Journey Of Fate ~ mayakuro

•Road Trip?•

Claudine gaped at the woman inside the car, who hadn't seemed to notice her yet. What the hell was Maya doing outside of her hotel, and more importantly, why did Maya have a beat-up 2005 Toyota Corolla? The car itself looked like it was on the verge of breaking down. There were various dents littering the vehicle and the right bumper had been completed crushed in. The car was mostly white, but had a black right front door, probably because the previous owner did not care enough about it to even bother to try to match the colors. Claudine was shocked out of her stupor when another loud honk emanated from the vehicle.

'Damn Maya! What are you doing?' Claudine thought before knocking loudly on the passenger window. That drew the brunette's attention, who smiled at the sight of the blonde, apparently not noticing the rage that was etched into her features. The window rolled down and Claudine was the first to speak.

"Maya. Why in God's name are you honking your... Car... At 7 in the damn morning outside my hotel room?!"

"Nice to see you too, Claudine," Maya responded suavely, "I was merely trying to get your attention."

"Could you not have used your phone like a normal person?" Claudine countered. Maya seemed to ponder that for a moment, before deciding not to comment, and continued on.

"See, I got this car and I was thinking that I should see all that America has to offer by going on a cross-country road trip. I wanted to come and ask if you'd like to join me on the ride," she stated as if it was the most natural and normal thing in the world. Claudine blinked at her. Maya was inviting her on a cross-country road trip? Firstly, how and when did Maya get the car? Claudine swore she had never seen it before. Secondly, she didn't even know that Maya knew how to drive! Knowing Maya, she was probably good at driving, but the thought of Maya driving her, Claudine, somewhere was still foreign to her. The blonde was about to open her mouth to decline because this was all too sudden and even meeting Maya again was making all sorts of strange feelings she didn't know how to define resurface, but a sharp gust of chilly wind caused her to quickly close it. This time she wasn't able to suppress the shudder that wracked her body. New York City was too damn cold and loud for her to spend her two weeks here. She might as well go see what the rest of the country looked like, and hopefully get somewhere warmer than here, even if it meant going with Maya for the ride.

"You know what, sure, why not?" Claudine grumbled, trying to pull her robe closer to herself in an attempt to conserve any of the remaining heat left in her body. Noticing her struggle, Maya commented: "This car has a heater, y'know."

"Yeah, yeah, and so does my hotel room. When are we leaving for this road trip anyway?"

"When would you like it to be?"

"Je ne sais pas. In the afternoon?"

"D'accord, now it is then. It's settled." Maya replied cheerily.

"Ugh, you- you- méchante va! Fine, I'll go get my stuff. And if you dare to honk again, I'm going to throw you out of that car of yours and leave you here to freeze to death!" Claudine remarked with a huff, before turning away to go back to her hotel room. Maya smiled at her annoyance.

"Of course, I'll be waiting for you, ma chérie," Maya called after her. Claudine growled in response and her previous coldness dissipated. She suddenly felt very hot. Damn Maya.

As she was packing her various clothes into her suitcase, Claudine pondered her decision. Maybe it was a bad idea to go on a road trip with the woman who was making her feel all these confusing emotions that she had thought she had left behind in high school again, but she could never resist Maya when she asked her so earnestly for something. Besides, nothing could be worse than New York City in the dead of winter, right? What's the worst a two-week road trip with Maya could be? Not bad at all! She was Saijou Claudine! She could handle a road trip with Tendou Maya! Right?