A/N This story was originally written after "Queen of Hearts" (2:09). I never had any intention of actually publishing for anyone other than myself, but a friend encouraged/forced me to change my mind. As soon as said friend finishes a quick editorial review, the other two chapters will be up.
The story is AU in the sense that events did not play out like this after the episode. However, I still hold out hope that there is a better than average chance we will see something like this eventually. If you don't like the pairing of Aurora and Mulan, well don't read. There are plenty of other stories out there for you.
As a technical note, I prefer one POV per chapter. This story is three chapters long, so will alternate Mulan – Aurora – Mulan
And yeah, I own nothing other than the plot.
Mulan drew in a deep breath and then slowly let it back out again, before stretching her tired muscles. It had been a long day, and the truth was she was very tired. She had no intention of sleeping anytime soon, however. Aurora needed her protection, and Mulan was determined that she would have it.
Knowing that she risked falling asleep if she didn't stay active, Mulan began to once again patrol around the area. The land where they had chosen to set up camp sloped down gently to the edge of Lake Nostros, and the reflection of the moonlight off the surface of the water made it bright enough to be able to see more than would normally be expected in the middle of the night. As she completed her circuit around the camp, she paused for a moment to look out at the lake. The surface of the water was calm and serene, with no signs at all of the whirlpool that had practically consumed the lake when she and the others had arrived earlier that day…the whirlpool into which Aurora's heart would have been lost forever had it not been for Hook's quick actions. Mulan knew that if that had happened, her own heart would have been lost forever as well.
Mulan couldn't remember specifically when she had fallen in love with a woman she knew only from someone else's stories. She knew that most people would say that such a thing was impossible, and once upon a time, Mulan would have agreed. At first, Mulan had believed that her feelings for the unknown princess were nothing more than the wishful fantasies of a lonely heart. Deep down, she had always assumed that when she and Phillip finally found Aurora, when she finally met the young woman in person, reality would rapidly intrude on her dreams and show her just how wrong she had been to believe that she had felt anything remotely akin to love.
But that had not happened. Instead, from the moment she had first laid eyes on Aurora, Mulan realized that she had fallen in love so deeply and so completely that she would never love anyone else again. It would be the memories of the nights spent listening to Phillip talk about Aurora that she would hold in her empty heart until the day she died. It wasn't much, but it was all that she would have to sustain her after she reunited Phillip and Aurora with each other.
The sound of footsteps abruptly ended the warrior's musings. Turning around, Mulan saw Aurora approaching. "What are you doing up?" she asked.
"I couldn't sleep," Aurora replied, as she continued to walk towards her friend.
Mulan's brow furrowed with concern. "More nightmares?"
Aurora shook her head. "No, I just couldn't sleep. Too much excitement during the day to settle down tonight I guess."
"You should at least try to get some rest. We'll be getting an early start tomorrow."
"What about you?" Aurora asked as she reached the warrior's side. She placed her hand on Mulan's arm and looked closely at her friend, a troubled expression on her face. "Why aren't you sleeping?"
"I'm standing guard."
"Are you worried about Cora and Hook?"
"No. If they had any reason to be here, they would have been here when we arrived."
"So you're going to stay up all night standing guard in case some random person comes by?"
"It's my duty to protect you," Mulan replied. "I've done a poor job of it lately, but I'm not going to take any chances of you being hurt again. I'll rest when we're somewhere safe."
"Alright, but if you're going to be foolish and try to stay up all night, the least I can do is stay up with you for awhile."
"You don't need to do that," Mulan protested.
"I know, but I want to." Aurora looked around for a moment and then moved to sit on a large nearby rock. She looked up at Mulan and then nodded towards the space to the left of her, indicating that the warrior should join her.
Mulan considered the other woman's invitation, uncertain what she should do. On the one hand, there was nothing in the world she would enjoy more than the chance to sit beside Aurora, underneath the stars, staring out across a lake. On the other hand, she had no business even considering sitting beside Aurora, underneath the stars, staring out across a lake. Aurora was in love with Phillip, and he was in love with Aurora, and both Phillip and Aurora were her friends. She needed to maintain her distance from the princess if she was going to do her duty and reunite the two lovers with one other.
"Mulan," Aurora said, interrupting her thoughts. "Sit."
Mulan's lips quirked slightly at the stern note in Aurora's voice. Unable to come up with a reason to refuse, she sat down beside the young woman. "Satisfied?" she asked.
"For now," Aurora said with a smile. She drew in a deep breath and then slowly let it out again while she looked around the area. After a few moments, her gaze settled on the lake. "Do you think Snow and Emma made it home?"
"Yes."
Aurora turned to look at Mulan, her head cocked to the side quizzically. "You sound so certain."
Mulan shrugged. "If they had not and lived, they would have found us. If they had not and died, their bodies would have been here for us to bury."
Aurora nodded, agreeing with the warrior's logic. "Do you think we'll ever see them again?"
"Perhaps," Mulan replied. "I guess it all depends on whether or not they want to come back to this world, or they decide that they prefer the other."
Aurora nodded again and then fell silent, a thoughtful expression on her face. For several minutes the two women sat together quietly, neither one speaking or making any sound louder than that of her breath.
"There's something I need to ask you," Aurora said, finally breaking the silence. "If we find a way to restore Phillip's soul–"
"When," Mulan interrupted firmly.
Aurora frowned in puzzlement. "What?"
Mulan turned to face her friend. "When we find a way to restore Phillip's soul," she said. "We will save him, Aurora. I swear that I will return your prince to you."
"Oh," Aurora said, "Well…after we save Phillip, what will you do?"
Mulan gazed at Aurora for a few moments, wanting more than anything to say something other than what she knew she must. Finally she turned away to look out at the lake. "After we save Phillip and I'm certain that you're both safe, I will leave."
"Where will you go?"
"I don't know, but there is much danger in this land. Someone somewhere will need a capable sword."
"I could use someone like that," Aurora said hesitantly. "You wouldn't need to leave."
Mulan closed her eyes briefly, fighting the temptation to accept the offer, knowing that doing so could only lead to pain. "You will have Phillip."
"Phillip is Phillip," Aurora replied. "You are Mulan…my friend."
Again Mulan struggled to resist the pull of the young woman's words on her heart. "I'm sure you have many friends," she said, a touch of gruffness entering her voice as she steeled herself to remain strong.
"Not really," Aurora said. "Princesses have servants, soldiers, and suitors, but true friends are few and far between, and not something to let slip away when finally found." She placed her hand lightly on Mulan's arm. "I don't want to lose you."
Unable to help herself, Mulan turned to face the other woman. The sadness she could see in Aurora's eyes was like a knife in her heart, and it was all she could do to stop herself from taking Aurora in her arms to comfort her. She swallowed to get past the tightness in her throat. "I don't want to lose you either," she whispered.
Sensing that Mulan was beginning to waver, Aurora tightened her grip on the warrior's arm. "Then promise that you'll stay with me after we rescue Phillip," she urged.
For one wild moment, Mulan considered agreeing, of yielding to Aurora's request and in doing so, gaining the opportunity to spend the rest of her life with the woman she loved. Just as quickly though, her sense of right and wrong reasserted itself and the moment passed.
Mulan shook her head and pulled her arm from Aurora's grasp. She rose to her feet and then walked several paces away to put some distance between them. She stood with her back to the younger woman. "I can't."
"But–"
"No!" Mulan said sharply, willing Aurora to accept what she was saying. "Three people cannot remain together when two of them are in love with the third." She drew in a deep breath and then slowly let it out again. "I don't want to leave you, but watching my friend together with the one I love would be too much to bear," she said, not bothering to try to hide the pain she was already feeling. "Please…don't ask me to put myself through that."
At first, Aurora said nothing in response, and Mulan feared that she intended to try a different argument. "Alright," the princess finally agreed, a defeated note in her voice.
Mulan breathed a small sigh of relief. "Thank you."
Once again, silence enveloped the two women and each allowed herself to become absorbed with her own concerns. After several minutes had passed, Mulan turned to face her friend, intending to urge her to try to get some sleep. Before she could say anything, however, Aurora looked up at her and spoke.
"Did Phillip know how you felt?"
"No, I'm certain he didn't," Mulan replied. There was no possible way that Phillip could have ever suspected that his stories of Aurora had caused his long time companion to fall in love with a woman she had never even seen.
"So the two of you weren't…together?" Aurora asked.
For a moment, the question caught Mulan completely off guard. "No, of course not," she finally managed to say. "Phillip loved you. He wouldn't have betrayed you like that." There was of course also the fact that she had never felt anything more than friendship for Phillip, so there had never been any real temptation to pursue a more intimate relationship. That, however, was not something that Aurora needed to know.
Aurora took a few moments to process Mulan's response. "How did it happen? How did you fall in love?"
Mulan shook her head. "Aurora, it's late, and there's no reason to talk about this."
"Please," Aurora said firmly, her jaw set in a stubborn line. "I have a right to know."
Despite herself, Mulan almost found herself smiling. Aurora always looked completely adorable whenever she tried to act tough. "Alright," she said, knowing that eventually they were going to have this discussion anyway. "Phillip and I–"
"Wait," Aurora interrupted, "Sit," she continued, gesturing to the spot where Mulan had been seated before. When the warrior hesitated, Aurora shifted slightly away from the spot and turned so that she was facing it. "Please, I don't want to have to keep looking up at you while you're talking."
Recognizing the logic of Aurora's request, Mulan reluctantly moved to sit near her friend, but she positioned herself so that her side was to the princess in an effort to create at least an invisible wall between them, "So as I started to say, Phillip and I were looking for you for several months before the curse struck."
"How did the two of you meet?"
Mulan shook her head. "That's another story for another time." She looked at Aurora and waited for the princess to agree that the story of how Mulan and Phillip had met could wait. After a few moments, Aurora nodded her head, indicating her agreement. Mulan turned away again before continuing. "We had been looking for you for months and it seemed like we were finally getting close to finding you. Then the curse struck and we couldn't search for you anymore."
"But you weren't actually frozen like I was," Aurora pointed out, "Why couldn't you search for me?"
Mulan paused for a few moments as she tried to figure out how best to describe what had happened after the curse had struck. They had been on the move almost continually since they had lost Phillip to the wraith, and there had never really been a good time to try to explain what had happened during the time of the curse to Aurora. "You're right," she said at last, "We weren't truly frozen, but the curse kept us from moving 'forward' with our lives." Mulan turned to face her friend. "We knew that we needed to get back to looking for you, and it always seemed like we were just about to start, but instead we just kept doing the same things over and over, not realizing that years were going by while we remained in place."
"And what were you doing all that time?"
"Mostly just surviving. We helped to build the camp I took you to after we lost Phillip and we defended it against attacks. We looked for other survivors, helped to forage for food…basically we did whatever needed to be done to protect the people of this land who remained behind when the curse took everyone else away." Mulan turned away before continuing, unable to look at her friend. Fortunately, she knew that her behavior would almost certainly be interpreted as embarrassment at falling in love with Phillip when he was promised to another, rather than concern that Aurora would realize that she was the true object of Mulan's desires. "During those years together, I got to know Phillip in a way that I'd never know anyone before, and he became the best friend I'd ever had. We rode together. We fought together, and in the evenings we sat and we talked together…and that's when I found myself falling in love."
"What did you talk about?" Aurora asked quietly.
"Many things," Mulan replied. "The things we had done during the day and what needed to be done on the next to keep everyone safe. Our pasts…the lives we'd led before we'd met each other. Our hopes for the future and the things we wanted to do after…after we found you."
"Did Phillip ever talk about me?"
Mulan's eyes closed for a moment, as memories of the literally thousands of nights spent listening to Phillip talk about Aurora rushed through her mind. "Yes," she said, relieved that her voice betrayed none of the emotions she was feeling. "He talked about you nearly every single night."
"What did he tell you about me?"
Unbidden, a faint smile appeared on Mulan's lips as she recalled Phillip's stories. "Everything. He told me about a woman whose devotion to those she loved was absolute, whose kindness was unsurpassed, whose courage was limitless, and whose beauty and grace were beyond compare. He swore over and over that there was no one in this world with a purer, gentler heart than you, and that no person could meet you and not be completely captivated."
Aurora's jaw dropped open at Mulan's words, and for a few moments she could do nothing more than gape at the other woman in disbelief. Finally she closed her mouth, shook her head slightly and lowered her head as her cheeks began to burn with embarrassment. "It must have been quite a letdown for you when you finally met the person he'd been talking about all those years," she mumbled.
Mulan turned to look at her friend before replying. "If anything, Phillip did not speak highly enough. You are the most amazing person I have ever met, Aurora. My life will be much emptier without you in it."
Stunned, Aurora lifted her head to look at her friend. Her gaze met Mulan's, and for an instant, something unsaid yet important seemed to pass between the two of them. A moment later, however, Mulan turned away, ending the connection they had so briefly shared. She was only making things harder for herself by talking like this, the warrior reminded herself forcefully. Aurora belonged with Phillip. No possible good could come from saying things like that.
"Mulan, please, don't leave after we save Phillip. Maybe after some time has passed–"
"I'll what?" Mulan interrupted, a touch of bitterness entering her voice for the first time since they had begun to speak. "I'll no longer be in love?"
"Feelings can change," Aurora pointed out.
"True, but mine will not," Mulan said with a note of finality that made it clear that she believed absolutely in what she was saying. "I fell in love with the person of my dreams. Even if I were cursed for 28 thousand years, my heart would not change."
"So that's it? You're really just going to walk away?"
For several long moments, Mulan stared into the dark night that surrounded them. "Love is sacrifice," she said at last. "If I can't have the one that I love, at least I'll know that my friend will."
Mulan rose to her feet and stepped away from the other woman, desperate to create some space between them.
"Mulan?"
"It would be best for you to try to get some sleep," Mulan said tonelessly, as she continued to stare into the darkness. "We'll be getting an early start tomorrow."
The warrior heard Aurora rise and move to stand behind her. "Mulan, please, look at me," the princess requested quietly.
For a few moments, Mulan continued to act as if she hadn't heard Aurora speak. Eventually, however, she slowly turned around to face her friend.
"After we find Phillip, I want you to stay–"
"I've already told you–"
"Please! Let me finish," Aurora quickly said, cutting the warrior off before she could continue. She waited until Mulan nodded her head, indicating that she would listen to what Aurora had to say. "After we find Phillip, I want you to stay with him. I will leave."
Mulan's brow drew downward in obvious confusion. "What are you talking about?"
"You love Phillip."
"So do you," Mulan replied.
"No…no I don't. I don't love him…but you do, so–"
"Wait, I don't understand. What do you mean you don't love Phillip? He woke you with true love's kiss. You have to love him."
"I did, once, at least I think that I did." Aurora took a deep breath and tried to organize her thoughts. "We were betrothed when we were both just children. He was a good man, and over the years we grew to love each other. But since he's been gone, things have changed…I have changed. I still care for him deeply, but I'm not in love with him, at least not the way that he should be loved by his wife." She swallowed nervously before continuing. "I want you to be happy, and I know that Phillip would be happier with someone like you who loves him than with someone like me who's…" Aurora abruptly snapped her mouth shut and quickly lowered her head.
Mulan looked at the other woman closely, uncertain what to make of her words and actions. The most reasonable thing to assume Aurora had been about to say would be that Phillip would be better off with someone who loved him than someone who was not in love with him, but there was something about the sudden way that the princess had stopped speaking that implied she had been about to say something else entirely. "Someone like you who's what?" Mulan asked.
Aurora shook her head. "Nothing. It doesn't matter," she mumbled nervously.
Mulan hesitated for a moment, uncertain how to proceed. She was being shown a path that, even if it didn't lead to a life with Aurora in it as a lover, could at least lead to a life with Aurora in it as a friend. But there was something that Aurora wasn't telling her, and she sensed that it was something that they both needed to acknowledge before they could move forward. "Who's what?" she asked again.
Aurora sighed softly. She kept her head lowered as she answered, unable to meet the other woman's gaze. "In love with someone else," she said softly.
Mulan felt her heart skip a beat. Aurora had only been around a handful of people since she had been awakened from the sleeping curse. Logically, the only possible person she could be talking about other than Mulan was Emma, and Mulan highly doubted that that was the case. She cupped Aurora's chin and gently tilted the younger woman's face upward to meet her gaze. "Who?" she asked softly, afraid to believe that the dream she had dreamed for so many years could actually be coming true.
A small, sad smile appeared on Aurora's lips. "Mulan, you've literally held my heart in your hands. Do you really have to ask to whom it belongs?"
Mulan placed her right hand over Aurora's heart. She watched as the young woman closed her eyes, expressions of joy, pain, bliss, and regret all flashing across her beautiful features. Most importantly, though, Mulan could finally see the expression she had longed for years to see: love.
"I'm not in love with Phillip," Mulan said quietly, struggling to keep her voice even.
Aurora's eyes flew open. "But you said–"
"I said that my friend and I were in love with the same person, and that I fell in love with the person of my dreams. I never mentioned anyone by name."
For a few moments Aurora stared at the warrior in shock, trying to understand everything that was happening. "Mulan?"
The warrior took the princess's hands in her own and stepped close. "I love you, Aurora" she said softly. "More than I ever imagined it was possible to love someone," she continued, before moving in to finally claim the kiss she had been dreaming about for years.
Aurora's eyes drifted shut and she started to lean forward towards Mulan. Just before their lips met, however, the princess's eyes flew open again. "Stop!" she said, a desperate note in her voice. Aurora placed her hands on Mulan's chest and pushed back from the warrior, preventing her from finishing the kiss.
"What's wrong?" Mulan asked, completely confused by the young woman's reaction.
"I've had this dream a dozen times, and this is how it always ends," Aurora said. "You tell me that you're in love with me and then you kiss me, and then I wake up. It's just another one of the after effects of the sleeping curse," she said sadly. "But now I dream about what I want, and a kiss from the one I love wakes me up from the reality I want to believe."
Mulan smiled. "That's not going to happen this time," she said, relieved that she hadn't misunderstood Aurora's feelings. "Let me show you," she continued, as she took Aurora into her arms and leaned in once again to kiss the princess.
Aurora, however, quickly pulled out of the warrior's embrace and stepped away from the other woman. She wrapped her arms around herself protectively and shook her head. "No. I can't."
Mulan took a step forward, but stopped when the princess held up a hand and took two steps back. "Aurora, you aren't sleeping," she said in her most reassuring voice. "This isn't a dream."
Aurora laughed bitterly and turned and walked away from the other woman. "You've told me that before too, and then we kiss and I wake up and find out none of it was real." The princess sighed heavily and shook her head. "I wish I could believe this," she whispered, "But I can't. Not after all the times I've believed and woken up to find out I was wrong.
The misery in her friend's voice tore through Mulan, and it was all she could do to keep herself from taking the princess in her arms and holding her as tightly as she could while she showered her with kisses to prove that she wasn't trapped in another dream. She realized at that moment that Aurora had been harmed by the sleeping curse that she had been under for so many years in ways Mulan couldn't even begin to fathom. The warrior swore to herself that she would spend the rest of her life doing whatever it took to help Aurora learn to manage the shadows that would most likely always haunt her dreams.
Mulan moved forward to place her hand lightly on the young woman's right shoulder. "Aurora–"
"Please," the princess whispered, "Just let me enjoy this dream for a little while longer before it ends." She took a deep breath and brushed away the tears that were streaming down her cheeks. "I know I'll have to wake up soon enough, but just let me enjoy it until I do."
Utterly perplexed, Mulan stared at her friend in silence, unable to believe what was happening. The only way she would be able to convince Aurora that she wasn't dreaming would be to kiss the young woman and show her that she was wrong. The question, though, was what would be the best way to do that. The easiest option would be for her to simply grab Aurora and use her superior strength to hold and kiss the princess before she could get away. Once Aurora saw that the kiss hadn't woken her from a dream, she would be able to accept that everything was real and the problem would be solved. Mulan was certain that Aurora's initial resistance would pass as soon as she realized that she wasn't waking up, and she was equally certain that Aurora would forgive her for her impulsive treatment afterwards. Despite all of that, however, she was reluctant to simply force the issue. It might be a simple and quick solution, but Mulan didn't want the memory of their first kiss to be something that was forced on Aurora against her will, no matter how well-intentioned her motives might be. She needed to come up with another option.
After a few more moments, Mulan reached a decision. She would agree to wait until Aurora was ready for the "dream" to end, and at that point, she could kiss the princess without the young woman protesting. Once Aurora realized that the kiss hadn't woken her up, she would realize that everything that had transpired that night between them was real and the problem would be solved. It wasn't the choice Mulan wanted to go with, but all in all, it seemed the best one given the circumstances.
Mulan gently turned the young woman around to face her and then brushed away the remaining tears on Aurora's cheek. "Alright, you win. I'll wait to kiss you until you're ready."
A tremulous smile appeared on Aurora's features. "Thank you," she whispered, before sliding her arms around the warrior to hug her tightly.
Mulan returned Aurora's embrace, struggling as she did so to resist the urge to change her mind and kiss the young woman right then and there. The two stood in comfortable silence for several moments, before Mulan stepped back so that she could look at her friend. "What do you want to do while we wait?"
"Could we just sit together?" Aurora asked.
Mulan released the young woman. "It's your dream," she said with a shrug, resigning herself to the course of action, or rather inaction, that she had chosen. "We can do whatever you want."
