Work Text:
"Well if it isn't Hade's favorite redhead!" Said the ugliest motherfucker Cale had ever seen in his life that there wasn't a doubt it came from his uncle's territory.
"Yes?" The redhead replies in his snobbiest tone and had no choice but to stop in his tracks in the middle of taking a walk on the shallow part of the river in an attempt of a relaxing trip. He twisted his body to face a decidedly not a human being.
The person who had been deemed as 'the-ugliest-motherfucker' in his head was at least fifteen-foot tall and is a type of centaur. He described it as a sort-of centaur because Cale's pretty sure that 'the-ugliest-motherfucker' was some type of undead by the bloodless color of its skin, tinged blue along with some corroding skin on some parts of its body.
"What? Hades never you told stories about my time in the underworld, boy?" That confirms it then. It is a resident from his uncle's territory.
Another thing that Cale took note of was how it was slowly heading towards him. He says slowly but the massive hooves of the undead centaur certainly gives it about four more steps before reaching him.
"I don't recall hearing anything about an ugly horse bastard, no." Cale snides back by reflex, internally face-palming because if he wasn't in danger before, then he just bought a sure one-way ticket of being maimed by some being who could definitely kill him just by stepping on him.
"Funny." Replies the undead centaur in a tone that conveys that it does not, in fact, finds his reply funny nor humorous but that does not stop Cale from opening his big fat mouth again and replying, "Why, thank you. You look funny as well, if I do say so myself."
Stupid stupid stupid. The redhead berates himself internally as he subtly looks around for a possible way to escape, which would already pose as too much of a challenge since not only was half of his body submerged in the river but he was now also within arm's length of the ugly being.
Cale then feels a tight grip of a large hand that suddenly encircles his waist. One second he was on the ground, the next, he was facing a gut-churning horrendous corpse-face up close. He swallows back the bile that threatened to rise up and held on to a finger that was around his waist to gain some sense of balance.
If Cale dies, either way, he wouldn't be going down without making sure he gave his killer a verbal beat-down. And growing up with the reputation he has that a whole village felt that his attitude would fit the underworld enough, thus decided to throw him at a gate to the underworld near the village with his own family supporting the notion, Cale may as well be the God of Verbal Beatdowns.
And so he raises a perfectly groomed eyebrow, lips curling, face contorting into his most condescending expression that never failed to piss off anyone who was subjected to the look. "Well, aren't you a sight for sore eyes?"
"Boy," Cale can't help but make a sharp intake of breath when the pressure of the grip around him started increasing, almost squeezing the oxygen out of him, "You better start praying to your gods, or better yet to Hades himself that they'd find even a single strand of your pretty little hair when I'm done with you."
Cale, as previously established, was never one to back out and quips back, "Well why don't you pray first. To Aphrodite to be more exact. Maybe beg her to make you less hideous. The gods know you're in dire need of a make-over."
The creature actually snarls and growls at his face which made his heart thunder from distress. But Cale being Cale adds, "Plus your breath stinks so bad that you'd probably be able to kill me by speaking too close to my face alone."
"Why you!"
The angry frustrated scream that the half-horse lets out almost makes his death worth it. Dying at the hands of an aggravated monster because it can't win against his smart mouth? Also, if he does die, he can still live peacefully as a spirit by pulling some strings. Namely using the power of nepotism since Hades, the literal God of the Underworld is his pseudo-uncle anyway.
Although his death would probably be painful since his killer would probably make it as torturous as possible.
Maybe antagonizing his probably-killer was a bad idea.
Whatever. Cale makes sure he lands a hard kick on the creature's face just to make sure it knows that he didn't die without landing any hits. He then proceeded to close his eyes as he waits for the painful impact when he heard,
"Hey ugly!" His eyelids flies open to look for the owner of the voice, landing on the absolute hunk of a man standing at least a meter away from them. The man then shouts, "Why don't you pick on someone your own size!"
Cale can't help but to raise a brow the same time as the undead centaur replies in an incredulous tone, "What?"
Their judgment about the man's declaration must be so palpable that the man's cheeks reddens and suddenly rubs the back of his neck. "Not one of my best remarks, I know."
"Never mind that. Who are you supposed to be?" The creature thankfully moves its attention towards the onyx-haired man and unconsciously eases its grip on Cale making him quietly take large gulps of air.
"The townsfolks call me Hercules." He hears the man reply and then suddenly Cale remembers about the most recent rumors.
There's a new hero in town was a phrase that he had commonly heard all throughout the month.
And rumor has it that not only was he built like a Greek god, but he also had the face of someone carved by the gods themselves. But the rumors also said that he was the son of Zeus, so maybe it wasn't that far off.
Cale discretely rakes his eyes over the man dubbed as 'Hercules' and lets out a low appreciative hum. Well, at least the rumors about his looks were true. The other rumor about him being a Thunder God offspring, on the other hand, was still at the question stage.
He was then snapped out of his thoughts when he hears the words, "So I implore you to please let go of the poor man."
"Poor man? Hardly." He jumps into the conversation, hackles raised from the insinuation of his helplessness, which was true, but shouldn't have been pointed out to his face anyway. "I'm in control so better get going and have a nice day."
Okay so that was pushing it a bit too far but it was at least a habit now that he always automatically thinks of anything to say to push anyone into leaving his vicinity right away.
Hercules, also known as Choi Han knew that running headfirst into trouble was a bad idea. But seeing a gigantic . . . centaur creature in the middle of a river squeezing a person on its hand was distressing enough that he leaped into action even before he could think first.
Choi Han was a bit distressed by the possibility that the person was already half-dead by now since they were too quiet, but he can't check on the said person since he knows that taking his eyes off of a threat for even just a second could be critical at the current situation he was in.
He did make the mistake of looking away from the dead-looking centaur when he hears the person finally speaks up.
Choi Han turns his head to look at the monster's captive only to metaphorically have his breath punched out of his body from seeing the most beautiful man he had ever seen in his life. And then actually having his breath punched out of his body from not seeing the centaur's fist crashing into his body making him fly a few feet away.
Cale watched this Hercules hunk fly through the air from a punch from the undead centaur and actually feared for his life a little bit before cringing when he watched the man land a few feet away, river water splashing from impact.
If this was the hero that the townsfolk deemed as someone very powerful. Cale was not very impressed. Because it's either the monster was more powerful than the man or the man was just weak. Either one of it made him more unimpressed than he already is.
He hopes that the man didn't die or something.
Choi Han doesn't think he'd ever live this moment down if Choi Jung Soo ever heard about it. So he gets up determinedly, deciding to stop with the pleasantries lest he embarrasses himself more in front of the beautiful man that was still trapped within the grasp of the monster.
He discards his Hercules persona to the side and instead stalked towards the monster as a Choi.
--
Okay so maybe he judged the man too early. Cale could admit his wrongs. Just not out loud. But hey, would you look at that, the man actually just might fit the hero bill just from giving the undead centaur the absolute physical smackdown of its life. It was rather glorious.
Minus points for him though for making the creature drop him unceremoniously to the ground. Thankfully, other than feeling like a big bruise, he didn't get any serious injury especially since being dropped in a deep part of the river helped break his fall.
He slowly swims his way to the shore, ears still focused on listening to punches hitting skin for at least five minutes more before it stopped.
Cale thankfully turned around and saw in time how the giant ugly centaur fell face first into the dirt, unconscious as Hercules patted the dust away from his soaked self before making his way to Cale's direction.
So what if Cale watched this Hercules guy walk towards him all the way until he got in front of Cale? And what if Cale ogled the man a lot little? It wasn't Cale's fault that the man's clothes were too see-through from battling along the river.
"Are you alright . . . uhm,"
"Call me Cale. And aside from the probable bruises that are already forming, yes," Cale hums and adds snootily, " I suppose this is the proper time to thank you for saving me even if I got it all under control."
The man snorts, clearly not believing him but still gives him a blinding grin in return while nodding. "Of course. You sure you're not injured?"
Cale gives the man a practiced smile and replies, "Don't worry wonder boy, I'm a grown man. I can handle myself."
The man who was newly dubbed as wonder boy didn't reply after that and just shamelessly stared at him making Cale tilt his head to the side in curiosity and watched how the wonder boy's eyes trailed along the exposed side of his neck.
A smirk appears on his lips at that as he says, "Well, if you have nothing more to say, I'll get going now."
"Uh huh," Choi Han dazedly agrees before snapping out of his daydreams when he realized that the redhead was walking away, and in a too-distracting manner that made Choi Han too distracted to call him back.
Cale who was purposely swaying his hips as he took forward strides away from the man looked back one more time to catch Hercules' gaze on his lower back and smirked when he caught his onyx eyes with his red ones.
"See you around, wonder boy." And Cale meant that. Because he had a feeling they'd be seeing each other again very soon.