Megara stewed in the shadows, eyeing each of the Thespian princesses as they insisted on sitting on the stage beside Hercules for his performance. She couldn't help but relish Hercules's stutter-free speech about how he was just one of the many heroes making the world a better place, and anyone there with him could do as much in their own lives as he did in his.

That wasn't true, but Hercules sure seemed to believe it. He was constantly underestimating himself and overestimating others. Megara would have to help him re-orient his perspective on his virtues at some point. For now, it was endearing to hear everyone cheer along with Hercules's optimistic crowd-pleasing.

When they first met, he was a stuttering, awkward mess, and now he commanded an entire crowd as if he'd been born for the stage. Had she had that much of a positive influence on him, or was it only a matter of time before the repetitive tasks desensitized him to his anxieties?

"Ladies and gentlemen, I have someone else very important to introduce to all of you. I know many of you are… curious about my love life, but that means you weren't at my victory parade! Does anyone want another parade?"

Megara rolled her eyes while the crowd erupted with a roar of delight. She could foresee the parades becoming an annual event, and when Hercules achieved apotheosis, it would be a divine holiday to him as a god. She would be there, of course, but what would her role be? Former girlfriend? Ex-lover? First wife?

"I need you all to meet the most amazing girl in the world," Hercules said from onstage." He took a deep breath as if to steady himself. "Ah… guys, my heart's about to jump out of my chest! I haven't seen her since I came out here, and I know I'll lose my mind when I see her again! Meg…" He turned toward her and reached an arm in her direction. "Come here, my love. My sharp-witted enchantress… Please come out and join us in the light before I throw myself into your arms and make a fool of myself in front of everyone here!"

Even while he joked about looking foolish, Hercules wore a charming smile. Ordinarily, she was the only person acquainted with this smile, but anyone close enough to the stage would see this corner of his personality peek through the golden boy routine.

Megara happily stepped out from behind the large column and took Hercules's hand.

He brought her onto the stage and squeezed her hand. Now she was no longer surrounded by the baying crowd of Hercules-admirers (of whom she was the queen), but by all fifteen of her neighboring princesses. Each one of them had the accolades and expectations of the general royal population on their shoulders. Eyes in brown and gray were fixed on Megara as if their combined hatred could make her spontaneously combust.

Hercules raised their joined hands and brought her attention back to his charming smile. Nobody else mattered, after all. This was the same smile she was used to seeing only when they were alone, and he'd done something he considered particularly impressive to make her scream. That smile made her blush as she realized he was putting her on display like this for the same reason.

That had been an impressive string of epithets he nailed to her name before welcoming her onstage… Now, it was clear this wasn't merely a chance to show her off: he wanted her to derive the same amount of pleasure from his public admiration of her as in their private moments.

Bold of him, but not entirely unexpected.

Megara smirked back at him, attempting to communicate how impressive this was. "Thank you," she said, trying to seem worthy of the dignity he'd heaped onto her. "You're pretty great yourself." She winked at him, and laughter rippled through the crowd.

Noting that she had successfully painted a blush on Hercules's face, Megara turned to the crowd. "I don't need to tell anyone here how amazing you are, do I?"

Hercules's fans jumped up and down, roaring their cries of adulation. She was part of this experience. She could contribute! She mattered!

The large, mighty hand that had taken hers moved instead to encircle her waist and tugged her closer. Hercules cleared his throat and whispered, "You are incredible… it's taking so much restraint not to kiss you right here. I don't want everyone to intrude on our moment, but with you here, I can't think of anyone else."

Beside them, Phil cleared his throat. "Hey! Maybe ya should remember the rest of us over here? You got a job to do, remember?"

Hercules blinked a few times, then looked between Megara and Phil.

"It's all right," Megara assured him. "I'm here to help."

"Oh, no, you're not!" Phil protested, but Hercules had made up his mind.

Keeping a firm arm tight about Megara's waist, the hero spoke up for the crowd. "Meg will be with me for the rest of my life. We are about to show you how great of a team we can be! She makes me better just by being here with me."

Megara smirked at the other princesses, whose wine-red glares were all trained on her as if she were the one obstacle to true happiness. Perhaps she was, but there was no saying whether Hercules would have loved any of them without her in the way. What she knew for certain was how the aura of his closeness chased away the darkness in her mind. Maybe any of these girls would have been compatible with him, but would they need him quite as much? It seemed to her that being needed was a primary component of compatibility with Hercules.

"But Hercules needs some space to pull off his feats of heroism!" Phil had now rushed up between them, one arm around Hercules's leg and the other around one of Megara's. He shoved his bulky little frame between them, and even though Hercules held onto her, Megara had to lean away to compensate. "Herc! It's time to start the lifts!"

"Oh, uh... y-yeah..." Hercules looked disoriented now, his smile faltering. He looked at Megara with eyes that showed every inch between them hurt.

Megara winked at Hercules, then turned to the crowd. "Who's ready to see the strongest man alive do what he does best?" She raised her arms, and their cheers rose with them. "That's right! He's gonna knock your sandals off!" From the tail of her eye, she saw the disapproval on Phil's face. "I'm just like all of you! When he gets going, it's always a thrill! Though I'll admit, I get the best seat in the house when he puts on the real performance!"

A series of dark chuckles resounded after her statement.

"Meg!" Hercules gasped out from behind her. She wasn't sure if he was more embarrassed or aroused, but either way, she'd gotten his blood flowing.
Megara cast an ostentatious look over her shoulder at him and winked. "Don't worry, Herc. No need to be uncomfortable. I'll snuggle it all away later." With that remark hanging in the air, Megara sashayed past the other princesses, all sitting in a line.
Their eyes followed her like the concentrated rays of the sun, but Megara walked on as if untroubled.

She'd deal with them at the reception banquet.

Megara took her spot in the standing room around the stage, as close as possible to Hercules without getting in the way. As she got down from the stage, Hercules's eyes followed her, and she felt the weight of them as he never quite let go of her.

Phil led Hercules through multiple weightlifting feats, showing off the people's hero to his best advantage. Megara felt an internal glow from the thought that this magnificent man was hers. Nobody else could be with him in the softer moments or as the focal point of his passion.

As she gazed up at him, Megara felt a honeyed smile form on her features. She rested her chin in one hand, gazing up at him with the admiration of a thousand superfans. Only she had experienced Hercules in the truest sense, with the promise of attaining the greatest knowledge of him possible to any human. She could mentally recreate the sensations of being in his arms as she watched him, making her blush darker than the other girls, who could only stare open-mouthed in uncomprehending awe.

Phil jumped up on one of the burdens Hercules lifted and whispered something to Hercules that made him look toward the Thespian princesses and then make a face.

"I'm not gonna flirt with any of them," Hercules growled louder than Megara thought he'd meant to. "I just made a huge public spectacle of my relationship because I'm serious about it!" Irritated, Hercules dropped the weight along with Phil in an abrupt crash of pique.

"It's how ya play the crowds!" Phil protested from the ground.

"No, it's how you and your previous students played the crowds!" Hercules snarled. He spared a glance at the princesses again and said, "It's nothing personal, ladies. I'd be exactly this irritated if he wanted me to flirt with anyone I'm not engaged to."

The princesses of Thespiae all angled their cursing eyes in Megara's direction. She was the object of all their envy, and she'd have to be extra careful to escape the trajectory of misfortune.

This controversy between hero and princesses and the delicious seasoning of Megara's involvement got the crowd stirred up. Everyone was talking, milling about in their excitement for new gossip.

Amid all their tumult, Megara got shoved and shepherded further from the stage while more people tried to get closer. Quite against her will, Megara found herself shoved backward into the arms of a stranger.

"Are you the hero's girl?" this man asked, his arms closing around her. "I gotta know if he's so great…"

Megara's mouth hung open in shock. She'd gone so long spoiled as the girlfriend and fiancee of Hercules that the manhandling she'd expected before Hercules came along was foreign to her. This man might as well be a centaur or a satyr, not a full human. What did she do under these circumstances before?

That man's words drew another, who blocked Hercules and the stage from Megara's view. "He can't be, can he? There has to be a trade-off! How proportional are his muscles to his manhood?"

"You probably don't know what everyone else is working with," said the man who'd caught her. "How'd you like to test how we measure up?" The man's salacious smile greeted her when she looked over her shoulder at him, and she realized that as fierce as she wanted to believe she was, she was still functionally powerless.

No, she reminded herself. She couldn't let on that she knew how physically disadvantaged she was in this scenario.

"Back off, creeps!" Megara squirmed and kicked, slamming her head back while her fists flew in all directions. "Put me down!"

The first man loosened his grip, and the other one stepped back. "This stuck-up bitch thinks she's better than us!"

"At least one of us can think!" Megara snapped at him.

Now, she remembered what she'd learned in the coldhearted streets of Thebes. She could be a wildcat when called upon to defend herself, and she'd remind the world of her true nature! "That's a Theban accent on you, isn't it?" she asked the first brute. "You ran away from the big city to our little sister, huh? Was it because of the disasters, or were you fleeing the war?"

She couldn't honestly fault anyone for fleeing Thebes, but she wasn't above using that perceived cowardice as a knife.

While looking for mental and physical weak points, she eyed her opponents. She noticed her eyes were drawn to a blurry form behind them. A second later, she'd focused on that fringe shape to recognize that Hercules's eyes were on her again. His eyes were like a hand on her cheek, penetrating the crowd, casting away every obstacle between them. His pleasant stage smile disappeared instantaneously.

A second after Megara met his eyes, he had abandoned the stage and moved with blinding speed to reach her. In a single blink of her eyes, Hercules stood beside her with his hand on her elbow. "Excuse me," he said in a low, stern voice. "This is my fiancee. Do you want to rethink how you speak to her, or should I make you?"

The man was stunned, especially as he had now become a primary focus of the entire crowd.

Nobody challenged heroes unless they were monsters or insane. Which was this guy?

The weight of everyone's eyes on her, combined with the simmering rage unmistakable in the heat rolling off of Hercules, made Megara's introverted mind scramble to escape from public view. She'd only come this far into the crowd to avoid attention in the first place! "Herc," she said with a small, nervous laugh, "I was handling him."

Though his face was a stony glare when focused on the man, Hercules turned a smile to her and kissed the top of her head. "I'm sure you were, hon. It's not you I'm worried about. I'm worried this man here has lost his mind because he's addressing my lover without the respect she deserves!" Hercules growled. He pulled her against his body, barring her from everyone else with the arms that everyone in the crowd had just been admiring.

The whole crowd went silent, the Thespian princesses especially fixing their jealousy on Megara. This would not end here. It was only a foretaste of a pattern they could never resolve.

"Wonder Boy... I'm not sure this is helping…" she whispered, "I just became the most hated woman in Greece…"

"Let them hate," he murmured, leaning down to press a reassuring, claiming kiss to her hair. "I'll fight off any monster, rival, or Titan that raises a hand against you, Meg." He lifted her onto his shoulder. "We're going." He left no space for argument, carrying her through the crowd to join up with Pegasus.

"We've got a party at the palace tonight," he said when they were alone on the horse, several dozen feet above the ground. "We'll make our point there. They have to take us seriously."

"As long as you're this hot and this popular, nobody will back off. They'll see you as a prize and me as a way to undermine you. Jealousy's attacking us from all sides…"

"I know a thing or two about jealousy," Hercules huffed with a low note of derisive laughter. "I've fought him off before, and we've got the greatest weapon anyone can wield against him."

"What's that?"

Hercules kissed the top of her head. "Love."