please don't touch

[easyopentabs]

WHO: Rue and Duck
WHERE: Rue's apartment
WHEN: Sunday afternoon.
WARNINGS: Adorable and emo streams crossing?
SUMMARY: Rue is sad and crazy, as usual. So Duck comes over to cheer her up! That's sure to go well.
FORMAT: Paragraphs forever.

Comments

:( Ruuuuuuue

[pas_de_ducks]

Living with one miserable best friend was pretty bad, but knowing that another best friend was probably miserable and then not seeing her for days on end was plain worrisome. So Duck packed up a basket--some shiny discs from the library that made the tee vee play ballets, some fresh peaches from the farmer's market, and a bottle of juice, some popsicle sticks, and an ice tray--and made her way to Rue's apartment.

Mytho was gone, but she knew he wouldn't want her to be sad. Especially not since he knew that she was Princess Tutu. He'd want her, and Tutu, to keep working hard so that everything turned out okay. Even if they were radically different in a dozen ways, they had one thing in common: if either of them could do something to ease the suffering of another, they would.

"Rue?" she called brightly as she knocked on the door. "Rue, it's Duck! Are you home?"

[easyopentabs]

Rue's eyes shot open. She'd been dozing off; not surprising, she hadn't slept well at night lately. Slowly, she stood up, pulling her hair from it's loosened bun in an attempt to look presentable. In a few more moments, she opened the door.

"Duck?" she asked, looking at the girl and her basket with curiosity. "What are you doing here?"

[pas_de_ducks]

Duck had to resist the urge to give her a hug. Just because Fakir let her hug him sometimes didn't mean Rue was okay with it yet.

"I haven't seen you in a while, so... I thought we could spend a little time together," she said, smiling broadly. "I brought some ballet movies, and we can make pop sickles if you have a refrigerator."

[easyopentabs]

"Pop-sickles?" Rue asked, stepping aside to allow Duck in. She was annoying, yes, but the promise of watching ballet somehow appealed to her at the moment. "What on earth are those?"

[pas_de_ducks]

"You put juice in an ice tray and it freezes! They're really tasty, and great to have when the weather's like this." She nearly skipped through the door. "Oh, and I brought peaches. Just 'cause they're better than the ones you can get at the supermarket, so..."

For a brief moment, her smile turned faintly shy.

"...so, you know, I thought it'd be nice to share."

[easyopentabs]

In spite of everything, Rue found herself giving Duck a small, brief smile. There was just something about her that made it impossible not to. She quickly tried to hide it, though, feigning disinterest.

"I'm not really fit to entertain right now," she said. "And I don't like cold foods."

[pas_de_ducks]

Duck blinked, uncomprehending. "Oh--no, no, you don't have to entertain me! That's why I brought the ballet movies. So you could be entertained!"

[easyopentabs]

"I meant I'm not fit for company," Rue said impatiently. She refrained from the temptation of asking what ballets she'd brought.

[pas_de_ducks]

"Oh--are you feeling sick?" Suddenly Duck was in her personal space, putting a hand on Rue's forehead to feel for a fever. The basket tipped at an angle, showing off some of the titles on the DVD boxes: La Bayadere, Cinderella, Swan Lake... Giselle.

[easyopentabs]

"I'm perfectly fine!" Rue swatted at her hand, backing up. By chance she looked down, and a title, and a familiar picture, caught her eye.

"Giselle..." she murmured.

[pas_de_ducks]

"Eh?" She looked down at the DVD, and immediately a smile began to grow on her face again. "Yeah... I didn't know if you had a favorite, so I decided to get some of the ballets we studied in school back home. They had new ones, too--like did you know there's a Swan Lake where all the swans are boys?--but, I dunno... I thought it might be nice to watch something you already liked."

[easyopentabs]

Rue didn't really know if she had a favorite either, although she always enjoyed dancing Swan Lake the most. Watching it was a different matter.

"There isn't one I would call a favorite," she said. "All of them are classics, of course."

[pas_de_ducks]

"So... do you wanna watch one?" Duck asked hopefully. By now she was unconsciously standing on her tiptoes, leaning forward as if she were practicing her balance in ballet class.

[easyopentabs]

"Like I said," she murmured, looking away. "I'm not in the mood to have anyone over right now."

[pas_de_ducks]

For a moment she was silent, her features forming a kind of thoughtful pout. And then she simply asked, "It's because of Mytho, isn't it?"

[easyopentabs]

"...What else would it be?" Rue said bitterly, still not looking her. The fact that she even had to ask...