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They didn't know how it happened, and they thought it best not to question the universe, but somehow Andrew and Neil had gone to bed in their dorm at Palmetto and woke up on a battlefield. Which battlefield? It was hard to tell for Neil, since he never paid attention in Humanities, but Andrew nailed it on the dot the minute he saw the type of armor that the men were wearing and the type of weapons they carried. Luckily, they wound up by a river where there wasn't much fighting going on, but they knew they needed to get to safety quickly.
"Where are we?" Neil asked, a little awestruck by the whole thing.
"It would appear to be Bronze Age Greece, although I don't think we're actually in what we call Greece right now," Andrew replied. He'd surveyed the land he'd been able to and determined it didn't look very much like Greece.
Neil looked even more awestruck, and was about to ask how the fuck they got there when the fighting grew a little too close for comfort.
"We need to get out of here before we get stabbed or something," Neil replied instead, and pointed towards the beach where he saw a camp. There had to be safety there.
Andrew nodded and got up off the ground before offering a hand to Neil to help him up. Neil wanted to keep hold of Andrew's hand but that was not conducive to running.
"Race you to the camp?" Neil proposed with a small grin.
"You're going to win, but whatever. Sure." Andrew replied rolling his eyes at Neil. Neil knew very well the only person who could come close to beating him in a footrace was Kevin but even Kevin fell behind.
Neil took off, his speed an astounding thing while Andrew tried to keep up with him. Andrew wasn't slow, but he did reach the camp almost a full minute after Neil.
"I won," Neil said with a grin on his face. "We'll talk my reward later," he continued with a wink. Andrew just rolled his eyes again.
The two of them walked into what appeared to be the very end of the camp and found a tent that appeared to be occupied since both of them could hear the loveliest music coming from it. They decided to investigate.
The tent flaps were open, but Neil still thought it'd be rude to walk in. Andrew didn't care about rudeness at the moment so he dragged Neil in by the hand and once they were in the tent they were greeted by a blond man playing a lyre while a brunette man looked on what appeared to be lovingly. Andrew wondered why these two weren't out fighting. He was about to ask when it finally clicked. Bronze age Greek armor on unfamiliar terrain. A camp by the beach. And a solider who wasn't fighting. This was the Trojan War and he was standing in Achilles' tent.
"Sorry to intrude," Neil said, before Andrew could drag them back out. "But could you tell us exactly where we are?"
Andrew looked over like he was going to kill Neil if Achilles didn't slaughter them first. But then he realized that Achilles had no reason to. The other man in the tent must be Patroclus, who was thankfully still alive and thus not causing Achilles to kill everything in his path due to rage and grief.
Achilles looked up from the lyre, and so did Patroclus. Both of them looked surprised to say the least. Neil and Andrew were dressed in each other's hoodies and Neil wore a pair of orange sweatpants, while Andrew's sweatpants were black. Definitely out of the ordinary for Bronze Age Greece.
"You're in Troy. But...aren't you hot? You're covered head to toe in fabric it appears. How are you not dying from heat exhaustion?" Achilles asked, perplexed by his visitors.
Andrew and Neil looked down at their clothes and they both shrugged.
"It was cold where we came from. And we didn't get the opportunity to change," Neil replied, very glad that the universe hadn't taken off his hoodie to put his multitude of scars on display. He was even more glad for Andrew because he knew that he didn't wear his armbands if he was wearing long sleeves now and he would've hated for Andrew to have to deal with his scars being exposed.
"Where did you come from?" Patroclus asked, while Achilles stared at the foreign clothes.
"Palmetto State University in South Carolina," Andrew replied. "I know you don't know where that is so I'll explain. It's across the ocean to the west."
"No, I can't say I've heard of South Carolina, but we haven't explored much of the west. Perhaps we should. Although, I must say it must be very cold there to dress like that and I don't really like the cold," Achilles chipped in before Patroclus had a chance to respond. "Allow me to introduce ourselves. I'm Achilles, son of Peleus from Pthia and this is my...friend Patroclus, son of Menenatius and basically also from Pthia."
Andrew raised an eyebrow when Achilles introduced Patroclus as his friend, but he understood the precaution. He could easily dispell any fears about homophobia with his own introduction.
"It's nice to meet both of you. I'm Andrew, and I have no clue who my father was. This is my lover, Neil, whose father is a piece of shit who doesn't deserve to be mentioned. We're both from South Carolina, although we've lived several different places throughout our lives," Andrew replied with a small shrug.
Patroclus looked at ease, and gave Neil a smile. "My father was also a piece of shit who doesn't deserve to be mentioned, and Achilles is actually my lover. He just didn't know how the two of you would react to people of roughly the same age and the same sex being lovers. It's not that common here. At least publicly."
Neil returned the smile, and dragged Andrew closer to the other two so they could sit down. He was getting tired of standing. "What does being the same age have to do with anything? Isn't that better?" Neil really hadn't paid attention at all in his Humanities courses.
"No, for you see it is disgraceful to be an adult man and play a submissive role to another adult man. It's a bunch of power dynamics bullshit. Besides. We're both disgraceful in that regard," Patroclus explained with a small flush to his cheeks. Achilles punched him in the shoulder lightly.
"What Patroclus means is that we view each other as equals despite whichever role we take on, which is uncommon in our society. I presume yours is different?"
Andrew, knowing a thing or two about pederasty, decided to put his knowledge to work. "In our society it's actually frowned upon to have a big age gap between you and your partner, even if it's just sex. It's considered very creepy, actually, and you can get sent to prison if the person is young enough. So a relationship like yours is perfectly normal to us."
"Interesting. Patroclus, maybe we should sail to South Carolina."
"You have a kingdom to get back to, remember?"
"The prophecy says I'll never leave this place alive, so my father will have already made arrangements for that. We could sneak off to South Carolina and no one would be the wiser."
"It's a pipe dream, Achilles."
Andrew gasped and poked Neil. "That's my line. I called Neil a pipe dream," he added for clarification.
Patroclus raised an eyebrow and shrugged. "If that's what you want, you know I'll follow you anywhere. I followed you to this hellhole."
"Why don't you ever tell me cheesy shit like that," Neil asked Andrew with a teasing look on his face.
"Because you're the cheesy one. And I hate it," Andrew replied, narrowing his eyes at Neil.
Neil leaned in and kissed Andrew's nose. "You love it. I'd follow you anywhere. So long as there's Exy."
Andrew rolled his eyes once more, but couldn't stop the smallest of smiles from forming on his face. Neil noticed and only smiled more.
"You two seem very happy together," Patroclus pointed out with a small smile. Achilles nodded and rested his head on Patroclus' shoulder. "It's nice to have found people who share a similar bond," Achilles added. Andrew had to hold back a joke of how he would go on a murderous rampage if someone killed Neil. Achilles didn't deserve to know his terrible fate and neither did Patroclus.
Instead Andrew simply brought up one Neil's scarred hands and kissed it, which of course, made Neil flush ever so slightly. He was surprised that neither Achilles nor Patroclus had asked about his scars, but maybe they were used to seeing such things on the battlefield that it was a non-issue.
"I'm glad you two are happy," Neil said after a brief moment of silence. "You deserve some happiness. I don't know if you could make it to South Carolina, but surely there must be another place you could escape to."
Achilles shook his head. "No, I fear the fates would intervene if we tried to escape this place. I have to die here eventually. Patroclus is right. It's a pipe dream." He sighed and moved to bury his head in Patroclus' neck.
"I'm sure if you can't find peace in this life, you'll find it in Elysium," Andrew said, feeling a little bad for the two of them. "I know you'll both end up there."
Achilles sat up and smiled at Andrew. "You think so? I mean I'm not exactly doing anything glorious right now. What if a disease kills me?"
Andrew shrugged. "It wouldn't take away what you did the rest of your life. Just, you know, try to have hope."
Neil beamed at Andrew, and it took all he had not to kiss Andrew passionately right then and there. Instead, he grabbed his hand and kissed it before squeezing it and not letting go. "You're such a sap."
"Shut up," Andrew hissed, but did nothing more to move out of Neil's grasp.
Just as suddenly as they'd appeared, the universe chose that moment to transport Andrew and Neil back to their own time and leave Achilles and Patroclus to their fate. The ancient Greeks never forgot what the two of them had said, and did eventually find each other in Elysium where they lived their after life without worry.
Andrew and Neil looked around at their dorm room with relief. "I don't know if that was some kind of fever dream, but I'm glad to be back," Andrew said, walking towards the bed and pulling Neil along with him. They snuggled up on the bed and Neil replied with "Even if it wasn't real, I'm glad it happened. I think you really helped them." He turned to face Andrew, their lips inches apart. "Yes or no?" He murmured.
"Yes," Andrew replied and closed the gap himself. It was a nice slow kiss, and after a few more of them they inevitably fell back asleep. Being transported by the universe took a toll on you, but this time when they woke up, they woke up in their own bed.
"Maybe it was a fever dream after all," Andrew muttered, but made no move to get out of bed. He wanted to savor every moment he had with Neil now because he knew that some couples weren't so lucky. "I'll follow wherever you go, though," he said softly and kissed Neil's scarred cheek.
"I knew you were a sap."