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Disclaimer: This is a non-commercial, non-profit work of fiction under the names and likenesses of real individuals. This fictional story is not intended to imply that the events herein actually occurred, or that the attitudes or behaviors described are engaged or condoned by the persons whose names are used without permission.

Misunderstanding the Rules

Author: lavitanuova
Original Story: Games by silentdescant
Pairing: Billy/Dom, Dom/Elijah
Rating: PG-13
Summary: Billy's not sure that he likes this game very much.

---

Billy doesn't know what's going through Dom's mind right now. He spends every spare moment thinking this situation over. Every time he's not engaged in conversation, every time he isn't acting or drunk, he's thinking about Dom.

He likes Dom. He likes Dom a whole fucking lot. They're both blokes, but Billy's a flexible guy. He's had too much shit in his life to shy away from a good thing when he sees it. He's weighed the options, listed the pros and cons in his head, and decided that Dom is worth a calculated risk.

*

"Bill," Dom says, tumbling into Billy's room off-balance. He's got a brown paper bag in one hand, a plastic bag of takeaway containers in the other, and a dvd case tucked under his arm. "Not got a bird in here, do you?"

Billy's half-asleep on the bed of the hotel room that's been provided for him while other accommodations are being made. Billy would just as well spend the time in a hotel, since they'll only be filming here for a few weeks, but proximity to his newest best mate might have something to do with that.

"Not so much, no," Billy yawns against the back of his hand and takes the brown bag full of clanking glass bottles of beer. He says with a grin, "Oh, you're fuckin' beautiful, you are."

Dom makes a ridiculous kissy-face at him and grins back. "Dinner and drinks, Bill, I think you're obligated to put out now."

*

Billy does not want to compete for Dom. He tried, for those first few weeks, to ignore the growing signs that pointed toward Dom's involvement with Elijah. He focused on the things that were right in front of his face, concentrated on the way Dom was with him. Those late nights drinking. Wrestling on set. Sitting too close, staring too long. Foreplay - delicious, drawn out, tension filled foreplay. Slow culmination to an ending that Billy could almost taste.

He's not opposed to the occasional one night stand, or casual friends-with-benefits situation but this is not one of them. When he's with Dom, he's planning long term.

Which is why it's so damn frustrating that Dom is playing him.

*

Dom gives him directions over the phone that are mostly intelligible, but the bit that wasn't gives him trouble. Two wrong turns set him thirty minutes late but he's fairly sure that he'll have a seat waiting for him next to Dom when he gets there at a table with a half dozen or so blokes from the crew.

Billy finds the table, finds the crew, but finds no Dom. Someone points toward the toilets so Billy gets a drink and loiters outside the door waiting to greet him when it comes out. Five minutes pass, ten - Billy's about to go in just to see if everything's all right, wondering if maybe he was never in there to begin with, and then the door opens.

Elijah comes out, bright-eyed and surprised to see Billy there. He grins and gives Billy a little wave before nodding toward the bar. Billy nods back, and sets about following him when the door to the toilet opens again and Dom walks out, red-faced with his shirt untucked and his hair a mess.

Something in Billy freezes for just a moment and when Dom sees him his hand reaches up to swipe over his mouth, a gesture that Billy recognized with a sweeping feeling of disappointment.

*

Dom is young and even through his anger Billy makes excuses for him. It's not as if Elijah doesn't have a lot to offer; he's younger, he's Hollywood glitter and hard drunks once in a while, he's willing to stay out all hours, he shares Dom's lust for fast-paced and dangerous, his addiction to adrenaline. Elijah probably doesn't expect anything from Dom and maybe Dom likes it better pressure-free, with no expectations being made on him.

He spends the night with a bottle of whisky and come morning time has made up his mind. He likes (maybe more, but he avoids the other word because it feels sharp and dangerous now) Dom enough to give him time to make up his mind. Billy won't back down but he won't force Dom's hand, either.

It's Billy's hope that Dom and Elijah will burn out on their own, but the weeks progress and if anything the opposite happens. Elijah and Dom are mates, they're good mates that have sex a lot, and Billy can't really complain that he isn't getting physical attention from Dom but it's still not enough. He wants to make Dom choose but he's too much of a coward to risk Dom choosing something that isn't him.

He finds himself feeling like he's in a game and he doesn't like it one bit.

*

"Look, Billy," Elijah comes to him, all wide-eyes and sincerity that makes Billy want to put his fist through another wall. They're on set, and he wonders if Elijah picked a time when they can't cause a scene on purpose. "I don't know what's going on, but you seem like you've got issues with me lately."

"You're fucking Dom," Billy says.

Elijah sits down on the bench beside him and gives him an exasperated look. "So are you, what's the deal? Are you jealous?"

Billy balks at the word but it must be written all over his face so he just glares at the ground between his feet.

"Okay, look, I don't know what's going on but you need to get over it, man. For the good of the team."

"What?" Billy's sullenness evaporates into actual anger. "What the fuck are you on about? I've not said a word to you or to Dom. "

"Yeah but you still make him choose. You fuck with his mind, fuckin' bribe him with dinners and shit. What is that?"

"It's dating, you little shit." Billy rolls his eyes. He truly doesn't dislike Elijah but cannot wait for the day when Elijah outgrows his superiority complex and tunnel-vision. "And you think you aren't trying to sway him, getting him into those posh clubs you like so much? Signing an autograph so they'll let him dj all night? Calling in a favor so he gets to meet the bands he likes?"

Elijah doesn't say anything to that but the slightly guilty look on his face says enough. He stands up, hands out in frustration. "Whatever, fine. Let it be that way."

It comes to his mind a few times that he could just quit. He could show his hand, he could call Dom's bluff and hope it doesn't backfire, he could simple buckle under and let Elijah win. But every time he thinks he's had enough, Dom reels him back in with a kiss and a smile. He's worth it, Billy ends up deciding, every single time. It becomes a power play, something not at all like what Billy ever wanted to happen. He and Elijah make nice in front of other people but it's a secret back and forth.

And then comes the day when Dom decides he's ready to end it.

"The rules have changed," Dom says, and Billy wonders if this is what he'd planned on doing all along. He wonders if Dom really has it in him to do this to both him and Elijah, if he just got off on the knowledge that two men were fighting over him. If he's bored of them both and just wants to move on. He's angry and he doesn't really want to think Dom capable of it but he's not really sure of anything just then.

And then Dom tells them, "I forfeit. I don't want to play anymore," and Billy wonders just how wrong they've all had it.

"Shit," Elijah says, under his breath, as Dom walks away. He looks at Billy with something akin to guilt. Billy sympathises. Just now, he regrets never putting all of his cards on the table but he hadn't quite expected this. "What are you gonna do, man?"

"I don't know." Billy watches Dom walk away. He finds it funny that here and now, Elijah's the one asking him what he's going to do. He wants to run after him but he's not very sure if Dom would even let him in right now. Elijah, he's not the type to run after anyone. The game's over, Billy realizes with a grim satisfaction, but none of them won and it'll be the best Billy can do just to salvage the pieces.

***

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