A/N: I must ask, did anyone else catch the line I refer to...?
Also, I adore the dog. I named him Carberus here, after the three-headed dog that guards the underworld, because that was the name of the dog in my very first Latin schoolbook. Nostalgia! Also, it's a good name. I love that dog; he's just so darn cute.
Warnings: Er...implied slash and mentions of incest, but nothing that wasn't in the movie...I think this is the cleanest non-crack I've ever written...
He's stopping by the stables, as he does when he wishes to think, and it hits him. He stands by the entrance, the stall door half-open, still in his hand.
Cerberus trots up, pleased with himself. He's caught a rabbit. He spots his master standing by the stall door and scampers over to lay the prize at Maximus' feet. Cerberus' tail tocks back and forth and he sits, pleased with himself. He looks up expectantly, cocking his head.
Maximus reaches down and scratches the grey fur behind Cerberus' ear. The great grey war-dog lets out a deep, smug 'whuff'.
After a moment, something registers as amiss in Cerberus' doggy head. His master is not paying attention to the rabbit. Cerberus decides to pick the rabbit up and drop it squarely on Maximus' boot.
Maximus certainly does notice this. He snaps out of his reverie and praises the dog properly. He play-whacks Cerberus with one hand while he scoops up the rabbit with the other.
Perhaps, Maximus thinks as Cerberus prances about ecstatically, he's making too much of the comment.
"I embrace you as a brother," Commodus had said. And if the embrace had been over-friendly, well, brothers were closer than any, were they not?
Still…that remark from a man who was rumored to be after his own sister…