Claudine has always been jealous of Maya. Perhaps after that one day in their first year.
She had, for a moment, regretted the decision of haughtily strutting over to the brunette to ask her to accompany her stretch. She saw her brilliance, and was taken aback.
To think there was anyone better than me, am I right?
More or less, it was that way.
From then, she spent a large part of her school years competing against Maya. From dancing to singing and to petty things like eating speed, she tried to beat. Everything.
She knew she wasn’t that far behind Maya by much, but it felt like she was at the foot of an unbearably tall flight of stairs, with her rival at the top, shining so brightly it’s almost blinding. It’s a beautiful thing, Claudine thinks, but it’s so high.
Sometimes she thinks it’s useless. Futile. It’s not worth doing. She keeps doing it anyway. It gives her something to do, something to aim for. Something to beat. The stage is her lifeblood, and she’s sure it’s the same for Maya.
…
They meet in the hallways. Maya passes, sending Claudine’s way a small bow as she heads to one of the dance rooms. Claudine catches the way the brunette’s lavender eyes linger on her before she really walks away.
They pass each other again during lunch. Maya orders a simple chicken bowl, and so does Claudine. She chances a glance at her rival to see her looking right back. Maya looks away and walks to her table. Claudine decides to sit opposite her seat at the same table, as she always does.
“Don’t think I won’t notice that you’ve been looking at me all morning, Tendou Maya.”
“And what if I have?” Maya responds, nonchalant. “What would you do about it?”
Claudine wanted to maul her rival on the spot. She ended up throwing a small growl at Maya before proceeding to scarf down her chicken bowl.
…
Maya was annoying. Very much so, almost if not all the time. The way she nonchalantly answers to every quip and question Claudine gave her was so, so infuriating. The replies that shut her up, the corny pick up lines. On bad days, those are particularly hard to deal with.
Claudine does realise, though, that Maya responds to her in an unusually tempered and refined way. Like it’s a script.
Is it out of politeness? Or resent? Respect?
Claudine doesn’t know, and decides it’s not quite important. What was more important was that she had to surpass Maya.
…
One evening, she sits on the garden bench to collect her thoughts. Claudine knows it’s tiring to always run, to always chase. She has thought of the fact that this stalemate may last for eternity. She wonders when this stalemate will break.
She taps the wood of the bench repeatedly, louder, faster, until she can’t hear her thoughts anymore. She then stops, putting her head on her hands. She breathes.
“Okay. Maybe I shouldn’t think about this.”
She came to class in a fairly bad mood the next day. She does hide it, behind that feisty attitude of hers.
(Maya notices, and hides a pack of macarons inside her locker.)
…
They meet in a revue.
This is the first time they saw each other with swords. And fancy uniforms.
Claudine eyes the crimson pelisse hanging by a button and a golden rope just sitting there on Maya’s left shoulder. She looks at her own, then she looks at the broadsword in her hands. Her eyes travel to Maya, whose face is twisting into an unreadable expression, lips pressed into a thin straight line.
Claudine makes the first move, and they fight.
The button gets flung off, her pelisse falls, and she tumbles down, left staring at Maya, standing on the now elevated platform, the lights all shining down on her, and her rapier stuck into that pink T-shaped tape they call Position Zero. She feels Maya stare at her from so high up, and she grits her teeth, moreso when she spots that apathetic look on her rival’s face.
This is the first time she sees Maya from a height so low. Maya was, now, too blinding for her to stare into directly. She’s ethereal, and so, so high up. This feeling hurts, and she doesn’t like it.
She comes to class late the next day, a dull pain on her shoulder. She knows why, and she keeps quiet.
(Maya knows why too, but chooses to keep silent. She asks Nana for advice on how to make cookies.)
…
“Nana. Am I wrong for resenting Maya?”
Claudine’s other, taller, blonde friend stops rolling the cookie doubt for a while. She furrows her brows, a little worried.
“What brought this up?”
Claudine wants to shrug, to shake the tension off, but doesn’t do so. She coughs.
“It’s…I don’t know. She just came into my life so suddenly and knocked me off my high horse. I’ve been at the top for almost all my life till her. It’s just…the jealousy? The bitterness? Anger?”
Nana went to roll the cookie dough again. She laughs softly.
“You have so much emotion, Kuro-chan. So much it might even explode in our faces! Thus it is hard to sort out. I know I’m the resident therapist in the Starlight Hall, but even I am not capable of sorting that out.
That is something you’ll have to sort out by yourself. All I can do is give you some sort of push.”
Claudine blinks. “What kind of push?”
Nana only smiles, mysterious, and quite frankly, unreadable.
“For starters, I’m going to give the first batch of cookies to you this evening!”
“Nana!”
…
On a Saturday afternoon, Claudine meets Maya inside the Starlight Hall, sitting comfortably on the sofa just when she wanted to retrieve the tea she made, sitting on top of the counter. Claudine finds herself staring into pools of lavender and looks away.
Not today, she thinks, feeling the growing blush of embarrassment. She grabs her mug and attempts to skedaddle her way back into her room, when she sees Maya staring right at her. Maya blinks, coughs and averts her eyes. Claudine spares her a little ‘good afternoon’ before walking as quickly as she can back into her room.
(Maya stands up and reaches out in her direction, slowly dropping her arm down as she stares at the now empty corridor.)
Claudine stood for a while behind the safety of her room door. Just for a moment, she wonders what would happen if she had stayed.
She shook her head and placed her mug on the table.
…
Claudine finds that Nana is unusually distant now. She does answer, sending a smile whenever conversation strikes, but that smile is merely conversational. Claudine is perceptive enough to tell something is going on with Nana. Hikari enters the room, and Claudine could swear she saw her friend’s shoulder tense and her brows crease into a slight furrow.
Maya realises, too.
“You could tell too, could you? That something is amiss.”
She hears Maya’s voice, Maya’s beautiful voice, behind her ears. She turns to look, spotting how the brunette’s brows furrow and how her lips press into a firm thin line. She spots the tension in her shoulders. Maya spots Claudine’s own crimson eyes and turns to look at her, her lips forming a small and genuine smile.
Claudine was, for a moment, at a loss for words. She feels a growing warmth in her chest and she feels her ears redden.
“Something bothering you, Saijou-san?”
Claudine shakes that feeling off.
“Ah! Nothing of the sort! I’m just worried about Nana.”
It’s about the revues, isn’t it? Is it?
“I think,” Maya says, “We should leave this to those involved. I think we are…”
“...unable to help. In this aspect.” Claudine finishes.
Karen enters the scene, jumping right at her dark-haired friend who catches her and eases the tackle into a spin. Mahiru joins them after, saying something along the lines of ‘don’t do this inside the class’. Claudine couldn’t care less right now. The only thing she could feel is Maya’s hand tightly yet delicately holding onto hers. It feels a lot like desperation.
…
The two meet again in a revue, except, this time, they’re together. They face none other than Karen and Hikari, who both sported dark expressions, one darker than the other. They stood on the other side of the stage, just a bit away from the steel beam Maya and Claudine were standing in.
Claudine looked over to the audience seats, spotting their other classmates, who have likely been booted out of the revues. She looks at Nana, then at Maya, and then at her own shoulder, suddenly feeling that dull pain she’s familiar with.
“Saijou-san.”
Claudine sighs. She didn’t need to look at Maya to know that she’s tense, with her shoulders stiff and taut like a bowstring ready to loose. She brandishes her broadsword and lets out a puff of air.
“Okay. We got this.”
The lights turn on.
Karen and Hikari move, and so do they. Claudine goes for Hikari, and Maya intercepts Karen.
Hikari parries her strike and runs, using his dagger to fly over and save his partner from the incoming jab Maya was about to give. Claudine spots the cord connecting his dagger to his hip and steps on it, making his swing fall short.
Maya propels herself at the tumbling duo, to which Karen pushes the brunette away with her spadroon. Claudine watches as they scramble away and separate.
Next thing she knew was that they were pushing Maya back to the centre in a pincer attack, and she slid down to support her partner. She grabs Maya’s hand and her partner immediately understood what she wanted to do, bringing her into the circle and threw Claudine Hikari’s way as she was thrown to Karen, deflecting both their incoming attacks at the same time.
They separate and run, come back to the centre and do it again.
The stage lights turn off and on again as the stage changes in their favour. Claudine watches as stage props emerge from the floor to form platforms for them to step on.
She spares one look at Maya before running up a platform. Maya understands, once again. She corners Hikari into a platform and Claudine switches into reverse grip, airdropping right into him with the slight intention to kill. Hikari barely made it out, jumping off and rolling into the floor.
Claudine watches as he throws his dagger up to a platform and spun around it to attack her from above.
Okay! Smart move!
She parries his dagger anyway, and they exchange blows again.
Claudine spots him running, and steps on his cord once again, failing his attempt as Maya jumps at Karen from above.
The stage lights turn off, and Claudine finds herself on the top of the stairs with Maya. She looks at Maya, and Maya looks back at her. Maya smiles, and this is when it clicks. She realises that this is the first time she’s looking at Maya on eye level. As equals. She was no longer staring at her rival from the bottom of the staircase; she was with her, on the same step, together. They were, at last, on the same page.
Claudine feels herself bubble with newfound joy and excitement. Maya laughs, so quiet it’s hard to hear, but Claudine sees it and she grins.
Okay. We can do this.
They jump back down as the lights turn back on, seeing both Karen and Hikari together with a newfound determination in their eyes. This is when Claudine gets that sinking feeling. She almost barks, running at Karen who swiftly evades her broadsword, falling down the platform. Like clockwork, Hikari abandons the volley with Maya immediately, throwing his dagger up to latch into a platform, pulls and swings himself up as he catches his partner.
Maya blinks, clearly surprised to see the change in attitude and in brilliance.
Claudine barks loudly this time. “Don’t you dare write us off just yet!”
Throwing the broadsword hard into the platform, she watches as Hikari releases his partner down and Maya jumps towards Karen using her broadsword to close the gap.
That's when the unthinkable happens, and Maya’s button flies off. Claudine watches in pure horror as her partner’s pelisse slides off Maya’s shoulder and down to the floor. When Karen’s spadroon touches Position Zero, she almost wants to look away.
She screams when The Giraffe announces the end of the revue, watching as the lights disappear away from the pair and reappear on her.
“I’m the only one who lost!” Claudine rips the button off her pelisse, letting it fall.
I refuse to believe that Maya was defeated.
“It was me only!”
She tries to resist the tears threatening to spill out, but ultimately fails to do so, feeling the water between her eyes. “Tendou Maya has lost to no one! Tendou Maya hasn’t lost!”
She feels like she wants to die. To disappear from this stage, to be alone. Even so, she continues. She’s so tunnelled she doesn’t even realise she’s calling Maya with her first name.
“Maya…has not lost. My Maya..”
She feels herself falling down on her knees. She’s too embarrassed to speak in public at this point, and switches to French, hoping no one understands.
(Maya furrows her brows, a pained expression gracing her face. She almost grits her teeth, and decides against it.)
“Ma Maya á moi, impossible qu'elle perde maintenant comme ça!”
(There is no way that My Maya has lost like this!”)
“Maya n’est pas la perdante!”
(Maya is not the loser!)
Claudine wants to scream. She refuses to believe the outcome. She knows she would have to live with the end, but she chooses to cry. Again, sometimes children have to cry before they move. She feels like a child. It doesn’t feel right to cry, but she pushes that feeling down in favour of emotion. That was until she heard Maya’s voice, sharp and firm, and beautiful.
“Exactement.”
Claudine’s heart stops. She looks up and sees Maya, who stood just before the light of the spotlight hit her boots. Maya walks into the light to stand right in front of her.
“Je n’ai absolument pas perdu.”
(I have absolutely not lost.)
Claudine feels her eyes widen. That's when she realises that Maya understands French.
Oh Mon Dieu. She understands my words. She just saw me CRY. NO.
She feels the embarrassment and the growing blush in her cheeks set in, trying so hard to resist the urge to look away. It clearly failed, and she averted her eyes.
“C’est deux-la…ont juste eu plus de, ‘Starlight’ que nous a cette revue.”
(Those two…just had more ‘Starlight’ than we did in this revue.)
“Rien n’est perdu…donc.”
(Nothing is lost…therefore.)
Maya extends her hand towards Claudine, her lips slowly turning into a small smile. One that is genuine, filled with love. Claudine almost gasps.
“Lève-toi, Claudine.”
(Arise, Claudine.)
Claudine was left virtually breathless. All she could do was stare at Maya, who was ethereal, still ethereal, even when she lost.
“Avec toi — je peux aller toujours plus loin et encore plus haut.”
(With you, I think I always go further and higher.)
Maya almost chuckles. It doesn’t show, and she continues. “T’es mignonne, aussi quand tu pleurs… Ma Claudine.”
Claudine’s eyes widen again as she moves to wipe her tears off. She finally smiles again, albeit eyes still dry from the tears. She feels Maya’s warm smile on her, and decides that maybe, just maybe, this is nice.
“Méchante…va!”
(You are a truly infuriating woman…let’s go!)
Claudine took Maya’s hand and stood up. They took the time to stare, to stay, just like that. What happens next is no longer important to them; the fact that they are here, standing confidently, is all the reassurance they need.
…
They sit down together on a wooden bench, in the middle of the night, under the stars. Claudine finally gets that respite that she needs, leaning onto Maya’s shoulder. Her partner smiles, warm hand clasping her own.
“Maybe that loss was needed,” Maya whispers, voice small and wispy, barely heard. Perhaps she was fearful that she was touching a rather sensitive topic.
To her surprise, Claudine laughs.
“Maybe. Maybe we needed it. I wouldn’t have known you could speak French if it weren't for that loss, after all.” She quips.
Maya chuckles. It’s the first time she gets to truly tone down and relax, being with someone she truly loves. She draws lazy circles on Claudine’s hand with her thumb.
“I think that’s when I realised that you, and only you, were the person who could keep up with me. That you’re the person that makes me want to reach higher.”
“You are someone I want to defeat, essentially.” Claudine says. “But I’d always love to compete with you. That was the first time I finally could see you at an…equal level, let’s say.”
“Oh? How did you perceive me to be before?”
“Unreachable. It felt that you were so high up and that I had to stare at you from the foot of the stairs. It felt like there was a curtain that separated you and me, and that you were so brilliant I couldn’t see.”
Maya wanted to quip, but decided against it. It might be better to hear the words that wouldn’t be uttered were she to do so.
“It’s not that you’re not so blindingly bright right now!” Claudine restates. “It’s just that I’ve finally found myself seeing you at eye level, directly in front of you, instead of. You know, far away and high up like a shining pedestal. I think it’s the feeling of finally being an equal to you.”
“You have always been an equal to me.” Maya states.
“Look, I was too jealous to know!” Claudine groans jovially.
They laugh, feeling their voices rippling inside their chests in the middle of the night.
(Maya has much, much more to say, but decides that it isn’t the time.)
…
Just a year later, they became third years, and just in a few months, they were set to graduate. Maya was headed for the New National Theatre Troupe, and Claudine for Theatre du Flamme in France. They knew of this, had their own problems about it, and had, with no small amount of effort, solved it and made terms. Their relationship had certainly evolved over the course of the year, with them confessing to each other.
They had another set of problems involving the mutual love they had for Nana, but that will be for another time. They will have to discuss this with her sooner or later, but right now, it is not quite important.
They knew it would be hard to juggle a relationship and their work at the same time, but they were Stage Girls. They could do this.
The two watch as the clock draws nearer and nearer to the trip to the New National Grand Theatre.
“We’re graduating, aren’t we?”
“We are.”
“Will we…survive this?”
A rhetorical question. She answers the obvious anyway.
“We are Stage Girls. We will survive this.”
(We will move to the next stage, to the next show. We will always be on stage. It goes unsaid, left floating in the wind.)
…
May 14. The day before they leave for the trip to the New National Grand Theatre and the day the auditions began. Hikari had left Seisho for London once more, leaving Karen alone once more, with Mahiru.
Claudine reads a magazine while waiting for her clothes to wash inside the washing room while Maya sits in the living room. Kaoruko makes quite the fuss, reminding them all of the auditions. Maya watches as her friend storms off the rooms.
Claudine meets Kaoruko in front of the washing room and stares her down, looking at her friend who now was mumbling to (and likely cursing) herself. She presses her lips into a thin line.
...
May 15, the day they leave for the New National Grand Theatre and the day Wild-Screen Baroque started.
The eight girls get on the train to the theatre. All tension from yesterday had dissipated and they were talking again as various topics from movies to stageplays to actors and career paths arise. That's when they hear the telltale melody of the giraffe’s revue, and get transported to the top of the train, facing none other than Daiba Nana herself.
Karen wasn’t there, but that was the least of their problems. Fear-inducing music was playing to the angry tap tapping of Nana’s foot, and she growled.
“This isn’t the auditions.” Nana says, voice laced with anger and exasperation.
Obviously. No normal revue will have a one-six battle.
Claudine barks as Nana moves forward. She watches as Kaoruko, Futaba and Mahiru fall one after another. She also watches Junna fall to her knees as her pelisse slips off her shoulders. Now it was just Nana, Maya and her.
Nana really is that angry, isn’t she?
Claudine, without thinking much, rushes forward to get Nana. She shouts a battle cry. Nana, without much effort, turns towards her, an evident scowl plastered into her face.
“You’re a bit too loud, Kuro-chan.”
Claudine sees the momentary swipe of Nana’s katana, and she sees her button sever. She stops as she feels her pelisse fly off her shoulders. She doesn’t bother looking back, too surprised at the outcome.
Nana took one long look at Maya, who still had her pelisse hanging off her shoulders, and promptly left.
“The train will get to its destination without fail. What about the stage? What about us?”
Maya knew the answer already.
We Are Already On Stage.
…
Claudine watches as Maya rehearses with one of her underclassmen under the warm lights at the side of the stage. It was a party, for the celebration of the last ever ‘Starlight’ they were going to play in, the day of the script announcement. She ponders Nana’s question, rotates it in her head.
She watches how Maya talks, confident and without fear. How Maya was always ready for anything, everything. She thinks about how Maya does not hesitate to jump into etudes and skits, however unprepared she seems to be. It's like she’s—
Then it clicks.
We’re already onstage. We’re always onstage.
Claudine blinks once, twice. She lets out a breath of cold air, and gets up to leave.
(Maya notices that, and lets her go.)
…
They play shogi backstage together. A little kid’s shogi, animal shogi. The pieces have cute animal pictures printed on them. They play a few rounds. Once, Twice, Thrice, and Maya loses every single round. Claudine laughs.
“Really, Maya? How do you keep losing?”
They’re in their fourth round now, as Claudine advances one of her pieces to capture one of Maya’s. Maya pouts.
“The pieces are just too cute! I can’t bear to see them go…”
Claudine snickers. “Oh my God. Top Star Tendou Maya, losing three times in a row in shogi. The irony.”
“Hey!” Maya groans, watching as Claudine composes herself from the laughs.
“I guess we have to go now, huh?” Her smile had disappeared as she turned to look at the nearly empty costume rack, save for two lone pelisses.
Maya quiets down.
They reappear on the stage in their costumes: Maya in a typical mediaeval getup, Claudine in a black tailcoat. Maya’s rapier and Claudine’s broadsword were nowhere to be found, replaced by a shortsword and a baton now in their hands.
Maya furrows her brows as Claudine struts closer, twirling her baton.
“Won’t you make a bet with me, O Stage Person?” She says, haughty.
“What do you mean by ‘Stage Person’, O devil I know not the name of?” Maya answers, inquisitive.
“A playwright and a philosopher. To you who claims to have stood on every stage in this world, I thought I should try to show you; The ‘greatest brilliance’ nobody has ever bathed in.” Claudine answers, line by line. Perfectly.
“And in return? Devils always have terms of exchange.”
Claudine scoffs. “When I show you that brilliance, I will receive your soul.”
The stage lights change, and they both hear the telltale ding of the masterless music.
Okay, there it is.
“Interesting.”
Maya signs the painting with the vow in red, drawing ‘Position Zero’.
Claudine grins sinisterly. “The bet has been established.”
The stage lights turn off and on, and they fight. Metallic clangs reverberate on the stage as the two fence over the props, up the stairway and under the lights, all on stage. Soon, Maya nicks off Claudine’s button, watching as she tumbles down the stairway and into the pile of empty painting frames. It glows a dull gold as Maya scoffs.
“For heroes, there are trials, for saints, there are temptations. For me, there is a devil.”
She attempts to insert her sword into the pink tape of ‘Position Zero’, that lax expression quickly twisting into one of anger when she finds it coated in metal. Her head snaps at Claudine’s direction, and she grits her teeth when the devil laughs.
“Well, the button didn’t fall. It’s right here.” She sticks out her tongue, and Maya finds the button sitting comfortably there.
Maya almost barks, breaking character. “You dare bend the rules of the stage…!”
Claudine laughs loudly this time. “Well! You were unfair too. Lying about that empty shell of yours. You think you’re an empty vessel of God? You aren’t. You’re a human with genuine emotion, and you have so much Pride and Arrogance in you it’s getting damn annoying.
No matter how many times I die, I will revive! Tendou Maya! To beat you, my rival, into submission!”
Oh, Maya thinks, for a moment.
She watches as Claudine stabs herself, disappearing into the floor, reappearing on top and behind her in her proper revue uniform, right beside her prized contraption.
Claudine shouts. “The shine of the moon, the love of the stars, and whatnot, are all pathetic, fleshless illusions through which no blood blows. I will fill myself with exploding passion, now, and bash it into your heart! 99th Class, Saijo Claudine! Tonight, I will show you my brilliance!”
(Claudine has found the emotion she has always felt, and she will throw all of that at the rival in front of her. Not out of revenge, but out of love; but Maya doesn’t know that yet. It’s not the time.)
Maya screams as her contraption gets disarmed by Claudine’s broadsword, feeling herself disappear. The lights turn off, and Claudine gets a brief and momentary respite.
She barely gets a sigh out when she hears that telltale beep and the creak of the stage platform as Maya reappears from under, also donning her own proper revue uniform, her rapier in her hands. She breathes as Maya throws shade on her signature insert line, and almost stumbles as the stage visibly changes in front of her, making her lose balance.
The stage rises and changes, from a classic stage to one they so familiarly knew in the ‘auditions’. Draped with pink curtains and dotted with white platforms, the two appear before one another in a centre platform. Truly in the centre was a cross, high above them. They feel the wind hitting their faces, deducing they have truly moved stages this time. They are alone, and thus they can hit each other without holding back.
Claudine barks, and Maya chokes out a breath. They run at each other, screaming as they cross swords once again, this time properly.
“Oh! You’re yourself again now!” Claudine shouts.
“ You’re the only one who is capable of forcing ‘me’ out!” Maya shouts back, voice laced with various emotions.
Claudine grins. “Show me more, Tendou Maya! That’s what the audience wants to see!”
She deflects Maya’s rapier, and the volley restarts once more.
“Right now, you’re the cutest you’ve ever been!” She shouts, adrenaline coursing through her whole body. She feels insanely confident, and she doesn’t even care she’s spilling out more emotion than necessary. She’s always been like that. Laying bare all her emotions for all to see. Only this time, Tendou Maya was her only audience.
“I’m always cute!” Maya screams, as her rapier collides with her rival’s broadsword.
Claudine spins, parrying Maya’s rapier a final time before she retreats up the platforms. The chase begins, and Maya chooses the stairway up, jumping down to intercept her, shaking the platform. Claudine falls, quickly grabbing a stray piece of rope as she swings herself back down to the surface. Maya could only see her from above as she ran back up, her platform swinging and snapping as she found herself falling and crashing into the floor.
Maya recovers quickly and swings herself at her rival through the dust. They slide and drift, the platform they’re on rising and launching both girls into the air as they soon find themselves flying through an updraft in the air surrounded by a shower of fresh crimson roses.
It’s so very exhilarating, Maya thinks, to be like this. I finally understand how having a rival truly feels like.
A rival is someone you can always cross swords with, Claudine thought, They will always push you through heights.
This is when they both finally truly feel that they are in the same step in the same flight of stairs, climbing that endless staircase together. None is one step ahead of the other; they are climbing it at the same time as equals.
This is the second time Claudine feels the equality; that she’s there, with Maya, at the top of the stairs, right beside her. It’s a great feeling that she doesn’t want gone.
Maya feels that warm feeling inside her chest. Save for the adrenaline running through her bloodstream and the thundering in her ears, that’s largely what she feels. She’s sure she’s found someone she wants to be with for a long, long time. Forever, even. She entertains the thought for a moment, grinning as she files it at the back of her head, grabbing Claudine’s pelisse as they get thrown upwards.
“If it wasn’t for you, I wouldn’t be exposed!” Maya barks.
Claudine grins, yanking her rival’s (or should it be partner? That sounds more appropriate.) pelisse her way. “Only I can make you lay everything bare!”
They fly over the tallest platform and they get blown away from each other. They parry each strike coming their way as they fall, screaming and shouting their heart out at each other.
“I’ll expose my everything, on the stage!” Maya screams.
“There’s a partner you can expose everything to, on the stage!” Claudine screams back, just as loud.
“We love the stage,” Maya starts,
“And we can’t part from the stage!” Claudine finishes.
Both fall into opposite ends of the tower roof, landing and running at each other again, unbridled passion leaking out of their very being. The exhilaration, the excitement, the adrenaline, everything all at once; is just bursting out in every possible direction. Amidst the haze, they meet each other in the centre and fight once more.
“Pathetic clowns!” Maya screams, diving down to evade Claudine’s broadsword.
“No, rivals!” Claudine barks, moving her broadsword forward to meet Maya’s rapier in a brief deadlock.
At this point, Maya doesn’t care if her mask of ‘divinity’(for a lack of a better word) has been peeled off. She doesn’t care that Claudine is looking at her truest self anymore. She wants her to see it, even; see her at her most genuine. Maya screams again as the clang of metal resounds repeatedly.
“If you’re there, I have to strive higher!”
“You make me even more beautiful!” Claudine screams back, keeping up the volume.
At this point, they’ll both have to take throat lozenges for all that intense screaming, but they both do not care. This is likely the only time they get to scream emotion after emotion at each other without any hindrance.
“Maya!”
“Claudine!”
They meet in the centre as their swords collide again and again and they scream all the air in their lungs out. Maya hacks a mouthful of air out and Claudine breathes in sharply. Claudine takes the moment to scream at her partner again.
“For Heroes, there are Trials!”
Maya screams back. “For Saints, there are Temptations!”
Their swords collide for the final time as they meet in a deadlock and wrestle as they scream the last line of the tricolon.
For Me, There is You!
Within a split second, Claudine prevails, pushing Maya’s rapier back and nicking her button off just by a hair’s length. In that moment, Maya could only stare at her partner’s beautiful figure, the loss of pressure on her left shoulder dulling out in comparison. She looks so ethereal, Maya would believe she was a goddess in a heartbeat.
I couldn’t care less, Maya thinks. I’ve found someone I want to cross swords with forever.
Saijou Claudine. You are beautiful.
The button falls with a clink as the entire stage gets lit on fire, and both girls fall into the floor back-first. They see the cross burn and will probably be enveloped in flames, but they couldn’t care less. This time, their revue serves to be a confirmation that they really, truly have found an equal they could stay with. One that would push for their improvement, one that would stick with them through everything, and one that would accept them as they truly are.
One is a girl stuffed full with Pride, Arrogance, and Loneliness, the other is a girl shining with pure and blindingly bright Passion. They both lay on the floor as their hands lazily lay on top of each other, feeling the now burnt painting of the bet they signed under their hands.
…
“I won the bet.” Claudine says.
They were enveloped in pure silence now, the remains of their stage having burnt into a crisp, leaving only burnt remains. The cross is left barely intact, no longer upright, the wood ash black. Somehow, the rose petals are left, still retaining their beautiful crimson colour.
Maya could only sigh as she stared at the dark ceiling above her head.
“Then, we’ll continue this tomorrow, on this stage.” Maya answers, matter-of-factly.
“Huh?” Claudine questions, her voice barely a whisper.
Maya laughs softly. “Who decided it was a one-round game?
Until the contest is decided, Tomorrow, and the day after tomorrow.”
Claudine scoffs jovially. “Sure. That’s fine with me.
The revue of rivals doesn’t end, For all of Eternity.”
They share a moment of silence as they stare at the ceiling together, smiling softly.
“We are flames that fall together while burning.” They say, together.
The two girls stay like that for a long while, in silence. Warmth spreads through their bodies like they got lit on fire, despite the actual fire being long gone.
(Maya thinks she is allowed to say all she wants to say now. Perhaps, now would be the right time.)
…
“Hey. Did you know that you’re not the only one who's been chasing?” Maya says, suddenly.
“Hah? What do you mean?” Claudine answers, busying herself with the honey lemon tea.
“Have you ever seen the name ‘Tendou Maya’ everywhere you’ve been? When you were…hm, the age of five or so?”
Claudine squeezes half a lemon into the teapot. “Okay. Now that I think of it, I see your name everywhere. On the posters, on the scripts. I’m pretty sure a certificate of mine got signed by your dad himself. You really are everywhere.”
Maya laughs softly. “You see, I saw a play when I was five. I’m very sure it was ‘Arrie’, and…guess who the lead is?”
“Me.” Claudine exclaims, softly, yet surprised. Like a whisper.
“Yes. I was in the audience, you see. Since then, I sort of followed you everywhere. Tried to enrol to every troupe you were in, see all the plays you starred in, et cetera. By a stroke of luck, I met you again, directly this time, in Seisho.” Maya chuckles, staring at her hands. She rubs them together, suddenly feeling the clamminess.
“So it wasn’t only me.” Claudine mentions. She spoons some honey into the teapot.
“When I was a kid, you seemed so far. So high I couldn’t reach you. Every time, I miss you by a hair. I’m very grateful I got to meet my childhood star in the same school I go to, really. As if God finally let me get the long end of the stick.
Now I see myself standing beside you, there in that imaginary staircase of mine. I could finally reach you, I felt.”
Claudine hums. She mixes the tea inside the teapot slowly.
“Have I told you about how you looked so unreachable before?”
“I recall that you have done so, yes. Last year, if I remember.”
Claudine groans. “Oh Mon Dieu, please don’t remind me that we are third years. I have to go back to France in like, a month.”
Maya laughs. “My apologies. Do go on.”
“I suppose I can tell you again. In our first year, you looked so very distant. I felt like I was looking at you from the bottom of the stairs when you were on the top for a whole year. Then the auditions happened, The Revue of Fate happened, and that changed. The Revue of Souls just confirmed that I’ve found that. That I’ve found you.”
“You’ve found me, as an equal. Someone you can always bicker with.” Maya snickers.
“You are so infuriating.” Claudine scoffs, pouring the honey lemon tea she had just finished making into two glasses. She hands one to Maya, taking one for herself.
“That being said, I feel the same. I’d love to have you every day in my life. You’re my lifelong partner and rival and I never want that changed.” Maya answers with a straight face.
Claudine eyes her with suspicion, but she knew Maya meant this one. She chugs the glass of honey lemon tea, scrunching her face as she feels the intense sour taste.
“Merde, I should’ve added more honey.”
Maya giggles, earning a look from her partner.
“Oh my God, you’re way more annoying than usual.”
Maya laughed so hard she had to put her glass down.
“Ma belle princesse, you are stuck with me virtually forever! You have to survive this.”
“Oh my God! Are you serious!?”
“Guys, stop the married couple, please. They’re so cheesy I’m scared my room will be filled with brie!” Kaoruko groans.
“Someone call wife number three!” Futaba pretends to wail, shaking the also acting Kaoruko who had dramatically made a show of melting into the floor. “My girlfriend is dying here!”
Nana enters the scene, making a show of sliding her room door open and jogging out. She blinks, looking at Kaoruko and Futaba, then at Maya and Claudine. She grins mischievously.
“They did no wrong.”
Maya laughs. “See? We did no wrong! Justice has said so herself!”
“Suck arse, Hanayagi.” Claudine snickers, reclining at the sight of Kaoruko quickly rising from her death position on Futaba’s arms and marching angrily towards her. “Woah! I was joking!”
“Saijou Claudine…!” Kaoruko shouts, almost getting her blonde friend if it weren't for two people (read, Daiba Nana and Isurugi Futaba) restraining her arms and torso.
They spent the last few hours of the day fighting and bickering until Mahiru scolds them all for missing dinner.