ext_57314 (![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png)
arabia764.livejournal.com) wrote in ![[community profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/community.png)
fellowshippers2006-07-15 10:46 pm
arabia764.livejournal.com) wrote in fellowshippers2006-07-15 10:46 pm
Fic: Us Against The World -- Damaged story 5 Elijah/Orli N17 8/10
Title: Us Against The World – Damaged story 5
Chapter: Eight
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.
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 Eight
Orli’s feeling that something was wrong intensified as soon as they got to his parent’s house. It was too quiet inside and his mother kept fiddling with her pearls and refusing to meet their eyes. When she said she’d sent his father out to get some shopping she’d forgotten, Orli cracked, sitting her down at the table and demanding to know what was going on. Yvonne never forgot shopping and Frank never agreed to get it.
Elijah stood watching when Orli sat opposite his mother, but he was unceremoniously pulled into the next chair. “This concerns both of us, doesn’t it mum,” Orli stated rather than asked.
“Yes, I rather think it does.” Still she wouldn’t look at them.
“You’d better tell us then. Let me guess, is there some other family occasion we’re not invited to?”
“No, I,” Yvonne hesitated. “I don’t really know how to talk about this but I appreciate that I have to. Your father, well, he really couldn’t manage and I thought he’d only be a hindrance so I sent him out and…”
“Stop rambling and tell us.”
Yvonne squared her shoulders and got up, moving towards the sideboard. She came back with a large white envelope in her hand and Elijah’s heart sank. Not her, not them. Not her. She was one of the few people he didn’t want to see the photographs.
She pulled the contents half way out and put it on the table between them. “These arrived in the post yesterday, I thought you should know.” And then all of a sudden her composure was gone, her face went ashen, her eyes bulged and she stared at Elijah in absolute horror. “What have I done? Does he know Elijah? Have you told him?”
Elijah reached over and patted Yvonne’s hand where it gripped the edge of the table. “Yes of course he knows. He knows what I did and he’s seen the pictures, we got sent a set ourselves a while back.”
“Oh thank goodness, I thought for a moment that I’d broken your confidence, that I was about to show Orli something you’d kept private.”
“I don’t keep anything private from Orli,” Elijah reassured her.
“But I should have spoken to you alone, I had no right to make such an assumption.”
“Yvonne,” Elijah gave her hand one final pat. “It’s all right.”
Orli caught hold of the envelope and pulled the pictures a little further out. Yep, he knew these, there were burned onto his brain, except… sweet Jesus. There was one extra photo, yet more explicit, one that managed to make even Orli grimace. He handed it over to Elijah.
Elijah barely raised an eyebrow before dropping them back on the table where they could be seen in full Technicolor. Orli couldn’t help it; he pushed them back in the envelope. Not in front of his mother.
“I,” Yvonne wasn’t quite sure what to say. She’d expected more of a reaction. “Why were they sent to us?” she asked Elijah but her eyes weren’t quite on his face, after that brief moment when she thought she’d done wrong, she couldn’t face him.
“That man in the photos is trying to blackmail me,” Elijah said simply. “I told him to get lost and he’s trying to push me.”
“What are you going to do? What do you want me to do?” Yvonne asked.
Elijah shrugged. “Nothing, there’s nothing I can do.”
“Aren’t you going to go to the police?”
“Oh come on Yvonne, please!” Elijah leaned back in the chair. “Can you honestly imagine me going to the police? Don’t put that on me.”
“Why not?”
“And answer questions about that time? Tell them how many people I had sex with? Tell them that I didn’t know most of their names? You know what I was like back then, do you really think I want to talk about it to the police?”
“Did you know his name Elijah?” she looked down at the envelope, her voice soft but there was an edge to it.
“Was there a note with the pictures?” Elijah answered her question with one of his own. Her hand went up to her throat, twisting the pearls round and round, and her eyes were even further from Elijah’s. “Yvonne?”
“Yes, there was a note,” she glanced at him briefly. “It said he was your...”
“Father?”
“Yes,” and this time she did look at him. “Is he?”
“Yes.”
“Oh Elijah,” she swept up from the chair, turning her back on them.
“He didn’t know, mum,” Orli almost shouted at her. “He didn’t know the bloke was his father, didn’t know who his father was until a few days ago, he didn’t even know the photos had been taken.”
“Orlando,” Elijah had called his name a couple of times but Orli was too incensed to hear him. It wasn’t till a hand tightened on his arm that he turned back to Elijah. “I don’t need you to defend me. I don’t need defending.”
“But,” Orli sucked in a breath, looked at Elijah’s face, and went silent.
“Did you know?” Yvonne asked.
“Does it matter if I did?”
“I,” that flustered her. She didn’t know how to respond, what to think.
“I’ve told you a lot of things, told you what it was like when I was young but maybe I haven’t told you what I was like before I met Orli,” Elijah looked at her, his gaze calm and steady. “No, I didn’t know he was my father but I’ve done a lot worse than have sex with my parent. You met me then, you have some idea what I was capable of. But I was almost certainly worse than you imagined.”
Yvonne held the back of the chair and looked at Elijah, she was just as calm and steady, but also evaluating. The moment seemed to stretch on and on but neither broke away. And then Yvonne pulled the chair out and sat down again. “I’m sure you had your reasons for whatever you did but it was a different time and you were a different person.”
“It feels like a life time ago but I did do it for any great reason. By that time I’d fuc… have sex with anyone that came my way.”
Yvonne considered this as well. “And your mother?”
“No, I’ve never had sex with her.”
“Elijah!” They both said it at the same time, Yvonne’s voice low and shocked, Orli’s high and horrified.
“What?” he asked. “You didn’t know that,” he looked at Yvonne. “I never sank that low but you need to understand that I wasn’t far from it. If sleeping with her had got me something I wanted, who knows? Luckily I never had to make that decision.”
“And you,” he turned to Orli. “You need to understand that no matter how much I love my mum, with you it’s different. I might have made the decision to manipulate her with sex, I’ll never know for sure, but I won’t do that to you. Not now, not before. Not ever.”
Orli closed his mouth and nodded. Elijah knew, Elijah knew him inside and out, knew his every worry, his every fear. And he knew just when Orli needed reassurance, which was too often, but he gave it anyway. Orli nodded again and reminded himself just how damned lucky he was.
Yvonne thought her son was pretty lucky as well. Lucky to have this man who was just what he needed and knew how to handle him so well. “I assume your mother knows?” she asked.
Elijah nodded. “She does now. She’s scared of him, she wanted me to run away.”
“And are you going to?”
Elijah looked at Orli, then back at Yvonne and smiled. “What do you think?
Her gaze went from one to the other. “I think that if you wanted to run my son would go with you, and if that meant I never got to see him again he’d think it a bargain well made.” Again she looked from one to the other, finally settling on Elijah where she nodded in acknowledgement. “But you won’t, you won’t run.”
“Can you be so sure?”
“Yes,” once more she nodded, certain now. “You won’t run because you’re strong, stronger than anyone I know.”
“I’ve felt like running,” Elijah admitted, his voice soft. Yvonne hadn’t looked at him with utter disgust, hadn’t shied away or thrown him out. She was pretty damned strong herself. And Elijah could talk to her. “I felt like running and hiding and scrubbing myself till I bled, trying to get clean.”
“Elijah,” Yvonne reached for his hand and Orli sat back amazed and forgotten. “I could give you platitudes about the journey you’ve made, the decisions you’ve taken but I won’t. You have made yourself what you are and you should be proud of yourself. I am proud of you and I consider it a privilege to know you.”
Elijah had always thought of himself as strong, he’d take on anyone, anything and normally win. He considered being emotional as weak and he’d fight hell and high water not to cry. But right now he thought he might just give it a go.
Yvonne saw it all flash across his face and turned her attention to Orli. “As far as I am concerned that’s it, the matter is closed and that’s the end of it. However, if there is anything I can do, you only have to say. If this man bothers you anymore then we will have to consider what action we can take.”
She still hadn’t let go of Elijah’s hand. “Frank might not be of much use in this, he has found it all rather difficult.” She gave a quick glance back at Elijah. “He saw the photographs, briefly, and I’m afraid he couldn’t cope. You shouldn’t expect him to be his normal happy-go-lucky self.” She stopped, leaving the expression hanging in the air and waited. Orli and Elijah looked at each other in amazement.
No one in their right mind had ever called Frank Bloom happy-go-lucky.
“You’re mad,” Orli stared at his mother.
Yvonne grinned from on pearl decorated ear to the other.
+
Tense.
Frank Bloom was tense and embarrassed, deeply self conscious and uncomfortable. Happy-go-lucky was the last thing he could be described as being, as he sat upright at the table, carefully chewing his food and not making eye contact with anyone. Following Yvonne’s lead, they decided to find it funny.
Afterwards Orli and his father dried up the last of the dinner dishes in the kitchen. Orli polished each pot till it shone following his mother’s exacting instructions, his father putting them in their allotted place, whilst Elijah and Yvonne walked in the chilly garden. Orli watched them through the window, a smile curling his lips, an erection tenting his trousers. His hand wandered down to just push against the tip and he bit his lip.
“You’re still flaunting it,” Frank hissed, completely unexpectedly, behind Orli back. “Look at you, you’re still flaunting your.... your ‘relationship’ in my face,” he said bitterly, the word curled in so much hostility it took Orli’s breath away. “You bring him here, to this decent, normal house and drool over him. It isn’t right.”
“Dad!” Orli turned round in surprise. His father never talked about things like this, never, and now his face was a mask of revulsion. Frank looked out the window and a million conflicting emotions fought with the revulsion. He quickly pulled away as though the sight were too painful to see.
Frank might not talk about such things but it didn’t mean he could get away with statements like that. Orli had had enough of people interfering with the only thing that was important to him. It didn’t matter who they were or the provocation. “I’m sorry,” he said, trying to keep his voice calm. “But I’m not ‘flaunting my relationship in your face.’ What Elijah and I have has noting to do with you.” He stared at his father. “Everything I do is about him.”
“That... animal,” Frank’s face twisted in a grimace of distaste. His old knobbly knuckles wringing together as he tried frantically to maintain his control. “He’s caught you in his snare so tight that you can’t see anything properly anymore.”
Orli thought about being angry but sighed instead, a sigh of submission and futility. He wasn’t going to fight with his father, there was no point. He wasn’t going to waste his energy on it. He looked out the window again, at Elijah trying to make approving small talk with Yvonne about her winter pansies. “He isn’t an animal dad, he’s wonderful,” he looked back at his father. “But this isn’t about him, is it? Why can’t you just accept I’m gay?”
“I do,” Frank blustered, caught unawares by the sudden turn of the discussion.
“No you don’t, not really. You try and pretend to yourself that someone else has made me like it, corrupted me, but they haven’t. I like men, I don’t like women; accept that. Accept I’m with the most amazing man and,” he paused significantly. “Accept that you were briefly attracted to him as well.”
This was something that no one was ever allowed to mention, ever allowed to even come close to.
“I was not,” Frank exclaimed, his normally deep resonant voice almost shrill. “He just... he confused me and...” he had gone red in the face, now the colour was draining to an ashen pallor.
“Dad,” Orli said softly. “You did and you had no choice. I know what Elijah’s like when he turns it on, I know what he’s capable of. I know a lot of things you don’t. Trust me, you never stood a chance. He was a manipulative, controlling, sex obsessed slut but he’s not like that anymore. Now he’s decent and honest and he’s got enough problems that he shouldn’t have to worry about you as well. You don’t have to be frightened of him.”
“I am not frightened of him,” Frank said indignantly. This conversation was getting away from him. He hadn’t wanted to start it; it was Orli’s fault for flaunting things. Slavering over that boy. Getting a physical reaction to him in his mother’s kitchen. How could he be so sordid? His mother’s kitchen. And now Orli was trying to force him to look at things he didn’t want to see.
“Let it go,” Orli said, ignoring him. “It’s in the past, see him for what he is now. This is your problem, not ours. It always has been and I’m leaving you to it,” and with that Orli walked away.
Frank stood erect, his tie not a millimetre out of line, but his face so white it had the look of a death mask.
+
Out in the garden Orli found Elijah and his mother bent over a barrel of what appeared to be empty soil. She was explaining something in detail, he looked half way between confused and cold. Yvonne had decided that the issue of the photographs was closed, so that’s what it was. She’d left Elijah room to talk about it if he wanted, checking that he was all right, not pushing when he assured her that, now, he was, and he was grateful to her.
Orli came up behind them, wrapped his arms round Elijah’s waist, hooked his fingers in the front pockets of his jeans and rested his chin on Elijah’s shoulder. Immediately Elijah pushed back into the touch, smiling.
But then he felt it; even though he couldn’t see Orli’s face he felt the lack of a smile through the layers of clothes and the skin of his back. “What’s the matter?” he asked, turning in the circle of Orli’s arms.
“Nothing,” Orli brushed a stay bit of dirt from Elijah’s cheek and Yvonne felt almost embarrassed to be watching.
“I shall go and make coffee,” she announced. “It’ll warm us up. I made coconut cake as well, we could all do with a slice.”
Elijah slipped his hands around Orli, inside the layer of his shirt. “Your mum goes all mushy when we make out. She thinks we’re sweet, she told me so.”
“I’m not sure about sweet,” Orli pulled him closer, kissing him gently.
“I’m not sure either, you have that look on your face.”
“What look?”
“The one that means you want to get me naked,” Elijah kissed him back, not quite so gently. “You like me naked.”
“I do,” Orli breathed into Elijah’s hair, closing his eyes and holding on tight. “I want to get you naked and get inside you but not just to get off. I want...”
“Orlando?” Elijah pushed him away so he could see Orli’s face. “What is it?”
“I want to mark you as taken and, oh fuck...”
“What happened?” Elijah asked softly.
“Nothing,” Orli shook his head, Elijah had enough to worry about right now.
“Come on,” Elijah rubbed at Orli’s cold arms. “You know you’re going to tell me sooner or later, it’s just a matter of time. You might as well make it now.”
“I had a bit of a run in with my dad,” Orli admitted, stroking his hands up under Elijah’s denim jacket. “Not a row,” he added quickly when he saw Elijah’s stricken face. “Just a... I’m sick of looking at his disapproving face. I told him to get over it, to move on.”
“Or else?”
“There wasn’t an ‘or else,’ I just can’t be bothered to pussy-foot around him anymore. If he doesn’t like me being gay and being with you, tough.”
“He’s had a lot to take in, if he saw those pictures,” Elijah let the implication hang.
“Stop making excuses for him. He hates you because you remind him that he fancied you and I can’t stand that narrow-mindedness anymore. Plus,” Orli had to say it all now he’d got going. “I can’t stand that fact he did fancy you. Fuck it Elijah you’re mine, no one else is allowed to fancy you.”
“You stupid arse,” Elijah smiled affectionately. “He doesn’t matter, I don’t care about him.”
“Well I do,” Orli shivered, hugging Elijah and not just for warmth. “He should have got over it by now and get his hands off what’s mine.”
“He hasn’t got his hands on what’s yours, he never has.”
“So? He should still leave well alone,” Orli sounded petulant.
“And you should leave him alone. Go inside you plonker, you’re freezing,” Elijah pushed Orli towards the door. “I promised your mum I’d sort out the garden furniture before I came in and you know no one lets her down.”
+
Inside it was warm, like a comforting blanket that enveloped him as soon as Orli got through the door. He followed the sounds into the kitchen, standing with his bum resting against the radiator watching as Yvonne loaded a tray with coffee cups and slices of cake. She didn’t say anything at first but then the silence got the better of her. Yvonne was a ‘doer,’ even she admitted that she wasn’t very good at sitting back and waiting for things to happen.
“Have you fallen out with your father?”
“Nope,” Orli hitched up so he was almost sitting on the radiator. “But if he wants to fall out I’m not going to stop him.”
“What was it about?”
“My being gay. Elijah. The usual things.”
“Oh Orli, do you have to fight with him? Can’t we just ignore it as usual?”
“I’m not fighting mum, but I’ve had enough of him looking at me like I’m some kind of deviant and Elijah even worse. If you want to ignore it he’ll have to put up a better act. Elijah and I...” he paused, just for a moment, his tone turning soft and weary. “We’ve got enough to deal with at the moment, we don’t need him starting as well.”
“Did he start something?” Yvonne crossed her arms over her chest. Not a good sign. Orli hoped it wasn’t for him, but if it was, so be it.
“Yeah, he called Elijah an animal. I wasn’t having that and I didn’t let it go like he expected. I told him to get over it and that it was his problem,” he shrugged his shoulders. “It’s up to him now.”
Yvonne snorted out a breath of annoyance. “Silly man, he needs to learn when to leave things alone.” She turned back to her preparations, brisk and efficient again. “I’ll deal with him, you concentrate on Elijah. He needs you.”
“I always concentrate on Elijah,” Orli said.
“Good. It must have been such an awful blow for him.”
“You could say that. It knocked him sideways and he’s also learned some other things that hurt.”
Yvonne looked at him but didn’t ask. “It must be hard for you as well, I know how jealous you are when it comes to Elijah.”
“Oh it hurts, believe me it hurts,” Orli said passionately. “But what’s even worse is seeing how it’s cut him. He started questioning himself, worrying that he might be as evil as his father.”
“That’s ridiculous,” Yvonne banged the lid back on the coffee maker just a little too hard. “Elijah is a decent young man.”
“Don’t worry, I’ve told him that so many times, I think he believes me.”
She pursed her lips, as decisive as ever. “This may be hard for you but your job now is to take care of him and reassure him.”
Orli did the only thing he could do, the same thing he’d been doing all his life. He smiled and answered meekly, “Yes mum.”
Yvonne didn’t seem to notice. “It’s the fact that it was his father that makes it all so difficult and sordid. I don’t think the actual event particularly bothered him.” She looked out the window at Elijah still fighting to fit the cover over the patio furniture and smiled. “What Elijah did was so long ago that it shouldn’t matter, and it didn’t appear to be so terrible. He didn’t look to be in pain, in fact he looked happy enough in most of the photographs.”
Orli had his hand half way to the plate full of cake but abruptly stopped, holding completely still. “How do you know?” he asked, his voice very, very soft. But the next moment he was pulling at Yvonne’s arm, dragging her round to face him. “How do you know what Elijah looked like?” He felt the colour drain from his face as though it were happening in slow motion. “My God, you looked, didn’t you mum?” His fingers tightened on her arm. “You really looked at those pictures, you must have studied them to know what his face looked like, whether he was happy.” He suddenly let go of her, as though her flesh was tainted or burnt his fingers. “You’re just like all the others that want to look at him,” Orli exclaimed, wide eyed and appalled. “You’re perverted.”
“No Orli, no. I didn’t mean it like that,” Yvonne said desperately. “I just meant that Elijah didn’t look like he was suffering.”
“But you had to be really looking to see that, it’s not the first thing your eyes fix on when you see those pictures.”
“I...” Yvonne didn’t know what else to say. She wanted to say something, take it back, make it better. Get that look off her son’s face, but she didn’t know how. She didn’t understand.
“When you saw what they were why didn’t you stuff them back in the envelope or better still, burn them?” The accusation was thick in his voice. “I actually thought you were on our side, how wrong could I be,” Orli’s face closed in a way that frightened Yvonne. She reached for him but her hand was brushed brusquely away. “You’re just like all the rest, you see him in the same way as all the rest.”
“But it’s not…” This time Orli didn’t give her a chance to finish; he marched out of the kitchen to the garden.
“’Lijah,” he called.
“What?” Elijah was still grappling with the green tarpaulin. At that moment it was caught round the table, two chairs and his shoulder. It seemed ready to envelop him.
“Come on, we’re going.”
“Now?” Elijah knew that tone. “You had another row with your dad?”
“Now,” Orli beckoned to him, not answering.
“All right, let me just finish this.”
“No now,” Orli nearly shouted and this time Elijah looked at his eyes. Something was wrong, seriously wrong. He dropped the cover and went over to Orli, slipping his hand into Orli’s pocket, wanting to be part of this, whatever ‘this’ was.
“What’s the matter?”
“Nothing,” Orli wiped at his face. “I’ll tell you when we get home.” So there was something and it was as bad as Elijah feared.
“Okay, I’ll just say goodbye to your mum.”
“No! I don’t want you going in there,” Orli pulled him away. “We can go out the side gate.”
Again Elijah looked at Orli. Something had shocked Orli to his core and it hurt. He linked their fingers together. “I left the car keys on the hall table,” he squeezed the hand in his as Orli’s face blanched.
“I’ll get them,” Orli said.
But Elijah didn’t like that idea, they did everything together now, everything important, and by the look on Orli’s face this was important. He didn’t say anything but he didn’t let go, following behind. Orli didn’t stop him.
They walked straight through the house, found the keys, and headed for the front door. Just as they were leaving Orli turned back, going into the dining room, opening drawers, pulling things out and throwing them on the floor. Then the envelope with the photographs was in his hand and they were off again. As they went back up the hall Elijah caught sight of Yvonne in the living room. She looked distraught. He hadn’t seen her looking like that since the night Orli had taken too many pills.
He started towards her but was abruptly pulled out of the front door and then Orli was slamming it behind them.
But they couldn’t go like this, whatever had happened, they couldn’t just leave things as they were. And it had something to do with those pictures. Elijah pulled back on Orli’s hand, stopping him in the front garden. Roughly he turned Orli so they were eye to eye, but then his hand turned soft on Orli’s arm. “What is it?”
Orli bit at his lip and tried to look away. But again Elijah wasn’t going to accept that. This was his fault. “I’m not going anywhere till you tell me. Did you argue with your mum?”
Orli twitched nervously, his whole body screaming the need to run but Elijah wouldn’t let him. He held Orli tight, one hand on his waistband the other on his arm. “Tell me,” he said softly.
Orli sighed, a sigh of despair. “She looked at the pictures ‘Lijah, I mean she really looked at them. And,” he pulled Elijah closer, not hugging him, but close enough so that he could almost whisper in Elijah’s hair. “She reacted to them… in the same way everyone else would.”
Elijah wanted to sigh, wanted to scream, wanted to run away shouting, wanted to kill the whole fucking world and everyone in it. Instead he grabbed at Orli, pulling him into a desperate hug, his fingers too tight on Orli’s hair and back. He shouldn’t be doing that, he should be getting away from this good and moral man who was hurting because of him.
But they’d been down that road before and it wasn’t an alternative. They either made it together or they didn’t make it at all.
All those thoughts ran through Elijah’s mind in moments as he held Orli, harsh and hard. Then Orli was burying his face into Elijah’s hair, murmuring in his ear. “I thought she was different, special. The perfect mum. But she’s just like everyone else.”
“No she’s not,” Elijah twisted the fabric of Orli’s shirt between his fingers, tearing the fibres. “She is different,” he pushed Orli away so he could see his face. “But she’s not perfect, no one is.” They looked at each other for a long moment, staring hard.
“I don’t know what to do,” Orli admitted.
“I’ll tell you what we’re going to do,” and just that statement calmed Orli. What ‘we’re’ going to do. Not you or me but we. “We’re going to go back and knock on the door and say goodbye to your mum properly and then we’re going home to shut out the world like we always do.”
Orli pulled Elijah into another hug and squeezed him so hard they could both hear his bones creak. Then Elijah led them back to the door and rang the bell. By the time Yvonne answered both their faces were composed as they stood, hip to hip, thumbs hooked in the back of each other’s trousers.
“Thank you for dinner,” Orli said formally. “We enjoyed it.”
“And we’ll be back next week, if you want us,” Elijah added.
“I,” Yvonne was almost overcome. “Of course I want you to come next Sunday, both of you.” They turned to leave but Yvonne called after them. “Why don’t you come back in now, we can talk.”
They both looked round but it was Elijah that spoke. “Not yet,” he smiled at Yvonne. “But don’t worry, everything’s going to be all right.”
And it would be even if it killed him.
+
Chapter: Eight
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.
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 Eight
Orli’s feeling that something was wrong intensified as soon as they got to his parent’s house. It was too quiet inside and his mother kept fiddling with her pearls and refusing to meet their eyes. When she said she’d sent his father out to get some shopping she’d forgotten, Orli cracked, sitting her down at the table and demanding to know what was going on. Yvonne never forgot shopping and Frank never agreed to get it.
Elijah stood watching when Orli sat opposite his mother, but he was unceremoniously pulled into the next chair. “This concerns both of us, doesn’t it mum,” Orli stated rather than asked.
“Yes, I rather think it does.” Still she wouldn’t look at them.
“You’d better tell us then. Let me guess, is there some other family occasion we’re not invited to?”
“No, I,” Yvonne hesitated. “I don’t really know how to talk about this but I appreciate that I have to. Your father, well, he really couldn’t manage and I thought he’d only be a hindrance so I sent him out and…”
“Stop rambling and tell us.”
Yvonne squared her shoulders and got up, moving towards the sideboard. She came back with a large white envelope in her hand and Elijah’s heart sank. Not her, not them. Not her. She was one of the few people he didn’t want to see the photographs.
She pulled the contents half way out and put it on the table between them. “These arrived in the post yesterday, I thought you should know.” And then all of a sudden her composure was gone, her face went ashen, her eyes bulged and she stared at Elijah in absolute horror. “What have I done? Does he know Elijah? Have you told him?”
Elijah reached over and patted Yvonne’s hand where it gripped the edge of the table. “Yes of course he knows. He knows what I did and he’s seen the pictures, we got sent a set ourselves a while back.”
“Oh thank goodness, I thought for a moment that I’d broken your confidence, that I was about to show Orli something you’d kept private.”
“I don’t keep anything private from Orli,” Elijah reassured her.
“But I should have spoken to you alone, I had no right to make such an assumption.”
“Yvonne,” Elijah gave her hand one final pat. “It’s all right.”
Orli caught hold of the envelope and pulled the pictures a little further out. Yep, he knew these, there were burned onto his brain, except… sweet Jesus. There was one extra photo, yet more explicit, one that managed to make even Orli grimace. He handed it over to Elijah.
Elijah barely raised an eyebrow before dropping them back on the table where they could be seen in full Technicolor. Orli couldn’t help it; he pushed them back in the envelope. Not in front of his mother.
“I,” Yvonne wasn’t quite sure what to say. She’d expected more of a reaction. “Why were they sent to us?” she asked Elijah but her eyes weren’t quite on his face, after that brief moment when she thought she’d done wrong, she couldn’t face him.
“That man in the photos is trying to blackmail me,” Elijah said simply. “I told him to get lost and he’s trying to push me.”
“What are you going to do? What do you want me to do?” Yvonne asked.
Elijah shrugged. “Nothing, there’s nothing I can do.”
“Aren’t you going to go to the police?”
“Oh come on Yvonne, please!” Elijah leaned back in the chair. “Can you honestly imagine me going to the police? Don’t put that on me.”
“Why not?”
“And answer questions about that time? Tell them how many people I had sex with? Tell them that I didn’t know most of their names? You know what I was like back then, do you really think I want to talk about it to the police?”
“Did you know his name Elijah?” she looked down at the envelope, her voice soft but there was an edge to it.
“Was there a note with the pictures?” Elijah answered her question with one of his own. Her hand went up to her throat, twisting the pearls round and round, and her eyes were even further from Elijah’s. “Yvonne?”
“Yes, there was a note,” she glanced at him briefly. “It said he was your...”
“Father?”
“Yes,” and this time she did look at him. “Is he?”
“Yes.”
“Oh Elijah,” she swept up from the chair, turning her back on them.
“He didn’t know, mum,” Orli almost shouted at her. “He didn’t know the bloke was his father, didn’t know who his father was until a few days ago, he didn’t even know the photos had been taken.”
“Orlando,” Elijah had called his name a couple of times but Orli was too incensed to hear him. It wasn’t till a hand tightened on his arm that he turned back to Elijah. “I don’t need you to defend me. I don’t need defending.”
“But,” Orli sucked in a breath, looked at Elijah’s face, and went silent.
“Did you know?” Yvonne asked.
“Does it matter if I did?”
“I,” that flustered her. She didn’t know how to respond, what to think.
“I’ve told you a lot of things, told you what it was like when I was young but maybe I haven’t told you what I was like before I met Orli,” Elijah looked at her, his gaze calm and steady. “No, I didn’t know he was my father but I’ve done a lot worse than have sex with my parent. You met me then, you have some idea what I was capable of. But I was almost certainly worse than you imagined.”
Yvonne held the back of the chair and looked at Elijah, she was just as calm and steady, but also evaluating. The moment seemed to stretch on and on but neither broke away. And then Yvonne pulled the chair out and sat down again. “I’m sure you had your reasons for whatever you did but it was a different time and you were a different person.”
“It feels like a life time ago but I did do it for any great reason. By that time I’d fuc… have sex with anyone that came my way.”
Yvonne considered this as well. “And your mother?”
“No, I’ve never had sex with her.”
“Elijah!” They both said it at the same time, Yvonne’s voice low and shocked, Orli’s high and horrified.
“What?” he asked. “You didn’t know that,” he looked at Yvonne. “I never sank that low but you need to understand that I wasn’t far from it. If sleeping with her had got me something I wanted, who knows? Luckily I never had to make that decision.”
“And you,” he turned to Orli. “You need to understand that no matter how much I love my mum, with you it’s different. I might have made the decision to manipulate her with sex, I’ll never know for sure, but I won’t do that to you. Not now, not before. Not ever.”
Orli closed his mouth and nodded. Elijah knew, Elijah knew him inside and out, knew his every worry, his every fear. And he knew just when Orli needed reassurance, which was too often, but he gave it anyway. Orli nodded again and reminded himself just how damned lucky he was.
Yvonne thought her son was pretty lucky as well. Lucky to have this man who was just what he needed and knew how to handle him so well. “I assume your mother knows?” she asked.
Elijah nodded. “She does now. She’s scared of him, she wanted me to run away.”
“And are you going to?”
Elijah looked at Orli, then back at Yvonne and smiled. “What do you think?
Her gaze went from one to the other. “I think that if you wanted to run my son would go with you, and if that meant I never got to see him again he’d think it a bargain well made.” Again she looked from one to the other, finally settling on Elijah where she nodded in acknowledgement. “But you won’t, you won’t run.”
“Can you be so sure?”
“Yes,” once more she nodded, certain now. “You won’t run because you’re strong, stronger than anyone I know.”
“I’ve felt like running,” Elijah admitted, his voice soft. Yvonne hadn’t looked at him with utter disgust, hadn’t shied away or thrown him out. She was pretty damned strong herself. And Elijah could talk to her. “I felt like running and hiding and scrubbing myself till I bled, trying to get clean.”
“Elijah,” Yvonne reached for his hand and Orli sat back amazed and forgotten. “I could give you platitudes about the journey you’ve made, the decisions you’ve taken but I won’t. You have made yourself what you are and you should be proud of yourself. I am proud of you and I consider it a privilege to know you.”
Elijah had always thought of himself as strong, he’d take on anyone, anything and normally win. He considered being emotional as weak and he’d fight hell and high water not to cry. But right now he thought he might just give it a go.
Yvonne saw it all flash across his face and turned her attention to Orli. “As far as I am concerned that’s it, the matter is closed and that’s the end of it. However, if there is anything I can do, you only have to say. If this man bothers you anymore then we will have to consider what action we can take.”
She still hadn’t let go of Elijah’s hand. “Frank might not be of much use in this, he has found it all rather difficult.” She gave a quick glance back at Elijah. “He saw the photographs, briefly, and I’m afraid he couldn’t cope. You shouldn’t expect him to be his normal happy-go-lucky self.” She stopped, leaving the expression hanging in the air and waited. Orli and Elijah looked at each other in amazement.
No one in their right mind had ever called Frank Bloom happy-go-lucky.
“You’re mad,” Orli stared at his mother.
Yvonne grinned from on pearl decorated ear to the other.
+
Tense.
Frank Bloom was tense and embarrassed, deeply self conscious and uncomfortable. Happy-go-lucky was the last thing he could be described as being, as he sat upright at the table, carefully chewing his food and not making eye contact with anyone. Following Yvonne’s lead, they decided to find it funny.
Afterwards Orli and his father dried up the last of the dinner dishes in the kitchen. Orli polished each pot till it shone following his mother’s exacting instructions, his father putting them in their allotted place, whilst Elijah and Yvonne walked in the chilly garden. Orli watched them through the window, a smile curling his lips, an erection tenting his trousers. His hand wandered down to just push against the tip and he bit his lip.
“You’re still flaunting it,” Frank hissed, completely unexpectedly, behind Orli back. “Look at you, you’re still flaunting your.... your ‘relationship’ in my face,” he said bitterly, the word curled in so much hostility it took Orli’s breath away. “You bring him here, to this decent, normal house and drool over him. It isn’t right.”
“Dad!” Orli turned round in surprise. His father never talked about things like this, never, and now his face was a mask of revulsion. Frank looked out the window and a million conflicting emotions fought with the revulsion. He quickly pulled away as though the sight were too painful to see.
Frank might not talk about such things but it didn’t mean he could get away with statements like that. Orli had had enough of people interfering with the only thing that was important to him. It didn’t matter who they were or the provocation. “I’m sorry,” he said, trying to keep his voice calm. “But I’m not ‘flaunting my relationship in your face.’ What Elijah and I have has noting to do with you.” He stared at his father. “Everything I do is about him.”
“That... animal,” Frank’s face twisted in a grimace of distaste. His old knobbly knuckles wringing together as he tried frantically to maintain his control. “He’s caught you in his snare so tight that you can’t see anything properly anymore.”
Orli thought about being angry but sighed instead, a sigh of submission and futility. He wasn’t going to fight with his father, there was no point. He wasn’t going to waste his energy on it. He looked out the window again, at Elijah trying to make approving small talk with Yvonne about her winter pansies. “He isn’t an animal dad, he’s wonderful,” he looked back at his father. “But this isn’t about him, is it? Why can’t you just accept I’m gay?”
“I do,” Frank blustered, caught unawares by the sudden turn of the discussion.
“No you don’t, not really. You try and pretend to yourself that someone else has made me like it, corrupted me, but they haven’t. I like men, I don’t like women; accept that. Accept I’m with the most amazing man and,” he paused significantly. “Accept that you were briefly attracted to him as well.”
This was something that no one was ever allowed to mention, ever allowed to even come close to.
“I was not,” Frank exclaimed, his normally deep resonant voice almost shrill. “He just... he confused me and...” he had gone red in the face, now the colour was draining to an ashen pallor.
“Dad,” Orli said softly. “You did and you had no choice. I know what Elijah’s like when he turns it on, I know what he’s capable of. I know a lot of things you don’t. Trust me, you never stood a chance. He was a manipulative, controlling, sex obsessed slut but he’s not like that anymore. Now he’s decent and honest and he’s got enough problems that he shouldn’t have to worry about you as well. You don’t have to be frightened of him.”
“I am not frightened of him,” Frank said indignantly. This conversation was getting away from him. He hadn’t wanted to start it; it was Orli’s fault for flaunting things. Slavering over that boy. Getting a physical reaction to him in his mother’s kitchen. How could he be so sordid? His mother’s kitchen. And now Orli was trying to force him to look at things he didn’t want to see.
“Let it go,” Orli said, ignoring him. “It’s in the past, see him for what he is now. This is your problem, not ours. It always has been and I’m leaving you to it,” and with that Orli walked away.
Frank stood erect, his tie not a millimetre out of line, but his face so white it had the look of a death mask.
+
Out in the garden Orli found Elijah and his mother bent over a barrel of what appeared to be empty soil. She was explaining something in detail, he looked half way between confused and cold. Yvonne had decided that the issue of the photographs was closed, so that’s what it was. She’d left Elijah room to talk about it if he wanted, checking that he was all right, not pushing when he assured her that, now, he was, and he was grateful to her.
Orli came up behind them, wrapped his arms round Elijah’s waist, hooked his fingers in the front pockets of his jeans and rested his chin on Elijah’s shoulder. Immediately Elijah pushed back into the touch, smiling.
But then he felt it; even though he couldn’t see Orli’s face he felt the lack of a smile through the layers of clothes and the skin of his back. “What’s the matter?” he asked, turning in the circle of Orli’s arms.
“Nothing,” Orli brushed a stay bit of dirt from Elijah’s cheek and Yvonne felt almost embarrassed to be watching.
“I shall go and make coffee,” she announced. “It’ll warm us up. I made coconut cake as well, we could all do with a slice.”
Elijah slipped his hands around Orli, inside the layer of his shirt. “Your mum goes all mushy when we make out. She thinks we’re sweet, she told me so.”
“I’m not sure about sweet,” Orli pulled him closer, kissing him gently.
“I’m not sure either, you have that look on your face.”
“What look?”
“The one that means you want to get me naked,” Elijah kissed him back, not quite so gently. “You like me naked.”
“I do,” Orli breathed into Elijah’s hair, closing his eyes and holding on tight. “I want to get you naked and get inside you but not just to get off. I want...”
“Orlando?” Elijah pushed him away so he could see Orli’s face. “What is it?”
“I want to mark you as taken and, oh fuck...”
“What happened?” Elijah asked softly.
“Nothing,” Orli shook his head, Elijah had enough to worry about right now.
“Come on,” Elijah rubbed at Orli’s cold arms. “You know you’re going to tell me sooner or later, it’s just a matter of time. You might as well make it now.”
“I had a bit of a run in with my dad,” Orli admitted, stroking his hands up under Elijah’s denim jacket. “Not a row,” he added quickly when he saw Elijah’s stricken face. “Just a... I’m sick of looking at his disapproving face. I told him to get over it, to move on.”
“Or else?”
“There wasn’t an ‘or else,’ I just can’t be bothered to pussy-foot around him anymore. If he doesn’t like me being gay and being with you, tough.”
“He’s had a lot to take in, if he saw those pictures,” Elijah let the implication hang.
“Stop making excuses for him. He hates you because you remind him that he fancied you and I can’t stand that narrow-mindedness anymore. Plus,” Orli had to say it all now he’d got going. “I can’t stand that fact he did fancy you. Fuck it Elijah you’re mine, no one else is allowed to fancy you.”
“You stupid arse,” Elijah smiled affectionately. “He doesn’t matter, I don’t care about him.”
“Well I do,” Orli shivered, hugging Elijah and not just for warmth. “He should have got over it by now and get his hands off what’s mine.”
“He hasn’t got his hands on what’s yours, he never has.”
“So? He should still leave well alone,” Orli sounded petulant.
“And you should leave him alone. Go inside you plonker, you’re freezing,” Elijah pushed Orli towards the door. “I promised your mum I’d sort out the garden furniture before I came in and you know no one lets her down.”
+
Inside it was warm, like a comforting blanket that enveloped him as soon as Orli got through the door. He followed the sounds into the kitchen, standing with his bum resting against the radiator watching as Yvonne loaded a tray with coffee cups and slices of cake. She didn’t say anything at first but then the silence got the better of her. Yvonne was a ‘doer,’ even she admitted that she wasn’t very good at sitting back and waiting for things to happen.
“Have you fallen out with your father?”
“Nope,” Orli hitched up so he was almost sitting on the radiator. “But if he wants to fall out I’m not going to stop him.”
“What was it about?”
“My being gay. Elijah. The usual things.”
“Oh Orli, do you have to fight with him? Can’t we just ignore it as usual?”
“I’m not fighting mum, but I’ve had enough of him looking at me like I’m some kind of deviant and Elijah even worse. If you want to ignore it he’ll have to put up a better act. Elijah and I...” he paused, just for a moment, his tone turning soft and weary. “We’ve got enough to deal with at the moment, we don’t need him starting as well.”
“Did he start something?” Yvonne crossed her arms over her chest. Not a good sign. Orli hoped it wasn’t for him, but if it was, so be it.
“Yeah, he called Elijah an animal. I wasn’t having that and I didn’t let it go like he expected. I told him to get over it and that it was his problem,” he shrugged his shoulders. “It’s up to him now.”
Yvonne snorted out a breath of annoyance. “Silly man, he needs to learn when to leave things alone.” She turned back to her preparations, brisk and efficient again. “I’ll deal with him, you concentrate on Elijah. He needs you.”
“I always concentrate on Elijah,” Orli said.
“Good. It must have been such an awful blow for him.”
“You could say that. It knocked him sideways and he’s also learned some other things that hurt.”
Yvonne looked at him but didn’t ask. “It must be hard for you as well, I know how jealous you are when it comes to Elijah.”
“Oh it hurts, believe me it hurts,” Orli said passionately. “But what’s even worse is seeing how it’s cut him. He started questioning himself, worrying that he might be as evil as his father.”
“That’s ridiculous,” Yvonne banged the lid back on the coffee maker just a little too hard. “Elijah is a decent young man.”
“Don’t worry, I’ve told him that so many times, I think he believes me.”
She pursed her lips, as decisive as ever. “This may be hard for you but your job now is to take care of him and reassure him.”
Orli did the only thing he could do, the same thing he’d been doing all his life. He smiled and answered meekly, “Yes mum.”
Yvonne didn’t seem to notice. “It’s the fact that it was his father that makes it all so difficult and sordid. I don’t think the actual event particularly bothered him.” She looked out the window at Elijah still fighting to fit the cover over the patio furniture and smiled. “What Elijah did was so long ago that it shouldn’t matter, and it didn’t appear to be so terrible. He didn’t look to be in pain, in fact he looked happy enough in most of the photographs.”
Orli had his hand half way to the plate full of cake but abruptly stopped, holding completely still. “How do you know?” he asked, his voice very, very soft. But the next moment he was pulling at Yvonne’s arm, dragging her round to face him. “How do you know what Elijah looked like?” He felt the colour drain from his face as though it were happening in slow motion. “My God, you looked, didn’t you mum?” His fingers tightened on her arm. “You really looked at those pictures, you must have studied them to know what his face looked like, whether he was happy.” He suddenly let go of her, as though her flesh was tainted or burnt his fingers. “You’re just like all the others that want to look at him,” Orli exclaimed, wide eyed and appalled. “You’re perverted.”
“No Orli, no. I didn’t mean it like that,” Yvonne said desperately. “I just meant that Elijah didn’t look like he was suffering.”
“But you had to be really looking to see that, it’s not the first thing your eyes fix on when you see those pictures.”
“I...” Yvonne didn’t know what else to say. She wanted to say something, take it back, make it better. Get that look off her son’s face, but she didn’t know how. She didn’t understand.
“When you saw what they were why didn’t you stuff them back in the envelope or better still, burn them?” The accusation was thick in his voice. “I actually thought you were on our side, how wrong could I be,” Orli’s face closed in a way that frightened Yvonne. She reached for him but her hand was brushed brusquely away. “You’re just like all the rest, you see him in the same way as all the rest.”
“But it’s not…” This time Orli didn’t give her a chance to finish; he marched out of the kitchen to the garden.
“’Lijah,” he called.
“What?” Elijah was still grappling with the green tarpaulin. At that moment it was caught round the table, two chairs and his shoulder. It seemed ready to envelop him.
“Come on, we’re going.”
“Now?” Elijah knew that tone. “You had another row with your dad?”
“Now,” Orli beckoned to him, not answering.
“All right, let me just finish this.”
“No now,” Orli nearly shouted and this time Elijah looked at his eyes. Something was wrong, seriously wrong. He dropped the cover and went over to Orli, slipping his hand into Orli’s pocket, wanting to be part of this, whatever ‘this’ was.
“What’s the matter?”
“Nothing,” Orli wiped at his face. “I’ll tell you when we get home.” So there was something and it was as bad as Elijah feared.
“Okay, I’ll just say goodbye to your mum.”
“No! I don’t want you going in there,” Orli pulled him away. “We can go out the side gate.”
Again Elijah looked at Orli. Something had shocked Orli to his core and it hurt. He linked their fingers together. “I left the car keys on the hall table,” he squeezed the hand in his as Orli’s face blanched.
“I’ll get them,” Orli said.
But Elijah didn’t like that idea, they did everything together now, everything important, and by the look on Orli’s face this was important. He didn’t say anything but he didn’t let go, following behind. Orli didn’t stop him.
They walked straight through the house, found the keys, and headed for the front door. Just as they were leaving Orli turned back, going into the dining room, opening drawers, pulling things out and throwing them on the floor. Then the envelope with the photographs was in his hand and they were off again. As they went back up the hall Elijah caught sight of Yvonne in the living room. She looked distraught. He hadn’t seen her looking like that since the night Orli had taken too many pills.
He started towards her but was abruptly pulled out of the front door and then Orli was slamming it behind them.
But they couldn’t go like this, whatever had happened, they couldn’t just leave things as they were. And it had something to do with those pictures. Elijah pulled back on Orli’s hand, stopping him in the front garden. Roughly he turned Orli so they were eye to eye, but then his hand turned soft on Orli’s arm. “What is it?”
Orli bit at his lip and tried to look away. But again Elijah wasn’t going to accept that. This was his fault. “I’m not going anywhere till you tell me. Did you argue with your mum?”
Orli twitched nervously, his whole body screaming the need to run but Elijah wouldn’t let him. He held Orli tight, one hand on his waistband the other on his arm. “Tell me,” he said softly.
Orli sighed, a sigh of despair. “She looked at the pictures ‘Lijah, I mean she really looked at them. And,” he pulled Elijah closer, not hugging him, but close enough so that he could almost whisper in Elijah’s hair. “She reacted to them… in the same way everyone else would.”
Elijah wanted to sigh, wanted to scream, wanted to run away shouting, wanted to kill the whole fucking world and everyone in it. Instead he grabbed at Orli, pulling him into a desperate hug, his fingers too tight on Orli’s hair and back. He shouldn’t be doing that, he should be getting away from this good and moral man who was hurting because of him.
But they’d been down that road before and it wasn’t an alternative. They either made it together or they didn’t make it at all.
All those thoughts ran through Elijah’s mind in moments as he held Orli, harsh and hard. Then Orli was burying his face into Elijah’s hair, murmuring in his ear. “I thought she was different, special. The perfect mum. But she’s just like everyone else.”
“No she’s not,” Elijah twisted the fabric of Orli’s shirt between his fingers, tearing the fibres. “She is different,” he pushed Orli away so he could see his face. “But she’s not perfect, no one is.” They looked at each other for a long moment, staring hard.
“I don’t know what to do,” Orli admitted.
“I’ll tell you what we’re going to do,” and just that statement calmed Orli. What ‘we’re’ going to do. Not you or me but we. “We’re going to go back and knock on the door and say goodbye to your mum properly and then we’re going home to shut out the world like we always do.”
Orli pulled Elijah into another hug and squeezed him so hard they could both hear his bones creak. Then Elijah led them back to the door and rang the bell. By the time Yvonne answered both their faces were composed as they stood, hip to hip, thumbs hooked in the back of each other’s trousers.
“Thank you for dinner,” Orli said formally. “We enjoyed it.”
“And we’ll be back next week, if you want us,” Elijah added.
“I,” Yvonne was almost overcome. “Of course I want you to come next Sunday, both of you.” They turned to leave but Yvonne called after them. “Why don’t you come back in now, we can talk.”
They both looked round but it was Elijah that spoke. “Not yet,” he smiled at Yvonne. “But don’t worry, everything’s going to be all right.”
And it would be even if it killed him.
+
no subject
no subject
:-)
no subject
I think Orlando overreacted a bit there. His mom has been nothing but supportive. He is just looking for someone he can lash out at and not be in danger of losing their love or getting anyone in trouble. He is looking for an outlet for all the anger and fear and his mom was a handy target who will always forgive him his stupidity because she's his mother. Of course she looked at the pictures, someone sends you naked photos of someone you know doing horrible things, you are going to look and see if it is really them, if they look forced or hurt... Even if his mom did look at them with some sort of appreciation on some level, she is obviously not a pervert, as Orli suggested.
Bad on you Orli. That was way out of line.
no subject
Stop dumping on your mum Orli - that was a red card offence!
*Loves* Darling a wonderful chappie but so upsetting...
no subject
Thanks a million.
no subject
But you're right, Orli is very mixed up about the whole thing. He's hurting and he wants the whole world to hurt right along with him. The whole world, EXCEPT Elijah.
I'm really pleased I could provoke such a reaction from you, thank you so much.
no subject
no subject
Btw, I love the icon.
:-)
no subject
beutifully written as always!!
-Lorelai
no subject
That's a glorious Orli pic you have for your icon, simply gorgeous.
no subject
Orli is getting more overprotective on Lij. I think that's why he reacted that way.
I am sure Lij will calm him down and they will be back to normal soon.
I think Orli's mum was the only person that they were 100% sure that she is on their side and *normal* so when she said that she saw lij happy face in the pics *BOOM* Orli saw red! hehe
This is fantastic, cant wait for the next chapter!!
Lillie
no subject
Thanks a million, the feedback is much appreciated.
no subject
You're writing is always absolutely amazing and this story is fast becoming my favourite of the whole Damaged series.
*Mwah*
no subject
These two are so good, so perfect together that nothing will spoil what they have, and I love them for it.
Thank you so much.
:-)