Rue, What are You Thinking?
Rue shook her head as she watched Ahiru. Yesterday, Ahiru and Neko-sensei had both freaked when Paulamoni-san of the Eleki Troupe had asked Ahiru to dance onstage for her. Thankfully, when Paulamoni-san had repeated her request today, Ahiru had not hidden behind the theatre seats, but her two friends had dragged her backstage, which Rue now thought was probably worse from Ahiru's viewpoint.
Since the time they had looked for Mytho together, Rue had taken a little bit of interest in Ahiru, just enough to find out the names of the two girls Ahiru hung out with. Pique, the pink-haired one, was checking the costume over; blonde Lillie was squeezing Ahiru so hard that she was gasping for breath. Pique was giving all kinds of encouragement, while Lillie counseled with cheerful discouragement. Both of them were impeding Ahiru's costume change.
"Just wearing this tutu will make you dance more beautifully," Pique declared.
"But don't worry," Lillie trilled, "Since you'll never be good enough to join a dance troupe, you can tumble and fall without fear!" Rue decided to step in with a rescue, as Lillie gave Ahiru an extra squeeze.
"Rue-chan!" Ahiru's eyes widened as she gasped. Lillie promptly dropped Ahiru on the floor as she and Pique turned towards Kinkan Academy's prima ballerina.
Rue's face remained impassive. "Neko-sensei wants both of you back to your seats now. Otherwise," she added when they didn't move, "he says he will marry you when the bridal march is performed!" The girls left quickly, calling good wishes to Ahiru; Rue smiled.
"Rue-chan?" She turned to Ahiru. Worry shimmered in the huge, blue eyes. "You should be the one dancing. You're so much better and you could do it en pointe!" The look on Ahiru's face made it easier to soothe the small stab of jealousy Rue felt.
"Paulamoni-san wants to see you, not me. Now hurry and change!" As Ahiru gathered the costume, Rue continued, "I think you should dance a pas de deux." The younger girl blushed, ducking behind a change screen.
Interesting, Rue thought, very different reaction from yesterday. Suddenly, she recalled a piece of conversation Ahiru's friends had yesterday on the way to the theatre.
* * * * * * * * * *
"Are you worried about Mytho-sama not being here?" Rue's attention was pulled toward the trio walking just ahead and to the right of her.
"Yeah." The autumn-red-head's soft admission was overtaken by the gasps of her friends.
Lillie glanced back towards her. "Only Fakir came." Rue had been ignoring him as he walked behind her; she thought that it was ridiculous to send Mytho back to his dorm when the whole class was going on a school trip. What does he honestly think is going to happen? Does he think Princess Tutu is in this troupe? She is good enough to be the prima ballerina. Rue pushed down her annoyance.
Pique quickly asked, "Are you worried about Fakir-sama, too?"
"Yeah." Rue couldn't resist a glance back at him. His face was impassive, but his lips were pressed together a little tighter than usual. A bubble of amusement rose inside, surprising her.
Pique had Ahiru's arm in a death-grip. "You didn't have any interest in Fakir-sama, remember?"
"It's alright; this is the age to fall in love!" Lillie threw her arms around Ahiru's neck.
"You can't!" Definitely from the Fakir-faction, Rue thought. "Ahiru, you like Mytho-sama, right? Right? Right?!" Pique was shaking the poor arm in her grip. Rue squashed the smile that was threatening to break out. Fakir must be in glare mode by now; she didn't dare peek behind her!
Lillie squeezed. "It's cute how she's as clueless as she looks!"
Pique grabbed Ahiru's face to turn it towards her. Rue winced inwardly; the way Ahiru was twisted had to hurt. "Which do you like?" Pique demanded.
"You like both of them, you two-timer!"
Lillie's remark was NOT helping Pique's state of mind, nor Ahiru's. She turned a rosy pink. "Like?" she gasped.
Rue risked a second glance at Fakir. His face had settled into a mask of complete indifference, and he seemed to be ignoring everything in front of him. Ahiru could be heard stammering, "It's really not like that…"
* * * * * * * * * *
Maybe that was why Ahiru hadn't wanted to dance yesterday – there had been no other male dance partner except Fakir! Rue was surprised by the sudden rush of feelings towards Ahiru; she wanted Ahiru to do well, not just on behalf of the class or the academy, but for Ahiru's own sake.
"Rue-chan?" Ahiru looked more grown-up in the white and gold costume than she did in her plain white practice leotard. "I'm ready." Her smile was small, but brave.
* * * * * * * * * *
"I'm just caught up in this."
"I feel the same." Ahiru was on stage talking to Neko-sensei. This seemed to be one of the only times the student and teacher was agreeing. Rue agreed too – Ahiru was over her head with this one. If she had a good partner, she could pull it off. Rue knew this from experience.
"It would be better if someone else…"
"I agree." Ahiru turned and looked anxiously at Rue, then looked away, a faint blush on her cheeks. Is she remembering what I said about the pas de deux? Is she remembering our pas de deux? Rue wondered.
"Are you worried about Mytho-sama? About Fakir-sama?"
"I'm really terrible at this."
Neko-sensei was annoyed at Ahiru's statement. "I know that!"
On a technical level, Ahiru was below Fakir and Mytho. On a relational level…well, it was no secret around the academy that Ahiru had been through a couple unpleasant encounters with Fakir. Rue knew what those were like by experience; she was surprised Ahiru had lasted this long dealing with Fakir. It was unusual if anyone got over a first encounter with him, rarer still was a second one, and if you survived a third with the zealous guardian, that student was considered legendary among their peers.
Furthermore, the recent appearance of Princess Tutu had Fakir more on edge than usual. It was affecting the already uneasy peace between Rue and Fakir, causing her to have to defend her access to Mytho the last couple of times she had taken him out. No question, Fakir was becoming more difficult to deal with than before, and Ahiru could not have picked a worse time to try and be friends with Mytho.
As for Mytho, he didn't seem to mind the younger girl. Of course, he didn't mind anything, but even with the return of a few feelings, he hadn't pushed Ahiru away. If anything, she seemed to intrigue him a little. One thing for sure, with his desire to protect and care, Mytho would be gentle and gracefully cover Ahiru's errors.
"Hey, Mytho?" She could feel his beautiful honey-colored eyes turning to her. "Why don't you be her partner for the pas de deux?" Teasing Fakir with it would be a bonus, too, she thought with a slight smile,
She heard Ahiru's sharp intake of breath. "What? With Mytho?" Rue smiled confidently at Ahiru, her own eyes softened by the pleasure of Ahiru's reaction.
Rue also heard Fakir's reaction. "No, Mytho can't." Mytho seemed a little surprised by Fakir as well. The whole class was riveted to the scene in front of them. Mytho, the finest dancer in class, wasn't good enough for this pas de deux? "I will do it." A very startling announcement given their past history!
Neko-sensei happily agreed. Fakir left to change backstage. Pique and Lillie began to speculate vigorously on the turn of events. The rest of the class buzzed over this development in the relationship between the academy's resident glacier and sunshine personalities.
The sunshine personality had a decidedly gloomy expression. "Why do you have to show up here?" she muttered.
Rue was shocked. She had fully expected Fakir to sit there, silently fuming while Mytho and Ahiru danced. She had NOT expected him to volunteer to dance instead. Mind you, that was using the word "volunteer" loosely; from Ahiru's comment, a more accurate description of Fakir's offer was probably to be found in the words "invasion" or "sneak attack"!
Mytho looked at Rue and shrugged.
"Are you worried about Fakir-sama?"
"Yeah."
All this trouble to avoid dancing with Fakir, and now she would still end up dancing with him! Rue resolved to watch this dance carefully; there was no telling what Fakir would do.
* * * * * * * * * *
Ahiru was completely nervous. It showed as she took that hand Fakir offered to start the pas de deux. Rue looked at Fakir; he looked back at her with a slight frown on his face. However, the frown stayed firmly in place as he looked at Ahiru, so perhaps it had more to do with Ahiru's ability than with Rue's suggestion.
Rue, what are you thinking?
Fakir…Rue frowned. Fakir was supporting Ahiru, but the air was tight between them. He looked like a polite gentleman, but seemed to move too fast for her to keep up. Rue caught a look of fright on Ahiru's face when Fakir caused her to lean back so far that she began to fall. He caught and held her by her waist, but Rue found herself wishing the dance was over.
Mytho wasn't faring much better; he sat tensely beside her. His desire to protect must be going crazy over Fakir's carelessness, Rue thought. Fakir seemed to notice his discomfort because he slowed and moved with a little more care around Ahiru.
It was a fascinating pas de deux. Ahiru's dance showed struggle, fear, and annoyance; Fakir's showed calm, indifference, and contempt. The music began to crescendo, they drew closer, and the room crackled with tension.
Fakir leaned a little closer to Ahiru. Rue realized that he was speaking to Ahiru, and knew the words weren't kind. Even though she couldn't hear them, Rue was pleased to see Ahiru reply with a bit of fire. Fakir's face returned to its usual impassive expression, and the two did not speak again to each other for the rest of the pas de deux.
As the dance drew to a close, Rue suspected that Ahiru was flushed not only with effort, but a bit of anger. When Fakir put her down and promptly walked off stage, Ahiru stumbled, teetered on the front edge of the stage, and fell off in a heap. She told Paulamoni-san that she was alright, but when she raced out of the room, Rue figured Fakir must have given her a stinging parting remark. She pushed down a rise of anger.
She had to do it again when Fakir returned from changing. He scowled at her, pointedly looking at her hands hanging on to Mytho's arm. She looked at him and shook her head. "Ahiru fell off the stage," she informed him coldly.
"Moron." He sat down on Mytho's other side, indifference and general contempt back in place. Rue breathed a sigh of relief and let go of Mytho's arm, putting one hand in his. He reflexively held it. One disaster averted, she thought with a slight smile. The last thing Fakir needed to see right now was Mytho rescuing Ahiru; it could send him over the edge with her.
Rue was distracted by Mytho's hand, touching the left side of his chest. Fakir turned to them, annoyance on his face, concern flickering in his eyes. Rue was caught in déjà vu, seeing Mytho's expression as Princess Tutu returned the feeling of sorrow to him in the graveyard. She looked into his eyes; he didn't see her, just the feeling.
Mytho reacted in terror; everyone in the auditorium was startled. "Mytho!" Fakir was in full-blown alarm.
He's never seen a shard return, Rue thought. Still, we need to get this under control. "A piece of his heart was returned," she said to Fakir, hoping to snap him into protection mode.
"What?!" Fakir stared at Rue as Mytho collapsed on the floor between them, shaking and crying.
"Calm down, everyone!" Neko-sensei tried to reassure the class.
Rue leaned over to be closer to Fakir's ear. "Get him out of here." He nodded, picked Mytho up off the floor, and rushed out. Rue turned to Neko-sensei, Paulamoni-san, and the other members of the Eleki Troupe that had gathered in the commotion. She smiled, hiding her own fear and worry. "Fakir will make sure he's alright."
"Good thinking, Rue-san." Neko-sensei was very disturbed, and quickly conversed with Paulamoni-san and her husband, Paulo. He then turned to deal with the whispering, gossiping class. "This concludes our time here today. Please file out in an orderly manner…"
As Rue listened, she took a quick look around at the faces in the room. Ahiru hadn't come back in yet; what could be keeping her? Whatever it was, Rue was glad for it. Ahiru didn't need to see what had just happened.
But as they left the theatre, a small yellow duck with a red pendent around its neck hurried out with them. It seemed very upset.