AN: For the commentfic prompt: Princess Tutu, Rue/Ahiru, "There's a dream where nothing bleeds, but everything is alive, where broken things can be made unbroken just by wishing it." (Caitlyn Siehl, "Drift")

~Take One~

Ahiru wished she could solve every problem like she freed Mytho's heart pieces, dancing it to peace as Princess Tutu and filling the world with warmth. It had all started with a wish, a wish to save the prince, but now Ahiru knew that there was so much more she wanted to protect. She couldn't help but wonder if she wished hard enough, that those wishes would come true.

In her dreams, she danced, hand in hand with Rue. Mytho was the untouchable Prince, admired and loved from a distance that Ahiru could never cross. But Rue? Rue was flesh and blood and sorrow, dancing shadow to Tutu's light, and in those dreams this wasn't a burden. It wasn't because of the Raven or because of any desire to covet Mytho as her own. Rue was Ahiru's reflection, Kraehe mirroring Tutu in a dance as one perfect whole.

There was no Mytho. There was no knight, no sword, no Raven to tear into them both, just the dance between them. Rue would smile and Ahiru would smile with her. They would be Tutu and Kraehe and Rue and Ahiru with no contradictions. They would dance and live and breathe.

No pain. No hate. No enmity.

Ahiru would pull Rue close as their dance wound to a close. They would stand breathing as one and be at peace.

But Ahiru was Tutu and Rue was Kraehe, and so the dream shattered with a whirl of black feathers leaving Tutu frozen with one hand extended, an offer never taken.

~Take Two~

Ahiru stroked Rue's hair. Everything was quiet around them, quiet and still in an unnatural way that things were here in this place that wasn't. It was funny how a place that by all rights shouldn't exist was more peaceful and soothing than the place they had lived their whole lives, but maybe that was part of it. Here they were Rue and Ahiru, not Tutu and Kraehe, and there was no reason to fight or hold on to bitter feelings or old pains.

"I wish I was born as someone else," Rue murmured into Ahiru's lap. Her dark hair shifted, tumbling over to hide her face when she curled closer. "I wish that I really was Rue, the dance student, and nothing else."

Ahiru kept stroking her hair. She didn't know how long they had been here, or how much time might be passing somewhere else, or even how they had arrived here in the first place, but none of those things felt very important compared to how Rue had curled in on herself the moment Kraehe's appearance had melted away.

"Do you have a wish?" Rue asked. Her fingers curled to grip Ahiru's skirt. "Something you would change if you could?"

I wish Rue-chan would be happy, Ahiru thought, I wish Mytho was whole and the Raven was gone and Fakir didn't have to try so hard to be brave when it only made him hurt, but she knew Rue was asking if she had a wish for herself, not someone else. "I'm a duck," Ahiru said. "Ducks don't need much to be happy."

Rue lifted her head, catching Ahiru's hand in her own. "You're more than just a duck," she said with conviction. "You're clumsy and naïve and too selfless, but you dance with your heart in it and you dream and you love. You must have a wish."

Once, Ahiru would have said a future with Mytho, one where she could reveal her love for him without fading away, but she was starting to think that as much as she loved Mytho, she loved him as a concept, a myth, more than she loved him as a person. She didn't know Mytho, and his reactions to regaining his heart had only made that clearer. Now, Ahiru wasn't sure what she wanted. She wanted to see him whole again. She didn't want to disappear just because she might tell Mytho she loved him.

She looked at Rue's serious face still draped in her lap and wondered what it would be like if she had truly been born a girl. Would she and Rue have been friends? Would they have noticed each other at all? Ahiru didn't think any version of her could fail to notice Rue. Rue danced with a dedication that drew you in and made you want to do your best to meet her dance and compliment it.

"Right now," Ahiru said finally, "Rue-chan is Rue-chan, and I am Ahiru the girl and we don't have to fight." She smiled. "I'm happy being me right now."

Rue blinked, then smiled back. It wasn't a very happy smile, but it wasn't sad either. It was a smile from someone who wasn't used to smiling and meaning it. "I suppose it's enough to just be us in the moment." She closed her eyes. "It's peaceful here."

"Yes." Ahiru began running her hand along Rue's hair again. "…Rue-chan can be whatever she wants," Ahiru said after a moment. "If a duck can become a princess, why can't you become a regular girl?"

Rue laughed. "But someday you will become a duck again, and I was always going to return to being Kraehe. Dreams are wonderful, but even the best dreams eventually end."

"Not if we make them reality."

"Maybe," Rue said softly. "Maybe."

Ahiru pulled her close and hoped that this dream, whatever it was that they were in, would heal the hurts within them. Someday she wanted to see Rue smile with her whole heart and mean it. She thought she might want it as much as seeing Mytho whole. And if Rue smiled like that at her? Well, Ahiru felt she would be okay to go back to being a duck if she saw it at least once. Ducks didn't need much, but memories could be treasured no matter what her form.