Green Eyes and Blue Flames

Living Each Other's Lives

"So, this is what it means to be BORED." Hades sighed, lounging in Maleficent's throne in her castle. The moment he arrived at the Forbidden Mountain, he was immediately bombarded with the dark fairy's simple-minded goons, but they soon accepted him after seeing their mistress's scepter in his possession. By now, it was almost midday and with nothing else to do, Hades was bored out of his mind. "Let's see, what did I do for the past few hours? ...I counted all nine hundred sixty two thousand three hundred and forty five bricks in the ceiling, walls, and floors of the throne room a dozen times, I yelled at those goblin things and gave them a few orders, and I surveyed the castle several times for intruders." He groaned in frustration as he sat up straight. "Geez, this is SO BORING! Is this what it's like all the time for that horn-headed broad? What I wouldn't give for something crazy to happen right now! Like a baby dragon or a cannonball flying through the window or SOMETHING! Come on, just give me something to do!" He paused. "Your first day as a dark fairy and you're already talking to yourself, Hades." He sighed and facepalmed.

At that moment, Diablo suddenly flew through the nearest window and landed on the arm of the throne, squawking all the while. Hades covered his ears and looked to see the raven next to him; he reluctantly took his hands off his ears.

"Oh, it's only you. What do you want now, you overgrown black chickadee?" It was then that Hades noticed something in Diablo's beak; it was a parchment scroll. "What've you got there?" He took the parchment from the raven and unfurled it, revealing to be a poster of some kind; a young couple with golden crowns on their heads was in the center with writing underneath. "What's this? 'Come one and come all to the official celebration in honor of our beloved Prince Phillip and Princess Aurora as they are crowned King and Queen at midday today.' A coronation, huh?" Hades paused. "Aurora? Hey, that's the name of that princess Maleficent hates so much. She and her pretty little husband are gonna become king and queen, eh?" Then he got an idea, a wicked idea. Hades got a wonderful, wicked idea. He smiled a mischievous smile as he looked at Diablo. "The poster does say 'come one and come all'. What do you think? Should we go check it out?"

Diablo cawed and nodded his head as Hades stood up and picked up the scepter. "Finally, something to do! This oughta be fun." He chuckled as the raven perched on his right shoulder. "Come on, let's go. But you'd better not make a mess on my shoulder, capisce?" The bird cawed again in response; Hades rolled his eyes as he headed towards the exit. "The Gods as my witness, you will learn to speak." He examined the scepter in his hand. "Okay... how do you work this thing?"

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"Oh, finally!" Maleficent groaned as she fell back onto Hades' throne in exhaustion. She had just finished judging a huge load of souls that had just arrived in the Underworld and by now, she was bushed. "Pain, Panic, PLEASE tell me that's all of them."

"Well... that's all of the souls for now." Pain said, rolling up the list he and Panic grabbed earlier.

"But just you wait until later, Your Most Impatientness." Panic added. "There's bound to be more souls coming when you least expect it."

Maleficent glared at the imps. "If you please, I would truly appreciate it if you two would stop calling me things like "Your Impatientness" or "Your Fiery-eyedness" or "Your Villainousness". And I'm certain the names you're calling me aren't even real words. I am a lady and I wish to be addressed as such." Pain and Panic looked at each other, then back at their new master with confused looks. She sighed and put a hand over her face. "I forget you two are simple-minded beings. As of now, you may call me "Mistress" or "Your Grace" or "Your Excellency", just to name a few."

"...As you wish, Your Grace." The imps said in unison, curtsying to her.

"Ah yes, that's more like it. That wasn't so difficult, now was it?" She took in a breath. "Now, what else is on the agenda for today?"