This was drawn for my Secret Santa recipient, nobody-and-me. One of Nobody's primary requests was stuff elaborating on existing stuff within the series.
This one came from thinking about how an overprotective younger Fakir handled Mytho disappearing when he was off spending time with Rue, and just how young!Rue managed to sneak off with him.
Written as the accompaniment to this: http://elfgrove .deviantart .com/art/PT-SS-2007-Story-Telling-73230590 (You'll need to remove the spaces prior to each '.' to make the URL work.)
Princess Tutu is copyright (c) Ikuko Itoh, Junichi Sato, GANSIS, and ADV.
Story-Telling
"Lost him again?"
Fakir jumped and turned to look up at Charon. A slight panic edged around his eyes, "I just took my eyes off him for a second, I swear!"
Charon hid the chuckle. Fakir was so young to be so serious. Part of him regretted having told Fakir the legend of the knight Lohengrin, but it was the only thing that had finally broken the young boy out of the stupor he seemed to be in after his parents' death. Charon had never expected the heartless prince to actually show up in Kinkan town. Of course, Fakir now clung to the prince, Mytho, and the concept of protecting him with a fanatic fervor.
Fakir's grip on the toy wooden sword turned his knuckles white, "You haven't seen him anywhere have you?"
"No, but Raetsel nearly has dinner ready. Why don't you come home and eat, then we can both go out looking for him."
"No! I'm the knight! I have to protect Mytho!"
"Okay, okay. We'll just have to go find him now." Charon smiled and offered the young boy his hand, "I'm sure Raetsel would scold me if I didn't bring both of you home for dinner anyways."
Fakir didn't take his hand but started off down the cobblestone lane, continuing his search.
"So just where were you when you lost track of him?"
Fakir stopped to look down a side alley accusingly, "Umm... the lake."
It seemed like this was always the answer to that question. "You've checked around there thoroughly?"
"Of course!"
"Right."
There was no way Fakir was going to admit what he had been doing when he'd lost Mytho, again. As many times as he yelled at Mytho for putting himself in danger for cats and little pet birds... To admit he liked feeding the ducks down at the lake... That he got engrossed enough in watching them that he didn't notice Mytho wandering off like an... "That idiot."
"Fakir!"
"What?"
"Don't say that. It's not very knight-like."
"Yes it is. Knights say lots of things in the stories."
Just what stories was Fakir reading? Maybe he needed to pay more attention to the boy's reading list. "So what were you and Mytho doing down by the lake?"
"Nothing!" There was one duckling, his favorite. That duck came the closest to him when he sat very still by the lakeside. He told that duck all about Mytho and the story of the Prince and the Raven. He told the little duck how he was the reincarnation of the knight that protected Mytho, how he was going to always protect Mytho. The little duck would sit quietly at the serious parts and stand up flapping it's tiny wings excitedly whenever the story got exciting. And his favorite duck got the strangest sad look in it's blue eyes whenever he got to the parts about Princess Tutu's sacrifice, and Lohengrin's fall, and Mytho's ultimate decision. He always reassured the duckling at the end: that Mytho was here in Kinkan Town now; that he would be an even better knight than Lohengrin; that way he and Mytho would defeat the Monster Raven once and for all.
And now, for the hundredth time it seemed, Mytho had wandered off while he was engrossed in telling his duck the story.
---
Charon and Fakir wandered around Kinkan for hours before returning to the antique shop where they lived with Mytho and Raetsel. The tired boy had accepted Charon's helping hand by now, and stumbled alongside, stubborn even in his exhaustion. As usual, Mytho had already returned home, and was waiting with Raetsel at the dinner table, completely clueless to the trouble he had caused.
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Of course, I also like introducing the idea that Ahiru's interest in Mytho was because Fakir had told her Mytho's story. So in some part of her mind, it was that she wanted to be closer to Fakir, Mytho's knight, that she became interested enough in Mytho to become Princess Tutu. (I'm a bad-bad fangirl.)
The accompanying fan art actually adds a bit to the story, so you probably ought to check it out.
This is a one-shot. Please don't ask me to continue.