aleathiel

Ioan/Elijah for

finduilas_clln

“…and Orlando says filming on the water was really cool in Pirates. I don’t really remember. I mean I’ve done it but it was such a long time ago…”

Ioan let Elijah talk, loving the enthusiasm in the young man’s eyes, the way his whole face lit up as he discussed his craft, his experiences. Ha admired Elijah’s boundless desire to learn more. Around them party guests were gradually getting less and less coherent as the alcohol flowed, but Elijah was still sparkling.

“…not proper ships. I mean yeah, we had to paddle them around - well I didn’t much, but the others did - but that’s not like the ships you used. Did you go out in the ocean to film? Were those replica ships?”

Oh, Elijah had stopped and was expecting a response. Ioan tried to gather his thoughts back together and replayed the last few minutes in his head, muting out his own thoughts and concentrating on Elijah’s words.

“Uh, yeah they were replicas. There’s this village in Cornwall where they keep the old harbour and have these ships that they adapt depending on the period of the production. One time we were there half the dock was an English town and when the camera rotated the other way it was a French port. We did some work out on the ocean. Quite a lot in the early episodes, although lot of the ship was a set.”

Elijah’s eyes were shining at him, and Ioan racked his brains for more, just to keep that sapphire gaze focused on him. It really wasn’t cliché. They were as liquid as the ocean. And as treacherous. They mesmerised him the way sirens called to ancient sailors, drawing all sense out of his head and making him fight for his thoughts.

“We, um, we filmed the battle scenes on a scale ship in a huge wave tank. That was how we did storm scenes too - it’s too dangerous on open water. But there were complaints that in the first series our canon recoils were unrealistically small. That was because we couldn’t have a full recoil on a real ship. So after that we filmed things like canon fire on a set built to look like the interior of a ship. It wasn’t as much fun, but it looked more realistic…” he petered off, wondering if this was too much detail, if he was boring Elijah.

“That’s so cool!” the American chirped. “I was asking Billy about Master and Commander. I’d love to do a movie on a ship!”

Shrapnel pierced Ioan’s heart that he was only research, but Elijah’s next comment soothed the wound. “It’s kinda noisy in here. I’m gonna go out for a smoke. Coming?”

Ioan didn’t tell Elijah that he didn’t smoke, but followed the shorter man through the hot throng of dancers and out through the doors onto the terrace. Elijah sighed as the cool air washed over him and he lifted his arms to embrace the night, turing his face up to the stars with the careless grace of youth.

Not that Elijah was that much younger than him, he reminded himself. In fact, sometimes he seemed so much older. His experience was so much more than Ioan’s own, his list of film credits ever increasing, and there was something about him that made Ioan think he had seen the world before, some light that crossed his face and made him old as the tides.

“Here?” Elijah held out his cloves and Ioan shook his head, moving to sit beside Elijah on the railing. In the dark Elijah’s eyes weren’t blue anymore, and they weren’t like the ocean at all. They didn’t reflect the starts, and they weren’t deep, dangerous and bottomless.

They were just eyes that wouldn’t leave Ioan’s and Ioan leant over and kissed him, certain now that he had no fear of sinking.

I think there ought to be more, and it ought to be more graphic. Call this an experiment into the pairing.