The night had fallen upon The Moors silently, without giving much warning nor standing on ceremonies. Having lived there her whole life, Maleficent had developed a particular pleasure toward watching the sunset, she would sit quietly under the shadow of her hometree, hug her knees close to her chest and rest her chin on either of knees as she set her unnatural green eyes on the sky, watching carefully as the sun slowly dipped behind the high and faraway mountains of The Moors and beyond. She was especially fond of the times when birds flew before the sun, when they were just silhouettes and looked black against the livid red of the ever burning star.

But not that night. She'd been watching, tracing every single move until she heard a crack above her; a bird –too fat to stand on it, had broken a branch and interrupted her. When she looked back to the sky, the sun was nowhere to be found and the slight disappointment at having one of the regular, if not routine-like things in her life taken away from her, was menacingly starting to creep its way up her spine.

Silly bird.

Her temper had not changed over the years, she was still easily irritated. And talking about silly birds, where did her silly bird get into?

Soon after Aurora had been crowned queen, Maleficent had released Diaval from his servitude; there was no reason to keep him a slave anyhow. She had expected him to leave, to go away and start a family, but much to her surprise, he had asked her permission to stay. It wasn't until Diaval made that simple request that she realized she hadn't imagined her life without him, and doing so was incredibly painful. They were friends now, real close friends and she really enjoyed the time they spent together but every once in a while she needed her time alone just as much as Diaval needed his. Today had been one of those days; he'd taken off in the morning and tried to explain her his plans.

You needn't tell me what you're going to do, Diaval. You're free remember? Just go.

A part of her had been waiting for him to say something, to push her words away and tell her anyhow… but he didn't. He just shrugged, nodded and morphed into his raven form before flying away smoothly. Now Maleficent wondered if he had been trying to tell her that he was going to leave her now and she just dismissed him, as if it didn't matter.

If that were the case, she hated herself for denying the both of them the chance of saying goodbye properly. She felt guilty for not telling him how much he'd come to mean to her over the years, how close she held him to her heart… Maleficent felt sorry she didn't tell him how she'd come to love him.

But if that weren't the case and he came back, there was no way she'd tell him any of those things. Diaval was already incredibly conceited and Maleficent was not going to provide any material to feed his ego. Now that she had her wings back, she didn't need Diaval's, she needed something far more precious from him.

When he stopped being her wings, he somehow begun to be her heart.

But he doesn't need to know that.

Lost as she was in the middle of the night, she didn't hear the flutter of wings behind her, nor the steps that followed after he changed back into a man.

"Maleficent!" calling her name out loud was his way of greeting and scaring her to death at the same time. She jumped in surprise and turned around just to glare at him with annoyance "I'm sorry, didn't mean to startle you…" he said as he approached her.

As she tried to steady her heart, Maleficent wondered why or when he had started calling her that. Maleficent. When did she become Maleficent and ceased to be Mistress? It wasn't some sort of unspoken agreement because the idea had never crossed her mind, but every single time Diaval said her name she felt something inside her chest, warming her… so she kept quiet, waiting for the moment when he would screw something up and she could use his lack of respect to her advantage.

Flying was their number one hobby and fighting was their second favourite one, after all.

"Where have you been? I was… "Maleficent ran a list of possible words to fill that gap in her mind, but in the end she used the one everyone else would've expected "worried."

"Oh, now you want to know?" Diaval mocked her.

Maleficent didn't know what it was, maybe he could read her like an open book because he knew her so well, or maybe it was that her eyes shined with a harder shade of green whenever she was becoming angry, she didn't know… But Diaval did.

"I'm just joking, don't look at me like that" he put his hands up, surrendering.

"And well? Will you tell me?"

Diaval then reached out, searching his pockets. After a few seconds he pulled out a ring. It was a silver ring, so carefully crafted that it masterfully imitated the form of a vine, and at its center a beautiful black pearl was sticking out. Maleficent could only watch in disbelief the jewel Diaval now extended with his hand in front of her.

"I flew to the coast today. It took me some time to find something worthy of you, but I finally spotted this black beautiful pearl and I thought that it was perfect for you. So I flew back and went straight to our hatchling's castle, I requested her help and she took to me to a blacksmith and then to a jeweler. It took the entire day, but I finally made it back here… So take it, it is for you" Diaval looked at her with devotion in his eyes.

"How… Why? I mean, what did I do to deserve this?" Maleficent didn't take the ring and focused her eyes on Diaval instead.

"You're a wonderful fairy, Maleficent. Today it's going to be eighteen years since the day you saved my life and I've never expressed my gratitude to you, not fully. I mean, I did promise I'd be your servant, but you are a lot more to me than just my Mistress or my friend…" he quivered then, but finally found the resolution to do it "You've become my mate. Take this ring as promise, not of servitude, but of devotion. I'll never leave your side unless you tell me to," he then closed the space between them and took her hand in his, gracefully placing the ring on her ring finger just to squeeze it tenderly after he'd done so "but then again you probably knew all of this already and I'm just stating the obvious but-"

Maleficent cut him off by placing her lips on his quickly, it was a mere peck.

"Thank you, Diaval…" she said as she ran her hands up his torso until she reached his shoulders and let them rest there, she looked at the ring on her finger and smiled "it's beautiful, but you didn't have to. I didn't get you a present for this, uhm… What do we call it? Anniversary?"

He was still surprised by her kiss and didn't reply until she shook him slightly.

"Diaval?" Maleficent called.

"You don't have to get me anything; I think I've gotten enough" the smile he dedicated her then was genuine.

Then, just as the night had fallen, so suddenly and quick, Diaval kissed her again.

Perhaps she'd tell him later that day how she really felt about him, but right now she could pour all of her emotions into that kiss and she knew he'd understand.

First Maleficent fic! Fluff as hell, I know, I know... This was going to be angsty but these two fluff themselves out without my permission...