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Title: Howeitat Hospitality (In Auda's Tent)
Author: Cicero
Fandom: Lawrence of Arabia
Pairing: Lawrence/Ali
Rating: PG-13 (this section)
Summary: Lawrence needs Auda, and Ali is not happy.
Email Address: Cicerothewriter@livejournal.com
Categories: Drama, First Time
Feedback notes: Any kind of feedback will be appreciated, even if you just write me a one-line email telling me that you've read the story, and I will be happy.
Warnings: M/M kissing and groping
Notes: This is merely an excerpt from the larger story that I am working on. The larger story is an amalgamation of scenes from the movie (with a slash aspect) and missing scenes.
Disclaimer: I don't own Lawrence of Arabia or the real Lawrence. I am writing this for fun, not profit.

He watched as Lawrence stretched slightly, setting down his cup. Majid shot him a worried glance, which he returned. The play of silk over his form kept Ali occupied for a few seconds before Ali realized that Auda had begun again.

"This thing you work against Akaba, what profit do you hope from it?"

Ali responded first, "We work it for Feisal of Mecca. The Harith do not work for profit." Lawrence looked back at him, smiling slightly.

"Well, if it is in a man to be a servant, Sherif Ali, he could find worse masters than Feisal, but I... I cannot serve."

"You permit the Turks to stay in Akaba," Lawrence said, gently rubbing the horn of his saddle with his fingers.

Auda's attention turned from Ali to Lawrence, "Yes, it is my pleasure."

Lawrence reached for his cup, glancing back at Ali as he did so. "We do not work this thing for Feisal."

"No?" Auda responded, sitting forward, watching as the blond held the cup to his full lips. "For the English, then?"

"For the Arabs," Lawrence answered, staring.

"The Arabs," Auda replied. "The Howeitat, Ageyil, Ruala, Beni Sahkr, these I know, I have even heard of the Harith, but the Arabs! What tribe is that?"

Lawrence laughed as he put down his cup. He remembered Auda's reaction from before, and immediately returned his hand to caress the saddle horn. "They're a tribe of slaves. They serve the Turks."

"Well, they are nothing to me," Auda responded sharply. "My tribe is the Howeitat."

"Who work only for profit," Ali interrupted. He was even more frustrated than before. He wished that he could see what Lawrence was doing. Auda was too interested in Lawrence for Ali's peace.

"Who work at Auda's pleasure," Auda said just as abruptly.

"And Auda's pleasure is to serve the Turks," Lawrence said, deliberately stinging Auda's pride.

"Serve," Auda said loudly. He came forward quickly, grabbing the horn that Lawrence was playing with, his hand covering part of Lawrence's hand. "I serve?

"It is the servant who takes money," Lawrence said sternly, uncomfortable now that he was in direct contact with Auda.

Auda stood up quickly. "I am Auda Abu Tayi!" he said, before turning to his people. "Does Auda serve?"

The crowd cried out in negation.

Again Auda said, "Does Auda Abu Tayi serve?"

His people cried out, "No," again, laughing at the absurdity of the suggestion.

The noise was great, and Lawrence looked about a bit nervously. His instincts were telling him to withdraw before he was overrun by the sensations. When Auda looked down at him, he had Lawrence's full attention.

"I carry twenty-three great wounds, all got in battle," Auda said. "Seventy-five men have I killed with my own hands in battle. I scatter, I burn my enemies' tents. I take away their flocks and herds. The Turks pay me a golden treasure. Yet, I am poor, because I am a river to my people!"

Ali and Majid were not all that impressed, having seen this sort of demonstration many times before, but to Lawrence, who was used to quiet debates and civilized expressions of gratitude, the display before him was overwhelming.

"Is that service?" Auda demanded.

"No," Lawrence said softly, shaking his head. An idea was slowly forming in his head, one that would obtain Auda's help.

Auda motioned for the crowd to be quiet.

"And yet now it seems Auda has grown old," Majid said, "and lost his taste for fighting."

Ali watched Majid, but his mind was on Lawrence. He was worried about what Lawrence would try to do next.

"It is well you say it in my tent, thou old tulip!" Auda said, tired of the distractions. He was eager to sit down, and continue talking with Lawrence.

"Yet, this is a tulip that the Turks could not buy," Ali said, defending his friend.

"Why should they wish to?" Auda said, dismissing the issue by sitting down.

Lawrence realized that his greatest weapons were Auda's two weaknesses: honor and lust. He thought about some of his prior conversations with Faraj and his teasing of Ali. He felt slightly guilty for what he was about to do, but it was imperative that he secured Auda's help.

When Auda sat back down, Lawrence had lowered his eyelids demurely, his fingers lightly caressing his chin.

Auda was smiling. He knew that he had impressed the Englishman. It was one thing to read that somebody was powerful. It was quite another thing to see it in action. "Now! I will tell you what they pay me, and you will tell me if this is a servant's wages."

Lawrence shifted a bit higher on his saddle, and started to nibble on his thumb. This is almost fun, Lawrence thought, as he looked up through his lashes at Auda.

"They pay me," Auda said, moving closer to Lawrence. Lawrence felt his body tense; his lips tightened around the flesh of his finger. "Month by month," Auda continued, "one hundred golden guineas." Auda pulled away to look at his tribesmen in triumph.

Blasted Englishman, Auda thought. He could not tell whether Lawrence was doing what he was doing on purpose or not. He strongly suspected that it was the former.

Lawrence shifted higher onto his saddle. "One hundred and fifty, Auda," he said, looking up through his lashes at Auda. He added a few bats of his lashes for good measure, smiling at Auda's surprise.

"Who told you that?" Auda asked, looking intently at Lawrence.

"I have long ears," Lawrence said, batting his lashes again, adding a bit of a pout to his lips.

Auda sat forward a bit, keeping eye contact with Lawrence. "And a long tongue between them."

Wouldn't you just be so keen to find out? Lawrence thought, involuntarily running his tongue over his teeth. He watched with amusement as Auda's eyes followed the movement.

Lawrence decided it was time for him to actively seek out what he wanted again. He sat forward, and said, "A hundred, a hundred and fifty, what matters? It's a trifle." He let a pulse of time pass before he continued, letting his words flow together as if in a melody, "a trifle which they take from a great box they have."

"In Akaba," Ali added, leaning forward. He had seen his chance to insert himself into the conversation and to find out what was happening. Auda looked at him as if he had only just remembered that he was there.

Auda leaned closer to Lawrence, and said, "In Akaba?"

"Where else?" Lawrence said, shaking his head a bit.

"You trouble me like women," Auda said.

Lawrence started to laugh. Ali did not find it very funny, but he kept his face clear of any distaste. He felt that it was an odd comment to make, but then something clicked in his head, a nagging suspicion.

Lawrence turned to look at Ali, eyes sparkling. "Friends, we have been foolish. Auda will not come to Akaba."

"No," Auda said, looking out into some middle distance.

"For money."

"No."

Lawrence looked down as he said, "For Feisal?"

"No," Auda said again, but those close by saw the shades of panic in his eyes.

"Nor to drive away the Turks," Lawrence said in mock despair.

Lawrence was silent for a few seconds before he raised his eyes, his head still bent down a touch. His arm surrounded the saddle horn, and his hand gently brushed the wool on it.

It was then that both Ali and Majid realized what Lawrence had been doing all this time. Ali bristled in anger, and Majid leaned into his shoulder a bit, warning him. Ali heeded the warning, but he refused to back away from Lawrence.

"He will come," here Lawrence let his voice get a little breathless, bright blue eyes looking directly into Auda's brown eyes, "because it is his pleasure," drawing out the word slightly as he leaned back against his saddle. His eyes were bright with triumph, with promise of honor and pleasure.

Auda knew he was defeated. "Thy mother mated with a scorpion," he said, looking down at the ethereal vision, wanting to cover him, to ignore all the others around him.

There was a collective release of breath from Lawrence's party. For the moment the deed had been accomplished.

Auda, treating this in typical Auda fashion, decided to act as though his capitulation had been his own idea all along, and soon returned to high spirits. Ali frowned at this; Lawrence just smiled complacently, and took another sip from his cup.

Feasting began again in earnest. Lawrence fancied that he could feel Ali burning behind him, and he half dreaded, half longed for their eventual discussion.

The night was cool as Lawrence made his way out of the Howeitat camp. Ali had left a few minutes ago, and he had given Lawrence such a 'come or else' look that Lawrence felt a strangeness in his chest, an almost immediate need to follow.

He walked up the incline, where several of the Howeitat had pointed him. Ali was indeed there, stalking back and forth like some sort of lean panther. He turned sharply to face Lawrence.

"What is wrong?" Lawrence asked. He found Ali to be vaguely disturbing at the moment. His clothes blended into the night's shadows. His face was hard, almost menacing, and his eyes were unwavering, unblinking. Lawrence had to look away before he was devoured.

He felt pierced.

Ali laughed once, a hard, almost violent burst. "Wrong? What makes you think that?"

There was a long pause during which nothing was heard but the desert wind carrying sand through the crevasses of the Wadi and the faint jolliness of the Arab tribesmen below.

"I don't understand why you are so upset, Ali," Lawrence continued, walking over to the place where the mountain wall had been weathered away, leaving behind an excellent view of the desert sky. "We need Auda and his men. We can't take Akaba with a mere 50."

"Yes, I know, and I got these men for you on the condition that you could get more," Ali responded, his voice edged with censure. "What I did not know was how you would convince him to join us."

Lawrence turned to look at Ali again. "I used the lure of gold."

Ali was dumbfounded. Did the man not know what he was doing?

Lawrence saw a flash of white teeth as Ali expressed his displeasure, "Auda was not lured by the gold, Aurens. He was lured by you!"

Lawrence flushed a bit. Ali was getting closer, nearly vibrating with emotion. "Well, I knew that I would have to use some persuasion to get our way, but it worked. And no one got hurt in any kind of silly feud."

Lawrence leaned back against the rocky ledge. Now was a perfect opportunity to tease Ali. Not questioning his reasons, he asked, "Why are you so upset, Ali? We've finally gotten our part in the revolt started."

Ali saw a haze of red. He pushed forward until he was standing less than an inch away from Lawrence. When Lawrence tried to turn his head away, Ali grabbed his chin, and turned his face back, so he could look directly into his blue eyes. He dropped his right hand down to Lawrence's waist, and grabbed a section of his robe, holding him immobile.

Lawrence felt his body tremble. Never before had he been in such an intimate position with someone as strong as he was. He felt hot, too hot, and lightheaded.

"Do you not know what you flaunt so carelessly before others?"

"Flaunt?" Lawrence could feel the words coming out of Ali's mouth.

"You flaunt your beauty before everyone. You take our desire, and mold it so that it becomes your own. You capture us." He looked into Lawrence's widened eyes, and felt himself drawn to that full mouth.

Lawrence felt Ali's dry lips on his, deftly forced open by a hot tongue. The sudden pleasurable sensations flooded his body, and just as if it had always been a vacuum, the new feelings were made painful by their long absence. Lawrence willed his hanging arms to move; he pushed hard against his shoulders. It was enough to dislodge Ali's lips.

"Please, Ali, stop," Lawrence said. "I... I've never."

Despite the embarrassment of his admission, Lawrence could not turn away from that inestimably dark gaze.

"Are you still playing, Aurens?" Ali said, his words thick.

"Not with you, Ali."

"You have never been touched?"

"Never."

"By a man?"

"By anyone."

Ali's hand came up to caress his pale cheek, his thumb brushing gently over swollen lips. "Forgive me."

"There is nothing to forgive," Lawrence whispered, unable to speak louder. Ali's eyes drew his attention, and he found himself inviting those same lips down to his. This time, the kiss was gentle, full of some as yet nameless emotion. Lawrence's eyes drifted close.

This time, their parting was a mutual decision. Ali's hard body was flush with his. They were both panting.

"We should go back," Ali said.

Lawrence nodded, reluctantly.

Ali was no longer angry with him, but his brow was still furrowed. Again he caressed Lawrence's pale cheek, looking at him with something like wonder.

Lawrence sighed in pleasure as Ali kissed him once more.

"We should go back," Ali repeated.

Lawrence swallowed past his dry throat, and nodded. Ali took his hand, and together they walked back to the camp, only parting when they came in view of the camp.

The End (for now).



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