Yay! It's been one year since Maleficent came out, and I can't tell you guys enough of how much this movie impacted me so much that I was reduced to writing fanfiction.

Happy one year anniversary!

So as promised, here's chapter 8.


Until She's Crowned

Chapter 9 - Think Before You Speak

Aurora twirled her plastic fork carefully through the lettuce leaves and red cherry tomatoes, as a sad look was painted on her features.

It wasn't the first day she'd been acting so...depressed. in fact, this behavior had made an appearance through her earlier in the week, ever since she had found out about her true heritage.

She had smiled less around others. Talked less, ate less...and this behavior went unnoticed. Well, except from her friends, who wished to know what could have possibly provoked her happiness.

Mulan and Belle watched as Aurora concentrated more on playing with her food than actually eating it.

"Rora?" Mulan called the nickname cautiously, waiting for a reaction out of the blonde.

"Hm?" Aurora's voice piped, but she still wasn't looking up.

The blonde could tell that they were both worried, and she let them be. It was just that...there were so many questions she had about her mother, but she just couldn't form them into proper questions to ask.

"Are you okay?" The ebony haired girl asked, and Belle actually put her book down to help.

Aurora nodded, letting her utensil fall in with salad. She pushed a lock of hair behind her ear nervously, trying to come up with a lie to tell.

"Uh..." she had started nervously, never having been a good liar. She reached into her bag, searching for something, anything really, to help support the untruth that was just about to leave her lips. She pulled out the first thing that her fingers could tug out. Her copy of the Romeo and Juliet script. "...I am just really worried about the...play!" She announced, flipping to a random highlighted page.

Belle's eyes perked, and she reached out to quickly scan over the script for what seemed about the millionth time.

"Now why would you stress about this?" The brunette asked, "I've seen you practice this, and you'll be fine! Even Papa agreed that night you came over"

Aurora shrugged, happy that they're convinced. Well at least distracted. Mulan still appeared unsure, with her shoulders hunched, her brows creased, and a worried look on her face. All the signs indeed.

Not wanting anyone to worry, she smiled a false smile, hiding the emptiness she felt inside, and the questions she yearned to ask.

·

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·

The drama period went as normal, students practicing their lines with partners, while Ms. Carroll prepped her daughter as best as she could for the auditions.

Not that it mattered anyway, since Aurora was 99.9% sure that the woman was going to give Vanessa the role anyway. 0.1% still had hope for the spineless teacher.

Aurora continued reading the lines from Romeo's point of view, while Vanessa played her opposite. Both girls had proved to be powerful in the positions they played, but like mother like daughter, both Carrolls' were as self observed as the other.

Eventually class ended, and Aurora had already made her way out the door to find Diaval.

She pressed the straps of her backpack tightly against her shoulders, and she buried her face behind a curtain of blonde locks to avoid human contact.

Honestly, the past few days have been tiresome. She is quite scared, she had to admit. Ruling a kingdom...she did have quite a few fears in life, like dying. Or being under an eternal sleep, which she had to admit wasn't as realistic as the first fear, but she did have smaller ones. Talking to boys could be one, she's always so painfully shy when around one. Another could be not being able to find happiness again. And right now, she was afraid that she had reached that point.

She continued walking, and then she saw Diaval at the driver's seat. Now, she hasn't known him for quite long, but she already knew he was an all around nice guy. He was the only part of this whole royalty thing that she liked. Aurora was sure that he trusted her enough, because the other day, he had made a quick (as he called it, but an hour is definitely not quick) stop at Flower's Flower Shop. Of course the skunk obsessed man had to move all his flowers in his indoor garden so they wouldn't die out in the winter, and of course, Diaval was impressed by the other man's gardening skills as well as the flowers themselves.

He waved, and she waved back, already skipping to him, when she heard two girls call out "Aurora!"

'Not again,' she thought and turned. Belle and Mulan were as distressed as a damsel who was in need of saving, which was ironic since they could actually protect themselves pretty well.

"Aurora," Belle started, putting a hand on her shoulder. "We've been asking you if you're alright, but..."

"I'm fine!" Aurora protested, looking back at Diaval, who was now looking concerned, but tried his best to hide it. It was explained to her that he wasn't really supposed to meddle with her personal affairs.

"You're lying, you never talk back, it's not in your nature." Aurora silently cursed, feeling stupid for arguing with the intelligent one.

"It's true. My godfather, Mushu, would dishonor you." Mulan commented.

"Like he did you..."

"What was that?"

"Nothing." Aurora raised her hands in defense, stepping away. God, lately she's been speaking faster than she could think.

"That's what we mean!" Belle proved just then, clutching the book in her hands. "Aurora, is everything okay?"

The blonde sighed deeply, realizing that she could explode if she continued concealing her emotions. "It's the auditions, I told you."

"Oh, I'm well as sure it's not the play, having it being the only thing you could talk about these past few months."

She tugged on a lock of her hair, bit her bottom lip. 'Think before you speak, think before you speak...' she chanted in her head.

"Well what is it?"

Aurora turned to face her friends, feeling confident in entrusting them with her deepest secret, but then she stopped herself. If she reacted badly to the news of her secret heritage, how would her friends act? Would they treat her differently, or the same? Would they praise her for this outrageous fact, or would they just brush it off like a common cold? No doubt they would react.

"Well, you see..." 'Think before you speak' "My, um...Godmother is actually in town, and, uh...well she's my aunt, actually, but..." Oh why did she say 'godmother'? Now there was going to be even more questions, having never had a single distant family member come and visit. Well, she wished for family company, and instead a kingdom was sent her way.

Belle and Mulan perked up. "What? You have another aunt?" The bookworm inquired. Both her friends knew that her 'aunties' were her self-claimed, only living relatives. What a lie that turned out to be.

Aurora tried to shy away, and she nodded. "Yeah, um, she got me a driving chaperon," she awkwardly inputted, referring to Diaval, who was trying his best to concentrate on the unmoving vehicle.

"Well isn't that something." Mulan shrugged. "is she an aristocrat, or something?" She insisted.

Aurora watched her friends laugh lightly, as she added her own awkward chuckle into the situation. 'You have no idea.' The blonde wanted to say, but couldn't.

After a while, Aurora noticed moments had gone by, without her speaking to her friends, and now they had shared their first laugh in days. She smiled. "Do you guys want a ride?" She offered, and they took it.

Diaval was already outside, and he had held the door open like a gentleman.

Aurora stood quietly, praying that he wouldn't mention anything about her family's line.

When Diaval had introduced himself as Aurora's poor unfortunate chaperon, which he had meant as a joke.

The ride was painfully awkward, just ignoring everything that has happened the past week, and instead focusing on what she had before everything else; friends.

Also she focused on that flower! Being curious, she hasn't thought about anything else but who could be Diaval's current infatuation. Whether be it a man or woman, she was desperate for the answer. But her friends were number one on her list.

He drove them home, they thanked him and left, and he was busy driving Aurora back to hers, when she asked curiously "So did she like it?"

That remark almost caused a painfully ugly accident, as he had moved the steering wheel faster than he should have, and almost missed the breaks. A sweat broke on his face, and he had checked to make sure Aurora was okay. She was.

"What are you talking about?" He inquired worriedly, keeping his eyes on the snow covered roads of New York.

The blonde shrugged. "The flower you admired the other day. When we were stuck in traffic, you thought it was best to stop by that small florist shop. There, you saw a flower. And you bought it."

Diaval smirked. "Ah yes, I can now recall that moment." He could now, at what he had written in that letter.

"So did she like it?"

"Did you ever hear of the phrase 'curiosity killed the cat' , princess?"

Aurora suddenly took interest in her nails. He was avoiding the issue. He almost had completely rejected her question, and he's now avoiding it. If her instincts were right, he could tell that he has fallen for someone. Men don't go out of flowershops and return back with a single rose, without someone in mind.

The blonde continued smiling for the longest time this week, as she tried distracting herself from the concept of romance. Concentrating on the strange event from just a few days earlier certainly did help take away the pain she ached from their lies. But she didn't blame Diaval for her family troubles.

She straightened her posture, intimidating her aunt. "I've been told many times in fact." She finally answered, sinking into the seat. "Though I am not the official princess yet." We still have to wait. 'I don't even know if I want to be the princess!', Aurora thought.

"Good point." He responded, watching out for civilians, and snow.

Another moment slipped in of silence. It was killing Aurora, having been in this state for quite a few days now certainly didn't help her relieve from it. No, she was mad at her four aunties. Not Diaval.

She leaned forward, trying to get the man's attention. "So Diaval, do you have a girlfriend?"

That created another near accident. "What?"

"Does anybody hold your fancy, I mean."

Diaval shrunk back into his seat, regretting to having made friends with Aurora. "No." He answered simply. He could already tell that answer wouldn't suffice, if she was anything like the queen.

"Well, surely someone must have received the flower."

He didn't answer, and his silence was the answer. There was someone! Oh, but she just had to discover who it was.

He turned, and pulled up into the curb.

"Well, here's your stop, Aurora." He was just about to get out of the car to open the door when Aurora stopped him.

"It's alright, I'll do it."

He nodded without another argument. "Alright, so right after school tomorrow, your training begins, with your aunt."

Aurora nodded. "Don't worry, I remembered."

She took a step outside, and a breeze hit her. She looked back at Diaval, who was staring back at her with cautious eyes, a look that she's seen other fathers give to their daughters when being wary of their questions.

Well, she wouldn't know anyways. She never had a father-or even uncle, stand by her side as she took her first steps, or never having had attended the father-daughter dances back in grade school.

Aurora looked back at Diaval, and a fatherly glow surrounded him in her eyes. She blinked then, reminding herself that she had just befriended the man a few days ago, and he was her aunt's servant anyways.

But still wanting to remember of the face no one ever gave her, she took out her camera, lifted it to her eye until it focused on Diaval, and pushed the button that took the picture. She heard the click. She smiled.

"Until tomorrow." Aurora said, and bowed her head. In her head, she thanked him for distracting her of her new life's worries.

He returned the gesture by bowing back, and repeated her words.

The blonde ran back to her house, but before entering her home, she turned, and waved to Diaval.

He waved back.


Well hope you dears enjoyed this fairly simple chapter.

I didn't own anything except the writing.

Anyhow, we'll explode into the main plot in the next chapter, which is exciting because we'll finally get to see the princess training, flashbacks, and a very classy Mal.

But yay, thank you for putting up with these short simple chapters I've been posting lately. I guess I'm mostly using them to build relationships and character, but oh well.

Hopefully, Summer will be like this explosion of chapter after chapter, or I'll update weekly.

See you next time!