Drabbles: Desire

[artyartie]

Two more Cicero (pre-series) and Brutus drabbles for rome100, with the prompt of 'Desire.'

Cicero wonders at what moment he first loved his wife. Not their wedding night - he still flushes at the remembrance of fumbling hands and the impatience in her eyes. It was a gradual thing, his love, like struggling with a new language for years only to hear it, suddenly, from his lips.

He should die in her arms, not in bitter exile. The sun flickers through the window and he closes his eyes, denies this day has come. Yet his longing that all will be right is stronger, however faintly, than the desperate desire to remain forever with her.

***

The vaulted Stoic freedom felt nothing so much like a cage, only with bars Brutus couldn’t see. But he could feel them, twisting about, threatening to crush him at any moment.

Living life without desire had once been so easy. He was never disappointed, for there was nothing in which to be disappointed. And now –

His mother’s plots, Cassius’ pleading – their desires were those invisible bars, closing around him. The graffiti, that damn note, the eager gleam in Cicero’s eyes, the guarded caution in Caesar’s-

What good was it to live without wants if he could not live without resistance?

Comments

[theilian.livejournal.com]

Hi, artyartie.
As always love your stories, but your icon even more! That's so cool!

[artyartie.livejournal.com]

I got the icon from pixelbee, who has many, many cool iInsertNameHere icons for the classics. She has many nifty I Claudius icons as well! And I love the 'skanky bitch' icon you use - someone on Journal Fen has a brilliant Cicero icon but I haven't been able to track down who made it!

Thank you! Once all this school craziness is done, I can't wait to do some longer stories - but at least the drabbles let my brain have *some* fun until then

[jhd91.livejournal.com]

I think you've got Cicero and Brutus down to a science. Your drabbles are always spot on.

[artyartie.livejournal.com]

Thank you so much - though I should really play with other characters every now and then, I'm just drawn to these two.

[spacemonkey-27.livejournal.com]

A little late with the comment but I always love your Cicero and Brutus (especially) drabbles. You always capture them both so well. Can't wait to read more.

[artyartie.livejournal.com]

Thank you! This week's prompt will be fun - though it will be hard to keep it to those 100 words!

[spacemonkey-27.livejournal.com]

Ohh, that is a good prompt. I can't wait to read what you come up with.
I might have to try my hand at drabbles again. I need a break before I start another big story.