Title: E is for EYES.

Author: too_beauty

Feedback: yes, please any kind of them will help me to improve my writing or leave it forever.

Pairing: Alexander & Hephaestion. Mostly Alexander's POV.

Rating: PG

Category: Historical AU.

Disclaimer: I don't know the people involved; A&H belonged to themselves and to History, if not Phai would be among us, living under my "protection".

No beta, so all mistakes are mine.

They can be big, small, rounded or almond-shaped; they can be brown, black, green or blue or they can be two jewels like Hephaestion's, indescribable, magic, deep; eyes to live and die for.

Cerulean eyes.

I first met his eyes when we were children of about eight years old. We had been wrestling and, of course, Hephaestion had won me again but I didn't care, he was my best friend and I knew that he was always pushing me to my limits to get the best of me.

On our way to the bath, a gust of wind lifted some dust and Hephaestion was blinded for a moment, he was about to touch his eyes with his knuckles when I avoided the movement.

"Don't do that Hephaestion, you can hurt your eyes with that dirt, let me help you" and saying that I cleaned my friend's face with my chiton. After a minute, I told him:

"Stay where you are and don't open your eyes, Hephaestion"

The taller boy could listen Alexander running off and coming back within seconds. He then felt a wet cloth; the prince of Macedon was cleaning his face as if he were a mere servant.

"Don't do that, Alexander, give me the cloth and I can clean myself".

"Why?" asked an astonished golden boy.

"Because you are the Prince!" the brunette boy said.

"No, I'm just Alexander for you, my friend." and he continued with his task, with very careful hands.

"Open your eyes slowly and tell me how you feel"

"Very well, Alexander; thanks."

"Hephaestion, your eyes are blue !"

"Yes, most of the men in my family have blue eyes " he explained.

"I have seen your father's and your brothers' and they are not like yours." I assured.

"Aren't they? I haven't realized that before" Hephaestion said humbly.

"No, they aren't. They have the colour of the summer sky; a wave of the Mediterranean Sea, an exotic jewel from the Far East."

The brunette boy blushed and elbowing the prince on the ribs, he sprinted to the bath laughing.

Dark sky-blue eyes.

Alexander didn't like to see that colour in his Phai's eyes; after some years together, he had learned to read the emotions showed by those eyes and the colour he has seen this morning in them was not a good thing. He had asked what the problem was but he had only got a stern look and the silent treatment.

"What have I done?" he asked myself. He started thinking about the things that they had done since the early morning but he couldn't find any problem.

Alexander saw Hephaestion going to the wrestling arena and listened when he asked the toughest wrestler for a match. He ended up bruised, swollen, dirty and a lot calmer.

"What was that, Hephaestion?" Alexander asked approaching his lover-to be. He had wanted to make that move for months but he had not been able to find the best moment.

"Nothing" he answered while he cleaned the dust from his bare chest. His eyes were still dark but not as dark as before. He continued walking, not giving the prince further attention.

"Where are you going, Phai?" he asked with concern, pursuing his best friend along the corridor.

Hephaestion turned round and shouted:

"Don't you ever dare call me Phai again!"

"Why? What have I done?" Alexander asked with a tiny voice.

"What have you done? YOU have told Cleitus that WE are lovers. Are you mad?" he asked furiously.

The prince saw how his dreams come to pieces, his Phai didn't love him enough to become his beloved, in fact, he had felt offended and embarrassed. His eyes were on his friend's and Alexander could see how they changed their colour and turned dark and watery at the same time.

Hephaestion brushed his hand over his eyes to cover his tears but Alexander got there first and catching his fingers with his, he told him:

"An eyelash is inside your eye, that's why it hurts, let me take it out for you"

Hephaestion stood there, motionless while the prince approached his face to the brunette's to have a better view; Alexander quickly took the offending eyelash and asked him:

"Can I kiss it better?"

"I am not a woman or a child for that treatment" he replied angrily.

"No, you are neither of them, but you are the man I love since I have memory; you are the man who I need to have by my side to be a better man; you are the man whose eyes make me feel safe and hopeful because they always tell me the truth; you are the man who …" and his confession was interrupted by his warm lips on mine.

When we got apart because we both needed some air, he told me :

"Sometimes, you talk too much, MY Alexander" and his eyes were cerulean again, shinny and full of life.

Violet-blue eyes.

Their lives changed very much since the moment they decided to become lovers, but contrary to what people thought, they took our time to consummate their love. Alexander didn't want to hurt Hephaestion or pushed him to take a decision, and Hephaestion was quite indecisive about that too, he knew it wouldn't be an easy way, he knew that he would have more foes than friends; that he had more to lose than me.

One particularly night, after eating with the companions, both young men left the tent to walk around the camp. The sky night was lightened by thousands of stars, the moon was shinning in all its glory and they could listen to the silence.

They reached Hephaestion's tent and as many nights before, Alexander left him alone there after kissing his lips briefly.

Some time later, Alexander listened to his guards greeting someone and Hephaestion appeared, opening one of the flaps of the royal tent. He looked at the king and he said:

"There is no other place where I want to be. No matter how hard and painful life will be but it is the one I've chosen. I took the decision and I won't regret it. I love you, more than life itself because there is no life I would rather live than the one I have here with you." He whispered his last words but Alexander was able to listen to them.

"Phai, look at me" he asked while getting closer.

And his eyes … this time were violet-blue, the colour of love with a tint of lust. They met half way and their bodies did all the talking that night; and that was the first of many nights they spent together, spoiling, caring and loving each other. It was the best decision of their lives and the king enjoyed too much looking at those violet-blue eyes that showed him back all the love that his beloved felt for him.

Glassy blue eyes.

Alexander saw that colour in his lover's eyes just once and he swore to himself that the image would never leave his mind and memory. That look wasn't his, that colour wasn't either; those eyes were not his Phai's, they were somebody else's. Alexander couldn't see himself in them; they didn't give him back the image he was looking for because they were the eyes of a dead man, because they were lifeless, they were empty. Those eyes haunted him from Ecbatana to Babylon during eight months.

But one day, his feverish eyes found their perfect match again; they were cerulean once more as the first time the king discovered his love for hHepahestion, those eyes were comforting and warm, their look was clean and full of joy, they were inviting him to follow them and … Alexander did it because he would always live and die for my Phai's eyes.