Once more I made my way to 'The Drunk Corner', this time though I was with Duro, who was asking me -for the hundredth time- if I thought he looked good.

"Chadara saw you naked and didn't run screaming. I'm sure she likes you just fine." I said trying to pacify my younger brother.

That joke earned me a blow from Duro.

We were still laughing and hitting each other when we walked in. Apparently even Gannicus had heard about my 'Lady Love' coming to meet me because he turned up the moment I walked in with the most knowing smile I'd ever seen.

"Taking your date to such a place," He was saying, drink in hand, looking rather pleased. "Hoping to make the beast with to backs are you?" he asked, elbowing me hard with over exaggerated winking. It wasn't even 8 and Gannicus was so sloshed he'd already lost his shirt, that is, assuming he had actually put one on today.

"It's hardly a date."

"So you say," Duro joined in laughing with Gannicus at my expense.

The minute Donar spotted me he grabbed Rhaskos and they both came running over. This was going to be painful, both of my so called 'Friends' came by and quickly began offering advice and giving their own versions of 'The Birds and The Bees'. As if I was 14 and didn't know how to use my own dick! Not that I was exactly expecting to use it tonight, but. . . .

"Most people say it's about size, but you can bet that Mattress Dancing really comes down to talent! Foot work-" Rhaskos explained, cutting himself off with snorting laughter.

"It's an art form!" Donar cut it, "Like Rhaskos said, Foot Work is really important in the bed room rodeo!"

Grumbling I moved to the bar to sit with Crixus and Spartacus. At least they weren't singing in my honor like Donar and Rhaskos now were.

"He's just a friend," I grumbled into my mug.

Spartacus beside me clapped me on the shoulder. "Come on, you've never shown any interest in anyone, male or female, before. Rhaskos was beginning to wonder if you even felts such . . . . stirrings." Amusement was lighting up Spartacus' face, even Crixus was grinning at that, trying his best to hide his face in his drink.

I brushed it off, though I was promising murder under my breath.

Loud laughing, and yelling, and clinking of glasses filled the tavern, Gannicus got yet another round of "My Cock Rages On" started and Chadara showed up in a tiny denim skirt and white little tube top, Duro loves girls in tube tops.

I finished my beer and was ordering another when someone beside me ordered two of something called a "Prairie Fire".

I looked over to see Tiberius take a seat beside me, his hair was down this time, and the loose long sleeve black top fitted him perfectly. I couldn't help the smile that broke out across my face.

"Oh don't look so happy, you're having one of those Prairie Fires with me." he informed me.

"Sounds good to me," Personally I didn't give a fuck, I wasn't really one for mixed drink, or shots, and I had never ordered any sort of mixed anything, nor did I have any fucking clue what a 'Prairie Fire' was.

Mira, manning the bar, shared a look with Tiberius and snorted. Even Spartacus was giving me a piteous look.

"Oh it can't be all that bad!" I said picking up the shot set before me. Tiberius and I clicked glasses and I threw my shot back.

I was wrong, so very, very wrong.

How did it burn so much? How did I not see this coming? Surely this is the taste of regret; though I suppose it would have to be called a 'Prairie Fire' for some reason.

At the sound of snorting laughter I turned to Tiberius, he had a hand over his mouth trying to stifle the sound. I giving him a look of utmost betrayal, the dark haired shit didn't even look sorry! He whispered to Mira and I found another drink places before me, this one was creamy looking with whipped cream on top.

I wasn't to sure if I could trust Tiberius' taste in drink anymore but I reached for the shot either way. This one looked innocent enough.

Tiberius grabbed my wrist before I could reach the shot though, a wicked glint in his eyes. "This one you can't use your hands to drink."

"Why not?" I asked, one brow raised in suspicion. I really couldn't trust Tiberius' taste in drinks.

Besides me I could hear Spartacus laughing, I hope it was at something Crixus had said and not the ridiculous shots Tiberius was having placed before me.

"What's the name of this one anyways?" I asked, before I bent my head to the task, taking the shot glass in my teeth before throwing my head, and the shot, back. Sweet, creamy, a hint of mint; this one was a hell of a lot better.

Tiberius waited until I had thrown my head back to answer: "A Peppermint Cum Shot." His voice was dripping with suggestion and I felt my cock perk right up at his tone. "Better than the fireball?"

Suddenly I remembered a hundred upon hundreds of times Nasir had spoken to me in that very same tone, his voice dripping with suggestion and the promise of bodily pleasures to come. It reminded me of shared gazes and knowing smirks that often followed Nasir's use of such a tone.

But that had been a different time, a different man. It wasn't fair to think of Tiberius as if he were the Nasir I dreamed of, no matter how alike they seemed.

I nodded mentally trying to beat back my erection. "I don't normally try mixed drinks," I said, trying to explain my complete lack of shot based knowledge.

"I bet you order a beer or two and call it a night." Tiberius countered and it pulled at my heart like nothing else. Nasir had always seemed to know me inside and out, Tiberius had no reason knowing me like that already.

"Now who's the stalker," I murmured to my beer, turning to look across the room.

Gannicus had gotten some sort of drinking game going, Chadara had dragged Duro to dance and Spartacus had moved farther down the bar with Crixus and a few others. And -not nearly far enough away- Donar and Rhaskos were making kissing and blow job faces at us, and still finding the time to mouth advice to me. I could just hear the odd bit about 'Slapping bellies', 'Jumping Bones', and something about 'Baking a skin loaf'. From the way Tiberius glanced at them he could hear them too.

Chadara took note of us, whispered to Duro and the pair came over to join us at the bar.

Tiberius must have made some face back, because Donar and Rhaskos were almost pissing themselves laughing. When he turned back to me, Duro, and Chadara Tiberius looked completely innocent, a little too innocent actually.

"Let me rest woman!" Duro growled, throwing himself into a seat beside me, but he was smiling and I knew there was no bite to his bark this time.

Chadara also seemed to know as much, giving my brother a playful pout. "Fine, maybe Tiberius would be kind enough to dance with me?" She turned her pleading eyes on Tiberius, who let himself be pulled from his seat and onto the dance floor.

I knew Duro was looking at me, I could feel it, but I couldn't bring myself to look away from Tiberius.

"So where is this 'Nasir'?" Duro asked, trying too hard to sound casual. "All I've seen you chatting up Tiberius." He laughed then. "Chadara can't remember the name she keeps asking 'Where is Agron's Namir?', but Chadara's also getting worried you're leading her friend on while waiting for the guy."

My head snapped to Duro at that. Chadara thought I would really do that? "He's here already."

"Where? Why haven't you go and talked to him?" Duro demanded, face full of bewilderment. I suppose that wasn't too surprising; I'd been talking with him about the Nasir from my dreams for years and he was here but as far as Duro knew I'd only been speaking with Tiberius.

So I nodded to the dance floor, "He's right there dancing with Chadara.

Completely baffled Duro looked back at the dance floor where Chadara and Tiberius talked as much as the danced, Tiberius' face fell more the longer Chadara spoke.

"When I knew Nasir he'd been taken as a child and made a slave, when he first became a slave he'd been given a new name: Tiberius." I explained slowly, deliberately. "For whatever reason he goes by Tiberius in this life. But he is still the same, he is the Nasir I knew, the man I loved; of that I am sure."

Despite the roaring laughter, booming voices raised in song, and all other sounds of good cheer, silence settled between me and Duro. "How? How can you be so sure it's really him?" My brother finally asked, he spoke just loud enough for me to hear him over the ruckus, Duro was watching Chadara and Tiberius when I looked over at him.

I leaned back, my beer still in one hand, elbows resting on the sticky bar behind me. "I look into his eyes and I know. I once upon a lifetime ago spent the better part of my life studying those eyes, so now, when I look at him I know; I just know."

Tiberius looked at us then, I smiled as him but the expression died on my face, something Chadara had said upset him. He turned back to her, said something then turned on his heels and left the bar.

Without thinking I followed, pausing long enough to over pay for our drinks, grab both our coats from one of the bar stools and throw a quick goodbye over my shoulder at my brother.

I was out the door mere moments after Tiberius, it was dark and chilly out, but it was also Calgary so it was always chilly when it was dark out. Even now, in early September, frost was slowing growing on the grass and leaves. The world was dark, lit by the orange glow of streetlights and the odd bright flash of a lone car's headlights.

It was also bloody fucking freezing out and I shrugged into my jacket, looking up and down the main street for Tiberius. I saw him, a flash of dark on dark under an orange street light already two blocks down. I trotted down the street after him, my long legs eating up the distance.

"Tiberius!" I called after him, but he didn't turn to look at me just stuffed him hand in his jean pockets and picked up his pace.

Gritting my teeth I broke into a steady jog, catching him at the corner and dropping his jacket over his shoulders.

For a moment, in my mind we were different people, in a different world, and it wasn't a jacket dropped on clothed shoulders, but rather rough cloth over naked flesh. I knew the moment, I'd seen it dozens of times, dozens of ways, in dozens of places. And each time Nasir's hands would rise to capture mine, and pull my arms about him.

Tiberius did no such thing; though his steps faltered, but he made no move to touch me, or even look at me. Nor did he move to speed up but let me fall into step beside him.

"You forgot your coat."

Tiberius merely grunted a "Thanks," in reply.

"You could have said goodbye." I prodded, I could think of no reason for his sudden change in demeanor, unless, Chadara?

"I didn't think I'd be missed."

"Why?"

Something in my voice brought Tiberius up short, once more his steps faltered, and he looked at me, sidelong from under his long dark lashes. The urge to kiss him was like a blow to the stomach; it winded me. But I dared not make so brazen a move when Tiberius was in such a fowl mood.

"Why do you think I wouldn't miss you?" I tried again, one hand raised to grasp the sleeve of his coat before I pulled back, fisting my hands in my pockets.

"Chadara told me, your childhood crush is going to show up isn't he? Namir?" Tiberius said, his voice trembling. A car passed us by, briefly throwing Tiberius' face into stark contrast highlighting all the line of hurt and upset.

Running my hands through my short hair, I carefully considered my next words. I had to explain everything to him, that was the only way around it as far as I could see. But how to do it? If I came right out saying I dreamed about him that might really put Tiberius off and I'd waited to long to let him just walk away over some stupid misunderstanding.

"It's cold and my 'Childhood Crush' is a long story, let's go sit in my car and I'll tell you, fair enough?" I could see the hesitation in his eyes, but I wasn't willing to let him go, not this time. "I'll drive you home after if you want. Or anywhere you want, just tell me where." I was trying hard not to beg, and I was also fairly sure I was doing a shit job of it.

"FINE!" Tiberius threw his hands up, stomping back to the bar, and my car. "It's too fucking cold out here anyways."

We walked back to 'The Drunk Corner' together, both of us had our hands in our pockets and I had to wonder if Tiberius felt the burning desire to reach out and take my hand like I did. From the way he kept casting sidelong glances at me and my hands I liked to think he did. Soon enough we were circling around to the parking lot behind the bar, and both of us crawled into my car were I quickly cranked the heat.

"So," Tiberius began, watching his hands, "You have a story for me?"

"I'll warn you now, it's quite the story." And like that I began, telling the story that only I knew, one Duro only had bits and pieces of. "When I was a kid I had dreams, strange dreams of Blood and Sand, of mere man raised to the stand as Gods of The Arena, of Vengeance, and of War's of The Damned. In my dreams I was a Gladiator of Rome with my brother and together we joined the rebellion of Spartacus."

"I thought this was the story was of you childhood crush," Tiberius interrupted, his brow furrowed.

"I'm getting there," I shut him up, waving my hands and shrugging out of my coat now that the car was heating up. "Like I was saying: dreams. Now, my childhood crush was a man in those dreams." I closed my eyes grinning like an idiot I'm sure, letting the images of Nasir come to me, all filthy and ragged, and half clothed, and I knew with every fiber of my being that I loved him.

"He was Syrian, dark of hair, of eyes, and of skin, and as beautiful as any man, but that is to be expected. He had been a body slave before Spartacus and his rebels -myself among them- came to the villa he served in. We free all the slaves there, though that wild little Syrian dog didn't take well to freedom at first. But under Spartacus' training he learned to be a great fighter for one with such soft beginnings. He had a slave name Tiberius," I was watching the Tiberius beside me closely now. "But, his real name was Nasir," I saw Tiberius stiffen at that. I'd actually expect as much, so he really had been born Nasir but lived under the name of Tiberius for whatever reasons.

"In my dreams I loved him, and with every dream about Nasir the me that I am now fell in love with him too."

Finally I turned to Tiberius fully, longing to take his hands in mine and have him look at me but I didn't want to push him either. "I have meet many people over the years, one that share not only looks and names, but even habits, the same as those from my dreams. Spartacus, Crixus, my bosses, even your friend Chadara. In my dreams she was a body slave in the same villa as Nasir."

"Did she love your brother in your dreams?" Tiberius asked suddenly though his eyes remained locked on his hands in his lap.

"No," I confessed, my voice thick. "In my dreams they never met because in my dreams my brother had died saving me long before I met Chadara and Nasir."

Tiberius just nodded, I could no longer hold myself back I reached out and took Tiberius' hands in both of mine.

"Tiberius, you look like Nasir, I do not mean to force anything on you but-"

I stopped, the words dying on my tongue, Tiberius had finally looked up as me tears in his eyes. "Are you fucking with me?"

"NO! Never! I wouldn't- why would you think that?"

Tiberius just stared at me. "Then how? How the fuck did you know my name? Not even Chadara-" Tiberius pulled his hands back, though the loss of contact was a sharp pain in my breast I released my hold on Tiberius.

Swallowing hard I let myself speak as I did in my dreams. Lending a different structure to my words, around Tiberius, who wakened my memories of the past so vividly it was an easy thing to do. "I speak only truth. You already mean so much to me; too much to ever attempt deception or harm." Once more I swallowed, hesitantly I used the name I always had for this man. "Nasir, I have dreamed of you before I even knew your name, before I knew you were real."

I reached out, not just once, but thousands of times, across a distance measured only by time, and each moment was over laid with the rest. I reached for Tiberius, for Nasir, for the first time, for the last time, the first time in another age, and for the first time of my life. And like the thousands upon thousands of times before, and the thousands upon thousands of times that I knew would come, I took Tiberius' face in my hands and kissed him.

And like the thousands upon thousands of times before, but, for the first time, Tiberius kissed me back.

I pulled back, my hands tangled in Tiberius' long dark hair, my forehead pressed to his, both of us gasping for breath.

I looked into his eyes and words came to me, spoken ages ago in another life, but spoken here for the first time. "This life or the next, my heart is forever yours." I breathed, search Tiberius' face, begging him with every fiber of my being to recognize what I said, to remember the time we once spent together. "I will love you so long as the sun rises in the east and sets in the west. Nasir, I promise you, I will always wait for you, I will forever search for you, and not even the Gods could stop me till I find you. This life or the next, I'm no longer complete without you."

His eyes slipped shut, "Do you forever mean to challenge the Gods over me?" Tiberius breathed, his voice so soft I'd never know if he said it or if it was merely the echoing ghost of the past.

"You can't mean that, can you?" Came Tiberius' forlorn question, his eyes still shut, hands still upon me.

"I have always meant it."

Are they finally together? More like getting there.

And yes, I do know that it's been some time, but two jobs turned out to be one too many, and then mate trouble, and bill troubles but all of that is neither here nor there. That's just excuses and they don't chapters posted. But getting my life settled does, and boy has it settled! I'm stable and ready to post!

But hey, 10,000+ words in and we have a kiss! XD So while I'd normally like to update on Wednesdays, I have both 'Juggling' and now 'Ambrosius' to work on Juggling will move to either Thursday or Friday and Ambrosius will be moving to either Monday or Tuesday. Anyways thank you for reading and everything, and as always: till next time, ha det bra! :3