Tea Stained Voyeurism
"Even watching him feels like being a voyeur."
The words are slashed onto the paper in Viggo's distinctive black script. They slant upwards, crossing the page at an angle, the only thing on the smooth white paper. Billy drops the notebook, feeling slightly uneasy, like he's been caught with his hand in the cookie jar as a child.
It's not like he was looking for the notebook, it was just there, lying on the kitchen table with the pages open, partly covered with a bunch of negatives and discarded photographs. He was looking for something else, a copy of Viggo's script for the purpose of shooting down a drunken hobbit vs. elf argument.
Billy shakes his head and looks back at the living room. They're where he left them all, Elijah ranting wildly at Orlando, beer can clutched in one hand while Dom lies stretched out across the sofa chuckling. Viggo is seated - no, sprawled in the armchair directly across from the sofa. He's not smiling at the argument - a petty debate on lines - he's not even looking at them. His eyes are fixed on Dom's reclining body, like he is burning the sight onto his memory or taking a mental photograph to look at and ponder later.
Now Billy feels like a voyeur. Standing away from the others, out of their line of sight and watching them. He can still feel the weight of the notebook in his hands and the words are dancing in his head. He blinks and looks away, reaching for the script, paint-stained and balancing a half drunk cup of tea.
The cup tilts and Billy makes a grab for it, misses and watches the tea flood the notebook, staining the pristine paper tea-brown, the sharpness of the writing already starting to blur.
Billy curses and the spell, the voyeurism shatters. He's conscious now of the others' awareness as Viggo stands up and walks to the kitchen. All Billy can do is stutter apologies as Viggo wipes up tea puddle and all Viggo does is look at him for a moment with the same piercing gaze he was using on Dom and smile, saying that it was ok, it was only a notebook. Billy smiles, relieved, but can still feel the unease hours later when the light of a passing car catches Elijah's fixed look at Dom's face.