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[reallyaduck]

Mr. Cat really really doesn't want Duck to go up on the stage and dance.

Duck really really doesn't want to go up on the stage and dance.

But Miss Paulamoni, lead ballerina of the Eleki Troupe, for some weird reason really really does want Duck to go up on the stage and dance - and Mr. Cat really really wants to make Miss Paulamoni happy - and so now, Mr. Cat has just informed her, Duck has five minutes to get ready to dance the Sleeping Beauty ballet, which she doesn't know, in front of the entire class and the Eleki Troupe and the amazing Miss Paulamoni.

In short, Duck is in a pinch.

Which is maybe why she's now running outside to take several very deep breaths.

Comments

[fairytaleknight]

In the front row of the theatre, Fakir sits, hands linked together. Through the corner of his eyes, he's watching Mytho, on his left, and Rue, on Mytho's other side.

He certainly isn't watching that girl Duck scamper away. There's no reason to. The girl's utterly boring, even if she does have some bizarre fixation on Mytho.

[reallyaduck]

A few minutes later, Duck runs back into the room, flushes a little guiltily under Mr. Cat's glare, and darts up onto the stage.

She leans over, and says, in something that is meant to be a very sneaky whisper, "Um, Mr. Cat -"

"Yes?"

"Um - so why'd she pick me?"

"Yes, I agree," says Mr. Cat, eyes closed, not looking at her, a portrait of despair.

"But, someone else would be -"

"Yes, I agree."

"But I'm really really bad at this, so -"

"Yes, I know." He sighs. "This is an earnest request from Miss Paulamoni. Don't worry, please dance to your heart's content. Even if my dreams of love were to end because of it, I will never -"

He turns to stare at her.

"- hold that most painful fact against you . . ."

As is appropriate, Duck meeps and shrinks down into herself.

This is gonna be even worse than she'd thought!

[fairytaleknight]

Rue's voice cuts over some of the shrill giggles of some of the sillier beginner girls. "So, Mytho," says Rue, "why don't you partner with her in the pas de deux?"

Fakir doesn't move, but he glances sharply at Rue.

She's up to something, and I bet she's Princess Tutu.

[reallyaduck]

"What?"

Duck jerks straight up out of her hunched, embarrassed position, her cheeks turning bright red.

"With Mytho?"

Dancing with Mytho . . . in front of everyone? Really? That's kind of scary, but - but it could be kind of wonderful . . .

[fairytaleknight]

Mytho turns his head towards to Rue, with the blank stare that passes, on his face, as interest.

Fakir cuts in. "No. Mytho will stay. I'll go." Whatever Rue's plan is, I won't have it. Ignoring Rue's half-raised eyebrow, he follows Paulo backstage to change his clothes.

[reallyaduck]

. . . what?

Not Mytho, but Fakir?

She's gonna have to dance a pas de deux with Fakir?

Why! Why did he have to butt in like that!

This is the WORST DAY EVER.

[fairytaleknight]

Fakir returns, stepping up to the stage with some degree of dignity. Funny, he's still wearing that ridiculous gold and white costume -- and it matches the even sillier outfit Duck is wearing.

The music begins: the wicked witch's theme from Tchaikovsky's Sleeping Beauty. Fakir, grim and unsmiling, raises his hand to lead Duck into the dance. Better to get this over with quickly.

[reallyaduck]

Duck's outstretched leg wobbles, as she attempts to hold it in the appropriate pose.

(The lights flicker - though Duck's not sure whether that's actually happening, or it just feels like it's getting dark 'cause Fakir's scowling so hard.)

[fairytaleknight]

Fakir moves Duck into pose after pose, each one wobblier than the next. The girl has no idea what she's doing; he hears her gasp with fear as she attempts an arabesque.

Rue, what are you up to? Dancing with a girl like this -- why, she doesn't even belong in the beginner class -- would hardly affect Mytho at all. Rue must have a plot, but Fakir can't imagine what it is.

[reallyaduck]

Duck remembers dancing with Mytho on the night of the Fire Festival. He lifted her into arabesques and pirouettes, and it felt really easy, because he was always supporting her and helping her figure out where she needed to go . . .

That memory makes dancing with Fakir even more incredibly scary.

He keeps pulling her around and yanking her from one spot to another and she thinks she's sort of remembering to move her feet right but then he pulls her forward and what is she supposed to do now, oh right, go into fourth position, but then -

Why, oh why did Fakir have to volunteer to dance with her!

[fairytaleknight]

Rue, Fakir remembers, might not be the only one with plots. Duck may be incompetent, but she has been lurking around Mytho, and she does know much more than she should. As Fakir spins Duck into another pitiful excuse for a pirouette, he mutters, "Let me take this chance to make things clear."

"What?" the girl gasps. She really is pathetic.

"Stay away from Mytho."

[reallyaduck]

Duck hasn't forgotten the way Fakir pushed her back into the door of the library - or the way he locked Mytho up - or what he said about keeping him in the dark, or - or -

"Y-you stay away from him!" she retorts, (and she only stammers a little with fear).

[fairytaleknight]

You haven't learned yet. You'll learn. I'll teach you.

Fakir doesn't respond aloud. One hand on Duck's waist and one on her leg, he lifts her above his head. He can hear her whimpering, and he can feel her body tremble.

He opens his hands.

A trained danseuse would have the balance to stay there, graceful and aloft.

An untrained danseuse...

[reallyaduck]

Ironically, Duck looks almost more graceful tumbling to the floor and flailing her arms desperately in an attempt to hover off the ground than she did while dancing with Fakir.

[fairytaleknight]

Disgusted, Fakir watches Duck flail. "You're an eyesore." He turns and stalks off before she even hits the ground.