Disclaimer: I don't own Hercules or any of the characters or settings mentioned.
Author's note: I just wrote this for some quick practice, I haven't wrote anything but papers for class for a year or so.
Two Goodbyes
by Ryoko Porter
The First Farewell
Standing at the entrance of Prometheus Academy with the usual scowl on her face, Cassandra waited for Hercules to get his ass to school. She had been waiting for quite a while, despite knowing that the hero would be late to arrive as he always was. Unfortunately, however, the seer had no choice in the matter, not with what had happened over the weekend.
Weekends were always a stressful time for Cassandra. With Hercules away training with Phil on his island, she would be left in Athens to fend for herself. And not only would she be plagued with visions of terrible events, but she would also be left alone to deal with Icarus.
For years the redhead had been able enough to keep the little weirdo off of her, but now Icarus was getting stronger and she was unable to always get away. Lately the twit had gotten more physical with his disgusting affections, and the only person both strong and willing enough to pry the leech off of her was Hercules.
Hearing the distinctive and loud whoosh of Pegasus' wings flapping through the air, even before seeing him and his rider over the horizon, Cassandra breathed a sigh of relief. She felt better knowing that Hercules was nearby. Though, she didn't care to think about her feelings concerning the young god – turned mortal – too deeply, she had enough troubles with men or because of men in her life.
Now all Cassandra had to do was think of some excuse to give Miss Euphrosyne as to why both she and Hercules were late for class. Home Greconomics was her most hated class, but first thing in the morning was the worst! The only good that could come of it was the cheerful teacher's soft spot for Hercules, so long as he wasn't destroying her classroom.
Passing overhead, the flying horse did not even bother to land, but flew low enough to the ground for his passenger to easily dismount by sliding off. Then with an excited neigh, Pegasus sped off to only the gods knew where.
"Where's he off to in such a hurry?"
"I don't know, but I think he's got a girlfriend somewhere," Hercules answered, scratching his head and watching his pet fly off in a rush.
"Well, as long as he doesn't learn how to dry-hump from Icarus, than good for him," Cassandra noted as she started off into the school grounds with Hercules closely in tow.
"He's gotten that bad?"
"Started this weekend," Cassandra shuttered at the memory of Icarus appearing at the theater where she had been enjoying a rather dry witted comedy. At first, the little pervert had behaved himself. But as the play progressed, he nudged he way closer and closer to her, until he was in her lap making a rather disturbing repetitive movement with his hips. Worse yet, because of his growing strength, she had not been able to push his still smaller body off of hers. It had taken a theater security guard giving him a verbal warning to make Icarus stop humping long enough for her to get away.
"Oh, it can't be that bad, can it?" Hercules asked disbelievingly. He was Icarus's best and only friend, and Cassandra had expected that he would defend the sun-fried moron.
"You'll see."
The two made no more conversation as they stopped at both of their lockers and then headed for the Greconomics classroom. Finally arriving nearly twenty minutes late, they tried to surreptitiously take their seats. Annoyingly, however, they were brought to the attention of Miss Euphrosyne and the other students when Icarus vibrantly asked where they had been.
Before the two were allowed to sit, Miss Euphrosyne asked the very same question, her voice laced with frustration. Hercules was about to apologize, but was cut off by Cassandra's sharp voice. The normally reserved girl told a story about how she and him had been attached by some kind of monster sent from the dark reaches of the Underworld. It was a lie, of course, but Hercules marveled at how easily his friend was selling it to the class, and more importantly, the teacher.
"Well, I'm very glad that you two are safe," Miss Euphrosyne gushed. "Now take a seat, I was just talking about..." Neither Hercules nor Cassandra heard the rest of her introduction as they took their seats with Icarus. Though Hercules noticed how careful Cassandra was to sit with him in between her and his friend.
"Aw, why didn't I get to help?" Icarus whined, referring to the fantastic story that Cassandra had told. Again, Hercules was about to answer when he was interrupted by Cassandra.
"It's not like we planned on running into a giant monster! My visions aren't specific enough to know exactly when we should stop and say to whatever's attacking; hang on, so we can get our geeky friend, so he can watch you get pummeled by a guy a third of your size?"
Unfortunately Icarus did not hear the sarcasm in Cassandra's voice. All that the lovesick teen did hear was his lady-love's reference to him being a friend. Immediately he started to gush and purr her praises, while reaching across his best buddy to take Cassandra's hand so that he might lavish it with kisses.
"Icarus stop it," Hercules whined, not at all pleased at having his friend's overly excited body draped across his lap. But his annoyance grew to anger as he watched his friend almost violently grab Cassandra's small hand and proceed to kiss and even lick it. Watching the girl cringe and desperately try to pull back her hand for a few moments, Hercules finally snapped and bellowed his rage;
"ICARUS STOP IT!"
Shocked at the sound of the young mortal-god's anger, the entire classroom went silent. Icarus went still, afraid to make any move that would further enrage his friend, who's lap he was still vulnerably lying across. Cassandra was amazed by the ferocity of Hercules's anger and that he's managed to not use his incredible strength against Icarus like he usually did against those who caused his fury.
As the class started to recover from their shock, Cassandra was finally able to pull back her hand leaving the still sour hero to push Icarus off and onto the floor.
"Well, well, it seems as though our boy Hercules is being passed over for that long haired boy!" Adonis chimed, pathetically jealous of having people's attention on anyone but him – he only barely tolerated teachers. The class laughed, despite his poor joke, because of who he was.
"So if I'm a boy, does that mean that you prefer them? It's okay if you do, but I saw you staring at my butt last weekend at the mall. Maybe I should tell Helen?" Cassandra shot back. It wasn't a lie either, she really had caught the self absorbed prince in the act of checking her out. It made her want to weep for her luck with men. But while the rest of the class laughed at her smart comment, she watched Hercules with gritted teeth, leave the classroom.
*****Hercules the Animated Series*****
Later, when Home Greconomics was finished, Cassandra was able to slip away so that she could find Hercules, who never returned to the class. It wasn't hard to find the hero, even if she hadn't guessed where he would go, since everyone could hear the echo of him punching the extra strong punching bag made for him in the gym.
"Well that was quite a show we put on back there, " she greeted as Hercules took a moment to breath. He didn't respond however, and instead the hero continued to punch out his anger. "Not ready to talk yet? That's okay, I can wait."
Sitting on a bench a short distance from her friend, Cassandra was ready for a long wait. Few at school had ever guessed at her friend's capacity for having such rage, and even fewer had actually witnessed it before today. Even she had only seen him rage as he had a few hours ago, once before. That time, however, the old satyr Phil hadn't been able to walk for a week. So to have enough control not to strike Icarus showed that Hercules was maturing, almost as much as his physic. Actually looking at him for the first time in months, Cassandra accessed the changes in Hercules since they had met over a year before.
Never knowing Hercules to have less than a lean and strong musculature, the seer realized that he was starting to fill out and fit the size of his strength and his feet. He was taller too, making his toga look too short to be decent even by the standards of the other students. His eyes still had the same country dope shine that she'd known since they were fifteen, but his cheeks had thinned and his jaw squared off to match his strong chin. He was nearly seventeen now, and in only a couple of weeks they would graduate and then would go their separate ways. And as sappy as it was, Cassandra realized that she did not want their school career to end on a bad note.
"Look, I'm sorry, okay? I shouldn't have put you between Icarus and I, both figuratively and literally."
Hercules finally stopped his abuse of the punching bag – though it looked like a new one would have to be supplied with the damage he'd done, and turned to the girl; "No, I should've talked to him a long time ago".
"It's alright, I'm used to not getting my way with men," Cassandra sighed as Hercules sat beside her.
"What do you mean?"
"Hercules, do you know how I got my curse to see into the future?" he only shook his head in the negative. "About a year before I met you, I went off one night to read the stars – which I did a lot back then. Anyway, while I was out working on my astrological charts, a man approached me. I wasn't frightened by him, so we talked and he gave me some tips on what to look for and such. And the next night we did it again, and again, and again. It was like that for a week, until one night when he finally asked if I wanted to, do it," Cassandra quoted with her fingers. "Of course being barely fifteen at the time I turned him down. Little did I know that it was Apollo in disguise! He said that if I wanted to see the future so badly, than I would. Anyway, in his annoyance that he was denied he cursed me to see visions of the future that no one would believe. And then he got Cupid to curse me with never getting the man of my dreams, since apparently; even a god wasn't good enough," again she quoted. Taking a breath, Cassandra stopped to gauge Hercules's reaction, she was after all, speaking poorly of his family.
"Wow," Hercules was surprised, and yet not at the same time. It sounded just like Apollo and Cupid to curse his friend like they did, neither were any good at taking rejection. "Well, I could ask them to lift the curses for you."
"Don't worry about it. I learned a long time ago that my visions are never wrong, and I've already seen how I will die, and that I will still be cursed when I do. So I know that I'll always be cursed."
"Well, you never know until you try, right?" Hercules prompted, not realizing until he'd said the words that he was fulfilling the part of the curse that promised that no person would believe them.
"Maybe I should take off from school early," Cassandra sighed.
"Second period's only just started,"; there were five, hour and a half long periods in a school day.
"I mean, maybe I should leave the school for good. My grades are good enough for me to skip the last two weeks and end with decent scores. And I don't really care anyways."
Hercules was surprised. Of course after what had just transpired between Icarus, she, and him, he knew how frustrated she was with Icarus. And he didn't even want to think of anything happening between her and Adonis. But to leave a whole two weeks early just to get away from certain people seemed extreme, even for Cassandra. "Where would you go?"
"Delphi. I figure that I'll have the last laugh if I make a fortune off this damn curse."
"And miss graduation?" Hercules mournfully whispered as he leaned forward to hide the disappointment on his face, even if he couldn't hide it in his voice.
"I planned on skipping it anyway," Cassandra said as she put her hand on her friend's strong shoulder. She had planned on saying something more, but suddenly she was overcome with the sights and sounds of a great battle; "I see a war between gods, a man and a woman caught in the middle, and another woman openly making out with a goat," she chanted in a trance.
No matter how many times Hercules witnessed Cassandra having a vision, he was always disturbed by it all. And this prediction was no less odd. But it made him wonder how she could bare with the fate she had been woven into.
As Cassandra came back to consciousness, she noted that her hand was still resting on her friend's shoulder and that he was looking back at her in concern. The seer smiled. "Very soon now, you're going to become the greatest hero that the world's ever seen."
"What about you?"
Again Cassandra smiled. Hercules was very definitely the best person in her life. He kept her safe and never threatened her with judgment or lust. The cynic in her remembered that being a god – despite being made mortal, would make Hercules the last person that Cupid would shoot at for her, it would go against the love god's curse. But she supposed that it was him not expecting anything more than a platonic friendship from her which made her so comfortable with him. And it would be difficult to leave his safe company behind, even more so now that she realized how easily she could fall in love with him.
Falling in love with Hercules was not an option, however. Love would cause too much trouble for the both of them. Hercules had to focus on his goal of becoming a great enough hero so that he would regain his place among the Olympian gods. Icarus would be furious and his friendship with the hero would suffer for it. And Cassandra already knew that she had no place in Hercules's future.
So with nothing more to debate, Cassandra leaned forward – her body closer to her companion than she had ever been before – and placed a friendly kiss on his cheek.
"Say; goodbye, to the idiot for me."
Hercules just smiled tenderly.
End Part One.
Author's note: just finishing up the first draft of the second part, and hope to have it up very soon.
