Okay, but hear me out: a Harringrove Hercules AU
Billy is a demigod born to Zeus and Hera on Olympus, but Zeus decides he has enough children and that this one (who is kind of a runt of the litter at first) isn't worth the effort of raising. Hera feels different, and so do most of the other gods/goddesses, so she and Persephone cook up a plan. Persephone asks her husband, Hades, to turn the baby mortal, then she and Aphrodite will take the baby to live on earth. Hades does it, but his little henchmen screw it up, and the baby is almost mortal, but he still keeps his extraordinary strength. Still, no one realizes the mistake, so they continue to go through with the plan.
Persephone and Aphrodite take Billy to live with a lonely, childless woman named Susan, who had been praying for the chance to be a mother for years. As a thank you for taking in the demigod, Aphrodite promises that in four year's time, she'll have a baby of her own, as long as she continues to raise Billy until adulthood. She agrees and does just that, raising the two as siblings.
It's a happy, good life that Billy lives with Susan and his sister, Maxine, but it's not all sunshine and rainbows. The townspeople don't like Billy, as his strength is seen as unnatural and dangerous, and people fear he's some kind of evil demon sent by Hades to punish the town for any wrongdoings. So Billy is an outcast, and eventually, he gets so fed up with his clumsiness and the townspeople hating him that he goes to seek help.
He finds it in the most unlikely of places. A woodsman that lives in a modest cabin outside of town with his wife, daughter and two sons, takes in the poor child who wants to learn to understand his strength. The man's name is Hopper and he was in the Greek army for a number of years, and even though he's retired, he still knows how to fight and how to teach someone to fight. He teaches Billy all he knows, and sends Billy back home to his real family.
Billy is excited to go home with his newly learned skills, but it's a long journey, and he doesn't have a horse or any other mode of transportation other than his own two feet. That is, until the first night of his journey, when he finds a wounded Pegasus in the woods. It's hoof is what seems to be the problem, and Billy, who lived on a farm for most of his life, knows there must be a rock or something in there that is hurting it, so he approaches the animal slowly, picks the rocks and dirt from its hoof, and slathers on some of the healing ointment Hopper's wife Joyce sent with him just in case. The Pegasus is so grateful that it won't leave Billy's side, and after giving it a day to heal and rest, they set out together for home. Billy names the Pegasus Camaro, which means friend or comrade.
The next day into the journey, Billy and Camaro are still in the woods, when they come across a small village, and on the edge of the town, a man being harassed by a pack of thieves. The man looks helpless, and Billy, wanting to prove himself a hero, jumps in and defends him. He saves the man and then offers the man a ride with him and Pegasus, and his heart nearly stops when he sees the man's face. He's handsome, and kind, and he smiles and accepts Billy's offer, since they happen to be going back to the same town. The man asks for Billy's name, and he says that his is Stephen.
The journey takes a week and a half, and in that time, Billy, Stephen, and Camaro face all sorts of challenges. Stephen seems to have a knack for finding trouble, and Billy is always there to get him out of it. He finds himself falling in love with Stephen over the course of their journey, and on their last night together, he tells him so. Stephen feels the same and they fall asleep together after gazing at the stars, warm even though the night is cold.
When they finally make it back to their town, the people rejoice. It turns out, Stephen was a nobleman's son, and he'd been off in another town to help his father's trade business. They are less excited upon Billy's return, but when Stephen tells them all of how Billy and his fearless steed Camaro saved him from trouble time and again, they start to warm up to Billy as well. A celebration is held in their honor, which lasts for three days and three nights.
The only problem is, during the festivities, the people are constantly thanking the gods for the boy's safe returns, and Zeus begins to get suspicious. The boy Billy sounds eerily similar to the son he ordered to be killed 17 years earlier, and the fact that he was so strong, could tame a Pegasus, and was so eager to be a hero only confirms his suspicions. He gets angry and on the third night of the festival, in an act of revenge, sends a cyclops to the town to destroy it and everyone in it.
Of course, Billy refuses to let anything happen. He, against everyone's advice, fights the beast, for Stephen, for Maxine, for Susan, for Camaro, and even for the town that hated him for so many years. He fights as valiantly as he can for all of them, and even though he slays the beast, he doesn't come out unscathed. In fact, by the time Stephen gets to him, he's breathing his last, and after kissing his lover goodbye, he succumbs to his injuries.
However, the gods of Olympus are watching this go down, and they decide it was time to stand up to Zeus and his tyrannical rule. Persephone goes again to Hades and asks if, as God of the underworld, there's anything he can do. He finds Billy's spirit and offers him a choice: he can have his warrior's death, and be worshipped as a fallen hero and demigod, or he can have a second chance, he can go back and live among the humans as an ordinary mortal, with no more superhuman strength and no ties to Olympus except the ones the humans have. Billy doesn't even blink when he chooses the second option, saying he'd rather live a million lifetimes with those he loves than a single day without them. Hades does as was asked of him and returns Billy to the Earth, no longer a demigod, but still considered a hero.
From that day on, it takes Billy a while to recover from his injuries, but eventually he regains most of his strength. He and Stephen live happily together raising horses on the countryside by the sea, and Max, Susan, Hopper, Joyce, their children, and Stephen's little brother Dustin and his friends all come to stay with them from time to time, making their life perfect. Even if Camaro likes to bat the other horses with his wings and then pretends to be shocked when they bite back.
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