Title: Love is Leaving
Genre: Romance / Angst
Rating: K+
Pairing: onesided Mytho x Duck, Fakir x Rue inklings
Spoilers: N/A
Summary: None of us can choose our destiny, and none of us can escape it.
Word Count: 916
Warnings: N/A

Disclaimer: Not mine. Summary belongs to Heroes.

A/N: Companion piece to Love on the Inside

Once upon a time there was a handsome young prince. He was loved by a clumsy young girl. But the girl was really a beautiful princess herself, and longed to tell the prince how she felt. But she was doomed to turn into a speck of light and vanish, should she ever tell the prince of her feelings. So the prince lived on, never knowing of the princess inside the girl, never knowing of her feelings, never knowing of her love. And so the young girl suffered on in silence, with only her love to keep her company.

The duck pond looked as it always did: still and tranquil, sunlight flickering on the water through the branches, gentle waves lapping against the shore, reeds and flowers billowing in the scented breeze. And one lone duckling, allowing the current to coast her in circles around and around and around, her face sad and serene, her feathers drooping and depressed.

Ahiru sighed. She knew she should cheer up. She kept telling herself over and over that it was time to put on a good face, buck up, have courage, have faith! But to say that and to do it were two very different things. It was hard to force herself to put on good face, when, in the reflection of the pond, her eyes saw her sad face, feathers dropping and dull, when they water still wavered with ripples into Mytho's face – gleaming hair and doe-eyes, grace and beauty personified. It was hard to have courage when he was gone, gone, gone, where she could not follow. It was hard to have faith when she wanted Mytho to be happy, even if it was with Rue, but knowing that his happiness meant her despair.

She had been worried, so worried, when Fakir had abruptly told her he had found a way to write himself into Mytho's story. She felt hope flare within in, bright as a gem, but then he told her it was only himself whom he could perform such a task on, and she felt the hope dim and flicker and wane. But still, the hope was there, wavering and unsteady in the vastness of her heart, that Fakir would return and tell that Mytho was… what? Pining away for Princess Tutu? Missed his classmate Ahiru? Regretted his decision to return to his own story? She knew that she should want his happiness, his health, but it was hard when all she wanted was to love him.

But Fakir did return, days and days and days later, when Ahiru was practically a frenzy of worry, half her feathers molted out with anxiety, and his news wrenched at her heart.

Mytho was well. Mytho was beside himself with happiness. Very much in love with Rue, who practically glowed with the warmth of her affection. They were good rulers. Their people loved them. They seemed peaceful and content with their lives, fitting into that world with an ease they had never achieved here. They belonged there. They belonged to each other.

Happiness that Mytho was happy. Heartbreak that Mytho was happy. Her heart warred with her head.

But Fakir... Fakir was so good, so kind, so understanding. He sat by her pond, never prying, never asking her to talk of her feelings, just a constant presence at her side, writing while she waded.

He had been kind to her since Drosselmeyer had been defeated, she realized. A warm, steady presence that calmed her, made her smile, made her happy.

It wasn't the same incandescent happiness she had felt around Mytho. That joy had been bright and vivid – a spark that burned when she was near him and smoldered when she was away. Fakir's happiness was subtle – she had not even noticed it was there. It crept up on her. Until she awaited his visits with baited breath, until she swam in closer and closer circles to be near him, to hear the scratchings of his quill, to hear him mutter to himself about what he was writing. She begun to talk, slowly at first, missing her human voice, but more quickly and animatedly every day. They soon were having entire conversations. Ahiru flushed robin red when Fakir casually mentioned in conversation how his plans to return her to a girl were going. He was still helping her, even after she'd though he would have moved on. He was still here.

And so was she.

So what if she didn't get her wish – that she (Princess Tutu) and Mytho would live happily ever after. She could come up with a new wish. She would wish for her own happiness. And not have it be dependent on anyone else. She would make it for herself, she decided, as she watched Fakir gingerly walk through the woods towards her pond, a stack of paper under his arm, a quill tucked behind his ear. She would live each day, each moment, as it came, and not dwell on anything bad or anything in her past. She would not base her happiness on others.

Slowly altering her paddling so she was heading towards the knight, she decided that, yes, she would live only for what, and who made her happy now.