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fellowshippers2006-05-28 01:39 am
arabia764.livejournal.com) wrote in fellowshippers2006-05-28 01:39 am
Fic: Us Against The World -- Damaged story 5 Elijah/Orli N17 1/10
This is the fifth in the Damaged fic series. As normal it’s taken me ages to finish but I got there in the end.
Someone described Damaged in a rec as a,“Heart-wrenching AU melodrama (in the best sense of the word.)” Well, expect more of the same! We are back to the sort of thing you got in books 1,2 and 3.
This takes place about eighteen uneventful, healing months after the end of Damaged Four.
Title: Us Against The World – Damaged story 5
Chapter: One
Author: Arabia
Pairing: Elijah/Orli
Rating N17
Disclaimer: Total fiction
Feedback: Is always very much appreciated.
This is NOT a WIP – it is all finished and will be posted once a week in fairly large chapters.
The first four stories can be found in my memories.
Thank you to my darling otp![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
grievous_angel for the wonderful beta and all the support, and to annwyn55 for making the beautiful icon that goes with the fic.
This story is for Pum. She knows why and it is perfect.
Us Against The World
Chapter One
“Oh you big fat muppet,” Elijah howled with laughter, throwing an empty crisp packet across the tiny table at Orli. “Is that the best you can do? ‘I love you as much as hotdogs.’ Even Stuart did better than that with his, ‘I love you as much as Christmas.”
“Stuart’s a tight fisted sod, he hates Christmas,” Rose put in, reaching over to take a swig of Orli’s drink. “I had enough trouble prising money out of him for a wedding anniversary present for your mum and dad to bring tonight. So his Christmas comment means I make him turn white with fear at the thought of his bank balance.”
“You do, my honey bunny,” Stuart said, a huge, sweet smile plastered on his face.
Rose stuck her tongue out at him. “I don’t know why I ever married you.”
“Because of the size of his cock,” Elijah said, grinning at her. “You told me at your birthday party last year, that and the way he can get his tongue right up…”
“Elijah!” It was Rose’s turn to howl, and she was only partly laughing, as she thumped his arm. “Shut up, you’ll give him a big head.”
“Not the only big thing about me,” Stuart mumbled into his glass, a smug look on his face.
“Anyway,” Orli cut back to the chase, throwing a peanut at Elijah and only just missing. “You didn’t do much better, ‘I love you as many blades of grass as there are in the world.”
“There’s a lot of fucking grass,” Elijah said indignantly, bouncing a peanut off Orli’s head as Stuart started nuzzling Rose’s neck. “Rose still wins with her, I love you like a summer’s day stuff. Even if Stuart does have hayfever.”
“All right,” Orli took up the challenge. He’d had a few to drink but not that many and, anyway, it was important Elijah knew. “I love you as many leaves as there are on all the trees in all the world.” He pinged another nut over, hitting Elijah in the chest.
“There’s more grass than trees,” Elijah said, his nut hitting Orli’s arm. Orli wasn’t sure if that was true but he’d had too much to argue. He could do better.
“I love you as many grains of sand as there are in the world.” There was a lot of sand when you added in sandpits and beaches and deserts. He sat back and crossed his arms confidently, eating the peanut.
Elijah picked up a table mat and tore at the corner as he frowned in thought. “I love you as many dust particles as there are in the world.”
“Dust?” Orli looked sceptical. “That’s not very romantic.”
“But there’s a lot of it, especially in the new flat.”
Orli contemplated. This was important now, and not just on a competitive level. Elijah’s eyes sparkled and a soft grin pulled at his mouth, Orli had to make sure he knew. “I love you more than I love football.”
“Is that it?” Elijah challenged. “Is that the best you can do?”
“I fucking adore football and worship the ground David Beckham walks on.”
“Only ‘cos you’re after his arse,” Elijah dismissed it. “Okay,” he rolled his shoulders back and sat up straight in preparation. “I love you as many atoms that make up the world and everything on it. So there, you lose big-boy.” He drank the last of his beer and turned to Rose, the battle completely forgotten now he was sure he’d won.
Stuart had one hand under her blouse and the other round the back of her skirt as they snogged, not easy since she’d put on weight after two babies. “Oh put her down mate, you don’t know where she’s been,” Elijah laughed. A couple of Orli’s aunts were pushing their way past at that moment on their way to the bar and they stopped, smiling indulgently at Rose’s sighs of pleasure and the wet slurping noise.
“And I love you twice as much as that,” Orli whispered to himself, his eyes still on Elijah. “Twice as much as anyone ever loved anyone else.”
Rose came up for air, her glasses pushed sideways, the last of her lipstick smeared across her mouth, her eyes full of lust. “And I love you all nearly as much I love our babysitter, but she’ll skin me alive if we’re not back in twenty minutes, so sleep well.” She grabbed Stuart’s hand, pulling him up as she twisted her skirt back round the right way. “Except you my little stud muffin, you’re not getting any sleep for a long, long time.” Her lusty grin was pure magic and Elijah couldn’t help but smile as Stuart grew pink at the prospect.
“You ready as well?” Orli asked Elijah. “We have got work tomorrow.”
“Sure, whatever,” Elijah shrugged. “If your mum will let us go.”
Orli pushed his chair back and slipped his jacket on. “Her fault for having this on a Thursday night, I did warn her but you know what she’s like. ‘We got married on the seventeenth,” he mimicked his mother’s voice. “I want our party on that date as well.”
“Well, she doesn’t have to get up for work the next day, does she?” Rose said as she filed between the tables looking for the host and hostess before heading for the door.
Yvonne and Frank were talking to a group of older people and it was a few moments before they realised Orli’s party was waiting to say goodbye. Yvonne held Orli’s face in her hands and kissed him soundly and he indulged her by letting her, an exasperated sigh on his lips. Then she turned to Elijah, hugged him close and kissed him on both cheeks, much to his surprise.
Orli couldn’t help but laugh as he rubbed at the perfect pink lipstick lips on each side of Elijah’s face. He laughed even harder when Elijah blushed red in awful contrast. “You look lovely mate, that colour really suits you.” Elijah pulled a face so Orli dragged him into a tight hug, licking at his cheek.
It was a harmless, daft gesture, one that didn’t really mean anything at all. One that made the shocked, disapproving intake of breath from the other people gathered around his parents all the more surprising. Orli looked up at the aunts that had so recently smiled at Rose and Stuart. Their faces were full of disgust but they were nothing compared with the face of the third aunt. This was the one that Elijah, in what felt like a previous life, had fucked and stood up to and…
Orli pulled Elijah in closer still, Elijah’s back against his chest, his arms twisting round to clasp his hands on Elijah’s stomach. He looked up defiant and proud. “You got something to say to me, to both of us?”
“I’ve told you before Orlando,” the stupid fucking use of his full name made Orli’s blood boil even further. “You can do better than,” she looked down her nose at Elijah, “that. A maggot feeding on refuse would be better than that. But then,” her withering gaze was transferred to Orli. “You’re no better yourself, in reality you’re actually worse because you were brought up properly.”
“Now you listen here,” Yvonne regained herself after a moment’s astounded surprise.
“Well really Yvonne, what do you expect me to say?” the aunt turned her attention. “They paw each other in public, decent people shouldn’t have to be exposed to things like that.”
“That’s enough,” Yvonne said, pushing her sleeves up ready for battle, and Orli groaned. This was meant to be his parents’ special night, he didn’t want to be responsible for spoiling it, his father had already turned white in horror.
“You didn’t mind a little pawing yourself,” Elijah said just loud enough for those in the immediate vicinity to hear. “And, if I remember right, you were pretty eager when it came to pawing me. So unless you want the rest of the room to know just how desperate you were I’d shut up if I were you.” He stared at the woman with hard eyes.
She backed down immediately, as she’d done whenever she was faced with Elijah’s self-assurance, but the contempt for them both still dripped from every pore.
“Your type make me sick,” she spat, then turned on her heels and was gone.
“Her loss,” Rose said brightly into the stunned silence and then kissed Yvonne on the cheek. “Thanks for inviting us, we haven’t been out in ages and I really enjoyed myself. You too Mr Bloom,” she kissed Frank on the cheek, almost against his will. “Let’s hope Stuart and I can make it to forty years of marriage without me killing him.” With that Rose collected up Stuart and headed out. “Do you want to share a taxi?” she called back to Orli.
“Yeah, thanks,” Orli gave his mother another quick cuddle and kissed her again. “Sorry,” he whispered close to her ear.
“Not your fault love,” she patted his arm then smoothed down his hair smiling. “You’re worth a million of her.” Orli smiled back whilst Yvonne turned to Elijah.
Elijah raised a rueful eyebrow and shrugged regretfully. “And you are worth a million of us all,” Yvonne said, her hands clasping his shoulders as she kissed his cheek again. “You’re a good soul, Elijah Wood. A good soul.” Then she gently pushed him off after Rose.
Elijah wasn’t sure about what she had said, he knew Frank certainly didn’t agree, but hell, it was nice to hear.
“You look after him, do you hear?” Yvonne said to Orli. “He’s got his confidence back, he doesn’t need it rocking.”
“Mum,” Orli laughed, but there was an underlying seriousness in his tone. “I only take my eyes off him to check he isn’t going to walk into anything.”
“Just as it should be,” Yvonne was as serious as her son. “You two need each other.”
“Don’t I know it.”
+
In the back of the taxi, with four sets of knees crushed together, Rose sighed at that scene they’d just left. “I have to say, life is never boring around you two.”
“Stupid, stuck up bitch,” Orli hissed.
“Forget her,” Rose advised.
“But she’s not the only one, half of my dad’s family hate us. Sometimes it feels like it’s ‘Lijah and me against the whole world and I just want us to curl up inside the flat and hide.”
“Don’t be daft,” Rose stroked Orli’s knee. “They’re only jealous because you get to see each other naked. Hell, we’re all jealous of that.”
“But you have seen us naked,” Elijah cut in, his attempt to change the conversation quite blatant and costly to Rose’s blushes. “I’ll never forget your face when you walked in on us making out.”
“Oh bloody hell,” Rose gulped, a red stain creeping up her double chin. “All that flesh.”
“In fact you couldn’t get enough,” Elijah added. “You could have discreetly shut the door and left but oh no, I think you were taking notes.”
“You know the really awful thing about that?” Rose asked Elijah, twisting round and squashing Stuart even more against her ample bosom. “Is that I can’t remember you at all. All I can remember is Orli’s little white bum dancing around in the air. I really wish I could have that couple of minutes over again so I could commit it all to memory properly,” she added wistfully as Orli groaned into his hands.
“And I really wish she doesn’t,” Stuart said. “You wouldn’t believe the fun we’ve had acting out all the various possibilities of what you two were actually doing.”
“They fuck to the thought of us,” Elijah said, genuinely delighted. “Isn’t that sweet Orlando?”
Orli groaned again, pulling Elijah’s arm around his shoulders and burying his face against Elijah’s jacket. “And I hate you all. You’re all trying to kill me with shame.” Elijah patted his back and thought about doing some acting-out of their own.
+
Rose and Stuart dropped them off first at their new flat. They’d only been there a few months but it meant so much. After his car, this was the first big thing Elijah had ever owned, the importance wasn’t lost on him. It was still technically in Tooting but a better neighbourhood half way to Balham, in a traditional Victorian building with ornate carvings and elaborate ironwork outside. It was very similar to their old one, with the same basic layout, only this one had slightly bigger rooms with higher ceilings, wider windows and wonderful light.
Best of all they had their own front door with which to lock out the world and it was theirs; all theirs. They had bought it together, taking out a joint mortgage and signing the deeds with both names. The significance wasn’t lost on either of them.
Now all they had to do was finish decorating the place. They’d completed a lot with backbreaking hours of work as they’d scraped off decades of old paper and paint, filled, rubbed down, talked, laughed and painted. Much as they moaned, they were both enjoying the process, building something together, something that was theirs. It helped that they worked so easily together, fitting round each other, anticipating the other without words.
The big living room was finished with soft carpet, unlike the wooden floors that would, eventually, go everywhere else except the bedroom. The big windows had floaty curtains that kept out prying eyes but let in the light and the whole thing was done in pale, muted shades.
Orli had laughed at Elijah’s choice of colours. He’d spent hours agonising over colour charts only to pick ones very similar to the old flat. Well, why not? He’d been happy there.
But right now Orli had something other than curtains and colours on his mind. Once inside the front door he couldn’t wait, he just couldn’t, he had to get his mouth on Elijah right that second. He half pushed, half dragged Elijah up the hall, kissing him every step of the way. The bedroom was out of commission at the moment as it was being decorated. It was filled with a huge mess of paint pots, scraping tools and dust-sheets. So for the time being the bed was at one end of the living room, which was where Orli headed.
Sometimes Orli wanted ripping clothes and hard thrusting, sometimes soft and gentle, and sometimes he just wanted to remind himself what was his.
More wet, sharp kisses as he stepped over the decorating tools in the hall, guiding Elijah as he pressed him backwards. More still as he kicked open the living room door and pushed Elijah till he was flat on his back, splayed out on the bed, his knees hanging over the edge, feet skimming the floor.
Elijah sighed, a mixture of sound containing delight and anticipation, as he tangled his hands in Orli’s hair, trying to pull him up. “Kiss me again,” he purred.
“Can’t, not yet,” Orli said, kneeling on the floor, working at Elijah’s clothes. His shirt was pushed up past his belly button, his trousers opened, his boxers pulled to one side, his cock freed. Orli knew what he wanted. “Got to look at this first.” And what a glorious sight it was; Elijah comfortable but exposed, pale flesh glowing in the light from the hall, the clothes covering the majority of his body somehow making the scene even more beautiful. Even more erotic.
Orli sighed in pleasure at that knowledge that Elijah allowed this only to him; there were no games here. He looked up at Elijah’s face. Elijah was watching him intently and as their eyes connected he smiled, soft and sure.
Slowly, the pressure of anticipation making it all the more delicious, Orli pressed open Elijah’s thighs as far as his trousers would allow, leaned forward and licked along the crease of his thigh. Elijah sighed in turn and closed his eyes, his hand going down to stroke gently through Orli’s hair. No pressure. Orli moved up to trail open mouthed kisses on Elijah’s belly, hard enough to dimple the rounded flesh, soft enough to make Elijah sigh again and shift his hips. Orli rubbed his cheek against the hard ridge of Elijah’s cock, blowing a hot stream of breath at the base and Elijah mumbled something incoherent and meaningless.
Orli slid his lips over the tip of Elijah’s cock then slowly, slowly, slowly down the shaft, tightening the ring of his lips as his eyes fluttered closed in satisfaction.
“Oh hell,” Elijah murmured softly, as he wriggled his hips up into the touch.
“Shss,” Orli hushed him, the sound reverberating down from the tip of Elijah’s cock. “Let me, just let me.”
Elijah settled back, letting it waft over him as he floated on a sea of sensation. It wasn’t the alcohol in his system that made him heave yet another sigh, it was the sheer bloody rightness of it all.
Orli, his Orli, with the wicked tongue and the clever mouth. He caught his own lower lip between his teeth, biting down just hard enough so the sting stopped him floating too far.
Orli felt the haphazard pattern of Elijah’s fingers on his head and smiled, the movement causing another little ripple of pleasure to run up Elijah’s cock and burn in his belly. He knew the signs, knew that movement. Elijah was floating and Orli would make sure he continued to do so, whilst he enjoyed all he had. The fill of Elijah’s cock in his mouth, the smell of his flesh and his sex, his openness and vulnerability. His trust. Orli wondered if he got more pleasure from Elijah’s trust than he did from his body.
“Hmmm,” Elijah hitched his hip, pushing up barely a millimetre but it was enough to let Orli know he wanted more. He needed more.
Slow and deep, Orli knew the pattern, knew the rhythm.
He ran his hands over the bare flesh, fingertips tickling and tempting just enough to overload the senses, moving fast enough to surprise. He went up under Elijah’s shirt, the feeling warm and possessive, then down into his trousers. His, all his.
Slow and deep. He could vary his hands but not his mouth.
Elijah let the breath just drift from his parted lips, hips hardly lifting before they fell back again, fingers lost in Orli’s hair.
Slow and deep.
Elijah tried to wriggle, to close his legs just a little and Orli knew that sign as well. It was close, he was close, and then he’d have Elijah completely. He kept up the pressure, one hand thumbing a nipple, the other drawing tempting butterfly light patterns on heated skin.
Slow and deep. Obsessive, repetitive, maddening, unrelenting.
Elijah tried to pull away, to ease the pressure just a little and make it bearable but Orli wouldn’t let him. Slow and deep, slow and deep, slow and... with a last sigh and a tightening of his fingers Elijah came. Content and pleased with himself and with a huge self-satisfied grin. “Oh,” he let the sound just drift out.
Orli kissed his way up to Elijah’s mouth.
“You are good at that,” Elijah smiled, pressing a kiss to Orli’ cheek.
“I’m glad you think so.”
“I think I’ll keep you,” Elijah said contentedly, turning on his side to kiss Orli properly. It was funny, that taste. Himself, second hand, he wasn’t sure if he liked it. He preferred the taste of Orli. “Yep, I think I’ll definitely keep you,” he slid the zip on Orli’s trousers down and slipped his hand inside. “You’re too pretty and talented to give up.” A different rhythm, faster, firmer with a twist at the top.
“Pretty?” Orli had started to pant already. “I don’t know if I like being called pretty.” He sucked at Elijah’s lip, sharing their breath.
“But you are pretty; my pretty, stunning, beautiful boy.” His boy, that he knew so well it made his skin itch and his belly tumble. Fast, firm, twist at the top, squeeze at the bottom. His body felt languid but his hand moved with speed.
“Aren’t I getting a bit old to be called a boy?”
“My boy, you’ll always be my boy.” And that did it, words that hit so much harder than thrusting or sucking. Words that knocked Orli sideways and backwards and made him come in quick spurts over Elijah’s hand. ‘Always,’ it only ever took one word like that and Orli was done for.
Elijah milked him for a few moments, glorying in watching Orli’s face as it twitched and twisted. His boy; no, his man. All man and his. He pulled his hand out and lapped at his fingers, Orli’s eyes going wide. A much better taste. He cocked his head to one side, rolling onto his back and pulling Orli with him. “It’d be a shame to waste it.”
“There’s a load more soaking into my trousers. More work for the dry cleaners,” Orli rested his head on Elijah’s chest. “Do you know, they already know my name in that shop on the corner. We’ve only been here a few months and I’m already a valued customer.”
“Then you need to get your suit off quicker when you get in from work,” Elijah laughed gently. He loved this, this bit when they were quiet and peaceful. And spent. Him and his man.
“Hmmm,” Orli hooked a hand round Elijah’s chest, his fingers rubbing absently through the material.
“Did you really mean it, what you said in the taxi, about it being you and me against the world?” Elijah asked, his hand trailing through Orli’s hair over and over.
“Yeah,” Orli pressed a kiss to Elijah’s chest. “Sometimes it seems like the world outside is full of, I don’t know, bad things that are out to get us.”
“I didn’t know you felt like that.”
Orli shrugged, a small half hitch of his shoulders. “You have to admit there’s a lot of shit out there and I guess, sometimes, I just want to close the door and lock it all out.” He lifted his head and looked at Elijah. “Do you think I’m mad?”
“No, I think you’re completely sensible.” Elijah stroked a strand of hair away from Orli’s face, his fingers pressing lightly on the skin underneath. “I felt like it a lot when I first moved down here, even before we got together. In my old life I didn’t have a safe place but there, in the old flat, it was like I was secure inside, and outside was where all the bad things happened. It got even stronger when we became a couple. Inside, with you, was where I felt safe.”
“That’s how I feel and I know ‘safe’ means even more to you then it does to me,” Orli said. “I thought it was the old flat at first, that’s why I didn’t want to move, but it’s not, it’s us. It’s you and me against the world, like nobody else believes in us or would fight for us.”
“No one?” Elijah questioned.
“Except my mum and Rose,” Orli smiled, twisting himself round to kiss Elijah’s chest and neck. “Although even Rose would demand a price and it’d probably involve us getting naked.”
“Rose has good taste,” Elijah said as Orli settled back down. “And your mum isn’t so bad either.”
“Isn’t so bad?” Orli raised a sceptical eyebrow. “She thinks you’re amazing and will defend you to the world.”
“She does not,” Elijah screwed up his face, scowling into the darkness. He wasn’t at all sure how he felt about that.
“Oh she does, she always takes your side, even if it’s against me.”
“That’s rubbish,” Elijah said, sure of himself.
“Yeah right,” Orli laughed. “A new gas or electric cooker? Alison’s birthday present? Where to go on holiday? Whose side was she on in all of those arguments?”
“They’re just silly things,” Elijah dismissed them, pulling the duvet up to tuck it under Orli’s chin. They really would have to get up and get ready for bed, but not just yet. “You’re her golden baby boy.”
“And I always will be,” Orli arranged himself under Elijah’s arm, his leg hooked up over Elijah’s hip. “But she cares about you a hell of a lot, respects you even more and worries about you all the time. Hell, if I had a tenner for every time she’s told me to not to hurt you or to watch out for you we could afford to get in professionals to finish this place rather than slogging at it ourselves.”
Elijah’s mind picked at what Orli had said. He respected and cared about Yvonne too, but she wasn’t supposed to worry about him, no one was. She was Orli’s mum after all, she should worry about her kid and anyway, he wasn’t like that and… oh sod it, it was all too much to think about. He pulled Orli’s leg higher, off his bladder, yawned, kissed the top of Orli’s head and settled ready for sleep. “I like doing the decorating ourselves, it makes it more ours.”
“True, but we have to get the artex off the hall ceiling at some point. I wouldn’t mind someone else doing that.”
Elijah groaned, it had been a bugger of a job in the kitchen and the hall looked even worse. Still, it was theirs and it would look wonderful when they’d finished. If they ever finished. They had the bedroom to complete first, then the hall and, last but not least, the spare room or study or whatever you wanted to call it. Junk room seemed best. Right at that moment the wisdom of sinking all their money in a rundown but better flat seemed to fail him. “You’re just a lazy bugger,” he said with a soft laugh.
“So are you. My lazy bugger.”
+
Someone described Damaged in a rec as a,“Heart-wrenching AU melodrama (in the best sense of the word.)” Well, expect more of the same! We are back to the sort of thing you got in books 1,2 and 3.
This takes place about eighteen uneventful, healing months after the end of Damaged Four.
Title: Us Against The World – Damaged story 5
Chapter: One
Author: Arabia
Pairing: Elijah/Orli
Rating N17
Disclaimer: Total fiction
Feedback: Is always very much appreciated.
This is NOT a WIP – it is all finished and will be posted once a week in fairly large chapters.
The first four stories can be found in my memories.
Thank you to my darling otp
grievous_angel for the wonderful beta and all the support, and to annwyn55 for making the beautiful icon that goes with the fic.This story is for Pum. She knows why and it is perfect.
Us Against The World
Chapter One
“Oh you big fat muppet,” Elijah howled with laughter, throwing an empty crisp packet across the tiny table at Orli. “Is that the best you can do? ‘I love you as much as hotdogs.’ Even Stuart did better than that with his, ‘I love you as much as Christmas.”
“Stuart’s a tight fisted sod, he hates Christmas,” Rose put in, reaching over to take a swig of Orli’s drink. “I had enough trouble prising money out of him for a wedding anniversary present for your mum and dad to bring tonight. So his Christmas comment means I make him turn white with fear at the thought of his bank balance.”
“You do, my honey bunny,” Stuart said, a huge, sweet smile plastered on his face.
Rose stuck her tongue out at him. “I don’t know why I ever married you.”
“Because of the size of his cock,” Elijah said, grinning at her. “You told me at your birthday party last year, that and the way he can get his tongue right up…”
“Elijah!” It was Rose’s turn to howl, and she was only partly laughing, as she thumped his arm. “Shut up, you’ll give him a big head.”
“Not the only big thing about me,” Stuart mumbled into his glass, a smug look on his face.
“Anyway,” Orli cut back to the chase, throwing a peanut at Elijah and only just missing. “You didn’t do much better, ‘I love you as many blades of grass as there are in the world.”
“There’s a lot of fucking grass,” Elijah said indignantly, bouncing a peanut off Orli’s head as Stuart started nuzzling Rose’s neck. “Rose still wins with her, I love you like a summer’s day stuff. Even if Stuart does have hayfever.”
“All right,” Orli took up the challenge. He’d had a few to drink but not that many and, anyway, it was important Elijah knew. “I love you as many leaves as there are on all the trees in all the world.” He pinged another nut over, hitting Elijah in the chest.
“There’s more grass than trees,” Elijah said, his nut hitting Orli’s arm. Orli wasn’t sure if that was true but he’d had too much to argue. He could do better.
“I love you as many grains of sand as there are in the world.” There was a lot of sand when you added in sandpits and beaches and deserts. He sat back and crossed his arms confidently, eating the peanut.
Elijah picked up a table mat and tore at the corner as he frowned in thought. “I love you as many dust particles as there are in the world.”
“Dust?” Orli looked sceptical. “That’s not very romantic.”
“But there’s a lot of it, especially in the new flat.”
Orli contemplated. This was important now, and not just on a competitive level. Elijah’s eyes sparkled and a soft grin pulled at his mouth, Orli had to make sure he knew. “I love you more than I love football.”
“Is that it?” Elijah challenged. “Is that the best you can do?”
“I fucking adore football and worship the ground David Beckham walks on.”
“Only ‘cos you’re after his arse,” Elijah dismissed it. “Okay,” he rolled his shoulders back and sat up straight in preparation. “I love you as many atoms that make up the world and everything on it. So there, you lose big-boy.” He drank the last of his beer and turned to Rose, the battle completely forgotten now he was sure he’d won.
Stuart had one hand under her blouse and the other round the back of her skirt as they snogged, not easy since she’d put on weight after two babies. “Oh put her down mate, you don’t know where she’s been,” Elijah laughed. A couple of Orli’s aunts were pushing their way past at that moment on their way to the bar and they stopped, smiling indulgently at Rose’s sighs of pleasure and the wet slurping noise.
“And I love you twice as much as that,” Orli whispered to himself, his eyes still on Elijah. “Twice as much as anyone ever loved anyone else.”
Rose came up for air, her glasses pushed sideways, the last of her lipstick smeared across her mouth, her eyes full of lust. “And I love you all nearly as much I love our babysitter, but she’ll skin me alive if we’re not back in twenty minutes, so sleep well.” She grabbed Stuart’s hand, pulling him up as she twisted her skirt back round the right way. “Except you my little stud muffin, you’re not getting any sleep for a long, long time.” Her lusty grin was pure magic and Elijah couldn’t help but smile as Stuart grew pink at the prospect.
“You ready as well?” Orli asked Elijah. “We have got work tomorrow.”
“Sure, whatever,” Elijah shrugged. “If your mum will let us go.”
Orli pushed his chair back and slipped his jacket on. “Her fault for having this on a Thursday night, I did warn her but you know what she’s like. ‘We got married on the seventeenth,” he mimicked his mother’s voice. “I want our party on that date as well.”
“Well, she doesn’t have to get up for work the next day, does she?” Rose said as she filed between the tables looking for the host and hostess before heading for the door.
Yvonne and Frank were talking to a group of older people and it was a few moments before they realised Orli’s party was waiting to say goodbye. Yvonne held Orli’s face in her hands and kissed him soundly and he indulged her by letting her, an exasperated sigh on his lips. Then she turned to Elijah, hugged him close and kissed him on both cheeks, much to his surprise.
Orli couldn’t help but laugh as he rubbed at the perfect pink lipstick lips on each side of Elijah’s face. He laughed even harder when Elijah blushed red in awful contrast. “You look lovely mate, that colour really suits you.” Elijah pulled a face so Orli dragged him into a tight hug, licking at his cheek.
It was a harmless, daft gesture, one that didn’t really mean anything at all. One that made the shocked, disapproving intake of breath from the other people gathered around his parents all the more surprising. Orli looked up at the aunts that had so recently smiled at Rose and Stuart. Their faces were full of disgust but they were nothing compared with the face of the third aunt. This was the one that Elijah, in what felt like a previous life, had fucked and stood up to and…
Orli pulled Elijah in closer still, Elijah’s back against his chest, his arms twisting round to clasp his hands on Elijah’s stomach. He looked up defiant and proud. “You got something to say to me, to both of us?”
“I’ve told you before Orlando,” the stupid fucking use of his full name made Orli’s blood boil even further. “You can do better than,” she looked down her nose at Elijah, “that. A maggot feeding on refuse would be better than that. But then,” her withering gaze was transferred to Orli. “You’re no better yourself, in reality you’re actually worse because you were brought up properly.”
“Now you listen here,” Yvonne regained herself after a moment’s astounded surprise.
“Well really Yvonne, what do you expect me to say?” the aunt turned her attention. “They paw each other in public, decent people shouldn’t have to be exposed to things like that.”
“That’s enough,” Yvonne said, pushing her sleeves up ready for battle, and Orli groaned. This was meant to be his parents’ special night, he didn’t want to be responsible for spoiling it, his father had already turned white in horror.
“You didn’t mind a little pawing yourself,” Elijah said just loud enough for those in the immediate vicinity to hear. “And, if I remember right, you were pretty eager when it came to pawing me. So unless you want the rest of the room to know just how desperate you were I’d shut up if I were you.” He stared at the woman with hard eyes.
She backed down immediately, as she’d done whenever she was faced with Elijah’s self-assurance, but the contempt for them both still dripped from every pore.
“Your type make me sick,” she spat, then turned on her heels and was gone.
“Her loss,” Rose said brightly into the stunned silence and then kissed Yvonne on the cheek. “Thanks for inviting us, we haven’t been out in ages and I really enjoyed myself. You too Mr Bloom,” she kissed Frank on the cheek, almost against his will. “Let’s hope Stuart and I can make it to forty years of marriage without me killing him.” With that Rose collected up Stuart and headed out. “Do you want to share a taxi?” she called back to Orli.
“Yeah, thanks,” Orli gave his mother another quick cuddle and kissed her again. “Sorry,” he whispered close to her ear.
“Not your fault love,” she patted his arm then smoothed down his hair smiling. “You’re worth a million of her.” Orli smiled back whilst Yvonne turned to Elijah.
Elijah raised a rueful eyebrow and shrugged regretfully. “And you are worth a million of us all,” Yvonne said, her hands clasping his shoulders as she kissed his cheek again. “You’re a good soul, Elijah Wood. A good soul.” Then she gently pushed him off after Rose.
Elijah wasn’t sure about what she had said, he knew Frank certainly didn’t agree, but hell, it was nice to hear.
“You look after him, do you hear?” Yvonne said to Orli. “He’s got his confidence back, he doesn’t need it rocking.”
“Mum,” Orli laughed, but there was an underlying seriousness in his tone. “I only take my eyes off him to check he isn’t going to walk into anything.”
“Just as it should be,” Yvonne was as serious as her son. “You two need each other.”
“Don’t I know it.”
+
In the back of the taxi, with four sets of knees crushed together, Rose sighed at that scene they’d just left. “I have to say, life is never boring around you two.”
“Stupid, stuck up bitch,” Orli hissed.
“Forget her,” Rose advised.
“But she’s not the only one, half of my dad’s family hate us. Sometimes it feels like it’s ‘Lijah and me against the whole world and I just want us to curl up inside the flat and hide.”
“Don’t be daft,” Rose stroked Orli’s knee. “They’re only jealous because you get to see each other naked. Hell, we’re all jealous of that.”
“But you have seen us naked,” Elijah cut in, his attempt to change the conversation quite blatant and costly to Rose’s blushes. “I’ll never forget your face when you walked in on us making out.”
“Oh bloody hell,” Rose gulped, a red stain creeping up her double chin. “All that flesh.”
“In fact you couldn’t get enough,” Elijah added. “You could have discreetly shut the door and left but oh no, I think you were taking notes.”
“You know the really awful thing about that?” Rose asked Elijah, twisting round and squashing Stuart even more against her ample bosom. “Is that I can’t remember you at all. All I can remember is Orli’s little white bum dancing around in the air. I really wish I could have that couple of minutes over again so I could commit it all to memory properly,” she added wistfully as Orli groaned into his hands.
“And I really wish she doesn’t,” Stuart said. “You wouldn’t believe the fun we’ve had acting out all the various possibilities of what you two were actually doing.”
“They fuck to the thought of us,” Elijah said, genuinely delighted. “Isn’t that sweet Orlando?”
Orli groaned again, pulling Elijah’s arm around his shoulders and burying his face against Elijah’s jacket. “And I hate you all. You’re all trying to kill me with shame.” Elijah patted his back and thought about doing some acting-out of their own.
+
Rose and Stuart dropped them off first at their new flat. They’d only been there a few months but it meant so much. After his car, this was the first big thing Elijah had ever owned, the importance wasn’t lost on him. It was still technically in Tooting but a better neighbourhood half way to Balham, in a traditional Victorian building with ornate carvings and elaborate ironwork outside. It was very similar to their old one, with the same basic layout, only this one had slightly bigger rooms with higher ceilings, wider windows and wonderful light.
Best of all they had their own front door with which to lock out the world and it was theirs; all theirs. They had bought it together, taking out a joint mortgage and signing the deeds with both names. The significance wasn’t lost on either of them.
Now all they had to do was finish decorating the place. They’d completed a lot with backbreaking hours of work as they’d scraped off decades of old paper and paint, filled, rubbed down, talked, laughed and painted. Much as they moaned, they were both enjoying the process, building something together, something that was theirs. It helped that they worked so easily together, fitting round each other, anticipating the other without words.
The big living room was finished with soft carpet, unlike the wooden floors that would, eventually, go everywhere else except the bedroom. The big windows had floaty curtains that kept out prying eyes but let in the light and the whole thing was done in pale, muted shades.
Orli had laughed at Elijah’s choice of colours. He’d spent hours agonising over colour charts only to pick ones very similar to the old flat. Well, why not? He’d been happy there.
But right now Orli had something other than curtains and colours on his mind. Once inside the front door he couldn’t wait, he just couldn’t, he had to get his mouth on Elijah right that second. He half pushed, half dragged Elijah up the hall, kissing him every step of the way. The bedroom was out of commission at the moment as it was being decorated. It was filled with a huge mess of paint pots, scraping tools and dust-sheets. So for the time being the bed was at one end of the living room, which was where Orli headed.
Sometimes Orli wanted ripping clothes and hard thrusting, sometimes soft and gentle, and sometimes he just wanted to remind himself what was his.
More wet, sharp kisses as he stepped over the decorating tools in the hall, guiding Elijah as he pressed him backwards. More still as he kicked open the living room door and pushed Elijah till he was flat on his back, splayed out on the bed, his knees hanging over the edge, feet skimming the floor.
Elijah sighed, a mixture of sound containing delight and anticipation, as he tangled his hands in Orli’s hair, trying to pull him up. “Kiss me again,” he purred.
“Can’t, not yet,” Orli said, kneeling on the floor, working at Elijah’s clothes. His shirt was pushed up past his belly button, his trousers opened, his boxers pulled to one side, his cock freed. Orli knew what he wanted. “Got to look at this first.” And what a glorious sight it was; Elijah comfortable but exposed, pale flesh glowing in the light from the hall, the clothes covering the majority of his body somehow making the scene even more beautiful. Even more erotic.
Orli sighed in pleasure at that knowledge that Elijah allowed this only to him; there were no games here. He looked up at Elijah’s face. Elijah was watching him intently and as their eyes connected he smiled, soft and sure.
Slowly, the pressure of anticipation making it all the more delicious, Orli pressed open Elijah’s thighs as far as his trousers would allow, leaned forward and licked along the crease of his thigh. Elijah sighed in turn and closed his eyes, his hand going down to stroke gently through Orli’s hair. No pressure. Orli moved up to trail open mouthed kisses on Elijah’s belly, hard enough to dimple the rounded flesh, soft enough to make Elijah sigh again and shift his hips. Orli rubbed his cheek against the hard ridge of Elijah’s cock, blowing a hot stream of breath at the base and Elijah mumbled something incoherent and meaningless.
Orli slid his lips over the tip of Elijah’s cock then slowly, slowly, slowly down the shaft, tightening the ring of his lips as his eyes fluttered closed in satisfaction.
“Oh hell,” Elijah murmured softly, as he wriggled his hips up into the touch.
“Shss,” Orli hushed him, the sound reverberating down from the tip of Elijah’s cock. “Let me, just let me.”
Elijah settled back, letting it waft over him as he floated on a sea of sensation. It wasn’t the alcohol in his system that made him heave yet another sigh, it was the sheer bloody rightness of it all.
Orli, his Orli, with the wicked tongue and the clever mouth. He caught his own lower lip between his teeth, biting down just hard enough so the sting stopped him floating too far.
Orli felt the haphazard pattern of Elijah’s fingers on his head and smiled, the movement causing another little ripple of pleasure to run up Elijah’s cock and burn in his belly. He knew the signs, knew that movement. Elijah was floating and Orli would make sure he continued to do so, whilst he enjoyed all he had. The fill of Elijah’s cock in his mouth, the smell of his flesh and his sex, his openness and vulnerability. His trust. Orli wondered if he got more pleasure from Elijah’s trust than he did from his body.
“Hmmm,” Elijah hitched his hip, pushing up barely a millimetre but it was enough to let Orli know he wanted more. He needed more.
Slow and deep, Orli knew the pattern, knew the rhythm.
He ran his hands over the bare flesh, fingertips tickling and tempting just enough to overload the senses, moving fast enough to surprise. He went up under Elijah’s shirt, the feeling warm and possessive, then down into his trousers. His, all his.
Slow and deep. He could vary his hands but not his mouth.
Elijah let the breath just drift from his parted lips, hips hardly lifting before they fell back again, fingers lost in Orli’s hair.
Slow and deep.
Elijah tried to wriggle, to close his legs just a little and Orli knew that sign as well. It was close, he was close, and then he’d have Elijah completely. He kept up the pressure, one hand thumbing a nipple, the other drawing tempting butterfly light patterns on heated skin.
Slow and deep. Obsessive, repetitive, maddening, unrelenting.
Elijah tried to pull away, to ease the pressure just a little and make it bearable but Orli wouldn’t let him. Slow and deep, slow and deep, slow and... with a last sigh and a tightening of his fingers Elijah came. Content and pleased with himself and with a huge self-satisfied grin. “Oh,” he let the sound just drift out.
Orli kissed his way up to Elijah’s mouth.
“You are good at that,” Elijah smiled, pressing a kiss to Orli’ cheek.
“I’m glad you think so.”
“I think I’ll keep you,” Elijah said contentedly, turning on his side to kiss Orli properly. It was funny, that taste. Himself, second hand, he wasn’t sure if he liked it. He preferred the taste of Orli. “Yep, I think I’ll definitely keep you,” he slid the zip on Orli’s trousers down and slipped his hand inside. “You’re too pretty and talented to give up.” A different rhythm, faster, firmer with a twist at the top.
“Pretty?” Orli had started to pant already. “I don’t know if I like being called pretty.” He sucked at Elijah’s lip, sharing their breath.
“But you are pretty; my pretty, stunning, beautiful boy.” His boy, that he knew so well it made his skin itch and his belly tumble. Fast, firm, twist at the top, squeeze at the bottom. His body felt languid but his hand moved with speed.
“Aren’t I getting a bit old to be called a boy?”
“My boy, you’ll always be my boy.” And that did it, words that hit so much harder than thrusting or sucking. Words that knocked Orli sideways and backwards and made him come in quick spurts over Elijah’s hand. ‘Always,’ it only ever took one word like that and Orli was done for.
Elijah milked him for a few moments, glorying in watching Orli’s face as it twitched and twisted. His boy; no, his man. All man and his. He pulled his hand out and lapped at his fingers, Orli’s eyes going wide. A much better taste. He cocked his head to one side, rolling onto his back and pulling Orli with him. “It’d be a shame to waste it.”
“There’s a load more soaking into my trousers. More work for the dry cleaners,” Orli rested his head on Elijah’s chest. “Do you know, they already know my name in that shop on the corner. We’ve only been here a few months and I’m already a valued customer.”
“Then you need to get your suit off quicker when you get in from work,” Elijah laughed gently. He loved this, this bit when they were quiet and peaceful. And spent. Him and his man.
“Hmmm,” Orli hooked a hand round Elijah’s chest, his fingers rubbing absently through the material.
“Did you really mean it, what you said in the taxi, about it being you and me against the world?” Elijah asked, his hand trailing through Orli’s hair over and over.
“Yeah,” Orli pressed a kiss to Elijah’s chest. “Sometimes it seems like the world outside is full of, I don’t know, bad things that are out to get us.”
“I didn’t know you felt like that.”
Orli shrugged, a small half hitch of his shoulders. “You have to admit there’s a lot of shit out there and I guess, sometimes, I just want to close the door and lock it all out.” He lifted his head and looked at Elijah. “Do you think I’m mad?”
“No, I think you’re completely sensible.” Elijah stroked a strand of hair away from Orli’s face, his fingers pressing lightly on the skin underneath. “I felt like it a lot when I first moved down here, even before we got together. In my old life I didn’t have a safe place but there, in the old flat, it was like I was secure inside, and outside was where all the bad things happened. It got even stronger when we became a couple. Inside, with you, was where I felt safe.”
“That’s how I feel and I know ‘safe’ means even more to you then it does to me,” Orli said. “I thought it was the old flat at first, that’s why I didn’t want to move, but it’s not, it’s us. It’s you and me against the world, like nobody else believes in us or would fight for us.”
“No one?” Elijah questioned.
“Except my mum and Rose,” Orli smiled, twisting himself round to kiss Elijah’s chest and neck. “Although even Rose would demand a price and it’d probably involve us getting naked.”
“Rose has good taste,” Elijah said as Orli settled back down. “And your mum isn’t so bad either.”
“Isn’t so bad?” Orli raised a sceptical eyebrow. “She thinks you’re amazing and will defend you to the world.”
“She does not,” Elijah screwed up his face, scowling into the darkness. He wasn’t at all sure how he felt about that.
“Oh she does, she always takes your side, even if it’s against me.”
“That’s rubbish,” Elijah said, sure of himself.
“Yeah right,” Orli laughed. “A new gas or electric cooker? Alison’s birthday present? Where to go on holiday? Whose side was she on in all of those arguments?”
“They’re just silly things,” Elijah dismissed them, pulling the duvet up to tuck it under Orli’s chin. They really would have to get up and get ready for bed, but not just yet. “You’re her golden baby boy.”
“And I always will be,” Orli arranged himself under Elijah’s arm, his leg hooked up over Elijah’s hip. “But she cares about you a hell of a lot, respects you even more and worries about you all the time. Hell, if I had a tenner for every time she’s told me to not to hurt you or to watch out for you we could afford to get in professionals to finish this place rather than slogging at it ourselves.”
Elijah’s mind picked at what Orli had said. He respected and cared about Yvonne too, but she wasn’t supposed to worry about him, no one was. She was Orli’s mum after all, she should worry about her kid and anyway, he wasn’t like that and… oh sod it, it was all too much to think about. He pulled Orli’s leg higher, off his bladder, yawned, kissed the top of Orli’s head and settled ready for sleep. “I like doing the decorating ourselves, it makes it more ours.”
“True, but we have to get the artex off the hall ceiling at some point. I wouldn’t mind someone else doing that.”
Elijah groaned, it had been a bugger of a job in the kitchen and the hall looked even worse. Still, it was theirs and it would look wonderful when they’d finished. If they ever finished. They had the bedroom to complete first, then the hall and, last but not least, the spare room or study or whatever you wanted to call it. Junk room seemed best. Right at that moment the wisdom of sinking all their money in a rundown but better flat seemed to fail him. “You’re just a lazy bugger,” he said with a soft laugh.
“So are you. My lazy bugger.”
+