he has to impress the young boy, because someday his life could depend upon it.

--

(irony, he says.)

--

"i love --"

patroclus bites achilles wherever he can reach him to shut him up. if he hears it he may die.

(young boy so foolish and quick with words. meaningless things.)

--

"i love you."

(patroclus is caught completely off-guard. he thinks, he thinks maybe it's true, if he can't stop it. and mirrors the words in achilles' ear.)

--

(young boy so foolish and quick to repeat.)

--

and they are at war, and patroclus puts his body, a shield, in front of achilles's own. maybe he can save someone amazing, if he can't keep all these men from dying, he thinks, looking at the blood-stained beaches. maybe he can finally, finally show achilles he is worth it, worth the war and his love and all of it.

(must needs be fair --)

--

patroclus knows why he is there, knows that achilles must know just has to know that patroclus won't go. achilles ties thin strings to his wrists like always. they snap when he enters battle and achilles weeps at their weakness, and later perhaps at something else delicate and easily broken, lost.

(such as: patroclus's name on his tongue, broken, broken.)

--

and lost, lost, whenever achilles searches for him in the shadows and throws himself in front of arrows.

(young boy so foolish. so fair.)

note: lack of capitalization done on purpose, or perhaps i was only lazy. some of these lines and the title are stolen from shakespeare's troilus and cressida, because they are some of my favorite lines ever. helen must needs be fair/when with your blood you daily paint her thus. i believe it is in the first act, perhaps the first scene.