Title: Trial and Error
Theme: #81. Pen and Paper
Characters: Fakir, Ahiru
Rating: K+
Number of words: 1, 797
Disclaimer: Princess Tutu does not belong to me, obviously. It belongs to someone else. Someone not me. Yeah.
Summary: Fakir deals with having to turn Ahiru back, from duck to human
Notes: I blame this on the candy bar I ate at 3am when I wrote this. That, and the fact people always make Ahiru's transformation from duck to girl really dramatic, while I think that it would, instead, probably be rather hilarious due to the endless possibilities.

It hadn't been as easy as he'd initially thought it would. Okay, well, maybe that wasn't entirely true; he'd never thought it would be all that easy, but at the same time, he'd had enough confidence in his (relative) skills, to think that it wouldn't be as hard as he'd found it to be, either. He could still remember, if he looked back, that days and weeks had came and gone during that time, and he'd not once succeeded in achieving his goal. In fact, in many ways, Fakir had achieved to do every random little thing imaginable BUT his goal, which, of course, frustrated him deeply, to say the least.

Ahiru was of no help during those weeks, either, really. Rather than be utterly frustrated like he was, and thus, share the vexing feeling, he'd found she was amused by the entire situation and it's rather unconventional results. Then again, thinking back about it, Fakir figured that had it happened to anyone BUT him, he would have been extremely amused and would have had absolutely no trouble showing so (probably via bitingly sarcastic remarks). As it was, however, it seemed as if the joke was on him, and the ex-knight was not finding it funny in the least. Whatever deity thought this was hilarious, could very well go to Hell, thank you very much.

For you see, apparently the task of turning Ahiru back from duck into girl, had not been as easy as writing just that on paper.

Despite past events, as time had crept on by, Fakir had felt that the small duck was more girl than bird; her eyes held expression that far surpassed that of any animal he'd seen. Not only that, but the way she moved, the way she flapped her wings wildly when scared, and the way she'd attempt to communicate with him, were all rather human in nature. No bird could possibly do that; no bird could possibly nod and respond as she did when he talked to her, as if she understood his each and every word. In the end, he had come to the realisation that Ahiru had a human heart, or soul (as sappy, and downright moronic as that had sounded) within a duck's body. Something like that. He'd have added a bit more flourish to his self-explanation, if he could have, but the dark haired boy lacked the ability to do so and thus had contented himself with what little he had figured out. As sappy as it was; he was rather glad no one had been present in the library when he'd come up with the notion, for no sooner had the thought appeared in his mind, that the boy had allowed his head the thunk loudly upon the wooden table he'd been using.

Once content with his thoughts, however, Fakir had shared them with the duck, whom despite some initial hesitation, had expressed a longing for turning back into a human girl; in a way, he thought it was natural. A human heart (or was it soul? He had not yet decided which of the two sounded worse) could not live in a duck's body; Drosselmeyer's story had changed her, as it had changed him, Mytho and Rue, inevitably.

He was no longer just a worthless knight; he was now, also a writer (even though needless to say, he still had to refine his methods, if the results of the little experiment he underwent afterwards was any indication).

Mytho was no longer the same selfless prince he had been at the start. He now also had to cope with the bits of the raven's blood within him.

Rue was no longer the Raven's daughter, condemned to love and not be loved. She had won the Prince's love in return for her sacrifice.

And Ahiru... well, she might have started out as a duck, but it was clear to him at least, that her experience as a girl had made her, inevitably, more human than duck; her mind had developed, as had her heart and soul. It didn't matter how many times he thought about it; it still sounded God damned sappy to him.

Despite these thoughts, and despite his good will, what he thought and what he'd managed to achieve were two different things all together. The first day that they had both sat down to try and turn her back to human, they had somehow, managed to inexplicably turn her into a swan. Perhaps it had had to do with that "Swan princess" line he had added somewhere into the story. Tell truth, he wasn't sure, however, the effects had lasted for hours till he'd managed to reverse them, and the ex-knight had soon come to realise that carrying a swan around was not as easy as carrying a duck. Ahiru, on the other hand, had rather much enjoyed the small transformation and had taken good advantage of the situation; thanks to the body weight she had been able to actually tackle down the boy when he'd begun to brood over his failure (she'd initially tried to squawk-honk for his attention but she'd been brushed off), thus effectively bringing him down from la-la-doom land and directly into a small poke and roll fight, in a flurry of white feathers.

The next time they had set themselves to work, they had somehow managed to make it rain; the sky had darkened within milliseconds, and the downpour had started to fall upon them even before Fakir had a chance to change his very first "It was a dark and stormy night" sentence. The water from the falling rain had effectively managed to soak not only them within moments, but also the pieces of papers he'd taken out with him, blurring the ink. To add insult to injury, they obviously hadn't been fast enough in going back into the cottage, for the following day had welcomed them both sickly and sneezing with colds. Fakir had never thought ducks could get colds till that morning (didn't they spend most of their time swimming in a pond?), but then again, he had instantly decided that this was not the world's most normal duck anyhow, and thus he couldn't expect the Laws of the World, to entirely apply on her. They had spent the following days holed up inside, near the chimney fire, under a blanket.

The third time they had attempted anything had come to be called the "Incident Which Must Not Be Spoken Of Ever Again" between them. Somehow, he had managed to change himself into a duck, rather than change her into a human; the boy had a sneaking suspicion it had to do with the blasted "Both their souls would share the same type of body, and both would remain free as birds". He should have used any word other than bird, however, at the time, he had thought it to be rather poetic (which obviously, swiftly taught him that he should refrain from doing further more 'poetic' things in a near future till he fully learnt to control his power). The results had been anything but, and reversing them had been even more of a hassle; he would always remember the trauma of having to dip wings, feathers and feet into the damn ink in order to manage just a few blasted sentences; writing with wings, and without hands, had not been easy. Thankfully, after many failed attempts, he'd managed to revert from a small, dark green, disgruntled looking duck, to a... well, normal, disgruntled teenage boy. Despite his obvious horrific, traumatising experience, Ahiru herself had had the time of her life; she had spent the day it took him to revert the effects, snickering over the situation and cracking jokes. They had been able to communicate normally and understand each other fluidly again, during that short time; that was the only thing Fakir thought that made the horrible experience worth it. It had not only strengthened his resolve to turn her back, but had shown him what he'd already known; she was still human. No normal duck would have managed those dumb puns she'd been snickering away to.

Another time, they had managed to create a telepathic bond between them, and this time, it had taken Fakir days to figure out a way to reverse the effects. In theory, the whole telepathic bond thing would have seemed like a superb idea; in fact, the initial discovery of said bond had swiftly excited both boy and duck due to communication aspect of their relationship being solved, however, the unexpected side effects of it had been embarrassing enough for both of them to wish the ground would somehow swallow them up on the spot. Having someone receive your each and every thought was not something either had had the time to dwell on, and having no means to stop these thoughts from passing back and forth, or even put a barrier between their minds to at least lessen the leaks, had been awkward, for they'd both soon enough discovered their minds tended to wander away into territories neither were comfortable talking about. Thankfully, the ordeal had been somewhat forgotten with time and patience. Fakir, however, made a mental note never to use "Their thoughts and soul were one and the same" again in his writing.

Many similar ordeals had come and gone, each more awkward than the one before, however, the story that had managed to solve the problem hadn't been all that surprisingly original. Fakir still wondered why he hadn't attempted that one in the first place; it sure would have made his life a little bit easier. However, at the time, he truly hadn't thought of it. In the end, all what had been needed, had been a wish and a kiss...

"For when the knight, whom was not a knight, kissed the duck, whom was not a duck, a miracle came to pass."