An Interesting Day
Fakir had started to wake up the following morning. He remembered the wish he had made on the shooting star last night. He smiled, but as he was sitting up, he felt something weird: human hair that wasn't his own. He saw a small patch of strawberry blonde hair on his bed. "It looks like…" he thought. He shook his head and splashed cold water in his face so he could wake up completely. Afterwards he went back to his room, but that small patch of hair was still there. He lifted the covers and saw a young girl with long strawberry blonde hair tied in a braid, a freckled face, and… naked…
Fakir fell backwards, waking up the girl. She looked around the room to find Fakir with his face in the wall. "Fakir, what are you doing? Why are you-?" she stopped when she noticed he wasn't as tall as he usually was to her. Then she looked down soon to cover herself with his sheet. "QUACK! What happened? I'm…" Her blushing face looked down to see the star pendant that she received in her dream. "Wait," she said, thinking aloud, "I said 'quack', but I'm still a girl…? Hooray! This is amazing! She really did make it happen!" She jumped up and down on the bed with joy. Fakir threw one of his shirts and a pair of shorts at her face, making her fall back on the bed. "Idiot," he called her, "put some clothes on; I don't need you to be naked."
"Sorry, I couldn't help it if I was naked," she said to him as she squirmed in the shirt, trying to find the neck line. Fakir had his head facing the wall so he wouldn't see her naked…and because his face was redder than her hair. "I'm done," said Ahiru. Fakir had calmed down and turned to face her. Obviously his clothes were pretty big on her, even his shorts had fallen off of her. "I'll make sure to get you some clothes that fit better," he spoke calmly to her, "Until then, you'll have to stay up here." Ahiru did not like the sound of that, but it would be worse to walk around wearing an over-sized shirt. Fakir saw the necklace, and noticed it was nothing like the one Drosselmeyer had given to her. "Where did you…get that?" he asked nervously, worrying that it may be another plan Drosselmeyer had created.
"From Princess Stella," she said happily, remembering the beautiful princess that shined with a light from the brightest stars, "I promised that in exchange for granting my wish, I would help grant everyone's wishes."
"I see," Fakir sternly said, still concerned that it may be a trick from the infamous writer. "So," he began to ask, "what was your wish?" Ahiru started sweating and stuttering. "Ah, well, you see, um… I-I wished to become a girl again, so I could dance with all of my friends again! Yep, that was my wish!" He sighed at the silly girl. "I'm going to the library to-," he stopped hearing a loud growl coming from Ahiru. She turned bright red with a nervous smile. "Heheh," she said, "I guess I'm a little hungry…"
Fakir made sure that Charon wasn't in the kitchen and started making some breakfast for the two of them. Ahiru could smell the food from his room, so as she followed the smell, she fell down the stairs only to hit her head on the wooden floor. "Idiot," Fakir muttered as he saw his duck fall face first. After their breakfast, Fakir did the dishes and left, leaving Ahiru to return to his bedroom. She watched Fakir from the window with a wishful smile. "She really made my wish come true," she said, looking down at the beautiful pendant that shined in the sunlight. "I wonder how I'll make wishes come true…"
"It's quite easy actually. It's almost like being Princess Tutu again," said the voice she heard last night. Princess Stella appeared before her from her pendant, in the form of a small but shining light. "Like Tutu? You know that I was Princess Tutu?" she asked the princess.
"Yes. Unlike most of the people in this town, I remember," The light said, "Don't be afraid, little one. The story is over, you will not relive the tragedies that evil writer tried to create. I shall be with you to help you grant the wishes of Gold Crown town." The light faded back into the heart-shaped crystal in the star. Ahiru stared at the shimmering crystal. "Almost like Princess Tutu…" she thought, "I hope my wish can be granted… I don't know how I can tell him now…"
Fakir was in the library looking through Drosselmeyer's books. "There has to be a reason," he thought to himself, "Drosselmeyer must be planning something if Ahiru is a girl again." However, in every book he searched, not one of them had that person's name: Princess Stella. "It's been a while since you've been in here," said a voice that sounded so familiar. Fakir turned his head and saw a boy about his age wearing glasses with short dark-violet hair. "Autor," Fakir wasn't too surprised. Autor spent practically all of his time in the library unless he was in his piano class. Fakir turned his eyes away from him. "Autor," he spoke, "I need your help." It was obvious that Fakir didn't want to tell him anything, but if this new princess was one of Drosselmeyer's games, Autor would know. "Hmm, with what?" Autor asked with a confused look on his face. Fakir stood up and started to walk away. "Hey, wait!" Autor shouted as he followed behind his distant relative.
"WHAT? That girl that was Princess Tutu is a girl again?" Autor shouted, only to have Fakir cover his mouth. "I'm trying to keep this secret, if you don't mind," Fakir scolded, glaring at him. Fakir continued, "Apparently, it was done by someone called Princess Stella." Autor thought for a moment, until… "It sounds familiar, but I don't think it's a story by Drosselmeyer." Fakir was relieved from hearing that, of course, he didn't show Autor that he was. "Well," he said, "Since that's the case, I'll be going." Autor watched Fakir as he left the library, only to see him enter the main building. He was enrolling Ahiru into back into Kinkan Academy.
After Fakir had finished with Ahiru's enrollment in the main building, he left and went down the streets to find some clothes for her. "Hmm, what colors would look good on her? Nothing too dark…" he thought. He bought her a yellow turtleneck, orange shorts, white and red-striped socks, and a pair of orange shoes. (Like what she wore in the anime). Then he stopped in front of one store that had a baby blue sundress with white lining around the neck and on the hem of the skirt. He entered the store to see if they had an extra dress. "Welcome!" Fakir looked and saw a lady with blue hair tied in a pink scrunchie. She looked fairly young, but according to her nametag, she was the owner of the shop. "May I help you? Are you looking for something in particular?"
"Um, yeah," Fakir said nervously, "Do you happen to have another dress like that one?" She saw that he had pointed at the cute sundress in the window display. She ran to the back, leaving Fakir in an awkward silence for but a moment. She hurried back in carrying the same dress, but she also brought out other accessories for it. "Here," she said, "Do you want the white sun hat and these shoes with it?" Fakir saw her holding a small white sun hat with a light blue sash around it and a pair of white heels. "I don't have that much money…" he said to her. She only smiled and gave them to him anyways. "That's fine," she said, "I'll let you have it all, but you only have to pay the price of the dress."
Fakir was shocked, but didn't pass up the bargain. So he paid the money and got Ahiru a new outfit. He skipped going to the lake and headed straight home to give Ahiru her new things. As he opened the door to his room just a crack, he heard something. Ahiru was humming Waltz of the Flowers. He peeked in to see as Ahiru hummed the beautiful song, she was dancing. Not like before, where she danced as if she were a duck, but with slight grace and elegance – even though she was in an oversized shirt. Sure, it wasn't anything like Rue's dancing when she lived in Kinkan, but it had its own beauty about it, as if she was in a dream.
Ahiru had been practicing a little bit when she was a duck before Fakir visited her. She didn't realize how much better her dancing was. After she finished her little dance, she had lost her footing and fell on the floor with a loud thunk. Fakir opened the door the rest of the way. "What are you doing?" he asked, hiding the fact he wanted to laugh at her clumsiness. Ahiru jumped off the floor. "Uh, n-nothing much," she stuttered, "I just tripped and fell to the floor."
"I see that," he said. He handed her three bags and two boxes. "Here's your uniform and some clothes I got for you. I didn't know your size, but they should fit." She looked into the bags that held her uniform and her cute yellow and orange outfit. When she looked into the bubblegum pink bag, she was shocked by the sundress. The two boxes had the same logo; she opened them to see the white sunhat and white shoes to go with it. She smiled and blushed. "He got this cute outfit for me…" she thought happily, but as soon as Fakir turned around, she hid her blush by turning her back to him. "Um, that outfit looked kinda… expensive…"
"It wasn't," Fakir said bluntly, "It would have been if the owner didn't give me the hat and shoes for free. I only had to pay for the dress." Ahiru was shocked to hear that he only had to pay for one of the three items from that store, but she didn't mind it too much.
Her stomach growled louder than it did that morning. Fakir knew what to do; after him and Charon ate supper, he would make sure to save enough for Ahiru. Acting as though he heard nothing in order to hear her reaction, he left the room without saying a word. Unknown to Ahiru, he was standing outside of the door when she lightly shouted. "Fakir, you big meanie!" He laughed silently before going downstairs.
It was getting late and Ahiru's stomach was still growling. "Ugh…," she thought, "I can't believe he left without a word. He hardly said a nice word to me today!" She heard a light giggle coming from the glowing pendant. "You're so silly, little Ahiru," said Princess Stella.
"What do you mean, Stella?"
"I won't tell you too much, but he does care about you," she said before another soft giggle escaped, "Oh, looks like I have to go. Enjoy!" The pendant's glow dimmed, leaving Ahiru confused. She stared at the pendant dumb-founded until Fakir entered the room with a cup of milk, a bowl of rabbit cream stew, a small bread loaf, and a plate of rainbow trout meunière. It looked as good as Ebine's cooking (anime Episode 3). "What's that?" Ahiru asked with a shocked face. Fakir placed it on his writing desk; looking to Ahiru, "There was food left over, so I thought you'd want something. You eat; I'll be getting ready for bed." She nodded as he left for the bathroom. She walked to the desk, smelling the spices on the trout. When she took a bite, she thought she was in heaven. "So she knew all along that he was going to get me something…" she thought to herself with a soft smile on her face, "I wonder…"
Fakir finally came out of the bathroom and entered his room to find Ahiru in her pajamas – the over-sized shirt he gave her. Without a word, he turned the lamp off and went straight to bed, though he wasn't asleep yet. "Um, Fakir?" she asked nervously.
"Hm?"
"Where should I sleep?"
"Just sleep here."
"HUH? But, but, but, but that's not right!" He said nothing, as he slept. Ahiru sighed as she tucked herself under the blanket with her back to Fakir's. She couldn't go to sleep like this. She turned to face his back, able to get comfortable until… Fakir turned over, making them face one another. Her face was red like a tomato as she looked at his peaceful sleeping face. As she felt his body warmth, she started to fall asleep faster. When she was finally asleep, she smiled and thought about the day soon to come when the sun would rise.
Sorry it took so long for me to make this chapter. I had a writer's block, and then I made it kinda long to make up for it. I hope you like this, I did my best. Please comment. Thank you!
