Fic: Tea-Sean A/Elijah LOTR RPS
Jan. 13th, 2004 12:35 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
perpetual_motionFor those who asked for a sequel to "Coffee" here you are. "Coffee" is also at ![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-community.gif)
astinwood . It will also, eventually, be on my website.
And if you've missed it before, this is REAL PERSON SLASH. NOT characters but REAL PEOPLE that I'm writing. Go be squicked elsewhere if it bothers you.
Title: Tea
Author: Perpetual Motion
Webpage: www.geocities.com/iwannabedonna
Pairing: Sean A/Elijah
Series/Sequel: Sequel to "Coffee" (can be found on my lj![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
perpet_fic and at astinwood. Will also be on my webpage soon.).
Rating: PG-13
Summary: A night out, a morning in, an afternoon out. And tea.
Archive: My site. Archive. Anyone else, please ask.
Disclaimer: Look, as far as I know, Sean is happily married, and Elijah is straight. As far as I know.
Author's Notes: Sequel to "Coffee". To find it, see above. Forbeizy, who made me a shiny new lj icon. Least I can do for such a pretty picture. And pleae remember, we're dealing with an AU where Sean is divorced from Christine and has no kids.
Tea
By Perpetual Motion
The club is dark and loud and has lots of flashing lights, and Sean is grateful that he's not an epileptic, because he's pretty sure he'd be on the floor having a seizure right now otherwise. He's sitting alone at a tall table that edges the dance floor and is trying his hardest to keep up with Dom, Billy, Orlando, and Elijah.
He's trying to keep up with Elijah most of all, really, because tonight, Elijah's going to stay at his place, and they're going to stay the night together. Sean smiles at his own wording and thinks that he sounds a bit like a girl having her first sleepover party. Before he can find a better phrasing for what's going to happen, Elijah stumbles off the dance floor and nearly lands in his lap.
"Hey."
"Hey." Sean gets a good grip on Elijah's elbow and tries to see into his eyes in the bad light. Elijah's eyes are glazed, that much is obvious, but it's only by his breath that Sean can tell that he's drunk. "What have you been drinking?"
Elijah grins, then giggles. "Long Island Iced Tea."
Sean chuckles. "You're going to be hungover in the morning."
"Probably." Elijah lists suddenly and only manages to catch himself by grabbing onto Sean's knees. "Will you take care of me?"
Sean bites back the urge to say, 'always'. It's a rather strong sentiment to toss out when he's only been with Elijah for a couple of weeks. Instead, he nods and helps Elijah stand up straight. "Of course I will. I'm your Sam."
"You're my Sean." Eiljah says it with a conviction that shouldn't be used when one is drunk, and Sean feels his stomach curl in pleasure at the sentiment.
"And you're my Elijah."
"I am." Elijah presses his palms against Sean's knees until he can fit in the space between them and get up close to Sean. "You're not dancing."
"It's not a particularly good sight, trust me."
Elijah presses his face against Sean's neck and gets his fingers in his belt loops. "C'mon."
Sean rumples his hair. "Not this time."
"All right." Elijah moves a step away and looks at the table, where glasses are lined up and jumbled together. "What are you drinking?"
"Water, right now." Sean holds his glass out to Elijah and watches him drink half of it down quickly. He smiles into the kiss Elijah manages to get half on his mouth and watches him disappear into the crowd again. Billy emerges from its depths as Elijah vanishes and makes it over to the table on obviously tired legs. He all but collapses next to Sean.
"I'm fuckin' hot, man." Billy eyes the half-finished drinks on the table with suspicion and flags down a waitress. He puts in an order for a beer then turns to Sean. "You're not dancin'."
"You don't want to see that, trust me."
Billy grins. "You should see Orli. I think he's got a spring for a spine, the moves he's doin'. I'm hurtin' just lookin' at him." Billy yawns and doesn't bother to cover it with his hand. "You and Lij are going home together, tonight, right?"
Sean nods and downs his water a little faster than he needs to. "Yeah."
"Nervous?" Billy's grin has a wicked edge to it.
"A little." Sean puts his water glass down before he drops it on the floor. "We're not even doing anything tonight. Just sleeping." He rolls his eyes as Billy coos at him. "Oh, shut up."
*
At the end of the night, as Sean and Elijah get into a cab, the whole atmosphere between them changes. Two weeks isn't a very big number. It's fourteen days. It's 336 hours, and here they are about to test the fragile bonds of a new relationship. Sean worries about how Elijah is going to react when he sees Sean in pajamas and realizes that the extra weight he's carrying doesn't come off at the end of the day. He wants to worry about it all the way to his place, but Elijah reaches over and wraps a hand around his elbow and pulls at him until he's about to topple over. "What are you doing?"
"C'mere." Elijah gives another pull, and when Sean still doesn't move, Elijah shrugs and goes to him. He presses his lips to Sean's neck and tastes stale sweat and the alcohol in Sean's cologne when he pulls away. He smiles and licks his lips. "I haven't got a goodnight kiss, yet."
"The night's not over."
"Still."
Sean can't resist Elijah when he's attempting to be coy, so he leans over, and he kisses him properly, with a soft tongue and one hand running through his hair. It's only when the cab driver not-so-discreetly taps on the glass that Sean realizes they've reached his house. He pulls away from Elijah and pays the driver, saying a quiet thank you and slipping him an extra-generous tip for being so nice about the two grown men making out in his backseat.
Elijah waits for Sean by the door of the house, and when Sean is in range, Elijah reaches out and tangles his fingers in Sean's shirt, tugging him forward until most of Sean's weight has him pressed against the wall. He kisses him quickly, but thoroughly. Sean kisses him back but pulls away before they can get carried away.
"Just sleeping tonight," he reminds Elijah.
"I know." Elijah presses his face against Sean's back as the other man opens the door and kisses the back of his neck. "I just like being near you."
Sean reaches behind him and gets ahold of Elijah's hand. "Thank you." He walks them both inside and stops in the middle of the living room to turn around and see Elijah in actual amounts of light. Elijah's hair is messy and his clothes are wrinkled and he smells of beer and fog from a machine and sweat, and Sean thinks he's just nearly exactly how he always should be. He doesn't say it. It's to soon to say it. "Do you want something to drink?"
Elijah considers it and nods. "Tea, if you've got it."
"Yeah. I've got regular, peppermint, raspberry, and green." Sean grins at his list. "Apparently, Orli and the rest of those guys have turned me British."
Elijah chuckles. "It's cool. I'll take peppermint." He follows Sean into the kitchen and hops up on the counter. He's got a massive urge to help; he's been to Sean's house so many times since pre-production started that he knows his way around with his eyes closed, but Sean's the type to always play the good host, so Elijah sits back and lets him. "Did you have fun tonight?"
"Yeah." Sean gets water from the tap into two mugs and put them both in the microwave, setting it for three minutes. He smiles at Elijah as he moves around him to get the tea bags from the far cupboard. "I'm going to be deaf for the next three days, but it was worth it."
"Good to hear it." Elijah can't stand to sit on the counter and not do anything. He glances around the room and sees the light blinking on the phone that means Sean's got voice mail. "Can I check your voice mail?"
"Sure."
Elijah jumps down from the counter and walks over to the phone. He hits the voice mail button and waits as the electronic voice drones by.
"Message one."
"Sean, it's your mother. I thought you'd be in tonight. Call me when you get time, Dear."
"End of message one....message two."
"Hey, it's Viggo. Are you still considering?"
"End of message two...Message three."
"Sean, hi, it's...um, it's Christine. I thought I'd just call and, you know, say hi."
Sean doesn't hear the machine tell him message three has ended. He's watching every nuance of Elijah's reaction to his ex-wife leaving him a voice mail. He hopes with everything he has that Elijah won't make a big deal out of it.
"That was Christine?" Elijah waits for Sean's nod. "She doesn't sound like I thought she would." He walks back over to the counter and hops up. "What are you considering for Viggo?"
Sean takes a few seconds to answer. He's still gauging Elijah. He's trying to tell if he's acting. Elijah's leaning back on his hands and thudding his heels against the counter. He's completely relaxed. Sean's going to take it at face value and see what happens. "He wants me to model for him." The microwave beeps, and Sean opens it to get the mugs. He drops the tea bags in and sets the timer for five minutes.
"Model? Cool. You gonna?"
"I don't know. I'm not exactly in shape for it." That's as close as Sean can come to asking if Elijah doesn't like all the weight he carries around.
"Viggo thinks you're good enough for it." Elijah reaches out and touches Sean's shoulder, trailing his fingers from the shoulder to wrist. "I think you'd take great pictures."
Sean gives Elijah a smile. He's going to go for the question after all. "Even with the weight?"
"Moreso because of the weight." Elijah pulls Sean over and puts his hands on either side of his face. "You hate it don't you? You hate being the fat hobbit?"
"It has its downside."
Elijah drops his hands to Sean's waist and squeezes. "I like it. It proves how cuddly you are. Like outer proof that you're the guy to go to if you need a hug or advice or someone to lean on. It proves you're solid."
"It proves I can eat."
"Stop it."
Sean ducks the half-hearted swipe Elijah takes at his head and comes back up to kiss him on the neck, then the ear, then on the mouth. It's supposed to be a fun kiss, something to tease Elijah with just to be a little mean, but when the timer beeps and Elijah grabs Sean's neck and begs him to leave the tea alone, Sean realizes that they're not going to be just sleeping like he planned. "Lij." It's said quickly as he pulls back for a breath.
"Yeah?" Elijah's cheeks are flushed, his eyes bright.
"What are we going to do?"
"I don't know." Elijah grins.
Sean grins back. "So we're both lost?"
"Right now, yeah."
"We'll figure this out." Sean leans in to kiss Elijah again.
*
They do figure it out, and it's almost unbearably awkward when they land on the bed, and Sean knocks the breath out of Elijah. "I'm sorry."
Elijah slides his hands down Sean's back and massages just above the waistband of his jeans. "It's okay." He takes a deep breath and smiles. "I'm tougher than I look."
"Oh, yeah?" And Sean dips his fingers into Elijah's ribs and tickles him until he's red in the face and heaving for air.
"Stop! Stop!" Elijah is wiggling like mad, and he's trying to escape. "I'm not tougher than I look! I lied!"
Sean relents his attack and starts to kiss Elijah with slow, wet laps of his tongue that soon lead to slow, long, moaning arching from Elijah, and eventually lead to the both of them naked on the bed, panting, and sweaty, and generally in need of a shower. But neither of them move from where they lay tangled around each other. Sean manages to get the blanket around them both, and then they fall asleep.
*
When Elijah wakes up the next morning, it's to an empty bed. He looks around blearily for a minute, cursing softly at forgetting to take his contacts out, then he throws the covers back and pads down the hall naked. He finds Sean in the kitchen in a robe and gives him an unitelligible grunt that's as close to 'good morning' as he can get before having anything to eat or drink.
"Hung over?"
Elijah squints in Sean's direction and shakes his head. He's really not. He switched off of liquor and went into water about halfway into the evening before and felt fine. He just isn't a morning person.
Sean smiles at him and pulls him close for a minute. "I have floor-to-ceiling windows with the blinds wide open in the living room. You just gave the neighborhood a free show."
Elijah takes Sean's mug and has a drink. It's tea, regular flavored with the minimum amount of sugar, and it does it's work at wetting Elijah's throat so he can be a smartass. "They liked it. They just won't ever admit it." He grins when Sean pinches his hip and kisses his neck, and he looks down and plays with the sash on Sean's robe as he asks his next question, feeling so much like a girl it's almost pathetic. "So, can we spend the day together?"
"Just us, or do you want to call the guys up?" Sean doesn't make Elijah look at him, because he's perfectly comfortable hiding how pleased his is.
"What time is it?"
"Little after ten."
"Let's call the guys later." Elijah presses his face into Sean's robe, wanting to imprint the memory of this first morning waking up in his house to every last recess of his brain. Sean's robe smells like laundry soap and dryer sheets. "Let's do something."
"What do you want to do?" Sean slides a hand from the Eijah's neck to his butt and back again. "Do you want to stay in or go out?" He knows if he doesn't give Elijah a couple of options they could spend the whole day standing like this in the kitchen, Sean in his robe, and Elijah with no clothes whatsoever. It's a tempting scenario, but Sean figures that Elijah probably has something he actually wants to do or he wouldn't be suggesting it.
"Can we do both?" Elijah's fingers untie Sean's robe and get inside to flutter over his ribs and back and hips.
Sean barely gets his tea onto the counter without breaking the mug. He takes his mug-warmed hand and presses it against Elijah's stomach, down low, just over the place where his leg meets his groin. "I think we'll manage."
Elijah grins and pulls Sean back towards the bedroom.
*
Two hours later, both with fresh showers, and Elijah with relatively clean contacts, they head out of doors to go find something for lunch. Sean has plenty to eat back at his place, but he confides in Elijah that he can hardly cook for himself anymore.
"I see all that food, and I don't even want it. All I can think about when I see it is how I have to be fat. It just gets exhausting to convince myself to eat some days."
Elijah slides his hand over Sean's and laces their fingers together. "You could cook for me some night, then it won't seem like so much food."
Sean wants to kiss him right there in the middle of the street as they walk to the record store, but he holds off because it's been a long time since he's walked down the street holding another guy's hand, and he's still trying to get used to that feeling. Kissing another guy in public isn't something he can do quite yet "Thank you." He smiles when Elijah beams at him and allows himself to be drug into a small, basement record store that actually stocks vinyl. Elijah lets go of his hand and practically scampers to the far corner where a huge stack of records waits to be perused. Sean watches him flip through records for a few seconds before turning around and heading towards the CDs.
They browse seperately for a half hour before Elijah gives out a shout of glee and snaps up a record from the stack. He runs over Sean and holds out his prize. "Ramones. Acid Eaters. The album is shit, but I have all the other ones on vinyl." Elijah grins as Sean laughs at him. "What?"
"Only you would buy a bad album just to finish off a vinyl collection." Sean holds up a CD that he's considering buying. "There are things called CDs, Lij. I know you know of them."
Elijah sticks his tongue out and tucks his album under his arm. "What's it say about you that I'm younger but have more vinyl?"
"It says I came into the digital age." He pokes Elijah in the ribs. "You should try it."
Something in Elijah warms up for no reason at all. Something about standing in this record store teasing and getting teased feels absolutely right to him, and he has to lean in and kiss Sean quickly on the mouth. When he pulls away, Sean's face is a little puzzled.
"What was that for?"
Elijah shrugs. "I don't know." He watches as Sean's puzzlement turns into a warm smile. "Just had the urge, you know?"
"Yeah, I know."
Elijah looks at the CD that Sean's still holding. "You going to buy that?"
"Yeah."
"Then let's get out of here, I'm starving." Elijah leads the way to the register, slowing down when Sean's arm comes up around his neck and settles in. He remembers everytime Sean's ever put an arm around him like this, from that first night they were in New Zealand to this exact moment as they stand in the line at the register. It didn't mean anything that first night, they were just two guys who were buddies, but now that they're more than that, it seems like it meant something from the very beginning. He gets up to the register and puts his record on the counter. The counter guy smiles at him with intent, and Elijah wraps an arm around Sean's waist so that there will be no confusion. "Where do you want to go for lunch?"
Sean shrugs. "I don't know. Are you in the mood for anything in particular?"
"Something spicy." Elijah pays the counter guy and slides over so Sean can pay for his CD. "Is there Indian food around here anywhere?"
"There's a place a few blocks down." The counter guy barely acknowleges Sean as he smiles at Elijah. "It has a bright orange door. You can't miss it."
Elijah nods at the counter guy. "Thanks." He looks over at Sean, the look on his face making it clear that he knows that the counter guy is trying to make a move. "Indian food sound good?"
Sean slips his change into his pants pocket and picks up his bag. "That's fine." He follows Elijah out the door, one hand on the small of his back, and his eyebrows go up when Elijah bursts out laughing as soon as they're at street level. "What's so funny?"
"The guy in there, at the counter, he..." Elijah trails off into giggles, lower pitched than usual, and he stops to prop himself on the wall for a few seconds. "That guy-" He starts laughing outright and reaches into his bag, pulling out a slip of paper. "It was with the receipt."
Sean takes the slip of paper. There is a phone number, an e-mail address, and a name. "Apparently Tyler thinks you're cute." He can't help but smile. "Must be your eyes." Elijah flips Sean the bird. "Because it's certainly not your manners."
"So why do you put up with me?"
"Your eyes." Sean gets a handful of Elijah's shirt before he can pretend to storm off in a huff. "And most everything else."
"*Most* everything?"
"Your taste in music sucks." Sean's just barely managing to keep a straight face.
Elijah sees right through him and pokes him in the ribs. "Bastard." It's said without any malice.
"Ass."
Elijah pulls Sean's hand from his shirt front and keeps ahold of his hand. "I'm not in the mood for Indian food anymore. How about burgers and fries?"
Sean pulls a face. "Nothing with grease, please. If I eat much more, I'm going to be oiled up enough to fix squeaky hinges with a touch of my finger."
Elijah spies a cart down the street selling sandwiches, chips, and the like. "How about a sandwich? They're grease free."
"That'll work."
They walk down to the cart and buy sandwiches, chips, and bottles of tea. Sean leads the way to a tiny park that he passes when he's shopping in this section of town and finds a semi-secluded place where they can lean against a tree and have their lunch. He settles against the tree and has a flashback to two weeks ago when Elijah lays down and puts his head on Sean's thigh. "I think I may pose for Viggo." It's out of his mouth before he realizes he's even thought about it.
Elijah tilts his head back to see Sean's face. "Yeah?"
"Yeah."
Elijah pops the seal on his bottle of tea and tilts it up for a drink. "Good. I want copies of any and all nude pictures."
Sean smiles and opens his own drink. "I'll make sure to let Viggo know."
They clink their bottles together and drink to the deal.
astinwood . It will also, eventually, be on my website.And if you've missed it before, this is REAL PERSON SLASH. NOT characters but REAL PEOPLE that I'm writing. Go be squicked elsewhere if it bothers you.
Title: Tea
Author: Perpetual Motion
Webpage: www.geocities.com/iwannabedonna
Pairing: Sean A/Elijah
Series/Sequel: Sequel to "Coffee" (can be found on my lj
perpet_fic and at astinwood. Will also be on my webpage soon.).Rating: PG-13
Summary: A night out, a morning in, an afternoon out. And tea.
Archive: My site. Archive. Anyone else, please ask.
Disclaimer: Look, as far as I know, Sean is happily married, and Elijah is straight. As far as I know.
Author's Notes: Sequel to "Coffee". To find it, see above. For
beizy, who made me a shiny new lj icon. Least I can do for such a pretty picture. And pleae remember, we're dealing with an AU where Sean is divorced from Christine and has no kids.Tea
By Perpetual Motion
The club is dark and loud and has lots of flashing lights, and Sean is grateful that he's not an epileptic, because he's pretty sure he'd be on the floor having a seizure right now otherwise. He's sitting alone at a tall table that edges the dance floor and is trying his hardest to keep up with Dom, Billy, Orlando, and Elijah.
He's trying to keep up with Elijah most of all, really, because tonight, Elijah's going to stay at his place, and they're going to stay the night together. Sean smiles at his own wording and thinks that he sounds a bit like a girl having her first sleepover party. Before he can find a better phrasing for what's going to happen, Elijah stumbles off the dance floor and nearly lands in his lap.
"Hey."
"Hey." Sean gets a good grip on Elijah's elbow and tries to see into his eyes in the bad light. Elijah's eyes are glazed, that much is obvious, but it's only by his breath that Sean can tell that he's drunk. "What have you been drinking?"
Elijah grins, then giggles. "Long Island Iced Tea."
Sean chuckles. "You're going to be hungover in the morning."
"Probably." Elijah lists suddenly and only manages to catch himself by grabbing onto Sean's knees. "Will you take care of me?"
Sean bites back the urge to say, 'always'. It's a rather strong sentiment to toss out when he's only been with Elijah for a couple of weeks. Instead, he nods and helps Elijah stand up straight. "Of course I will. I'm your Sam."
"You're my Sean." Eiljah says it with a conviction that shouldn't be used when one is drunk, and Sean feels his stomach curl in pleasure at the sentiment.
"And you're my Elijah."
"I am." Elijah presses his palms against Sean's knees until he can fit in the space between them and get up close to Sean. "You're not dancing."
"It's not a particularly good sight, trust me."
Elijah presses his face against Sean's neck and gets his fingers in his belt loops. "C'mon."
Sean rumples his hair. "Not this time."
"All right." Elijah moves a step away and looks at the table, where glasses are lined up and jumbled together. "What are you drinking?"
"Water, right now." Sean holds his glass out to Elijah and watches him drink half of it down quickly. He smiles into the kiss Elijah manages to get half on his mouth and watches him disappear into the crowd again. Billy emerges from its depths as Elijah vanishes and makes it over to the table on obviously tired legs. He all but collapses next to Sean.
"I'm fuckin' hot, man." Billy eyes the half-finished drinks on the table with suspicion and flags down a waitress. He puts in an order for a beer then turns to Sean. "You're not dancin'."
"You don't want to see that, trust me."
Billy grins. "You should see Orli. I think he's got a spring for a spine, the moves he's doin'. I'm hurtin' just lookin' at him." Billy yawns and doesn't bother to cover it with his hand. "You and Lij are going home together, tonight, right?"
Sean nods and downs his water a little faster than he needs to. "Yeah."
"Nervous?" Billy's grin has a wicked edge to it.
"A little." Sean puts his water glass down before he drops it on the floor. "We're not even doing anything tonight. Just sleeping." He rolls his eyes as Billy coos at him. "Oh, shut up."
*
At the end of the night, as Sean and Elijah get into a cab, the whole atmosphere between them changes. Two weeks isn't a very big number. It's fourteen days. It's 336 hours, and here they are about to test the fragile bonds of a new relationship. Sean worries about how Elijah is going to react when he sees Sean in pajamas and realizes that the extra weight he's carrying doesn't come off at the end of the day. He wants to worry about it all the way to his place, but Elijah reaches over and wraps a hand around his elbow and pulls at him until he's about to topple over. "What are you doing?"
"C'mere." Elijah gives another pull, and when Sean still doesn't move, Elijah shrugs and goes to him. He presses his lips to Sean's neck and tastes stale sweat and the alcohol in Sean's cologne when he pulls away. He smiles and licks his lips. "I haven't got a goodnight kiss, yet."
"The night's not over."
"Still."
Sean can't resist Elijah when he's attempting to be coy, so he leans over, and he kisses him properly, with a soft tongue and one hand running through his hair. It's only when the cab driver not-so-discreetly taps on the glass that Sean realizes they've reached his house. He pulls away from Elijah and pays the driver, saying a quiet thank you and slipping him an extra-generous tip for being so nice about the two grown men making out in his backseat.
Elijah waits for Sean by the door of the house, and when Sean is in range, Elijah reaches out and tangles his fingers in Sean's shirt, tugging him forward until most of Sean's weight has him pressed against the wall. He kisses him quickly, but thoroughly. Sean kisses him back but pulls away before they can get carried away.
"Just sleeping tonight," he reminds Elijah.
"I know." Elijah presses his face against Sean's back as the other man opens the door and kisses the back of his neck. "I just like being near you."
Sean reaches behind him and gets ahold of Elijah's hand. "Thank you." He walks them both inside and stops in the middle of the living room to turn around and see Elijah in actual amounts of light. Elijah's hair is messy and his clothes are wrinkled and he smells of beer and fog from a machine and sweat, and Sean thinks he's just nearly exactly how he always should be. He doesn't say it. It's to soon to say it. "Do you want something to drink?"
Elijah considers it and nods. "Tea, if you've got it."
"Yeah. I've got regular, peppermint, raspberry, and green." Sean grins at his list. "Apparently, Orli and the rest of those guys have turned me British."
Elijah chuckles. "It's cool. I'll take peppermint." He follows Sean into the kitchen and hops up on the counter. He's got a massive urge to help; he's been to Sean's house so many times since pre-production started that he knows his way around with his eyes closed, but Sean's the type to always play the good host, so Elijah sits back and lets him. "Did you have fun tonight?"
"Yeah." Sean gets water from the tap into two mugs and put them both in the microwave, setting it for three minutes. He smiles at Elijah as he moves around him to get the tea bags from the far cupboard. "I'm going to be deaf for the next three days, but it was worth it."
"Good to hear it." Elijah can't stand to sit on the counter and not do anything. He glances around the room and sees the light blinking on the phone that means Sean's got voice mail. "Can I check your voice mail?"
"Sure."
Elijah jumps down from the counter and walks over to the phone. He hits the voice mail button and waits as the electronic voice drones by.
"Message one."
"Sean, it's your mother. I thought you'd be in tonight. Call me when you get time, Dear."
"End of message one....message two."
"Hey, it's Viggo. Are you still considering?"
"End of message two...Message three."
"Sean, hi, it's...um, it's Christine. I thought I'd just call and, you know, say hi."
Sean doesn't hear the machine tell him message three has ended. He's watching every nuance of Elijah's reaction to his ex-wife leaving him a voice mail. He hopes with everything he has that Elijah won't make a big deal out of it.
"That was Christine?" Elijah waits for Sean's nod. "She doesn't sound like I thought she would." He walks back over to the counter and hops up. "What are you considering for Viggo?"
Sean takes a few seconds to answer. He's still gauging Elijah. He's trying to tell if he's acting. Elijah's leaning back on his hands and thudding his heels against the counter. He's completely relaxed. Sean's going to take it at face value and see what happens. "He wants me to model for him." The microwave beeps, and Sean opens it to get the mugs. He drops the tea bags in and sets the timer for five minutes.
"Model? Cool. You gonna?"
"I don't know. I'm not exactly in shape for it." That's as close as Sean can come to asking if Elijah doesn't like all the weight he carries around.
"Viggo thinks you're good enough for it." Elijah reaches out and touches Sean's shoulder, trailing his fingers from the shoulder to wrist. "I think you'd take great pictures."
Sean gives Elijah a smile. He's going to go for the question after all. "Even with the weight?"
"Moreso because of the weight." Elijah pulls Sean over and puts his hands on either side of his face. "You hate it don't you? You hate being the fat hobbit?"
"It has its downside."
Elijah drops his hands to Sean's waist and squeezes. "I like it. It proves how cuddly you are. Like outer proof that you're the guy to go to if you need a hug or advice or someone to lean on. It proves you're solid."
"It proves I can eat."
"Stop it."
Sean ducks the half-hearted swipe Elijah takes at his head and comes back up to kiss him on the neck, then the ear, then on the mouth. It's supposed to be a fun kiss, something to tease Elijah with just to be a little mean, but when the timer beeps and Elijah grabs Sean's neck and begs him to leave the tea alone, Sean realizes that they're not going to be just sleeping like he planned. "Lij." It's said quickly as he pulls back for a breath.
"Yeah?" Elijah's cheeks are flushed, his eyes bright.
"What are we going to do?"
"I don't know." Elijah grins.
Sean grins back. "So we're both lost?"
"Right now, yeah."
"We'll figure this out." Sean leans in to kiss Elijah again.
*
They do figure it out, and it's almost unbearably awkward when they land on the bed, and Sean knocks the breath out of Elijah. "I'm sorry."
Elijah slides his hands down Sean's back and massages just above the waistband of his jeans. "It's okay." He takes a deep breath and smiles. "I'm tougher than I look."
"Oh, yeah?" And Sean dips his fingers into Elijah's ribs and tickles him until he's red in the face and heaving for air.
"Stop! Stop!" Elijah is wiggling like mad, and he's trying to escape. "I'm not tougher than I look! I lied!"
Sean relents his attack and starts to kiss Elijah with slow, wet laps of his tongue that soon lead to slow, long, moaning arching from Elijah, and eventually lead to the both of them naked on the bed, panting, and sweaty, and generally in need of a shower. But neither of them move from where they lay tangled around each other. Sean manages to get the blanket around them both, and then they fall asleep.
*
When Elijah wakes up the next morning, it's to an empty bed. He looks around blearily for a minute, cursing softly at forgetting to take his contacts out, then he throws the covers back and pads down the hall naked. He finds Sean in the kitchen in a robe and gives him an unitelligible grunt that's as close to 'good morning' as he can get before having anything to eat or drink.
"Hung over?"
Elijah squints in Sean's direction and shakes his head. He's really not. He switched off of liquor and went into water about halfway into the evening before and felt fine. He just isn't a morning person.
Sean smiles at him and pulls him close for a minute. "I have floor-to-ceiling windows with the blinds wide open in the living room. You just gave the neighborhood a free show."
Elijah takes Sean's mug and has a drink. It's tea, regular flavored with the minimum amount of sugar, and it does it's work at wetting Elijah's throat so he can be a smartass. "They liked it. They just won't ever admit it." He grins when Sean pinches his hip and kisses his neck, and he looks down and plays with the sash on Sean's robe as he asks his next question, feeling so much like a girl it's almost pathetic. "So, can we spend the day together?"
"Just us, or do you want to call the guys up?" Sean doesn't make Elijah look at him, because he's perfectly comfortable hiding how pleased his is.
"What time is it?"
"Little after ten."
"Let's call the guys later." Elijah presses his face into Sean's robe, wanting to imprint the memory of this first morning waking up in his house to every last recess of his brain. Sean's robe smells like laundry soap and dryer sheets. "Let's do something."
"What do you want to do?" Sean slides a hand from the Eijah's neck to his butt and back again. "Do you want to stay in or go out?" He knows if he doesn't give Elijah a couple of options they could spend the whole day standing like this in the kitchen, Sean in his robe, and Elijah with no clothes whatsoever. It's a tempting scenario, but Sean figures that Elijah probably has something he actually wants to do or he wouldn't be suggesting it.
"Can we do both?" Elijah's fingers untie Sean's robe and get inside to flutter over his ribs and back and hips.
Sean barely gets his tea onto the counter without breaking the mug. He takes his mug-warmed hand and presses it against Elijah's stomach, down low, just over the place where his leg meets his groin. "I think we'll manage."
Elijah grins and pulls Sean back towards the bedroom.
*
Two hours later, both with fresh showers, and Elijah with relatively clean contacts, they head out of doors to go find something for lunch. Sean has plenty to eat back at his place, but he confides in Elijah that he can hardly cook for himself anymore.
"I see all that food, and I don't even want it. All I can think about when I see it is how I have to be fat. It just gets exhausting to convince myself to eat some days."
Elijah slides his hand over Sean's and laces their fingers together. "You could cook for me some night, then it won't seem like so much food."
Sean wants to kiss him right there in the middle of the street as they walk to the record store, but he holds off because it's been a long time since he's walked down the street holding another guy's hand, and he's still trying to get used to that feeling. Kissing another guy in public isn't something he can do quite yet "Thank you." He smiles when Elijah beams at him and allows himself to be drug into a small, basement record store that actually stocks vinyl. Elijah lets go of his hand and practically scampers to the far corner where a huge stack of records waits to be perused. Sean watches him flip through records for a few seconds before turning around and heading towards the CDs.
They browse seperately for a half hour before Elijah gives out a shout of glee and snaps up a record from the stack. He runs over Sean and holds out his prize. "Ramones. Acid Eaters. The album is shit, but I have all the other ones on vinyl." Elijah grins as Sean laughs at him. "What?"
"Only you would buy a bad album just to finish off a vinyl collection." Sean holds up a CD that he's considering buying. "There are things called CDs, Lij. I know you know of them."
Elijah sticks his tongue out and tucks his album under his arm. "What's it say about you that I'm younger but have more vinyl?"
"It says I came into the digital age." He pokes Elijah in the ribs. "You should try it."
Something in Elijah warms up for no reason at all. Something about standing in this record store teasing and getting teased feels absolutely right to him, and he has to lean in and kiss Sean quickly on the mouth. When he pulls away, Sean's face is a little puzzled.
"What was that for?"
Elijah shrugs. "I don't know." He watches as Sean's puzzlement turns into a warm smile. "Just had the urge, you know?"
"Yeah, I know."
Elijah looks at the CD that Sean's still holding. "You going to buy that?"
"Yeah."
"Then let's get out of here, I'm starving." Elijah leads the way to the register, slowing down when Sean's arm comes up around his neck and settles in. He remembers everytime Sean's ever put an arm around him like this, from that first night they were in New Zealand to this exact moment as they stand in the line at the register. It didn't mean anything that first night, they were just two guys who were buddies, but now that they're more than that, it seems like it meant something from the very beginning. He gets up to the register and puts his record on the counter. The counter guy smiles at him with intent, and Elijah wraps an arm around Sean's waist so that there will be no confusion. "Where do you want to go for lunch?"
Sean shrugs. "I don't know. Are you in the mood for anything in particular?"
"Something spicy." Elijah pays the counter guy and slides over so Sean can pay for his CD. "Is there Indian food around here anywhere?"
"There's a place a few blocks down." The counter guy barely acknowleges Sean as he smiles at Elijah. "It has a bright orange door. You can't miss it."
Elijah nods at the counter guy. "Thanks." He looks over at Sean, the look on his face making it clear that he knows that the counter guy is trying to make a move. "Indian food sound good?"
Sean slips his change into his pants pocket and picks up his bag. "That's fine." He follows Elijah out the door, one hand on the small of his back, and his eyebrows go up when Elijah bursts out laughing as soon as they're at street level. "What's so funny?"
"The guy in there, at the counter, he..." Elijah trails off into giggles, lower pitched than usual, and he stops to prop himself on the wall for a few seconds. "That guy-" He starts laughing outright and reaches into his bag, pulling out a slip of paper. "It was with the receipt."
Sean takes the slip of paper. There is a phone number, an e-mail address, and a name. "Apparently Tyler thinks you're cute." He can't help but smile. "Must be your eyes." Elijah flips Sean the bird. "Because it's certainly not your manners."
"So why do you put up with me?"
"Your eyes." Sean gets a handful of Elijah's shirt before he can pretend to storm off in a huff. "And most everything else."
"*Most* everything?"
"Your taste in music sucks." Sean's just barely managing to keep a straight face.
Elijah sees right through him and pokes him in the ribs. "Bastard." It's said without any malice.
"Ass."
Elijah pulls Sean's hand from his shirt front and keeps ahold of his hand. "I'm not in the mood for Indian food anymore. How about burgers and fries?"
Sean pulls a face. "Nothing with grease, please. If I eat much more, I'm going to be oiled up enough to fix squeaky hinges with a touch of my finger."
Elijah spies a cart down the street selling sandwiches, chips, and the like. "How about a sandwich? They're grease free."
"That'll work."
They walk down to the cart and buy sandwiches, chips, and bottles of tea. Sean leads the way to a tiny park that he passes when he's shopping in this section of town and finds a semi-secluded place where they can lean against a tree and have their lunch. He settles against the tree and has a flashback to two weeks ago when Elijah lays down and puts his head on Sean's thigh. "I think I may pose for Viggo." It's out of his mouth before he realizes he's even thought about it.
Elijah tilts his head back to see Sean's face. "Yeah?"
"Yeah."
Elijah pops the seal on his bottle of tea and tilts it up for a drink. "Good. I want copies of any and all nude pictures."
Sean smiles and opens his own drink. "I'll make sure to let Viggo know."
They clink their bottles together and drink to the deal.