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"If only Flittle could regenerate faster", complained Knottgrass. "What good is a flower when baking?"
"Yes, can't you just enchant the ingredients the way you used to?", added Thistlewit.
Flittle was regenerating more slowly than anticipated: and by the time Aurora's birthday had come once more and her aunties had assured that they would be in charge of the cake, they had assumed that Flittle would be able to handle it.
And now they were covered in flour from head to toe, while the batter was solid as bricks.
"Maybe if we add a bit of this...", said Knottgrass, reaching for one of the jars on the side.
On the window's edge of the kitchen, a raven let out an exhausted croak.
Maleficent had been busy doing the travel between the Moors and wherever the Dark Faes used to hide: in the meantime, Diaval was there to 'chaperone' Aurora and Philippe -"they're adults already, and married", he'd protested, "why would I watch over them?", to which she'd replied with "the last time I didn't pay enough attention to those two, they got engaged and a war started: I'm not planning on going through that again"-, which included making sure her aunties didn't poison her to death for her birthday.
Seeing Thistlewit enthusiastically reach for the pepper, he let out another croak of warning, and another, to no avail.
"Quiet, crow", said Knottgrass, already grabbing yet another worrying ingredient -here she went, holding up vinegar!-, "this should make the batter more liquid..."
He could no longer watch this. He was once again grateful for finally being able to change shapes at will, and he flew off the window with another croack, already shifting back into a human to tell off those murderous bakers-
"Stop it!", snapped Knottgrass, waving her hand at him.
The magic hit him just as his foot touched the floor: and the bird-man suddenly froze, as his body turned into stone.
Knottgrass, Thistlewit, and the flower that was now Flittle, could only watch in horror, as Maleficent's servant now stood there, turned into stone.
"What have you done?", managed to whisper Thistlewit.
Of course, that was only the start of their problems: for none of their magic could change him back into a living being, and they didn't react quickly enough to Aurora bursting into the kitchen, saying "aunties, the party is about to start-", only to be met with a statue of the man who'd raised her.
"Surprise?", tried Thistlewit.
Aurora and the fairies quickly agreed that Maleficient should only be told as a last resort: the queen called for her husband's help, and, while his father entertained confused guests, they started going through every magic book they could find in the library, discreetly asking the magical beings in attendance.
But no one knew what to do with a shapeshifter frozen into stone: and soon, Maleficient's voice was echoing across the corridors, as she searched for her daughter that she hadn't seen in so long.
"Just a minute!", shouted Aurora through the door, giving statue-Diaval, that they had carried into the library, a distressed look.
"Beastie, what is the meaning of this?", protested Maleficent behind the door.
"Just a minute!"
A minute passed. Maleficent was already irritated enough: the travel had been long and her whole body was sore, Diaval was nowhere in sight when she arrived, and now Aurora was hiding in a library. She'd said a minute: well, she had given her one.
Maleficent pushed open the door, ready to ask her what in the world she was doing... and found herself staring right at Diaval, who looked oddly statue like.
"Diaval?", she reacted.
"I'm so sorry", immediately said Aurora, rushing to her side, already tearing up. "Aunty Knottgrass really didn't mean to, and we've been searching for a cure-"
Maleficent's head snapped towards the fairy, who'd been hiding into a shelf.
"You", she spoke out, voice full of venom, and Knottgrass was suddenly teared away from the other two and landed into her hand, claws of fingers clutching at her.
"I had no idea this would happen!", pled Knottgrass. "I didn't even mean to change him into anything-"
"Why is my raven a statue?", hissed Maleficent, shaking her like a kid might shake a toy.
"Please, do not hurt her!", asked Aurora.
For her sake, Maleficent stopped the shaking -for now-.
"I only asked him to stop cawing", said Knottgrass very fast, feeling quite dizzy, "and he just became like this-"
"There's no mention of anything like this in the books", added Philippe. "We haven't been able to find any cure."
Maleficent's grip on Knottgrass tightened just enough for Aurora and Philippe to gulp down nervously.
"There is a story", she said, slowly. "Among the Faes, of a man whose love turned the statue he built into a human woman. A ridiculous tale, obviously-"
"Of course, true love!", reacted Aurora, overjoyed. "That must be the cure!"
"Maleficent, you should hurry", dared to say Philippe -he wasn't as afraid as before that Maleficent would turn him into a goose, despite the spell she'd put on his mother: mostly because he knew Aurora would protest, and Maleficent couldn't bear to be in disagreement with her-. "The guests have been waiting for a while, and who knows what could happen if he stayed a statue for too long-"
"The story spoke of a statue being turned into a woman, not a man into a statue", reminded Maleficent, "and how can I hurry, exactly? Shall I find him a lover, seeing how well such a kiss worked last time?"
"He didn't mean that you should find someone for Diaval", said Aurora, who'd gone from relieved that they had found a solution so quickly, to worried as she'd remembered her godmother's aversion to romance and talks of love. "He meant that..."
"Cansomeonegetmeout", pled Knottgrass, still choking in Maleficent's grip.
Aurora took her gently from Maleficent and released her, before turning towards the fae again, searching for the words.
"He meant that...", she began again, "that you, should kiss him."
Maleficent looked at her then Philippe, taking in their serious looks, before letting out a chuckle of disbelief.
"Beastie, do you even hear yourself?", she asked.
"Ever since I was a little girl, the two of you have always been together", reasoned Aurora. "The way you look at him... what truer love could there be?"
"You're mistaken", said Maleficent, but her voice had reduced to a whisper, and she couldn't help but glance at her servant, eyes still wide with surprise, as the spell had taken over him.
"Please, try it", begged Aurora. "What if he gets stuck like this forever?"
She could still remember what he'd looked like, the first time she'd changed him into a human. Dirty. Ungrateful. Complaining, even as she saved him. Dark eyes following her movements, as they'd done for more than twenty years now.
She cleared her throat.
"Very well. I shall try."
"Great", deflated Philippe, and him and Aurora immediately moved to the side, leaving more space.
Maleficent raised a judgemental eyebrow.
"Without an audience", she added.
"Of course", agreed Aurora, already grabbing Philippe by the arm. "We have a party to host anyways, just call us if it doesn't work!"
"There were tons of people watching for my kiss-", grumbled Philippe, but they left the library along with the fairies.
As soon as the door closed behind them, Maleficent let out a tired sigh.
"Really, Diaval, can you not do anything without me?"
The statue did not answer, but she could still hear his voice in her head -"well, what about you, Mistress? Remind me who helped you with that iron net?" and then they'd banter for hours and whenever she'd pretend to change him into a raven to shut him up he'd remind her that she couldn't use that method anymore, and she'd sigh "why on earth did I do that", and he'd have that ridiculous grin of his that was so hard not to mirror-.
"I should get Beastie instead", she said, diverting her eyes from his face. "You've always treated her like your own daughter, I'm sure it'd work."
But Aurora thought that she could break the spell. After all, hadn't she been wrong before? Did she not break Aurora's curse?
"That was different", she said out loud. "A mother's love cannot possibly be compared to..."
Romantic love.
She raised her hand, the way she usually did when trying to change his shape, but only to brush the tips of her fingers against his lips. They were cold, hard, and her hand moved to cradle the side of his face.
On the night of Aurora's wedding, when Diaval had finally wrapped his head around everything -the Dark Faes, the evil queen, her apparently being some kind of Phoenix that'd just come back from the dead-, he'd ended up asking her what that made of them.
"I don't see what you mean", she'd replied.
"I mean, you've got all these uh", he'd said, and gestured towards the other faes. "These people like you, and Aurora's all grown, and you have your wings -not much use for a raven like me, is there?"
"And you used to be such a vain bird", tutted Maleficient. "Whatever happened to you?"
"I wasn't much help against that queen, was I? You had to do everything all by yourself again."
"Do you think I keep you around to get rid of queens for me?", she replied. "There haven't been nearly enough of them for me to bear with you for that long."
"Then why?"
She pulled a face, her wings fluttering awkwardly behind her.
"I have come to...", she began.
In her field of vision, she could see him staring at her, always those eyes following her.
"Grow... fond of you", she managed to say, before adding quickly, "let's forget about this. Why didn't you go with Aurora to the castle?"
"Who was supposed to watch over the Moors with you gone and her on that demon's side-"
Maleficent blinked, coming back to the moment, and the stone she could feel against her skin.
"Just know", she warned, "that this will be horribly awkward for the both of us."
She placed the other hand on his cheek so as to hold his face in her palms, her thumbs resting against the little scars near his eyes. The traitor had the audacity to be taller than her.
True love's kiss. What a ridiculous thing.
Closing her eyes, she got on her tip-toes, and pressed a quick kiss to his forehead.
She didn't linger, already ashamed as she stepped back.
"Well, well", she said, turning on her heels, and she was definitely not embarassed, and after all, surely, Aurora's kiss would cure him, wouldn't it? Diaval couldn't possibly stay a statue, that would be ridiculous, and if she was as powerful as everyone claimed she was, she'd find another way to get him back to normal, "surprise, surprise, it didn't wor-"
"Did you hurt your head again?", said a voice behind her. "You talking to yourself now?"
She froze -not into a statue, thankfully-, and turned around.
Diaval was standing there, as alive as one could be.
"Diaval", she breathed out.
"Glad you can remember my name after leaving for all this time", he said, before frowning, looking around, "and why are we in the library?"
She composed herself quickly, straightening up.
"Well, of course a birdbrain like you would be forgetting such things."
"Is that supposed to be an insult?", he protested. "Ravens are very smart-"
"You were cursed", she interrupted. "I saved you. No need to thank me, by the way, it's only the, let me think, hundreth time already?"
Diaval's eyes widened.
"The pink fairy."
"Beastie's aunties are as useless as usual", said Maleficent, already walking to the door as quickly as she could, Diaval following behind. "I already had such a long travel, and now I have to uncurse you -where on earth is our goddaughter?"
"Right", said Diaval, as they moved through the corridor, "and how exactly did you uncurse me?"
Maleficent stopped abruptly, leading to him bumping into her wings.
"Magic, of course", she finally said.
"Magic?"
"Yes. Most powerful being on Earth, remember?"
"I don't think that's exactly what the legends say-", mumbled Diaval.
"What did you say to your savior?"
"Thank you", he said, pretending to bow. "Should I make myself your servant again? Would you be happy with a second oath of fealty?"
"I'll consider it-", she said, before stopping as she heard running in their direction: next thing she knew, Aurora had thrown herself at Diaval.
"Woah there", he reacted, grinning as he hugged her back, before letting go. "What's all this for?"
"All this for? You were a statue!", she replied, before turning to Maleficent, beaming. "I told you true love's kiss would work!"
Philippe, who was right on her heels, stopped abruptly behind her, as silence fell onto the group.
Aurora was looking at Maleficent. Maleficent was looking at her in betrayal. Diaval was looking at Maleficent. Philippe decided to look at Maleficent too, as a silence more pregnant than Aurora -well, that was supposed to be a surprise, really, but he was pretty sure that Maleficent had already figured it out- settled.
"True love's kiss?", finally said Diaval.
"Yes", said Aurora, now uncertain. "Is that not what you used...?"
There was an easy way out for Maleficent.
She'd come back from the dead. She'd broken her own curse before. She'd found her people, whomst she thought had disappeared a long time ago. Breaking a tiny little spell by some pathetic fairy should be easy as pie for her, and she could pretend that it was so.
Except that she could still feel those dark eyes looking at her, looking through her, and so she slowly turned to meet his gaze.
"Yes", she said, slowly, already regretting her words, but she would not lie to him. "It is what I used."
"True love's kiss?", he repeated.
She could hear the unsaid right there: "you?".
"It worked before", she said. "Aren't the three of us family?"
"Well, of course", he agreed, and she couldn't tell what emotion he was showing, and it was stressing her out -what is disappointment? Confusion?-. "Erm, doesn't matter anyways, I'm awake, and it's Aurora's birthday. I do hope there's another cake aside from the one the fairies made?"
"Oh, yes", said Aurora, accepting the change in conversation. "I wanted to give them a chance but their cake is honestly horrendous -I made sure to keep plates for the both of you..."
Maleficent and Diaval were sitted next to each other as usual but exchanged only about two words throughout the meal, Maleficent sticking to Aurora while refusing to discuss the curse with her, Diaval making small talk with Philippe and his father.
When it was time to leave, the other Dark Faes took flight, while Maleficent, by habit, looked for Diaval.
"Here", he said, coming from behind her. "Should we walk home?"
"My wings are still tired from the journey", she admitted.
"Should I transform into a horse, so you won't have to walk?"
"Don't be ridiculous", she dismissed, but accepted the hand he offered.
The streets were still loud and crowded, but children no longer ran away from them, and Diaval watched as Maleficent attempted a smile at a little girl, who gave a wave in return.
They walked silently, and he'd already accepted they wouldn't mention the incident as they crossed the river, when she suddenly spoke up.
"I kissed you on the forehead."
He glanced at her, surprised.
"Just so you know", she added. "I'm not like that... insolent prince."
"I know you wouldn't take advantage of me", he replied. "I know you, you know."
"Still", she said.
She was looking to the side on purpose, avoiding his eyes.
"Maleficent", he called out softly, and stopped.
She did the same, faking interest in a mushroom growing on a tree nearby.
"Why are we stopping?", she asked. "We're not home yet-"
"I love you."
She turned her head towards him so fast her neck made an uncomfortable sound, green eyes looking up to his.
"Diaval-"
"I have for years", he added quickly. "I'm in love with you."
When she only stared at him without replying, he added:
"And I know that with what that king did to you you're not interested in such things, and I don't want to make you uncomfortable with that but-"
"I might too", she interrupted.
"What?"
"Love you", she said, and broke the eye contact, waving a dismissing hand. "Be in love with you. Those things."
It took a moment for the realization to hit him, but he began grinning like an idiot as soon as it did.
"Well? Can we go home now?", she said, but he leaned forward to try and get a look at her face. "What do you think you're doing now?"
"You're smiling too", he beamed.
"I am not", she said, furrowing her eyebrows as much as she could, hoping it would lessen her smile.
"You have the loveliest smile", he added, making her even more flustered.
"Flattery will bring you nowhere", she said.
"How can it be flattery when it is true?"
"I'll change you into a bird again if you keep saying things like that", she warned, but let go of her grip on his arm, instead reaching for his hand. He intertwined their fingers together, giving them a light squeeze, as they began walking again.
"You can't use that as a threat anymore", he reminded, "I can just change back-"
"Back into a man, I know: why on earth did I give you this ability?"
"Maybe because you're in love with me, mistress-"
"No more of this, I beg of you-"