Early Riser


Hades had had a bad feeling about living beneath the royal family when he finally picked a place to settle down in Storybrooke, but nothing proves his point faster than the swift knocking at his front door at five in the morning just a few weeks after their arrival from the Underworld.

One sleepy blue eye cracks open and he groans, head burrowing further into his pillow. Maybe if he just ignores it—

"Hades? Are you there?"

He groans again. Right next to him the mass of red curls shifts closer, and Zelena's sleeping face is buried into his neck, a little puff of air tickling his skin as she sighs.

"Who in the hell is bothering you this early?" she mutters, her arms wrapping around his torso.

"No clue," he mumbles back, eyes closed, though he's fairly certain he knows exactly who it is.

The knocking persists a few moments later and finally, Hades opens his eyes fully, glaring at the bedroom door as if the harmless thing has offended him. He gently untangles himself from Zelena, brushing his lips against her forehead and whispering, "Be right back," before stumbling out of bed.

"Just throw a fireball at them and get back to bed," he hears her grumble, and despite the ungodly hour, he smiles a bit as he steps into the living room and heads for the front door, waving his hand to summon his bathrobe.

Hades' smile quickly fades when he cracks the door open and Snow White herself is standing there, dark circles under her eyes and a wailing noise coming from upstairs.

Right. The muffling spell he'd put on the apartment. Now he knows why she's bothering to disturb him.

"I wouldn't be asking if I had any other choice," she says, her eyes tired and pleading. "He just won't stop crying…"

Hades sighs and nods, pushing past the doorway and heading up the staircase. He enters the Charmings' apartment to see David, almost half-asleep standing up, holding baby Neal, who is in the middle of what appears to be a massive meltdown. He winces at the high-pitched crying, resisting the urge to plug his ears.

"He's been like this for over an hour and a half now," David says over his son's cries.

"Can you do that thing you did last time?" Snow asks, coming up behind him with a worried look at the infant. "It worked really well, and he hasn't had much sleep lately…"

Hades forces back another sigh and nods his head again. "Of course." He holds out his arms and David dutifully places Neal in them, and he holds the infant close to his chest.

"What's wrong, little man?" he murmurs to the baby, bouncing him lightly. "Are you not feeling good?" Watery blue eyes look up at him as if to ask, Why is this happening to me? and Hades shushes him gently, continuing to rock him while his parents hover around him, eyes flicking back and forth from the baby to the God.

Neal's cries finally start to quiet when Hades raises a hand, barely glowing with his magic, and waves it over the bundle of blankets, sending healing magic into the little body. The infant's eyes slowly close, and within moments he's asleep at last, tiny mouth hanging open.

David and Snow let out a collective sigh of relief. "Thank you," Snow says gratefully. "I don't know if he ever would've gone back to bed without that."

"You're going to want to take him into the doctor tomorrow," Hades says as quietly as he can, passing Neal back to his mother. "He seems colicky. I don't think there's any cause for concern, but better to be safe than sorry."

David nods. "We will. Thank you, Hades."

"Good. Now, I'm going back to bed. Wake up calls are great, but not at five in the morning."

Snow chuckles quietly. "We'll try our best not to bug you again."

He finally makes his way back down, pulling off his robe and slinging it over the sofa once the front door shuts. Zelena is fast asleep again, one arm slung over his side of the bed as if waiting for him to come back. Hades smiles and slides back under the warm comforter, hands reaching around her waist and pulling her close once more.

She shifts slightly, one eye blearily looking up at him. "Was it Neal?"

"Mmhm." His eyes close, one hand stroking her back. "Poor little guy's going through colic. But I got it to stop for now."

Zelena nods against his neck, pressing a sleepy kiss against his skin. "Good. Now go back to sleep."

Hades nods once, and within moments he drifts off again, fully prepared to sleep in and enjoy the rest of his early morning with the woman by his side—except this time, with no wake-up call in the form of the Charmings.

END


Notes:

Doctor Hades on the case, y'all. Free daily check-ups as long as you don't wake him up too early.

I've been playing around with the idea of Hades as an on-site babysitter for the Charmings for a while, and this decided to fall out of my brain instead...who better to watch your kids than the Lord of the Underworld?