Discovering Love

By Tanthe

Disclaimers – I own no-one

Rating – PG13

Pairing – Ardeth/Jonathan (first time)

Discovering Love
By Tanthe

"Evy if you were in love with someone but weren't sure how they felt about you, what would you do about it?" asked Jonathan.

The man had gone to talk to his sister once Rick and Alex were asleep on the dirigible. She was still on a high after being brought back from the dead and couldn't settle.

"Jonathan…you actually love someone, well there's a first" she said laughing.

"Thanks ole mum, for your faith in me" replied Jonathan sarcastically.

"Okay I'm sorry but I never thought you'd ever love anyone, least of all admit it. Who is she, anyone I know?" asked Evy.

"You know them yes, all I want to know is what do I do, I've never been in this position before. I've had it myself but they are normally only with me because of any money I have at the time" he said.

Evy suddenly felt sorry for her brother, she could see a side in him at that moment that she thought she would never see.

"Jonathan come and sit down, tell me about this person and I will see if I can help" she told him.

He sat beside her but didn't know how to tell her about the person he was in love with. She might be ashamed of him, definitely shocked but he needed her help. He didn't know what to do.

"Well are you going to tell me about the girl you have fallin for?" she asked.

He looked at her and took a deep breath.

"It's not a girl…it's a man Evy" he said quickly.

Evy stared at him, quite shocked. She knew he had leanings of this sort but he had never told her about them before.

"A man! Who?" she asked.

Jonathan took a deep breath and without looking at her answered.

"Ardeth! he said.

"Ardeth – wow. Does he know?"

"Of course not, I would be dead if he did know. I can't see him being that way inclined, can you?" he replied.

The man got up and walked over to the drinks and poured himself another coffee, holding onto the side for support as he felt tears welling up in his eyes. Evy went over to him when he didn't return beside her.

"Jonathan, you okay?"

She could see the tears in her brothers eyes and her heart broke. Leading him over to the sofa, she sat him down.

"Jonathan, if you feel this strongly about him, you have to tell him, regardless of what may or may not happen. If you don't, it will tear you apart. I know, I've been there" she said.

"Oh yes, I'll go up to him and say `by the way Ardeth, I am in love with you' If I do that, there will be a mound in the desert that is forever English, believe me" he said.

He wanted to get away for a while, so getting up again, said he would see her later and went over to where his little bed was. He needed to be on his own, somehow he had to get over this or find a way of handling his feelings for this man.

Evy waited till she heard him snoring softly and then went over to where the others were. She woke Rick and told him that they had to change their plans slightly. He asked her why and she told him.

"You really are asking for him to get killed aren't you? Ardeth isn't like that. What are you going to tell him as the reason we have followed him back to his camp?" he asked.

"I don't know, could say that we needed to thank him properly for all the help the Med-jai gave us, I'll think of something" she said "Just ask Izzy to do this will you, please"

Rick shook his head and got up, knowing that his wife was serious and there was no way her mind was going to be changed. Izzy agreed as long as he got paid for it and anyway, he could do with a rest. He had worked flat out to get that thing airworthy to go and pick up their sorry arses from a collapsing Ahm Shere. He worked it out that they could be there in about three hours, it would be dark but that didn't matter that much.

Ardeth had rode back to his camp and was resting after getting the sand off his tired and aching body. It had been a exhausting few days and apart from the injuries he had received from both London and Ahm Shere, he was shattered. He was awoken from his sleep by someone shouting that the dirigible was landing at the far end of the camp. Getting up and slipping a robe on, he went out to see why they were there.

"Ardeth, we had to come here" said Evy running up to him "We never had the chance to thank you for all you did"

She grabbed the man and kissed him, hugging him tight. He responded and then was grasped by Ricks hand and jumped on by Alex.

"We all wanted to thank you" said Rick "We could not have done all this without you and the Med-jai. There is nothing that can ever repay you"

"There is no need to thank me. It was something we all had to do. Is that why you came all this way?" he asked

They said yes and with that, Ardeth ordered a couple of tents to be made available so that they could stay till the morning. There was plenty of food etc and he was happy that they were there.

"Where's Jonathan?" he asked.

"He is asleep on the dirigible, it would take an earthquake to wake him. Look can I have a private word with you Ardeth?" asked Evy.

The man nodded and motioned her into his tent. She paced the floor and he wondered what she wanted to speak to him about.

"Evy, why don't you stop pacing, sit down and tell me the problem, I take there is one?" he asked.

She looked at him and sat on the stool opposite him. There was no way out of this now, she would have to tell him. Jonathan would kill her but he was her brother and she owed him for the last few days as well.

"This is rather personal and I am not sure how to approach the subject" she said.

"I am a man of the world, you can ask me anything, is it Rick?" asked Ardeth.

"No, no not Rick – okay here goes – if your answer is no then I walk out of here and I will say no more about it – do you like men?" she asked embarrassed.

Ardeth looked at her and wasn't expecting that sort of question and it took him by surprise. He guessed what she meant but wanted to make sure.

"In what way?"

"You know, that way?" she asked.

"In that case the answer is yes, I do but why do you want to know. I thought you were going to ask me something else" he said.

She was in it up to her neck now and wished she had Imhotep to deal with rather than do what she was doing. Ardeth leant forward and rested his chin on his hand.

"Oh God, what am I doing here" she said "I shouldn't be doing this, it is embarrassing both of us. Look forget it, forget I ever asked"

She got up to leave but he grabbed her arm and pulled her back.

"Evy, you can't leave it like that. There must have been a very good reason why you asked me that question, now please tell me. I don't mind" he said.

"Okay, I found out tonight that Jonathan is…has feelings for you…you know. But he thinks that if you know, you will kill him" she blurted out.

Ardeth leant back in the chair and tried not to smile. Swallowing hard, he looked At Evy.

"I thought he had – oh you tell me nothing I didn't suspect already. I am surprised that he told you though. What do you want me to do about it?" he asked.

"I don't know, it depends on how you feel about him. But I won't see him hurt, if you don't want to know then somehow you have to tell him but if you do, then you also have to tell him. That's the real reason we came here. Oh I am babbling which is unusual for me. Anyway he is on the dirigible, we'll stay away if you want to go and see him" she said.

She walked out of the tent and over to the one where Rick was waiting for her and told him what had been said. Rick looked out of the door and after a few minutes, saw Ardeth walk out of his tent, say something to Masala, his second-in-command and then head for the dirigible.

"Well he is going over there, do you know what he is going to say?" Rick asked.

Evy shook her head and hoped that he would not upset Jonathan too much.

Ardeth climbed up and walked over to where Jonathan was still sleeping and sat down next to him. He watched him as he slept and wondered why the man had never said anything to him about his feelings. But he also knew how shy Jonathan was most of the time. He could hide behind money and drink but normally he was really shy with people. The mans mousy colored hair lay tangled from the events of the day and he had only taken off his shirt to lay down. His
features looked quite boyish in a way but it was something that had attracted Ardeth to him. Oh yes, he felt the same way about him and had done for a long time but also wondered how to broach the subject. Whenever he saw Jonathan out anywhere, he had a girl with him, never a man. As he watched, the man stirred as though he sensed that he was not alone. His eyes opened and as he focused, he saw Ardeth sitting there. He sat up with a start.

"What is it? Not more trouble, tell me there is not more trouble?" he asked "What are you doing here?"

"Calm down, no nothing like that. And you are at my camp, all of you are. The others are in tents, resting, I thought I would come and see you" said Ardeth.

Suddenly Jonathan remembered the conversation he had had with his sister and knew what she had done. He could feel himself getting embarrassed and scared. Maybe that was why Ardeth was there, he was going to kill him and had waited till he was awake to do it. He wasn't sure what to say next so he thought he would see what the other man said first.

Ardeth could see by the expression on the mans face that he had realized why they were there and he decided to make things easier for him and let him do the talking first. After about five minutes….

"Look I can guess what Evy has told you and she shouldn't have done that so if you are here to kill me, just make it quick. It would have been easier if you had done it when I was asleep" said Jonathan.

Ardeth stood up and Jonathan moved back on the bed, thinking he was going to get one of those swords in him. The man walked over to the bed and sat down.

"What makes you think I would want to hurt you Jonathan, that is the furthest thing from my mind" he said quietly.

"But you can't feel the same, that wouldn't be possible. You're a Med- jai, a commander for goodness sake and…well look at me, I'm not exactly good looking am I?"

"What has me being Med-jai got to do with anything. I'm still a man under all this, I still have feelings, can love, hate, all the things you can do. As for what you look like, looks don't matter, it what is inside here that matters and I think you are a lovely person inside there and yes…I do feel the same" said Ardeth.

Jonathan looked up at him, really looked at him and saw desire in those eyes, that had gone darker or was it his imagination. He felt a twinge in his stomach that traveled to his groin. Ardeth placed a hand on the mans thigh and shifted himself so that he was closer. He could see Jonathan getting more breathless as he moved further up his leg and slowly his eyes closed to the sensations that Ardeth was giving him.

"If you want me to stop…I will" Ardeth whispered.

"No…please I don't want you to stop…not now" the man gasped.

Ardeth moved even closer and his lips brushed against Jonathans neck producing a gasp from him. His mouth traced along the jaw and captured his lips in a searing kiss. At first Jonathan kept his mouth closed but then his mind was overwhelmed by the man doing this and his lips parted, allowing Ardeths tongue to enter. The kiss deepened and Jonathan threaded his hands through the long hair of Ardeth, pulling him even closer till they fell back onto the bed, moving so that their bodies were against each other.

Jonathan was getting hard and he could feel that Ardeth was already in the same state. Both men were moaning into the kisses, long and short ones, their groins grinding together until both men felt themselves cum.

"I think we should have removed our clothes first" said Jonathan.

"I couldn't wait that long, once I kissed you that was it" replied Ardeth "Thank goodness we were kissing, if we hadn't been, I would have woken everyone within a mile of here"

Jonathan pulled the man up next to him and held him in his arms. He couldn't believe how lucky he was at that moment. Here he was, holding the man he loved in his arms but he was also scared that it would be the only time and he wasn't sure if he could handle that. Ardeth lifted himself up on his elbow and looked at Jonathan laying there.

"You okay…you look worried" he said.

"I was just wondering if this was it, if you were going to walk out of my life just as quick as you walked into it" said Jonathan.

"Is that what you want me to do?" asked Ardeth "I will if that is what you…"

"Ardeth no, it's not…I just thought that was what you would do, everyone else does"

"Oh Jonathan, how could I leave you now. What you don't know is that I have felt things for you for a long time and also didn't know how to tell you. Thank God for your sister, we could have spent years not knowing about the other. If you want me, I am here for you" said Ardeth.

"Oh Ardeth, why don't I stay here and the others can go back on their own, if you want that is?" asked Jonathan.

Ardeth didn't reply, he just took the man in his arms and proved to him how much he wanted him to stay. Rick and Evy were looking out of the tent and when they saw that Ardeth didn't come back and there were no screams from Jonathan, they guessed that they had sorted it out.

"Do you think they are alright?" asked Rick.

"I'll lay money on it and I'll also lay money on the fact that we will be going back to Cairo tomorrow with one less passenger" replied Evy.

Rick kissed her and they went back to bed. For once, Evy had interfered in the right place for a change.