A/N: I have decided to stick as close as I can to plot of the movie with the changes I have made. This chapter, though, will take place during the time jump in the movie from the middle of the night at the villa/cells to noon the next day at the games. It will also be quite a bit of fluff with some drama mixed in near the end, so get ready.
I do not own the movie Pompeii or any of its rights. I am merely taking artistic liberty with the characters the writers so lovingly supplied to us.
Edited: 1/30/18
Chapter II: A Ride to Freedom?
Cassia woke just after dawn the next morning, despite how late the Vinalia feast had gone. There was a small smile on her face as she remembered what she had done the night before. Knowing that she had saved Milo from fighting in the games and that he cared for her as a person. He would not have acknowledged her in the ways that he had, if he did not truly care. At least that was the type of person Cassia thought he was.
Then she remembered everything else that had happened and the smile vanished. The Senator's words floated around in her head, and an icy dread filled her thinking about what he had implied as he was leaving.
"Any interesting dreams last night, Cassia? Perhaps involving a certain newly acquired bodyguard?" Ariadne asked as she walked in to help Cassia get ready for the morning. A cheeky smile dominated her expression until she saw Cassia's face, whereupon it dropped and she went about helping her friend in relative silence.
Cassia had told Ariadne everything that had happened when they were getting ready for bed. She had known what her childhood friend's reaction would be to Milo kissing her hand, a high, excited laugh followed by a short burst of giggling. She had gotten that over with first, and then she told her that the Senator had asked her to marry him. They talked for a little longer about everything else that had happened, particularly Milo's odd behavior upon seeing Senator Corvus, before going to bed.
The noble girl was on her way to the stables to have that talk with Milo, when Aurelia, Cassia's mother, intercepted her.
"Mother?! You are up early this morning?" Cassia exclaimed, trying to sidle around her.
"I could same the same about you, my dear." She gave her daughter a skeptical look. "Join me on the balcony, Cassia, I believe there is a matter we have to discuss?" Her mother raised an eyebrow, and walked back out to the balcony, Cassia following her reluctantly. Aurelia dismissed the servants that were tending to the bird-cages, and turned to face Cassia. "Now what happened last night?"
"It's a long story, Mother." A pleading note in her voice that seemed to say, 'Please, can we talk later?'
"I have the time and I like long stories." Cassia's mother was not going to let her get out of an explanation.
"Fine, but let us sit down. It will be difficult for me to talk about it, and some of it might be hard for you to hear. Let me start by telling you a little about when I was in Rome." Cassia proceeded to tell her mother about Senator Corvus's advances in Rome, the reason she came home early, meeting Milo on the road, and her mad impulse decision to buy him from Graecus. She did not mention the Senator's proposal of the previous night however, she did not want to discuss it with her mother. It was just too much for Cassia to think about.
"I brought him with me as a bodyguard because, it seemed like the best way to try to avoid awkward conversations and advances from the men Father invited. I had enough of that in Rome, and I did not wish it to continue here, in Pompeii." She hoped she had hidden her true reason well in the words she spoke. They were not untrue in any way, they were just not the whole truth.
"Alright, I think I understand most of it, but what I really want to know is what happened between this slave and the Senator? He seemed extremely agitated, and I don't think it was just because he couldn't scare him off like the rest of your suitors." Aurelia chuckled a little at the thought, but Cassia was too distressed from telling her story to laugh along with her mother.
"I agree with you, Mother, and I don't have an answer for you. I was on my way to ask Milo that same question when you stopped me."
"Alright," Aurelia closed her eyes and nodded. "You may go." Cassia stood up and started to walk away, but her mother's hand shot out and grabbed her arm. A strange look came over her mother's face, and Cassia wasn't sure what it meant.
"What is it, Mother?" She grasped her mother's hand.
"I will see you at the games this afternoon, will I not?"
"Of course, you will. I know how important they are to Father." She let go of her mother's hand, and walked to the entryway to the balcony. "I will see you this afternoon, Mother." Cassia smiled, waved and left.
"I thought you might have been here at dawn to see me, Cassia." She jumped, having just walked into the stall where he was working. Milo had not even looked up from cleaning the horse's hooves as he spoke.
"How did you know it was me?" She asked, her heart still beating much too fast, she could hear the tremor in her own voice. Milo stood up and looked at her. It seemed a tension left his shoulders as he gazed at her, and Cassia had to fight down the flush that was starting to creep up the back of her neck. She held his gaze just as long as he held hers, never having been one to back down.
"You do walk lightly on your feet, true enough, but you wear scented oils. That is very noticeable in a place like the stables." He paused and stepped closer to her. "No one else who would come through here at this time of day even own any scented oils, so who else could it have been but you, Cassia?" He had taken another step towards her as he spoke, Cassia had moved forward as well, and now they were mere inches apart. He raised a hand to her face, but hovered just above her skin.
His eyes searched hers, and she realized that he was seeking her consent. She slowly smiled and would have leaned into his palm, had not one of the grooms walked in. Upon seeing Cassia the man had wished her a good morning.
Milo closed his eyes and Cassia could have sworn she heard a growl and muttered cursing, as she stepped back and reciprocated the greeting. The groom went on his way, having just been fetching a broom, leaving the two of them in peace once more. Unfortunately for Cassia, Milo had turned back around and was now brushing Veras. Seeing the mood was thoroughly broken, Cassia turned to her other motive for coming to see Milo.
"I would have been here at dawn, or close to at least, but my mother pulled me aside almost as soon as I left my chambers." She walked up to him and laid her hand on his arm, slowing his brushing. "She wanted to know what happened last night, with Senator Corvus." Milo visibly tensed at the name, his arm completely still. "And so would, I, but not for the same reasons." She gently squeezed his arm, and he finally turned his head to face her. The look Cassia saw, nearly stopped her heart.
The rage on Milo's face was beyond measure. The pure, unadulterated hate in his eyes froze Cassia in place and was the only reason she had not let go of his arm and fallen a few steps back. She had never seen such anger in her life, and it scared her.
Milo obviously saw the fear on her face, because he pulled his gaze, and his arm, away from her, continuing to brush Veras.
"You should go back inside and prepare for the games, my lady." His voice entirely monotone, and the use of her title cut Cassia more deeply than she would have thought. It drove away her fear though, replacing it with sheer determination to never give in. A smile that could almost be described as sly, made its way on her face as she thought up the perfect plan to get Milo to open up to her.
"No, Milo," she made a pointed use of his name. "I do not think I will. The games are not for hours, I have time for a short ride on Veras." Milo grunted in a bare acknowledgement, but Cassia had seen the slight pause in his work. "Though, you know, I'm not allowed out for a ride unless the horse trainer comes with me, just in case something happens to the horse or myself." He was looking at her again, and Cassia thought she saw a glimmer of hope in his eyes. He laid down the brush and turned to face her fully.
"You will be even safer now, with your horse trainer being your bodyguard and a former gladiator." Milo said catching onto her train of thought, a prideful smirk on his face.
"Exactly what I had been thinking," A smug smile now firmly plastered on the noble girl's face.
Her heart fluttered at how the smirk on Milo's face slowly transformed into an actual, genuine smile as they held each other's gaze. He had Veras saddled in a matter of minutes, but instead of helping Cassia onto her horse, he hopped up himself.
He took Veras around the stables a couple times before he stopped and walked the horse up to her slowly. The look on his face asking her a question, and Cassia was a little confused what, until he extended an arm down to her. She looked down at his arm, up to his face, back to his arm, and then looked questioningly into his eyes. To which he responded by raising his eyebrows at her in a clear dare.
Well are you coming, or not?
Cassia smiled and grabbed hold of his forearm, and she was then lifted up and deposited behind Milo as if she was light as a feather. She had not been passive in that moment, but he had made the task so much easier by taking her full weight. On one arm. Not even a twitch on his face or a grunt of real effort. The noble girl placed her hands on his shoulders, but felt that was not a secure enough place. She shifted her arms to wrap around his middle.
Ariadne had been right, Milo had an extremely impressive physique. She could feel the muscles under her arms, along with the feeling of smugness that seemed to be radiating off him as she tightened her arms around his stomach.
The Celt kicked Veras straight into a gallop, tearing out of the stable and the yard, scattering grooms and caretakers alike. Cassia also thought she saw the purple cloak of one of the Senator's men, but she was not sure; they had moved so quickly and it was soon forgotten in the exhilaration of the ride.
Racing up into the hills around the mountain felt like a dream to the pair on horseback. Felix, for fear of her safety, had never really let Cassia get anywhere near the speed that Milo had pushed Veras to. It was not that he was forcing the beast to do anything, it was more like he was letting him run as he wanted.
The whole time Cassia could feel every breath, hear each beat of Milo's heart through his back, where she had pressed the side of her face . She tightened her grip around his stomach every so often, and she could feel him chuckle in response. Sometimes, when Veras slowed down enough, he would free a hand and place it on top of her joined ones.
Cassia thought it must have been a very long time since he felt this much like a Celt, a true Celt. He had said he had felt so the night before, but it must be nothing compared to this ride. She could not imagine what his life must have been like for all those years, to have a piece of your life cut off, a piece that you yearned for. Then to suddenly have that freedom again, to feel whole.
The noble girl understood a small piece of that. Her year in Rome, she was always longing to be away, and then her return to Pompeii, her home, where she felt safe. This ride must have been freedom itself for one such as him.
Cassia knew, then, that this ride was never about just spending time with her. She knew that it was about getting away from everything else, of the possibility of freedom.
All of a sudden, Milo pulled Veras to a stop at the top of a hill. While Cassia admired the view of her beloved Pompeii from this vantage point, she could not help but feel something was wrong with him. A tension in his shoulders that had not been there during the ride. She could hear the sense of regret in the sigh he gave as he stared out over her city and then looking out along the trail they had been following.
"What is wrong?" She asked after a few minutes of sitting in silence.
"It does not matter if I belong to you now, if they catch you up here with me." Milo's voice trailed off as he contemplated what would happen to both of them.
"I will tell them it was my choice." Cassia wrapped her right arm around his chest, laying her hand over his heart. He twisted in the saddle so they were facing each other. Once again, it seemed to Cassia that Milo's eyes were speaking to her.
You would do that for me?
Their faces were so close that their noses were touching. She could feel his warm breath on her face, and Cassia wanted nothing more than to finally know what his lips would feel like on her own. There was the briefest moment of lips brushing together, but Veras shifted at that moment, having become restless so close to the mountain. Jostling the couple in such a way as to knock their foreheads together.
They each reeled back, or in Milo's case, forward, and clutched at their foreheads, groaning. Then Cassia started to laugh. It was real, side-splitting laughter, the kind that eventually devolves into silent shaking, interspersed with deep gasps for breath. She leaned her head on Milo's back, and tried to tighten her grip around his middle, as he started to laugh along with her.
The horse must have been startled by their noise or spooked by the mountain, because he started shifting again, but more agitated, with quick, jerking movements. It unsteadied the laughing pair, and they fell to the ground. Cassia had let out a short, startled shout as she fell, but after a moment, she started laughing again. She had landed on top of Milo's back, effectively knocking the wind out of him, causing him to groan, which Cassia thought extremely funny.
"If this is my reward for making sure you don't get hurt, then I don't think I will like being your bodyguard." He grumbled, sitting up, dislodging Cassia and sending her into another fit of giggles as she rolled onto the grass. She could see on his face that Milo was not really upset, that he was trying not to laugh too, which just made her laugh harder. He let a smile through his irritated façade, and shifted closer to Cassia, putting an arm around her shoulders to support her.
"I do not think I have laughed like that since I was a child, playing with Ariadne in the garden." She admitted as her laughter finally died down. Cassia leaned her head against his shoulder, settling herself into him, and gazing at the panorama that was her wonderful home.
"I can't remember if I have ever laughed like that." Milo spoke quietly, but Cassia could hear the sadness seep back into his voice. The last vestiges of her laughter left as she recalled why she had wanted to talk to him that morning. She also remembered something that Corvus had mentioned to her while she was in Rome.
"Senator Corvus is the man who ordered your family killed." It was said as a statement of fact, and she felt him stiffen beside her. His fingers, which had been making small circles on her arm, ceased their movement.
"In Rome, he is called 'The Hero of the Celtic Rebellion.' That is how he won his seat on the Senate." Milo shifted away from her, his arm dropping from her shoulders, and cleared his throat.
"They attacked our village in the night, killed everyone I loved, burned everything I knew. He slaughtered my mother and then ordered his second to execute the rest of my people. I lay on the ground pretending to be dead, I had been knocked over by his horse and my mother had told me to stay down. They piled all the bodies together, including me, except for my father and the elders. The Romans hung their corpses by their ankles from a tree, along with all our weapons." He took a deep breath and continued.
"I can still see them in my dreams, still hear the ring of metal, as the swords and axes knocked against each other in the wind." Cassia sat up and looked at Milo, and saw his tortured expression, his gaze on a point somewhere above the horizon.
"You did not have to tell me this, I did not ask. I thank you for telling me." She lifted a hand to his face, applying a gentle pressure to turn it towards her. Cassia closed her eyes and leaned her forehead against his. She took a deep breath.
"So, in return, I will tell you of my grievances with Senator Corvus. They do not run so deep as yours, but they were enough for me." Cassia told him all that she had told her mother and Ariadne of what the Senator had said and done in Rome and even there in Pompeii.
"Now, I have even more of a reason to hate him." Milo pulled her into an embrace, wrapped his arms around her shoulders and her knees, which she had pulled to her chest, and tucked her head under his chin. After a moment she spoke again.
"In a strange way, though, I am grateful to that man." Milo pulled her away to look into her eyes, his gaze questioning, almost accusing.
"What?" The noble girl shook her head slightly at the accusation now clear in his voice. She grasped his hand from her shoulder, and, bringing it up to her face, leaned into his palm.
"If not for his schemes for power and prestige, we would never have met. You would never have become a gladiator, who would one day be taken to Pompeii, and I would not have left Rome so early. I would never have seen that dark, brooding slave on the road, who had the kindness and strength to save that poor beast from a life of misery and pain. I would not have fo-" Milo cut her off, not wanting to hear her speak of never meeting him. He had decided to occupy her mouth with something other than words, something that they had both been waiting for.
Hope you liked it! Good? Bad? Somewhere in between? Let me know:)
I'm really sorry to say this, but I'm not going to be writing as much for the next couple weeks. I'm studying for a career licensing exam, so the next chapter is going to take much longer to get up. I'm really sorry, but career does take precedence...
