Crap, it's been like two weeks. Sorry! It's kind of tough to fit writing in between school work and being dragged to family events and that jazz. I'd much rather spend time writing.
... I don't know what Catherine's excuse is.
Anyway, we own nothing, sadly. *sigh*
Alec ran his fingers through his hair, turned, and paced the length of his room yet again. He hadn't gotten any sleep the previous night thanks to a very specific, very hot, priest.
What the fuck am I thinking? Kissing is definitely not a good idea. I barely know the guy. How long have I been here? Two days? And I'm already kissing random priests. Shit.
Not to mention, he could practically hear his father screaming at him from back in Rome. No, Robert was not going to be pleased. He sent his son with Caesar, not only to keep the Lightwood family on the dictator's good side, but to beat out Alec's unusual tendencies by sending him to fight men, not kiss them. A relationship with Magnus where I kiss him does not work. At all. Nope, I can't do this, Alec thought. Maybe I should talk to him? I know it's acceptable for men to… sleep together, but an actual romantic relationship is out of question. Especially after what happened last time.
Alec groaned and quickened his pacing. It did not help when he spotted the silver bowl that had held the contents of the rice from the previous night.
"Hey, uh. You okay?" Alec was startled out of his enraged, confused thoughts by Simon's voice. That reminded Alec of another thing. What in Hades was he thinking, falling asleep in my bed when I so clearly have a roommate? Oh shit, last night was the best possible scenario.
"Yeah, I'm good. W-why do you ask?" Alec asked.
"I've been standing here for a good thirty seconds and you've passed me twice already with your weird cliche pacing. Not that you noticed me," Simon said. "Alec, I'm pretty sure that's not a good sign."
"Just thinking. So what's up? Any news for today?" Alec asked. He honestly didn't know whether or not he wanted to see Magnus. On one hand: the kiss was definitely an action he wanted to repeat. On the other: repeating it would be such an unbelievably stupid thing to do, considering that Alec could never be in a relationship. Not with another man.
"Yeah, actually. You and I get guard duty together! And it's only an hour long, too. In front of Caesar's room. It's the best shift ever." Simon grinned.
That was good news. No Egyptian distractions, just good old Simon and regular duties as a guard; the way Alec knew things to be.
Oh by Ra, being assigned a curse is a miracle.
Magnus loved curses. He got to make little wax figures and let out his anger on them by ruining them. It was loads of fun. And better yet, he had Ragnor there with him to talk to. Or talk at, depending on who was asked.
"I'm such an idiot," Magnus said for the eighteenth time. "So, so stupid."
Ragnor glanced over and made a pained expression at the small figurine Magnus was constructing. Magnus' hands were shaking; causing the little Apophis snake to look like it had already gone through the destruction process.
"Your skills are lacking today, Mags," Ragnor quipped. Magnus didn't appreciate how Ragnor completely ignored his distress.
"I'm serious! If I hadn't let my stupid emotions take over, he wouldn't hate me," Magnus groaned.
"How do you even know he hates you? Have you spoken since last night?" Ragnor glared at Magnus like he was the stupidest person he'd ever met.
"I just know, Ragnor. And no, we haven't, because he's been avoiding me!"
"And you know this how?"
In all truth, Magnus didn't really know this. He hadn't seen Alexander deliberately stay away from him at all. He just hadn't seen him. But still. From what he recalled, whenever Magnus kissed anyone they always came back for more. But Alec hadn't bothered to try and contact him at all. Magnus was getting extremely stressed out.
"No one has been able to resist my charm for this long. He can't be interested! That's the only explanation. He's rejecting me quietly, as to not hurt my feelings." Magnus pressed his palms against his temple and groaned. "He's even a gentleman when breaking up with me."
Ragnor's hand jerked and he indented his former immaculate wax figure. "Breaking up?! Gods, Magnus, you are over thinking this in the worst possible way. You and Alec are not in a relationship after one kiss, so he can't break up with you. Also: gentleman? He's a guard of Caesar. That's the worst type of person I can think of, besides the man himself. And possibly that peasant boy who throws rocks at me. Now shut up about Alexander before I throw this wax in your face."
Magnus smirked. "Sorry, but that's so not going to happen. I'll talk about Alec until I'm certain he likes me. And you can't throw the wax in my face, because even you can respect how my appearance for the House of Life must be perfect. If I'm going to become a member, I can't show up with wax all over me."
"You're never going to quit mentioning that either, huh?" Ragnor growled.
"Why shouldn't I? It's an honor for me to be able to teach future priests about the ways of magic!" Magnus said. He waggled his fingers in front of Ragnor's face and laughed. In response, his lovely fellow priest slapped his hands out of the way.
"Oh please. Most likely, you'll just end up sorting books in the back," Ragnor snarled.
"I'm a Lector priest! That would be a waste of my talents," Magnus defended. "You're just jealous. I'm going to be teaching the House of Life's most promising students. They picked me, not you, because I'm friendly. Also, slightly more skilled. But friendly. You should work on being a little more like me, you know."
Ragnor rolled his eyes and put his figurine on the temple floor. Magnus quickly finished up his drawing and put his down next to Ragnor's. "May this destroy Apophis' ba and heka…" Ragnor muttered under his breath. Magnus listened respectfully to Ragnor's chant, before eagerly turning to his friend. Ragnor sighed when he met Magnus' eyes. "Are you seriously-"
"Can I do it? Please?" Magnus asked. Technically, Ragnor had said the chant, so he was supposed to destroy the Apophis figurines. But Magnus had to release some of his pent up stress.
"Fine," Ragnor said, letting out a puff of breath. "Go right ahead."
Magnus yelped with excitement and ran over to the wax bits, trampling them mercilessly and cursing. "This is for you, you fucking bastard of a snake," Magnus hissed, kicking a particularly big piece of wax against a wall. He remembered when he had first come to Egypt as a kid and decided to become a priest; this had been the sealing deal for him, knowing that he got to do cursing spells that involved destroying items that had been made to resemble the particular unlucky soul being cursed.
"Give me the pieces of wax that you didn't completely mutilate," Ragnor called out from behind Magnus. "I have the bucket of urine."
My job is ridiculous, Magnus thought.
Alec's head rolled back and his helmet slammed against the wall behind him. The loud ringing that shot through his skull almost drowned out the girl's cries of ecstasy. It was too hard to tell how old she was, but Alec guessed she was his age. Maybe even younger. Either way, she was loud.
"I guess this is what I get for thinking this shift would be fun," Simon said from beside Alec. "I should stop being such an optimist. It always ends in disappointment. But we should have seen it coming." At Alec's confused look, Simon continued on. "Remember how we established that this is a vacation? Well imagine how tense Caesar must get with all this leading stuff. This is good for him."
"I just hope he doesn't pull a muscle," Alec muttered. He knew Julius wasn't that old, but the idea of his leader having sex with some girl was a little disturbing. Especially when he wondered how she wound up with him. But still, hearing Caesar have sex with some girl was much worse.
"It stopped!" Simon cried in victory. Alec perked up; the screams were finally gone. A few moments later, the door cracked open.
"You two may head down to lunch now," Caesar said. Alec could only see his head, but he had no doubt that his state of dress was less than appropriate. Usually, Alec would've insisted staying to ensure his leader's safety. Now though, he just wanted to get as far away as possible from the man.
"Yes, sir," Simon answered for both of the guards. The two booked it.
The moment he entered the lunch room with Simon, Alec's stomach flipped. More rice was laid out so neatly on the table and this time is was soggy and in splintered wooden bowls. No one but Simon and Alec were in the room-the other guards were either training or helping centurions in the city-so Alec leaned forward and examined the bowls. Bits of fruit and unrecognizable foods were mixed up with the grain. Leftovers, Alec realized. We're being fed the combined leftovers of the meal Caesar, Ptolemy and others of the upper-class must have had last night.
"Um, hi. What do you want?" Simon's uncomfortable voice snapped Alec out of his angry thoughts and he looked up sharply. Alec expected a certain beautiful priest, but he was relieved when he saw an obviously terrified servant instead.
"I-I'm giving you these bowls of food," the servant stuttered, before walking swiftly over and placing the bowls on the table. He turned swiftly and left faster than he came.
"Oh my gods! Alec, it's good food. Let's go find the other guys and share it. Shame we only got two bowls..." Simon said. But Alec wasn't paying him any attention. He looked out the door the servant had left from and found exactly who he'd been assuming would be there. Magnus was dressed in his usual thin knee-length shirt and jewelry. He had a leopard skin draped around his shoulders. He's been doing magic, Alec thought. Magnus grinned when he met Alec's eyes and dropped a wink, turning to talk away when he was sure Alec's eyes were on him. Damn him, Alec thought. How am I supposed to concentrate now? I have to talk to him.
"Let's not. Tell anyone, I mean. Because we don't, like, want anyone to talk about this. Whoever's giving us the food is breaking Pothinus' and Ptolemy's wishes and we don't want to get him in trouble, right? Plus, obviously it's just for us. Two bowls, remember?" Alec quickly shut his mouth, but Simon didn't mention his rambling. Idiot. Way to be suspicious.
"Him?" was all Simon asked.
"Or her. You know. Whatever," Alec muttered.
"Yeah... Well, whatever you say chief. I just figured sharing would be nice, that's all," Simon said. "Not that I know how the guards usually work. I'm kind of new to all this, no matter how hard it is to tell. I'm pretty good at it." He grinned and nodded, as if he was affirming his own skills for himself.
"Sharing isn't nice. Sharing is for barbarians," Alec said, shoving some grain into his mouth. "See? Taste this. I wouldn't want to give it to anyone else."
Simon shrugged and started eating. Alec flinched a little when Simon gave him his best 'oh you're in that type of mood' look. I can't let him think anything's wrong, Alec thought.
"Come along." Ptolemy snapped his chubby, jewelry-adorned fingers and trotted to what Magnus liked to call the 'Room Of Painful Meetings With The Enemies'. Caesar had something important to announce, yet again, and Magnus could not fucking care less. Also, Alexander was going to be there. And Magnus would not be able to talk to him. It was going to be torturous.
"I think I have a pretty good idea of what this meeting is going to be about," Camille said quietly. Magnus looked at his friend, not exactly feeling comforted by the knowing glint in her emerald eyes. Camille looked like anyone who had the slightest bit of information on an upcoming murder conspiracy would look.
"And what might that be?" Ragnor asked. The new priest nodded, trying to encourage her.
"Spoilers," she snickered. "You'll find out soon enough. But I'm sure his guards know all about it."
... That wasn't comforting either.
Ptolemy was the first to walk into the room, followed by his four Lector priests as well as Pothinus and Achillas. Caesar was sitting at the head of the table with a beautiful Egyptian woman standing next to him. She looked vaguely familiar, but Magnus didn't dwell on that. Instead, he was distracted by something else entirely; the Roman guards that were lined along the room's walls. Magnus was quick to find Alexander. The black haired boy looked down and blushed when Magnus met his eyes. Is that a bad sign...? Oh Ra, the stress I'm getting from this boy will have me weighing my heart a few years early for sure, Magnus thought.
"Come in, sit down. Please, make yourselves comfortable," Julius Caesar said, motioning to the table. Magnus took one step forward, but stopped when he noticed his pharaoh. Ptolemy stood, rigid and wide-eyed. He openly gawked at the lady standing besides Caesar. Magnus rolled his eyes. Teenage boy hormones, he thought with disdain, He acts as if he's never seen a young woman before. "Pharaoh Ptolemy. Please. Sit down."
Ptolemy walked over and sat down at the table, never once looking away from the young woman. Pothinus and Achillas sat besides Ptolemy and Magnus motioned to the other priests. They sat down on the opposite side of Ptolemy and his two constant shadows.
"What... is she doing here?" When Ptolemy spoke, his voice was laced with barely-controlled anger that shocked Magnus. "You," Ptolemy addressed the Egyptian woman, "are supposed to be exiled."
That was all it took for the situation at hand to click.
Oh shit.
Caesar frowned and scowled slightly. "Shouldn't you be welcoming your sister back to your empire with open arms?" He looked at the rest of the table's occupants. "I would like you all to meet my friend, Cleopatra. She and I have quite a close relationship, so I have invited her back into Egypt. This is alright with you, of course, Pharaoh?"
Magnus glanced at Ptolemy. Judging by the smaller boy's expression, it was not alright with him.
"I-I exiled you! Get out of here, Cleopatra. I'm the ruler!" Ptolemy yelled. He slammed a small fist on the table and shoved a finger in Caesar's direction. "How could you? She does not belong here!"
"That's very rude, brother dear," Cleopatra said, smiling wickedly. The sound of her voice was beautiful and Magnus looked up with interest. The look in Cleopatra's brown eyes was of defiance and a slight hit of victory. For a split second, she reminded Magnus of Camille. "Father gave us both the throne. I can't expect you to hog it. Though I enjoyed my short stay in Syria, I am very happy to finally return home."
"You will not be ruling at all. I forbid it. Do not expect to have any power, Cleopatra. I am in charge," Ptolemy told her, voice cool. He was glaring at Julius. Magnus knew his pharaoh could not send Cleopatra back into exile if she had the Roman dictator's support, but that did not mean Ptolemy would not do a thing about it.
"There's no need to be so hostile; we're all friends here," Caesar said with a winning smile. "Anyways, you are all invited to a banquet to celebrate the lovely Cleopatra's return to the palace. I will host this event in two days. It will be the perfect thing to express our happiness at the lovely queen's arrival."
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