The Kiss of an Animal Princess
Disclaimer: I don't own Princess Tutu. If I did, I would make another season all about the growing love of (human) Ahiru and Fakir and maybe even add in hints of adult content. :D I'm so evil.
Edit: I corrected the names! Thanks Peach the Hedgehog!
Edit2: I changed some things so they made more sense.
CHAPTER 1: Things will be like this forever?
Mukashi, mukashi...
Ahiru was a duck. Ahiru means duck. She was born a duck. She would remain a duck. For now and forever?
As a duck, she brooded over the past in her spare time. Her time as anything remotely human was too short! Boredom seemed to stretch the hours and these memories of hope and despair were reduced to a montage of her drama and closure. How she longed to have Princess Tutu's svelte torso and the fluid movements of her arms and legs again. Even her time as an uncouth ballet pupil seemed agreeable!
Our heroine was retired from action. She was now a mundane wisp of canary yellow feathers. It was her designated role, since hatching to mature age.
Ahiru floated across the surface of her delicate, rippling lake. She waded beneath the docks that Fakir frequented. There was a bit of fog but shards of light filtered through, leaving her feathers sunkissed as usual.
She drifted in circles impatiently. She always worried about Fakir, since he was the last friend truly in her life. Fakir's afternoon classes had been over about an hour ago! She could tell for there was a small doggy door installed at the entrance of their home, picking the screendoor open with her bill, and inside the small breakfast nook, a small clock sat on the counter.
As the days flew by, she found herself enamored with the former knight. He only had the power to feed her and the love of a master for its pet, but with this power, she still found mirth and excitement. She was only a duck now. Only Ahiru.
Pique and Lilie had no recollection of her existence when Fakir inquired. Neither did their fellow students. Rue and Mytho... had disappeared into a world in the likes of a fairytale. They also seemed to have disappeared mutually. Drosselmeyer was merely a puppet and his purpose was fulfilled. He invaded her privacy no longer because he existed no longer. His story was finished! There was no one else to remember Ahiru but Fakir.
Another odd occurence concerned the disappearence from all animals in the school. The animals of this world became universely simple. No one seemed to notice or remember they had anything had been different before. Fakir and Ahiru found themselves trapped in a world where animals coexist with intelligence and humankind no longer.
Ahiru lodged her webbed feet ashore and shook the remaining water off. After doing so, she waddled slowly at first and dislodged her wings. Her wings batted perpetually until she grinded upwards and became airborne.
She would find Fakir herself. What was taking him as long as it did?
The town was an eerie splash of gray and peach hues from the sky. It was an unimportant world that she didn't trust to be pristine. It was the afternoon and Fakir's classes were dismissed an hour ago! She could read the clock tower, and hear it as well!
It was then that her crystal clear eyes dilated upon the next sight.
The sound of haughty and fresh laughter. It belonged to a woman who seemed quite familiar to Fakir as there was much less than elbow space between herself and Fakir. Who was that woman! She had a smile that befit the sun and cinnamon-coloured tresses restrained by a single bright green hairband! Her dress was conservative, milky and covered every inch of her body and yet, Ahiru was still bothered by it.
Oh, she forgot to flap. Ahiru was crashing!
Who was this woman?!
CRASH!
Ahiru landed with no majesty among the bushes. She was miserable with these questions:
Why must she invest her emotions in a man and incompatibility? Why did Rue, who had been cruel and manipulative to Prince Mytho for many occasions, deserve unconditional love and betrothal to the prince?! Why had she labored so hard for any of these people when she gained nothing of value but a sense of accomplishment that no one else recognized?
Why was Fakir walking next to this girl?
"Do you have a girlfriend?" What a great time to eavesdrop, Ahiru! Every feather on every inch of her body bristled and quivered. Ahiru lay beside their path in the bushes next to their path.
Fakir stopped walking upon hearing the question. Shame ran across his face and his eyes twinkled with a hint of sadness and melancholy.
"I'm afraid that is a complicated question to answer. Never the less, I enjoyed your company and your service today." the voice of Fakir resonated in the sudden silence. It was sweet and rich to listen to, if she abandoned what exactly was said. Ahiru almost muttered a quack of dismay. What exactly did he mean by "company" and "service?!"
"Fakir..." Ahiru murmured in her head.
"It's so gallant meeting a man from a ballet school. I was expecting an oddball..."
"I am an oddball." Fakir scarcely grinned.
Now that Ahiru was closer, she saw Fakir holding many notebooks and hardback textbooks with ease. This girl foreign to their lives was not concerned about his load, as she laced her fingers together like a prayer.
Ahiru snubbed their scene. It was then she saw the gleaming slits of familiar eyes.
"N-neko-sensei?" Ahiru fumbled and dropped on the tuft of her little chest after recognizing him.
She was correct. It was who she addressed as Neko-sensei but it was him no more. His soul had become simple, his tongue defied English and he became a regular of the food chain. His purr threatened Ahiru and for the first time, she had more to worry about than being engaged to the feline.
Ahiru made a run for it!
"Quack, quack, quack!" She waddled onto the cobblestone as the cat darted soon after her.
It wasn't long before she approached Fakir and the mysterious new girl.
"...Ahiru?!" Fakir said in dismay.
She raced in and out of Fakir's legs in a pattern that resembled the sign of infinity. There wasn't much room for him to stand as Neko-sensei pursued the duckling!
"Benito!" The woman's voice alarmed Neko-sensei and proceeded to make sour noises with her lips and tongue between the words, "Stop it! Come here, boy."
With that order, the cat pounced onto the lady's stomach and her hands pinched the sides of his belly.
"I'm very sorry for this. I had no idea Benito wanders this far. He usually stays around the cafe!"
Her laughter was so refreshing. Why did such a good thing make Ahiru scowl?
Fakir grimaced at Ahiru but graced the lady with a gentleman's smile soonafter. He leaned over and tenderly scooped Ahiru into his firm, warm hands. The contact was enough to rush the blood to her little head.
"This is my pet as well. My thoughts are the same. I didn't know she would fly this far away from home." He exchanged a penetrating glance with Ahiru and they seemed to be able converse their feelings and ideas by vision alone.
"A duck. I didn't know you could tame those! Aren't you worried it will fly away and never come back?"
Ahiru grunted upon receiving the name "it." Fakir pinched her bill to prevent her from quacking a clamor or from flying up to the lady and pecking her.
"No, no. She always comes back home. However, she might have been worried that I wouldn't." Fakir gazed at Ahiru with a dashing smile that could melt any teenage heart.
The sky cracked with thunder and ached like a stomach that pleads for food.
"I can see it's going to be a storm tonight. Well, we'll be on our way before it pours."
"Alright... Good luck, Fakir!" Gloria said sincerely.
"Adieu, Gloria."
They parted and Fakir and Ahiru remained silent for most of the way home. The only sound that filled the air was the snap of Fakir's boots crushing every fallen leaf, astray twig and fragile pebble and dirt clod.
"She works at a cafe. Neko-sensei is finally 'married' to a white cat. They have several kittens lurking around the cafe. It's a nice place... I go there to study these days. I'm also busy with new research..."
It was as if he read her mind and answered each question she had in correspondence.
That night, Fakir sprawled across his bedspread in the candlelight and looped his arm around a blank journal Ahiru struggled to write on with ink and pen. She sealed her bill along it and illustrated sloppy handwriting. Fakir took time to read and register his responses.
"Why do I go to that cafe everyday, you ask? What, you seem upset that I spend time there after school. Someone seems a little jealous." A sleezy grin lingered on Fakir's face and he chortled at her expense.
"Mmm!" Ahiru glared but couldn't deny the truth, the pen muffling her. She was jealous! She ended up tightly crunching the pen while furiously glaring and pressed the pen to the page with severe force, causing the tip to break.
"Hey, hey! You broke the tip! Be careful, Gloria picked out that pen for me!"
Ahiru continued to glower at him with a look that said "Is that so?"
She snapped the pen in two without hesitation.
"You are some little creature." Fakir narrowed his eyes and cleaned the remaining remnants of the pen.
After cleaning her mess, he removed the book and ink bottle from his bed and placed them on the nightstand, beside his reading glasses. He opened the drawer to pop them inside but his hand froze. He stayed in this trance for a long pause and then brought his focus to Ahiru.
"Are you happy being a duck?" Fakir asked abruptly.
Ahiru quacked at the sudden qravity of the question.
"You were born a duck and we cannot change that."
Droplets of rain proceeded to pitter upon the terrace of their shelter. Strings of water suspended themselves from the edge of the rooftiles, staining windows with obscurity and cascading down a pipe that wormed from the top to the foundation.
A torrent of envelopes and stationary were unveiled, among other things like extra scroll paper and materials, in the drawer he had opened. It was too late, Ahiru noticed!
"These are letters..."
"Letters?" Ahiru thought.
"From other girls."
If only Ahiru could say "Oh."
"I'm surrounded by girls all the time. It is a ballet school, after all..."
Ahiru's little heart rapidly beat.
"Being around them... makes me feel guilty..."
Ahiru attentively read his face.
"It must be horrible for you. You must still love Mytho, a human, and he's probably in an altar with Rue as we speak. No one remembers who you are and you are a great person. I can't help but feel sorry for you."
Ahiru dislodged her wings and flapped them in a crossing motion in front of her chest to indicate "No!" with heavy emphasis. She didn't want him to worry about her like this! Or did she...?
"Drosselmeyer was cruel to tease you like that." He stroked her tuft in his strong index finger suggestively. They stared at eachother intensely until Fakir propped himself off the spread. His left hand dived into the heap of letters and crunched them tightly with a clenched fist.
"I don't know why these letters don't mean anything to me. I don't feel anything when I read them. Seeing the words 'I love you' once, twice or a thousand times does not make me happy or arouse any other feeling." His eyes glazed over at his hand, full of a passionate, underlying anger.
His eyes became gentle once again and so did lips.
"As long as you and I are together, I don't need anyone else by my side."
Those were brave words from a man coming of age and growing hormones. The stationery and ripped envelopes were discarded in a waste basket. Ahiru was moved by his actions. Her eyes glistened with watery speckles of light.
"Well, I have an essay to write." He plucked a quill off of Ahiru's body, much to her disdain. What a way to ruin the moment!
"Quack!" She bickered.
"Hey, you're the reason all my pens break! My best one broke when I was trying to write your story!" He chuckled.
Ahiru blushed and fluttered to the top of a desk, her amazing blue eyes watching Fakir twitter with her feather and take out the ink he had just put away to dip it in. She was esteemed that Fakir could still remember their glory days!
Their relationship was strange. He couldn't love her! A love for a duck is preposterous! It was perhaps on the same grounds as beastiality to enjoy the love of a woman, who is in fact a duck! How could Ahiru ever think that Fakir, a man coming of age with growing hormones, could ever return her love!
But as long as they could exist together like this, their friendship was good enough for her. It wasn't right for Ahiru to feel the way she did about the young man but she would never get the chance to act upon it, that's right!
Things seemed like they were going to stay this way forever. Or so it seemed...
R&R please! I need some comments to know how I'm doing. :3