TITLE: Pretty Good Year (21/22)
AUTHOR: Elizabeth (sef7881@aol.com)
PAIRING: Viggo Mortensen/Orlando Bloom
RATING: PG-13
SUMMARY: The Big Outing draws near (Alternating POV)
FEEDBACK: Please! I'm a total whore for it!
WARNINGS: None
DISCLAIMER: I made this all up in my crazy little head. It's
FICTION
ARCHIVE: I'd be honored, just let me know where it's going
AUTHOR'S NOTES: ***** denotes a POV change. In real life, Orlando's
next film 'Kingdom of Heaven' is scheduled to begin filming in January;
I've used my blessed creative license to push it back to March so it can
serve my purposes *g*. And I *didn't* make up the name of Viggo's
manager
DATE WRITTEN: December 11th, 2003
The Golden Globes are four weeks away. Translation: Orli and
I are coming out in four weeks.
There was a time when I never would have been able to get to this stage,
when the prospect of telling the world how I really live my life seemed
utterly incomprehensible, but that time has long since passed. I'll
be the first to admit that it was hard as hell to get past my fears and
to the point where I'm ready to say, "I'm bisexual and in love with a wonderful
man," but I'm finally there. This is who I am, Orli is whom I love,
and I'm not going to hide it any longer.
Of course, I'm not naive. It's not as if we'll simply glide onto
that red carpet, come out, and our lives will carry on as if nothing ever
happened. The glare of the media spotlight will undoubtedly be harsh,
the gossip will be brutal, and the effect that the entire media circus
will have on our life and careers is impossible to predict. Still,
none of that is daunting enough to me for any second thoughts to surface.
I made a promise to Orli *and* to myself, and I'm finally ready to see
it through.
*****
"Why on earth would *anyone* be calling at five in the morning?" I
moan. Viggo mumbles something indecipherable into his pillow, and
I realize that the duty of picking up the phone has fallen to me.
With a heavy sigh, I grab the cordless phone and try to inject some pep
into my voice. "'Lo?"
"Hello, Orlando? It's Lynne. Is Viggo there?" Lynne
is Viggo's manager and she's really a very sweet woman, so I spare her
my grouchiness and simply hand the phone over to my boyfriend.
"Vig, it's Lynne," I inform him. "And she seems excited about
something."
"Lynne's excited? What else is new?" Viggo says with a grin as
he takes the phone, blinking away the last bits of sleep. "Hey, why
are you calling at this hour?" he asks her. "Really? Are you
serious?" He sounds amused and surprised by whatever news she's just
given him. "What else did the movie get? . . . Who am I up against?
. . . Well, there's no way I'm going to win . . . Of course you'd say that;
you're my manager . . . Great. Yeah, okay. Talk to you later.
Bye."
"What was that all about?" I ask, my curiosity now thoroughly piqued.
"You're up for an award?"
"Yup." Viggo puts the phone back in the cradle and burrows into
the blankets and pillows.
"Well?"
"Well what?"
"What award is it?" This man is *so* exasperating sometimes.
"A Golden Globe."
"Are you serious?!" I shriek. "You're up for a Golden Globe?!"
My excited outburst startles Pokey, who leaps off the foot of the bed
and scampers out of our room, much to Viggo's amusement. "Orli, you're
scaring the pets," he chuckles.
"I don't care! It's a Golden Globe! Aren't you thrilled?"
"It's a nice honor, but I'm not going to win."
I roll my eyes. "Oh, of course you are. No one else stands
a chance against you. What category is it -- Best Actor?"
"Best Actor in a Drama. They announced it this morning; I was
hoping that Elijah would also be nominated, but they fucking snubbed him."
"Wankers."
"Yeah, no kidding. But at least Pete was nominated, and the movie
is up for Best Picture, plus a few other awards."
"And you'll get your Best Actor trophy."
"Don't get ahead of yourself, love."
"Look, you don't have to be a genius to figure it out, Vig. I
saw your performance, okay?"
"You're also a little bit biased," he teases. "Although I appreciate
the cheerleading."
"Don't mention it." I press a kiss to his forehead. "So
that should be quite a night for you. We're coming out and you're
up for a major award."
"Orli, you know that the award doesn't even *compare* in importance
to coming out. Winning a Golden Globe would be great, it would be
a kind of validation for me and the films, but whether I win or not, I'll
still feel so incredibly happy because of what we have and what we're going
to do. Seriously, I'm counting the days until I can tell people that
I have the most wonderful, brilliant, loving, utterly sexy boyfriend in
the world."
"God, you are entirely too sweet for your own good, do you know that?"
I ask, throwing my arms around him.
He laughs and pulls me in for a kiss. "Well you inspire it."
*****
"So it's not that long until you and Orli are gonna come out, huh?"
Henry says casually as I drive him home from school.
"Ten days from now." I pause. "Do you want to talk about
it?"
He shrugs and looks over at me with expression that I can't quite figure
out. "Yeah, sort of."
"Henry, you're still okay with me and Orli coming out, right?" I ask
nervously.
"Definitely!" he exclaims. "I've wanted you guys to do that for
a long time!"
"So what's going on?"
"Well, it's just kind of weird that you never really talked to me that
much about the issue of coming out, and I kind of thought that it would
have been an important one for you. Usually when there's an issue
that matters to you, I end up hearing about it."
Good point. "Well, uh, it *is* a really important issue for me,
but it's also a complicated one. Or at least, it *was* complicated;
it's not anymore, since I'm on the verge of outing myself."
"Why was it so complicated?"
"Partly because of our careers. We'll be prime pickings for the
vultures otherwise known as the media."
Henry chuckles. "Yeah, I'll be able to brag that my Dad is on
the cover of the 'National Enquirer'," he teases.
"Well, something like that."
"Were you a little reluctant at first? I mean, I can see how
it would be kind of scary to come out even if you're *not* famous."
I deliberate for a moment whether or not to tell my son the whole story,
then remember that I've always had a policy of being open and honest with
him, a policy that Orli agrees with. If Henry wants the truth, I
might as well give it to him; he's mature enough to deal with it.
"Actually, I was more than reluctant. I was really terrified."
His jaw drops. "What? Why?"
"Everyone is going to be speculating about me and Orli, and that scared
the shit out of me for a long time. I thought that gossip would wreck
his career, that he'd be destroyed in Hollywood because of his sexuality,
and so on. I was afraid people would threaten us or that you would
get all kinds of shit from the kids at your school; I was afraid that my
relationship with Orli would suffer from the intense spotlight it was put
under. And I simply couldn't get past fears like that; I was paralyzed
by them."
"Dad . . ." Henry looks like he wants to give me a huge hug right
now. "I wish you had told me or something. I could've helped,
you know."
"That's such a wonderful thing for you to say, but I didn't want to
burden you with whatever 'adult' problems I was having. God knows
that as a teenager, you have enough crap to deal with."
"Was Orli also afraid to come out?"
"No, he was pretty eager to come out right from the beginning of our
relationship. He felt very frustrated that I was content to be closeted
-- and I don't blame him."
"Oh, shit. Is that why you guys broke up?" he asks gently.
"Yeah," I sigh, ignoring his profanity just this once.
"But everything's totally okay now, right?" I can detect a note
of worry in his voice and smile ruefully, knowing that after seeing his
parents split up at a young age, Henry really wants me and Exene to both
be happy in our new relationships. As someone who has divorced parents
himself, it's an understandable sentiment.
"Henry, Orli and I have been okay -- better than okay -- since we got
back together two years ago," I assure him. "I had fears about coming
out and he helped me get over them. Trust me, I'm ready for what's
going to happen next weekend."
"Good." He grins. "You know that you guys are going to
break the hearts of, like, half the girls at me school -- not to mention
Ms. Stern, the history teacher, who has a Legolas cut-out in her office."
"Are you serious?" I snort.
"I swear to God. The poor woman is gonna have to start crushing
on a hobbit now."
"What a horrible fate," I say sarcastically.
"It's *really* funny because she'll probably be my history teacher
next year if I make it into Advanced Placement, and she has no clue that
Legolas is really my dad's boyfriend," Henry cackles.
"Well, she'll know soon enough."
"Yeah. So will everyone else." He grins at me "I'm
really proud of you, Dad."
I return his smile, feeling myself beam at what an incredible person
my son is growing up to be. "Not as proud as I am of you."
*****
"Do you guys have some kind of plan for what you're going to say when
the army of microphone-holding maggots descend upon you?" Lij inquires
as he casually wolfs down a carton of Viggo's favorite vanilla ice cream.
"You know, like some kind of coming out acceptance speech?"
I snort and pass him a napkin to help with the melting ice cream that's
dripping onto the kitchen counter. "A coming out acceptance speech?"
"Well, something like that. Please tell me that you have *some*
idea of what to say."
"Of course we do. We've been thinking about this for a long time,
you know."
"And what have you come up with?" he asks.
"Basically, we're here, we're queer, we've been together for four years."
Lij rolls his eyes. "Wow, you even got it to rhyme."
"That's the shorthand version, you sod. Look, we're not going
to say anything idiotic. This is obviously a very big deal and we
both know how important it is to choose our words carefully. But
we're going to be honest with people, and that's what matters."
"Are you going to be honest about when you got together?"
"What do you mean? We're obviously going to tell them that we
started our relationship during filming."
He snickers and has that familiar hobbity look of mischief on his face.
"Yeah, but you're leaving out the part about how after declaring your love,
you both got naked in the trailer and Bean walked in on you. I'm
sure that people would *love* to know that part of the story."
"You wouldn't dare!"
"Or what about that time you two got it on in the men's room at that
club in New Zealand?"
"I'd throttle you if you even--"
"Or maybe," Lij continues, "the weird roleplaying stuff would be nice
fodder for the tabloids. What do you think, Leggy?"
"I think that you'd be killed by your Fellowship brethren for betraying
us," I growl.
"Don't worry, I'd never really do that," he giggles.
"Remember, Mr. Wood, that I have plenty of incriminating evidence about
you," I remind him. "That includes your one dalliance with pipeweed
during filming, which led to you streaking through our campsite completely
starkers."
The hobbit turns a startling shade of red and actually seems to shrink
under the weight of my anecdote. "Please don't tell anyone about
that."
"I won't. Secrets are secrets."
"Point taken," he says with a grin. "But seriously, Orli -- if
anyone asks me about you and Viggo, can I tell them that you two are, like,
the most perfect couple I know and that you're sickeningly happy?"
"Go ahead," I snort. "I'm sure that we'll need all the friends
we can get."
Lij reaches over and grasps my hand. "Well if it's friends you're
looking for, then you two should be fine. You guys have more of those
than anyone I know, and we all love you."
"Then maybe we have nothing to worry about," I say with a smile.
*****
"Did you see this?" Orli exclaims as he scans the Arts section of the
newspaper. "According to this article by their film columnist, I'm
a 'white-hot sensation.'"
"Is that so?" I chuckle.
"Yeah, and apparently I'm 'far too talented to mistaken for merely
a sexy young thing who can't hold his own onscreen.'"
"Hell, I could have told you *that*. You know what a wonderful
actor I think you are."
Orli blushed a little. "I do . . . I mean, thanks. But
it's nice to see a critic writing that. She was basically saying
that Pete never would have cast an actor whose instincts he didn't trust
as Legolas, and she cited that I'm going to be starring in Ridley's new
film."
"And you definitely got those roles based on your acting abilities,"
I say with a smile, thrilled that Orli finally has gained some confidence
in himself as an actor; landing the parts in 'Kingdom of Heaven' and 'Haven'
have helped enormously. "Although having fabulous eyes and cheekbones
probably didn't hurt."
He sticks his tongue out at me and tosses the paper to the floor, coming
over to practically sit on my lap on the couch. "Hi there, stud."
"Orli, you *do* know that you're not really as light as an elf, right?"
I ask as his weight pushes uncomfortably against my stomach.
"Nonsense," he scoffs, although he mercifully shifts his body so that
I'm not feeling quite so crushed. "Will you miss me when I go off
to film 'Kingdom of Heaven'?"
"Not at all," I deadpan. "I'll just get another boy toy and be
perfectly satisfied."
"You cad!" he cries, feigning hurt. "I'm wounded! Mortally
so!"
"I'm sorry to hear that," I say with a grin.
"Seriously, maybe you can come visit me in Morocco. I'm sure
Ridley wouldn't mind; after all, you worked with him before. And
besides, we start filming in March, which is way after we come out -- so
that means it's no big deal if my man jets over to keep me company for
a few days."
"No, it shouldn't be a big deal," I agree. "I can't imagine Ridley
would have a problem with it. He was very appreciative when you told
him that you were planning to come out, so I have a feeling that he'll
let me come and hang out for a weekend or two."
Back when Ridley Scott first called Orli to offer him the lead in his
new movie, Orli took the risk of telling him that he's coming out and if
he were cast in the film, Ridley should know that the leading man would
be bisexual. After all, this is a business and shit like that can
unfortunately affect decisions. Luckily, Ridley had worked with Orli
before in 'Black Hawk Down' and really wanted him for the role, so he told
my boyfriend that he basically didn't give a flying fuck, and offered him
the part again.
When we set the coming out date for January of 2004 two years ago,
neither of us had any idea that Orli's career would be so incredibly sizzling.
It's obviously a huge risk to his career for him to announce to the world
that he's in love with a man, but I know that he doesn't care. His
priorities are in the right place -- the people he loves come first, and
if his career is harmed by the way he lives his life, then that's the way
it's going to be. And frankly, I feel the exact same way, even if
I'm not quite the same matinee idol that Orli is quickly becoming.
"Hey, are you still with me?"
"Hmm?" I grin sheepishly, realizing my mind drifted off for a
few minutes. "Sorry, love."
"It's okay. But I have a question: if you're planning to come
visit me in Morocco, does that mean that you won't be cheating on me with
a boy toy?" Orli teases.
"Yes, I suppose the boy toy will have to be shipped back to Ian," I
sigh.
He snorts and kisses me. "Sounds like a plan. Don't forget
that you're *mine*, Mortensen."
"I could never forget that, elf boy."
*****
Well, Sunday is the Big Outing. That's only seventy-two hours
from now.
There are so many different emotions swirling around inside me right
now that it's difficult to get a handle on all of them, but the one that
truly sticks out is pride. I'm not talking about pride in my sexuality,
but pride in Viggo. I remember a night back in New Zealand a little
more than three years ago when he told me, through tear-filled eyes, that
he was terrified to come out and didn't know when he would be able to get
over his fears. Indeed, there were times when I truly doubted that
he *could* get over his fears, and those fears and doubts nearly wrecked
our relationship.
Yet here we are, all these months and years later, on the brink of
doing something that will change our lives. To those who don't know
what we went through to reach this point, I'm sure that what will happen
on Sunday will be a simple matter of two men revealing that they're bisexual
and in a same-sex relationship. But to me, it's a testament to how
much faith in our love Viggo truly has. He stopped at nothing to
work through his fears and get to this point so we could be happy, and
finally we're where we both want to be.
We're ready to come out.
Pretty
Good Year Part 22
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