Chapter Text
Prologue
After an extended trip to Macedonia — full of monsters, vengeful gods and all the usual — Hercules and Iolaus were back in familiar hunting grounds. With several days’ hard travel behind them they had finally allowed themselves a well-deserved day off. A nice, quiet day, just relaxing at one of their favorite fishing spots. Just what the healer ordered.
They had been very careful about not calling it a ‘vacation’ — that always seemed to tempt the fates — and to both of their surprises it seemed to have worked; there had been no roaming beast, no breathless messenger finding them in the middle of nowhere, not even a small band of ruffians attempting to ambush them. It had been a perfectly calm day and Hercules had gone to bed with a relaxed smile on his face.
Except, this was when things seemed to come back to bite him in the ass — almost literary, he thought. No matter how he positioned himself there always seemed to be a twig or sharp stone poking his anatomy. I’m getting too old for this, he thought in annoyance, attempting to once more flatten out the blanket that had scrunched up under him.
That was the advantage of fighting monsters; afterwards you were usually tired enough to sleep through a thunderstorm in a pig trough. Still, after some restless turning this way and that, eventually the quiet of the brisk autumn night lulled him enough that a tension releasing shiver went through his body and he finally relaxed into overdue sleep.
Chapter 1 - Waking up
The sun was way above the treetops when Hercules awoke feeling stiff all over. He contemplated pulling the blanket over his head and going back to sleep but the smell of fish cooking on the fire convinced him it was worth waking up despite his protesting muscles.
"I was beginning to think I would have to check you for a fever or something," Iolaus joked from across the fire, his voice sounding a bit strange to Hercules' ears. "You never sleep in this long."
Hercules yawned, tentatively rolling his stiff neck but stopped mid motion. He stared at the blond figure that was using a stick to poke a leaf-wrapped bundle in the smouldering fire remains. The unruly curls were the same, the way he moved was too, but the face….
"Iolaus? Is that you? You're… old!"
The man — Iolaus? — snorted, clearly finding the comment funny. "You're not exactly a spring chicken yourself."
"What?" Hercules felt thoroughly confused. What was that supposed to mean? But the way the man raised a questioning eyebrow at him in such an utterly familiar way left no doubt that this was indeed Iolaus. "You need to check your reflection!" Hercules prompted in alarm. "Something's happened to you— wait... Where did you get those clothes?" He had never seen that barely-keeping-itself-together patchwork vest before and the leather pants were unfamiliar too.
Iolaus' face shifted from amused, to confused, to concerned, and Hercules had a sudden thought; for the first time he looked down at his own body. "What happened to my clothes?!" Hercules gaped at himself with horror. Scratch that, what had happened to his body?! His arms and legs were twice as big as they had been yesterday!
Iolaus watched his friend scramble to his feet, bewildering inspecting his own body — clearly in distress over what he was finding. The way he was opening and closing his hands had Iolaus thinking of a (very large) newborn that just discovered they control that funny appendage that keeps appearing in front of their face. Iolaus rose too, carefully; a distressed demigod was best handled with the same amount of care as a spooked horse. "Herc, you alright there?" he asked tentatively, trying to assert the situation.
"No!" came the sharp reply. "We've changed. Can't you see that?"
Iolaus gave his own body a quick glance, not finding anything out of the ordinary. "We look fine to me." He resisted the impulse to frown to not add more fuel to Herc’s already sizable fire. "What's the last thing you remember?"
Hercules was turning back and forth, his eyes darting all over, looking somewhat like a lost puppy. Iolaus waved his hand to get his attention. "Oh. Going to bed, here by the lake," he finally answered, gesturing to their sparse camp.
At least he didn't look quite as panic-y anymore, just like he really wanted to know what was going on. Which made two of them. Iolaus motioned him to continue. "And before that?"
"Huh?" Hercules had run a hand through his hair and was now looking in growing alarm at the length of hair he had managed to pull in front of his face. Iolaus snapped his fingers and the demigod promptly let go of the strands and locked his hands behind him, back straight — like a reprimanded schoolboy. "We've got a week's break from the Academy, we came here to do some fishing. Just relax."
"The Academy?" Iolaus repeated. Yeah, that would be little less than a day’s travel from here. And they had come here a few times during longer breaks. 20 years ago. He sighed and rubbed his hand over his face. Well this was a mess. "20 years' worth of amnesia," he mused out loud. "I don't suppose you've met Fortune lately?"
"What?" Hercules looked — if possible — even more confused. "The goddess of luck?"
"Yeah."
"No."
"What?" It was Iolaus' turn to be confused.
"No, I haven't seen her."
He sighed. "Well, I suppose even Fortune isn't so brainless that she would make that particular mistake again. It was just a thought."
~~~
Hercules blinked his eyes open. Sitting up on his bedroll, he stretched his arms overhead. That slow day yesterday had been a wonderful idea, he hadn't felt this refreshed in ages.
It was a beautiful morning, the leaves which had only just begun to shift in color were rustling softly in the brisk air. On the other side of the remains of the fire Iolaus was still sleeping soundly. Some paces away the lake lay still as a mirror. Perfect weather for a morning run—
He froze, his eyes doubled back to Iolaus' sleeping form. It was Iolaus, but roughly 20 years younger. Senses suddenly on high alert, he quickly scanned the area — in particular trying to sense any godly presence — but as far as he could tell they were alone in the glade.
He went through a mental list of possibilities. He was still dreaming? It sure didn't feel like it; The lake was a fountain of youth? No, Iolaus was wearing his old clothes from their Academy days and de-aging shouldn't affect the clothes; He had time traveled in his sleep somehow? That idea seemed plausible until he got to his feet and his weirdly flimsy limbs made him realize he too was in the body — and clothes — of his younger self. So whatever was going on had affected them both.
Still weary of their surroundings, he crouched down next to his sleeping friend. "Iolaus, wake up. Something's going on."
Iolaus pushed his hand away, refusing to open his eyes. "What's the big rush, let a guy sleep, why don'tcha."
"You're gonna wanna see this," Hercules insisted. Or maybe not, he corrected privately.
After having let out a loud what-could-possibly-be-important-this-early-in-the-morning groan, Iolaus reluctantly sat up. "What?" he demanded.
Hercules indicated himself but Iolaus wasn't impressed. "What?" he repeated, more annoyed.
"Rub the sleep from your eyes, we've been thrown back into our younger selves." While Iolaus was getting his bearings, Hercules began studying their surroundings a bit more thoroughly. His eyes focused on the olive tree they had rested their backs against while fishing yesterday. "Back in time too. That tree was bigger yesterday."
There was a long silence before Iolaus finally said, "Did you eat one of those mushrooms I pointed out yesterday?"
Oh. Maybe they hadn't both been affected. Hercules silently berated himself for assuming things. "So you're young on the inside too?” he blurted. At Iolaus' confused expression, he cursed himself again for not keeping his mouth shut. Maybe this undeveloped body also affected his ability to think before speaking…
"And you’re not?" Iolaus got to his feet, inspecting Hercules doubtfully.
Hercules sighed. "No," he admitted reluctantly. "I'm from the future. From the distant future." He held up his hands. "No mushrooms."
Iolaus looked him up and down, doubt written all over him.
"I— eh, somehow got sent back into my old body." Gods, I'm sounding ridiculous.
Iolaus starred some more before finally opening his mouth. “If you were me, I would say this was some kind of practical joke. But you’re you, and you don’t do jokes very well. No offense. This smells more of…” his face lit up with a smile. “Jason! I know you’re here somewhere!” He started to move around, tearing through the bushes. “You almost had me. Great try! You can come on out now!”
Hercules pinched the bridge of his nose. This was gonna be harder than he thought. "I’m not joking," he said as Iolaus went past him heading for the bushes on the other side of the glade.
Finally, after Iolaus had combed through the place well enough to realize the bushes were in fact not hiding any crown princes, he came back to stand in front of Hercules who had (more or less) patiently waited for him. “So," Iolaus said thoughtfully, "if you haven’t eaten mushrooms. And it’s not a joke. That leaves…," his eyes lit up with sudden inspiration, "Ares!”
Hercules opened his mouth to protest, but snapped it shut again. Maybe? It was after all as good a guess as any.