Daddy Issues | A Descendants Story | Mal & Hades

FOUR

A/N An update, what's that? 

SURPRISE! So, I'm just going to put this up here and pretend that it hasn't been... well, months since I last updated this. Terribly sorry about that.

Four

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Suddenly, she was drowning, and all she could feel was the weight on her chest as she fought to choke in breathes of air. She couldn't, didn't know how to stop herself from sinking deeper and deeper.

Suddenly, she was drowning, and he was walking away, and she didn't know how to breath without him there. Without his eyes which burned her skin, without his words which caused her stomach to twist and flip, without him grounding her, watching her, holding her above water.

Without him, she was drowning. Drowning within her own mind, within memories of a past with an absent father, and wretched dreams of a future without him.

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One heroic act didn't make someone a hero, nor did it make people forget a lifetime of wrongdoings. She'd not been naïve enough to believe that after everything he'd done he'd be allowed to stay. Hell, she wasn't even sure he'd want to. Perhaps for me? She knew she shouldn't fool herself with such silly notions but that didn't stop her heart from hammering like that of a hummingbird. She wanted him to want her, to be with her.

Yes, Hades had saved Audrey's life, but he was still a villain to everyone in Auradon. Everyone but me. Her mind chimed in unhelpfully; she hadn't forgotten the lifetime of pain and abandonment issues the man had caused her, but she was continually edging closer to forgiving them. Whether he deserved her forgiveness or not, she was still unsure, but that didn't stop the dull ache which overcame her body as he was ordered to leave. The low rumble of voices surrounding her faded away as her eyes followed his retreating back.

Her feet moved before the thought to follow had even crossed her mind. Hades was being led away and Mal couldn't stop herself from following. Had she been aware enough, she may have caught the look of concern souring her best friends features, the worry which had etched its way into the subtle frown which furrowed Evie's brow. But her body moved without thought, instinctively following after the man who she'd found overwhelming amounts of comfort in the few short hours she'd been with him. Hours which felt like years, which felt like a lifetime. A lifetime she'd never known yet had always found herself aching for. A lifetime she'd dare not admit how damaging its absence had been. A lifetime without a man who she knew she should hate for all the sorrow he'd caused, yet found herself longing for just a few more moments with.

As she turned the corner out of Audrey's room, heart stuttering and breath catching, she felt words getting caught in her throat. A thousand things she should say – wanted to say – the thanks and apologises and accusations, all fizzled away as she opened her mouth to speak them. None of them felt right. And as she watched Hades' walk away, wrists bound as he was escorted by four of the kingdom's guards, something seemed to break within her. Like an old dam, one left barely standing after years of weathering, it was as though she had finally broken.

"Dad." The word, foreign on her tongue, was softer than she'd intended, almost a whisper. But the subtle tensing of his shoulders and the flex of his bound hands behind his back stopped Mal from repeating herself. As he turned and his eyes met hers she felt as though she could finally breathe again. She gasped deeply, desperately, as though she'd been starved of air for a hundred years.

Her mouth fell open, a thousand words swimming in her mind yet none still fitting exactly what she wanted to express. She paused for a moment, urging her broken thoughts to come together. She tried for something reminiscent of the Mal before all of this had happened, something equally sarcastic, funny, and the perfect amount of sincere. Perhaps a clever quip about him going soft and helping the 'good guys'; or maybe a sarcastic dig at him returning to his cave of reclusement. They'd all be carefully constructed fronts, there to hide the way she really felt, of course, but that was normal for her, safe. But she came up blank as her mouth once again fell shut.