LOTR Fic: Standing On the Edge of Something

[jule1122]

Title: Standing On the Edge of Something
Fandom and Pairing: LOTR RPF Viggo/Orlando
Rating: PG-13
Warnings: None
Summary: Viggo knew there were a millions reasons not to get involved with Orlando. Luckily, Orlando is persistent
Disclaimer: This is a work of complete fiction. I have never met nor do I have any personal knowledge of any of the people portrayed in this story. No money is being made from this story.
Notes: Written for agardenafter in the merryviggorli fic exchange. Please forgive any liberties I tool with the actual shooting schedule. Title taken from the Sarah McLachlan song “I Will Remember You.”


It took a week for the reality of Helm’s Deep to sink in. Pete may have sold it as an adventure, but it was going to be a long, difficult shoot. Almost three weeks into it, Viggo wondered for the hundredth time if he was too old for all this. He was tired and sore, but the thought of crawling into an empty, cold bed held little appeal.

“I miss sex,” he said mostly to himself.

“I’ll shag you.”

“What?” Viggo sat up startled by the response. He’d forgotten Orlando was still there, obviously too tired to head home as well even though they’d been released a while ago.

“My place or yours?” Orlando asked with a flirtatious smile that reminded Viggo that Orlando was much younger and therefore not nearly as exhausted as he was.

“Christ, Orli, you can’t go around offering sex to the cast. That kind of stuff gets complicated real fast,” Without thinking about, Viggo reverted to his role as mentor.

His advice was met with a roll of Orlando’s eyes. “It’s not like I asked people to queue up at the trailer door. And you’re the one that brought it up.”

“I said I missed sex, not that I was looking for quick fuck.”

“Who said anything about quick?”

Viggo shook his head and tried to ignore the stirring in his groin and the images that Orli’s statement conjured up. “I’m not in the market for casual.”

“We can have dinner first,” Orlando laughed. “I never said it would be casual. If I’d known you were interested, I would have offered a long time ago.”

“Like I said, Orli it’s a bad idea. On set relationships cause too much trouble.”

Orlando shrugged and stood up, “Your loss, Old Man.”

Viggo winced at the nickname. Normally it didn’t bother him, but something about this whole conversation, Orlando’s ease with offering him sex and admitting his interest in more than that, left Viggo feeling weighed down by his years of experience with heartbreak.

“Just remembering when you’re wanking tonight it could have been my mouth on your cock instead of your hand.” Orlando dropped a quick kiss on Viggo’s cheek and left.

Viggo stayed where he was for a while, stunned, half hard, and hating himself for not being able to say yes.


A few nights later, Orlando joined him in the craft services tent. “So, breakfast when we get out of here then a nap?”

“Orlando, I already told you this wasn’t going to happen.”

“That’s when you thought I was willing to shag anyone who asked. Now I’m asking you out. It’s different.”

The thought of dating Orlando was more appealing that Viggo wanted to admit. He’d been alone for a long time that’s why other than leaving Henry, taking off for New Zealand hadn’t been a hardship. But more than that, Viggo cared about Orlando. He could easily see their friendship becoming more at least on his end.

“Do you want me to cook, or we could go out?”

It would be easy to let it happen, but after his last disastrous relationship, Viggo had promised himself he’d be cautious. “It won’t work Orlando. I’m too old; you’re too young.”

“Which is it?”

“What do you mean?”

“Am I too young or are you too old?”

“Both.”

“No,” Orlando shook his head. “There’s a difference.”

Viggo knew Orlando was right so he thought about it. Orlando was young, but he wasn’t naïve or immature. If it wasn’t for his unlined face, his still lithe body, Viggo would never believe Orlando was as young as he was. No, it was his own insecurities that held him back. His face was lined, and his body was scarred and worn, and lately he’d felt every one of his forty add years. Viggo couldn’t see himself as the object of anyone’s fantasies let alone Orlando’s. “I’m too old for you.”

“That’s for me to decide. Now I’d better get back to makeup before the girls have my head.”

And once again, Viggo was left wondering what he’d started.


For the most part, the actors on the Helm’s Deep shoot were isolated from the rest of the cast, but every now and then schedules collided. One night Viggo entered the trailer to find Orlando chatting animatedly with Dom and Billy.

“So the rumors of the scraggly half human wondering the night are true,” Dom said as he looked Viggo up and down.

It has been an especially rough week, and Viggo could only imagine what he looked like as he’s taken to avoiding mirrors. He snarled at Dom for effect. “Do I smell Hobbit blood?”

Billy howled with laughter when Dom pretended to cower. “I told you they’d turned into vampires. This isn’t a night shoot; it’s a cult of the undead.”

“Behave, or you’ll scare our guests away,” Orlando teased. “Just be thankful he doesn’t have the sword with him tonight. I think Viggo’s forgotten what little civilized behavior he was once knew.”

“Not that there’s anything wrong with giving in to your primal urges,” Orlando licked his lips and winked at Viggo.

“Dommie, I think we need to stage an intervention. It looks like Orli is turning to the dark side,” Billy whispered loudly.

“We need to go anyway. Our shoot ran late so we thought we’d hang around and make sure you two were still alive. But we’ll leave you to whatever it is you get up here all night. Come on Bills.”

Dom and Billy hugged Orlando then headed for Viggo. With a growl he tackled them onto the couch and bared his teeth. They squirmed out from under him and ran screaming and laughing from the trailer.

Once Orlando stopped laughing, he smiled at Viggo. “It was great to see them again, wasn’t it?”

“Yeah,” Viggo agreed happy if nothing else to see Orlando relaxed and smiling.

It seemed like days later instead of hours that they made it back to the trailer. Orlando was still smiling, but after a grueling night of fighting, Viggo wanted nothing more than to get home.

He caught Orlando looking at him with concern as he eased the outer layer of his costume off. “You look a bit tense. How about coming back to my place for a massage and a glass of wine?”

“Orlando,” Viggo began wearily, not in the mood to argue.

“Just say yes, Viggo. It will be good for both of us.”

Viggo thought of how happy Orlando had been all day despite the difficult schedule and wondered what it was exactly that Orlando needed. “I know you’re lonely,” Orlando shrugged so Viggo continued, “But I can’t be a substitute for someone else.”

“What the bloody fuck are you talking about?” Orlando had been sitting, but he sprang up. “What do you think I’m playing at?”

“I’m just saying it can’t be easy fro you, cut off from most of the cast. There might be things you want from other people”

“Like who?” Orlando interrupted.

Now it was Viggo’s turn to shrug. “I don’t know. Dom, Billy, Bean?”

Orlando laughed, but it was a harsh sound. “So you think I really want to shag Dom or Billy or maybe Bean or maybe just about anyone, but you? But since you’re here and they’re not, I decided you’ll do?”

It sounded even worse spelled out like that, and Viggo had no real defense so he remained silent. Finally, Orlando sighed and stepped closer to Viggo.

“It’s not like you to be this insecure, and I don’t know what your problem is. I want to be very clear on one thing. You are the one I want, and just you. Believe that if nothing else.” Orlando framed Viggo’s face with his hands and forced him to meet his eyes. Then he smiled sadly and kissed Viggo’s forehead. “I’m going to go talk to Pete for a minute. See you.”

And then he was gone. By the time Viggo has answer to what lie behind his insecurities he was glad Orlando had left him alone. He wouldn’t have wanted to blurt out that now that the idea of a relationship with Orlando had taken root, it had become too important to take lightly. He wanted more than he thought he would.


Orlando backed off after that. Oh, he still issued invitations, but he did so with the expectation that Viggo would turn him down. He stopped pushing, and they began to treat the whole thing as a joke, with both the invitations and the refusals becoming more outlandish.

Viggo wondered if Orlando was trying to give him space, or if he’d really given up. No matter what he was trying to accomplish, what he did was give space for Viggo’s doubts to flourish. All of which lead to a misunderstanding one night when a massive equipment malfunction canceled filming after only a few hours.

Excited about the prospect of getting out of work before all the clubs closed, people immediately began making plans. Viggo shuddered to think how much time most of them spent drinking alone during the shoot. Orlando grabbed Viggo’s arm as he hurried past him, “Hey, I’m off to,” he named a slightly out of the way bar. “First drink’s on me?”

Viggo nodded without thinking about it. Orlando smiled broadly and tossed a “Great” over his shoulder as he headed off to return his wig. Viggo wondered if Orlando meant the invitation as a date, but decided not to worry about. It seemed more like a casual meet up, and Viggo decided to treat it as such. If when he got there, Orlando had other ideas, maybe he’d finally see where it could lead.

On the way to the trailer, Viggo spotted Orlando across the lot, and his relaxed mood evaporated. He was standing with one of the elven extras, a slim beautiful girl who reminded Viggo of Liv. Their body language was friendly, flirtatious. Viggo watched Orlando run his hand down her arm and wink at her; he laughed when she ducked her head and blushed. After a few more minutes of watching Orlando tease and flirt, Viggo continued into the trailer.

He sat down heavily in his chair, annoyed with himself for being jealous. After all, he’d been the one to reject Orlando again and again. Eventually, Orlando would have to get sick of being turned down, and there were plenty of people who would love to go out with him. Still, seeing Orlando with someone else had stung more than Viggo would have expected.

By the time Viggo was ready to leave, he felt he’d put his feelings into perspective. He’d meet Orlando and enjoy a drink with his friend without any expectations Just as he was heading to his car, Sala flagged him down and invited him to join a group of the stunties for a drink.

For a moment Viggo was tempted. There was always the chance Orlando had asked the elven extra to come as well, and Viggo didn’t relish being a third wheel. Then he had an idea for a joke that would let Orlando know things were back to normal between them, and he could let the dating campaign go. It was easy to convince Sala to change his plans and bring the group to meet up with Viggo and Orlando.

“First drinks are on Orli,” was all the convincing he needed.

“Cool, Viggo. I’ll have to thank him when we get there.”

“Hey, Sala,” Viggo led him along easily. “I think Orli would like a traditional thank you.” Viggo gave him a gentle head butt to make sure he understood.

“Are you sure?” Sala looked uncertain. While Orlando more than held his own in stunts, he didn’t hang out or roughhouse with the stuntmen like Viggo did.

“He’s not as delicate as he looks. He’ll be fine.”

Sala shrugged, “OK, if you say so. After all if he’s buying first round, he deserves the thanks.”

Orlando took both the head butt and the number of people who showed up fro a free drink surprisingly well. At least until he caught up with Viggo. “You could have just said no,” he pressed a hand to the red spot on his forehead and glared at Viggo.

“Come on, Orli it was just a joke,” Viggo smiled and knew he was forgiven when Orlando laughed.

“It would have been a bit funnier if I hadn’t been expecting you to finally go out with me. A whole crew of chaperones is a bit ridiculous, yeah.”

Despite his cheerful tone, Orlando looked hurt, and Viggo began to feel bad about the whole set up. “Sorry Orli, I didn’t realize. I thought you’d given up on the whole dating thing.”

“Just trying a different approach. Thought I finally won you over with my charm and wit,” Orlando shrugged and looked down at his hands.

“You don’t have to win me over Orlando,” Viggo stopped him from picking at his thumbnail by reaching for one of his hands and squeezing. “You’re very important to me, but that doesn’t mean a relationship between us would work.”

“You’re making this too hard. We have fun together, we can talk to each other, we’re both sexy as hell. Why not go with that?”

Viggo thought of how he felt earlier watching Orlando flirt; he thought about how right Orlando had looked with her. “You can have that with a lot of people who are better suited for you than I am, someone who’s more like you, young, adventurous.”

“You think I want to go out every night and sow my oats or something?” Orlando looked at Viggo like he was crazy. “Sure I like to try thinks like surfing and bunging jumping, but that’s for fun. Viggo, I’ve been on my own since I was sixteen. I’ve done all the partying and experimenting I want to. You’ve been out with me; all I want to do is have a few drinks with my friends, dance a little, have a good time. We can do that together. If you can’t see that, I don’t know how to make you.”

Orlando left while Viggo was still trying to think of a response.


“So he finally convinces me that he’s right, that it might actually work between us, and he stops asking,” Viggo complained to Bean over the phone a few days later.

“Serves you right for dragging your feet for so long,” Sean laughed. “So now it’s your turn to ask him.”

“I don’t think so. It’s best to just let it go,” Viggo wasn’t sure who he was trying to convince.

“If I had a hot young bloke like Orli interested in me, I wouldn’t be spending my nights on the phone with you. Well, if he was a hot young girl, but you get my point.”

“Says the man who’s about to get divorced yet again. I’m not sure you should be giving advice.”

“You called me,” Sean took the criticism good naturedly. “Orli’s a good kid, Vig. If he says he wants more than a shag, he means it. You don’t have to be alone.”

Viggo sighed, almost regretting the drunken confessions he’d made to Sean that let him know Viggo’s fears so well. “Maybe not, but it looks like I missed my chance.”


Helm’s Deep was finally wrapping up, and the end couldn’t come soon enough for everyone but Pete. Over the last week he’d extended every shoot to get just a few more scenes in. Even Viggo acknowledged that many of them had little chance of making it into the film, but they all gritted their teeth and kept going.

“Two more days, two more days,” Viggo heard more than one person mumble the refrain under their breath as Pete called for an additional scene an hour after they were supposed to have wrapped up.

Viggo frowned when he saw the cautious way Orlando made his way over for a touch up. He’d taken a hard hit earlier, and hadn’t been right since. Orlando rarely complained about his back, but Viggo had gotten used to judging how much it bothered him by his body language, and something was seriously wrong.

“Orlando, if you need to stop for the night, Pete will understand,” Viggo whispered when he made his way over to Orlando. He’d braced himself against a wall with his shoulder and hissed audibly when Viggo gently rested a hand below his neck.

“It’s fine, just don’t touch me,” Orlando replied through obviously gritted teeth.

Viggo was tempted to argue, but he could tell Orlando was determined to see the shoot out. He reminded himself that Orlando was an adult, and Viggo wasn’t in the habit of making anyone’s decisions for them so he nodded reluctantly.

“I fucking hate this,” Orlando said as he slowly straightened up. Viggo made a move to help him, but caught himself at the last minute. “So fancy a meal tonight?” Orlando asked with a forced smile.

For once, Viggo wasn’t thinking about protecting himself. Instead he was thinking he’d been given another chance so he said yes. He knew the minute the word was out of his mouth it’d been a mistake.

Orlando’s eyes hardened immediately. It was a look Viggo was familiar with. He usually saw it when things between Orlando and John got particularly tense or when the Hobbit’s teasing hit too close to home. He’d never expected to see it directed at him or to have caused it. “Sorry Mate, I’m not up for a pity fuck tonight. Maybe some other time.” With that, Orlando walked off faster than Viggo would have expected.


Viggo had wanted to rush after Orlando and explain what he meant, but he knew sometimes time was the only answer. So he let it go. By the time Pete finally called it a night, Orlando was acting like nothing had ever happened, and Viggo decided it was best to simply wait.

It wasn’t easy. He spent the weekend Pete gave them off for surviving Helm’s Deep resting and painting. Occassionally he wondered what it would have been like to spend this rare break with Orlando, and he hastily penned some lines about possibilities. But Viggo wasn’t one for regrets, and he returned to the set confident he would have a chance to set things right.

The first few days back were an adjustment. Helm’s Deep had been a world unto itself, and as happy as they were to leave it behind, working during the day with more of the principal cast felt strange. The Hobbits latched on to Orli immediately, and he was happy to tell them exaggerated tales describing the horrors of the shoot. Viggo spent time catching up with Ian and Miranda while making sure he and Orlando settled into their familiar routine of friendship.

His plan had been to let things settle for a bit before seeing if Orlando was still interested in more than friendship. But once again, Orlando surprised him.

“So now that we’re getting out of here at a civilized hour, would you have dinner with me?” Orlando asked him during a break in film, a slightly uncertain smile on his face.

Deciding not to question his good fortune, Viggo agreed immediately. “I’d love to, but come to my place, and I’ll cook.”

Orlando’s eyes lit up, “That’d be great.”

Filming seemed to fly after that, and before he knew Viggo was opening the door to an obviously nervous Orlando.

“Hey,” Orlando greeted him softly. He bounced slightly on his toes and smiled, but didn’t meet Viggo’s eyes.
“Come in,” Viggo urged. Once Orlando was inside, Viggo kissed him. He started slowly, simply bringing their mouths together, but once he felt Orlando relax he pulled him closer. Changing the angle of the kiss, Viggo teased Orlando’s lips with his tongue until his mouth opened. Orlando responded eagerly, and the kiss deepened even more.

Viggo smoothed his hand over Orlando’s hair, feeling both the softness of his hair and the smooth slide of his bare skin. Unable to resist, he stroked it again, and Orlando moved into his touch. Viggo was fascinated by Orlando’s hair, focusing many of his photos of Orlando on the contrast between the boldness of the style and the vulnerability of his naked skull. He thought it said everything about who Orlando was.

When the kiss finally ended, Orlando laughed softly, “That was quite a greeting, Old Man. So what’s for dinner?”

Viggo wanted Orlando to understand how much he wanted this. After all the doubts, he was completely committed to beginning a relationship with Orlando. He didn’t know how to explain to Orlando how free it felt to simply embrace his feelings for the other man, to let their future play out finally free of insecurities. He knew he’d stumble through the words so he decided a simple gesture was best.

He shook his head and let a slow smile spread across his face, “No dinner. I’m planning on breakfast in bed.”

“Yeah?” At Viggo’s nod, Orlando’s answering smile was dazzling. “I knew you’d be worth the wait.”

Viggo threw back his head and laughed. Then he reached for Orlando, knowing he had no intention of letting go.