Hire an Incubus

19.

Lisa liked staying with Aster. He had a very simple routine as he worked at the docks, he usually got up in the morning, went out to work and came back in the evening. He never complained about Lisa's presence and he was very easy going and easy to get along with. 

But he wasn't Achilles. 

Lisa was torn between missing him and fearing for herself. Every time the doorbell rang she was afraid it was someone who had found her and was going to drag her back to Hercules, kicking and screaming. It had been weeks now and she hadn't heard from them, but she was sure they were probably going to come looking for her, especially after hearing what had happened last time there had been a situation like Lisa's.

'No one knows you're here except Achilles and I.' Aster would say after every time Lisa tensed when someone knocked at the door. 'No one who would be looking for either you or him knows who his family is, they're not going to find you here.'

But Lisa was still scared. It was a new kind of fear she had developed, and it was worse especially because she was pregnant. She wasn't just fearing for herself, she was fearing for what was growing inside her too. She feared for Achilles, she often found herself waking up in the middle of the night thinking about him, this usually happened in the form of a nightmare which usually resulted in Aster coming in to see if she was okay.

'I think the nightmares might be because you're pregnant.' Aster said one morning over breakfast. 'I'm not sure, but I think they might be.'

'I think it just might be guilt Aster.' Lisa replied, looking down. He didn't understand why Aster felt the need to abstain her of all guilt, it definitely wasn't fair, considering she had messed up big time.

'Lisa, don't beat yourself up about it, it definitely could be the pregnancy, remember you're still only human and regardless of all the normalising, that child you're carrying is fundamentally different from you, if we were in the dark ages, people would probably think you were a witch giving birth to the antichrist.'

'Seriously?'

'Yeah, although, that being said, people do still seem to think something along those lines as we probably wouldn't all be in this situation if the perception was different. Unfortunately, you're probably less feared because nobody thinks you're a witch, which is marginally less cool.' Aster smiled and Lisa laughed.

'You're so funny Aster' Lisa sighed, 'Thank you for making me feel so comfortable here.'

'Well, I was always the funny brother, Achilles was the attractive one.'

'Surely, you know that's not true. You're certainly not ugly.'

'Be careful Lisa, if Achilles thinks you're making a pass at me, I'm sure he'll come sprinting from Hercules.'

'Oh stop it Aster, I'm just being honest.'

'I know Lisa, I'm just joking with you.'

'What was it like for you growing up actually? Achilles never mentioned it.'

Lisa had never really put much thought to how it had been for them growing up, and since Achilles never talked about his family or home life, she realised that she had never thought to ask.

'Well, if you mean as an incubus, that's a simple one, see, it doesn't really start to show until you hit puberty, being half human kinda waters down the process anyway, so Achilles and I didn't really become, well, fully fledged incubi until we were in our late teens.'

'I see, I guess I never thought about the physiology that much.'

'Yeah, it's actually pretty interesting, I suppose there were things that would have seemed pretty mundane to Achilles and I growing up that probably weren't.'