In the hours before waking, Megara found herself surrounded by the same familiar scent of Thebes. It was thick with yesterday's olive oil and many fires– not all of which were intentional, as well as that hint of wrongness from so many miserable people milling about and suffering. That would normally have bothered her, but there was something new to thwart the effects of that melancholy miasma.
Even stripped of his divinity, Hercules had a citrus-sweet scent even though his body gave off pleasantly masculine heat. She burrowed against his chest, not yet conscious, and forgot about the world outside.
The closer she drew to waking, the more aware she was of his steady breathing into her hair, and the way he draped his thick, rope-muscled arm across her back like a shield.
When she stirred, so did he, brushing his thumb along her shoulderblades. His breath puffed hot and full of promise and suddenly he had rolled over, pulling her on top of him.
"Don't wanna crush you…" he muttered, drawing fingers through her hair.
"I'm fine," she mumbled back at him, and kissed his chin. "See?"
"Ah–hmm…" he grinned, and his eyes opened in sapphire slits. "Morning, beautiful. Glad to see you didn't run away while I was out." Before she could respond to that, he gave her a firm hug.
"Where would I go?" she asked.
"Who knows?" he shrugged shoulders that looked all the larger with the pillows for comparison. "I'm the only god to ever lose his divinity. Maybe a side effect is turning into woman repellant."
"Oh, please," she rolled her eyes and yawned. "You don't know how women think if you don't recognize the reasons I'm with you haven't changed."
"My dreams don't have to make sense to be real," he said with surprising sobriety despite how thick with sleep he was.
"No," she agreed, and kissed his cheek. "But now that you're awake, the dreams are memories that can fade. I've had hundreds of those. Don't let them bother you. I'm not going anywhere. You're more likely to chuck me into the sun for getting on your nerves than I am to leave you."
Hercules made a small scoffing huff and gave her a light swat on the rear that made her squeak. He may be mortal now, but he reveled in that victory with the smile of a god getting carved into a victory frieze. "I know what to do with you if you get on my nerves. You're not as complicated as you think you are."
A blush collected on Megara's face as she recognized just how quickly he'd reduced her into squeaking like an ingenue. She'd always thought of herself as a tough Theban girl, home grown amid tragedy and ready for anything the world threw at her. That was not the conduct of a girl who could face down a century of curses and make a joke. "If you've got me figured out, maybe I should invent new mysteries to stay interesting."
"Go ahead, I'll have you figured out in a fortnight or less."
"Deal." She kissed the tip of his nose. "Now we should get ready to find your new trainer. I wanna gang up on you with someone."
Hercules rubbed his face to get some of the sleep off it. "Does that mean packing?"
"It also means getting out of bed, lazybones." She rolled off the bed so quickly that she almost crashed to the tiled floor below, but she caught herself on the side of the bed and tiptoed to her dress crumpled on the floor.
Hercules propped himself up on an elbow and watched her with a smirk she would've been proud to wear. "Maybe I'm lazy, I'll give you that. But I bet I can make you change your mind about hurrying out the door."
Megara arched a skeptical brow that was quickly joined by the other in surprise as Hercules shrugged off his blanket and lounged on the bed watching her. His eyes were wicked, gleaming sapphires and she realized she was already outdone.
"Well?" He asked, grinning over the victory he knew he'd already won.
With a dramatic sigh as if accepting the unspoken invitation were a grand inconvenience, Megara walked back to the bed. "Fine, I'll indulge you one more time."
Hercules casually reached over and pulled her back to him. "Lucky me," he purred. "Gotta squash my nightmares somehow…"
"Just don't squash me in the process. I'm highly squishable."
"Heh!" Hercules shook his head. "Not a problem. I'll be careful with you, my dainty little princess. Now we're gonna have some real fun."
It hadn't been long since they'd first seen it, but Megara thought Hercules must have memorized several pages out of the red scroll. Whatever he claimed to have dreamt about the nigh before, he showed a great deal of forethought in how he reclaimed her and pushed her back into the same erotic haze they'd discovered at the temple. Aphrodite must feel well and truly worshipped.
Hercules waited for her to wind back down after he drove her into a haze of Aphrodesian pleasure. "We're staying a little longer," he said. "I'm keeping you here for at least another day."
"Oh… 'kay, sure…" she murmured. She didn't have the energy to disagree.
Hercules snickered and nipped at her earlobe. "I win. Tell me I win."
"You win," she mumbled reluctantly.
"I know I do," he replied with a smug chuckle.
The way things were going, Megara suspected he was about to pull her back in for another round. He wasn't exactly subtle.
If not for the screaming commotion from outside, it would have been inevitable.
The two of them clung together as the howling for a hero threw cold water over their passion.
Hercules met her eyes with an apologetic look, and then he kissed her forehead. "Stay here, princess. I've got to see what that's about."
"Hey, I'm part of the team, too." She sat up as he rolled out of bed to arm himself.
"Let me assess if it's dangerous first," he said. "If I don't come back for you," he pointed a long, Olympian finger at her, "stay."
She was not accustomed to obedience. If she was honest with herself, she was already planning how to rush off after him whether he wanted her to or not. But there was something about his voice that carried with it a command powerful enough to emanate from a sanctuary.
"All right," she agreed, still letting him hold her gaze.
He seemed to think she meant it.