Chapter Text
“General.”
...
“General!”
Octavius flinched. Lost in thought, he hadn’t even realized his men had been calling for him, asking for instructions.
“What are your orders, General?”
Octavius looked around him. His men had just finished erecting a new statue for their diorama. It was dedicated to Jupiter, Octavius’ favourite god.
“You shall rest now. You deserve it,” Octavius said, his voice solemn and authoritative.
Cornelius, one of the Roman soldiers overseeing the project, shouted, “You heard Gaius Octavius! Go and get some rest!”
Every miniature Roman stomped a foot and answered with a resounding “Ha!” before heading back to their quarters.
Octavius himself needed some rest. He had had enough. Not of being a general, giving orders, or managing the Roman diorama. No, what exhausted him was the fact that he couldn’t stop thinking about the little guy in charge of the diorama next to his: Jedediah. And, worst of all, he couldn’t stop thinking about how embarrassing it had been to ask him to hold his hand, only to be met with a simple, “Why?”.
It was true that Jedediah had later asked him to hold it back during another near-death experience, but he still couldn’t stop dwelling on that initial reaction. And he had far more important things to worry about than that blonde cowboy.
The fact that they hung out every single day (or, more correctly, night) didn’t help him at all. He loved doing it, of course, but every time he looked at him, he was reminded of that day, when he was about to lose his friend twice and, both times, couldn’t resist the urge to be close to him.
When he finally got to his quarters, Octavius took his helmet off with a sigh of relief. His curls were sticking to his forehead, damp with sweat from being trapped inside the metal for hours. He was about to take his tunic off as well and head to the baths when someone knocked on his wooden door.
He already knew who it was, of course. It had been like that for several nights now. He just thought he would have more time before Jedediah came, to have a bath and make himself presentable. Not for him, but he was a Roman general, after all. He needed to be clean, well-shaved, and perfumed at all times.
“Heehaw, my boy!” Jedediah shouted, his cowboy hat covering his eyes and a hip leaning against the doorframe. “Ya ready for today’s adventure?”
Jedediah lifted his head just a bit, revealing his piercing blue eyes and scanning the Roman general in front of him. He had seen him without his helmet a few times, and without his armour as well. It wasn’t a first, but still, it was quite weird for him.
“Oh,” he said, his voice lowering. “Ain’t a good time?”
Octavius shook his head. “It is okay, Jedediah. Come in.” He moved away from the door to give the cowboy enough space to go inside.
Jedediah took a few steps inside Octavius’ quarters. Again, not the first time. Just a little weird, still.
“Octy, I can come another time if ya need to rest or something, no problem, y’know.”
“I know,” Octavius whispered. “I am okay, I am just a little bit tired, is all.” He sat on the edge of his bed. “My fearsome and loyal men erected a new statue today, do you wish to see it?” His eyes suddenly glistened at the thought of showing his friend around his diorama.
“Yeah, partner. Of course!” The cowboy started to look around, identifying the window of Octavius’ quarters. “Where is it?” He leaned outside, looking through the hole in the wall.
“Let’s go. I will show you.”
Octavius got up and, before leaving, retrieved his helmet and armour from beside the bed and put them back on.
—
The statue was… big. Bigger than two miniatures, of course. Not as big as “Gigantor,” as Jedediah used to call Larry.
“Wow…” Jedediah said, mesmerized. “And how long did it take your men to make it?”
Octavius smiled, a warm sense of pride blooming inside him. “Women actually made it. They carved the marble and took care of the details. My men only used their strength to put it in place,” he stated, walking circles around the statue. “A perfect balance.”
Jedediah hummed in agreement. Then, he suddenly stopped.
“Is he—” he tilted his head upward, his gaze fixed on the statue. “Is he supposed to look like you?”
“Nonsense! That’s Jupiter. I am a respected and trusted general, but I would never compar—” Octavius’ words stuck in his mouth. He looked at the statue’s face, something he still hadn’t examined in detail.
Well, it actually did bear quite a resemblance.
“Oh, well.”
Jedediah started laughing, a laugh that Octavius had only heard a few times before.
“And he’s better-looking than you, too.” He couldn’t stop laughing; his laughter echoed through the entire diorama.
“Jedediah, keep it down,” Octavius said, placing a hand on his shoulder.
“Look at the nose. Yours is more crooked. Roman, as they say.” He grinned. “He looks like a version of ya that was modified using those apps we saw on Gigantor’s phone.”
“You are very brave talking about noses. Have you looked in a mirror recently, Jedediah?”
His hand was still on the cowboy’s shoulder. Neither of them dared to move.
“I did, and I liked what I saw,” he said, proud as always.
Jedediah’s eyes briefly flickered down to Octavius’ hand. As if he was still thinking about something else to add, he wiped a tear of laughter from his left eye and kept provoking the general.
“Do ya also have these abs, Octy? Or did they exaggerate those as well?”
Octavius rolled his eyes and quickly removed his hand from the cowboy’s shoulder. The loss of the touch sent a shiver through him. “Oh gods, Jedediah, grow up.”
Jedediah wiped another small tear.
“And as a matter of fact, yes, I do have the abdominals in question. I am a general. I serve in battle, and I wield a sword and—”
“Hey, hey, hey, I was joking, partner. You’re a handsome fella too, don’t worry.” He quickly cleared his throat . “It’s a cool statue. Looks cool.”
“I shall ask the women why they decided to make Jupiter look like me. It is not respectful.”
The cowboy stared at him. He wasn’t laughing anymore, but he still had an amused expression on his face.
“I reckon it fits. You’re the general, after all.” He started walking again, Octavius following right by his side. “You told me once—and I listened—that Jupiter’s the great protector of the state. And that’s what you do, ain’t it? You protect folks.”
Octavius couldn’t even look him in the face. Step after step on the diorama stones, all he looked at were his sandals.
This was probably the most generous thing Jedediah had ever said to him in all their years of friendship.
“I do not know if you are right, Jedediah, though I thank you for your kind words,” Octavius said. “It still baffles me that we used to be enemies.”
Jedediah chuckled, his pace quickening. “Who says we’re not?”
But Octavius knew he was lying, since the blonde cowboy would deliberately spend every waking night circling around him. So, he let out a chuckle as they kept walking until they were almost outside the diorama.
—
Speeding through the corridors of the museum in their remote-controlled car, they didn’t really have a destination. Most nights, they just wandered together, sometimes meeting other people and having a quick chat, only to go back to talking about everything and nothing.
During the last few months, right after they had almost died three times, he had learned something new about the cowboy every day. He was, without a doubt, his best friend.
They hadn’t talked about what happened. Not after that “why?”, and not after Octavius couldn’t even admit that he had asked him to hold his hand. Everything felt so natural with him that the idea of spoiling it didn’t even cross Octavius’ mind.
It did, actually. Almost every night. But he would never admit it.
“Octy.” Jedediah turned his head towards the passenger seat, looking at the general.
“Yes?”
“I was just wonderin’…” His words hung between the steering wheel and the windshield. “Do ya remember when we were stuck in the vent?”
Oh no. Oh no no no.
Octavius swallowed. He looked ahead, while still feeling the cowboy’s gaze fixed on him.
“I do,” he whispered.
“Uhm…” Jedediah scratched his head, his left hand still firm on the steering wheel. “Do ya remember you asked me to hold your ha—”
“Vaguely, yes.” Octavius cleared his throat.
Jedediah’s gaze was now on the “road.”
“I was just wonderin’… I dunno… did ya mean anythin’ by that?”
Octavius felt his cheeks flush. He was turning red, as red as his ornaments.
He was about to reply, though he didn’t even know how — words weren’t even crossing his mind — when the engine suddenly stopped making noise. Within a matter of seconds, the car came to a stop in the middle of the corridor.
“Oh, hell nah!” Jedediah groaned. “What the hell happened here?!”
Octavius took a long, deep breath. Thank Jupiter.
“Relax, cowboy. The battery is probably dead. We need to call Larry,” Octavius replied calmly.
“This ain’t the time to call Gigantor, man.” Jedediah rolled his eyes.
Why?
“I fear it shall be necessary,” the general said.
“It shall this, it shall that. You call him!” The cowboy was about to lose it, and Octavius couldn’t understand the reason.
“Stop this madness immediately!” Octavius shouted as well, matching Jedediah’s tone of voice. “It is not that serious. We will fix it. I will call Larry.”
With a fast and deliberately loud movement, Octavius opened the car door and got out of the vehicle.
“Oh, don’t go gettin’ all loud and angry at me, General!”
When Jedediah shouted, his tone became a little more raspy. Octavius would never admit it, but he secretly enjoyed it.
“I will do as I please.”
Then, turning his back to the cowboy, he took a deep breath before screaming at the top of his lungs:
“LARRY!”
—
“Guys, how many times have I told you that you need to check how long the battery is gonna last before wandering that far away?” Larry’s teasing voice came through Octavius and Jedediah’s earpieces like a noisy mosquito. “What if the sun came out and you were stuck here, so far from your dioramas? You need to be more careful.”
Slowly and carefully, Larry placed both miniatures down, setting them in front of their habitats again. A few meters away from them, the car was charging, plugged into an outlet.
“No more driving for tonight, guys. See you tomorrow.”
As Larry walked away, Octavius could feel Jedediah roll his eyes beside him.
“Does Gigantor think he’s my dad or somethin’?”
“He is right, though, Jedediah.”
“Kiss-ass.”
“What?”
“I said: kiss-ass.”
“You shall repeat that, if you are brave enough.”
“Kiss—”
And they started fighting again, as they always did, until a thin ray of sunlight broke through the windows and reminded them that the night was about to come to an end.