"Ahiru!"
At the familiar voice, a duck begins to swim toward the dock jutting out onto the lake. She blinks in confusion at what she sees – Rue, holding a dress, unaccompanied but for a raven perched on her shoulder.
Rue smiles at Ahiru's confusion. To anyone else, this is a strange sight. But Ahiru quit being an ordinary duck when she joined the story, and now Rue wants to help her get her own happy ending.
***elsewhere***
It's unusual to see his best friend rummaging in his closet. "Mytho, what are you doing?"
A suit of clothes hits him in the face for his answer. "Hurry and change before they get here!"
Threats are ineffective to get Mytho to tell him what's going on, so he changes.
***the payoff***
Mytho smiles when Fakir comes downstairs; suspicion flares in green eyes. Mytho's grin widens when Fakir stops short on entering the living room. His hand falls from the cuff he was fiddling with. A girl in a yellow sundress with white lace watches him with enormous blue eyes.
"Ahiru!"
Shyly, "Hello, Fakir!"
The first hesitant touch of hands is as sweet as the first kiss.
Kiss – verb
1. To touch or caress with the lips as a sign of passion, affection, or greeting
2. To touch lightly; brush against
Author's Note: Yeah, the word itself isn't all that original, but I like this too much to change it. What slightly annoys me about this is that FF tossed out a couple of marks I put to note a break/move in the story! So whatever is between the asterisks is not involved in my word count; those are there of necessity.
I know I said that I didn't think I would ever write how Ahiru becomes human again, and I don't believe that I have pursued that even in this bit. There's just too much ambiguity to say how it was done, so insert your own fantasy of how it could have happened!