*

"I’m insane."

Billy flipped a page. "Uh huh."

"I mean, I must literally be crazy. Why did I…Fuck! I am so stupid."

"Yep."

Dominic narrowed his eyes at Billy and glared, a pointless gesture since Billy hadn’t looked up at any point during Dom’s tirade. "What exactly are you reading that is so much more involving than my mental anguish?" He grabbed the glossy magazine, ignoring Billy’s yell of protest. Dom snorted as he glanced at the cover.

"Cosmopolitan? Checking out how to get a better bikini body, Bill? Of course, I knew you were the skirt-wearing one in this relationship, but really…"

"And your last demonstration certainly made it clear just how much you like me in my ‘skirts’, Dom." Billy smirked as Dom got a slightly glazed look at that happy memory. Easy access indeed. "I was reading the ‘How to wow your boyfriend in bed’ article anyway. Apparently, guys have a G-spot too, it’s called the…" Billy looked ceiling-ward, brow furrowed in concentration, "…prostate I think it was, but it’s not in a place I can discuss in polite conversation."

"And I’ll remind you of that next time we’re out with Orli," Dom said dryly. "Now that you’ve learned your fascinating fact of the day, can we get back to my problem?"

"It’s not a problem, Dom. Just call him and tell him you’ve changed your mind. It’s not like he’ll mind. He probably won’t even tease you. Much." Billy sat back, looking as pleased as if he’d just solved world hunger. "Now give me my magazine back."

Dom threw it with more violence than he should have, a flurry of coloured paper smacking Billy in the chest.

Billy looked up in surprise, his expression softening and the sarcastic words dying in his throat as he saw Dom’s expression.

"You’re serious." Billy used the edge of his tee shirt to pull Dom down to the couch beside him. "Dom, don’t do it. Just because Orlando personally has no concept of fear, doesn’t mean he won’t understand that you do."

"Billy, we’re going to be filming up in a giant tree. How am I supposed to work if I’m busy worrying that I’m going to fall out? Or that you’re going to fall out?" Dom realised he was shaking and tried to slide his hands out from where they’d inexplicably ended up in Billy’s grasp, only to be pulled into a fierce hug. He pressed his cheek into the familiar warmth of Billy’s chest, hitching in a short breath as he continued. "Or that the whole thing will go crashing over and smash us both into the ground, where we’ll have to lie, trapped by fake branches, and watch each other slowly suffocate under the weight?"

If Dom hadn’t loved Billy before, the fact that he didn’t laugh at that point, that all he did was run his fingers through Dom’s hair, would have sealed it.

Billy shifted so Dom was practically cradled in his lap. "But you’re okay with flying though, aren’t you?"

"Thanks to the really nice drugs you can get for that, yes I am."

"Okay, maybe not the best idea. Out of it on tranquillisers probably isn’t wholesome hobbit behaviour. Though I’m not sure jumping out of a cable car is the way to go either."

Dom sighed. "I just thought that if I could do that, then anything else would be easy in comparison."

"We’ll figure something out Dommie, don’t worry."

*

"Billy, I feel I should point out that blindfolding me and leading me *up* somewhere, isn’t soothing my nerves the way you apparently imagined it would in your delusional world."

"I thought you trusted me, Dom."

Billy’s tone sounded amused, but it was surprisingly hard to tell for sure when Dom couldn’t get clues from his body language or his eyes, which nearly always betrayed what he was thinking.

"I trust that you’re not going to leave me handcuffed to the bed all night. I’m not sure I trust you not to lead me off the edge of a cliff. Call it a quirk." He flashed a smile in Billy’s direction, though he hoped Billy wasn’t looking to see it since that would mean Billy was walking backwards and could *unknowingly* walk them off the edge off the cliff and to their doom.

"We’re inland," Billy soothed.

That was definitely amusement, which hardly seemed fair since Billy had been kindly spared hearing the crazier parts of Dom’s current thought processes, and Dom was aware he wasn’t in the same country as logic but that was because this was a phobia and not just a mild dislike and he was still not seeing the part where this was supposed to be helpful and there was a distinct possibility he was going to start hyperventilating any moment now.

"Dom… Dom!"

Hyperventilating was giving way to not being able to breathe and he really didn’t want to make a complete tit of himself by having a panic attack over nothing in front of Billy but it looked like he wasn’t going to get much choice in the matter.

There was a slightly rough scrape of fabric over his face as the blindfold was pulled away but he still couldn’t see since he had his eyes shut and was busy trying to burrow into Billy’s chest anyway, and he was pulled down to the lovely, *firm* ground and rocked gently, something he’d feel embarrassed and too old for later, when he wasn’t craving the soothing movement and gentle touches that accompanied it.

"Shit," Billy mumbled above him. "Maybe I should have tried to find a hypnotist after all."

Dom took a deep breath, inhaling washing powder, soap and Billy smell. "I’m okay." He cleared his throat, aiming for a slightly less shaky, less 14-year-old girl’s tone of voice. "I’m okay."

"Good, ‘cause you nearly gave me a heart attack and may have to carry me home."

Dom summoned a weak chuckle, slumping off of Billy and rolling onto his back on the springy grass.

Wow. Stars. Lots and lots of stars. "Where are we?" Dom asked quietly.

"Not that far from the set." Billy lay down, making himself comfortable pressed close to Dom. "Viggo told me about it, that you could see for miles."

"It’s…" Huge. Overwhelming. Underlining one actor from Manchester’s utter insignificance in the universe. Incredibly… "beautiful."

"Do you know any of the constellations?"

"Only that they’re not the same as the ones at home," Dom slid his hand into Billy’s pocket, interlocking their fingers. "But that’s only because I read it in one of Sean’s guide books since I don’t know any of the ones there either."

"We did some astronomy at school – I could never see the pictures though."

"They forgot the numbers," Dom mused.

"Idiots. That’s clearly the most important thing if you’re making a cosmic join-the-dots."

Dom turned with a smile, pleased that Billy had understood. "It’s not like we need to follow theirs though. I’m good at finding my own images…"

"I swear to God, Dom, if you mention in a single interview that you think I have Gollum’s face in freckles on the back of my thigh I will never speak to you again."

"What gave you the impression I was with you for the witty conversation?" Billy just looked at him. "Fine," Dom said with a put upon sigh. "I like there being things no one else knows about you anyway. Like you leading me up a hill in the middle of the night when we have a five o’clock call, just to show me that ‘up’ can be a good thing too."

"Did it work?"

"Guess we’ll see when I do that jump, won’t we?"

Billy just smiled, though his hand in the shared pocket tightened around Dom’s. The two of them stayed there as the grass grew wet with dew, tracing patterns in the sky until dawn broke.

*