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The first thing she felt was the slow caress of the water moving around her, touching her skin in a fashion that was oh so familiar. Her long ginger hair was splayed around her body where her feathers once covered her skin, and she felt her chest, a heartbeat where there was once a jewel.
"I'm... A girl again..." She said, voice barely above a whisper, as she looked up at the man she had gotten to know so well over the past two years, the man she had grown to love so much since the ending of the prince's story. The ending of her story. However, instead of turning into a speck of light, like Drosselmeyer's tragic end for her, Fakir had helped her stay as a duck, and had used the last of the ancestral magic tethered to him to tire away to give her another shot at being a human.
Fakir, eyes drooped with fatigue, smiled and nodded. "Yeah, you are. Now, are you going to stay in the lake or come home with me?" He said, extending his hand out to her.
---
"Come now, Duck. I know you were hopeless but this is just sad."
The girl stuck her tongue out and pouted, biting her lip as she stood heel to heel, arms making a circle above her head, keeping perfect posture. She started back at the academy next week, and while her body didn't age to match Fakir at 17, she still managed to get this much out of practice!
"I'm trying! You try being a duck for two years and tell me how well you can keep Fifth Position!" She complained, letting out a breath as she relaxed the pose, whining a bit as she felt her body tense up where her muscles weren't nearly as toned as when she was prancing around daily as Tutu.
Fakir sighed, going back to First Position. "Ok, ok. Sorry. Lets try again from the top." He said, voice softening.
---
That night, Duck pulled herself to the bed they shared, curling up on her side, trying to will her aches and pains away. It made sense for them to share a bed, given how much they snuggled when she was a duck, but it felt different now. It shouldn't, though! She would think, they're in love, right? Shouldn't they be lovey dovey, like Uzura would say?
It seems love was a bit more complicated than that, especially when it wasn't being controlled by some creepy old dead man.
The gentle creaking and depression of the mattress signaled to Duck that Fakir had gotten in bed, and she turned over this time, looking his way. He was turned away, as she expected, his hair down and long, as he kept it when he slept.
"So pretty..."
"What?" Said Fakir, not angry, like he might have sounded two years ago, more like startled.
Crap, she had said that out loud!
"I-I uh... Meant so... Uh... The moon! I was talking about the moon!" She said, laughing, trying to play off her very blatant mistake. Her heart was racing, she really needed to get control of her mouth now that she wasn't just quacking all the time.
Fakir shifted so he was facing her, the light of the lamp they kept aglow at night illuminating his face. He wore a soft expression. He had really become so gentle, huh? He remembered the first night they were here when she turned back, how she woke up scared in the dark, needing the lights turned on to remind her that she wasn't made of feathers anymore. He pet her as he cried, the nightmares eventually soothing away into a faint dream
Duck even remembered the way he would hold her at night after it all ended that fateful night Prince Mytho and Princess Rue left when she was permanently a duck. Fakir would hold her close, and even though she couldn't say anything back, he would speak to her gently and pet her feathers, promising he would turn her back soon. How eventually his breaths would turn rhythmically slow and even, and hers would grow to match.
She wondered if they could do that again, now that she was a girl.
"We can, you know." He said, softly. looking away, the blush on his cheeks easily mistaken for a glow of red light, if, in fact, a red moon were shining in the windowless attic they were sleeping in.
"D-did I say that out loud again??" She said, covering her mouth quickly with her hands.
"No, but your face is easier to read than any book." He said flatly.
"W-well you're easy to read too, you know!!" She fibbed, leaning forwards and pouting.
"Yeah? What am I thinking about?" He said, propping his head up on his elbow, looking stone faced at her.
"You're..." She said, tapping her mouth to try to figure it out. "You're thinking about... Bread?" She said weakly, giving up. She wasn't very good at guessing games.
"Duck, why would I be thinking about bread at midnight?" Fakir said, cocking an eyebrow.
Trying to play off her bluff, she tsk'd. "Yeah Fakir, wait until breakfast to eat bread! It's not good to eat in bed you know." She scolded.
Fakir just sighed, and with one fell swoop he grabbed her small waist with his arm, pulling her into his chest, where she could hear his heart beating at a quick and heavy tempo, synchronizing with hers, as if they were dancing to the same tango.
"Let's just... Get to sleep." He mumbled, speaking gently, face in her hair.
Feeling a bit more comforted and bolder, Duck wrapped her arms around his middle, her whole body feeling impossibly filled with light and joy now that she could hold him back. She pressed her face in his chest and nodded.
"Goodnight Fakir!" She said cheerfully, getting what she wanted.
---
The first day back at school was a disaster.
Since the world was no longer bound by the fantastical rules of Drosselmeyer, her usual teachers and classmates had moved on back to their normal places in the world. Mr. Cat went back to being a normal pampered cat, (albeit with many litters of kittens around the city), and her friends had moved to different areas, having, along with the others in their grade that were just normal humans, forgotten all about the fantastical time loop Gold Crown Town was in. In fact, the town wasn't even supposed to exist, they found out, and it just went back to being Nördlingen, Germany.
However, that meant that instead of just being expected do dance for a few hours and do a few other fun classes then spend the rest of the day running around doing Tutu things, that meant she had to do things such as Math, Language Arts, and English classes. While Fakir had taken as, well, a duck to water... Duck, had not.
"I'm telling you Fakir, I have no idea where this America is, but why do I need to know the language if I'm never gonna go there!" She complained during lunch. Fakir was in his final year of secondary school and Duck her first, and although it was held at the building they both knew and loved, everything seemed very different.
"It's becoming a popular language nowadays apparently, so people are forced to know it." Fakir shrugged. He only barely grasped the concept of knowing foreign languages himself, having been raised for most of his life inside the story, but he at least wanted to ease Duck's worries. "Besides, lots of ballerinas go there to perform. You'll need to know more languages if you're going to go."
Duck sighed, Fakir was right, as he always was. "Yeah but I won't like it." She said, kicking a rock under the bench they were eating at. "I miss when all I needed to know to be a dancer was, well, to dance!"
"Need I remind you how well that was working out for you?"
"Hey! I saved us all by dancing, as a duck too!" She pouted, shoving him a bit with her shoulder.
Fakir laughed a bit. "I'm kidding, I'm kidding. You'll do great."
"What about you? Are you going to be a professional dancer too? Or are you going to keep writing?" She asked, taking another bite out of her sandwich.
Fakir paused, looking down at the scars on his hand. "I'm... Not sure. I don't want to end up like Drosselmeyer."
"Of course you won't! You're you, and he's him! You wouldn't make some stinky tragedy and trap everyone inside, you'd use it for good or something!"
His eyebrows furrowed tight. "Was he really trying to hurt everyone...? Or maybe he was trying to do something else..." He said softly, clenching his fist.
Duck's face softened, turning into worry. She gently put her hand on his fist. "Well, if you're so worried, you can always be a dancer with me!" She said, trying to put on her brightest smile to cheer him up. "You're not alone anymore, Fakir. Remember that, okay?"
Fakir smiled softly, pressing his forehead against hers gently.
"Yeah... I will."
No matter what would come to pass for either of them, they knew that they could overcome it. For that is how their story would always continue, forever and always.