Chapter Text
Something that Liv is learning in this exact, and very inconvenient moment, is that she may be a person who gets seasick. In her defense, there’s no way she could have known this fact about herself before now, since this is her first time on a boat like this. And it’s not like the small vehicle traveling through the choppy waves was meant to be a smooth ride. But it would have been nice to know before she had a camera in her face.
She still isn’t sure how she got here. It was at the insistence of her little sister that Liv even agreed to submit an audition tape, but she never thought it would lead to this. Survivor had been one of the few shows that she and all of her siblings could agree on back in the day, so it had been a consistent presence in their house. While Liv would intently watch the show every season and yell at the TV when contestants would, in her opinion, make dumb decisions, she never imagined being here herself. But now that she’s here, she feels the same motivation that’s driven her for her entire life. There’s no way she’s going to come all the way out here just to lose.
Yes, she wants to have an amazing time and maybe even learn some things about herself, besides the fact that she doesn’t do well on boats, but she also wants to win. Liv Morgan is determined to win Survivor and the $1 million prize that goes along with it.
That is, if the seasickness doesn’t take her out first. She’s so distracted by her nausea and her goal of not throwing up during her first 30 minutes on camera that she’s barely able to pay attention to her surroundings. She should be looking around the boat and trying to analyze the people who, based on the matching blue buffs they’re all wearing, are probably going to be her tribe mates. But looking straight ahead seems to be the only thing that helps.
When the boat reaches the shore, they’re all instructed to jump out and go stand on a specific mat in front of the show’s infamous host. Her legs take a second to adjust to being on land, and she finds herself stumbling in the sand. She’s afraid that she’s about to go flying face-first right in front of Jeff fucking Probst when a hand wraps around her arm to steady her.
“I’ve got you,” a low voice mumbles in her ear as their firm grip helps her take sure steps through the loose sand.
For some reason, even in the Fijian heat, Liv somehow feels goosebumps form on her skin. She looks down at the hand on her arm and then follows the trails of ink up to meet warm brown eyes and a crooked grin. It must still be the lingering seasickness that makes her just stare dumbly up at him. Why else would she freeze like she is right now? When his grin grows wider and even a little cocky, Liv finally snaps out of her weird trance.
She has to get it together and lock the fuck in. The game has already started, she can’t afford to be distracted by anything, not her motion sickness and definitely not big brown eyes that she would maybe admit are…nice. But if this guy wants to pull the charming card with his smug face, then two can play that game.
“My hero! Thank you,” Liv gasps out, turning on her brightest smile and gazing up at him through her lashes.
He keeps his eyes locked on hers and tilts his head like he’s studying her. Liv knows she should probably look away, but she finds herself unable to. After what feels like forever, but in reality is only a few short seconds, he hums lowly and finally breaks their stare. She swears she hears him whisper something sounding like, “Trouble,” under his breath.
Trying to shake off the interaction, Liv focuses on analyzing the rest of her tribe mates as they arrange themselves on their designated mat in front of their host. There seem to be five men and five women, the same pattern repeated in the other tribe standing across the sand. She tries to look around at everyone, but barely gets the chance to before Jeff starts his normal ‘welcome to the show’ spiel. There is just enough time to catch the eye of the very tall woman next to her and return the big smile that she gives her.
“Welcome to Survivor,” the always animated man announces, which causes all the contestants to start cheering and clapping. The excitement of being here is starting to set in for Liv. Being part of the show she’s watched since she was a kid is surreal, and she wants to take a moment to soak it in. “Twenty strangers from different backgrounds, different educations, different occupations, different belief systems, but you all have one thing in common. You all made the decision to step out of your comfort zone and answer the call of Survivor.”
He goes on, singling different members of the tribes out and asking them questions. Jeff asks a member of the other tribe, who Liv thinks looks like a life-sized Ken doll, but identifies himself as Cody, about why he chose to come on the show. The man gives an unexpectedly intense answer about family legacy, which throws her a bit, but more power to him. He asks another member of the other tribe, Roxanne, about being the youngest person out here. Liv suddenly feels so much older when the girl talks about being only 19.
The focus then turns to her tribe, with Jeff’s first question being directed to a beautiful woman with a long, dark braid. She introduces herself as Bianca, and Liv is immediately both charmed and intimidated when she talks about how competitive she is. Jeff’s other question is toward a man with dark curly hair and a look in his eyes that she immediately doesn’t trust. When asked what he might bring to the tribe, the man named Seth talks about how he prides himself on being a leader and how good he is at bringing the best out of the people around him.
That makes Liv pause because it feels a little patronizing for a tribe full of adults. She hopes she’s doing a good job at controlling her facial expressions, but that’s never been a strength of hers, so it probably won’t become one right now. There’s a quiet snicker from behind her, and she has a sneaking suspicion that she knows who it is that must be thinking the same thing as her about this dude. Liv looks over her shoulder and confirms those suspicions when she catches the gaze of those familiar dark eyes. The sight of him trying to hold in a laugh makes her bite her lip, trying to do the same.
“Alright, let’s get to tribe names,” Jeff ends the questioning and gets back into announcer mode. “Our blue tribe over here will be Yara.” Liv repeats the name of her tribe in her head a few times, knowing how prone she is to forget. “And as for our red tribe, you all will be Taku.” He then claps his hands together and with a huge smile asks, “Who’s ready for your first challenge?”
The challenge is explained as this: two tribe members at a time will crawl through the mud under a net and then run through a path into the trees. There, they’ll find large puzzle pieces that are tied into a structure. Each tribe member must untie a piece and carry it back. Once all the pieces are returned, the group can start on the block puzzle. The first tribe to finish will win their tribe's necessities of flint, a machete, a pot, and a small bag of rice. The losing tribe will have to complete another challenge on their beach for the chance to get those necessities.
They’re given a few minutes to strategize, so Liv huddles up with this group that she still mostly doesn’t know the names of, attempting to figure out a way to win this first crucial challenge. Living up to his earlier words, Seth is the first to speak. “I think we should go in pairs of guys and girls. I’ll volunteer to go first if someone wants to go with me. And I do pretty well on puzzles so I can take the lead there once we have all of our pieces. It’s best to have one voice while we’re trying to solve it, so it’s good to go ahead and decide that.”
Clearly none of them wants to rock the boat this early, and he’s not exactly wrong, so they all agree with his plan, with Bianca proving her earlier stated competitiveness and agreeing to go first with him. Liv isn’t uncompetitive herself, and she feels that fire of wanting to win start to burn in her chest. She has to stop herself from starting to pace around, not wanting to look like a nervous wreck during their first-ever challenge.
They only have about 30 seconds for everyone in their tribe to quickly introduce themselves before they’re set to start. Liv tries to focus on identifying something to help her remember everyone’s name. She’s already got Bianca and Seth down. There’s also Raquel who is super tall with an unexpectedly soft voice, Finn the Irishman with icy blue eyes, and Sami with his ginger hair tied up in a man bun who gives off golden retriever vibes. There’s also Bron, who is built like a house and looks so fired up that he could run through a brick wall. The last two women are Jackie, with her wide eyes filled with nerves, and Naomi who gives off an energy that Liv immediately likes.
Maybe she’s imagining it, but when the last member of their tribe introduces himself, Liv swears he’s looking directly at her. She finds that she doesn’t have to do anything special to help her remember Dominik’s name. It’s immediately seared into her brain.
They break off into pairs based on no other logic besides who is standing closest to each other. As decided earlier, Seth and Bianca line up to go first, Naomi and Sami offer to go together, then Raquel and Finn, and Jackie and Bron. When she turns to look at her partner, he’s got that same annoyingly handsome grin on his face, and this time she can’t help but return it.
“Guess you’re stuck with me, trouble.”
The fact that he already has an apparent nickname for her is dangerous, but she can’t lie and say it doesn’t make her feel a certain way. “I guess being stuck with you won’t be too bad. Just don’t slow me down,” she winks and flips her head over to tie up her hair. As she finishes tying the band around her hair, she notices how long Dominik’s hair is. It’s almost frustratingly so, along with being shiny and healthy. Of course, a man would have hair like that, probably without even doing anything to get it that way. “Do you want my extra hair tie? All that mud with your hair down will be a mess.”
She holds the hair tie out to him and he takes it with a nod of thanks, but not without getting in one more comment that makes her cheeks feel hot. “You’re already taking care of me. This is a big step in our relationship.”
Before she can get in any sort of retort, they’re getting the signal that it’s almost time to start. They all arrange themselves in the order they’re going. Somehow, Liv and Dominik end up with the draw to go second after Seth and Bianca, but that’s fine with her because she’d rather get this part of the challenge done early.
“Alright,” Jeff’s booming voice calls out. “Survivors ready? Go!”
Liv’s old cheerleader instincts immediately start kicking in once her two tribe mates go running toward the mud. She watches closely while clapping and shouting encouragement to see if there’s anything she can learn from how they’re doing it. They both start off quickly, especially Bianca, but she does notice that once they’re out of the mud, they both have to pause to try and wipe the mud out of their eyes so they can find the path they’re supposed to run through back in the trees.
She turns to share her observations with Dominik when she finds him pulling his dark green shirt over his head. Liv catches herself staring at the lines of his chest and how the ink on his arms keeps going all the way up to his neck. This may be a weird time for him to be getting undressed, but she isn’t going to complain. A nice view is a nice view.
He looks over at her with a frustrating smirk and then focuses on the whole group, explaining his actions without having to be asked, “Clothes will just weigh you down in the mud, so I would lose as much as you can.”
It’s not bad advice, so Liv and everyone else follow his lead and strip off their shirts and even pants in some cases. She stands there in just her sports bra and spandex, choosing not to fight her own smirk when she sees Dominik’s eyes lasered onto her. Liv knows she needs to lock back in when Jeff’s loud narration of what’s happening in the challenge lets them know that Bianca and Seth are almost back with their puzzle pieces. She grabs the buff off her wrist and puts it on her head. “Cover your eyes in the mud,” she tells Dominik and the rest of the tribe, “it’ll save us from stopping to wipe it off.”
When Bianca and Punk come running back, carrying the puzzle pieces that are a lot bigger than she was expecting, she waits for the signal to run. Dominik catches her eye and gives her an encouraging nod right as Jeff yells, “You’re good, Yara. Go.”
Everything becomes a blur of adrenaline after that. She pulls her blue buff over her eyes just as she dives into the mud, doing her best to crawl through it as quickly as possible. Liv has a passing thought about how crazy it is that a girl from Jersey has ended up army-crawling through a pile of mud on a beach in Fiji. Once she gets to the end of this part of the challenge, she feels hands help pull her up to a standing position and hears a quick, “You good?” She nods, and then the two are off through the twisting path.
They come to where the puzzle pieces are tied into some strange contraption in the middle of the jungle. Their area is very close to the other tribe’s, allowing Liv to see that they’re currently neck and neck. This only pushes her to move faster. She and Dominik select two pieces that are right next to each other, and they both begin working on the knots that hold the pieces together. Liv’s piece seems to have fewer knots than his because she makes quick work of hers before turning her attention to helping get Dominik’s undone. Before she knows it, both pieces are free, and they’re good to start running back.
For anyone wondering, being covered in slippery mud and attempting to run while carrying an awkwardly large puzzle piece is not the easiest thing in the world. But somehow she and Dominik manage to do it. When they're back to the starting point, with the yells of their tribe mates cheering them on, Liv wants to collapse when she drops her piece down on the mat. Instead, she leans her weight against it and focuses on catching her breath, still in disbelief that she actually did that.
Looking over, she sees Dominik doing the same as her. She wants to laugh at how ridiculous he looks covered in mud, but she knows that she probably looks even worse so she keeps it in. They share a commiserating nod before they both turn their attention back to the challenge, cheering on their tribe and keeping a close eye on the other.
Both tribes take turns being in the lead, neither group ever running away with it. When their last pair of Jackie and Bron go out, Seth starts trying to get them ready for the puzzle portion. He’s pointing out which pieces he thinks will make up the base and which will need to be facing out with the symbol. Liv isn’t an expert on puzzles herself, so she just nods and tries to keep track of everything he’s saying.
Taku’s last two runners, a buff dark-haired woman and a large man with a few braids in his hair, beat Jackie and Bron by about 30 seconds. It lets the other tribe get to work on the puzzle first, and Liv can feel all the members of her tribe become instantly on edge.
As soon as they get the signal that they’re good to start the puzzle, it becomes a chaotic mess. They all grab pieces and try to place them where Seth is directing them to, but nothing seems to fit right and everyone starts asking questions and sharing ideas all at the same time. It becomes a confusing mix of voices that makes her feel dizzy. Even though Seth was trying to lead them, it’s a clear case of way too many cooks in the kitchen. The only thing giving her any sort of comfort right now is the fact that the other tribe seems just as stuck as they are.
Liv stops her scrambling and scans over all of the frustrated faces of her tribe mates. Everyone looks lost and mad, except one. To her left, Dominik’s big dark eyes scan over the pieces with an intensity that’s different from everyone else. He looks like he’s solving the puzzle in his head.
She drops her puzzle piece, which she has no idea where to place, and shuffles over to his side.
“What are you thinking?” She asks quietly so as not to gain the attention of the rest of the tribe.
“That we suck at this,” is his annoyingly nonchalant response.
“Dominik,” Liv shoots him a look as she draws out his name, “I’m being serious.”
He grins crookedly at her, which frustratingly, looks even more attractive when his face is covered in mud. “I’ve never heard my name sound so nice.”
Thank god she’s still covered in mud as well, or else the millions of people who are going to be watching this would be able to see her cheeks go fire engine red. What the fuck is her deal? She’s normally immune to anyone flirting with her, but he’s somehow managing to get under her skin at the most inconvenient moment.
“You’re hilarious, bro.” Her Jersey accent starts to slip out, making his eyes light up in amusement. “But we’re trying to win here, and I can tell you have thoughts. So please share with the class.”
He keeps staring at her for just a moment before he focuses back on the puzzle. “We’re doing it all wrong. We need to start in the middle and work our way out.”
“Are you saying you know how to solve it?”
Dominik hesitates and for the first time, there’s no cocky expression on his face. Liv would maybe even say that he looks a little nervous. “I think so,” he finally sighs and shifts his jaw back and forth. “But I can’t be sure until we get it started.”
As much as he’s frustrated her and produced wild amounts of conflicting emotions in her during the short time she’s known him, Liv can’t help but try and reassure him. She wraps her hand around his wrist and tugs him so that he’s facing her. “If you say you can do it, then I believe in you.” His eyes trace over her face like he’s trying to search for a lie before his gaze trails down to where her hand is on his wrist. Suddenly feeling like she has upset him, she goes to pull away. But before she can, Dominik shifts so that his fingers are wrapped around hers. The action shouldn’t make her feel shivers crawling up and down her spine, but it does. With a firm squeeze to her hand, he nods, and then that same smug smile is back on his face.
“Alright, trouble. Use that loud cheerleader voice of yours and get everybody’s attention. We have a challenge to win here.” She wants to ask how the hell he knew about the cheerleader thing, but that’s a question for later.
“Everybody listen up!” She whirls around to face all of her tribe mates. They all freeze in confusion at her voice, and she can’t blame them, she’s been silent as a mouse so far during this part of the challenge. “Dominik knows what we need to do, so we’re all gonna listen to him. Sound good?”
Liv mainly directs the question to Seth, who she thinks means well, but has been very insistent on leading the team to victory so far. He looks conflicted, but nods in agreement, leading everyone else to follow suit. Finn and Raquel are the first two to look directly at Dominik to ask for direction, and the rest quickly follow.
It all happens quickly after that. Dominik quickly helps them get into a rhythm of solving the huge cube puzzle. Once they start working from the inside out, like he knew they needed, it becomes clearer which pieces go where. Well, to everyone else it does, Liv is still shit at puzzles and just moves the giant pieces wherever she’s told. The other tribe even starts to try and see what they’re doing so that they can copy. But at that point it’s too late. Under Dominik’s guidance, Finn slides the final piece into place. They all run back to their mat and yell at Jeff to come check if they’re correct.
She’s practically vibrating with excitement because she’s so sure that they’re right. And her intuition is proven correct when Jeff loudly declares that they’ve won the very first challenge. The entire tribe starts screaming, and they end up in the muddiest group hug that she’s ever been a part of. Her body moves on some sort of adrenaline-fueled autopilot that makes her turn to Dominik as soon as the group hug breaks up and loop her arms around his neck. It’s only a few seconds later that she feels his arms circle her waist.
The hug feels nice, comfortable even, which isn’t something that normally happens with someone she’s known for such a short time. Dominik’s hold around her waist tightens for just a moment before the rest of the celebrations of their new tribe mates force them to separate.
Both tribes are quickly rounded up and told to get back on their starting mats so that Jeff can present them with their winnings. The machete, flint, cooking pot, and small bag of rice may not seem like much, but they are worth every exhausting second of that challenge.
The Taku tribe halfheartedly claps for them, the disappointment of losing the first challenge being made very clear. Except for one member, he claps enthusiastically and looks over at them with a wide smile.
“Y’all did that! Good job!” He’s being completely serious in his praise, not a hint of sarcasm in his voice. Jeff makes a quip about the man, who he identifies as R-Truth, being a surprisingly good sport. In response, he shrugs and says, “We’re all here to have fun, Jeff.”
Liv smiles and nods her head at him in thanks, all the while saying a prayer that this sweet guy doesn’t get eaten alive by his tribe.
With a few more directions and words of wisdom from the host, they’re sent on their way. Her mud-caked but excited tribe heads off to go see their new home for the next few weeks. She reluctantly climbs back into the boat that is supposed to drop them off at the tiny island where they’ll make their camp, dreading the feeling of seasickness once again.
They’re not allowed to speak on the boats since there are no cameras rolling. But there’s still something that helps distract her from her nausea for the short ride. It’s the man sitting across from her, the man whose hair is still pulled back with the hair tie she gave him. Liv is pretty sure that for the entire ride, his eyes never leave her.
…..
Once they reach the beach that will become theirs, at least for a while, it is immediately decided that they have to get the mud off of them. Now that the mud has dried, they’re all itchy, uncomfortable, and even more ridiculous looking.
“Tribe bonding!” Naomi yells with a laugh. “We can take our first communal bath.”
They all wade out into the water and start the arduous task of scrubbing the mud from their skin, hair, and clothes. It’s not a short process, so they take the time they have all together to do more in-depth introductions. It feels like the first day of school or those summer camps that Liv never attended as a kid, but saw in movies. It’s kind of cute how they go around in a circle and better introduce themselves. It’s very kumbaya, for now at least. Liv knows it’s only a matter of time before they’re all lying to each other. Hell, her tribemates could be lying now, and she wouldn’t know it. But she chooses not to focus on that and takes them at their word.
She learns that Naomi is married to a man she hilariously calls ‘Big Jim’ and works as a dance instructor in Orlando. Bianca’s married too, and she and her husband own a gym in Tennessee. Her and Naomi seem to be already getting along really well, which Liv makes a note of. Jackie, who appears much more relaxed now that they’re not at the challenge, is a local sports reporter from Canada. As soon as she says where she’s from, Sami jumps in excitedly. As an apparent fellow Canadian, he seems glad to have someone from his own country. Liv forces back a sigh when the sweet-dispositioned man talks about himself and his life to the group. There’s no way she wants to be sitting at the end with a guy who works in non-profits and volunteers with refugees. He’ll beat all of them by a landslide.
Bron isn’t much of a talker. She decides almost immediately that he’ll be someone who will probably struggle with the social part of the game. He very reluctantly talks about being from Atlanta and coaching high school football, but that’s about all he gives up. Seth goes next, still seemingly trying to portray that team leader persona. He seems friendly on the surface, but Liv can’t help but get a weird vibe from him. While he’s talking about the coffee shops he owns in Iowa and his love for CrossFit, his gaze flits from person to person. It feels like he’s studying them, searching for something, and it puts Liv on edge. The only time she believes he’s being fully genuine is when he mentions his wife and daughter.
While Seth speaks, Liv sneaks a peek to her left at the man who, like her, is still trying to clean all the mud out of his hair. Like he can feel her stare, his dark eyes cut to hers. It’s annoying how they manage to draw her in even more as they reflect the shine of the sun off the water. Dominik gives her a look that tells her he’s feeling the exact same way about the other man as she is. When he subtly rolls his eyes, Liv has to bite her lip to keep from laughing. She sinks lower into the clear blue water and works more intentionally at combing through the knots of mud in her hair to distract herself from the eyes that she can still feel on her.
“Here,” a kind voice from her other side whispers, “let me help you.” Raquel’s hands start to comb through her tangles, and she even begins to braid her hair without Liv having to ask. Between this and the taller woman’s willingness to easily follow Liv’s lead during the challenge, she thinks she may have found her first friend on the island.
As Raquel braids her hair, the sharing circle moves on to Finn. The Irishman who now lives in Miami with his wife tells everyone that he’s a lawyer. Liv doesn’t like most lawyers on principle, having dealt with so many sleazy ones back in her waitressing days. But she decides that she can’t dislike him just because of her past experiences. He was also quick to jump in and listen to her and Dominik’s directives during the challenge. So, he may be alright, at least for now.
The woman that she’s already claimed as her friend reintroduces herself to the group after tying off the end of Liv’s braid. Raquel is very proudly from Texas and does some sort of work in the front office of the Dallas WNBA team. Liv thinks that’s so fucking cool. When she tells Raquel that, she is rewarded with the same big smile that the other woman gave her when they first landed on the beach. It makes Liv even more confident in her friendship decision. When Raquel gently nudges her, she’s reminded that it’s her turn to go. She’s impressed that she’s been able to stay mostly quiet for this long. Normally, she would have been asking incessant questions about everyone and their lives, but she has managed to hold back so far.
“So, as you guys know, I’m Liv. And I’m so excited to be here with you all. I think we have the best tribe ever.” She’s not sure if all the enthusiasm is the best route to go, but she’s a natural encourager so it just came out. There’s a quiet snickering sound from her left. And without giving it any thought, she kicks her foot and ‘accidentally’ connects with Dominik’s shin. “Anyway, I’m from New Jersey, born and raised. I have four brothers and two sisters, which, yes, was absolute chaos growing up with.” A few of her tribe mates’ eyes go wide when they hear how many siblings she has. Raquel even mumbles that she thought that having one sister was tough. “And I love animals, all animals. I love them so much that they’re my job. I’m a veterinary tech, and I’m at the max number of pets I’m contractually allowed to have in my apartment.”
A few different laughs ring out across the circle. And she uses the distraction to send Dominik a look, telling him that it’s his turn now. Liv is afraid that if he doesn’t start soon, then she’ll keep talking. She’s always been known to be a bit of an oversharer, and the last thing she needs is to grate on anyone’s nerves on the first day with her nonstop chattering. He seems to get the message and starts his spiel as soon as things start to quieten down. If Liv pays closer attention to him than she has to anyone else…well, that’s her business.
Dominik clears his throat and smiles lazily when he tells everyone that he’s from San Diego. A Cali kid, she should have known. All that laid-back cockiness had to have come from somewhere. He looks right at her after he says it, and she can already hear his ‘west coast is best’ spiel. While he speaks, he ties his now clean hair back from his face. Liv doesn’t think she’s ever getting that hair tie back, but she can’t say that she minds.
“Me and my best friend own a custom car business.” Dominik chuckles lightly and shrugs his shoulders. “In reality, he does the business side, and I take care of building the cars.”
Some of the other guys immediately jump in and start to ask him details about the cars he builds. Liv tries to hide her annoyance that anything else Dominik was going to reveal about himself has been interrupted by typical guy talk. However, she gets the vibe that he’s not the type to get too personal in front of a group, so that was probably all she was going to get anyway.
Like their circle of sharing being finished set off some sort of alarm, they all begin to leave the water and make their way up the beach. And thus begins multiple hours of strangely organized chaos. Watching the camp and shelter building process on TV always makes it look like it goes so quickly. Actually living it instead of watching it on a screen is a very different experience.
Almost instantly, Seth once again tries to take control. It’s starting to rub her the right just a bit. But she gets it. He owns a business, he’s a dad, maybe he’s just used to telling people what to do. And he hasn’t been an asshole about it, at least not yet. He starts trying to direct everyone on what they should do first to help get the shelter going, but Liv isn’t sure he has any idea what he’s talking about. Very delicately, Sami cuts in and says he has some experience in doing things like this. Apparently in some of his volunteer work, he has built homes in third-world countries. Maybe he’s a saint or something, just more proof that no one should want to take him to the end of this game.
Under the instruction of Sami and the ‘supervision’ of a hovering Seth, the entire tribe gets to work. Liv spends the next few hours bouncing around to different tasks. It’s helpful though, because she gets to spend more individual time with many of her tribe mates. She carries long pieces of bamboo out of the jungle with her chosen island best friend, Raquel. And the easy way they’re able to chat about their lives and joke around feels like everything immediately clicks. It’s like they’ve known each other for years.
Liv weaves palm fronds with Bianca and Naomi and laughs more than she has in a long time. Her and Jackie walk to the well together, and Liv learns how nice but nervous the other woman is to be here. Finn asks her input on where they should set up the fire pit. When she talks with him, he does more to dispel her worries about him being a lawyer. And she can’t help but notice that he and Dominik seem to be getting along. Liv doesn’t want to admit that something about that makes her trust the Irishman more.
Poor Dominik has been working to death on the shelter with Sami. Mentioning he was a builder, even if it’s a car builder, has locked him into the job of splitting the bamboo with the machete. Liv definitely hasn’t caught herself watching him swing the machete around, all sweaty and shirtless. But she will admit that she makes another trip to the well to fill up his canteen. She takes Sami’s too, so that it doesn’t look weird. Sami is very sweetly grateful when she hands him the water. Dominik thanks her too, but instead of the cocky smirk she was expecting, his expression turns soft when he takes the canteen out of her hand.
Later, she helps find kindling for the fire that Seth insists on trying to start. Liv watches as he and Bron work to use the flint to get the spark going. Eventually, they do, after a few failed attempts. But as she watches them, she notices that Bron seems to already be willing to follow Seth’s lead. Every time the older man tells him to rearrange the kindling or blow on the flame, he does so without complaint. So some sort of alliance must be forming here.
One thing that surprises Liv about her first few hours at their camp is that it becomes easy not to notice the cameras everywhere. She thought it would be awkward to have them around all the time, just silently watching. But they start to blend into the background after a while. The only time it gets kind of surreal is when she gets pulled by one of the producers for her first confessional. However, being given free rein to sit and yap is like a dream come true for her. At work, they laugh at her for talking to the animals like they can understand her. But they’re a captive audience, and she loves that. And confessionals are like the perfect captive audience. She could do confessionals all damn day. They ask about her thoughts on the experience so far and her opinions on all her tribe mates. Liv talks for what feels like forever, sharing all the observations she’s made throughout the day and the vibes she’s felt from everyone. It only gets strange at the very end.
The producer pokes his head around the camera and asks, “So would you say you feel the best about Raquel and Dominik so far?”
“Dominik? What made you say Dominik?” She can’t keep the surprise out of her voice. Liv knows she talked about already really liking Raquel, but what did she say about Dominik? She’s been sharing all her thoughts so eagerly after having to keep them somewhat tampered down all day that she has no clue what came out of her mouth.
After staring at her for a second, the producer shakes his head and then smiles. “Don’t worry about it. I think we got all we need from you, so you can head back to the rest of the group.”
Liv spends the walk back to camp trying to shake off the weird direction that conversation went. But she figures it was just the producer trying to get something more out of her, so she chooses not to worry about it. When she walks back into camp, things have started to settle down. The shelter is finished enough to give them all somewhere to sleep tonight. It doesn’t look as pitiful as she’s seen shelters look in other seasons, so she’ll take it as a win. The group is mostly settled around the fire that Seth and Bron have managed to maintain so far. It looks like Jackie is trying to cook them some rice, and Liv tries not to cringe when she sees how much rice is in the pot. If they want the rice to last for as long as it needs to, then they will need to cut the portions down. She makes a mental note to offer to cook tomorrow, because if there’s one thing Liv knows how to do, it’s ration food.
Before she can join them around the fire, a voice that's growing to be familiar stops her in her tracks.
“Hey trouble,” she turns around to see Dominik with the machete he’s been packing around all day, dangling from his hand. “I’ve been tasked with finding coconuts before we eat. You wanna come with me?”
Liv would be lying if she said she hasn’t been curious about seeing what Dominik will be like one-on-one. This man made such an immediate impression on her and has continued to surprise her with each of their interactions. She’s been in this weird state of wanting to understand him, but also wanting to run far away from him because something about the way he looks at her makes her stomach do that annoying flip floppy thing. But for now, her curiosity wins out.
“Yeah, I’ll go with you.” She grins and nudges his arm with hers as they head back into the jungle. “You would probably just start idol hunting if I let you come by yourself anyway.”
Dominik gives her his now signature smirk, but the tiredness in his face makes it look more like a grimace. “Who says I don’t already have one?”
“You know, I would almost believe that if I hadn’t watched you busting your ass all day on that shelter.”
“You caught me. No idol hunting for me today.” With a grunt, he moves the machete to his right hand and holds out his left, where a section of his palm is red and raw. When she sees it, her instincts kick in and she immediately grabs his hand.
“You need to keep this covered, Dominik.” Liv brings his hand close to her face and inspects the wound. “If you don’t, then you’ll just keep tearing at the skin and it might get infected. I’ll wrap it up when we get back to camp.”
His dark eyes are practically sparkling with mischief when he laughs. “Whatever you say, doc. I promise to be your best patient, even better than the puppies.”
Wow, he made it two whole minutes without flirting with her. But she tries to hide the way this particular instance of skirting hit a nerve. “I’m not the vet, remember? I’m just the tech.” Liv drops his hand and ignores the inquisitive way he tilts his head at her when she says that. She continues down the path, motioning for him to keep up. “And maybe this will teach you to never mention being good with your hands again. It’ll lead to people asking you to do stuff like build a shelter on Survivor.”
“Whoa there, I never said I was good with my hands. I just said I built cars.” Dammit, Liv knows where this is going. “You must have come to that conclusion all by yourself, trouble. You’re not wrong, though.”
Liv desperately doesn’t want to laugh, but the face he makes when he gasps at her like he’s scandalized is too ridiculous not to laugh at. “Oh my god, you’re impossible.” He dodges her attempt to slap at his shoulder and looks way too pleased with himself. “Let’s just go find the damn coconuts.”
They maintain an easy silence as they wander through the trees. Again, Liv is hit with those conflicting emotions when it comes to Dominik. He frustrates the hell out of her, but she’s also weirdly comfortable with him. She has no clue what to make of it, what to make of him.
Eventually, they do find a tree that’s filled with the coconuts they’ve been looking for. Liv offers to try to climb up and cut them down, but he looks her up and down and chuckles. After he gets a few solid short jokes in, he asks her to stand at the base of the tree so that he can toss the fruit down to her. Watching Dominik start to climb up the tree makes her nervous, afraid that one wrong move will lead to a broken neck. But what he asks her quickly distracts her from her nerves.
Halfway up the tree, he glances down at her and casually asks, “So how are we feeling about everybody?” She stares up at him in surprise, unsure what he means by that. And she’s only temporarily distracted by the way his ink-covered arms look as he pulls himself higher. But he doesn’t pay any mind to her confusion, he just continues to talk as he climbs. “I feel alright about Finn. Sami is nice but almost too nice, and there’s no way we can let him make it to the end of this game. Everyone will want to give him a million dollars. Bianca and Naomi look pretty tight. Jackie chilled out after the challenge, but she still looks terrified. And Bron is somehow already up Mr. I’m a leader’s ass. That shit is gonna get old fast.”
It doesn’t escape Liv’s attention that all of his observations of their tribe mates are the same as hers. It also doesn’t escape her attention that this is the most she’s heard his voice this far. She finds that she might like the sound of it.
“You’ve been a little social butterfly today and talked to everybody. I can tell you like Raquel the most, though. Besides me, of course.” Liv guesses she wasn’t imagining the eyes on her as she floated around from person to person. She didn’t think he was paying her that much attention, but he must have been. “Here’s what I’m thinking,” Dominik continues to chat away while he motions for her to get ready to catch the coconuts. “You bring in Raquel, and I bring in Finn. If we can have a solid four, then it shouldn’t be too hard to get enough numbers for a majority vote.”
“Okay wait,” Liv huffs when the coconut hits her chest. “Did you just put us in an alliance without asking me first? Because I don’t remember us talking about this.” Is there something that she missed? Was there a conversation with Dominik that she blacked out for?
Seemingly unfazed, he just keeps casually tossing her more coconuts her way. “I didn’t think we had to talk about it. I thought we already locked this in.”
“Oh, really? Please enlighten me on when we did this locking in.”
Dominik sighs as if this is some sort of big inconvenience and starts to climb down from the tree. “Look, we both know that this is a numbers game more than anything. Neither of us is making it to the end without having people we can work with. And I want to work with you.”
Liv is fully aware that this is a numbers game. Without allies and without people she can trust, as much as you can trust anyone in this game, she’ll be dead in the water. Her and her sister had this exact conversation right before she left for Fiji. The younger woman had reminded her to listen to her gut when it comes to finding her allies. “Why are you so sure you want to work with me? We’ve only known each other for a few hours.”
“Well you see,” Dominik laughs and jumps the last few feet down from the tree. “I’ve always had a thing for blondes.”
“No, no, no,” she shakes her head and bites the inside of her cheek to keep from smiling in response to his crooked grin. “I’ll only consider this partnership if you tell me the truth. None of that flirty stuff.”
His eyes scan her face for a long moment before he sits on a rock at the base of the tree, gesturing for her to join him. She does as he wordlessly asks, but she doesn't realize how narrow the rock is. So the entire right side of her body ends up pressed up against his. And when she turns to look at him, their faces are only a few inches apart.
“I have good instincts when it comes to people. I can usually make my mind up about someone right when I meet them, it’s a skill.” He pauses and then leans in even closer, his eyes locked in on hers. “You trusted me today during that challenge, Liv. You had no idea if I knew what I was talking about, but you still put your own game on the line based on my word alone.”
It hadn’t hit her until after the challenge was over how screwed she would have been if she had yelled at everybody to listen to Dominik only for him to mess that puzzle up. Liv would have put a target on both of their backs. But in that moment, she looked into his eyes, and she believed that he could do it. There wasn’t a doubt in her mind. Now that she thinks about it, when has she ever had that much faith in someone so quickly?
“If we work together,” Dominik drops his voice to a whisper and Liv fights the urge to inch closer to him, “we can make it to the end. I believe that. So what do you say, trouble, are we doing this?”
Just like today during the challenge, there’s this voice down deep inside of her that’s screaming at her to believe him. Dominik isn’t the only one who has good instincts when it comes to people. Liv likes her tribe mates so far, even really likes some of them, but something about him is different. Can she trust him? She honestly isn’t sure. But she wants to. And that has to mean something, doesn’t it?
Liv extends her hand towards him, and the smile that spreads across his face when he slides his hand into hers is almost giddy. “If you make me regret this,” she warns while the tips of his fingers stroke the skin of her wrist, “I’ll make sure you’ll never know peace for the rest of your life.”
Dominik brings their joined hands to his chest and dramatically closes his eyes and leans his head back. “Don’t threaten me with a good time, sweetheart.”
“Okay,” Liv jumps up from the rock and pulls him up with her. “The first rule of this partnership is that you can’t say stuff like that in front of everybody. And we have to keep this on the down low. People will get the wrong idea if they see us together too much.” She’s watched enough of this show to know that it wouldn’t take much for their tribe to make certain assumptions if they seem too close. And that’s just asking to be voted out first thing. So they have to play this right if they want it to work.
“Yes ma’am.” He gives an exaggerated salute and then bends down to start picking up the coconuts. “I‘ll make sure to control myself, at least around everyone else.”
“You’re impossible,” Liv huffs and picks up the remaining fruit. “Let’s get back before they start looking for us. On our walk back, you can tell me all about how you got so good at puzzles. You don’t really seem like the puzzle type.” Although now that she thinks about it, building cars must be like solving one big puzzle, so there’s probably a connection there.
Instead of being offended by her assumptions, he throws his head back and laughs. For the rest of their trip, he tells her the story of a young Dominik who was terrible in school. He would get in trouble for never sitting still and always acting up. Eventually, one of his teachers had the idea that keeping his hands busy during class would help him behave better. So she gave him puzzles to work on, lots of puzzles.
“Did it work? Did you do better in class?”
“Hell no. I just got good at puzzles.”
When they make it back to camp, the group cheers when they see the bounty of coconuts they’re bringing with them. It saves them both from any questions about why they took so long. They gladly hand over the fruit and the machete to Bron who looks eager to cut them open. Dominik keeps his word and plays it cool in front of everyone. Besides a tiny wink that he sends her over Bron’s shoulder, he doesn’t give a single sign of the deal they just made.
Liv joins the girls on a driftwood log next to the fire, plopping down between Bianca and Raquel. When Jackie gives her a big leaf filled with rice that she has to eat with her hands, she can’t bite back her laughter. Even more than crawling through the mud earlier, this makes her truly feel like she’s on Survivor. She laughs even more when she sees Dominik across from her, sitting with Finn and Sami and looking like he’s having to choke down every bite of bland rice.
After everyone gets done eating, they all file out to the beach. Like they’re simply on vacation, they all settle in the sand to watch as the sun goes down. As insane as this day has been, she also knows that everything will only get harder and more insane from here on out. And there are so many worries filling her head. Did she do anything to piss anyone off today? Are there members of her tribe who already want to vote her out? Was agreeing to work with Dominik the right choice? Why does her heart skip every time he smiles at her?
But she doesn’t want to think about any of those things, especially that last one. So instead, Liv relaxes back into the sand and enjoys the most beautiful view she’s ever seen. There’s a chance that she’ll never get to experience anything like this ever again, so she wants to soak in every second. She’s so captivated that she stays in her spot even as it gets darker and darker. Even as her tribe mates one by one start to wander back to camp and claim their sleeping spot in the shelter, Liv stays. It’s not until dusk fully turns into night that she realizes how truly dark it gets out in the wilderness. It’s also when she starts to realize how cold it gets. Thank goodness she had slipped on the one sweatshirt she was allowed to bring for extra layers.
Deciding that she can’t justify staying out here any longer, Liv moves to stand. However, as soon as she does, her legs that have fallen asleep fail her and she starts to stumble. In a near perfect recreation of this morning, a pair of hands wrap around her arms and help steady her.
She almost forgot that he was still out here, a calm and quiet presence just a few feet away. Everyone else had left and gone to bed, but Dominik stayed. Liv knows how exhausted he is after a day filled with manual labor in the Fijian sun. She can see it on his face right now, even in the dim moonlight. But he still stayed. His eyes are only half open and his voice is rough when he mumbles that he’s got her.
Instantly, that worry floating around in her head about whether or not she made the right choice in him is quieted. Liv gently grips the hand that she had carefully wrapped in the fabric of his cut-off shirt sleeves, and they slowly navigate through the darkness together. There’s only a relatively small space left at the end of the shelter. She hesitates for what to do for only a second, but then she sees how all of her tribe mates are curled up together like puppies in a crate. It makes her feel less guilty for pulling Dominik down to lay against her back. It’s also what makes her feel less guilty when he whispers a slurred “goodnight” in her ear and slings his arm across her waist.
With Dominik’s body protecting her from the cool ocean breeze, Liv drifts off into the most restful sleep one can expect to get when they’re sleeping on bamboo.
She survived day 1, hopefully she has 38 more to go.