Choosing Family

Chapter Eight

It turned out Hades didn't have too much longer to wait, as the day wore on. The ebb and flow of customers was at a pretty steady stream until an hour before Hades 'closed' for the day. He never officially closed up shop and most knew that there were prepared dishes in the kitchen that people could take from if needed.

Where those dishes were kept, though, was a secret only a select few knew. Hades obviously was one of them, considering he ran the place. Panic was another, and Hook was the last person who knew. Hades wasn't exactly thrilled to share that information with the pirate but in exchange for that and letting him and his allies eat for free, Hades got his orders from Hook's shop free of charge.

The front door clanged open and Hades didn't bother to look up. He knew, despite there only being one option, that most villains still took their sweet time ordering their food. Hades didn't mind—he just charged them extra for that. There was never a price on the board so no one ever tried to fight him on it.

They all knew the motto of the Isle: life ain't fair. Hades just happened to like teaching it to the adults who hadn't learned it yet.

"What's bakaliaros?" Mal's voice called out, sounding out the word slowly as if it was foreign to her. Considering its Greek background, it probably was. Hades' heart clenched and he took a deep breath before looking out the window that allowed him to see out to the front of the house from the kitchen. Frowning when he didn't see anyone, Hades made his way from the kitchen to the front counter. Looking down, he had to hold back a chuckle as he saw Mal. No wonder he hadn't seen her, she was so short that the counter had completely hidden her from view.

"It's a fish dish," he said, leaning on his forearms as he rested on the counter, looking at her. "Basically just fried fish."

Mal rolled her eyes. "If I wanted fried fish, I'd have gone to Ursula's chip shoppe. That's all she ever has."

"Well that's the option for the week. Take it or leave it," Hades told her, holding back an offer to invite her to eat back at his home. Maleficent never told her about you, that's clear as day. Take it slow otherwise you're going to risk chasing her off, Hades thought as Mal bit her lip softly, clearly thinking about it.

"Fine," Mal scoffed. "I'll take some. To go."

"Fair enough," Hades nodded and walked back into the kitchen. Most villains took their order to go since the front of house was too small to feasibly fit more than fifteen tables. That didn't mean Hades didn't feel his heart sink when he heard Mal say that though.

He didn't know what was crueler: the years of only seeing Mal through the ember or getting these brief glimpse of her before she ran off again.

Quickly getting to work, Hades mentally did an inventory of what was remaining in his pantry. He had enough fish to make it through a busy week, or at least he had enough that an extra piece of fish wouldn't go amiss. Making up his mind, he battered and fried three pieces of fish; letting the batter get a nice golden brown before pulling them out of the fryer.

Blotting the fish so that they weren't too oily and potentially led to the bag breaking, Hades wrapped them up and stuck them into a paper bag. For the first time since he opened the doors to the restaurant, Hades wished the dish took longer to make just so he could spend more time with Mal.

"That was quick," Mal said as Hades walked back to the counter.

"Yeah well it doesn't take that long to fry three pieces of fish," Hades told her.

Mal looked over at the sign that listed the dish of the week. "Sign says two pieces," she said with a suspicious edge to her voice that seemed out of place on a five year old.