[A/N]: SUP. I love everyone that has read and reviewed this so far. Thanks y'all!

Chapter Three: Hope

Sic Semper Tyrannis

After Sutton left me that night, it only took two days for me to be released. I suppose she had a little more influence over her father than she thought.

I was sent back to the commune to live in my old house. But it was too quiet and empty for me to enjoy my freedom again, or what little I had. I wasn't even allowed to leave the commune.

Just a few days after I arrived back home, men began to show up. One or two of them were townsmen who volunteered, but most of them looked like trained gladiators. I had a lot of work to do.

Today, the last of this new shipment of gladiators finally walked through the gates. They were absolutely terrifying. All of them had at least ten years and a hundred pounds on me, not to mention probably a lifetime of training. All I had was my gladius and leather armor, which was nothing compared to what these men had. Metal breastplates and long sharp swords, tridents and nets, hammers with huge spikes on each end. My hope was fading fast. But I kept training with my gladius and leather armor, praying that it would be enough.

When the long day was finally over, I settled next to the fire, warming a small cup of tea and gnawing on some bread. During the day, I was able to block out the memories of this house, of my family, of that day. But here, sitting in our main room all by myself, no sounds of any life besides myself, I was haunted by the memories.

A sound roused me from these dark musings. I brushed it off to be the wind howling through the covered pathways. But just as I took a scalding sip of tea, Sutton dropped into the room through the window. I jumped about a foot and nearly spilled tea everywhere.

"Where the hell did you come from?" I asked, setting the cup down. She was covered in a thin layer of frost and snowflakes, and her shivering might have made the whole room shake.

"The upper quarter," she said through chattering teeth.

I steered her towards the fire and after handing her my tea, I pulled her frozen cloak off and draped my dry one over her body. It took a few minutes for her to warm up, but once she did, she began to look around.

"Is this where you and your family used to live?" she asked, gazing at the room.

I nodded and sat next to her. "It's too big now," I said quietly and stared into the fire.

She must have noticed that I had pulled my bed into the main room and set it in the corner because she asked, "Do you sleep in here?"

"No matter how much wood I burn, this is the only room that holds any warmth," I answered. The house had never been this cold when everyone was still here, even on the darkest of winter nights.

Sutton set the cup down and glanced over at me. "You know, you could just leave. Run away and never come back. You could go to Britannia and find your mother's people. She was from Britannia, right? Just run away, Hadrian." She was practically begging me to leave.

I sighed and shook my head. "Everyone who told me to run has died. Please don't tell me to run. You're the only person I have left. I'm not running anymore," I said softly.

In the silence that followed, I refused to meet her gaze. My face was burning red at the confession that I considered her my only friend. I didn't even know her that well. She just found me having a breakdown in the woods.

But as I was beating myself up for sounding creepy, she placed a hand on my back. "Then stay," she whispered, leaning closer to me.

But I pulled away slightly and she stopped, taking her hand off my back. I knew this was just me being lonely, and I couldn't risk hurting her. What if I did end up dying? Best that she loses a friend rather than a lover. But why would she want me anyway? I had seen her with some of the most prominent and wealthy boys in town and here I was, the lowly orphaned son of a gladiator and a slave. Maybe I was just reading too much into all of this. She wanted to make the Empire a better place to live, and I was just an opportunity.

So I kept the distance between us and she settled back into her original position. "I don't have many people either," she said after a few minutes of silence. I turned to give her a questioning glance and found her steadily gazing at me. "My mother is very ill. She's like a little child. I love her and she loves me, but I'm like her mother; it's always been this way. And my father... well, you know my father. He cares little for either of us." She glanced down at her hands and then back up at me. "We had to move here when I was twelve. My father had been laundering money and I'm sure you've heard rumors of what else he did." I nodded and she laughed slightly. "But it's okay, because I like it better here. Less rules and social expectations."

I took advantage of her slight paused and asked, "How so?"

She shrugged. "The most obvious is clothing. You know how here I just wear a plain stola?" I nodded. Even now, she was wearing her signature white dress. "In New Rome, I would be required to wear a fancier stola as well as a palla."

I cocked my head to the side and asked, "What's a palla?" I had never heard of such things. "They sound painful."

Sutton laughed, loud and erratic. "Hadrian," she said, gasping for air. "It's just a kind of cloak, draped over my stola." I managed a slight smile and Sutton pulled my cloak tighter around her shoulders. "Your smile doesn't reach your eyes anymore," she mumbled sadly.

"Huh?" I asked and turned to her.

She blushed and cleared her throat. "You just... you just look so sad all the time now," she said quietly.

I stood up abruptly. "Of course I look sad all the time!" I yelled. "My entire family is gone!"

She shrunk back slightly. "I'm sorry, Hadrian. I didn't... I didn't mean to... Hadrian," she begged as I turned my back on her. "All I meant was that even though you still smile... it just doesn't look the same as before."

I whipped back around to find her standing close to me. I was shivering from the sudden lack of warmth without the fire and my teeth chattered as I said, "You never saw me smile before."

She refused to look at me as she said, "Yes I have." When she finally looked up, her green eyes were full of embarrassment. I gave her a questioning glance and she shrugged. "You were hard to miss, that's all. Always running through town. My mother used to point you out sometimes, say that you were faster than the marathon runners in the city. But that was back when she still went out. You're faster now." After a moment, she took my silence negatively and kept talking. "I mean, you ran right by my house every day. It's not like I was following you around or anything."

I smirked slightly and she looked relieved. "Sutton, you're ridiculous."

She nudged me playfully and managed a laugh. "How so?"

"Creating this little story to cover for the fact that you definitely did follow me around," I said and pushed her back slightly.

She scoffed. "I just thought it was a bit odd that a boy was constantly running through town."

"Then how about this business about my smile?" I asked, fiddling with the edge of my cloak still draped around her shoulder.

Sutton's cheeks burned bright red as she stumbled around her words. "I would just see you stop and talk to people sometimes. You always laughed so loud and I hardly ever heard laughter at my house... and when you smiled, it touched every part of your face." She was looking up at me distantly, like she had lost her train of thought, and placed a hand on my cheek. "Especially your eyes..." She wiped away a tear I hadn't even known was there with her thumb. "Hadrian Aurelius is what they told me your name was, son of Marcus Aurelius, the gladiator. It broke my heart to find out that you too were destined for the arena," she whispered.

My shivers worsened as her wispy breath hit my face. "Why?" I asked, my teeth chattering harshly.

"Such a carefree young spirit... sentenced to death," she whispered and moved her hand to my neck. I wanted to lean in, I wanted to so bad. But something, some invisible string, was holding me back. And I could tell she sensed it because she didn't make a move, she just gazed steadily up at me. When she noticed my shivers, she wrapped her arms around my waist and pulled me into a tight hug. "I'm sorry for taking your cloak," she said.

I sighed, burying my face in her hair. It was warm and soft and smelled like the honey-soap that my mother and sister used. "It's okay," I mumbled.

Sutton was the one to break our embrace, but she kept her gaze locked on me. "I have to go," she said reluctantly. I led her to the door and she tried again to give me back my cloak.

"You need it more than I do," I reminded her.

She gave me a quick smile before wrapping it tight around her body and walking through the door. But after just a moment, she stuck her head back in and said, "Thank you, Hadrian."

"For what?" I asked, slightly confused by her gratitude.

Sutton kissed my cheek lightly, shocking me with her boldness. "For being my friend," she said, giving me one last smile before disappearing into the frigid night.

The next morning I woke up to pale sunlight hitting my face. Though it did little to warm me, the light was more than welcome after the last few days of cloudy weather. I pushed myself reluctantly out of bed and pulled on layers of clothing over my head in a vain attempt to stay warm.

My gladius was right where I left it, sitting by the dying embers of the fire. I tried not to look at it too closely because it only opening the slowly healing wound that was dug out by my parents' execution. The memories of my father that resurfaced caused me more pain than I could handle. So I kept my eyes glazed over as I picked up the blade, paying it no special attention. I ignored its weight it my hands.

I strode out of my house and into the training arena. Fortunately, I was the first one there so I had the place to myself, if only for a little while. The redo of our Local Munera was coming up fast, just a day away, and I wasn't even close to being ready to fight.

I pushed myself through the day, avoiding the other men by being as engaged in my training as possible. As usual, the hours dragged on until I could feel the evening chill settling around me. My stomach growled loudly on the way back home, but I hardly noticed. I was too focused on the days ahead of me, and if I was being completely honest, I was too focused on the faint hope that I might get to see Sutton again.

It took me a few minutes to realize how hungry I was, but when I walked through the door and was greeted by the scent of food, my hunger hit me hard. My stomach rumbled and my hand automatically went to it.

Sutton had lit a fire, huge compared to the flickering embers I had been lighting, and she was facing away from me in the kitchen, frying something.

"Sutton?" I asked quietly and she whipped around, flashing me a smile.

"I thought you could use something other than weak tea and cold bread," she said and handed me a plate full of steaming hot food.

"Sutton, you don't have to do this for me," I said between bites.

She shrugged. "You needed a good meal tonight."

I had almost forgotten that my life was about to change yet again tomorrow. My life as a gladiator was just beginning. Suddenly, Sutton's food wasn't so appetizing.

She must have noticed my shoulders sag because she quickly backtracked. "What I meant was, you haven't had a good meal in a while," she said. I faked a smile and set my plate down.

"Thanks, Sutton."

She sat down next to the fire and sighed. "It's impossible to make you smile, isn't it?" she asked.

I gave a small laugh and put my arm around her shoulders. "I wouldn't say that," I said. "You're better at it than you think."

She looked up at me and smiled slightly. "I can only hope."

But I didn't tell her that I had given up on hope.

[A/N]: Yeah so I was gonna make up a bunch of excuses as to why I haven't been writing, but truth is, I'm lazy and no one seems to care about this story. So should I just abandon it? Caaause that's probably what's gonna end up happening if I don't get enough feedback.

Regards,

Camille Elisabeth