(no subject)

[fairytaleknight]

[Before: "Drosselmeyer killed them," Fakir breathes. "And he used me to do it."]

The first gray shock is turning into anger by the time Fakir finds his way to the Milliways ballet practice room. Fakir wants to pour his rage into leaps and fouettes, to dance until his mind and body are one, utterly focused on the demands of each step.

Unfortunately, Fakir's initiation wasn't even a full day ago, and his legs and feet have not recovered from sixty-four hours spent standing.

Begin at the beginning.

Fakir grips the barre and moves into first position. If he can't throw himself into a sequence of leaps, he'll throw himself into the warmup drills.

Comments

[reallyaduck]

Does she want? Duck stands awkwardly in the middle of the room. It's been a long time since she just went into the studio just to practice. There's things they've got to do, if she could only figure out what -- Mytho's getting worse every day, and Rue's pushing everyone away, and --

(-- and she didn't get her toe shoes with everyone else, and Mr. Cat thinks she can't focus, and he's probably right, she can't, not with all this, and --)

-- and it wasn't all that long ago that all this had been about dancing. It wasn't long at all, but it feels like forever.

With a sudden abrupt motion, she scurries across the room towards the bar and grabs for it, then extends her leg in a stiff echo of Fakir's dégagé.

"Okay! I'm gonna practice!"

[fairytaleknight]

She dances so differently when she's Princess Tutu, Fakir thinks as he repeats the exercise. Princess Tutu glides. Princess Tutu floats. Princess Tutu descends from a great height and lands en pointe without having to rebalance.

But Princess Tutu doesn't have that game earnestness, that urge to keep trying, that Duck is showing now. Duck's dancing is real. It's almost like--

Fakir switches legs: Dégagé front, left, side.

When I fought the ravens, I didn't use my skills. I was dancing, and I couldn't stop myself.

Fakir stops still in the middle of the exercise, staring at Duck. Drosselmeyer was controlling me. That's why. Does he control Princess Tutu? He must. She's part of the Story, after all.

But Duck is herself.

Oh.

[reallyaduck]

Duck flings her leg backwards in her third degage arabesque, a little too high and with too much force. She tightens her grip on the barre to steady herself, and then catches Fakir staring at her.

"What? What?" she demands belligerently, still balanced on one foot. He knows she sucks! It's not like it's a surprise!

[fairytaleknight]

"Try it more smoothly." Fakir demonstrates. He's smiling a little, and there's no bite in his voice at all.