Title: In the Glowing 1/?
Author:  Moggie (moggie23x@yahoo.ca)
Pairing:  Viggo / Orlando
Rating: NC-17 overall
Summary:  In pursuit of a gorgeous shot, Viggo convinces the cast and 
crew to spend the night out under the stars.   
Disclaimer:  I don't know Viggo or Orlando.  Nor do I have any 
knowledge regarding their sexual orientations or personal life.  This is a 
work of fiction, pure and simple.
Archive:  LBES, Lirimaer, Mirrormere, CIB, Of Elves and Men.  Others 
please ask - I am sure to say yes.
Notes:  Sorry, but some random Buffy quotage made its way into this one.  
Who ever spots it (there's 2, from the same episode even) gets 10 points!
Beta:  The wonderful Eruberueth Sadril
Author's Website: "Unfettered Words": 
http://pages.interlog.com/~illusion/VslashO/

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Fire's burning, fire's burning
Draw nearer, draw nearer
In the glowing, in the glowing
Come sing and be merry

~ old campfire song ~

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

The sun came up over the horizon, painting the sky in brilliant shades of 
orange, gold and pink.  Viggo allowed the warmth of the sun to penetrate 
his body:  it hit his skin, and sank into his very soul.  Drawing a deep 
breath, he allowed the essence of the sunrise to filter into his being, the 
golden glow seeping deeper into his body, filling him with a feeling of 
peace and contentment. 

It was beautiful.

The sun rose as he continued to drive towards the East.   It moved upwards 
from the horizon, tracing its arcing path across the sky.    Viggo drew a 
sigh of contentment as he navigated his car towards the sunrise, reaching 
for his sunglasses as the sunlight increased in intensity.  Every day should 
be as beautiful as this.  He felt truly fortunate to be able to witness such 
beauty in the world.   

Working on these films had brought him such joy - so much beauty, in so 
many forms.   He never ceased to be awestruck by the vistas that were set 
before him every day:  mountains whose snow covered peaks reached 
majestically for the sky; green, verdant forests that were home to ever 
manner of beast and bird; wide, roaring rivers and dark lakes full of deep 
mysteries.   A sky so blue and infinite that it seemed to go on forever… 
and perhaps it did.  And the glory that he was witness to at this moment: 
sunrises that painted that sky in every colour of the rainbow.  

Viggo pulled his car into shoot's makeshift parking lot.  Although it was 
still early, the location was humming with activity.   The crew were 
readying their equipment for today's Three Hunters shoot - people were 
everywhere, setting up shots, making sure that the craft services tent was 
up and running, walking about with pages of script.

Viggo sat back on the hood of his car, still watching the sunrise.  He 
wanted to take a moment to absorb the beauty of the morning's colours 
before the hectic day began.  He took a deep breath, and closed his eyes, 
absorbing the golden warm rays of the sun into his being.

He did not open his eyes until a car pulled into the lot beside him.  Barrie 
got out of the car, and came to stand beside Viggo.

"Morning Barrie."

"Morning Viggo."

"How was your drive up here?"

"Long as, usual.  It wouldn't have been so bad if I weren't driving into the 
sun for the last half hour."

"I don't know - I thought it was rather beautiful, actually.  The colours are 
just amazing.  Imagine how they would look on film?"  A flash of 
inspiration and a vision of a gorgeous shot came to Viggo as he stared at 
the sunrise.  "Why don't we see if we can do that tomorrow morning?"

"Do what, Vig?"

"Capture this.  On camera.  The Three Hunters on a top of a hill, 
silhouetted against a spectacular morning sunrise.  That would be a 
gorgeous shot."

Barry paused to consider this for a moment - as producer, one of his jobs 
was to think about the logistics and practical details.   As nice as this idea 
of Viggo's was, it could pose some problems.  "It sounds like a great idea, 
Viggo.  But we'd have to begin shooting awfully early.  It is hard enough 
getting people out here for this hour, far less 2 hours earlier.   You know 
that we're far enough away from Poolburn that the cast and crew would 
barely get more than a few hours sleep before they'd have to get up and 
head back here again."

Viggo frowned.   The vision of the runners and the sunrise persisted - he 
had to find some way to make it work.  Inspiration struck. "What if the 
people needed for the shot didn't go back to Poolburn?   We could stay 
here tonight."

"Stay here?"

"Sure, why not.  We could camp out.  We can build a campfire, go fishing 
after the shoot is done and grill whatever we catch.   We've got trailers to 
sleep in, or people could sleep out under the stars if its not too cold."  As 
Viggo talked about it, he got more and more excited. "It'll be fun.   We'll 
wake up at the normal time, and won't have to be bothered with a drive out 
here to get to the shoot.   And think about the reward - what a shot that's 
going to be!"

"Okay, Viggo, I give in!  It sounds great.  But you, my friend, have to tell 
the cast and crew.  I guess that we don't have to ask everybody to stay - we 
just really need you, Orlando, John, Brett, and some of the crew.  I'll give 
you some names.  Of course, anybody who wants to stay here can feel free 
to - I imagine that there would be more than a few people who would be 
interesting in camping here tonight."

Still chatting about the shot, the two men wandered off to Barrie's 
production trailer to finalize the details of the overnight stay in the 
location.   As they talked, Viggo could feel the anticipation welling up - 
not just because of this awesome opportunity and the undoubtedly fun 
time it would afford, but because it would allow him to spend the night in 
Orlando's company.   

Over the past few months, Viggo had come to realize that he was attracted 
to the younger man.   To him, Orlando was just as beautiful as the sunrise 
that he had witnessed this morning - his vitality and love for life made him 
burn as bright as the sun, and his personality was painted with the same 
myriad colours that the sky had been.  

What's more, Viggo was starting to wonder if his attraction to Orlando 
wasn't as one sided as he had originally thought.  They talked and joked 
around as they always did - as Orlando did with all of his friends - but 
there had been several instances where Viggo was convinced that Orlando 
was flirting with him.  There were touches that lingered a little longer than 
was necessary.   Sometimes, when they hugged at the end of a night at the 
pub, the embrace was a little tighter than was usual among platonic 
friends.  And occasionally, when Viggo had glanced at Orlando to admire 
him, he had caught Orlando gazing wistfully at him.

Of course, it could all be his imagination.  Perhaps tonight would give him 
the opportunity to find out whether Orlando's perceived attraction towards 
him was all in his mind or not…

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Viggo walked into the trailer that he shared with Orlando, and found his 
friend already seated in front of his mirror, reading a book and waiting for 
his make up artist to arrive.

"Morning Eflboy."

Orlando looked up from his book as Viggo walked into the trailer.  His 
face lit up in a wide grin as he Viggo walked towards him and sat down in 
his own chair.

"Viggo!  How are you today?"

"Great.  Wonderful, actually.  I had an idea for a shoot tomorrow that I 
wanted to talk to you about.  I already talked to Barrie about it, and he said 
that I just had to convince everybody else, since it was my idea."

"Everybody else, huh?  What brilliant idea did you come up with this 
time?"

"We're going to catch the sunrise tomorrow."

Orlando's eyes twinkled as he looked at his friend.  "The Three Hunters at 
early morning?"

Viggo grinned back at him.  "Yeah."

"That sounds excellent!   What a great idea!  Now why would that be so 
bad that Barrie would need your superb diplomatic skills to convince 
everybody?"

"Well, we're going to camp out here overnight to get the shot."  

Orlando's eyebrows shot up. "Really?  Camping… I can't even remember 
the last time I did that."

Viggo smirked at Orlando's apprehension.  "What, you afraid of getting a 
little dirty, prissy elf?"

Orlando snorted.  "Of course not."  He reached out a hand to playfully 
shove at his friend's shoulder.  Viggo only continued to smirk back at him. 
"Its just been a while since I've done anything like that."

"Well, it will be fun. Don't worry.  We'll make a campfire, grill some food 
- Barrie's got an assistant going back into town to pick up some supplies - 
some firewood, sleeping bags, some wine…"

"Wine, huh?"

"Yup. Should be a good time.  You up for it?"

It was Orlando's turn to smirk.  "You know it."   

The trailer door, opened, and their make-up artists entered the trailer, 
chatting merrily about the latest news.  Viggo winked at Orlando, then 
turned to the women, using his considerable skills of persuasion to 
convince them to come on board with his plan.  

Orlando sat in his chair, smiling to himself as Marta, his make-up artist, 
began to work on him.  Of course he wouldn't turn down an opportunity 
such as this one.  The chance to spend the night with Viggo, camping 
under the stars, was just too good to pass down.  Throw some wine and 
flattering campfire light into the mix, and you have what Orlando 
considered to be the perfect circumstances under which he could make his 
feelings towards Viggo known.   

Orlando wasn't sure if Viggo realized it or not, but he had been flirting 
shamelessly with the older man for weeks.  What's more, to Orlando it 
sometimes seemed that Viggo had flirted *back*, which made Orlando 
think that he actually did have a chance.  Orlando had been cautious and 
hesitant about his attraction to Viggo up until this point - well, as cautious 
as Orlando could be, anyways.  He always had been an outrageous flirt, 
but had forced himself to turn it down a few notches because he didn't 
want to risk blowing their working relationship, not to mention their 
friendship.

Tonight, though… tonight he would turn on the charm full force.  And if it 
didn't work out, well, he could always blame it on the wine.

Orlando smiled to himself, and raised his eyes to his mirror.  He caught 
Viggo looking at him in the glass. The other man returned his smile, then 
went back to chatting with his make-up artist.  

Oh yeah, Orlando thought to himself.  Tonight was going to be great. 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

"We'll camp out, we'll catch some fish and grill them over the campfire.  
We'll drink some wine - it'll be fun!"

Viggo didn't know how many times he had repeated that phrase that day.  
Eventually he had managed to talk to each person on the list that Barrie 
had given him.  Dressed in his costume, and adopting Aragorn's 
commanding manner, none had dared to turn him down.  In fact, just about 
everybody seemed excited at the idea.   Word spread throughout the 
location, and soon even people who weren't on Barrie's list were inquiring 
about the overnight outing.  At the end of the day, it became clear that 
word had even reached cast and crew who were not a part of the Three 
Hunters shoot - by the time shooting ended at around seven o'clock PM, 
Karl, Miranda and Bernard had arrived with overnight bags and sleeping 
bags in tow.  

The event was turning out to be quite the party - not the smaller, intimate 
group that Viggo was hoping for.  There would be dozens of people 
around the campfire, and probably little opportunity for him to get a 
moment alone with Orlando.

Sitting in the trailer at the end of the day, Viggo sighed to himself as his 
make-up was removed.  At least there was almost a full year left on this 
shoot.  Of course that would be a small consolation, if his feelings for 
Orlando remained unrequited.  

"What's wrong, Viggo?  Aren't you excited about tonight?"   Catherine, his 
make-up artist, was one of his favorite people to talk to.  He tended to 
spend quite a bit of time alone with her at the end of the day, when he was 
in a quiet and introspective headspace.   She had heard some of his more 
esoteric thoughts, and had a good ear for listening. 

"Yeah, I am.  Although it's not quite turning out the way I had imagined."

"Why's that?  It seems like it's going to be a great success - I've heard so 
many people talking about it."

"I guess that's part of it.  There's going to be more people here tonight than 
I originally thought."

"Ah.  You would have liked a more intimate group."

"Yeah."

"Well, you shouldn't worry about it so much Viggo.  Whatever you had 
planned for tonight, crowded campfire aside, I'm pretty sure that there is 
somebody else here who had the same thing in mind."

Viggo's eyebrows shot up, and he met Catherine's eyes in the mirror, 
worried for a second that the woman had some unresolved feelings for 
him.  That would be terribly awkward, especially since she was married.  
"What do you mean?"

"Oh, come on Viggo.  A girl can't work here day after day, watching the 
two of you sneak glances at each other in the mirror without catching on."

A sense of relief flooded through Viggo, followed by a feeling of mild 
embarrassment.  "You noticed?"

"Yeah.  But if it's any consolation, I don't think anybody else has.  Well, 
except maybe Marta."  Viggo didn't think that he had been so obvious that 
the women had noticed.   A comforting thought occurred to Viggo - if 
Catherine and Marta had noticed Orlando sneaking glances at him, 
perhaps that meant that that there really was something more to this than 
his wishful thinking…

"So what do you think?" he asked, as she removed the last traces of 
Aragorn from his face.

"Well, I think that you should stop staring at him and get with the kissing.  
And then come back and tell me all about it.  I need my vicarious 
smoochies."  She grinned at him, with what was a decidedly mischievous 
look in her eye, and he couldn't help but laugh.

The door to the trailer opened, and Orlando walked in to find Viggo and 
Catherine laughing.

"What's so funny?"

Catherine stifled her giggles. "Oh, nothing, honey.  Just looking forward to 
tonight, that's all.  Isn't that right, Viggo?"

"Sure is, Catherine", He tore his eyes around from Orlando, and returned 
her warm smile in the mirror.  As such, Viggo missed Orlando's scowl as 
he walked to his own chair and removed his contacts.   

"Well, Viggo, we're done for tonight.  I'm going to head on over to craft 
services and see if I can get something to eat.  I'm sure that with all the 
wine that Barrie's ordered, it wouldn't be a great idea to face tonight on an 
empty stomach.  See you guys."  

Orlando saw Catherine wink at Viggo before heading on her way.  

Catherine.

That sweet smile and that wedding ring didn't fool Orlando for a minute.  
She was after Viggo.  He knew it.  She had been flirting and laughing with 
Viggo when he had walked into the trailer - what's more, it seemed to him 
that Viggo had been flirting back.   The idea that Catherine might be 
interested in Viggo brought out Orlando's competitive streak - there was 
nothing that Orlando enjoyed more than a challenge, and he certainly 
wasn't going to back down from this one.

Putting thoughts of Catherine out of his mind, Orlando turned to Viggo 
and focused the full force of one of his mega-watt smiles on him.

"So, I'm looking forward to tonight, Vig.  Should be a great time, don't 
you think?"

Viggo nodded.  "I hope so.  There's going to be a lot of people here - many 
more than I had originally thought."

"Really?  Who is staying?"  

"Well, there's you, me, John, Brett, Barrie, Mark, Catherine, Marta, and a 
whole lot of crew - a lot of folk who aren't required for the shoot 
tomorrow are staying just for the party.   Some people are even driving in 
from Poolburn.  I think I heard that Bernard, Karl and Miranda were on 
their way up here.   There should be quite the crowd."

Orlando grinned - what an excellent group of people to go camping with. 
"Sounds like quite the party.  So what's the plan for tonight?  Are we 
going to roast marshmallows and gather 'round the campfire, all cozy-
like?"

"Well, we've still got a few hours 'til sundown.  Some people are going 
hiking, others are thinking of taking a swim in the lake.  I was thinking 
that I might get in some fishing, maybe catch something to feed the 
hungry mob."

"Oh really?"  Orlando played with a strand of his blonde wig and looked at 
Viggo coquettishly. "You gonna catch something for me?"   

Viggo could have sworn that Orlando had batted his eyelashes at him.  He 
smiled back, feeling utterly enchanted by the other man, who was focusing 
those wonderfully warm brown eyes upon him.  "Perhaps.  We'll see if I 
catch anything at all - I have no idea what the fishing in this lake is like."

"Well, I'm sure if anybody can catch fish in this lake, you can."

"I think you're just trying to butter me up so I'll give you some of my fish.  
But I'm glad I have your vote of confidence, Elfboy. What's your plan for 
the next few hours?"

Orlando was thinking that he'd actually rather like to spend time watching 
Viggo casting his rod.  "Well, I might go swimming."  A slightly 
exaggerated look of consternation came over his features, and he said "but 
I didn't bring any trunks with me.   Maybe I'll just have to go starkers… 
what do you think, Viggo?  Think anybody would mind?"

At that moment, Viggo actually wasn't thinking about too much of 
anything, as the image of Orlando diving into the water, naked and sleek 
as a seal, had taken over his consciousness.  Before he had a chance to 
formulate coherent reply, Marta entered the trailer.  

"Hey guys!  Sorry I'm late, Orlando.  I got stuck talking to one of the other 
girls about the campfire tonight.  Sounds like it is going to be a great time, 
doesn't it?"

Orlando turned to smile at Marta.   "Sure does, Marta."  Turning his 
mischievous eyes back to meet Viggo's, he said, "You're right.  It should 
be a really fun time."

Viggo returned Orlando's smile.  "Well, I should leave you to get de-elfed. 
I've got some fish to catch.  See you soon?"

"You know it."

Watching Viggo leave the trailer, Orlando smiled to himself, and started to 
plot ways to steal moments alone with Viggo tonight.   Granted with 
everybody else around, quiet moments together would be few and far 
between… but he would find a way.  He always did.

He smiled at Marta in the mirror as she removed his wig.  "So, Marta, how 
was your day?"

//
TBC