The Black Swan and the Duck (Princess Tutu FanFic)

Chapter 22: I Gave My Heart To You

Fakir looked at her. He stared for a time. She didn't seem...

Or maybe he was in denial. She laid there in the white leotard and skirt, like a sleeping swan...the innocent, caring Ahiru he always knew. Everyone else had disappeared back to their own homes, just like the black magic had disappeared, they all were likely oblivious of the sacrifice she'd made.

How? How could he have destroyed Kuro and returned her soul... yet she was still gone? What was missing?

His fist clenched around his sword in frustration and -

His sword...

He looked down at it. Funny how the swans on it always had a heart shaped space between their two necks...

He stared at the red jewel heart. He brushed his fingers on it and felt the energy jolt through him.

Could it really be? That Ahiru was not dead but just numb. So numb that she did not hope to feel anything. Was this what Ahiru was...the girl with a heart so big and caring that without it she was too empty to even become her. After loosing her soul she was probably too weak to rebound.

He understood it now though. Before, in the text... when his heart broke the sword stopped working...it had stopped working because it was his own heart that prevented evil magic! Thats how the Sorcerer could shatter it with his magic!

He smiled. Ahiru really wouldn't be Ahiru if it weren't for her heart would it?

He dug his fingers into the sword and dislodged the red jewel.

Maybe his love and his heart had once powered the sword, but it was Ahiru who had given her heart...what energy she had left... to power his sword. She didn't shatter her heart, but had given it wholly to him in order to save everyone and himself. Even in her last minutes she didn't think about herself, but about others.

He placed it on her chest and kissed her forehead. Slowly it rippled through her, back to her, where it belonged.

Fakir held his breath as he saw her eyes light up.

"Fakir?"

He smiled at her and help lift her up to a sitting position.

"If you hadn't given your heart to me, I would never have won. I don't think I would have figured it out. Ahiru I gave you a shard and you still managed to give me your whole heart...I don't even know how-"

"Fakir..."

"Yea?"

"I gave my heart to you a long time ago. I just never had the chance to say it." Ahiru felt her face get red, and she breathed out smiling.

Fakir helped her up, and took her in his arms.

"I wonder if Drosselmeyer meant for this story to have a happy ending as well?" Ahiru asked, looking up at him in the embrace.

"I don't know. Maybe he didn't think that you would give your whole heart to me to stop Kuro. He seems to think of you more as a duck then a swan. I'm know I wasn't sure I could live up to being a prince." Fakir admitted.

"Well now I am me." She said. "And were a great Knight." She smiled meekly.

"And now you can return."

They turned to see Mytho and Rue behind them.

"How did you return again?" Fakir asked. "I never understood. I destroyed Drosselmeyer's writing device last time."

"We found it. A new one was made behind the dress-maker's shop here. It seems the dress maker had no clue, but recalled seeing a certain puppet-like character around." Rue explained.

"Uzura?" Fakir asked.

"We don't know for sure. He seems to have a firm grasp on this Town as a stage for his plays I question how many people or puppets ar hidden in the walls of this town." Mytho nodded.

"What did you mean that we can return?" Ahiru asked, her hands interlocked with Fakir's, as he hugged her against his chest.

"You can return to our world as the Knight and the Princess Tutu of the forrest. You can have your happy ending there with us, together." Mytho smiled.

Ahiru looked to Fakir.

"What should we do?"

Fakir swallowed. "If we stay here, Drosselmeyer might still find a way to control this place with another story...although I saw no more unwritten in his book. If we return, we must fulfill our titles, and our characters again."

"But we are happy there. We owe much to you Princess Tutu, and Knight Fakir." Rue said.

"I don't know if I want to leave here so soon." Ahiru muttered.

Fakir looked at her. "I understand. I too, as the Knight have duties to watch over you Prince Mytho, and though you are a friend, I'm not sure that's what I want now. Plus, should Drosselmeyer intervene with this Town anymore, I am the only one who can alter it's fate and counter his tragedy with my writing."

"I think I understand what you are saying." Mytho nodded. "You really have become a Knight, protecting everyone Fakir. Ahiru can enjoy life here as a human again."

"Something along those lines." Fakir nodded.

"Well I am happy you both found love." Mytho said, taking Rue under his arm, before leaving towards the doors of the town.

"So what do we do now?" Ahiru asked, noticing they were both alone in the morning sun.

"What do you want to do?" Fakir asked her.

"I don't know." Ahiru blushed.

"Well I could write by the lake for a bit while you..." Fakir said rather absentmindedly.

"I'm not a duck or a swan anymore you know, I don't have to be at the lake anymore." Ahiru persisted.

"Sorry...habit." He admitted.

She sighed. "Maybe we should have went with them."

"But isn't that what all fairy tales are supposed to end like? Boring happy endings?" Fakir wondered aloud, questioning the method of fairy tale writing in general.

"What's wrong with happy endings?" Ahiru asked.

"Nothing I guess..." He said. "Far better than un-happy endings." He smiled at her and she smiled back. "You know, really if I didn't save you in a way you would have become a duck, a swan, Princess Tutu and... a boy?" Fakir wondered aloud...it would have been a strange idea.

"A boy!?" She repeated.

"Well the Sorcerer's son was a boy so..."

"Well then I guess if I'm not good enough as a girl then I should just go along then!" Ahiru stuck her nose up, teased and ran back into the woods toward the lake.

"Hey wait! That's not what I meant!" Fakir's face went red. The thought of Ahiru as a boy now was completely taboo and made his stomach turn. She ran off as if they had began a playful game of tag, free of worry. He was happy she was herself again.

He followed her into the forrest but lost sight of her at the lake.

"Ahiru?" He looked around and stood at the dock.

"Quack."

Fakir stood dead in his tracks. He knelt down on the dock and looked under it to the quacking sound...she couldn't have possibly turned back...could she?