He almost hangs up because really, it's too late to be calling. He knows Sean has early rehearsals, that he needs to rest to save his voice. Viggo is about to thumb the button to disconnect when the ringing stops, and Sean growls "Hullo?" in his ear from across the country.
"I woke you," Viggo says. "Sorry."
"Nope. Wasn't sleeping, just reading. What are you doing?"
"Feeling sorry for myself." Viggo closes his eyes against the lamplight. "Tell me what you did today."
"Nearly impaled myself on a sword. You'd think after all that bloody sword training, I'd be better at this shit." Sean's chuckle makes his throat ache. "What's going on, Viggo?"
"Just a bad day." He grumbles this half-under his breath. "Just... crap. I don't know. Maybe I need a vacation. Or vitamins. Or... "
"A good fuck," Sean interrupts smoothly.
"Jesus." Viggo opens his eyes. A moth flutters along the ceiling, bumps into shadows where the circle of lamp light doesn't reach. "Don't even go there. The last time we did this, I nearly had a heart attack."
"You nearly blew out my eardrum screaming," Sean reminds him, and he can hear the smile in his voice, imagine the way Sean's sharply curved upper lip pulls back from his teeth when he grins. Sometimes Sean's smile scares him because it can be so wolfish, so predatory, so beautifully savage.
Viggo doesn't want to think about the last time they talked, when an innocent conversation about coffee shops in New York turned into aching, slippery-palmed phone sex. It had taken him days to stop getting an erection at the mere sight of his cordless phone. "What are you reading?" he asks when he's sure his voice won't wobble.
"William bloody Shakespeare. That's all I read these days."
The moth is still bumping along, fumbling on its milky wings towards the lamplight. Viggo focuses on its erratic, looping path to take his mind off the ache in his throat, his chest, his hands, the parts of his body that feel too empty and cold. "Read to me," he commands, and adds, "please."
It's so quiet that he can hear the dry rustle of pages being turned, hear the soft hitch of Sean's breathing. Viggo closes his eyes and waits.
"All right then," Sean murmurs.
"If thou canst love a fellow of this temper, whose face is not worth sunburning, that never looks in his glass for love of any thing he sees there, let thine eye be thy cook. I speak to thee plain soldier. If thou canst love me for this, take me! If not, to say to thee that I shall die, is true, but for thy love, by the Lord, no; yet I love thee too. And while thou liv'st, take a fellow of plain and uncoin'd constancy, for he perforce must do thee right, because he hath not the gift to woo in other places; for these fellows of infinite tongue, that can rhyme themselves into favors, they do always reason themselves out again. What? A speaker is but a prater, a rhyme is but a ballad, a good leg will fall, a straight back will stoop, a black beard will turn white, a curl'd pate will grow bald, a fair face will wither, a full eye will wax hollow; but a good heart is the sun and the moon, or rather the sun and not the moon; for it shines bright and never changes, but keeps his course truly. If thou would have such a one, take me! And take me, take a soldier, take a solider, take a king. And what say'st thou then to my love? Speak, my fair, and fairly, I pray thee."
Viggo surfaces slowly from the smooth warmth of Sean's voice. It takes considerable effort for him to open his eyes, focus on the ceiling. The moth is gone, either pulled into the bright, hot gravity of the lamp's bulb or drifting elsewhere in the dark house. He listens to the soft rhythm of Sean's breath. The ache in his throat and chest and hands is gone. For the first time in many hours, he feels warm again.
"Name that play," Sean teases him, and his voice is a mixture of velvet and his usual rasp, rough Northern lad colored with Shakespeare's tender words.
"Henry V," Viggo replies. "You left out all the Kates."
"I wasn't talking to her," Sean growls, and Viggo can hear the smile in his voice.
Summary: A phone conversation between the boys.
Rated: R
Categories: Actor RPS Pairing: Sean/Viggo
Warnings: NoneChallenges:
Series: NoneChapters: 1 Completed: Yes
Word count: 751 Read: 828
Published: 31 Jul 2009 Updated: 31 Jul 2009