Alexander: King of the World, 2/?
King of the World
Author: Qaddafi the Ripper
Fandom: Alexander the Great (original)
Summary: In a different world, Alexander marries before leaving Macedonia. His son accompanies him in his journeys. What changes will this cause, and what will stay the same? Start here.
Notes: A million thanks to my proof readers, coraldawn and moon71. A/H sap in this part.
Chapter 2: Of Children and Persians
Hephaistion watched Alexios sleep on the royal bed with a quiet smile. Most of the rooms in the palace at Babylon were enormous, and this one made the others seem small. As for the bed, it was large enough for ten men to fit in comfortably, and draped in red and purple silks. Alexios had been playing with Ochus all day and had exhausted himself out. Ochus had been ecstatic about being back somewhere he knew, and he'd taken Alexios on a thorough tour of the palace. But Alexios had had enough energy left over to bounce on the bed when he first saw it. He had only just fallen asleep. They should have taken the boy to his nurse earlier, since now that he was asleep, Hephaistion didn't want to wake him up. The boy looked too adorable when asleep.
He smiled and caressed golden hair out of the child's face. It was like watching a miniature Alexander. Sometimes he wished they were still boys with not a care in the world. But only sometimes; he wasn't one to dwell on the past. He didn't need to look up to know when Alexander approached the bed. Whenever his friend was close, Hephaistion always knew where he was, even without looking. It was as if he was constantly being warmed by the fire of Alexander's soul. Alexander pressed a kiss onto Alexios's forehead and sat down on the bed.
"He is such a treasure," Hephaistion murmured. He had never realized how much he loved children until Alexios was born. Now it was hard to remember the time before him. He might have been jealous, that Alexander had the boy and he didn't, but it didn't feel like that at all. He spent as much time with Alexios as Alexander did. When the boy had been learning to speak, he'd called them both father. Most of the time, Hephaistion thought of Alexios as his as well as Alexander's.
Alexander leaned over the sleeping child to press a kiss on Hephaistion's mouth. "You should get one too," he teased quietly. The hardest thing to learn with Alexios had been to be quiet while he was sleeping. Alexander had never been good at quiet, and the baby had frequently woken up crying the first year or so. Eventually, though, Alexander had learned, and by now it was second nature.
Hephaistion snorted softly. "Getting a child would also require getting a wife," he pointed out dryly. "And I have no interest in that."
"But you should marry," Alexander argued. "If you had a daughter, our children could marry when they were older."
Not such a bad idea. It would be nice, to have his own line joined with Alexander's in a way that the two of them could never manage. But that didn't make him like the idea of getting married. "And who am I going to find to marry here in Babylon?" he asked.
Alexander grinned, no doubt already tasting victory. Hephaistion realized with a sinking feeling that Alexander already had a candidate. This was an argument they'd had many times. He'd told Hephaistion a number of times that if he had had to get married, then Hephaistion ought to as well. "You should marry Parysatis, Artaxerxes's daughter. Sysigambis told me that she's here, that she's quite lovely, and that she's old enough for marriage."
He almost choked. Alexander had actually brought up an idea like that around Darius's mother? He knew that the former Great King had been cruel and unjust, so Sysigambis wouldn't like the daughter. Which meant, since the woman did like Alexander, she would never have suggested the daughter as a bridal candidate for her new son. He dearly hoped that Alexander hadn't talked about Hephaistion's marriage with her. He might never live down the shame. "She's royalty," he protested. "I can't marry her."
"Of course you can," Alexander said dismissively. "I don't want to marry her, and she should have a good husband."
He rolled his eyes. He hardly considered himself a candidate for a good husband. "If the men found out, they'd resent me." There were enough bad feelings that he was as close as he was to Alexander. Men were jealous creatures, and the whole army craved to have Alexander's love the way Hephaistion did.
"It doesn't matter how much they talk." Hephaistion gave Alexander a look that clearly said how stupid and unrealistic that idea was. "Your men like you, and no one wants a Persian wife anyway" Alexander protested with a scowl. "Besides, the Persians are proving to be valuable allies, and I think a marriage with Parysatis's powerful family would be a good idea." He glanced down at Alexios. "After seeing how well he and Ochus get along, wouldn't it be nice if we could get along just as well with the Persians? We could become true allies. This girl could be the first step--"
"I wouldn't take her with us when we leave," he cut Alexander off. If he married, the troops would find out, sooner or later. Alexander knew that too, but he was too busy being stubborn. Bad enough that Alexander had done that with his Macedonian wife. If Hephaistion did the same with a Persian wife, he really would never live it down.
"Then leave her here," Alexander countered with a shrug. "But we'll be here for a while, so I think you should marry her now."
The real reason he didn't want a wife was because he had no interest in sleeping with anyone other than Alexander. But Alexander knew that, had felt the same way when he had married. He wasn't sure he could perform with a woman, but if Alexander could, then surely he could too. He sighed. "I'll think about it," he promised reluctantly.
Alexander grinned in triumph and leaned over for another kiss. Hephaistion obliged, and decided he might be willing to lose on this issue. When they drew apart for a moment, a tired voice from the bed said, "I want kiss too." They both looked down and saw Alexios watching them. He rubbed his eyes, barely awake. Alexander chuckled quietly, before leaning down and giving his son another kiss on the forehead. Hephaistion grinned and did the same. There had never been a time when he hadn't been as affectionate with the boy as Alexander was. After all, Alexios didn't have a mother, so he needed a second person to love him.
The boy quickly fell back to sleep, and Hephaistion resumed kissing Alexander. He supposed it wouldn't be so different if he did this with a woman instead. It bothered him a little though, that if he left a wife behind, he would also leave any possible child behind. But he really couldn't do as Alexander had done. Well, he would think about it later, he decided. For now, Alexios was asleep and there were better things to do than think about a marriage.
* * *
A few days later, Hephaistion married Parysatis. He had let Alexander persuade him faster than he had expected. He still vaguely resented the fact that he'd been talked into the marriage, but it wasn't all bad. She was beautiful, as promised, although barely old enough. She was also almost as tall as she was, and taller than Alexander, which he suspected was the real reason his friend hadn't wanted to marry her himself.
The ceremony was Macedonian, and at the small party afterwards he quietly listened to Ochus telling Alexios what a Persian wedding was like. It occurred to him that since his new wife didn't speak a word of Greek, he should learn some Persian and see that she got a tutor to teach her Greek. Most of his closest friends were at the party -- as well as the other generals and a number of Persians -- and they were already complaining quietly about how Hephaistion had been to one to marry the daughter of a king. They looked confused too, no doubt wondering why anyone would take a barbarian for a wife. A few of them had taken Persian women as mistresses, but that was different from a wife. Ptolemy, Nearchus, and Seleucus were happy for him and teased him, but they were the minority. Craterus was giving him cold, distrustful looks, but that was typical of the man. Perdiccas was frowning and drinking too much. Eumenes had a calculating look and a scowl.
He tried to ignore most of the whispering. Alexander was determined to be happy, so Hephaistion tried to follow his example. He wondered how his men would feel about his marriage. It would only be a matter of time until they found out. He hoped it would be after they left Babylon; his marriage would seem less unfair if the bride was out of sight. As Alexander had said, his own men probably would be happy. They were loyal to Hephaistion, and would be pleased by his political favor. He made a face as he thought of the term. He never thought of it that way. He was only doing this to make Alexander happy.
When the army finally left Babylon less than a month later, Hephaistion wasn't bothered by leaving Parysatis behind. She was sweet, having inherited none of her father's disposition as far as he could tell, but he doubted she was with child, since he'd only slept with her a few times. And if she was, then the child would learn Greek and he would learn Persian so they could write to each other.
He wasn't sure if he hoped for a child or not. He supposed he did. It would be nice, if a daughter of his could marry Alexios. He glanced over to the wagon where Alexios was sitting with Ochus. There had been a brief suggestion that Darius's family be left at Babylon, but one scowl from Sysigambis had been enough to discard the idea. He watched the children and smiled and decided that, as much as he adored Alexios, he would like a child of his own.
As the city slowly fell beyond his view, he wondered how long it would be before he returned to Babylon.
Notes:
In real history, Alexander was the one to marry Parysatis.
This chapter had no real point. Just some quiet A/H which I'm sure my readers will love, a brief look into how Alexander is more gentle is my alternate history, and some foreshadowing.