AN: For the commentfic prompt: Princess Tutu, Rue +/ Ahiru, "Fairy tales have rules. You are a princess or you aren't. You are pure at heart or you aren't."

There were rules to stories. It was one of the first things she had learned; everyone had roles to fill. There were shining princes and clever helpers. There were knights that threw themselves at danger and the looming darkness that would strike back. There were the pure and the good, and there were the corrupted, and there was never anything in between. The world didn't hold any pleasant shades of gray for her to ride along on, and so Rue knew where she stood in her tale. No matter what she pretended otherwise, she wasn't pure of heart. She wasn't a princess to be rescued from evil; the evil had already made her its own. Being Rue was playing at something she wasn't, something she wished to be but would never manage.

That was what Rue had always thought, and the world had always supported. Black and white. Good and evil. Untouchable prince and Raven's daughter who could try to reach, try to build that fragile in-between world, but could never make a place for herself as the princess of the story.

That was how the world worked, or so she thought. Tutu didn't seem to follow these rules.

Oh, Tutu was Good. She was pure and warm and bright—everything Rue wasn't, everything Mytho deserved—but Princess Tutu wasn't a princess but a girl, and that girl wasn't a girl, but a duck.

It was almost enough for her to hope—

Kraehe watched Tutu dance, dipping and twisting with a grace that Ahiru didn't have. If a duck could be a princes, maybe the daughter of a Raven could be more than just a lowly crow. But even becoming a princess wouldn't destroy the corruption inside of her.

She narrowed her eyes. If she couldn't be the pure princess to compliment the prince, then maybe the prince could fall to her level. Emotion, after all, had two sides. Below, Tutu held out a glowing red shard. Mytho reached towards it, and a plan unfolded in her mind.

Kraehe couldn't break the rules, but she would make them work in her favor. A prince, once sullied, would never be pure again. He could be hers forever if she just took the chance.

Mytho touched Tutu's hand, and Kraehe acted. The shock on Tutu's face alone was satisfying. Only the innocent looked surprised at being hurt.