Chapter 6

-"Hi, we're home" – greeted Nasir as he entered his family house.

-"Hello, good evening" – Agron was still trying to be very respectful, specially after all the sex.

They looked more in-love (if that's possible), closer, so the family knew they had had a great time together (they had no idea, maybe Safiya? But who knows)

The couple stayed in the livig room until they were called to eat; Syrian food again, to Agron's pleasure, there was some makdus, Syrian salad, hummus (of course), haloumi and baba ganouj, there was also some pita bread for anyone who wanted it. Agron was quite enjoying himself.

- "So. Where did you go?" – was Mrs. Safar question

They had rehearsed this, they knew what to say.

-"We went to eat luch first at Linguini's" – Agron said

-"They have a very good pasta dish" – Nasir commented

- "And then we just went to the public park and we talked for a long time" – continued Agron.

- "Yeah, like an hour and a half" – said a happy Nasir – "Just lying on the ground"

- "We ate crepes after, it was too cold for ice-cream acording to Nasir" – he said looking at him with a grin on his face.

- "It was!" – Nasir complained

They kept talking for a little while, they were finishing dessert when Safiya asked something out of the blue.

- "Who's Yakub?"

The smile Agron and Nasir had faded immediately, and sadness took over, Nasir also felt angry.

- "You're my sister and I love you, but right now I hate you" – he said with all the bile he had – "you were snooping"

- "You sounded so sad, and you said you loved him, I just want to understand" – she paused for a minute – "Were you 3 in a relationship?" – she said very slowly

- "Oh Gods no! You stupid girl" – he felt old again – "he was my son" – he whispered sadly, tears forming.

- "A son?!" you said you never had a girlfriend in your previous life" – said his mother.

- "He didn't Mrs Safar" – Agron intervened – "Yakub was a 2 year old Syrian boy who lost his biological parents to the war" – he started to explain – "Nasir saw him and fell in love with him, and shortly after, so did I, so we adopted him like our own, and we all lived to see better days" – he saw everyone looking at him – "we raised him as our own blood and flesh"

- "And you were sad because he didn't come back" – said Safiya sadly understanding everything – "I'm sorry….. Did he lived a good life? After the war I mean?"

- "He did" – answered Agron – "he grew up to be a fine man, he married the love of his life, Belle, Crixus and Navia's daughter, and had a nice living raising horses, like his father and grandfather.

- "Excuse me" – said Nasir neutrally – "I need some air" – he got up from his chair – "Thank you for dinner"

- "Nizar, I'm sorry. I just wanted to know, I was concerned" – said Safiya very fast.

- "It's ok, I understand" – he said leaving to the backyard.

Agron looked at Nasir's parents ready to excuse himself and go after Nasir, but he didn't have to say anything, Nasir's mother excuse him.

-"It's ok, go" – she said – we can talk about this later, he needs you.

- "Thank you" – Agron left to follow Nasir's footsteps. He found him in a sitting swing, swinging a little bit.

- "Hey, are you ok?" – asked Agron sitting next to him.

- "Yeah, it's just that things are coming up before I'm ready to talk about them, and it catches me unprepared. I was going to tell them about Yakub sometime but I was not ready for it now, you know?"

- "Yeah, I know, but well he came into the conversation and now they know"

- "I would give anything to just have a portrait of him" – he said looking at his hands.

- "Well, we don't really have a fragile memory so, he would live in our memories forever"

- "I know, but it would be nice to be able to have something physical to remember him"

- "Well… - Agron said – "I have something that I think will cheer you up" – he had a radiant smile – "but you have to come with me to the second floor"

- "Ok, what do you have?" – he said suspicious.

- "Something great" – Agron got up and took Nasir's hand and guide him to the guest room, he sat him on the bed and picked up his backpack – "Remember I told my parents that one of the things I did after remembering was to travel a lot?" – he was now opening it.

- "Yeah, I thought you were looking for me"

- "Yeah, well, not really. I was looking for something, before looking for you, so I could give it to you" – he took out a book, it looked very old.

Nasir was going to ask what was so great about an old book, but it hit him, the book contained the portraits of his friends and family.

- "Oh my God Agron" – he said already crying – Where… how…

- "I travelled to the same spot every year, every time I could" – he said with a lot of emotion – "when I was dying, I told Yakub to give it to his children, and then to bury it deep, where our house use to be" – he gave the book to Nasir – "it was very difficult to find, it took me years. I've had it for a year, and I always looked at your portrait and Yakub's. You can have it now"

Nasir couldn't speak, he just opened the book and went through the pages slowly; just has he remembered, the two of them were on the first 2 pages, then Saxa, Gannicus, Sybelle, Lugo, Kai, Rohan, Naevia, Crixus, Belle, Yakub, Spartacus and Sura. When he got to Yakub he lost it. He couldn't even see him anymore throught the tears. Argon kneeled in front of him and took his hand.

- "It's bittersweet" – Nasir managed to say through the tear – "thank you, SO much for this"

- "Your welcome" – he said taking his hand in his own – "do you want to show it to everyone?"

- "I do" – Nasir said, wiping his tears away – "I want to brag about my son" – he said smiling

- "OK" – Agron responded smiling – "let's go" – he got to his feet – "cheer up, you have them back"

- "Thanks to you" – he said getting up, closing the book – "I love you" – he told him looking into his eyes, raw with emotion.

They went down the stairs and found Nasir's family still in the kitchen, just talking, surely about Yakub.

- "I'm sorry!" – was the first thing that Safiya said – "I didn't want you to cry"

- "NO, no!" – he said quickly – "it's other thing"

- "What?" – she replied confused.

- "Well would you like to hear another story from our past?" – Agron asked smiling

- "Always" – she answered exited

- "Would you two like some coffee?" – asked Mrs. Safar

- "Yes mom, thank you" – Nasir sat down

- "Yes, thank you ma'am" – Agron sat next to Nasir

Mrs. Safar gave everyone a coffee and sat down.

- "I assume the story has to do with this book" – Mr. Safar said pointing at the book.

- "You would be right sir" – said Agron – "Well, the story starts like this, we were enjoying a few days of "peace" in the rebel camp and we decided to get married, well I asked Nasir"

- "Wait" – Safiya interrupted – "Same sex couples could get married in Ancient Rome?"

- "No, unfortunately" – answered Nasir – "although it was not rare to see a same sex relationship back then, it was normal actually"

- "Even if we knew that our union was not "official", we wanted to do it either way. We wanted to celebrate and show everyone that we were serious about our relationship, so we did it all, ceremony, rings, party, guests"

- "And those guests brought gifts" – said Nasir

- "Our friends gave us a lot of things, but I dare to say that Spartacus gave us the best gift we could have ever asked for" – Agron look longingly at the book

- "When I was sold into slavery, I was but a boy and I couldn't remember my family in details, so Spartacus gave us this" – he pushed it into his father's hands

Mr. Safar took it and he opened it – "Wait… is this from your past life? Is it that old?" – he couldn't believe it.

- "Yeah, so please be careful" – Nasir plead.

- "Oh my God, you look the same" – Mrs. Safar said looking at their old portraits.

- "That's how we found each other; with our good looks" – Agron said smiling.

- "OK, who is this?" – Safiya said while pointing a blond girl.

- "Saxa, a fellow German" – answered Agron – "She died before peace arrived"

- "I'm sorry" – said Safiya.

- "It's ok, most died in the war as a free person" – Nasir took her hand and squeezed it.

- "Who's next to her?" – asked Mr. Safar

- "Gannicus" – Agron answered with a grin in his face – "he was something else"

- "Was he a gladiator?"

- "One of the best" – he answered truly – "so good that he earned the rudis, he was awarded his freedom"

- "He was good indeed" – said Mr. Safar, he knew what took to be awarded that little wooden sword.

- "That's Sybelle and Lugo" – Nasir pointed – "Lugo was a German too; he was a dear friend"

- "Kai and Rohan" – Agron said when Mr. Safar turned the page again – "both German, both very close to us"

- "Did they made it?" – Safiya asked.

- "They did, well, Rohan's right eye didn't" – Agron said with a sad smile.

Another page, Nasir sighed full of emotion – "that's Naevia and Crixus"

- "Did they…? – started Safiya

- "Yes" – responded Nasir – "Well, Crixus' right arm didn't" – said with the same sad smile Agron gave before.

They knew what was coming next, so Nasir had already tears in his eyes, he took Agron's hand and saw his father turn the page.

- "Oh, who are these kiddos?" – asked Mrs. Safar with a smile on her face.

- "That little baby is Belle, Crixus and Naevia's child, and that's my baby" – he said with a raw voice, he couldn't contain his tears any longer.

- "This is Yakub?" – Safiya passed her fingers along the painting of Yakub, he saw Agron nodding.

- "He was 4 at the time" – even Agron had some difficulty talking – "he was a very clever and obedient boy"

- "Thanks to Agron I can show you my son and my friends from my past life" – Nasir said looking endearingly at Yakub's portrait.

Mr. Safar turned the page again and saw two more paintings.

- "Dad" – he said cleaning his face from the tears – "meet Spartacus"

- "…this is…" – for Mr. Safar, a historian, this was gold.

- "Yeah, our son's best friend" – said Agron with a sad smile on his face. He was remembering when he had to tell Yakub that Spartacus, his best friend, has died.

- "And next to him?" – asked Safiya.

- "Sura, his wife" – answered Agron – "I never met her"

- "She's the reason the rebellion started" – said Mr. Safar in awe

- "Yeah, the book was held shut by a piece of her dress, but there's not much left of it" - he passed a small piece of fabric to Mr. Safar.

- "… this is incredible…"

- "I also found another thing" – Agron said to everyone, he took something from his pocket and gave it to Nasir.

- "Oh my…" – he said looking at a rusty old dagger – "…why did he left it there? He was supposed to give it to his son…"

- "I don't know… maybe he just wanted to preserve it" – Agron had no idea why, he was also very surprised when he found it with the book.

- "What is that?"

- "A Thracian dagger" – answered Nasir – "Spartacus gave this to Yakub for his birthday before he died. He said he envisioned giving it to his own son, but he never had one, so he gave it to Yakub"

- "Because of our life at that moment, he had to learn to use it and use it quite early, he was that big" – Agron pointed to the picture – "when he defended Nasir with it"

They talked some more about those times until it was late at night.

- "I should be going" – Agron got up of his chair – "I got to wake up early tomorrow"

- "This is awful" – said Nasir with a sigh

- "Hey, we have technology now, it won't be that hard" – Agron tried to cheer him up, and he needed to do it for his own sake too.

- "it's never easy to be apart" – Nasir wanted to leave with him, but knew they needed somewhere to stay, and they didn't have that so, apart it was – "but you're right, it will be easier with technology"

Agron said goodbye to everyone, and left to the door. Mr. Safar was going to take him back to it's dorm, and obviously Nasir went with him. They talked some more and discussed what they were going to do during the week and exchanged schedules. When they got there they both stepped out of the car and Mr. Safar waited in the car.

- I'm gonna miss you – said Nasir giving him a tight embrace.

- And I will miss you – he said kissing him softly – I love you – he let him go – talk to you later.

- And I love you, take care – Nasir was very sad, but it would be ok – I'll call you when I get home.

- Deal – Agron said giving him another kiss – bye babe.

- Bye – said Nadir getting into the car.