A moment of shock left AJ stunned. He stared at the figure before him, not sure if his eyes were playing tricks on him or if it was real. Then that voice, that laugh; there was no mistaking those sounds. With a wild laugh he launched himself across the grass, straight for him. The man ran toward him too so that they met halfway, arms wrapping tightly around one another, their laughter echoing around them.
AJ pulled back, his grin so wide it almost split his face. He couldn’t help laughing. “Xshayarshan!” He cried out before embracing the man again. “You’re alive!”
“Of course I’m alive!” The man sounded offended by the comment. His eyes, though, were twinkling. “And don’t you remember that it’s Shay now? Mortals nowadays have a hard time with my name so I made it a little easier.”
Another laugh escaped AJ. He grabbed Shay’s shoulders and held him in place as he stepped back. “Let me look at you! Gods above, I never thought I’d see you again.”
Not a thing about him had changed either. Every detail of his friend was so startlingly familiar. The dark, rich tan to his skin. The black hair that hung to just below his shoulders, pulled back into his customary ponytail. A warm mouth that always seemed to smile no matter the mood around him. Tall, a few inches taller than AJ, with a muscular yet lanky frame. But most of all those eyes! Framed with long, dark lashes, and absolutely no pupil or iris. His eyes were completely white. On no other had AJ ever seen those eyes before.
Even his style in clothes was familiar. Not really the way the clothes were made, for they were a different fashion than normal, but more the coloring and extravagance of it all. Blue breeches; silk, if AJ wasn’t mistaken. A lush green shirt that had, at one time, been known as a poet shirt. Loose-fitting with full sleeves that tapered at the wrists in a lacy cuff. It was decorated with large frills on the front as well. The front was laced up, V-neck. It had always been his style.
Over that he wore a vest of gold and red, with small tassels hanging off of it. At each ear were huge gold hoops and five more, growing smaller in size the higher up his ear it went. He had another, smaller one in the side of his nose, one in his left eyebrow, and AJ knew he had one in his right nipple as well.
“Gods, Shay! You look like as bright as ever, my gypsy friend!”
Shay’s grin grew even wider. “Look at you!” He exclaimed in return. “Finally came in to yourself, yes? I’m glad to see it!”
“Yeah, well, time catches up with us all.” The question he was dying to ask burst from him. “What’re you doing here? How is this possible? Howi told me that you…you died.”
A small grimace tightened Shay’s features only for a moment. Then his usual smile was back. His eyes twinkled with a mischief that AJ hadn’t thought he’d ever see again. “A necessary lie, Alyck. I did what I had to. There were things that needed to be done and this was the only way for me to do it. You weren’t ready for the knowledge yet. You were too young.”
“I was the same age as you! We were at least two thousand years old by then!”
“Two thousand, three hundred and eighty two, to be exact. And I’m four months older than you, by current reckonings.”
AJ scoffed at him. “You always hold that over me.” He teased him. Just that familiar teasing was enough to bring emotion back into his throat, blocking off more words. The smile Shay wore said that he understood. With a gay laugh, Shay grabbed AJ’s face and kissed him soundly. When he pulled back his grin had turned mischievous again. “It sure is good to see you.” He said before pulling AJ in for another hug.
After a long embrace, AJ became aware of the others behind them. Then he became aware of the knot that was Brian in his mind. One look told him all he needed to know of those emotions. Shit. Curiosity, confusion, and a large stab of jealousy, quickly smothered down but still present. The look Shay gave him as they pulled apart was all too knowing. “Sorry, Alyck. Didn’t mean to cause trouble.” He whispered.
“I seem to find it well enough on my own, anyways.” AJ said wryly.
“True enough. This one will come out ok, though. Just a few ruffled feathers, that’s all. I’ll help you handle it once you get a chance to talk to him.”
Because of the skills he knew Shay possessed, AJ took what he said to heart. Shay wouldn’t say it if it wasn’t something he knew to be true or believed to be true. He gave his friend a grin and linked arms with him. “Ready to meet the crowd?”
“Naturally.”
With a chuckle he led Shay over to the group of people, all waiting on the cliff’s edge. Right as they got close, Tripha dropped down, his wings sending a gust of wind over everyone, making a few of the mortals stumble and Ubayy actually cry out in surprise. Amusement twinkled in Tripha’s eyes. “I trust you approve of me granting your visitor permission to enter, trulion?”
Ubayy gasped out loud. “It speaks!” He cried. Two large, sharp eyes swung toward the man, all traces of amusement gone. That look had Ubayy backing up a few steps. “I speak, human, with knowledge far greater than any you shall ever possess in your insignificant years. Do not presume to insult me again with neither word nor thought, for I am not the ‘dumb beast’ that your mind referred to me as.” Tripha dropped his head lower and growled lightly, deep in his chest. “It is not smart to antagonize something that can eat you. I have not had a human in a long time but I do still remember the taste.”
The horrified look on Ubayy’s face had AJ laughing. Just a small chuckle at first that started to grow and grow. He shook his head at Tripha, trying to catch his breath. “He wouldn’t even be a snack for you!” He teased his friend.
Tripha grinned at him. With a small huff he settled down onto the ground, curling his neck around himself and resting his head down so that he could look at them all. In that moment, most eyes turned back to AJ.
Well, that was subtle. Humor tickled the back of AJ’s throat. He pulled Shay around so that he faced everyone. All their new guests, Brian, Tripha, Flreu, Tadhg, Richard, Geoff, Donnelly, and a handful of Elves were all watching them. “Everyone, this is an old friend of mine. He goes by Shay now, though I knew him by a different name at one time.” AJ just couldn’t keep the grin off his face. “Fool here was supposed to be dead. Howi told me he was. But apparently he’s been on some secretive work for the past forever and couldn’t tell me about it.”
“I told you, you were too young to know.” Shay interjected haughtily. His eyes were still twinkling, though.
AJ slapped his arm. “We’re the same damn age!”
“Four months in current reckoning, Alyck. Four months! How many times do I have to tell you this?”
“Shove it. Those months don’t count. They don’t make that big a difference!”
Winking, Shay said “You just can’t accept my maturity over you. Whereas I am a refined gentleman with a sharp mind and vast wisdom, you still work your way through your adolescence.”
That had AJ letting go of Shay’s arm. He put his hands on his hips and turned to face his friend, ignoring the others around them. “Adolescence? You’ve the nerve to call me a kid?”
“More a teenager, really.”
“I stopped being a teenager thousands of years ago!”
A small cough caught their attention. Bayani stepped forward a step or two from the group. “I do no mean to interrupt but I need ask. How old do you be?” He looked from AJ to Shay and back again. “Did you say thousands of years ago?”
“Well, yeah.” Shrugging, AJ looked to the newcomers. “Hell, I’m not used to explaining this to people. I’m more used to just kind of…fabricating my age.”
“Fabricating.” Shay scoffed. He smirked at AJ. “How old do you generally tell people you are?”
“Haven’t had to for a while, really. But my cover before had me in my early twenties.”
“Well, that’s more mentally accurate…”
“Hey!” AJ cut him off with a cry. “You’re barely back and already you flip me this kind of shit? Be quiet! The man asked my age, not a lecture from you on your assumed knowledge of my mentality.” He turned to Bayani, ignoring Shay’s snickering. “At best guess, since I kind of lost track with years that there wasn’t a calendar, I’m around four thousand years, give or take some.”
Even as Bayani gaped at him, Shay was laughing. “You lost track?” he teased AJ. “Of your own age? Boy, your mind is slipping!”
Not so gently, AJ punched Shay’s arm. “Be quiet, I said. I was made before the Trojan war and they don’t accurately document that anymore.”
Shay just pushed him away and took his turn to look over to Bayani. “Pardon this feeble minded man. He thinks he was made right before the Trojan War but he forgets the years between that. I am four thousand, two hundred and ninety nine. He, of course is four months younger than myself. We were made immortal in the same year.”
If they hadn’t been shocked before, they certainly were now. Donnelly, Bayani, Crisanto, Tao, Ubayy and Nura all stared with the shock clearly written on their faces. It was Brian who spoke up now, his voice quiet. There was a note underneath it that only AJ caught. A small tone of hurt. “You two were made at the same time? Being friends, I assume that means you two knew each other back then.”
Internally, AJ winced. Outwardly, he nodded. “Yeah. We didn’t meet on the best of terms exactly, though. We didn’t meet right away either. It wasn’t until the Persian’s invaded Greece that we met one another.”
Donnelly looked from one to the other, then back to Shay. “Are you Greek too, then?” he asked, stumbling over the word ‘Greek’ as if he couldn’t quite believe what he was asking.
The mock offended look on Shay’s face had AJ snorting. “Greek, me?” The vibrant man demanded. “Forbid! I am a Persian!”
“I try to forgive him that.” AJ tossed in.
Brian had gone silent again. Worried, AJ pulled inward for a moment. ‘Song of my heart, what is it? What bothers you so? Talk to me, open this pain so that I might understand and fix it.’
A reply was a long time in coming. The others were busy quizzing Shay about life back then, so no attention was paid to AJ and Brian. Finally AJ felt Brian’s thoughts turn toward him. ‘You have someone that you’ve known for four thousand years and never bothered to mention to me? Someone that was obviously important to you by the way you greeted him. You practically jumped on top of him.’
‘I thought he was dead! Of course I was happy to see him!’ AJ defended himself in surprise. This little attack hadn’t been what he’d been expecting. There was no doubt that Brian was angry with him. ‘I never mentioned him because he was a good friend that I thought I had lost and I tended to never let myself even think of him because then I would start to wonder how he died or what happened and those were things Howi never told him. I wasn’t keep him a secret, Brian.’
‘Weren’t you? Is there something there you feel you have to hide, Alex?’
That question rocked AJ back on his heels. He turned his whole body to face Brian, eyes wide with shock. “Excuse me?” He demanded. ‘How dare you? There’s nothing that I ever said or did with him that I would feel the need to hide from you!’
Brian’s gaze remained serious and solid. He hadn’t moved an inch from where he stood staring at AJ. ‘Were you loves? Were you lovers?’
‘How dare you ask me that with that condemnation in your thoughts? Yes, we were lovers at one point in time. No, he was not a love to me as you are. Do I not have the right to have had a lover?’
This time it was Brian who broke from their thoughts. “How many more are we going to run across?” He demanded, taking a step toward AJ. It placed them only a foot apart. “Huh? How many? Have you ever managed to have a friend without fu-”
AJ gagged Brian with air only long enough to cut him off and then he released it. “Think before you speak, Littrell. Mind what you say to me.” ‘You have no right to speak to me like that! How dare you judge me because of a choice I made thousands of years ago to sleep with a man I was close to and cared a great deal for? You have no idea of the lifestyle I lived at the time or how cold and lonely the nights were.’ “You don’t know how much a body could ache with the pain of feeling totally alone and cut off from the world. Needing that comfort but feeling like there’s no point when all the people you start to care for grow old and die.”
Temper like he hadn’t felt for a while flared up inside of him, fueled by hurt. He hadn’t expected this from Brian. A little hurt, maybe a small trace of anger, but not this, this attack!
He had no idea how their conversation was being observed by those around them. Half mental, half out loud, it made no sense to most that were watching. Only a few understood. But they kept quiet, watching the scene unfold before them.
“I’m just so tired of every time I turn around another one crops up, AJ! Or how little you seem to think of its importance in telling me!”
“You want to know every lover I’ve ever had in my entire four thousand years?” AJ demanded furiously. “Shall I make a fucking list for you?” In his anger his speech reverted back to the American way of speaking, the way he’d spoke as AJ for quite a long time.
Brian growled lightly. He held up a fist, ticking names off on his fingers. “Roth, Howi, this man, myself. How many more do we know that you haven’t told me about? Geoff and Richard, too? Marzio?”
“None of those three swing my direction, Brian o Littrell.” ‘What the hell is the big deal about this? Why is it so important that you know all the lovers that I had? Did you expect I would have stayed celibate for four thousand years?’
‘Because!’ The force of Brian’s mental cry staggered AJ slightly. ‘How on earth am I, someone who hasn’t even reached a half a century, someone who has only dated one man in his entire life, whose never seen the things you’ve seen or lived through it all with you, well, how am I supposed to stand up to them?’
For a single moment AJ could do nothing but stand and gape. His anger drained out of him like someone had pulled the plug. There was pain, obvious pain, in his love. The echo of it tore its way through AJ.
‘I’ve never lived in these times.’ Brian continued in a softer voice. ‘I’ve never seen these things, or lived the way you have. I haven’t been through those long, cold, lonely nights. I haven’t traveled the world. I don’t have the history that any of these men have with you. Compared to them, what am I? This man, this Shay, was your friend and your lover, someone born to a time that you were. He knows you and can understand that past. But I can’t.’
“Oh, song of my heart, no.” AJ couldn’t resist moving forward. He embraced Brian quickly, ignoring how stiff he was in his arms. “Do you think any of that matters to me?”
‘It must.’
“It doesn’t, no, no!” ‘You and I will build our own memories together! I love you in a way I love no other. Yes, my heart has love for Shay. Yes, it sang in joy at seeing him. I’ll even admit that it feels wonderful to have someone who was there in that life with me as I lived it. Someone who has seen what I have in life and understands the feelings. But you miss one important thing.’ Here he pulled back, framing Brian’s face in his hands. ‘These people only understand who I was then, or how I felt at the moment, or what I let them see. No one, not even Howi, has ever understood me like you do. Without living that life with me, without all that history, you are still the only one who has looked at me and seen straight down to my soul, no shields at all, and loved me for it anyways.’
There was a definite note of softening to Brian’s posture and emotions. “It doesn’t matter at all to you?” he whispered.
AJ kissed him lightly, quickly. “No, it doesn’t. You are perfect for me. No matter the knowledge others have, no matter how long we were lovers or what we did together or any of it, none of it compares to this. That was a drop. What we share, it’s the whole ocean.” AJ pushed their bond wide, letting Brian feel all the love that was in his heart.
After a moment, AJ felt the last of Brian’s reservations fade away. ‘I’m sorry. I was a fool.’
‘Calmer than I would have been if I were you.’ AJ reassured him with a chuckle. ‘I probably would have stalked off somewhere and sulked for a while. Maybe had a tantrum.’
“I love you, song of my heart.”
“I love you too.”
Peaceful again, they wrapped their arms around one another and turned back toward the group. Only then did they realize that half their conversation had been able to be heard by others while the other half had gone on inside of their own minds. AJ couldn’t help but giggle. How this must have confused them! Especially the others that didn’t know about his and Brian’s abilities. Amusing!
Shay broke the tension by striding forward and planting himself right in front of Brian. He put his hands on his hips and looked into Brian’s eyes. To Brian’s credit, he did not flinch away from those pure white eyes as most people did. He met the gaze stare for stare.
“So.” Shay finally said. “You’re Brian, huh?”
Brian straightened his back. “I am.”
“You done being pissed me with me banging your boyfriend way back in the day before you were even born?”
“Shay!” AJ swore softly.
But Brian squeezed AJ and silently shushed him. He kept his gaze locked on Shay. “Yes, I think I am.”
Another moment stretched by where the two stared silently at one another. At the same time, identical grins spread over their faces. Shay reached out and hugged Brian. “Thank the Goddess!” He exclaimed. “I didn’t want to get my ass kicked. I think we’re going to be damn good friends, Brian. Damn good. I already knew I liked you when I first met you. Today, seeing you, I knew it was true.”
That threw Brian, obviously. Realizing why, AJ rushed to explain. “Shay’s a Seer.” He told them all. “It’s why his eyes are the way they are. He was born with the Sight. Past, present, future. Only some things cloud his vision, but most he sees really clear on.”
“And I saw you coming a long time ago. It was always you for him. You’re better looking than I’d seen, though.” Shay gave Brian a playful leer. “You sure it’s him for you? I could probably show you one hell of a time.”
Laughing, Brian patted Shay’s ass as they passed him, wringing a giggle from AJ. “You couldn’t handle me.” He told him with a wink.
AJ couldn’t help it. He threw his head back and laugh. Oh, Goddess, things were going to be entertaining now! His heart felt lighter than it had in days. Things still sucked, but it was good to be reminded that there was always something positive in life. There were things worth fighting for.