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i-did-not-mean-to · 4 years ago

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Never say never - Chapter 9

Aaaah, the longfic of my heart...

Finally got the time to post the next chapter :D

Fandom: RPF - Richard Armitage

Characters: Richard Armitage x OC

Rating : Mature (but not yet)

Warnings: awkwardness, veiled insults, swallowed compliments

°9° ~Richard~

“I’m sorry if I come at a bad time.” He offered and, of course, now, his warm smile came easily to him.

“You looked pretty upset just now, so tell me everything that’s weighing on your heart as well.” Elizabeth sounded so terribly tired that all of his anger vanished in an instant.

“I’ve just come to tell you that you need to let go of your plan. Victoria clearly dislikes me and…it might be arrogant, but I don’t particularly enjoy being disliked.” He said in a low, careful voice.

“She doesn’t dislike you. She doesn’t know you. She’s scared of you.” Elizabeth replied calmly. When she looked up and saw the concern and the genuine hurt in his eyes though, she heaved a heavy sigh.

“She’s…Her life…” She struggled finding the words. “Her father is a mean man, and her husband has left her for a 20-something blonde after getting his big break. I should have known it.” She was obviously disgusted with herself.

“Because I am so mean or because I have so many blonde women in their twenties in my bed?” Richard asked pointedly.

He could not see the similarities between himself and those two men that had just been described in such unflattering terms. He was not prince charming, he was aware of that, but he didn’t appreciate being thrown together with people who sounded like proper scoundrels.

“Because you’re handsome.” Her tone made it very clear that she did not necessarily share that opinion. So…had Victoria called him handsome? Probably not, it was likelier that she had referenced Hiddleston, and Elizabeth had just assumed that he had been included in her assessment.

“It is unfair to her either way. Don’t try to make her meet people she doesn’t appreciate or who scare her.”

“Do you enjoy scaring women?” Elizabeth asked and he bristled. Naturally, he didn’t.

“In that case, I have done you both wrong it seems. If I had given her time to prepare and not sprung this on her, she might have been less panicked.” – “Well…yeah, she seemed terrified just now.”

Elizabeth had thought about that as well and would need to ponder this situation again, at home, with Angie.

There had been shock, that much was clear, but she had also read something else in the demeanour of her friend. She had not been completely wrong in her appraisal of Vic’s taste; she seemed clearly impressed.

“She has not expected you, that’s all. Neither did I, by the way.” Slowly, Elizabeth seemed to get her bearings again.

One never quite knew when that scheming glint would return to her eyes, but Richard was smart enough to be wary of her quick wit. She had not been handed her career on a silver platter; no, she had a particular skill when it came to the visualisation of a storyline. And Elizabeth was ruthless when it came to getting things done.

“I just came to advocate for her as she seems unaware of your plot. She’s your friend, don’t do this to her.” He pleaded softly, hoping that she would not pick up on his own hurt in this matter.

“I did not sell my friend. I am not a pimp, Richard. I just tried to coax her into a situation that might make her happy.” Elizabeth corrected him firmly, seemingly reading his mind and all the dark thoughts he was trying to hide.

“You failed; it made her miserable.” His voice was harder now and he cleared his throat to gain some time.

He had not wanted to put it like that, but now that she had spoken the words, he couldn’t deny that this had been part of his thought-process as well. She had literally offered Victoria like a sacrifice on the altar of whatever reason, only known to her.

“I had imagined it differently, that much is true.” Elizabeth nodded slowly. Richard felt attacked; even though Elizabeth had not said anything about her own expectations pertaining to him, his own insecurities were wreaking havoc on his mind since the previous night. Had she hoped that he’d be anywhere near as suave and charming as Hiddleston?

What could he have done differently? She had never directly spoken to him or engaged in a conversation with him. He had not come up with a funny pun or an alternative scenario she could evade into…

“I have been worried about her. I didn’t quite know what to do or say…” He tried to justify himself when he had never been accused of anything. Elizabeth gave him a broad, sly smile in reply to his stammered explanations.

He couldn’t help being a considerate person, he did not have the skill of comforting people easily; especially when he was ill at ease himself, putting others at ease was not always self-evident, but that didn’t mean that he didn’t care.

Victoria had been distressed and he had been very aware that he was part of the reasons why, so of course, he had not forced her to engage with him. His aim had been damage-control; he had tried to limit the harm suffered by that strange woman by not jostling any of the invisible and unintelligible stop signs around her.

“Are you hurt?” Elizabeth blindsided him with that one, he had to admit, and he blinked a few times before uttering a vague grunt to get her to explain what she meant by that. “I told Vic that she had been unkind, and she was afraid that she had hurt people’s feelings.”

Well, she can’t help disliking me, Richard thought, but yes, she might have endeavoured to not show her disapproval quite so plainly. “As I said, I do not rejoice that she finds me loathsome.” He answered evasively.

Somehow, it felt imprudent and indecent to talk about his feelings with this woman he barely knew. That kind of discussion had no place in the workplace, and after the stunt she had pulled, Elizabeth did not strike him as the most reliable and trustworthy of people to confide in either.

“She doesn’t. I can promise you that much. Nobody does.” Elizabeth’s deep eyes were warm now, swirling whiskey, and her voice had the smoky quality of that very same beverage.

“She literally said “It’s you” and “Oh no” not ten minutes ago, must I remind you?” Richard shot back, dismayed at how petulant and vexed that sounded. That was definitely not the way he wanted to deal with this.

“Again, we did not expect you. We both felt a bit caught as we had been talking about you.” Elizabeth conceded.

“Oh, I’ve caught the end of her BEGGING you to keep your, I quote, “old men” away from her. I am not paranoid here, Elizabeth, there are very clear signs that she’d shoot me to the moon just to avoid ever seeing me again.”

“Aah, yes, so…she did hurt your feelings. Well, we did.” Elizabeth murmured in a hushed voice, letting her lids fall slowly to her cheeks in a perfect picture of penitence. Her mind was racing, no doubt, as her fingers tapped the desk in a frantic staccato.

“Let me clear this up.” She said in a business-like tone and typed furiously numbers and combinations into the phone on her desk. Richard thought about how funny it was that she’d still use that relic, but when the ringing tone resounded, his mind snapped back to the present with acuity.

~Victoria~

She was trembling head to toe. Was that man everywhere? Would he haunt her now for real?

It had been less than 24 hours, but she had dreamt about his face and the discreet smell of him seemed to follow her doggedly. He was like some perversion of the bogeyman; she had come to expect and dread him at every corner and behind every closed door.

How ridiculous; he seemed as tall as a tree to her and yet, he had the nasty habit of sneaking up on her, just to stand there, silent, and glorious, like a statue made of flesh and bone. She had talked of dolls made of hard plastic, she had thought of marble, but no comparison really captured the amount of vitality that man carried in his stillness.

Victoria looked at hairdryers with such intensity for such a long time – all the while daydreaming about the way Richard had not even really swayed when she had bumped into him with all the momentum of fleeing prey – that an assistant came to hover at her elbow, afraid that she’d make off with the exposition unit.

Tearing herself from both the blind contemplation of hairdryers and the mental sketching of that scowling face that had hovered too close for comfort for a millisecond, Victoria made her way to the electronics that actually interested her.

The inspiration came quite naturally to her; she would buy a huge TV and a treadmill and watch movies while running in that drawing room she never used. Maybe, she could get a fainting couch just for good measure.

She ended up ordering all the electronics and made her way to a nearby furniture store where she found a beautiful, antique chaise longue with vivid purple upholstery and a bookshelf the movers would have a hard time getting upstairs.

Shrugging, she bought both nonetheless, ignoring the calls that made her whole purse vibrate. Finally, she decided to allow herself the pleasure of roaming a bit in the bookshop as well, to fill that new bookshelf with all the soppy, irrational stories her father loathed so deeply.

First, she had to take that call though, she knew it, but when she read Liza’s name on the display, her heart sank.

“What have I done now?” She asked, defeated, as soon as she had picked up.

“I don’t know, what have you done?” Liza replied with a smile in her voice. “I have bought furniture, a lot of it.” Victoria confessed with a sigh, nodding at the waiter of the small café belonging to the bookshop who wriggled a cup and a bag of tea at her as she sat down on a wrought-iron chair on the sidewalk to talk to Liza.

“What for?” Liza sounded genuinely interested now, and Victoria could imagine her leaning back in her office chair to hear of her newest folly. “To never be unprepared again. I bought another TV, a big one, a treadmill, a DVD player, a bookshelf, and an actual fainting couch.” Victoria laughed. “I intend to binge all of those soppy movies.”

“You wouldn’t? Who is this talking and what have you done to my friend?” Liza exclaimed in mock shock.

“Oh, stop it, you cow! Did you really think that you could introduce me to some of the most shockingly handsome men to ever have walked the face of God’s green earth without me doing my research afterwards?” Vic jeered.

“Most shockingly handsome, yes? Ah, music to my ears. While on the subject, I have Armitage still here with me.”

Stunned silence.

“He is of the opinion that you do not like him well; he looks like a kicked puppy. What have you to say to that?”

Victoria heard the click of the speakerphone being activated and cleared her throat, swallowing all the curses she had been about to loosen on her friend for letting her talk on and on with the very man in the room.

“Good day to you, Sir. I cannot like or dislike him, I’ve hardly spoken to the man.” Vic then replied, addressing her friend again as she was the person she was in a conversation with.

“That might be the reason why he thinks you loathe him.” Liza suggested, which made Vic snort with derision.

“I do not loathe him; how would I loathe someone I don’t even know?” Vic shook her head and took a sip of the scalding tea that had been placed before her a moment earlier.

“Your reactions have been less than positive this far.” Liza objected, watching Richard grow paler by the second. He did not seem familiar with the way women sometimes handled things, especially women as open and impatient as her.

“Well, they were, as you so aptly put it, “reactions”; I have never consciously “acted”. He’s been like that fairy-tale wolf lurking in the shadows, and I had a right to be weary.” Victoria grumbled.

“Does that make you Red Riding Hood, Vic?” Liza purred, imagining Victoria slaying poor, old Richard.

Victoria sighed. What was expected of her?

“Well, it’s too late for all of that now. Tell the man that I bear him no ill-will and let it lie.” Victoria was eager to get into the bookshop now, and she was growing impatient with her friend’s aimless prattling.

“Alright then, he still looks a bit upset. Do you have any nice thing to say to him as a parting gift?” Liza asked with a tone of finality that made Victoria’s heart soar. She would be dismissed soon enough, she only had to be gracious first.

“Erm…” Victoria reviewed her previous interactions with Richard in her mind. “He’s very pleasant and polite.”

Even to her own ears, her words sounded more like a thinly veiled insult than like a compliment, but she didn’t dare backpedal now. It would have to be good enough, he would have to believe that she meant well.

How would he know though? Already, he thought that she disliked him, and her half-arsed compliment wouldn’t convince him otherwise. No doubt, Liza would tell him that she found him beautiful…not that this would make any difference or carry any kind of weight or importance, but at least it was a real compliment.

~Richard~

Victoria did not pick up for a long time and when she did, Elizabeth picked up the receiver and effectively shut him out from the conversation.

He felt increasingly like an unwelcome guest who has not asked to leave because Elizabeth pitied him.

She asked Victoria a series of questions and he could dimly hear Victoria laugh and answer, her words a blur of cheery sounds that made Elizabeth smile sharply.

Someone was called “most shockingly handsome” and that comment was to serve as a bridge to the actual subject of the telephone call. Victoria denied disliking him, mainly advancing her complete ignorance on the subject as the reason, but her greeting was still cold, and she seemed eager to put the whole thing behind her.

He didn’t quite know how he felt about that; between the lines, she was probably saying that she had not yet unearthed the proper reasons to dislike him fully and that, as of now, she was merely weary of him.

Also, she had called him a dangerous predator again. What had he ever done to that woman to make her fear him so?

Pleasant and polite, huh? Stand-offish and cold, those were the words he heard, and they cut deeper than he had imagined. Up to now, he could have chalked her behaviour up to the startling situation, but this comment had been made calmly and after conscientious consideration of her words.

“Buh-bye. See you tonight.” Elizabeth chirped into the phone and pressed the call away.

“See? She doesn’t dislike you…” She turned to him, her face alight and shining, but the glow faded upon seeing his stern brow cloud over with disappointment and hurt.

“If you say so…” Richard grumbled and, for a moment, it looked like Elizabeth would say something more, but her lips tightened. She would not stroke his ego and alleviate the weight crushing his soul.

#richard armitage #fanfiction #fanfic #longfic #rpf #ao3 fanfic #romcom #silliness #miscommunication #story of my heart

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