Prompt: Anonymous
Title: The Gift from Anonymous
A brilliant smile crossed over Hephaistion's face as he found a piece of linen left on the pillow when he came out from the inner chamber after cleaning himself up. The sun was already up, and the strong summer rays were cast onto the linen through the window, making the cloth shine like a spider web with the heavy morning dews.
He picked up the cloth that was folded in multiple layers, and methodically opened it. A piece of green grass blade appeared from inside. Holding the delicate grass leaf in between his thumb and index finger, Hephaistion's mind traveled back sixteen years to their last year in Mieza under Aristotle's tutoring.
Hephaistion had been keeping his distance from the prince while he was in Mieza. Being the youngest in the group except Alexander, he held back; not because of incompetence or shyness, but because of being civil. That was how he had been brought up, to respect elders, and to step away when the issue did not matter.
His fair yet strict father did not tolerate any rudeness, especially towards the seniors. Besides, he did not wish to draw any more unnecessary attention to himself; it was bad enough that he had been chosen by king Philip to accompany the prince despite his young age.
However, he freely spoke his mind when he was in Aristotle's class. It was also his father's direction to stand up for what he believed. Because of those characteristics; keeping distance from others, and bluntness in the classroom along with almost unrealistically good looks, he gave a cold and unfriendly impression to others.
Especially the elder boys thought that Hephaistion was an arrogant spoiled kid just like Alexander, except that the former did not have the temper of the latter. Nevertheless, their impression of both Alexander and Hephaistion had changed gradually while they studied together in the tight knit community for the next four years.
It was indeed a wise idea of Aristotle to establish the school away from the influence of the palace and its social interactions. Those young men soon had created their own social world around the young prince, and developed long lasting friendship and comradeship. As they openly criticized and discussed ideas, they understood that Alexander and Hephaistion were not arrogant, but they just had a strong belief in their ideals.
Although the peers saw the stunning similarities between Alexander and Hephaistion, those two were so wrapped up with their own thoughts that they argued for hours entertaining Aristotle and the rest of the class. It seemed that the bonds among the youths were getting more strongly at ease over the last four years except between Alexander and Hephaistion. And fate was just about to tip the balance.
The students from Mieza were all in Pella for the last couple of days to celebrate Alexander's birthday. After visiting their parents and spending a night at their own homes, they all went to the palace for the banquet. It was the first official banquet at the palace that Hephaistion had attended, since he was finally considered old enough to join in this year.
Hephaistion was not in his best mood, as he had just had a disagreement with his father over Alexander's birthday present.
"But, father, Alexander told us that he does not expect anything from us. He said that he has everything and does not need anything."
"Son, you should not take everything so literally and straight. Sometimes, it is the best to follow the customs. And the Macedonian custom is that you would never show up to a birthday banquet with an empty hand."
"But, father, Alexander is different."
"He might be, but others are not. I cannot let you present our family with no manners."
With these final words from his father, Hephaistion could not deny any longer. His father showed him some silver pins in a little box.
"Here, choose one of them. They are all not too much, but that will do."
Hephaistion picked up the simplest and the smallest silver pin that was designed with two crossing grass blades from the bottom of the box, and put it in a silk pouch that was also handed by his father. That was his best protest he could do to the stupid idea. His father sighed seeing Hephaistion's choice, but he did not say a word.
When Hephaistion arrived at the palace, half of his friends were already there. The party was fun and luxurious. It well proved the growing power of the Macedonian kingdom. The food, the wine, and entertainments were all the top quality.
In the midst of the celebration, Alexander's friends from Mieza started to line up in front of the birthday prince and presented the gifts they brought. Alexander scolded them for getting presents anyway, but he did not refuse them either.
Hephaistion thanked his father inwardly. He never forgot the lesson he had learned as of today. He would make sure that Alexander and his army respected the customs of any new country they had conquered, as he knew that it made it a whole lot easier to deal with the locals, and gain support from them.
It would have been a great humiliation if he had not brought anything, and he regretted that he had grabbed the least valuable one of all. When it was his turn, and Alexander opened his little gift, Hephaistion saw the edge of Alexander's lips curled up. He could not make out if it was a smile of appreciation or a sneer for his insignificant gift. He pivoted and left the scene so quickly that he did not hear Alexander's sincere whisper of thank you.
Now they were back in Mieza on Alexander's real birthday. It was a beautiful summer day. The almost transparent blue sky spread over the hemisphere with no single cloud in sight. Alexander wished to have a special memory on his birthday with his close friends in Mieza, since this would be the last summer for them to be together.
In a couple of months, his father would leave for Thrace making Alexander in charge of Macedon. He knew that his carefree adolescent days were coming to an end, and he would go on a military mission with his father as the first prince of Macedon very soon.
The food was simpler than at the banquet at the palace, but they brought the same quality wine back with them. As the night fell, instead of the banquet hall, they gathered around the open fire and sat on the stone bench under the stars. The stream carried up a cool breeze, and the night air was quite comfortable.
"So, Alexander, now you are almost an adult", Ptolemy punctuated the word 'almost', "what is your plan for your life?"
"To conquer the world." Alexander answered instantly.
"The world? Isn't that a little too vast a plan?" Philotas interjected cynically.
"Not really if you map it carefully and precisely. First, you have to unite Greece, and invade the East to defeat the Persians. Then it comes easy to rule Egypt under our force, and we keep going conquering and uniting the kingdom until we reach the end of the world."
"Some kind of very precise plan, Alexander, and it sounds so easy when it comes from your mouth." Ptolemy teased.
"It is not really a difficult task if you know what you are doing, and when you have the right support. So who is with me to conquer the world?"
They all roared in agreement intoxicated with both the wine and Alexander's charisma. Only Hephaistion was unsure. It sounded an almost unrealistic dream. He dropped his gaze feeling Alexander's piercing stare on him. When the wine started to affect their brains too much, and the conversations had died down, they parted to their sleeping quarters upstairs.
It was then that Hephaistion noticed a small linen package left on his pillow. When he opened it, a blade of green grass appeared from inside. It was hard to tell whom that was from, since there was not even a short note left with it. But, Hephaistion thought that this anonymous gift must have been from one of his friends who secretly admired him.
It was their daily routine during the hot summer days to go down the sparkling stream near the school and spend a lazy late afternoon after the class. Not like the other boys, Hephaistion did not have much tolerance against the cold. They teased him that it was because he did not have a single layer of fat on him, and they wondered what kind of dirty things he had been doing to burn it all.
Hephaistion just shrugged it off, and got out of the crisp spring water when he started to shiver from the cold, and sat on the tender grass patch at the bank stretching his long legs in front. He then tore a blade off the grass and whistled it to play music. It had started by sheer accident.
One afternoon, Hephaistion became bored sitting by himself watching his friends play in the water. He picked a grass by him, and placed it on his lips and blew the air. It made a high pitched whistling sound. Amused, Hephaistion kept trying. At first, it sounded like a cry of a sheep, and his friends teased him that Hephaistion was playing with his sheep again.
Soon he mastered how to change the pitch and the tone by altering the angle of the leaf and the amount of breath he blew in. By the end of the summer, Hephaistion was able to play a tune quite well, and his friends' remarks changed from 'Hephaistion and his sheep' to 'Hephaistion and the Naiads'.
He remembered catching intense gazes from some of his friends that were directed to his lips as he held the grass. He wondered if it was Philotas who was bold enough to send a suggestive gift to him. The curiosity won over the tiredness, and Hephaistion sneaked back outside to head to the riverbank.
Hephaistion did not have any problems getting down to the river, since the high moon was almost full in the clear sky, and it flooded the ground with pale white rays. Hephaistion froze to the spot when he recognized the least expected figure standing in the middle of the grass patch.
"Hephaistion! I was so glad when I received a message from you. That was the most delightful birthday present I had ever received."
It confused Hephaistion for a minute wondering what message he had sent to Alexander, but it all became clear for him at the next moment, and Hephaistion blushed furiously. Of course, it was his present; the grass blades pin. Alexander must have taken it as a confession of his love to the prince.
"Alexander, I …"
"I know, Hephaistion." Alexander did not let him finish. "I did not realize this feeling towards you for a long time, either. I thought my heart throbbed each time I looked at you, because I hated you. I thought I argued with you all the time in Aristotle's class, because our opinions were just opposite, and never have a crossing point. But now I realize that it was because I was attracted to you, and wanted to keep your attention on me even if it meant for the attention of annoyance."
Hephaistion did not protest. For the first time in his life, Hephaistion was almost agreeing with Alexander. It sounded so familiar. Did he keep the distance from Alexander not because he was afraid of being considered a sycophant, but because of the fear of being sucked into a messy emotional status?
Somehow, Alexander looked different in the dim moonlight. He lost his cockiness and looked more sincere. His curly golden hair shone softly framing his handsome face. His usually intense gaze was softened with admiration and love. When Alexander extended his hand, Hephaistion took it automatically before registering what he was about to do. He was mesmerized with the beautiful sight of Alexander.
Alexander pulled him down by his side, and Hephaistion found himself sitting on the blanket so close to Alexander, their shoulders were almost touching each other.
"Can I hear your music?"
Alexander 's soft voice made Hephaistion blink. He swallowed the lump that started to form in his throat, and opened the linen again. The leaf was crumbled from the pressure because Hephaistion had held it so tightly without realizing it.
"I think you need a new leaf."
Alexander chuckled and ripped a fresh leaf from the patch at his side, and handed it to Hephaistion. Their fingers touched for a brief moment, and Hephaistion almost gasped audibly feeling a jolt of electricity pass through his body.
He cleared his throat and started to blow into the blade, which he held against his lips. The sound was shaky at the beginning from nervousness, but soon he closed his eyes, and relaxed. The soothing melody traveled into the night, and in return Hephaistion received a gentle caress of the breeze on his face. It was such a peaceful evening.
All of a sudden, the tune hitched as Hephaistion felt an arm wrapped around his waist, and soft lips attacked his throat. Another hand came and supported his neck from behind. And then, wet lips moved up slowly from his Adams' apple to the tender neck, to the jaw line, and finally they stopped on his lips.
When Hephaistion felt Alexander's tip of the tongue trace the parting line, an unexpected moan escaped from his now slightly opened mouth. Alexander took this for an advantage and pushed his tongue further into Hephaistion's warm cave. It started tracing right above the back of the upper teeth, and gradually moved higher and deeper.
First sensation Hephaistion felt was a tickle, and then it changed into sensual bliss. His breathing quickened and his heart started to beat so madly. Soon the grass blade was forgotten and slipped out from his fingers onto his lap, but Hephaistion did not even notice it.
Alexander gently pushed Hephaistion down and lowered him onto the blanket. Hephaistion looked up at him with a heaving chest. Alexander's eyes shone brighter than any other stars in the sky with love and desire. They were so powerful and intense that they made Hephaistion melt senselessly.
The two youths continued to kiss; licking, sucking, and smacking, making the other parts of their body painfully needing attention. Alexander made the first move; he slid up Hephaistion's chiton over the head, and pulled the loincloth down. Hephaistion followed Alexander and swiftly took away Alexander's coverings, as well.
They lay next to each other totally naked and aroused. As their lips met again half way, Alexander took Hephaistion's hot flesh into his hand. Hephaistion was not totally innocent; like other youths, he had touched himself before. But feeling somebody else's hands, no Alexander's hand wrapped around him gave Hephaistion a totally different sensation.
As Alexander's callused thumb circled around his throbbing head, Hephaistion shuddered releasing another choked moan from the back of his throat. He automatically reached to Alexander's equally aroused flesh, and held it tightly as if it were his leverage.
He then mirrored Alexander's movement. Alexander's warm gasping breaths against the base of his earlobe gave another jolt to Hephaistion's heated body. Their hips waved together with the motion of the hands, which were desperately increasing the speed of the thrusts. First, the sheen of sweats coated their skin, and then it formed into droplets and rolled down their spines.
As the pressure built up inside, and the urgent need for release became unbearable, the muscles of their whole bodies tightened. They swallowed each other's cries deep into their throats as if they were their essentials when the explosion finally happened.
Breathing harshly, they clung to each other by connecting their foreheads together. As their heartbeats gradually slowed down, and the heat in their bodies died down, the world started to move around them once more; the breeze, the soothing sounds of the flowing stream, the chirping of crickets, and the sweet aroma of Summer Hyacinth.
They stumbled into the stream supporting each other in their arms. They were intoxicated with love. After washing one another in crystal cool water, they staggered back to fall onto the blanket. As soon as Alexander covered them with a thin cloak, they were in the land of the sweet dream, tired but content.
The first thing that Hephaistion saw on the next morning was Alexander looking down at him with a gentle smile. He pushed a strand of hair out of Hephaistion's face, and kissed him softly, and whispered looking into his eyes.
"Will you be my Patroclus, and will you always be by my side?"
"Yes, my Achilles, I will follow you till the end."
They exchanged a tender kiss again before picking up the discarded clothes. They headed back to the school stepping onto the morning dews with their fingers entwined behind their backs.
The early morning sun painted the thin clouds into pink, violet, orange and gold. The meadow was decorated with the veils of spider webs that trapped the sparkling tiny dewdrops. The same world looked different; it was more vivid, intense, and beautiful.
So many more years had passed, and so many things had happened between the king and his most trusted general; some of them were not so pleasant. Yet, every year on this day, they had been duplicating that summer night, the night when they became Alexander and Hephaistion. Next summer, they would celebrate this day in the garden of Babylon, their home in the Far East.
The End