Smol Fry | Hercules X Lafayette

C h a p t e r O n e

Herc's POV

I trudged down the roads of New York, dimly lit by the odd flickering lamppost. Of course John and Alex, my neighbours, felt it prudent to send me to Walmart at 10:57 pm for emergency supplies because their bathroom had flooded, and somehow 'managed to get to the pop-tarts'. So there I was, at Walmart, almost eleven pm, buying pop-tarts. I swear one day I'm gonna kill them both. It was freezing to say the least - Global warming's took a turn for the worst - what's next, sun in England? {If you live in England like me, sun is very rare tbh} The light from houses, warm houses, mocked me. Sighing, I kicked a bottle of Mountain Dew down the street. At that moment, I realised someone else was walking down the street, and I had just kicked some Mountain Dew at them.

Crap.

Trying to be as un-creepy as possible, I approached the person to apologise. It was a man who looked about my age, his frizzy hair was tied at the back and he was just stood there. When I got closer, I could see he was slightly confused - most likely because a bottle had come flying out of nowhere and hit him. He turned around to look at me and colour seemed to drain from his face, showing obvious signs of nervousness. For a start, I'd just come up to him down a dark, pretty much isolated street, and I was quite a bit taller so I kinda loomed over him. {I get that some people will be here like 'oh no, you got the heights all wrong, etc.' But just appreciate the height differences}

"O-Oh..." He stuttered worriedly, "I-I'm sorry if I got in your way mon amie..."
His French accent was kind of cute...

"Oh no, I came to apologise for accidentally kicking a bottle at you," I chuckled awkwardly, "Aren't you cold?"
I had just realised the poor guy was only wearing jeans and a T-shirt, I suppose he really underestimated how cold America actually was in November. If I wasn't going to kill John and Alex, I'd at least kill whoever stereotypically claimed that New York is hot in winter.

"Oui, it's colder than I anticipated..." He mumbled, he was also struggling to carry eight, massive bags.

"Here." I took my jacket off and handed it to him, he looked up at me in surprise, "Je suis désolé, but I can't - if I did then you'd be cold..."

"Seriously, it's fine; I grew up in Ireland, this is nothing," I chuckled, he seemed to laugh along as well. He accepted the jacket and put it on, it was quite big on him and he looked adorable to be honest, "Merci."

"So what brings you to this random street at," I checked my watch, "Three minutes past eleven?"

He looked at the ground, "I arrived here today. I was meant to stay with some people but they refused to let me in when I got to the apartment. They said it was because I was French, and that I would get in their way..."

"Who were they?" I asked, a bit more aggressively then I should have, they guy seemed quite taken aback, "Oh, sorry, I just know a lot of... Idiots shall we say."

"Ummm... I don't really remember names, mom amie..." He sighed, smiling sadly, "But do you know any cheap hotels? I gave my money to them for the room..."

So this guy had come all the way from France with a hell of a lot of luggage, payed for a room he wasn't allowed in, and then had to go out in the streets in the middle of the night with a T-shirt? I couldn't help but feel angry for him, he had no idea where he was and hardly had any money left.

"I don't know about hotels but I have a spare room in my apartment, you could... Stay there if you want." I offered, he looked surprised at my offer.