The Light in the Darkness | Sirius Black Tangled AU

four | a light at the end of the tunnel

       She was like a Renaissance painting. She lay in the center of a large and elegant canopy bed, its sheer curtains tied off, its thick, regally purple duvet laid gracefully over the bed. Propped up with a few pillows, she looked simultaneously small and grand in it, her milk chocolate locks splayed out across the pillow cases, frail hands gently folded atop her prominent baby bump. It was the beginning of July, but she wore a thick, long-sleeved nightgown, shivers overtaking her every now and then despite the sweat that bedded her forehead. Her face was pale, and she almost looked like a corpse. But life still remained in her vibrant, emerald eyes, as they slowly moved from left to right, and back again.

       "You'll pace yourself into a hole if you keep at it like that," came the weak voice of Queen Arianna.

       Pulled from his deep thoughts, King Frederic stopped at the foot of his beloved's bed and looked up at her. Though his face was nearly as pale as his Queen's, it brightened slightly upon seeing her gentle, familiar smile, one more bewitching than Mona Lisa's. He took a deep breath and walked around to her bedside, kneeling and taking her awaiting hand, pressing a long and meaningful kiss to her knuckles. "Forgive me, my love," he breathed. "I can't help the anxiety of it all. It should have been found by now."

       "Hush now," she cooed. "Don't let your fears get the better of you. You have an unwavering faith in our kingdom. It is what I love most about you. Our fate is in their hands. We must believe in them."

       "But what if they're too late?" His voice cracked with emotion. The king was in a place of vulnerability that only his Queen was allowed to see. "Your due date is tomorrow. What if they find it after you've already gone? What if it doesn't even exist?"

       Lifting her hand to wipe away his tears, Arianna did not answer right away. She would be lying if she had said that the thought had not crossed her mind. She had been silently preparing for the end since Healer Engle had first seen her, but while she had long resigned to the will of fate, she kept up a brave face for her husband and for her kingdom. She knew that she and Rapunzel were their symbol of hope, and she needed them to hold on to it.

       She parted her lips to speak, but before she could utter so much as a word, a great rumbling of noise brought King and Queen to turn their attention to the open door of the balcony. It seemed as though the whole kingdom was in an uproar, and reaching for the Elder Wand in his pocket, King Frederic jumped to his feet, fearing the worst. No kingdom, no matter how benevolent, is without enemies, and he feared that one had finally taken advantage of their weakened state. Elder Wand in hand, he bounded over to the balcony.

       The sight that met his eyes was quite the opposite of what he was expecting. The kingdom was indeed in an uproar, but it was not one to be feared. They moved through the streets up towards the palace as one, marching, dancing, and cheering along as though in a victory parade, and as they reached the palace courtyard, King Frederic saw the familiar figure who led them: the scrawny, bespeckled Professor Matthias Klein, bounding towards the palace like the commanding general of the king's army, having just won a decisive battle. Floating in front of him was a beautiful, ancient six-petaled flower.

       The queen was sitting up in her bed, eyes alert and face pale, though for a different reason than the previous weeks. She watched the entrance to the balcony through which King Frederic had disappeared with an entirely new sense of fear. That fear faded to a curious confusion as she heard Frederic's relieved laugh. He came back into the room with a new sense of life, and it was as though the light had followed him.

       Kneeling at her bedside yet again, he placed kiss after kiss along his Queen's arm. "They've found it!" he said between them, and his words brought life and hope back into her. And, the both of them crying tears of blissful joy, she found the sudden strength to pull her husband towards her, kissing him passionately. Their miracle had been found.