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Ahiru had fallen in love, but she was a duck.

How could she tell Fakir her feelings if the only thing that came out of her beak were quacks?

She couldn't, but that didn't prevent her feelings for him from being stronger than ever. Because seeing him work hard for her to become human again, that, and above all the fact of providing him with her company in the loneliness of the lake, was something that made her little heart beat.

That's why, one day, she flapped her wings to the surface of the pier. Kindly, as always, Fakir gave her a little food and stroked her head.

She moved away a little and taking a position. She did the mime. That mime that expressed "love" One that she would have liked to do with her hands and not with her wings. The one they both knew very well, a slight blush appeared on the boy's cheeks, the same one Ahiru had for performing that action.

That's why, before the duck hid in the water out of embarrassment. Fakir performed the same pose. Meanwhile, the two eyes made eye contact without either wanting to break the moment.

After all, words weren't necessary. These were reserved for when she became human, and Fakir was going to try everything to make that day come soon.

And even more so now that he knew their feelings were mutual.

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Their gazes meet and Fakir as Ahiru, they approach to stand side by side. She is wearing a dress full of yellow feathers. The music begins to play and they take their position to begin the pas de deux.

Their hands touch, he holds her in the air, he lifts her. Her slender body was so light, like the feathers on her dress. Her eyes are like the sky, she smiles.

Their mouths are so close, their breaths mingle and then it's their lips, in that position where he has her grasped by the waist, he lifts her a few inches off the ground. Their mouths join, but when they separate.

Feathers, they start falling, detaching from the dress, the yellow color covers and obstructs his field of vision, he is going to let her down to the ground, but she vanishes.

"Ahiru?"

(Quack) (Quack)

Quack?

Now there was a duck in the middle of the stage.

(Quack)

He hears the duck quack again. And with that, he wakes up startled, his fingers still holding the feather where he was writing the story that would turn her human and in the middle of writing his tale, he falls asleep. The quack alerts him again and he sets his gaze on the one who had produced it. The duck Ahiru was in the lake, apparently communicating with others of its kind. Stopping to see that scene, Fakir, allows himself to close his eyes momentarily, while trying to recall his beautiful dream.

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The autumn season had arrived. The duck Ahiru was swimming peacefully in the lake and Fakir was writing on the shore. When an intense squawk caused him to look up and see that it had problems, the agitation of its plumage indicated it, apparently annoyed by the duck that was around it.

"Ahiru!" he called, seeing the confrontation from the pier, getting up from the chair he had been sitting in a few seconds earlier while writing a story for the girl to return to her human form.

The creature squawked louder, trying to flee from there. However, the (male) duck did not let her go, even using quite persuasive techniques to convince his partner to accept him. Choosing to pull her by the neck and dunk her head in the water.

"Ahiru!" Fakir shouted again before jumping into the lake to rescue her from that arrogant duck. Without taking the time to take off his clothes or at least his shoes.

The one who was squawking trying to convince her that he was the right partner, he was parading his feathers in front of her, showing off his striking plumage and other attributes. On the other hand, Ahiru continued to beat her wings hysterically while the young man swam to meet her.

"Leave her alone," he snapped, pushing the duck that just wanted a partner while taking Ahiru with one arm while using the other to propel himself and swim to the shore.

The duck, furious at having his partner taken away, began to peck at Fakir, who couldn't do much to defend himself while in the water and protect Ahiru.

When he reached the shore, the (male) duck had gone, annoyed at having his mating partner taken away. On the other hand, Ahiru looked at Fakir concerned about all the pecks he had received.

She squawked sharply while snuggling into his chest, trembling slightly from the fright she had received from that intrepid and persevering duck.

"Now everything is fine," he whispered, hugging her tightly. She squawked, nodding as her wet arms refused to let her go.

For that reason, he headed home with her to change clothes and warm up after getting wet from jumping into the lake to rescue Ahiru. When he came out of the bathroom, changed and with a towel hanging on his shoulders, Fakir noticed that Ahiru was sleeping in his bed.

He sat there and stroked her head, she was sleeping so peacefully, while his thoughts never stopped thinking that he had to finish the story as soon as possible. That he had to turn her into a human. After all, he had competition for Ahiru's attention, and it was from a duck - who would have thought?

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He is at the pier, on the shores of the lake, where Ahiru now lived. Swimming, no longer walking. Quacking, no longer speaking. Flapping, no longer dancing.

Currently Ahiru is a duck, when before she was merely clumsy.

Fakir goes there, to observe her, to visit her. He sits there and writes, he pours his heart into every word, his soul, but it doesn't seem to be enough. Nothing gives the result he wants, he crumples the page and starts over. He doesn't want that ending, he refuses for it all to end that way, so he tries to create one, where Ahiru becomes human again.

He only wants to achieve that, he wants to touch her skin and not her feathers.

How many dawns has he seen her like that, a duck? How many sunsets?

No matter what he does, nothing is fulfilled. His story is not becoming reality. Ahiru is not turning human, the same one who always supports him, is always close to him. He feeds her, caresses her tenderly. She quacks in a sign of support, that gives him strength on the days when he feels nothing has meaning.

It's too early to give up, but he's fed up.

There are many papers around him, too many errors in his writing, he crosses out, erases. Nothing is good, nothing is right. Ahiru quacks again, in an attempt to encourage him because she notices his furrowed brow, his contained anger, but he is upset and her sound only angers him more.

Because he doesn't understand her and even though he writes that he does, it doesn't come true. Even though he tries to understand every gesture and every look, sometimes he doesn't know if what he interprets is correct.

"Shut your beak!" he yells, he can't take it anymore.

He throws the notebook in which so many failed stories had been written.

Without any good results.

She lowers her head sadly, he gets worse for having hurt her, but he was also hurt. Why couldn't he do it? He knew she wasn't to blame, she was wiser than him and was supporting him, but after so long he didn't want to hear her quacking anymore, he wanted to hear her voice, her effusive and thunderous voice.

Her sky-colored eyes look at him painfully. She doesn't say anything and backs away as he approaches. He had frightened her, he crouches down and stretches out his hand, she approaches and gets on.

"I'm sorry," he apologizes. "But I want to understand you so much." His teeth clench. "I want you to be human again." His olive eyes express, he caresses her head, the soft feathers she has. Ahiru, with her head, bumps his palm again and again, returns the gesture, in an affectionate tone.

And although Fakir is furious with himself, for not being able to achieve it and fears that no matter what he does. Write what he writes, nothing has a satisfactory result. That feeling is appeased when he is by her side, when he remembers why he started doing this, with so much eagerness and care he wrote every day.

"I'm fine now," he allows himself to smile.

And she quacks because she's better, then covers her beak with her wings, believing she's going to yell again. Fakir doesn't do anything like that, he just smiles softly, because duck or human, Ahiru was an open book and he would keep reading her, keep writing.

Because he had to have faith, hope. Someday his wish would become a reality, he couldn't give up yet if he longed for a future by her side.

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Fakir finished writing while re-reading that part...

Ahiru received a true love's kiss and became human again.

A blush appeared on the young man's cheeks for having written that and much more, knowing that he had to implement it. To know if it became real.

Kiss Ahiru. That's what he had to do.

An even stronger blush appeared on his face. Imagining kissing her...

He shook his head successively at those indecent and zoophilic thoughts. After all, he would be kissing a duck. He sighed and saw the little duck sleeping in his bed. He smiled slightly and covered her. Tomorrow he would test if what he wrote would become real...

Upon waking up, he saw her looking at him. Her blue eyes watching him intently. Without wasting any more time and without wanting his hesitation to take over his mind, he took her with his hands and with his palms open, bringing her up to the level of his mouth. He closed his eyes and joined his lips with her beak.

When he opened them, Fakir saw her. Her, not a duck. An enormous smile appeared on his face knowing that it had worked, that she had become human again. However, because of that, he immediately closed his eyes again with the red color present throughout his body. Because in the end, Ahiru was not wearing anything.

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Ahiru had her body bent down. Her eyes closed, they opened when she realized she hadn't fallen, in fact, they were looking at the floor at a fairly safe distance, while strong arms were holding her, catching her before she fell to the floor for the fifth time that day. It never happened because there was someone ready to catch her.

The same person who never took their eyes off her. After -again- Ahiru stumbled on the air, Fakir had caught her, surrounding her with his arms, over her chest and waist, causing the girl's breathing to accelerate and her heart rate to increase.

"Sorry, I'm so clumsy," she replied, laughing nervously at her clumsiness. "Thank you for catching me, Fakir," she added with a smile, trying to regain her balance - again.

"Be more careful, you idiot..."

Before the aforementioned one could get up without risk of falling and get out of that -due to the number of times it happened- uncomfortable situation that showed how clumsy she was. Suddenly, when she was standing upright, Fakir grabbed her more firmly by the waist, now with both arms, the girl's trembling upper limbs rested on her savior's chest, her fingers gently gripping his garment.

The cheeks of the person in question turned a crimson red, she looked at him as if she couldn't believe what he was doing.

It was not something that was -commonly- expected of him.

As he pulled her closer to him, something resembling a squawk, instead of a gasp, came out of her lips, embarrassing her more. She covered her mouth with both hands. Fakir smiled and that caused the girl to have shortness of breath and a heart attack. Remaining in that way -or feeling it that way- when the boy hugged her against his chest, moving his hands up to her back.

"...I won't always be here to catch you," he concluded and smiled against her orange hair as his strands hid his blush that began to spread across his cheeks.

He was happy to be able to hug her like that, his clumsy -and not a duck- Ahiru.

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The sun had already risen long ago. Ahiru blinks, emerging from sleep, and as her sky-colored eyes open, they collide with Fakir's olive ones. She smiles enormously, but as she begins to see better upon awakening, she notices the dark circles under the young man's eyes.

"Couldn't you sleep again?" Ahiru asks as her soft hand brushes the skin beneath his eyes.

"I was writing and then I stayed watching you sleep."

"But you can't keep doing this," she retorts. "It's not good for your health," she looks at him worriedly. However, for Fakir, it was nothing.

"What wouldn't be good is losing you."

She looks at him and understands what he means. Because she was there, in all his attempts to write the story that would make her human, she was there from sunrise to sunset, she saw how much he strived, she noticed his perseverance.

Fakir was afraid that for all he had fought for, one day she might disappear, so that's why he keeps writing, affirming what he already has, to preserve it, so that it remains the same and the fact that Ahiru is human doesn't change.

The thought of the spell breaking and waking up to find a duck in his bed terrifies him. Because he wanted to keep embracing her like this every night, caressing her hair, touching the warmth of her skin. He wants to keep her human, he wants to start a family together in the future, he wants to kiss her lips and hear the sound of her voice come out of them, he wants to dance with her until his feet can't anymore.

Every night it's the same, no matter how many times he wants to sleep with Ahiru, he can't, if the idea of waking up and her no longer being human terrifies him. That everything he has tried so hard for might one day vanish. He can't stand the idea of fearing that the magic will disappear and Ahiru will become a duck again.

That's why he doesn't sleep, because he doesn't want it to ultimately become a dream.