Chapter Text
Ever since he could speak coherently, everyone believed Hercules would be a nurse. His first full sentence was ‘ Are you ok? ’. His first reaction to someone getting hurt on the playground was to soothe them as best he could and call for someone to get the teacher. By third grade, he was carrying band-aids and wipes in his pockets so he could ‘start treatment’ on any minor cuts and scrapes before a teacher or nurse arrived.
In eighth grade, Hercules meets an awkward, lanky French kid. They teach him about gender one day while he patches up their knee and palm after a painful tumble in the P.E. field into a rock patch. It’s the start of a long-lasting relationship. Lafayette, as Hercules now knows them, requires more band-aids than Hercules could ever hope to keep track of. And they are picky, always wanting themed ones as opposed to regular ones. Hercules obliges.
By winter break, the pair is the most inseparable duo in school. Hercules teaches Lafayette how to work with their body until they grow into it, and how to patch themselves up on the rare occasion he isn’t around. It saves them a lot of pain, and Hercules some band-aids. Lafayette teaches Hercules about fashion design (and perhaps he’ll pursue that instead of nursing) and mental illness.
This isn’t to say Hercules is completely clueless, he’s heard some basics, but he certainly doesn’t know what to do when a loud bang from outside their house triggers Lafayette and Hercules has to use the goddamn symptom checker on WebMD to figure out it’s that it’s an anxiety attack and he needs to help Laf calm down. It takes a couple weeks for Hercules to get good at helping Laf, reminding them to take their meds and helping them stave off attacks before they start, but he masters the necessary skills quickly, aided by Lafayette’s sudden forthrightness about their past experiences. Sometimes the pair struggles, but they struggle together. Until they don’t. Two days into the summer, Lafayette disappears. A week after, he gets a letter telling him all the details Laf never did, with instructions to burn it after reading for his friend’s safety. He complies.