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Ven couldn’t quite believe how quickly this day had come, nor how nervous he was suddenly. He had been working steadily at his job (a paid-for job! Who would have thought it!) almost ever since he’d got his freedom, with the occasional paid contribution to Ave! serve to help boost his earnings. Whatever might be said of Drusus Varius Metellus as a master, he was a pretty decent patron, helping Ven find this flat in an insula in an area of Rome habituated mostly by freedmen and plebeians, and a job to help pay for it. That he’d also got the flat at a much cheaper rent because his patron happened to be the ultimate owner of the insula (and other insulae as well) didn’t hurt.
The clock in the hallway chimed the hour and Ven took a last glance around the pretty green-and-white open plan living room, straightening a cushion on the sofa. Ari would be here soon, in person, a free man as Ven was. It still sounded wrong in his head, to think of himself as a freedman, even though his certificate of manumission was safely filed away along with the lease agreement and the urban aediles’ tax bill and various other important bits of paper in the filing cabinet in what had originally been the second bedroom but was now the tablīnum.
The buzzer went, making him jump, and he walked along the short corridor towards the door to the flat, before lifting the intercom receiver off the hook.
"H… Hello?"
"It’s me, Ari," a familiar voice said, sounding nervous.
"Hi - come on up," Ven replied, pressing the button that released the building’s main door. He could hear the faint buzz and then a click as the door opened, and he hung the receiver up, opening the door to the flat to await his boyfriend. He couldn’t help the little shiver of excitement as he dared to actually name their relationship to himself.
The insula wasn’t that big, though they were on the top floor, up two flights of stairs, which gave them a stunning view across Rome, with a view towards the distant lights of the Flavian Amphitheatre out of the side window in the living room, with the Forum Romanum beyond it and the Quirinal Hill in the distance to the right.
Ari pushed the door open and came in, looking nervous and excited and somehow younger than Ven expected. He had a rucksack on his back that probably held everything he owned - slaves didn’t gather many possessions on the whole, being possessions themselves, though most masters were kind enough to consider a slave’s belongings to be theirs. Ari let the bag drop to the floor as the door closed behind him with a click and Ven wrapped his arms around him. They found themselves kissing, deeply, as if for the first time ever and Ven had no idea how long it was before they broke apart.
"I… I want to show you…" Ven said, suddenly nervous again. He grabbed Ari’s hand and pulled him along the corridor, ignoring the closed doors on the left and right and heading for the open space at the end of the corridor.
The living room was open-plan, with a tiled kitchen area to one side just before the corridor ended at the living room proper. Obviously when the insula was built the kitchen had actually been a separate room, but now it had been knocked through, with a breakfast bar separating it from the dining area.
The living room was green and white, furnished in a bright modern style with a comfortable sofa and easy chairs facing a TV situated between the two windows in the long wall. There were only two dining chairs drawn up to the round white melamine dining table to the left, but the three-piece suite around the rug to the right could seat five. Ari supposed that at a pinch they could eat off trays, or maybe they could buy some folding chairs for when they had friends come to visit, if they wanted to sit at the table.
There was a corner desk past the sofa, and a ceiling-high wall unit with shelves and cupboard space between the desk and the corridor. The long wall that he was facing was painted a mid-green similar to that of the sofa, and the other walls were magnolia. The floors were polished wooden planks and altogether the space felt light and airy, yet cool and calming. There was even a proper lararium in the corner, with a simple shrine and a hanging lantern for the Vestal flame.
There were one or two plants dotted here and there, and Ven sounded anxious as he spoke. "And we’re allowed to get a cat, and I got you some plants but if you don't like them, I'll change them - and I hope you like the green sofa and chairs - I was worried they might be a bit bright…"
"No… no, it’s perfect," Ari said, looking around. It was like a palace compared to what he’d had before. He walked toward the sofa and realised that the right-hand window was not a window at all but a patio door.
"There’s a balcony; I haven’t done anything there yet because I thought you might like to…" Ven continued as Ari found the key in the keyhole and let himself out. The sounds and scents of the city hit him, at a remove because of the distance; they were neither in the busiest part of the city nor in the quietest area. A nice seat out here - maybe a swing seat, and some planters or something; it could be a nice area to relax, maybe even to eat their evening meal on a warm day. The blank brick wall to his left obviously divided them from the balcony of the next-door flat, ensuring their privacy.
He came back in and Ven led him back along the corridor a short way. "This is the bathroom, there’s only a shower, but it’s big enough for two. I think…"
It was a nice tidy little bathroom with the floor tiled with tiny tesserae in pale shades of blue, brown and grey. The wall opposite the door, which must be the party wall dividing this apartment from the one next door, was tiled in pale brown with a border of darker brown diamonds partway up.The other walls were painted in a pale blue, picking up the blues of the floor.
The next door, of frosted glass to allow some light in, opened to the utility room, which was floored with the same tiny tiles as the bathroom floor and had plain beige walls. Beside the washing machine and clothes dryer, it contained a single metal-framed cot and a metal locker, obviously providing accommodation for a slave as well as the laundry equipment, although the mattress was bare.
"I guess they want to make sure everyone can house a slave in SIPAS-approved conditions," Ven said, and closed the door. "I’ll do the laundry if you want."
"Don’t be silly, it’s OK - we’ll take turns, unless you’d rather…" Ari said, and crossed the corridor to the first of the two frosted glass doors in the wall opposite.
"That would be the second cubiculum, but it seemed more sensible to turn it into a tablīnum," Ven said. "There’s a sofa-bed, though, in case we have anyone who wants to stay over."
It was a more colourful room, with a statement wall in a vibrant deep blue, toned down by the beige of the other walls. There was a simple desk against the blue wall, in the same style as the corner desk in the living room, and above it hung a modern painting that was just a riot of colour, echoing the colours of the striped rug on the floor. The two-seat sofa-bed and the armchair in the corner were in different but complementary shades of pale blue, preventing the bright colours of the rug and artwork from getting too overwhelming. There was a two-drawer filing cabinet in dark wood in the corner, and a free-standing bookcase of the same colour against the wall opposite the desk, with modern-looking end tables at either side of it, so that people sitting there could put their drinks down on something.
It looked as though the different styles should clash, badly, but they didn’t at all.
"I didn’t know what you liked, I hope you like it," Ven said, and indicated the filing cabinet. "All the important papers are in there - you can put your manumission with mine."
"Later, maybe," Ari said, still looking around.
"I thought… maybe you’d like this for your office, if you want? I don’t mind working in the other room - or you can work out there and I can be in here, if we need space. But we can think about that later, you haven’t seen the bedroom yet."
The bedroom was calming, relaxing, in shades of grey, with a modernist round black-and-white rug on the floor, and a modern-looking wardrobe in white, with a small chest of drawers beside it.
"I don’t know why the wardrobe’s so big, I don’t have all that much, and I don’t suppose you do, either," Ven said. "Though we'll probably collect a whole lot of stuff now that…"
"Now that we can," Ari said, looking at the double bed before wrapping his arms around Ven. "I can't believe it, it doesn't seem real." He put a hand up to his neck, feeling where his collar had been.
"It is real, really real," Ven said and closed his eyes, breathing in the scent of Ari’s hair and skin. The hug broke a moment later and Ven looked abashed. "You must be thirsty - what can I get you to drink? If we don’t have it, yet, there’s a convenience store downstairs at ground level - you must have noticed it."
He led the way back to the kitchen and put the kettle on.
"I just put things where I thought seemed logical," he said as he got a couple of mugs out. "If you don’t like it or think it’d be better some other way, feel free to shift stuff - I want this to be your home because… Well, it is your home, and if there’s anything you don’t like, or want to change, we can."
"No, I like it - I do like it," Ari said, and nervously began opening cupboard doors to see what there was. "I like the green and white - and that tiling’s nice, though I don’t suppose you had anything to do with it."
Ven grinned. "I like it too - and no, I didn’t. But it’s different, isn’t it?"
The tiling in question was a herringbone pattern of long thin tiles of white ceramic on the wall opposite the corridor, forming a splash-back under the wall cabinets.
"I’m not sure how practical the worktop’s going to be," Ven said, setting the kettle to boil. "The only real usable counter-top seems to be this corner unit, everything else is... sort of squashed in between the sink and the stove."
"It’ll be enough for just the two of us, and it means we can still talk if one of us is cooking and the other’s on the sofa or something." Ari found himself leaning on the counter in question, just watching Ven as he moved around.
"You didn’t say what you wanted?" Ven said, looking up anxiously, an expression which melted into a smile as their eyes met.
"Um. Tea, I think," Ari replied, smiling back.
"I was thinking, perhaps we could have a takeaway tonight - I don’t know that I want to spend our first evening together cooking, you know," Ven said, and brought a mug over. "I don’t know how you like it - we’ve got milk, and sugar…"
"A bit of milk," Ari said, and Ven got the milk jug out of the fridge.
"And if there’s anything you want, we can get it," Ven said, returning the jug to the fridge once they both had milk. "I mean… well, I don’t know what you like. Maybe we should go grocery shopping together this week?"
"Maybe," Artemis said shyly. "I’m happy with… whatever…"
"No," Ven said, making Ari blink. "No, don’t say that. You’re not… We aren’t slaves any more. If we want something, we can have it, we don’t have to think whether someone else will let us, or not let us, or… anything. If we’re sensible about it, we can have cream cakes or jam tart or chocolate cake and nobody can say we can’t. If there’s something you want, we can get it, we’ve only got ourselves to please. At least here - and even at work, it’s not how it was… before." He wrapped his hands around his own mug and came out of the kitchen to take a seat on the sofa, Ari trailing him a little uncertainly.
"And if there’s anything you don’t want to do, you don’t have to. Apart from, oh, things like going to the doctor’s, or the dentist’s or… things like that. And if you don’t like something, we won’t have it, that’s easy enough. You don’t have to eat things you don’t like any more."
Ven settled on the sofa and Ari sat down at the other end before kicking his sandals off and curling up beside Ven, careful not to jog him and spill his drink.
"It's a nice size flat," Ven continued, unconsciously winding his free hand into Ari's soft red hair and rubbing his scalp with the side of his thumb. "Big enough for us each to have some privacy if we want - if you're revising for an exam, or if I've got a deadline. And cosy enough to spend time together."
"It’s not got regular hours, you know - my job, I mean," Ari said, sounding a little anxious.
"I know. Mine doesn’t either."
Ari smiled up at him. "But you can set your own hours, can’t you? If you don’t want to work past a certain time, you don’t have to."
"Mostly. There are going to be times I’m busier than others, and times when I’m not going to be so busy. We’ll figure things out. Oh - I meant to give you something!" He patted Ari’s shoulder. "Let me up, just for a moment."
He headed back along towards the door, to the key hooks on the wall, and returned a moment later. "Your keys - you’ll be needing them!"
Ari took them - two keys on a simple wire keyring - and blinked furiously as Ven settled back down. He stared at the view out of the window, trying to control himself - his emotions had always been near the surface and he didn’t want Ven to think that he was upset or anything when he wasn’t. Ven didn’t say anything, just reached for his drink and wrapped his free arm around Ari’s shoulder, gently pulling the younger boy to lean against him.
"It’s all so new, isn’t it," Ven said, apparently talking at random. Ari nodded and sipped his drink.
"It… this makes it real, somehow," Ari said, closing his fist around the keys until he could feel the imprint in his palm.
Ven dropped a kiss on his head. "It is. It’s all real and it’s going to be just perfect. You see if it isn’t!"
Ari sighed happily. He put the keys on the coffee-table and snuggled a little firmer into Ven’s side. It already was perfect, just the way it was.