Don't get all emotional on me

[Chevi]

"How many women do you need?" 

Azarion rolled his eyes.

One would be good.

It kind of went without saying that he'd never had any woman (or man) before. He was not exactly someone to catch anyone's eyes even without being a slave. He had been too young to start courting when he had been taken, and while Sarmatian men his age would have started setting down with families, it was not an idea that he had ever really entertained. Still. It would have been less lonely to have someone. How many races did he have to win for the fans to start showing up?...

"You did well the other day - you must have been racing for a while already. You won't have any problems with the horses, anyway."

First race, he signed, with a proud smirk. He had not done half bad. And he was good with the horses. The rest, he would have to see.

How many women for you?, he signed, with a teasing grin. It was good to have his cousin around again.

@Sharpie

[Sharpie]

"Your first?" Tiranês was secretly impressed; he hadn't thought it was Azarion's first race that he'd seen. He reached across the table to grasp his cousin's hand. "Artimpasa blessed me indeed by allowing me to be there to see it, even if neither of us knew at the time."

He would have to find something to give to thank her for her benediction in arranging for him to be there to see his cousin's first ever race. Azarion had done well, for his first time, and Tiranês was even more impressed than he had been. His cousin had little enough to boast of but he had shown the prowess that was rightly his as a Sarmatian. He could be proud of that - certainly Tiranês was proud of him.

"How many women for me? What, you think the personal attendant of the chief's son gets to laze around all day with his pick of beautiful women?" he asked with a grin.

 

@Chevi

[Chevi]

Tiranes looked appropriately impressed as Azarion told him that the race had been his first. Well, the first real one, because practice rounds did not count. No one was really trying to get your hurt in practice. At least Azarion was lucky he had found something to do as a slave that he was good at. Even though it had not gotten him the fame and the attention just yet.

"How many women for me? What, you think the personal attendant of the chief's son gets to laze around all day with his pick of beautiful women?"

Azarion grinned at his cousin. Of course he didn't. 

No I think you laze around, he noted with a cheeky expression he used to have back when they were children teasing each other. Don't they pick the most beautiful women for slaves? Clearly, his cousin was not going to sleep around with the freeborn women of the palace. But still.

@Sharpie

[Sharpie]

"Just because you do, doesn't mean the rest of us do. Ah, but what can you expect from a Saii?" This family teasing was so familiar it almost hurt, and yet Tiranês wouldn't change it.

Well, no, that wasn't true. He would give almost anything for the two of them to be back home as things had been, riding across the vast steppe with the wind in their hair.

"I - look, if I don't see you again, and I will, you can have this," he said, fumbling in the folds of his tunic and pulling out a tiny carved horse, probably a bead or something. The magpie tendencies of the Sarmatians were well-known among the steppe peoples, and Tiranês had not lost them.

"When you do braid your hair again, wear that," he said, closing Azarion's hand around it.

 

@Chevi

[Chevi]

Azarion rolled his eyes at his cousin as he made a jab at the Saii. Once upon a time, it had been meaningful, the tribes that they belonged to. But here, in Rome, as slaves, they were both Sarmatians. Their bond was stronger than any differences. Also, Tiranês was still a jerk.

The cousin pulled out a small bead, and placed it in his hand. It was one of those small, decorative things their people liked to collect.

"When you do braid your hair again, wear that," 

Azarion smiled and nodded, touched. Thank you. He'd keep the horse. He had not thought about growing his hair out yet, but now he thought he might. We will meet again. You are not getting away from me that easy.

@Sharpie

[Sharpie]

Tiranês sighed. He could stay and talk with his cousin for hours longer but he could hear people outside the room where they were currently sitting and that meant it was probably time for him to leave and return to the Palatine and his chores there.

"I've got to go," he said, reluctant to move. Tiberius would be wanting him, but he didn't want to go, not now that he'd found his cousin alive and well. For a given value of 'well', anyway. He stood up, taking in his cousin's appearance as if trying to fix this new Azarion in his mind (which he was) - the white tunic, the straw in his hair - he always had straw in his hair even when he was a chief's son at home! - the slave tablet and the FVG brand. And the expressive eyes that said everything his mouth couldn't say any more.

"I have to go. I'll - I will come back, if I can, when I can," he said.

If he couldn't get in, he'd leave a tamga sign outside somewhere, where Azarion would see it and know.

 

@Chevi