"Say it."

Mulan stopped but didn't turn. She didn't want Aurora to see the tears already escaping. Crying was weak, crying was for girls. Mulan couldn't remember the last time she'd done it.

"Tell me," Aurora insisted, hanging back as if she was afraid to approach.

"I told you," Mulan replied, harsher than intended in her effort to keep emotion out of her voice. "I'm joining Robin Hood. I'm leaving."

"Say it, Mulan."

The warrior sighed, wiping her eyes carefully before turning back to see Aurora. She looked as petulant as ever today, arms crossed over her chest, waiting for Mulan to give in. Every bit the demanding princess Mulan had hated so much only months ago.

How could it only be months? She felt like her whole life was Aurora.

"What's the use?" Mulan asked, her features hardening once more.

"Say what you came here to say."

"You know what I came here to say."

Aurora sighed, letting her arms fall down to her sides and taking just a few steps towards the other woman. "I need to hear it."

Mulan felt the old anger rising up in her, like it had when she and the princess had first been brought together. "Why, so you and Philip can laugh at me once I'm gone? So you can feel special knowing that everyone in the world wants you?"

A slight smile played across Aurora's lips despite herself. "You want me?"

"I love you," Mulan corrected, although wanting the other girl was certainly part of the tangle of emotions she'd been living in. "Don't pretend you didn't know."

"I didn't, not for a long time," Aurora said, tears rising in her eyes now as she came close enough to touch, but didn't. "You thought me a naive, foolish girl from the start, and I was. I was so caught up with the person I thought was my true love that I couldn't see how you felt. Or how I felt."

"How you felt?" Mulan snapped. "You said it yourself. You have your true love. He woke you from that curse, not me."

Aurora was silent for a moment. "I love you too much to believe in true love anymore," she said softly. "If there's one thing you taught me, Mulan, it's that we can be stronger than fate. You were born into a life you didn't want, and you changed it. You made your own path." She reached out tentatively to take Mulan's hand, and the warrior reluctantly allowed it. "I want to make my own path, too."

"You're having his child," Mulan pointed out even as she could feel her walls melting at the princess's touch. "That is your path now."

Aurora brought her other hand up to cup Mulan's cheek. "Why can't it be our path?" she asked. "It won't be easy, but Philip and I can raise the child apart."

"It's selfish, is what it is." But Mulan couldn't help leaning into Aurora's palm, desperate to have her in her arms again.

"You always knew I was a spoiled princess," Aurora replied, allowing a tentative smile. "Please, Mulan, don't go."

Mulan pulled Aurora tight against her, arms going around the princess's slender frame. "You really want me to stay?"

"More than anything." Aurora leaned closer, and despite all of the reasons why this was a terrible, selfish idea, Mulan gave herself permission to choose something other than sacrifice for once.

She kissed her again and again, and while there was no blast of true love's magic, it was beautiful. It was better than she'd ever dreamed.