Tokowhà

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Since he had arrived earlier as planned and had a few days off to get over the jet-lag, Sean had nothing to do and started to get bored. The morning had been quite thrilling; in the tent that was one of their canteens, Liv had jumped at him with a small cry of joy and had welcomed him with pecks on his cheeks, they had taken in a somewhat hurried breakfast together with Hugo and Billy, and then they all were gone again, on their ways to makeup or their shooting locations. Sean would have liked to jump into his costume as well, like all his friends, and start with his work, but PJ insisted that he relaxed today and recovered from the strains of the long flight. Since Sean didn’t feel like sitting in his hotel room all on his own or to slob around here in the canteen, he decided to watch the shootings a bit. So after drinking one more cup of coffee and chatting with one of the technicians for a while, he went to the location where he knew Viggo just worked on his scenes.

“We have trusted you this far, you have not led us astray, forgive me, I was wrong to despair”, Orlando recited his text while he looked Viggo, who was dressed up as Aragorn, in the eyes. Even before Viggo could kindly pat him on the shoulder and tell him the words which the script provided, there was a loud “CUT!”. The eleventh time in a row, and always because Orlando had foozled. Although the scene was broken off, Viggo lay a hand on his shoulder, more tenderly than Aragorn was supposed to do it to Legolas, and gave him a compassionate look.

“Orlando, what’s wrong with you?” Peter shouted a little sulkily from the cameras and put his hands on his hips. Usually he was a very sensitive and humane director, but they were in arrears with the schedule, and then Peter tended to get a little nervous and very demanding. “This whole morning you just drone your text. Besides, I heard through the grapevine that it took the makeup artists quite a lot of time to conceal the dark circles around your eyes, and in my opinion you still look pretty messed-up, despite makeup. Did you party with the damn Hobbits all night long again, or what?”

Orlando quickly closed his eyes when he felt unwanted tears well up, but thank God Viggo was here... Viggo was like a rock for him, and it helped him a lot to feel the supporting hand of his good friend on his shoulder and his understanding look in his face. Thanks to Viggo he could pull himself together and successfully suppress an outburst of desperation.

“Peter is only stressed out because he is pressed for time”, Viggo murmured assuasively, “Don’t take his nagging to heart.”

Orlando nodded and opened his eyes again, then turned towards the crew behind the lights and cameras to his right.

“I’m sorry, Peter. I... uhm... I don’t feel very well today“, he explained apologetically.

“Don’t fall ill, Orlando, we can’t afford that right now”, PJ replied in concern. “Shall I call a doctor?”

“No, that won’t –”, Orlando fell silent in the middle of the sentence, when he saw Sean – of all people! – approaching. He swallowed with effort, let his gaze shift from Sean to Viggo and back again to Peter, before he finished his sentence, “... be necessary.”

“Okay!” Peter yelled and clapped his hands motivatedly. “Once again, then! Do your best, Orlando!”

“Take it easy”, Viggo told his young friend calmly. With every fibre of his own body he could feel how tense Orlando was all of a sudden, now that Sean had joined them and watched their work. “Just concentrate on me. Look at me and concentrate on nothing but your text and my eyes. We’ll work it out.”

Orlando nodded gratefully, backed away a few steps and nervously waited for the twelfth starting shot of the scene. His heart pounded madly, only because he knew that Sean was watching him now. He was still furious, disappointed and sad, but he also was suddenly afraid that he could disgrace himself in front of Sean by screwing up again and again. No, that must not happen. He had to show him that he was good at this, that he could do it... He had to make Sean realize that he had missed Orlando. Exactly the same way Orlando had missed Sean. After all they were just meant for each other... He had been looking forward to the reunion with Sean, but what had become of it? There was a lump forming in his throat when he thought of last night in the bar, the sneaky look on the face of that son of a bitch Urban, and the striking, obscene smell that had clung to Sean...

The starting signal for the scene was given and pulled Orlando from his depressing thoughts. “And ACTION!”

Viggo attached belt, armor and weapons with practiced motions, until Orlando handed him his sword.

“I have trusted you this far. You have not led us astray. Forgive me. I was wrong to... despond... desp – oh man, shit...“

“CUT! Damn it, Orlando, pull yourself together! It’s only a few lines, what’s so difficult about it? We have trusted you this far. We! Not I. And you were wrong to despair. Despair, Orlando.” Peter sighed loudly and adjusted his glasses. “Very well, I suggest we take a ten minute break. It will all come to nothing if we go on like this.“

“I’m sorry”, Orlando said. He actually meant the whole team, but his voice was so low that only Viggo could hear him.

“Never mind. We all have a bad day from time to time“, Viggo consoled him and then looked into Sean’s direction who was just chatting with PJ. He wanted to go over, if possible when Orlando wasn’t watching, and ask his best friend to leave the set for at least today, but before he had the chance to do so, he felt a tug at his sleeve.

“Viggo?“ Orlando asked faint-heartedly. “Would you take a little walk with me? I think I need some fresh air.”

Viggo could read in Orlando’s face that he just wanted to get away from Sean for a while, until he had regained his composure, but he played along with the young man’s excuse.

“Yes, some fresh air won’t hurt anybody, right? Come on”, he said, gently grabbed Orlando’s elbow and led him away from the the rest of the crew. And away from Sean.

When the actors who portrayed Aragorn and Legolas came back to the set after the agreed ten minutes, both of them immediately noticed that their director wasn’t present anymore.

“Where’s Peter?” Orlando asked.

“He wants us to continue without him for a while”, one of the directing assistants explained. “He took the helicopter over to the Edoras setting in order to check out how Miranda, Brad and Karl are doing. Sean went along with him, by the way.”

Despite the thick layer of makeup which had been applied to the young actor’s face to turn him into a pale, delicate elf, Viggo could see how Orlando blanched. He could have chopped off this bloody directing assistant’s head with his sword right here right now, but unfortunately that wouldn’t undo the damage already done.

“Sean went along? With the damn chopper?“ Orlando started to feel sick all of a sudden. Yesterday he had almost driven Viggo to the brink of a mental breakdown with with his hectic, gushing anticipation and joy at the expected reunion with Sean, and today? Today he stood here, betrayed, abandoned and broken-hearted, and the man he was so deeply in love with and who he had waited for so eagerly, was on his way to exactly that bastard who had obviously twisted Sean around his finger and taken him away from Orlando. And he was on his way in a helicopter, despite his pronounced fear of flying. Orlando hated his life. He hated Karl. He hated this place and this job, and he just wanted to be left alone.

“I’m sorry, I can’t. I don’t feel well“, he ground out, more or less composed, glanced at Viggo with an apology in his moist eyes, turned away and left the set without saying one more word or reacting to the questions and yells of the crew.

“And cut!” Peter Jackson yelled and a broad smile showed on his face. “That was splendid, Brad! Very good work. And Karl, that was exactly the way I wanted it to be. That was great! Much better than yesterday. Wonderful, guys, it’s in the can. We’ll take a break for lunch now and later I would like to continue with the Gríma and Éowyn scene. Karl, you are finished for today. You may take the rest of the day off.”

Sean, who had sat behind PJ in silence and watched the shooting of the banishment of Éomer, rose when the whole crew swarmed out of the great hall in order to get to the catering tent and the well-earned food. That means, the whole crew except for Karl. The young man still stood exactly where he just had given a really impressing performance, but looked over to Sean unbashfully. As their gazes met, he gave a friendly smile, and Sean went over to him without hesitating for any longer. Strange, how different he looked now, in this bulky armor and with the blond, long wig, not to forget the fake beard which the makeup artists had perfectly attached to his face. Sean didn’t think that he would have recognized his fling from last night in this costume if he hadn’t known that this was the very same man.

“I believe we can stop with the masquerade now”, the blond Brit rose to speak and extended his hand to the other man. “Sean Bean”, he introduced himself for the second time, this time with his true name. The younger one took the offered hand, still a little smile on his face.

“Hi. Karl Urban“, he said. “Nice to meet you. I would have introduced myself properly yesterday, but I really didn’t regognize you. Must have been the short haircut, and the missing sword and shield...” And somehow Sean had to grin now too, because the whole situation seemed just surreal to him. Their hands disconnected only reluctantly again, and Sean believed he noticed an interested and inviting twinkle in the brown-green eyes of the other one, but maybe it was only wishful thinking... This young man fascinated him in a weird way. And even though he didn’t know him at all, he was astonishingly comfortable when he was around. This Karl Urban put forth such pleasant serenity, and he seemed to be really easy-going about this whole pretty awkward situation between them, about which Sean was surprised but also very relieved. After the whole thing had happened with Orlando, everything had been complicated and bothersome and depressing, but with this guy it was totally different. Sean had the feeling, that with him, he could surely have a trouble-free talk about it all. With Orlando this still didn’t work properly.

“I guess we should start all over again, as colleagues“, Sean said with a neutral, kind voice without beating around the bush. “Last night... Well, we both didn’t know who exactly we were getting involved with and – I just want to point out that I don’t have any problems forgetting about the whole matter.”

“You didn’t enjoy it, then?“ Karl asked and raised an eyebrow questioningly. Sean paused for a moment. This wasn’t exactly the reply he had expected.

“Oh well,… I mean… wasn’t it obvious that I enjoyed it?“ He smiled more openly and hoped that Karl couldn’t see that he was a little nervous.

“It was pretty obvious indeed”, Karl said and returned the wide smile generously. “Very well then”, he continued and sweeped back a few blond long strands of hair that had fallen into his face, “I enjoyed it too...”

Sean only looked at Karl in silence. He waited, rather then get himself into hot water again. That happened to him more than enough lately.

“What I’m trying to say is”, Karl added when he realized that the Englishman wouldn’t speak, “that I wouldn’t exactly object if we didn’t forget about it, but soon tied up to last night... What do you think?”

The offer was really more than tempting, especially because it was so blunt and carefree and also a little unexpected, Sean had to admit it, but was this a good idea...? He had to think of the horrified expression in Orlando’s eyes all the time, and of the things Viggo had spat at him. Never before had he seen his best friend that angry. And also a third person occupied his thoughts, a blond man, probably in the middle of his thirties, who he had seen talking to Karl in a very intimate way last night, shortly before he had left the pub.

“What would your boyfriend say to that?“ Sean asked point-blank.

“Boyfriend?“ Karl replied.

"Well that guy from last night. He didn’t really look as if he was only your tax advisor or something.”

Karl almost laughed out loud. “David? God forbid! He wouldn’t even feel me up if we were stranded on a deserted island together for the rest of our lives. You will get to know him pretty well, by the way. You two will work together a lot, he was cast in the role of your little brother Faramir. But there’s no room for hope with Dave, believe me, he is probably the most heterosexual man I know of. It’s almost disgusting how he’s hitting on everyone who wears a skirt and high-heels.”

Again there was a short moment of silence between them until Karl’s gaze wandered to Théoden’s throne which wasn’t far from them in the great hall. When the younger man again looked deeply into Sean’s eyes, he asked completely uninhibited: “Have you ever shagged in a setting?” Sean nearly choked on his own saliva.

“But the others could come at any moment...” Sean pointed out as he regained his composure.

“I didn’t say that it had to happen right now. How long will you stay?”

“A few months I guess. We’ll see.”

“Well, there surely will be an opportunity we could take. But now I’ll call it a day and, frankly, I can’t wait to get out of here.”

“And where do you spend your free time?“ Sean asked, secretly hoping that Karl would respond to the admittedly very broad hint. Karl’s answer, put forth with an extremely meaningful gaze that made Sean’s pulse speed up, exceeded everything the Brit would have dared to hope for.

“Where do you want me?“