DOTR: Well, thought I'd at least post a frickin' oneshot. I know this one is shorter than my other ones but it's meant to be short to fit the storyline. Sorry for nothing too detailed but this just came to mind and I had to write it. Don't worry I'll write other juicy stories for you guys so please enjoy this while you can. Thanks again and sorry for not writing anything in a long while. Just something got in the way like a little four lettered word that begins with an "L" and ends with an "E" :P
"Please . . . why won't you listen to me?"
He was Romulus, so named after the founder of their great city by foreseeing parents so that he may carry that name with him into the higher ranks and he had. At the age of 27 he was now a well renowned Centurion, well on his way toward an Imperial Legate but look at him . . . how undignified was he, speaking to a traitor as dubbed his my Emperor but he didn't care, he had to try.
"Aldric!" Romulus once again pressed; his face already too close to the cold metal bars.
"Nein," said the man who Romulus was trying to persuade.
Romulus leaned himself back from the small window into the cell holding a lone prisoner who barely moved and looked more like a statue than one alive and full of breath . . . well . . . for the time being.
"Don't you speak German to me, not now, not here," Romulus demanded, his amber eyes darkening at the sense of carelessness from the man in a situation like this.
"What does it matter to you, Roman?" Aldric spoke, the man's blue eyes keeping to the same spot upon the cold and dirtied floor. "I won't be speaking for much longer so why not spend my last words with the words of my father-language?"
"Can't you see I'm trying to save you?" Romulus about shouted, but held his tone of voice. No matter his rank, if his fellow soldier suspected even he to be a traitor against the Emperor then he could very well join his conversation-companion out in the arena this day.
The blond-haired man let out a chuckle. "You, save me? I don't think you to have that power."
"I can though," Romulus assured, grapping at one of the iron bars in the cell window. "Just as long as you take back everything you've said I can go to the senate and—"
"I will not take back what I have confessed," Aldric stated, his stance firm as he looked at the soldier with stern blue eyes. "There will be no power here on earth to change that. Not you . . . not even your damned Emperor."
"I WON'T LOSE YOU, ALDRIC!" Romulus shouted, catching the prisoner by surprise.
Aldric's lips parted in a silent surprised gasp, his eyes wide to a certain degree. He watched on in silence as the soldier before him, separated only by an iron door, shook and bit his bottom lip. When he looked upon him again, Aldric could see the glow in his amber eyes, they looked more golden this time and it was then Aldric knew that the man was near to tears.
"I now understand . . . Romulus," Aldric spoke after the shaken statement from the Roman Centurion. "Why it was that you wished I not come to Rome . . . even though I, as ambassador to my barbaric people, had no choice, even though I am not even a citizen of this city . . . even though I am but a foreigner . . . your Emperor would seek to rid my kind of the whole earth and you had tried to stop me."
"You would not listen then and you will not listen now! How can you be so selfless?" Romulus demanded to know as he slammed his fist against the iron door making a loud banging sound that echoed down the hall filled with numerous prisoners and stationed guards. "I couldn't give a damn about your pride or beliefs, but if that is what will get you killed then abandon it right away and live the rest of the years you were so promised upon birth!"
"I have already decided in my stance in this world and neither you nor your Emperor will change my mind. I am sorry for being so selfless as you said but I have decided this and I will not repent from it," Aldric said.
Romulus had it. He reached down and took a hold of the keys he had borrowed from the previously stationed guard before he relieved him of duty for a while. After jamming the right key in, Romulus wrenched the door open and shut it behind him as he entered the cell. The moment the iron door was secure Romulus marched up to the German ambassador and laid his fist against his jaw—hard.
Aldric fell off of the stool he had been sitting on and fell face first into the hay and dirt covered cell-ground. His golden hair lay sprawled out over his face but he did not move. He simply lifted a hand toward his jaw and touched the split lip now seeping out blood. Turning he leaned himself up a little only to see the Roman towering over him. His face was darker and somewhat menacing—like that of a mad man trying one scenario over and over again only to fail each and every time. His fists were shaking and his limbs trembling, he certainly had riled him into a rage all personal, all his own.
Before Romulus even spoke again he reached down and took hold of the collar of Aldric's tunic and pulled him closer to him so that their eyes should meet and Romulus' meaning strike clear in Aldric's mind.
"You're right, Aldric; your decision's killing you but what you don't seem to understand is that it's killing me as well and you just don't care!" Romulus spat, shaking the German slightly before he blinked away the shine in his eyes.
"You're decision to care for my inevitable end is your own issue and not mine," Aldric said, shaking his head. "Just stop caring then. You continue to plead with me to change my stance so why not you?"
"It's not that simple," Romulus said, hiding his eyes from Aldric as he glanced down to the floor beneath them.
"Then neither is it for me to do likewise," Aldric said as he rose his hands and placed them upon the Roman's hands and pulled them off of him. There the German ambassador sat and subconsciously ran his fingers through his golden hair, day dreaming of things to come and unimaginable pains to befall upon him.
There was a silence in the prison cell as Romulus stood there, shaking from an internal rage at a conflict he had no power to prevent when he so desperately needed it to and Aldric only sat upon the floor, combing his long locks with his pale fingers.
"You've seen it before . . . haven't you, Romulus?" Aldric suddenly spoke up, his gaze off into thoughts of his own. "Tell me what shall come so that I can ease the turmoil within me."
Romulus shook his head and turned from the German. He continued to blink away the shine in his eyes before he rose a hand to rub them. "Do you see me as so uncaring, Aldric, that I would look upon such atrocities and care nothing for them?"
"You are a Roman soldier and you serve your Emperor to your fullest . . . what else would I think of you?" Aldric spoke, his gaze still in a distance far too futuristic.
"I am more than a soldier, Aldric," Romulus said, turning to look down at the German's frame. "I am a man as well . . . a man who feels and cares for the ones he loves." Now Romulus' entire being had turned toward Aldric and he stood there, just behind him, close enough to reach out and touch his shoulder.
"Yes . . . I almost forgot," Aldric said with a small sad snicker and shake of his head. He turned and saw that the Roman had turned to him and stood just behind him.
Another silence enveloped the two but this time, Aldric felt the Roman's fingers come into his hair and gently pull at his locks. Aldric reached up and touched the man's hand and for the first time felt that those trembles were his own and how terrified he really was.
"Please, tell me, Romulus. Tell me of the horrors to befall me soon," Aldric pleaded, placing the man's hard and calloused hand against his pale cheek. "Can you not feel? I am trembling with fear. I am afraid."
Now the Roman was kneeling and he turned the German toward him and it was then he could see the tears in the barbarian's eyes. Romulus narrowed his eyes in sorrow as he brought both his hands to touch the soft skin of the German's face. His calloused thumbs wiped the thin line of tears falling down the man's cheeks as he trembled and wept for his fate.
"I have seen the executions and what an entertainment it brings to my people," Romulus said as he closed his eyes for a moment before looking into Aldric's. "No doubt they will shout the more louder for your blood, Aldric. Your belief and your race make you the more hated."
"Then may my end be a good entertainment for you, Romulus," Aldric said with that smile of his that seemed to always best the Roman in situations like this. Romulus wanted to punch him in the jaw again but he just shook his head. Now he settled for pulling the German closer and pressing his own lips against the barbarian.
It amazed Romulus how Aldric remained still even knowing he never felt the way the Roman had. Even as Romulus deepened the kiss he remained still. Soon he was moving his hands down toward Aldric's neck and then toward his chest where he felt the beating of his heart, strangely so steady even though the man had claimed to be terrified.
When Romulus pulled back he looked into those blue eyes he had come to love and Aldric had not made any motion, whether to move forward or to move back. So Romulus made the motions for him. Once again he descended upon him and captured his lips with his own. He wanted, most of all, for Aldric to feel the pleasure of a Roman before feeling the full scorning pain of one in only a short while now.
So he had kissed him and touched him and laid him down to press against him. The blond still made no movement against him. He had laid himself still as Romulus opened his tunic and kissed his bare chest and touched him with fingers too experienced.
Romulus had longed to hold the German ever since he had met him, all those years ago. Now, as he touched him, it was bittersweet, their kisses tasted of nothing but the water of tears; bitter and salty. But no one said anything.
Aldric had held onto him as Romulus pressed himself inside him. The German's fingers clenched onto patches of skin and twisted and pulled when Romulus buried himself within him. He could hear Aldric holding his breath most of the time, so as to make no noise and Romulus couldn't help but feel this was how it would have always been, had he been able to love Aldric, even before now.
When he reveled in the pleasure he cursed in feeling the end nearing . . . for the both of them. He looked down and gazed into Aldric's eyes. His lips were parted and the sweat dripping from his skin was collecting in that shallow collarbone of his. They shared a brief hold in gaze before Romulus leaned himself down and began to suck upon that slick skin of Aldric's neck. From there he could feel them—the sounds, all the sounds Aldric was keeping back.
Past his lips only came the ragged breathing, but the moans and groans of one in pleasure was what Romulus had yearned to hear for so long. He easily forgave the barbarian for keeping them from him, if only because of the situation, but if he had ever gotten the chance to do this again, if ever those beautiful sounds only made in his dreams were withheld from him, then Romulus would punish Aldric far worse than the Emperor had decreed to that day.
With a sharp inhale, Romulus was pulled from his thoughts and looked upon Aldric. The man had wrapped his arms around his neck and held on as if his life depended on it. Romulus moved one of his hands and wrapped it into those beautiful locks of gold and just listened, listened to the heavy pants of the German under him. Then, he felt, felt the quick beating of Aldric's heart and the warmth his body surrounded him with as he thrust to completion just then.
When the pleasure ceded, Romulus had wrapped the German in his clothing once more and combed his hair from the knots that his fingers had wrought. There had not been a word spoken from the blond as he stared up at Romulus who had stood himself up. Not even when the guard stationed outside his cell returned in just a few minutes afterward.
Not even when Romulus accompanied said guard with Aldric toward the arena and they watched as a few fellow brethren of Aldric's were slain. Romulus watched for any signs of fright in the German as he had stated before to have held, but this time the man was calm and collected and dare he say—anxious for his end.
"I am sorry I could not change your mind . . . Aldric," Romulus said, feeling that late grief pick up suddenly on him now.
Again, Aldric remained silent before the shout for the next victim was called and the guard unlocked the iron bars separating the inner tunnels to the main arena. Just as the door swung open Romulus gave Aldric a grief-stricken smile.
"I really hope you find it . . . that Heaven you people speak so much about. It's a shame I can't join you," Romulus said; his final farewell already spoken.
"We believe that there are sins that evoke the fiery pits below. That can be from unbelief in the savior or one can sin unto death," Aldric suddenly spoke, watching as the guards outside motioned for him to come into the arena. "One such sin is laying yourself with another man." Before he even took one step forward he turned and pressed himself toward Romulus and in so kissed him. Romulus' eyes widened in surprise but he had not enough time to dwell on the German's actions because he was already pulling away and that damned smile of his was upon his lips again, even that shine in his eyes.
"See you in Hell, Romulus."
With that he stepped out onto the arena with no "push" from the guards, going the more boldly to his end in knowing that they would be eternally damned together.