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All's fair in love and war [M]


Sara

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She could have still walked out if she wanted to, Lucius was not going to stop her. In the low light of the candle, he could not quite tell if she was annoyed at him or pitied him. One of those was worse than the others.

"Opium won't help. You need to see a medicus. Opium just masks it." 

Lucius scoffed.

"The medicus has done what he could. He said the pain will go away eventually." Sooner or later. Mostly. His arm would never work like it had before, so the best he could hope for was less pain. Right now, it sounded like heaven. "He also offered to just take the arm off, which, honestly, doesn't sound so bad right now." He breathed through his nose, looking around in the flickering light. "Small green bottle."

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"Then you need to see a better medicus." She retorted with a wrinkled nose and a frown as she stumbled about in the gloom, trying to find the bottle. "Some of them are better than others. There's a Greek one we used to use..." She stopped herself and shut her mouth. She was not going to divulge private family betters to a perfect stranger...scratch that, to the man that owned her. She also paid no comment  to him losing an arm although her eye roll was hidden in the dark of the room.

"How much have you taken?" She glanced back over her shoulder at him as her fingers found a neat row of green glass vials ordered in a wooden chest. She kept it hidden in her hand though, for now.

 

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Ovinia rummaged around in the storage shelves, looking for the opium. Lucius felt ashamed that she was here for all of this. This was exactly what he had been trying to avoing, coming out the middle of the night. But he was in too much pain to complain about it now.

"Then you need to see a better medicus. Some of them are better than others. There's a Greek one we used to use..." 

He knew he should. But he also did not want to hear the same thing over and over again. It had been bad enough the first time.

"How much have you taken?"

"Apparently not enough, before I went to bed." he frowned. "It's not always this bad." He added. Sometimes he slept through the night. Apparently, tonight was not one of those. "What do you know about opium anyway?"

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She wanted to scold him, but glancing over her shoulder at the miserable looking man suggested that was not a good idea. It was odd, she thought. In her life...her old life, being alone in a storage cupboard with an unfamiliar man would have been a laughable proposition to her. Look at her now. 

She could have told him to fuck off and refuse to answer, but there was something in the frown and his figure that suggested he was owed a little more than that. She shrugged. "My mother used it." She mumbled and turned back around, hand on a hip, arching a brow judgementally down at him. The tallow candle smoked and flickered on the floor between them. "It didn't help, just made the next day worse." She debated revealing the vial but decided against it. "Your turn to share. What is wrong with it? Your arm?" 

 

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She turned to look at him, hand on her hip. She still had the attitude of a patrician girl unfairly treated.

"My mother used it. It didn't help, just made the next day worse."

Lucius knew some people took opium just to escape a different kind of pain. It had an effect of making him drowsy and sleepy, which was good for the pain for most days, as much as he hated losing clarity. Other than drinking himself unconscious like a barbarian, there really wasn't a good alternative.

"Your turn to share. What is wrong with it? Your arm?" 

Lucius frowned at her, his good hand moving to his injured shoulder. "I told you. I got injured in the goddamn civil war."

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"Really?" She rolled her eyes. "You could have fooled me." She tutted, irritated by his lack of openness when...he really didn't owe her anything. He had already been more than generous with his house and his time, which was far more than she could have expected, as she was slowly realising. 

"As I said. You need a proper medicus; some of them do more than just look and sigh and say there's nothing they can do. There's an Eastern school of thought, all about stretches and things." That her mother had sworn by for her pains when they flared. She would spend hours, religiously, with Ovinia stretching her legs, her back, her arms...she swallowed an overwhelming sense of pain and sadness at the memory and instead flustered into bravado. "My advice costs though, I'll take this room in payment." 

 

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"Really? You could have fooled me." 

Lucius glared at her. She was not looking for the opium anymore, just poking fun at him while he was in pain. Damn this girl. He groaned, pushing himself to stand up. He was not about to tell her the whole story of what had happened to his arm. He wished he could forget it, even though he never would.

"As I said. You need a proper medicus; some of them do more than just look and sigh and say there's nothing they can do. There's an Eastern school of thought, all about stretches and things."

Stretches. All he wanted was to sleep through a night, and not be in pain, and be able to write his own goddamn letters, and go out with his men on patrol. And instead... stretches. Lucius scoffed.

"My advice costs though, I'll take this room in payment." 

He blinked, looking around. He was not expected to pay her anything for anything, but... this was an odd request.

"Why are you in here anyway?"

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She watched him stand with trepidation. She really should give him the opium, but another part of her didn't want to. He was both complicit in her own pain and she knew it wouldn't be good for him anyway. It was an odd mix of thoughts. 

"Fine," She gave him an eye roll, "Don't listen to me. Live in pain for the rest of your life." That was perhaps cruel, but she did not like being ignored. She folded her arms over her chest defensively as he looked around the room, evidently curious. "I told you I can't sleep in the dormitory. And they all get proper beds and I get some straw stuffed into a sack on the floor." Because they are free and you are not"Nobody was using this room so I took it." She shrugged and the motion caused her to lose her grip on the bottle. She managed to catch it - with skill she didn't know she possessed - before it hit the floor but she winced, looking up sheepishly. "...found it?" 

 

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"Fine. Don't listen to me. Live in pain for the rest of your life." 

He did not want to. He really did not want to. She was not wrong, she was just very annoying about being right. And nothing was going to solve the pain tonight anyway, even if he took her up on her suggestions later.

"I told you I can't sleep in the dormitory. And they all get proper beds and I get some straw stuffed into a sack on the floor. Nobody was using this room so I took it."

She was not used to sleeping in the servants' quarters, that much was clear. But Lucius was also not sure what the others would think if the princess suddenly got her own room, because she wanted one. She made a sudden movement, fumbled, and revealed the bottle in her hand.

"...found it?" 

The shrewd little witch.

Lucius sighed. He did not have the energy to fight this.

"You find me the Eastern doctor, and I will find you a place to sleep. Not this place, because we clearly are using it for storage." And no one needed to trip over her again. "And I'll take the opium for tonight."

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She held out the bottle in his reach with a sheepish expression, which turned almost immediately as he seemed to acquiesce to her requests. She grinned. "Deal." She knew the medicus her mother had used although the proposition of going to him now as a slave rather than a haughty customer hadn't quite hit her yet. It would. "I take it that this means I have your permission to leave the domus?" She gave him a smug little smile. 

"And don't take too much." She gestured back at the bottle, "If you die because you've had too much that'll be on may head and even know what happens to slaves that kill their masters." She looked at him and then the opium bottle again warily. 

 

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"Deal. I take it that this means I have your permission to leave the domus?" 

"Sure you do. Marius will take you" he responded with a smirk of his own. He doubted she would run - she did not seem scrappy enough to chance life as a runaway slave - but he did not fully trust her just yet.

"And don't take too much. If you die because you've had too much that'll be on may head and even I know what happens to slaves that kill their masters." 

"Better pray I don't die, then" he noted, turning to leave. He needed the pain to go away. At least until morning.

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"You can't go in there, it's his cubiculum." Ovinia gave Marius a smug little smile which so perfectly said 'fuck you' and pushed open the door into his room after a swift rap of her knuckles; "Domine?" She peered in, glancing around trying to spot him in the gloom. 

"Stop!" She held up a finger to Marius as if urging him to be quiet. The scoff that came from the man was loud enough she was surprised the domus didn't start shaking. "I want to talk about the room." She stepped into the room and slammed the door back into Marius' face. She heard him groan in pain. Whoops. "I held up my end of the bargain! The medicus had good advice, and yet I'm still sleeping in the dormitory." She folded her arms across her chest resolutely, chin jutted out, shoulders rolled back. 

 

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The Eastern medicus had some opinions about his arm and his injury. Lucius did not like all of them, but he was also willing to try things he had not tried before. Which was, apparently, some ointments, and a whole lot of exercises. Doctors did not make it easy on their patients in the East.

He had done a few of the exercises, but then he got distracted, trying to run the vigiles from behind a desk. Which was, honestly, enough trouble that it made him want to go out on patrol, injury be damned. He got home exhausted and cranky, and not even in the mood to eat. He was sitting in his room, nursing his arm, when Ovinia made an appearance.

"Domine?" 

Marius was somewhere behind her, trying to intervene, but she ignored him and slammed the door. Now Lucius was paying attention, looking up from where he sat on the bed. "Why are you in my room?"

"I want to talk about the room. I held up my end of the bargain! The medicus had good advice, and yet I'm still sleeping in the dormitory."

"The medicus had shit advice. But sure, if you keep treating the free servants this kindly, they will happily give you a room to sleep in."

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"The free servants don't get to decide where I sleep though." She gave him an unimpressed look and a smirk, not budging one single inch. 

She took in the sight of him, eyes deliberately scanning over him as though she was examining something that needed her inspection. He looked exhausted. And miserable. Which was really par for the course with her dominus, but it seemed even worse than usual.

"And he didn't have...s-shit advice." she tutted, not liking swearing and shifted on the balls of her feet. "Have you been doing the exercises?" 

"Ovinia!" Marius bellowed behind the door but she kicked her foot up against it to tell him to fuck off.

 

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"The free servants don't get to decide where I sleep though." 

"No, but I still owe them an explanation why they had to share the dormitory while the slave girl gets a room" Lucius pointed out. He really did not have the patience for this conversation. Sure, Ovinia had found him a medicus, but all it had done was put him more on edge.

"And he didn't have...s-shit advice. Have you been doing the exercises?" 

"Ovinia!"

"I've got this, Marius!" Lucius yelled. He could only put up with one indignant person at a time. He looked up at Ovinia, and had the decency to look at least a little sheepish. "I've done... some of them. I don't have the time to keep sending for him for house calls."

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She heard Marius mutter behind the door and shuffle off as Lucius bid him to leave. She smirked in self-satisfaction. That smirk fell though into an almost comical frown at his excuses. 

"You don't need to him to do house calls." She shook her head, confused. "They weren't that hard. You're just being lazy." She scolded, as she would with her brothers when they were doing something ridiculous. "...Domine." She added with a wince and cleared her throat. She dropped her hands to her side and gestured. "This one -" She mimed the motion, rotating her arm in a windmill motion, "Isn't exactly hard. It'll help. It helped my mother." 

 

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Edited by Sara
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"You don't need to him to do house calls. They weren't that hard. You're just being lazy."

Lucius quirked an eyebrow at her. Usually, he did not demand the kind of reverence from his servants as many other noblemen did, but Ovinia was really pushing the boundaries. She must have realized it from the look on his face because she quickly course corrected.

"...Domine."

Lucius scoffed. Ovinia was really putting in the work for that room.

"This one - Isn't exactly hard. It'll help. It helped my mother." 

"Your mother was injured in battle too, was she" he muttered, half-heartedly moving his arm, and wincing from the pain. He did not like these exercises at all. He had to hold his injured arm with the other one to make it move properly. Or at all, really.

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"No." She snapped, glaring at him - finding the tone of his voice to be beyond disrespect. "She suffered from pains ever since I was girl. She could barely walk some weeks, and couldn't even hold a flower others the pain was so excruciating." She explained with venom. "And my brothers didn't take care of her, and the slaves didn't know what to do. She tried the opium," She gestured to the empty vial lying on its side by his bed. "Made her feel like shit too." 

She was breathless when she was through with her rant and felt sick. Her mother had always been described to acquaintances as merely 'unwell'. She had never divulged the details of what that illness was. She supposed it shouldn't matter anymore, she was dead and gone and her memory was already tarnished, but she felt acutely guilty...as if she'd shared something that wasn't hers to share. 

She watched him as he made feeble attempts at the motion and scoffed, rolling her eyes. "That won't do anything, you have to move the muscle in your back. The medicus said it supports the arm. Or do you want to live without its use, the rest of your life?" 

 

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Ovinia answered his snarky question, more than he had expected her to. Lucius winced as she poured out the story of her mother, and the pain she had lived with. He was beginning to relate to that. It also explained why Ovinia was so hung up on the issue of healing his arm. Explained how she even dared to take a tone like that with him.

"That won't do anything, you have to move the muscle in your back. The medicus said it supports the arm. Or do you want to live without its use, the rest of your life?" 

"I probably will anyway." he muttered, frustrated. Gods, this mess. His arm, the medicus, the girl... Lucius took a deep breath, wishing he was not already out of opium. He really wanted to sleep.

"Fine. You know what? Fine." He gave him a glare. "You want your own room? Take that one." He nodded towards the side door opening from his room. It led to a small, windowless chamber, normally the domain of a body slave. But Lucius did not want anyone to be on watch over him at night, so Marius had another, better room, and this one was... mostly just filled with stuff. "If you want to nurse me so bad, go ahead. At least it looks like you have a job that merits that room."

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She flinched at his glare. She'd pushed too hard. She should have listened to Marius. Shit. 

But he gave her an out and she blinked at the small single door with its low lintel, leading off from the wall parallel to the foot of his bed. She turned her back on him to stride over to it and push open the door. Dust greeted her and she sneezed. It wasn't big, not at all and it was dark but it had a door and she could wedge a single, slim bed in it, and maybe a small box for her belongings. She blinked. She didn't have any belongings. 

She was so distracted by the offer of a room she didn't really hear him and frowned quizzically over her shoulder at him, trying to piece together what he meant. Nurse? She blinked at him. And then at the room. A month ago she would have been horrified by the thought of sleeping in a glorified cupboard in the room of a man. It would have been utterly unimaginable and completely shameful. Now she was relishing it. But nurse? She'd cared for her mother, perhaps more intimately than the slaves had but that had been down to pride more than anything. Her mother had been a proud woman. 

"I'm not going to nurse you. You can do the exercises by yourself." She choked, indignant. She was Ovinia Camilla. She was also unmarried and already far too familiar with the men in this house. "But I'll take the room." She said, turning her back to him to peer into the darkness, beginning to pull things out of it to make space. 

 

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"That is not how this works." Lucius noted, more calmly. She seemed very much taken by the idea of the room, but not so much about the... nursing.

He knew this was not going to be an easy choice for her. As a patrician girl, she would not have even been allowed to be alone with him, let alone sleep in his room, unsupervised. They both knew he was not going to take advantage of the situation, and her chances at any social standing were all destroyed now anyway, but it still had to sting.

"In exchange for the room, you can do whatever the medicus would do. He can teach you if he needs to." he said, sitting back on his bed. "Some of exercises need help, I already know that. So do... well." Using the ointments he'd gotten. And probably portioning out the opium. "It's a job I don't want the servants to take on, so none of them will argue that you get to sleep in here." It was important to him, not to play favorites with her of all people. She did not make many friends in the household.

@Sara

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She heard him talk and cautiously stopped her unpacking of his belongs to cast a curious look over her shoulder. He seemed sincere. It still felt wildly uncomfortable. She flexed her fingers by her sides. She wanted the room. She also wanted free time, but there were baby steps to be taken and she was slowly (slowly) learning that in her newfound position she didn't get things for free. She also didn't particularly want to work for them, but getting on his good side would be a step. 

"Are you going to listen to me, if I agree?" She scoffed. Could she disagree? The thought hadn't really crossed her mind. 

She didn't want to say yes; she wanted to maintain the dignity of her former life but the stitching and sewing and sweeping and cleaning were mind numbing. Besides, he was out most of the day which meant she naively assumed that time could be her own. She nonetheless felt guilty...as if her principles were crumbling and she wasn't doing anything to stop them. She hesitated, turning on her heel to face him with a short exhale of frustration and an apprehensive look. 

"And you won't...try anything?" She was hesitant, awkwardly fiddling with her tunica, "With me. I mean." 

 

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"Are you going to listen to me, if I agree?" 

"As long as you make sense." he shot back. If she knew what she was doing, he would follow her lead. He did want to get some use of his arm back, even if he doubted it would ever be the same. And apparently he needed someone to keep him on schedule. But he did not want to be called lazy by a slave more than necessary. Which was none.

"And you won't...try anything? With me. I mean." 

Lucius sighed, rolling his eyes.

"I have enough money to pay for a prostitute if I want to."

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"That wasn't a no." She retorted, awkwardly folding her arms across her chest and taking a step back closer to the side-room. He didn't owe her a 'no', she'd come to realise that. She'd also heard the chatter of the servants; she had, it seemed, lucked out but he wasn't under any obligation to keep to their present arrangement and she knew that. She wanted him to though, desperately. 

Waiting for a reply she glanced at the arm, narrowing her eyes and then with a sigh, pushed her hair out of her face and shrugged her shoulders. "I need a tablet, to make you a schedule. And I need to know what you currently take for the pain." 

 

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"That wasn't a no."

Lucius let out an exasperated sigh. "No, I will not try to bed you."

He understood why she would be nervous about that. He had been telling the truth, but a master was under no obligation to keep a promise to a slave. Still, he did not want her around if she was going to be constantly wary.

"I need a tablet, to make you a schedule. And I need to know what you currently take for the pain." 

"Opium and wine." he sighed "I'll get you a tablet. And I'll have Marius take you to the medicus so he can train you. Who knows? Maybe you'll be happy to have more useful skills one day."

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  • Sara changed the title to All's fair in love and war [M]

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