The New Leonardo

Prompt: Cruella marvels at her young son's artistic talent.

The first time Cruella saw one of her son's drawings was when he was already six. Despite her effortS to be a good mother, she was still a quite absent-minded person; besides, on the other hand, he had always tried to hide his artistic side. So, when she suddenly found a very detailed illustration of their cat in his exercise book, her first instict was to be surprised and incredulous. And unavoidably angry.

"Fitz! Fitz!" she called out loud for him from the kitchen, while moving to the living room. "What the Hell does that mean?!" she asked then, stopping in front of him with a stern look and pointing at the incriminatory page.

Hearing his mother's voice and, even before, her quick steps, Fitzgerald immediately dropped his videogame on the sofa and tried to get ready for the certain reproach. He knew that something was wrong, even though he didn't know what it was yet. And the sight of his exercise book didn't help him at all. "It's the test we did today at school… We had to draw an animal…" he eventually replied a bit uncertain.

"Exactly! Then, can you explain to me why the teacher had to draw it for you?"

After that accusation, Fitz's fear turned into pure confusion. "But I drew that stupid cat!"

Cruella not even gave him the benefit of the doubt and just made a sarcastic chuckle, as she shook her head. "Of course, darling… And I am Snow White, then!"

Maybe she should have thought better before speaking, because they were very much alike after all. In a matter of seconds, even confusion disappeared from his face and he looked the angry one now. Stubborn, irritable and impulsive just like her, he stood up and quickly ran upstairs to his room; she called him back a few times and then started to follow him, but before she could even put a foot on the first step of the stairs, he climbed them down and appeared in front of her with an album full of drawings. The postive thing was that, finally, pride won over shyness.

"Look at these, mom… I made all of them!" he exclaimed, handing her the album, as evidence of his talent – and also his honesty.

She looked still skeptical, but decided to give a look anyway. Whatever she was expecting, her expectations were betrayed, as she soon found herself to be out of breath. There were not only more sketches of Eliot, but also views of the town and attempts of portraits; it was an actual surprise to discover that kind of talent, most of all because she never had any suspicious. Well, truth be told, the time he decided to spend alone in his room and his constant desire for new crayons was finally making sense. However, it was the one portrait of herself that completely left her speechless: not only she was well represented, but her paper-self had her same usual expression.

"That's me…" she whispered eventually, with her eyes still wide opened. "Oh, little puppy, you could be the new Leonardo!" she exclaimed then, looking up to him and revealing all her enthusiasm.

The little boy immediately made a proud smirk, finally able to let his insecurities go. But that didn't prevent him from throwing a mocking look at his mother. "So… Are you Snow White now?"

Cruella Heller wasn't exactly well-liked by the other moms at school: she didn't easily joined conversations and when she did, it was only to have some digs on them. However the day after the discovery about Fitzgerald, she seemed unusually loquacious – and that proved to be only worse. In fact, she spent at least ten minutes talking about her son's artistic talent, showing his drawings to whomever made the big mistake to pay her attention. Unluckily for Ruby, Mary Margaret and Ariel, they were on that list. They all looked quite exasperated and exasperation turned soon into irritation, as praising started to involve comparisons. According to Cruella, Neal Nolan or Peter Whale's athletic skills had nothing on those drawings, and so did Melody Prince's soft voice.

"…So, what? Truth hurts, doesn't it, darlings?" she teased in the end, looking at all the three women with a victorious smile.

The others remained silent for some moments in disbelief and then looked at each other, uncertain to what to do. Then, all the eyes were suddenly on Ruby and that look meant only one thing: considering her well-known bluntness, she was being chosen as mouthpiece of them all. Did she have to be the one to talk? Did she have to be honest? Well, she would just have done that. But, despite her strong will to reduce Cruella's pride and defend her own son's qualities, the words that she finally said took everyone by surprise.

"You're right… Your son has really a future!"

The two princesses glared at her in confusion, while the witch clapped her hands in some kind of mad joy. But Ruby just made a soft smile and didn't add nor retract anything. Even though Cruella was very annoying, it was good to see her being so maternal… And besides, the drawings were actually really good.

So, I was going to update yesterday but the site had some problems and so here we are. Thanks to PMG for the prompt. As always, I'll try to write and update soon:)