A very short fic, just to get us going...
Title: Cleopatra Liked Octavia
Play/Poem: Antony and Cleopatra
Author: elviaprose
Recipient: acrossthefloors
Rating: PG
Summary: Cleopatra liked Octavia. Or, at least, she acted as though she did, which was nothing at all to be laughed at. Cleopatra refused to sit at Antony's side at their feasts, to smile at him-she spurned him in retribution for his marriage to Octavia and lavished upon Octavia everything she denied Antony. Octavia had thought Cleopatra’s kindness towards her merely another way to punish Antony, at first, but after three date-sweet days in the queen’s company she could not think it anymore.
Warnings: None, unless you’re afraid of Virginia Woolf
Author's Note: Virginia Woolf writes in A Room of One’s Own: “‘Chloe liked Olivia,’ I read. And then it struck me how immense a change was there. Chloe liked Olivia perhaps for the first time in literature. Cleopatra did not like Octavia. And how completely ANTONY AND CLEOPATRA would have been altered had she done so.” Perhaps you should take this fic as a sort of riff on Woolf’s premise.
Cleopatra liked Octavia. Or, at least, she acted as though she did, which was nothing at all to be laughed at. Cleopatra refused to sit at Antony's side at their feasts, to smile at him-she spurned him in retribution for his marriage to Octavia and lavished upon Octavia everything she denied Antony. Octavia had thought Cleopatra’s kindness towards her merely another way to punish Antony, at first, but after three date-sweet days in the queen’s company she could not think it anymore.
***
On the fourth day, they slipped along the Nile in Cleopatra’s pleasure barge. Cleopatra reclined against Octavia, dragged a hand across Octavia’s thigh, and begged and begged to hear Octavia’s sweet voice. She wanted to hear anything and everything from Octavia’s lips. Childhood stories and songs and riddles and even the shapes of the clouds in the sky-what they looked like to Octavia. Octavia’s voice was not too shrill-that was good, Cleopatra said. She despised shrill voices. Later, Cleopatra promised, they would play at billiards. Cleopatra always let her win, though Octavia scarcely knew the game, and so it ceased to be a game, or perhaps became a different one.
***
Back in the palace they did not play at playing billiards. They retired to Cleopatra’s quarters, where Octavia thought of kissing Cleopatra, and Cleopatra smiled and did it for her. Cleopatra kissed her many times, each kiss very short and light.
***
On the fifth day, when Octavia left Egypt, Cleopatra had not yet forgiven Antony. Cleopatra liked Octavia-Octavia was almost sure of it, but Octavia did not know what would happen between them when Cleopatra forgave Antony, and she knew she must not know.
***
She told her brother she and Antony had never left Athens. He told her Antony was in Egypt, dishonoring her. They both pretended her blush came from thoughts of Antony’s wine-drenched pleasures in Egypt and not her own revels there.
***
After, when “Antony and his Cleopatra” had become the story told in Rome, she wondered what might have happened had she stayed. She didn’t understand the story, had never understood it, even when she was in the midst of it, especially when she was in the midst of it. Her brother thought he did, so she let him end it.
Play/Poem: Antony and Cleopatra
Author: elviaprose
Recipient: acrossthefloors
Rating: PG
Summary: Cleopatra liked Octavia. Or, at least, she acted as though she did, which was nothing at all to be laughed at. Cleopatra refused to sit at Antony's side at their feasts, to smile at him-she spurned him in retribution for his marriage to Octavia and lavished upon Octavia everything she denied Antony. Octavia had thought Cleopatra’s kindness towards her merely another way to punish Antony, at first, but after three date-sweet days in the queen’s company she could not think it anymore.
Warnings: None, unless you’re afraid of Virginia Woolf
Author's Note: Virginia Woolf writes in A Room of One’s Own: “‘Chloe liked Olivia,’ I read. And then it struck me how immense a change was there. Chloe liked Olivia perhaps for the first time in literature. Cleopatra did not like Octavia. And how completely ANTONY AND CLEOPATRA would have been altered had she done so.” Perhaps you should take this fic as a sort of riff on Woolf’s premise.
Cleopatra liked Octavia. Or, at least, she acted as though she did, which was nothing at all to be laughed at. Cleopatra refused to sit at Antony's side at their feasts, to smile at him-she spurned him in retribution for his marriage to Octavia and lavished upon Octavia everything she denied Antony. Octavia had thought Cleopatra’s kindness towards her merely another way to punish Antony, at first, but after three date-sweet days in the queen’s company she could not think it anymore.
***
On the fourth day, they slipped along the Nile in Cleopatra’s pleasure barge. Cleopatra reclined against Octavia, dragged a hand across Octavia’s thigh, and begged and begged to hear Octavia’s sweet voice. She wanted to hear anything and everything from Octavia’s lips. Childhood stories and songs and riddles and even the shapes of the clouds in the sky-what they looked like to Octavia. Octavia’s voice was not too shrill-that was good, Cleopatra said. She despised shrill voices. Later, Cleopatra promised, they would play at billiards. Cleopatra always let her win, though Octavia scarcely knew the game, and so it ceased to be a game, or perhaps became a different one.
***
Back in the palace they did not play at playing billiards. They retired to Cleopatra’s quarters, where Octavia thought of kissing Cleopatra, and Cleopatra smiled and did it for her. Cleopatra kissed her many times, each kiss very short and light.
***
On the fifth day, when Octavia left Egypt, Cleopatra had not yet forgiven Antony. Cleopatra liked Octavia-Octavia was almost sure of it, but Octavia did not know what would happen between them when Cleopatra forgave Antony, and she knew she must not know.
***
She told her brother she and Antony had never left Athens. He told her Antony was in Egypt, dishonoring her. They both pretended her blush came from thoughts of Antony’s wine-drenched pleasures in Egypt and not her own revels there.
***
After, when “Antony and his Cleopatra” had become the story told in Rome, she wondered what might have happened had she stayed. She didn’t understand the story, had never understood it, even when she was in the midst of it, especially when she was in the midst of it. Her brother thought he did, so she let him end it.