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There was Dom, standing there, frozen, staring at him. Beautiful Dom, gray eyes gone suddenly dark, cold, shut off, and holding the bottle of wine Lij had bought in one hand. Holding two wine-glasses in the other. Wine, because Lij had wanted this to be perfect, but the words hadn't come out right. And instead of hearing*I love you, and now we can have a baby, a baby for us--*
Instead of that, Dom had heard
*I cheated on you with Franka. I cheated, cheated, cheated!*
And after Dom heard it, there was shocked silence. Silence, with Dom just staring, so quiet Lij could hear the candles burning -- candles Lij had bought and lit, candles to go with the roses and the wine. Because Lij wanted it to be perfect.
The quiet whisper of candles burning, wicks black and curling slowly into ash, wax melting and sliding like cream-white tears.
And it had been too much, too terrible, and Lij was afraid he'd hear Dom's heart breaking, so he had to make noise, couldn't stand the silence, terrible silence, couldn't fucking *take it* anymore, no more, and--
"I did it for *you*!" Lij had yelled. Yelled too loud, and the sound had bounced off the bedroom walls, hollow, strained. He'd winced even as the words came out of his mouth, but he couldn't help it.
And so then Dom had unfrozen, had moved. "Oh, I like that!" he'd said, and his voice had crunched and grated like gravel, like hard sand. "You cheated on me for *us*, is that it? So we could have a baby? Absolutely fucking *grand,* that is! I mean, it's, it's--" And he stopped, voice falling, crumbling to a whisper. "Christ, Lijah," Dom had said. Pain, and hurt, and shock, and a million other terrible colors in those two words.
It would have been better if he'd yelled it, Lij thought vaguely. And Lij had caved, fallen, his knees buckled and he'd sat down hard on the bed. Head spinning, rose-petals crushing beneath him on the covers.
"I did it for *us*," Lij had said softly.
"*Christ!*" Now Dom *was* yelling, and no, it wasn't better after all. And Dom threw the bottle, the glasses, hurled them down at the floor. And the bottle had bounced, rolled, wine spraying out across the white carpet in angry red lines, splashing scarlet like blood. And the glasses had shattered, loud, loud. Little bits of crystal going everywhere, flying, shimmering through the air. Strangely beautiful, before they fell. Little gold-red shards, bursting out, raining into the carpet.
Dom was walking away. The sound of footsteps, fading into nothing but the sound of the candles burning. And then--
A door, opening, closing with a slam.
A pause.
A car starting, squealing away -- squares of brilliant headlights in the windows for a moment, then gone.
The sound of Lij crying, softly, and then louder, shaking and sobbing until the candles burned down and the room was dark.
And then quiet, oh quiet.
end
