Well, here we are with the last kiss, The Best Kiss of All.

Thank you for your comments, they are really caresses to my heart.

Alexander was looking at his Phai sleep; the old Chiliarch had been ill and he was still recovering from a very bad chest infection.

The Royal doctor had been very worried about Hephaestion; it had taken him a full month to lower the high temperature and to lessen the pain in his chest. Hephaestion was a very good patient but he was the Macedonian King's bonded partner and the former blonde was not patient at all. He had threatened him with passing him by the sword if he did not heal his Phai. The young doctor had smiled discretely because he remembered his father telling him about a similar threat the old doctor had also received more than forty years ago in Ecbatana.

However, the old man had evolved favorably under the amorous care of his daughter-in-law and his three grandchildren. Phainder, his beloved son, had had the hard task to keep his own father calm and focused.

"Why aren't you sleeping, my king?" Hephaestion asked without opening his still cyan eyes; they were slightly bright less but as beautiful, as ever.

"I'm not sleepy" Alexander replied and racked his fingers through the short tresses.

Hephaestion had cut his hair many years ago because he had said that it was ridiculous for an old man to wear it long. The truth behind that lie was that Hephaestion hated his grey hair and when it was short, it was not so notorious. In fact, it was more but he had not wanted to admit that it was no longer soft and strong as before. Everybody was shocked when they first saw him but never said a thing because they saw him really convinced, however, no one knew that both old men had cried bitterly when they saw it lying on the floor.

"I like that; you were always good with your hands, my dear king" Hephaestion said and sighed loudly.

"Well, these arthritic fingers must still be better for something good as they cannot hold a sword steadily any longer" he said and sighed sadly.

"Hey Xander, don't get sad, don't you still have me and your family?" the Chiliarch asked.

"Yes, I do, the most perfect family any man could ask for and I also have another thing, a thing that makes my life better, my heart happier and everything worth living for" the king said with emotion in his still commanding voice.

Alexander said that and smiled at his husband who was looking back at him with so much love in his eyes that it was painful.

Alexander leaned over and took Hephaestion's lips in a long and teasing kiss. After nibbling the former brunette's bottom lip, he said:

"That! The best kiss of all, the first kiss we give each other every morning" Alexander explained.

"And if I may ask, why is that the best kiss, my king?" Hephaestion smiled, already suspecting the reason.

"Because it conveys all the love we feel for each other and the hope of another day to spend together"

After that simple explanation, the king of the known world took his husband's lips in as heart-stopping kiss that made their knees go weak; luckily, for them, they were still lying on their bed, in each other arms as it had been happening for the last fifty years.

When we first kissed that's when I realized

from then on I didn't want anyone else's lips to be on mine,

but yours.