Advice from Mother
The sound of crunching leaves filled dry cool air as mother and daughter walked side by side in silence. Lily watched her breath puff out in little white clouds in front of her, almost like tiny clouds of smoke, or so she had thought as a child. The irony of course was that, as a child, she had pretended it was dragon smoke, and had run around arms flapping as her parents had laughed and told her what a fierce little dragon she was. Oh, if only they could see her now. But today she didn't feel fierce, she felt small, and nervous. She felt like there was a rope tying itself in elaborate knots in her stomach. She'd been feeling this way for the past two days, ever since he had met the wolf.
"You're quiet today," Maleficent said, dragging her daughter from her thoughts.
"I'm fine," Lily answered automatically. She still wasn't really used to having someone to open up to. Her adoptive mother had always been somewhat aloof, and disappointed that she wasn't the prim and proper rich little daddy's girl that they had wanted her to be. In truth, her adoptive parents had never really known how to handle their catastrophe of a daughter.
"You can tell me you know, if something's bothering you." Lily looked up at her mother and smiled half-heartedly.
"It's really stupid," she grimaced, making her mother chuckle.
"Sweetheart I'm your mother. I don't care how silly it is. Now tell me, what's bothering you?" Lily hesitated.
"So… I met a girl…" Maleficent smirked as her daughter's sentence trailed off into an embarrassed grin.
"Oh? Who is she?" Again Lily hesitated.
"She's a shifter. Her name is Ruby."
"Maleficent raised one perfectly sculpted quizzical eyebrow.
"The puppy?" Lily scowled.
"Don't call her that Mom… but... yeah. The werewolf."
"Have you asked her out yet?" Lily looked up, startled by her mother's blunt question, resembling in that moment not a dragon, but a rabbit in the headlights.
"What?! No…I…How do you even know I like her?!" Maleficent chuckled and pulled her daughter closer.
"You bushed when you said her name darling." Lily sighed and shoved her hands deeper into her pockets.
"I haven't, but I want to. I just…" she looked up at her mother shyly and heaved a great sigh. "What if she says no?" Maleficent smiled and squeezed her daughter's shoulders in an act of silent comfort.
"Then she'll have me to answer to." Lily chuckled at the already semi-murderous look on her mother's face.
"Thanks Mom."