Four nights before Aurora's sixteenth birthday, Maleficent gazed up at the stars. Somehow, despite the time she had been betrayed, had lost her wings, had woken up screaming from a pain more unbearable than any other, she had never felt so lost as she did right now.
"I failed." Her voice was soft, low, pitched only to the stars that glimmered so mockingly above her. "The one thing I actually cared about, the one person I wanted to save... And now she's gone."
'Not gone yet,' a small voice in her head whispered. 'But pretty close,' another snapped.
Maleficent rolled onto her side and stared away, far into the trees in the distance. If only she hadn't made the curse unbreakable... How could she possibly greet Aurora, her precious little Beastie, tomorrow, knowing that on the day she turned sixteen, her Beastie would fall into a sleep like death?
If only she had been stronger an hour ago, strong enough to rip Aurora from the claws of the curse Maleficent had cast nearly sixteen years ago... But there was no reversing the clock, no changing her decision that fateful day during Aurora's christening. Now she could only live with her pain forever.
Suddenly Maleficent was cold, chilled to the bone by her own frozen heart. More than anything, she wished her treetop nest had a thick blanket like the ostentatious furs Stefan had worn at the christening, all red velvet and lush fur that looked as silky as the feathers on her wings had been.
Maleficent huddled into a tight ball, hugging her knees to her chest for warmth, wishing someone else would wrap their arms around her and take some of the pain away. Her eyes, however, remained open, and they landed on an ebony raven just a treetop away.
Diaval. He must have finally fallen asleep after waiting for her to return from Aurora's cottage. Her faithful servant had been her loyal spy, her confidant, and her wings from since before Aurora's birth. Even though he'd had countless chances to fly away, Diaval had stayed, whereas Stefan had-
No. She couldn't let her mind stray down such dangerous paths. With a determined exhalation, she rolled to her other side and closed her eyes.
Her shivering gradually morphed into full-out shaking, teeth chattering, feet and hands numb. She wondered if Diaval was any warmer... No, that would be too much of an intrusion. She'd simply have to tough it out on her own.
But as the minutes lengthened and Maleficent grew only chillier, she finally relented. With a sigh that split the frosty air- how had the nights of summer grown so cold?- she flipped back over to face Diaval's sleeping form.
A breath of magic later, and Diaval's raven body floated gently towards her. She took him from the air with both hands and gently placed him on the mossy nest beside her. 'Desperate times call for desperate measures,' she thought grimly as she snapped her fingers and whispered a command. 'And though I'm not sure if it's for the cold or for losing Beastie soon, but these are desperate times.'
Diaval grew from a large black bird to a black-clothed, pale man in a few seconds, lying on his back with his limbs splayed. His dark hair hid his eyes, and she carefully brushed strands away. Maleficent carefully watched his eyelids to see if they flickered or moved, sure signs he was waking up and would need to be moved back. But he was perfectly still. He'd always been an easy sleeper, usually waking only at the sound of her voice calling him to spy once more. But now his chest rose and fell with deep, rhythmic breaths that somehow soothed the faerie.
'He did say anything I needed, I could have of him,' she reminded herself to ease her conscience. 'It's not like I'm going to violate him. He is my servant, and there is nothing untoward in using someone else for warmth and comfort.'
With that, Maleficent gingerly laid down beside Diaval. Her servant still had not woken up, and a part of her was glad. But she didn't feel much warmth from the foot or two of space she had left between them. With a sigh she felt rather than heard, she moved over even closer until the outline of her dress just touched his side, her head at his shoulder's height.
Her eyes fluttered closed, lids made heavy by the soothing warmth and nearness of a trusted friend. Then his right arm, which had been flung out far to the side, moved.
Maleficent's eyes widened, and she looked over as best she could to see Diaval's face. There was no sign of waking, but he must have been a restless sleeper, as his arm curled instinctively behind her neck and draped casually on her shoulder.
No one had ever held her so close or for so long since Stefan. Even though Maleficent knew that what she perceived as a comforting gesture was really just a habitual movement of sleep, there was something nice and calming about it.
She closed her eyes again and let out a breath she hadn't realized she'd been holding. All her worrying about Beastie would do no good, anyway. When she saw Aurora next, Maleficent would tell her the truth.
She leaned into his warm arm and wondered if Diaval would agree.
Hello lovely readers! I'm Blue, a first-time fanfic writer and also shooting for my first NaNo during July Camp. I saw Maleficent a few days ago and was incredibly inspired to write a fanfic about Maleficent and Diaval- after nearly 20 years, surely something's going on there, right?
Please excuse this intro chapter- I wasn't entirely sure of how to start off this short story, so I figured it wouldn't hurt to use fewer words. The next chapter (I was so inspired, I've already written bits of Chapter 4!) is much longer than this one, which I'll apologize for, too. The third chapter is in a happy medium, and I'm not yet sure of the fourth and fifth.
This story will have five parts that I'll try to publish every few days. I may write another story after this, perhaps a chain of one-shots, but there are already a nice amount out there, so I'll play it by ear.
I'm not sure if I need a disclaimer, since it should be fairly obvious I wouldn't be writing a fanfiction about anything if I claimed ownership, but for the record, I do not own or claim to own any of the people, places, things, plots, and dialogue from Maleficent.
