A Rumor of Peace

CHAPTER 26

SUMMARY :  When Rodolphus leaves Roark a note, he realizes something critical.  Rodolphus and Rabastan are actually not only the spies close to Riddle, but are undercover Counter-Intelligence Officers.

He woke to bright sunlight flooding his room from the patio doors, and an insistent beep from his com pad on the nightstand beside his bed.  Realizing that he was alone in bed, he reached out blindly to answer the damn beep.

"WHAT?!" he snarled out.

"Oh...hh, grouch...y," came the ever cheerful voice of one of his best friends...FORMER best friend if he didn't watch himself.  He started to chuckle, telling him, "Harry snarled at me too when he finally picked up, and threatened me with untold damage to my person if I didn't stop sounding so fucking cheerful.  I told him we were on our way over."

"He has the right of it," game the return growl, but then he chuckled.  "Sorry, Logan, I was asleep," he sat up with a huge yawn.  "Time?"

"Just before eleven hundred.  We'll be at your place in half a centar.  Hope you're both hungry.  We're bringing a rather large breakfast with us."

"Um...sounds good," he said as he pushed aside the light blanket and sheet.  "Harry will cross the terrace," he stood, stretching, before reaching for his robe.  "We?" he asked, pulling it on over his naked body.  "Just who is we, Logan?"

"Fili, Kili, Lex, Des, Ethan--"

"Alright, alright," he interrupted, pulling the robe closed and tying the tie.  "I'm about to be inundated by the Durin boys."  He heard their laughter as he left his bedroom, heading for the bathroom.  "I'll just get a quick shower, get dressed, then get some water going for tea, and start some coffee."

"Roark?" was asked just as he was about to end the call.

"Yes, Ki?"

"Is he there?"

"Who?" came from those Durin's who didn't know who his lover was.

"No one," he answered them.  "See you all soon."

'Well,' he thought as a smile began to curve his lips, 'how about that?'  Rodolphus had spent the entire night with him, which he usually never did as it was just too dangerous.  They hadn't once thought of having sex, but then, he HAC been sedated by those damn sleeping pills.  But then there had been that brief time as the sun was coming up...

A relationship.  He stepped into the tub, letting the hot water run over him as he reached for his favorite shower gel.  How about that?  He was in a relationship with Rodolphus Corvus Lestrange.  'Sex Roark, is all well and good,' he remembered his grandfather telling him as he washed, 'and a very good way to let someone know that they are desired and that you desire them in return.  A relationship, however, is something very different.  You will know you are in a true relationship with someone once you both can spend a significant amount of time together, simply BEING together.  Talking, laughing, asking questions and telling each other about family, about your friends, and about anyone you may be close too.'  

Roark turned off the water, stepped out of the tub and reached for a towel.  Well, they weren't quite to that stage yet, but he just knew, once this case was over with, they'd get there.  He moved to the sink, brushed his teeth, ran a comb through his wet hair, then headed back to his bedroom to get dressed, his mind still sorting through his relationship with Rodolphus.

He knew, in his heart...in his SOUL, that this was a true relationship.  Then too, there was what his empathy, so newly opened and so very strong, giving him the ability to feel and read what his lover was feeling about them when they were together, or, more to the point, what Rodolphus would let him feel, as he knew he was blocking him from some things.