A/N: I've decided that, in terms of the new film which was great fun, there's a lot that can be written about and expanded on with this world and these characters. So I decided to do a drabble fic here. I expect these drabbles to cover a lot of different things while also not adhering strictly to one another in terms of a plot line or length constraints. There may also be some time jumping or alternate scenarios/endings or what have you, but I'll always specify that somewhere before or during the drabble.
Rated T to be safe.
Disclaimer: I do not own Maleficent. She owns me, rather.
Fandom: Maleficent
Story: The Life in Your Years
Drabble One: Flying
"This is amazing!" Aurora screamed in Maleficent's ear, though the shrillness of her voice was lost to Maleficent due to the rushing wind that still whipped through her headpiece and into her pointed ears.
"Keep holding tight, beastie," the horned fairy replied, holding back a smile. In response, Aurora reached out to try and touch the water they were gliding over as if in defiance.
But Maleficent knew it wasn't defiance but wonder that drove Aurora to disobey her orders. So she let her, keeping her own bridal-style grip on the girl tight.
"This is amazing!"
The repeated phrase caused Maleficent to fight back yet another smirk. Aurora must say it—or some variation of it—twenty times a day or more, but Maleficent never grew tired of hearing it.
Pumping her wings, Maleficent banked upward, climbing higher and higher in the sky until she caught a wind current to glide on its draft. Aurora shifted slightly in Maleficent's arms, attempting to take in as much as the scene that unfolded before them as she could.
The evening sun was setting over what was once two kingdoms brought together through a mutually beloved and loving queen. Even so, there was still clear division. The wondrous spectacle of fairy dust and sparkling lights that began every day at sunset still congregated in the Moors rather than Stefan's former kingdom. Fairies and humans still distrusted and were wary of one another.
Maleficent wasn't too worried, though. In time, Aurora would unite their hearts as well as their lands.
The two landed softly on a familiar cliff face near the great tree where Maleficent lived as a child. As soon as Maleficent set Aurora down, the young woman laughed and spun around in glee.
"That was incredible!" Aurora said, her skirt spinning around her as she finally came to a stop facing her godmother. "I can't believe you get to do that all the time!"
Maleficent couldn't, either. She thought her once strong, faultless wings were lost to her forever. Instead, she replied, "That's hardly a way for a queen to behave."
"Oh, not you, too!" Aurora pouted. "The Pixies badger me about that all the time. It's maddening."
"Even so. You need to start thinking about the image you portray to the public. You represent two kingdoms now, and there are more lands out there than our own." And not all of them human.
"Even if it's just us?"
Maleficent looked fully at Aurora, at the grace and beauty she emitted perhaps even without her knowledge or intention, which was probably true given her Fae-bestowed gifts. The fairy saw the straight posture in the girl's back and spine, and the proud tilt of her head that even her imploring eyes couldn't diminish as she waited for Maleficent's answer.
"When it's just us two, you can be whoever you want to be."
The winged fairy began her walk down the path leading deeper into the forest, knowing Aurora's footsteps would soon follow. With a sudden pensive air, she stopped and twisted her head to pin her charge with a regarding look. Noticing her godmother's change in mood, Aurora stopped playing with the fairy that had drifted across her path, a questioning look on her face.
"Though I suppose, as one former queen to another, you can be whoever you want to be as a ruler. So long as you do not falter and always remember to control your subjects. Whether you do that using fear or love is up to you."
Their walk continued, and Aurora was silent at her side for a time, thinking over her words.
Then the little beastie nudged her, and it was one of the few times in Maleficent's life that she stumbled.
"I don't think you're all that scary." Aurora grinned, then settled her gaze on the forest around them that was so alive with beauty and magic. Just as it had been long ago. "And I don't think they're afraid of you anymore, either."
The episode of the impromptu mud fight flashed in Maleficent's memory, and the fairy knew she couldn't confidently dispute the claim. Catching the girl's eye, Maleficent knew she was remembering the same.
"Are you the one who's been spreading those nasty rumors about my kindness?"
"Rumors can be true or false, I suppose," said Aurora, a practiced innocent look on her face.
"I would snarl at you, but even as a babe, you only thought such a thing amusing." The fairy nudged the girl back, pretending to be more irritated than she was. "Foolish child."
Aurora's smile put the setting sun to shame that day.
As Aurora rushed off to dance with a group of pixies that had emerged from the brush, Maleficent was struck with a peculiar feeling of foreboding.
After all, the girl was already seventeen despite her pure heart that made her seem far younger. She would be a woman soon, and that Phillip boy was less than deterred about her despite his failed attempt at true love. After all, it had been over a year since their fateful meeting, and he was already a familiar sight in the Moors.
Maleficent would be lying if she said she wasn't worried about the two of them together. She had debated endlessly about it with the bird fool, and no matter how much Diaval tried to convince her that Phillip was no Stefan, Maleficent still had little faith in the hearts of men and their ambitions. But Aurora was clearly taken with him…
And then of course was the matter of time. It was funny. She'd never paid much attention to the changing of the seasons when she was younger, not even when she was seeing Stefan. While being conscious of the months that passed when she didn't see him, she never worried over every day. Not like how she constantly did with Aurora. Even when the girl had been a wee little beastie, Maleficent was aware of an internal hourglass in her mind, each grain of sand another second closer to the curse being fulfilled.
But now that hourglass had been flipped, and the sands were pouring towards another distasteful event.
After all, fairies lived far longer than their human counterparts, short of dying by grief, iron, or the sword. Perhaps that was why humans were as they were, always scrambling towards their goals, tearing through every little obstacle they could without regard for the pain they caused. They didn't have the time to be idle or to worry over a thing like consequence.
And no matter how Aurora acted so fairy-like and no matter how much Maleficent loved her, the fact could not be denied that Aurora was human. And she would grow old and die. Far, far before Maleficent would die by natural causes.
Stefan's betrayal was like a death, but at that time, Maleficent had her rage and thirst for revenge to sustain her. With Aurora's death, she would surely fade away from grief. The fairy knew this would surely pass.
If she let it.
Aurora's laugh echoed around the glen. She was collapsed on the ground trying to evade the fairies who were trying to nuzzle her affectionately.
"Stop! I'm horribly ticklish!"
The fairies' nuzzling attempts intensified at the admission.
Serves you right, beastie, Maleficent thought as she watched the scene unfold before her.
No, no matter how hard she tried to avoid the thought, Aurora and death were not mutually exclusive.
"Well," Maleficent whispered, her eyes glinting in the moonlight as shadows claimed their nightly residency in the forest. "What's to be done about that?"
A/N: Before you ask, yes, I do take suggestions for drabbles, and I will try to fulfill them if I can. Also, since this isn't intended to be a full blown, plot-heavy story, if you ever see anything here you'd like to run with in your own fic, just ask and I'll likely give you full permission to do as you please.