He thought maybe he'd loved Sean the first moment he'd seen him, through the front window of the old house he'd rented. The glass was the same shade as an old Coke bottle, thickened with age and images seen through them wavered, like looking through water. His first sight of Sean had been distorted like a surrealist's dream.
A fanciful notion in hindsight; he hadn't noticed it at the time, had only noted the image with an artist's eye and tucked it away to be considered later, maybe for a project of some sort, watered glass images inside a photograph.
Instead, what he'd seen in Sean was simply a nice guy who'd come by to introduce himself, a man near to his own age who would become a friendly companion for the duration of filming.
It had been easy to be friends with Sean, someone with similar interests and a warm laugh, who fit neatly into that rare category of good friend, who liked the British variety of football and tuna fish sandwiches. Sean was mildly allergic to chocolate and would inevitably forget that fact whenever any appeared, only to remember an hour later and he would swear it off with bright, sharp curses as he itched and accepted any teasing sent his way with humor and vows of revenge.
Just good friends, nothing wrong with that, and sometimes Sean would stop by Viggo's house on the weekends and he would see Sean through the window again like that first time, water in motion behind glass.
A few beers, a sports game to cheerfully argue about; they'd done it a dozen times before. Sometimes Sean fell asleep on the sofa and he'd stay the night, and that was all right too, and Sean would cook breakfast that would be scarfed down quickly before they left for the set.
Viggo had been picking up dishes and bottles when he really saw it. The soft windchime clink of glass in his hands, and Sean hadn't stirred, sprawled on the sofa, his feet bare and half-tucked beneath a pillow. Viggo had held one of the glasses up to his eyes, that vague, artistic thought trying to take shape. Distorted glass-Sean in front of one eye like tunnel vision, bathed in amber this time instead of bottle green, like looking at an acid-tainted photo.
It made him itch for a sketchpad and that startled him, made him consider the whys of it, laying out each of his thoughts meticulously, wondering what it was he saw that caught at him.
The glasses were set back carefully on the table and Viggo knelt by the sofa, studying his friend, and Sean was fascinating even without the barrier of glass. He leaned forward before he'd considered it, touching his mouth to Sean's and his lips were warmer than the glass, softer, the feel of beer-tainted breath against his mouth grounding him, dashing away surrealism into jarring reality.
Only a brief touch, feather-soft pressure, but when Viggo pulled away Sean's eyes were open, shuttered with sleepiness and he rolled away to face the back of the sofa before drifting back to sleep.
Sean didn't speak about it the next day, never spoke of it, and he also never came to Viggo's house again. The glass separating them had been shattered in that one moment, littering sharp-edge pieces between them.
He'd broken one of the most important rules; don't hit on your straight friends. And Sean was undeniably straight. There was no explaining he hadn't been trying to make an issue of it, that he'd been trying to find something in Sean he'd only noticed before behind a layer of glass. Impossible to explain when he hadn't understood it himself and it made for unending awkwardness, achingly lost friendship.
It was only later he realized the truth of it; somehow friendship had melted into something else but by then truth didn't matter. Viggo doubted that it ever would have. He still saw Sean occasionally and kept his distance, watching Sean laugh and pose for photos with Orlando and the hobbits, and Viggo did the same but never he and Sean together, and he kept his love where it had always belonged, in his heart, behind a fragile wall of glass.
Summary: Things look different behind glass.
Rated: PG-13
Categories: Actor RPS Pairing: Sean/Viggo
Warnings: NoneChallenges:
Series: NoneChapters: 1 Completed: Yes
Word count: 711 Read: 605
Published: 16 Aug 2009 Updated: 16 Aug 2009
Story Notes:
Website: The Lair of the Evil Bitches