This work is copyrighted and is property of the author. If gay stories offend you or if they are illegal in your area, leave. Any resemblance to any people alive or dead, or any event is purely coincidental.
Chapter 3
He had been awake for almost an hour, carefully keeping his mind blank. The only sound to be heard was the ticking of a clock like a metronome.
Tick...tick...tick.
If he concentrated on the ticking he didn't have to think. If he didn't think he didn't have to...
Tick...tick...tick.
Time had no meaning. He could have lain there like that for hours. Days. Aurel would have gladly spent the rest of his life in bed. He wasn't quite sure when things began to change. A slightly discordant note at first. A small hiss of breath, a slight rustle of fabric. Each intrusion into his carefully crafted cocoon was resented, but he couldn't bring himself to confront the intruder and the emotional fallout that would erupt when he did. He pulled the jacquard bedcovers more tightly around him, clenching his eyes shut, praying for sleep and willing away whoever it was that had invaded his room. He wished they would go away. He wished them to hell.
He had just started to think that he had been left alone when he heard the strike of a match, smelt the acrid tang of the spicy, exotic blend of tobacco and felt the crackle of the cherry as the cigarette took light. Aurel cringed. There were only two people in the world he couldn't yell at, tell off, ignore or beat the daylights out of; and Misha didn't smoke. He held his own breath at the first inhalation, waiting for the exhale, knowing what would come after. He wasn't disappointed.
"I know you're awake Aurel. You have been for the past hour. I used to think that I had gained a modicum of patience, but I find myself tired of the wait."
Aurel just snorted in disbelief and curled in upon himself even tighter. Seth never lost patience unless someone was being abominably stupid.
"Aurel. You are being abominably stupid."
Aurel sat up in shock, his huge eyes seeking out Seth in the dim light. The click of a tablelamp and it's harsh light was another disconcertingly anticlimactic note. Seth gave him a little frown of distaste as he took in Aurel's rumpled appearance; the morning stubble, the slept in clothes.
"You look like I just kicked your puppy. It doesn't suit you at all. And close your mouth."
Aurel was amazed to find that his mouth was indeed open and shut it so quickly that there was an audible snap of teeth against teeth. He couldn't believe Seth. He had expected sympathy, commiseration perhaps, even condemnation. He hadn't counted on this. Whatever this was. Tears began to form in his eyes. He had expected Seth to understand.
Seth sighed as he extinguished his cigarette and got up from his chair. He seated himself next to Aurel on the huge bed and gently took one of his hands in his own. "Aurel, I would be lying if I said I understood."
Aurel heard a terrible sob and realized with horror that it had come from himself.
Seth gathered the bigger man in a fierce hug. "You misunderstand. I am not making myself clear enough and you have not given me the chance to do so." They both rocked while Aurel did his best to cry himself out and Seth did his best to explain. "I do not understand the modern anti-homosexual fixation at all."
Seth considered any date followed by an Anno Domini 'modern'.
"You forget. I was raised in a society that accepted almost any form of sexual expression. Relationships between men were an honored thing. The bias and bigotry that stigmatizes it now is a new concept and that is what I don't understand. You have nothing to be ashamed of. When I said that you were being stupid I just meant that you were blowing it all out of proportion."
"My father..."
"Your father was an asshole." If Aurel had thought that Seth was through with his surprises, he was dead wrong. Seth never cursed, at least not in any language that Aurel knew, and it wasn't like him to speak ill of the dead. "Vaclav was about his own affairs, his own agenda and maintaining the status quo. He has nothing to do with you, with the man you have become. He had little enough to say about your life when he was alive, why should you grant him the opportunity to hurt you when he is gone?" Seth smoothed Aurel's mane of bronze hair in a soothing gesture. " Besides, he would have considered this a mere hiccup compared to the changes you have been trying to bring about. If he is spinning in his grave it is because of that, not who you are and who you love."
"Oh god! The council," Aurel said. Seth's reminder brought the past night back and Aurel relived the evening's abrupt end in slow motion. The color drained from his face as he remembered what he had done, what he had jeopardized, but Seth was quick to reassure him.
"I made your excuses for you and gave them a good story as well. No one would dare question me. You were contacted about an unfortunate, but pressing family crisis and we tabled your recommendations for another time."
"That will only add to the rumors."
"Yes, but they will have nothing concrete."
"What about the guard? I can't remember at all. Did I hurt him?"
"No. Mychael said that he was shaken, but unharmed. He was worried about you in fact."
"Mych talked to you?" Aurel said.
"Of course. How do you think I am here? I did not give him a choice I am afraid. I told him that I could help you, and agitated as he was, he agreed; despite his reservations. He was frantic, even to the point of turning to me."
"It isn't as if Mych-"
"Please, do not tell an untruth on my account. I know that Mychael dislikes me. I also know that Mychael and I understand each other," Seth said, then reconsidered. "Perhaps that is stretching the truth a bit. Shall we say that I comprehend Mychael well and he would prefer to think that he understands me."
"How do you know? I didn't think that you had ever looked inside him. Frankly, I can't see him allowing it."
"What makes you think that I can only function with the Sight? You do very well without it," Seth said. "And it is not a question of him allowing it. I have not asked."
"I'm sorry Seth. I didn't mean to offend you."
Seth smiled slightly. "So quick with an apology. There was no offence taken."
"I just- I don't know what to do Seth. I can't do this. I can't be with a man."
Seth was beginning to get annoyed. He sat up, smoothing his fingers through his thick black hair.
