Duck peaked out from behind the stage curtain, only letting one of her eyes show as she looks at the crowd. The chatter of human voices reached her ears, both from behind her on stage and in front of her. She gulped, gazing at the large crowd gathered to watch the ballet.

"Duck! You have five minutes!"

"Aaah!" Duck jumped and turned around to face the director. "Oh - okay! I'll be backstage soon!"

"Hurry, please," the director sighed, rubbing her temple. "I need all of the swans together before they're onstage."

"A-alright," Duck muttered. The director walked away, and Duck continued to peer out at the audience from the curtain. "Where is he?" she whispered. "Fakir's too injured to dance, but he still said he'd come!" Her eyes scanned every row as best she could, but with how many people there were it was hard to make out many faces. "Maybe he's in the back," she decided. Her shoulders sagged as she forced herself to not cry.

"Hey Duck, what's wrong?" Pike said behind her.

Duck closed the gap in the curtains and turned to see not only Pike but Liliae, as well. "Oh, I just thought someone would be here, but I don't see them."

"Aww, she looks so sad! How adorable!" Liliae squealed, squeezing Duck's face between her hands.

"Hey-owwwwwww!" Duck squealed from the pressure on her cheeks.

"Adorable? Talk about depressing!" Pike corrected the sadistic blonde sharply. "You're looking for Fakir, aren't you?" she asked Duck. Duck managed to nod with her face still between Liliae's sharp grip. "Yeah, I figured as much. He's quite devoted to you, lucky duck." She smirked, crossing her arms.

"I bet Fakir forgot to show up and then they'll fight as soon as she-"

"Liliae! Get back with the ball attendees, you're in the first scene," the director snapped, coming up to the trio. "Pike, go find Yuma and Mai and the three of you join the rest of the villagers."

"Yes, ma'am!" Both girls ran to do as asked. Liliae dropped Duck to the ground in her haste.

"Ack! Owww..." Duck pushed herself to a kneeling position on the floor, moaning. Well, that can't make things worse than Fakir not showing up does,she thought, rubbing her nose. "I hope he makes it before my scene," she thought, frowning.

Eventually she rejoined her group, other ballerinas that were dancing as swans in in ballet. She could only watch bits and pieces from the back, but what she could see filled her with awe and wonder. However, by the scene with the prince and his friends, she was biting her nails in nervousness. Oh no, I'm on soon! What if I mess up? There was that one move on pointe I kept messing up in practice. This is a beautiful ballet, I don't wanna ruin it! What can I do? Why did they make me a swan when even Liliae is a better dancer than me?!

"Position!" a stagehand whispered to the swan dancers. They lined up with Duck between the middle and the back. That didn't help Duck's mood one bit.

Why did I even decide to become a ballerina? she moaned to herself. All that practice and grace and portrayal of emotion... it's still hard, even after becoming human again. I'm not Princess Tutu now - why am I doing this?

Suddenly, the music changed, or at least Duck thought it did. Peering over shoulders of the girls in front of her, she saw Freya dancing in the role of Odette. She barely recognized the girl from the flower garden wearing Odette's white dress. "Wow," Duck breathed, watching her with awe. She dances so beautifully, as lovely as one of her flowers. I want to dance like that someday. Maybe there's some hope for me since I'm no longer just a bird.

Suddenly, the first swan ballerina in her line moved out onto the stage. The rest began to move out one by one. Uh-oh, gotta pay attention, she reminded herself, clenching her hands then releasing them. Just before the girl in front of her danced out into the lights, Duck glimpsed a familiar face - a young man with crutches sitting in the front row - and her face burst into a grin. It's Fakir! Her eyes glowed, and she barely noticed the director's cue as she spun out to her position on stage. He 's here! He'll see me dance! I can't be clumsy when he's watching me!She no longer thought about what she was doing - each pointed toe, spin and extended arm came with grace and beauty from her very heart.

That spurt of inspiration made her dance her very best, matching the movements of the other ballerinas surrounding Odette, the Swan Queen. Although she was not the lead role, that night Fakir's very presence transformed this Duck into a beautiful dancing swan.

Final.

Author's Notes Below

MU: I don't quite remember the inspiration for this story, other than while reading others' oneshots for the prompt of 'Inspiration' on deviantArt's Fakiru Week in 2011, they all usually had Fakir inspired by Duck, so I decided I wanted it to be the other way around. Anyways, I hope you enjoyed the story. :)