"...Mother?" (A Descendants × Hadeficent story)

Ch. 23 - AMND? And a kiss~

"I'm supposed to be looking for...Helena?"

Hades wrinkled his eyebrows in an attempt to recall the name, while the student before him shrank further and further, "W-Who, y-your L-Lordship?" "Forget it. I'm here to look for Mal." The Lord of the Underworld snapped at the poor student who was keeping watch over the backstage entry, and the boy visibly warmed up, "O-oh, Lord Hades, sir, Mal asked me to give you this-" He held out a ticket, ironed perfectly smooth, along with a booklet that undoubtedly was in charge of explaining the shenanigans of the play. When the boy spoke no elaborations, Hades raised a single eyebrow, but he accepted it anyway, "Could someone show me the way?" "That's, uhm, my job, sir." Jane suddenly appeared, and she blushed upon seeing Hades squint at her, "I'm Jane. One of Ben's friends, you might recognise me, sir-"

"Fairy G's daughter." Hades wondered why the girl was so jumpy; she literally flinched at the mention of her own mother, "Shouldn't someone like you be, I don't know-" Hades waved in the direction of the backstage, "-On the cast, perhaps?" "I...I couldn't say the lines." Janes whispered almost ashamedly, "I was originally supposed to be the page of Titania- I mean, Evie." Jane quickly corrected, upon seeing Hades's confusion, "Someone else replaced me."

"Hmm." The god said no more, merely gesturing for Jane to lead the way, and once he was seated, Hades had a good look at the people around him. Just for the sake of disguises, he had extinguished his flames, leaving just his pale blue mohawk and leather coat to define his identity. Much of the audience were teens, likely students from the school — although he was almost certain he saw someone from the Imperial Academy, maybe another of Li Shang and Mulan's children — and Hades realised that Mal had deliberately left him a seat before the emptied row, surrounded by chairs that were filled with equipment to prevent others from sitting there. She gave me some privacy, Hades almost laughed. His daughter was really getting to know him better than himself; he had thought that he would be alright sitting next to others, but evidently, what he truly needed was, indeed, space.

"I'm assuming that you like it, then." A voice came from beside him, interrupting his thoughts, and it took Hades a while before he realised that Mal was seated right next to him. "Yeah. Evie went full designer mode on the costumes." Her words were an affirmation to the surprise on his face, "I'll be lucky to stay alive in this for two hours." "It's fairly accurate." said the Lord of the Underworld with a slow nod of his head. Despite Auradon having combined all the time zones by magic and whisking all of them into the well-developed future, Olympus had been one of the places left unaffected by the modernization, "That looks pretty much like what ladies used to wear back in those days."

"And you would know because..." Mal taunted, a playful grin on her face, and Hades merely flicked her forehead, "Don't fool with me, young lady. I would know because many died in such attires." "Ah." The half-fae sounded slightly disappointed, "That's a shame."

She had been about to say something more when Audrey, in a similar costume, came up to them, and the princess evidently had not expected to see Hades in the seats. "Lord Hades!" She exclaimed, face turning pale rapidly, "There isn't someone about to die, is there?"

The Lord of the Underworld gave a blink, before answering coolly, "I should think not, unless someone decides to fatally wound another tonight." He then gave his daughter a sideward smile, conveying the joking nature of his words, but Mal had suddenly turned rather rigid.

And he could have sworn that Audrey looked like she was about to die. "You shouldn't say that so casually, Sir." The princess immediately stared at the carpeted flooring, "Not after...no, never mind." "Not after what?" Hades caught onto it at once, despite Audrey's attempt to make herself as unheard as possible. The girl was too distraught to know that her whisper had been audible. "Nothing." Mal snapped a little too quickly, "We just need to get our makeup done, Lord Hades, everything is fine." "You already have lip gloss on." Noted the god, "Now, tell me, what exactly-" "Well, I need to put on eyeliner and blush." Audrey squeaked, daunted by Hades's intimidation, and Mal simply cut her father off bluntly, "So we'll be going, Lord Hades. Perhaps you could join us for the after party."