The Other Story
Title: The Other Story
Recipient: thepsychicclam
Pairing: Elijah/Dom
Rating: R
Summary: Boy meets boy and they fall in love. They live in an Alternate Reality, where Dan Radcliffe plays Frodo in LOTR, and Dom and Elijah are unknown quantities, even to each other. Then they meet.
Notes: None of it is true. They just live in my heart.
San Parisco was a good place to be if you were gay, Dom thought as he walked along the main street of the city, and looked at the couples happily grouped there. Two men of about his own age - 30 - were sitting drinking coffee with their two children, who were eating ices outside a fashionable restaurant.
"Daddy, Daddy, Pappa's eating my chocolate flake!" the young girl squeaked, giggling, and Daddy picked up the hand holding the stolen flake, and kissed it. That's the sort of city it was.
The only thing that Dom found fault with was there was no man for him amongst its teeming masses. He'd been there nearly a year, and the closest he'd come to having a full-on sexual encounter was a huge dick staring uninvitingly at him through a glory-hole in a club wall. He left immediately - it wasn't what he wanted.
He wanted what his closest friend called 'lurve', but he hadn't found it, not like Billy, despite looking. It was all very well searching for 'Mr Right' - but it needed someone to see him as 'Mr Right', too - and, so far, no-one had.
He'd tried the clubs, coffee-shops, restaurants, parks and theatres, but there had been no takers. "Trouble is," Billy said, in his attractive Scottish brogue, putting his jacket on for what he called 'a hot date with his girl', "is that you don't look gay enough."
Dom, slumped in a chair raised his head only to pass stern judgement on Billy's shirt, then sniffed. "Perhaps you'd like me to ponce about like Craig, in green lurex and a red satin shirt."
Billy grinned. Craig Parker, the owner of the bookshop where they both worked was as gay as a parade, but was so friendly and helpful that even oldies past caring about sex - or, indeed anything much else - Dom and Bill admitted, flocked to his shop for the coffee, banter and piles of reasonably-priced second-hand books to be found there.
"Well, I'm off!" Billy slipped on his gloves. "If you're staying in, put a DVD in and enjoy that. There's the new Lord of the Rings one, came this morning, with that Dan Radcliffe as Frodo - he's pretty hot, if you like your men small and cute like us."
Dom smiled at his friend as he left, grabbed a can of beer from the fridge, and picked up a bag of crisps on his way. He looked at the packet. 'Thai Chilli Chips' They are Crisps! not bloody chips - I'm English for fuck's sake! I eat CRISPS!
The film was very good, but long, and Dom fell asleep even before Gandalf fell in Moria. He woke with a start to find the credits rolling. 'Dan Radcliffe as Frodo...' Dom wondered if he had as much trouble finding someone to date as he did.
He looked at the clock - 9-45. Too early for bed, so he decided to walk in the park - you never knew. True, he might be dragged behind a tree and ravished, or he might meet that cute Dan Radcliffe, looking for a nice arse.
He was still laughing to himself as he rounded the corner, and wandered down the well-lit paths to the band-stand in the centre.
*
Elijah had had a rough day. Leaving for the night, he'd been mugged in the alley behind the music store where he worked, and had his week's pay stolen, so he'd had to dip into his meagre savings to pay rent. Mr Forson, the landlord, was not the type to take two weeks next week, so no dinner at Ratson's, where he usually treated himself on Friday, no real coffee, except what was left in the jar at home, and no hot showers to wash away the daily nagging of the store manager.
He pulled out the cheese sandwich he'd made for lunch but had been too stressed to eat. Being told for the umpteenth time he wasn't meeting his targets made for a poor appetite. Now though, he was hungry, but he didn't want cheap processed cheese - he wanted a good curry or stir-fry or...or... - so he wrapped it up again. He was wondering whether to break it up for the birds when a chirpy English voice coming from behind, said, "you might fancy it later. Save it."
Elijah spun round, angry and defensive. "I've got exactly one dollar and forty eight cents in my pocket. If you want to steal that, you're welcome!"
"Hey! Slow down!" Dom put his hands out in a placatory gesture. "I've had my dinner, and I don't want your sandwiches, or your money, so back off!"
Elijah lowered his head, ashamed of his outburst. "Sorry I bit, but I was jumped earlier. My money's all gone, so it'll be a tough week ahead."
Then Elijah moved forward, under the light, and Dom saw the beginnings of a black eye, and a face still pale from shock.
"Come on, sit down - here's a bench," he said, kindly, his heart touched by the desperate face. "If you feel like spaghetti, there's some left over from our dinner - Bill makes a very good spag bol."
Elijah sat beside him, then glanced up, not certain if Dom was offering more than dinner, too hungry to refuse outright. "Is Bill your...partner?" he asked, shyly.
Dom's brow creased. "My...? Hell, no, he's my flat mate - I mean we share," Dom translated. "He's from Scotland and I'm from England, as you've probably guessed from the accent. We both work at Craig's, the big second-hand bookstore on third, do you know it?"
Elijah shook his head. "Not much money left for books - the music store where I work only pays a pittance. I get my books from the library." He sounded worn-out. It seemed to Dom that the man was not only shy, but troubled.
"Bill has gone out with his girlfriend. Can I persuade you to eat with me?" He looks as if he could do with a good meal. Dom thought, smiling at his companion.
"Er...um..." Elijah was very hungry by now, hungry enough to eat the sandwich hurriedly stashed in his pocket, and the lure of a hot meal was strong. Strong enough to smack down the voice of caution inside his head, feebly trying to point out he didn't even know this guy's name.
"Oh, come on! I'm not going to ravish you!" Dom said, impetuously, then immediately regretted it, for the man looked uneasy. "Look, my name's Dom Monaghan, aged thirty and a bit, single, gay and healthy in wind and limb. Who are you?"
Elijah smiled. "Elijah Wood, aged twenty six and a bit, single...gay...and likewise with the limb thing. And I could eat a horse!"
"Well, come on, then - what are we waiting for?"
"Er...no strings?" Very quietly.
"Not an inch of string in sight. And that's a solemn promise."
*
The spag bol, as Dom kept calling it, was like food for the gods on Elijah's taste buds. He ate two helpings and Dom put the rest in a plastic tub for him to take home. "Bill likes to make it fresh, he won't eat any more, and I can't eat it two days running, so it'll only get thrown out," lied Dom with a completely earnest face.
They talked for a while, sitting on the floor by the log-effect fire, and eating cookies "to fill up the corners," as Dom put it. He wondered where Elijah managed to find a corner after all the food he'd eaten, but then he'd never been starved for decent food and Elijah obviously had.
Bill came in just as Elijah was leaving, and the visitor thanked him so warmly for the meal that Billy grinned at him. "My pleasure!" he said. "Come next Friday for some more - you're very welcome!"
Elijah blushed, and looked down. "That'd be great, if it wouldn't be an imposition. I've not many friends here."
Billy, like Dom, saw how pale and thin he was, and couldn't help noticing the black eye, but he said nothing. "Come to the book store tomorrow evening - it's our late night, and Craig does free coffee for everyone, doesn't he, Dom?"
"Er, yes - yes he does! And donuts, too," agreed Dom, not slow on the uptake. "All you need is the secret password, and you get free donuts and coffee flung at you until you burst. And sometimes pizza and stuff, if he's feeling generous," Dom invented wildly, knowing that Craig, a kind soul, would see why donuts and pizza had been added to the Saturday night menu of free coffee for all.
Elijah grinned, thankfully. No need to worry about tomorrow's dinner, then. "Can you tell me the password?" he asked, slightly anxious in case it would be denied him.
Dom hid a smile. "The Lord of the Rings," he revealed, his eye catching the DVD cover on the floor. "Come around eight - we're open until ten."
"Thanks, I will!" said Elijah, holding the plastic tub tightly to his chest. "See you both tomorrow!"
"Well," Billy said as he moved away from the door. "I see you've scored at last."
It was Dom's turn to blush. "I've nothing of the sort!" he said, emphatically. "He was down on his luck, and I helped him, that's all." He told Billy the story.
"Poor wee lad, I can see why you helped him." Billy said, raising an expressive eyebrow. "Well, I'm off t' bed, now. Don't forget to tell Craig about the pizza and donuts, or he'll think your Elijah's gone mad. Besides, all the extra free food might cost you an hour or two unpaid overtime."
"He is not my Elijah, thank you very much, Mr Boyd," Dom said as he bent to clear away, "I've only just met him." But as he said it, he thought how comfortably the words sat on his tongue. My Elijah.
*
It was only thirty minutes brisk walk from Dom and Billy's to Elijah's apartment behind the warehouses. He ran through the park, fearful that he would be stopped again, and beaten up some more because he had nothing to steal. But worse than that, he held tomorrow's lunch in his hands, and was afraid of losing that to an ill-tempered thief who would kick it away in disgust when he found out what it was.
Elijah always lived on the edge of hunger - his weekly visit to the cheaply-priced 'eat all you can' Ratson's his only good meal of the week. He tried to eat cheaply and sensibly, but there were only so many ways of making egg on toast, or cooking the occasional ramen noodles, and it got old very quickly.
He ran up the stairs to his attic room, and bolted the door quickly behind him. He stood, regaining his breath, and stared in dismay at the place he called 'home'.
It was clean and neat, his self-esteem would not let him keep it otherwise, but compared to Dom and Billy's airy apartment, it was a cattle-shed. The grey-flowered strip of carpet on the buckled linoleum was threadbare and dull, the furniture battered and old-fashioned, and the small area in the corner laughingly labelled the kitchen, contained a sink, a small refrigerator, and a stove that nine times out of ten did not work.
He put the spaghetti in the fridge, and taking his robe, dashed into the freezing shower on the opposite side of the kitchen area, and in two minutes he was shivering under his comforter.
It was not a particularly cold night for October, but he was tired and underfed, and he felt it more than he ought. When he had stopped shivering, he thought of the evening he had spent with Dom, chatting, eating delicious food, and drinking a rare bottle of some English beer of which Dom had been very proud but happy to share all the same. It had been heaven. Dom liked music, too, and they found similar tastes in that, and in movies and books.
They told each other how they had come to the big city. Dom, to see a bit of the world, staying because he liked it - Elijah to escape from the stultifying atmosphere of a small-town in Iowa, where no-one he knew was gay, and where there was no opportunity to do more than work in his father's diner.
Dom had liked San Parisco, he had said, because he was allowed to be what he was there. No mention was made of a partner, and Elijah didn't ask, but he was relieved to find that Billy had a serious girl-friend. Dom had met Billy in an English-type pub downtown and Bill had soon got him a job where he worked. Dom was well-read and a friendly, outgoing type - Elijah could see why the shop-owner, Craig, had taken to him.
He thought of his own boss, Mike Slatter. The man wasn't a harsh task-master in terms of work rate, as long as targets were met. If they weren't, he was a solemn streak of misery, moaning constantly about overheads, and dragged his full measure out of Elijah, both in effort and time, knowing that he had no qualifications to do better. He did not see the potential behind those sad, intelligent blue eyes, and exploited his only employee to the limit of his endurance.
Elijah glanced at the clock. It was nearly one, and he had to be in by seven for stock-taking. Sighing, he turned on his side, and banishing thoughts of Dom from his mind, fell asleep.
*
The next evening Dom was on the watch, and slipped into the stockroom as Elijah walked past the long book store window. Craig, primed by the two men, welcomed Elijah with a huge grin.
"Congratulations! You are our hundredth customer of the day, and get to choose a free book up to the value of ten dollars, and to eat as much as you like!"
Elijah quickly looked around, and saw Billy sitting at the back of the room with two girls, eating pizza. He waved at him, and took the cup and plate Craig was holding out. "There's more food in back, if you want," Craig offered. "I'm not fond of pizza, so there's chicken bites, and other tasties, too. I've had mine, so they're all yours. You'll find my paper-back expert in there. His name's Dom."
"Th...thank you!" said Elijah with real gratitude. "I know Dom...a little. He told me about tonight."
Craig raised an eyebrow in well-feigned surprise. "Did he? Well, he has good taste, that's all I can say. Keep the grease off the books! Use the napkins provided!"
Elijah nodded at Billy as he passed him, as his hands were full with the coffee and plate. "You'll find Dom in there," Billy said, grinning. "He's cataloging the sex books."
Elijah, suddenly blushing, found Dom sitting at a small table in the stock room, reading The Ultra-New Joy of Gay Sex with well-simulated interest, and nibbling chicken wings from a huge bucket. Craig had thrown himself - and his capacious wallet - happily into the feeding of Elijah.
"Oh, hi-ya!" Dom called, as Elijah moved towards him. "Come and sit down. Fancy some chicken?"
Settled by Dom's easy ways, Elijah sat and put a few pieces onto his plate. It smelled delicious. It had been nearly eight hours since he'd eaten, as the left-over bolognese had been both breakfast and lunch combined, so he was ready to do justice to all the food on display.
He glanced at the book as he tried to eat without rushing, but the food was so tasty, and his stomach so deprived of decent nourishment, he had to swallow hard before speaking. "Good book, is it?"
Dom looked up, and put the book aside. "Got some decent tips in there if you want to know a thing or two. Don't tell me you've never read it?"
Elijah shook his head, as he crammed another lump of chicken into his mouth. "Nothing like that in Iowa, and it's not the kind of book I'd want to be seen checking out of the library."
The coffee was good, too. "He's very kind, isn't he? Your boss? He does this every week?"
Dom had the grace to grin sheepishly. "We get the coffee and donuts every week - but this is a special occasion - tenth anniversary." He stood up quickly. "Excuse me a minute..." and off he hurried to inform Craig of the newly-invented celebration.
Elijah longed to look inside the book, but his fingers were greasy, and, mindful of instructions he contented himself with looking at the cover where two men were standing, holding each other affectionately. Elijah sighed. If only...
*
Craig was standing outside the door, jingling the keys in his hand. "Come on, dudes - I've got a hot man to go home to." Elijah - as the supposed one-hundredth customer - was hesitating over two books, as one was to be his, free. One was The Lord of the Rings, and the other was The Ultra-New Joy of Gay Sex.
Reluctantly he put down the Tolkien, having interpreted - correctly, he hoped - that soon he would be dipping into the sex manual for a few helpful hints. That was, if Dom's gentle smile and the soft look in his eyes was any indication of his true feelings.
"Craig will drop me off, Dom," Billy called. "You take Elijah home."
Elijah suddenly felt panic invade his chest. He imagined Dom, stopping abruptly on the threshold to apartment 271 with horror in his eyes, seeing the dingy, run-down place where Elijah laid his head at night. He saw Dom making a hasty excuse to leave, revolted by the grim furniture and the threadbare carpet. Dom, thanking his stars for a lucky escape....
"No, it's okay, Dom, really. I can walk. It's not far...I..."
Elijah stopped as Dom paused in the middle of the sidewalk and stared at him. "Look, Lij - I've given you my word, already, haven't I? No strings, unless you want them. Okay? I'm pissed to think you don't trust me. It's not that, is it?"
There was no escape. "No, of course I trust you - it's just me, is all," he answered in a small voice, knowing that there were only minutes left of his new friendship. No-one would want to stay more than thirty seconds in such a hell-hole as that. Squaring his shoulders, he got into the vehicle, and listened hungrily to the last conversation he would ever have with Dom Monaghan.
He climbed the stairs, his feet leaden, and pushed open the door. "This is where I live!" he said, his voice almost cracking with emotion. Dom stepped forward, and came to an abrupt halt. Elijah couldn't look at his face.
"Well, hell's own bells - you've got a Dan Radcliffe poster. Dan as Frodo!" Dom turned, and his eyes were sparkling. Elijah began to find, at the bottom of his heart, the merest glimmer of hope.
"I found it in the alley behind the store. I think it came with one of the soundtracks or something."
Dom walked over to the small pile of books on the rickety table, and picked up one. "Hey look at these! The Hobbit, Catch 22, Camus, Dostoyevsky and Huckleberry Finn. An eclectic mix."
He looked around for a chair and sat in it, still holding the Camus. "You really do like reading then?" Dom gestured to the other pile - library books - on the shelf.
Elijah sat on the very edge of the only other chair, because one of the legs was damaged, but, being nervous, he misjudged it, and the leg snapped and tipped him onto the floor.
Dom rushed forward. "Right!" he said, firmly. "Got a piece of spare wood hanging about? I can mend this. I'm good with repairs."
Elijah shook his head, once more in the depths of despair. "Only me," he mumbled, head down.
It took Dom a moment to grasp what Elijah was saying. He held Elijah's shoulders tightly. "What do you mean? Why d'you think you're spare wood - and, yes, I get the analogy."
Elijah still didn't meet his eyes. "Just look around you. This place is a pit. No-one could possibly want to spend any time here - hell, even I don't, and I fucking live here."
Dom didn't move, but his voice was soft and low, so low Elijah had to strain to hear him, even though he stood so close. His hands on Elijah's shoulders were warm and comforting.
"I didn't think it was possible, but it is, because it's happened to me tonight. There's an old saying, Lij, which I think is true. 'Three things cannot be hidden - coughing, poverty and love.' Now..." and the voice grew even softer..."I've got one of those, and so have you - a different one - but nothing of which you should be ashamed. But what I want to know, Lij - more than I want to know anything - is if you have the other important one, too."
Elijah's heart lifted nearly into his throat, and because of this he lost his breath and coughed loudly.
Dom stared at him, and asked anxiously, "not that one, Lij. Put me out of my misery. Can you love me? I hope you can."
Elijah put his hands on Dom's arms. "Yes," he whispered, and he kissed Dom, softly on the lips.
Dom sighed, and drew Elijah even closer. His lips were as tentative as Elijah's. He wasn't quite certain, but he thought that Elijah hadn't kissed a man before, and he didn't want him scared off.
Elijah's mouth trembled, as he realised that this was why he was made, to be loved, he thought, by Dom. It was as if two carved pieces of wood had slotted into each other, making a whole.
Dom sighed happily, as he paused to breathe. He glanced over the room at the bed. "Do you trust me?" he breathed, "not to go further than you want?"
Elijah, too, was breathless. "You couldn't do that, Dom - I want everything you have to share with me. I've waited a long time for this, and I want it all." And he kissed Dom again.
The bed was hard, but large enough for two, and the sheets were clean, and that was all that mattered. Dom pulled the bedding over them both, and denied the sight of Elijah's naked body, started to explore with his hands. What he found pleased him.
Elijah was hard already, and leaned into Dom's hands as he held him, there - teasing, searching. Elijah was hot to the touch, and this enflamed Dom even further, so he slid under the comforter, lips grazing heated skin, down and down until he took Elijah into his mouth.
Elijah cried out, the shock of it was so great, the pleasure so intense. "More!" he groaned, as Dom set himself to bring Elijah off, certain he had never felt this with any man.
Elijah was finding it hard to breathe, but he was locked in a spiral that he did not want to escape. He wanted to come, more than he had ever wanted anything. "Please, please!" he whispered.
Dom's mouth was full of quivering Elijah, but he stopped for a brief moment to smile around his prize. "Don't stop," the voice was barely audible, but he was now attuned to Elijah in a way he had never thought possible, and when he felt the first spasms of orgasm thrill through Elijah's thin frame, he hardly gave his own erection a thought, so wrapped up was he in his companion.
Elijah Wood came - for the first time with a lover - with a shout of triumph, and didn't give a thought to any neighbor that might be listening.
Dom rested his head on the slim thigh, and regained his breath before surfacing to draw Elijah into his arms and kiss him again.
Elijah tried to push Dom away, eager to experience the same thing from the other perspective, but Dom drew him back. "It isn't a race, Lij. We'll have time to learn how to get it right. If you want."
Elijah laughed, a little shy, but willing. "I want to touch you - I need to touch you. Please!" Dom drew the delicate lower lip into his mouth once more, and then let Elijah go.
Elijah had never touched another man. There had been no opportunity in Iowa, and very little since he had come to San Parisco, but he had known all his life that it was this he wanted. Dom tasted...unique, and although Elijah wished he had had some time to read a bit of TU-NJOGS, he knew that in time he would improve in technique.
Dom didn't seem to notice his lack of style or his fumblings, he just groaned, and this gave Elijah confidence that he must be doing something right.
Dom was drawing in quick, almost desperate breaths as he came, and his hands on Elijah's head were far from steady.
As Elijah emerged, triumphant from under the covers, Dom drew him close again, and they lay there, happily whispering to each other, until sleep claimed them.
Dom woke to find the bed empty except for himself, and Elijah pulling on his jeans in the darkness. "Come back to bed!" Dom moaned, wanting the feel of his lover in his arms once more, but Elijah shook his head.
"Can't. Have work to go to, and I'm nearly late. It's half past six!"
Dom turned and stared at him in amazement. "Half past bloody six on a Sunday morning? What is your boss - a sadist? Don't you get today off, at least?"
Elijah smiled, but it was a grim look. "He only thinks of money. Look, Dom, I must go." He came to the bed and kissed him. "I have a day off tomorrow. He's going out of town, so it's a rare treat for me. He pays me so little I don't think he trusts me with the store, so he closes it for the day when he goes off buying."
Dom leaned on one elbow and shook his head. "You work every day?" No wonder, he thought, that Elijah looked so worn out.
"But I'm free tonight. Where shall...?" Elijah was standing by the door, anxious not to be late but anxious too to make this, whatever it was, more permanent.
"Give me the address - I'll come for you at six."
"Seven," said Elijah, dashing back to kiss Dom once more, and give him the address.
After the door shut behind Elijah, Dom turned in bed and gave the matter some thought. Then he got up, showered quickly in the nearly cold water, and went home to see Billy. Things would change. Billy was marrying his girl soon, and moving to the other side of the city to join his future father-in-law's bookbinding business.
Craig would need a new assistant, and was thinking of putting an ad in the local paper. Dom thought he'd solved that small problem, if Elijah would agree.
As he drove home, he thought of last night, and felt a warm glow. He had dreamt that it might be like that, when it happened, at last, in love, and not just for relief. It was hard to believe it had been so...so...wonderful.
Billy was just coming out of the shower as Dom came in, and, pulling his robe tight around him, he cast a knowing eye over his friend.
"Yes," said Dom, blushing slightly and grinning like a loon. "Say nothing."
"I shan't," Billy answered, grinning back. "I don't need to say a word, and neither do you." Which was true, for Dom's face was lit like the sun.
Billy slammed four slices of bread in the toaster, and waited, patiently - he was some years older than Dom, and wiser in the ways love took a man - for the words in praise of Dom's new love to spill out from an over-full heart.
*
Six Weeks' Later
It was a typical early December night as Elijah staggered into the apartment with the last box of his few belongings, and closed the door.
"Let's have a coffee before we do any unpacking," Dom said, pushing a bag of clothing out of the way with his foot, to make room for Elijah on the sofa.
"Yeah, that'd be great, thanks - it's bloody cold out there!"
Dom smiled. It was amusing how quickly Elijah had fallen into his way of speaking. English words in a faintly anglicized American accent. Sexy as hell. He went quickly into the kitchen, followed by a chattering Elijah, and made coffee.
He turned to look at his lover. In the weeks since they had met, Elijah had left Mike Slatter to fend for himself - amidst loud and angry protests - and had joined Dom and Craig at the book-store - Billy having married his girl, and moved to the north of the city. He looked better - more filled out, and vastly more contented. Dom liked to think he had something to do with that.
"Are there any cookies?" Elijah asked, searching the cupboards. "I'm hungry."
Dom passed down the chocolate cookies, and waved a finger, smiling as he did so. "Leave a few for me, Elwood. There's only one packet left."
They carried their mugs into the sitting room and arranged themselves on the sofa. "D'you want to relax and watch something?" Dom asked, sipping his scalding coffee gingerly. "After all, we have all weekend to unpack your stuff, don't we? And it's been a long, tiring day."
Elijah stretched luxuriously, revelling in the warmth, the comfort and above all, in the companionship of his partner.
"I'd like to watch 'The Lord of the Rings', if you can stand it," said Elijah, glancing at the contents of the shelves under the television. "I've always wanted to see it, but never had the chance." No, nor the spare money either, until now - but this he did not say aloud.
Dom picked up Elijah's free hand and kissed it. "Yeah, I'm up for it!" he said, getting up and pushing the disc in. "The first time I tried to watch it, I fell asleep. That was the night I met you, and there's hardly been time since, what with one thing and another."
Elijah put down his mug and moved closer to Dom, as he sat back down. "Was it? I'm glad you didn't see it all; we have something else new to share."
As Dan Radcliffe's face filled the screen, and Frodo began to tell his tale, Elijah said, quietly, "I'm the luckiest guy in the world, Dom. Imagine if I'd been him. Poor Dan! I'd have had no chance of meeting you at all."
Dom put his head on Elijah's shoulder, and kissed his neck. "Nope. We're better off being who we are. I'm glad you're not him, too. You do look a bit like him, you know. Someone said to Craig last week, that he'd hired Frodo to sell his books. But at least, if us two walk down the street holding hands, no gang of paparazzi is going to leap out of an alley and snap us for the tabloids, like they would if it was him."
The title music swelled to a crescendo, and, as the film began in earnest, Elijah and Dom sat there, side by side, enjoying the movie, eating chocolate cookies and holding each other's hands as it was always meant to be.