Your guards awoke you with the clanging of their swords against the enemy that was attacking the fortress. You roused slowly, your head coming up from the pillow, thoughts swirling with a hangover from the wine that you had indulged in, body warm from the bodies on either side of you. “It is not even light yet, stop your fighting,” You called out sleepily towards your door. The sound of clanking armor. You rolled your eyes and climbed over one of your lovers to get out of bed, reaching for a fine robe and slipping it on. Apparently, they had not heard you. They didn’t understand that you were a prince, and in need a full night’s rest. And a full morning’s rest too, for that matter. You opened the door and found yourself face to face not with your guards, but with a tall, very muscular man. Your eyes took in his chiseled features, the straight nose, the fine brows, the natural pout upon his lips. Your posture went from annoyed to interested. You instantly leaned against one side of the doorway, letting your robe fall open to reveal your own chest, smirking up at this newcomer. “Well, hello there,” You said with a grin. “My bed is a bit full at the moment, but I wouldn’t mind taking you to one of the guest rooms. I can guarantee, they’re quite … springy.” You raised your eyebrows as you propositioned the man who had just slaughtered your guards. That’s alright, they weren’t the most interesting sorts. Not friends of yours. Always wanted to listen to your father, keep you safe, keep you boring, blah blah blah. This man looked at you incredulously. “I am here to capture this fortress -” He started to say. You held up a finger. “Yes, yes, that’s all well and good,” You said, your hand going back up to your chin, stroking it, looking at this new man with interest. “- But it is quite late, and the nights are for loving, not for fighting. What do you say?” Mathayus - a name that you would later be screaming in pleasure - seemed awestruck by your nonchalance to this, looked down the hallway, both ways, and then shrugged before moving inside of your room, not caring if the bed was otherwise occupied. There was lots of space around the room.

With a couple more steps, you reached it. The oasis that you thought had only been a mirage but it turned out to be absolutely real. With a sigh of relief, you fall down onto your knees on the shaded area beneath a large pine tree.

Bodies of water were hard to find in the desert, but sometimes, sometimes the Gods smiled upon you and brought you a place with a small lake, with vegetation, with green rather than the endless golden sands. Only a few hours ago, it felt like that was all that you were going to come across, until a dark spot on the horizon caught Mathayus’s attention and he instructed that you both head there. And you were so grateful that he had done so.

The man himself was removing his dusty, sandy garments and letting them fall onto the ground, approaching the water. Heavy breathing was the only sound, save for the rippling of water and the sun bearing down upon you - which indeed had its own sound if you listened very carefully. The waters seemed to part around Mathayus as he entered into the small lake, and then enveloped him, looking like the most refreshing thing in the world.

You took a moment to catch your breath, to let your shoulders cool down from the heat and the pressure of the sun, and then started to undress yourself and joined him in the waters. The perfect temperature, as if this place had been handpicked, just for them.

With a low chuckle, Mathayus advanced on you, wrapping an arm around your waist under the water. All felt well in the world, especially as you dunked yourself under and arose back up, that invigorating feeling spreading all over your body now. “Could we just live here for a while?” I asked, smiling at my lover.

“Too small to be a kingdom,” Mathayus said with another one of his deep chortles. “And the food isn’t prosperous.”

“Can’t I just eat you instead?” You teased, moving in to give his chest a little nibble, licking the water off of him.

“Now there’s an idea,” He said, grabbing both of your legs under the water and wrapping you around his waist. He carried you like that onto the dry land with sparse foliage as your pillow, and made love to you in your small slice of paradise.