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“I think you missed your calling,” Dean commented around a mouthful of pasta. It was homemade, melted in his mouth, and could probably be considered a food group all by itself. Add the warm garlic bread, fresh salad, and a lovely glass of wine, and it was as close to heaven as he was likely to get in this world. “My mum is a world class cook, and she’d be green with envy over this.”
“You think so?” Aidan said, flushing with pleasure. “It’s something I’ve always liked to do. I can’t bake for shite, but I do like to cook, and I don’t get to do it that often, especially not from scratch. I saw the pasta machine on sale and couldn’t resist.”
“Well, it was a good investment—this is amazing. And it was really nice of you to go to all this trouble for me.”
“No trouble at all, really. And I figured that, since we’re going to be working together a lot, we really should have some time to get to know each other. You know, away from the chaos of the set.” Aidan twirled up a forkful of linguine, chewed and swallowed before he continued. “And I’ll be honest, I was kinda trying to impress you a little bit.”
Dean stopped with a piece of bread halfway to his mouth. “For gods sake, why?”
Aidan felt his face heat up again, this time in embarrassment. “I feel like the kid on the set. Even Adam is older than me. I know I put up a good front and I can talk a real good game…”
“Yeah, I heard about the being able to ride anything, even a cow,” Dean said, grinning.
“Like I said, I can bullshit with the best of ‘em,” Aidan said, smiling back, feeling the knot in his stomach unravel a bit. “But…I’m like five years out of drama school. Everybody here pretty much has been at it for years. Richard, John, Jimmy, all the others, they’ve been great, but you’re the one I’m going to be working with the most. And you intimidate the hell out of me. You’ve been in the business practically since you were in nappies…”
“Which means fuck all,” Dean interrupted. “I auditioned for Bilbo, did you know that? They went with Martin instead, and I’m glad they did, because he’s going to be so much better than I ever could have been. And I know I’m pretty good. I heard that your name went on the board pretty much from day one. They didn’t know where they were going to use you, but you were going to be in the movie. And I’ve seen some of your other work. Mitchell in Being Human is incredible—you took what could have been a typical vampire and made people care, no matter how bad things went for him. Desperate Romantics…I’m an artist, so I have to tell you most of it was a crock of shit, but when you were onscreen it was pretty much impossible to look away. If either of us should feel intimidated, it’s me. And you’ve all had a couple months of bonding that I’ve missed out on.”
“Well, how about we start that tonight?” Aidan said, raising his glass. “To my brother Fili, and my friend Dean, and to making the first of a lot of great memories.”
“I’ll drink to that.” Blue eyes smiled into brown as the glasses chimed against each other. They attacked their dinners again, talking about anything and everything that came to mind. It was very late when Dean finally took his leave, and only because both of them had an early call.
“This has been great, Aid, thanks so much for the great dinner, and for making me feel so much at home,” Dean said at the door of his trailer. Late as it was, there was little sense in driving back to his flat; he figured he’d kip for a few hours on the sofa. It wouldn’t be the first time, and he could always sleep in the makeup chair a bit if he had to.
“I’m glad you came, and I’m glad we had a chance to talk. I feel a little better now.”
“No worries; we’re gonna do just fine together, you’ll see. But you have to promise me one thing.”
“Name it.”
“Just try to remember that you’re Kili, I’m Fili…”