My Beautiful Beast

by Thyme In Her Eyes

Author's Note: Another Mytho/Rue ficlet, this time set after the series' conclusion. As always, all feedback is encouraged and deeply appreciated. Thank you to everyone who takes the time to review! And just to quickly disclaim, I don't own Princess Tutu or its characters. Enjoy the story!

- MY BEAUTIFUL BEAST -

"I've always loved you!"

She screamed the words with all her soul, and with the power and love of every cherished memory – and in a flash of purest light, everything changed.

Much time has passed since then, but he still hears the echo of her words and that final desperate cry in his dreams sometimes. Even in the darkest and most dreadful of nightmares – those terrible realms where his arms will always be black wings, his words are poisonous and cruel, and his feathered chest is shredded, gaping and bloody – her words of love still reach out to him, remind him of who he truly is, and rescue him again and again.

Yes. It's truly strange to think of how far he and Rue have traveled together over the years – strange and wonderful. He still remembers how much she frightened and hurt him once upon a time, and how she ripped the feeling of love from his chest and made him her prisoner. The sight of her black feathers revived had long-buried and forgotten nightmares, and filled him with the sickening new feeling of fear, as her possessive love bound him tight to her in an embrace of thorns. All he'd wanted once was to escape her, and to run back the light and to safety. Later, after she poisoned his shard of love, all his fear turned to cruelty, and his heart couldn't see anything but ugliness and weakness in her, even when she stood faithfully by his side and refused to abandon him. He remembers how he laughed and called her pitiful, and then showed her no pity.

But he isn't that monster any longer, because Rue saved him. Even when he was trapped in the form of a foul and twisted creature neither human nor crow, and might never have become a prince again, she still saw beauty in him, and had loved and protected him regardless of the cost to herself. With that love, she'd called him back to his true heart, his true self, and his true form. In an instant, he was human again; free from the Raven's blood and safe from having his heart torn from his chest and devoured, and he would never forget her words, her sacrifice, or her love. Nor could he forget the innocent and solemn child she'd once been, so full of fear and tenderness, or the young woman she had become, who never let go of that pure love, not even in her darkest hours of bitterness and despair.

He will never forget, just as he can never forget that moment when he finally belonged entirely to himself again, and realized that he wanted to belong to her. That he wanted to save her and set her free, in every possible way. That he wanted to stay with her.

When Rue broke the Raven's curse on him, the change was quick and absolute, and in spite of of his self-doubting fears and concerns since then, it has held. There is much that can't ever be undone, and some shadows remain cast over him and still lurk in the hungry corners of his heart – and likely always will. But in an odd way, he's glad to have those shadows, and has no regrets over how he has been changed. He's neither more or less than the prince he once was, and all that truly matters is that now he's the prince she needs, the prince who loves her above all others, and the prince who can help save her from her own curse. He could never mourn that.

His own transformation from raven to human was instantaneous, but hers is far slower and subtler, and so much more profound and lasting. It needs time and care. Unlike the curse placed on him by the Raven's blood, hers cannot be broken so swiftly or in a magical dazzle of light, for the poison in her heart goes painfully deep, all the way down to the gnarled and twisted roots of her childhood. For so many terrible and lonely years, she drank of the Raven's blood, drank of his manipulations and deceptions, and drank of all the lies he dared teach her of love. The demon dismantled her from birth, took apart her humanity and all the love that came so naturally to her young heart, and tried to bend and break them, and twist them beyond hope of restoration. He used her own heart against her, trying to make her his slave and his creature. And through it all, her soul never shattered or crumbled, but still the Raven's curse lingers. It still taints her thoughts and her love, and causes her to doubt herself, to often question her worthiness, and even sometimes to loathe her own happiness, and fear its loss.

But one day, she will be healed. This is something he will always have faith in. One day, she will look at herself and realize how truly beautiful she is – how brave, how strong, how loving, and how very passionate. She'll understand that she deserves to be where she is today, that she is a worthy and much-loved princess, and a woman fully deserving of her happiness. The shadows of the past will fade, her nightmares will shrink to nothing, and one day, she will finally be free of all the evil that the demon Raven inflicted upon her. The doubts and fears that sometimes plague her even now seem to him like dark, monstrous birds tearing at her peace, but they'll find a way to escape them together – and one day, she will truly understand how deeply he loves her, and that he will never leave her.

He can't begin to guess when this will finally happen, but he believes in it nonetheless. To him, it's the true happy ending that awaits them. But even if that day never comes, she will be loved. As she is, she enchants. Already, he adores her jagged edges, her fierce contradictions, and the devotion that clasps him tight and secure, and ever hers. He longs for her happiness, but if her curse never fully lifts, she is still the most beautiful being in his world.

As she recovers, the process is gradual and delicate, but they have more than enough time. After all, they live now in the pages of a story, where a single paragraph can detail less than a minute's progress or push entire decades by, according to the author's wish. Their hours, seasons and years turn by so strangely, and allow plenty of time for a curse to be broken and for a lost princess to be awakened.

She once tainted his heart by bathing it in the blood of the Raven, and now he bathes her own heart in something else, something far cleaner and purer. Just as with him, when she set him free and saved his life, it's only true love that has the power to break the curse, and to mend all that remains after.

And breaking, the curse surely is. He can feel it. It grows weaker by the day, and will not hold her captive forever. In every one of her smiles, he sees the magic of change and redemption, and of untethered joy. In living together, in dancing together, and in learning to love without fear, they defeat the Raven and his legacy time and time again.

By day, they dance. By night, they write stories on each other's skin, crafting and shaping tales of love, new beginnings, and hope. As the flesh concealing his fast-beating heart (the heart she once tried to steal) and the soft skin hiding her own (the heart she willingly sacrificed in exchange for his) brush against each other in passion and heat, his life and his story meet her own, weave into their depths, and join with her forever. Slowly and tenderly, they break the spells holding each other in darkness.

"I'll always love you," he whispers, and watches as the smallest and most fragile light appears in her eyes, and softly and quietly she sheds the feathers of the beast, and becomes a princess, becomes human, and becomes Rue.

- FIN -