Siors: Iceni Magni

By: TG (musichika_tg on LJ)

Disclaimer: I don't own Hetalia, nor do I own anything to do with St George, the Legio IX Hispania…yeah. None of that.

Author's Notes: Written for Sweethearts Week Day 3 –Alfred's and Arthur's professions. I was going to do something else but thought that Ascalon needed a bit more love. This is to be treated as a side story to Ascalon, by the way. Unless I am struck with inspiration, Siors is completed with the addition of this chapter. It's supposed to expound on how Al and Artie go from ordinary Roman soldier and Prince of Lasia to heroes of Albion. You get to imagine the rest of their story!

Enjoy!

By the time Alfred and Arthur arrived in Britannia, they had unmistakably fallen in love with one another. They had only known each other for a few short months, but necessity had brought trust; the world was hard and cold, and with bandits and murderers and lawless tribes on the lookout for the next victim, it was either learn to trust each other or die. Luckily Arthur had found it very easy to trust the bumbling Roman soldier. In fact, they were so natural with each other that the months-long trip from Lasia to Londinium passed them by quickly; it felt like mere days since Arthur had left his kingdom without so much as a word of goodbye.

Upon their arrival in Londinium, they had been promptly sent on to a garrison called Eboracum, which according to the sentry at the gate, had been the home of the Legio IX Hispania. Had been. Past tense. Upon entering the garrison Arthur noticed Alfred tense, rather than relax from relief.

"These are not the men of the 9th Legion," he had said, voice cold and unforgiving.

"No, sir. The 9th Legion disappeared a few months ago. Wiped off the face of the earth by the pagan bitch Boudicca."

After that, any of Arthur's attempts to sooth the soldier went unheeded or were outright refused.

A few days later Arthur had come back from the garrison market place to find Alfred pacing in their tent, looking angry and worked up. He set the food down on the small wooden table and snatched the soldier's hand in mid-pace. Alfred turned on him and snarled, "I should have known!"

Alfred had never shown him any violence, so Arthur stood his ground against the agitated Roman and calmly looked into Alfred's eyes. "Alfred, what's going on?"

"I knew that Roman soldiers were being killed," the soldier muttered, and just like that the fire went out and he was left to sag into the ex-prince, energy spent. "I thought… I thought I was fighting for the good side. I was angry that the 9th Legion had been massacred. But then I overheard some of the soldiers in drill bragging about how they had raped Iceni and Pict women and children, and even killed them. Women and children, Arthur! I didn't sign up for this!"

Arthur signed and sat Alfred down on his cot, gathering the blond into his arms and stroking a comforting hand through his hair. "I know, love. I know, it's okay."

"Artie…"

Alfred looked up at him then, frowning in confusion. He looked like a lost child, and Arthur's heart twisted and ached for him.

"What do I do now?"

"Oh Alfred, you know I'll follow you whatever you choose to do."

Alfred made his decision later that week, and on the next dark moon they left the garrison. Desertion was slow going; the forest floor was dark and uneven, and every so often Alfred would put his soldier training to work and double them back, or force Arthur into a river to throw off their tracks for a few miles.

Alfred covered the miles like they were nothing, but Arthur had been a prince and had been kept inside for the majority of his life, and he knew full well that it was because of him that they stopped to rest so often. Despite being completely shattered, Arthur was always afraid that they would get caught if they stopped for more than a few minutes, such was the might of the Roman army.

As a result they ran practically non-stop for two days, until they met a roadblock. Literally.

That had been a few days ago, and even though they discussed and they argued, they still hadn't figured out what to do about Hadrian's Wall. The most they had done was agree that they needed to be on the other side of the wall; they couldn't seem to figure out how to go about doing that, and time was running out. They were nearly at their wits end when Alfred had gone out into the trees to take a piss and brought someone back with him.

'A child,' Arthur thought, his heart sinking. Alfred was such a kind man, he didn't have it in him to hurt children…did he?

He shouldn't have worried, because as the duo drew closer he could hear them conversing. Arthur had had no idea Alfred knew any other language, and to hear him talking to someone who was obviously a native of Albion was somewhat of a shock. Alfred read the look of surprise on his companion's face and rushed to explain.

"Some of us were taught some of the languages of the native tribes, by officers who have already served their time in Britannia and come back to Rome. I am just lucky that this guy is Iceni and not from any other tribe, otherwise we would have been in trouble!"

Arthur let himself relax a bit and sent Alfred a tight, nervous smile. The Roman soldier sighed and stepped forward to run his knuckles across Arthur's smooth cheek.

"I'm sorry, I know this whole thing is kind of scary to you. Hell, I've had training and even I'm…well, not scared, obviously, but I'm definitely nervous. It's going to be okay."

In a momentary lapse of judgment, Arthur hummed and dragged Alfred down for a kiss. The child, who had been all but forgotten in the background, started laughing at them, and the ex-prince of Lasia jumped at the sound. Alfred cradled Arthur's face in his large hands and laughed right along with the child, the git. The Lasian humphed and made sure Alfred knew he was receiving the cold shoulder until the soldier had apologized enough to appease the angry and embarrassed prince.

"Come on, Saemu said he knows a way around the wall. He'll take us to the tribe. He said we should be safe."

"Right," Arthur muttered, his soothed nerves flaring to life once more.

Getting over the wall took exactly three hours and nearly all of Arthur's strength and patience. Arthur felt ready to either rip his hair out or punch something by the time all six of their feet landed on the Albion side of the wall. Alfred, of course, was still bouncing full of energy.

The ex-Lasian prince rolled his eyes, but couldn't stop the smile from springing up. Alfred was an idiot, but he was Arthur's idiot. Time traveling with him had shown the prince that Alfred was practically perfect, but definitely a little naïve, too. He had tried to show Alfred that he was interested in doing a little bit more than kissing, but the soldier acted like he hadn't gotten the memo. Arthur knew Alfred, though, knew he was smarter than he let on, so the soldier had to have a reason for brushing off Arthur's advances. He hadn't been happy about it, but he'd backed off.

Arthur complained, but if he was honest with himself he wasn't starved of affection. Even then, as they were walking through the dark forest on the way to the tribe's village, he could feel Alfred's steady hand on his arm, his shoulder, his lower back, his waist. The Roman soldier's touch not only kept him from stumbling in the dark, but served to reassure him as well.

They had barely been walking for an hour when suddenly they emerged from the woods and into a massive clearing, complete with squat wooden houses, a well, and a fire pit for cooking. They didn't have time to take in the sights, though, because as soon as they stepped out of the woods, Iceni sentries were on them.

Arthur went down like a sack of potatoes, having never been trained in the art of hand-to-hand because of his status as a fourth son, but he managed to wriggle out of his attacker's grip just enough to crawl away. He almost made it back to the edge of the woods when a cry of pain distracted him. Alfred had managed to drop a few Iceni tribesmen, but he had taken a sharp hit to the abdomen and had ended writhing on the ground as more tribesmen rushed in to secure the threat.

Arthur's distraction allowed the sentry he had fended off to recover, and he found himself in a chokehold, feet lifted completely off the ground. He wheezed for breath as the man spat out harsh-sounding words to catch Alfred's attention.

The soldier looked up, his face paling when he saw Arthur. He replied in that foreign language that Arthur was coming to despise, and suddenly he was dropped back to his feet again, gasping in relief. The man sauntered over to Alfred and started talking to him. Arthur didn't bother trying to follow the conversation, instead watching the changes in Alfred's face as the minutes passed by.

Eventually the tribesman who had been talking to Alfred gestured to the gathering crowd, who gave a raucous yell in response to something he said. The Lasian inched closer to the soldier until they were close enough to whisper.

"Al, what the bloody fuck is going on here?" Arthur muttered, glancing sideways at his Roman paramour.

"He asked me to pledge my allegiance to the Iceni tribe, I said no, he threatened to kill us, I told him I knew Saemu, he asked Saemu if he knew us and when he said yes, he told me we wouldn't be killed but we would have to go through a… Well, I don't know how to translate the word but it's something like a trust exercise. And apparently they're not telling us when it's going to happen."

"Alfred," Arthur whispered in disbelief.

"Antedi –that's his name –promised me that the Iceni would let us live in peace in their village if we agreed to do…whatever it is they want us to do. It's in our best interest to try and be peaceful with these guys so we don't attract more attention from the Roman military."

"Makes sense," the ex-prince muttered. Alfred smiled lopsidedly at him.

"Don't worry, sweetheart. Everything will be okay," the soldier said, leaning his forehead against Arthur's. Despite the situation the prince felt himself relaxing as Alfred's nose ran along his, soothing him and bringing the world down to a narrow point where only they existed.

Behind him, one of the Iceni murmured something that made Alfred jerk his face away and blush furiously.

"What," Arthur hissed, angry and frustrated by the entire situation.

"Ah, he was, um… Implying something. About, um. Shit," Alfred muttered, not making eye contact. "Said we should get married, we're obviously fucking."

Arthur slapped a hand to his forehead in agitation and the Iceni man laughed. Despite the situation, Arthur couldn't help but crack an embarrassed smile.

"Al, are we going to be okay here?"

"I think so, Artie. It's lookin' up."

"Alfred, it's been four days and nothing's happened. I'm starting to think these Iceni people are playing one big mindfuck on us," Arthur muttered, hauling up the water bucket from the well.

"I know, Artie. We just gotta be patient. This is kind of an important thing, ya know."

Arthur sighed and glared at the half-full bucket in frustration. "It's just frustrating that I can't understand a bloody thing they say."

"Ah, that would be frustrating. If you'd like I can teach you later tonigh—"

A riotous crash echoed around the village, interrupting Alfred's sentence and causing quite a commotion among the villagers.

"Al –"

"Intrusion," the soldier explained, dropping the bundle of logs he'd been gathering for the cooking fires. He grabbed the axe he'd been using to chop the wood and followed the rest of the Iceni tribesmen who were rushing to the edges of the clearing and scampering up trees.

'Ah, so that's how they surprised us when we first arrived.'

Arthur had nothing with which to defend himself, so he picked up one of the skinner, longer logs and hurried it over to the cooking pit. Luckily for him the cooking pit's fires were lit all day, and he was able to light the end of his log to use as a weapon. Armed, he started toward the edge of the clearing when a hulking man painted in blue and white jumped practically on top of him, giving him no room to maneuver. His weapon, now useless because of its long-range purpose, was easily knocked out of his hands.

'Where are the other Iceni,' he thought frantically as he crawled backwards, away from his assailant. Several more painted people swarmed the village, heading straight for the food hut. If he didn't try to stop them, they would steal the entire village's harvest.

The ex-prince stopped crawling, shocking the familiar-looking painted man above him, and drew his knees up to his chest to kick at his attacker's abdomen. He had to defend the village!

"Oooph!" The painted man cried, doubling in pain. "Stop stop stop!"

Arthur stopped and stared. "…Alfred?"

The man wheezed in response, and Arthur remembered that Alfred had been hit in the stomach when they'd first arrived. Oops.

"Alfred, what the bloody shitting fuck." He made sure to emphasize the last three words with a kick.

"Artie, stop, I'll explain!" Arthur raised a thick eyebrow, urging him to continue. "I thought this was a real attack until I went into the woods. They explained to me that we would be doing a mock raid on the village. Yeah, apparently they do that," he tacked on in response to Arthur's look of disbelief. "Anyway, they told me that this was my test. They wanted to see what kind of person I was, if I would be useful to them as a warrior, that sort of stuff.

"And this was your test, too. They wanted to see if you would defend the village even if there wasn't anyone else around."

Antedi approached them then, guffawing and holding his stomach. Arthur scowled, just knowing that the man was laughing as his attempt to defend the village. Antedi said something which must have been excellent news, because he suddenly found himself lifted off the ground and swung around in a bear hug by a laughing Alfred. He hit at Alfred's shoulders a few times before he gave in and wrapped his arms around Alfred's neck and nuzzling the man's cheek.

"Artie, we passed!"

He didn't think he'd ever heard such a beautiful sentence. Finally, some peace in his life.

And then the moment was ruined when Antedi said, "You look like stupid HA HA HA."

"…WHAT THE HELL. YOU KNEW MY LANGUAGE THE WHOLE TIME?"

Apparently their passing the crazy Iceni trust test meant a feast was in order. Luckily there'd been alcohol available, and Arthur had already drunk himself into a state of perpetual happiness by the time the first course was presented. By the time the last course was presented, everyone was pretty shitfaced.

It became obvious that Alfred was absolutely pissed when he got up to try and re-enact his attack on Arthur and nearly fell over into the fire pit. And when Arthur reached up to steady him, Alfred had grinned wickedly and groped him.

That was the end of their festivities. Well, the public festivities, perhaps. Once Arthur had gotten over being embarrassed publicly in such a way, the two had stumbled back past the cabin they'd been staying in and ended up making love against the back wall of the storage shed.

"Ah god Arthur. Arthur Arthur I love you," Alfred moaned against the skin of his neck as he thrust into him. Arthur moaned brokenly in reply and clung to Alfred's broad shoulders. He could feel himself slipping down the wall, but both men were too drunk to care.

The sex was, objectively, neither amazing nor did it last long, but it was some of the best sex of Arthur's life. It wasn't until they were both finished, panting and unable to support themselves on jelly-like legs, that Arthur replied to Alfred's declaration of love.

"I love you, too, Alfred. And I never said thank you for saving me."

"From the dragon?"

"No." Alfred looked up at him, confused, and Arthur smiled and ran a hand through the soldier's sweaty hair fondly. "Well, yes, but I guess I also mean thank you for saving me from loneliness. I never realized what a depressing and lonely life I was leading until I was standing at that pond, ready to die. Then you showed up, and showed me this world of adventure and love and companionship. So…thank you."

"I was just doing my job. I'm a professional hero! I mean literally, I am a soldier…or was…but to tell you the truth I think I might've fallen in love with you the moment I saw you glaring at that pond. It was really adorable," the man teased, poking Arthur's cheek with a forefinger. Arthur scowled and batted his hand away and Alfred laughed.

They were silent for a moment, staring up at the large moon and taking in the sounds of the party nearby.

"We still don't know what's going to happen in the future, but I suppose we've got the rest of our lives to figure that out, yeah?"

"…yes."

AN: Aaaaand Alfred continues to defend basic human rights, becomes known as Siors by those he defends, and lives happily ever after with Arthur, with whom he has lots and lots of sex. Wee!

The timeline: 121AD –Iceni Magni takes place.

The names: Iceni Magni –Great Iceni. Antedi and Saemu –names of actual Iceni kings. Londinium –the Roman name for London. Britannia –the ancient name for England. Albion –the ancient name for Scotland. Eboracum –an actual Roman garrison, actual 'home' of the 9th Legion.

The history: Legio IX Hispania, also known as the Ninth Legion of Rome, was originally from Roman-occupied Spain. They disappeared around 120AD without a trace. It was said that Iceni Queen Boudicca ambushed them because the Romans ignored the fact that her husband left the kingdom to Boudicca's daughters when he died, and they tried to take over the Iceni kingdom themselves. Not much is known about the Iceni themselves.

EDIT 3/12/12

First of all, thanks for the reviews and faves/alerts, guys!

Some of you have been curious as to whether this is going to be continued. The truth is, I have entertained the idea of writing more one-shots for this universe somewhere down the road, BUT I don't have any planned right now (as I'm focused on writing a multi-chapter USUK). Therefore, it will be marked complete, because I don't want to leave readers hanging if I never update this again.

So if you're wondering if this story is complete, the answer is yes for now, but that answer may change later.

TG © February 2012