I own nothing.

Sleep

After Maleficent lost her wings, there were so many things she couldn't do again. Sleep was one.

She needed her wings to sleep. She used to cover herself entirely with her beautiful, big, comforting wings, A blanket hiding her from the rest of the world. In the summer, it was never too hot - one wing covering her face from the light, the other covering her entire body. They retained the cool air of the night between the feathers and allowed her to continue her naps long after the rest of the Moor creatures were awake. In the winter, needles to say, they were not like a blanket - there were a blanket.

Without her wings, no place or surface could be comfortable, and no weather was ever good.

She used to fly so high, and so much, that in the evenings she was always tired, and sleep came easily. Now she was also tired - having to walk so much, moving her heavy limbs - but it was not the good and happy fatigue she was used to. She was always painfully tired.

At nights she used to dream, flying and then falling. Or she used to try to move her wings in her sleep. Or it just felt like their were sore - as if they are still there.

As time progressed she dreamt less about her wings, and more about the other horrors she surrounded herself with. Stefan, on his knees, a curse, a baby struggling for air, sometimes already dead, soldiers in iron armour, painful iron on her own body, Diaval - all were present in her nightmares.

As a bird, he had no trouble sleeping. As a man he did not know how.

If she left him in his human form for the night he used to try to lay down on the ground and sleep. But how? On his back he felt it is to hard to breath. On his stomach - did not know what to do with his hands. On his side - he did not know where to place his head. And it was cold. He needed to find something to cover himself with each night. Maleficent's body was much like his. But learn from her how to sleep? It would be smarter to ask a rock to teach you how to fly.

He heard her tossing and turning every night. If he was in his raven form it took a bit longer, but he did wake up eventually, and just crow. She would then be quiet, turn around and try to sleep again. As a man every little sound woke him up. He would make sure it really was her, and not some dogs barking in the distance, or a particular human baby cry, and then he would say

'Are you alright, mistress?'

With time he learned not to do that. Especially after that day when his hand touched the stubs on her back. He felt embarrassed waking her up from her nightmares, pointing out her weaknesses. So he would say 'Indeed a cold night, mistress', or 'Mistress, did those dogs wake you up as well?'

Those methods evolved. Before going to sleep he collected walnuts, and if he wanted to wake her up he would loudly crack one open. He knew that she woke up because she was quieter when she was awake. and then he would say -

'Should I crack one up for you? Here have mine. And it will make us thirsty, so I'll go find something to drink.'

Standing up he would raise his hand, and she reached a hand downwards from her branch, taking the food and then the water. They were both careful and usually their fingers did not have to touch.

More and more she chose to leave him in his human form at night.