Aurora had left the cottage early in the morning as she almost always did. She loved her aunties but they could get a little boring sometimes, and they never seemed to notice she was gone. She walked to a field near the wall of thorns, maybe it was because the magic of the moors spilled over here, but the flowers always seemed thicker in these fields. She settled herself in a particularly thick patch of purple flowers, closed her eyes, and breathed in the fresh scent happily before beginning to pick some of the flowers and braid them through her hair.

"Aurora?" She heard a familiar voice calling her. Diaval! She leapt to her feet and looked around spotting him standing at the edge of the wall smiling in that uncertain way of his.

"Diaval!" She exclaimed running over to him and throwing her arms around him happily. He hugged her back gently but warmly until she backed up. "Did my fairy godmother send you or did you just come to visit?" She asked still smiling, she would be happy either way. If her godmother sent him then she would be able to go into the moors, but if he had come to visit then she would have company besides her aunties for the day.

"I've just come to visit." He answered in the quiet husky voice. So like the cawing she was more accustomed to. He smiled at her questioningly as if to ask if that was alright. She laughed and grabbed his arm pulling him over to the place she had been sitting and pulled him down next to her so they could talk.

She mostly asked him though, about what was going on in the rest of the world. She liked to hear about what was going on in the castle almost as much as Maleficent did. Though for completely different reasons. Diaval told her all he could. She started braiding her hair again as he talked, it didn't take her long to notice how transfixed he was by the motions and the result of the braiding. She let the conversation trail off waiting for him to ask the question she knew he wanted to, if it was quiet for long enough she knew he would.

"Aurora?" He asked tentatively just as she had expected.

"Yes Diaval?" She asked encouragingly.

"Would you teach me how to do that?" He asked gesturing to her braid.

"Of course I would Diaval." She said, unsurprised but slightly confused by the request. "Why would you want to learn? Your hair isn't long enough to braid."

"Well it's in a ravens nature to want to groom or preen the ones we care about and neither you or mistress have any feathers to preen, but you both have such lovely hair, maybe if I could brush and braid it and such that would be enough?"

He had been looking down fiddling with one of the flowers as he spoke but he looked up questioningly at her once he was done. He obviously wasn't sure it was a good idea, He still didn't know that much about human and fay customs and over the years Maleficent had taught him not to assume anything was alright so he needed to make sure.

"I think that's a lovely idea Diaval of course I'll teach you!" Aurora said enthusiastically. Diaval would be a good student she already knew, it would be a wonderful way to spend the day. "There are different types of braiding too! This will be fun!" He grinned at her enthusiasm and settled down further to listen to her instructions and practice on her hair.

By the end of the day he could do not only a regular braid, but also one that Aurora called a 'fish tail braid' though, he couldn't figure out why and was starting to get the nag of a 'french braid'. The separated when the sun was just starting to disappear behind the trees, this was the time when both Aurora's aunties and Maleficent would be looking for the two of them to return.

Diaval walked back through the forest of thorns with none of the trepidation that others felt, the thorns made way for him as both he and they were creations of Maleficent's magic. He walked out of the other side of the wall whistling happily though, he still wasn't very good at whistling in this form and half the time it only came out as a blowing sound. He found Maleficent quickly, it wasn't hard, at this time of day she liked to go up to one of the cliffs to watch the sunset. He was puffing slightly from the climb when he flopped down next to her on the edge on the cliff.

"Did you have a good time with Aurora?" She asked without looking at him. She didn't really sound like she cared but Diaval was pleased she asked, even though she probably wouldn't listen to the answer it was her giving him permission to speak as he wished. He enjoyed talking a bit to much she told him so he often tried not to speak until he was asked a question though he still didn't know when to stop talking after that.

"I did Mistress." He said happily sitting up and dangling his legs over the edge of the cliff as she was doing. "She asked about what is going on in the rest of the kingdom as usual but then she taught me how to do something new."

"What did she teach you?" Maleficent asked in the same uninterested tone, well she was listening with half of her attention at least.

"Would it be alright if I showed you rather then told you Mistress?" Diaval asked tentatively.

"I suppose so." Maleficent said with a shrug not taking her eyes ofter the red sky. "Aurora would hardly have taught you anything inappropriate." Diaval breathed a small sigh of relief and grinned moving around behind his mistress. He decided to do the 'fishtail braid' thing because it was a bit more impressive then the regular one. It took longer but Maleficent was showing no sign of moving so Diaval thought he probably had the time.

Sure enough she sat still as the sun light disappeared and the stars emerged and the moon rose giving Diaval enough light to work with. He finished not long after the moon had risen trying the braid off with a green ribbon Aurora had given him, because they had both agreed Maleficent would like it and grinned down at his work.

"I'm finished." He announced proudly and sat back on his heals as Maleficent reached back to feel what he had done to her hair.

"So Aurora taught you how to braid?" She asked and he couldn't miss the small smile on her face or in her voice.

"Yes mistress." Diaval said happily. "It looked like an enjoyable thing to do and I thought it might please to have your hair decorated." He had not missed his mistresses love for pretty things, even if they were mostly dark things, it was a lot like a raven too. That was what had first given him the idea, along with the fancy hair some women at the castle sported.

"You were right Diaval." Maleficent praised softly. He basked in it, glad that he had done something that made her happy. "Now I think it's time we went back to our nest and settled down for the night." She stood up smoothly and transformed Diaval back into a raven with a flick of her wrist. He followed her through the air back to their nest and settled on a branch above where she was sleeping.

He knew she wouldn't fall asleep very quickly at all, but as a bird it was hard for him to stay awake once it was dark so he fell asleep quickly. Still he couldn't help but notice how she stroked the braid one for time and smiled contentedly before she settled down and he thought that maybe, just maybe, she would sleep better this night.