A/N: Alrighty then, after much ado, I've entered the Utena fandom to spread Anthy love! Anthylove. AnthyLove? Anyways.

Drabblish and rather rambling, but I think it says what I want it to say...

Disclaimer: If I owned it, Touga would've ended up getting wasted at a toga party and woken up with his head shaved. MmHMM. I went there.

Rose-Tinted Glasses

Pink is secretly Anthy's favorite color.

She wore it a lot when she was young, back when Dios gallivanted around saving princesses; pink dresses made her look girlish and soft and effeminate, and Dios always smiled more softly when she looked like that. (Or perhaps soft is not the word… but nevertheless, she liked that smile.) When she got older, however, she started wearing more red – red was for adults, for women, and not little girls playing princess. She happened to be wearing red when the swords came, and then it seemed she would be wearing it forever.

Now that the red time is over and the swords are gone, the holes they ripped inside her scarring over – now, Anthy wants to wear pink again. (She had to send for a new dress; she wore the same clothing for so long she opened her closet and discovered she had nothing left to start over in.) She doesn't know if it is proper to want it, though – pink is Utena's color. It's too girlish, too young, and even if Anthy is free to leave now, she does not feel girlish or young or at all like Utena. But she does like it…. (and when was the last time she did something because she liked it? A few years ago, maybe. She wanted shaved ice and didn't care if you weren't supposed to eat shaved ice for dinner, damn it.)

To hell with it. She pulls the dress over her head and walks out arrayed in Utena's color, princess color, the color of fresh roses and new lovers and starting over and sweetness melting in a mouth (which she has to find somewhere and kiss in apology) –

And the sad part is, as she leaves, all she can feel is relief that at least (at last) this shade of pink is very close to the old, familiar red.

Every time you R&R, a chick breaks out of its shell!