Finders Keepers
~~~
The day was overcast but not cold. Birds
weren’t singing, animals weren’t moving around, the only sound in the forest
was the wind. It made the trees and the bushes come alive, move around, it
ruffled Lij’s hair rather rudely and it made him shiver. The sun had been
hidden by the clouds all day.
Elijah sat down on a big rock with a
deep sigh. He was fucking *lost*. In a fucking *forest*. Somewhere in fucking
New Zealand!
He couldn’t believe his luck. Just as he
and Dom had had a fight about Lij being capable of taking care of himself he
went and got himself lost! And not only that, but he had lost his horse, too,
and the poor thing was now wandering around by itself. Elijah couldn’t
understand why someone – Viggo? – had been so keen on spending their day off
riding in a forest, but Dom had been kind of keen on it, so he’d went with
them. Now he cursed himself for it.
“Okay, no worries, no worries. You can
do this,” Lij mumbled to himself, rubbing his temples gently. “Now, where are
you?”
Answer: In a forest.
*Fuck*.
He wondered if the others were looking
for him. Probably, though he hoped not. He didn’t want to be found by Dom, or
Sean, or Viggo, who’d fuss over him, concerned, and unconvinced that he was
perfectly capable of looking after himself! //Yeah, if that’s true, how did you
get yourself lost?//
Sighing in defeat, he figured he
couldn’t sit there forever, so he stood up and resumed walking.
He heard a distant sound of thunder and
froze. He heard it again, but it wasn’t so distant this time. “Oh come on, man,
don’t you fucking rain on me!”
He felt the first drops of water on his
skin.
In exactly 12 seconds it was pouring.
Fuck. “*Fuck*!” Exasperated, he kicked a
rock. “Ow!” He glared at the rock accusingly, then kicked it again. “Ow!!” Maybe
this wasn’t such a good idea.
He was getting more and more wet by the
minute. The wind had calmed down – thank god – but it was still freezing.
Elijah brought one of his hands up and started to chew on his thumbnail
thoughtfully. He looked around, hoping he’d find some sign of which way he was
supposed to go, maybe a guidance book or a helpful local person who’d know
which way to go. Or something. A gun he could kill himself with.
Lij let his tongue travel over the
abused nail. He knew that if he bit it again it’d start bleeding. Deciding it
wouldn’t be healthy, Elijah took his hand from his mouth and patted his
pockets. His cigarettes were… …with Dom, of course. He’d given them to Dom,
because he hadn’t had decent pockets in his jacket. Swearing, he brought his
hand back to his mouth, then remembered that his thumbnail had already been
through enough and brought his other hand up to start chewing on *its*
thumbnail.
Suddenly, in spite of the rain, he could
hear something approaching. He could only think of two things: Either it was
someone looking for him – Viggo, Dom? – or, it was a contract killer. And,
well, in case it was a killer, Elijah thought he’d better go and hide. Elijah
didn’t bother coming up with an explanation for why it would’ve been a contract
killer, just crouch behind a rock. After all, he wasn’t in the mood to see
Viggo or Dom, either.
Peeking from behind the gigantic rock
Lij could see that it was, actually, Viggo on his horse. And that Viggo had
stopped and was looking thoughtfully at the stone Elijah was hiding behind.
“Come here, Lij,” Viggo said.
Elijah didn’t move a muscle.
“Lij, I know you’re there. I could hear
you swear,” Viggo continued.
Elijah grimaced, but stayed put.
“Oh *please*, you actually think I
didn’t hear you kick that rock around?”
//Goddamn it!// Defeated, Lijah crawled
from behind the rock. He made a show of standing up and dusting his soaking wet
clothes. Then he looked up at Viggo. “What the fuck are you doing here?”
“Looking for you, of course, what did
you think?” the older man said.
“I thought maybe you were out here
looking for your inspiration,” Elijah said petulantly.
“Maybe I was,” Viggo said, not taking
his eyes off the younger man. “And maybe I found it.”
//What?// Lij glanced at the rock behind
him. “Yeah, it’s fascinating, isn’t it?” he commented sarcastically.
“I wasn’t talking about the frigging
rock,” Viggo mumbled, obviously thinking Elijah wouldn’t hear him. But Lij did
hear him. “Anyway, let’s get out of here, shall we?” Viggo said.
Lijah looked at the horse suspiciously.
He had already fallen off one of those, and he wasn’t sure he wanted to sit
that close to Viggo, either. Viggo saw his look and said, “Come on, it won’t
bite, and neither will I.” Then he held out his hand and smiled gently.
Elijah was unconvinced. “I’ll find my
own way out of here,” he said determinedly.
Viggo pulled his hand back. “Yeah? I
wouldn’t be so sure. I wouldn’t be surprised if you managed to find your way to
Australia from here if I let you continue on your own!” He made his horse take
a few steps closer to Lijah before holding out his hand again. “Hop on.”
The younger man sighed. //Time to
swallow your pride, Elwood.// Then he grabbed Viggo’s wet hand and let himself
be helped on the horse. It took some fumbling, but they managed. Lij sat there
rather awkwardly, trying not to lean back – on Viggo.
Viggo draped his arms around the smaller
man to control the horse and hold him still, and off they went.
“Dom freaked when we realized you’d
disappeared,” Viggo said.
Elijah ignored him.
“I hope Peter hasn’t heard about your
disappearance yet,” Viggo tried again. “If he has, he’s probably called the
national guard.”
Elijah kept on ignoring him.
“Jesus, Lij, can’t we talk about
*something*? Politics? Movies? *Girls*? The weather?”
“It’s raining,” Elijah stated.
“Oh really…? I didn’t notice,” Viggo
mumbled, deciding talking was overrated. He tightened his grip on the younger
man.
Elijah couldn’t help but notice that
being this close to Viggo was definitely more enjoyable than it should’ve been.
Guiltily, he thought of Dom.
“So, what did you say about Dom?” Lij
asked quietly. His hair was sticking to his forehead and he couldn’t see a
thing in the rain.
“He really loves you, you know… he
totally lost it when you disappeared,” Viggo said calmly.
“Yeah?” Lij said encouragingly. He
wasn’t sure if he wanted to hear Viggo talk more about Dom loving him, or if he
just wanted to hear Viggo talk more.
“Yeah… things seem to be alright between
the two of you,” he said.
“He doesn’t respect me,” Elijah blurted
out.
//He doesn’t? Bastard.// “He should. …I
do.”
Lij froze. Completely inappropriate
images of Viggo saying that to him were flashing before his eyes. And it didn’t
help that the older man’s nose was less than an inch from his neck – it was
almost as if the man was nuzzling him.
Suddenly, the horse jumped two feet
aside, almost making Viggo and Elijah fall. Viggo didn’t know what had caused
the horse to jump, but instinctively he tightened his grip on Elijah, pressing
them together. In his mind he cursed himself for not having paid attention. He
couldn’t help it; Lij was just so distracting…
When Viggo pressed them together, Lijah
could’ve sworn his heart skipped a beat. How he wanted this… but couldn’t. He
couldn’t do this to Dom, he couldn’t do this to Orli…
Elijah started struggling. “Let go of
me, let me off…” he chanted, trying to loosen Viggo’s grip on him. Bewildered,
Viggo let go of him, and he practically fell off the horse, stumbling forward.
“Where are you going? Hey, come back!”
Viggo shouted, getting off his horse and following Elijah. //Jesus, I fucking
freaked him out!//
Elijah didn’t know where he was running,
or where the *fuck* that rock came from, he just knew that suddenly he was
falling and then he was lying on the wet ground, too confused and too tired to
get up.
Viggo caught up with him easily, grabbed
his shoulder and rolled him over before kneeling next to him. “Fuck, are you
okay?” he asked.
“I’m fine,” Elijah mumbled a little bit
too quickly.
Viggo wasn’t convinced. Leaning closer,
he asked, “Are you sure?”
Lij just stared at him as Viggo kept on
leaning towards him. His eyes widened considerably as he realized exactly what
the older man was up to. //God, he’s going to kiss me!//
Viggo stared back. He swallowed
silently, eyes on Lijah’s lips. //…am I really going to kiss him?//
Elijah closed his eyes and started
breathing through his mouth. //God, let him kiss me…//
Softly, Viggo leaned closer
until there was only an inch between them. Lijah had his eyes closed and he was
breathing shallowly. Viggo could feel hot puffs of air on his skin. Closing his
own eyes, Viggo leaned in and kissed Elijah’s already open mouth softly.
Lij responded to the kiss
immediately. Viggo’s taste was mixing with the taste of rain, as heavy
raindrops were falling on their faces, between their locked lips. Slowly Lijah
wrapped his arms around the older man, pulling him closer, then let his legs
slide around him, too. Viggo was on his knees and elbows, now, hovering above
Elijah, kissing him as if it was the only thing he’d ever need.
It was Elijah who broke the
kiss. Blinking in uncertainty, he looked at Viggo. “Did you hear something?”
Without waiting for an answer, he pushed the Ranger away and stood up, trying
to see if he was very muddy.
And Viggo heard it, too. Someone
– Dom? – was distantly calling Lij’s name. Still lying on the ground, he looked
up at the younger man just in time to see him respond, “In here!” in a voice
that trembled slightly.
Slowly Viggo stood up. He didn’t
know what to say to the young hobbit, so he kept silent. 20 seconds later Dom
was there, right there, jumping off his horse, Billy right behind him. The Brit
wrapped his arms around Elijah so tightly that the younger man had to gasp for
breath.
“Dom,” Lij stuttered,
bewildered.
“I found you, see?” Dom said
intelligently. “I found you. Are you okay?” He loosened his death grip on the
Ringbearer.
“I’m fine,” Lij said quietly,
then searched the older man’s pockets. “I need a cigarette,” he mumbled,
finally finding his treasures – the pack of cigarettes and a lighter – and lit
one surprisingly successfully, considering it was still pouring. After inhaling
smoke deeply and letting it slowly out of his lungs, he looked up at Dom and,
after a moment of consideration, kissed him. Dom looked surprised, but also
thrilled by this change in his boyfriend.
Softly breaking the kiss, Dom
turned to Viggo, who was standing a couple of yards away and asked promptly,
“Where are we?”
Viggo understood what Dom really
was asking without missing a beat. “About half a mile, that way,” the Dane
instructed briefly, vaguely waving his hand.
Dom grabbed Elijah’s hand and
started pulling him with him. Without any complaint, Viggo started leading both
of the abandoned horses – Dom’s and his – after the two hobbits. Every now and
then he had to yell instructions for Billy, who was leading the way and had the
tendency to keep turning right.
And Elijah didn’t so much as
look at Viggo on their way back to the stables.
-loppu-
|
More coming soon! |