Aneko: OH my GOSH!!! Yes! The 'Princess Tutu faction' of fanfiction now has enough fics to merit character categories! Oh, I'm so happy I could scream! But I won't…I'm glad I got to see it though. Really happy! So I thought this would be a perfect time to put up my new couple of oneshots I have. Eh, they're not much, but it's been a while since I've been here…

Disclaimer: I don't own this anime. Unfortunately.

Chase Away the Darkness

As they agreed to become their trued selves, they entered a new world of choices made on their own, and life not ruled by another. It was like a heavy weight had been lifted.

Old ghosts still haunted new roads, though.

Sometimes, girls would pass by Fakir on the street, and they would notice the little yellow duck who was always with him.

"Oh, how cute!" They'd say. "Is she your pet?"

Or he would notice sometimes on the lake as she stared at her reflection while floating around, and her whole body would droop so that it looked like she had suffered a lifetime's worth of hardships.

A shadow would pass across her eyes in those times, and he would know she was thinking about the past—everything that had been and never would be, and was just too much to put into words. It was like a darkness, clinging and sinking into her.

He always did his hardest to keep it at bay. He was the only one who could—the only one who knew what she really was. A duck, who had once been a girl, had once been a ballerina, who saved a prince. But most of all, she had been clumsy, honest, brave, trusting Ahiru. And she still was, if only in a different body.

Yes, she was still the same. Even after being a duck for a little while, she still acted like a human girl. It was hard to watch, every single day.

So he did whatever he could to beat away the encroaching darkness, and keep her heart pure and bright as he could. He succeeded many times, and was often rewarded with a smile he had never seen while she went through her trials to bring Mytho's heart back.

She, of course, knew he was doing it, and was grateful beyond belief. She was desperate for anything to distract her mind from what she had lost.

So there they are, just the two of them. He fights away the darkness, because a knight must always protect his princess.

Aneko: Bad ending, I know. Best I could do. Sorry if you're disappointed. Ja, Sayonara.