viggorli_xmas | A gift for chaosmanor

Title: All I want for Christmas (part 2/2)
Written by: to be revealed in 2011
Disclaimer: This is a work of fiction.
Written for

chaosmanor

This time Viggo found reverse without a hitch. They rode in silence for a while, but it wasn't an uncomfortable silence. Orlando found himself enjoying just being with the man. He didn't need to know where they were going. The journey was enough.

Although after a half hour, Orlando began to wonder exactly where they were going. Traffic was light this late on Christmas Eve. Viggo hadn't taken the interstate, no doubt because the truck seemed like it might rattle apart every time Viggo pushed the speed up near fifty. Orlando kept track of the direction they were heading in a general way, but the suburban sprawl of the greater Sacramento area blended one town into the next into the next until by the time Viggo pulled into a strip mall parking lot, Orlando was thoroughly lost.

"Where are we?" he asked.

Viggo pointed at a sign over the door of a shop in mall. The sign wasn't in English, but Orlando couldn't have said what language it was. Viggo said something, not in English either, and Orlando realized he was reading the sign.

"The Hearing Ear," Viggo said. "C'mon. I could use a hand here."

Viggo got out and went around to the back of the truck and dropped the tailgate. The bed of the truck had five or six cardboard cartons. Viggo hauled one out and handed it to Orlando.

It was full of paperback books. Used books, from the look of them.

"You're giving away books on Christmas Eve, and you're late?" he asked.

"Not exactly." Viggo picked up another box of books and headed toward the door. "I borrowed them. What I give away is my time." He looked back at Orlando with that enigmatic expression again. "I'm hoping you might want to give away some of yours."

Before Orlando could ask anything else, a man had opened the door for Viggo. He was short and round and wore the collar of a priest. Orlando didn't know what to make of that. He would have never pegged Viggo as a religious man, but the priest greeted Viggo with what seemed like genuine affection.

After the priest took Orlando's box of books, Viggo introduced the priest as Father Rafael. "I hope I haven't made you late for mass," Viggo said to the priest. He took the disk Orlando had seen earlier out of his pocket. "This it the last of this batch. Got anything new for me?"

"Your friend," the priest said to Orlando. "Always working, even on Christmas." To Viggo, he said, "Come back next week. Or better yet, come with me to mass."

Viggo shook his head, and Orlando was surprised to see an embarrassed smile on Viggo's face. "No, not tonight."

The priest turned to Orlando. "And you, are you a religious man? We are an all inclusive parish, as I'm sure Viggo has told you."

Orlando felt a flush creeping up his cheeks. The priest had made an assumption simply based on the fact that he'd arrived with Viggo. Did that mean Viggo had never brought anyone else with him here?

"I'm not religious," Orlando said. "I hope that doesn't offend you."

"Of course not. But that doesn't mean I won't stop trying to convince you otherwise. I hope that doesn't offend you."

"No. Not at all."

What, exactly, was going on here?

Orlando kept his questions to himself until the rest of the boxes were unloaded, Viggo had said his farewells, and they were back in Viggo's truck.

"Want to tell me what just happened?"

Viggo pulled out into even sparser traffic. "I record books for the blind," Viggo said. "Donate my time and the station's equipment to do the recording. Something I worked out with Pete. That's why I don't do any of the charity remotes the station sets up."

True. Orlando had never seen Viggo on one of the station's charity gigs, but he'd always figured it was because Viggo worked the midnight shift.

Viggo braked for a red light at a deserted intersection. "It started out a couple of years ago as just another charity gig for the station I was with down in L.A. A 'record-a-thon' down in Santa Barbara. I met Father Rafael there. He was looking for readers who could handle foreign languages."

"That didn't sound like Spanish you were speaking back there." Orlando knew a little Spanish, but what Viggo and the priest had spoken in greeting wasn't it.

"Portuguese," Viggo said. "Not every blind student understands English. That's what the recordings are for -- students. I read books for literature courses, classic novels, mostly, that have been translated into whatever language the students need. That's why I work when I do. Carson programs big blocks of music on the late night shift. I work on the recordings in between announcements." He shrugged. "I'm pretty sure Pete gets a write-off out of it."

Orlando was stunned. He always thought of the charity work the station had him do as just another part of his job. He'd never actually considered the real people on the receiving end of that charity. After all, it wasn't like the underprivileged students they collected school supplies for ever got to meet WJFG's DJ's.

"Is that why you're working for the station?" Orlando asked. "So you can keep doing the books?"

"That's part of it." The truck rumbled and bounced over railroad tracks that bisected the road. "Turns out I missed the job. I burned out down in L.A., got too full of myself, too distracted by the politics to think about the people. Not just the listeners, but people out there who need a little help."

"You said you hoped I'd donate my time, too." Orlando paused, not sure if he should ask, but he had to know. "Is that the only reason you brought me along?"

"The only reason?" Viggo paused, and when he spoke again, Orlando almost lost the quiet words in the engine noise from the truck. "No. But you are the only one I'd consider... the only person I want to share that part of myself with."

Wow. Orlando had to clear his throat before he trusted himself to speak. "Boy, when you take a guy out on a date, you really do do things differently."

Viggo shot him a quick look, clearly unsure of how to take what Orlando'd just said. Orlando grinned at him, and after a moment, Viggo started to smile back. "You'd rather just have coffee?"

"Coffee's good, but this--" Orlando gestured at the inside of the truck. "All this really wins a guy over, you know."

"Oh, good, because I sort of planned it that way."

"You did, did you?"

Viggo shook his head, then he giggled. He actually giggled. Orlando thought it was the most adorable sound he'd ever heard.

"No. Not in the least." Viggo put a hand over his mouth as he giggled again. "Fuck me, that's an unmanly sound."

Fuck me? Viggo was either really nervous, or just finally -- finally! -- really letting go.

By the time they got back to the station, it was nearly ten o'clock. "Time for the Christmas Eve special," Orlando said as he opened the door to get out of Viggo's truck. "I was going to listen to it to see what you shared with your listeners, but I think now I don't have to."

"Oh?"

"No. You already shared something very special with me. I want you to know that meant a lot to me."

Afterward, Orlando couldn't remember who started the kiss. All he could remember was leaning across that awkward gear shift and losing himself in the softness of Viggo's mouth. It was the best first kiss of his life.

"This is our fifth date," he said when they broke for breath. "Would you think less of me if I told you I've been known to put out on the fifth date?"

"Yeah?" Viggo slid closer on the bench seat. "You ever put out in the cab of a classic truck?"

This time Orlando giggled. "No, and I'm not sure I want to be arrested on Christmas Eve for indecent exposure." He nudged the gear shift with his knee. "Or end up with that in unpleasant places."

"There's always my place," Viggo said.

Orlando did want to see Viggo's place, if only to see if Viggo's apartment was as out of step with the norm as his truck. But Orlando had been fantasizing for months about getting Viggo in his bed. Now that it seemed Viggo was willing to be gotten, Orlando wanted it to happen in his own apartment.

"How about my place instead," Orlando said.

Viggo nuzzled against the side of Orlando's neck just below his ear. The contact sent shivers down Orlando's spice.

"It is close?" Viggo asked.

"Five minutes away," Orlando said. At least at this hour, and with no traffic.

"Sounds perfect."

Not that they made it into Orlando's bed. But all things considered, like how wonderful Viggo felt inside him, Orlando was more than happy to adjust his fantasies to include not only his couch, but that overstuffed chair with the wide arms that, as it turned out, were the perfect size and height for Orlando to use to brace his feet while Viggo did all sorts of amazing things to Orlando first with his tongue and then his cock.

Orlando had a Christmas tree in his apartment, a small artificial tree with multi-colored twinkle lights. Afterward, when Orlando lay boneless in Viggo's embrace, he looked at the lights and thought about how what Viggo did with his time and talent touched so many other lives. Not just as Christmas, but throughout the year.

"I do want to help," he said. "I don't speak any other languages, though. Would that be all right?"

Viggo kissed him. "Yes."

Orlando's cat padded through the living room. It gave Viggo an inscrutable glance but kept on walking to its food dish in the kitchen. "You're not allergic, are you?" Orlando asked. "I forgot to ask earlier."

"No," Viggo said. "But I do have a dog."

"Oh good lord," Orlando said. "We have to end it now. Cat people and dog people never work out."

Viggo giggled. Orlando thought he'd never get tired of hearing that sound. "I think we can figure it out."

Of course they would. Just like they'd done so far. Even with the few bumps in the road getting to this point, they'd figured it out.

There was still one mystery that tickled the back of Orlando's brain. "I'm just curious... why do you always have Christmas Eve and Christmas Day off?"

Viggo raised one eyebrow. "With everything we don't know about each other, that's the first thing you ask?"

"It's been a topic of interest around the station."

"Huh." Viggo shrugged, a slight lift of one shoulder. "It's part of my contract. I put it in there as kind of a lark, part of the give and take, something I figured I could give up if I had to so I could keep something else in I really wanted."

"A bargaining chip."

"Yup."

"So it doesn't mean anything?"

"Well, I've got family down in LA. They like that I get Christmas off."

Orlando had begun to have fantasies about waking up with Viggo on Christmas morning. He didn't like the thought that Viggo might not stay the night. "Are you going this year?"

Instead of answering right away, Viggo leaned in to give him a kiss. "Thought I'd stay here, if that's all right with you," Viggo said after their lips parted.

Orlando smiled. "Most definitely."

He threaded his fingers with Viggo's. So far Orlando was two for two in the fantasy department. Somehow the fact that all this had happened at Christmas seemed to make it that much better. Magical. Even the Christmas tree he'd put up by himself looked more festive.

"Merry Christmas," Orlando said softly, not caring if it sounded corny or trite. It was how he felt, and now he had someone to share that with.

Viggo squeezed Orlando's fingers. "Merry Christmas back," he said.

The end

Threaded | Flat

From:

chaosmanor.livejournal.com

Thank you so much, Secret Santa!

I'm completely charmed by this, and have been made ridiculously happy that someone has written such a beautiful fic for me.

I also have a sneaking suspicion who wrote it :)