Title: "Fire and Signs".

Author: too_beauty

Feedback: yes, please any kind of them will help me to improve my writing or leave it forever.

Pairing: Alexander & Hephaestion .

Rating: PG for first chapters.

Category: Historical AU so some personages will appear to serve the purpose of this story.

Disclaimer: I don't know the people involved; A&H belonged to themselves and to History, if not Hephaestion would be still among us, living under my "protection".

No beta so all mistakes are mine.

Chapter 1.

He was now a fourteen year-old Macedonian teenager; he was tall, strong with muscled arms but still slender. His well-built frame called people's attention because he was rather young but his face … his face was his best feature and, according to his master, it could have been his doom, because Hephaestion was a servant and for that reason he was available for the taking by anyone in a higher position.

******** Flashback

Hephaestion's family had borrowed money from Master Kronos to save their farmland and when they were on the verge of succeeding, a fire started in the barn and flames spread all over the house, destroying it and killing its inhabitants.

Hephaestion was coming back from his sneak-out to the lake when he saw enormous tongues of fire devouring his house; he ran very fast but he couldn't do anything, as he was getting to the front door, the roof collapsed and the house was reduced to rubble. A wooden pole knocked the eight year-old boy down and he fainted. He was found some hours later, unconscious with some bad burnt, especially on his right arm. Master Kronos took him home and his wife Athina looked after the boy's wounds. Hephaestion's body healed quite quickly but his mind was completely broken; he saw his family die in front of his eyes and his home destroyed by the fire, and since that moment fire had become his most terrifying enemy.

The poor boy suffered from nightmares every single night since the tragedy and they gave him very bad nights, he dreamed about his family being burnt alive but the end of each nightmare was the worst part, he saw himself surrounded by fire, trying to get to someone who was holding out the hand to him, Hephaestion just brushed his fingertips over the other person's hand before that person was devoured by the flames. The poor boy woke up most of the nights covered in sweat, with his heart running inside the thin chest, feeling as if someone were crushing it between strong hands, shivering and screaming but not a single word came out of his mouth.

Kronos and Athina ran every night to the boy's bed and looked after him until Morpheus lulled the boy back to sleep; they also thought that the experience had been so traumatic that he had lost his ability to speak.

Athina looked after him for several months and when Hephaestion was fully recovered, he started to help her in the house, doing some simple chores such as feeding the farm animals, sweeping the floors and bringing water.

Hephaestion had always a sad expression on his face but his eyes, two pools of Mediterranean Sea, lightened a bit every time Athina or Kronos praised him for a job well done.

Months went by and Hephaestion couldn't still speak so they made up a system of signs to communicate among themselves; Hephaestion could listen but he didn't want to speak. In that way, Hephaestion started with his signs language and every day they could add more signs to cover more words.

The children of the nearer farms made fun of Hephaestion calling him idiot or crazy; Hephaestion always looked at them and made no gestures, but his blue eyes got every time a bit more clouded.

Once he was beaten by a group of children, they took advantage of him because he couldn't speak or yell for help so nobody realized of his beating up. When he returned to his master's house, one of his eyes was swollen and closed, his lower lip was cut and there was a knife wound on his forehead.

Athina looked after his wounds again and for the first time, Hephaestion cried against Athina's chest while hugging her with his thin arms around her waist. Athina soothed him and sang him a lullaby.

Later that evening when Athina and Kronos were talking after dinner, they realized that Hephaestion needed not only their help but also their love so they decided to adopt him and raise him as their own child.

TBC