Title: Rose Adagio
Fandom: Matthew Bourne's Sleeping Beauty
Rating: G
Length: 281 words
Summary: Leo watches as Aurora dances with her suitors

Leo watched as Aurora danced with her various suitors. He hated to admit it, but he was jealous of them. He was only the royal gamekeeper, but he loved Aurora, and he knew that these other men only saw her as a way to become a ruler of the kingdom.

He and Aurora had grown up together, with so few other children at the palace, they had been permitted to play when they were little. Now the king and queen regarded him as nothing more than a servant, on a par with the footmen, there simply to do their bidding.

Leo took some comfort that Aurora seemed indifferent to her suitors, throwing away their roses almost as soon as they presented them to her. There was one suitor he did not recognise, and who he was fairly sure had not been formally announced. Instead of the red rose the others had offered, he seemed to be holding a black rose. Leo admired the man’s boldness in almost demanding Aurora dance with him, and his disregard for convention, and he was relieved when she spurned him too.

Abruptly, Aurora ran away from all the party goers and into a secluded garden. Leo knew that if he was going to do something he needed to act now, or it would be too late. He took a deep breath and boldly approached her. She smiled and held out her arms to him. The musicians were still playing, and so, to the sound of the distant music, they danced together, neither apparently having a care in the world.

Leo thought it was perfect. And it was, until Aurora carelessly picked up the black rose bud.