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The silence fills the hallways from Seisho's dormitories, a quite rare scenario for a Sunday. The usual sound of endless conversations and occasional ruckus from the girls is replaced by cricket's sounds, so typical for the beginning of a summer.
However, the dormitories aren't completely empty. Even though it was a coincidence that most students had plans for their free day, a duo remains in one of their rooms, busy with books scattered all over the floor as they finished their homework and studied for a test that was still days away. Of course as the top students they would study in advance and always do their tasks diligently, being them about rehearsal or their standard curriculum.
And so they spent their afternoon, sharing their answers and clearing their questions between each other. Studying together was already part of their routine, and they knew they were able to do even better while together.
As she finishes writing the last sentence from her chemistry report, Claudine places her notebook to the side and stretches up, popping her back on the process.
"Oh my, studying like this didn't do good for my back." She whines.
"We ended spending more time than expected on this. The floor isn't that comfortable after more than a couple of hours." Maya watches her partner as she makes a pause writing on her own notebook. "We can make some warm ups later."
"We may. Aren't you tired?" The half-French asks.
"A little, yes." The brunette fights a yawn.
"Let's stop here, then. We can finish this another day, I just want to lie down for now."
Claudine doesn't wait for a positive reply before standing up from the floor and climbing over her own canopy bed, throwing the weight of her body over it and relaxing. Maya chuckles and finishes writing one last sentence before closing her notebook and joining the other.
The blonde taps the space on the mattress by her side and Maya gladly accepts the invitation, resting her head on the same pillow as Claudine and both snuggling together.
"I guess no one is back yet, it's still so silent." Claudine says while caressing her girlfriend's hair.
"Indeed. This is a really rare occasion."
"Yeah, these dorms are always so lively. I guess we should enjoy it."
Following her own words, Claudine breaks the distance between their lips so they can begin kissing. It was indeed relaxing to be able to do that without risking being interrupted, something so usual in any regular day — there was always one of their friends appearing out of the blue or causing a ruckus outside, so they could never relax completely to have a moment together.
The mood was completely set for a little make out session. But as Claudine’s hand presses on Maya’s waist, the brunette breaks apart from their kiss.
“Ma Claudine, I believe I’m hungry…” She says with her voice sultry, making the blonde instantly warm up.
“I am as well, ma Maya…” Claudine smiles with the corner of her lips, already getting closer again.
But, as she tries doing that, Maya speaks again.
“Oh, should we go to the kitchen to get something to eat, then?” She says cluelessly.
Claudine’s lips curl in disappointment.
“You're literally hungry.” She states, and Maya just nods. “Can’t you wait a little? I guess we shouldn’t waste this opportunity alone, you know.”
“Oh.” Maya blushes, finally understanding. “You’re right.”
Maya pulls Claudine closer again and they continue kissing, trying to set back the mood. But as the half-French gets on top of her body, her stomach makes a quite loud sound.
“Okay, you’re really hungry.” Claudine breaks into a chuckle.
“I’m sorry.” Maya feels embarrassed. “We spent too many hours here without eating anything.”
“It’s alright, I’m somewhat hungry as well.” The half French soothes. “Let’s go to the kitchen, I’ll make us something to eat.”
“Sorry for breaking the mood.”
“Don’t apologize so much. If we’re quick enough, we can still come back here.”
“Sounds like a good plan.”
And so they both head downstairs hand in hand, decided to get their necessity out of the way. Claudine opens the cabinets of the kitchen looking for ingredients to make some pancakes, claiming that Maya needed to try the French recipe passed by generations in her family. The brunette feels excited at that idea and offers her help.
“Of course I’m making you help, you’re not only watching.” Claudine says jokingly and later points to the windows from the connected dining room. “It’s too hot in here so get those windows open before we can start.”
Maya promptly does as her girlfriend said and walks to the other side of the room to open said windows. However, as she slides open the glass, a thumb-sized black insect comes flying straight from outside, and she’s barely able to dodge it from hitting her on the face. Yet, she’s not even able to breathe out in relief, since it was heading straight to her lover.
“Claudine, watch out!” She yells.
Confused, Claudine turns around, only to almost have the same faith that Maya just managed to avoid. By reflex, she lifts her hand in front of her face and the insect hits her on it, and when she slowly lowers her hand to check what was on it, she begins shaking it frantically while jumping and screaming.
“ Yah, un cafard! Merde!” She curses in between screams.
When she feels the insect left her body, she runs towards Maya, who was frozen in the middle of the dining room. Both hold each other as the insect finds his new spot on the wall behind the kitchen’s sink.
“How do we kill it?” Claudine asks.
“I'm not sure; it can fly." Maya tries to keep herself calm, even though her slightly breaking voice says the opposite.
And they both yell in unison when they see the insect begin moving again, walking up on the wall.
“I have an idea.” Maya suddenly says, lifting her left foot to take off her slipper.
“Good, Tendou Maya!” Claudine encourages her.
What Claudine didn’t expect is that Maya would throw the slipper from right there, being too scared to approach. The slipper hits the wall way far from the cockroach, but it’s enough to send it flying.
And both girls are running again from the aimless insect, heading to the living room and hiding behind the bigger couch. The cockroach follows them there and stops on the wall across from them, threatening, as they sneakingly watch it from the safety spot.
“You dumbass, what now?” Claudine grumbles.
“I’ll allow you to decide the next move.” Maya calmly says, accepting defeat.
Claudine just huffs as she eyes around, trying to make a plan.
“I need a broom.” She says in a serious tone. “It’ll allow me distance to hit it without risking myself.”
“Good idea.” Maya nods. “But the only brooms we have are in the backyard…”
“I know…” With a sigh, Claudine gathers her courage. “I guess I just need to run there.”
And without announcement, she crawls away from the safety of the couch towards the exit of the living room, standing up as soon as she reaches the hallway and running without looking back. All the movement makes Maya very anxious that the insect would start flying again, but fortunately it doesn’t. Yet, staying alone in such a situation was very scary, but luckily Claudine doesn’t take long to come back.
“Found it.” She whispers as she comes back with a broom in her hands.
Claudine poses for attack and uses her full force to hit the cockroach with the brush, successfully covering it completely.
“I’ve done it!” She cheers, still keeping the broom against the wall.
Breathing out in relief, Maya stands up.
“Well done, cherie.”
“Merci, but it was nothing.” Claudine says with cockiness.
“Now what do we do with the corpse?”
“Get a trash can, I can take it from the broom directly to it without us having to touch this disgusting thing.”
Maya quickly heads to the kitchen and brings the small trash from the sink with her. She puts it under the position where the broom was so the corpse would fall on it cleanly, but as soon as Claudine pulls the broom away, nothing falls.
And there’s nothing on the wall as well. But as both look to the broom to inspect it, they see the cockroach moving closer to Claudine’s hand.
Another loud shriek is heard from her as she throws the broom away and grabs her girlfriend by the arm to run away from the living room. And the instant they reach the hallway, the front door is opened.
“Who is screaming?” Karen walks in, followed by Hikari and Mahiru.
“There’s a cockroach in the living room.” Maya explains, pretending to be calm.
“It’s huge and it flies!” Claudine completes.
The reactions from the three girls are completely different from one another. Mahiru shrieks, Hikari maintains her constant indifferent expression and Karen’s eyes glimmer with excitement.
“I want to see it!” Karen says, already walking into the living room.
“Karen, no!” Mahiru tries avoiding her, but the girl was already on her way and she wouldn’t dare to go after her.
The four girls watch from the entrance as Karen looks around the living room, searching for the insect, and finds it on the floor. She proceeds to kneel and grab it with her hand, making Mahiru, Claudine and Maya gasp audibly with the audacity.
“Look, Hikari-chan!” She stands up and shows the cockroach in the air, making the other girls take a preventive step behind except for Hikari.
“I’m only interested in jellyfishes.” Hikari says in a monotonous tone.
“Karen-chan, put that thing away!” Mahiru asks, sounding almost desperate. “Cockroaches are dirty!”
“Oh, really?” Karen analizes it closer to her face. “This one seems clean!”
“But it’s not! They like to stay in the trash, they’re really dirty.”
“Aw, alright, then.”
And like that, Karen puts the insect back on the floor, which instantly pisses Claudine off.
“Bakaren, you should have killed it!” She yells.
“Poor thing, it’s so cute!” Karen defends.
Huffing, Claudine walks into the living room and manages to grab the broom again, but the cockroach was nowhere in sight anymore.
“Where did it go?” Claudine asks.
“I don’t know!” Karen replies.
“Karen-chan, come back here and allow Kuro-chan to deal with it.” Mahiru pleads.
“I won’t let her kill it!”
“Tsuyuzaki-san, I’m afraid you’ll have to bring her by force.” Maya suggests, still quite frozen.
Sighing, Mahiru enters the living room and walks towards Karen, eyeing around the entire way to avoid accidentally stepping on the insect. That moment the front door is opened again, and Futaba and Kaoruko walk inside.
“What’s going on?” Futaba asks as she notices Maya and Hikari are by the living room’s entrance.
“A cockroach.” Hikari explains monotonously.
“Ew.” Kaoruko makes a disgusted face. “I’m staying far away from there.”
Futaba walks closer and looks at the situation in the living room, where Claudine searched for the insect while Karen tried to stop her and Mahiru insisted for her to leave Claudine alone.
“I’m going to help.” Futaba says decisively and joins the others in the living room, leaving Kaoruko with Hikari and Maya.
Futaba helps Claudine search for the insect, while Karen continues crying telling them to not kill it. The three who watched by the door begin feeling a little bored at that scene, and as Kaoruko was about to yawn, she felt something on her foot.
She looks down casually and instantly begins yelling, shaking her foot.
“Futaba-han, help me!” She runs towards the smaller girl as soon as she gets rid of the insect and throws her arms around her neck.
“Where is it?” Futaba asks, but can barely see anything with Kaoruko all over her.
“It ran to the dining room!” Maya says as she runs there, keeping a safe distance as she tries locating it.
“Wait for me, I’ll kill it now!” Claudine comes running from the living room, her broom in hands.
“No!” Karen runs behind her.
Maya manages to grab her abandoned slipper from the floor and Claudine and her corner the insect, one from each side of the dining room, but both cautious before approaching too much.
And the front door opens again, now with Junna and Nana coming inside.
“I heard screaming, is everything alright?” Nana asks worryingly, carrying some plastic bags from the supermarket nearby.
“There’s a cockroach in the dining room!” Mahiru explains.
“Oh my, we need to call for pest control.” Junna gasps. “But first we need a strategy to deal with this one.”
“Don’t worry about it, Junna-chan.” Nana says with a smile.
Nana walks towards the dining room, finding the confusion that was going on there. Karen was already bugging the other girls, telling them to not kill the poor insect, while Hikari just watched the scene from the entrance. She calmly leaves her shopping bags by the table, not minding at all with the ruckus.
“My, my, calm down, everyone.” She says calmly. “I’m going to solve it.”
And, like that, she calmly walks past Maya, who was holding her slipper in an attack pose, and with her bare hands grabs the cornered cockroach, making most of them gasp. Then, she walks to the opened window and throws it out through it.
“Done!” Nana closes the window with a smile. “I’ll wash my hands and start making dinner.”
She heads to the kitchen then, passing by the other girls still shocked at how easily she handled the situation.
“I’ll call for pest control tomorrow.” Junna says as she walks to the kitchen with Nana, decided to help her.
And slowly everyone starts leaving to their rooms, some embarrassed, others traumatized, and some completely unaffected.
Maya and Claudine end heading back to the half French’s room not saying a word, still trying to digest the situation they just faced. They get over the mattress but just lie side by side, eyeing the canopy ceiling of the bed.
“I even lost my appetite.” Maya says after a couple of minutes.
“Yeah, I even forgot what we were doing there.” Claudine sighs.
“Now I’ll always feel apprehensive of opening windows. Or open windows in general.” Maya points, and both instantly look at the open window in Claudine’s room.
No one even needs to say a word; Claudine promptly stands up and slides it closed leaving just a tiny passage of air, not big enough for any huge insect. She comes back to the bed and finds her spot besides her girlfriend so both can continue eyeing the ceiling.
“I guess we’re safe.” Claudine says.
“I hope so. One could have entered as we were downstairs…”
The apprehension grows within both of them.
“Is your window closed?” Claudine asks.
“Yes, I closed before meeting you earlier today.”
“Can I sleep in your room?” She doesn’t hesitate to ask.
“Of course.” Maya doesn’t take a second to agree.
“Good. I guess we can go there now.”
Both agreeing with that idea, they head to Maya’s room, hoping that it would be a safer place until both overcame the trauma they just suffered.
Until another cockroach appeared in front of them again.
end