TITLE: Messing with Love – Chapter 8: "Memories: when hate began" (8/10)
AUTHOR: Too_beauty.
PAIRING: Alexander and Hephaestion.
RATING: NC-17
CATEGORY: Historical Alternative Universe.
DISCLAMER: I don't know the people involved; they belong to History and to themselves.
WARNING: Mentions of m/m relationship, physical and mental torture, insulting vocabulary, male rape, angst.
NO BETA so all mistakes are mine.
Ox entered the cell and looked at Hephaestion, who was still curled. His cuts and bruises were getting better, even the ones marring his face. He saw the man's chest rise and fall smoothly and he realized he was sleeping deeply, maybe for the very first time since he was kidnapped.
Ox's heart was heavy and he didn't want to fall in his memories, but he lost the battle against them. His mind took him twenty years ago, when he was a page and living in Mieza. He had just joined other pages to serve under King Philip and, since the moment he met the heir to the Macedonian throne, he knew he had found his life partner.
Alexander was seven years old by that time but he was as intelligent as any other older boy. Ox admired him and he was naturally driven to the golden boy's orbit. Months went by and Ox won Alexander's trust and so the brunette big boy had only one goal in his mind: become Alexander's erastes. Ox had been born in a humble Macedonian family but his father and two elder brothers had served and died for Philip with honour, that's why the King had accepted him as a page, as a fair retribution for the widow, who had still three little girls to bring up.
Alexander spent long hours with Ox; the small boy was amazed by Ox's bulky muscles and his strength, but when he was nearly eight, Alexander started to spend less and less time with Ox. When the elder boy asked him why, Alexander, with all his innocence, said that he enjoyed his company but that he had also discovered that he loved reading and writing a lot, and as Ox couldn't do any of them, he had looked for someone who could. Children didn't lie and the Macedonians, especially, were quite blunt on speaking their minds.
So Ox secretly began to learn how to write and read but his mind was not prepared for such sensitive and sensible activities so he felt frustrated. He knew that he had to do something before he lost his chance with Alexander. In the meantime, he was approached by one of Alexander's future companions, who little by little, threw poison in his brute ears. That would bring Ox's doom later.
A newcomer arrived and turned everybody's world upside-down. The new student was a Macedonian boy, brought up in Athens; his family roots could be tracked as far as the first ancestors of Macedon and many people thought the boy was a gift by the very same Aphrodite to that important family.
Shoulder-length brunette hair, sky blue eyes, velvety lips and a body, still slender but promising a strong one, were some of the characteristic features of the new boy.
And Ox felt how his dreams shatter to pieces when he saw Alexander's face: the golden heir had found his silver soul mate and vice versa. A strong bond was born that day when both boys locked dark and clear eyes. And that bond grew stronger day after day until there was no moment in which you could see the "sun and moon" apart.
Hephaestion was not only handsome but also kind, intelligent and quiet; the opposite pole of Ox, who had his left cheek marred by fire, he was rude, with a tiny intelligence and too noisy. Ox hated Hephaestion since the moment he met him and hated him even more when he saw, one summer afternoon, the silver boy reading from an old scroll in a soft and clear voice to his golden friend, who had his head resting on the brunette's shoulder, both resting their backs on an old apple tree.
Ox's behaviour became darker and darker; his bitter remarks brought him only punishments. His bitterness was also fed by another outcast, who had lost his position of power since the arrival of Hephaestion.
Months of bad attitudes and intolerance made him reckless and careless and he was finally obliged to leave the army.
Being only 13, he left and exiled himself up there, in the cold north, where no one could find him, not even his poor mother. Everybody forgot about the brute Ox but he had a good memory and he didn't want to forget.
He kept in contact with one of the companions and was continually fed with news and anger against the heir and lately, the King.
When the relationship between Alexander and Hephaestion got firm, after their show of loyalty and love to each other at Troy, Ox knew that the best moment had arrived. He took some months to study his victim's routine, prepare the place to keep him and decide on what to do to him.
When his ideas were clear and everything was decided, he hit the King on what he treasured most: his gorgeous and faithful Phai.
And Ox had succeeded; his revenge took nearly twenty years and he was enjoying it … and he had enjoyed it a lot by now.
Aetos looked at Ox's facial expression and couldn't read it, he only wished the torture was over now that the king had a proof of his lover was alive, except the King, in his rage, had read that sign as one of death due to the fact that both men were so immersed in the Iliad universe.
Ox left the cell without looking back at the still form, and Aetos hid; he had easily convinced the former brute soldier earlier to let him take care of Hephaestion because if he didn't, his wounds would take him to the underworld soon. Aetos approached Hephaestion, woke him up gently and made him drink a concoction made of chamomile as he had discovered the General was slightly feverish.
Hephaestion set cloudy blue eyes on him and whispered his thanks, falling in a deep slumber some time later.
Aetos took advantage of his sleep and redressed the few cuts on his wrists and ankles and smeared an odorous cream on his face. He knew that cream would help in healing his skin, and may be, it could be as smooth as it used to be.
Aetos gave a final look at the prisoner and said a pray to the gods asking for Alexander to find his lover soon.
TBC.
