Hercules: (Not) My kind of Hero {Complete}

Chapter ι

Nate's birthday cake!

Human Realm: Marcus' Café

To say Marcus was baffled as Hercules walked through his Café's door one fine morning would be the understatement of the century. Although he was still as cocky and arrogant as ever, Marcus couldn't help but notice that something had changed in Hercules' demeanour. It was small, nearly unnoticeable if you didn't know Hercules very well. Marcus had the advantage to know Hercules for a lot longer than he wanted so he had picked up on the little spring in his step and the happy glint in his eyes as he looked around the place. What did surprise him was the fact that there was a younger boy attached to Hercules and he didn't seem to mind the young kid. He frowned, because for as long as he could remember Hercules had despised children of any age.

He silently watched as Hercules said something to the boy who smiled and run off to take a seat in one of the booths. The boy was bouncing in his seat as Hercules scanned the Café once more before spotting Marcus and made his way over. Marcus raised a brow in question when Hercules neared him. "Marcus." The man in question nodded his head in greeting, wondering what had brought Hercules here with a kid in tow. "I was wondering if you guys did any birthday cakes or something like that." Hercules glanced back to the happy bouncing boy in the booth. "It's his birthday today and he wanted to see where his fearless Alpha worked and try the food. I didn't know until today that it was his birthday so is there anyway there could be some kind of festivity? I would have asked Gabe but he has been stuck in council's meetings ever since this morning and it seemed better to not disturb them at the moment."

Like most other Gods, Marcus knew why Hercules trained the kid, but he never expected him to show actual genuine interest in the kid. He had always thought Hercules to never care about offspring that wasn't his own or blood related. "How old is he?" Marcus was mentally going through all of the things available for children at the Café. "He told me he just turned ten years old. I had to pull it out of him though." Hercules frowned a little as he undoubtedly remembered the encounter. "We have a little kids menu that has a piece of chocolate cake as dessert." Hercules looked back up to him, eyes shining. "That would be great! He'd be so happy! Could you give the cake a little candle or something; you know to make it a little more special?" Marcus shrugged and Hercules took it as a yes. "Why are you so invested in this boy? You never really liked kids or people outside your family." Something flashed quickly through Hercules' eyes, too fast for Marcus to identify. "You know that an adult werewolf's claws are quite poisonous to younger kids right?" Marcus nodded, since he had several weres working for him he knew quite a lot about the poison the weres achieve when they reach adulthood. "Well, from what I know and saw myself is that his parents, especially his father used his claws to punish Nate whenever he did something that didn't suit him. And the worst thing was nobody in the Pack did anything about it."

Marcus understood now why Hercules was invested in the boy; he must remind Hercules of the similar things he went through as a little boy. Granted the times are different now, but going through things like that leaves scars behind. He watched in amazement when Hercules returned to the booth the boy literally crawled in his lap as they looked at the menu together and decided what they were going to have. Turning on his heel he marched off to the kitchen where he knew that Millie, another werewolf cook was just starting her shift. "Millie? Would you come here please?" The bubbly brunette made her way over, looking slightly afraid. For she had heard several rumours about him, the way he treated his workers and was wondering why he had called out to her. "Millie, we have a young werewolf out there who just turned ten years old and I was wondering if you could do his order?"

Her eyes glowed, "Yes! Yes of course!" She clapped her hands. "What's his name? What pack is he from?" Every Pack had their own set of rules that should be followed for preparing their food. "His name is Nathaniel and he is from the Blood-Wolf Pack." A cheery voice said. Glenn a good friend of Gabriel's was standing there putting away the dishes. Millie's excitement faded a little after hearing that the child was from the Blood-Wolf Pack. The name still installed fear in most werewolves, even without meeting someone from the Pack face to face.