Fanfic: A Little Problem - Chapter 2
Title: A Little Problem (Chapter 2)
Author: Yassandra
Fandom: Atlantis
Pairing/characters: Jason/Ariadne, Pythagoras/Icarus, Hercules, Cassandra
Rating: G
Warnings: N/A
Disclaimer: Not mine. BBC and Urban Myth Films own them.
Word count: 25317 (This chapter - 5259)
Summary: A routine mission away from the Argo goes awry when Hercules makes a mistake and triggers a curse. Now he's left with a little problem - well, two little problems really...
A/N Written for round six of the Small Fandoms Bang, and also for Hurt/Comfort Bingo for the 'de-age' prompt.
Chapter 2 - Something Like a Situation
The child's chin wobbled.
"How do you know my name?" he asked.
Icarus gaped at him for a moment, unsure how to answer, before his brain kicked into action.
"Erm… I know your family," he said, crossing his fingers behind his back. "You have met me before… The first time was several years ago now."
It wasn't a complete lie, he told himself, and he couldn't exactly tell this child the truth.
Pythagoras looked at him sceptically.
"If we have met before," he began, "why do I not remember you?"
Icarus desperately tried to think of a believable answer.
"Err… well… like I said it was a few years ago," he stammered. "You were younger then. Perhaps that is why you do not remember."
Pythagoras stared at him, his eyes betraying his fear.
"Where is my mother?" he asked again, his tone increasingly suspicious. "And Arcas?"
Icarus mentally cringed, although he tried to keep it from showing on his face. Pythagoras had once told him that his mother had died some years ago, but he could hardly tell a confused and frightened little boy that - especially since the child would have no good reason to believe him.
"Your mother is at home… on Samos. Your little brother is with her," he replied.
Pythagoras' small face creased into a frown.
"Why am I not with them?" he demanded.
Icarus floundered for a moment - even transformed back into a young child, Pythagoras was still incredibly sharp.
He's still a genius, he reminded himself. A small genius, but still a genius.
"Your mother had to go away for a while," he improvised quickly. "She went to look after someone who was unwell… a relative. She asked Hercules here to look after you while she was away… We had to go on a short voyage you see and she thought it might be good for you to see a little of the world beyond Samos."
The child's eyes narrowed thoughtfully, but he turned his attention to Hercules.
"I know you," he said flatly. "You're the pig man… and I remember something about you and pies."
Icarus nearly snorted with laughter at Hercules' affronted expression.
The burly wrestler glared at him.
"If this one's Pythagoras, where's Jason?" he growled.
"I don't know," Icarus answered, looking slowly around.
As he turned he caught a flicker of movement out of the corner of his eye, but by the time he managed to look directly at the spot it was gone. Icarus stepped back around the pile of treasure, moving very slowly and carefully. To his right a golden bowl fell with a clatter but as Icarus turned his head to look at it, he caught sight of the faint flicker of movement again out of the corner of his left eye.
"Hide and seek," he muttered to Hercules. "He's playing hide and seek."
"I'll give him hide and seek," Hercules growled. "I'll tan his hide if he starts playing up."
"Hercules, he's probably frightened," Icarus answered in a quiet murmur. "I know I would be." He looked towards the spot where he had last seen movement. "It's alright," he called, raising his voice to normal levels. "We are not going to hurt you. You can come out."
Nothing moved.
Icarus felt a small hand slip into his and looked down to see Pythagoras standing next to him, his small face reflecting fear.
"It's alright," Icarus murmured, crouching down to the child's level. "There's nothing to be scared of. We're just looking for another one of our friends who has got a bit lost."
As he spoke to Pythagoras, he caught sight of a small dark haired child darting between two piles of treasure over the blonde child's shoulder moving faster than he would have thought was possible. Icarus smiled and stood up, moving slowly and carefully over to the place where he had seen the child disappear. He crouched down again and rested his elbows on his knees, peering into the dark space between the piles. There at the back, right against the wall of the cavern, was a second small child. This child had wild dark curls and huge eyes set in a thin face. He also looked very angry.
"Hello Jason," Icarus murmured as gently as possible. "Why don't you come out from there?"
The little boy shook his head stubbornly, his eyes blazing.
"We don't have time for this," Hercules growled loudly, shoving Icarus out of the way and reaching into the gap to grab the little boy.
He jumped back with a pained cry, holding one hand protectively in the other.
"The little bugger bit me," he declared loudly, the anger in his voice clear.
Icarus resisted the urge to chuckle.
"I think this is a case where a little patience and kindness may pay off," he murmured quietly.
"Patience and kindness? He needs a clip round the ear!"
"Hercules!" Icarus hissed, nodding towards Pythagoras.
The child was half cringing back, his blue eyes very wide.
"Remember what his father was like," Icarus continued.
Hercules shot him a startled look.
"Pythagoras told you about that?" he asked.
"Yes," Icarus murmured simply. "I know him better than you think… besides, after everything that has happened we agreed there would be no more secrets between us."
The burly wrestler nodded thoughtfully.
"Fair enough," he said.
He turned towards the little blonde boy and crouched down.
"Don't be frightened," he said. "I'm not going to hurt you - I'd never want to hurt either you or Jason, Pythagoras."
"But you said he needed hitting," Pythagoras replied.
"I was joking," Hercules said. "It was a joke." He looked back at Icarus. "What in the name of the Gods do we do now though? They can't stay like this forever!"
"I think it is fairly obvious that they have been cursed by some form of magic," Icarus answered. "I think the best thing we can do is to get out of here and get them back to the Argo where we can speak to Cassandra and look for a way to put this right."
"And how do you propose we do that when we can't even get him out from in there?" Hercules groused, pointing towards the two piles of treasure that Jason was hiding between.
Icarus sighed and turned back to peer between the piles. The dark haired little boy was watching his every move suspiciously through narrowed eyes.
"You can come out now," Icarus said gently. "Hercules is not going to try to grab you again."
Jason made no move to leave his hiding place; he drew his legs up and wrapped his arms around them, resting his chin on his knees.
Icarus turned looked back over his shoulder at Hercules.
"I think we are going to have to be patient," he said.
Before Hercules could answer, Pythagoras darted forwards and wriggled into the narrow gap. Icarus could hear his high childish voice murmuring but couldn't make out exactly what he was saying. Suddenly he wriggled back out and stood up, smiling broadly. Moments later, the second little boy wriggled out of the gap too and came to stand beside him.
It surprised Icarus that as a child Jason was actually slightly smaller than Pythagoras. He was quite small for his apparent age and painfully skinny.
"Hello Jason," Icarus said gently. "It is nice to see you properly."
The little boy didn't answer. Instead, he turned towards Pythagoras and whispered something in his ear.
"He wants to know who you are," Pythagoras said firmly.
Icarus smiled.
"I am Icarus," he answered, "and this is Hercules." He gestured towards the burly wrestler.
Jason whispered something to Pythagoras again.
"Are we going to be staying with you?" Pythagoras asked.
"For now," Icarus replied.
He didn't fail to spot the look of resignation that came across Jason's small face.
"We need to get them back to the boat," Hercules declared.
"Indeed," Icarus replied. "If nothing else, we need to find them some proper clothing."
He looked at the two little boys with a sigh. Both of them were wearing their usual tunics (as they had been when the curse had hit them) but whereas they had shrunk into children, their clothing had remained at normal size and therefore swamped them both. He opened the bag he was carrying (he was grateful that he'd thought to bring one of reasonable size - it had seemed sensible since he hadn't known how large the vial containing Aphrodite's tears would be) and moved around the cavern, picking up the other items of clothing that his two companions had lost during their transformation and shoving them into it.
As Icarus was gathering up the clothes, Hercules approached the two boys and knelt down.
"How old are you?" he asked Pythagoras gently.
"If you know my mother and she asked you to take me with you on a journey, then you should know how old I am shouldn't you?" the little blonde replied, his eyes narrowing with suspicion.
"Right… right… of course I should," Hercules answered, silently cursing his old friend's intelligence. "But the thing is that I'm a very old man and I forget things."
Pythagoras looked at him solemnly.
"You are old," he said. "You must be even older than Stolos the baker… and he is the oldest man in my village. Does being old hurt?"
Hercules resisted the urge to growl and ignored the snigger he heard from Icarus somewhere behind him.
"No," he said as patiently as he could. "Being this old doesn't hurt… although there are plenty of people around who are a lot older than me."
"Really?" Pythagoras asked sceptically. "I have never met anyone that old."
"And I am sure you have met a great many people," Hercules rumbled sardonically.
"No," Pythagoras admitted in a small voice. "Not all that many. Not many people come through my village." He bit his lip and looked down at the floor. "I am sorry if I have said anything wrong," he added. "My mother is always telling me that I should think before I speak."
"No harm done," Hercules said gently. "But you never answered my question… how old are you?"
Pythagoras looked up at him from under his eyelashes.
"I am eight," he said quietly. "It was my birthday a few weeks ago."
That, Hercules reflected, was perfectly true. Pythagoras' birthday had come and gone while they were at sea, marked as well as they could with a decent meal and a few homemade gifts. He was, however, a good deal more than eight.
"And what about you?" Hercules said, looking at Jason.
The child glared back at him without speaking.
"Cat got your tongue?" Hercules asked, grinning.
His smile fell away as the child continued to stare at him. He sighed. The last thing he really wanted to be dealing with was a sulky, bad tempered child. Somewhere behind Hercules there was a loud crash as one of the piles of treasure fell over. The dark haired child jumped, head whipping round to peer anxiously past Hercules.
"Sorry," Icarus' voice came across the cavern.
Hercules ignored him, focussing his whole attention on the two little boys in front of him.
Icarus is right, he thought. He is frightened… they both are.
Without even stopping to think about it, he moved forwards purposefully and laid a hand gently on Jason's shoulder. The child turned to look at him, eyes wide. Hercules could feel the boy's thin shoulder trembling slightly under his hand. He resisted the urge to wince.
"I am not going to hurt you," he tried to reassure both children. "And I am going to make sure that no-one else does either."
Jason stood still for a moment before launching himself at the startled wrestler and wrapping himself around Hercules, clinging limpet-like to his large friend. Hercules enveloped the lad in a hug. He half turned and opened his arm in silent invitation to the anxiously watching Pythagoras. In seconds he had his arms full of both children.
"Alright," Hercules said comfortingly. "Everything is going to be alright. I know that everything is scary but I promise it will be fine. I think we need to get you both out of here and to somewhere a bit nicer. How does that sound? We'll all go back to the boat and we'll see if we can't find you boys some proper clothes and something to eat," he went on, not waiting for an answer to his previous question. "And then we will get everything sorted out."
He gently detached the two children, stood up and nodded to Icarus.
"Alright, let's go," he said, taking a small hand in each of his and setting off back across the chamber and up the stairs with the two young boys on either side of him and Icarus bringing up the rear.
Once they were back in the corridor at the top Hercules stopped and turned towards Icarus, a deep frown creasing his forehead.
"Do you remember the way out of here?" he muttered.
"Once we get out of this passage?" Icarus murmured, brow furrowing as he thought. "Erm…"
"You don't know do you?" Hercules accused.
"Well do you?" Icarus demanded.
"No," Hercules admitted grudgingly. "But this place is a maze… I said so earlier."
He looked down to find the two children looking at him curiously.
"Are we lost?" Pythagoras asked.
"No, no, no," said Hercules. "I just… don't quite know where we are at the moment."
Pythagoras giggled.
"That is what being lost means, silly," he pointed out.
"He might be a child but he is still going to be clever," Icarus murmured to Hercules.
They started to walk towards the end of the passage, stopping once more when they got to the end, trying to work out whether to go left or right.
"I got lost once," Pythagoras chattered on, brightly. "Mother asked me to take Arcas outside and play with him. We went out into the fields and played for a long time but then we couldn't find our way home. Arcas was crying and it took hours and hours to find our way home. Mother was really scared when she couldn't find us outside and she told me I was a brave and clever boy for finding my way home… but she said I was not allowed to take Arcas into the fields to play again until I was bigger… Do you think I am big enough now that I am eight?"
Icarus exchanged a helpless look with Hercules.
"Um… maybe wait until you are a little older," he said.
Pythagoras nodded gravely but looked a little disappointed.
"Perhaps I will be big enough when I am nine," he said. "Or maybe Mother will think that I am grown up enough once I have got back to Samos from this journey with you… Do you think she might? She taught me what to do if I got lost again. She said that all I had to do was look at where the Sun was and I would know the direction… because if it is morning and I have not eaten my midday meal it will be in the east but if I have eaten and it is afternoon it will be in the west. Mother said that I can always work out what direction I am facing in because of where the Sun is."
"Which would be a lot more useful if we didn't have a roof over our heads and could actually see the Sun," Hercules muttered.
Pythagoras looked crestfallen.
"That would be a problem," he answered sadly.
Icarus glared at Hercules, who half shrugged and gave the inventor's son a blank look, clearly unaware that he had upset the little boy. Icarus nodded meaningfully at Pythagoras and saw the look of dawning comprehension come over the bulky wrestler's face.
"Yes, well I am sure it will come in very handy once we are back outside," Hercules rumbled. "It will help us to find the ship. It's a clever trick and… erm… you are a clever boy for remembering it."
Pythagoras positively glowed at the praise.
"Mother says that I am very clever," he said. "I know lots and lots of things… but there are a lot of things that I do not know… I want to though. I want to know everything."
Hercules found himself smiling indulgently; of course Pythagoras wanted to know everything - inquisitiveness was in his basic nature.
"Am I talking too much?" the little blonde asked, suddenly looking anxious. "Father is always telling me I talk too much. He says that no-one wants to hear my voice… and then he gets angry. He is always angry at me but I do not know why… I don't mean to make him angry."
Hercules felt a sudden brief surge of anger at the child's father. How could anyone have ever treated sweet, gentle Pythagoras that way?
"No," he growled. "You talk as much as you like. We do need to work out which way to go though."
Hercules peered down the left hand passageway before turning to look to the right. Both directions looked very much the same.
"I think we should go that way," he said, pointing to the right.
"Are you sure?" Icarus asked.
"No," Hercules admitted. "But since we don't know the right way to go, it seems to me that one way is as good as the other. If it starts to look wrong we can double back. Unless you have a better idea?"
Icarus sighed.
"No," he said. "Neither of us can remember the way so we should try to find our way out as best we can."
As they were talking, Jason had let go of Hercules' hand and stepped around the burly wrestler to peer curiously down the two corridors; first right and then left. He turned to look up at the two adults, currently talking to one another, then looked back down the left hand passageway again, before taking off down it at a fast trot.
"Jason!" Hercules yelled, reaching out to grab him just a second too late. "Come on," he growled to Icarus. "We need to catch him."
They set off running after the fleeing child expecting to catch him easily. Yet in every passageway they raced down, Jason seemed to be disappearing around the next corner, always just about in sight but well beyond reach.
"When we catch him, he's going to be sorry!" Hercules puffed. "I will not be letting him out of my sight again… even if I have to tie a bit of rope around his waist."
The corridors twisted and turned, this way and that, until the two adults had lost all sense of direction. Their pace was perhaps a little slower than it would normally have been, given that they were having to accommodate Pythagoras' currently much shorter legs, but even if they had been running as fast as they could, Icarus suspected they wouldn't have been able to keep up with Jason. He said as much to Hercules between gasping breaths. Hercules gave him a funny look.
"He's still touched by the Gods," the burly wrestler panted. "Just like Pythagoras is still clever, Jason is still going to be ridiculously fast and agile."
Finally the corridor they were in opened out into a large atrium, it's roof missing at one end and open to the sky. Weeds were growing up through the cracked marble of the floor and in one corner a tree was growing up through the rubble where the walls had once been - evidence of just how long this palace had been abandoned and how close it was to being completely reclaimed by nature.
Jason had sat down on the broken base of what must have once been a carved pillar and Pythagoras trotted over to join him. Icarus stood there with his mouth hanging open for a moment, before closing it with an audible snap and turning to share a startled look with Hercules. This was the way they had come into the palace.
"How did you do that?" he asked. "How did you know the way out?"
Jason shrugged and whispered something into Pythagoras' ear.
"He doesn't know," Pythagoras said. "It just looked like the right way."
"Is there any reason that Jason couldn't have told us that himself?" Hercules growled.
"He has been told he is not allowed to talk to strangers," Pythagoras stated.
"But he's talking to you," Hercules rumbled.
"But I am not a grown up," Pythagoras replied, with a look that said he felt Hercules was being particularly dense.
Hercules shot him a disbelieving look.
"Of course," he muttered to himself. "Because that makes perfect sense."
He marched purposefully over to the two boys and crouched down in front of them, reaching out to grasp Jason's shoulders firmly.
"Now listen," he said. "You cannot be running off like that. I know you found the way out for us and that's a good thing… but anything could have happened to you. You need to make sure an adult knows where you are and goes with you. If you have been told not to speak to strangers, then I am pretty sure you will have been told not to run off too."
The dark-haired child bit his lip and looked at the ground. Hercules grasped the boy's chin gently but firmly and tilted his face up until he was looking into his eyes.
"You scared me," he rumbled softly, "and I want you to promise not to run off like that again. Can you do that for me?"
Jason nodded.
"Yes," he whispered.
Hercules smiled and tousled the child's dark curls.
"Good lad," he said.
He stood up with a slight grunt and looked back across the room at Icarus before turning back to the children.
"Let's get back to our boat," he said.
"Is it a big boat?" Pythagoras asked as they stood up and began to make their way out of the atrium. "I do not think I have ever been on a boat. I have watched the fishing boats setting sail from our beach though. Is it bigger than a fishing boat?"
"It's a lot bigger than a fishing boat," Hercules answered with a grin. "Just you wait and see."
"How is it that I do not remember travelling on it before if I came here from Samos with you?" the blonde child asked.
Hercules gave Icarus a helpless look.
"Erm… I don't know," he said. "Maybe you just forgot."
Pythagoras frowned, his lower lip jutting out as he thought about what the burly wrestler had said.
"But why would I forget?" he asked. "It does not make sense."
"Well we think there was a curse on that cavern we were in," Icarus answered, trying to make up something that the child would accept. "It made you forget about the ship and the journey to get here… but you didn't completely forget everything, did you? After all you remembered that Hercules likes pies."
"That is true," Pythagoras replied thoughtfully. "But wouldn't a curse have affected you too?"
"It did," Icarus assured him. "Hercules couldn't remember how old you were could he? And neither of us could remember the way out."
"No," the blonde child admitted.
By this time they had left the ruined palace and made their way outside. Hercules looked at the path leading down to the coast and bit back a curse.
"What is it?" Icarus asked.
"Look," the big man groused, pointing to the path.
Icarus looked where Hercules was pointing blankly. The path was a dirt track littered with small stones.
"What?" he asked.
"They won't be able to walk down there," Hercules ground out, gesturing to the two children. "The ground is covered with stones and they're barefoot."
Icarus finally saw the problem.
"Oh," he replied.
"Oh indeed," Hercules growled. He looked at the two little boys calculatingly and finally came to a decision. "We'll have to carry them," he said. "Can you take Pythagoras if I take Jason?"
He looked down as he felt a tugging at the edge of his tunic. Jason was scowling up at him, lower lip jutting mutinously.
"I don't need to be carried," he said. "I'm not a baby. I can walk."
Hercules gave a long suffering sigh and crouched down next to the child.
"You listen to me," he rumbled. "No-one is saying you are a baby… but it's a very long walk to the boat and the stones on that path will cut your feet to shreds… and I'm not going to carry you like a baby either - you have a choice: you can either go on my back or on my shoulders… but you are not walking."
He watched Jason mulling it over.
"Tell you what," he added. "I don't really want to be carrying you for all that long either, so if we come to a bit where there aren't any stones you can walk then, alright?"
Jason hesitated for a moment and then nodded.
Hercules smiled.
"Alright then, Trouble," he said. "Back or shoulders?"
He studiously ignored the startled look that Icarus threw in his direction at the affectionate nickname he had called Jason.
"Can I have a piggy back?" Jason asked.
Hercules frowned slightly at the strange terminology. He supposed that Jason meant that he wanted to ride on his back but it was definitely a phrase he hadn't heard before.
"Back it is then," he said, turning slightly so that the lad could scramble up into place.
Then he stood up slowly, hands caught under the boy's legs to hold him in place. As he did so, Icarus swooped in on Pythagoras and lifted the other child up onto his shoulders.
They set off down the path towards the Argo. As Hercules had said, it was a long way from the palace to the beach. Nevertheless, he found himself smiling indulgently at the bright chatter of the two children as they pointed things out to each other and the two adults, making the time seem to pass more quickly. It would be a relief to be back on the ship though. After all, the quicker they got there, the quicker they could see about getting Pythagoras and Jason back to normal.
When they were about halfway there, they stopped to give Hercules and Icarus chance to get their breath; the two boys might not be all that heavy but it was still a long way to carry them. As soon as he was put down in the scrubby grass at the side of the path, Pythagoras went to examine something with Jason in tow. They were still in sight though, so Hercules wasn't too worried.
After a moment, he became aware that Icarus was directing a troubled look at the two boys.
"What's wrong?" the burly wrestler demanded.
"It's probably nothing," Icarus replied. "It was just something that struck me as a little odd that was all."
Hercules barked a laugh.
"Our friends have been transformed into children," he pointed out. "This whole situation is odd."
"I know that," Icarus said, rolling his eyes. "But… when we first spoke to Pythagoras after he was turned into a child, the first thing he did was to ask about his mother and brother."
"That's natural," Hercules declared. "To ask about his family. They will be the only people he really remembers after all."
"That is not what was odd," Icarus replied.
"Then what was?" Hercules demanded, beginning to lose patience.
"It would be natural for a child - for anyone really - to ask about the people who care for him; the people that he lives with; his family," Icarus went on. "So why didn't Jason?"
Hercules blinked.
"What?" he asked.
"Why didn't Jason ask about anyone?" Icarus said. "We told the boys that they were going to be staying with us for a time and he just looked resigned… like he was expecting it… and he didn't ask where any of his family were."
"Well he wouldn't ask about his mother," Hercules rumbled. "He didn't even know she was alive until a couple of months ago."
"Yes, but what about his father?" Icarus asked. "Or… even if his father was not there when he was growing up, there must have been someone who raised him. Why didn't he ask about them?"
Hercules' eyes narrowed as he thought about it.
"I don't know," he answered.
He shook himself.
"Interesting as this conversation is, we ought to be getting back to the boat," he growled.
"You are right," Icarus replied. "It is probably nothing anyway."
It didn't take them long to round up the two little boys and to set off once more.
As they came through the dunes at the edge of the beach and saw Argo pulled up onto the sand ahead of them both Hercules and Icarus heaved a sigh of relief. The burly wrestler hailed one of the sailors on deck and a ladder was dropped down over the side for them.
"Right," Hercules said to the two children. "Pythagoras goes up first with Icarus behind him, then Jason and I'll bring up the rear."
It wasn't all that long until they were all up on deck, the sailor who had dropped the ladder to them having lifted the children up over the rail. He looked at them curiously as he went back to his work but didn't say anything.
"Hercules?"
The burly wrestler heard Ariadne's voice behind him and resisted the urge to wince. He turned to greet his Queen with an almost manic smile, knowing that he was going to have to explain what had happened to her husband and not relishing the task.
"You are back sooner than I expected you to be," Ariadne murmured. "After you left we discovered that there is a town just beyond the dunes on the far side of the beach. Several of the crew have gone to obtain fresh supplies and Cassandra has gone with them to pray at the temple. I am afraid we were not expecting you back until nightfall or I would not have let them go. We could have set off again sooner if I had known."
"We found the ruins of the palace quicker than we thought," Hercules rumbled.
"You have the draught containing Aphrodite's tears then?" the young Queen asked.
"Yes," Hercules replied. "We do."
"But where are Jason and Pythagoras?" Ariadne asked.
She had noticed that her husband and his other best friend weren't there immediately but had presumed they were just behind Hercules in boarding the ship. Now, though, she began to worry.
"Ah," Hercules answered with a grimace. "Well it's a funny story…"
"Has something happened to them?" Ariadne asked, her voice growing increasingly concerned.
She spotted the two little boys standing behind Hercules.
"And who are these children?" she said. "You cannot simply bring random children along with us. They probably have families who are worrying about them. What were you thinking of?"
She looked again at the boys, noting that they were wearing what appeared to be Jason and Pythagoras' tunics.
"What is going on?" she demanded.
"I am afraid, My Lady, that that is a long story," Icarus murmured, "and it covers both who these children are and where Jason and Pythagoras are right now." He looked around the deck. "Perhaps we should go below," he suggested, "and we will explain everything."
Author: Yassandra
Fandom: Atlantis
Pairing/characters: Jason/Ariadne, Pythagoras/Icarus, Hercules, Cassandra
Rating: G
Warnings: N/A
Disclaimer: Not mine. BBC and Urban Myth Films own them.
Word count: 25317 (This chapter - 5259)
Summary: A routine mission away from the Argo goes awry when Hercules makes a mistake and triggers a curse. Now he's left with a little problem - well, two little problems really...
A/N Written for round six of the Small Fandoms Bang, and also for Hurt/Comfort Bingo for the 'de-age' prompt.
Chapter 2 - Something Like a Situation
The child's chin wobbled.
"How do you know my name?" he asked.
Icarus gaped at him for a moment, unsure how to answer, before his brain kicked into action.
"Erm… I know your family," he said, crossing his fingers behind his back. "You have met me before… The first time was several years ago now."
It wasn't a complete lie, he told himself, and he couldn't exactly tell this child the truth.
Pythagoras looked at him sceptically.
"If we have met before," he began, "why do I not remember you?"
Icarus desperately tried to think of a believable answer.
"Err… well… like I said it was a few years ago," he stammered. "You were younger then. Perhaps that is why you do not remember."
Pythagoras stared at him, his eyes betraying his fear.
"Where is my mother?" he asked again, his tone increasingly suspicious. "And Arcas?"
Icarus mentally cringed, although he tried to keep it from showing on his face. Pythagoras had once told him that his mother had died some years ago, but he could hardly tell a confused and frightened little boy that - especially since the child would have no good reason to believe him.
"Your mother is at home… on Samos. Your little brother is with her," he replied.
Pythagoras' small face creased into a frown.
"Why am I not with them?" he demanded.
Icarus floundered for a moment - even transformed back into a young child, Pythagoras was still incredibly sharp.
He's still a genius, he reminded himself. A small genius, but still a genius.
"Your mother had to go away for a while," he improvised quickly. "She went to look after someone who was unwell… a relative. She asked Hercules here to look after you while she was away… We had to go on a short voyage you see and she thought it might be good for you to see a little of the world beyond Samos."
The child's eyes narrowed thoughtfully, but he turned his attention to Hercules.
"I know you," he said flatly. "You're the pig man… and I remember something about you and pies."
Icarus nearly snorted with laughter at Hercules' affronted expression.
The burly wrestler glared at him.
"If this one's Pythagoras, where's Jason?" he growled.
"I don't know," Icarus answered, looking slowly around.
As he turned he caught a flicker of movement out of the corner of his eye, but by the time he managed to look directly at the spot it was gone. Icarus stepped back around the pile of treasure, moving very slowly and carefully. To his right a golden bowl fell with a clatter but as Icarus turned his head to look at it, he caught sight of the faint flicker of movement again out of the corner of his left eye.
"Hide and seek," he muttered to Hercules. "He's playing hide and seek."
"I'll give him hide and seek," Hercules growled. "I'll tan his hide if he starts playing up."
"Hercules, he's probably frightened," Icarus answered in a quiet murmur. "I know I would be." He looked towards the spot where he had last seen movement. "It's alright," he called, raising his voice to normal levels. "We are not going to hurt you. You can come out."
Nothing moved.
Icarus felt a small hand slip into his and looked down to see Pythagoras standing next to him, his small face reflecting fear.
"It's alright," Icarus murmured, crouching down to the child's level. "There's nothing to be scared of. We're just looking for another one of our friends who has got a bit lost."
As he spoke to Pythagoras, he caught sight of a small dark haired child darting between two piles of treasure over the blonde child's shoulder moving faster than he would have thought was possible. Icarus smiled and stood up, moving slowly and carefully over to the place where he had seen the child disappear. He crouched down again and rested his elbows on his knees, peering into the dark space between the piles. There at the back, right against the wall of the cavern, was a second small child. This child had wild dark curls and huge eyes set in a thin face. He also looked very angry.
"Hello Jason," Icarus murmured as gently as possible. "Why don't you come out from there?"
The little boy shook his head stubbornly, his eyes blazing.
"We don't have time for this," Hercules growled loudly, shoving Icarus out of the way and reaching into the gap to grab the little boy.
He jumped back with a pained cry, holding one hand protectively in the other.
"The little bugger bit me," he declared loudly, the anger in his voice clear.
Icarus resisted the urge to chuckle.
"I think this is a case where a little patience and kindness may pay off," he murmured quietly.
"Patience and kindness? He needs a clip round the ear!"
"Hercules!" Icarus hissed, nodding towards Pythagoras.
The child was half cringing back, his blue eyes very wide.
"Remember what his father was like," Icarus continued.
Hercules shot him a startled look.
"Pythagoras told you about that?" he asked.
"Yes," Icarus murmured simply. "I know him better than you think… besides, after everything that has happened we agreed there would be no more secrets between us."
The burly wrestler nodded thoughtfully.
"Fair enough," he said.
He turned towards the little blonde boy and crouched down.
"Don't be frightened," he said. "I'm not going to hurt you - I'd never want to hurt either you or Jason, Pythagoras."
"But you said he needed hitting," Pythagoras replied.
"I was joking," Hercules said. "It was a joke." He looked back at Icarus. "What in the name of the Gods do we do now though? They can't stay like this forever!"
"I think it is fairly obvious that they have been cursed by some form of magic," Icarus answered. "I think the best thing we can do is to get out of here and get them back to the Argo where we can speak to Cassandra and look for a way to put this right."
"And how do you propose we do that when we can't even get him out from in there?" Hercules groused, pointing towards the two piles of treasure that Jason was hiding between.
Icarus sighed and turned back to peer between the piles. The dark haired little boy was watching his every move suspiciously through narrowed eyes.
"You can come out now," Icarus said gently. "Hercules is not going to try to grab you again."
Jason made no move to leave his hiding place; he drew his legs up and wrapped his arms around them, resting his chin on his knees.
Icarus turned looked back over his shoulder at Hercules.
"I think we are going to have to be patient," he said.
Before Hercules could answer, Pythagoras darted forwards and wriggled into the narrow gap. Icarus could hear his high childish voice murmuring but couldn't make out exactly what he was saying. Suddenly he wriggled back out and stood up, smiling broadly. Moments later, the second little boy wriggled out of the gap too and came to stand beside him.
It surprised Icarus that as a child Jason was actually slightly smaller than Pythagoras. He was quite small for his apparent age and painfully skinny.
"Hello Jason," Icarus said gently. "It is nice to see you properly."
The little boy didn't answer. Instead, he turned towards Pythagoras and whispered something in his ear.
"He wants to know who you are," Pythagoras said firmly.
Icarus smiled.
"I am Icarus," he answered, "and this is Hercules." He gestured towards the burly wrestler.
Jason whispered something to Pythagoras again.
"Are we going to be staying with you?" Pythagoras asked.
"For now," Icarus replied.
He didn't fail to spot the look of resignation that came across Jason's small face.
"We need to get them back to the boat," Hercules declared.
"Indeed," Icarus replied. "If nothing else, we need to find them some proper clothing."
He looked at the two little boys with a sigh. Both of them were wearing their usual tunics (as they had been when the curse had hit them) but whereas they had shrunk into children, their clothing had remained at normal size and therefore swamped them both. He opened the bag he was carrying (he was grateful that he'd thought to bring one of reasonable size - it had seemed sensible since he hadn't known how large the vial containing Aphrodite's tears would be) and moved around the cavern, picking up the other items of clothing that his two companions had lost during their transformation and shoving them into it.
As Icarus was gathering up the clothes, Hercules approached the two boys and knelt down.
"How old are you?" he asked Pythagoras gently.
"If you know my mother and she asked you to take me with you on a journey, then you should know how old I am shouldn't you?" the little blonde replied, his eyes narrowing with suspicion.
"Right… right… of course I should," Hercules answered, silently cursing his old friend's intelligence. "But the thing is that I'm a very old man and I forget things."
Pythagoras looked at him solemnly.
"You are old," he said. "You must be even older than Stolos the baker… and he is the oldest man in my village. Does being old hurt?"
Hercules resisted the urge to growl and ignored the snigger he heard from Icarus somewhere behind him.
"No," he said as patiently as he could. "Being this old doesn't hurt… although there are plenty of people around who are a lot older than me."
"Really?" Pythagoras asked sceptically. "I have never met anyone that old."
"And I am sure you have met a great many people," Hercules rumbled sardonically.
"No," Pythagoras admitted in a small voice. "Not all that many. Not many people come through my village." He bit his lip and looked down at the floor. "I am sorry if I have said anything wrong," he added. "My mother is always telling me that I should think before I speak."
"No harm done," Hercules said gently. "But you never answered my question… how old are you?"
Pythagoras looked up at him from under his eyelashes.
"I am eight," he said quietly. "It was my birthday a few weeks ago."
That, Hercules reflected, was perfectly true. Pythagoras' birthday had come and gone while they were at sea, marked as well as they could with a decent meal and a few homemade gifts. He was, however, a good deal more than eight.
"And what about you?" Hercules said, looking at Jason.
The child glared back at him without speaking.
"Cat got your tongue?" Hercules asked, grinning.
His smile fell away as the child continued to stare at him. He sighed. The last thing he really wanted to be dealing with was a sulky, bad tempered child. Somewhere behind Hercules there was a loud crash as one of the piles of treasure fell over. The dark haired child jumped, head whipping round to peer anxiously past Hercules.
"Sorry," Icarus' voice came across the cavern.
Hercules ignored him, focussing his whole attention on the two little boys in front of him.
Icarus is right, he thought. He is frightened… they both are.
Without even stopping to think about it, he moved forwards purposefully and laid a hand gently on Jason's shoulder. The child turned to look at him, eyes wide. Hercules could feel the boy's thin shoulder trembling slightly under his hand. He resisted the urge to wince.
"I am not going to hurt you," he tried to reassure both children. "And I am going to make sure that no-one else does either."
Jason stood still for a moment before launching himself at the startled wrestler and wrapping himself around Hercules, clinging limpet-like to his large friend. Hercules enveloped the lad in a hug. He half turned and opened his arm in silent invitation to the anxiously watching Pythagoras. In seconds he had his arms full of both children.
"Alright," Hercules said comfortingly. "Everything is going to be alright. I know that everything is scary but I promise it will be fine. I think we need to get you both out of here and to somewhere a bit nicer. How does that sound? We'll all go back to the boat and we'll see if we can't find you boys some proper clothes and something to eat," he went on, not waiting for an answer to his previous question. "And then we will get everything sorted out."
He gently detached the two children, stood up and nodded to Icarus.
"Alright, let's go," he said, taking a small hand in each of his and setting off back across the chamber and up the stairs with the two young boys on either side of him and Icarus bringing up the rear.
Once they were back in the corridor at the top Hercules stopped and turned towards Icarus, a deep frown creasing his forehead.
"Do you remember the way out of here?" he muttered.
"Once we get out of this passage?" Icarus murmured, brow furrowing as he thought. "Erm…"
"You don't know do you?" Hercules accused.
"Well do you?" Icarus demanded.
"No," Hercules admitted grudgingly. "But this place is a maze… I said so earlier."
He looked down to find the two children looking at him curiously.
"Are we lost?" Pythagoras asked.
"No, no, no," said Hercules. "I just… don't quite know where we are at the moment."
Pythagoras giggled.
"That is what being lost means, silly," he pointed out.
"He might be a child but he is still going to be clever," Icarus murmured to Hercules.
They started to walk towards the end of the passage, stopping once more when they got to the end, trying to work out whether to go left or right.
"I got lost once," Pythagoras chattered on, brightly. "Mother asked me to take Arcas outside and play with him. We went out into the fields and played for a long time but then we couldn't find our way home. Arcas was crying and it took hours and hours to find our way home. Mother was really scared when she couldn't find us outside and she told me I was a brave and clever boy for finding my way home… but she said I was not allowed to take Arcas into the fields to play again until I was bigger… Do you think I am big enough now that I am eight?"
Icarus exchanged a helpless look with Hercules.
"Um… maybe wait until you are a little older," he said.
Pythagoras nodded gravely but looked a little disappointed.
"Perhaps I will be big enough when I am nine," he said. "Or maybe Mother will think that I am grown up enough once I have got back to Samos from this journey with you… Do you think she might? She taught me what to do if I got lost again. She said that all I had to do was look at where the Sun was and I would know the direction… because if it is morning and I have not eaten my midday meal it will be in the east but if I have eaten and it is afternoon it will be in the west. Mother said that I can always work out what direction I am facing in because of where the Sun is."
"Which would be a lot more useful if we didn't have a roof over our heads and could actually see the Sun," Hercules muttered.
Pythagoras looked crestfallen.
"That would be a problem," he answered sadly.
Icarus glared at Hercules, who half shrugged and gave the inventor's son a blank look, clearly unaware that he had upset the little boy. Icarus nodded meaningfully at Pythagoras and saw the look of dawning comprehension come over the bulky wrestler's face.
"Yes, well I am sure it will come in very handy once we are back outside," Hercules rumbled. "It will help us to find the ship. It's a clever trick and… erm… you are a clever boy for remembering it."
Pythagoras positively glowed at the praise.
"Mother says that I am very clever," he said. "I know lots and lots of things… but there are a lot of things that I do not know… I want to though. I want to know everything."
Hercules found himself smiling indulgently; of course Pythagoras wanted to know everything - inquisitiveness was in his basic nature.
"Am I talking too much?" the little blonde asked, suddenly looking anxious. "Father is always telling me I talk too much. He says that no-one wants to hear my voice… and then he gets angry. He is always angry at me but I do not know why… I don't mean to make him angry."
Hercules felt a sudden brief surge of anger at the child's father. How could anyone have ever treated sweet, gentle Pythagoras that way?
"No," he growled. "You talk as much as you like. We do need to work out which way to go though."
Hercules peered down the left hand passageway before turning to look to the right. Both directions looked very much the same.
"I think we should go that way," he said, pointing to the right.
"Are you sure?" Icarus asked.
"No," Hercules admitted. "But since we don't know the right way to go, it seems to me that one way is as good as the other. If it starts to look wrong we can double back. Unless you have a better idea?"
Icarus sighed.
"No," he said. "Neither of us can remember the way so we should try to find our way out as best we can."
As they were talking, Jason had let go of Hercules' hand and stepped around the burly wrestler to peer curiously down the two corridors; first right and then left. He turned to look up at the two adults, currently talking to one another, then looked back down the left hand passageway again, before taking off down it at a fast trot.
"Jason!" Hercules yelled, reaching out to grab him just a second too late. "Come on," he growled to Icarus. "We need to catch him."
They set off running after the fleeing child expecting to catch him easily. Yet in every passageway they raced down, Jason seemed to be disappearing around the next corner, always just about in sight but well beyond reach.
"When we catch him, he's going to be sorry!" Hercules puffed. "I will not be letting him out of my sight again… even if I have to tie a bit of rope around his waist."
The corridors twisted and turned, this way and that, until the two adults had lost all sense of direction. Their pace was perhaps a little slower than it would normally have been, given that they were having to accommodate Pythagoras' currently much shorter legs, but even if they had been running as fast as they could, Icarus suspected they wouldn't have been able to keep up with Jason. He said as much to Hercules between gasping breaths. Hercules gave him a funny look.
"He's still touched by the Gods," the burly wrestler panted. "Just like Pythagoras is still clever, Jason is still going to be ridiculously fast and agile."
Finally the corridor they were in opened out into a large atrium, it's roof missing at one end and open to the sky. Weeds were growing up through the cracked marble of the floor and in one corner a tree was growing up through the rubble where the walls had once been - evidence of just how long this palace had been abandoned and how close it was to being completely reclaimed by nature.
Jason had sat down on the broken base of what must have once been a carved pillar and Pythagoras trotted over to join him. Icarus stood there with his mouth hanging open for a moment, before closing it with an audible snap and turning to share a startled look with Hercules. This was the way they had come into the palace.
"How did you do that?" he asked. "How did you know the way out?"
Jason shrugged and whispered something into Pythagoras' ear.
"He doesn't know," Pythagoras said. "It just looked like the right way."
"Is there any reason that Jason couldn't have told us that himself?" Hercules growled.
"He has been told he is not allowed to talk to strangers," Pythagoras stated.
"But he's talking to you," Hercules rumbled.
"But I am not a grown up," Pythagoras replied, with a look that said he felt Hercules was being particularly dense.
Hercules shot him a disbelieving look.
"Of course," he muttered to himself. "Because that makes perfect sense."
He marched purposefully over to the two boys and crouched down in front of them, reaching out to grasp Jason's shoulders firmly.
"Now listen," he said. "You cannot be running off like that. I know you found the way out for us and that's a good thing… but anything could have happened to you. You need to make sure an adult knows where you are and goes with you. If you have been told not to speak to strangers, then I am pretty sure you will have been told not to run off too."
The dark-haired child bit his lip and looked at the ground. Hercules grasped the boy's chin gently but firmly and tilted his face up until he was looking into his eyes.
"You scared me," he rumbled softly, "and I want you to promise not to run off like that again. Can you do that for me?"
Jason nodded.
"Yes," he whispered.
Hercules smiled and tousled the child's dark curls.
"Good lad," he said.
He stood up with a slight grunt and looked back across the room at Icarus before turning back to the children.
"Let's get back to our boat," he said.
"Is it a big boat?" Pythagoras asked as they stood up and began to make their way out of the atrium. "I do not think I have ever been on a boat. I have watched the fishing boats setting sail from our beach though. Is it bigger than a fishing boat?"
"It's a lot bigger than a fishing boat," Hercules answered with a grin. "Just you wait and see."
"How is it that I do not remember travelling on it before if I came here from Samos with you?" the blonde child asked.
Hercules gave Icarus a helpless look.
"Erm… I don't know," he said. "Maybe you just forgot."
Pythagoras frowned, his lower lip jutting out as he thought about what the burly wrestler had said.
"But why would I forget?" he asked. "It does not make sense."
"Well we think there was a curse on that cavern we were in," Icarus answered, trying to make up something that the child would accept. "It made you forget about the ship and the journey to get here… but you didn't completely forget everything, did you? After all you remembered that Hercules likes pies."
"That is true," Pythagoras replied thoughtfully. "But wouldn't a curse have affected you too?"
"It did," Icarus assured him. "Hercules couldn't remember how old you were could he? And neither of us could remember the way out."
"No," the blonde child admitted.
By this time they had left the ruined palace and made their way outside. Hercules looked at the path leading down to the coast and bit back a curse.
"What is it?" Icarus asked.
"Look," the big man groused, pointing to the path.
Icarus looked where Hercules was pointing blankly. The path was a dirt track littered with small stones.
"What?" he asked.
"They won't be able to walk down there," Hercules ground out, gesturing to the two children. "The ground is covered with stones and they're barefoot."
Icarus finally saw the problem.
"Oh," he replied.
"Oh indeed," Hercules growled. He looked at the two little boys calculatingly and finally came to a decision. "We'll have to carry them," he said. "Can you take Pythagoras if I take Jason?"
He looked down as he felt a tugging at the edge of his tunic. Jason was scowling up at him, lower lip jutting mutinously.
"I don't need to be carried," he said. "I'm not a baby. I can walk."
Hercules gave a long suffering sigh and crouched down next to the child.
"You listen to me," he rumbled. "No-one is saying you are a baby… but it's a very long walk to the boat and the stones on that path will cut your feet to shreds… and I'm not going to carry you like a baby either - you have a choice: you can either go on my back or on my shoulders… but you are not walking."
He watched Jason mulling it over.
"Tell you what," he added. "I don't really want to be carrying you for all that long either, so if we come to a bit where there aren't any stones you can walk then, alright?"
Jason hesitated for a moment and then nodded.
Hercules smiled.
"Alright then, Trouble," he said. "Back or shoulders?"
He studiously ignored the startled look that Icarus threw in his direction at the affectionate nickname he had called Jason.
"Can I have a piggy back?" Jason asked.
Hercules frowned slightly at the strange terminology. He supposed that Jason meant that he wanted to ride on his back but it was definitely a phrase he hadn't heard before.
"Back it is then," he said, turning slightly so that the lad could scramble up into place.
Then he stood up slowly, hands caught under the boy's legs to hold him in place. As he did so, Icarus swooped in on Pythagoras and lifted the other child up onto his shoulders.
They set off down the path towards the Argo. As Hercules had said, it was a long way from the palace to the beach. Nevertheless, he found himself smiling indulgently at the bright chatter of the two children as they pointed things out to each other and the two adults, making the time seem to pass more quickly. It would be a relief to be back on the ship though. After all, the quicker they got there, the quicker they could see about getting Pythagoras and Jason back to normal.
When they were about halfway there, they stopped to give Hercules and Icarus chance to get their breath; the two boys might not be all that heavy but it was still a long way to carry them. As soon as he was put down in the scrubby grass at the side of the path, Pythagoras went to examine something with Jason in tow. They were still in sight though, so Hercules wasn't too worried.
After a moment, he became aware that Icarus was directing a troubled look at the two boys.
"What's wrong?" the burly wrestler demanded.
"It's probably nothing," Icarus replied. "It was just something that struck me as a little odd that was all."
Hercules barked a laugh.
"Our friends have been transformed into children," he pointed out. "This whole situation is odd."
"I know that," Icarus said, rolling his eyes. "But… when we first spoke to Pythagoras after he was turned into a child, the first thing he did was to ask about his mother and brother."
"That's natural," Hercules declared. "To ask about his family. They will be the only people he really remembers after all."
"That is not what was odd," Icarus replied.
"Then what was?" Hercules demanded, beginning to lose patience.
"It would be natural for a child - for anyone really - to ask about the people who care for him; the people that he lives with; his family," Icarus went on. "So why didn't Jason?"
Hercules blinked.
"What?" he asked.
"Why didn't Jason ask about anyone?" Icarus said. "We told the boys that they were going to be staying with us for a time and he just looked resigned… like he was expecting it… and he didn't ask where any of his family were."
"Well he wouldn't ask about his mother," Hercules rumbled. "He didn't even know she was alive until a couple of months ago."
"Yes, but what about his father?" Icarus asked. "Or… even if his father was not there when he was growing up, there must have been someone who raised him. Why didn't he ask about them?"
Hercules' eyes narrowed as he thought about it.
"I don't know," he answered.
He shook himself.
"Interesting as this conversation is, we ought to be getting back to the boat," he growled.
"You are right," Icarus replied. "It is probably nothing anyway."
It didn't take them long to round up the two little boys and to set off once more.
As they came through the dunes at the edge of the beach and saw Argo pulled up onto the sand ahead of them both Hercules and Icarus heaved a sigh of relief. The burly wrestler hailed one of the sailors on deck and a ladder was dropped down over the side for them.
"Right," Hercules said to the two children. "Pythagoras goes up first with Icarus behind him, then Jason and I'll bring up the rear."
It wasn't all that long until they were all up on deck, the sailor who had dropped the ladder to them having lifted the children up over the rail. He looked at them curiously as he went back to his work but didn't say anything.
"Hercules?"
The burly wrestler heard Ariadne's voice behind him and resisted the urge to wince. He turned to greet his Queen with an almost manic smile, knowing that he was going to have to explain what had happened to her husband and not relishing the task.
"You are back sooner than I expected you to be," Ariadne murmured. "After you left we discovered that there is a town just beyond the dunes on the far side of the beach. Several of the crew have gone to obtain fresh supplies and Cassandra has gone with them to pray at the temple. I am afraid we were not expecting you back until nightfall or I would not have let them go. We could have set off again sooner if I had known."
"We found the ruins of the palace quicker than we thought," Hercules rumbled.
"You have the draught containing Aphrodite's tears then?" the young Queen asked.
"Yes," Hercules replied. "We do."
"But where are Jason and Pythagoras?" Ariadne asked.
She had noticed that her husband and his other best friend weren't there immediately but had presumed they were just behind Hercules in boarding the ship. Now, though, she began to worry.
"Ah," Hercules answered with a grimace. "Well it's a funny story…"
"Has something happened to them?" Ariadne asked, her voice growing increasingly concerned.
She spotted the two little boys standing behind Hercules.
"And who are these children?" she said. "You cannot simply bring random children along with us. They probably have families who are worrying about them. What were you thinking of?"
She looked again at the boys, noting that they were wearing what appeared to be Jason and Pythagoras' tunics.
"What is going on?" she demanded.
"I am afraid, My Lady, that that is a long story," Icarus murmured, "and it covers both who these children are and where Jason and Pythagoras are right now." He looked around the deck. "Perhaps we should go below," he suggested, "and we will explain everything."