Mature Decedre

Unexpected Kindness

Song: Greek Mythology playlist by patroclus

Wine overflowed from my cup as Aikaterini slammed a plate of food on the table.

I smiled despite her ire filled glare. "Thank you, Aikaterini." My gaze fell to the usual breakfast of hard barley bread, tiganites, and a wedge of cheese. "Here. General Hector was being too harsh by not letting you eat."

Her small nose wrinkled as she stared at the cheese and Greek flat cake. There was a hunger in her protruding brown eyes that I knew all too well. I endured many of the same punishments she underwent when I was a child.

King Titus found great joy in taking away the little things I enjoyed in life.

Food was one of them.

Aikaterini huffed, gathering the edge of her gray tunic and stomping towards my bed. I watched as she tidied everything up. She laid my heavy outfit out before leaving without a word.

Undeterred, I crumbled the cheese onto the tiganite and held it out for General Hector. His scrutinizing stare went from surveying the landscape to my open hand. He tilted his head to the side, a deadpan expression overtaking his chiseled face.

"I know you don't eat breakfast."

"Then why offer?" his bored voice asked.

My smile widened in spite of his less than enthusiastic response. "Desdemona the Fifty-Eighth has the right to spend her last moments as she sees fit." I recited his words from before in a gruff tone, a poor imitation of his voice.

General Hector remained unimpressed.

"Aunt Meg would've laughed at least."

"Megara has next to no sense of comedy," he replied dryly. "Of course she would've laughed."

"I'd love to see the look on her face if you ever said that in her presence."

"I'd love to keep what's between my legs intact. So my apologies, Golden Warrior of Midas, but that day won't be coming anytime soon."

I leaned forward with a teasing grin. "Not even if I request it as one of the ways I want to spend my last moments?"

General Hector shifted from his statue-like posture as he turned to face me. With the bloody javelin still in hand, he pointed at the offering with the same vacant eyes I'd known all my life. "Is that a command?"

I squinted, curious now. "Can you be commanded?"

The conversation paused as Irene bustled through the door. Her curvaceous figure carried two large hydria filled with water. Ariadne trailed behind her with two smaller vases. Aikaterini followed with a bowl full of hot rocks to heat my bath.

"Only the gods and my king command me," he replied once they vanished into my private bath house.

"Perhaps I should become king in my next life," I joked.

The corners of his mouth dipped a little. "That would definitely be an interesting election."

I was careful to avoid touching his skin as he stood beside my table, finally accepting the tiganite. His face remained empty as he munched on the light food. I ripped the hard bread in half, dunking it into the diluted wine to soften it. The alcohol darkened the white color of the barley bread until it was soaked an inky black. We ate in a comfortable silence until the meal was almost finished.

One flat cake remained with honey drizzled on top. I pushed the plate away in favor of drinking my wine.

General Hector's stony eyes flickered from the entrance of the bath house to the saved tiganite. "Aikaterini will never accept food from you no matter how much she's starving."