Zach's eyes greeted the sunshine, his heart and lungs expanded, and for the first time since forever, he felled blessed. The silence a gift, even the clepsydra had topped dripping, for just a moment time seemed to stand still. Closing his eyes, Zach tightened his grip on Liv's waist, who was still snuggling beside him, and he enjoyed this moment. A moment couldn't last forever, but for now, he pretended it could. Liv stirred ever so slightly, and when their eyes met, there was mutual contentment for this moment as if they telepathically agreed that it was the very definition of perfection.

Moving as one, they both washed and dressed without exchanging many words. The morning had become such a routine within a month that they now worked like a well-oiled machine. 

It was only when the mechanical buzzing of the speaker echoed throughout the atrium that the routine was interrupted. "Good morning, mortals!"

"Good morning, oh great, Jupiter." Liv and Zach answered in unison.

"As you are both well aware, today is the first day of Aprilis, which also means it's the start of the Veneralia."

Liv's eyes lid up in excitement, "are we going to have a festival?"

"Not you two, no." Jupiter cut her off. "Your impudicitia is a disgrace to this household. I would never let such disrespectful citizens partake in the sacred honoring of Veneralia."

"What the hell!" Liv cursed, entering the pool like she was about to attack the statue. "Listen up, old man, we have been praying, leaving offerings each morning and evening, and now you dare to say we display sexual shamelessness? I've played your games long enough, can we get something in return!"

"You call having a banquet in the name of Baccus on the most sacred day of Venus Verticordia, not shameless? Not to mention the ruckus you made tonight. Does pudica means nothing to you two?"

Both Zach and Liv cast their gaze to the ground in shame when the statue called them out like that.

"As punishment, I have decided that the two of you must participate in the Ludi Florae, the Games of Flora, at the end of the month. Olivia, you will prepare the offerings for the goddess and oversee the prayers to all the patron goddess until the festival. Zachariah, you will partake in the gladiator mock fight and the competitive events that will be held during the games."

"What?" Zach cried out. "No, I refuse. I'm not going to fight some bodybuilders, especially not nude."

"You will all be provided with a loincloth," Jupiter argued.  

Liv patted him on the back, "it will be fine. It's just a fake fight, after all."

"Easy for you to say. You don't have to go out there and embarrass yourself by becoming a pincushion for other men. All you have to do is pray and look pretty." Zach blindly retorted. He was so accustomed to the ways of Liv and her fiery temper, that her shocked stare startled him for a moment. Then her eyes narrowed, as if afraid to let the light in. "Oh, you think I want this boring-ass lifestyle? At least you get to go out every day. I have to wait for an escort to arrive before I can leave this prison."

"Leave?" Zach fumed, "only to get humiliated at the university. I'm already the laughingstock of the archaeological world."

"Well, I am not even allowed to kill a chicken!" Liv yelled back at the top of her lunges, her cheeks almost as red as her hair.

"Why do you keep complaining about the things that you can't do when you're not even doing the things you are supposed to be doing." Zach shot back, pointing out the weaving loom. 

He never argued with his fists, but he might as well have. Liv's face fell as if his words slapped her across the face. "Get out."

Zach stepped forward, wanting to extend an olive branch, but she turned her back to him. "Get. Out." Without a word, he did as she asked and left.

Total word count: 13.583