"I know what it's like to be terrified that someone's going to rape you."

"How?" Paris was truly stunned. "You're –"

"You're surprised?" inquired Achilles, his voice and expression full of grim humor. "I'm not pleasing enough to the eye for someone to carry off?"

"You're very pleasing to the eye!" Paris blurted out without thinking. Redness crept into his cheeks and he ducked his head. "What I meant was," he stammered, wishing for a kind earthquake to come and end his embarrassment, "that I'm surprised because you're, well, you're Achilles."

"I wasn't always Achilles the greatest warrior in the world," he informed Paris wryly. "Not back then. I was a seven-year-old boy, the son of a powerful man and a goddess. A prize catch for kidnappers, really."

He sat down heavily on a bench. Paris slid down next to him and unconsciously took the warrior's hands in his own. "They just came out of nowhere," Achilles continued. "Kept telling me that they'd get money out of me one way or another. I sat on that boat, scared out of my mind, while some disgusting imbecile spared no detail in describing everything he wanted to do to me."

Paris swallowed hard. "Did they –"

"No," replied Achilles with a curl of his lips. "It's not a good idea to kidnap the child of a sea goddess and then try to carry him off on a ship. I was with them for about a half-hour before the waters rose up. The boat was destroyed entirely and everyone else drowned while I was transported safely back to the beach near my father's lands."

"She must love you very much," commented Paris, with just a touch of envy in his tone.

"She was fuming," the warrior recalled. "She was trying not to show it, of course; she didn't want to scare me any more than I already was. She just handed me a shell necklace and said not to worry. 'Any fool that would do harm to my child will be a dead fool soon enough' were her exact words, I believe."

Paris reached up, tentatively touching the necklace that Achilles was wearing. "Is that when you got this?" he asked quietly.

"No," Achilles told him, gently covering the boy's hands with his own. He felt them tremble, but neither one of them pulled away. "My mother always gives me a shell necklace every time we meet. It's her way of letting me know that she's always with me, I suppose. She gave me this one just this afternoon, right before I realized I'm in love with you."

_

Good mother Thetis!

Oh, yes, give it a chance, Paris. Leave with Achilles and fall in love!

Poor Paris. But Thetis shows up and govensher son some sage goddess advice.

And here’s hoping Paris leaves before that ‘lord isidore’ gets to him.

TO MUCH CUTENESS I'M GOING TO EXPLODE !

AWWWWWW! that's so adorable!

There is so much drama and I hate Paris's father who would do that to a son! Keep going i have to see Paris's have a happy ending I have to or I'll die!

Great story! Loved it!

loved it, it was perfect i love how great you wrote this story

interesting...

I liked it. And by that I mean that I really, REALLY liked it. While I found the movie completely pointless, throwing all those hot men in made it a source of great inspiration and you seem to have done the best with such an inspiration.

I loved your portrayal of Paris and Patroclus. Also, while Achilles' perchant for jumping straight into action proved quite annoying, I admire you for managing to make him appear less than perfect. He might be the son of a goddess but he is still human after all.

Thank you. It made for a very enjoyable read.

I really enjoyed your story. I loved how Paris and Achilles interacted, just the right amount of Angst and Romance. Thanks for a well written story!

I absolutely loved this story and I think you did a fantastic job of making it seem real. I personally love the idea of Achilles being more than a brutish Greek and Paris being a pampered prince.

I LOVE this story even though I despise Paris for the most part (in the movie not your fic). You're making him considerably more tolerable and less selfish in my eyes.

so sweet!

I love the request! Brilliant!

so sweet! Strangely, this fic goes incredibly well with breakfast.

cheers, cen