Secret Messages, Encounters and Kisses

"And he took her in his arms

and kissed her under the sunlit sky,

and he cared not that they stood high

upon the walls in the sight of many."

― J.R.R. Tolkien

King Creon paced back and forth in his private quarters. His patience with his stubborn daughter was starting to run short. He had just ended a conversation with her, telling her once again that she was not allowed to associate herself with this Hercules. Yet the defiant look in her eyes had told him enough: he was certain that she would not follow his direct orders. King Creon paused his pacing and sighed, closing his eyes

Even if out of his three daughters, Megara looked most like his passed spouse, their personalities differed prominently. His late wife, Eurydiche, had been obedient and kind, her fragile spirit had not taken well with the loss of their sons, which is most likely why she had decided to take her own life. Megara, beneath all her strong will and spirit, had a kind heart just like her mother, but her spirit could not be broken as easily as hers.

In a way, he admired his daughter for her strong will and her sense of justice. But they were royals: they did not have the luxury of choosing to do what they saw right for themselves. They had to do what was requested of them in order to maintain their royal house and status: that included making some hard and even ugly choices from time to time. And the king knew what he had to do.

He called for a servant and as the man arrived, he announced:

"Send my quickest messenger to king Aedes. Pass the word for him, that we should not wait any longer: that no matter what his seer says, we shall have his and my daughter's wedding as soon as he arrives to Thebes. And as soon as he receives my message, he should make haste and start his journey to Thebes," king Creon concluded.

"Shall I wait for the morning, your Highness?" the servant inquired.

"Now, do it right away. We need to reach king Aedes as soon as possible. We cannot wait any longer,"

The servant opened his mouth, almost as if to question his instructions, but then he simply closed his mouth and nodded. "As you wish, your Highness," the servant bowed and scurried to find the messenger to hand the task for him.

Deep in his thoughts, king Creon turned to study the palace's garden outside his window. He knew his daughter would hardly be happy when she heard about his actions. But he was doing this for her own good: she could not keep pursuing something that could not simply be. She would simply hurt herself by doing so. Besides, marriages born from romantic relations were hardly the most working and productive ones: he himself knew that from first-hand experience. He closed his eyes and sighed once again.

'I'm sorry Megara, but I'm doing this for your own good and for the good of our people,' he thought.

At the same time, Autolycus had made his way to the cave which worked as his meeting place with Hades.

"O' Lord of the Dead, I do summon thee," Autolycus loudly called as he fond no trace of the dark deity.

"Yeah, yeah, no need to burst my ears with your wailing. Sheesh, you could even wake the dead with that voice of yours and hey, believe me: I'm the expert," Hades casually pointed out as he appeared from a thick cloud of smoke.

"Oh, forgive my master. It's just that the situation between the king and princess Megara is going as you wished," Autolycus quickly explained.

"Oh? Care to elaborate?" Hades knitted his fingers together in an excited manner.

"Well, the king has forbidden his daughter of seeing this Hercules and yet she defies his orders by doing so. The relationship between the king and his eldest daughter has been strained to say the least for years, but now the're really trekking on a thin ice," Autolycus recounted.

"Hmmph. That's good. Really good. When the trust is gone between family members, there is no going back. This turn of events might come out handy: that beefcake Jerkules has turned out be much bigger nuisance than I first thought," Hades rubbed his pointy chin thoughtfully.

"Yes, I did hear he defeated all those monsters sent by you," Autolycus nodded and Hades gave him a hard look.

"Yeah. Thanks for reminding me of my latest failures, I could really use that," Hades sneered back at him with a fake smile.

"Forgive me, my master, I-," Autolycus started his grovelling once again, but Hades cut him short.

"Yeah, well no need for that. Just keep an eye on the things at the palace and keep me updated, 'kay?" He had better things to do than listening to the endless apologies made by this pathetic man (like re-arranging the Cosmos). 'What was this guy, a man or a worm?' The thought quicly passed Hades' mind.

"Will do so, sire," Autolycus was eager to bow and Hades disappeared with a poof, while rolling his eyes at Autolycus' exaggarated gesture. 'What a doofus.'

For the following few days, Hercules hardly saw any trace of Meg. He had a feeling that it was not Meg's choice, but instead the king himself was behind it. Sometimes when he was training the soldiers, he would notice from his peripheral vision that the king was monitoring the training session. More than that, he noticed how the king was obviously scrutinizing him when he thought Hercules wouldn't notice.

He did remember that the king was a stubborn man who had decided to marry his daughter to a trusted ally, but still, he had hoped that the king would change his mind. He hoped that the king would let Meg herself decide what she wanted to with her life.

Hercules had finished one more day of training and he was entering the stables to fetch Pegasus as someone rushed inside after him as well. Meg.

"Hi," she breathed out breathlessly, as she had obviously been in a hurry.

"Hi yourself, I thought I wouldn't see you," Hercules was positively surprised to see her there.

"Well, Thalos, one of our guards, told me that you came here. He's a good person, I trust him," Meg then told him, coming closer to him.

"Well, I'm glad to meet you, in any case. I guess your father told you not meet me anymore?" A sad smile played on Hercules' lips.

"Yes, that's what he told me. But I think it's safe to say that I'm quite bad at following his orders," Meg smiled cheekily.

"I guess we should keep this meeting as a secret?" She continued on.

"I can live with that, as long as I get to see you. I really missed you," Hercules blurted out and felt his cheeks burning. He wanted to bite his own tongue. Why did he say that, maybe she now thought that he was a complete idiot?

Meg felt her cheeks getting warmer as she quietly told him: "I missed you as well."

A timid smile came to her face as she studied him under her lashes. Hercules felt himself returning the smile and moving even closer to her. He took her hand to his own, studying her delicate one.

"Why did you come to see me, even against your father's wishes? I mean, I'm thrilled that you're here, but there might be some consequences if he finds out," Hercules asked her, curious to hear her reasons.

"I don't want to but you into an awkward position..." Meg begun, but Hercules furiously shook his head.

"No, I'm not worried about myself, I'm worried about you," he told her quietly, looking into her eyes.

"Oh. That's... Sweet, I guess. People are mostly worried about how I behave and about my future, but not really of my well-being. I feel so alone in here: I might be surrounded by people, but it all feels like we're all playing parts in some elaborate play written by Euripides. It all feels so fake. But you seem… Different," Meg tried to explain to him. 'Why did I say that?'

"I understand how that feels. I might be known all over Greece, but everybody is interested in me as a hero, not as a person," Hercules then explained her, opening up to her about things he had never told anybody before.

"People see only what they want to see," Meg then sighed sadly, turning away from him.

"You're not like that," Hercules then told her, following her steps.

"How do you know what I'm like?" Meg turned to face him.

"All I know is that you're the most amazing person with weak ankles that I have ever met," Hercules took her hands to his own ones, remembering the first time he had met her, how she had fallen down to his arms and how perfect she had felt there. He struggled to put in words what she meant to him. Yes, what did she mean to him? He hardly knew her, but still, she mattered more then he could ever explain to her.

Meg's eyes widened and a genuine smile splayed across her face as she heard what he thought about her. She wanted to stay at this very moment for as long as possible, but at the same time, she wanted to run away. This, whatever this was, was getting more serious than she had imagined.

Meg chuckled as she tried to turn away, but only met the wall. Damn.

"With you, I don't feel so alone," Hercules then told her and she wanted to tell him that she felt the same.

Instead she tried to reason with him: "I don't know what this is, but maybe we should stop it before one of us gets hurt…"

Hercules was moving towards her lips as if in a trance and instead of following her rational mind, she returned the gesture. She closed her eyes, anticipating the moment when their lips would meet.

And when it happened, there where no words to describe it. What she felt was simply a bliss. She sighed against his mouth, pulling him closer with her hands. He snaked his arms around her, lifting her into air without even noticing it. He had never experienced anything like this all his life. For a moment that felt like a blink and eternity all at once their kiss continued. As the lack of air in their lungs forced them to pull away, they were both breathless.

"Wow," Hercules simply breathed out.

"Yeah," Meg replied, her head still reeling from their kiss. Then she noticed that she was still tangling awkwardly in the air, still captured in his arms.

"Erm, would you mind…?" Meg then gestured towards the ground.

"Oh! I'm really sorry!" Hercules chuckled nervously, gently lowering her down.

"Don't be. I'm not," Meg then told him, placing her hand on his bicep.

"I'm not either," he replied her, smiling warmly at her.

Suddenly Meg snapped back to reality. How long had she been there? Had someone already noticed that she was missing?

"I-, I need to go," Meg moved nervously towards the door. She had stayed there already for way too long, she needed to head back as quickly as possible.

"Will I see you again soon?" Hercules pulled her gently back from her wrist.

"I'll try my best. Yes, yes you will," she smiled at him, tiptoeing on her feet and placing a quick kiss on his cheek before turning away and gathering her skirt in her hands as she started to run towards the palace.

Hercules traced his lips with his fingers, still in awe with what had happened.

He had kissed her and she had kissed him back. He felt happy, happier than he had ever felt. He hardly paid any attention what was happening around him as he returned with Pegasus to his villa, his head was still reeling from all that had happened.

A/N: So the kiss finally did happen! How do we feel about that? I wanted to kind of re-write the garden scene from the original movie in a less romantic and more realistic circumstances (because most important discussions in real life do not happen in those ideal settings). I don't know, I kinda like romantic things that happen in the more everyday-like settings.

Shout-out to my reviewers: Cabria: Ooh, sorry I forgot to respond to your review earlier on! But I do like your idea, that would be a fun turn to this story (reminds me of Aladdin taking Jasmine on a magic carpet ride). I do think that Meg's grandmother has good intentions, but like her son, she has a really strong sense of doing her duty, you know?

Nutmeg: Glad to her you like it! In my mind, I actually do think that is what happened in the setting of original Hercules movie. ;)