Disclaimer: I own nothing. Everything belongs to Descendants, or Ginny's AU. I'm just playing in it.
I know I said I wouldn't update frequently. But it's the weekend and I was inspired immediately after finishing the first chapter, I pretty much immediately started the next. Plus, as my first story, I'm glad there's already interest!
I can't believe I said the first few chapters were going to be short. I am clearly wrong. I know the average is 3000 to 5000, but I've split this one so that it isn't information overload.
Yes, that means I'm already working on the next chapter. This one wrote itself, and decided to ditch the outline I wrote to follow. So the part I meant to write will be the next chapter.
I'm trying to keep things balanced between angst, adventure and fluff. This chapter is maybe half and half. Also adding more info to build out the world more.
For those interested, a closer look at the story cover can be found under my instagram account. It's the same as my username here. Hoping to draw some scenes to accompany this, as well as from Ginny's stories! Like whenever Persephone takes a picture. A.k.a when Hades has Mal on his chest, fast asleep. Family fluff to feed the soul.
AmethystDragon14: I'm glad you liked it! First review whooo!
Picky: I'm glad to find someone else who's aware of etymology evolution! I tried to imply that I am specifically using the Attic dialect when writing Hades' dialogue. I also didn't want to turn the fic into an essay going through the entire adoption and adaption so I just picked a few to cover. Otherwise, we'd be here forever. I also canon Disney Gods as only some several hundreds of years old, instead of thousands, since Descendants has so many different stories from different periods in one era. Since Attic is one of the youngest dialects before Alexandrian, and the one I studied most for my college degree, that's what I'll be sticking to for this AU.
Katie2001: I really appreciate it! I love her stories too, and I'm so happy she gave me permission. I'll try to work hard on getting a chapter out every weekend. I just happened to be extra free this time!
For Hadie, life was manageable on the Isle of the Lost. Compared to the rest of the citizens of the Isle, the Underworld family lived like the royalty they were. It was really thanks to his mother. With Persephone having to leave every six months, she was able to bring over provisions upon her return. From formula for struggling mothers, to ingredients for his dad's restaurant that supplied food to a large chunk of the population, his mother near single handedly kept the Isle alive. It was the only upside to her ever being gone.
The only other source for anything was the delivery barge. More often than not, every item on it was rotted or in some state of ruin. According to his cousin, Virgil, there was occasionally preserved foods that were the safest to eat. Canned goods, dried pastas, rice. Unfortunately, sometimes the barge flooded and only the canned items survived.
The problem was Maleficent and her goons. Though the docks were on Hades' side of the aisle, he'd let the fae take first dibs. With his wife, he had his own sources. Though the real reasons had something to do with keeping Mal safe, but Hadie was too young to understand the details.
Luckily, Virgil often caught the barge first. He would often sneak a few things ahead of time before word spread and hustle out long before the stampede. Usually sweet drinks, or some of the canned goods. Mal and Virgil had once even found a blue guitar in decent shape and gifted it to Hadie for his 5th birthday. Now patched up, his dad enthusiastically taught Hadie how to play. Though the godling's hands weren't quite big enough yet.
It was the stampedes that worried his parents the most. Every month, when the barge came, there would be a heavy tension in their home. Despite all the efforts his family went through to keep him innocent from the horrors of the Isle, being a child of Hades made it impossible. The innate knowledge of death was unavoidable. Death always occurred at the stampedes. Death was often found amongst the general population. Starvation or fighting over supplies, over territory, were all common happenstance on the Isle. Then there was Shere Khan, Scar's tribe and the Hyenas prowling at night.
While none of the major adult villains could die, courtesy of the curse of Auradon, the same could not be said for their children. Despite the rather large number of kids running around the Isle, an even larger number never made it past a year old. Even less would see life into their teens.
Hadie never saw death first hand. Just being so close to souls crossing pulled at his magic. No matter how dampened it was by the barrier, it was a part of him. Waiting, only surviving outside his body for short amounts of time.
He didn't know any of the souls that came in. Only that they were sometimes his or his sister's own ages. His sister seemed to know a few though.
When his parents finally let Hadie out of the Underworld to make friends his own age, he worried if he'd be capable. Capable of making a connection that might hurt him like it hurt his sister.
A month after Persephone's return, Hadie found himself vibrating with anticipation.
Today is the day! He thought, as he waiting for his dad to serve breakfast. His legs kicked back and forth from the chair, Hadie's impatience palpable.
"Here you go, spitfire." Hades placed plates of pancakes with peanut butter and fruit in front of Hadie and Mal.
Hadie just stared.
"What's this?" he asked, poking at the fruit. Mal looked on as well, suspicion evident on her face.
Hades looked over the island counter and smiled at his wife. She had prepped the fruit herself. The tips of her fingers were stained red from peeling out tiny glistening gem-like seeds of one of the fruits.
"I realized I never brought back much fresh fruit for you to try. And a balanced meal is very important for you growing kids," Persephone popped a few of the gems in her mouth, as if to show they were safe to eat.
"We've got apples, grapes and pomegranate for you to try," Hades held up an uncut apple for them to examine. "They're all sweet or sour to a degree, but filled with juice to be really refreshing."
"Watch out for the seeds inside of the pomegranate arils though," warned Persephone. "You can eat them, and they're good for you, but they can get annoying if you get a particularly tough one."
Mal and Hadie looked at each other, both unsure what to do. Their parents would insist they at least try. And there was honestly no harm. Certainly not from mom and dad.
Tentatively, Hadie nibbled on one of the apple slices. Next to him, Mal slowly chewed on a grape.
'Odd, but pretty good,' he thought.
He still wasn't sure about the pomegranates though. His parents kept glancing at each other, odd smiles on their lips as they ate the arils.
"Okay, what's the catch?" Mal pouted at Dad.
"Catch, Mali?" asked Dad, his confusion evident.
"These pomegranates! You keep looking at each other weird, like there's some inside joke about them." Hadie nodded along as his sister ranted. He decided to start digging into his pancakes while his sister hopefully got them answers.
Their parents looked at each other again and burst into laughter. Hades pulled his wife close and buried his face in her hair, trying to smother his chuckles.
"It's just been so long since your dad's gotten one. Ultimately, you should know, it's one of our godly symbols." Persephone answered, playfully shoving Hades away.
"Like Cerberi?" Mal perked up. By his food bowl, Estelle perked up too, turning to look at his family. He trotted over and planted a head on Mal's lap, tongue lolling out as he smiled.
"Yup, just like Estelle," Hades said happily. "Now go on and try it and finish up. I'm sure Hadie is excited to get outside."
Hadie nodded excitedly, his mouth full of pancakes. Today, he'd finally get to explore the Isle without his parents hovering! True, Mal and her gang would be with him, but being with other kids was certainly a lot cooler than being babied by his parents all the time.
"Now sweetie, do you remember the plan for today?" Persephone questioned her son.
Hadie nodded again and swallowed.
"Wash up first, then I can go with Mal and meet up with Uma at Ursula's for a couple hours before you pick me up on your walk to help dad's restaurant at lunch."
Mal wrapped an arm around his shoulders, pulling him close to ruffle his hair.
"Hey!"
"You're gonna have so much fun meeting the rest of the crew! I think Uma is bringing her little sister too, so you can meet Celia," It was Mal's turn to laugh, ignoring Hadie's outburst as he smacked her hands away from his hair.
Hadie ran his own hands through his hair, trying to straighten it back out. He frowned as he looked back down at his plate. There was only a small portion of pancakes left, and he had yet to touch the pomegranate still. The apples and grapes were pretty good, but he wasn't sure if he'd like this last fruit.
He poked at one with his fork. His parents looked on in amusement. Pressing down, the flesh popped. The fork stopped at the seed inside as the small amount of juice began to run. He stuck the fork in his mouth in an attempt to taste the juice, only to be met with the flavor of metal fork.
With a sigh, he picked up an aril and held it up to his eye. It caught the little light there was and gleamed. 'They're quite pretty,' he thought. Avoiding his parents' gaze, he popped it into his mouth.
'Huh. Sweet. Tart? How does its juice seem to dry the mouth?' pondered Hadie, as he slowly chewed. The seed inside broke under his teeth, adding an extra layer of texture.
"There's something almost…bitter about it," wondered Mal, she also having finally tried it.
"Ah, that's likely due to something called tannins. Grapes have them too," said Hades. "It makes your mouth feel a little dry, right?"
The children nodded as they began finishing their plates enthusiastically, finally comfortable with the new fruits.
Hadie dug through his bedroom drawers. His dad had just left for the restaurant while Persephone and the children finished preparing for the day. Dad has spent most of the weekend processing the cove water into clean, filtered water. It used up a lot of the limited magic he could access, meaning mama would need to go in and help with the restaurant while dad's energy recovered.
The winding caves of the Underworld beneath the Isle provided a lot of natural resources. Traditional clay amphoras Persephone made were collected with plastic jugs from Auradon. All stored in a room off from the pantry. Each filled with the fresh potable water. A break in the wall once had a waterfall trickle through. Years ago, Hades fitted it with a pipe that could be stoppered. Now if opened, the water would flow into a large, metal basin. The water would then be filtered and gently headed to kill any bacteria and remove any impurities. Two final pipes diverted from the smaller basin. The first one was a spout to fill the jugs. This way, the family didn't have to run up to the Cove and lug large barrels to be filtered. When the restaurant ran low on fresh water, his dad plus his minions would carry the large containers up into town.
The other pipe led into a wall. Mama was currently pouring one of the amphora's water back into the small basin. Opening the path into the wall would cause the bathtub to fill up.
"Do you have your clothes picked out, dear?" Mama voiced.
"All ready!" He called back as he stepped into the bathroom. Mal had cleaned up earlier, used water being tossed into the cove to be filtered for another time.
They didn't get to bathe in the tub often, water being too important for surviving the Isle. With Hadie getting to meet other kids though and leave his parents supervision for the first time, his family thought it best if he was as presentable as he could be. Rushing to get cleaned up, Hadie tried to keep his nerves down in anticipation of meeting new people.
He'd heard Celia was a little quirky, but it was hard not to be, trapped on the Isle and all. A little bit older than Hadie, she was the only one he'd heard of around his age that was included in his sister's gang. Or at least the gang's protection.
Either way, he was both excited, and apprehensive, of making his first friend.