Hercules landed Pegasus in the center of the Theban palace's courtyard and helped Megara down. His hands lingered at her waist, and Megara gazed up at him in the starlight.
"When I wake up tomorrow, I'll think you were a dream… you must be one. Nothing as wonderful as you has ever been part of my life. It's so difficult to believe you're here with me."
"I'm here," Hercules assured her. He squeezed her hips, making her gasp. He loved how easily he could get a reaction out of her. "See? Real. Besides, even if you think I'm a dream when you wake, I'll see you tomorrow," Hercules said and kissed her forehead, intending to tell her good night and walk away. Except that when he pulled back, he couldn't bring himself to separate from the one person that filled his heart. "I don't want to leave you, though."
"Then stay." Megara tugged him toward her bedroom door. "At least for a little while, we don't have to be apart."
"Are you sure that's proper?" he asked. "What if something… uh…" he brushed his hair over his shoulder. "I… don't want to do anything that'll stick… um… with you."
"We don't have to do anything. All we have to do is be together. Who knows what's been going on here while we were out? Maybe my cousins are planning vengeance on me. We should stay together so you'll be able to help if I need it."
It was all too easy to recall the mental image of when the king, Megara's cousin, had tried to choke the life out of her. Perhaps she was trying to cajole him, but it was working. He could see the necessity of being with her, but could he be with her at all times? Surely, there were monsters out there that he had to fight while keeping her safe somewhere. But was anywhere truly safe?
"I will hear you call for help wherever I am," Hercules told her and took a hanging curl from her headpiece to toy with between his fingers. Then he allowed it to spring back into place while he smiled. "I felt it when you were… suffering… earlier."
"If you think that's enough…" she sighed and dropped his hand. "Do I seem… lecherous to you?" She blushed at having said the word
"N-no, not at all. Th-the bedroom's your… one place you can entertain guests…"
"And I'm tired," she added. She was blushing. It took longer in the moonlight, but he saw that blush spread across her face.
Hercules cupped her face in his hands and brushed his thumbs along her cheeks. "I think there's something I could do for you," he said. "What if I left a mark on you so everyone would know not to mess with you, and the ones who do would summon me?"
"A mark? Like a tattoo?"
"Well. It wouldn't have to be something people see all the time. Not if you don't want it to be. But I could find a way to show off your connection to me that would ward off anyone who might try and hurt you… and if it doesn't, I'll kill him."
"Why do you assume only men would try to kill me? Jealousy is a powerful instigator."
"Jealousy? Because you're prettier?"
"No, because you're a god and hotter than any guy they could land."
"Oh…" he hesitated. So… is that a yes or a no?" He wanted to do everything as it pleased her, but he still couldn't erase the thought that he had to mark her now, for both of their sakes. "I've never done it before; it's probably silly. Maybe I was overreacting, thinking you're more vulnerable than you are. I'll listen when you call to me."
"Maybe some other time," Megara suggested. "I wouldn't have a problem with it. It would be more of you."
Hercules's heart fluttered. He wasn't sure if he could contain this joy, but he knew if he let it show, he'd look pathetic in front of her. "I'll guard you while you fall asleep, and then I have to go talk to my parents."
"What will you tell them?" Even in the starlight, he could see the pink flood her face.
"They need to know I found the girl I'll spend my whole life with." His hand lingered on her cheek, and he knew that the moment he left, he would wish he stayed.
"Come with me, and we'll read Aphrodits's scroll." Megara pulled the scroll from her hip sash. "It'll give us something to think about even when we're apart."
Hercules's mouth felt dry, the same way it would if he thirsted for nectar. He couldn't refuse. "Show me the way then."
Megara led him into her room and barred the door behind them. She sat on the bed and gestured for him to follow.
"I'll… uh…" Hercules sat on the floor beside her legs. "I don't think this is the right time for that yet."
"Fine," Megara slipped one leg free of the slit in her dress and brushed it against his cheek. "But I can make sitting there just as interesting."
"Oh…" Hercules leaned away from her leg, but he couldn't stop staring at it. He slowly slid to one side, smiling sheepishly up at her. "Are you sure you need that scroll?"
"If a goddess said I did, then I must, right?" Megara unrolled the scroll and pondered the contents of the first sheet of papyrus within.
"Is it… very complicated?" he asked, scooting back toward her.
"No, it's oddly simple."
"What is it?" Hercules got up on his knees to see.
The first few entries on the scroll were about the philosophy of love, featuring remarks on the dynamic between the two of them as a god and a mortal. He couldn't absorb it all at once, but he wished he wasn't so nervous. He might have made some pithy observation that impressed his new girlfriend.
Instead, Megara unrolled the scroll further and discovered the first image of the two of them partially clothed, entwined in an adoring embrace. The picture clearly captured not only their size difference but also their personal features.
Each of the images showed the two of them kissing, but the more Megara unrolled the scroll, the images that were revealed showed them with their mouths on one another's–
"I think that's enough for now!" Hercules jumped off the floor and walked to the opposite side of the room, scratching the back of his neck. He started pacing the room, hot with thoughts of what he was capable of doing with her.
"Are you scared of it?" Megara's voice was so small and vulnerable that it caught him off guard and dragged him back to her side.
"No. I'm not afraid, but I don't think I'm ready for so much at once. All I need to know is if you're grossed out by it."
"No. It's… sort of cute in a way. Look how happy you look." She held up an image of him with his face buried in her legs. "I'll let you do that any time."
"Oh…" Hercules pressed his hand to his temple and wobbled on his feet.
Megara caught his hand. "Soon, but not now. I'll study this, and then I'll give it to you, and maybe it won't be so overwhelming the next time you see it."
"When it comes to you," he lifted her hand to his lips and kissed it, "everything will overwhelm me. But that doesn't have to be a bad thing."
Megara got to her feet and pulled him down into a proper kiss. "We've got time to figure this whole thing out between us. We need to make rules for ourselves because we don't have to be like anyone else before us."
"You're right." Hercules lifted her to his eye level and leaned back so their next kiss would fully engulf her in his arms and press her against him. This was greater than any experience on Olympus. There was no comparison.
He slowly set her down on her bed and helped pull her hair free of the accessories she was wearing. "Sleep well, love. I won't let any harm come to you."
"It would be so much easier to sleep if you stayed," she told him.
A shiver of longing went through him. "I don't trust myself. I don't want to give you a child so soon after meeting you. You need to be treasured as you are before you take on any burdens."
"We could just sleep next to each other without any of that."
"I wish I knew I had enough control for that," Hercules said. "I won't risk your well-being on my weaknesses."
"You have weaknesses?" Megara asked, her eyes wide and tracing his physique.
Hercules laughed nervously. "Well, yeah, but… obviously not physical ones. I mean, I'm still a person, even though I'm a god. I've spent most of my life alone, and suddenly I have you… You're more important to me than anything else in my life."
"So soon?"
"I know what life's like without you, and I never want to go back. You're the only person in my life that doesn't require me to prove I'm worth something. Yeah, I helped you, but you thought you would look at me when nobody else would. You gave me a purpose, and I'll never forget that gift." He lifted her into his arms once more, then set her down on the bed. "Sleep well, my love. I'll return to you soon."
He rested his hand on her brow and poured warm, gentle happiness into her, then slowly departed through her door.
Unlike when he flew before with Megara, Hercules streaked through the sky like a shooting star in reverse. He flew so high that constellations waved at him as he passed by. Virgo twirled starry hair around her finger. Aries the ram trotted after him a ways. Bootes, the ancient hero, swung a club and cheered in greeting.
Hercules crowed with joy and jumped off of Pegasus's back. He fell through the atmosphere, arms outstretched to embrace the cosmos.
Never in his untroubled life had he reveled in such glee. He'd conquered his own ennui. Life held meaning at last, and he'd never let it go.
Pegasus caught him and he lay slack along his buddy's back.
Everything he saw seemed more beautiful than before.
"Son! What's made you so happy?" His father's voice caught a scrap of his attention. Zeus had manifested himself in the clouds as a floating head.
Hercules sighed blissfully and resumed a proper mount on Pegasus's back and corkscrewed down toward the cloud. "I can't wait to tell you, Father!"
As he reached the cloud bank etched with Zeus's face, the god himself manifested and seated himself on a chair made from the clouds. "I'm all ears, son!" he said, adding a footstool made from the clouds to help him lean back on his chair.
"I'm in love!" Hercules exclaimed. "I can't stop thinking about Meg! She's the most wonderful, most beautiful girl in the cosmos! I can't wait to see her again! I want to spend the rest of my life with her!" As he spoke, Hercules vaulted onto a set of parallel bars he fashioned from the clouds. He sailed in a circle around the bar, then lay back on it with a sigh. "I've never felt like this before, Father… She's everything I've been missing in my life…"
Zeus regarded his son unmoved. "So, have you lain with her?"
Hercules startled with a blush, sat upright too fast, and dropped down to bounce off the clouds. "Father!" he scolded once he was back on his feet. "We just met!"
"What difference does that make?" Zeus asked.
"It… makes a lot of difference? We need to get to know each other better."
Zeus rolled his eyes. "But Aphrodite gave you the talk? About demigods?" He took his son's mortified silence as an invitation to keep talking. "Son, demigods can be a serious commitment. You'll pass on some facet of your nature to the child, who may be a hero someday. You'll have to give advice, and always remember that he or she is running around until they die."
That horrid word stung Hercules to his core.
What could part that word from the ones he loved?
"Well, son?"
"No, I've not lain with her."
"Do you intend to?"
Yes.
He wanted nothing more than to bury himself in her and lose all sense of self. He wanted to be one with Megara and show her the depths of his gratitude for awakening him from interminable boredom.
"Not yet," he said. "Aphrodite gave us a scroll to help us explore each other without… er…"
"How long do you plan to prolong this phase?"
"Phase? I mean… for… ever?"
Zeus sighed. "Hercules… Son… mortals don't last forever."
Revulsion against that statement stirred in Hercules's chest. He'd never allow his beautiful Meg to wither away, and her hair would never go gray. He wished to kiss her lips forever and so he could not allow them to rot off her bones.
"Father, I wish to formally request that we make her my divine consort in the near future if she agrees. I can't lose her."
"Sure you can; I've lost dozens of mortals," Zeus said.
Hercules blinked a few times and decided the best thing to do was roll past the topic and into the next. "If you loved Meg, you wouldn't want her to die, either. Wouldn't you change the rules to stay with someone you loved?"
"The rules are unshakable," Zeus said. "I'm the one who made them. Why would I undermine my own authority?"
"Because your son loves someone, and you don't want him to lose her?" Hercules felt himself pouting but didn't stop it in case it helped him plead for his beloved.
"I know you think you love her, but she's nothing more than a pet. You will be distracted by her for a time, but you must learn to let go."
Hercules pointed to Pegasus. "I'm not letting go of Pegasus, and he's technically a pet."
Pegasus chirped at the offense.
"Sorry, but it's a technicality," Hercules said.
"This Meg girl can be replaced with hundreds of girls like her. You have to learn that you shouldn't immortalize a girl he'll get tired of. Once you're sick of her, you won't be able to escape."
Hercules balked at this. "What are you talking about? You don't even know Meg! How can you judge her?"
"She's mortal. You can't possibly understand because you haven't spent enough time with them, but mortals are limited, fleeting creatures. They're amusing, but they're meant to worship us. What you're doing is unnatural, heaping worship on a mortal girl."
This cold reply shook Hercules. He'd had so few reasons to cry in his entire existence that this one caught him off-guard. He dropped to the clouds on his knees and let the tears burn trails down his face. "What… what if I did spend time with mortals, and I knew better?"
"You should remember your place in the cosmos," Zeus said. "It's unbecoming of a young god like you to break down and weep over a mortal. Remember your telos. You are a god of masculinity and strength, not sorrows and hysteria."
"So that's it? I have no way to win her life, and all you'll do is ridicule me?"
A void emptied beneath him, and Hercules could sense the oncoming ennui ready to swallow him whole and leave nothing.
"Give it time. Remember who you are, and shake it off. I'll see you for nectar and ambrosia soon," Zeus said. Then he was gone.
Hercules dropped to fully stretch out against the cloud, racked with sobs for the future of the girl he loved. Zeus had to be wrong. There had to be a way. If only he could think of one.