Fandom: Princess Tutu
Title: Fate
Author: lostinabook
Theme: #16: Appropriate; Are you sure? (against temptation)
Character: Rue
Rating: K+
Disclaimer: Princess Tutu does not belong to me. It is the property of Ito Ikuko
Summary: Takes place directly after the scene where Autor confesses his love for Rue (Act XXII; Episode 22), and Rue does not understand why she acted the way she did.
Rue understood now. The fool wore glasses because he was blind to the evil that stood right in front of him.
If he knew so much about this town, about the story, about Drosselmeyer—everything! He knew everything—then why would he even allow himself to entertain an idea as stupid and illogical as falling in love with the daughter of the Raven?
Surely, he had known that he was putting his entire life in danger by letting her know about his sudden weakness. He couldn't know so much and then conveniently forget that ravens ate hearts.
Why, why, why, why?
It would have been too easy to make him sacrifice his heart right then and there. Rue could easily picture the fool accepting the embrace of her raven's wings…
But when the moment was ripe…
What had made her reconsider?
Something in the tone of his voice, something in his eyes… something in the way he blushed as he said those words…
It seems I've fallen in love with you.
Something about him… made Rue realize that they were the same. They were both helplessly, hopelessly, and inexplicably in love.
Tell me that you love me.
I love you, Rue.
She completely understood what the fool was feeling. The utter helplessness that overtook one as they gazed into their eyes…
But she was different, of course. She had been attracted to Mytho for a logical reason. That fool, well… he had only developed feelings for her because she had wanted him to.
Rue had known from the moment that he appeared that this was the one that would give her the answers that she was looking for.
All I want is to love and be loved...
Her prince was in pain… Her father so demanding… Rue didn't know what to do, where to turn.
He said that he would give his heart to the Raven…
The only solution… would be to find a heart before Princess Tutu puts Mytho's back together.
Drosselmeyer had to have been watching. There was no other explanation. The odds that a perfect candidate for sacrifice would fall right into her path…
There was no such thing as fate in Kinkan Town.
That was something that the fool understood as well.
In the end, everyone's a marionette.
And so she led him away, deep into the theater, waiting for the opportune moment to ask the final question…
Do you love me enough to give me your beautiful and pure heart?
But the fool had kept talking… It was as if he had never spoken to anyone before in his life. His thoughts, his theories, his dreams continuously spilled out of him, as though there was no end.
Rue knew that he was correct, of course. The town was being controlled by story; more accurately, stories written by the same man that the fool evidently idolized. She could care less about those facts, however; all Rue wanted was her prince.
She could have solved everything. She could have freed Mytho, banished the Raven's hunger, lived happily ever after…
But the fool kept babbling…
And Rue heard herself.
It seems I've fallen in love with you.
Tell me that you love me.
Rue had read a story about vampires once. Shunned by all, they were the pinnacle of evil, violators of religion, moral conduct, and young girls. They fed on others only to increase their own lifespan, an undead testament to their own hatred of society. What better way to enact their selfish revenge by eternally damning others?
At the time, Rue had only passed it off as a story, not yet realizing that she was living in one.
Was the Raven any different from a vampire?
More to the point, was she?
The ravens in the story fed on human hearts, their leader immortal, their blood forever tainted.
They had the power of seduction on their side—they could make their prey come to them of their own free will.
It seems I've fallen in love with you.
But she simply could not take his life.
He knew. But he still loved.
Rue had been drawn to Mytho the same way that her prince was later drawn to Princess Tutu.
But that didn't make it fate.
She knew what it was like to be turned upon. She knew the pain. But it was necessary. She wouldn't pretend with him, they way Mytho had allowed her to do.
Rue knew that he would move on. Forget. Find someone else.
That was why she could not take his heart. The fool was stronger than she was.
As for her… she was bound to Mytho, story or no story.
"…Just go home."
