Choosing Family

Chapter Nine

The next time Hades was able to have a one on one conversation with his daughter wasn't until a month after the first one. Yes, he still saw her about once a week whenever she came into the restaurant but it was never longer than ten minutes or so. She came in, placed her order which nine times out of ten was a fish dish of some kind, and leave.

Hades had been trying to come up with a fish dish that took longer to make but with no luck. A ten minute prep and cook time seemed to be the perfect amount. The fish either came out too dry or too oily otherwise. Persephone, though, had promised to get a cook book the next time she was off the Isle—or at the very least print off some recipes.

Never before had Hades longed for something as simple as an internet connection but now he did. It was bad enough Beast had to put a magical barrier around the Isle but he could have at least given them dial up at the very least. It's not like they could use the Internet to escape. Plus, the image of Maleficent trying to use a computer was one Hades would pay to make real instead of living solely in his head.

Hades had been closing up the restaurant when he saw Mal running past him out of the corner of his eye. Now, a child of the Isle running someplace normally wouldn't garner attention. Nine times out of ten, the kid was running from whatever shop keep they stole from and normally was able to get away from in a matter of minutes. The wonders of youth.

However, this was Mal. There would have been no reason for her to steal from or run from any of the shop keeps in the area. Being the daughter of Maleficent gave her leeway in that regard. Most shop keeps would have given her the item she asked for as tribute just to keep Maleficent happy.

It does help to have the ability to turn into a dragon even if the magical barrier prevents Maleficent from actually doing it, Hades thought as he saw Fred Frollo chase after his daughter. Guess Mal didn't steal from a shop keep after all. Time to see what the little French fanatic wants with my daughter.

Following at a distance, Hades watched as Frollo's son chased Mal into a nearby alley. Mal looked around, seemingly frantic, as she reached the dead end and whirled around to face the other boy.

Hades longed to step in, to protect his daughter from whatever was about to happen. But he knew that on the Isle, an adult stepping in was the ultimate sign of weakness. The only acceptable time was when there was a known alliance or the odds were stacked horribly against the kid the adult was coming to the rescue for. At this point, with a one on one match up, there was no way Mal would forgive him if Hades stepped in now.

After all, reputation was everything on the Isle.

"Caught you now, you little witch," Fred growled and Hades could see bright purple pain splattered all over the boy's clothing. Hades could only imagine which Isle resident was responsible for that.

Why is she alone? Hades thought. From what I've seen, Uma and Hook's kid have been at her side like glue.

Hades could only hope that Mal had acted alone and that she didn't have a falling out with her minions. The Isle was dangerous enough with help. Trying to navigate it alone was near suicide. Even Maleficent had her minions, and was even trying to recruit some non goblin ones if the rumor mill was to be believed.

She had already snatched up Cruella, though honestly Hades thought the two of them were made for each other. Both of them were completely insane and cared only for themselves. That, in addition to Jafar, brought Maleficent's non goblin minions to a grand total of two. While there were safety in numbers, it didn't matter when one terrified the rest of the Isle based on reputation alone.

"You were in our territory, Frollo," Mal said, bringing Hades' attention back to the matter at hand and standing as tall as she could which wasn't that tall. Despite Frollo's son being just three years older than Mal, the boy still towered over her due to his lean build. "You honestly think you could go after Harry's sister and get away with it? You got off lucky that Harriet only splashed you in the face with sea water. You should have left her alone when she told you the first time."