A/N: I have had this on my computer months way before the disappearance of Tendou Maya even happened, so...
Based on Disney's Sleeping Beauty so I may or may not have included lines and song lyrics from the movie in this thing, but all of that belongs to them.
All chapters are completed and ready and will be posted every Monday.
That's pretty much it. I hope you guys like it!
- 54
"Hey, guys! The cast list is out!" Karen cupped her hands around her mouth so that her voice would carry over the entire room to get the attention of the other girls inside.
At the brunette's announcement, everyone scurried over to see which part went to whom and who would be working backstage, who would be designing costumes, and who would be doing pretty much everything else there was to do behind the scenes.
"Yes! I'm the evil witch!" Kaoruko shouted to the ceiling above with her arms raised in victory before bringing one arm back down into a fist pump.
"Why is it that doesn't surprise me?" Junna said mostly to herself as she looked around at no one in particular, which Nana had overheard and couldn't help but giggle at.
Futaba was next after her blue-haired companion, bringing her finger up to trace down the cast list until she had found her name next to her role.
She hummed. "The prince's father, huh? Should be a piece of cake."
Nana didn't need to take her turn at the bulletin board because of the perks that came with being tall (not to mention the fact that practically anyone could see over Futaba with her short stature), and cast the class representative a dazzling smile once she had caught a glimpse of their roles.
"Looks like we're the king and queen, Junna!"
At this news, the purple-haired class representative felt her face grow hot as blood abruptly rushed to her cheeks before bringing a hand up to adjust her glasses as a sort of nervous tick she had. "A-are you sure?"
Futaba hummed, tracing her finger down toward the middle of the paper before nodding her head in confirmation. "Nana's right, Jun. See for yourself. It's right here in black and white."
Junna moved to take Futaba's place at the bulletin board a little too quickly, which probably would've knocked the redhead over if she hadn't already moved away so the class representative could confirm it for herself.
Clearing her throat and adjusting her glasses once more, Junna scanned the casting list for their names and sure enough, the roles of the king and queen had been awarded to her and Nana respectively.
At seeing the proof on the paper, Junna's face grew hotter to the point where it felt like it was on fire. "This is quite the interesting development."
"Is it, Hoshimi?" Kaoruko butted in from where she was standing at the side, hands clasped behind her head and that shit-eating grin that Junna loathed to the utmost degree plastered on her face. "Is it really?"
The purple-haired class representative groaned internally, refusing to give Kaoruko the satisfaction of hearing her exasperation out loud. The director had definitely hit the nail right on the head with casting the blue-haired devil as the malicious and downright evil Maleficent. This role was practically made for Kaoruko Hanayagi in Junna's mind and probably in the minds of everyone else that had known her.
Nana only offered a small, sympathetic smile and a comforting pat on the shoulder to show Junna that she sympathized with her pain.
"We're the three fairies!" Karen chattered to Mahiru and Hikari with practical stars in her eyes. "I'm Flora! Mahiru, you're Fauna! And Hikari, you're Merryweather!"
"Oh, that's wonderful, Karen!" Mahiru exclaimed, grasping the brunette's outstretched hands as the two jumped excitedly in place before stopping to prod the other female standing next to her. "What about you, Hikari? Aren't you happy, too?"
If the dark-haired female was as equally excited as her two best friends, she didn't show it, only offering a solemn nod in reply.
Junna pinched the bridge of her nose in exasperation and silently thanked whatever divine being was above that the scenario of these three fleeing to a cottage in the woods to raise a baby for sixteen years was something that would only occur in the script and not something that would actually occur in reality.
But if it were to be a real occurrence in the future (which of course Junna knew the chances of that happening were slim to none), Mahiru would be the most reliable in the motherly caretaker sense. And judging by how many times she corralled and coddled the other two females a day, Mahiru would be raising three children instead of one.
"Hey, Kuroko!" Futaba called out to the only female in the room who hadn't paused her stretches to look at the casting list with everyone else. "Don't you wanna see what role you have?"
"Oui!" The blonde called back in reply as she continued to stretch. "Just give me a few more seconds!"
Claudine had already began her pre-class routine of stretches before Karen had announced the posting of the casting list, and while everyone else had quit and gathered on the other side of the room to see which role or job they had gotten, Claudine continued to follow through with her warm ups.
She couldn't allow herself to be distracted at the moment. Sure, pausing in the midst of her warm up routine to go check the list to see what role she had been given wasn't much of a distraction, but it would interfere with the amount of time she could spend preparing for this class. And if it interfered with her time, it was a distraction in her book, no matter how small that distraction was.
Throughout the course of her young life, there had been many people that told her to spend her time wisely, and that was a piece of advice she had taken to heart and applied it whenever necessary.
"Shouldn't we just tell her?" Kaoruko asked Futaba in a bored tone, hands still clasped behind her head. "Seems like she's gonna take a while."
And that's when Maya Tendou walked into the room, long hair flowing behind her as she continued her trek further into said room and spoke in that booming voice to signal that she was present and ready for class.
"Something tells me that won't be necessary, Kaoruko." Futaba replied, watching as the top two students in the room made direct eye contact with each other, which caused Claudine to stop what she was doing to address the top star.
"And here I thought you weren't going to show up." Claudine crossed her arms and looked up at the taller female.
Maya's mouth tilted upwards in a small smirk. "You, of all people, should know me better than that, wouldn't you say?"
"Oh boy!" Kaoruko smacked Futaba's back at the palpable tension in the room. "Ringside seats!"
The smaller girl sighed at the blue-haired female's antics as she watched her attempt to get closer to the action in the middle of the room before looking over at Junna, who released a very tired sigh.
They hadn't even began production of the play, and yet Junna found herself already exhausted just from weighing in on what possible consequences the casting list had in store, ranging from the possibility of Karen, Mahiru, or Hikari breaking any props while acting as the three fairies during rehearsal or perhaps even on stage during the real thing to the extreme possibility of the pyrotechnics of the fire that Kaoruko would appear from during the very first scene in the castle during the welcoming of Princess Aurora into the world backfiring and causing some costly damage.
But class B, who would be handling a majority of the jobs behind the scenes, was a very capable bunch. The notion of any fires or other disastrous mishaps were just part of Junna's onstage jitters, which she was surprised hadn't disappeared completely yet because she had been in a ton of productions. You'd think the jitters would've went away by now.
But when you have the disastrous trio of Karen, Mahiru, and Hikari, the conniving, blue-haired devil Kaoruko, and the constantly brewing, confusing chemistry between the pair of Claudine and Maya that ranged from murderous to downright sickeningly love-struck both on and off the stage all together in one production, anything was possible.
Along with herself, Nana and Futaba were perhaps the only reliable ones on board with this production and would definitely be kept on their toes throughout this whole thing.
That brand new, unopened bottle of ibuprofen Junna had put away inside her desk drawer in her and Nana's room would definitely be put to use throughout this whole thing. Her liver be damned.
And she would most likely be breaking in that bottle directly after class it seemed as she, along with the rest of the girls in the room, watched what was unfolding between the two top stars as they continued conversing.
"Do you always have to be so infuriating?" Claudine narrowed her eyes and was infuriated further when she noticed that the brunette's smirk seemed to grow.
"If it keeps you on your toes, then I can't see a reason to discontinue it."
"You're annoying twenty-four hours a day, seven days a week, Tendou Maya. If you were to stop now, I think you would be lost."
"You are correct."
Kaoruko turned back to Futaba and the rest of the gang and pointed to the conversing pair over her shoulder before mouthing something along the lines of "Are you guys seeing this shit?"
Hikari continued to watch on boredly without acknowledging the snooping blue-haired devil while Nana, Karen, and Mahiru nodded their heads wordlessly. Futaba pinched the bridge of her nose and Junna inwardly imagined banging her own head on the closest flat surface around her.
Maya turned her attention from an obviously agitated Claudine and set her sights on the cork board on the other side of the room, speaking as she made her way over with the blonde hot on her heels.
"I was told that the casting list would be released this evening, so what kind of performer would I be considered if I were to be absent on this day?"
"Heaven forbid your reputation be tarnished," Claudine fired back sarcastically with an eye roll that went unseen by the brunette walking in front of her. "We can't have that."
"How considerate of you." Maya said as stoic as ever, a characteristic about the brunette that absolutely annoyed Claudine to no end. How could Maya sound so narcissistic yet not sound so narcissistic at the same time? The statement alone even cancels itself out.
But if that's the game Maya wanted to play, then Claudine was more than willing to be player number two.
"Well, someone has to keep you in check, don't they? What kind of performer would I be if I were to let my competition slack off? If that were to happen and I ended up beating you, it wouldn't even be a satisfying victory."
Maya hummed. "I applaud you for the checkmate."
The pair came to a halt at the casting list on the board. Since Maya had been in front of Claudine, she was the first to scan for her name and seemed to study it for a bit before nodding once and stepping to the side so the blonde could see what her role would be.
Claudine brought her index finger to search for her name in the list, going down through the rows of names and the roles beside them, and instantly felt a surge of panic when she didn't see her name on any of them.
One more time. It had to be here. Maybe she was just overlooking.
So, she started over and scanned the paper once more. Still nothing.
Maya, who had been standing next to the blonde, sensed her initial distress and craned her neck down to the side to whisper to her as a means to not alert any of the nearby girls at what was going on at that moment.
"Left side. Very top."
Claudine's finger traced back over the paper, using Maya's words as a map to her name's location and was taken back once she realized the location of the placement of her name.
Reading her name and the role she had been given sent shock waves through her whole entire being.
Saijou Claudine - Princess Aurora/Sleeping Beauty/Briar Rose
The blonde reread it one more time to justify what her eyes were seeing and kept rereading it until it sort of got through to her brain.
And for further justification, she peered down at the name just below hers and immediately felt a sense of lightheadedness at the one name she had not expected to see below her own. Ever.
Tendou Maya - The Prince
"Saijou-san?" Maya prodded with a hint of worry in her voice. This was definitely not how she had expected the blonde to react upon seeing that she had finally beaten her out for the top spot in something. "Are you okay?"
Claudine only staggered back slightly as a response.
"She's going to faint!" Mahiru exclaimed as she looked upon the scene with wide eyes.
"Somebody catch her!" Nana shouted, pointing in Claudine's direction and hoping it would spur someone into action.
Futaba hadn't even taken a step forward and Karen had already bolted past her like a bat out of hell.
"I'll catch her!" Karen announced to everyone in the room, coming to a halt right behind the blonde and holding her arms out for her. "Fall into my arms, Kuro-chan!"
But it wasn't Karen's awaiting arms into which Claudine fell, but the arms of a fast acting Tendou Maya, which ended up looking like she was dipping the blonde during one of their many dance routines.
And Claudine didn't know if it was the lightheadedness from the initial shock of seeing that she had finally acquired the top role of the titular character in this play or the gratefulness in which she felt to her tall savior for not letting her hit the ground, but whatever it was made her notice just how close Maya was to her.
So close that she could see the passion and fire in those lilac colored irises that had yet to burn out despite the fact that she had just lost her top spot this time around. Sure, she had always noticed those particular qualities about Maya's eyes, but in her current state of lightheadedness, it seemed as if they had amplified to a pinnacle that must have been unlocked while in the midst of this current situation.
Seeing Maya's eyes in this state relieved Claudine immensely. It meant that even though the brunette had finally been overcome this time around, her passion still burned as brightly as it did before. If not even more so.
A person's eyes were the window to their soul, after all. It didn't matter if you were a top tier actor/actress or anything of that sort, the mouth could speak whatever you wanted it to, but the eyes were things that did not pretend or tell lies.
With Claudine still in her hold, Maya stood straight up to put them in an upright position, arms still around the blonde just in case she was still suffering from the dizzy spell.
"Can you stand?" Maya whispered softly, their closeness still completely intact.
The porcelain skin of Claudine's face had turned a bright red, but whether it had been from the spell of dizziness or the spell placed on her from Maya's gaze was an absolute mystery. The blonde herself probably wouldn't even be able to discern what had caused the blush to form had she even realized she was doing it, but she most likely would have blamed it on the lightheadedness.
Claudine moved slowly away from the tall brunette as a means to retry her footing without her help. However, Maya stayed close for fear of having the star of their next show injure herself.
"I believe I'm fine for now. Thank you." Claudine replied softly before turning around to face the taller female once more. "I'm more worried about you, though. Are you okay?"
The tension of the bickering (which had been mostly on Claudine's part) seemed to do a perfect one-eighty into a tension of the softer kind, which was the basic core of the kind of relationship the pair had. Sometimes it was vice versa. They could be speaking to each other with the utmost respect they had for one another, and then Maya would make a comment that would, unbeknownst to the brunette, strike a nerve in Claudine's ego and the rest was history.
"Of course," said Maya with no hint of any kind of reluctance. "If anyone in this room should have the privilege of being Sleeping Beauty, it is most definitely you, Saijou Claudine. With utmost certainty."
Claudine had known that if there were to be a day when Maya would lose her top star position to someone else, she would react in the most dignified way possible despite whether or not it felt like as if the rug had been pulled out from under her. She was definitely a good sport in every aspect, but still. It had to have hurt at least a little.
Heaven knows it sent a twinge of hurt through Claudine whenever she would be bested by Tendou Maya time and time again, so of course it had to have hurt Maya at least a little.
But if the small loss did slightly wound her, she didn't show it at all. However, she was a top caliber actress for her age. She could've hidden it easily.
Then Claudine remembered the glimpse she had gotten of Maya's eyes while in her lightheaded stupor just a few minutes ago. Eyes didn't lie. They never did.
And it had occurred to Claudine that the twinges of pain she herself had felt in every defeat only served to stoke her determination even more afterwards. It was just like adding more fuel to the fire.
Maybe the same case applied for Maya's situation?
That's when Maya bowed before resuming her erect posture. "I look forward to being your prince."
More blood rushed to the blonde's face, which she could now feel since her dizzy spell had faded as quickly as it had come.
She had imagined this so many times in her head before. The great Tendou Maya bowing to her and accepting her defeat. Before, she imagined it would feel like the icing on the cake to firmly seal her victory that she had known would come one day.
But seeing it actually happen in real life was different.
Maya had definitely been gracious about it like she expected, but Claudine couldn't help but feel as if she had, indeed, pulled the rug out from under the brunette's feet. But again, Maya still showed no hints of any indifference to not being the star of the next show.
Maybe it was just Claudine's empathetic side coming out. She had been defeated over and over again, so she knew what it felt like to fail.
But she also knew there was a difference between her hurt and the hurt that Maya may or may not have felt.
Claudine was used to getting bested by the other female. Maya just had better stage presence than she did, and she always backed that up. But for Maya to suffer failure just once would undoubtedly feel like a harsh slap to the face. When you're used to succeeding over and over, a small setback probably felt like you had the wind knocked out of you, or at least that's what Claudine imagined it to feel like.
She could have been overthinking it all, but Maya had to at least have some kind of hurt hiding in there somewhere or maybe she didn't.
But as she got yet another glimpse of Maya's lilac colored irises, she could still see the burning passion within them that had been there a few mere minutes ago.
So, her dizzy spell hadn't made her imagine it. The burning passion had, indeed, seemed to have grown bigger than before. Claudine had never seen anything like it.
She had desperately tried to avoid that hypnotic gaze over and over again, and mostly failed because of the fact that Maya's gaze was so intense and downright smoldering that it had completely drained her will to fight all the way down to zero.
But with the way the flames of Maya's fiery gaze had appeared to look like a full blown wildfire that someone had thrown a gallon or two of gasoline on, Claudine's will to fight hadn't even shown up for battle.
And apparently that same person toting the gasoline used to stoke the already burning fire in Maya's eyes had thrown some on Claudine's cheeks as well.
"You look like you have a fever, Kuro-han," Kaoruko spoke up from the side with her shit eating grin. "Maybe Tendou-han should walk you down to the nurse's office."
"Oh, shut up." Claudine swatted at the blue-haired devil, hitting nothing but the air as Kaouruko dodged with a giggle.
Maya tilted her head, face softening with worry. "You do look a little warm. Perhaps a trip to the nurse's office would remedy that? Do you need me to escort you down there?"
"No, thank you," Claudine rejected, outstretching her hand to keep the taller female at bay. "That won't be necessary. I'm fine."
Maya's denseness proved to be a thorn in Claudine's side many times, but right now she was thankful the brunette didn't catch on to Kaoruko's implication.
"Very well," Maya complied. "I look forward to our time on the stage together, Saijou Claudine."
Tendou Maya. Always with the etiquette, no matter how close she was with someone. Not that Claudine would ever call their relationship a close one, but they did have conversation and know things about the other that no one else knew.
As she watched Maya move gracefully and without flaw to the other side of the room to begin warm ups, she inwardly agreed that she would confront Maya about her earlier thoughts later on whenever the opportunity would come when they were alone.
And again, those purple flames popped back into her brain's imagery and made her think that maybe the hurt she imagined Maya having even only a little was practically nonexistent.