"I'll do that then." Marcus said, smiling. As she snuggled up against him to sleep, he too closed he eyes. Maybe Laelia was right, maybe he would feel different in the morning but right now, next to her, there was no where else he wanted to be. As he drifted off to sleep, his thoughts were of nothing but Laelia.

Laelia slept very well that night and when she woke the next morning she couldn't help the smile that spread over her face. She got up carefully and crawled out of the bed to pull a clean, and less revealing, dress on. Pushing her hair into a half hearted braid before going back to the bed the girl leaned over Marcus and kissed his cheek tenderly,
"Don't forget me," She whispered before leaving the room. Laelia truly did hope that Marcus wouldn't decide she wasn't worth his attentions, that he would take her from this prison and make her into an honest woman. Sighing as she went to the main room where she and her comrades would tally their earnings for the night.

"I won't." Marcus replied, smiling as he sat up more in bed. He knew he wouldn't. Laelia was special, he knew it. How? He wasn't quite sure yet, but still he knew he wanted to take her back to Rome. He climbed out of the bed and began searching for his cloths. He pulled his tunic on before beginning to wrap his toga around himself. As he finished dressing, he felt a low rumble as the ground shook slightly. After a few seconds it stopped and Marcus relaxed. There had been one yesterday too, but the locals hadn't seem fazed so Marcus assumed they were a fairly regular occurrence but he still wasn't too comfortable with it. Another bonus of the capital. No tremors..He thought to himself.

"Oh damn... I liked that vase," Laelia muttered as she held onto the trembling table, vases and pillars toppling over with the shaking. When the tremors stopped the girl stood up with a few others and they began the almost daily task of cleaning the mess that the shaking made. When she was done, Laelia looked up the stairs towards where she had left Marcus. Biting her lip and thinking about their night together, Laelia went to her private room that she shared with another girl and began preparing for her work in the coming hours. Some men would come during the day, but they tended to go to their regular girls for a couple minutes. Laelia sat down on her bed and sighed, feeling put out. She usually went about her business with a certain detachment but now the girl couldn't motivate herself to get up and move. All she wanted to do was get away and change.

After a few more minutes, Laelia stood up and hurried out of the brothel and into the street. The smells and the warmth of the building feel like she was choking or suffocating. Picking up the hem of her silk dress, Laelia walked as quickly as she could through the crowd and out of the city gates.