Chapter two is here, I hope you enjoy it. I really enjoyed writing this one, especially the last bit. As usual, let me know what you think!

Fairytale Endings-Chapter Two

By the end of the week Charon had helped to get Duck enrolled in Kinkan Academy once more. Having not practiced ballet once in three years might have concerned someone else, but not Duck. "I wasn't really very good before, so it doesn't really matter, right?" she said to Fakir with a grin as they walked to the academy. He didn't understand how she could be so cavalier about her skills. He had worked hard for years to attain his skill, and he took pride in it.

The two parted ways to get changed for class, and then met at the door of the ballet studio so that Fakir could introduce Duck to the teacher. "Oh, I forgot to mention," he started to say.

"Mr. Cat?" Duck exclaimed with surprise, seeing their teacher. Duck had expected to see the anthropomorphised cat she was used to, but the teacher was as human as she was. Unfortunately, he seemed to have the same temperament as their former teacher.

"Mr. Fakir, I hope this is not the new student you mentioned. If she is so prone to outbursts like this, then she will have to marry me!" yelled the instructor, becoming more alarming with every word.

"Oh no, no!"

"That won't be necessary Mr. Cat," Fakir said with annoyance. Really, it was so irritating to put up with these kinds of things from the teacher. "And yes, this is Duck. She has been out of practice for a while so I would recommend putting her in the beginner's class, despite her age." With this Fakir moved to the barre to begin his warm-ups as Mr. Cat questioned Duck on her ballet experience. By the time Fakir was done, Mr. Cat was beginning the first barre exercises for the class. Duck knew how bad her ballet technique was, so she had begged and cajoled Fakir into agreeing to help her improve. He wanted to see exactly how bad her technique was, so he stood in a corner of the room and watched. This did not fail to attract whispers and stares from his classmates, but Fakir gritted his teeth and ignored them.

"And développé, return to retiré, very good Miss Duck!" Fakir continued to watch Duck's class, this time actually noticing Duck's dancing. Although she was unpractised, her movements seemed more graceful than usual, and she was able to follow Mr. Cat's corrections without any threats. Despite himself, Fakir was impressed. In the past she had danced so carelessly, with no thought for accuracy or skill. "Well, Miss Duck, if you continue to dance as you just did, I don't think you will be in the beginner's class for very long!" Mr. Cat announced, to Duck's delight. She raced over to Fakir, excitement on her face.

While the rest of the advanced class entered the studio, Duck stood at the barre off to the side. Since she had to wait for Fakir, she decided she might as well practice. Before she could begin, she was interrupted by two of the advanced class girls. When she saw them, Duck had to stop herself from happily greeting Pique and Lillie. They wouldn't remember her, Fakir said.

"Hey, we saw you come in with Fakir!" Pique exclaimed. "How do you know him? He doesn't talk to any of the girls here."

"Maybe she's in love with him! He'll never love you back, but don't worry; I'll be here to comfort you!" Lillie cried with a sadistic glint in her eye.

"What, no! No, it's not like that; we're just friends, and besides that, we're always arguing! Sometimes I just can't stand him. Oh, uh, my name's Duck by the way."

"I'm Pique, and that's Lillie. We're in the same class as Fakir, but he never even talks to us. I don't know how you managed to be friends. You're so lucky! Anyway, I think Mr. Cat is giving us a look so we should get over to the barre."

During the class Duck continued to practice at the opposite barre, excited at the chance of being friends with Pique and Lillie again. When the class was over, Duck and Fakir returned home. "Hey Fakir, I got to talk with Pique and Lillie! I think we'll get to be friends again really soon. And I wasn't as bad today, was I? I thought something was different." she questioned Fakir.

"Well, your extension is still terrible, but at least you followed everything Mr. Cat said. If you practice, you have a chance of improving." Fakir replied, blunt but honest.

xxx

"I think I had a strange dream last night. I can't quite remember it though," Duck announced at breakfast later that week. "But I think it was a happy dream. Strange, but happy."

"What was strange about it?" Charon asked when Fakir gave no reply. He wasn't exactly a morning person.

"Well, I'm not sure. But at least I wasn't a duck in it! I used to be a duck in all my dreams, back when Mytho was regaining his heart."

"I wouldn't worry about it if I were you. It was just a dream; sometimes they're strange." Charon replied, as Duck and Fakir left for the academy. It was a Saturday, so there were no ballet classes. But the studios were open, and Fakir insisted that Duck practice.

The next week went much the same as the first, with Fakir and Duck attending ballet classes during the week, and practicing on the weekends. Surprisingly, Duck continued to show marginal improvement, and Mr. Cat had decided to allow her into the intermediate class. The following Monday, Mr. Cat called all the ballet classes together for individual assessments. As the most skilled male in the ballet school, Fakir stood up to go first. "Mr. Fakir, although usually you perform individually, I thought it would be good for the other students to see you perform a pas de deux. Please choose a partner, and perform the first pas de deux from Swan Lake. I believe you are familiar with the piece." Mr. Cat demanded, to Fakir's embarrassment. Why couldn't Mr. Cat have assigned him a partner? Now his idiotic classmates would analyze his choice.

"Duck, get over here," Fakir hissed. Of course he would choose her. They had been practicing together, so they were familiar dancing near each other. And she probably would have yelled at him later if he hadn't picked her.

Duck looked up, flustered, and rushed over to Fakir. "Um, I don't really know this one very well, but maybe if I pretend like I'm Princess Tutu again?" she suggested, taking a starting position.

"Just follow my lead. You'll be fine." Fakir reassured her, also taking his place. The pianist started playing, and they began the dance. Swan Lake was about a girl who was turned into a swan, and as they danced, that made Fakir think about his wonder at discovering that Duck had a human heart, and was not just a bird. He usually found it hard to put his emotions into his dancing, but somehow it was easier to if he thought about Duck.

For her part, Duck thought about when she had been Princess Tutu, but instead of imagining herself dancing with the prince, she thought of Fakir. He was her truest friend, someone she had been through so much with. He had promised to stay by her side, and she knew he would stick to that promise. She hadn't asked him to, but she was glad to know she could depend on him. In a way, their friendship was a bit like a pas de deux. He supported her as best as he could, and in her turn she would always believe in him. She had dreamed of dancing with Fakir when she was a duck, and she was glad to get to for real.

Fakir and Duck danced almost unconsciously, each lost in thought, until their separate reveries were broken by the silence left when the music stopped. The class clapped loudly, and Duck beamed. "Excellent dancing Fakir! And Miss Duck, your improvement shows. With lots of practice, maybe you too can join the special class! Mr. Fakir, I was most impressed with your dancing. Your portrayal of Siegfried was even better than usual. What do you think, class?" Mr. Cat asked.

"You could practically see the love on their faces! It makes the tragic ending even more wonderful!" Lillie exclaimed with glee, causing Fakir and Duck to scowl and blush, respectively. They quickly sat down with the rest of the class, glad to be out of the spotlight, as Lillie was called up next to perform for the class.

xxx

That night, Duck's dream was different. It started much the same as it usually did, with visions of an innocent childhood, but that quickly changed.

She looked through a window into a ballroom, watching her parents. The princess was twelve, just two years short of being allowed to attend social functions like this one. She was used to having to watch these parties from the outside. No one ever noticed her watching. Her parents, the king and queen, sat on two gilded thrones set on a dais at one end of the room. As usual, her mother looked beautiful, her bright red hair contrasting well with the green gown she wore. A line of guests stood, waiting to address the monarchs, while in the center of the room couples danced. They twirled around with an ease that the princess envied. The ladies looked beautiful in their gowns, and the gentlemen were handsome in their finery. The princess loved to watch the dancing best of all. She was nowhere near the skill she would need to be at to dance at a party like this, but her graceful mother had assured her that would pass. She claimed she had been just like that when she was young. The princess found that hard to believe.

As she watched, a familiar man approached her parents. He was young, although his hair was so pale as to be almost white. The princess thought him very handsome. He was a baron, who had inherited his title at the death of his parents a few years earlier. The baron was a great favourite of the court, and the king and queen were known to be partial to him. From the princess's vantage point she couldn't hear anything they said, but she saw her parents rise from their thrones and exit the room with the baron. A surge of excitement swelled in her chest. He was going to have a private audience with her parents. Could it be concerning a betrothal? She was only twelve, but she was her parents' sole heir. And she had hinted to them how very fine she thought the baron.

The princess rushed off towards the room she knew they would be in. This was one of the better rooms for her to spy on. She could both see and hear what was going on through a small concealed hole, but it would be very hard for the room's occupants to discover her presence. She hurried to the spot, ready to listen in. To her surprise and dismay, they were not discussing her future marriage to the baron. In fact...was he threatening them? Something wasn't right.

"I have followers situated all across the kingdom. People who will support my rule." The baron informed the king and queen. 'His rule?' the princess wondered. 'He couldn't mean...'

"You have no chance of succeeding, Von Rothbart." The king announced. "Our people are loyal to us! They would never support a pretender to the throne." In the corner a guard stood, prepared to defend his monarchs.

The princess grew more and more alarmed. Should she call someone? But most of the palace was in the ballroom. If she left the scene, what might the baron do that she would miss? The princess was startled out of these thoughts by a muffled gasp and a thud from the other room. She looked through the hole, blood draining from her face. In the room lay the bodies of her parents, with the baron standing over them, carefully positioning a blade by the unconscious guard beside him. He ran from the room, yelling "Their Majesties have been murdered! Help, our King and Queen have been killed!"

The princess sank to the floor in shock. The baron, a man she had thought good and trustworthy, had murdered her parents. She could not believe it, would not believe it. The princess sobbed quietly, her mind a blank. Eventually she got up and walked away in a haze, ignoring the murmurs coming from the other room at the discovery of the bodies of the king and queen. As if in a trance, the princess calmly left the palace unnoticed amidst the commotion. With each step it seemed she left more and more of herself behind. It eased the pain for her, letting go of herself. Eventually she came to a lake on the edge of the town. By this time the princess could not even remember her own name, let alone the traumatizing events that had just transpired. With a sigh, she let go of the last traces of herself. And like a princess from a story, she changed into a simple duck, fearing the evil that lurked in human's hearts.

Duck woke from the nightmare screaming, with no memory of the dream, but just a sense of terror and shock. Within minutes Fakir had stumbled into her room, to find her sobbing hysterically. He quickly sat beside her on the bed and pulled her into his arms without embarrassment. "I'm here, it's okay," he whispered, trying to calm Duck. After a few minutes like this she had calmed enough to stop crying.

"It was so terrible Fakir! Only I can't quite remember it... but I know it was. I've never had a dream like that before." Duck was visibly rattled, so Fakir led her out of the dark room and into the kitchen. He made her sit down at the table while he made her some tea. "Fakir, have you ever had a dream like that?" Duck asked, once he had joined her at the table. An expression passed over Fakir's face that Duck couldn't quite decipher.

"Yeah. After my parents died, I had some pretty horrible nightmares," Fakir whispered. "I blocked out the memory, but I still sometimes dreamed about them."

"Oh, yeah," Duck said sadly, remembering that Fakir's parents had been killed by ravens. "Do you think my dream could have been like that? A memory, I mean."

"Well, I suppose, but when would it have been from? It's best to just forget about it. Come on, let's go back to bed," Fakir reassured her. Inwardly, he worried that she might be right. He didn't want to worry her though.

Before Duck went into her room she stopped. "Hey, Fakir?" she called. He turned towards her. "Thanks, you know, for tonight. I'm glad I wasn't alone," Duck whispered shyly, but without breaking eye contact.

"Don't worry about it," Fakir replied, looking down. He quickly turned and went into his room. Duck smiled and then went back to sleep, with no further dreams plaguing her.