(no subject)
Wishing Stars
Part 3
d/b
AU
Disclaimer: Fictional
Dom woke early in the morning and there was a thought hovering just out his reach that was making him smile. He snuggled further into the covers. He was unaccustomed to waking up happy and he could not think for a moment what the thought might be. Molly licked at his face and that made him happy but that was not it. An image of green eyes and finely drawn lips entered his mind and he hugged the dog to him tightly and laughed aloud. Of course. Billy.
Billy had been coming to see him for weeks now but except for that first, rainy night he had never slept over. He would stay late into the night and they would kiss for hours and hours. In between the kissing they would talk, but their talk, while amusing, was not particularly revealing. They did not divulge the deep secrets of their respective pasts. They kept their chatter light and pleasant and they had become firm friends. Friends with kissing.
Dom told himself to take it slow and so he had done. Neither of them was in the condition to end up broken hearted. But oh! Those lips, that smile, that voice, and the sounds Billy made when Dom had kissed him until he was breathless. Dom was being driven to distraction.
Dom had to return to work in two days. Distraction was not a good place for him to be.
Work. Dom grimaced just thinking about it. He wanted to return, needed to return. It was an important job; one Dom believed in as much as he believed in breathing but…it had been so nice to pretend, for a little while, that there was no war. He wished that Billy and he could go on pretending that they were falling in love on a planet of their own.
Work. Dom shivered. Surely he wasn’t afraid to go back? He was Dom. He was one of the best tacticians in the galaxy. He was ruthless, cocky, brilliant. He was…
“Too young.”
“I’m twenty. I graduated first in my class.”
“Yes, so I see,” Commander Mortensen closed the dossier that contained Dom’s transcripts, his medical history, a photo of him in his dress uniform.
“My loyalty to The Republic is unquestionable. I led a squadron to victory at Taldart. I have references from all my commanding officers. All I want to do is dedicate my life to beating The League.”
“You want revenge.”
“I want justice.”
Mortensen rose from his chair and wandered over to the window. The city was quiet. It was a holiday on Driden, some religious celebration.
“Justice,” Mortensen repeated. “For your brother?”
Dom swallowed. The collar of his uniform suddenly seemed very tight.
“For everyone. For everyone who died, or…was left.”
“It’s a tricky thing, justice. You need to have a cool head to deliver it.”
Dom didn’t know what to say to that. “I’ve proven myself. I want to do this.”
“It’s a heavy load. For one so young.”
Dom knew Mortensen had his best interests in mind. The old coot was trying to protect him but The Republic wanted Dom and Dom wanted to do this.
“Your son will be entering the corps in the next few years. Ask yourself. Do you want him fighting under someone who doesn’t understand what’s at stake? Do you want your grandchildren growing up with this battle still raging around them? Or do want someone who will finish the job?”
Mortensen sighed and there was a great sorrow in his eyes when he looked at Dom and dismissed him. “You could be my son,” he said as Dom closed the door.
But the next day Mortensen had signed the papers and Dom’s promotion had gone through. He was a leader. He sat day after day in a darkened room surrounded by computer screens. He sipped warm drinks while he led troops of star fighters into war. He oversaw battles on whose outcome the fate of billions of people rested. He was brilliant. He never lost. He never lost until he lost Eros.
With the loss of the planet Eros three billion people died, including all of the fighters in Dom’s fleet. Without that loss Dom wondered if Billy ever would have found his way into Dom’s garden. Would he have stolen that flower, plucked Dom’s heart?
~*~
“Dom? Dom you’re worlds away. Where are you? Come back.”
“I was thinking of my brother.”
“I didn’t know you had a brother.”
“He died.”
“With Earth?”
“No. No, not there. That’s the bitch of it. We were together when Earth fell. Devastated. Our parents gone. Everything. But we had each other, you know? So many people had nothing and we had…We promised never to dwell on it. On Earth. It wasn’t right to mourn so when we still had family. He was always stronger, always made me want live up to his example, you know?”
“What happened?”
“I was in training camp. I had just turned eighteen and he got called up to go check out an installation on Breck Five.”
“Shite,” Billy swore.
“He was a trainer. Taught people how to work their planetary shields and stuff. He was only there for a couple of hours when The League showed up. Blasted the planet to dust.”
“I’m sorry.”
“It was like fate was hunting him. Missed getting him on Earth so…Can’t fool fate.”
“Is that what you’re trying to do? Fool fate?”
“I’m scared, Bill. I’m scared to go back to work.”
“You’d be out of your mind if you weren’t. It’s a hard thing that you do, Dom. The hardest thing there is maybe.”
“No, Bill, you don’t understand. I was only ever any good at it because I was cocky. I was sure of myself, so arrogant. I didn’t believe they’d ever beat me. Now I know they can. I’m not cocky anymore.”
Billy laughed, “Not cocky anymore? You should be.”
“Piss off,” Dom said. He was angry with Billy. How could Billy laugh at him after he had just bared his soul? Of all people, he thought Billy would understand.
“Dom, listen to me. You’re the cockiest son-of-a-bitch I know. Who else, Dom? Who else could walk into my life, take all my resolves about not loving anything ever again, and toss them aside as if they were so much garbage? Who else would dare to?”
“You love? What do you love?”
“You,” Billy said simply. It felt like a very dangerous thing to say but it made Billy feel liberated. “You,” he said again. “You ought to feel cocky if you can get an old ogre like me to fall in love with you. I’d sworn off love.”
“I didn’t plan on it,” Dom said. “I’d never done it before.”
Billy smiled. He had suspected as much. “Are you a virgin, Dom?”
Dom got up and began pacing the room. “There was never any time. I was in training camp at fourteen and there were always my studies. They were important to me and…and…I hadn’t met you yet.”
“You’ve met me now,” Billy said softly. “Come sit by me. We have all the time in the world.”
“That may not be much, the way worlds are dying these days.”
“We have this day, this moment. We have right now.”
Dom stopped his pacing but he didn’t sit. Billy rose to stand in front of him.
“Make it good, Bill. Make it something worth fighting for.”
“I will,” Billy said.
~*~
Billy’s soul had shriveled up and died when Earth fell. So he thought. Perhaps it had just crawled away into some remote corner of himself, battered and bruised, and hidden itself away. But then Dom had come and breathed life into him again. Billy would come home from his evenings kissing Dom and put on old music, music he hadn’t listened to in years. All those artists were dead now and the songs they sang haunted Billy’s heart. No one sang of the sorrow and joy of love like people from Earth.
Billy tried now to show Dom what these lasts weeks had meant to him. He took him to the bedroom and undressed him slowly, reveling in each inch of bared skin. The last of their kind. Would there ever be anyone as beautiful as this again? Would anyone ever love like this? It seemed that all the long lost lovers of Earth were looking over his shoulder, in sadness and in joy, quietly celebrating the resilience of the human spirit, of the healing power of love. So many songs had been sung, so many poets had swooned that it seemed nothing new could be said of love on Earth. What would the poets say about the last love?
The thing that hath been, it is that which shall be; and that which is done is that which shall be done: and there is no new thing under the sun.
Nothing new under countless suns. Countless lovers run across the pages of countless histories from countless planets. Billy let himself sink deep into the age-old ritual of love. There was nothing new about kissing Dom’s neck and belly or the sounds Dom made when he arched off the bed. There were no new words that Billy whispered in Dom’s ear. The sweat on Dom’s brow was as old as the Earth’s lost seas, the seas from which they were both born eons and eons ago. There was nothing new under the sun but you could not tell the farmer boy from Iowa not to be awed at the sight of sea because it was old news. You can not turn a blind eye to the sunset because it happens every evening. You can not ignore the stars because the light that springs from them was kindled before you were born.
The awe and love burning in Dom’s eyes was as fresh and pure as Adam’s.
The race of man was dying. If they were to be the last lovers born of Earth, Billy thought, then let them write a love worth remembering. Let them burn in a love so strong that the light of their people would never go out.
Part 3
d/b
AU
Disclaimer: Fictional
Dom woke early in the morning and there was a thought hovering just out his reach that was making him smile. He snuggled further into the covers. He was unaccustomed to waking up happy and he could not think for a moment what the thought might be. Molly licked at his face and that made him happy but that was not it. An image of green eyes and finely drawn lips entered his mind and he hugged the dog to him tightly and laughed aloud. Of course. Billy.
Billy had been coming to see him for weeks now but except for that first, rainy night he had never slept over. He would stay late into the night and they would kiss for hours and hours. In between the kissing they would talk, but their talk, while amusing, was not particularly revealing. They did not divulge the deep secrets of their respective pasts. They kept their chatter light and pleasant and they had become firm friends. Friends with kissing.
Dom told himself to take it slow and so he had done. Neither of them was in the condition to end up broken hearted. But oh! Those lips, that smile, that voice, and the sounds Billy made when Dom had kissed him until he was breathless. Dom was being driven to distraction.
Dom had to return to work in two days. Distraction was not a good place for him to be.
Work. Dom grimaced just thinking about it. He wanted to return, needed to return. It was an important job; one Dom believed in as much as he believed in breathing but…it had been so nice to pretend, for a little while, that there was no war. He wished that Billy and he could go on pretending that they were falling in love on a planet of their own.
Work. Dom shivered. Surely he wasn’t afraid to go back? He was Dom. He was one of the best tacticians in the galaxy. He was ruthless, cocky, brilliant. He was…
“Too young.”
“I’m twenty. I graduated first in my class.”
“Yes, so I see,” Commander Mortensen closed the dossier that contained Dom’s transcripts, his medical history, a photo of him in his dress uniform.
“My loyalty to The Republic is unquestionable. I led a squadron to victory at Taldart. I have references from all my commanding officers. All I want to do is dedicate my life to beating The League.”
“You want revenge.”
“I want justice.”
Mortensen rose from his chair and wandered over to the window. The city was quiet. It was a holiday on Driden, some religious celebration.
“Justice,” Mortensen repeated. “For your brother?”
Dom swallowed. The collar of his uniform suddenly seemed very tight.
“For everyone. For everyone who died, or…was left.”
“It’s a tricky thing, justice. You need to have a cool head to deliver it.”
Dom didn’t know what to say to that. “I’ve proven myself. I want to do this.”
“It’s a heavy load. For one so young.”
Dom knew Mortensen had his best interests in mind. The old coot was trying to protect him but The Republic wanted Dom and Dom wanted to do this.
“Your son will be entering the corps in the next few years. Ask yourself. Do you want him fighting under someone who doesn’t understand what’s at stake? Do you want your grandchildren growing up with this battle still raging around them? Or do want someone who will finish the job?”
Mortensen sighed and there was a great sorrow in his eyes when he looked at Dom and dismissed him. “You could be my son,” he said as Dom closed the door.
But the next day Mortensen had signed the papers and Dom’s promotion had gone through. He was a leader. He sat day after day in a darkened room surrounded by computer screens. He sipped warm drinks while he led troops of star fighters into war. He oversaw battles on whose outcome the fate of billions of people rested. He was brilliant. He never lost. He never lost until he lost Eros.
With the loss of the planet Eros three billion people died, including all of the fighters in Dom’s fleet. Without that loss Dom wondered if Billy ever would have found his way into Dom’s garden. Would he have stolen that flower, plucked Dom’s heart?
~*~
“Dom? Dom you’re worlds away. Where are you? Come back.”
“I was thinking of my brother.”
“I didn’t know you had a brother.”
“He died.”
“With Earth?”
“No. No, not there. That’s the bitch of it. We were together when Earth fell. Devastated. Our parents gone. Everything. But we had each other, you know? So many people had nothing and we had…We promised never to dwell on it. On Earth. It wasn’t right to mourn so when we still had family. He was always stronger, always made me want live up to his example, you know?”
“What happened?”
“I was in training camp. I had just turned eighteen and he got called up to go check out an installation on Breck Five.”
“Shite,” Billy swore.
“He was a trainer. Taught people how to work their planetary shields and stuff. He was only there for a couple of hours when The League showed up. Blasted the planet to dust.”
“I’m sorry.”
“It was like fate was hunting him. Missed getting him on Earth so…Can’t fool fate.”
“Is that what you’re trying to do? Fool fate?”
“I’m scared, Bill. I’m scared to go back to work.”
“You’d be out of your mind if you weren’t. It’s a hard thing that you do, Dom. The hardest thing there is maybe.”
“No, Bill, you don’t understand. I was only ever any good at it because I was cocky. I was sure of myself, so arrogant. I didn’t believe they’d ever beat me. Now I know they can. I’m not cocky anymore.”
Billy laughed, “Not cocky anymore? You should be.”
“Piss off,” Dom said. He was angry with Billy. How could Billy laugh at him after he had just bared his soul? Of all people, he thought Billy would understand.
“Dom, listen to me. You’re the cockiest son-of-a-bitch I know. Who else, Dom? Who else could walk into my life, take all my resolves about not loving anything ever again, and toss them aside as if they were so much garbage? Who else would dare to?”
“You love? What do you love?”
“You,” Billy said simply. It felt like a very dangerous thing to say but it made Billy feel liberated. “You,” he said again. “You ought to feel cocky if you can get an old ogre like me to fall in love with you. I’d sworn off love.”
“I didn’t plan on it,” Dom said. “I’d never done it before.”
Billy smiled. He had suspected as much. “Are you a virgin, Dom?”
Dom got up and began pacing the room. “There was never any time. I was in training camp at fourteen and there were always my studies. They were important to me and…and…I hadn’t met you yet.”
“You’ve met me now,” Billy said softly. “Come sit by me. We have all the time in the world.”
“That may not be much, the way worlds are dying these days.”
“We have this day, this moment. We have right now.”
Dom stopped his pacing but he didn’t sit. Billy rose to stand in front of him.
“Make it good, Bill. Make it something worth fighting for.”
“I will,” Billy said.
~*~
Billy’s soul had shriveled up and died when Earth fell. So he thought. Perhaps it had just crawled away into some remote corner of himself, battered and bruised, and hidden itself away. But then Dom had come and breathed life into him again. Billy would come home from his evenings kissing Dom and put on old music, music he hadn’t listened to in years. All those artists were dead now and the songs they sang haunted Billy’s heart. No one sang of the sorrow and joy of love like people from Earth.
Billy tried now to show Dom what these lasts weeks had meant to him. He took him to the bedroom and undressed him slowly, reveling in each inch of bared skin. The last of their kind. Would there ever be anyone as beautiful as this again? Would anyone ever love like this? It seemed that all the long lost lovers of Earth were looking over his shoulder, in sadness and in joy, quietly celebrating the resilience of the human spirit, of the healing power of love. So many songs had been sung, so many poets had swooned that it seemed nothing new could be said of love on Earth. What would the poets say about the last love?
The thing that hath been, it is that which shall be; and that which is done is that which shall be done: and there is no new thing under the sun.
Nothing new under countless suns. Countless lovers run across the pages of countless histories from countless planets. Billy let himself sink deep into the age-old ritual of love. There was nothing new about kissing Dom’s neck and belly or the sounds Dom made when he arched off the bed. There were no new words that Billy whispered in Dom’s ear. The sweat on Dom’s brow was as old as the Earth’s lost seas, the seas from which they were both born eons and eons ago. There was nothing new under the sun but you could not tell the farmer boy from Iowa not to be awed at the sight of sea because it was old news. You can not turn a blind eye to the sunset because it happens every evening. You can not ignore the stars because the light that springs from them was kindled before you were born.
The awe and love burning in Dom’s eyes was as fresh and pure as Adam’s.
The race of man was dying. If they were to be the last lovers born of Earth, Billy thought, then let them write a love worth remembering. Let them burn in a love so strong that the light of their people would never go out.