Princess Tutu © Itou Ikuko and Hal Film Maker, I'm just borrowing the characters for the enjoyment of myself and others.

Double post, since everyone was so patient with me!

Coming back to Familiarity

Pique cringed as she unlaced her shoes in the locker room, the release of the pressure causing her blistered toe to tingle. She let the pain distract her from Lilie's rambling for just a moment before looking up at the pair of girls sitting across from her on the bench.

It was so wonderful to see Ahiru again; she had been gone for so long! Pique could barely remember how many years it had been since she'd seen her; she was so mature looking now, even if she was still as graceless as she remembered. Frau Katze had implied that Ahiru would one day join them en pointe, though right now she didn't have the ankle strength necessary to keep up with the speed of the rest of the class.

Pique remembered those first, terrible weeks of exercises and bleeding toes; she'd bought herself a heavy duty file and was now meticulous about keeping her nails short and clean. She didn't envy Ahiru's upcoming struggles to build up her leg muscles enough to spend an entire class moving about in pointe shoes.

Looking up from wrapping her ribbons around the heels of her shoes, Pique caught the tail end of Lilie's rant, the blonde shaking the slightly taller Ahiru side to side as she clutched her tightly and sobbed dramatically, her tone laced with glee.

"–and it will be so adorably tragic when you fail and are forced to drop down to the beginners' course. We'll be cheering for you as you battle futilely to crawl your way back into the teacher's good graces enough to come back to our class before failing all over again."

Ahiru looked like she was on the verge of tears, staring at Lilie in abject horror. Apparently all her time away (how long had it been? She couldn't recall…) had managed to wipe all recollection of their friend's… unique outlook from Ahiru's memory. Reaching over to rescue her, Pique rested a hand on Lilie's shoulder and shook her hard to get her attention.

"Ahiru needs to get changed so she can go get her pointe shoes. Did you want to go try the sundaes at that new café in town?" She hoped that the promise of desserts would be enough to distract Lilie from her reclaimed tormentee.

It worked like a charm. Lilie released Ahiru immediately, clasping her hands together and staring at Pique with shining eyes. "Oh, poor, poor Ahiru! Getting your dreams built up so soon after your return before you realize that you'll never be able to catch up to everyone else in the class and having to know that your peers are out getting delicious treats and possibly meeting boys while you're stuck sewing shoes. How terrible!" Ahiru's panicked gaze met her own and she rolled her eyes, she didn't remember the other girl being so soft before. Really, you just needed to know how to handle Lilie.

Pique made a little shooing motion with her hand at Ahiru, then smiled to take the sting away from her dismissal. "You hurry up and change and head on back so you don't actually get in trouble. I'll keep her distracted here."

Ahiru looked apprehensively at the chattering blonde girl before turning away. She shucked her leotard and shrugged into her uniform shirt before shimmying her skirt up her hips, then swapped her tights for her underwear. When she turned around again, Lilie was still talking, the same moony look on her face as she sat there in her blue leotard, pointe shoes still encasing her feet.

"–we'll never get the opportunity to see your cute panicked face as you're late waking up every morning but it will be so delightfully disastrous when you still manage to be late for class every day and we'll be sure to applaud you as you try hard during all of the detentions–"

"You'll... you'll make sure she actually changes and gets something to eat, right?" Ahiru asked, boggling at how Lilie still managed to speak for so long without taking a breath.

Pique just laughed and waved her out the door again. "Don't worry, this is old hat for me. I'll get her changed and moving once you're safely away. Enjoy your shoe lesson!"

Ahiru grabbed her things and turned to wave one last time before leaving, sprinting back towards the classroom where Katze would be waiting for her.

With a fond smile, Pique went back to packing up her things. Casting an amused look at Lilie, she hefted her bag and looked expectantly at the other girl before she finally took the hint and started unlacing her shoes, her mouth continuing to move all the while.

It had felt like so long since Lilie had been so over-the-top excited at the potential ills that might befall another person. She shook her head at the ridiculousness of the stream of words coming from her friend.

Life was certainly going to be more interesting from now on…