Hercules had never had so much difficulty concentrating in Home Economics class, and it was usually a struggle. It wasn't even the topic of the day that tripped him up. It was the fact that Megara was there, and he couldn't stop imagining himself alone with her.

"And where are today's guests from?" Ms. Euphrosyne was asking. "Class! We should show them our hospitality! Do we remember how to do that?"

"Yes, Megara should come and sit with me on my couch," Adonis said. "Helen, make room for our guest, won't you?"

Helen pouted, but it seemed she was about to comply before Megara spoke up.

"Actually, I'll have to pass. I'll be with my boyfriend today," Megara said. "Thanks for offering, though. I'm sure it takes a lot of courage to show everyone how vile of a pustule you are."

"Thanks—wait!"

Megara sneered across the classroom at him. "Maybe I should write to your father and ask him whether he would like the Theban Royal Family to send our personal hero over to negotiate proper relations between Thebes and Thrace."

"Your personal—"

Megara slung an arm over Hercules's shoulders. "You have the privilege of sharing a classroom with the National Hero of Thebes. Anything you say or do to my brother and I is liable to get you a visit from our hero."

"Wow, Hercules! You must be so honored!" Helen exclaimed.

"I… I am…"

"He's also engaged to me," Megara said. "So sorry you all missed your chances, ladies. He's mine." She went on tiptoe then and kissed his cheek.

"Well! That was a rather bracing speech!" Ms. Euphrosyne exclaimed. "Miss Megara, would you join us for our lesson on caring for newborns?"

Both Megara and Megarion raised one brow at the question. They looked at one another and came to a silent consensus.

"As royalty, we'd ordinarily let our heirs be raised by maidservants and the like," Megarion said.

"But since we're living with the results of that, we've decided we may as well learn."

"I've got dibs on Prince Megarion!" Cassandra threw herself at him and wrapped both arms around his.

"I guess she does," Megarion said flatly.

"Hey! Who am I supposed to partner up with?" Icarus asked.

"Would anyone partner up with you normally?" Megarion asked.

"Well… no… but…"

"Hey, don't feel bad, Ick," Hercules said. "It's just for today's class. Megarion didn't ask Cassandra to partner up; she wanted to."

"And that's supposed to make it better?" Icarus snarled. "She didn't want to work with me the last time we practiced handling newborns, and she never cared about the pottery babies I made for her!"

"Ugh! Don't ever mention them again!" Cassandra gagged.

"Hey…" Galatea waved as she sidled over to the group. "I can't help but notice the commotion over here, and I thought I'd help…"

Now that Megara and Galatea were standing next to each other, the resemblance was so uncanny it made Hercules dizzy.

Icarus gasped. "Gala-TEA! Your presence only reminds me of the sublime privilege it was to have my own children made of clay! Why must the gods torment me so?"

"Um… I was going to help you," Galatea said. "What about it? I don't usually partner up with anyone for these things, so I could be your buddy."

"That's really nice of you," Hercules said, though talking to her was still incredibly awkward.

"You're not… Theban, are you?" Megarion asked.

"I know we have some family in Corinth, but not Athens," Megara said.

"Oh, no! I don't have any family!" Galatea giggled. "Actually, Hercules—"

"No, wait!" Hercules interjected himself between his ex and current girlfriends. "Don't tell them, please?"

"Now you're making me even more curious," Megara said.

"Icarus made clay pots come to life…" Megarion said. "If Galatea reminds him of it…"

Hercules sagged in defeat.

"You made a woman. Out of clay." Megara wasn't asking.

"And she looks like you!" Megarion piled on.

"She was supposed to be his dream date. I was there!" Icarus said.

Hercules slowly raised his head to look at Megara, who was busy studying Galatea and vice versa.

"So I guess that makes us sisters?" Galatea asked, opening her arms.

Megara and Megarion glanced at one another again and slowly stepped into Galatea's offered embrace.

This was really happening.

"Oh! I'm just so lucky I look like real people and have a real family!" Galatea gushed.

"I'm sorry it had to be ours," Megara said.

"Okay, class! That's enough dilly-dallying! It's time for each couple to pick up a doll!"

Megara squirmed free of Galatea's grasp and hustled to the front of the room with Galatea and Cassandra in tow.

Hercules sank into a chair and peeked at them through his fingers.

"Relax," Megarion said. "We're Theban. We've heard so much worse."

"You don't think Meg's going to freak out on me later for creating a whole person because I couldn't find a date?"

"I won't pretend she's not gonna laugh about it, but since your dream girl could believably pretend to be our cousin, it's going to land on the flattering side of her approval."

Hercules let out a heavy puff of air just as Megara joined him. "Ha-hey!" he noticed the wood-and-clay doll she'd picked out had orange yarn hair. "You uh…"

"Thought I'd get the one that seemed most like ours, yeah." Megara set the doll down on the table. "So what do you think? Boy or girl?"

"Uh… I dunno, a boy would be a hero like me, but… that sounds dangerous, so…"

"Girl, then." She looked over at Cassandra and Megarion's. "How about a cousin playdate? What do you two have?"

Cassandra whispered something to Megarion.

"It's a boy," Megarion said.

"How did you decide so fast?" Hercules asked.

"I foresaw it," Cassandra said and giggled behind her hand.

"But your eyes didn't get all green, and you didn't–"

Cassandra made a completely different kind of face.

"Welp, guess she foresaw it!" Galatea dropped an already-broken doll onto the table. "We got the last one, Icarus. What'll we do with it?"

"Well, it looks like it's about as broken as my heart, so we should put it out of its misery!" Icarus grabbed the doll and swung it toward the tabletop, but Galatea grabbed it from him before it could hit.

"This is my grade. You're not going to ruin it! I need this class because I need someone to teach me how to live!"

"I think now I'm starting to understand why making her was crazy," Megara said.

The air went out of Hercules's body, and he grimaced at her. This was probably the point where she'd turn on him.

"Hey, Galatea, you should join the cousin squad since we're family," Megara said. "What do you have there?"

"An abomination?" Cassandra guessed.

Both Megara and Megarion snorted at that.

"It's a semi-humanoid construct, and it just needs a bit of remolding so it can look like its cousins." A look of intensity overshadowed Galatea's face. "Eventually, if it works hard enough, it can be perfect!"

"Or… it could be unique with its own qualities that other people appreciate," Megara suggested.

Galatea looked from Megara to her doll. "I can still do better." She ran her hands over the doll, and the clay joints turned malleable. While everyone watched, she formed it into a better doll than any of them. She then re-swaddled it. "Now it's a girl."

"So, no unresolved issues there at all, huh?" Megara whispered.

"I know… and it's my fault…" Very few things could deflate Hercules's confidence, like being reminded of his own mistakes.

"I didn't know you could do that. It's impressive," Megarion told Galatea. "I bet you could make a lot of money fixing broken pottery."

"Maybe," Galatea said, still staring at the doll. Then she lifted her head and grinned. "But we should focus on the assignment!"

"Hey, unresolved issues are sort of our thing," Megara said. "Have any of you heard of Oedipus?"

"Meg…" Megarion groaned.

"No, literally everyone's going to know about it as soon as the play hits the circuit. So our uncle was a horrible person and got another curse layered on top of the curses our family was already dealing with, so the Oracle at Delphi told him his son would kill him and marry his wife, our Aunt Jocasta. So this guy gets the brilliant idea to fight fate and try to murder his baby." She pointed to the heels on the baby doll she'd picked out. "Pierced him in the heels and left him to die on a hill, but a servant saved him."

"And then the prophecy was fulfilled," Cassandra said. "If all you people would listen to me, you could avoid things like this."

"Or, don't be evil," Megarion said.

"Or both!" Hercules carefully placed a hand on the doll's back. "I know it's a doll, but I don't like thinking of anything bad happening to it. Do you think I could try holding it?"

"That's the next part of your assignment!" Ms. Euphrosyne danced over and looped her arms over Megara and Megarion's shoulders. "I can't believe you two have adapted to class so well! Your babies look so snug in their swaddling! Now you have to practice holding it! See the diagram?" She pointed to one on the wall.

"I got it," Megara said and lifted it into her arms. She actually looked like she was actually holding his daughter.

It made Hercules dizzy all over again. All he could think of was how easily this could become reality and whether he was ready. He definitely wasn't. But he was ready to be with Meg, and he would get the rest of the way somehow.

"Your turn. We're supposed to be careful with the head." Megara handed the doll over to Hercules, somehow managing to make the carved doll feel warm in his arms when he held it. He could imagine it full of life and depending on him for everything.

It was so bizarre he thought he would faint.

"Good!" their teacher squealed.

Megarion and Cassandra were also passing their doll between them, but they looked as if they were having fun.

What was his problem?

"Are you scared?" Megara whispered. She took the doll back and cradled it against her shoulder.

"Yeah," he admitted before he was sure he wanted to admit that. "There are so many ways to screw up being a parent."

"That's right!" cooed Ms. Euphrosyne. "That's why you have to spend extra time paying attention in class! Because, as we all know, the sons of heroes only end up two ways!"

"What ways are they?" Megara asked.

"They either become heroes themselves, or they die horribly!" Ms. Euphrosyne exclaimed with a way-too-chipper smile.

Megara caught Hercules's gaze.

He knew without her saying that it was up to him to turn the tide of generations yet again. If he were going to be with her, that would be his duty for the rest of his life. He could take it on. "So she'll be a heroine," he said. "We'll find her a place in the stars, right next to us."

"Who said I'd get into the stars?" Megara asked.

"Me, just now." He stepped closer so he could put an arm around her and a hand on the doll's back. "Because I'm not going anywhere without you."

"You cheesy boy scout," she whispered, which he decided to take as a complement. She didn't move away from his kiss, but Megarion did clear his throat.

"Hey, Herc. You've still gotta learn how to change its diaper."