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[subtle-dusk.livejournal.com]

title: Word of the Day
pairing: Monaboyd
rating: PG-13 for language
summary: Billy writes on Dom's hand.
disclaimer: I don't know them, this never happened. No disrespect is intended.
notes: Again for so_much_to_say, for her icon meme, based on this icon.





If there was one thing Dom could be counted on for, it was to have maddeningly cryptic words printed in his hasty scrawl across the back of his hand day after day. It drove the make-up artists batty the first several times he showed up like this, but since then they had all settled into a routine.

Dom would come in, flashing around his word-or-phrase-of-the-day for all to see, the main make-up artist would flash a dangerously threatening look in his direction, and then he would grin as he went and scrubbed the words off the back of his hand with a rough sponge, Billy watching the inky soap and water swirl down the drain, taking with it the secret meanings the words had once held for Dom alone.

One morning on their way to Feet, so early the sun hadn’t yet colored the horizon in anything but a very faint white, Dom was unusually surly. Billy’s mouth twitched, but he kept the smile from his lips as he asked:

“Something wrong, Dommie? Splinter?”

Dom frowned and glared at Billy without malice.

“It’s nothing,” he said, waving his hand dismissively. Billy caught it in the air, held it loosely in his own, and ran his fingers over the back of it.

“Your skin is raw, Dom.”

“It’s the fucking sponge.” Dom’s voice had hitched halfway through the statement, and Billy now realized why. Without his realizing it, he had been rubbing soothing circles over the back of Dom’s scratched hand with his thumb.

“Ah. No phrase today, then?”

Dom shrugged, letting his hand linger in Billy’s a moment longer before moving to stretch his arms over his head.

“It’s not the end of the world.”

From the look on Dom’s face as he said this, albeit brief, Billy rather had the feeling that it was. For the moment, anyway.

“I could write it for you. On your other hand.”

Dom barely moved; an incremental turn of his head in Billy’s direction and his eyes sliding onto Billy were the only indication he’d heard Billy’s offer at all.

But then Dom shifted and Billy felt something being pressed into his hand, and he didn’t need to look to know it was a Sharpie. Dom only ever wrote on his hands in Sharpie, though often the colors varied. Today it appeared to be

“Green?” Billy asked, feeling that there was some significance and at the same time feeling stupid, because it was just a color, after all. Dom said nothing, extending his hand.

Idly Billy wondered what would be the best way to go about writing on one’s mate’s hand and decided in the end that the easiest way would be to let it rest against his leg.

Dom let his hand lay where Billy placed it, fingers curling over the curve of Billy’s knee.

“So then, Dommie,” Billy began, uncapping the Sharpie. “What will it be today?”

Dom studied Billy as though he had all the answers, and really that was quite a funny thought given Billy’s recent state of distress where his mate was concerned.

I haven’t any answers, Dommie. I’ve only the questions.

Dom whispered something then, and Billy found himself leaning closer to Dom to hear him repeat it.

“You’re going to have to spell that for me, mate. Bloody wanker, you are. Why does it always have to be in German?” Dom began spelling out his word, and smiled at the insult.

“If you were truly perceptive, Boyd, you’d realize that many days my phrases aren’t, as you believe, in German.”

“Either way, they are bloody confusing.”

Dom tilted his head at this.

“You think so?” Billy gave a murmur of assent, not really listening, instead going over the word he had written with his eyes, memorizing it, wondering idly how it was pronounced. He damn well was going to figure out what it meant.

They walked into the trailer, nearly knocking Ian over in the process. After rushed apologies, they politely inquired as to why he was in make-up at such an ungodly hour, and had identical pangs of guilt at the relief they both felt when he turned to leave.

Genuinely kind man, yes. Terrifyingly intimidating as hell, yes.

Not generally around in the early morning hours usually reserved for Hobbits only, Ian was somewhat unaccustomed to Dom’s daily ritual of writing on the back of his hand, so when he saw a flash of green, he caught Dom by the wrist and let his eyes travel over the word so clearly written there in Billy’s handwriting.

Ian’s eyes widened marginally, and he glanced at Billy, before fixing his penetrating stare on Dom.

“He doesn’t know what this means, does he?” he asked, a small grin on his face.

“Well—no, not exactly.”

Ian nodded, releasing Dom’s hand.

“Good morrow, boys,” he called over his shoulder.

Billy watched him go, an odd expression on his face.

“You’re not going to tell me what it says, are you,” Billy said to Dom’s back, and it wasn’t a question.

Dom stopped on the top step of the trailer, turning his head so he could glance at Billy out of the corner of his eye.

“I figure if you really want to know, you’ll figure it out yourself.” Dom waited for a response, and after a pause in which he got none, he turned to find Billy jogging off in the direction Ian went. “I didn’t mean now!”

Billy had heard Dom shout at him, had heard the trailer door slam shut and the footfalls of his mate as he gave pursuit. He had also heard the thinly veiled panic lining his voice, and that above all else was what made him break into a sprint.

“Bloody fuck Billy Boyd, come back here!”

He was almost far enough away now that the loud creaking of the door was nearly missed, but Billy did catch it and therefore knew they had an audience. This was confirmed when Elijah whooped after them, calling out:

“He’s gaining, Billy! Mother fucker, I didn’t know he could run that fast!”

And then as Elijah and Sean’s laughter hit him, so did something heavy, around his legs.

“You know, if it is this important I don’t, in fact, find out what the hell is on your hand, you shouldn’t have wound me up,” Billy said, humor evident in his voice around the annoyance. He had fallen hard on his left wrist, and tested it now, rotating it back and forth as he pressed himself up with his right arm. Dom was still latched firmly to his legs. “You will understand if this is all a bit bizarre to me.”

Dom said something, but as his face was currently tucked against the inside of Billy’s knee, Billy could make out only incoherent muttering.

“Goddamn Bill, what did you do to deserve that?” Elijah asked, panting hard as he and Sean reached the pair.

“You know, Doodle, you wouldn’t be panting so much if you fucking stopped smoking,” Dom commented, resting his chin where his face has previously been.

The absurdity of it all finally hit him, and Billy could do nothing but laugh, and as laughter is one of the most contagious forces on the planet, soon all the Hobbits were caught up in it.

The rag that hit Elijah smack in the face turned their attention back to what they were actually supposed to be doing, as the head make-up artist shook her fist at them from their trailer door, readying another rag.

“You lot have put us at least half an hour past schedule,” she called, and predictably Sean glanced at his watch, shaking his head.

“Fifteen minutes at most, and if we stand still for Feet, we can shave off even that time,” he said confidently.

Elijah chuckled, helping him to his feet.

“You are some piece of work, you know that?” Elijah said, but it was not at all an insult. He glanced back over his shoulder, watching Dom push himself off of Billy and then watching them rise as one. He turned back ahead, choosing to remain silent, distracting Sean long enough so that he, too, would not call out.

Something was obviously changing for their friends, and he was not about to be the idiot that broke the moment.

“Fucking finally,” he muttered, following Sean into the trailer.

“Are you going to explain any of this to me?” Billy asked, hearing the trailer door slam shut. Dom took a breath, obviously gearing up, and Billy was suddenly completely attuned to only him.

“Right, so…” Dom made vague gestures with his hands, apparently hoping he could pluck the answers from the air. “The word on my hand, liebling. It means darling, sweetheart…favorite. Love, as an endearment.”

“Your hand is a liebling?” Billy asked, pronouncing the word with ease.

“Don’t be an utter prick,” Dom returned, rising to Billy’s wind-up and then calming. “You. It’s you. All the words and phrases, they were all for you.”

Billy rose up on his knees, pressed a hand firmly against Dom’s chest, and pushed him back into the ground.

“You know Dom, as charming as I find that, it makes it a bit hard when I don’t speak German.” He was leaning over Dom now, holding him quite nicely in place with a thigh between Dom’s legs.

“Obviously,” Dom gasped, closing his eyes to recover, “I gave you far too much credit. Thinking you would at least have the bloody sense to snatch one of Viggo’s books and look the words up yourself.”

“I didn’t exactly know they were for me.”

“Didn’t you?”

Billy thought about this.

“I suppose I’d hoped they were. Some secret code, just for me. Again, though, I feel as though the purpose was defeated.”

“And again I say you were just too daft to figure it out.” Billy applied pressure with his thigh and Dom shuddered, suppressing a moan. “For fuck’s sake, Billy, Elijah knew.”

“Elijah is far too smart for his age,” Billy said, raising his voice as he eased off of Dom, hearing the hesitant footsteps coming near.

“I agree completely,” Dom said, eyes bright as Billy helped him up.

“He didn’t even hint to me.”

“We’ll have to kill him.”

As in many things, they turned as one on the approaching Elijah, who had heard the exchange, and began slowly stalking towards him. Elijah swore under his breath, turned on his heal, and sprinted back to the trailer.

Dom laughed and Billy grinned, and before they took another step, Billy took hold of Dom’s hand, yanked the younger man forward, crushing their bodies together, and kissed him.




Un-betaed (as always) so any mistakes are mine :)