Ever since i saw the movie Troy I haven't been able to stop thinking about the Briseis/Achilles pairing. So now i've written this to keep myself happy. Maybe one day i'll write a full length fic with my OTP of Briseis/Achilles.

"Briseis, dear, what's wrong?" Helen pushed the door to her lover's cousin's room open. She was greeted by sobbing.

"You haven't stopped crying since you came back with Priam. What happened in the Greek camp?" Helen, the woman's whose face had launched a thousand ships, inquired of the weeping woman, a slight frown between her eyes.

When Helen had first come to Troy, the ex-priestess had been full of light and happiness. Now, she seemed to have nothing left in her soul but despair. Briseis hadn't been able to stem her tears for days now and Helen, though she had her selfish moments, could not help but feel compassion for her.

"Hush," the blonde woman soothed, "it'll be all right, whatever it is."

Briseis lifted her head from her pillow and turned ravaged eyes to Helen.

"It will never be all right, Helen. Never." she whispered fiercely.

"And why is that?"

Helen found herself being measured by eyes swollen by tears and sleepless nights, but despite that, she still felt a shiver at the depth and strength of those dark eyes.

"You would know, I suppose, about forbidden love?" Briseis asked, sitting up and wiping her tears. Her voice was raspy from lack of use and from the deep throated sobs she couldn't seem to hold back for long.

"I'm here aren't I?" Helen answered dryly.

Briseis studied her for a prolonged minute before turning her face away.

"I used to hate you, you know." she said.

"Who didn't?"

"I wondered how you and Paris could live with yourselves after bringing war down on Troy." Briseis continued as if the other woman hadn't spoken. "I scoffed and said that it wasn't love that had led you here, but weakness. Weakness and selfishness."

Helen laughed weakly, "if it had just been that, I could have resisted." She paused then continued quietly, "I love Paris."

Briseis turned back and Helen saw an astounding mixture of pain, longing, and sadness in the other woman's eyes. She was abruptly catapulted back to the time when the first battle had been over and she had stood inside the palace walls and listened to the keening of the widowed women. Their cries had held the same combination of emotion that were in Briseis' eyes and Helen found she could hardly bear to look in them.

"I know. I know you love him."

The room filled with a sad sort of silence that seemed too fragile to break. Finally Helen couldn't stand it any longer.

"What happened in the Greek camp, Briseis?" she asked quietly.

"I found.." the dark-haired woman swallowed convulsively, "I found what it was that brought you here."

"Love? Who?"

Another swallow. "Achilles."

And finally, Helen understood.

"Oh, my dear." She brought Briseis' face to her shoulder and allowed her to mourn there silently. "My poor dear."

Minutes passed while Helen felt her robe slowly soak in the weeping woman's tears.

"I didn't.." Briseis lifted her head and looked into Helen's kind blue eyes. "I didn't want.."

"I know."

Briseis wiped the tears from her cheeks with the sleeve of her robe.

"When I had been captured by those Greek soldiers, I had vowed to never give in. I had sworn to myself that the Greeks could break my body, but never my soul. Never my soul."

Helen listened quietly to the other woman's raspy words as they poured out.

"But then I was brought to his camp. And his man had come in with him saying I had been brought there for his entertainment and I was so afraid." Briseis' eyes took on a faraway look as she remembered. "But instead of pouncing on me and raping me, Achilles cut my bonds and told me not to be afraid." She laughed lightly. "I was still afraid, but by then I was angry enough to talk back, to argue with him. And still he treated me courteously. I told myself that it was all just a trick to make me complacent for later. We argued a bit more, then Achilles left to go to Agamemnon's tent for a victory celebration and shortly thereafter, Agamemnon's pigs came and dragged me away."

Helen gasped, "Surely they didn't force you to.. With Agamemnon.."

"No, at first I thought it was just a trick of Achilles. But when they forced me into Agamemnon's tent, I saw his face and realized he had no part in it. In fact he drew his sword for me and demanded Agamemnon return me to him."

"Did they fight?"

"No. I had grown weary of all the violence of men and told Achilles I would not permit him to fight over me. He acquiesced and I became Agamemnon's slave. I didn't have to.. Service him." Briseis said in answer to Helen's silent question. "He basically left me alone. A few weeks later Agamemnon suddenly gave order for me to be given to the men, and that was when real fear started to take root in me. But then.." she paused and a smile formed, "but then Achilles came for me. He gave me food and water in his tent that night, and tried to care for my cuts. I didn't, of course, let him touch me, so he let me do it by myself. It was entertaining frustrating him. We argued again but this time I came to the realization that Achilles wasn't a stupid brute of a Greek and it shook me."

Helen nodded, "You were becoming attracted to him."

"Well, it isn't as if he wasn't the-" Briseis began defensively.

"Oh no need to defend yourself, I've seen Achilles before, and all that golden glory of his is hard to resist." Helen laughingly told her.

Briseis gave the other woman an aggrieved look and continued with her story. "That night as he slept I pressed a knife to his throat and he woke and told me to do it. To kill him. I told myself to do it too because I knew if I let him live he would just kill more Trojans. I told myself over and over to press the knife against his throat and just do one quick slice, but I couldn't and then we.. We.." Briseis stopped and blushed.

Helen smiled slyly. "Go on."

Briseis nodded and blushed again. "The next days I existed in dream state and Achilles and I talked forever. I learned things about this invulnerable man I could never have guessed and I fell.." she swallowed, "oh, I fell so hard in love with him and I thought he with me. He even talked of leaving the war and taking me home with him and I would have gone. Helen," Briseis looked at her desperately, "I would have left with him."

"Yes," Helen murmured softly, "I see you would have."

"But then, Hector.. Achilles and Hector.." Briseis could no longer continue and instead shook her head as tears formed in her eyes.

"And then.. Oh.. I see.."

"How can I love him still, Helen?" Briseis asked urgently. "Hector was like a brother to me and Achilles killed him, yet I still can not.. Can not.. I love him still and it's wrong! It's so wrong!" She pounded an angry fist into her pillow.

"Oh Briseis you can not help what your heart feels."

"I want it to feel nothing."

"If you could turn love on and off like that then," Helen shrugged, "it wouldn't be love."

"That's the point! I don't want it to be love! I don't want to ever see him again!"

"Is that the truth? Is that the gods honest truth?"

Briseis' lips quivered. "No. I don't want to ever see him again but I yearn for him. My heart breaks for love of him."

"Then love him and stop tearing your heart up over it."

"I can't." whispered Briseis.

"You must." Helen looked patiently into the other woman's heartbroken eyes. "Your love for Achilles will remain with you forever. It may not be as strong with the passing of time but you will always love him because he has your heart. It is something you must accept."

"And Hector? Will I ignore his death as if I felt nothing for him?"

Helen stood from the bed and brushed the creases from her robe. "Hector knew that death was coming for him. Indeed, I don't know if he could have ever lived with himself after he killed Achille's cousin."

"Patroclus was a fool."

"Yes, but he was a young fool and Hector knew that." Helen began to walk away. "Hector and Achilles might have been enemies but they respected each other. I think that Hector would have wanted you with someone who he could have respected."

"Oh Helen, how can it be that simple?" asked Briseis softly from where she sat on the bed.

Helen turned in the doorway. "Love is a very powerful force, Briseis, but part of what it is, is made by us. Treasure your love for Achilles and accept that you will always love him, for even the gods envy us because we can feel such a powerful emotion and be so faithful."

Oh man, i love Briseis and Achilles. DOWN WITH PARIS! I hate that bastard! ACHILLES AND BRISEIS 4EVA!

review please!