(A/N): This chapter was so hard to write. I tried to write something from Hercules' point of view to begin with- twice, actually. It just wasn't working. This is the best I got.

Trigger Warning: Brief mention of self harm- or basically, a reference to self harm.

Leo

The first night Herc spent with us at the estate, I think we were all a little on edge. Even though he was my half brother, and- one of- Nicholai's offspring- although apparently that wasn't as exclusive a club as I had previously thought- he was still virtually a stranger. And strangers were dangerous. Or, at least, the rest of my clan seemed to think so.

It was well past midnight by the time I had to concede defeat and announce I was heading off to bed- which was, not so coincidentally, the point the twins decided they were going to 'hang out' in the room next to mine, all night. I didn't think I needed guards, but there wasn't much I could say to dissuade them from watching over me without making it completely obvious to Herc that that's what they were trying to do- I mean, I'm fairly sure he knew, but he didn't seem all that offended by it, so I let it slide.

I guess that was one benefit to having my room be in one corner of the house- as long as I had a buffer of the twins, and no one tried to come in through one of my windows, I was fairly safe from unwanted guests. Not that Herc was necessarily unwanted, just in the context where he tried to attack me. We had decided to set him up in one of the bedrooms furthest from mine, and Lisbet was planning to spend the night in Shari's room with her- which would keep both of them from being on their own in the event of an attack. Not that Shari would be much help, considering she was malnourished and almost completely out it.

It didn't take me long to fall asleep, despite the multiple metaphorical bombshells that had been dropped on me today, but I was woken up briefly near dawn by a loud thud, and a "Sorry, Leo!" from next door. Other than that, I slept like the dead. Well, undead. Living dead? ...Eh.

By the time Danniel woke me for breakfast at nearly ten, I was pretty well rested... which meant I was way more upset about the fact my father had never told me the change might be my choice. I mean, I know he told Herc he had no evidence, and that correlation wasn't causation and all that, but he could have at least mentioned it in passing. Elaine's face when I begged her to promise to kill me swam to the forefront of my mind. Instead, he hadn't even felt the need to mention he had previous children that had gone through the change, and that was how he knew it existed in the first place. Then again, I was the idiot who had never even thought to question where he got his intel from. But what? Was I supposed to ask, 'Hey dad, do you have a bunch of other half breed children running around somewhere?' It wasn't like he gave me any reason to believe he had prior experience being a father. Not that he really did, if what Herc was telling me was accurate.

I couldn't imagine knowing you had a child, and doing nothing about it. If he had just been absent before he found out, maybe I could understand it, but from what Herc had told me, he had basically had to force our father to even talk to him to begin with. None of that sounded like the man I knew. Sure, he wasn't exactly the most personable- er, person- on the planet, but he never would have just ignored me! Then again, that's exactly what Herc had said: Nicholai was different with me- because of me. What made me so different from every other one of his children? Was it the timing? Who my mother was? My situation when he found out? I- "Leo... Earth to Leo!" Jo's voice snapped me out of my musings.

"Wha- Huh? Sorry Jo, I was lost in thought." I realised I had a forkful of food halfway to my mouth and finished the movement. Yep, ice cold.

"Yeah, I can tell, my guy." She kicked her feet up onto the dining table, and I fought the urge to tell her to get them off for the three millionth time.

"Anything I can help with?" Herc inquired quietly from where he sat in one of the armchairs we had had to replace some of the dining chairs with after they had been inevitably destroyed during one of the numerous vampire brawls, his big leather jacket draped over the back.

"Not unless you can speak to the dead." It was a joke, but one that clearly seemed to make everyone a little uncomfortable, so I pushed forward. "I was trying to figure out why my- dad- chose to be there for me, but not anyone else." Obviously a very heavy subject to be discussed over breakfast- even though I was the only one eating.

"Well..." Herc started absent-mindedly fiddling with one of the pins on his jacket that read 'Los Speakers'. "I don't know for sure, but... from what Lisbet told me-" She continued cleaning the dishes and ignored the look I sent her way. "Your... situation, with your mother, wasn't exactly... ideal." Understatement of the century goes to...

"Even if that was part of it, he didn't make himself known to me until after my mother kicked me out."

Herc's fingers moved onto a different pin, this one emblazoned with 'Los Brincos'. "Maybe be felt bad you had nowhere to go?" But I did have somewhere else to go...

"You said last night that one of his kids- the immortal one that died- he was raised by the church." This time, an older looking pin with the letter 'Z' scrawled on it caught his attention.

"Zachariah." I nodded, trying to encourage him to continue. "...Nicholai didn't know he existed until well after, when he started going through the change." It was clearly a tough subject.

"But you think he would've stepped up if he had known?"

Herc hesitated. "...I don't know. As I said... I never would have expected Nicholai to do something like that before you, but... Your situations are admittedly similar." Great, so the dead guy and I are two peas in a pod. Which begs the question...

"How did he die? Zachariah, I mean. I know how Nicholai died." He probably didn't need the clarification, but considering how uncomfortable he looked, I figured I'd give him the extra time to prepare himself.

"His plane was shot down." Um, what? "Got a letter a few months after the Battle of Britain- he was one of the Canadian RAF fighter pilots that served during the war- and lost his life because of it." Ah. Well. Now I guess we know why he's not so keen on the idea of my joining the war effort.

"Not to be insensitive or anything-"

Herc turned his attention to me, and I really wished he hadn't. "It exploded." Well. That answers that question.

"Ah." What else was I supposed to say to that? "So... the Battle of Britain was in 1940, and you said he was the youngest immortal-"

"Thirty Five." Fuck that's young, especially for someone who was supposed to be immortal.

"And you two were... close?"

Herc shrugged, dropping his hands to his lap. "I had just tracked Nicholai down when Zach's first letter reached him, during the early stages of his change. I wanted answers, so... I went with him to Alberta- which was only recently made a province at that point. Zach and I hit it off pretty quickly." I was starting to wish I hadn't asked. "He was a sweet kid... such a funny guy, the kind that always had your back... and when the war came..." Herc shook his head. "I tried to convince him not to join up, but he had this idea that since he was tougher than a regular human, it was his duty to do as much as he could to help." Herc dragged a hand down his face. "Nicholai thought it was noble- which isn't that surprising coming from the man who had been involved in almost ever major conflict he'd come across since he was turned in some way or another." Uh, what?

"Dad fought? Like, in the military, not just against other vampires?"

Herc looked at me like I'd grown two heads. "...You're joking, right?" Um, no?

"...No? Are you?" He seemed incredulous.

"You didn't know that? I mean, any chance he got to leave England he'd take it, whether it was to fight, trade or, God forbid, help colonize in the name of whatever monarch was currently giving orders." Excuse me?

"But he was always so..." Herc stared at me, waiting. "Peaceable? Like, he always tried to teach me to keep an even temper, and try to solve my problems with my words rather than my fists?" Not that I was all that great with my words, as Lisbet had pointed out last night.

"Wow, you... Are we talking about two completely different people?" Uh, I hope not, or this was going to be really awkward.

"Do you think-?" I cut myself off as I heard the sound of wings, and a second later, Elaine's owl Lawrence flew through the open window. He landed on the table in front of me, a letter tied securely to his leg with my name on the front in Elaine's handwriting- and Elaine's scent wafted up at me.

"From your friends?" Herc guessed, and I nodded.

"Yeah, Elaine."

I hated the look he shot Lisbet, as I opened the envelope. "Ah, the one you're... in lurrrrrve with?" Suddenly, I regretted meeting Hercules in person.

"Yes, that one," I sighed as I unfolded the letter, only to be immediately blasted in the face with words I definitely didn't want to read right now.

Dear Leo,

We know that you hurt yourself more than once-

"Okay, I'm gonna put this in my room for later."

(A/N): Yeah, not an ideal time for that letter. Also, Leo said yes to Elaine being the one he's in lurrrve with, lol.

Edited for a typo in Elaine's letter where it said 'me' instead of 'yourself'.

This chapter has had a minor edit made to it on 26/4/23 - Added the trigger warning.

This chapter has had edits made to it on 5/5/24 - Formatting, and reconfiguring of sentences so they make a bit more sense. Didn't break up the dialogue in this one as much as I did in most of the earlier ones, because I don't think it flows as badly as the others- probably because the conversation here feels more fast paced. Changed it so I said Herc was staying in one of the rooms furthest from Leo's, rather than 'the middle of the house', since I later say that Herc's room is further than Leo's than someone else's, who is staying as far away from Leo's room as possible- which couldn't be the middle of the house, now could it?