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Ahiru snuck through the hallways, tiptoeing as quietly as she could up the stairs to the practice room. She knew she’d fallen so, so far behind in her practice, and no matter how beautifully she danced as Princess Tutu, when she was Ahiru, she was just Ahiru, the girl who could still barely do a releve en pointe without her legs shaking. She’d absolutely be found out if she turned up to class tomorrow without having practiced on her own.
She breathed a sigh of relief, sinking to the floor as she closed the door to the practice room behind her without having run into anything. Then she looked up and stopped.
Silhouetted in the moonlight, dancing without light was Rue.
She turned to look at Ahiru, who scrambled up to her feet, trying to stammer an apology as quietly as she could, the words getting stopped in her throat when Rue’s gaze and the tilt of her head seemed to blur with Kraehe for a moment. But then she blinked and she was entirely Rue again, still holding a perfect arabesque.
“So-sorry!” Ahiru squeaked out. “I didn’t think anyone else would be here, and I really needed to get some practice in, I-I can leave and find somewhere else, or—” she broke off as she heard something she hadn’t expected. Rue was laughing. Gracefully, softly, as composed as she ever was, but laughing all the same. They hadn’t spoken since the stage in the underground lake, and a part of Ahiru lit up with the hope that they would all be able to get through this.
“Come, dance with me, won’t you?” Rue said, extending her hand to Ahiru. It took Ahiru aback, to have their positions reversed, to have the hand beckoning to her, her choice to take it. For a moment, she felt as graceful as Princess Tutu as she stepped forward, placing her hand in Rue’s. She looked into Rue’s eyes, the moonlight reflected in them, and searched for the desperation and fear of Kraehe, but in this liminal space, all of that seemed to fall away. They were just Rue and Ahiru.
The problem with being just Rue and Ahiru, however, was that while Rue was Kraehe without the sharp, aggressive movements, Ahiru was nothing like Tutu. She’d only ever danced a pas de deux as Tutu, and while Fakir might’ve said that this was just a test of Rue’s, some new way to break her confidence, Ahiru felt the way Rue’s fingers had tightened over her own. She felt the way Rue trusted her to be that steadying balance, and while Ahiru might not be able to dance like Princess Tutu could, she was still a ballet student and had still watched more dances than she could count. Rue made it easy, each movement fluid and graceful; Ahiru wondered if this was what dancing with Tutu felt like, pulled into each motion, all but able to hear the music in her mind.
She’d never been particularly good at keeping count in her head, but with Rue, it felt natural, dancing around her, coming apart and together, holding Rue as she spun, rotating her perfectly. A part of Ahiru feared Rue would try something there was no way she could do, like a lift, but Rue stuck to simple positions, the small smile never falling from her face. Ahiru wondered if this is what if could have been like, had she been a real girl, had they been able to be friends from the start. She wanted to have a place in Rue’s heart, but more than that, she wanted to find a way to fix all of this without anyone else getting hurt.
“Rue, I—” she started to say, only to be stopped by Rue’s finger on her lips. The look in Rue’s eyes was startlingly sad, instead of the fierce anger she expected from Kraehe.
“Shh. Some spells aren’t meant to be broken. Leave this one be.” As if she’d cast a spell of her own, Rue left Ahiru stunned, unable to respond in time as she watched Rue pick up her things and move towards the door.
“It’s bothersome to practice with so many other people around, so this room is mine once night falls.” With those last words, she slipped out the door, much more quietly than Ahiru had entered it.
Ahiru stared at the closed door for another couple seconds, turning the words over in her mind. Had it been an admonishment? But then, why would Rue have said it like that? And why would Rue have left rather than chase Ahiru out? She tilted her head this way and that as she moved toward the barre, starting up some exercises.
“Oh!” A blush spread across Ahiru’s face as she realized, then resolved to be back here at this time the next night. Maybe there was a connection she could make, something she could do as Ahiru rather than Princess Tutu after all.