Sleeping Warrior Drabble: Secrets Under Streetlights (1/1)

Summary: An Anon-prompt request. AU. Mulan and Aurora are roughly high-school aged, growing up in Storybrooke. Mulan is currently dating Aurora, but has requested that their relationship remain secret because of her parents' disapproval.

Unfortunately, all good things come to an end…

AN: Sorry this took so long, darlin' :C I had only this one little itsy bit sketched in my mind and I couldn't seem to tie it in with any of my other AU's and fic 'verses. :L Hopefully this will make up for the long wait…

—x—

The moon sat swollen like a burnished silvery coin tossed up amongst the stars. The pale, sightless face of the man-in-the-moon gazed down; peering between clouds like an alien visitor, surveying the world that lay sprawled out below.

Summer's warmth still clung to the Earth, though the sun had set long ago.

On a tiny suburban street a light post gave off an ethereal light as it hummed in the dark. The pale florescent bulb droned and flickered; its only companions were the moths that buzzed frantically about—- darting in and out of its luminescence—- and a shadowy figure that leaned against its wrought iron post.

An owl glared down at the lean, leather-clad intruder and hooted balefully while fireflies danced in their lazy circles, flickering eagerly in search of a mate.

Mulan ran a jittery hand through her dark ebony locks, relishing in the creak of her black leather jacket. She fidgeted nervously with the zipper, tinkering anxiously, before moving again to check the tiny blue LED screen on her phone.

Contact Name: Aurora.

No new messages.

She blew a puff of air through her nose, and checked the time.

"Late." She grumbled, tucking the phone away into the back-pocket of her dark jeans before scuffing a toe of her boots on the sidewalk's grit. In a matter of minutes, her keen ears pricked at the sound of rustling foliage. A lean shadow stepped out from a hedge along the roadside, and sauntered lithely towards the familiar meeting place.

The dusky pallor of the streetlamp soon illuminated the young woman that approached. A swoop-neck t-shirt and a pair of purple leggings soon came into view as the girl trotted easily up the sidewalk. Crystal clear eyes of sky-blue gazed back from the darkness, and ringlets of amber bounced with the movement of her body as she huffed and plucked twigs from her tresses with careful distinction.

"Where were you?" came Mulan's query, her tone far too clipped and stern for the silent and heady, summernight air.

"I got delayed." Aurora replied, stepping to Mulan's side "My father was still awake. I had to sneak out the window this time." Her eyes flashed defiantly in the moonlight, as she gazed steadily back at her lover. Greeting Mulan's coldness with silent reprimand. Steely silence that was carefully masked by an even tone and a rigid caste to her willowy body.

Mulan knew that the sharp glinting edge to her lover's glare was meant to impart a cutting message: I am not a child. Do not treat me as such.

Mulan's tone softened apologetically, as she shuffled awkwardly closer to Aurora. "I'm sorry. That was rude of me…I was worried you would not come." The dark haired woman avoided eye contact, trying to hide her blatant guilt and worry.

"Well, I'm here now." Aurora's lips quirked up into a smile, her body softening as she reached out an arm and twined it around Mulan's waist to pull her close. Mulan shuddered beneath Aurora's touch, and a soft brush of lips laced her throat with the gentlest of kisses.

"Yes. You are." Mulan agreed, her lips arching up into one of her rare crooked smiles as she looked down into Aurora's icy-pale eyes. Starlight danced in the clear blue depths, and Mulan felt some deep part of her relax…almost as if her soul was sighing in contentment.

In those eyes, Mulan felt as if she fully understood the meaning of the word 'home'.

She is here. With me. She chose me.

Aurora pulled away slightly, looping her arms around Mulan's neck and looking her lover full in the face with a mischievous, playful air. "So, what was it that you needed to tell me? Your text from earlier seemed urgent."

Mulan felt her chest sink as if under a great weight. She sighed, nervously running her fingers through her ebony locks a second time, steeling herself against the dark pull of sorrow. "I…have some bad news. I think my parents are suspicious…they know something is happening between us."

Aurora's eyebrows shot up in mute surprise before furrowing in concern. "What? How?"

Mulan shook her head sullenly, avoiding eye contact. "I don't know… but they've grounded me. I'm not supposed to leave the house without supervision, and they keep mentioning 'military school' as an option for 'my insolence and bad attitude'. They're talking about sending me away."

The joy of the evening all but rushed out in a silent 'whoosh', evaporating into thin air. Mulan seemed to shrink under Aurora's gaze, shame and sadness making her broad shoulders stoop and her frame sag. It was as if her whole body was sighing, worry and fear clinging to her very skin.

Aurora chewed her bottom lip, thoughtfully. "…but you still came? You still wanted to meet me tonight? Even though your parents may catch you?"

Mulan mumbled almost inaudibly. "I didn't want you to think I'd stood you up or left you."

Aurora tilted her face up, eager to show her appreciation by claiming Mulan's lips with a gentle kiss.

She swept the back of her hand across Mulan's cheek— flesh touching flesh— and paused there. Comfort, sadness, defiance, apology, gratitude—- all rolled in one.

"It's still not safe for you, though. Especially if your parents are already angry."

Mulan leaned into the touch, clasping a hand to hold Aurora's knuckles to her cheek—drinking in the warmth that her body provided. Mulan felt so cold. So empty. She feared the worst— that she would have to be separated across time and space from the one for whom she cared the most. She heaved a sigh."But that means we might not see each other…for a long while."

"It's ok. I can wait." Aurora cooed gently. "Your safety has to come first."

"Perhaps you're right." Mulan conceded unhappily "Lying low would be a smart course of action."

Aurora laid a chaste kiss upon her lover's cheek. "Here. Let me walk you home."

—x—

Mulan stopped short of the stoop in front of her parent's house, and noted that the white veneer of paint was peeling off the steps underfoot. She shuffled awkwardly, sliding her sweat-slicked palms deep into her pants pockets.

"Thanks for coming with me. I'm sorry tonight was such a bust." She murmured, kicking a toe in the dirt.

Aurora gazed at her evenly, her lips still quirked in a gentle, understanding smile. "It's no problem. I just don't want you to get into more trouble on my account."

Mulan flashed a caviler grin and snorted "It'd be worth it. I don't care what they say anyways."

Aurora moved swiftly then, hot and fast. She pressed her lips against Mulan's mirth filled smirk, claiming it with her own. Heat flushed to Mulan's face, blurring her vision and making her ears burn red.

It was not the first time they had kissed, nor would it be the last, but this kiss… Mulan thought this kiss was something else entirely.

It was greedy. Fervent. Needy. Not slow or gentle like so many times that their lips had touched before, but hungry. Desperate and laced with adrenaline and the sweet tang of cherry chapstick.

It was passion, deep and sure. It was a fear of losing that passion.

Mulan could taste Aurora's tears as they flowed in hot trails down her cheeks, speckling and drying on her freckles, salty and forlorn.

I'm sorry. I'm so, so, sorry.

The kiss, she knew, was a reluctant goodbye, mingled with the need to be touched held and cradled with the pulse of underlying desire to never let go. It was a tearing, right at the very core of their beings. Mulan could nearly feel her heart splitting asunder. It was agony, yet she never wanted it to end.

It was It was joy. It was sorrow. It was jubilation. It was sadness.

It was love, and it was pain.

The door swung wide and light lanced through the night, making Mulan's blood turn from fire to ice almost instantaneously. There on the threshold stood the tiny shrunken and pajama-clad form of her mother, arms folded hard against her narrow chest. Mulan's eyes dilated, pupils widening to twin pits of abject terror as she shrank beneath her mother's stoic frown.

Mulan's jaw fell slack, her face still hovering mere inches from Aurora's, and she said the first thing that came to mind.

"Oh…shit."