Chapter 3
Time for sleep came and with a final kiss and a "good night" they parted to their beds. They were both so happy to have found each other. Agron was peacefully sleeping, he wanted the next day to come and spend it with Nasir, at the same time, Nasir was dreaming, or better said, remembering his time with Agron in Rome, he was fine, until he started to remember when they parted ways, and Agron came back as a shell, half way destroyed physically and totally destroyed mentally. He didn't want to remember this, no. No, not again this memory of the saddest time in his previous life. No, no!
"No, no!" – Nasir started to say asleep – "no, Agron, no!"
Agron heard a little noise, probably a dog, or something outside, he turn around in the bed and kept sleeping.
"No… NO, AGRON, NOO!" – Nasir was already screaming, and quite hard – "AGRON, AGRON!" – he screamed waking up disoriented.
That woke up the whole house, including Agron, who got out of bed and ran to Nasir's room and opened the door. Nasir got out of bed and ran to Agron's arms, screaming his name; his family was behind trying to understand what was going on.
"AGRON, AGRON!" – Nasir said, while he took Agron's head in his hands, inspecting. Agron just tried to calm him down. Then Nasir took his hands and inspected them, and Agron understood immediately, grabbing Nasir's hands he looked into his eyes and tried to calm him down again.
"Nahzeir, I'm fine, I'm fine!" – he said his name correctly once again, showing his hands – "there's nothing, see? Nothing, no wounds, no nothing" – he added and grabbed his face so he looked at him – "we're safe, no Romans, no war, no fighting, new life, remember?" – he saw how Nasir started to crumble and cry – "shhh, it's ok" – Agron hugged him tight – "it's ok, you're safe"
Nasir never showed this when they fought all those centuries ago, he got concerned with Agron's health and injuries, but that was it, he never collapsed or cried like this. Did he felt like this the whole time, and never said or showed anything for his sake? If it did, he should have realized it, he should have noticed. He hugged him tighter and kissed his head.
"Shhh, calm down and back to bed ok?" – Agron said carrying Nasir back to bed.
"Don't leave me!" – he said quickly – "please, stay"
He looked too small and desperate, his heart was going to break looking at that expression.
"Of course babe, I'm here, I'm not going anywhere" – he said reassuringly – "I'm not leaving ever again, ok?"
Nasir nodded and closed his eyes, he was kind of tired with all of this so he felt asleep rather quickly, and Agron left his room, giving him a kiss in his forehead. He closed the door behind him and saw the whole Safar family in pajamas, waiting for an answer to this behavior they hadn't seen before.
"I suppose he hasn't done that before?" – he asked and got 3 shaking heads – sigh "By the Gods…"
"What triggered that?" – Mr. Safar asked – "…Was it you?" – he added carefully
"Maybe" – sigh – "maybe it was the Rome talk at dinner" – Safiya looked down in shame.
"Did that happened before? He waking up like this?" – Mrs. Safar asked with sadness in her voice.
"Couple of times, but not quite like this" – Agron answered – "and this one is for a different cause; it's the memories from before"
"What memories?" – Safiya finally spoke – "he was looking at your hands, and you talked about not leaving again…"
SIGH. Guess he was gonna have to tell them, huh? Well, here goes nothing, but…
"Can we go down stairs and have a coffee or something?" – he asked, Nasir's mother nodded and they all went downstairs to hear the stories with some hot coco, coffee would have kept them up.
"Well, we had a few Roman generals behind our backs, and Spartacus killed all of them, except for one, Marcus Crassus. He was clever, he didn't use brute force, he used strategy, and it worked. When we were close to the Alpes and the women and children could had a possible escape, we separated, some followed Spartacus and the rest followed Crixus" – he said remembering his stupid Gaul brother – "I was in that group, I couldn't see myself living a 'normal' life in the Alpes, farming, etc; so I followed Crixus, he wanted to bring down Rome entirely, and I believe in that; it also worked as a diversion so the rest could escape. But, I also knew that it was probably a journey to a secure death, but I was fine with that, I was a gladiator, we hoped to die honorably in battle" – he kept telling his story, while the Safar family heard closely – "but I would not have Nasir at my side to die in battle, he was not a gladiator, even if by the end he fought like one. I wanted him to live, to cross the Alpes and find new happiness, so I told him to go with Spartacus, and to not follow me, which he did" – he took a sip of his hot coco.
"So, that's why you said you're not going to leave him again" – Safiya said.
"Yes, he wanted to come with me, he told me 'my place is forever with you', but I just left him to fight, I was so stupid" – he kicked himself again and again for that.
"And what about your hands?" – asked Mr. Safar, having a small idea
"Well, that's part 2 of the story" – he said taking another sip – "we were close to Rome, and we could taste the victory, but Roman soldiers came, with Caesar and Tiberius, Crassus son" – he said spiting venom
"Wait… the Caesar, Julius Caesar?" – asked Mr. Safar
"Yeah, that prick" – Agron said almost angry – "he infiltrated our walls by order of Crassus and pretended to be a slave. They came and killed so many" – he said with sadness in his voice – "I was struck down and fell unconscious, but Tiberius almost killed Crixus that day" – he said looking at them – "he cut off his fighting hand" – he said in almost a whisper – "The ones that lived, were taken to Roman camp, me included" – he started to rub his hands together – "Caesar saw me and told Crassus who I was and my status, they contemplated the possibility of using me to train the Romans, but as you may think, I say fuck no…" – he looked at his mug – "so… they crucified me"
Safiya and her mother were horrified, and gasped a little bit, while Mr. Safar thought for a little bit and asked Agron something.
"Did Nizar saw you like that?"
"Crucified? No, thank the Gods, no" – he stopped for a bit – "…but he saw me afterwards"
"How? Didn't Romans let people to die at the cross? – he asked again
"They did, I was a couple of days there, hoping to die fast, or to see Nasir again so I could apologize, and I did" – he drank the last of the hot coco – "Spartacus got Tiberius and Crassus offered a trade, his son for all of the rebels who yet raw breath, and we were hundreds. A slave of Crassus killed Tiberius and they trade her. After that I came back to rebel camp and that's when Nasir saw me" – he remember his face and how he just wanted to cry like a little baby and scream how sorry he was – "he saw me back to health, he even did some surgery to fix my hands, but they were useless, at least for the first few years, I got better with time, but I was never the same, nor Nasir, he had seen war and loving partner crushed" – sometimes he didn't notice he started to talk like before – "but after we crossed the Alpes, we had a good and quiet life" – he said smiling remembering his time with Nasir and his son.
"What did you do when you were free?" – Mrs. Safar asked – "You know, for living" – she was curious, Nasir never said anything, and she never asked.
Agron was going to answer when he heard a little voice, a pleading voice calling his name.
"Agron…" – said Nasir quietly and sadly – "Agroooon"
Agron ran back up in record time and went straight to Nasir's bedroom, followed by Nasir's family; he found him on the bed, with a very sad expression on his face, as soon as Nasir saw him on the threshold, he lifted his arms in a hug invitation, which Agron took in no time.
"You said you were not gonna leave me" – Nasir said in a very small and squeaky voice – "but I woke up and you weren't here"
"I know babe, I'm sorry, I was downstairs. I came as soon as I heard you" – he said hugging and rocking Nasir back and forth, trying to comfort him – "I'm gonna stay now, right beside your bed, ok?"
Nasir's family was looking from the door, Mr. Safar sent Safiya to bed, and talked a little with his wife, who after that, also went to bed.
"Alex, come here for a second" – Mr. Safar called Agron to talk to him, without Nasir listen to the conversation.
"I'm gonna talk to your dad, ok?" – Agron said looking at Nasir to his eyes – "I will be just outside"
Agron stepped outside and left the door ajar, so Nasir wouldn't get anxious.
"To be honest with you, I don't know what to do" – Mr. Safar said – "If I let you sleep in his room tonight he might get better or worse, it's not like you're going to be here every day" - he said conflicted – "I won't let you live here either" – he look at Agron – "Any suggestions?"
"I'm at a lost just like you, he never acted like this before, he was always strong and determined" – he knew they had talked about living together and tell his parents together, but he told him his idea – "I will be out of University in 2 months, and I will rent an apartment somewhere, he can come live with me, I will provide for him while he studies"
"That's a long term thing, we need a solution for the now" – Mr. Safar said rather coldly – "what can you do now?"
"…I think the only thing I can do now sir is sleep in his room" – he started to say, and then he clarified – "on the floor, so he can sleep properly, and hope that this is the only night that this happens. And then we could live together"
Mr. Safar didn't spoke for a while, and Agron started to get anxious, did he say something that crossed the line?
"Ok, do that, sleep on the floor, in the guest room there's a small sofa bed, I will help you bring it here and you can take the covers of the bed. Common" – he said going to the guest room and helping Agron to set his new "bed" for the night.
Agron went back to get the covers and Mr. Safar stopped him for a minute.
"Prove yourself worthy and I will fully support you two living together" – he said putting his hand forward so Agron could shake it – "Deal?"
"Deal" – said Agron without thinking it twice and he shook his hand vigorously.
"Good night Alex" – Mr. Safar said going to bed.
"Good night sir" – said Agron going to Nasir's bedroom.
Agron went to Nasir's room and got under the covers he took from the guest bed, he thought Nasir was sleeping again but he thought wrong.
"…I'm sorry..." – said a very fragile voice from the bed
"Hey" – he said sitting on the sofa bed – "I thought you were sleeping" – he looked at him and his sad expression – "why are you sorry? You have done nothing wrong"
"Yeah right…" – he said sarcastically – "it's just that my dream was so realistic…"
"It's because it wasn't a dream babe" – he said getting closer to the bed – "I'm so sorry you have to experience that…" – he said regretful of his decision all those centuries ago – "It's all my fault and I will try my hardest to make it up to you"
"You already did, for decades, so stop that" – Nasir told him still in a small voice – "I'm the one who remembered. You are a good man Agron, don't you forget that" – he looked intently into his eyes – "you just did what you thought was right, that's all" – he moved to the edge of the bed and let his arm down to caress Agron's face.
Agron got up for a minute and kissed Nasir slow and tenderly – "I love you, so god damn much"
"I know, and I love you so much" – Nasir responded – "Sleep now, I already robbed some precious time already, you would be tired in the morning"
"It was you so I don't care" – he got back in the bed – "besides, we have lost sleep together before" – he said in a funny way.
"Yeah, well, at least that's worth it" – Nasir said getting comfortable – "Good night hon"
"Night babe" – Agron said touching his face – "and have sweet dreams this time"
"Thank you"
