#include yours!!

@melody-the-unwritten

The club is pulsing like blood through Hercules’ heart.

Now, how did he get here—to a club—a place that Hercules never, ever goes?

You see, it all started with an innocent complaint from Melody while Georgette and Hercules were over at her place for dinner. She’d scrunched her nose up at one of their kisses. Georgette had decided that Melody needed a new partner and Hercules needed a friend. And Georgette could not accompany them because she was too hot and too friendly and would be the one who wound up doing the talking. Which was true, but that was why Hercules liked going out with her places and he was sure that was why Melody liked it too. Georgette ordered drinks (nonalcoholic for herself), yelling over the music. Hercules job was usually to—stand there.

But, no.

They had to go and make friends. Get people’s numbers. Have a good time.

Hercules was doubtful of any of these things actually happening. He was okay at making friends…sort of, but not friends that went to clubs. He wanted friends that went to bookshops and Hatter’s. Or the farmer’s market which was starting soon, but Georgette had had too good of a time dressing both him and Melody up and then sending them on their way. Telling them to have fun but not too much fun because then she would pout about it. He wished that Georgette was coming.

Not that he didn’t like spending time with Melody. He loved Melody, really. She was a calm, soft presence to Georgette’s frenetic, sharp energy. (Which, he loved, of course, because he loved his girlfriend and thought she was wonderful, if not a bit bossy and sometimes rude.) She was still his girlfriend and that was what mattered.

Melody would be fun. She would! Hercules believed that. The two of them always had a good time together, even if their idea of a good time was doing puzzles or hanging out after work. Which—really they just hung out at work a lot. It would be super nice to spend some time with her not in InterPride’s gigantic tower, where they only caught glimpses of each other unless they made plans to eat in the cafeteria together (which they usually did, unless one of them had a meeting or something like that. It was all very Adult. As Georgette often teased—Melody was basically Hercules’ work wife.) Hercules really enjoyed it. He actually loved his job a lot and it was nice to have a friend there. Plus, everyone who came in and out of InterPride was very nice.

But, that meant he saw Melody quite often.

And going to a club just seemed so weird to him. He couldn’t even really drink! That was part of the reason this was so ridiculous, though, it might be kind of funny to see Melody get drunk. He’d always liked teasing his friends back in college when he inevitably had to carry them home and tuck them into bed. He never minded much. Just because he couldn’t get drunk didn’t mean he couldn’t have fun—except he really didn’t like clubs for how noisy they were and how many people were in them.

Still, they had a goal. That helped. Both of them had to return with at least one number—Georgette’s orders. Hercules had tried to tell her that people didn’t go to clubs to make friends, but she had told him this round was more for Melody. Which made Hercules go: round?! There would be more than one of these? But, he’d already sold his soul to Georgette a long time ago, which meant that he would do whatever she asked. Yeah, yeah, he was whipped, but he didn’t really mind.

Unless his girlfriend felt like torturing him with formalities. Which, apparently she did. Ugh. Annoying.

Anyway, here they were—at the club. At the bar. Hercules was looking doubtfully around, wondering if there was even anyone in here worth talking to. Someone he could pick out for Melody. She did deserve someone. Probably better than someone she could find in a club, but Hercules wasn’t going to judge. Well, not much anyway.

So, he looked around—saw a blonde girl sitting at one end of the bar, and tilted his head.

“What about her?” he asked, as the girl smiled at the bartender. She looked nice and she had a cute nose. Hercules thought she was pretty—even if he immediately felt kinda bad for thinking that. Obviously, she wasn’t as pretty as Georgette!!