Garden Games

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"Apollo is the god of... the arts - singing, and poetry, and dancing. And of medicine, in one of his roles," Teutus said, noticing the slightly confused expression on Charis' face.

"But 'rithmetic is... dull. An' complicated." Antonia looked like she was beginning to pout, which was not a good thing.

"But you're clever, and using an abacus isn't hard - you've done it before," Teutus said, bringing the frame out and setting it up next to the young mistress. "You just slide the beads along the wires and then write down the number. Or you can use your fingers, but there's only ten of them."

He was interrupted as Charis stood up and stumbled a little. His own squatting position allowed him to stand almost instantly to steady her.

 

@Sara

[Sara]

Charis watched the little interaction between brother and sister, slave and mistress with a little smile. They were really quite sweet together, what a shame their relationship had been so twisted by the will of their father - dividing siblings only due to the standing of their mothers. She shook her head, silently furious at Tertius, and pitying Teutus. 

As she stumbled, she blinked at Teutus' hands - steadying her. She hadn't really been this close to somebody since probably the journey over - if you discounted Tertius' wandering hands over her face, during their only extended interactions. With a smile, she didn't move his hands and only laughed, glancing at Antonia with a wry look and arched brow. "Teutus is trying to dance with me?" She didn't know what Roman dancing looked like, but suspected it was different from her own peoples. Nonetheless with a grin, she took his hand and squeezed it, and attempted to move his other hand to her thin waist as if about to lead him into a dance, teasing him.

She finally broke away with a grin and a light laugh, moving one hand to her hip but placing the other gently on his shoulder - just until the feelings in her legs properly came back. 

 

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Edited August 27, 2019 by Sara

[Sharpie]

"I... No, I..." Did the British have men and women dancing together? That was not Teutus' experience at all, although he would be the first to admit that he had had a very sheltered upbringing when it came to social cues and the like.

The only dancing Antonia had seen was that performed by the chorus at the theatre, and they had been in a circle.

Teutus hadn't realised how pretty Charis was, but to suggest anything - she had only done it in all innocence, and Teutus didn't want to run the risk of upsetting or angering his father by doing anything with, even if she realised the effect she had had on him. She was entirely too sweet and innocent to have ended up here in this house with all its complications. He waited until she was completely steady before dropping down into his squat again.

"We should let Charis get on with her work," he said to Antonia, trying to dispel the confusion at the sudden proximity he'd just had to Charis. "We can stay out here, though, it's much nicer out here."

"Would rather talk. It's much nicer than horrid old 'rithmetic!"

 

@Sara

[Sara]

Charis' grin only grew at his flustering. She had meant it only in jest, but was surprised by how quickly he recoiled and returned to his squat, as if avoiding any proximity to her. She blinked, surprised and a bit embarrassed - as if she had caused a minor scene, although Antonia didn't seem to notice - instead she was fiddling with the small bouquet of flowers she had selected. Wincing, she lightly tapped his thigh with her foot, as if trying to get his attention. "I'm sorry...joke." She offered a smile as if trying to coax him back into the easy conversation they had been enjoying, "British humour different to Romans."

Had she offended him? Was the Romans sense of propriety so different to her own (unlikely given the sights she'd seen in the baths, and what she'd heard about!), or was he just not the type to take a joke well, if it embarrassed him a little? Not everybody was as forthright as the young Briton, and her real nature; humorous and assertive was coming out more every day.

As he suggested she get needed to get on with her work, she frowned. He was not her master and couldn't dictate that (although he was right, and she had been itching to do so moments ago!) but the affront irritated her and instead, she turned a wide smile to Antonia. "What would you like to talk of domina?" She asked to their young mistress before glancing down at Teutus, confused at his sudden change.

 

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What she was doing to him was not her fault, probably. Did she know the effect she had? Probably not, she was an innocent. And now she was deliberately distracting Antonia from the lesson she was supposed to be studying - and which of them was going to get into trouble over it, when she could not answer her father's questions about her afternoon to Tertius' satisfaction?

He let a long slow breath out, allowing his sudden irritation to seep out with it. He'd been just as bad, of course.

Antonia merely looked between them, confused at the sudden change of mood. "What do you like to do, 'part from gard'ning?"

 

@Sara

[Sara]

Charis arched a brow down at Teutus. So he was just going to ignore her now? Because she'd dared to attempt some sort of levity to break up the afternoon. She sighed, and tried to push it from her mind. The heat was beginning to ramp up in the city and it frayed everybody's nerves. Perhaps she should have been more sensitive? Instead of apologising again, she instead, moved to kneel back down after collecting a sharp instrument to start deadheading the roses. Next to him, she offered a tentative smile - as if to break the ice all over again. 

Responding to Antonia's question - and presuming their little mistress wouldn't mind if she continued to work - she shrugged. "I like..." What did she like? "Seeing friends...I met old friend from Britannia in baths, little while ago. And have made one with Imp...Imperial bodyguard." Surely, even if that got back to Tertius, making friends wasn't frowned upon? "Aaaand..." She pondered for a moment. Back at home, proper home, she had enjoyed travelling and her family's work but both of those options were now closed to her. "Work." She said after some delay. It wasn't so bad, what she did now. Trying to lighten the mood, she nudged Teutus a little with her hand, "And I used to like dancing but not anymore." She snipped the head off of a rose. 

 

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"Apologies." Though why he should apologise to this slip of a Briton, he had no idea. Perhaps the heat was getting to him.

She had no idea what she was doing to him, either, of course. Oblivious. Just as oblivious as she was to the fact that Tertius would no doubt want some sort of favour in exchange for allowing her to change her position within the house - even Teutus hadn't been so bold as to request that.

But then, Teutus had the Damocles' sword over his head of his potential freedom being snatched away. Not that there was any real certainty that he'd ever get it, but there was a chance, and if he so much as breathed wrong, it could easily be no chance at all and he'd be condemned to slavery forever.

He had half reconciled himself to that, but even just the sliver of hope that his life might not always be this kept him going.

"We dance - the women, sometimes, for some rituals. It's more Greek, though, really," he said, though the levity was more forced than is had been a moment before. "It's nice to see friends, though, isn't it, Antonia?"

He had very few friends; his neither-fish-nor-fowl position made it hard, but Antonia could be relied on to chatter nineteen-to-the-dozen about all of hers. Rufilla Salvia, who lived nearby, and Calpurnia Horatia who she'd met in the Gardens of Sallust, and half-a-dozen other names Teutus could never remember.

 

@Sara

[Sara]

Relieved he was at least speaking to her now, she sighed and continued her clipping. "I have to teach you our dances...but you need drink...to make it easier or..." She flashed a grin to him, hoping her meaning would go over Antonia's head, "More fun." She'd never been a big drinker - her stature meant she often felt its effects far sooner than her family and friends, but she had never been adverse to a sing or a dance with plenty of alcohol flowing whenever she saw her cousins to the north or they were having a celebration. 

Antonia nodded at Teutus' comment and started on a story about Rufilla Salvia and the intricacies of how she'd hurt her wrist. Charis tried to follow it but was preoccupied clipping the roses and casting concerned glances over to the young man to her left. He was almost as impossible to read as his father, she deduced. Perhaps it was a family trait that had (fortunately) skipped Antonia by. 

Gathering up a small pile of the roses that she had clipped off, she set to work stripping the thorns from two; fingers and the blade from the tool nimbly shaving them away until she was left with two beautiful pink roses. It was a shame they had to be cut, but if she didn't do it now there was a good chance they'd never grow again. With a little smile to Anonia, who was now watching her with intrigue, she slipped one of them behind her ear as a direction before she held the other aloft. "Do think Teutus needs some decoration, domina - cheer him up?" If he was going to be cold to her now, then so be it. Gingerly, and before he could say anything she reached a hand to his head and was about to place the flower in before she stopped herself, realising she had gone too far. She let it drop onto the floor and with a flush of embarrassment, shrugged. "You...you have arithmetic to do, domina." Antonia merely pouted. She'd have to make it up to Teutus somehow, but she missed laughing and joking!

 

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"You need to be drunk to dance the way you British do?" Teutus asked, amused. If that were the case, it explained a lot!

Charis reached to the roses she had just pruned, trimming the thorns from two of them before putting one in her own hair, behind her ear before holding the other out toward Teutus himself. "Do think Teutus needs some decoration, domina - cheer him up?"

He froze, about to say something, before she recollected herself and dropped it, as though stung, going pink.

"You should be careful who you flirt with, especially in this house, Charis," he said quietly, neutrally, picking the rose up to put into Antonia's hair, ignoring that the pink rose in her copper hair was not a good combination - a yellow rose, perhaps, but not the pretty shell-pink that this one was.

The atmosphere had grown brittle and Tuetus was not sure how to bring it back to the lighthearted gaiety of earlier. Nor was he entirely sure he wanted to.

He had begun to feel the stirring of attraction for the pretty British girl, but could not - would not! - act on it. Right now, he could only have a relationship with a slave woman, and any child born of that union would remain a slave, and he was not going to do that. Nor did he feel like trying to explain that particular set of complexities to Charis. Easier to ignore it.

At the mention of her schoolwork, Antonia sighed, as if arithmetic was the greatest burden anyone could ever suffer, but made no protest as Teutus opened the wax tablet.

 

@Sara

[Sara]

Charis eyed him, confused...almost offended by his suggestion. Glancing at him with a frown, and pleased that Antonia was distracted enough, she just shrugged lightly; "I...wasn't..." But it sounded forced. Truthfully, she didn't think she was - she had been in no mood to harbour romantic feelings for anybody - and whilst she could appreciate the harsher sexes virtues (Helios' physique in the gardens, for instance...) that was as far as it went. But before she could be more stern about it, and claim she was honestly just joking, Teutus had turned back to Antonia to place the rose in her hair. 

Blinking at the sudden cooling of the conversation, she moved quickly to gather up her implements. The garden wasn't large, but large enough to escape this frosty atmosphere at least and with a polite little smile to Antonia and a narrowed glance to Teutus, she bobbed her head in respect to their little Domina; "Domina I must carry on with work...Teutus take care for you." She smiled, and was relieved that the little girl only shrugged. 

Wordlessly, she moved away to the other end of the garden and began to - without much effort or desire - trim some of the stems from another plant. She felt listless and out of sorts, and the day was only going to get worse. 

 

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Thank you - I'm finished!