What you get (Viggo/Orlando - snippet)


What you get

In a thoughtless, surface way, Orlando liked everyone. If you asked him about Elijah, he'd say something like, "Oh yeah, I really respect Elijah. He's so courageous, you know? He's doing such an incredible job." He'd be animated and smiling as he tossed off the comment, and he'd already be thinking about something else.

Viggo had taken Orlando seriously at first, to the point of feeling the prickling beginnings of--something--the night that they'd gone for a drink and Orlando had told him, "I'm so drawn to you. There's this intensity about you that's just really attractive." Until he'd noticed that Orlando could be elsewhere, signaling for a beer or smiling at the waitress at the same time as saying something like that. Then he had taken a step back.

The language of the hobbits was slamming each other and there Orlando was the odd man out. Sure, when he got insulted he'd swear back but he'd be laughing too, like he couldn't quite believe it, and before long he'd be back to his usual, throwing his arm around Billy and telling him, "Billy Boyd, man. You are like the best friend a guy could have."

Orlando liked surfaces, Viggo thought, exteriors; his affability was genuine because he didn't think long enough about other people to dislike them. He got on brilliantly with the hobbits, especially Dom and Elijah. They had a lot in common: foremost the ability to form friendships with others before they understood themselves.

Viggo was closer with Sean Bean and members of the production team. Not a conscious decision, he simply gravitated toward his interests and peers. With the younger, more extroverted members of the cast Viggo relaxed into silence, listening--smiling sometimes as the hobbits set up long, running gags with one another.

So it was a surprise when Orlando started to seek him out, but then on reflection it wasn't. Perhaps Orlando had felt a prickling of--something--from Viggo too. Distance. A different kind of distance than Viggo maintained from the hobbits. A distance that to Orlando's mind must be corrected, because Orlando courted everyone into closeness, all the time, even Peter.

He was on Viggo's couch, in his trailer.

"We hardly ever hang out, Viggo, man. This is cool."

"Is it?"

"Just today, Elijah was saying how you guys went down to Hamilton and I was like, it's been too long since I talked to Viggo, really talked, you know, like, as if you're avoiding me or something." Orlando flashed a smile, because of course this could not possibly be true.

"I'm not avoiding you."

"Right. You're like the mystery guy, though. You're so--you know. I can't get my head around it."

Viggo smiled at that, couldn't help it. Orlando took the smile as encouragement and the silence as a reason to keep talking. He was about as far from Legolas as it was possible to get: tousled brown hair, limbs sprawled haphazardly. He was good looking and very young. Liv had proved on set that beauty and immaturity didn't make her stupid or a bad actress. Orlando, on the other hand--in all honesty, Viggo wasn't quite sure where Orlando's limitations lay, but they certainly existed, very tangibly, though Viggo possessed a strong desire to imagine them away because Orlando was so attractive.

Twisting a shred of paper between his fingers, Orlando said, "We're good, aren't we?"

"We're good," said Viggo.

Viggo didn't form facile friendships, he wasn't the type. He just watched as Orlando talked about nothing entertainingly and at great length; meanwhile he kept one eye on the time and when it slid past midnight he stood and murmured that it was late.

"Yeah, this was great though," said Orlando, rising and stretching. He smiled at Viggo. "Listen, I'd really like to do this again, you know? Just you and me. Sometime."

It was cold when Viggo opened the door of the trailer. It was a cold night.

"I'm serious about, if you, I mean--I--because tonight was, like, really--"

"Orlando--" A single note of worn patience slipped into his tone.

It was only awkward for a moment.

"Okay. Okay, well, whatever's okay. I know you're--anyway."

Orlando waved at him on set the next day and called him, "Viggo the man," and they were good, Viggo thought wryly, because Orlando was good with everyone.