Hades X Maleficent headcanons💜💙

The underworld

Hades stood by the window, watching the rain pouring outside and tossing the pomegranate in his hand up into the air. He didn't want Maleficent to permanently be stuck in the underworld, yet at the same time, he didn't want to lose her. And there was no in between. He looked at the pomegranate he'd been messing with, one of the few fruits that could grow in the underworld, and one of the easiest ways to bound someone to the underworld. You eat the food of the dead, you stay there forever. Hecate promised that since Maleficent was a Fae it wouldn't keep her stuck in the underworld. She would still be able to go back up to the mortal world whenever she wanted. And as much as he hated to admit it, what if Pain was right? What if they did break up and then she's suck in her Exs realm? He didn't like the thought of that at all. He got pulled out of his thoughts by Maleficent walking up behind him and holding his hand. "You okay?" She asked.

"Yeah, just thinking." He answered. "How are you feeling?" Hades asked, wrapping his arms around Maleficent and kissing the top of her head.

"I'm fine." She lied.

"Really🤨?"

"Yes."

"😑"

".....okay I lied." She admitted.

"No shit."

"Shut up."

Hades chuckled. Maleficent wasn't good at lying to him. "Okay seriously, how are you feeling?" He asked again

"Tired and sore." She admitted.

Hades held her closer, "I'm sorry, lotus flower."

"It's okay Hades." She nuzzled into the crook of his neck. Hades continued to hold her, trying to think of a way to bring up the "connect to the underworld" conversation. Guess Maleficent could tell something was bothering him cause she asked him if he was okay.

"Yeah...yeah I'm okay."

"You sure? You seem kinda lost in thought."

"Just.....I just have a lot on my mind." He sighed, running his hand down his face tiredly.

"Care to talk about it?"

Hades hesitated, not knowing where to start. He bit the bullet and just decided to blurt it out. "How would you feel about.....being connected to the underworld?"

"What?"

Hades sat down and pulled her into his lap, telling g her everything that Hecate had told him about the connection and how it's killing her. He was honest that he didn't want Maleficent to be stuck here, to have her freedom be taken from her and truth be told, Maleficent didn't want to sever her connection with the Moors. It was the last thing Maleficent had that connected her to her parents and she didn't want to lose that, even if it killed her.

"So.." hades started, "where do we go from here?"

"I don't know." Maleficent answered.

"You know you can't stay bonded to the Moors forever right? It will kill you."

"I know.." she mumbled.

Hades held out the pomegranate in his hand, "you don't have to take it, but this is how you become connected to the underworld." She took it from him and looked at the fruit confused.

"Food grown in the underworld is magic. If you eat the food grown here, than you stay forever. Hecate promised that signs your a fae that you would still be able to leave, just would be connected." Hades explained, "and like I said, you don't have to eat it right now. It's just a thought."

"Okay. Can I ask you something?"

"Ofc lotus flower."

"The...the kids..who died because of my fire... what happened to them?"

Well that was not even in the top 10 of questions he expected her to ask, fuck not even in the top 15.

"Uhh.." Hades rubbed the back of his neck nervously. "Can you be a bit more specific on what you mean?"

"I mean...afterlife wise. Fae don't have an afterlife, we are just reborn into the earth and grow into some kinda plant. I don't entirely know what the human afterlife is like....but I want to think those kids aren't suffering in death as they did in life."

"Fuck." Hades thought. He really did not wanna talk about that, especially since no one ended up where they were meant to be, but if she was gonna be stuck here she might as well learn about his kingdom.

"It's kinda complicated at the moment, but most of the time kids go to one of two places. Elysium, it's like the realm of hero's and for those who did go in life, or they go to Asphodel, the realm where people who didn't do much good or bad go. Kinda like a neutral area." Hades explained. "The ones who end up in Elysium are there to heal before being reborn. The ones in Asphodel are there because they are waiting to be reborn, waiting to see their parents, or just wanna stay there."

"That doesn't sound complicated."

"Normally it isn't. But some kids, and others, aren't where they are supposed to be."

Maleficent looked at him confused. "Huh?"

"Contrary to popular belief, there isn't just one afterlife. There's dozens, even hundreds of different afterlife's for all the different belief systems."

"Seriously?"

"Yeah," hades nodded. "There's the Greek/romans, Norse, Egyptian, Christian, Jewish, Hindu, etc. There's a lot."

"Wow." She said surprised.

"Yeah." Hades chuckled. "Most times the souls end up at judgement and then they get sent to their respective afterlife, but because of the....amount of souls there are, everyone just got sent to my domain; which isn't a good thing."

"Can't they just go back to judgement and find their way to their own realms?" Maleficent asked.

"Usually yes. It's not uncommon for a soul or two to get lost and be sent in the right direction, but with the amount of souls on the bank of the river Styx, and the fact that they've already begun to lose their voices, it's a bit to late for most."

"Lose their voices?"

"Yeah. One thing i forgot to mention was that to get into the underworld, you have to get across the River Styx first. And to do that, you have to pay the fairyman Charon to take you across. People who come here are buried with a coin in their mouth so they can pay, if they can't than they stay stuck on the bank for 100 years. After so long they start to lose their voices and may even fade away. That's what's happening now.  They've already been on the bank for over 2 weeks and most people are starting to get stuck there and can't talk." Hades hated this, but it's the way it's been run for centuries. And he could tell by the look on Maleficents face that she didn't like it either.

"...so those kids...innocent kids die because of me...and now they can't even rest in peace...?" She chocked up. Yeah, Maleficents is evil no doubt about it, but honestly she still had some hesitation when it came to hurting young kids, and she's felt awful about the lives she took ever since the fire happened.

Hades pulled her into a hug, "Don't think about that lotus flower."

"I'm the one who killed them Hades, how can I not think about it?" She mumbled, laying her head on his shoulder.

"Because it's not your job to worry about it; it's mine."

Maleficent didn't say anything at first, just looked at the pomegranate in her hand. Maleficent did not want to lose her connection with the Moors, with her parents, but she knew deep down that she had no choice. She wanted to help hades with the mess she caused, but she couldn't help fix her mistakes if she wasn't connected to the realm she's wanting to help.

"It was just your job," she mumbled before breaking the fruit open and looking directly into Hades eyes, "now it's mine too." And with that she popped some of the pomegranate seeds into her mouth, much to the surprise of hades.

"Malef?"

"I have to fix what I've done. I don't care if it keeps me stuck here forever. At least I'll get to be stuck with you."