Beauty In The Eye Of The Beholder - Part Four
Title: Beauty In The Eye Of The Beholder
Pairing: Dom/Elijah
Rating: PG13-R, PG-13 this part
Part: Four
Disclaimer: No I don't own them, yes this is made up.
Feedback: As always, any feedback (inc. CC) is welcome.
Notes: AU. Comes from a plot bunny by cara_dee that I read and couldn't stop thinking about: "A modern day beauty and the beast. Lij is in England, and Dom is a man who has been on his own for a very long time. These two, the beauty and the beast, come together, and give one another just what each need." So I adopted the bunny, and here it is. This will be a series - updates short but regular. :)
Prologue
Part One
Part Two
Part Three
Elijah let out a gentle whistle. “You own that?!”
“Yeah,” Dom said shyly, unlocking the Mini.
“Wow,” Elijah said reverently. “It’s gorgeous.” He ran one slim, white hand across the bonnet. “When’s it from?”
“About 65, 66,” Dom replied, pleased at the attention Elijah was showing it.
“I love old cars,” Elijah said quietly, bending down to look into the headlights. “It’s in great condition.”
“It runs as well as it ever did,” Dom said, then added, “and that means slow but reliable.”
Elijah straightened up with a huff of laughter.
“You want to come in mine?” Dom asked. “I can drop you back here after we’ve got something to eat and you can get your car...”
“That’d be great, thank you,” Elijah said, and waited for Dom to go round to the driver’s door before opening his own.
“It’s just charming,” he said admiringly, looking over the dashboard. “And it smells like leather...”
“The seats,” Dom said.
“Well, yeah, I know that, but my car at home smells of all sorts of things. Take-out Mexican food, mostly,” Elijah said, a hint of a laugh in his voice.
“No Mexican places round here,” Dom said, putting on his seatbelt. “But there is a pretty good chip shop just round the corner a bit.”
“Cool,” Elijah said, settling back into his seat as Dom revved the engine.
They set off, leaving a cloud of thin smoke in their wake.
***
“I’ll have a fish supper, please,” Dom said, leaning on the high counter, eyeing the menu hung over the fryers at the front. “Elijah?”
“Can I have a cheeseburger and chips? Thanks,” Elijah replied, also reading the menu, giving Dom a brief smile.
They waited in companionable silence, broken only by the sizzle of batter frying and the soft swoosh of the odd car passing by. It was beginning to get dark - a quick look out of the window showed the sky growing inky. The odd star sparkled.
“That’ll be £8.60, mate.” Dom was jerked out of his daze by the gangly teenager behind the till, handing him a white paper parcel.
“Thanks,” Dom said, pulling a tenner from his pocket and handing it over.
“Oh, I was going to get that,” Elijah protested, a chocolate-leather wallet in his hand.
Dom dismissed it. “You bought the drinks, I bought dinner. Fair’s fair.” He collected his change and the parcel, and headed for the door.
They sat on a bench by the side of the road, eating out of the paper, which had darkened with grease. The road was silent now, eerily empty, though the glow from the windows of the houses was comforting in it’s warmth.
“So what did you do after your A-levels?” Elijah asked after a moment, burger in hand.
“I went to college,” Dom said, around a mouthful of salty chip. He swallowed and continued. “Nothing fancy, just a small university near here. I started a course in Modern Languages, but...well, it wasn’t what I was expecting and I was only there a year before I dropped out.”
“And then what?” Elijah’s voice was curious.
Dom gave a small shrug and a dry, self-depreciating chuckle. “Not much, to be honest. I mean, my parents were OK to support me, money-wise...so...I did a bit of volunteer work here and there, helped around the house...”
“And you never went back to college?”
“Nah. I sort of decided it wasn’t really my thing. I didn’t have the willpower to knuckle down and work off my own back.”
Elijah laughed at that. A moment passed in silence, then he asked, “Are your parents still around?”
Dom raised an eyebrow slightly at the question, but shook his head. “No, neither of them. Dad had a heart attack when I was twenty-one, and Mum died not long after he did.”
“I’m sorry.” It was a standard answer, but there in the semi-darkness and night coolness, it seemed sincere.
Dom let the silence reign again, then said, “Well, what about you? You know all about me...”
Elijah gave a nervy giggle. “You don’t want to know about me, I’m the one writing a book...”
Dom smiled, though Elijah probably didn’t see it, his large eyes lowered studiously to his chips. “Go on. Pretend I’m as nosy as you are.”
Elijah gave a mock-indignant ‘hmph’, sensing that Dom was joking. “Nothing special, really,” he said reluctantly. “Just normal stuff...like school and college and then...well, then this.” He paused, then said, “Seems like we’ve both got a lot of life to live yet.”
Surprised by the strangely philosophical twist, Dom pondered this for a minute or two.
“That’s a good way to look at it,” he said eventually.
Elijah shrugged, and finally raised his head so his eyes met Dom’s. A nearby streetlight reflected off the glassy irises. “That’s really why I came to England. I mean, I had the chance, and if I hadn’t taken it then it might never have come again. Every day you waste is just another missed opportunity to get out there and do something. Something special.” He sighed, then suddenly scrunched his empty chip wrapper into a ball, lobbing it neatly into a nearby bin. “I’m getting chilly - are you done?”
Dom gave himself a mental shake. “Yeah. Come on, let’s get back to the car.”
***
“Goodnight then,” Elijah said, climbing out of the Mini once they returned to the pub. His own car was parked opposite Dom’s.
“Goodnight,” Dom answered.
Elijah paused, the door still open. “You think we could do this again some time? I mean, I’d like to hear more - about you and your family.”
“Yeah, alright,” Dom said. “Well, if you want, I’ve got some old books and things up in the house - diaries and records and the like, if you want to take a look.”
Elijah’s face lit up with interest. “Really? That’d be great! When would suit you for me to come and have a look?”
Dom gave a casual shrug. “Whenever you want, to be honest.”
“One moment.” Elijah fished out his mobile phone and peered at the screen owlishly. “How would Monday be?”
“Sounds fine,” Dom said.
“Thanks again for this evening,” Elijah continued.
“No problem,” Dom grinned. “Goodnight then.”
“’Night.” Elijah closed the door gently and gave Dom a wave as the Mini pulled away.