle of whiskey. Billy knows that Dom’s got the planet’s best intentions at heart. Billy knows that Dom’s got the best intentions for everything he does, which is why Billy almost did his nut when Dom holed himself up in Elijah’s flat and refused to leave the sofa or to stop drinking or playing video games or whatever it was that he was doing that day.
Billy and Dom are mates, and mates should be able to tell each other when they’re losing the plot, but Dom refused to talk to him, and Elijah never really let Billy in on their relationship anyway. It was all a disaster unfolding on a global stage, and scale, and there’s nothing worse than having every mistake in your life documented by the media. There’s a part of Billy that blames Elijah for whatever problems Dom had, because Dom was never so unhappy when he was with Billy, Billy knows this. Dom was never in the spotlight as much either. There weren’t nearly as many openings and premieres or invitations when it was just them, and maybe Dom needed that sort of validation. Billy knows he couldn’t be the one to give it to him. Billy knows that he wasn’t quite able to give Dom what he wanted, but Billy wishes he could give Dom what he so desperately needs.
Billy wants Dom to have this brilliant relationship that will evolve and grow with him and adjust to the man that Dom’s becoming, because it’s pretty obvious - at least to Billy - that whatever’s going on between Dom and Elijah isn’t working out right. It’s just that maybe it wouldn’t work out right with Billy either, and then where would Dom be?
4. Opening the Door
There have always been reasons why it’s bad idea for Billy to be involved with Dom: too old, too young, too involved, too straight, too much of a novelty, too not-ready-to-fuck-up-the-best-thing-he’s-got-going. Lately, however, the things between them have begun to fall away – Ali, Elijah, Dom’s inability to motivate himself – and Billy’s really beginning to sense that they need to redefine their relationship.
It’s not about the looks that Dom has never stopped sending his way, or the way that Dom curls up beside him on the sofa when they watch telly at night. It’s not even about the fact that Dom has stopped telling Billy he loves him.
Or it’s not just about that.
What’s changed is that since Dom’s stopped telling Billy he loves him, he’s started trying to show him that he’s in love with him. Plane tickets to Los Angeles and Honolulu and tickets for book openings and gaming premieres and all kinds of things that Dom knows that Billy loves. There have been letters in the post and journals left open on Billy’s bed with red arrows saying ‘Read This Now’, and it can’t get much more obvious than that. These are things that Dom’s doing without being asked because he wants to -- because he wants Billy by his side.
Billy knows that very rarely does fortune knock on your door twice, and he knows that the only thing more rare than fortune visiting twice, is getting another chance to fall in love.
-end-
Betas by the brilliant tag team of
lalejandra and serialkarmaAlso: I’d like to pass on this Neville!fic recommendation by
_hannelore that bonibaru sent my way. It’s a beautiful story.
![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
no subject
Date: 2004-03-30 03:17 pm (UTC)AAAHHHH.
here’s a part of Billy that blames Elijah for whatever problems Dom had, because Dom was never so unhappy when he was with Billy, Billy knows this. Dom was never in the spotlight as much either. There weren’t nearly as many openings and premieres or invitations when it was just them, and maybe Dom needed that sort of validation.
Whoa. Yes.
I like this the best of all your happy!fic. Except happy!fic week is over, right? So now it's time to kill someone, okay?
no subject
Date: 2004-03-30 03:50 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2004-03-30 04:30 pm (UTC)ahahah.
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Date: 2004-03-30 06:00 pm (UTC)You know, she could pull that off for Thursday LOL
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Date: 2004-03-30 06:14 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2004-03-31 10:09 am (UTC)no subject
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Date: 2004-03-31 12:58 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2004-03-31 01:19 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2004-03-31 01:13 pm (UTC)*gets popcorn and bulletproof barrier*
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Date: 2004-03-30 03:17 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2004-03-31 11:35 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2004-03-31 01:01 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2004-03-30 03:47 pm (UTC)So me and the headache will just thank you very kindly for another piece of fic perfection and trundle along :)
Oh, and now you've got ME thinking of woolly hats and train stations and irritable European conductors who don't speak English and harass Bill for his ticket which he seems to have lost somewhere along the way.
no subject
Date: 2004-03-31 11:38 am (UTC)Now you have *me* thinking about the last time I was at the train station in Manchester. There's this wee coffee bar there and they serve their hot chocolate with enormous pink marshmellows. It makes me wonder if he was going to see Dom, or just going to be reminded of Dom, because you know, some people just get on the train and ride it all day.
no subject
Date: 2004-03-31 11:49 am (UTC)You don't live in Manchester do you? I visit there practically every year. I'll be there in July again, actually.
no subject
Date: 2004-03-30 03:49 pm (UTC)but it's just so full of human truth, you know, and all the more beautiful because of that.
(and i so love it when you play with the wombat like this. *cackles*)
<3
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Date: 2004-03-31 11:45 am (UTC)Down with the wombat!
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Date: 2004-03-30 04:01 pm (UTC)Dude, isn't happy week over?
Not that I am complaining. Because I'm all smiles over here, darling.
no subject
Date: 2004-03-31 11:45 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2004-03-30 05:24 pm (UTC)::hugs story close::
Thank you
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Date: 2004-03-31 11:46 am (UTC)no subject
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Date: 2004-03-31 11:47 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2004-03-30 05:51 pm (UTC)~Jewels
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Date: 2004-03-31 11:48 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2004-03-30 06:14 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2004-03-31 11:48 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2004-03-30 06:59 pm (UTC)This sentence painted such a vivid picture in my mind. It seems so very Dom.
Just lovely. Thank you for the happy.
no subject
Date: 2004-03-31 11:50 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2004-03-31 04:25 am (UTC)I loved the whole thing (who wouldn't? It's so brilliantly written!), but that sentence just went straight to my heart.
Beautiful. <3
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Date: 2004-03-31 11:51 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2004-03-31 01:19 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2004-04-06 12:22 pm (UTC)