“It would certainly seem that way,” Hades agreed, “Though I don't know if that is a good or a bad thing.” So far the only commonality besides their realms that wasn't at least sort of depressing seemed to be their pets. It made Hades feel like he owed her an apology. If his beginning had been better, maybe hers would have been too. Or Kronos owed her an apology. Kronos owed a lot of people apologies.
Her question surprised him a little. Not because she had asked it. He didn't mind that. It relieved him that they were moving away from origin tales. Hades didn't have much more to offer on that front. No, what stuck with him was the “like me” part of her question. It made him curious, but mostly sad. When he'd met her, he'd assumed something different. Those two words painted a much more tragic image in the king's mind. One that he didn't like as much as the other, but that did ring more true with her childhood story.
Hades nodded. “The realm is mine by chance alone.” Well not completely alone. If they hadn't won the war no realm would have been any of theirs. But Hades didn't want to go into that.
“After the war, my brothers and I split my father's rule between us by drawing lots. Zeus drew the skies. Poseidon drew the seas. I drew here.” It was theoretically just as likely that Hel would have ended up talking to Po rather than him today. Depending on how fair the drawing actually was. “I can't say that after my....upbringing, and ten straight years of war, I was overjoyed with my lot at first," Hades admitted, "But if I could do it over, I wouldn't trade.” Sometimes he did imagine different scenarios, and sometimes he did wish for the experiences that he had missed, and he couldn't say that his baby brother never managed to get under Hades' skin about it, but during those times Hades always reminded himself of a certain truth. If Zeus had fathered his million children in the land of the dead, it would have been a complete disaster for absolutely everyone.
Hades stopped talking, and gave Hel his undivided attention. He wasn't going to ask her outright for her own ascension story, on the off chance that she didn't want to talk about it. But if she wanted to tell him, the window was there, and he wanted to hear it.