Work Text:
"The people have no interest in discovering what leads to things," Galileo exclaimed. "Which is what leads me to do this!"
"I don't understand you," Ludovico Marsili replied. "The Pope has disapproved of your ideas yet you still keep going. Why?"
Galileo's eyebrows furrowed. "Why? Because it's the truth."
"Truth? You have no evidence of this truth."
"That's what the experiments are for. I apologise for the fact I didn't know you were simple. Do you still want to wed Virginia?"
Marsili sighed, clearly exasperated with the whole situation. "If you're disgraced and forced to recant this nonsense then I won't be able to marry her. My wanting or not wanting is irrelevant."
"Do you care much for pleasures? Especially the lusting kind, Ludovico?"
"What do you think?" Marsili bit back.
"I don't think you think much of anything, considering that you despise my work. Your peasants will still work for you. The Sun can't preach to them to cease their toil."
"Don't throw your life away," he muttered.
"They'll adjust if you let them. Preachers live by the book, I live by my work. The people should learn, Ludovico!"
"How many ways do I have to say it? Don't throw your life away or I can't marry you."
His subconscious had slipped out.
*---*
Galileo was still reeling from his comment.
"Do you not want to marry my daughter?"
"Of course, I do. Don't be absurd."
"I'm lucky the new pope is a thinking man," Galileo deflected. "Otherwise I would really be throwing my life away."
"Barberini isn't Pope yet. His current Holiness isn't even dead!"
"He might as well be! You can have my daughter. Just let me keep my mind," Galileo said, his tone now sounding almost... vulnerable.
"I am not the one you should be begging."
"No one else is here to beg to. Unless you've concealed a cardinal or two in your coat."
A couple beats of silence.
"Have some wine. It's good for you!" he said, leering at his daughter's betrothed as he poured himself a glass of wine.
"I don't want to marry Virginia. She's a nice girl and she'd be good for my image but.."
"But? But what? Spit it out. I haven't got all day. I have experiments to carry out. Investigating my ideas further.
Does that scare you, Ludovico? Does it make you tremble like a schoolboy? I find you hard to read so you ought to tell me."
"I find my heart wanting her father."
Galileo blushed lightly. Ludovico couldn't tell if it was he'd said or the wine that had made him react like that.
"I don't understand. You loathe me."
"It's complicated."
"More complicated than scientific ideas? I doubt that, Ludovico."
"I don't think I ever wanted to marry her."
"Then why did you agree to the dowry?"
"For my image! For my family!"
"I can't marry you, Ludovico," Galileo replied. "It's impossible."
*---*
After many more words were exchanged with ramping up frustration, Marsili left.
Galileo let himself laugh once he was positive the younger man had left.
"What does he expect from me? That I give up everything for a dream he can never achieve? I believed him to at least have three more marbles in his head than his family's peasants. I thought wrong. The Church can bark and nip at my heels; I'm never ceasing my work or the spreading of it. The people deserve to know. No one wants to be spoonfed their entire lives by the rich men who scoff at their very existence while they gorge themselves at tables four or five times larger than their workers' houses."
He then poured himself another glass of wine.
*---*
Ludovico had the urge to weep. He was back in the comfort of his luxurious room yet his heart and stomach felt as if they were made of lead. Their heaviness was hurting his head.
"How could he dismiss me so easily? Is this a taste of my own medicine? The peasants are stupid so his efforts are meaningless. Do I yearn for his touch because the novelty of him is exciting or because he's an intellectual? If he's a man of so called "science" then why does he pursue his ideas if he knows the authorities will hunt him like a fox? A man of logic would never be so arrogant."
He sighed once he'd finished undressing. Sleep would rid him of his pathetic fantasies of a marriage to that middle aged intellectual. Or, perhaps, it would make Ludovico indulge in them. His brain prayed for the former; his heart prayed for the latter.
When sleep at last swallowed him, he began to have those dreams that plagued him in adolescence.
Galileo was atop him, pinning his wrists above his head. All of his clothes were seemingly discarded as his chest was bare.
"Do you like that?" the older man goaded. "Does it turn you on, you heretic? You're not only lying with another man but with an enemy of the Church. You're going against your beliefs. Oh, don't whimper, Ludovico. It makes you look pathetic."
Marsili woke up a few hours later. The feelings hadn't faded, if anything they'd gotten worse. Calling him a heretic and pathetic in the same breath amidst many other things. He can't even romanticise him. Galileo's personality is ugly. His mind is his beauty. If he acted with the beauty his mind demonstrated, Marsili wouldn't feel half as guilty about loving him as he does. Love is ugly and so is Galileo.
*---*
The older man was looking through his telescope when he heard familiar footsteps sound.
"The observatory, Ludovico, is for scientists."
"I'm here to discuss yesterday," Marsili stated. "If you wish to cast me out, fine. Just let me speak my piece first."
"Why do you expect me to listen to you when you refute my discoveries?" Galileo retorted, venom entering his voice.
"They're not discoveries if you haven't proved them."
"Are you bitter about me rejecting you? You seem it. Does our arguing stir something in you? You dirty boy."
"You call me dirty yet you indulge in pleasing yourself and others constantly. God frowns upon it."
"And God frowns upon you, Ludovico. I won't plead with you to change like you do with me. It would be futile."
"Are you implying what I feel for you equates to your discoveries?"
Galileo didn't respond. He hadn't even bothered to turn around.
"Do you hate me?"
He shrugged, manoeuvring on his stool to face him. "What if I did? It wouldn't change your desires. If anything, it would spur you on."
"I don't want to argue with you."
"Then why come here? All we ever do is argue. Our exchanging of words is rendered meaningless by yelling."
"You view me as stupid. Be honest with me, Sir."
"I do." Galileo conceded. "I can't help it, Ludovico. I think the rich are fundamentally stupid to some degree. All that money stuffs their thinking capacity and blocks out productivity. That's why I thank God for not rendering me well-off."
A brief pause.
"If you marry Virginia then we'll have more of a reason to see each other. Shame the only person you want in your bed is me. I have no respect for you, Ludovico. I admire your unwillingness; you really don't want to learn. Do what you like, you staying stupid makes no difference to me."
"Must you berate me?" is all Marsili could muster.
"Can't you keep up? You're an eloquent young man. Don't tell me you're also useless at being what you are, Ludovico."
"I'm leaving," Ludovico spat. "I don't want to hear any more of your jeering. You have a beautiful mind but an ugly mouth."
*---*
Once the younger man had left, Galileo's thoughts drifted to that unfortunate of nature. Ludovico was a stubborn, stubborn man who didn't want his peasants to learn because they'd realise how much of a stuck-up idiot he was. Nature really hadn't been kind to his intellect. All that swaggering around in tailored clothing made the astronomer want to be sick. Perhaps it was better if he didn't wed his daughter. Just for him personally. Yes, his standing would change if the marriage was to go ahead but it would mean Marsili would get to see more of him. And he didn't like the sound of that.