STARLIGHT | krmy ✓

28

CHAPTER TWENTY-EIGHT —
A LITTLE EXERCISE.

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SINCE SHE HAD started sharing an apartment with Maya, Claudine hadn't been exercising as often as she had hoped, and she didn't want to fall behind in her practice or her workout routine. A month's break was more than enough — so that day she heads for the neighbourhood gym in her sportswear, as she did whenever she made the time, glad that winter was giving way to spring. She had never been good with the cold, but at least she had a human heater with her quite often.

"Ah, morning." Yachiyo was there, earlier than usual, her pink hair in a high ponytail as she jogs on the treadmill. She barely glances at her friend, but when she does, her lips curl slyly at the sight of Claudine's companion.

"Bonjour," Claudine occupies the treadmill next to hers, having just completed her stretching exercises, and starts fiddling with the settings. "You're early today."

"Fumi woke me up."

"I planned on working today," a bleary-eyed Maya interrupted, staring disapprovingly at Claudine, who merely begins her run.

"You can work later. Besides, you're not going to the station today."

Maya frowns, ruffled that she had been dragged out of the house to accompany Claudine to the gym. She had planned to sleep in a little, given that the migraine she got from drinking last night was slightly more irritating than she'd thought.

"Still," Claudine glances at Maya sulking — well, as far as 'sulky' for someone as relatively inexpressive as Maya goes — by the treadmill she runs on, a teasing smirk spreading across her face as she refocuses on her run. "Your alcohol tolerance is absolutely horrible. You're not feeling any better after all those glasses of water?"

Maya groans, squeezing her eyes shut. "I've gotten enough texts from Hanayagi-san earlier. Please spare me."

Given that Maya was being vocal about how she felt in front of both strangers and Yachiyo, who was notorious for being extremely sharp in reading people, Claudine knew that she was in genuine, near-intolerable stress...or that she had lost a few screws.

Claudine pauses her jog and the treadmill's operation, leaning on the grips of the machine till she's looming over Maya's dejected frame, fully aware of how Yachiyo was watching.

Sighing, she holds a small kiss to Maya's crown, garnering a surprised noise and cute head-tilt on Maya's part, and Claudine swears that she heard Yachiyo swoon.

"I'm sorry. A little exercise would be good for you, then. You can stop whenever you really feel like it or if your headache gets bad." Claudine says firmly, easing back and restarting the treadmill. She hears Maya quietly shuffle, rather reluctantly (in reality, she was already satisfied with that kiss), to the empty treadmill beside hers.

"We do this often enough at the station," Maya mumbles — something akin to a whine, steps onto the machine, then grabs the edges of her shirt and pulls.

Claudine, who had been diverting some of her attention to Maya to make sure she wouldn't suddenly collapse or something, promptly misses a step and she has to scramble to grab the handlebars and pause the belt, lest she be swept under the machine.