A/N A special thank you to Bluebirdheart for allowing me to use one of their OC's!

I own nothing.

17-year-old Patroclus maintained a white-knuckled grip on his cousin's hand as they walked through the streets of Troy, towards the palace. His eyes roamed warily around him, although he was in the company of the finest warriors in Greece, as well as their leader, he couldn't shake the nagging fear that sat in the pit of his stomach. Witnessing his father kill his mother at a young age had left Patroclus with severe emotional scars, and as a result, he was extremely codependent on his cousin Achilles. The crowded streets of Troy were noisy and crowded which only served to heighten his anxiety.

They were here to negotiate a treaty with prince Hector. After Agamemnon was killed in battle, Achilles and Odysseus were appointed as the leaders of the army, and they used the position as a tool to negotiate for peace between the two kingdoms. Achilles and his men would agree to ally themselves with Hector's army in exchange for an end to the fighting. They would go home to Phitia, but they would continue to assist the Trojan army in any time of conflict. Put simply all three kingdoms would support each other in a mutual use and defense of the Aegean sea.

Achilles glanced down at his cousin and moved his arm to wrap securely around the boy's shoulders.

"You're alright, Cub," he assured, "No one will hurt you here, I promise."

"I don't like it here," Patroclus responded, his voice tremulous. "Too many people. I want to go home." His breathing began to speed up as he pulled against Achilles' hold looking frantically around him for an escape. These were all signs that he was on the verge of a massive panic attack.

Taren, Achilles' trainee commander and a mentor to Patroclus, moved to their side and knelt in front of the teen, taking a firm grip on his armored shoulders. Achilles signaled for the Eudorus to lead the rest of their men to the palace while he dealt with the situation.

"Patroclus, hey, look at me. I need you to look at me, lad," Taren commanded. After a long pause, Patroclus obeyed.

"You're perfectly safe," Taren continued firmly, clearly used to dealing with this sort of issue. "You've got me, Achilles, and twenty other lions looking out for you. I know there are a lot of people, and you don't like it, but we're only here for two days, and then we get to go home."

"I have to join the rest of the men, but you can go with Taren and take a walk," Achilles suggested, as he took Patroclus into his arms and kissed the top of his head. "I'll come to find you when I'm finished."

The teen nodded in agreement and Achilles held him a bit longer before turning to his trusted subordinate and handing him a flask of water as well as a pouch of ground up valerian. "Try and get Patroclus to drink some water, it'll help him to stop hyperventilating but if he doesn't settle, give him a small amount of the sedative. It's not ideal, but it calms him down pretty quick."

Taren nodded in understanding before drawing Patroclus close to his side in a one-armed embrace. "Why don't we go find somewhere more secluded and see if that helps you calm down?" he suggested to the distraught teen.


"Zeus, kid!" Taren exclaimed as he caught sight of a scabbed over wound on Patroclus' leg. The wound stretched down from below the teen's kneecap and disappeared under the greave encasing his right shin. "How in the world did you get that?!"

"Remember when we had that really hot day last week?" Patroclus asked.

Taren nodded, not liking where his student's story was going.

"Are you sure we should be doing this?" Antilochus asked as they climbed the gangplank to the ship. "If Achilles catches us we're screwed. Me especially since I'm supposed to be looking after you."

"We'll be fine," Patroclus assured as he walked to the edge of the stern of the vessel. "We'll just jump off once. Just to say we did it. Just once, I promise."

As it usually did, 'one time' of jumping off the stern turned into many. The young warriors were thoroughly enjoying themselves, and all was well. That was until Patroclus became more brazen and attempting a running leap into the sea. The 17-year-old was so focused on his target that he paid no mind to a slick spot on the deck. Before he registered what had occurred, he was over the side of the ship and in the shallows of the sea. At first, Patroclus' body was numb with shock, but it quickly dissipated, and he felt his right leg stinging fiercely.

Antilochus was at his side in seconds, helping him to limp out of the water and guiding him to sit on washed up driftwood log before shouting for Eudorus.

"I'm not sure how deep or large the wound is," Eudorus sighed. "It needs to be treated and cleaned up though. I'll send for Achilles."

"Achilles bandaged it up and made me rest after that. I took the fall for coming up with the stupid idea. Achilles wasn't very happy with me, but at least Antilochus didn't get in trouble.

"Children the both of you," Taren teased, drawing Patroclus into a one-armed embrace. "I should have you boys training with my newbies since you have so much extra energy to expend."

"Noo," Patroclus whined dramatically. "I for one am an adult now. I'm of age, Achilles said so!"

"You may be of age, but you still have much to learn young lord," Taren responded with a smile. "Now what do you say we try and rest. It's not every day that we get permission to skip out on official business. Best enjoy it while we can, eh?"