The Reconciliation
By Shon Rowgan
Based on The Last of the Wine
Alexias/Lysis
Rating: PG15

Disclaimer: I do not own these characters and make no profit from them

Summary: In Chapter 19, since returning from the Isthmus Games, Alexias and Lysis have been estranged. After saving Alexias during a boar hunt, Lysis invites him to celebrate their reconciliation by dining with him. The story below continues at the end of the chapter as Lysis sets off to call a torchbearer to light Alexias’ way home.



But running, I overtook him, and caught him back by the arm. My garland had slipped back on my hair as I ran; he put up his hand to it; and it fell behind me. I could hear the vine shedding its last heavy drops upon the terrace; the croak of a frog at the cistern beyond; and my own heart beating. I said “I am here.”
--Mary Renault

Casting aside all propriety, I slid my arms around him, leaned my cheek against his breast, and said aloud, “I am yours.” I felt Lysis return my embrace; and as I raised my face to him, he greeted it with a kiss. To this day I still recall its taste, for even honey was not more sweet. In my greed, I strove to suck the nectar from his lips and seal forever the bond that existed between us. He began to cleave to me, yet I felt him straining as if he were fighting against himself until at last he pulled away. From the anguish in his eyes, I saw that he suffered as much as I, but I could not hold my tongue. “Why, love, why do you do this to me?”

“To you?” he answered; his voice was like the edge of a knife, cold and sharp. “Do you think you are the only one who feels any pain?”

“Lysis, you do not have to strike me to hurt me. I bear wounds from every hostile look and each unkind word you’ve cast at me these past weeks. But your silence is worse. Your silence cuts me to the soul.”

“But you have your crown,” he spat with bitterness. His face hardened, his eyes grew dark and distant. “What have I to show? Only the dirt from the floor of the pankration still gorged in my mouth.”

Now I understood what had come between us and tried to soothe his torment and restore his peace of mind. “Lysis, did you not hear the crowd cheer for you? It was you they favored. It was you who won their hearts.”

“I heard only your voice, then I heard nothing.” Lysis paused to look at me, then went on while I saw written in his face the words he spoke. “Alexias, I am no longer worthy of you.”

Aggrieved and angry, I replied “That is my choice. Not yours. I will have no other but you. You swore before the gods my good would be yours, and my honor would be like your own. So be it. I give you my crown, Lysis, and all the honor and glory that goes with it. I only ask you to give me back your love.”

“Alexias, my dear,” said Lysis softly as he often did in our early days. It was a tone I recognized at once that he was mine again.

I took his hand and led him to the dining couch where we reclined and shared a cup of wine, then another; after the wine we shared a kiss, followed by even more intoxicating kisses. I do not know whether it was the combination of these that made me bold and brazen, all I knew that night was that what I wanted from Lysis was more than just his kisses.

“Lysis, when you were the beloved, did you and your lover.…”

As if he had read my mind, Lysis answered my unfinished question, “Yes, Alexias, we did share our bodies.”

“Then why do you deny me?”

“Deny you? “ Lysis exclaimed, rising off the couch, pulling me to my feet. “What did I ever deny you?”

Now that the spark was lit, my intent was to fan the flame. “Oh, Lysis, let us be one in body as we are of one mind. Why must we seek from others what we most want from each other? Let us not speak of, but do what is in our hearts.”

True to himself, Lysis countered my arguments with reason. “We cannot give into our passions. We must master them, as if we were driving a team of untamed horses.”

“I hardly think your passions were mastered when you saw me with Charmides.”

“I am your lover,” said Lysis with sudden vehemence, “Who has a right better than I to be jealous?”

Such outbursts from him were rare and it delighted me to see it. “You have the right, Lysis. But you have no cause. I love you. Only you. I have lain with you under the same cloak although you do not know it.”

“How could I not know?” Given the skepticism in his voice, he may as well have called me a liar.

“After your bout with Sostratos, I covered you with my body to keep you warm and ward Haides away had he come to steal you from me. Whatever time we have together is a gift from the gods. In return we must give the gods their due.”

“I must go to Delphi to untangle that riddle. What do you mean?”

“We must bond, Lysis, and sacrifice our seed. Do not smile at me. I am in earnest. Must I debase myself like the lowest-priced hetaira by displaying my wares?”

That he, my avowed lover, should spurn my offering kindled a rage within me and set my soul on fire. Tearing off my clothes, I stood naked and defiant before Lysis who gazed at me in utter amazement. “Behold.” I demanded “All that you see is yours for the taking.”

“Alexias, are you mad? Why are you acting like this? Has the wine gone to your head?”

“Yes, I am drunk. Drunk with desire and we have been sober too long. You once thought me beautiful, Lysis. Am I no longer pleasing to you?”

“How can you ask me that? Can you not know how much I honor you?”

“I would have you love me more and honor me less,” I said, guiding his hand. Where his hand touched, his lips followed.

He lifted me onto the couch, where I watched him shed his garments while his eyes locked on mine. As Lysis eased himself on top of me, I felt his weight and shifted to better support him. I knew the feel of flesh on flesh from wrestling in palaestra but this was different. I wondered whether Lysis would teach me the lessons his lover taught him, that I would teach my beloved when my time came.

Lysis would wrap me in the warmth and tenderness of his kisses, but when they ventured from my lips down the length of my body, each kiss seared my skin like a burning shard of coal. Although I hungered for what I would receive, I gasped as he infused me with his essence, filling me as one would fill a cup until it overflowed.

A harmony of birds supplanted the croaking of the frog; rain-washed vines gleamed in the early morning light; and on the terrace floor, lying intertwined, a pair of garland crowns. I felt a warm vapor brush my ear, as I heard Lysis whisper my name, and I said, “I am here.”