Lance's wife started showing the year after their first child had been born. Their first was still small enough to be held and now had green eyes that explored the world and excitedly patted her mother's stomach as she babbled about her little brother or sister.

Keith had to leave the room in fear of anyone seeing him shed any tears.

Keith tried to avoid Lance that day but Lance was persistent and ended up laying in Keith's bedroom with Keith in his arms. Lance on his back and Keith on his side with his face smashed into Lance's neck.

"Please don't cry, Keith," Lance mumbled into Keith's hair when it sounded like Keith was about to start crying only minutes after calming down.

"I won't," Keith insisted with a broken voice into Lance's neck.

The arms around Keith tensed and the hand behind his head pushed him tighter into the base of Lance's neck.

"I didn't do it to make you sad," Lance informed Keith. It was redundant, as Keith already knew this, but somehow it was something that he didn't know that he needed to hear.

Keith's voice was muffled but Lance still understood it when Keith answered, "It did."

"I know, Sweetheart," Lance said and sniffed.

Keith tried to pull back but Lance tightened his grip.

"I hate that I have to do this to you," Lance muttered bitterly in a fragile attempt to hide his misery of making Keith cry.

"Me too," Keith answered weak but honest.

"At least it will only be you sleeping with someone else for a while," Lance said in an attempt to comfort Keith but it only weighed his heart down even more.

"Yeah…" Keith stretched the word out.

"Hey," Lance said as he pulled Keith away from his neck. Lance moved his hands to the sides of Keith's head to hold Keith's gaze better and letting his thumbs brush over the skin under Keith's eyes. "It's not that bad. It takes a lot less preparation at least."

"Yeah…" Keith answered the same way as before. He could lie far better than this but he was too emotionally drained to do so. Even if Lance was right in a way, he was still far more wrong because Aspasia didn't need to be stretched out and she created lubrication herself but Lance either underestimated or had no idea about how much time it took Keith to hype himself up to sleeping with his wife. Sleeping with Lance took preparation but nothing mental and it was fun to prepare with Lance. They didn't even need to prepare every time that they wanted to get off as they did a lot of stuff that didn't take any preparation at all but was often just as pleasurable as penetration was.

"I probably have to sleep with her before she sleeps with someone else again," Keith informed Lance.

"Yeah…" Lance breathed out, all light going out of her eyes. His eyes focusing on the ceiling behind Keith for a moment before they searched Keith's eyes out again. "Did you really think the baby was yours? Before it was born?"

"Yes," Keith answered more matter-of-factly than he could remember ever answering anything.

"That sucks," Lance commented in an effort to say something but it summed the whole situation up quite nicely.

"It's okay," Keith filled the silence out with a few awkward seconds after Lance's comment. It was an obvious lie because it wasn't okay. She couldn't just become pregnant with another man's child when Keith had worked so hard to give Rome what he was obligated to. What they, him and his wife, was obligated to.

It wasn't a normal reason to be mad, Keith knew that. Some people loved their wives and some didn't but the ones who didn't get their feelings hurt because of love, got them hurt because of possessiveness. Nevertheless, Keith didn't care who his wife slept with if it didn't mean Keith had to work extra because of it. He would probably have been happy if she had found someone who looked like him enough to fool the public into believing it was his child.

"Did you confront her before you went public with it?" Lance questioned him.

"Yeah," Keith said and let Lance carry the whole weight of his head. "She said I looked like a woman."

Lance snorted at that and erupted in a small laughter that ended with forced coughing. "Sorry, sorry, I just didn't expect you to say something like that."

"Why do I put up with you," Keith mumbled to himself but also for Lance's benefit.

"Because you're my woman," Lance said and bit his lips before he laughed over his own wit.

"Funny," Keith started with a deadpanned voice.

Lance leaned his head up and lowered Keith's head enough to peck Keith's lips. "Yes, I am."

Lance got another girl who looked like a wrinkly, red prune but would no doubt be just as beautiful as her sister.

Keith cried that day too. Secretly and never for anyone besides himself to know.

Only 2 months passed before Lance told Keith in the protective blanket of the night that Olympias was pregnant again.

Keith left Lance's house sudden that night and even though no one saw, he knew that he wasn't the only one to know of his shed tears that night.

"I never thanked you for letting Leon stay with us," Aspasia told him.

Leon was what Aspasia's son was named after Keith told her that naming a kid Simonides, meaning flat-nosed-son, was not a smart move on the naming apartment and Keith would rather not have a kid living in his house being bullied for its name.

"You're welcome, I guess," Keith mumbled unsure about what this was about and studied her nervous expression for answers he couldn't find.

"People would have understood after the-" she looked down at her clothes still showing the world how Leon was created, "circumstances"

"You're welcome," he repeated in a less patient voice.

"I know he couldn't go to his father after his left in his fisher boat but-" Oh, Leon's father was a fisherman now? Last time he had been a feisty father looking for his runaway son and before that he had been a soldier on his way to a war somewhere Aspasia conveniently didn't remember the name of.

Aspasia continued, "I'm sure my parents would have taken him in." Or Keith could have done like so many did with unwanted or weak babies and just left it outside to die.

"I just thought there was a better chance of success if he wasn't raised like you, only by you," Keith muttered

"But you didn't because you're secretly a decent person," she continued even though Keith wished he could just tune her out and Keith wasn't sure she hadn't hear what he had muttered to himself.

"Okay, just stop it," Keith ordered and exhaled deeply. "What do you want?"

"You see," she said and hesitated as if Keith wasn't already ready to just tell her to leave him a note since he didn't have forever to wait for her to find her words. "You said that you wished I had told you about Leon before I had him."

Oh, he knew where this was going.

"And I think that I'm pregnant again," she said and put a hand to her flat stomach.

"And it's not mine," Keith clarified.

Aspasia looked to the side of the room and a light blush colored her cheeks. "Probably," She looked over at Keith again and lifted her shoulders just enough to be noticeable and tilted her head to her left.

Keith exhaled deeply. "Don't you have any friends to visit if you're so bored while I work?" Keith asked because she was always in the house when he was and he was always there too unless he was at work or at Lance's.

Aspasia didn't answer instead the blush just grew and Keith looked up as he took another breath to collect himself enough to look at her again and ask, "Would it at least look like it could be ours if it's not?"

Aspasia bit her lip and looked away from Keith again. It just kept getting worse, didn't it?

"Maybe," she said so quickly that Keith almost didn't catch it.

Keith widened his eyes, furrowed his eyebrows and threw his hands to the side. "How many people have you slept with lately?"

Her eyes searched down closer to the floor. "That's not important."

Keith decided that he really needed to either get his wife to stop sleeping with half the city, accept that he would never have any children or tell Lance that he may have an STD. Probably at least two of those options.

"Are you not going to say anything?" Aspasia asked desperately.

Keith just sighed. "I don't know what to say. I don't even know what to think right now."

Keith covered his face in his hands and inhaled deeply through the space between his hands and face.

"Anything," Aspasia begged. "Are you going to have me judged again?"

Keith removed his hands. "That baby have better look like me."

"Or what?" Aspasia asked without her usual sass. "Are you going to force me to give the baby to the father or my parents if it's not yours?"

"Maybe," Keith answered but he knew he wouldn't. The baby wouldn't even have to look like him to keep it.

Lance got a beautiful little boy and Keith never thought he would praise the day Lance got a baby with someone else but he was ecstatic.

Lance had two girl and a boy now and that had to be enough. It had to. Now Keith could sleep knowing that Lance wouldn't be sleeping with his wife.

"She's pregnant again?" Keith screeched and maybe Aspasia had been right that he was a woman because no man should be able to sound like he did at that moment. "You've already done your duty. You don't need to have any more children!"

"Yeah, so?" Lance sneered. Lance stood there with his hair a mess from running his hands through it and his toga put on crookedly.

"I don't see why you would want to sleep with her when you don't have to anymore," Keith told Lance truthfully. He thought they both had an agreement to exclusively sleep with each other when they didn't have to visit their wives' bedrooms anymore.

"Oh, don't tell me you don't enjoy it either," Lance said and rolled his eyes.

"No!" Keith cried. "I can't wait until this nightmare is over."

Lance furrowed his eyebrows and widened his eyes as he looked at Keith with either concern, disturbance, or both.

"Nightmare?" Lance repeated. "Is it really that bad?"

"Yes?" Keith furrowed his eyebrows as he looked up at Lance's face. "Isn't that how you feel about this whole thing?"

Lance looked stunned and he was biting the inside of his cheek, as he looked Keith up and down. "I don't like you sleeping with anyone else."

Keith looked down to the side of himself. "Me neither." He didn't know if he was saying that he didn't like the thought of Lance sleeping with anyone else or the thought of himself sleeping with anyone else. Probably both.

"Keith," Lance called but Keith didn't look up at him.

"Keith, hey, look at me," Lance asked and gently guided Keith's face towards him with a hand on his cheek. "Do you really hate to have sex?"

Keith looked into Lance's eyes and he knew that he couldn't have lied even if his walls had been up. "Not with you."

Lance exhaled. It sounded like a breathy laugh but Keith didn't see any humor in Lance's face.

Keith was silent for a moment before he remembered the reason for their argument. He took a step back so Lance's hand fell from his cheek. "I just don't see why you can't just find me if you're that horny."

"Keith," Lance breathed out.

"No, I don't want to hear how you like it. If sleeping with her is so much better than with me just do that instead of pulling me along."

"Keith, I was just-I was just angry," Lance said but Keith just huffed at the excuse. "You can't imagine how it feels like to know that you're at home with your wife and you're during your duty as you keep reminding me that you have to!"

Keith's eyebrows were relaxed and his eyes were only in a half-glare but there was nothing half about the resentment radiating from him. "I can imagine that, Lance."

Lance swallowed. "Yes, of course." Lance looked away from Keith for just a moment as he bit his lips. "Is there anything I can do to make it better?"

"No." Keith shook his head. He would have to look at this child too just like he did to the rest and know it came from Lance and Olympias doing things. Things that Lance had a right to do with his own wife but that Keith didn't think he should with anyone other than Keith.

Lance took a step closer to Keith so they were as close as they could be and tried to wrap his arms around Keith but Keith took another back.

"No, stay away from me," Keith demanded.

"Keith, don't-" Lance tried but then changed his mind and deflated as he continued, "Okay, I will leave you alone."

"Good," Keith said tonelessly.

"Can we talk again soon?" Lance asked with fragile hope in his eyes.

Keith looked away from Lance and crossed his arms. "I don't know."

"I haven't lost you forever, have I?" Lance asked desperately but Keith was unsure if he didn't already know the answer or not and just tried to fool himself.

Keith looked back at Lance and ignored the tension in his whole body as he answered, "I don't know, Lance."

Lance's whole body slacked except his legs though they looked only a moment away from giving up too. His eyes were widened and saw something far away that Keith would never know.

Lance walked up to Keith's house days later with an apple. Keith was still not over his negative emotions but the sight of the red fruit defrosted his heart more than he would ever let Lance know.

"Keith, I really missed you, did you miss me?" Lance asked but Keith just stared at him. "Okay, fair. Can I at least apologize to you?"

Keith glared at the wall but nodded.

"I'm really, really sorry for sleeping with my wife. I'll never do it again."

"And I will only do it to make mine pregnant as much as I absolutely have to," Keith mumbled.

"Does this mean that you forgive me?" Lance asked with such joy that Keith turned his head to see Lance's sun-kissed face light up and his eyes twinkling like the most precious jewels.

"Ye- Uf!" Keith huffed as he got an armful of Lance squeezing him half to death.

"Thank you," Lance breathed out and kissed Keith hair and then went down to his face. He landed a few kisses on his lips but it wasn't planned as Lance kissed every surface he could on Keith's face. '

Keith was sleeping alone but peacefully that night dreaming about walking around with Lance and never having to worry about either of them sleeping with their wives ever again when he was awoken by a shrill scream of a child.

"Papa, papa!" Leon cried. His little mouth was running through the words fast and Keith could hear that there were more words than he understood from such a small child especially when he was still pulled half under by sleep.

Leon's chubby legs had never run that fast because Keith barely sat up before his arm was pulled with the full strength of a toddler towards the stairs.

Keith carried the child up, gave him to one of the slaves who had awoken by the noise and went into his wife's bedroom.

There were a large bloodstain and all the blood left Keith's face.

"Aspasia?" he called. "Aspasia, where are you?"

He gingerly stepped into the room.

"Aspasia?" He asked sharper as his eyes searched for her in the dim room.

Keith looked down when he heard heavy breaths and discovered both his crying wife and the fact that he had almost stepped on her as she sat crying on the floor.

"Have you come to yell at me?" she sobbed and Keith's heart broke. He didn't love her, he didn't even particularly like her, but close to everyone who sounded like that would have awoken something tender and protective in Keith.

"No, why would I do that?" Keith asked as he too sat down on the floor to be on the same level as she was. He wanted to hold her hand or pet her hair but he didn't know if it would be appreciated or not so he just tried his best to look friendly.

"Because it's my fault?" she asked and lifted her head to look at Keith. Her face was blotchy and sticky but Keith had never wanted to hug her before that moment.

"What is?" Keith asked as he tried to find clues in her face.

"The baby," she sobbed. Keith thought she meant Leon at first but then he followed her gaze to the bed and stood up to look down at it.

Right there in the middle of the blood was a creature. It looked vaguely like a human but it was smaller than his hand, had protruding black eyes, and looked like it had no fat under its red, translucent skin. It was the ugliest thing Keith had ever seen but it made him want to cry to see it like this. Still, small and dead.

His eyes turned down to Aspasia again and he bit his lip as she looked pleadingly at him but he had nothing to give her. She wanted him to tell her that it would be alright but it wouldn't. Something had went wrong and she would need to be looked at in the morning.

However, he wasn't going to curse her either when the gods had already done so. She had paid in the public eye for her first immorality and this one had an even stepper pay for her second one.

Keith didn't know what to do in this situation but he had to make a choice and hope for the best.

"I'm taking Leon downstairs-" Keith started but was interrupted by Aspasia.

"No! Not him too. Don't take him from me," she begged.

"I'm not, just for tonight, okay?" Keith asked. A husband had more say than a wife but he wanted her to be okay with this.

"Okay," she agreed and Keith saw her nod in the darkness.

"One of the slaves, Pherenike I think, is here. She'll collect some water for you and we'll deal with this in the morning, okay?"

Aspasia didn't vocalize an answer but she nodded once more and that was good enough.

It was a small funeral for a small person.

Both Keith and Aspasia wanted to keep it as discreet as possible for their already damaged status as unfaithful wife and unfulfilling husband who couldn't control his wife.

Not even Keith's parents knew. Only Keith, Aspasia, Pherenike who had taken care of the bedsheets and made a makeshift bed for Aspasia in the middle of the night, the physician Keith had brought his wife to that morning, and possibly soon Aspasia's parents that she saw at times when Keith wasn't home.

Aspasia held a cloth with the baby. She was pale from both her night, holding the corpse of what would have been her second child and maybe Keith's first and the bloodletting from a cut close to her vagina which the physician had explained was the affected area. It stood for infancy but since her body had had too much it rejected her infant. The bleeding therefore should help with the excess blood in Aspasia's body.

Important thing was that she could stand and hold the blanket while Keith dug a hole a far distance from the city and road.

Aspasia kissed the blanket before putting it down into the hole.

Keith didn't know if she didn't remove the blanket to kiss the baby itself because she couldn't bear to see the child but he wouldn't blame her for not wanting to see the child. It hadn't been pretty when Keith had removed it from her bed before leaving early that morning. It had been all shriveled up and burned an ugly image into Keith's brain, so Keith didn't blame her one bit.

Keith didn't show it but he secretly said goodbye to the child too before putting dirt over it.

Keith had paid for the blanket, a nice one at that. He had even thrown in a few coins to get into Hades, a lock of Keith's, Aspasia's and a few strands of Leon's hair while he was distracted so the baby would know who its family was, and Keith had even taken a wooden horse from Leon's collection to put with the baby too. Just in case, it could ever play in the afterlife. Not to mention even move a wooden horse the size of itself.

Keith wanted to do more but they had to do it quick and quiet if they didn't want anyone to know of this and just hope that this would be enough.

"Thank you for doing this," Aspasia whispered when they looked at the newly covered and unmarked grave.

Keith didn't answer. This was not for her.