Fear Was A Learned Response, But So Too Was Love

Fear Was Learned Response, But So Too Was Love

Eerie, ominous notes floated through the dark forest. Every sound made Lyrical Lily jump. Well, three of them at least. Boldly, brazenly leading the way was the littlest of the lot, Miiko Takeshita. While the rest of the unit whimpered and scampered, seconds away from fleeing or hiding behind one another, eyes and mouths twisted into expressions of worry and fear, Miiko's eyes were wide. She was giggling, humming along to the ethereal tune of the very forest itself, dancing, not a care in the world.

Then at last, the quartet crossed paths with an intimidating, imposing shadow with equally intimidating, imposing horns.

"Miiko, watch out! Miiko, get away from that thing!" her unit-mates cried out for her, but she only shook her head, still facing the tall, towering shadow with eyes and smile wide and bright.

"How are you not afraid?!" cried Kurumi. I know I like to joke and pretend that I'm Satan, but jeez! Look at the size of those horns!

"There is nothing to fear!" Miiko replied sweetly, eyes drifting shut as she smiled up at the shadow. "There is no danger here!"

"Nothing to fear?! No danger?!" Had Miiko lost her mind?! Her unit-mates could only gesture helplessly at the shadow. Hello?!

"She is not scary, and she is not dangerous," Miiko repeated, chuckling as if they were the biggest trio of sillyheads she ever met.

"Wait... She?!" While the rest of Lyrical Lily cried out and gawked, trembling as the shadow drew nearer, Miiko only nodded cheerfully.

"My fairy godmother!"

"... What?"

The woman that emerged from the shadows was tall, thin, bony, and pale. She was ethereal and frightening, otherworldly, and she wore long, black robes as dark as the dark forest itself. She clutched a staff in one hand, which she used as a walking stick as she approached Miiko. The other three went breathless with terror at the woman's frightening countenance. She smiled at Miiko, a sight that disturbed the others, but not Miiko.

Then finally, the shadowy figure, the woman, spoke, voice impossibly low and soft and smooth. "Hello, Beastie..."

"... What?" For a second time, Lyrical Lily was left stunned and confused. Miiko only giggled and held out her arms to the mysterious lady.

"Uppie! Uppie!" she murmured. The others heard the woman chuckle, resting her staff against a nearby tree trunk to pick Miiko up instead. Here she was, treating Miiko like she was six when Miiko was a decade older! Then their thoughts were interrupted by something fluttering overhead.

"What was that?!" The rest of Lyrical Lily jumped up and bunched together fearfully, eyes darting around wildly through the dark.

"My papa!" Miiko smiled, pointing skyward. A large blackbird landed heavily on a branch right beside her and the other woman's heads. The woman flicked her fingers and green light emanated from them. The bird dissolved into a black cloud, and what was left over was a human man. "You see? He flies and travels 'round the world! I wanna do that someday! Wanna be just like him!" Miiko continued to point enthusiastically.

None of the rest of Lyrical Lily had any idea what to say. While Haruna fretted and Kurumi cowered behind her, Miyu dared turn her pink gaze back to the mysterious lady's. Her eyes, like Miiko's, were impossibly, unnaturally green, but that wasn't the only similarity.

I know you, that look in your eyes is so familiar a gleam... There was... mischief in her eyes too. This was a woman unafraid of the darker sides of life, much like Miiko herself. And like Miiko herself, the woman could see beauty in that which most people did not.

That was why she and her little princess, Miiko, called the dark forest their home, alongside her avian-shapeshifter father. Maybe the rest of the world wrote them off as scary, but they disagreed. Fear was a learned response, but so too was love. Nothing was innately scary, rather, like a virus, fear spread. That was why Miyu, Haruna, and Kurumi quailed under the fearsome woman. But Miiko, who was raised by and with her, was utterly unafraid, the only child in the entire kingdom who ran to the horned lady rather than away. Fear was a learned response, but so too was love.

And I know it's true that visions are seldom all they seem... Miiko couldn't help but laugh. Weren't her unit-mates supposed to know not to judge books by their covers? After all, Lyrical Lily appeared good, but they could have delinquent streaks of their own. Maybe this seemingly "bad" looking lady had some good sides to her too? She must have, for Miiko to cuddle her so openly and affectionately. They just needed to learn...

They looked into her glowing eyes, twin emerald flames, and saw a memory. Gone was the forest and ancient kingdom. It was a modern-day hospital, but dark and cold and quiet and empty. No, not empty. Three figures stalked the halls after hours, only one of them supposed to be there. That one was the one the other two were trying desperately to stop.

A Mistress of All Evil lurked in that hospital, and with syringes and needles sharp as spindles, she pricked her victims into a sleep that would last 100 years. Mrs. Takeshita could sense that something was wrong when her baby was born too small. She was sent to the NICU, but her health only declined despite her only issue being a slightly below-average birthweight.

Something wasn't adding up, so Mr. Takeshita acted as the eyes in the sky, and Mrs. Takeshita snuck into the NICU every single night, shrouded in shadow, to watch over her sleeping beauty. That was Miiko's very first memory of life, so faint and hazy it was almost absent, but she remembered those eyes... That shadow... Ever watching over her, protecting her, from the corner of the NICU.

I know you, I walked with you once upon a dream. I know you, that look in your eyes is so familiar a gleam... Because I know you, I know what you'll do. You'll love me at once, the way you did once upon a dream! See? So really, what was there to be afraid of? Miiko's dark guardian angel was not dangerous, nor scary. Fear was a learned response, and Miiko had learned that there was nothing to fear about her own mother.

The dark, shadowy figure had already proven herself nothing but loyal when Miiko was at her most vulnerable. Through that, Miiko learned love, safety, and trust, even in the face of real danger and fear. When at last, the Mistress of All Evil came into Miiko's room, shining silver spindle at the ready, the dark-robed woman lunged at the white-uniformed one. Stay away from my daughter! Don't you EVER touch her AGAIN!

What happened next? Lyrical Lily wanted to know, searching the horned woman's burning green eyes for answers, but she only turned away with a playful and cheeky smile so uncannily similar to Miiko's, Miiko still held securely in her arms.

"Come on, you guys! She will protect us!" Miiko's green eyes shined in the moonlight like fresh tree leaves. The woman slowed to a stop and looked over her shoulder, still smirking. They claimed they wanted to know what she'd done to the "Angel of Mercy", the true Mistress of All Evil, the night she came to curse Miiko to sleep for 100 years. But did they really need to ask? They knew Miiko, after all, and her dark love of the macabre and horrific. Where did they think it came from?

But if I know you, I know what you'll do... Miiko and the other woman both hummed as they continued on their way deeper into the dark forest, completely unafraid. You'll love me at once, the way you did once upon a dream...

AN: I watched Maleficent 2 last night with my family and they enjoyed it even though they found it weird (at least my mom enjoyed it, LOL!) Then I got so inspired I wrote 7 Maleficent fics that night, and just realized that Miiko could be a GREAT Aurora since she's got that blonde-haired, wide-eyed, not-scared-of-stuff-that-would-terrify-most-other-normal-people (plus she has the song "Sleeping Beauty" and in the Lyrilily Princess event, Miiko is again Sleeping Beauty).

Also yes, creepy Miiko backstory that at the hospital she was born in, there an Angel of Mercy injecting babies and killing them, but Miiko's parents are eventually able to stop them. Miiko's mom, in particular (who is of course Maleficent), ensures that the Angel of Mercy will sleep for 100 years, turning the curse of her own spindles against her to protect Miiko, her sleeping beauty and Beastie.