Nightly Visitors and Fears

"I should welcome yesterday and leave the ache and pain away, you say
This life give me many tears, and now my dreams are full of fears."

- Memories Fall by Dark Sarah

When they finally made their way back home, Meg almost tripped while entering the front-door because of her exhaustion. Hercules, her vigilant hero, was luckily there to catch her as always.

"Oops, careful honey," he gently told her as he helped her back at her feet.

"Sorry, I should look where I'm going, I'm just so… Tired," she tried her best to fight back her yawn.

"You should go lay down, hon," Hercules gently took her in his arms and carried her all the way to their bedroom. He gently placed her in the bed, removing her sandals and tucking her under the bed-sheets. He placed a kiss on her forehead and whispered to her: "Try to get some sleep, you've had a hard day. I'll join you in a bit, okay honey?"

"Okay," she muttered back before drifting into sleep. Hercules smiled to himself, studying her sleeping form for a moment. 'By Gods, how can anyone be as beautiful as she is?' His hand lingered on her cheek as he pondered on that question once more. Then he headed to the hallway, deciding to make some tea for himself before heading to sleep.

In her sleep, Meg was wandering in the halls of her childhood home. The palace was dark and empty and she felt as if there was something lurking in the shadows, following her every step. As she started to run, whatever was following her, started speeding up as well, following her trail. She saw tendrils of black smoke and gasped -

As Meg woke up, her heart was racing and her breathing was shallow. As she looked around the dark room, she saw yellow eyes flickering in the corner of dark room.

"Hades," she breathed out, not even surprised to find him there.

"Surprised, babe?" he leered at her.

"Not really, even if watching me sleep is a new low even for you," Meg replied, feeling already agitated. What in the name of Tartarus was he doing here?

"Sorry to disturb your beauty sleep, my sweetest Nutmeg. Just checking up on you," he replied, moving closer to her.

Meg felt the dread spreading all over her as she smelt the all too familiar scent of sulfur surrounding him. What was he doing?

Before she had a chance to do anything, Hades was pulled away from her. Even if Hades was taller than Hercules, Meg was impressed as he was more than capable of lifting Hades up so the deity was left tangling from Herc's iron grip.

"What do you want, Hades?!" He demanded, irked to see the Lord of the Dead still at the tail of his girlfriend.

"Oi, let me down you ox of a man! Shouldn't you be holding your girlfriend instead?" Hercules let him fall down, moving closer to Meg, taking her into his arms.

As Hades was arranging his chiton, he was eyeing the two of them, tangled in each others arms.

"Really Meg, Jerkules, out of all the man out there," he arched his eyebrow at her.

"Yes Hades, really. As a matter, we're engaged to get married," Meg replied him with a defiant look.

"Is that so? So you're happy ending is paving out well? Just remember, Meg my sweet: only heroes get their happy endings, and you my dear, you're not a hero: you're a villain. Just like me," he smiled wickedly, shoving his pointy, yellowed teeth. Meg felt the dread once again seeping in and she instantly pulled closer to Hercules, who wrapped his arm tighter around her.

"With your history, a disaster is just waiting to happen. So enjoy this while it lasts," Hades once again smirked at them and before Hercules could do anything, he had disappeared, leaving behind only a burnt mark where he had been standing.

"Damn him," Hercules muttered to himself, pulling Meg even closer to himself.

"Well, as he is the current lord of the Underworld, I think it's safe to say his already as damned as one can be," Meg wearily replied back.

"You okay, honey?" He then asked her, studying her appearance with a worried eye.

"I'm alright, nothing new there. I got little freaked out to find out that Hades enjoys watching me sleep," Meg got chills just thinking about it. How long had he been back? Did he watch her other times as well (Meg did not want to dwell in those details)?

"Hades is a creep. And obviously a sore loser. What he said about you Meg, it's not true. You are a hero and you deserve to be happy," Hercules told her, running his hand in her hair. She tried to smile back at him, even though the thought would not leave her head: What did Hades want? He obviously had something in his mind, but what was it exactly?

Even though her tiredness, the sleep had evaded Meg mostly for the rest of the night. Judging from how he was tossing around, Hercules himself had hard time getting some sleep as well, even if he normally fell asleep like a log the moment his head hit the pillow.

At the crack of the dawn, Meg got up and made some tea for herself. She went outside, sitting on the bench facing the sea and watching the sun rising from the east. At least Apollo was up besides herself. And apparently Hercules as well was already up as he made his way to her, placing a blanket on her shoulders. It was still chilly outside, Meg was grateful for the warmth. As he sat next to her, she leaned against him, closing her eyes.

"Trouble sleeping last night?" Hercules more stated than asked.

"Yeah, I'm sorry I kept you awake as well," Meg replied, feeling slightly guilty.

"At least now I can enjoy the sunrise with my favorite person in the world," he gently told her and gently placed a kiss on the top of her head. For some reason, Meg felt tears invading her eyes. After the day before and the evening following that day, Meg had been awake most for the mind with her own negative thoughts to keep her company. The positive outlook Hercules had in life never seized to amaze Meg.

"Oh Wonderboy, you're way too kind. That is one of the things I love the most about you," Meg then told him, still leaning against him with her teary eyes closed.

"Yeah? What are those other things, then?" Hercules smiled timidly, wrapping his arm around her waist. Sometimes he still had hard time understanding why Meg wanted to be with him. Sometimes all he could see were his own faults, so why would she choose to be with someone like him?

"Well, you're also kind and you never give up. I do like all this hero stuff, but it is your personality that I love. That you choose to see the best in people, and that even in tough situations you never back down," Meg told him, a soft smile on her lips. Hercules smiled back at her: "Really? Y-you think so?"

"I know so. Plus you are a sight to a sore eye, to say the least," Meg teased him and he felt the familiar blush creeping up his neck.

"And you are the smartest, bravest and the prettiest girl I've ever met," Hercules suddenly replied with pure adoration in his eyes. Meg felt own cheeks getting flushed and she moved closer until their lips found each other for a long, languid kiss.

After the kiss, Meg felt her head swimming. She wasn't sure if it was the kiss, the deprivation of the sleep or something completely else, but she felt ready to go back to their bed. And eventually, they did get some sleep as well.

After an emotionally tolling day followed by a sleep deprieved night, the young couple decided to take the day easy and they lounged around the villa, doing nothing particular, which turned out to be just perfect.

When the night-time fell once again, Hercules found himself pondering once again over the fact that Hades was still causing trouble not only to himself, but more so to the woman he loved. During the day, he had Meg's presence to keep him occupied, so these thoughts hadn't bothered him as much. As he tried to settle down to sleep, he wasn't as lucky. All those thoughts came bouncing back at him. For few moments, he tried his best to find a good position, but it was to no avail. He sighed as he got up.

Luckily Meg was able to get some sleep that night. By the looks of it, she had really needed it. Meeting her family and facing her past had been hard for her: however Hercules was very much proud that she had done it, nonetheless. He studied her sleeping form, with tender smile lingering on his smile.

"She's sight for a sore eye, isn't she?" a masculine voice just next to him commented.

His instincts kicked in and before he even knew it, Hercules had gripped his sword placed beside the bed.

"Whoa, whoa! Easy, sport! You could hit somebody with that thing!" The sudden intruder, who turned out to be another of his divine relatives, Ares to be exact, scolded him.

"Well, that was pretty much the idea there," Hercules muttered to himself, still jumpy from Hades appearing in his bedroom. As if that wasn't enough, now he had Ares standing there. Was this some sort usual visiting hour and place of the Gods and he himself just didn't know about it?

"Hmm, I've got to say that I do envy you, sport. I wouldn't mind laying next to her myself every night," Ares once again turned his attention to sleeping form of Meg, his eyes lingering on the curve of her waist and the rounding of her hips, only covered by the thin bed-sheet and on her bare skin, not covered by the sheet.

"I'm… Not sure what to say to that about that," Hercules frowned: he really didn't like anyone, not even the Gods themselves, making such comments concerning Meg.

"I heard that your decision of staying with her on Earth were received with some… Mixed feelings. Some admire it, some wonder whether you have lost your mind or not," Ares commented in a laid-back manner, ignoring Hercules' previous comment.

"Are we talking about Gods or mortals here?" Hercules asked, still uneasy of the attention his divine relatives were giving to his sleeping fiancée.

"Well, both, to be honest. But I myself completely understand you: between the two of us, her beauty defeats even Aphrodite herself. So I completely understand that you couldn't let the opportunity pass," Ares whispered to him, looking around himself as if to make sure that the jealous love goddess wasn't hiding anywhere in the room (at his point, Hercules wouldn't have been even surprised if Aphrodite would have popped out from some nook or cranny).

"Is there a real reason why you decided to pay me a visit past midnight or did you just want to compliment on Meg's looks?" Hercules was getting tired of this conversation: it wasn't doing him any good, if he wanted get any sleep at all during that night.

"Oh. Oh, right! There was. As you probably have heard, your dad Zeus has prohibited us deities from interfering with mortals' affairs," Ares shot an accusing look towards Hercules, who winced, not liking where this was going.

"So, because of that, I've got a problem: my Spartan army needs an inspection and as the matters are what they are, I cannot do that myself," Ares explained.

"But… How are you here then? If you cannot interfere with mortals?" Hercules was taken aback.

"Weell, there's an error in the fine print. Let's just say that we cannot visit fully mortals: demigods such as yourself make an exception. If meeting even the demigods would be forbidden, the old man himself would have hard time seeing you, wouldn't he?" Ares crossed his arms on his broad chest, triumphant smile on his face.

Hercules' mind was trying it's best to fill in the blanks: was that the reason why Hades had been able to visit his home last night? On the other hand, Hades didn't usually follow the same rules placed for the other Gods. And what would it mean if all the Gods were not allowed to see the mortals, but they were still able to summon his help whenever wanted? The thought only made his head ache.

"So I made a petition to Zeus that I would be allowed to attend the matters concerning my army, but all the other Gods have made their own requests and petitions as well. So your old man is buried in those requests and the processing line is gigantic, so to speak: I have no hope of getting my petition getting processed in time," Ares carried on and Hercules felt a twinge of worry: even though his father was lord of the Gods, was he able to handle all that work by himself?

"So you need someone to do the inspection for you?" Hercules concluded.

"Yes, exactly! Would you mind then, sport?" Ares nodded eagerly.

"I'll go to Sparta, first thing in the morning," Hercules promised with a sigh.

"Perfect! I know you're already acquainted with my army," Ares smiled in a reassuring manner. Hercules wanted to cringe: he wasn't still sure if he wanted to revisit his memories concerning the Spartan army.

"Thanks, sport! Nighty night!" Ares exclaimed before he disappeared.

"What was all that ruckus?" Meg, her eyes still heavy with sleep, had stirred a little and raised her head to look towards her fiancé.

"Nothing hon, just go back to sleep. I'll explain it in the morning," Hercules murmured as he headed back to the bed, wrapping his arms around her. Somehow he knew that Meg would lose rest of her sleep if he told her that their bedroom had been once again invaded by a God, even if it wasn't Hades himself this time.

-A/N: Hey guys, and sorry for the wait, life has been giving me some lemons and I still haven't figure out what to do with them... Anyways, the new chapter is up! Thank you very much for reading and reviewing, cheers!