The Death of Antinous || bxb ✔︎

AUDENTES FORTUNA IUVAT

"This is my private garden."

"It's lovely," he said, stepping inside.

"Did you follow me?"

He was caught but he did not feel guilty.

"There was once a time when you followed me."

"I did no such thing."

"You spied on me from behind the colonnade in the school courtyard."

"Lies!"

This was the Antinous he knew. Fiery temper. Ready for a fight. Completely hysterical, of course.

"And from the window of your Latin lesson. Did you think that I never looked up?"

His cheeks turned a brilliant shade of scarlet before he rebutted, "The tables have turned, haven't they?"

He set the lyre aside and approached Leonides. Up close he smelled of lavender oil. His hair was longer and curled behind his ears. His face had lost the roundness of youth but his full lips had the same stubborn pout.

"What is it you want from me, Leonides?" he asked, long lashes sweeping across his cheeks.

He'd fought countless battles in Judea but none so intimidating as this.

"Time alone. To talk as the friends we once were. Perhaps I didn't mean much to you then, as you say, but you were quite dear to me."

Guilt tugged at his features. He considered it for a moment, dark eyes carefully assessing the soldier and his request. He took a breath.

"Very well then."

"Yes?"

"Meet me in one hour."

"One hour," Leonides repeated.

"Not here. I will be standing in the courtyard. Fifteen paces north of the theatre and eleven paces east of the baths. Find me there and you can have all the time in the world."

His lips moved repeating the instructions to himself over and over since he was prone to forget.

Antinous was attended by his slave, a boy with a terrible scar across his cheek who might have been a great beauty otherwise. He followed his young master into the domus looking warily over his shoulder.

Ingulf was outside the baths now with his hands on his hips. An alarming pose for a naked gladiator.

"You look satisfied. Have you finally got a hold of that stable boy?" The he reached down and grabbed himself. "Or did he get a hold of you?"

Leonides slapped his wet chest. "The stable boy will have to wait, Ingulf. I have much more important engagement this afternoon."

If he wasn't staying at the Emperor's villa, he would have gone to the market and bought some sweet meat for them to share, perhaps he would have bought him a small ivory carving or frankincense for an offering to Mars. Instead he clumsily picked some figs with leaves and twigs still attached at the stem.

He counted fifteen paces north from the theatre and eleven paces east of the baths, just as he was instructed. Then he waited.

He was nervous. It was Antinous, he reminded himself, there was nothing to be nervous about. He'd met his old school friend Marcus days earlier. He had a wife and child now. He was canvasing Esquiline Hill ahead of the election, greeting merchants and shopkeepers. Leonides reached out and shook his hand. Marcus smiled when he realized who stood before him. They were lovers in school and still cared for each other but the hot sun of their lust had dimmed to twilight.