2. Lord of the Rings

 

He doesn't read the book. When he was little, which is when he was eight and still going to regular school, he read some of the Hobbit, but all he remembers is dwarves and food. Nick loves the books, always has and when the movie opens, has to be talked out of getting another tattoo in elvish. He goes to New Zealand anyway, with Howie.

Aaron knows this because Howie takes him out for lunch when they come back, tells him funny stories and pays the cheque. Aaron hugs Howie good-bye, and thanks him for lunch, politely.

He doesn't watch the film until it's almost finished the run, and the theatre is almost empty. Two girls at the back repeat the dialogue all the way through, but Aaron doesn't mind. He stays for the second showing.

When he goes home, he looks up the fanfiction online. There's plenty, and he doesn't know where to start, so he does what everyone else does, and reads anything with Legolas.

Between that and the Harry Potter stuff, he's losing track of what he's doing, and he makes the mistake of telling Nick that Orlando isn't all that hot. Lisa smiles sharply at Aaron and makes a couple of phonecalls, murmuring Nick's name like a password or a price, and Aaron has to get dressed up, jacket and all, but thank god it isn't Nick choosing the clothes this time. Just his mother straightening his tie and reminding him to be polite. She's seen Crossroads twenty-three times.

Dinner, and Aaron shakes hands and kisses cheeks and Howie slips in with the right words when some guy, a director or special effects, some nobody, puts his hand on Aaron's waist.

Nick doesn't notice. He's with AJ somewhere, getting plastered or not, depending on how righteous the two of them feel. Aaron gets another coke and as he drinks it, he thinks quietly, in the smallest voice he can, that Howie's looking old. Not older. Old.

It's a Smeagol thought, and he looks around the room, trying to figure out what the surprise is. Nick likes surprises, and Aaron can quote the book, even if he hasn't read it. Gandalf holding court, and Viggo who's clean-shaven, Liv Tyler who's just fucking gorgeous and there's Orlando Bloom, nursing his own drink and talking to one of the hobbits. Aaron's had enough vodka that they look the same, unknowns and it doesn't really matter, because Nick's back in the room, AJ a step behind, and they're both grinning. Nick looks at Orlando and then his gaze flicks across the room, scalding hot, and Aaron steps back.

There's someone there, and he turns around and spills his coke, a little deliberately, but he's good at this, and it looks accidental. Elijah doesn't mind, doesn't mind at all. Rosy cheeks and a thrift store jacket, gap between his teeth, and then they're kissing, in a storeroom because every fucking dinner Aaron's ever been dragged to, had a storeroom somewhere. They were empty in stories, not full of cleaning supplies, mops and bundles of dirty laundry, but stained concrete and a naked lightbulb on a chain is pretty much what he remembered.

Aaron keeps his eyes closed when he blows Elijah and it isn't the same, it never is, but it's close, the way Elijah's hands fist in his hair. When he stands, he's a little taller, and that's different, and Elijah kisses him, says things in a jumbled half-english accent that aren't entirely dirty, but sweet. Aaron kisses him again to shut him up, and it's --

He goes home, and Howie says nothing on the car ride back, and Nick says too much. Aaron showers and his mom knocks on the door, over and over, and Aaron turns the water up, makes it as hot as he can bear and lets the room fill up with steam.

The paper napkin Elijah had scribbled his phone number on is damp and the ink has run. He can still make out the numbers. He throws it away, and deletes everything Lord of the Rings on his computer.

 

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