For weeks, Pavel had been trying to pretend he wasn't interested in Dome. It wasn't working. He tried telling himself he wasn't into big guys, that he liked them small and cute, like Earth or Nine, or his first boy crush a year earlier. Not girly, he would go out with a girl if he wanted someone feminine, but someone cute he could tuck under his arm.
But all Dome had to do was to give him a hint of his dimples, or flash that gorgeous smile of his, or say Pavel's name in that deep voice of his, or get up from a chair, his thigh muscles visibly working under his white jeans, and Pavel's mouth would run dry. Pavel liked Dome's size, the twinkle in his eyes, the way he smelled, his deep laugh, his calm and unruffled demeanour, his lips. God, Dome's lips...
The first time they had kissed was on set, shooting their first sex scene. Aam, the director, hadn't wanted any of the couples to practise kissing each other before their first kisses, because he wanted genuine first kisses between the couples. Dome had smelled of fresh mint and Pavel had found that endearing. And when they kissed.... Had any lips ever felt so soft, yet so firm? Taking as much as they were giving. Pavel knew from the first taste that he was in trouble.
Pavel stood in front of the bathroom mirror and looked into his eyes. "I'm in love with Dome."
"Did you say something?" Dome's deep voice sounded from behind the door.
"Fuuuuckkkk!" Pavel whispered to the mirror, his eyes looking back, wide and startled. "Nothing!" he said, raising his voice. "Just hit my toe on the leg of the vanity."
"Oh, well, hurry up. You've been there for half an hour and I need that shower. I'm still covered in sand," Dome said and Pavel heard his footsteps receding.
The image of Dome, wet and naked, standing less than a meter away under the cascading water flashed through Pavel's mind and he groaned. Fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck! What am I going to do?
There was no answer, and Pavel grabbed the towel he had used earlier and hung it casually in front of himself to hide his arousal, as he walked to the bedroom. "All yours," he mumbled as he passed Dome, sitting at the foot of the bed in his shorts and t-shirt.
The two were sharing a room. They were on location with the other moons, on Koh Lan island near Pattaya, filming a scene that lead to Forth and Beam's second sex scene. Watching Dome frolic in the water with the other actors earlier that day, his wet shorts clinging to his muscular thighs like a wet dream, had done much to force Pavel admit his feelings to himself. And tomorrow would be worse.
"What the fuck am I going to do?" Pavel whispered to himself again, as he lay down in bed in his shorts and tank top, covered with the sheets up to his waist, waiting for Dome to finish and join him. And for his erection to die down. And who the hell booked us into a double room, he cursed, looking around the hotel room. It was going to be torture, having to share a bed with Dome, mere inches away. They had shared a room before, during acting work shop and early shoot, but not since their first sex scene.
Meanwhile, Dome stepped out of the shower and dried himself in front of the mirror. Not bad, he thought, but his lips turned into a frown. But I'm no Pavel. The thought gave him a funny feeling, but he shrugged it off as envy. It should be illegal for any guy to look as good as Pavel did wearing just wet shorts, his thigh and leg crusted with wet sand from his slip and tumble into the gold sand... Why was he thinking about that now?
Dome shook his head, letting water droplets fly and towelled it dry briskly. When he got into the bedroom, he saw Pavel reading something on his mobile.
Dome frowned. Something had changed after their first sex scene, weeks earlier. Before that, Pavel had been flirty and affectionate, in fan meetings and out of sight of cameras, and the two had had an easy connection. After that scene Pavel had stopped. He was still friendly, performed in their scenes like the newbie professional he was, and went through the motions for fan service, but off screen... nothing. Had Dome been that bad a kisser? Had he done something to make Pavel feel awkward?
Dome missed that close connection with Pavel. And as corny as it sounded, Dome had felt safe in Pavel's strong arms. Safe and cared for. Then he scowled. He wasn't some swoony girl. He wasn't pining over being held by a guy! But why did it hurt that Pavel no longer wanted to touch him? And this upcoming scene? If Pavel didn't want to touch him, how would they make it work?
"Big day tomorrow," Dome said, testing the waters, as he sat on his side of the bed and slid under the sheets.
"Mmmm," Pavel said, his eyes resolutely on the screen in his hand, to keep them from looking at the sexy guy lying next to him.
"Our second sex scene. Did you want to rehearse it?"
The smart phone dropped from Pavel's hand and he scrambled to retrieve it, his heart hammering in his chest.
"What?!"
"The lines? Did you want to run them through with me?" Dome said, and grabbed the script, which had seen better days. It had been so neat and tidy at the beginning of the shoot, and Dome remembered his excitement when he had been handed his own copy. The weeks of shooting had bent the corners, deposited coffee stains on the cover, and sported underlined passages and comments all along the margins.
Pavel breathed in, then let it out, and again. "I'm good."
Dome turned to look at him. "You okay? You sound weird."
"Mmmm. Just nervous, I guess."
"You can talk to me, man, if you need to. I mean, I'm nervous, too. To be half naked in front of all those people..."
"Yeah," Pavel said, relieved to latch on to Dome's admission.
"Talk to Aam if you have concerns, I'm sure he will do what he can to make you and me comfortable."
"Yeah, alright, might be a good idea."
They settled in for the night soon after that, but Pavel lay awake listening to Dome's breathing, growing even and steady as he fell asleep. When he did, Pavel slipped out of bed quietly and went to the bathroom. There was no way he was going to be able to sleep with this, he thought, looking at the erection tenting his shorts. Feeling like a pervert, he grimly set to work to give himself relief.
Once he got back to bed, Pavel turned his back on Dome, and was finally able to fall into sleep.
The next morning, Pavel took advantage of the crew setting up the scene, and pulled Aam, the director to the side. "Can I talk to you about something?"
Aam just nodded and led Pavel to the bathroom which functioned as his office and video village, due to lack of space. They were shooting at a real hotel, and the ensuite bathroom was the only enclosed space that Aam could use. He sat on the edge of the bathtub, motioning Pavel to sit on the toilet cover. "What's up?"
"It's the upcoming scene..."
"The sex scene? You should be old hat at that by now?" Aam teased him.
"It's just that... The first scene we did, it was all new, and there was the crew, and I didn't know Dome that well, and it was so awkward... I mean you were great, you made us feel at ease, but..."
"So? You know that anything you tell me here won't go further."
Pavel took a deep breath. "The scene needs us to be real close... like, I'm on top of Dome... and..."
"Ah. You worry you might have a reaction?" Aam asked, his tone quite matter-of-fact.
Relieved, Pavel nodded.
"It's quite normal, we're all guys, after all, and certain parts of our anatomy just have a mind of their own. I'll take care of it." Before Pavel could even think what that meant, Aam got up and popped his head out the door. "Dome, can you join us in my office?"
"What? No!" Pavel whispered, reaching out to Aam.
"Trust me," Aam said, and patted Pavel's shoulder, then indicated to him to swap places.
Dome walked in and took a seat on the edge of the bathtub next to Pavel, who was gripping his own thigh hard.
"How are you feeling about the upcoming scene, Dome? Pavel had some concerns and I wanted to make sure you're both comfortable."
"Yeah we talked about that last night. I'm a little nervous, sure. I'm not exactly used to undressing, or kissing someone in front of so many people."
"Look, if that worries you, we can have a closed set like the first time. Fewer eyes on you guys?"
Pavel and Dome looked at each other and nodded.
"There's another thing I wanted to mention... Now that you have grown into your roles, and you're more comfortable with all the filming related things, like lights, and so on, there's a chance that you might get into the scene more than you did the first time."
"What do you mean?" Dome asked.
"Well, you're both guys, but skin contact and kissing is the same regardless of the sex of your partner, and you might react to that."
"React, how?" Dome asked again, and Pavel closed his eyes in mortification.
"To be blunt, you might get aroused. I just wanted to bring that up, and to reassure you both that it happens fairly frequently in sex scenes. It's just a normal body function, nothing anybody can do anything about, and I hope that you can both be adults about it should it happen to either of you."
"Aam!" Pavel groaned, pretending to be embarrassed, but he sent Aam a grateful look when Dome covered his face with his hands.
"I hadn't even thought about that! Why did you have to mention it?" Dome moaned.
Aam laughed. "It's just that your first sex scene was so early in the shoot, and I didn't know you very well, so I didn't think it was the right thing to do to bring it up. And the increased comfort between you two might have unintended consequences. Especially since it's been several weeks since you first sex scene, which was intentional, by the way."
"Intentional, how?" Dome asked, before Pavel could, as he had wondered about the same thing.
"In the story at this point there's been a long break in closeness between Forth and Beam, too, and I thought it would make it more real if you two reacted to each other like it's almost the first time again. So it's like you are in fact lovers who have spent weeks apart. I think it will be good for the scene."
When Aam sent them back out on the set, Pavel was relieved. Hopefully nothing would happen, but if it did, Aam had set a good basis for making light of the situation.
Dome sighed and glanced at Pavel. "That wasn't embarrassing at all."
Pavel snorted. There was a reason he loved this guy. "Right! Look, man, I'm sure we're alright. But just in case... The one who gets hard first buys the other one beers." Pavel wiggled his eyebrows suggestively.
Dome burst into laughter. "Deal!" Feeling better than he had in weeks now that Pavel sounded more like himself, Dome followed him to the set.
The crew were still setting up the lights, so Pavel took his script and found a quiet corner and leafed through the scene. The scene took place at the hotel room the two shared in the story. At this point, Phana and Wayo were comfortably settled into their relationship, and even Kit had given into Ming and the two were in a relationship, even though Kit still didn't admit it to anyone outside their small group.
Forth and Beam had their surprise first time together some weeks earlier, and Beam was still keeping a distance from Forth, pretending he wasn't falling in love with Forth, too. On this set of scenes, the six moons had decided to go to the beach for a weekend, to unwind after they finished their exams. The established couples had taken two of the bedrooms, and so there wasn't anything else to do but Forth and Beam to share a room.
In the scene, Forth's patience snaps and he kisses Beam, who surprises Forth by kissing him back and it escalates quickly from there. This scene was more explicit than their first one, and that's what worried Pavel.
"Pavel, we're ready for you," the assistant director called for him.
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INT. FORTH AND BEAM'S ROOM
Forth grabs the hem of his t-shirt and pulls it over his head, not noticing Beam's eyes follow the hem up his toned abs, his well-defined chest, pausing at the nipples and then flicking away hastily when the t-shirt clears Forth's face. Beam turns his back on Forth and takes off his own shirt, his hands shaking a little.
Forth:
I think you have a little sunburn on your back.
Let me grab the after-sun lotion.
Forth ignores Beam's protests, and soon his hands, cool and slick with the lotion, massage Beam's shoulders.
-----------
"Did you see that? Did you give Dome that stage direction?" the script supervisor whispered to Aam, who was watching from the monitor in the cramped bathroom.
"Dome licking his lips? No, but I like it."
Oblivious, Dome followed the t-shirt and flicked his gaze away, like the script described and turned around. He took a steadying breath, which stuttered when he felt the hands on his bare shoulders. What's wrong with me? Damn, was it what Aam said earlier? Get it together!
Dome wasn't the only one getting into the scene. Pavel's heart was racing, as his hands felt Dome's strong shoulders and glided down his smooth skin. He said his dialogue in almost an auto-pilot, his full focus on trying not to get hard.
"Cut!"
Pavel turned to look at Aam, who walked over to them. "Pavel, you're not into it. You're supposed to show how much touching Beam is affecting you. Imagine you're applying lotion on your lover's back, and take it slow. You're enjoying it, lean into Dome's, I mean Beam's ear when you're talking to him. And action!"
Pavel nodded and took a deep breath and instead of acting, he started reacting. His hands trembled a little, when he placed them on the shoulders in front of him, and his breath whooshed out. Pavel leaned forward. "You're so beautiful..." he murmured into Dome's ear, his voice low, his breath hot on his skin. Pavel saw Dome swallow.
"I told you, no funny business," Dome as Beam said in a thready voice, meant to be stern voice.
"There's nothing funny about how I feel about you," Pavel breathed, his hands worshipping the smooth, warm skin, rubbing the cool lotion on the wide expanse of Dome's back, slipping lower.
"Stop it..." Beam whispered.
Forth placed his hands on Dome's waist, and lowered his forehead, letting his forehead rest against Dome's neck. "I can't stop thinking about that night. Your voice... your lips... how you felt around me..."
"Forth..."
Pavel's strong hands turned Dome around, and his hands moved up to cup his face. "You're driving me crazy, Beam," he said, his fingers stroking Dome's cheeks, and then Pavel could finally do what he had yearned for from the first moment his lips had touched Dome's the first time, and kissed him. Thankful that the script called for a real kiss, a passionate one, Pavel let his mouth confess what his voice could not, and kissed Dome like a drowning man taking his first breath of oxygen.
Dome, as Beam, first pushed his palms against Pavel's chest, but as the kiss went on, his hands crept around Pavel, like they had a mind of their own.
Dome felt himself sinking. The kiss felt different. It felt... real. Maybe it was because they hadn't really touched in weeks, or maybe it was because Dome had been single for some time now. Or maybe it was how Pavel cupped his face? Dome had only kissed women before the shoot began, and no one had touched his face like that. He hadn't known how good it felt to be held like this, and kissed like he was something precious. It felt so good. Too good.
"Cut!"
"Very good, guys. I think we got it from this angle. Wait a moment and we will take the shot from the other side."
While the camera crew flew into action, Pavel and Dome stood, both trying to come to grips with their emotions.
Somehow Pavel got through the scene again without sporting a boner. But the way Dome was reacting to his kiss was intoxicating. He's just acting, Pavel told himself sternly. It's just acting. He's just acting!
"Alright, you guys ready to continue?" Aam asked. The lighting and camera change had been done far too quickly for Pavel's frayed nerves, and he swallowed a hasty gulp of water from the bottle Aam handed to him.
"Ready," Dome replied, and Pavel felt a tingle run down his spine at his voice.
They did the other angle, three takes this time, and by the end of it, Pavel was struggling, and both of them were flushed.
"Alright, we're now getting to the meat of the scene. Get to your marks. We'll first run the full scene from beginning to end. Just try and get into it, and let it flow naturally. We will do shorter pick ups later, but I want to see how it flows first."
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INT. FORTH AND BEAM'S ROOM
Forth pushes Beam backward, until the bed hits the back of his knees. Using his superior size, Forth lowers Beam down on the bed, and follows closely, swooping Beam's legs to the bed and straddling him. Both are only wearing their shorts.
Beam's hands push against Forth. Forth stops.
Forth:
So damn gorgeous.
Beam:
We're not doing this here, Forth.
Forth lets Beam's hands stay where they are, pressed against his chest, and leans in. Beam turns his face away, only to gasp when Forth's mouth closes in on his left nipple. Beam's hands fly to Forth's shoulders, and for a moment they push there, but when Forth changes to the other nipple, sucking at it eagerly, Beam's hands pull Forth's head closer. Forth looks up at Beam.
Forth:
Beam...
Beam:
Kiss me...
Forth grabs Beam's hands and brings them over Beam's head, until they lie flat on the bed. He presses himself flush against Beam and resumes the kisses. Beam's legs wrap themselves around Forth's hips, and pull him closer.
---
This was the part that worried Pavel. There hadn't been any nipple play in their first scene, nor had he been between Dome's legs quite so intimately before.
Shit fuck fuck fuck, Pavel chanted in his mind, while keeping a straight face and nodding, hopefully, professionally. "You okay?" he asked Dome, trying to be the caring co-actor he was supposed to be.
"Yeah. Just... try and not to actually suck... you know," Dome said in a low voice. "I'm sensitive there." A deep blush spread from his neck to his face.
Kill me now, Pavel thought. Kill me dead.
-----
A/N:
This storyline will have four parts.
And, I mean, Dome has a point.