Title: What Price Fury

Author: Rothalion

This is an attempt to get some dialogue going between Perdiccas and Hephaistion and Alexander and Hephaistion. I have limited internet so I will post as I can. I need to find these guys again, voices and such so try and tolerate the mundane aspect of this chapter. Its just guys hanging out.

Rating: M for implied M/M and a lot of double entendre(sp)

Warnings: I have to do this quickly I might loose internet so no real editing has taken place. Just trying to hear them again.

Disclaimer: I think this thing has grown beyond truly needing one.

Copyright: T. Glynn/Rothalion 11/4/07

What Price Fury 17

As he reached his tent's entry Hephaistion stumbled forward a bit from Perdiccas' firm slap to his shoulder. He laughed loudly pointing, with a newly shortened blood and grime stained bandaged index finger, at the boisterous man. "Hold your tongue you pig's ass, I've got more ways of pleasing someone than this now, quite sadly, stubbier finger. Jealousy doesn't become you Perdiccas. Meet me at the bath tent and I can remind you of the finer aspects of my generous Athenian merits. I could give a lesson…"

"Silence!" The other general stopped laughing and studied Hephaistion with mock seriousness noting the crystal blue of Hephaistion's eyes in the pale evening moonlight. "Hephaistion, I need no reminder and have no interest in a lesson concerning your proclivities with men. Well unless I can just say watch you…That might be …well…. enlightening. I was simply stating a fact, that I hope you are as skilled with your left hand as your right. That bit of missing finger tip…well one never knows the true depth of a man's true love." With that the two again burst out laughing and Hephaistion pulled Perdiccas into a firm embrace. Of all the companions Perdiccas had, along with Ptolomy, never attacked Alexander and Hephaistion for their bond.

"Perdiccas you are truly lucky that I love you like a brother or I'd hog tie you and see just how far this shortened finger can indeed reach. Then we'd see just how much you truly disdain my proclivities. Now be gone and let me get some sleep. Aside from half a finger I've lost too much of that as well. Good work out there, we will fair well in the great pass."

"Good night General Hephaistion." Perdiccas offered, then, "As if Alexander's gonna let you sleep. You better lop another finger or two off and scream like a virgin Hephaistion, we all know there's no rest for the king's pet when he's been gone from camp for more than a day."

"Pig's ass!" Hephaistion spat laughing again and pushed through the flap of his tent. "Alexander!"

"Pig's ass? Never thought of Perdiccas as a pig's ass. A horse's ass maybe but pig's …a bit well cheap, no?"

Hephaistion dropped his kit down in a corner and shuffled to his wine service. Alexander be damned, he was the pig's ass. Why did the man insist on suffocating him?

"I see you've helped your self."

"Yes. Share and share alike no? Injured a finger?"

"Hmm Hmm." Hephaistion muttered and poured himself a large cup of unmixed wine. He shrugged wincing when his neck cracked and popped audibly in a way that seemed to betray his age though in actual years he seemed still young. It reminded him of his father, the cracking. The elder Amyntor would twist his head and bend his neck causing it to crack and pop. A young Hephaistion would giggle and ask the old soldier to do it again and again. He chuckled at the pleasant memory, him seated on his father's lap listening to the man's bones crack, but mostly just loving being held in the general's strong arms.

Drink poured he sighed and turned to Alexander. The king pushed a chair toward him and Hephaistion plopped down into it. He extended his legs toward his friend and grinned. "Well since you're here, off…take the damned soggy things off." He lifted his right leg and tipped his head a bit to the right awaiting his king's response. "Well come now, what's this? Gone for what seems a lifetime…"

"Twenty days at best, Hephaistion." Alexander said scowling. "That does not constitute a life time."

"A lifetime…I return expecting my loyal and caring page and instead…I get a petulant King. Well, my leg's getting tired, tend to my many needs oh great king."

Alexander chuckled scooted his chair forward, placed Hephaistion's foot on his knee and began unlacing the weary man's boot.

"So you've been wounded again? Lost a bit of a finger?"

"Yes. Oh and what a horrific battle it was Alexander. Me against an army of… gods save me it is almost too horrible to recall." He tipped his head back and sighed.

The king paused in his unlacing and looked at his comrades upturned chin. He studied the small scar not quite hidden beneath Hephaistion's stubble. A scar ages old a relic from their youth. The last thing he'd wanted when he sent Hephaistion and Perdiccas out to scout a trail northeast was for the party to come under a horrible attack. "Horrible?" He asked, pushing the memory of Hephaistion's chin being head butted by Attalus' crony's head out of his mind. "How many did you loose?" He pulled the soggy boot from Hephaistion's foot discarded it, hefted the other foot onto his knee and began to unlace it.

"How much, would be more accurate I think." He looked down at Alexander took a swig of his wine and groaned. "About halfway to my knuckle. Enough to foul up my career as a court flautist. Ah that's better now some of your fine liniment and a nice rub would make them feel like a newborn baby's feet. Feet never tormented with the toil of a trudging up and down soggy scree slopes."

Alexander scowled. He hated when Hephaistion was flippant. He never knew quite how to deal with it. "My ass!"

" Oh… impatient are we? First a foot rub and bath then your ass. Alexander you of all men know that there is a certain sequence to things. Have some self restraint. Its only been twenty days, no?"

"The finger!"

"Oh that." Hephaistion held up his right hand and studied the bandage. "The fight was brutal." He guzzled his remaining wine and held the cup out to the king. "Do you mind? I am wounded."

Alexander snatched Hephaistion's cup and stomped across the tent to the wine service. "A violent battle. You lost half a finger and no men!" Wine cups refilled he crossed back to Hephaistion shoved the cup toward the smirking man and glared down at him.

"Sit and I will tell you a Homeric story of bravery and stoic determination that will rival Thermopylae. We were encamped near a small but quick flowing creek, we had not encountered any, well, natives for days. Maybe we let our guard down a bit but I don't think so. Some time just before sunset Nicor, he's a stout lad, son of Timon, grandson of…"

"Just get on with it Hephaistion. Why do you test me so?"

"Grandson of Pyro, would you hurry Homer Alexander? Well Nicor he brings into camp some absolutely horrid prisoners. We tortured them and finally they gave up and said that they were Parsnips. A rare breed of fighter sworn to die before bringing disgrace to their chieftain or their lover. They were much like the Sacred Band. Here, Alexander so far from home, there were men like the Band. Sworn to one another in all things."

Alexander sat up straight completely intrigued by Hephaistion's story. "Fighters sworn to one another, like the band? You are sure?"

Already he'd begun planning ways to get them to join his great expedition. To bring them into his fold.

"Yes. More wine first please." Alexander took Hephaistion's cup and hurried to fill it. Men as bonded as the Sacred band, he had to hear it all. "Thank you, anyway, they refused to be separated. I felt for them yet they were after all enemies and in the night they proved their worth by beguiling a young guard, Arion, son of Hector, grandson of Rastus who was ironically enough the nephew of…."

"Gods be damned Phaistion get on with it!"

"Nephew of Panayiotis! Would you have harried Homer so? Anyway the Parsnips escaped and tried to rout our camp. In the ensuing battle as I held one of their greatest fighters down on my cutting board trying to slice his struggling body to bits in time for supper; you see the water was already at a roiling boil and my hard won rabbit already tossed in, so I was in a hurry to add my vegetables. Food's a bit scarce up high on those scrubby hills so I didn't want to ruin my rabbit…also I didn't want to waste Nicor's wonderful vegetable discovery. It's a fine root this Parsnip but it takes a while to cook the damned stubborn tuber. I suppose I drifted in my concentration and flit…off went the tip, well actually about half of my pointer finger. You always said a sharp knife is a friend but in this case…"

Alexander stared at Hephaistion incredulously. The man had lopped off half a finger chopping up some new native tuber and had played it off as a battle wound for what had passed as two stout cups of wine each. Parsnips, parsnips…The man was mad!

"You cut off half a finger chopping a vegetable!"

"I am afraid so."

"And you are the man I will trust to lead an army through the great pass they call Khyber? A man who cannot properly chop his tubers! Parsnips, the Sacred band? Perdiccas and you joking about short fingers…I….I…."

"Alexander, I have missed you. Truly missed you. Maybe its Perdiccas' doing; constantly nattering in my ear about how grand we are, you and I, together…who can say. So either recall Milos or get busy and set me a bath. By the gods for the fist time in….in….ages I am of light heart and desire nothing more than your company, your company. Alexander I look to the pass expedition with great excitement. I won't fail you."

"And if you should encounter Parsnips, General Hephaistion?"

"I will leave the dirty little bastards to Xenos. You have my solemn oath."

Later that night ensconced in Hephaistion's tent the two men huddled over a damped but warm fire reading Xenophon. Hephaistion reveled in a childish way over Alexander's attention, but despite his guilt he allowed himself the luxury. It had been a night spent sharing tactful touches, and knowing glances. Little real contact had occurred. All had been wrought in a tentative painfully slow dance. Alexander finally broke the subtle stand off.

"Excuse me have to piss." the king mumbled then stood and made his way to Hephaistion's chamber pot.

Hephaistion shivered at the loss of Alexander's warmth and pulled the heavy woolen blanket they'd been sharing tighter around his shoulders. He listened to the hiss of Alexander pissing and felt comforted by the sound. So many simple things that passed between them gave him such a sense of comfort. Xenos pissed and Hephaistion felt awkward, like a voyeur. Alexander pissed and it was just Alexander pissing. Xenos be damned. He'd not allow the Celt to taint this night, a night that he planned on spending with Alexander. Pissing aside he loved them both. Love aside he hated them both for their hold on his heart. All propriety tossed aside he'd often pondered bedding them both together. He flushed at the thought and smiled at the tingle that coursed down his spine. Oh what a treat that could be, would be, the three of them a tangled…

"Pot's damn near full better call a boy."

"Huh? Yes. A boy. To empty the pot. Gods how I hated that duty Alexander! Your father, King though he may be…he has the rankest smelling piss in the kingdom. His piss alone sprayed upon the banks of the Hellespont would keep the Persians at bay. Not a drop, not a single drop of Greek blood would have to be shed." He stood and shuffled to the tent's back entrance. Alexander heard him issue orders then settled down again close to the hearth.

"That bad, I had no idea."

"Your not much better." Hephaistion said embracing his king from behind. "Foul piss and a less than palatable demeanor the both of you share."

"Come now Hephaistion, play fair! Not palatable? Me?"

"As palatable as Nearchus' squid stew. That said I'll be damned but the gods have gifted you with a mere two arms Alexander. I feel I require nothing less than four to suit my pleasure. Do you mind if I call Xenos to join us? He's far better well equipped than the eunuch and well he's coming around to our more or less open ways. A bit of a dream of mine. To have you both. Alexander?"

"Both?"

"Tell me you do not wonder about him Alexander."

"So if I had, or did…"

"Or do?"

Alexander squeezed his eyes shut. Dionysus be damned, the wine be damned, Xenos be…

"Hephaistion you try me."

"Pyros fetch Xenos."

"Phaistion…"

"Fear not." and Hephaistion nipped at Alexander's neck. "Wine and separation, and lust…a need to bring us together."

"Us?"

"Us." and he flipped Alexander around, sprawled out on top of him and drove his tongue into the stunned man's mouth. The king wrapped his arms around the writhing man and wondered just what had ignited such out of character behavior.

The two sparred for a time, teasing and taunting one another, pushing their mating to more intense and collision like heights.

"Heph…" Xenos stammered, stunned buy the scene before him. The sentry had shoved him forward toward the tent then motioned that he should enter. "Hephaistion?"

"Xenos." Hephaistion said his voice hoarse, his arousal complete. "Please," he held out a hand, "please join us. I need you. Need you both."

The big Celt looked at the two men sprawled before him. One his king and one the most important man in his life. To share them, to give Hephaistion that gift…could he do it? Could set morals and stigmas aside and give Hephaistion this gift? He sighed and began to shrug out of his heavy cloak. That discarded he slipped out of his chiton and stepped warily toward the fur lined mat where Hephaistion and Alexander were waiting.

Hephaistion had seen the big man naked before and settled back on the copious fur to watch Alexander take in the northerner's coarse beauty. He'd dreamt of this encounter, waking sodden in sweat and spent seed. As he'd expected Alexander was consumed by the warriors handsomeness. With a final look at Hephaistion Xenos dropped to his knees and began to run his huge hands over Alexander's body. In turn Hephaistion sat up an nestled himself against Alexander's back. Xenos read the plea in Hephaistion's eyes and crawled around so that he now had the general squeezed between himself and the king. With one final look into Alexander's eyes Hephaistion gave himself up to the two men who he loved unconditionally. Out side the tent Milos squatted cursing his weakness and blinking away tears of regret.