Megara set aside her newly won spear. It glittered in the firelight, but it didn't feel right to wield it. Not yet. She looked up at the god who'd become her husband, and her mind spun once again. "We did that," she said, visibly shocking him.
"Yeah." He gazed down at her, his golden aura sending beams all around the room like sun rays. "I still can't believe it."
"Did we move too fast?"
"No," Hercules spoke with resounding confidence. "Don't worry about that. We've got that much figured out, but we have options for how we'll approach that in the wider world. We don't have to tell anyone who you don't want to know, but if you prefer, I'll publicly claim you."
"What about your father?"
Hercules shrugged. "Zeus can't say anything about what's already done. He can't un-marry us. He'd have to go against Aphrodite, and let me tell you: nobody smart opposes Aphrodite."
Megara giggled. She took Hercules's glowing golden hands and pulled him deeper into the room. "Let's take a tour, husband." She giggled at the word, and Hercules chuckled along. "You try it, too!"
This giddy feeling hadn't been so powerful since she was a child. She gazed up at her new husband with eyes that felt as if they must be glowing—or perhaps they might be reflecting his light back at her.
"You are so beautiful," Hercules marveled, caressing her hair as if it had been spun from gold. "I can't believe you're here with me."
"I don't know how it happened, either," Megara admitted. "I have to ask you, though: Will you regret my choice to wait?"
Hercules raised a brow. "You know what's best for you. What should bother me about that?" He smiled and guided her to a free-flowing wall fountain that poured wine from a cherub face into a reservoir shaped like a scallop shell. The wine had a pinkish tint to it, something Megara had never seen before. "Want something to drink?" Hercules asked as Megara was still examining it.
"I think we should try it at the same time," Megara said. "I want us both to enjoy everything that happens tonight."
"That's noble, and I appreciate it." Hercules kissed the top of her head and held one cup and then the other under the wine spout. He held a cup out to her and clinked the cups together when they each had one. "I know you're still worried," he told her in a low, gentle voice.
"After all this buildup and talking in circles about our possible futures, I don't want you to think I haven't fully committed to being what you need. You are a god, and I honor you as such. I never want to lose sight of our dynamic. Hubris has never served my family well."
"Don't worry about that. I don't want you to think of me as a god and put me above you. That isn't the point of this relationship. The point is how grateful I am that someone sees me as a person and loves me. That's why I've made you my wife." He wrapped his arms around her and held her with such tenderness there was no mistaking how deeply he meant his words.
"This is all new to me, and it would have been new enough if you were a mortal man, but you're a god on top of being my husband. It's difficult for me to navigate this as a mortal princess."
"I understand." Hercules rubbed her back and kissed the top of her head. "Don't worry about any of that. It's new to us both. We can figure it out together." He pulled back so she could see his smile. "Meg, I've never been in love before, and now you're my wife. That's a lot of things to catch up with for me, too. And since you're a mortal, your life is infinitely precious. I worry every time I look away from you that you've stopped breathing, and somehow, it's my fault."
"I'm hardier than that!" Megara tried to offer a smile that would cut through his upset.
"Maybe so." Hercules ran his fingers through her hair. "But you're so soft… and your hair is like the softest silk…" He shuddered. "Meg, you're so beautiful and delicate. I wish I could be more lax about your safety, but I can't. Time has always passed differently for us on Olympus, so there are times I worry I will blink and a decade will have passed. I've always worried that I'll miss out on time with you or that I won't be fast enough to save you."
Those words wrenched at her heart. She couldn't imagine the stress he described. It meant so much to her that he would be open with her regarding his fears. As touched as she was by his admission, she was just as amused by it. "You'll just have to spend more time with me until it makes sense." She reached up and caressed his face. "My hero, my god, my love, my husband… we'll have so much time together, you'll understand what a mortal is like, and you'll never have to worry so much that I'll expire when nothing is wrong with me."
"I have some healing powers," he remarked as if she'd never noticed that before. She wouldn't point it out. It was too obvious that he was saying it to self-comfort.
"That's right," she encouraged him. "I'm so grateful that you want to protect me–"
"I will protect you," Hercules countered.
Megara smiled, sipping more wine from the fountain ."I believe you, don't worry. I only meant to set up how I mean to see you as my protector, and I won't fight you on that. But I want to comfort you. I want you to know that you don't need to be so afraid. While you're with me, I know I'm safe. I also know that while you're here with me, you have no reason to worry. I'll be so careful and besides, what could anyone do to me while you're here?"
"You may be right on that point." Hercules scratched the back of his neck. "I don't want to be an idiot about this, but now you know what's going on in my head."
Megara shook her head. "How about we change the subject and focus on getting us to unwind?" She brought her wine to the bedside, where a copy of Aphrodite's pink scroll waited for them. "If we read through this, I'm sure we'd find ways to distract us."
The breath audibly caught in Hercules's throat. "You… want to distract me with activities from Aphrodite's scroll?"
"It's only the pink one, no pressure," Megara said. "This is about pleasing and distracting you so you can't be afraid."
"I can be as afraid as I want," Hercules replied, his twinkling eyes betraying his joke.
"We can discuss some favorites tonight," Megara purred at him. "Ki know if we give ourselves the chance, we'll forget everything that's bothering us, and it'll be a lovely time."
Megara opened the scroll and eyed some of the familiar positions, then shifted nearer to the back of the scroll so she could see something new on every page. "Are you feeling adventurous?"
"I just want to hold you…" Hercules demonstrated by wrapping his arms around her, pulling her close and kissing the top of her head. "I was so anxious before. I'm so glad that you're still here with me."
"I still can't believe you believed I'd abandon you like that."
"At the time it made more sense to me that you'd give up on me than that I was worthy of keeping you with me. I thought you'd be better off if you took whatever Aphrodite offered you…" He blushed, looking away from her, but Megara didn't miss the pain he tried to hide. "Are you sure you don't want to go back and get those things?"
"Hush." Megara refilled his wine. "We're not going back down that path. I've chosen what I want. I want you. Respect my choice."
"Yes, ma'am." He stood straight as a child who'd been reprimanded by his mother.
Megara tossed her head back and laughed at him. "Hercules, my dear god! I'm not scolding you, and I never want you to think of me as the sort of person who does. We're a team now. You're my husband. Among mortals that would make you my master."
That comment hardened Hercules's eyes to flint. "I'm not your master, and nobody else is, either."
"I know…" She stroked a soothing hand along his cheek. "But I'm trying to tell you how it is with mortals so you understand what it's like on earth. That way you won't be shocked by anything in front of other people, we can handle it between the two of us. I want us to work together, and part of that is me never leaving you to figure things out by yourself."
Such a gentle smile appeared on his face that it warmed her heart before his aura surrounded her with the warmth he felt toward her. "I'll try to teach you all the sorts of things you'll need to know that you're the wife of an Olympian. You're a very special mortal, you know that, Princess?"
"Oh, I know." She snickered, even though it was mostly to humor him. She wrapped her arms around him and let the light of it permeate her body. "I know I'm you're convinced of that. What's something you'll teach me?"
"It depends on what I've got to fill in for you. What do they teach princesses, anyway?"
"Diplomacy, public speaking, party planning, weaving, how to seduce princes…"
Hercules blushed so hard it bled into his aura. She didn't even have to see his face to know it was happening. "They taught you… uh… before the pink scroll?"
"Here's the thing: they taught me how to catch a prince but not what to do with him once I got him. They told my cousin Antigone and I was fortunate enough to overhear. Otherwise, I would have no awareness whatsoever of what occurs between men and women."
"Wouldn't it have been a nasty surprise to hear right before you had to go the process?"
She looked up at him, her chin pressed against his chest. "Which is why I eavesdropped. Antigone's way sounds boring and awful. She will lie on her back and try to pretend it isn't happening."
Hercules wrinkled his nose at the suggestion. How was a god so cute all the time?
"Yeah, that's what I thought, too."
"It'll be different for us. I want you to be comfortable, happy, and excited when you're with me."
"I already am."
"Then it's working!" His joy radiated into her through his aura,, making her giggle involuntarily.
"We should explore more of the room!" Megara pulled him along the wall with the wine fountain to a table covered in folded-up outfits for each of them to choose from, each of them sparkling like Aphrodite's garments. There were grooming kits for them both, Megara's bejeweled and Hercules's made of carved horn.
Another table was prepared with trays of food, from fruits that gleamed as if they were gemstones to a row of skewers stacked with juicy-looking steak. There was a bowl of tzatziki to dip it in, and besides that were sliced cucumbers and a loaf of bread with dried cranberries inside it.
"Are these love foods, or is it just what Aphrodite knows you like?" Megara asked.
"I'm not used to human food, so she's probably guessing, but everything looks good to me."
"I think it means she expects us to stay in here for a while."
"The odds are in her favor if that's what she expects… This is technically our wedding feast, huh?"
"Unless you want another one for my family?"
"Do you want them there? I mean, aside from your brothers and that one girl cousin who isn't evil."
"I think they can survive hearing about it, and they can throw a feast for us if they want. This is between the two of us."
"I'm so…" Hercules cut himself off, gazing at her in pure adoration that she could feel seeping into her own flesh through his aura.
"Overwhelmed with joy?" she suggested.
"Yeah…" His smile crinkled his eyes. He took both her hands in his and lifted them to his mouth so he could kiss her knuckles. "I'm glad you can figure out my feelings instead of me having to figure them out myself. You're so much better at expressing myself than I am!"
Megara snickered. "Maybe eventually you'll understand me that well. You're so expressive, and I can literally feel your emotions radiating off of you. It's impossible to misread you. I'm not quite the same, I understandd if you feel like we can't be exactly the same in that regard."
Hercules stroked her hair, fingers threading through her hair. "I'm starting to read you well. I think I understand a little more the longer we're together… One day, I want to make you my immortal wife. Then we can feel one another's emotions through both our auras." He spread her loose curls over her shoulders, letting the soft tendrils drape around her.
It was a surprising turn. Megara hadn't expected the pleasure of feeling her hair drape around her. Her heart swelled from this overflowing affection. At that moment, she believed nothing could go wrong.
A rumble ran through Aphrodite's temple, something like an earthquake mixed with a lightning strike.
Hercules wrapped his arms around Megara and shielded her with his body.
"What's happening?" Megara squeaked.
"Hercules!" A voice roared through the temple. "I know you're here! Come out here this instant!"
Hercules groaned. "It's my father."
"What does he want?"
"I'll find out. Stay here. Stay safe." Hercules kissed her brow. "Eat some food, drink some wine. This is my responsibility." He kissed the top of her head, squeezed her shoulders, and left her in the room.
It struck Megara as he walked away that she may never see her new husband again.