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Title: Birthday Drabbles for Thuri
Author: kiltsandlollies
Pairing: BB/DM, implied DM/EW and EW/SA
Rating: R
Notes: Happy wonderful bairthday to the lovely thuribrandybuck! I tried to write you hobbits, dear, I really did ... but they kicked and flailed and refused to cooperate. So instead, I gift you these, a few RPS drabbles, with MINOR SPOILERS for ROTK. Have a spectacular day!
Set during the ROTK premiere in Wellington. And yes, I deserve a spanking for gratuitous use of "Into the West." Bad Kiltie, bad.

Lay down your sweet and weary head ...

Dominic's certain that he slept for the entire flight from Los Angeles. He'd been exhausted from long days on set in New York—and longer nights reacquainting himself with Elijah—but he'd earned this exhaustion, and it felt good.

The only interruption to his dreams had come in the form of a girl requesting an autograph, which of course Dominic granted. His messy handwriting and stiff pressure on the girl's marker had combined to make his signature bleed somewhat into the Air New Zealand napkin's fibers, but that had seemed oddly appropriate.

Dominic feels like he's bleeding a little, himself.

Night is falling, you have come to journey’s end.

He checks his watch obsessively as the train moves forward. It is nighttime in the United States, or so Dominic thinks, but it somehow doesn't matter.

That Wellington is the end of the line is not lost on Dominic. He's spent the last four years waiting to reach the end of this particular journey. He can recall days, weeks when the journey hadn't really begun, and the memories should be enough to call up some sadness, some sense of loss.

But Dominic has yet to feel any of these things.

That will change, of course, the moment he sees Billy.

Sleep now, and dream of the ones who came before ...

Dominic does sleep better than one would gather from his bloodshot eyes and shoddy posture. He's not a connoisseur of rest like Billy, but he does well with what he’s given.

And he does love to dream.

Lately, Dominic's dreamt of Billy—Billy in his bed, whispering and sighing words like not now Dom, we mustn't, please, faster, yes.

Which of course serves to remind Dominic that they are indeed dreams. Because Billy has not said anything like that in over a year, and Elijah's vocabulary in the interim has not expanded to such sweet murmurs.

And probably never will.

They are calling, from across a distant shore.

Dominic squints into the Wellington sunshine, mugging and waving. When Billy attempts to muss Dominic's hair, Dominic recoils, recovering in time to see Billy's confusion. They crane their necks to peer at anything but each other, and Dominic's certain they look as ridiculous as he feels.

It's been thirteen months since Billy's touched him with such affection, and Dominic aches for more.

They must get past the noise first—the cries of people sounding like shorebirds to Dominic's ears. The voices combine with the scent of Billy—the scent of the sea—to transport Dominic somewhere he once called home.

Why do you weep? What are these tears upon your face?

Dominic's begged for a moment alone to compose himself before he sits down next to Billy to watch Merry and Pippin be torn from one another.

Once secluded, Dominic only realizes that he's crying when he tastes tears on his lips. He regrets not facing this before now, not dealing with the fact that this really is the end of almost everything—and the beginning of so very little. Dominic tries to be quiet, but he knows he's been caught long before he feels the gentle hand on his back.

“What's this?” Billy whispers, voice thick with his own tears.

Soon you will see, all of your fears will pass away.

They are twenty minutes into the movie before Billy begins to shift in his seat, obviously upset. Dominic wants to say something to make Billy feel better, but he already said everything in that hallway.

And Billy responded in kind.

They will rectify every mistake they've made later tonight.

It is hard now for Dominic to watch Pippin in agony. A part of him will forever be Merry, and that part reaches for Billy's hand in the darkness and clutches it tightly until the scene is over.

Only when Billy exhales and closes his eyes does Dominic relax his grip.

Safe in my arms, you're only sleeping ...

Dominic is not surprised to see himself break down on the screen when Pippin finds Merry on the Pelennor Fields, while Billy—Pippin, Dominic reminds himself—attempts to be strong for both of them.

Nor is he surprised when Billy's hand clasps his, less certain than Dominic's had been earlier. The scene ends, and then it is Dominic who releases the weary, held breath.

Dominic remembers the night after they'd filmed that scene, when he'd slept wrapped around Billy. Feeling like he'd swallowed Billy whole, and he would never feel hunger again.

Feeling safe for one of the last times.

Don’t say we have come now to the end ...

While Dominic's seen the end of the movie twice now, he's still unprepared for the waves of emotion that come over him.

He watches Elijah, sitting calmly next to Sean. The Ringbearer is agitated—his long fingers flexing unconsciously until a larger hand covers them, soothing and ceasing the movement at once.

Dominic's fairly certain that he's meant to be comforting Elijah right now—sod the story, sod the film, sod Samwise Gamgee—but he also knows he belongs where he is, next to Billy.

To the end of all things, Dominic can smile to himself even as he cries.

White shores are calling ... You and I will meet again.

Elijah's not usually hard to find in a crowd—look for absurd jacket, listen for contagious giggle—but this time he's slipped away quietly, and Dominic has to work to track him down.

Elijah stands on a balcony, smoking of course, and barely turns to face him.

“I'm going to the house,” Elijah sighs, and Dominic knows he means the communal hobbit beach house, their place of rest here in New Zealand. “By myself.”

“White shores are calling,” Dominic nods, and Elijah smiles in return, leaning to breathe warm smoky words in his ear.

“You and I will meet again.”

And you'll be here in my arms, just sleeping ...

Dominic returns to the party, falling gratefully under the blessing of McKellen's throaty laughter. He wants to leave while things are still loud and happy—before it really is the end.

Billy's eyes are bright, but downcast. Dominic remembers that he has not heard a word from Billy during the party, has not been startled by the sound of Billy's voice rising to blanket the room in song, as often happens during these things.

“Come with me,” Billy says softly. “Be here with me. Let's just ... sleep, yeah?”

Dominic feels the weight of Billy's exhaustion match and meet his own.

What can you see on the horizon?

Sunlight dresses Billy better than any clothes, Dominic thinks as he pulls back their sheets.

Billy stretches and laughs in surprise that Dominic's managed to greet the day this early, and Dominic pulls a face before he laughs, too, covering Billy's body with his own.

Hours later, they're surrounded by young girls in the airport, all of whom want pictures, autographs, smiles. One girl presses a sturdy piece of cardstock into Dominic's hand, and he signs with a flourish before peering at his own handiwork.

“Y'can let it go, Dom,” Billy laughs. “Signature's not bleeding.”

And neither, now, is Dominic.

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