Chapter Text
The class was an unusual mix of agonizingly slow and blisteringly fast.
Maya tried, she really did - she was a model student after all, second only to Junna in terms of academics - but Maya could just not concentrate on the lesson, not with Saijou Claudine in front of the class. She was wearing the same clothes most of their teachers wore, and they were all attractive women for the most part, but Claudine made it look good . The way her white pants hugged her lithe legs, the way her shirt pressed tight to show off her figure, it was almost irritating the way it hid more of her body, but the appeal of it being hidden only made it better, and when she turned around to write something on the blackboard, when her shirt and jacket hiked up to show just the tiniest bit of tantalizing-
“Tendou-han, you’re drooling,” Hanayagi whispered from beside her, leaning over and hiding her mouth from the front of the class. Maya immediately swiped up, horrified that she was caught staring, touching her lips. When she felt the lack of any embarrassing proof of her actually drooling, Maya leveled a glare at Hanayagi who simply tittered back, eyes crinkling in amusement, smirk hidden behind her hand. “You’re too obvious,” She mouthed, tilting her head in Claudine’s direction. “Good taste.”
Maya turned her nose up at Hanayagi, resolving to ignore her for the rest of the period, of which Maya gained precisely zero knowledge because of reasons. When class finally ended, Maya was just a tad too slow to react to the bell, and Claudine was immediately swarmed by half of the class, Karen chief among them.
“Claudine-sensei seems quite popular,” Hanayagi said out loud, though with her side eying Maya, it was clear that the she-devil was trying to get a rise out of her. “I wonder if she’s the type to find student-teacher relationships attractive for its taboo nature.” Maya was thankful for Futaba who smacked the girl lightly across the head. “Kaoruko, be nice.” She said in a long-suffering tone.
“Futaba-han! You’re supposed to be on my side!” Kaoruko pouted, hitting Futaba back with her ever-present fan across her shoulder.
Ignoring the two start yet another verbal war between the two kids from Kyoto - not an unusual sight to anyone by this point - Maya strode over to their class representative, keeping an eye out to see whether the crowd formed around Claudine was beginning to thin. “Hoshimi-san,” she greeted, “may I please borrow your notes so that I may create a copy of it later?”
Hoshimi looked at her, bright eyes behind her spectacles, and she nodded in agreement. “Of course Tendou-san. I’ll be dropping by the library later, I can take the time to scan a copy and I can just hand it over in our dorm later tonight?”
“Thank you very much,” Maya bowed her thanks, then hurriedly said, “Apologies, but I have to go, I will buy you some tea later,” once she saw Claudine begin to prepare to leave their classroom, ignoring Hoshimi’s bemused, ‘you don’t have to do that.’
“Saijou-san!” Maya called out, and nearly got the breath knocked out of her when Claudine responded by leveling a lazy smile at her. In the back of her head, she recognized that her classmates had begun to whisper to each other again, no doubt spreading rumors and speculation already, but Maya tabled that for another time. This was more important. “Hello Tendou Maya,” She said with an amused tilt to her voice, crossing her arms, and oh my god she’s so attractive when she did that . “Fancy seeing you here.”
“You’re actually a teacher here,” Maya said, forcing herself to be as casual as possible, hoping that her heart wasn’t actually trying to beat its way out of her chest from the way it was acting. “Should I be concerned about a possible stalking incident? Must I learn to defend myself from any danger?”
“Oh, I’m sure you can handle yourself well enough,” Claudine said, eyeing Maya with a single look-over. Maya was impressed with herself that she still remembered how to breathe after seeing Claudine’s expression. “After all, we-” Claudine coughed, and Maya felt the presence of their teacher behind her. “Well, Tendou-san, see you in our next shared classes,” Claudine gave a small wave goodbye, catching up to their sensei. “I’m looking forward to seeing how you perform in dance and theater!” she said over her shoulder, leaving Maya disappointed that she couldn’t continue their conversation any further.
“She’s really pretty!” Karen said, hopping up beside Maya, both hands on her hips. “I like her!”
“You like everyone Karen,” Maya pointed out, because she could not think of a time when Karen didn’t not think the best of everyone and anyone she’s met. Maya also agreed to Karen's first comment, agreed with it very much, but didn’t bother to verbalize it. It was just plain truth, no need to state the obvious.
“Yeah, but I like her more than normal!” Karen brushed her off, giving Maya a thumbs up and a confident grin. “I’m going to make her my friend, even if she doesn’t want me to!”
Sometimes, Maya envied how open and honest Karen was. It wasn’t naivete, not really, Maya knew her well enough to know that it wasn’t, but the girl’s sheer optimism was a quality that Maya wanted to emulate one day. It felt like life would be, maybe not easier, but so much more pleasant that way.
The next class that Maya had shared with Claudine was dance, and it lit a fire underneath her, was the first to volunteer as always when Haru-sensei, their dance instructor, called for volunteers for the first number, the samba they’ve been practicing the past two weeks. While usually Maya would rope either Karen, Mahiru, or Futaba into doing it with her, this time Claudine was the designated partner and Maya was more than glad to meet the challenge head on.
No words were exchanged when they got into position - one hand resting on Claudine’s hips, the other clasping her hands - they didn’t really need it. The music blasting from the speakers was more than enough, and when the cue from Haru-sensei hit, they moved, once again in perfect unison. By the nature of Claudine’s position as the teacher, Maya was the one to lead, a familiar role to her by now, but having her classmates as her partner, and having Claudine be the one in her arms were entirely different experiences.
Karen and Futaba and Mahiru had always blended well with her of course, had memorized the dance steps, and Maya would get excellent results with them all, but the way Claudine moved with her was simply on another level.
Maya would step forward, Claudine would step back.
Claudine would step in, Maya would meet her to lead the two of them into a spin, effortlessly maneuvering them into the next stage of the dance.
Maya would step back with a flourish to give her the space she needed, Claudine would perform a pristine twirl. With the lightest touch, Maya was able to move the two of them on and around the stage, occupying the space, demanding the audience keep their eyes on the two of them, and the two of them alone.
No hesitation, no room for thoughts, they moved on pure instinct, expecting, demanding the other move just as flawlessly, and they always responded, never disappointed.
Perfection was the baseline, not the goal. Each step taken, each hand motion, each thrust of their hips, each roll of a shoulder, each gesture, each expression was perfect .
And when they separated, backs turned towards each other to perform the climax of the routine(the part that needed the most practice to perform consistently because it needed perfect timing between the performers, something that can usually only be acquired through countless hours of practice, of blood, sweat, and tears) they had ended their dance number - finding themselves in each other’s arms on beat, Maya holding on to Claudine’s waist and outstretched leg as the latter performed a picture-perfect dip, putting complete trust in Maya’s abilities - with an ease that Maya’s never encountered before.
It was magical, dangerous.
Addicting .
There was really no other word to describe it. The way they melted into each other, the way they knew each other’s tempo, read each other’s body language so well it bordered on telepathy, their need for the other to keep up, the way they rose to meet and exceed each other’s challenge time and time again in just these few short minutes.
This was what Maya had always hungered for. This was what she always needed .
Maya smirked at Claudine who simply raised an eyebrow in response, both of them panting to catch their breath. Claudine licked her lips, and Maya was suddenly insanely conscious of the distance between them, noticed the way her sweat traced its way down the curve of her elegant neck, her slightly disheveled ponytail, the way Claudine’s leg felt under Maya’s hand, the clouded look in gorgeous half-lidded purple eyes, how easy it would be to lean in a few more inches, close the dista-
The clapping of everyone startled them back to reality, and they immediately stood back up, accepting the applause with grace, Maya steadfastly trying her best to ignore the absolute shit-eating grin on Hanayagi’s face, the way she looked like Christmas had come barreling straight into her with open arms.
“Excellent, excellent work you two!” Haru-sensei clapped her hands with a finality, looking delighted. “That was just gorgeous from you guys. I love it! The energy, the skill, the passion , see class?” she suddenly turned to address the class who all groaned. “ That’s the gold standard right now. Watch it, learn from it, I have a recording if anyone wishes to see it again. But yes, Saijou-san and Tendou-san have shown us a perfect look at what the number should look like, everyone would do well to emulate them.”
“““Yes sensei!””” Everyone grumbled in monotone.
“That was amazing Maya-chan!” Karen whispered once Maya settled on the floor next to her, poking her bottle of cold water at Maya’s cheek. “Can you help me so that Mahiru-chan and I can do it like you and Saijou-sensei did? I want to look that cool too!”
“I will do my best Karen,” Maya said, taking a pull from the offered water bottle, unconsciously looking at Claudine’s direction who was currently discussing something with Haru-sensei. Maya was internally disappointed that Claudine didn’t look as flustered as Maya felt at the moment because even just looking at her, Maya couldn’t quite stop herself from being drawn to Claudine’s nape, the way her hips were thrust out just a tad, the way her lips closed around the nozzle of her water bottle. Maya almost wished that that was he-
Maya buried her head between her knees. “Stop thinking that way about your teacher.” She mentally screamed at herself. “She’s the same age as you though.” “No, she’s a week younger than you.” She reminded herself of that interesting bit of trivia she knew about Claudine when she was still researching her, all those years ago as children. “That’s kinda hot.” Maya still couldn't quite believe that for the first time in her life, she was actually wrestling with her hormones, and that concerningly enough, they were winning.
“You two look so good together though!” Karen said, and Maya was surprised she didn’t snap her own neck at the speed she turned towards Karen. “I want to look that cool with everyone else too!” Karen continued, oblivious to the sudden butterflies in Maya’s stomach. She really needed to learn to phrase her thoughts better.
“You really do,” Mahiru agreed from beside Karen, poking her head out a bit so she could meet Maya’s eyes. “You feel like two pros!” Mahiru tilted her head, knowing she looked deadpan because Mahiru . “Though Claudine-sensei is a pro already, so that makes sense. It’s actually you who’s impressive Maya-chan, since you can keep up with her!”
Maya. Keeping up with someone else.
Any other time, the thought would have laughable, would probably have been almost insulting even.
But with Claudine, somehow it just felt so right. Maya felt herself grin, focusing her gaze on their newest teacher who looked unaware of how much of Maya’s attention she was monopolizing.
Third year was going to be very interesting.