#metrobius

[catilinas]

[elainesknight]

The reunion

Fluffy Sullobius (that’s what it’s called right?) fic! I managed to write something and it did not turn into angst, yay me. 

Summary: Sulla and Metrobius meet again when Sulla briefly returns to Rome during the war against the germanic tribes.  Length: 1011 words 

This is for @gayusoctgayvius; my bro, the Silo to my Drusus, my companion in researching sexy Sulla’s sexiness

Ever since he had heard that Sulla would return to Rome, he had told himself that he would not be scared. He had tried the old actor’s trick, had replayed this scene in his mind a thousand times, had experienced the feelings of the character as if they were his own.

Yet, as Sulla’s house finally came into view, he was scared. Of what exactly he was not able to tell, it was more a cold fog hugging him from behind, a deep unsettlement that became even harder to bear as he could not rationalize its source.

It was far from the first time he visited this house. In his youth, while the two mistresses of the house, Sulla’s stepmother Clitumna and Nicopolis, the lover of both stepmother and son, had still been alive, he had come here often with his mentor and others from his sphere of society. The parties they had had were still alive in his mind, not only because he had met Sulla this way, but also because he had genuinely liked the two women. They had been of modest birth and prone to far less modest life choices and Metrobius had thought their freedom strangely inspiring. He had certainly never feared them.

Now he tried to pinpoint what had changed to make him feel so dreadful now. Was it Sulla’s wife? Definitely not lowborn that one, a Julia of the Julii Caesares, the younger of two sisters, which was why she was called Julilla. Of the girl he knew virtually nothing, save that she was beautiful and that her older sister had married Gaius Marius. And, of course, that it had been her who had changed Sulla. Metrobius slowed down, considered this. No, he decided, she had not truly changed him. Merely she had acted as a catalysator for the wishes Sulla had always harbored. Sulla, who could be tragic when he managed to break free from the shackles of melodrama, had married her because he could see his future in her eyes. Poor girl. Then again, the Juliae were said to be descendants of Venus, so it was probably fit to pity Sulla too as Venus was not famous for making particularly many men happy.

Metrobius shook off the thoughts about Julilla and accepted that he could not use her as an excuse. He was not really scared of the skinny blonde girl he had seen from afar on the markets. He was scared that there was no place for him in that house anymore. He was not really scared of the hollow silence that was bound to rule the place now that both Clitumna and Nicpolis were gone. He was scared that Sulla had decided that he did not want him in his bright future anymore. He was not scared of the steward who asked him who he was and what business he had with the master. He was scared that Sulla did not love him anymore.

But Metrobius was an actor, one of the best the city owned, and he wore confidence like armour. When the steward announced him and led him into the study (still the same room as in the old days), he stopped shortly behind the door.

Sulla looked up from his desk and Metrobius had barely managed to realize how good he looked, when he became too overcome with the way Sulla looked at him to form a coherent thought. They stared at each other for what seemed like an eternity. Then Sulla broke the silence.

“Metrobius.”

Sulla’s eyes left his face only for a moment and darted to the door. Metrobius understood and moved to lock the door like in a dream. He loves me, he thought warmly and smiled.

They met halfway and embraced, Metrobius noting with some amusement that he was taller than Sulla now.

“Are you taller than me?” asked Sulla from below and Metrobius grinned.

“So it seems.”

“Fate does not spare me.”

“So it appears indeed, Lucius Cornelius” said Metrobius with his most tragic voice. Sulla laughed quietly, a dark and breathy sound against Metrobius’ shoulder, and he felt himself shiver.

Sulla took a step back, his hands on Metrobius’ shoulders, and looked upwards.

“This is terrible” he said and proceeded to stand on his tiptoes in order to kiss Metrobius. Laughing softly, Metrobius returned the kiss, then decided that he could try his luck a little. Now it was him who took a step back and Sulla, seeing the glee in his eyes, shook his head but could not keep the smile out of his face.

“Don’t even think about it!”

“Don’t ruin a perfectly good scene” said Metrobius and lifted Sulla up. They kissed again, parting only when Sulla felt it was necessary to complain.

“I’m spared nothing, am I?”

“I don’t think so.”

Metrobius carried Sulla over to the couch, overestimated his strength only a little and managed to settle them quite gracefully, Sulla on top of him.

Sulla grinned.

“I need to tell you about the Germans” he said and Metrobius lifted an eyebrow.

“We’re here in this position, we locked the door and you...want to talk?”

Sulla rested his head on Metrobius’ chest and patted his biceps.

“It’s a good story, you’ll love it.”

“I’m in love with an old man.”

Sulla lay very still for a long moment, then raised his head to kiss him deeply and Metrobius understood what he would not say aloud.

“You’ll love me even more after you’ve heard my story. I mean, it’s of course always exciting to bed Lucius Cornelius Sulla but won’t it be even more so after you’ve heard how I managed to become a German thane?”

Metrobius, accepting his fate, rolled his eyes.

“Even more exciting? How will my poor heart stand it?”

“I believe in you.”

Metrobius grinned and wrapped an arm around Sulla.

“Tell me then. How did you manage to make them believe you were a German in the first place?”

Sulla settled more comfortably on Metrobius’ chest and began to tell his story.

[elainesknight]

10 & 36 for my trashfaves, sulla and metrobius.....

Thank you! 

10. ArtSulla: Sulla is really interested in arts, especially the theatre and he’s really good at deciding at first glance if a work of art is good or not. That said he has a thing for really bad artworks/bad actors/badly written plays because he thinks it’s hilarious. After he is established as the first man in Rome/dictator he goes to the theatres more often than before, partly because he likes it, but also out of spite because his so called allies are not happy about it but have to play along. 

Metrobius: Metrobius is an artist/actor but I think his relationship with the theatre is different to Sulla’s because it’s his job/what he does to earn a living. Like Sulla he thinks bad actors/plays are funny as long as he is no way involved with them because over time he becomes really proud of his skills. 

36:  Sacrifice

Sulla: Sulla sacrifces a lot for his career. He has to give up Metrobius and with him all the friends he has from less respected ways of life. He has lived a certain way for many years and to just give up his old life together with most (if not all) the people he trusts is…hard. Yet I think that he always planned to go back to his “old lifestyle” after finishing with the whole politics business. 

Metrobius: Metrobius sacrifices his relationship with Sulla for Sulla’s political ambition and gets almost nothing in return (compared to Sulla who rises quite high and becomes dictator, so his sacrifices were not in vain). Yet I think that he always loved Sulla and watched his rise to power from afar and was proud of him. 

Thank you again for asking! 

[elainesknight]

a prompt if you want it: literally Anything from metrobius' pov

So, this took me forever. But I simply could not decide what I wanted to write for this prompt. So, I’m sorry and I hope you like it. 

Metrobiusclosed the door behind him and sat down on the floor. Now that it was finallyover, the house was quiet. He closed his eyes and searched for something, afeeling, within himself. But there was nothing but emptiness. The effort ofholding himself together in front of Valeria seemed to have drained him of allenergy to actually think or process his emotions. Sometimes he had imaginedthis situation. When he was younger and more fanciful, he had envisioned howSulla died in some war far, far away from him and how they would announce hisdeath from the rostra. In these dark visions he had always known beforehand, hehad felt that his lover was no longer amid the living. He had imagined that hewould weep, that he would throw himself on Sullas body and cling to him. Now,Sulla was dead. And here he was, sitting in the twilight of his room andfeeling nothing but emptiness. No tears, no heartbreak, just the devastatingfeeling that it had ended. Metrobius felt a smile creep onto his face and thenhe was laughing - a frightful sound, devoid of anything human. He threw hishead back against the door, and then again and again. Slowly, his laughterbecame more of a cry and when he finally ran out of breath, his mouth opened ina soundless scream. “It’s over” he thought but the pain he now felt was like a veil. A thin cloththat covered the abysmal emptiness within his mind, a fragment of human feelinghe had created so he did not have to look into the true depths of himself. Hedid not realize it but never before had Metrobius been so much like his deadlover. “And now” he thought, still smiling horribly, “Now I have to run. But I willnever be free of you. I never was.” All these years, he had loved him. Metrobius remembered everything. The partiesthey had attended when he was young. The clandestine meetings after Sulla hadembarked on his political career. And the horrible day Young Sulla had died.Oh, how he had prayed to the gods to take his worthless life in exchange forthe child.  Was that love? For Metrobius,it had been. He had to leave, had to run away and take Valeria, the poor girl, with him.She, who loved him. She, who would forever serve as a reminder of the man hehad loved. Still loved. Metrobius closed his eyes. “May be” he thought with a suddenness that surprised him “May be I can make herhappy. I will try to find it in myself to love her like she wishes to be loved.For I know that I will never love anyone like I loved him.” Metrobius smiled but this time it was genuine. Of course Valeria expected himto take lovers like he had done all his life. But now he decided that he wouldn’t.Not anymore. For every time he had lain with another man he had known that itwas not to be. He was Sullas boy. The others had been a way of passing the timehe spend waiting for Sulla to call upon him. He had liked them, sure, but inthe end he had always known that it would end with Sulla. Now that Sulla wasgone, it did not make sense anymore. “The sun” he thought as he got up “has set. And I will not try to replace it.”

[lacommunarde]

Vampire Chronicles rant. If you read on, you were warned.

So Marius is named Marius. This creates several problems namely, there was a man named Marius and his story in pretty well recorded, and if it wasn’t well enough, Colleen McCullough complied it all in one place in First Man in Rome. Also, Gaius Marius was dark haired. Marius de Romanus from the Vampire Chronicles is blond.

However, Marius could be one of Gaius Marius’ kids. Gaius Marius married a Julia which means the probability of the children being blond was very high, because most of the Julian line was blond. Yes, that Julian line, the one that gave us Octavius “Augustus” and Julius Caesar. Which would mean he would have been growing up against a backdrop of Marius and Sulla, and would have almost certainly had a nickname. And I could totally see someone, probably Sulla’s boyfriend, Metrobius because Metrobius was good at being discreet and because the world would have found out about blood-drinkers so fast if Sulla was turned, and because Metrobius would have had quite a few years after Sulla died and would have been bored half to hell, just showing up after The Vampire Armand and Blood and Gold were published and being all “Hello, shit-head, how are you? You tried to fashion yourself after Sulla, didn’t you?” And just chewing him another and getting along splendidly well with Armand, with Marius, who might not have consciously fashioned himself after Sulla, just staring at their budding friendship with horror, as Metrobius tells babystories about Marius de Romanus.

[rheaitis]

Don’t erase bisexuality

Trying to read Peter Green’s Sword of Pleasure and hoping like hell it doesn’t just relegate Metrobius to Sulla’s distant friend, though it seems likelier and likelier as I go on. Already Green’s Sulla is most unlike the one in Colleen McCullough’s Masters of Rome, whom I imprinted on, and his Metrobius is being distant and is older than Sulla, which also hahahano. But the style is good, and I’ll forgive a lot for more Sulla. Just keep him bisexual, please please please. At least a third of my love for Sulla is based on the fact that he was in love with Metrobius for most of his adult life, was closeted his entire political career and then eventually retired with Metrobius, who had had his own fairly good career in the theatre.

[shezan]

NO, I do not need to go on a diet AT ALL. #Metrobius #mycats