Fic: A Different Future 1/1
Sep. 18th, 2009 02:53 am![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
sier96.livejournal.com posting in ![[community profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/community.png){kind=small}
vigorliTitle: A Different Future
Author:
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sier96Beta: gaiaa, thank you so much!
Pairing: Viggo/Orlando
Rating: PG, I think
Genre: romance
Warnings: fluff
Disclaimer: This is all a big big lie
Summary: Few hours in an weird world
Feedback: Go ahead, please
A/N: This fic is really AU. Everything happened like in our universe until year 2006. Meaning that Viggo and Orlando are who they are in RL, but the world they live in is very different. It´s not a post apocalyptic world, but close enough. I know it´s weird, but I had to write it. It really is just a piece of fluff, sweet as a lover´s kiss.
Also, this is the very first VigOrli fic I´ve written all by myself. I wanna give credit to
obvmluver, she told me I can do this, believed in me when I didn´t. And it was her who introduced me to this whole fandom in the first place, thank you Laura *promises to play with you, a lot*
Orlando pulled his boots on and started doing the laces. The weather outside was the typical October weather in Scotland. He would need to put on his wool coat and a warm sweater underneath. And where were his gray mittens?
"Viggo! Do you know where my mittens are?"
"They´re in a basket under the stairs", came the answer from upstairs, followed by the man who gave it.
"I brought you sweater, here. And here´s your beanie, and scarf."
"You´re gonna have to roll me around pretty soon if I put any more clothes on, Viggo! I can stand cold just fine you know..." The sulking face of his partner looked so damn adorable that Viggo just grabbed Orlando and kissed him quickly.
"Orli, I know you can do anything you set your mind to, but you can´t help it that you get cold no matter how many clothes you have on. Your nose gets this cute shade of red in one minute when we go outside and I have to warm your hands for a few hours when we return. It´s OK though, you just were meant to live in Bahamas or Fiji or any place hot. But we´ll cope."
Orlando wanted to argue, but he knew Viggo was right. He did get cold easily; that´s why he didn´t go out a lot when the weather was bad, which was pretty often in Scotland. But that´s where they lived now, and he had Viggo, who managed to go out in a bloody blizzard and still be warm when he came back inside.. So he just pulled all the clothes on, his gray woolen mittens being the last item. Viggo was also ready. He took his big backpack and opened the door for Orli, stepping outside after him and locking all three locks of the front door.
There wasn´t any snow yet, but the ground was already frozen, hard and dead looking. Anything that had grown during the summer was now gone.
Viggo and Orlando went to get their horses from the barn.Viggo had already readied and saddled them earlier, so they just walked the horses outside and mounted. Orlando patted Aida´s neck gently. The mare was expecting, in the early stages, and Both Orlando and Viggo paid extra attention to her. Viggo´s horse, Picket, didn´t seem to mind, he was a calm and steady horse, liked them both and liked Aida. They hoped Picket would accept the foal too.
Viggo gave Picket a small slap on the butt, and they rode away from the cabin.
The little store they were heading to was about 20 miles away, and they let the horses have a slow trot. They had time.
Their small house was the only one in 15 mile radius. It was in fact in the middle of a forest, just a narrow road led to it, not even wide enough for a car to drive. Not that there were many cars left around anyway. Since the oil crisis escalated, gasoline was hard to find and ridiculously expensive. That´s why flying to warmer places was out of the question. There were few planes making transcontinental flights, but to get a ticket one would need a fortune and a stroke of good luck. So they had agreed to stay in Scotland.
That´s where Viggo and Orlando were when things went wrong in the world. It all happened so fast. Some reckless political decisions, a few minor wars, the oil crisis, the several outbreaks of anthrax in States, natural disasters and so on. It wasn´t quite an apocalypse, but it made many things more difficult. Suddenly every minor problem in the world became major, and the world didn´t bounce back. Things would get more normal, but it would take a long time.
They had been building their cabin at the time when things started to go bad, and they had managed to arrange everything in the way that made living there possible on a more permanent basis. They had the cabin, the horses, some chickens, four goats, since Viggo wanted them to have some sort of milk, and they had a vegetable garden which had gotten bigger every year. They had money, enough of it to buy what they needed, what was available.
When they got out of the woods they rode towards a small village; at least, it had been a village before. Now there were only few people living there. Most people had moved into big cities where they thought life would be easier. Viggo and Orlando disagreed. Distances were long in the countryside and you didn´t always get what you wanted from the store, but there was space, land to grow things, room for animals, and no noise. They liked living like that.
Hoofs banged against the stones of the road that lead away from the village, and soon Viggo guided Picket to an old car repair shop followed by Orlando and Aida. Why the store was there was anybody's guess, it just was.
They both dismounted and tied the reins on a loop on the wall.
"What do you think they have this time?" Orlando knew that delivering anything anywhere was difficult, and the factories still working around the world sold a lot of stuff to the black market. Hell, this whole store was black market. But they had the money; even after devaluation there was plenty of it. So what they would be eating in next two weeks depended only on what there was available.
"The local farmers have probably delivered some stuff here, too, not just to the big cities. I hope we can find the basics, and some canned, dried or frozen items we can use. Butter would be great. We could bake an apple pie. What do you say?" Viggo knew Orlando loved pies, so his beaming smile and ´yes´ were not a surprise.
Viggo had picked, grown and bought all the fruits and berries he could during the summer, and now they were in the cellar and the cold storage waiting to brighten Orli´s life during the winter. They may not have bananas or oranges, but local apples, pears and plums were really good. Orli never forgot to thank Viggo for all the effort he made to make Orli´s life easier and better. He didn´t ask for it, but Viggo did all that anyway, and that made Orli love him more and more every passing day.
There was nobody besides them in the store except for the older man behind the wobbly counter. Viggo went looking for nails and tape and other stuff they needed around their cottage, while Orli gathered the food. He found all the basics like flour, sugar, salt, oatmeal and dried yeast for baking bread. A wide smile spread on his face when he spotted two quarter pound packets of butter and snatched those. There would be pie! Orli picked quickly all the canned and frozen foods he thought they could use and headed for the counter.
Viggo raised his eyebrows at the big pile of food Orli had gathered.
"You left anything to other people?"
"Yes, I did. Besides, he has more stuff stashed somewhere, he´ll be filling shelves when we step outside. And I need food, you need food, so we get food. I´m selfish that way." Orlando´s survival instincts had kicked in on the second winter after the Big Wonky, as he called what happened. He had realized that they couldn´t help all the people around. So they had isolated themselves, not leaving their property if it wasn´t necessary. And if there was something for them to eat at the store, he would buy it and eat it without feeling guilty, or at least not much.
Viggo paid the man and they packed all the stuff in his backpack and in the saddlebags. Orlando smiled at Viggo, gave the horse a squeeze with his calves and shouted,
"Come on old man, we have a pie to bake, hurry up!"
"You mean I have a pie to bake, you can´t bake anything, love."
Viggo was right of course, Orli could cook pretty well, but baking really wasn´t his thing. It would be a waste of perfectly good and ridiculously expensive ingredients to let him bake the pie. So he just laughed and agreed.
"I know, I know. But I´ll peel and slice the apples for you, okay. And I´ll get the firewood inside and start the fire in the oven. I´m not useless you know. I have some mad skills."
Viggo laughed and spurred Picket to trot faster.
"I know baby, I love all your mad skills. Now come on, let´s get home a bit faster. I want to peel those clothes off you and sample some of said skills. Go, Picket!"
Orlando laughed as well and kept up with the speed Viggo was setting. Their life wasn´t at all what it had been four years a go, it wasn´t what they had pictured it being in the year 2010. But it was good. They were mostly alone, just the two of them, their friends, the ones still alive, were far, far away, and Orli missed them, but he had gotten used to just being with Viggo. They had a nice warm home, animals, land, water, food, all they needed. Being together all the time had given them a new understanding of each other, they didn´t hold anything back. They lived, fought, worked hard, worried, made art, were quiet, yelled, fucked, made love, talked, everything. They loved like never before.
In the years before the Big Wonky they did those things too, but they didn´t have the time to fully share them. Now they did. They weren´t on the other sides of the world most of the time as they used to be. Now they were truly partners, in everything. They both knew that even if the world would suddenly start working like it used to work, and some day it would, they wouldn´t change their life much. They would see their family and friends, but they wouldn´t be celebrities anymore. Viggo and Orlando had talked about it, and they knew they would stay right where they were now. No flashing lights, no life in public and most of all, no hiding that they were together. This was where they belonged now.
When they dismounted in front of the barn Orli volunteered to unpack all the things they had bought while Viggo took care of the horses. Viggo agreed; he loved horses, loved taking care of them.
"Start the fire in the oven as you said, okay? I need it medium hot for the bread and the pie. I´ll be there in less than an hour."
"I will, as soon as I put all this away. Take your time, I´ll start the food. Fish and carrots, right?"
Viggo had found out that the lake three miles away had plenty of fish, and he had taught Orli to fish properly too. So fish was on the menu pretty often. Like this time.
"Yeah, there are four bass already cleaned in the cold storage, on the bottom shelf."
While Viggo lead the horses inside the barn, Orli dragged all their purchases inside and, with a bit cold fingers put them away. He started the fire and fetched the fish and carrots. After some thought he took a few potatoes, too. He was quite hungry, and he bet Viggo was as well. By the time his partner walked inside, the fish was almost ready and so was everything else.
"Something smells really good. What did you make?" Viggo felt his stomach rumbling, their breakfast had been several hours ago.
"I made a mash of potatoes and carrots, put some butter in it, salt and pepper and some tarragon. It was worth the trouble to grow that herb, it goes really well with carrots. Smells nice, too."
"It does. I´ll just wash my hands and then we can eat."
When Viggo came into the kitchen he was struck by the sudden rush of emotion. His Orlando putting the fish on two plates, oven mittens in his hands, all the nice smells and the warmth. He hated the Big Wonky and what it did to the world, but it gave him his dream. His son was far away, and that was a constant pain, but he had his dream with Orli. They would see Henry again, they would see all their loved ones, he knew they would. Until then, nothing was better than this. Just the two of them sharing everything. Viggo went and pulled Orli into his arms, Orli´s hands, oven mittens still on them, wound around Viggo immediately, returning the embrace. Orli felt Viggo´s left had stroking his head gently while Viggo whispered in his ear.
"I love you Orlando. Thank you for being mine."
Orli pulled back a little so he could look Viggo in the eyes. A beautiful smile lit up his face.
"Love you, too. I´ll always be yours, just like you´re mine. Now let´s eat so we´ll have the strength to ravish each other."
"I like the way you think, lover."
They thought they deserved their alone time, and they did. After years and years of hiding, they were free. Free to live and love. It took this big change to give them that, but now they understood what it was they needed, and after the world returned to its old ways, they didn´t forget what they had learned. They had more people in their lives, but they stayed rigth there, in their cabin in Scotland, together.
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Date: 2009-09-18 01:44 am (UTC)Ginger
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Date: 2009-09-18 01:57 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-09-18 02:06 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-09-18 02:11 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-09-18 03:27 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-09-18 03:39 am (UTC)That was such an amazing thing to say. If I really managed to do what you said, transmit the love they have to you like that, I´m ecstatic. *hug*
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Date: 2009-09-18 11:04 am (UTC)This is absolutely wonderful ficcienow that I've read it for the second time. I love it. =D
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Date: 2009-09-18 11:09 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-09-18 11:49 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-09-18 01:45 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-09-18 03:31 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-09-18 03:40 pm (UTC)Thank you for commenting.
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Date: 2009-09-18 06:07 pm (UTC)Food, shelter and the love of your life is really the most important in the world!
Wonderful story sweetie!
Thanks for sharing!
*hugs*
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Date: 2009-09-18 06:12 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-09-18 06:11 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-09-18 06:13 pm (UTC)Thank you, so much!
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Date: 2009-09-18 06:32 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-09-18 06:51 pm (UTC)I´m glad you liked it.
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Date: 2009-09-18 08:00 pm (UTC)But definitely a joy to read and joy to see a new VigOrli writer, please do write more! :)
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Date: 2009-09-18 08:05 pm (UTC)And sadly it usually takes something major to make these things happen...
It makes me reeeeaally happy that you liked it! Thank you :)
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Date: 2009-09-18 09:12 pm (UTC)I really liked their intimacy daily.
First thank obvmluver, for having convinced her to write and then, thank you for this sweet story.
Congratulations.
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Date: 2009-09-18 09:26 pm (UTC)Thank you for your kind words *small blush*
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Date: 2009-09-20 03:24 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-09-20 03:52 am (UTC)What´s important. Thank you for a thoughtful comment *hug*
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Date: 2009-09-21 01:38 pm (UTC)Well when a story is as well done as this one AND has meaning behind it, it's easy to enjoy it and say so.