Hades shook his head as he walked around the grounds of Beast's Castle, his daughter's Cerberus by his heels. It was honestly hard to believe he was going to be a grandfather now. He'd finally caught up to his brothers—which was more than a little startling if he was honest.
He knew, of course, that whether the pup was a girl or a boy, he'd love them no matter what. How could he not? They would be Mali's child—well and the sunspot's of course.
Speaking of the Sunspot, Hades thought as he caught glimpse of the former Queen of Auradon sitting by her lonesome. Honestly, Hades thought that she'd still be with the squealing staff all thrilled at making preparations for the arrival of the new Prince or Princess.
I mean, I understand they're all excited but there's only so much squealing a person can take, he thought. The fact that Steph joined in on the squealing was what drove me to go on this walk, thankfully with a non-squealing companion.
Even Mama Odie could tell that the excited squealing of Genevieve, Mrs. Potts, Rea, Belle, and Persephone was hurting the three headed canine's ears. Mal had graciously allowed Hades the chance to escape the squeals by asking him to take Estelle on a walk.
"Lady Belle?" Hades asked, realizing a moment too late that she'd been praying. "My...my apologies for interrupting. I saw you here and...well we're to share a grandchild. I wanted to make sure you were okay."
Belle smiled slightly as she looked up at Hades, Estelle resting his heads on her lap in comfort.
"I...I was praying," she said softly. "To Lady Eileithyia."
"Not the first person people pray to when they pray to Olympus," Hades said. "Besides, I thought you grew up with the same God as my favorite play thing? I thought you'd be more likely to pray to him?"
Belle shook her head. "Lady...Lady Eileithyia is the Goddess of Pregnancy," she said softly. "I...I lost my daughter and even though I love Genevieve with all my heart, I still miss Abigail every day. I...I would never want Mal to go through that, just like I know Adam would never want Ben to know that helpless feeling."
Oh sure he hid it well but Belle knew her husband. Besides, there hadn't been much for the two of them to do once Adam retired from being King meaning they finally got the chance to talk about that day.
Meaning Adam finally got the chance to mourn their daughter rather than bury himself in his paperwork and block out the grief he was feeling. Her papa even tried to talk with him once after Chip had told him about the lost pregnancy, but all Adam would tell him was that Belle, Ben, and the kingdom needed someone to stay strong.
"Oh..." Hades said softly. "Do you mind if I sit down?"
"Go right ahead," Belle told him, scooting over a little to make room on the log she was sitting on.
Hades sat down and sighed softly. "I won't lie and pretend like it's not something that's in the back of my mind," he told her. "Mal grew up on the Isle for sixteen years, if it hadn't been for the fish and chickens that somehow made it on the Isle, in addition to her Godly background and Steph bringing food..."
"Right," Belle nodded as she looked over at him. Mal had told them all what the Isle had been like and every conversation had been like a knife to the heart.
She had been Queen during those twenty years. She could have spoken up and made it so that they didn't live without a human right. But she didn't.
Honestly she was amazed Hades was even speaking to her, never mind the fact that he had given Ben permission to propose.
"I...I'm sorry," Belle said, her voice no higher than a whisper and Hades looked over to her. "About the food on the Isle I mean. Maybe even the general status of the Isle. I...After Abby...nothing seemed to matter as much as making sure nothing happened to Ben. I guess I threw myself into being a mother whereas Adam threw himself into being a King."
"...death is hard for mortals to deal with," Hades said, his words slow and deliberate as if he was picking each one out of his brain. "I deal with death every day and yet as a parent, I know I wouldn't want Mal, Hadie, or Rea to have to deal with it themselves. Persephone and I always hated that we couldn't do more to protect our kids from the pain of the Isle..."
"How...how many kids...how many are in the Underworld?" Belle asked, her voice barely above a whisper. "How many died because I couldn't rule the way a Queen should? How many mothers shared the pain I felt and yet couldn't wallow in their grief because of fear they'd be seen as 'soft'?"
Yeah...Mal had told them a great deal about the Isle. And sometimes, Belle couldn't help but think that Mal had forgotten that she was in the room when she told them. Her daughter-in-law was always more open with Ben and Chip than she was Belle and Adam.
At least when it came to the Isle that is.
"The only one responsible there was Leah," Hades said, surprising Belle. "I know, I'm sure you were expecting me to start lambasting you. But the truth is, you didn't purposefully send us rotting food. You didn't cause the conditions where people would stampede over each other every month for the promise to get something edible and you helped champion change for the Isle from what Persephone told me. The inspectors the first few years helped keep the Isle fairly hospitable."
Belle sighed. "If only Adam hadn't pulled them back. We might have caught what Leah was doing before then."
"Like I said, grief is different for everyone," Hades said. "And...considering when the inspectors left the Isle, it's possible Beast didn't want to cause you any more harm. Even if I am still incredibly annoyed with him about that betrothal contract. I get that Ben's not my kid but still, you don't put your kid through that."
Belle shook her head, gently petting Estelle behind the ears as the Cerberus continued to rest his head on her lap. "Leah met with me when I was about six months pregnant with Abigail. She wanted to put Ben and Audrey together in a betrothal contract, that they were such good friends it would make sense to ensure Ben had a Queen he could rely on. I said no but she insisted. I left the meeting in such a state that..."
"I get it," Hades said. "So the contract?"
"Leah let us grieve for a month before she approached Adam," Belle shook her head once more. "I'm not trying to excuse him but...I don't think he'd slept more than about three hours a night at that point."
"Ah see, I was wondering how sleep deprived he'd have to be to make a sixteen year old King," Hades snarked.
"...Ben offered," Belle told him. "Adam argued that we shouldn't, that Ben would be giving up so much of his youth to run a kingdom that wasn't yet his responsibility. But he couldn't argue against Ben's argument that we didn't know if Ben would still have a father by the time it made sense for Adam to step down."
Hades sighed. Great, there goes my last argument for hating Beast, he thought. I mean, yeah he could have refused but then that'd be taking a parent away from a child and then Ben would just end up being King anyway. At least this way he had his dad to give advice.
"I was so thankful the day Ben called me and asked if he could get out of the contract," Belle said, her soft voice breaking into Hades' thoughts and pulling him back to the conversation.
"Really?" Hades asked.
Belle nodded. "Of course. I lost my daughter because of that damn contract...oh forgive me."
"Why?" Hades asked. "I curse worse than that. Just not around the kids. I'd rather Rea learn the bad words from Harry before she learns them from me."
Belle smiled slightly before letting out a small sigh. "Well anyway, I lost my daughter because of the contract. I...in a way, I saw Ben refusing to leave it even as everyone could tell he was growing more and more miserable as...as Leah winning. Even though I'd made sure I'd done everything I could to make sure Ben had a way out of the contract."
"Well he had one right off the bat," Hades said. "Three year olds can't sign contracts in their own name. Neither Audrey nor Ben could have been legally held to the contract."
Belle paused. "You're...you're serious?"
"Contracts are kinda my thing," Hades told her. "But...I can understand why it might not have occurred to you at first. You become blind to the obvious when you're personally impacted."
"All that time...Ben stubbornly held himself to that contract all that time," Belle sighed but then smiled. "And then out of the blue, he called me the day of the Championship Tourney game to ask to get out of it. Of course I told him I'd handle it."
"And clearly you did," Hades said. "Otherwise, we wouldn't be sitting here today talking about our shared grandchild."
Belle nodded and the two of them grew silent. Hades sighed as he could hear Belle's soft mutters as she rested her forehead on her clasped hands, her elbows resting as best they could on her thighs despite the three Cerberus heads on her lap.
"...for what it's worth, I don't think Eileithyia would let anything happen to Mal's sunspot," Hades said. "Persephone would kill her sister for one."
"I know," Belle said, sighing as she set her hands down but smiling as Estelle gave her hand a gentle lick. "I just...well like I said, I don't want Mal to ever feel that pain."
"Trust me," Hades said. "If anyone does cause Mal to feel that pain, it'll be the last thing they ever do. And I'm not just talking about the fact that my daughter can turn into a dragon but the fact that Uma, Jay, and Harry would gladly show whoever caused Mal to miscarry the business end of their swords. Plus I think Persephone would be glad to turn that idiot into a mint plant."
"I think you might be right about that," Belle said with a small chuckle before shaking her head. "This conversation has grown unfortunately very morbid. So I have to ask Lord Hades, how have you been?"
"Pretty good, I opened a branch of my restaurant here in Auradon a couple of years ago and Harry and Smee have done a great job as co-managers," Hades said.
"And...your other job?"
"...same old same old," Hades told her. "Judging souls never truly ends, though I've got Pain and Panic working today. I'll have to spend all of tomorrow fixing their errors but at least I know I can come home to Persephone, Hadie, and Rea no matter what time of year it is....but out of curiosity why do you ask?"
"I was...with the talk of Mal being pregnant, the memory of Cotillion was playing in the forefront of my mind," Belle told him. "There might have been a chance that today would have never happened and...if you didn't have any ideas for new punishments for that miscreant who attacked Cotillion...who attacked Ben, I would have been willing to provide a suggestion."
"I keep forgetting that you're the smart one in your marriage," Hades said. "I'm pretty sure I've got him subjected to every kind of punishment but you know what, you've got me curious. Hit me."
"Well...okay," Belle said and took a small, steadying breath. "I'm...I'm sure you're aware that Frollo has—."
"Passed on? Is no more? Has ceased to be? Expired and gone to meet his maker again? Become a stiff, bereft of life? Decided to rest in peace? Become dirt so that daisies could grow? Made it so that his metabolic processes are now history? Kicked the bucket? Shuffled off the mortal coil? Run down the curtain and joined the friggin' Choir Invisible? Become an ex-person?"
"...died is what I was going to say but you captured my point a bit more descriptively."
"My nephew's the God of Poetry, I'm sure being descriptive is in our blood but go on."
"Have you thought about possibly embarrassing Freddy in front of his father?" Belle asked and Hades' eyes lit up.
"You just became my favorite in-law," he told her. "I'll have to talk to Lucy about borrowing Frollo's soul for a moment but...and maybe I should talk to Claudine if she minds. No wait, that might be too cruel. I'm wicked, not cruel after all unless you hurt my daughter."
"I feel I should ask what I've inspired you to do to young Freddy," Belle said. "But in all honesty...I'm scared to so I'm just going to say good luck with the whole talking to...Lucy was it?"
Hades nodded. "Lucifer, pain in my ass but he makes it so Tartarus isn't overrun with the scum of the Isle. Basically how the Gods of the Dead work is that, if you pray to us, you're ours. Unless another one of us calls dibs. Granted I had to trade a few low level Tartarus souls to Lucifer and some of the others to get Leah's soul but it was worth it. Especially since I had called dibs on Freddy's soul since Mal was nine."
"That young?" Belle asked.
"He deserved it," was all Hades said and, if Belle was honest, she felt no pity for Freddy. Not after he attacked Cotillion.
Not after he attacked Ben.
"Mom!" Ben's voice called out and Belle turned around to see her son walking toward her. "I was looking for you. Dad offered to bring over my old crib for the firefly and he said you'd know where it was."
"...firefly?" Belle asked.
"If Mal can call our kid 'pup', I'm calling them 'firefly'," Ben shrugged.
Belle chuckled. "Fair enough. Anyway, as for your crib, we kept it with your grandfather once you were old enough for a big kid bed. Hopefully he hasn't made any modifications to it since we bought it."
"He wouldn't..."
"He tried making your cradle and your father had to put his foot down after your grandfather tried adding an 'axe throwing' attachment to it."
"...note to self, granddad should not make baby cradles."
Belle chuckled. "That's the same look that your father had on his face the day he asked papa if he could ask to marry me."
"Really?"
"Oh yes. Well see your father made the mistake of having me in the room when he asked so I got to hear my father tell him that if he ever hurt me, papa would turn him from a rooster to a hen with the help of his wood chopping device."
"Ooh I like that idea," Hades said before going back to his muttering.
"...why is Lord Hades muttering about a stroller? And a dragon onesie?" Ben asked, looking slightly worried for his father-in-law's mental functions.
Belle sighed. "I might have given him an idea to torment young Freddy Frollo."
"Really? Why?"
"Because with all this talk about you having a child of your own, Ben, I...I couldn't help but remember Cotillion. How it felt to see you lying on the deck with Freddy holding a sword above your head. All I wanted then was for someone to make him suffer."
Ben couldn't help but give his mom a small, sad smile as he heard that before bringing her into his arms. "The only thing I regret about Cotillion was the fact that I worried you and I worried Mal," he whispered. "I would gladly fight Freddy again if it meant defending my kingdom and defending my friends from him."
"I know you would Ben," Belle told him. "But let me have this please?"
"...you're explaining Lord Hades' new obsession to Lady Persephone then, mom."
Belle chuckled. "Well if this nice Cerberus would let me up, I'll be happy to do so."
Estelle yipped softly and wagged his tail, giving Belle a doggy grin with all three heads. That was much better, he didn't like seeing the hoomans upset.
Whether it was the pups or Mali or Mali's mate or the pack parents, it didn't matter. Upset hoomans were never a good thing. So he would make it so the hoomans weren't upset!
Plus Mali's mate's mom didn't like the mean enemy alpha who hated Mali. At least he wasn't a threat to the pups anymore, which was always a good thing!
"Would it be too much if I had the copy Claudine push the stroller?" Hades muttered.
Ben shook his head. "Come on mom, Estelle. Let's go back inside so Lord Hades can plan the eternal torment of Freddy's soul without us bothering him."
"That...that might be a good idea," Belle said as she got up. "Though remind me to tell your father that I'm Lord Hades' favorite in-law."
"Because of the Freddy torment idea?"
"Because of the Freddy torment idea, yes."
Ben sighed. "I'm not going to ask. I don't need to know what it was, I'm not going to ask," he muttered as the three of them made their way back up to the castle and leaving Hades to plan and mutter to his heart's delight.