Hercules knew better than to underestimate Meg after the way she'd played him like a maestro in Thebes and Sparta. She seemed most in her element, skulking around the borders of her own family residence. He didn't want to ask, but he guessed she'd learned to do that out of necessity. Judging by the treatment he'd watched her receive from her family, it made perfect sense that she'd try to evade them.
Megara's garden wasn't too far from the palace. It got him wondering how often she snuck out here. The cool night air was scented with a gentle floral scent. Hercules didn't know the name of the flowers, but they were a welcome addition to the sculpture garden's atmosphere. Marble painted with moonlight added a welcome glow to their little world, but Megara herself was the centerpiece of it all.
"This place is sacred to the Muses," Megara noted over her shoulder. "We don't tend to come out here as a family, but my many times great grandmother Harmonia was supposedly the one who built the place, so we have to maintain it in spite of… circumstances."
"It's nice…" Hercules meant it, but he wasn't sure why she had brought him there.
"And unlikely to present any interruptions," Megara replied.
"By which you mean…?"
"This is where we'll educate each other."
"In…?"
Megara shook her head, making her barely tamed curls bob in the breeze. "I'll teach you how to let me please you, and you'll teach me what to do."
"Oh…" Hercules looked around. "Um… you're sure it's safe?"
"Would you let someone hurt me?"
"Never!" Hercules stood straight as a javelin.
"See? Safe." Megara led him to the edge of a fountain and beckoned him to join her there. "Let's pray to Aphrodite," she suggested and pointed to the top of the fountain. There were sculptures of the Muses there, but Aphrodite's sculpture formed the centerpiece.
"Oh… uh… good idea." Hercules seated himself on the fountain and took Megara's hands. "Aphrodite, we're learning to do our best for each other, but we have a lot to learn, so… please bless us while we try to figure it out a bit more."
"A lot more," Megara corrected.
"Ah–heh!" Hercules blushed and glanced away. "A lot more," he echoed in agreement.
Megara rose from her spot on the fountain and did a little twirl. "We have all this space to ourselves tonight. Let's get lost in it, and then we'll get lost in each other."
Hercules's throat dried up. Somehow, he lurched to his feet and followed Megara as she pranced into the shadows.
"Where are you going?" He called after her.
"Not even sure! Come find me!" Megara laced the rustling of the hedges with a thrill of laughter.
Was this a test? What would happen if he couldn't find her again?
"Uh… Meg?" He called into what looked like a maze. He was pretty sure there weren't any Minotaurs here, but his heart was racing.
He couldn't afford to disappoint her.
Hercules had lost sight of her, but she couldn't stop giggling. Maybe that was a hint for him because she wanted to be found.
He followed the sound, along with some rustling, and found her at a dead end of the hedges, sitting on a bench wearing nothing but her sandals. She had her legs crossed primly and bounced one foot while smirking at him. "Are you ready for your lesson?"
"Uh…" He would remember this moment for the rest of his life, but he found himself frozen, unable to answer or even move toward her. This was not the romantic moment she was after, and he knew it.
"Let's get back to the basics." Megara got to her feet and tilted her hips to one side. "Do you like what you see?"
Hercules dropped to his knees, just staring at her. His rational mind may as well have been an agora in Attica because it had just collapsed disastrously. "Wha–?" he asked in a breathless trance. "Yeah… uh… you look…" his shoulders convulsed with laughter that he knew made him sound like an idiot.
Megara backed toward the bench, gesturing for him to follow her with one finger.
He got back to his feet and trailed after her, but she put a hand up to his chest and stopped him where he stood.
"It's your turn. Lie down on the bench."
His eyes lingered on the way her chest bounced whenever she moved her arms. His throat was dry, and he felt like an absolute idiot. "You don't mean you'll…"
"I'm putting it in my mouth unless you faint. And I'm guessing it's ready for me right about now, am I right?"
"What– oh…" Hercules shied away from her, but the fact she was naked and he was shy about flesh she couldn't see threw into contrast what he had to worry about.
Megara patted the bench next to her. "Sit here." Her voice was gentle but too firm to argue with. He would do exactly as she said.
Hercules fumbled his way across the little hedged-in alcove and sat beside her with his legs flopping out in front of him. "What do I do now?"
"You listen." Megara put a hand on his thigh. "You're worried about being selfish, right?"
He nodded and looked away.
Megara scratched lines along his thigh. "Herc… You're afraid that you can't accept affection or pleasure from me, but what if I'm afraid of being selfish, too?"
Now he looked her way. There she was, naked as a cherub, but her eyes were full of earnest sweetness that demanded his attention. "What?"
"I'm trying to let you feel how much I love you, but you won't let me. We have to communicate with each other. Maybe I won't get much out of this for myself, but I'll know that I was good to you, and that's enough for me. It's the same for you, I'm sure. That's why you were content to do this for me and get nothing in return."
"Because I love you… and you're beautiful… and I so wanted to…"
"Right, you wanted to, and so do I. Besides, think of it this way: there's no way for it to hurt you when we consummate this thing between us, but it could hurt me. So let me get comfortable with this so I'll be able to relax on our wedding night."
Hercules knew his heart was pounding, but his arms and his mind felt no stabler for that knowledge. His heart had other priorities, and all that tingling heat was thus directed elsewhere. "I'm doing this for you?" he asked.
"For us," Megara clarified. "You looked at that scroll and saw all those images of me, but I was looking at you. Let me explore, please. Those images and thoughts aren't going away. There's so much I'd like to try."
Hercules nodded. "It's fair," he whispered, mostly for himself to finally get over this hurdle, and he hiked up his tunic. "Which… uh…" What was that word again? "Diagram?" he guessed.
"I'm blending a few. So you'll let me do it?"
"Yes," he whispered breathlessly.
Megara nudged him so he'd lean back and give her space, then hovered a hand over him. "Are you ready?"
Hercules gulped. "Yes…"
Megara took him in one hand and flipped his tunic out of her way. "Wow," she whispered.
Hercules looked away. "Yeah, um… I'm sorry?"
"For what?" She closed her hand around him and began to explore.
That bit of contact was enough to get him groaning. He flopped backward on the bench and covered his face in the arc of his elbow.
"Try not to lose this before I have a chance to play with it." Megara trailed her fingertips up and down along his veins, and he couldn't help but tremble. "And don't cry, okay? I'm not trying to hurt you. It's supposed to be nice."
"It is!" Hercules sat up so abruptly it startled her. He caught her by the shoulders so she wouldn't fall off the bench, then collected enough of his thoughts to say, "I'll… hold your hair." He brushed it back from her face, then wrapped it around his hand.
"Don't you dare rip all my hair out," she gave him a firm squeeze as an extra warning.
"Um…" Hercules eased her hair free and instead rested a hand atop her head. "Good point."
Megara looked down at him in her hand, and for a minute, he thought she would critique it.
He wanted to shrivel back down and be less obvious in his desire, but he couldn't ignore the effect of her appearance on him. She'd laid bare her every curve, and he couldn't stop thinking about how she'd mentioned so casually how she'd swallow his essence.
Far from shrinking to a more modest size, his pulse raged in Megara's hand, and he knew the evidence was not in favor of modesty.
"This is too easy," Megara purred. Her breath hit him, making him groan. He was just trying to decide how to ask her for more when she lowered her head to first kiss and then explore with her tongue.
Hercules gritted his teeth and fought to hold still so he wouldn't jostle her.
She looked up at him one more time, then, seeming to pick up on his discomfort, sighed. "Do you want me to stop?"
"Nn…" was all he could say.
"This is only the basics so far, but there's something I want to try. You can't faint."
"I don't think that's up to me."
"That won't stop me from blaming you when Aphrodite asks how we fumbled this part of the pink scroll." She didn't warn him this time when she bowed over him and let go of him so she could push her breasts forward to join her mouth.
Hercules gasped both in shock that she'd pick that portion of the scroll to emulate but primarily at the sensations. She was so brave to give him so much of herself. He finally understood why it meant so much to her. How long had it taken to get the nerve up to do this? He didn't think he could do any better when it was his turn again, and he wished he knew something he could do for her in this position… No wonder she'd insisted she get to play with his hair. It made so much more sense this way.
His rational mind drifted away into a haze of lavender. With only what she'd learned in one sacred scroll, Megara had harnessed all his power in less time than he'd managed. "...Doing so good…" he murmured. It wasn't anywhere near as elegant as he'd intended it to be, but he hoped she would forgive the inarticulate presentation for the honesty of his meaning.
Megara made a noise as her mouth moved to engulf still more of him, which was starting to become impressive, and one hand stopped pressing her breasts around him.
Hercules was about to protest when he felt that hand trace him down to his base and cup him firmly in that wayward hand. It sent a fresh shockwave through his whole body, and he lurched backward reflexively.
Panting, Megara stared up at him. "Are you done?"
Hercules shook his head. "Reflex… Overwhelming…"
"If you want more, get back here."
"Yes, ma'am." Another reflex. He didn't pause to correct himself. Instead, he slid back down the bench to her and let one leg hang off the side of the bench to stabilize him and incidentally give her more space to explore.
This time, Megara went to work with hands and mouth in tandem. She massaged him from the base of him to where her lips closed around him.
Why had he been so worried about this? She'd said she was combining more than one diagram for this act, and it showed. He couldn't hold that thought together for more than a fleeting observation. He'd only been this overwhelmed once, and this time, he wasn't about to run away.
Just as he was about to test her promise to discreetly dispose of what spilled out of him, she gave him a tug. That sensation receded, and he found himself groaning in disappointment.
Megara nipped at him playfully, just enough to communicate that she was still working. She kneaded him back to the edge while humming for added effect.
"Malaka!" Hercules exclaimed as that feeling began to build all over again, and he knew it would drown out his sanity. He shouldn't spill yet. Even though she'd promised to take it, that didn't mean it was all right to– too late.
True to her word, Megara didn't pull back. She continued to hold him even as his mind went blank from pleasure.
How had she learned to do that? He couldn't remember any of those diagrams in the scroll… Then again, he'd purposefully skipped anything that had to do with him alone.
Megara brushed the back of her arm over her mouth and sat back up straight. "Remember that the next time you're hesitant to ask for anything." Megara slid off the bench and reclaimed her clothes. "I can be just as diabolical as you."
"No, you're worse…" Hercules swiveled to face forward and covered himself in his tunic down to his knees, gazing at the beauty before him that was no less radiant with or without clothes.
"Then I hope we've got that figured out," she said, tying the last of her sashes.
"Don't you worry," Hercules told her through what he knew was a big dumb grin. "I've learned my lesson."
That smug look on Megara's face foretold of boasting she'd never get the chance to do.
Overhead, something screeched as wings flapped in the air. Both Hercules and Megara snapped their gazes upward to see what was making that unholy sound, and Hercules exclaimed, "Furies!"
"Who would summon them?" Megara gasped. "Or… do you think someone's dead?"
They held contact between worried gazes for a long moment, but no answers appeared for either to offer the other.
"You should wait here and let me figure it out," Hercules said.
"No chance, Wonder Boy. You leave me here, I'm mincemeat. We're going to figure this thing out together, and you'll see what I'm capable of."