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Nasir was driving back home, a little faster than he was supposed to. He was on his way to surprise Agron, who had a day off and was probably wandering about in their small garden, trying to get a bit of order in their chaos of plants.
Agron had always lived together with nature and Nasir had to admit that he was better at tending to their plants and vegetable patch.
Even the farmer whom Agron worked for held him in the highest esteem for he knew biological methods to almost anything, which made his farm worthy of a bio-stamp, which in turn made him earn more money.
Needless to say that he wanted Agron to stay on as a hand.
Nasir breathed deeply. He was nervous about his surprise. It had been one year since Agron had returned with him to this time, one year with a lot of ups and downs, but mostly ups.
Agron had adjusted pretty well to this new era, having learned the language faster than anyone thought possible and being able to handle modern life.
Nasir had learned how to read and write his first words only six months ago and Agron was now studying with a tutor.
They had explained the situation as best as they could and once a week the teacher, a lovely woman called Angela, came by to study together with Agron. He was making immense progress.
Before he registered it fully, he was home. Nasir turned off the engine of the car when he was parked right in front of their house and walked in through the front door, dropping his bag on a nearby seat as he went.
“Agron!”
He called out for his lover, but got no response. He frowned as he knew that Agron would be home today. He had chosen today to take half the day off so that they could be together, perhaps celebrate, and then he could tell Agron what he found out not a week ago. He had been very excited about it, but he figured that this would be the right time.
Apparently not, as Agron was nowhere to be found.
They only owned one car, and Agron did not like to take public transport, so Nasir figured out that he could have gone away on foot. He scanned through the living room one more time to see that nothing was out of order, when he found a note stuck to the refrigerator, where Agron thought he would look first when he got home.
‘OUT. BACK BEFORE DARK.’
It read in large letters.
Nasir frowned again.
He waited for several hours, typing on his laptop and trying to work, but his thoughts always wandered to where Agron might have gone. He knew that he should give his lover some privacy, but in the end his curiosity and his worries won.
There was only one place that Agron would go alone and stay away for so long.
Nasir headed out to the stone circle which had changed his life.
It took him about half an hour to locate the circle again. It was not far from where they lived, but on foot it would have taken Agron a few hours. Nasir left the car by the side of the road and got a flashback of how he did so the last time he was here, when he got caught up in the chaos that was involuntary timetravel.
“Come on, Agron.” He whispered softly as he started to walk. Footsteps in the flattened grass made it easy for him to trace Agron and he found the large man sitting on a boulder just outside the circle, staring at it with a tear streaked face.
“Oh, Agron.” He sighed as he stepped forward, making a little noise so that the other wouldn’t startle too greatly at his approach. Agron looked up and managed a small sad smile at seeing who was there to disturb him.
He had not meant to go out here, that was clear. He only wore a tanktop and jeans and it must have been quite cold at this time of year, but to Agron the winters of now were nothing compared to what he had to endure two thousand years ago.
“I’m sorry… do you want me gone?” Nasir asked as he came closer. Agron shook his head and held out his hand, so that Nasir could sit on the boulder next to him. The German put his arm around Nasir’s shoulders and pressed him a little closer, saying nothing.
“You weren’t there when I came home.” Nasir tried to explain why he was here, why he went in search of Agron, he didn’t want to seem like the jealous type, who traced his boyfriend’s every step.
“Apologies. I did not think, I just acted. I needed… I needed this.” Agron briefly explained as he looked towards the stone circle again.
“You never told me.” Nasir’s tone was heavy, he felt guilty of taking Agron away from his family, but Agron had always insisted that everything was fine and that he was together with the person who made everything worth it.
But this… this made Nasir worry.
“I didn’t want you to worry.” Agron looked at Nasir now and Nasir reached up, cupping Agron’s cheek with one hand, looking up at him.
“You should be able to tell me anything. Please Agron, are you homesick? Do you want to go back? Is this modern life too much for you? Please tell me. I feel guilty enough as it is, I don’t want you to stay if… if that means you are unhappy.”
It pained Nasir a great deal to say these words, but if it would make Agron happy, he would have him return home.
“No! Don’t say that!” Agron half growled as he slapped Nasir’s hand away and stood quickly, grumbling something about people not understanding. He held his hands to his head and breathed deeply before turning around.
“It kills me that I don’t know what happened to them. To my brother, my tribe. I wish for them to have lived happy, but I know there was a Roman threat and I have no idea how they fared. If the Romans captured them, if… if they were enslaved…” Agron’s tears threatened again and he sniffed a couple of times, holding them back.
Nasir stood and went to Agron, embracing him tightly.
“I might be able to help you with those questions.” He said as he looked up to Agron again.
He was met with silence and a deep frown. He stepped back and produced a leaflet from his pocket, his surprise for Agron.
“I thought to give you this today, as a surprise for our… well, our anniversary. I have been looking up your tribe’s history, but I hadn’t found anything until about a week ago. There are several digsites here in the area and a small museum has been built for the findings. I am quite certain that one of the digsites is your brother’s and your clan.”
Agron took the leaflet from Nasir and tried to read it through, but some of the words were still to hard for him. He looked from the letters to Nasir and back and then he gave a small smile, hoping that he would gain some information.
“Can we go and see it?”
“I have made some phonecalls and the digsite is not open for the public, but we can go in there when I’ve made an appointment. I made one for us today if you would like to go. It’s in an hour.”
Agron said nothing, but wrapped his arms around Nasir and embraced him tightly before lowering his head and kissing him soundly on the lips. His smile grew bigger and he kissed Nasir again until they were both breathless.
“Gratitude. I would very much like to go.” He answered.
They walked to the car together and in silence they drove to the small museum, which was built only a few hundred metres from the most important digsite of the area.
Nasir had not been entirely sure that this was the encampment of Agron’s tribe, until he discovered one of the findings in the museum.
When the car stopped, Agron looked at the square building with disbelief in his eyes. He almost did not recognise the area, because it was all concrete now, except for a few patches of green, where there had been nothing but trees in his time.
It saddened him greatly, but he was here to find out about his family, and so he stepped out of the car, following Nasir.
Out of the corner of his eye he spotted some stone foundations, marking a village which he had never seen, his people had not built with stone, but with wood. That was easy to carry when they had to move if the hunt slowed down. He wondered who this new tribe was on their grounds.
He walked into the museum together with Nasir, and they were warmly greeted by a young lady at the desk.
“My name is Nasir, I called.” Nasir said briefly and she nodded.
“You have access to the museum and the grounds, Mr. Nasir, you and your companion. I was told that you might know more about the history of these findings.” She then quickly added and Nasir smiled to Agron.
“A little.” He then winked at her before entering the museum, walking straight to the object which had caught his eye the first time.
“Look Agron.” He pointed towards the sliver of iron in the glass case in front of them.
“What is it?” Agron asked as he studied it, having no clue where it came from.
“It is the steel tip of one of my shoes, the reason why I know we are in the right place. I must have lost it when I was with you, but at the time I thought I lost it earlier. I spoke to one of the archaeologists and it is a riddle to them why a steel boot tip can be two thousand years old. They tested it.”
“So this is…” Agron trailed off as he looked around.
“From your clan, of a long period of time. They endured, Agron, that is what I wanted to show you. Come.”
Nasir took Agron’s hand and led him through the building, stopping here and there when Agron insisted upon it. He did not find much that he recognised though and he was quite disappointed in the museum, until Nasir led him outside towards the stone foundation of the used to be village.
“This is not of my clan.” He muttered.
“It is, but of hundreds of years after you were gone.” Nasir answered before he looked around and then found what he was looking for. It was a stone slab broken in half, with a barely readable inscription, in a form of ancient German.
Not many people could read it, but Nasir was sure that Agron could make out the words if he tried.
“Can you read it to me?” Nasir asked sweetly and like always Agron did what he asked. He kneeled down at the level of the stone and started to whisper some of the words, trying to translate as best as he could.
“It is a form of gratitude towards one of the greatest clan leaders… who fought the Romans with success.” He frowned as he tried to read the other letters and gasped, his hand flew to his mouth and he shook his head.
“Duro.” He whispered then. Lovingly he traced the name.
“Yeah.” Nasir said softly as he knelt down beside Agron and looked at the slab.
“Your brother did as promised, Agron, your family endured and thrived. I even found your name, look…” He pointed a little further on the stone, where Agron could indeed decipher his own name, with another note of gratitude, this time of his brother himself. Apparently Duro thought that he owed all to Agron, and mentioned it at every turn.
“Fuck the gods.” Agron muttered more to himself than to Nasir. “Gratitude, baby brother… you’ve done what I never could.”
Nasir had quietly made his way to the entrance of the building, leaving Agron alone with his family. He hoped that he had done well with giving this piece of information to Agron, but he feared that Agron might want to return to his tribe, knowing that they would survive history. It was only when he felt a hand on his shoulder that he turned his head.
“You were gone.” Agron stated and Nasir nodded once before he went to the car, Agron following swiftly.
When Nasir did not talk on their way home, Agron was now the one to be worried. He waited until they were inside the house before he took Nasir’s hand and made him sit down on the couch together with him.
“I would know your thoughts, for they are heavy.” He said softly and the strangely spoken words, from a long time ago, made it even worse for Nasir.
“I have been a selfish fuck, bringing you here.” He then almost shouted. “You were supposed to be a part of that life, of Duro’s life, of that tribe, and here you are, stuck with me, in a time you don’t even know. I am so sorry, Agron.” His tears flowed freely now, and Agron was next to Nasir in a second, embracing him.
“I was supposed to find you, or you me, and that is it. You… you came through time to find me, Nasir. Duro understood and though I miss him greatly, he is always a part of me. Knowing that he has done well, lived a good life, was very important to me. Gratitude for showing me.”
“I wish I could have done more.” Nasir whispered, with his head bowed down, looking at his hands.
“You have saved my life. I would have been dead already if you hadn’t been there. There is nothing more a person can do for someone.” Agron said strongly as he grasped Nasir’s chin and made him look up.
“I love you, Nasir.”
“But…” Nasir began again and Agron kissed him, pulling him closer.
“Just accept it. Accept me.” Agron whispered to Nasir’s lips before kissing him again, not coming up for air until they absolutely had to.
“I love you too.” Nasir smiled back and he peppered kisses on Agron’s face, before biting down gently on his neck. “You have no idea how much.” He sighed as Agron’s hands slid under his shirt, exposing his skin.
“Perhaps it is time that you show me then. If you would still like to celebrate, that is.” Agron smiled at Nasir and he remembered again why he fell so head over heels for this man.
Agron was gorgeous, both inside and out.
“How could I resist?” He beamed back, before capturing Agron’s lips in another kiss.