Chapter Text
now.
Claudine steps into the familiar place. The same bright lights hanging around the ceiling giving off a perfect warm glow all around, the same stage she was used seeing her friends perform on, the same tables and chairs maybe it’s only been two years since she last stepped foot on this place but she figures something would have changed by then and yet she’s washed with relief knowing that something hasn’t change from those times even be it just the inanimate objects..
But these familiar things all around sparks memories that’s everything to her; drowning her with the past that was once so blissful that she hoped would never end. Oh how she longed to go back to those days.
She remembers all those conversations with Nana about never growing up, staying in a moment forever- of never moving forward. She used to never share the same sentiment for she thinks growing and changing is something we should embrace, for it’s the core of what it means to live, but right now, feeling like she stepped on a time machine that took her back to those wonderful days in this exact same place, she wishes she was able to stop time and just never grew.
Growing was the reason why everything went downhill.
Claudine laughs it off and shakes her head, “How silly of me.”
“Kuroko!”
The blonde whips around to the sound of the familiar voice. She takes in the person in front of her and smiles.
“Futaba!” The blonde exclaims as she quickly walks to the petite girl and hugs her, “it’s been a while”
The pink-haired girl pulls away and grins, “I know and I’ve missed you. Glad that you made it!”
Claudine folds her arm on her chest and says, “I was here during your first show and was also there when we thought it’d be the last, so when you said you want to go back to where it all started before you go see the world, I’d want to see you off here too you know.”
Futaba, if possible, smiles even wider, “I’ve missed you so much.”
four years ago.
When Futaba asked Claudine to come see her band play for the first time at this bar, the blonde was expecting a bunch of rowdy college kids, screaming and shouting, wearing all black and tattoos all over their arms with weird spiky looking hairs- the usual kind of thing she’d see from the western movies she used to watch but as she gets there, with light music fleeting through the air, bright warm lights, and people looking so serene, Claudine is pleasantly surprised.
The place is small but there’s enough for a mini stage at one end of the room with a door just a few feet beside it probably some kind of backstage room, a bar by the side, and a few tables at the other end, and just enough space at the center for people to sway or grind or actually dance to the music with. She spots a few familiar faces from her classes, some waving at her or nodding at her as she just smiles back at them. No one really dares approach her.
“Kuroko!”
The blonde shudders at the nickname being shouted at the small space, she hears a few people giggle and a headache forming. So much for maintaining a cool persona to her peers.
Claudine turns around and her vision is filled with bright pink.
“You made it!” Futaba exclaims.
Claudine smiles, “Of course, might as well see what’s gotten most of your time that I kinda actually miss coming home to you and Kaoruko making out in our room.”
Futaba laughs as she lightly shoves Claudine, “We’ll be out of your hair soon don’t worry,” Futaba looks up at her, with a huge grin on her face, “but still, thank you, I know this kind of thing really isn’t your scene so this means a lot.”
“Anytime, but I must say, I was actually expecting something else, knowing Kaoruko is somehow involved with your band.”
The short girl just snorts and folds her arm on her chest, “She’s just some acting manager for the band, and she’s the one who booked us this actually. Finally moving out the old dingy storage at uni slash practice room for our band. ”
“I’m happy for you and your band, I can’t wait to hear you guys.” Claudine says earnestly.
Futaba tackles Claudine into a hug, “Thank you Kuro”, the petite girl pulls away and her eyes suddenly lights up, “Oh by the way, Kaoruko invited someone too. I can’t welcome them for her if she arrives because we’ll be on in a few minutes so,” Futaba scratches the back of her head and smiles sheepishly, “befriend them, talk about those mind numbing stuffs you love, Kaoruko said she’s like you too and it’d do you good to be around other people.”
Claudine frowns, “Is Kaoruko scheming something?”
“No?”
The blonde pinches the bridge of her nose then places her hand on her hips, “I swear to god-“
But before Claudine can finish her sentence, Futaba runs off and quickly shouts, “Got to go! Kaoruko said she the girl always wears a ribbon!”
Claudine just flails her arms helplessly as she sees Futaba run and Kaoruko popping up at the side of the stage with a wicked grin on her face, the blonde raises a hand and gives the blue-haired devil the middle finger.
Kaoruko just sticks her tongue out before focusing on Futaba and pulling her away, a soft smile on her face all of a sudden.
And Claudine just sighs.
Futaba (and Kaoruko for being always being there despite being assigned in a different building) and her have been roommates since their first year in college, and the girl has been raging about making her own band since the first semester until she finally got the idea to hold up auditions during the second semester and ever since then, the band has been taking up most of her time.
Both of them are in the Performing arts program with music as their major and a minor on acting. Futaba wants to have a record deal with her band someday, “it’s the dream” she say. When Claudine asks her if there’s another road she’d take, the pink-haired girl would just shrug and say she’ll figure it out as long as she’s with Kaoruko.
Claudine can’t help but smile genuinely at that statement. Seeing the way how Futaba and Kaoruko works together, how both of them have each other as their muses, how they push each other to their best, the blonde is so glad that both of them have each other.
Kaoruko would always say that Futaba would always find the beat that bests match her dance and it often leaves the blonde wondering of when will she find someone that's going to be the lyrics to the harmony she's making to form a song.
Claudine has been playing the piano for as long as she could remember- it being her first exposure to the arts. Her father told her how they just found her one day fiddling with her mother’s old piano during a summer visit at France, how Claudine was able to create such a beautiful melody without realizing it that they couldn’t just brush it off, that there’s an innate talent within her that they just couldn’t let it go to waste.
So they indulged her with the arts.
And Claudine is so so grateful for them.
But sometimes, she feels like there’s something that lacks to the music she creates.
The blonde was pulled out of her thoughts when she suddenly feels a shift of the air in the room. She looks around and a few people have already gathered at the center. She sees Futaba sit behind the drum set and the other members of the band set up their instrument as well.
“Ah it’s almost time,” she mutters to herself.
Claudine doesn’t know whether she should try and move in front or just stay where she’s at. There wasn’t that much people and she could easily move her way there but as she scans those in front of her, people a bit closer than what she likes, she figured she would really rather stay where she’s at.
The lights around the place becomes dimmer, now with only a spotlight focusing on the stage. She sees Futaba smiling so wide as she looks at the crowd in front of her, Claudine waves and Futaba flashes her a toothy grind.
The blonde looks at the other members on stage. She never properly met them before but all of them are familiar from her other classes.
An auburn haired girl by the right with a red electric guitar looking so enthusiastic that Claudine can just feel the girl’s energy radiating throughout in contrast to the girl on the left side of the stage, looking like a frightened cat, so scared and unsure as she grips her bass but Claudine can see fire in those grey eyes and then a blonde steps in to the center, an acoustic guitar strapped on her.
Emerald eyes sparking under the spotlight. The girl radiates this typical energetic, bubbly girl, that’s all sunshine, cats and rainbow you’d meet but there’s also this air around her that Claudine can’t quite yet a place a finger on that gets her so captivated.
What an odd bunch of people, she thinks to herself.
Looking at them first glance, Claudine doesn’t know how Kaoruko or even Futaba was able to form this, they all seem so different from one another that Claudine is amazed that they made it work for one semester so far.
“Good evening everyone!” a velvety voice comes out from the blonde and the chatter dissipates, “our band name is still a bit of a work in progress-"
“No it’s not!”
Claudine sighs, Oh Kaoruko. The blonde mentally pats herself on the back for not foregoing with her plan to go in front because she doesn’t think she can handle being near Kaoruko at all especially in a tight space with a crowd in it that can see and hear everything going on at the moment.
“Kaoruko we’re not naming our band that”, Futaba pipes in.
“I think it’s neat, what was it again?”
“Karen-chan no!”
The blonde on the stage just smiles at the scene before her, eyes glazed with affection, “Anyway, I hope you guys enjoy your time here and thank you for coming.”
Emerald eyes then looks by the side and smiles. A smile that Claudine can see hold so much sincerity and love, eyes sparkling with devotion. She followed the direction to where the blonde is looking at and sees a purple-haired girl with glasses, looking up at the blonde. Although Claudine can only see the side of her face, she can see the blush on her face for it goes up to the tip of her ears.
“This song is special to all of us in the band, we wrote this with people special to us in mind.”
The crowd claps while and Claudine hears someone whistle (Kaoruko probably) and soon her ears are met with a soft strumming of the acoustic guitar accompanied by the steady beat of the drums and when the blonde opens her mouth Claudine swears her voice is one of the most beautiful things she has ever heard.
“I want to lay down by the fire with you where souls are glowing ever warmer too.”
The blondes eyes closes, strumming her acoustic guitar, swaying, looking as if she’s lost in the moment too,
“You love surrounds me like a lullaby”
Bright green eyes are open once again, their gaze only at the lavender haired girl by the side, a soft smile on her face,
“Singing softly, you are mine oh mine.”
Claudine feels as if she wasn’t meant to see that, it feels too intimate so she looks away and sees everyone around her swaying mostly with their partners.
And she feels as if she doesn’t belong there at the moment. As if she’s a stranger intruding to something so beautiful and-
Someone bumps to her side.
Startled, Claudine looks up immediately and there’s immediate regret for she’s not prepared to have striking amethyst eyes greet her more so when the owner of them is so… so stunning, with chestnut like hair flowing that looks so smooth and silky and the blonde wonders what it’s like running her fingers through it with a face that makes her believe that God really did sculpt the humans himself.
And Claudine just stares, unable to move her eyes away from the picturesque woman in front of her, she sees plum lips move and the blonde bites her lower lip.
“I’m sorry”, the gorgeous woman says and Claudine mentally slaps herself.
“Ah no it’s okay, I kinda got lost in the moment.”
The brunette smirks and raises a perfectly sculpted brow, “Oh? To the music or because of me?”
Claudine feels her face heat up, she sputters, trying to make a quick comeback, “You’re so full of yourself!”
The girl besides her just chuckles and shrugs, her eyes drifting to the stage, “Are you perhaps a friend of Hanayagi-san?”
The half-French clears her throat and turns back her attention to the band, “I wouldn’t really call us friends.”
“That’s too bad then.”
Claudine casts a look to the brunette besides her.
“Hanayagi-san told me that her beautiful blonde friend would be here to greet me so if it’s not you there’s an even more beautiful blonde here?” the brunette begins to scan the crowd and move away.
Claudine quickly grabs the girl’s wrists, “No! That would be me”, she says, she looks down, trying to cover her face that feels too hot.
The brunette just smiles and places herself next to Claudine again and faces the stage and Claudine does the same, her hand still gripping the girl’s wrists. She feels like her hand is on fire or is it the girl’s skin?
“Moon has never glowed this color, hearts have never been this close, I have never been more certain, I will love you ‘til we’re old.”
Either way, she doesn’t let go.
now.
Futaba excused herself, saying she needs to go around and socialize with everyone in there for a bit and so Claudine finds herself alone, sipping a drink Futaba just handed her. It was sweet and fruity with a blend of sprite and brandy that she guesses it’s Sangria.
She sits down at one of the tables at the end of the room, content with just her drink in hand and overseeing everything that’s happening in front of her.
She has yet to see the others, Futaba didn’t say where they were but she guesses they’re at the back getting ready and maybe she should go say hi but there’s this unsettling feeling on her stomach that tells her to just stay where she is.
And she’s glad she did so.
Because Claudine nearly chokes from her drink as she sees familiar chestnut hair among the crowd.
She looks down, wishing to be invisible and thinking of how fast she can get to the exit without being noticed at all but she laughs instead.
“How pathetic, it’s been two years, I’m over it” she thinks and takes a careful sip.
She raises her head and looks in front of her again.
And scarlet eyes meets amethysts ones.
Her mouth suddenly feels dry and her stomach is doing somersaults. She feels her skin burning and Claudine wants to run.
But she’s frozen in her seat.
Unable to look away from the eyes she once thought would be the first thing she’d see every morning and the last thing every night.
And her heart?
It’s been so long since Claudine actually felt it.
Thrumming in her chest oh so loudly and so many emotions brewing inside.
Maybe she’s not over it.