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It’s a little after midnight when Hades hears it - a sudden crack of thunder in the distance, and the sound of muffled crying from the other end of the hallway.
The approaching storm must have woken Helena, he realized. She’d been frightened of them for as long as he could remember.
Hades instinctively slipped out from underneath the covers, being careful not to wake Zelena along the way. She needed all the rest she could manage with the new baby on the way soon, he felt. If that meant he’d have to be on dad duty a few times a week to facilitate it, he certainly wouldn’t fault her any. As far as he was concerned, it was no trouble at all. In fact, he kind of enjoyed it.
Being a dad was something he’d never considered before meeting Zelena. In all his years of existence, he never thought it possible to feel so content and fulfilled changing diapers and preparing formula in his spare time. Robin may have been Helena’s birth father, but Hades had helped raise that little girl. He still remembered the way she’d fit in his arms the first time he’d held her, so tiny and fragile and new .
She’d grown up now, he realized, as he walked into her room. She was almost six… she’d be starting kindergarten soon. As proud as he was of her, the thought of it frightened him.
His little girl was growing up.
Soon, he feared, she wouldn’t need him at all.
Hades walked toward the bed and approached Helena where she sat, her quiet cries the only sound filling the room aside from the rain pouring down outside her window.
“Are you okay, sweetie?” he asked softly, not wanting to startle her in her already fragile state.
“No,” she said. “I don’t like storms. They scare me.”
Hades smiled, crouching down in front of her.
“Do you remember the song I used to sing to you when you were little?”
“I am little,” she protested, and Hades laughed at the assertion.
“Yes, you are… but I meant even littler than you are right now.”
“How little?”
“ Very little,” he said with some emphasis. “ So little, in fact, that you used to fit in my arms like a doll… and I would sing to you, and spin you around like you were a princess…”
She giggled, shaking her head at him.
“It’s true! You would fall right back to sleep in my arms, and forget all about the storm outside your window.”
Helena seemed to consider this for a moment, her eyes fixed on the window beyond them as lightning began to light up the room. There was no doubt about it - she was the spitting image of her mother. Her vibrant red hair fell into a familiar loose curl, and her tiny little nose scrunched up in precisely the same way Zelena’s did whenever she was lost in thought, or trying to solve a difficult problem.
‘A princess in all but name,’ he thought.
She’d always be a princess in his eyes.
After a moment’s silence, Helena reached up to him, her arms extending upward as though she wanted to be held.
“I bet you can still pick me up,” she said. “I’m not that big… I’m only five.”
Hades laughed.
“Yeah, I bet I can too,” he said, reaching out to lift her up and into his arms.
Her head immediately came to rest upon his shoulder, her tiny hands holding onto the fabric of his shirt like it was all that anchored her into place.
“Will you sing to me?” she asked him, her tone suddenly a bit uncertain. “You know… like you used to?”
Hades smiled. She did remember.
“Of course sweetpea… anything for you.”
~~~~~~~~~~~~
“When you wish upon a star…
Makes no difference who you are…
Anything your heart desires
Will come to you....
If your heart is in your dream…
No request is too extreme…
When you wish upon a star
Like dreamers do….”
~~~~~~~~~~~~
By the end of the song, Helena’s hands had loosened their grip on his shirt and she’d begun to drift off as Hades had intended.
‘Works like a charm,’ he thought proudly, as he moved to lay her down.
It seemed he wasn’t so bad at the ‘dad’ thing after all.
She sleepily burrowed under the covers, a soft smile on her face as he kissed her cheek goodnight.
“Daddy?” she called out quietly.
He swore he’d never tire of hearing that word.
“Yes sweetpea?”
“Is that what you did for mommy?” she asked, a sense of wonder in her voice. “Wished on a star for her, I mean.”
Hades smiled, feeling the tears begin to prick at the corners of his eyes as he considered it. From the moment he’d first met Zelena, he’d known - their love was truly magical. Not a day had gone by in all their years together to make him doubt it. She’d been the only source of light in an endless lifetime of darkness, and he thanked the stars every night that he’d found her.
“She was my wish,” he said softly, his eyes turning back to their daughter for her response.
But by the time he’d answered her, she was already fast asleep.