Frenzy
Title: Courtship Rituals
Song: Your Song (Christina Grimmie cover)
Maleficent was at her wits' end.
Diaval has always been the type to bring home stuff that attracts his attention: baubles, colorful rocks and minerals, pretty flowers, and a lot of other things. Every spring, however, it gets worse. Not only does Diaval litter her nest with the stuff he collects, but he also behaves oddly when they're flying. He has taken to doing all these fancy acrobatics that, to Maleficent, only looks exhausting. She's right, because Diaval is often out of breath when they land, and yet he will exhibit the same behavior the next day.
A couple of seasons had passed since this idiosyncrasy began, and Maleficent reckons it's about time she learns the reason behind it all. She does find out one day, in a bizarre manner.
"Diaval." She lightly taps the raven-man, crouched over a myriad of flowers he's arranging.
"Mistress! You startled me." Diaval exclaims, dropping the flowers he's holding.
"What are you doing?" She queries, incredulity seeping into her voice.
Diaval lightly scratches his head, smiling sheepishly. "I'm trying to make a bouquet, like the one Phillip gave to Aurora the other day. Aurora genuinely liked the gift, so I thought I'd try making one as well."
"Ah, you intend to spoil the beastie further?" Maleficent queries, a lilt of amusement in her tone.
"What? No! This isn't for Aurora. Although I suppose I could make her one as well… but this isn't for her." Diaval retorts, Maleficent's silhouette over his sitting figure.
"Then who is it for?" Maleficent raises an eyebrow at him.
Diaval's face morphs into one of surprise. "Don't you realize? They're for you, mistress."
"Me? But why? Is this related to your acquired habit of leaving things in my nest?"
"Well, yes, although I've intended to give this to you in person instead of just dropping it off." He offers her an embarrassed grin.
Maleficent looks down on him quizzically. "Again, why?"
"I… you don't know?" He mirrors her confused expression.
"What should I know, Diaval?" She finally sits down across him, determined to get an answer.
"I… well…"
"Spit it out, Diaval." She demands, growing impatient.
"I'm… how was I supposed to know you weren't aware of raven courting rituals?" Diaval huffs in exasperation.
"Courting? Is that what you've been doing all this time? Courting me?" And here she thought he was just a raven who's fond of pretty things, and has taken a liking to showing them to her.
"Erm, yes."
They stared at each other for a while, at a loss for words regarding the miscommunication problem that had risen. Finally, Maleficent smiles teasingly.
"Really, Diaval. Did you forget I'm not a raven? We faeries do not exhibit peculiar mating rituals. Instead, we talk."
Diaval chortles helplessly. "I'm sorry. I suppose my raven nature comes out when I don't know how to approach a situation."
Maleficent stands up, brushing away dirt from her cloak. She extends a hand to him. "Come on then."
"Huh? Where are we going?" He blinks dumbly at her.
"To my nest. We're going to talk." She smiles slyly at him. Diaval's eyes grow comically wide but he takes her hand in silence, and she intertwines her fingers with his as they walk.
A/N: This goes out to mouseears, who suggested the song (although I cheated because I didn't listen to the original because the cover was the one I had on my laptop). Thanks!
I'm honestly starting to lose steam (although I am writing an AU one-shot that's now 3.4k words long and counting).
Reviews make my day. :)
Cheers!