Hermes had seen and heard what had just happened. He turned to Marco. "You won't miss anything. This will take a while. Go take care of him. He's not ill. He's heart sick. That face was the face of someone very badly hurt." "Hermes, you're so much smarter than all of us. If you only had the medicine your namesake had." Hermes smiled at Marco "What makes you think I don't? Go see him. I'll wait."
Marco walked through the hallway until he found a bathroom. He listened at the door. When he heard dave's sniffles, he went in. "Davide, che e' successo?" "David, what happened?" dave held up his hand for a minute. He was leaning over the sink, trying to wash tears away with his hand, and making a mess of it. Marco grabbed some paper towel. dave reached for them. "Grazie Marco." "No no, davide lascia stai. " STOP. Let me take care of this, then let's talk." Marco took a gentle hand to dave's face, and blotted away the tears. He got some lukewarm water and washed his face. "Well, your shirt is a little spoiled, but it's only water, it'll dry up. " Then he put one of his hands on each of dave's shoulders and stared at him. "Now tell me: what happened? That's not like you." "It's... it's gonna take a while Marco." Marco smiled. "Hermes told me he was going to need some time. The cafeteria is opened. Let's go get espresso.
Between sobs, dave told Marco about his relationship with Ahmad. He told him about the legend Ahmad had heard about, and the inscription (which Marco knew about), and as much else as he could remember. Marco squeezed dave's hand. "Davide, you are a young man. Perhaps older than the typical student, but you are still young. A romance that lasts a year at school.... it happens all the time. Maybe, maybe you're just too invested in this man?" dave shook his head. "He was my first relationship Marco. I had only had a few one nighters before that. And... how do I put this? I feel like we were together at some point in the past: maybe where Glaucus' estate was. That dream I had on the plane?" "Si, si. Ricordo." "It was set in Rome. And Ahmad was there. And it isn't the first time I've had the dream." Marco remembered what Gillian had told him about dave and Gabe, but he didn't say anything. "Have you had the dreams since you've been here, davide?" dave shook his head. "In one form or another, almost every night." Marco sighed. "You know, as an archaeologist, you live in the past all the time. You don't really think about things like reincarnation, or past lives, or whatever, because you develop a sense - at least I did - that it's all just one continuous... I don't know, I don't want to call it 'life' but maybe that's it. Non so I don't know. " He wanted to say something to dave about how he'd have to get used to relationships ending, just like theirs was, but again, he remembered Gillian and how "brittle" dave was. "Maybe you're too close to this project, dave. Maybe you shouldn't work on it." dave looked up. "I thought about that, but no. No. I feel like , if I don't get a resolution, the dreams will never end. And I want them to. I don't feel like I can really live fully if I don't have those answers." Marco smiled. "So American. You need answers. We Italians, we live with questions. We just try to push them aside" He sighed, and then he reached up and brushed dave's hair back. It had grown during the summer. It flattered him. "You're a beautiful man, dave. Anyone who is lucky enough to be your partner should be thanking the gods, every day. I know I am." dave squeezed his hand. "I'm grateful you took me in Marco. " Marco made a joke. He dropped his voice. "I do believe it is YOU davide, who is taking ME , or at least a part of me, in every night." dave laughed at that. "I wouldn't have it any other way." "Nor I davide," Marco grabbed his second hand. "Now, let's take this little by little. We'll go and see what Hermes has, and call it a day. They'll start doing some kind of reproduction, because the government is never going to let this out of the country. " "Ok. I think I can work with that." "I think , davide, that we may want to leave the work of opening the liber - the book- to Hermes. As the material becomes available, you and I, we'll work on the paleography. If translating this is going to be your Master's work, you need to learn this." "You'll teach me?" "I'll teach you some, davide. You need to continue your other work at the dig." He smiled. "If for no other reason, you working shirtless keeps the rest of the crew happy." dave blushed and Marco laughed. "I'm in that crew. But you'll get a head start. Maybe... Hmmm. She doesn't usually do this, but I'm going to see if Carmela is willing to do an independent study with you. You'll have more experience than the other beginners, and working with her one on one..." He sat back and laughed. "You may be surprised how tough a little old Italian lady can be."
Marco was especially gentle in bed that night. He kissed dave's whole body, licking his balls until he saw how raging hard the man was. "Do you want me davide? Please think about your answer. I'm not asking if you want cock, and I'm not asking you if you want a substitute for Ahmad. I'm asking if you want me." "YES MARCO YES. PLEASE. I want you more than I did the first night we slept together" Marco looked at dave's face. He was used to lovers lying to him. dave wasn't. He would take special care to make sure that dave enjoyed their time together that night. Marco was more aware than anyone that their time together was coming to an end. He wanted dave to remember him. " As he fucked dave that night, dave moaned, in pleasure. Total pleasure. He wrapped his arms around Marco, and buried his face in Marco's hair. "GOD. If I ever smell your cologne again Marco, I'm going to have an erection on the spot." The next day, Marco sent dave to work with Hermes, and he headed to the shop where he had his cologne custom made. He bought two bottles, and put them away. He'd need a going away present for dave. He thought this would work.
"dave king. You're mad at me, I know you are." dave had skyped up Ahmad. He wanted to tell him about the discovery. "No, not mad, just.... you're right Ahmad, we talked about this before you left, and yes, we're both doing what we agreed, but... I just didn't know it would happen so soon." "Ah, dave. You know why it happened so soon? We miss each other so badly. " dave saw Ahmad's face, contorting a bit. "You know, being away from what I think of as my home now, and sleeping alone, after I had enjoyed so many nights with my internal heater, the man who kept me warm in the winter, and never said no... I was so lonely. " "I understand Ahmad. I overreacted. I'm sorry." Ahmad shook his head. "You know, dave king? After that talk, I don't know why, but... Oh, I don't know if I should tell you this. I fucked Fred for about four hours. He begged for a rest, that he was sore, that I was hurting him, and ... I just didn't stop. I thought if I kept on fucking him, he'd turn into you. It doesn't make any sense, but... I did ." He paused. He was sobbing a little bit. Then he moved his arm into the screen. "Look dave king. I had it fixed. I'm wearing it again. I think of you when I look at it." dave felt a pit form in his stomach. "Am I ever going to see you again, Ahmad?" Ahmad sighed. "Now I have to be like an American. And be practical. And a realist. Not for a while, dave king. This is such a mess here. I want to come back to NY so badly. I want to do my graduate degree. I want to be in your arms. I want to be on top of you . I want to be with you. " He began to cry. "I HATE FUCKING FAMILIES DAVE KING." dave let him cry for a minute. He didn't know what to say. "Ahmad, I have to tell you something that's probably bigger than what we're talking about." "What is that dave king? What is so big that you need to tell this rotten boyfriend of yours?" "We found the first liber the other day. You were right. There was an
Ahmad at the court here." "DAVE KING. YOU ARE NOT PULLING MY LEG ARE YOU?" "I am not. The liber is fragile, and they're working on separating the pages, and... it's written in an old style of Latin. No spaces, so I can't read it fluidly, but.... " He smiled at Ahmad. "You were right. You had an ancestor here. And I hope by the end of the semester, I can tell the world about him." "Dave King... if you knew how happy this makes me. How much I wish I were there with you, making you tea so that you could stay up and read it to me." He grinned. "I can't do that, but... remember when we did this when we were separated the first time? " He stood up and dropped his pants. Ahmad's cock filled the screen, rather than his face. "Show me yours dave king. Show me yours. Let me hear those sweet sounds you made when you were climaxing." "The ones I made when you didn't gag me?" "Ha ha. Well, if you can gag yourself quickly , go ahead. I promise it will happen again. I just want to see evidence of your happiness " Marco walked into the apartment when this was going on. He smiled a bit grimly. "He can't get that boy out of his system. Time will help." He walked out of the room, waiting until he knew they'd be finished, and not knowing that this was one of the few times he'd be dead wrong."
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That last month in Italy flew by. Someone in another group found a second liber, and then someone else found a third. Clearly, they were at the library, and the dig would continue after the interns had all gotten back to New York. Marco had the reproductions that Hermes and his crew had made, every day. And every night, before supper, he would sit down with dave and look at them. "Now here, and this is important davide. See this construction? See how this sentence is written?" "Yeah, it's weird. I never saw one like that before." Marco had his hand on dave's shoulder. He usually massaged dave's shoulder while they were working. "It's because our scribe let his native language creep in. The grammar is Gothic, the vocabulary is Latin. " He sighed. "Now I'm glad I got Carmela to teach you privately because, davide, if you're going to translate this, you're going to need some German. Badly. "Will one year be enough, Marco?" "OH HEAVENS NO. But in a Master's essay , being able to read German will be sufficient. Gillian can lead you to the German for reading class. That's the one you should take." He paused. "You know, caro, we have very little time together. Maybe a week, then the trip to Rome, the farewell party for the group, and then.. you'll all be going back to New York." "I'll miss you Marco." Marco smiled a big grin. "HEY! You think you can't do for me what you did for Ahmad? I expect it." dave reddened. "You saw that?" "SI. And it was beautiful. All I saw was your bliss. " He put his arm around dave. "Marco, on the flight back, you're going to realize, I did a job that you needed doing. I kept you satisfied, I kept you happy. And I'll keep doing that if I can. " He reached under the table. "I have something for you. " He handed dave the box, beautifully wrapped. "Marco, I don't know what to say." dave opened the box and, puzzled, saw the two unlabelled flasks. "Open one, davide. " When dave did open it, the room smelled like a thousand Marcos were in the room. " "I... I don't know what to say. I didn't get anything for you.. I just didn't think of it." "You gave me something all summer davide. To be rude, you gave me back my ability to top. I thought I had lost it. Now, I know: wait for the best quality lover you can." He smiled at dave. "You remember that too."
That night, Marco gave dave a second gift, in fact it was a group of gifts. He gave him shackles, modeled after shackles of the period. They tried them out on dave in bed that night. And he had a very ornate looking chastity cage: one modeled on the seal of Glaucus, which had been uncovered at the start of the dig. He locked dave in it, and smiled. "I'll take it off before you go through customs. But for the rest of this trip." He squeezed dave's nipples until he moaned. "You belong to me . And I'm taking you, right now. He did. Marco took dave a minimum of twice a day during that trip to Rome before the flight home. dave wore the belt to the farewell party . He was wearing it when he dance with the "silly sisters" as he had started calling Stephanie and Lisa. They loved the title. At one point, he was dancing with the two of them together. Lisa whined. "WHY ARE ALL YOU HOT GUYS HOT FOR EACH OTHER? I SWEAR, THE GODS ARE MEAN." \ "ha ha. I can't explain that Lisa. I wish I could." "Hey, can you do something to turn us all on? I'm serious. PLEASE SAY YES?" dave looked dubious. "Let me hear what you want." "Ask Marco to dance. PLEASE. We want to see the two of you close. PLEASE." Marco was sitting there, with Hermes, and the other directors. Hermes really looked like his namesake that night, with his bowtie, his crisp clothes, his smile. His partner had come, too. dave walked over. "I'm sorry if I interrupted you gentleman, but.... Marco, "vorresti ballare?" Would you like to dance? In all of his years leading the digs, and in all the years of him picking a student to bed down, none had ever asked him. He looked at dave. "With pleasure, amore." Lisa went to the DJ and had him switch to something slow, and dave and Marco went to the floor. "You dance better than most Americans davide. I'm impressed. " He pulled Marco closer. "Mom insisted we go to cotillion type classes. I hated them. She told me one day I'd be glad I knew how to do these dances." Marco's beard grazed dave's neck. "Your mom was right this time." dave was silent. "I don't want to let you go Marco." "You're not letting me go davide. It's all part of the plan. We haven't figured it out yet, and we probably never will. Maybe you'll tell us more of it when you finish your Master's work, but... " He stopped dancing and looked at dave. "Promise me you won't forget the summer. WHATEVER happens." "NEVER MARCO. NEVER." dave was usually not the aggressor , but he pulled Marco's face into him and kissed him , long and deep on that dance floor. He and Marco got a standing ovation. They were both smiling. "And I will not forget you ever dave. I will see you again. Aspetta. Wait. Succedero' . It will happen.
dave thought he'd be sad on the plane flight back the next day: even sadder than when he left NY at the beginning of the summer. But he wasn't. He felt, oddly, "complete." He felt like the chapter he had been living, was over. He had Ahmad's bracelet back on his arm, and he had dabbed a bit of Marco's cologne on his arms, and his neck. He would feel both of them accompanying him back to NY.
What was going to happen when he got back? He had no idea. He would try to be more "Italian" about it and let it happen.
We'll find out when we get to the next chapter. Stay with us.