Nero of the North

Like getting out of bed on a Monday

"Nero! Wait!" The high pitched voice of Cesar cut the air, stopping my hand just centimeters away from Caius's door. I screamed internally but kept a straight face when turning around. He stood there, looking like a normal, although rather short, Roman person. In a light provided by oil lamps and without the need to focus on more pressing matters I could finally see exactly how he looked.

As I noticed when I first saw him he was about a head shorter than me, making him around 160cm tall. His hair no longer looked red and it had a deep brown color now. He probably painted it to avoid detection after his escape from wherever he was kept. Now without the leaves in it, it looked pretty nice, encapsulating his face like a sort of a cap. His cheeks seemed almost unnaturally red in color compared to his pale face, split in the middle by an equally red upturned nose.

"What do you need?" I got away from the door. As to not talk directly next to Caius's room. "I'm kind of busy ya know?"

"I'm sorry but this probably can't wait." He answered and just led me to my... well, now our room. I looked back once more and followed him.

He closed the door behind me and sat on his bed, fixing his eyes on me. He didn't speak up for a moment, but when I sent him a questioning look he finally took a big breath and started.

"What should I do?" He started, probably hoping for me to answer him immediately, because he hung his head lower in disappointment when the confusion on my face only became more apparent. "I mean in this place. Like, you've got it all figured out, how to behave here, a nice place to stay, a cute boyfriend." I blinked twice, trying to contain my surprise. It took me a second to understand what he meant.

"Oh me and Caius? No we aren't together, no." He rolled his eyes.

"Yeah okay, sure. Doesn't matter either way, I just want to know how to not get myself killed here. It's so much different than where I'm from and... Well, not like I had much experience with 'real life' in my time." He looked to the side, visibly sadder.

So this is why he interrupted me. It could have waited until tomorrow, but his sad expression reminded me too much of myself to judge him for that. All my annoyance disappeared and I spent the next hour explaining everything I knew to him. Then I sent him to bed. He complained about the mattress being too hard and the covers being itchy for a bit, which I ignored completely. Only reminding him that I have work in a couple of hours and he shouldn't wake me up before the proper time.

Luckily he listened to me and let me sleep in peace. Well, in relative peace because the dreams I had that night were pretty unpleasant, even though after waking up I had no clue what was in them. I think I saw a rabbit?

I woke up perfectly on time - as I liked for the past couple of weeks, with just ten minutes to spare to get myself in a working order. Sadly this left me no time to talk to Caius. But he already left the house either way so I didn't feel too bad about this. I made myself a quick breakfast, checked on Cesar once more and went to work.

It was hard today. The sun was shining and yesterday's rain made the air feel almost steamy, like in a sauna. A couple of people didn't arrive on time either, making the work this much more grueling. I was sitting on a bench with my boss, both tired after just an hour, when an idea came to me.

***

"Jesus, you're still asleep?" I took Cesar's blanket off. He was not too happy about it, but by the amount of sunlight pouring in through the windows he had to understand that it was pretty late and I was not 'waking him up in the middle of the night'.

"Don't you think you shouldn't use that word?" He asked, looking at the door.

"Which word?" I stared at him confused. .