Title: Wings
Fandom: A Midsummer Night‘s Dream
Rating: G
Word Count: 750
Characters/Ships: Hippolyta/Titania
Notes: Counting this towards Stretch/Dancing/Air.
Summary: Last year‘s BBC TV production of Midsummer had Hippolyta and Titania getting together at the end of the play. I thought this was a fabulous idea which deserved more fic.



Hippolyta had always known that the Fae were capable of great good as well as great evil, and that they were to be feared. Barely freed from her shackles, she stared at Titania and Oberon, who were fighting in the middle of her court. She didn’t know the full story there. Something about an Indian boy and his mother, something that had started this whole fight. What she did understand, however, was that Oberon’s offer wasn’t an offer at all so much as him getting his way and expecting Titania to give in.

Well, she supposed men were the same no matter whether Human or Fae.

“No,” Titania said, and the ensuing silence delighted Hippolyta as much as it surprised her. “You have inflicted harm upon a dozen mortals as well as myself tonight. Don’t expect I will now reward you for using me for your sport by giving you that boy who is dearer to me than you can understand.”

Oberon was bracing himself for a reply, but Titania had already focussed her attention elsewhere. Hippolyta’s body started shaking as the Faerie queen advanced toward her. Her arms had barely regained their circulation, all her muscles were still getting used to the feeling of being free again and not surrounded by constricting pieces of metal.

“Come,” Titania said and smiled at her. Her hand found Hippolyta’s.

“Come. Show the world how beautiful you really are.”

Something twitched beneath Hippolyta’s dress, between her shoulder blades. Something she’d forgotten about because she’d hidden it for such a long time.

She smiled back, squeezed Titania’s hand, and threw her head back as her wings burst out, stretching the fabric of her dress and then slicing through it in two neat lines that made Titania laugh.

Hippolyta’s heart gave a lurch at that laugh. Its sound filled the whole court, filled her head and made her feel as if she had just drunk the sweetest, purest nectar from the heart of a flower.

She bit her lip. Titania leaned forward and touched her face. Hippolyta leaned into the touch, closed her eyes, and let herself move forward into a kiss.

When she opened her eyes, they were two feet off the ground, held there by the strength of her wings and perhaps a bit of Titania’s magic. She laughed and flapped her wings to move even higher. She held Titania by the waist. She could still hardly believe that this was real. Being chosen by one of the Fae in this way wasn’t something that happened to ordinary humans.

“You’re everything but ordinary,” Titania said and kissed her again. Hippolyta wondered if she’d spoken out loud, or if Titania could read her mind.

The people gathered in the court had begun to laugh and clap at the spectacle.
“Look at these mortals,” Titania said, pointing at the four young Athenians. They had begun to dance in pairs. “They won’t remember any of this once the morning dew falls.”

Hippolyta suddenly felt cold. Her wings stopped moving and they dropped down to the floor.
“What about me?”

Titania looked at her quizzically.

“Will I remember this when the morning dew falls?”

She said it with as much strength as she could muster, but there was another question behind the question. The Fae were known for creating illusions, and all this might be one - for all she knew, she might, in the real world, still be tied to a chair, still prisoner to Theseus, still facing a miserable future with him.

“You will,” Titania said. Her eyes were very soft.

“And will you come to me again?”

“No.”

Hippolyta’s legs nearly gave way before Titania spoke on.

“Not here. I will take you away from this place and back to your native country, if you so wish. And I will come with you, and come to you, this day, and the day after that, and the day after that, for as long as you wish.”

She pulled Hippolyta into an embrace and laughed again in the way that set Hippolyta aflame.

“Before that, though,” she said with mischief in her voice, “shall we join the dance?” She jerked her head backwards to where the youngsters were now dancing in a peculiar fashion that Hippolyta had never seen before.

“Yes,” Hippolyta said and let go of Titania. Titania held her hand and led her to the dance floor. As they started their slow turns, Hippolyta’s eyes sought Theseus and Oberon and, unable to find either, turned back and concentrated on Titania’s face. She flapped her wings a few times, in time with the music of the dance, then let herself drop. Titania caught her gently and turned in the steps of the dance again.

Titania might be one of the Fae, but Hippolyta felt safe in the knowledge that she wouldn’t have to bind or hide her wings ever again. And as Titania caught her out of the air yet again, she felt that, as long as Titania was there to catch her, not much would go wrong from now on.