AURORA TOYED WITH THE IDEA OF TRYING TO EAT, BUT CONSIDERING HER LESS THAN TANGIBLE BODY, SHE DECIDED NOT TO. By the time the boys returned back, Aurora had regained enough energy to be able to think clearly, sitting in between Peter and Phillip as they set the cauldron in the middle of their sitting room, her godmothers' heads bent over the letter they had found in the Professor's office, mumbling to themselves just out of earshot out of two of three of the teenagers.

"They're just insulting each other now," Peter reported, sighing as he shifted so his head was in Aurora's lap, "Not gonna lie, I'm exhausted, can I take a nap?"

"You slept the entire ride back," Phillip scoffed, raising his head from where it had been propped up on his chin, his sunglasses back on to hide how tired he was.

Aurora tapped his knee lightly, then motioned to her shoulder, and after a good deal of hesitation, Phillip rested his head against her shoulder, almost immediately relaxing and closing his eyes, his headache beginning to recede now that he found some semblance of comfort.

"I'm Spider-Man," Peter whined, "Last night was really intense for me, I stopped three bank robberies, swung by Diana's to get patched up, nearly got caught by Flash, started to head home, found out Briar was gonna die, got yelled at by my aunt 'cause she is still not cool with me doing this whole hero thing, had to ask this guy I know to wipe footage of Briar, had her appear in my room, then I didn't sleep until two hours later, then I had to wake up, figure out how to talk to you, then now we're here. I'm tired."

Phillip shifted so his face was more pressed against Aurora's neck, desperately trying to block out the lights of the room. "You talk a lot."

Peter sighed and turned his head so he was facing Aurora's godmothers, his eyes still closed, too tired and too out of costume to try and respond. Aurora remained awake, as she had slept during the time the boys had been driving back, and they were leaning against her, and she didn't want to jostle them awake.

"Rory," Rosalee whispered, careful of the boys who still didn't know her real name, "You're going to need to get going."

"What did the letter say?" she asked, nearly jostling Phillip who groaned softly, shifting so he was turned more towards her.

"Everything the Professor knew about the curse," Gazelle said, coming to stand next to Rosalee, Marisol on the opposite side, "That the curse ends at sunrise of your birthday and there are seven items that you need to gather, not including the cauldron—"

"It's a pot, she needs to get over herself," Marisol interjected, Rosalee shushing her loudly with a smack to her side.

"And the basic understanding that we are able to help, but only to the extent of our powers, we can't touch anything you gather, and it's too dangerous for us to open portals unless absolutely necessary," Gazelle finished, rolling her shoulders and casting the other two a look.

"Seven?" she parroted, momentarily flickering out of focus, the boys jostling slightly, pulling away from her immediately.

"Seven what?" Peter mumbled, running a hand through his hair, sitting up and leaning against Aurora.

"We have to get seven things and, I guess, mix them in this pot," Aurora explained, looking over at Phillip who shrugged, mumbling that he figured there would be some mixing during this whole thing.

"You have until sunrise of her birthday," Gazelle added, and the boys both coughed, eyes wide.

"When's your birthday again?" Phillip asked, and it was then that Aurora remembered she had enlisted the help of a virtual stranger.

"Valentine's Day," she mumbled, and he drew in a sharp breath; whether it was because of the time crunch or because of the holiday, she didn't quite know.

"Today's Monday, and we have until Wednesday morning?" Peter asked, looking to his left at Aurora and Phillip, "What-what do we need to find?"

"Only you three know," Rosalee said, "We're not allowed to know that. If you need to rest, then rest, but don't...don't rest too long. There'll be time for that when we get you safe."

"Okay," Peter yawned, standing up and stretching, "Let's go read the scroll."

"Take a ten minute nap, Peter," Aurora said, nudging Phillip who was barely conscious, "We still have a lot of the day and most of the night, if you're allowed to, just take a nap."

"You might as well get all the energy back that you can as well, Rory," Gazelle pitched in, silencing the boys' protests, "We'll wake you up in an hour, that should be enough time."

"Okay," Peter yawned again, "Should we just take the couch?"

"We can expand her bed," Marisol said, shaking her head at the couch that could just barely fit Peter if he laid out long ways, "We don't have a guest room, sorry."

"Don't apologize, you shouldn't have to accommodate for us," Phillip said easily, and Aurora appreciated that, as she knew how much her godmothers wanted her to make friends and often worried about her comfort in their home.

"You're really okay with us staying in her bed?" Peter asked as they all followed the women up to Aurora's room, the girl hanging farther behind, also unsure as to why her godmothers sprung on the idea.

"Protective boundaries," Rosalee said simply as they stepped inside, the women flicking their wrists in sync.

The boys gasped as they watched the bed expand to three times its size horizontally, Aurora's body remaining in the center, a dome of translucent pink glittering around her for a moment before disappearing, most likely the protective boundary Rosalee had mentioned.

"Dibs on right side," Phillip called, moving to the left of what he was facing, looking ready to jump onto the bed before remembering himself, carefully climbing under the sheets and turning away from Aurora, staying on the very edge of the bed.

"We didn't use our energy for you to fall off the bed in your sleep, go on," Marisol tutted, walking over towards Phillip and pushing him towards the center of his section of the bed.

"Thank you for doing this," Peter said softly, moving to the center of his own bed, pulling out his phone, "I'm going to text Flash about his car, since I'm pretty sure we're gonna be hanging onto it for a while."

"Do you want me to?" Phillip asked, watching as Aurora moved to sit in front of her unconscious body, scrutinizing her carefully.

"No, I've got blackmail. My aunt May found a picture she took of him kissing my cheek in the second grade, and he made me swear not to show anyone," Peter said idly, fingers jumping over his keys.

"Show us," Aurora said immediately, raising her head from where she was staring off into space, "Please."

"If we swing by my place, I'll remember to pull it out, it's actually really cute," Peter promised, setting his phone aside and settling under the covers, "One hour?"

"One hour," Gazelle confirmed, setting her alarm and nodding her head, "Rest up, you're going to need all the energy you have. If you need anything, just shout."

With that, the women left the room, leaving the three to sleep.

Taking a deep breath, Aurora closed her eyes, calming her racing mind, immediately falling back into her still body, still awake, at least for the time being. With her eyes closed, she simply listened to the sound of Peter and Phillip slowly falling asleep, their breathing evening out into an easy rhythm, Peter breathing in when Phillip breathed out, lulling Aurora into a dreamless sleep.

º º º

The three woke at the exact moment the alarm went off, well rested and energized. Phillip voiced his surprise at that, as he never woke up refreshed no matter the amount of sleep he had, whether it be great or small, and while Aurora was suspicious of the uncanniness of the entire situation, she let it go, if only to ease her own nerves.

"I still think this scroll is super extra," Phillip mumbled, his head resting against Aurora's projected shoulder, and she had to wonder if he knew what he was doing.

"She's just like that," she sighed heavily, shaking her head, "Peter, are you done yelling at Flash, 'cause I'd like to open this."

"He's almost caving, his last insult was me being tall," Peter said, holding up a finger, eyes glued to his screen, "Wow, okay, bring my voice into this. Hold on, I'm gonna bring up the fact his boyfriend is way too pretty for him."

"I love Matty, he's so nice," Phillip gasped, raising his head from Aurora's shoulder before nudging her knee, "I should introduce you sometime, I think you'd like his friends."

"Oh," she hummed, genuinely unsure of how to respond, "Cool."

He immediately backtracked, rubbing the back of his neck as he rushed to add, "If you want, I mean, I don't know maybe you don't wanna meet them, I don't really...know...anything...about you. Yeah, that's probably why, huh?"

"Yeah," she admitted, ducking her head, "But it's not that I don't want to, I just didn't think you'd want to spend time with me after this is over."

If she got out of it at all, she added to herself.

"I mean, I always thought you were cool," he said softly, "I mean, I didn't really know much about you then, but you know, after all this, I think we'll probably get to know each other a lot better than we ever really want to, so maybe we'll all just avoid each other by the end of it. Or be best friends, all depends."

"I like the second one better," she hummed, and he gave her a small smile, nodding.

"Okay," Peter said, bouncing stomach first onto the bed, resting his head on projected-Aurora's leg, "Open the scroll, I got him to cave, we have free reign of his car until sunrise on Wednesday."

"How'd you pull that off?" Phillip asked, raising his eyebrows in surprise.

"I had to ask a lot of favors," Peter sighed, tapping the scroll impatiently, "C'mon, let's go."

Shushing him not unkindly, Aurora opened the scroll, watching as another line of text appeared, but without direction, simply a:

A FEATHER OF A RAVEN

"Not to be dramatic, but I hate this woman," Phillip groaned, dropping his forehead onto Aurora's shoulder, "Where are we supposed to get a raven feather?"

"Do they have ravens at the zoo?" Peter asked, pulling out his phone and searching, moving so his back was leaning against Aurora's arm, careful fingers flying over the keys of his newer cell phone.

"Probably not," Phillip muttered, and Peter hissed in what Aurora assumed to be agreement.

"Thanks, Phillip, you jinxed it," Peter muttered, and the other boy scoffed, demanding to know what powers he possessed to do that.

"Let's just not fight," Aurora called out, looking between the two of them, "Look, I just..."

She took a deep breath, her gaze drifting away from the boys to her desk in front of her window, the covers still drawn to block out the sunlight and any prying eyes. From the edge of the curtain that was partly lifted from the desk, however, she could see just a sliver of the ledge from her window, birds flying about just out of view.

She felt a strange twisting in her stomach, her nerves thrumming as she began to fidget, eyes growing unfocused as she continued to stare at the small crack of light she was given, everything starting to blur.

"Briar?" Peter called, moving to block her view of the window, waving a hand in her face.

She blinked back into focus, looking at the twin looks of concern etched on the boys' features, both of them scrutinizing every feature of her. She cleared her throat and ran a hand through her hair, unsure of whether she could blush in this form.

"Let's just go around," she offered, "I think that's what she wants us to do."

Climbing out of the bed, she headed towards the door, the boys scrambling after her, Phillip calling out a, "Are we really going to play into what she wants?"

"You work the system to fight the system, that's what I heard some people say," Aurora replied, pausing at the bottom of the stairs.

"What do you say?" Peter asked, standing in front of her, shoving his hands into his pockets.

She shrugged. "I say what I hear that I think is right."

Phillip and Peter shared a quick look, the latter inclining his head, as if to further the point, the former nodding back in understanding, glancing away momentarily.

"Okay," Peter said, looking over to Phillip who pulled out the keys, shaking them lightly, "Let's get started. We've got a lot of ground to cover."

Aurora took a deep breath, reaching out to open the front door. "Let's hope we get this done."

For her sake, she hoped they would.

AUTHOR'S NOTE

( 06.04.18 )

This chapter wasn't supposed to just be them resting the entire time, but it wound up being that, and I'm really sorry, but we do see them getting closer, though Phillip will be pulling away, don't be fooled, he's still really unsure out of everything.

We also got to see Aurora's lack of any real opinion, she's still rather naive about the world, all the things that Aurora was at the beginning of the Sleeping Beauty story, but by the end she does form her own opinion and her own choices, just like Aurora in the movie

Thanks for reading and I hope you enjoyed!