Fanfiction: Home Is Where the Heart Is (Princess Tutu)

[nebroadwe]

Title: Drabble: Home Is Where the Heart Is
Fandom: Princess Tutu (anime version)
Character(s): Mytho, Charon
Pairing(s): None
Rating: PG
Word Count: 100
Warnings: Spoilers for the premise of episodes 14 and following.
A/N: Every once in a while my imagination presents me with undeniable evidence that I'm all too able to make the sympathetic leap into the mind of a villain. True cruelty isn't always about guts and gore; sometimes it's about quietly maneuvering people into untenable situations and watching them writhe. Or about love -- which, as John Le Carré has said, is whatever you can still betray. Crossposted from nebroadwe to princesstutu and tutufic.
Dedication: Still for fmanalyst, though perhaps less blithely this time.

---

      He stands upon the doorstep, in the shadow of the weathered signboard, listening. The bellows' wheeze, the forge's roar, the hammer's ring -- louder than all these in his ears is the beat of a magnanimous heart. It's always been his for the asking; he just never had the words before: You gave me a home; now give me --

      "No!"

      By the time the door opens and Charon calls, "Mytho?" he's dragged his body around the corner, fighting his sinews for every step. He bites his tongue to prevent it from answering, tasting blood sweet as desire and bitter as shame.

---

[Acknowledgments: Princess Tutu was created by Ikuko Ito and Junichi Sato. Copyright for this property is held by HAL and GANSIS/TUTU.]

Comments

[fmanalyst.livejournal.com]

While I can understand the other commenter's objection about going after Charon, I gasp at your ability to capture Mytho's conflicted nature at that point in the story. I also love your le Carre quote, which is so perfect.

[nebroadwe.livejournal.com]

Thank you, thank you. The final line went through a couple of more concrete similes before I just said, "The heck with it!" and used the abstract comparisons I had wanted to from the get-go. Sometimes I just can't resist the urge to reach for the big line (hopefully reasonably well set-up by the more concrete and grounded lines that precede it).

I also love your le Carre quote, which is so perfect.

I'm thinking that if Bleach keeps heading in the direction the past few episodes' worth of synopses indicate, I'll be seeing a Le Carré quote or two out of you soon, too. :-)

[fmanalyst.livejournal.com]

Maybe even that quote. (Which book is it from? Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy?)

Okay, you need to start watching/reading Bleach. There's no two ways about it. The byzantine maneuverings in Soul Society will make your heart flutter.

[nebroadwe.livejournal.com]

Maybe even that quote. (Which book is it from? Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy?)

It might be him commenting on his own work ... hang on a second. [works Bartleby magic] Nope, it's from early in A Perfect Spy.

Okay, you need to start watching/reading Bleach. There's no two ways about it.

Oh, argh. Just what I need, another enormous honking anime/manga commitment ... where do I sign up? :-)