Into the Lair

He still wasn’t sure, even as his lips moved against hers.  It had been long enough since he’d kissed his wife that he couldn’t tell.  On a wave of something like despair, he pressed closer, slipping his hands toward her back and pulling her into him.  She was already working through similar motions, her fingers in his hair drawing out goosebumps.  While his mind was starting to run overtime, analyzing and thinking, the rest of him was more actively engaged, trying with desperation to make sense of what was happening.  He deepened the kiss, held her closer, and tried to find something of Aurora he could hold onto.

Originally posted by fyeahegerton

She felt her body melt into his, desperate to hold on to the one thing she’d been searching for, waiting for, all this time. It almost felt unreal. Though the warmth of his body and the wet, softness of his lips convinced her otherwise, as she pushed herself deeper into a moment. The hand the was in his hair strayed a little, lowering to cup his cheek and draw his lips closer.

While it was true he hadn’t had much interaction with Maleficent at all in his present life, and had barely any interaction with her as a human in a former life, it still went against everything to be kissing her.  She had so clearly been the enemy before, the one who imprisoned Aurora and challenged him.  He didn’t even know why she had done that, staked a claim for dominance over them both.  He only knew that she had, and he had been ordered to fight her to win Aurora’s hand.  The two were impossibly intertwined for him, always had been, and this was in a completely different way.  It was difficult to set that all aside. 

He didn’t allow the debate to rage, though, didn’t give it space to grow or give her time to doubt.  He had easily shared hundreds of kisses with two different women and knew the mechanics of it were easy enough to sort out.  As he stepped in her and traced a finger along the curtain of her hair, unnecessarily keeping it out of her face he smiled.  “Hello,” he said easily, his voice a little deeper and more intimate than it had been, before he pressed his lips against hers gently, still testing.  He wasn’t sure whom exactly he was testing, her or himself, but it called for a certain restraint he was willing to apply.

She felt her heart skip a little his lips pressed softly into hers. With her eyes closed, he’d felt his breath first and the finger on her hair, and even then she hadn’t expected it. It was gentle and loving, almost. And the part of her that had been waiting months for this couldn’t help but raise its foot and trail its fingers into the short hair at the back of his head, pulling him closer. Of course, princesses were supposed to be tame and reserved, but sometimes you just had to, didn’t you?

Philip had never, not once, seen Aurora blush.  Part of that was quite likely that he had never been trying to make her uncomfortable, for he only wanted to win her heart to go with the hand he had already won through demonstration of skill (and luck.)  He held his breath and waited for her answer, hoping it wouldn’t send him skittering away before he’d had a chance to really verify.  He’d got himself this far, after all.  She wasn’t breathing fire at him, which was an excellent start.  Maybe it was his wife, because he wasn’t sure he’d made it this far into an encounter with Maleficent without that being the case.  He added that thought to the minuscule pile of evidence in his head. 

“A kiss is always a good start,” he said, trying to sound unassuming.  He shifted a bit closer. “If I may.”

She stared at him a moment. Ohhhh God. A kiss. A real kiss. She was in some parts bouncing with excitement and others cautious. He’d never asked before. He’d never even tried to try. There was a tiny, terrified part of her that thought it was likely a cruel joke, that his friends would be watching and they’d all jump out and laugh at her at any given time. But then... this was Prince Charming, after all. He was supposed to be kind and dashing, like in the stories. And she wasn’t going to miss her one and possibly only chance before he change his mind.

With a soft nod, she closed her eyes and tilted her head toward him, ready for whatever came next.

Philip kept himself rooted in place, held by a reminder this may be the only way he could test and know for sure Aurora was… still alive somehow.  It was a wild hope at best, but it was all he had at this point.  While he had recognized the permanence of the situation, and the benefit in moving on, he still missed her.  He had moments in time where that was the most substantial thing about him, and those had been more frequent since Mac’s departure.

Her excitement wasn’t necessarily as lowkey as Aurora’s would likely have been, or had been more than once.  He kept his eyes trained on her face and mustered up a smile.  Maybe he was remembering it inaccurately, because time was capable of doing strange things to memories.  He had to actively try to inject some levity into his voice.  “Have you now?  Well, I’m here.  What were you hoping to do with me once you did see me?” 

Her face hovered somewhere between joy and concern. He’d never been this forthcoming before. Or at least, since she’d come into herself. The grip on his fingers loosened a little and she relaxed their hands gently between them.

“Oh... well,” she hummed, gazing uncertainly at his chest as she felt a blush crawl up her neck. It sounded a little bit flirting and she wasn’t quite sure how to respond. One had to maintain their image as a lady, after all. And besides, she’d already done exactly what she’d hoped to do with him: she’d said hello and she was holding his hands. “Just, you know, the usual.” A smile pressed into her lips and she raised a demure shoulder. “What did you want me to do?”

Philip was starting to wonder if he’d actually let Aurora go, if he’d actually moved on with Mac.  The longer he sat at the bar with the stupid rubber duck drinks, the more nights in a row he lingered over expensive cocktails he wasn’t drinking, the more he wondered. 

It had been easy to dismiss Maleficent because the details were off center and, admittedly, she freaked him out.  But the more time he spent thinking, the more he wondered – was it possible?  Could some part of Aurora really exist within her somewhere?  It wouldn’t have been his first choice for a reincarnated vessel, and he knew it wouldn’t be Aurora’s, but a late night and lonely thought led him to somewhere he thought it likely to find her.  And, okay, fine, maybe he’d consumed the duck drink and it packed enough  punch he stopped dismissing her out of hand.  

He had tried asking Maleficent questions, and the answers had varied and left nothing clear.  But what if he kissed her?  He could probably still remember what it was like to kiss Aurora, their chemistry and love culminating in something unique to Aurora that he’d felt.  If he felt it again, it had to mean she was there somewhere, right?  And he’d spent legitimate time wishing he could steal one more moment, one more kiss, one more night.  Would he be stupid to ignore that chance because of the packaging it came in?  

So he wandered into the Black Dragon, Maleficent’s bar, in spite of the fact it made him uncomfortable just to walk in.  After all, its namesake was a creature he’d done battle with at some point.  He wandered up to the bar, knowing it was quite late and near closing, and asked if Maleficent was there, second guessing himself as he waited while the barkeep looked.

It came as quite a surprise when the barkeep came looking for her, and even more so when they told here that there was someone out there who wanted to see her. Her heart wished it was the prince. Her head, on the other hand, already used to months of disappointment, told her it was someone here finally who wanted her to make them her famous (it had received 3 whole likes on the bar instagram) Strawberry Surprise.

When she saw the face, though, her chest fluttered. This was possibly the first time he’d gone searching for her and she could almost feel herself swelling with the love.

“Philip!” She grinned, skipping excitedly over and gripping his hands with so much enthusiasm her knuckles went white. “I’ve been waiting to see you.”

Philip shook his head.  While he was trying to figure out what was going on wasn’t really the time to criticize her ice cream choice.  “It  was just a question.  You should get whatever you want,” he said.  He glanced over at her, trying to gauge how he really felt about all this.  Was it real?  Was it not real?  Would he even be able to tell? 

The more important thing, really, was did he want it to be real?  He supposed it was entirely possible this whole thing wasn’t really happening and was a figment of his imagination, a part of him that missed his wife so much he’d made her up.  He just couldn’t figure out why his subconscious would 1) wait until he had a Mac in his life and 2) make Aurora look like Maleficent instead of Aurora.  Objectively speaking, they were all beautiful women.  Subjectively speaking, Maleficent as a dragon had tried to kill him, had guarded Aurora’s prison, and was generally terrifying once you got past the fact that she was a beautiful woman. 

He swiped his hand over his face, using the motion as an excuse to stop staring.  Ultimately, he passed on ordering any ice cream for himself, because he figured it would just end up a gooey puddle, kind of like his thoughts.  “So what’s the plan after this?” He finally managed, really unsure how exactly he meant it but hoping she could provide some guidance. 

“Erm,” she tapped her fingers together and bounced a little on her toes. Questions, questions. Maybe this was the test. Maybe he wanted to trick her into thinking she wanted chocolate because she should want tuti fruiti and he wanted to see if she was an impostor. Maybe. Maybe she was just overthinking it. “Tutti Frutti,” she decided after what felt like an eternity of deliberation, turning to see him looking at her.

Something fluttered in her chest. It was a feeling she’d missed. Though at this point she wasn’t certain how long it would last.