[June 9] [Princess Tutu] Hidden

[haleysings.livejournal.com]

Title: Hidden
Day/Theme: June 9: For there is nothing covered, that shall not be revealed; neither hid, that shall not be known
Series: Princess Tutu
Character/Pairing: Autor, Johanna (OC)
Rating: G


Autor had decided to surprise his mother while she was out by tidying up around the house. The house wasn’t particularly messy yet, but both Johanna and Autor had a bad habit of leaving things out when they were done with them—something that had always bothered his father. Autor couldn’t help but think to himself how odd it was, since he actually spent more time around his father, but…old habits don’t always go away quickly.

“Tsk. Just like that,” he said to himself when he found a pocket watch buried under a pile of papers on the desk in his mother’s room. It was his father’s old pocket watch. How, exactly, she had managed to lose it under a bunch of papers was anyone’s guess (although he had done something similar, once, with an inkwell).

He fiddled with the pocket watch for a moment. He had always liked looking at it, although his father rarely let him. Autor had never learned how to make and repair clockwork like his father (he had been too busy writing), but he always liked to look at the inner workings of a watch.
This watch was possibly different than a typical pocket watch, however. The door that normally led to the workings wouldn’t budge. He frowned and tugged on it harder. How did it get stuck so easily? It generally wasn’t this hard to—

Autor couldn’t help but be slightly surprised when his fingers accidentally pushed a switch and a small hidden door in the watch sprung open. Funny, he never knew there was a mechanism like that in the watch. Perhaps that was why his father never allowed him to play with it…it probably would’ve been easy for him to break the door if he wasn’t careful.

He looked at the contents behind the hidden door. There was a log of indigo-colored, wavy hair and a folded-up piece of paper. The hair, he realized, must be his mother’s. I wonder how old it is? he thought to himself as he gently pushed it aside to pull out the piece of paper. He had the watch before I was born, so maybe…

He unfolded the piece of paper. It was a story written in a child’s handwriting…it looked like his handwriting as a child, actually. Why had he kept this?

“Once upon a time there was a Nightingale. The Nightingale had a treasure that she didn’t want her master to find, so she hid it. But soon the Nightingale was afraid that her treasure would be found, so one night she escaped from her cage, leading her master away from the treasure. However, the Nightingale flew too far and flew beyond even the borders of the story, and then…”

The story cut off there. He frowned. His father had cut him off there when he wrote it, saying something about how that couldn’t be right. And it didn’t make any sense, really…he was supposed to be writing about his mother, not a nightingale.

He reread the last sentence. “The Nightingale flew too far and flew beyond even the borders of the story.”

…His mother left the story, didn’t she? That’s what she told him. She had gone through the gate, and she couldn’t get back to town because the story stopped her from coming in.

So…what he wrote was…the truth.

But he couldn’t have known where she was.

And if he couldn’t know where she was, yet somehow wrote it…then…

One of the powers of a story-spinner is to write reality. So if he could do that as a child…

When his mother came back, he was waiting for her in the living room. He stood up, holding out the piece of paper. “Did you know about this?”
Johanna frowned and turned away from him, taking off her coat. “Know about what?”
“That I wrote a story.”
“You did? Just now?”
“As a child. I found it in the pocket watch.”

If Johanna wondered how he had found it, she didn’t ask. She sighed softly, hanging up her coat and turning back to him. “I knew.”
Autor’s eyes narrowed as he quickly walked up to her. “Why didn’t you tell me?!”
“I didn’t want you to try writing another story.”
“Why not?!”
“It’s dangerous. I’ve seen too many bad things happen because of those powers.”
“Only if you’re not careful!”
“It’s not that simple!!” she said suddenly, her voice raising in volume. “Even if you think you’d be careful, it’s too easy to slip up and hurt someone! You don’t know what meddling with reality could do! One single slip-up and you could change the lives of thousands of people!”
Autor recoiled. She hadn’t yelled at him at all since she came back. It did nothing to cool his anger, however. “Don’t discount me like that! I know it’s dangerous! I’d be careful! I wouldn’t write just anything!”
“You’re a child! How could make some sort of decision like that?”
“I am NOT a child! I’ve been living by myself for years! I’m responsible and I can take care of myself, so stop treating me like a seven year old!”
“You ARE a child! You’re MY child!”
“So you decided to keep secrets about myself from me?!”
“I was trying to protect you!”
“I don’t need your protection!!” Autor whirled around, his hands clenched tightly, and began to march out of the room.
“Where are you going?”
“Anywhere! I’m tired of trying to reason with you!”
“You can’t just leave in the middle of a conversation!”
“Why not?! You’re not listening to me anyway!”
“Autor--!”

Autor slammed the door of his room behind him. He couldn’t believe it. How could she hide something like that from him? All this time he could actually do it?

He sat down in front of his desk and put his face in his hands. Did she just not trust him? Was that it? Did she think he wouldn’t be able to handle his powers right?

She had practically said as much.

Fine. If she didn’t trust him, then so be it. He didn’t trust her either. There was no point.

“And I thought things were actually becoming normal between us…”