Daughter of Flames and Darkness

Everything Stays

It was a gray and rainy day, the perfect day to stay indoors. Taking advantage of this and wanting to spend more time with her husband, Maleficent decided to go down to the Underworld and surprise Hades. When she made it across the River of Souls and went up the stairs to his palace, she saw he was hunched over his map table and muttering to himself with his back facing her. She knew what that meant.

"Attempting to take over Olympus again, I see?" She asked.

The sound of her voice was enough to make him nearly jump out of his skin. He turned around to see her leaning up against the door frame with her arms folded across her chest; she had a smirk on her face.

"You know not to sneak up on me like that." He shook his head and chuckled before going over to greet her. "What are you doing down here? I don't get off work for another eight hours or so."

"I felt you could use some company." She replied, affectionately patting his chest with her hand. "Besides plotting another strategy to overthrow your brother, what would you like to do?" She then walked around the throne room to look for something to do.

Hades glanced around before noticing an old chess set sitting on a shelf in another corner of the room. He walked over to it, picked it up, and inspected it curiously. Even though he hadn't played the official game in a long time, he felt he could still play it just as good as anyone. He shrugged and blew away the layer of dust that covered it. He coughed as the dust cloud engulfed his face; it was clear he hadn't touched this set in a very long time. Hades held it up to show her.

"You like chess?" He asked.

Maleficent glanced in his direction and spotted the chess set; she gave her husband a smirk.

0-0-0-0-0-0

'Geez. More than embarrassing to be beaten by my own wife.' Hades thought as he kept his eyes on his pieces.

Maleficent sat across from him, deep in thought and plotting her next move. This was their third game and Hades was losing... and she knew it. Pain, Panic, and Dementia were watching from the sidelines with baited breath.

"Man, the tension between those two is thick. Yowza." Pain whispered.

"Yeah. Seriously, you could cut it with an executioner's ax." Panic added before Dementia punched them both.

"Dudes, shut up." She hissed. "If I didn't know any better, I'd say this pregnancy is making the Mistress more on edge."

"You do realize we can hear you three, don't you?" Maleficent snapped, not even bothering to glance their way.

Before any of them could respond, a burst of green lightning was suddenly shot at their feet which caused them to jump back in fear; that was enough for the trio of impish minions to take their leave. After a few moments, Maleficent took her king piece and with a smile and a flick of her wrist, she said,

"Checkmate."

"Agh, again?!" Hades exclaimed in frustration.

"Afraid so. But remember, Hades. You don't play the board, you play your opponent." She chuckled, folding her arms across her chest.

"Yeah, yeah. Ugh, I need a break." He said as he stood up from his chair and cracked his back. "But at least we managed to kill a bit of time."

"Indeed." Maleficent replied as she struggled to stand up. She looked down at her stomach, then glanced at Hades. She suddenly felt insecure. "...Do I look fat to you?"

"What?" This sudden question caught Hades off guard, but his answer came quickly. "No! Never!"

"Don't lie." She scoffed and turned away from him. "I look like a cow."