Los Angeles was truly one of Ioalus’s favorite places on earth. The place was a complex puzzle. On the surface, L.A. looked like a sprawling city, but what most of the tourists didn’t seem to know was that the place was a bunch of loosely connected neighborhoods that crudely came together to become a city.

Hercules and Iolaus first came to Los Angeles in 1911 during the initial film boon. They had visited the city off and on during the decades because being immortal made it impossible to stay in one place for long, but there was something about the city that kept them coming back. And when ten years ago, they had both returned not as Iolaus or Hercules but as Ian Holden and Jason Brant (Hercules thought it was a fitting legacy to his stepfather who had been more of a father to him than Zeus), Hercules had decided to become an actor then later a stuntman, and,

Iolaus happily followed him back to La-La Land.

The city was full of glitz and glam, secrets, filth, and color, and was a melting pot of different ethnicities, races, sexualities, and genders.

But Iolaus (or Ian Holden as he called himself these days) hated West Hollywood with a passion.

It was supposed to be the most welcoming neighborhood for the LGBTQ+ community, yet every time Hercules and Iolaus came down to WeHo, they mostly encountered bigoted assholes. Iolaus usually made friends easily, but even he found it hard not to punch someone in the nose whenever they made a biphobic comment.

Hercules and Iolaus had been together off and on for millennia. They had both had wives and children in their hero days and, low and behold, centuries later, they were still bisexual. So every time he was met with, “Bisexuality doesn’t exist. You just have not chosen a side yet”, he wanted to scream that back in his day, bisexuality was not only common but encouraged.

But that thought usually made him feel older than he already was.

All this to say, Iolaus had come up with the cockamamie idea to open up a bar one night after he and his partner had been kicked out of yet another bar. That time, it had been Hercules’s fault for punching a pretentious and intolerant white gay dude who had loudly refused to accept that Herc was not only taken but also bi.

So later, when they had returned home to their bungalow in Studio City, they had laid quietly in bed. Iolaus had laid his head on Hercules’s chest, and his husband’s large arms had wrapped around him in the dark. They had laid like that for what seemed like hours, just taking comfort in each other’s arms.

It had reminded him of all those times they had huddled up in an inn or cuddled each other in their bedrolls under the stars. And it was while they had laid in bed that the idea had come to him. “What If I opened a bar,” Iolaus had blurted out loud. “A bar for people like us.”

“Old and grumpy?” Hercules had joked.

“You got jokes now?” Iolaus had slapped him playfully on the shoulder. “No, people who are queer or trans or just weird. People who don’t fit in.” He had gestured around with his free hand.

Hercules had remained silent for a moment and then said, “Yeah, okay.”

They had started looking for possible locations the next day. Hercules had been right there by his side, supporting him every step of the way.

Iolaus had hunted for ages for the right location. He had come close to closing on an old shoe shop in Echo Park when his relator had tentatively offered a listing for an old, dilapidated place on Sunset Boulevard. And as cliché as the location was, Iolaus had known it was the will of the fates for them to have found it.

The place had been just a square-shaped building with peeling white paint and an inspection away from becoming condemned. Iolaus had immediately fallen in love with it and dived right into renovating it. Hercules had helped as much as he could in between working on a big-budget action movie.

Iolaus had ripped out walls, sanded floors, and replaced windows and doors with glee. He would return home on nights Hercules hadn’t worked to find a warm bath and a hot meal waiting for him, and later Hercules would curl his big body around him.

Xena and Gabrielle had dropped by to help. They were among the few friends they still had left from their hero days. Unlike Iolaus (who had chosen to eat a golden apple ), Xena and Gabrielle had chosen to live out their mortal lives and reincarnate. And, in every life, they would gradually regain all the memories of their past lives.

These days, Xena was Lana Foster, a doctor at Cedar Sinai, and Gabrielle was Kimberly Carlson, an English Literature Professor at Loyola Marymount University. For the first time in a while, Xena and Gabrielle actually resembled the women he had known back in Greece.

The four of them were still the best of friends, and Iolaus had been touched that they had come to help.

The first time they had turned up to help, Xena had taken one look at the place and at a shirtless Iolaus with hair full of plaster and dirt and had laughed. But Gabrielle, who was a good friend, had pulled up her sleeves and started helping. And Gabrielle had no shame using her big doe eyes to manipulate Xena into helping.

It had taken six months before Miscellany had opened one cold Friday night in September, and Iolaus had gleefully put a bisexual flag sticker on the window and turned on the neon open sign.

Miscellany was a bar for everyone, and that was how it would stay.