Another (Epilogue)

[million_star]

Title: Another (Epilogue)
Author: million_star
Pairing: Matthew/Dominic AU
Rating: R
Beta/Support: Thank you to mcsparklez & dolcepiccante for input and support.
Here There Be: Mild Angst, Mentions of Abuse, Mostly Fluff
Summary: How do you help someone out of a toxic situation when they don’t realize they’re in one to begin with?
Author’s Note: If you choose to read, as always, thank you. It means so much.  Regardless of if anyone reads this or not, I'm proud of myself for finally finishing it. I had wondered if I would ever post again to be honest. 

One | Two | Three

 

(One month later)


They spent their days driving. Years later, Dominic would look back on these days and lovingly refer to them as their Epic Road Trip. They took turns at the wheel, stopping in random towns to experience the local scenes and drink in the culture.

It had taken some coaxing, but Dominic had finally been able to convince Matthew to, at least for the time being, let Dominic bear the monetary responsibility for their adventure. Matthew had listened, fascinated, as Dominic told him of his late uncle and the fortune that he'd inherited in the wake of his passing. He'd marveled more than once to himself that if anyone deserved a life without financial stress, it was Dominic. Matthew reckoned that he was the closest thing to an actual angel walking the face of the planet. Beautiful, kind, and full of impossible grace, Matthew thanked a higher being that he wasn't certain he even believed in for bringing Dominic into his life.

"We'll have to stop driving eventually, won't we?" Matthew asked one night as they passed through yet another set of city streets.

"Yes, eventually."

"What will we do then?"

"If I'm very lucky, we'll spend the days together."

At that, Matthew had blushed, smiling.

Dominic, until he met Matthew, had next to no experience in interacting with anyone who had been part of an abusive relationship. It was an education. It showed itself in the little things; in the way any unexpected loud noise made Matthew jump, in the way he would automatically hold doors for Dominic, and open car doors also. It became increasingly clear to Dominic that, with Ian, Matthew was forced to walk a very fine line in regards to his behavior, which namely involved Matthew playing a passive, subservient role in the relationship. It also became increasingly clear that it was a habit that Matthew was going to find difficult to break. Whenever they went out for meals, Matthew marveled at being able to order whatever he wished. Dominic, out of genuine curiosity, commented on it one morning over breakfast.

“It must seem like madness to you.”

“No, I just… I just want to understand, or try to.”

Matthew nodded. “I know. I appreciate that. He always ordered for me. Always."

"But, why?"

"It was another way to control me. If I even made eye contact with the wait staff, it would earn me some sort of punishment when we got home. Sometimes, he would order me something that he knew I didn’t like simply because he could do so."

Sometimes, at the most random of moments, they would be walking and Matthew would suddenly turn around and scan the people around them. Eventually, Dominic learned that it was out of simple fear that perhaps, somehow, Ian would be there, like a monster out of a nightmare. This realization led Dominic to place a call to Tom, partly to put himself at ease, but mostly to put Matthew at ease. Aside from a rushed phone call the night they left, Dominic hadn't made any other contact with Tom, for his safety as well as their own.

It was an eye-opening conversation.

According to Tom, Ian had showed up at his apartment the night that Dominic and Matthew left, screaming obscenities and threats at him. A mutual neighbor, who happened to be a police officer, had been unlocking his door during the encounter. He'd approached them and informed Ian that it would be in his best interests to stop levying threats against Tom.

"I don't know what would have happened if Seth hadn't intervened," Tom had confessed, "but I think Ian knew that he'd said too much, because that was the only time he came to my apartment. Thing is, Dom, he's already got someone new. You two hadn't been gone more than a week when I noticed him with another man."

"Another man? He needs to be warned."

"Seth and I are on it. By the way, everything is packed up, the kit and everything - just let me know where to have it shipped to when you get settled, yeah?"

"Thank you for everything, Tom."

"Don't thank me, just be happy, both of you."

Some nights, they watched old movies in their hotel room.

Most nights, they shared a bed.

Every night, they would share a kiss, but every night, they wanted more.

Neither of them knew quite how to act on what they wanted. Dominic was terrified of putting too much pressure on Matthew. Matthew had other, very specific reasons for not taking their physical relationship beyond the occasional kissing session.

On a particular rainy night, they'd had dinner at a Thai restaurant and had taken in a local production of The Tempest. It was the first night that Matthew had, at least in Dominic's opinion, began to emerge from his shell a bit. He was unusually talkative at dinner, and Dominic had beamed when he'd laced his fingers through Dominic's own as they'd walked down the street together. Dominic had never seen Matthew so alive, so demonstrative; something simply radiated from him that had been, until that night, locked away inside of him. As they left the theater, Matthew spoke of acting and music and the purity of using such mediums to express oneself with a fervency and intelligence that left Dominic mesmerised.

When they returned to their room, they went about their normal routine, taking turns showering before bed. Dominic emerged from the bathroom to find Matthew seated at the small desk in the corner, scribbling in the new, red leather-bound journal Dominic had bought for him a few days earlier. Dominic sat down on the bed, still towel-drying his hair.

"It makes me happy to see you writing."

"It makes me happy to
writing." He switched off the tiny desk lamp and stood up. “I’m looking forward to starting over.”

"What else are you looking forward to?" Dominic yawned as he pulled the duvet back from the bed. They climbed in together.

"Quite a few things."

"Such as?"

"Listening to the rain against the window. Lying here with you. Kissing you goodnight."

Dominic was taken aback for a moment; Matthew had never been this direct with him before.

He liked it.

"Yeah?"

Matthew nodded, the two of them lying face to face.

"What else?" Dominic asked.

"Holding your hand. Waking up next to you. Learning how to make waffles just for you."

"Yeah? You'd do that for me?"

“You’ve done so much more for me. But, you should in
get excited about that prospect because I’m completely useless when it comes to cooking.”

“I can’t believe you’re useless, ever.”

“The things you say...it’s so different with you,” Matthew said softly. He reached out, pressing his hand flat against Dominic’s heart, his palm framing the thundering heartbeat beneath it.

Dominic didn’t speak. He was more than content to listen to what Matthew had to say. He covered Matthew’s hand with his own, Matthew scooting closer.

“To come from where I was to this… to this much positivity and acceptance, it’s just, it’s so different. It’s brand new. You don’t berate me at every turn. You don’t try to stifle me. You aren’t continually trying to change me. It’s like, finally, I can be the man I am, that I’ve always been, without that resulting in negative consequences.”

Dominic gently nuzzled up to Matthew, their noses touching. “I very much like the man that you are.”

“I like you too,” Matthew whispered.

Dominic’s hand was resting on Matthew’s side; he slowly slid it beneath Matthew’s shirt, caressing his waist. Matthew winced visibly and pulled away.

“I’m sorry, I shouldn’t have-”


"No, no, it's fine. I just... my body is... a part of me is ashamed for you to see it."

"You know that you don't have to do anything that you don't want to do-"

"No, that's just it. I wantyou. I mean," he looked at Dominic, "how could I not? You're beyond compare."

At Matthew's compliment, Dominic blushed deeply.

"I just want you to be prepared."

"What do you mean?"

"Don't be shocked. These last few months, they were... they were bad," Matthew said quietly. "The worst." He pulled the thin tee over his head and cast it aside.

Dominic's stomach dropped; his mouth dropped open in shock before he could will it not to.

What nature had forged to be a porcelain, smooth, torso had been irrevocably marred. Dominic scanned Matthew's chest. A cursory glance revealed so many scars that he couldn't even count them in a passing glance. Some were angry. Some were slight. The only similarity they shared was that they were carefully delivered with precision - Ian had seen to that - in that none of them were visible unless Matthew were shirtless. A particularly stark scar curved just beneath Matthew's left nipple. Dominic, unable to stop himself, leaned in to examine it closer.

"That one required stitches He told them I fell into a glass cabinet."

"Matthew," he breathed, "I just...wait..." Dominic's fingertips caressed Matthew's lower back, "what is this on your waist? It looks like-"

"Cigarette burns."

Dominic jumped up suddenly, walking to the window of their room, gritting his teeth. He took a deep breath as he stared down at the city lights, at the people milling about, at the rain. The anger he'd felt for so long at Ian morphed into full-on rage when he laid eyes on the series of small burns on Matthew's waist. Dominic felt certain that if he were to encounter Ian in this moment he could willfully choke the life from him. He shook his head and turned back to Matthew, who was still sitting up on the bed, now chewing on his thumbnail, a bed sheet draped around his torso.

Dominic melted. He climbed back into bed and reached for Matthew's hand, laying a kiss against his palm. Slowly, he unwrapped Matthew from the cocoon of the bedsheet. “Don’t ever feel that you need to cover yourself in front of me. I want to see you.”

Matthew looked into his eyes. "Say what's on your mind. Please. Honesty is important to me."

"I want him dead," Dominic said softly, his lips still lingering against Matthew’s opened palm.

Matthew's breath hitched in his throat.

"I see this, the physical manifestation of his selfish, hateful soul, and, God help me, in this moment, I want to hurt him like he's hurt you. He... he was torturing you. Torturing you."

Matthew looked away.

"But," Dominic scooted closer, pressing a kiss to Matthew's bare shoulder, "then I remember that he's not worth that. He's not worth my anger or my hate. He's... nothing. He's inconsequential; an aberration, and I am thankful that he is out of your life. He can't hurt you again."

"This," Matthew gestured at his body, "...it doesn't repulse you?"

"Absolutely not. I look at you like this and I want you so much that I can't see straight." Dominic gently dragged his thumb over one of the cigarette burn scars. "I wish that I could press a kiss to each and every wound, that doing so could somehow make each one disappear - not because I find them repulsive, but because I hate that they remind you of him." He looked up and into Matthew's eyes. "I might do it, all the same. I just want to be that close to you." He sat up, pulling Matthew into his arms, brushing the hair from his brow.

"That would take a lot of kisses," Matthew whispered; he wondered if Dominic could see that he was trembling. "We'd have to stay in this bed for the foreseeable future."

Dominic cocked his head to one side and squinted. He chuckled, and Matthew instantly fell in love with the way his eyes danced when he smiled. "That's a horrible argument, you know."

"I was counting on that."

Dominic started by pressing a kiss against the scar beneath Matthew's nipple. He took his time, but made good on his offer to lavish attention onto every single scar on Matthew’s body. As he was finishing, Matthew interrupted the silence.

"Dom?"

"Yes?"

“Touch me."

“I
touching you.”

“Touch me everywhere,” Matthew said quietly, “and don’t ever stop.”

“O-oh.”

“Am I being too forward?”

“Of course not.”

“It's been so long since anyone’s truly wanted me. I wasn’t sure anyone would want me ever again.”

Dominic, still lapping gently at Matthew's nipple, froze as he let the significance of what Matthew had just said wash over him. Knowing that Matthew had, for who knows how long, had been carrying that sort of hopelessness around broke Dominic’s heart.

“Then, one day, fate directed you to my building,” Matthew continued, “and, now, my life is suddenly rich with possibility instead of misery. I don’t want to wait a minute longer to start taking indulging in that. God, I’m talking too much, I’m sorry.”

Dominic lifted his head. “No apologies. Ever.” He crawled up Matthew's body and kissed him, Matthew's hands carding through his hair. He pulled back and licked his lips, looking Matthew in the eyes. Dominic couldn't bear to tear his gaze away from what lay before him. Matthew looked wild and impossibly handsome lying beneath him against a soft white pillow.

“Listen to me, love,” he whispered, his lips hovering above Matthew’s. “I mean… Matthew.”

“No. Call me love.”

"I’ve been waiting for you for ages.. I am going to make it my life’s mission to ensure that you never feel unwanted or unworthy again. I will always want you, love.
."

“Scars and all?”

“I don’t see scars. I see you.”

“It might take some time for me to… I don’t know-.”

“Time is the one thing we have plenty of.”

Even though he and Dominic were in the infancy of their relationship, Matthew believed him.

Dominic leaned in for another slow, deep kiss, his pulse speeding up as he sensed the unmistakable motion of Matthew lifting his lips to slowly push his pajama bottoms down his legs. Dominic burrowed his face in Matthew's neck and squeezed his eyes closed, silently willing himself to calm down as the realization that he was now in bed with a very naked Matthew hit him. Time seemed to slow to a crawl as he felt Matthew gently kick the offending garment to the floor.

The moment he felt the physical evidence of Matthew's arousal, thick and hot against his waist, he bit his lip.

“Hey,” he heard Matthew whisper. “It’s okay. I promise.”

Dominic slowly opened his eyes, taking a good, long look at Matthew. "Christ, you're beautiful," he murmured. "Completely fucking beautiful."

“...me?” Matthew breathed softly. He asked the question out of a pure sense of disbelief, nothing more. He wasn’t fishing for compliments.

“You,” Dominic breathed, sliding down Matthew’s body to taste him more intimately. He smirked to himself when Matthew moaned loudly and writhed beneath him.

Matthew couldn’t keep his eyes open, yet he couldn’t tear his gaze away from the sight of Dominic’s lips wrapped around his cock. Sensation, physical as well as emotional, washed over him in waves that increased in intensity the deeper Dominic took him. Wet, raw heat spread throughout his entire body, to the point that he was nearly manic with it. His hands alternated between gripping the bedsheets and Dominic’s hair.

He wanted, more than anything, to last as long as possible, but when he spotted Dominic’s hand working furiously between his own legs, Matthew lost the will to hold back. His orgasm shook him to his very core, as did the sight of Dominic rolling onto his back, frantically bringing himself to his own completion.

After, they found themselves face-to-face, tangled in each other's arms, both still breathing heavily. Matthew leaned in and initiated a kiss, which turned into a series of kisses that took Dominic’s breath away.

Out of nowhere, Matthew began to giggle.

The sound was so infectious that Dominic began to laugh as well. “What’s so funny?”

Matthew stretched, still chuckling. “I was just thinking. We made a mess on these sheets, but it’s only gonna get worse because we gotta go again. I barely got to touch you and that just won’t do.” He rolled on top of Dominic, pressing soft, wet kisses to his neck. Dominic’s arms wrapped instinctively around Matthew, holding him tightly. He arched his back and closed his eyes, unwilling to let Matthew go.

Life, more often than not, takes us on unexpected journeys.

Dominic was thankful that he and Matthew got the opportunity to take theirs together.

(end)

Comments

[million_star]

Thank you so much for reading, bb - and I am glad to see you back on the comm! x