𝕋𝕙𝕖 𝕃𝕒𝕕𝕪 𝕠𝕗 𝕥𝕙𝕖 𝕌𝕟𝕕𝕖𝕣𝕨𝕠𝕣𝕝𝕕 - ℍ. ℍ𝕠𝕠𝕜

Chapter 8. - Talks and Thieving

I'm diving into that deep

And I'm not scared

I'm not scared

And I'm in way over my head

And I'm not scared

I'm not scared

No...

-Deep End by Daughtry

----------

HOOK AND I WALKED through many hallways. Our footsteps were echoing off the stone walls. The Underworld sometimes reminded me of a maze, seeing as it's much bigger than many would suspect and a lot more complex. You had to know where you were going or you'd get terribly lost. The hallways could sometimes make you feel small as well, the ceilings were high enough for Cerberus to walk through, though probably not wide enough.

I glanced at Hook, who seemed to be deep in thought. I had noticed how Hook had opened his mouth to speak more than once, only to close it soon after. He wanted to say something but didn't know how and it was getting on my nerves.

"If you want to say something just come right out and say it," I told him without looking at him. My gaze was stoically fixed right in front of me while his eyes were now fixed on my face.

"You and your father," He started but instead of continuing his sentence, he remained silent after that.

"Yeah?" I prompted, encouraging him to finish his sentence.

"Are you always like that?" He asked after a moment. Now it was my turn to stay quiet for a short moment before answering.

"He's always acted that way towards me, yes. But it's only since recently that I started acting this way towards him. I never imagined ever banishing him out of the Underworld, though." I answered. I wasn't sure why I didn't just tell him it was none of his business and to sod off. Maybe I actually wanted to talk about it and he just gave the perfect excuse to do so without me having to bring it up myself. That must've been it.

"How did you act before then?" He sounded genuine in his question. It almost sounded like he cared. I had to stop myself from frowning at this.

"I let him manipulate me. I let him do a lot of things I'd rather not talk about." 

"You let him?" He asked in disbelief as he stopped walking. I stopped walking as well and turned to him. I nodded my head. He looked in thought for a moment before he made eye contact again. "In that case, I'm glad you don't anymore." He told me and actually gave me a small smile as well. 

I looked at him confused and my confusion only grew when I noticed the weird feeling in the pit of my stomach. I couldn't help it and gave a small smile back. His eyes bore into mine and our hands brushed each other. I looked down at our hands and realized how close we were. I looked back up at him and he seemed to be pondering over something.

"What made you change?" He finally asked as he made eye contact again. Taken back by his question I blinked. I couldn't look away from his eyes that seemed to genuinely want to know the answer.

"I guess going to Auradon changed me. Also becoming the ruler of the Underworld helped. I think it's a lot of things together that changed me." I replied, not breaking eye contact. I slowly started walking again as an excuse to finally look away from him. He fell into step next to me.