The Determination of Man
by Erin Griffin
Fandom: Maleficent (2014)
Pairing: Adult!Aurora/Maleficent (Malora)
Disclaimer: Disney almost literally owns all.
Note: I saw this once and probably will see it a half dozen more times in the next couple of weeks, but I have so many feels about this movie and these two.
Even as the night sky lights their bed, Aurora could hear the night fairies playing with fireflies and the nocturnal tree sprites scrounging for food. The night was no less lively as the day time, but Aurora had learned to tune out the noise enough to sleep through it. The moon shone full above them though, and this night the blonde couldn't sleep. She had crawled from under Maleficent's protective wings and sat, staring at her destined one. Aurora leaned into the tree as she looked from Maleficent to the moon, her mind in a time when those wings weren't there to keep her warm at night, a time when she was cursed. From where she sat, she could not see the warped flesh on Maleficent's back where her wings fused after being gone for over sixteen years. Aurora had hoped, like all of the other iron wounds Maleficent had suffered when fighting her father, that the scar would fade as well. "Beastie come back," Maleficent said a moment later. "Aurora."
The blonde went to her knees to crawl back to Maleficent. Large black wings stretched briefly before wrapping around her again. Aurora felt arms around her a moment later. "I can't sleep," she murmured.
"That is apperent." Maleficent said with a small laugh. She let out a yawn, and leaned her forehead down to touch Aurora's.
"My dear," Aurora murmured, "I forgot how exhausted you must be."
"Protecting the moors from the land of man is a task that never ends, especially now that I have married their only heir to the throne."
"They will have to appoint a new king, just as they had for... for him." Aurora said. She didn't wish to remind Maleficent of King Stephen or her relation to him. She worried now more than ever and knew that Maleficent did as well, for it had been over five winters since she joined with Maleficent and three years more than that since King Stephen had died. She worried with the determination of man would one day destroy the moors and her wife for good.
"Indeed. However, I cannot settle if you aren't near," Maleficent told the blonde.
"I know," Aurora said. "Then I will wander no more tonight."
"Perhaps in dreams," Maleficent said.
"Like the song," Aurora added.
"Yes my love, like the song," Maleficent agreed. Aurora sighed, and there was no more talk that night, at least not in their bed. The moors around them forever remained awake, but soon enough sleep came to them, and the lovers were not.