"The blues tells a story. Every line of the blues has a meaning." -John Lee Hooker

The first thing Ahiru notices when Fakir comes home is that the jacket draped over his arm smells like smoke and alcohol. It seems out of place, especially since he didn't look impaired in the slightest. She tilts her small feathered head in curiosity.

"Sorry," he apologizes, dropping his jacket with the rest of the laundry that needs to be done. "Someone spilled his drink on me."

"Qua..."

He picks the small duck up, cradling her to his chest.

"I don't know if I'd say I had a good time," he admits. "But it was interesting."

"Quack?"

Fakir hums slightly as he remembers the evening's prior events. He had accepted a music student's invitation to a lounge and listened to a visiting musician. It's not the sort of place he would normally go, much less the sort of music he usually listened to, but part of the point was trying new things, learning more about the people who wound up in his stories.

Somber yet strangely rhythmic music permeated the dark room as the singer told of his woes, his voice gravelly but somehow compelling. It was no fantastic drama; this is a world without princes and ravens. But in the end, the songs were still the same stories. Some were about smaller tragedies like his formerly faithful dog running away or having a streak of unusually bad luck but the overwhelming subject was love gone wrong.

Some things plow through every medium, every genre.

Fakir carries Ahiru down to the kitchen and puts the kettle on single-handed. She nestles a bit closer against him and he feels a bittersweet warmth.

"You did the right thing," he tells her for not the first time. "Returning Mytho's heart to him. Even the feelings like loneliness and sorrow."

Ahiru blinks up at him, wondering where this came from all of a sudden. But Fakir doesn't elaborate further. He only sits at the table and strokes Ahiru's feathers until she can't help but fall asleep.

He's glad when she dozes off. He doesn't have to worry about how his smile doesn't reach his eyes.