Disclaimer: I do not own Princess Tutu
XI. Homesick
The lake has many faces and many moods and Duck knows that even if she lives her entire life beside it, she will never know them all but this is part of what she loves about it. And so, she can't help missing the lake even if she does enjoy being human again. She misses even more those quiet lazy summer days of endless blue when she and Fakir had drifted and chatted and had simply existed.
Now she is back in the Academy, has been there for weeks and while Fakir is there too, he always seems so busy, rushing towards graduation and working in the evenings, grasping for independence as quickly as possible. She aches for those carefree days of togetherness and somehow her footsteps lead her to the lakeside, as if by simply being in that place she can feel closer to him.
As the sun sets, lost behind trees and dusk overtakes the lake, she feels warm arms slip around her. She tilts her head back for a moment, looking at his face upside down, and smiles. She turns back to the lake and feels Fakir rest his chin on her head and together they watch the summer sun set, the water catching for a moment all the color the sun has cast away.
"I thought you were working tonight?"
"I've missed this too," he says by way of answer and she knows what he means is I've missed you and she wonders that he knows to look for her here when she herself had not even known she meant to come.
After the last shard of color has disappeared and they turn away from the lake, Duck is startled by a fading spark of pale green light. Soon they are surrounded by them, fireflies twinkling out of the undergrowth. It is like magic, as if an invisible flame burns in the dark and sends out emerald sparks.
The slow, beautiful duck-days of last summer are gone, but as they walk back to the town, to where home is for now, through the twilight gloom lit by the fading sparks of fireflies drifting skyward, she knows there is enchantment in this moment too.