(no subject)

[thewidewideworld]

{From here}

Sinric leans Athelstan into their rooms. It's clear he hasn't slept there either. Even the mead cup sits on the table when he left it.

He draws Athelstan towards the bathroom. "Will you bathe with me?" His voice is soft and gentle. "Your clothes smell rather strongly of goat."

Comments

[athelstanthescribe]

Athelstan considers that.

"It's a risk. But even if he thought you were going mad, surely he could never suspect you of plotting the emperor's death."

[thewidewideworld]

"No, that he would never do. But he might try to prevent that which cannot be changed."

[athelstanthescribe]

"There'd be nothing he could do until the very last moment", he says thoughtfully. "Keep Constantine from being wounded."

[thewidewideworld]

"But he would try. And I fear perhaps lose his own life in the trying."

[athelstanthescribe]

"I know it's hard to bear that knowledge alone."

But.

[thewidewideworld]

"It would be harder not to know. To heard the bells toll across the city as they carried his body to Hagia Sophia for burial. I have often wondered how that would feel. How the day would look when all my world ended."

[athelstanthescribe]

"And you won't get to see it", he says, soft and sad. "Unless you could disguise yourself somehow."

[thewidewideworld]

"No. If things had been different, if I hadn't seen it coming from so far and known I had a life to lead and look forward to, I might have thrown myself from the palace walls."

[athelstanthescribe]

"I'm glad you didn't", he says simply.

[thewidewideworld]

"I'm glad that in a bar full of people, I found you and Ragnar and chose you for myself as lovers. Or I might never have known I had a reason to live on past that day."

[athelstanthescribe]

"It was fated. No one else could have told you about your future, after all."

[thewidewideworld]

"Fate indeed." Sinric smiles, almost to himself.

[athelstanthescribe]

He smiles back, small and fleeting.

"You had to live to complete the circle."

[thewidewideworld]

Sinric nods and smiles back, just as tightly. "Just so."

{ooc: shall we fade somewhere soon?}

[athelstanthescribe]

[ooc: I think that works?]