Disclaimer: Don't own it, but lets get on with it...
Vignette Ten: The Child (part one)
The very happy Autor flopped down on a very soft bed with a very pleased smile on his face. He fixed his gaze on the pink hue of the setting sun just outside his dorm room window and re-played the afternoon's events in his head.
Rue handed him her books and had explained that the "Five Feet" rule stated that a boy must maintain a distance of five feet or more away from any girls he might by chance meet. It was an out dated rule that was only mentioned as a joke nowadays but she wanted him to follow it as a favor to her, so he did. He seemed not to notice the physical distance between them, however. Any time spent talking with Rue was time spent well.
She had asked what made him choose music and he had replied "math". She had looked confused. He explained that music had intriguing mathematical properties on various quantum levels. Her confusion seemed to deepen. He changed the subject by asking her what made her choose ballet. She had looked sad for a moment before saying that her father had told her it was the only thing she was good for.
Silence.
He told her that music and dance had a symbiotic relationship similar to that of math and science. He knew he was babbling, but it was all he could do to keep from falling to his knees and bearing his soul to her right there in the middle of the crowded street.
They reached the dormitories.
He violated the Five Feet rule just enough to give her her books back. She thanked him when he handed them to her. He apologized for babbling. She smiled and said it was enlightening. He blushed. She slipped inside and shut the door.
Autor rolled over on the bed, burying his still smiling face in the pillow. "Enlightening" she had said, he rather liked the sound of that. He may just be the pawn in an evil plot by a troubled Raven teenager, but for one fleeting moment someone had thought he was interesting, important, enlightening.
His happy thoughts were interrupted by the entrance of his "Master" thought the window.
"Damn, that writer!" The ebony feathered Prince swore as he massaged what appeared to be a twisted ankle. "I almost had her, almost had the shard!"
Autor rushed over before Hoffnung had to call him. "What happened?" He forced as much concern into his voice as he could muster. With out being ordered he pored cold water out of a flower vase (the flower had long since died) and onto a handkerchief which he wrapped around the Raven boy's swelling ankle.
"Thanks." A micro-expression of surprise, it was gone before Autor could notice. "That black pony tailed, useless excuse for a knight, writer: Fakir. That's what."
Autor said nothing.
"I need to find a way to get rid of him. He could destroy everything I've worked so hard to for!"
Again Autor remained silent.
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"For the last time, Fakir, I WASN'T!" Ahiru glared at her black pony tailed companion.
"Don't try to lie to yourself. I was writing the whole thing." He matched her glare for glare. "You were about two seconds away from kissing him, maybe even getting your heart stolen along with the shard. If I hadn't stopped him..." He shrugged. "Who knows what would have happened?"
"I had the situation under control." She broke eye contact. "If I could understand why Hoff-chan was doing this, then maybe we could save him and Mytho at the same time..."
"Ha! Right there!" He said triumphantly. "You've already fallen for him! Girls are always falling all over bad boys, boys they think they can change but ultimately never will. It's pathetic."
"Well, I guess that rule doesn't apply to me after all, 'cause I never fell for YOU!" The pure undiluted emotion in her voice cut deeper than the words themselves. "I thought what we went through before HAD changed you. But I was wrong, you're still the same old JERK!"
She turned to storm off in a huff but stopped short. "Erm... when did we pass the dorms?"
He didn't meet her eyes. "Half and hour ago. We're almost at my house now."
She looked down the street to see that her was right. There, the last house at the end of the block, by the wall, was the Schmied. "You must think I'm really stupid, don't you?"
"No." His eyes were still sad but gentle now to. "I think you're Ahiru."
She made an anime face. "Grr. Coming from you, that sounds exactly the same!"
He chuckled. "I didn't know ducks could growl."
He reply was cut off before it even began by the entrance of a supporting cast member. "Ah, Fakir... and Ahiru too." Karon smiled at them both. "I was coming out to look for you, Fakir. Retzel and Hanz have come to pay us a visit and guess what..." his expression turned devilishly mischievous. "Retzel has a surprise."
Fakir blinked. "Retzel." (from ep. 20, "The Forgotten Story" the subs spelled her name "Rachael" but the pronunciation was "Retzel")
"Ah, Retzel-san!" Ahiru clasped Karon's hands in her own. "Can I come too? It's been so long since I've seen Retzel-san." A smile.
He smiled back. "Of course."
The two followed him in through the Schmied's back door. Retzel was seated at the oak wood table across from a man with short brown hair and a gentle looking face. She stood when Fakir entered the room and gave an incredibly high pitched (and girly) squeal upon seeing Retzel's round belly.
Fakir's first thought was "She got fat?" But then the logical part of his brain observed that all the "fat" was concentrated in the front of her abdomen. A vivid red blush spread over the entirety of his face upon realizing the full meaning of her very full belly.
She rubbed he belly affectionately. "Six months." She smiled wickedly. "You know what that means?... It's a honey moon baby!" She glanced affectionately over at Hanz whom was still seated at the table.
The blush spread from Fakir's face to his ears and neck and if at all possible became even brighter and redder. "Th-that's great."
"Retzel, dear, the poor boy looks like steams about to start whistling from his ears." The man at the table, Hanz, said sympathetically.
"That's wonderful, Retzel-san!" Ahiru was ecstatic. "You must be so proud, Hanz-san."
"Y-yeah." He smiled.
"And they want me to be Godfather." Karon swelled with pride.
"That's wonderful, Karon-san!" Ahiru seemed to not be able to stop beaming.
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Sun light spread like butter over the town of Kinkon... Goldcrown... whichever you prefer.
Rue's stomach growled in protest of her decision to skip breakfast in favor of seeking out the music student from yesterday -Autor. She knew who he was now. It had become painfully obvious yesterday when he had spent the entire time walking with her talking of nothing but complicated principles and philosophy and his own intellectual superiority. He was the know it all from episode 22 (I forgot the title but the theme was "The Great Gate at Kiev"). The boy that had helped her up when she had fallen and as payment she had decided to steal his heart but at the last moment she had hesitated. Hesitated because he claimed to love her.
He had said nothing of the sort yesterday, of course. That lead her to believe that he was either delusional or lying. But that wasn't why she was looking for him today. The last time they had talked, or rather, the last time HE had talked, it was a lecture on how the town was controlled by stories. If he could be persuaded to help them, then he would be a useful informant and ally in Fakir's writing. Heck! He might even know who it was that brought Hoffnung out of the story and started the tragedies all over again. If that were the case then he'd be in-disposable!
She entered the piano room. He wasn't there. The room was completely empty save a single grand piano with it's lid propped up exposing the taught strings. Rue had no gift for the piano, or any instrument for that matter, but she walked around to the keys all the same. She lifted the lid and scrutinized the yellowing ivory keys for a moment before playing four notes. The last she let hand in the air before repeating the sequence and then closed the lid. She didn't know the rest of the piece. She turned to leave.
"Beethoven's fifth." Autor was standing in the door way leaning slightly against the frame. "A personal favorite of mine. Would you like to here the whole piece?"
"No thank you." Rue was thrown off guard by his sudden appearance. "I actually wanted to ask you something. Something I don't want others to hear about."
He lifted an eyebrow but said nothing as he fully entered the room closing the door behind him.
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Down the hall hiding just behind the corner, Hoffnung smiled at the sound of the piano room door shutting. So far it was working. It was somewhere between late last night and early this morning when he'd gotten the idea. His ankle still throbbing from his encounter with Princess Tutu and her Writer Fakir and still seething with unvented anger he was un-able to sleep. He had left the dormitories and flown to the clock tower in the center of town to check on the story machine and the story it self. To read what was happening where his peripheral vision couldn't see.
It was then that Hoffnung had the idea. After reading what his mother's plans for Autor had been he'd made some of his own. Autor could act as a double agent and saboteur to Fakir's writing. It would be easy seeing as how he had been the one to train Fakir in the first place and Princess Tutu seemed to trust everyone unconditionally. The problem would have been Rue, but Rue was now the one seeking Autor out. Oh, it was beautiful! Autor could distort and corrupt Fakir's writing and weaken Princess Tutu's heart and all he, Hoffnung, would have to do is swoop in and claim his victory!
Autor had refused the plan of course. It had taken some time and his own Raven's Brand of persuasion to convince the boy but after he'd seen the brilliance of the plan (and realized that he rather liked having all ten fingers still attached) he had zealously agreed. The story was moving brilliantly now and all Hoffnung had to due was sit back and watch.
His stomach growled.
Okay. Sit back and watch with a bucket of popped hearts and large blood soda. But still just watch.
He moved off to class, the wicked smile still on his face. The advanced class was giving a small performance to the beginner and remedial classes and he didn't want to be late. Especially not when one of those classes contained Princess Tutu and with her the ever so important Shard of Hope.
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Tell me a story.
Fakir ignored the voice as he sat in lecture and day dreamed. What would Ahiru look like if she... if she were... if he and she... Okay, well he couldn't exactly bring himself to think the exact question but he still speculated the answer.
What would Ahiru look like if she were pregnant? With his child of course.
Retzel was ALL baby in front. Her round abdomen already massive after only six moths stuck far out away from her body. Her body that still seemed to be the same thin but lean anime body that she'd had in episode twenty. She was still a vision o beauty so long as you kept your eyes focused on her face (or if you were male, her breast) and avoided her belly.
Fakir smiled to himself. Knowing his luck if he ever got Ahiru pregnant she would be the type that got fat all over. He cringed at the mental image that brought. A severally inflated Ahiru with swollen cheeks, arms, wrists, fingers, legs, ankles and toes that would stomp around complaining of back pains. And whenever she would stomp the ground would shake.
He tried to calm his agitated nerves by reminding himself that he and Ahiru were, in fact, NOT married and not due to be so any time soon. (Much to this author's lament...) This relieved the creepafyed(this is not a real word so don't correct my spelling) feeling produced by his mental imaging, however, it also made him desperately depressed.
Tell me a story.
Shut-up.
Ahiru wasn't his. She was in-fact no one's but herself's. That was fine. He like her because she was herself. But he wanted her to he his in the since that she loved him. Not as a friend, not the way he was sure she loved him now. But in the way she loved Mytho before. He wanted her to love him as a man not as a male friend. But she didn't. And as dense as she was she probably wouldn't unless he did something drastic and dramatic to make her see differently.
Tell me a story.
The voice was getting annoying. He needed to write. Yes, he would write. He knew just what the Write thing to do was. The thing to make Ahiru love him just like she had loved Mytho. He smiled evilly to himself. Mytho and Rue had had their chance at a "happily ever after" and had blown it.
"Please Fakir, don't write any more sad things."
He ignored the memory of her words. Mytho had had her and had slighted her feelings in favor of Rue. Rue and Mytho had had their happy ending, now it was their turn.
Now, Princess Tutu, Tell me a story!
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Ahiru smiled her goofy-cute smile as the student in the advanced ballet class entered the room. Hoffnung looked stunning in his lose white t-shirt tucked into tight black tights and white toe shoes. He looked just like Mytho, all accept for his Raven black hair. His hair reminded Ahiru more of Rue's. Speaking of, where was Rue? She was a member of the advanced class to. There was Hoffnung, Rue and the other three un-important characters that the anime never gave names to. (A/N I know in the anime there were 4 extras, but the special class is also caped at 5 so if Hoff is there then one of the extras need to go.) But Rue seemed to be strangely absent today.
Ahiru's pondering was short lived, however, as the missing Rue burst through the doors and nearly crashed into her wicked son's back. He steadied her with a hand, an expression slightly less villanish and slightly more considerate on his face.
"Sorry I'm late." She addressed the Cat teacher, completely oblivious to Hoffnung's momentary laps of caring. "I was detained for reasons of my own." A friendly smile.
The Cat teacher flicked one of her ears. "See that it does not happen again, Miss Rue. Or else I shall be forced to have my ex-husband marry you!"
Rue made an Ahiru style bow. "It won't happen again."
Madam Cat sat on the floor to scratch her ear with her hind claw. "You may begin." scratch scratch scratch
Ahiru gazed wide eyed as Rue began the pas de deux de lago dos cisnes, th epas de deux of the black swan from none other than the trademark ballet of the Tutu anime: Swan Lake. Rue made an excellent Odiel. Well, she ALWAYS did make an excellent Odiel. But Hoffnung's Siegfried seemed... Ahiru didn't know what adjective to use. Courser? Darker? um... finally she settled on "longing" but that was a far stretch from the other adjectives that surfaced in her mind. One thing was for sure, though, Hoffnung was just as skilled and beautiful a dancer as Mytho.
"They sure are great."
"Oh, that point must hurt her toes so much! I wish she'd come to me for comfort."
Ahiru looked to her left to see none other than Pike and Lillie whispering to each other in not to wisperish voices.
"That new guy, Hoffnung, sure is cute, huh?" Pike had a mild blush of her face. "But he's still not as great as the dark and gloomy Fakir!" She seemed resolute.
"I wanna see him cry." Lillie had the sweetest smile on her face, one whom didn't know her would think that they had misheard the words she'd spoken.
Ahiru smile to herself. They hadn't changed much. She went back to watching the pas de deux. Rue was always so elegant. She wished she could be as fine a dancer, as beautiful a woman as Rue. "I wonder when I'll FINALLY be able to dance like that..." she said aloud.
Pike and Lillie's heads snapped in her direction.
"Such a huge dream!" Pike exclaimed.
"And from someone in the remedial class no less." Lillie covered her smile with a hand.
The two pounced on her.
"That's it, Girl, reach for the sky! Reach for your dreams!"
"The higher you climb the harder you'll fall! It's SO CUTE!"
Madam Cat turned her full focused attention on the three girls. "You three!" a blue aura hung around her. "For disturbing the performance the advanced students have so tirelessly practiced for you you shall all three be cleaning this room after school! And if this happens again, I shall have my ex-husband marry you!"
Ahiru hung her head in exasperation. This was just TOO much like the anime.
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Hoffnung leisurely strolled the city streets after class. It had been entertaining seeing Princess Tutu squirm under Madam Cat's eyer but class was over, Autor was busily doing fake research with his mother and he was getting a little hungry. So he decided to take a light walk and maybe a not so light hunt. The city was full of ripe hearts just ready for the taking and that meat he could afford to be picky with his food.
A tall man walking with his wife bumped into him.
"Oh, I'm sorry, son." He smiled at Hoffnung in the infuriating way that adults smiled at strangers' children. He had to fight very, VERY heard to suppress the urge to rip the man's smiling lips clean off his face.
"That's alright." Hoffnung forced a smile back. "I wasn't watching where I was going."
"What a nice well mannered boy, you are." The wife rubbed her obviously pregnant belly. "I hope my child can be as polite as you are, Young Man."
This time Hoffnung's smile was real. "I should like to see that."
The husband took his wife's arm and they walked on. He watched them until they turned a corner and disappeared. It seemed he had found he prey.
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Pike was wiping the windows wile Lillie polished the bar. Ahiru was mopping the floor. Ahiru was ALWAYS mopping the floor it seemed.
"Oh yeah." Pike turned her head over to Ahiru. "I forgot to introduce: I'm Pike."
"And I'm Lillie" Yet another smile from the girl.
"I'm Ahiru." She smiled back. She already knew that.
Fin for now...
Thanx to:
Fish Head the 3rd and Co.: there shall be much much more of all the things you described in your rev. I'm happy to have made you squeal so much.
James Birdsong: happy to make you laugh
TIred: you should really read past ch. 4 you actually get story that way.
Special thanx to Mirsa for adding me to her Story Alerts list.