Title: Christmas Together
Recipient:
dylan_dufresneAuthor:
lhazziePairing: Bill/Dom
Rating: R (a little sexual content, a little swearing).
Summary: Two Christmases Billy and Dom spent together, and two they spent apart.
Pre-reveal Notes: I don't really do detail in a sex scene, so there is vagueness. And I have made up the sequence of events, I have no idea what the actual timeline of post-Rings/L.A./Hawaii was.
Disclaimer: This is a non-profit, non-commercial work of fiction using the names and likenesses of real individuals. This fictional story is not intended to imply that the events herein actually occurred, or that the attitudes or behaviors described are engaged in or condoned by the real persons whose names are used without permission.
The first time that Dom and Billy spent Christmas together, it was entirely by accident. There had been a party on Christmas Eve, the first year in New Zealand. Away from home for the first time at Christmas, and so far away that even the weather was foreign. Dom could be found shortly before midnight smoking outside in the small carpark behind the pub.
"What you doing outside, Dom?" Billy asked, walking up to lean on the wall next to him.
"Wanted some quiet, it's a bit intense in there." Dom replied, offering the pack of cigarettes to Billy, who shook his head in refusal.
"It's weird being away from home, isn't it?" Billy asked, guessing at the cause of Dom's melancholy.
"S'not just that." Dom explained, "I wasn't there for Christmas Day once, I was laid up with the mumps and just didn't have any energy to leave the house, so everyone went to my Aunt's without me, so it's not really that. It's just... they're not doing things at the same time, you know? They'll be putting out the carrots and the whisky and the mince pies, while I'm opening my presents on Christmas morning. By the time they're opening their presents I'll be in front of the TV napping off my dinner, and then when they're eating I'll be in fucking bed. Never had a Christmas alone before."
There was a long silence before Billy spoke.
"Our first Christmas just the three of us, my Gran made a big deal of telling us our parents would be joining in in heaven."
Dom snorted.
"Here's me whinging on, and at least I can phone them all up and that".
"Don't worry, Dom. It's never going to be nice that they died, but it's alright now. We do alright. The last thing I want is sympathy for it."
Another pause.
"We're a right pair of miserable bastards, aren't we?"
"Yeah."
"Hey, guys!" an over-enthusiastic and distinctively American voice called, "stop making out and get back in here!" Laughter, music and light poured from the open door.
"Coming." Billy yelled back.
Dom dropped the cigarette and squashed it out with his toe.
"Tell you what, stay at mine tonight, we can do Christmas morning together?"
"I won't have any presents."
"We'll stop and get them on the way."
"Deal."
***
Their first Christmas back in Britain, they were kept apart by their own family commitments, but during in a three hour phone conversation that took them from Christmas Eve through to Christmas Day, was the first time Billy acknowledged just how much he missed seeing Dom all the time. It had been about two months since they'd last been able to hang out, and Billy found himself longing to get in the car and make a dash for the M6.
Dom didn't enjoy being at home that year. His friends had got on without him, and he'd grown up in ways they couldn't even imagine. And none of them were Billy.
***
When Dom was first in L.A. and horribly depressed, he and Billy had their first major falling out. It started when Dom received a phone call at 3am, L.A. time, from Billy, demanding to know why he'd failed to phone the day before, despite repeated assurances that he would.
"I tried phoning every hour, Dom. It went straight to voicemail every time!"
Dom made a non-committal noise in response.
"Don't get like that, I was worried sick."
"Oh yeah," Dom snapped, "so worried you spent the whole of the fucking holidays on another continent. That's how much you care". And he hung up the phone.
Billy tried phoning back, but Dom rejected every call. They didn't talk again for a few months, until Elijah made a desperate bid for Billy to come to L.A. because Dom hadn't left the house for over two weeks.
Billy got the first flight out.
***
They had made up again by the next Christmas.
"Dommie?"
"Bills! Did you get a flight sorted?"
"Yup."
"When do you land?"
"This morning. I'm outside. I, um, do you have some, uh, Hawaii money to pay the taxi?"
Dom flung the door open, the phone still held up to his ear, face split into a wide grin.
"Hawaii money, Bill? Really?"
Billy peered into his wallet.
"I have a £10 note, a proper Scottish one and everything, aaand, oh, and a Sainsbury's receipt, and a used cinema ticket. That's all."
"You know, when normal people go on holiday, they tend to plan it for a little while first. Have you even packed, or is it just this?" He gestured to Billy and the shoulder bag he was carrying.
"There's a suitcase too." Billy defended himself. "Though, it is one of those teeny ones that count as hand luggage." He grinned sheepishly.
Dom paid the taxi driver and helped Billy carry his pitiful luggage into the house.
"How long are you staying?"
"At least to see the new year in, as we started this one so horrendously."
Dom set about installing Billy at the breakfast bar, and making tea.
"Don't worry about it Billy, I was ill, it was bad, we got over it". There was still an edge to his voice though, as there so often was when he thought about their falling out.
"You were ill, and I wasn't there for you. I'll never stop being sorry for that."
"Shut up." Dom told him.
And that was that until New Year's Eve.
"What was your best and worst moment of the year, Dommie?"
"Worst was when I couldn't even drag myself out of bed. Actually, no. The worst was when I couldn't even be bothered to sleep even though I was lying in bed doing nothing." he sighed, deeply. "the best was when you came to stay, and Elijah just let you in and left, and he knew that you'd fix me."
"I didn't know I could fix you. I was terrified. You wouldn't do anything, and I didn't have a clue what to do."
"You didn't have to do anything, you just had to be there."
Billy giggled a little, "Homo."
"Fuck you, Billy. I'm being serious here. You're the only thing I need, you know."
"Confessing your undying love for me, Dom? Could you not think of something original for a New Year's Eve?"
"Well every year my resolution is to try and make you realise that I'm deadly serious about it, and so every year I have to make a desperate last minute bid to achieve it before the year runs out."
They were silent for a few minutes, sipping drinks and watching the TV in the corner, though the sound was turned right down.
"Dominic?"
"William?"
"You really are being serious, aren't you?"
"About you being my whole world?"
"Yes."
"Yes."
"Oh."
There was another long silence, as Billy started into his drink and tested to see how this new information fitted into the current parameters of their friendship and his sexuality; Dom watched Billy intently and got ready to run away at the first sign of punching.
"And, um, with sex things too?" a slight blush graced Billy's cheek and he momentarily panicked that Dom was just pulling his leg and he was making a total idiot of himself.
"This probably sounds really bad, but I have thought about it. I mean, not in a creepy way, just in a pondering way."
"Right."
"Have I really freaked you out?"
"A little. I'm processing. It's not as odd as I would have expected. Except that I didn't expect it. Did I get all my exes and sees the right way round there? Except, expect, except, expect..."
Dom threw a bottle top at him.
Billy responded by launching himself at Dom, who was sitting at the opposite end of the sofa, managing to pin him down after a short bout of wrestling. And then suddenly the oddly detached mood disappeared, and Billy's brain came to a decision on the weirdness of the situation.
And then suddenly they were kissing frantically, uncoordinated and a little sloppy. Dom resisted slightly but then submitted, letting Billy take the lead. He couldn't help snaking one had up the back of Billy's shirt to grip at his back, the other fisting in his hair. Billy's own hands were still gripping at Dom's shoulders, even as the younger man writhed and panted beneath him. Neither of them was really in control any longer, as they lost themselves to a world of grinding and gasping and deep heartfelt noises of desire and pleasure and ohmygoddothatagain.
Later, they both still lay on the sofa, wrapped around each other and almost asleep.
"Dominic?"
"William?"
"I should be freaking out now."
"You don't have to."
"I probably will."
"Well, we can deal with it then, then."
"Hmm. Ok."
A deep sigh.
"Bills?"
"Dommie?"
"Happy New Year."
***