AN: For PhaiFan! Enjoy, Honey! And the rest of you, enjoy as well!
Hephaestion and Alexander walked side-by-side to yet another council meeting. This would be their third this month, even though they usually had only one in the same amount of time. In fact, they had been overwhelmingly busy in the last four months, building structures and paying the soldiers their well-earned wages in the time, sweat, and blood they had all spent to get here to Babylon. Alexander had also been trying tirelessly to form his own alliances with Darius' former allies.
As such, with all the work the pair had been doing, separately as well as together, there had been no time for intimacy of any kind since reaching the glorious city. And as Hephaestion watched Alexander walk relaxedly by his side, he realized just how amazingly hard of a toll that time apart had become for him.
He held his tongue, however, as they had just arrived at the council room doors. After allowing Alexander to go in before him, Hephaestion settled in his seat beside the king's, although Alexander had not sat down but instead had begun to pace with his hands behind his back.
Watching his lover pace not twenty steps away from him set off some predatory instinct inside Hephaestion, and he felt his pupils start to widen with desire even as his chiton began to feel tighter around his waist. Closing his eyes, he took several deep breaths that he hoped went unnoticed by everyone in the room as he mentally willed his body to settle down.
It was very hard to concentrate through that meeting for Hephaestion. Every word out of Alexander's mouth was somehow transcribed in Hephaestion's mind as a moan or a sexual order, or a breathless crying out. "Fuck me," Alexander seemed to be saying, or, better yet Hephaestion decided, "Make love to me, Phai, please..."
"General Amyntoros! General! Hephaestion!" Hephaestion jerked back to the present, having closed his eyes and imagined his as-of-now nonexistent time with Alexander. As he stared down at the table in some amount of remorse, he realized he had never felt so disappointed in his entire life as he did at that moment, "Are you with us, General?" Alexander asked sternly, although not too much. When Hephaestion gave a small, almost sad nod, Alexander continued, "Good. Now as I was saying..." and he faded out of Hephaestion's hearing once more, although it was more out of sadness this time than anything else.
After a very long two hours, the meeting was over and Hephaestion tried his hardest to escape, but Alexander called him back before he could. Swearing to himself inside his head, Hephaestion very slowly went to stand in front of his king.
Alexander took in his bent, dejected posture and was immediately on alert. Hephaestion did not act this way unless something of great weight was bothering him, although Alexander could not begin to guess what that something might be. Maybe he had been too harsh in reprimanding him earlier.
"Is something the matter, Phai? You know you can tell me anything. I love you and I hate to see you in such low spirits. I am sorry if I was harsh on you earlier..."
Hephaestion refused to look him in the eye, which he very rarely did, "It is nothing, my king. It is something I must... handle... on my own. Thank you for your concern," without even being dismissed, Hephaestion turned and left the room, leaving Alexander standing bewildered in an empty room.