Journey Of Fate ~ mayakuro

•Sun Chips•

By the time Claudine woke up, Maya was no longer beside her. The blonde blearily rubbed her eyes as she sat up and scanned the room. The bathroom door was still open, so it was unlikely that Maya was in there and she wasn't present anywhere else in the room. A piece of paper lying on the sketchy chair, however, was a new addition. Swinging her feet from underneath the covers, Claudine slipped off the bed. She immediately winced. The carpeting of the motel was coarse, too coarse for it to be normal, indicating that it was rarely washed, if ever. Regardless, curiosity was more overpowering than her urge to put on some kind of covering for her feet, and she wandered over to where the chair was. She picked up the random note that was attached to the chair.

"Ma Claudine, 

You must be reading this perturbed that I had left you without saying anything. I can already hear your irritated remarks. 'Méchante va,' right? That aside, I left for a good reason. By the time I had awoken, it was already 10 AM. I do not know when you will awaken, but you seemed sound asleep when I awoke; I didn't have it in me to wake you. You're quite cute when you're sleeping. I've gone to get us lunch. I've taken Swan, so please sit tight and wait for me to get back. 

-ta Maya." 

Claudine's face flushed. How was it possible for Maya to get her so flustered even when she wasn't present in the room? The annoying woman had to go and write an obnoxious flirty note to her using that stupid pet-name. Granted, Claudine knew that she was technically the one to start the whole possessive pet-names thing, but Maya was the one who kept it going. She had even called herself 'ta Maya' at the end. Your Maya. Claudine was disturbed by the increase in tempo of her heart when she looked at those two words. 'Ma Claudine' was always an apt way to get her to blush, but this new phrasing really struck a chord within the blonde. But why? They were basically the same phrase. Was it that Maya wasn't only claiming Claudine to be hers, but also giving herself to Claudine? But why would she care about that? Did she want Maya to be hers and hers exclusively? Why would she want that? Claudine was stumped. Over the course of 24 hours, her entire opinion of Maya and their relationship had shifted. It had gone from being rivals and she'd tentatively put the label of friends on it to whatever this was. She couldn't put a name on this. She thought maybe it could be that Maya was just a more important friend to her than the rest of them, but that didn't seem to satisfy her curiosity either. Whenever she looked at Maya, whenever she spoke with Maya, her chest tightened and was filled with some kind of indescribable warmth, a warmth she had never experienced with anyone else, even her other friends. Those few years that they had been apart, even though they kept in light contact through messaging apps, were long and tenuous. She was pleased and enjoying herself, obviously, but something was missing. She had thought throughout high school that the greatest joy was to be the lead role, acting center stage. But even after leaving Seisho and performing as lead for numerous high-profile productions, Claudine never felt the same exhilaration that she had felt when on stage performing Starlight with Maya. She never felt the same happiness that she had felt when Maya had stepped into her spotlight after their fateful Revue Duet and had reached out her hand, vowing to soar even higher together. Yet, when she returned to put on Starlight in America, even though she wasn't the lead, those fuzzy feelings returned. At first, she had chalked it up to being with all her friends again and nostalgia, but now she wasn't so sure. Could it be that Maya, ever the top star, was playing a lead role in her life as well? It would be just like that annoying woman to.

Before Claudine could continue to attempt to figure out her feelings, the distinct click of the door unlocking filled the room. Claudine whirled around to the sight of Maya carrying four groceries bags, two of them draped across her arms and two held in her palms. The blonde blinked at her and then scowled.

"Okay, first off, what was with that note of yours? Did you really have to be so- so-," she struggled for a moment, looking for the correct word, "Infuriating?" Maya smiled cheekily in response.

"You prove me right every time, ma Claudine," she simpered. "Did I not say in my note to you that you'd be waiting for me with scathing remarks?" Claudine groaned. M-Méchante va Tendou Maya!

"Whatever," the blonde huffed in response, eager to change the subject. "Why'd you get so much stuff?"

"I figured we might be on the road for a while, so I wanted to stock up," Maya responded, dumping the bags onto the desk. Claudine moved over to look at what Maya had gotten from the store. The goods that Maya had fetched were a family size package of Oreos, Chex Mix, Cheez-Its, Gold Fish, Doritos, some water bottles, a couple boxes of raisins, and a few bags of various flavors of Sun Chips. Claudine stared at the pile.

"Maya, did you literally just raid the snack food isle?"

"I googled good road trip snack foods and these are what they said," Maya explained. "Besides, don't all these look good?"

"Maybe... But Sun Chips? Ce sont tellement boiteux," Claudine scrunched up her nose. Maya picked up one of the packages of Sun Chips and held it out, pointing to a label on it.

"Look, they're heart-healthy! I'm sure you'll come around to them eventually. I've had some; they're pretty good." Claudine eyed the offending package dangerously. Like she'd ever like Sun Chips!

"What about the lunch you said you were getting?" The blonde asked, noticing that nothing present looked particularly like a good lunch.

"Oh, right," Maya rummaged through the only grocery bag that had yet to be investigated and pulled out two sandwiches. "These were the only things they had. I figured this would work for now and we could have a real meal when we got to our first destination." Claudine nodded and helped Maya to clear the desk of their snacks so they could eat. Just as the blonde was about to bite into her ham-and-cheese sandwich, she realized something.

"Um, Maya?"

"Yes, Claudine?" Maya replied after chewing.

"What exactly is our first destination?"

"Oh," Maya looked to the side sheepishly. "I haven't decided that yet. I was hoping to decide it together with you considering this is our road trip." Claudine looked at her incredulously. She didn't know why she expected otherwise considering this road trip had already been so disorganized. Despite that, she felt that strange warmth bubble up in her chest again. She'd never admit it, but it was nice that Maya waited to make plans with her, instead of just dragging her to where ever the brunette wanted to go.

"Well then, let's get planning," Claudine declared, flashing a smile at Maya. When Maya smiled back with the sincerest look of glee plastered across her face, Claudine's heart leapt and sped up to 150 beats per minute. Why did Maya make her feel this way? She still didn't have the answer, but she wasn't concerned about it in this moment. Claudine was content to just enjoy their time together. She'd have time to figure out what these feelings meant on the road trip, after all.