Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

—

When Maya comes to, she wakes up in a small pool—more like a puddle, really—of her own blood, sticky and drying on her skin. 

She groans, feeling the entirety of her body throb in pain. She knows that as far as landings go, this one is pretty terrible; no grace, no poise, no consideration for her at all. But when she does consider how she got to this point, then she can’t help but acquiesce that this is acceptable, but just. Maya makes a mental note to have a word with Karen for her piloting skills when she gets back on the Seisho.

Her mind sweeps through her body mentally assessing where she may be hurt. She wiggles her toes, stretches her ankles until a shooting pain erupts from the right one, forcing a pained groan out of her. Trying not to be dismayed, she continues her assessment in hopes that general soreness and a sprained ankle is all that she has; she clenches her fingers into fists, tenses her muscles in her thighs and arms, inhales a deep breath to check her ribs. She hisses when she feels like her insides have been jostled, and slowly breathes out through her mouth. Her tongue glides behind her teeth, quickly checking that she hasn’t lost any of them. Thankfully for her, she gets to keep all of them another day. 

There’s blood staining the gravel stones underneath her face even as the rocks dig into her skin. 

It doesn’t take long to find the source of the blood, a gash on the side of her head, just below her temple all the way down to the middle of her cheek. She brings her hand up gingerly, the sound of her jumpsuit sleeve dragging against the ground until her fingers delicately brush against her wound. 

She hisses at the touch, jerking her head away. But when she inspects her hand, she’s relieved to find only caked on dirt and no fresh blood.  

With what remaining strength she has, she pushes herself up to her hands and knees, keeping her weight off her right ankle, labored breaths with every strain of her muscles. She cranes her neck up, the blur of her surroundings coming into view. She’s in a small garden, compact green shrubs and flowers line the area around her, and light wooden fencing around the perimeter. But it’s getting dark, no lights have yet turned on, so she considers it good fortune to stay in the veil of dwindling light. She squints her eyes open to a dusky sky, darkening slate clouds rolling above overtaking the pink and purple hues of the setting sun. 

She glances at the watch on her wrist, glad to see that it’s still lit up despite the cracked screen. She hopes that her watch can still reach her team. It’s a relieving thing, however, when her watch flashes the number 9, signifying the total count of korosu that escaped that Maya is now responsible for dispatching. 

She closes her eyes knowing that she probably can’t afford to dawdle, even though she’s not sure when Karen and the others will return and retrieve her. She has to determine the extent of her watch’s damage as well as her journal’s access. She paws at the inside pocket of her jumpsuit and sighs a relief when the journal is still there. At this point, she’ll need to find a place to stay, triangulate a correspondence with her team , and get back to—

A screen door slides and makes a soft thud when it hits the wall interrupting her thoughts, and out comes a blonde woman wearing gray shorts and a dark blue zip-up hoodie talking on the phone. Light bathes part of the backyard, closest to the house triggered by some light sensors and Maya can’t help but squint away from the sudden brightness. 

“Maman, I’m doing fine. No–no. I just—” 

The woman huffs, and even from this distance, Maya can see the tension in her shoulders. 

“It’s barely been a few months . Didn’t you live in Japan for years to discover yourself? If you hadn’t, you wouldn’t have met Papa. Honestly…” 

Maya stiffens in her awkward position on the grass, heart hammering inside her chest, fingers clutching the gravel underneath as she stays in her still position, hoping that this woman who walked out of her backdoor and is now busily trying and failing to light a cigarette doesn’t notice her. As she watches the woman, it strikes her how this stranger cocks her hips to the side, the way her blonde hair is pulled in a messy bun with stray locks dangling. 

“Non, non. You need to stop asking Fumi to do your bidding, Maman. You’re not innocent in this, I know the two of you scheme behind my back. I’m fine—” 

Familiarity surges through Maya, and an ache inside her chest spreads without her full understanding. Her un-broken ribs are now housing a panic-stricken heart plummeting to the pit of her stomach when Maya realizes who she’s looking at.

Maya’s breath hitches audibly, a hiccup from a barely stifled sob. 

Bright red eyes suddenly stare at her, a limp un-lit cigarette hanging from the corner of the woman’s mouth, lips slightly separated. Their eyes lock with one another, neither of them moving. Maya can feel the strain of her weight on her arms, stones digging into her palms and her left knee, but she dares not to move in case it further alarms the woman in front of her. She wants to focus on the situation at hand, being a professional and all, but she also can’t help the cacophonous thudding of her heart in her ears as she stares at this woman so real, so present in front of her. 

She can hear the tinny sound of a voice coming through the phone calling out, as if all other noise have been muted from around them. 

Finally, “Maman, I’ll call you back. There seems to be a wild animal in the backyard.”  

The woman doesn’t turn her head as she paws at the side wall of the house until she grabs hold of the first thing her hand touches: a rake. Maya hobbles to her feet even as she winces from the pain, banking on adrenaline to power her through this, before throwing her hands in the air to signal she means no harm, just as this woman threateningly points the rake towards her.

“I—” she starts to say, but her voice dies on her lips when the woman brings the rake in front of her and shakes it in front of Maya, like she really was a wild animal. Maya releases a tired sigh, balancing herself on one foot, propping her sprained ankle on her toes. “Hello.” 

The woman’s eyes widen in surprise, caught off guard, before she quickly narrows her eyes and takes a step forward towards Maya, clearly surprised at Maya’s greeting. “Who the hell are you?” 

Maya wants to say so many things and struggles to hold her tongue, not when she’s being affected by a pull so great that she barely thinks twice in disregarding her life’s training to follow standard procedure. 

Because even after all this time, the woman in front of her—and every version of her out there—is still Maya’s biggest weakness, her largest blindspot. 

“My name,” she begins slowly, taking a tentative step forward but stopping when the woman tries to shove the rake towards her. “Is Tendou Maya.” 

The woman, forgotten cigarette still between her lips, continues to hold out the rake threateningly towards Maya and seems to be processing her response. Maya already knows that this piece of information—who Maya is —doesn’t hold much weight to this stranger. Yet she nevertheless cannot prevent the disappointment from affecting her, the way she does not recognize Maya. It is too close to the truth, to the past.  

“Why are you here?” 

Maya takes another deep breath, sets aside her personal feelings, as they won’t do her any good now. She briefly debates telling the truth—if she even could, if she would be believed. She settles for, “I have certain business to attend to.” 

The woman understandably scoffs at her answer, but somehow there is a curiosity in the way she utters the next words, the cadence and attitude so very familiar to Maya’s ears. “What kind of business do you have that’s got you trespassing on my property and bleeding all over my flowers?” 

The woman’s name is on the tip of Maya’s tongue and she is poised to say it aloud, but the conflict in her heart stops. Instead she clears her throat. “I mean no harm; I’m only passing by.” 

The woman scrunches her face, bringing the rake higher. “On a sprained foot? Are you a gangster of some sort? Running from some gang fight or something?”

She can't help the laugh that escapes her. This interaction has gone entirely too long, but with her not being at her best, she's inevitably at this woman’s mercy. Against all sense and protocol, she opens her mouth, and dares . “If I tell you the truth, regardless of how far fetched it sounds, would you believe me?” 

Maya doesn’t know this woman, not really. But she gambles that this woman’s not so different at all, not when the cigarette habit is the same, the hair the same, the fierceness in her eyes the same. “Depends. You’re not yakuza are you?” 

Maya expects this response, and she hates that it feels all too close to a home long forgotten and can't help the twitch of a smile from the corner of her mouth. 

“No. I’m a time steward.”

—

Claudine continues to hold the rake up between them, her mind reeling as she tries to make sense of this stranger’s words. 

What the hell is a time steward?

“A time steward is responsible for containing certain forces from meddling with time,” Maya offers as if she'd heard Claudine’s thoughts. She hopes that's not the case. 

“Like what?” 

The woman sighs and takes a tentative hobble forward, but this time, Claudine allows it. Emboldened, she tries to bring her arms down, but Claudine brings the rake up, so Maya’s hands return back up. 

“Before I answer your question, do you mind if I…?” she asks, gesturing at herself, to her bloodied face, the gash on her face much more visible to Claudine now at this angle.  

She stands rooted in her spot and thinks for a moment. This stranger could very well be a criminal, a scammer, and all around bad news. But she also can’t deny that this woman has been hurt. Sensibilities of getting rid of this stranger versus instincts of believing her war inside of Claudine. But she reaches her decision when her attention returns to the vulnerability in Maya’s eyes as she returns Claudine’s gaze, tilting her head expectantly with her hands still in the air. 

“If you try anything, I will kill you.” 

Maya only nods in understanding just as Claudine gestures with the rake for Maya to slowly make her way inside first with her following behind. She rests the rake by the door and carefully watches the stranger’s every move, though by the attempts at hiding her groans of pain, isn't very coordinated. 

The injured stranger dutifully waits for her in the middle of the kitchen area and Claudine has to redirect her to sit at the dining table. “Don’t bleed on my table.” 

“I wouldn’t dare.” 

She quickly returns from the bathroom where she’s picked up her small first-aid kit, a small basin of water, and face towel, taking an adjacent seat beside the stranger who, true to her word, sits stock still and makes sure that she doesn’t, in fact, bleed on Claudine’s table. She does her best to look past the dark maroon jumpsuit that Maya is dressed in and suddenly realizes how grungy she herself looks in her hoodie and shorts. 

She holds up the towel in question, waiting for Maya who meekly nods. Before she wipes the dried blood off, Claudine—suddenly self-conscious—slowly pushes Maya’s chocolate brown hair behind her ear to get them out of the way, and tries to ignore the nervous tremor of her fingers as she does so. 

Gingerly, she reaches forward with the towel and gently wipes the blood off of Maya’s face. When she gets close to the gash, Maya tenses in her spot and winces, hardening her features. Claudine immediately stops and waits. “Alright?” 

Another silent nod, and she continues working to wipe the blood off of otherwise pristine pale skin. Her face scrunches when she realizes just how long the gash is, but when she leans forward, she’s thankful to find that the wound isn’t so deep that it requires stitches. She doesn’t realize how close she’s gotten to Maya until she gets a lungful of Maya’s scent, of sweat and ozone and a gentle floral perfume. Realizing how little distance sat between them, she pulls her head back and clears her throat, busies herself with the first-aid kit to find some antibiotic cream and bandage, pointedly not making eye contact with Maya who seems to be fine with staring directly at her.

“How’d you get hurt?” 

“My team and I were ambushed which led to a nasty fight we were unfortunately unprepared for. One of the korosu clawed at me and I only barely got away.” 

“Ko…rosu?” Her face scrunches in question. 

“Creatures that attack and infect timelines. When timelines are infected, they eat away at memories. Think of them as something similar to, say, termites and they threaten the foundations of a home by eating away at the wood. Korosu threaten the foundations of timelines. Consider my role akin to pest control.” 

Every word this woman shares sounds crazier than the last. But as she stares at Maya in front of her, the faint traces of blood so evident in the face towel resting on her table, she can’t help but believe these words. Otherwise, Claudine has no choice but to consider this woman is really only trying to spin a whole story about space termites to her just because she was found in Claudine’s yard. And though she loves being right, for some reason, she’d really like to be wrong this time. 

Maya cocks her head to the side with a faint smile, piercing violet eyes staring at her with such openness that Claudine has to look away, focusing instead on uncapping the antibiotic cream and putting a considerable amount on the tip of her finger. Carefully, she brings her finger up to Maya’s cheek, pausing like she did last time, and waits for Maya to accept. The stranger does so with a nod and only looks directly at her when Claudine brings her finger to the gash and gently spreads the gash with the cream. Maya winces again and Claudine automatically brings her free hand and places it atop Maya’s folded hands on her lap (a move that she will have to carefully twist and turn in her mind for hours in bed later that night).

But as she finishes, she realizes what she’s done and quickly extracts her hands away from Maya, busying herself with rummaging through the first-aid kit to find the right sized gauze. 

“Let’s say that these ‘time termites’ exist, eating at time and memories or whatever. Aren’t you also meddling with time?” 

“In a way, yes. But since this is my job, I'd like to believe it’s different.” 

She hums, tries to take this information at face value. Still, questions nag at her. 

“Say I believe you,” she starts, now peeling the paper off the gauze bandage so she can cover the gash on Maya’s face. “What the hell were you doing in my yard?” 

Maya takes a deep breath. “We had to escape, but our…vehicle was hit in the process. If I had to guess, this may simply be the coordinates my pilot randomly inputted in her haste for safety.” 

If she hadn’t already brought Maya in her home and tended to her injuries, she thinks that she’s being played for a fool. Maybe her mother finally cracked and committed to tricking Claudine into an elaborate prank that has her packing up and moving back to France instead of loitering around in her dad’s favorite’s haunts from some misguided attempt to belatedly connect to his past life. Instead, all she says is, “Vehicle? You mean your spaceship?”

For the first time, Maya rolls her eyes and Claudine can’t help the amused smirk on her face. “It’s not wholly inaccurate to say that, so if it makes you feel better to familiarize with the concept, then yes. My spaceship.” 

“I must be stupid for believing you came from a spaceship or that any of this is true,” she says aloud, a dismissive shake of her head. Maybe her mother was onto something with nagging her about how bad of an idea it was to drop her life in France and move to Japan.  It’s been four months and all she’s able to show for it is an increase in her nicotine addiction and talking to a potential criminal/alien whose wound she’s tending to at her dining table. 

“I think just the opposite, Claudine.” 

Claudine’s eyes widen in shock before her face hardens, her body tensing. “How the hell do you know my name? I thought you said you were dropped off randomly.” 

Though Maya’s face remains neutral and passive, the pain in her eyes betray her intentions, or so Claudine thinks. She opens her mouth only to close it, silence passing between them. 

“To the best of my knowledge, this was random. I understand if you do not believe me, but I promise that I did not anticipate you.” 

“But you know me.” 

Maya shakes her head. “In a different timeline, I knew you—a version of you,” Maya says, her voice faint. She clears her throat. “There are other Claudines. In other timelines.” 

Claudine pauses, tries not to think about the insignificance of being just one of many, and shakes her head out of these thoughts in favor of understanding the stranger in front of her. “Is that why you’re here?” 

“No…” Then, Maya pauses, considering her next words. “I–well, I’m not certain. But I’m here to dispatch the korosu before they wreak havoc in your timeline.” 

“How do I know you’re not lying?” 

“You don’t.” Maya pauses, pensive. “But…may I try and show you something?” 

With a cautious nod, she gestures for Maya to continue. The stranger gets to her feet, mindful of her injured foot, and takes a few steps back before reaching for the obsidian pendant on a silver chain around her neck that Claudine is just now noticing. 

“You’re not gonna disappear in a puff of smoke, are you?” she asks, warily eyeing the woman. 

“I’m a time steward, not a magician.” 

Claudine wants to roll her eyes, but instead gestures for Maya to proceed. So the other woman does so, placing the pendant in one hand even as she uses her other hand to press into it. A bright light emits from between Maya’s palms and Claudine has to look away due to the brightness. When she turns back, there is now a rapier in Maya’s hand glinting against the fluorescent light of her home. 

“What the fuck…”

“Do you believe me now?” 

Claudine stares at the sword in Maya’s hand then Maya’s expectant face then back to the sword. 

“I don’t not believe you, but you have to admit, that was very much a move magicians do.” 

“Claudine.” 

The pleading tone in Maya’s voice sobers Claudine up from the disbelief and shock that she feels as she processes through what has just transpired in her house. Then, she nods, rising to her feet and walking up to stand in front of Maya whose violet eyes are imploring, so different from the way that she had looked moments earlier when she tried to maintain her composure. 

Maya slowly but decisively moves the sword away from their bodies, blade tip facing down. Claudine raises her hand and brings it up to Maya’s cheek, pushing the corner of the gauze so it sticks back to Maya’s skin. Something lurks beneath Maya’s gaze, Claudine knows, and she wants to know what it is even if she’s still having a hard time processing everything else in front of her. 

“Sit down, you’ll only make your foot worse,” she says instead, ushering the woman to the couch so she can keep her leg elevated. Then she heads to her freezer and collects ice in a bag before wrapping it in a kitchen towel and gingerly placing it on the woman’s ankle. 

Claudine considered her next move. She could go along with whatever Maya was telling her, or she could shut everything down and call the authorities to arrest Maya for trespassing. She glances at Maya whose attention has been caught by the solitary photo frame on the side table near the couch. In it is a photo of Claudine with her parents when she graduated from law school, one of the last images she’d share with her dad. 

It’s not that she’s looking for a sign, per se, nor does she believe that her father is somehow orchestrating this situation from beyond the grave. It’s just that this is the first time since she’s arrived in Japan that has resuscitated her from her near catatonic state. So that must mean something, right? 

Well. 

In any case, one thing is true enough for her at this moment in time: she believes Maya.

—

Maya doesn't question what made Claudine believe her, just that she does. It was a gamble, a great risk, but she couldn’t help herself. So instead, she opts to simply thank the other woman for the charity she extends Maya when she’s given spare clothes to change into and food to eat. 

She’s ravenous as she practically inhales the three salmon rice balls that Claudine offers her. 

“Slow down there, tiger, you’ll choke. And unfortunately I don’t know how to do the Heimlich.” 

Maya visibly slows down her speed, realizing how unbecoming it was of her to present herself this way. “My apologies. I hadn’t realized just how starved I had been.” 

Claudine stares at her curiously and only pushes her own plate of rice balls towards her. 

“I do not wish to take what’s yours.” 

“You’re not,” Claudine says, insisting her plate forward to Maya. “I’m clearly offering.” 

She nods in appreciation and reaches for another rice ball. “Thank you.” 

They eat in relative silence, though the air between them is no longer as tense as it had been to start. Maya is relieved, and the same pang in her heart drums up again when she thinks about the similarities that she can’t help but remember and compare against. 

“So how do we get these, uh, time termites?” 

She tenses in her spot and slows her chewing. “Oh. We don’t do anything. You are not equipped to dispatch them.” 

And Claudine rolls her eyes, already somehow affectionate. Maya’s heart aches inside of her. 

“Then equip me. You have a sword necklace thing. It’s clearly some kind of magic tech of some sort.” 

“Claudine,” Maya starts to say, the long lost name feeling foreign on her tongue. “I showed that to you as a means to prove who and what I am.” 

“And me not calling the authorities on you is me believing you. But if you’re going to try and take these termites down, wouldn’t you want some help?” 

She expected this, she did. The sentiment echoing almost word for word, from a faraway lifetime. 

“I appreciate your help, truly. But the korosu are dangerous creatures and I will not put a civilian in danger.” 

“Who says I will be in danger? Wouldn't you be there?” 

“I cannot be responsible for you and dispatch them at the same time.” 

“You don’t have to be responsible for me. If anything, I feel responsible for you .” 

“Claudine, my work is dangerous.” 

“Yeah, exactly. The bottom line is that you’re hurt. And if these creatures are as dangerous and bad as you say they are, you'll need help. You might have magic necklace swords but clearly your bones are just as fragile as mine.”

It’s not true, and she attempts to explain as much, but Claudine only interrupts her. 

“Listen, if not for you, then do it for me. It's not—you're not the only one who’s trying to figure out what to do next around here.”

“Claudine…” 

“I'm just trying to not go crazy in this house!”

By the surprise on both of their faces, Maya realizes that Claudine hadn’t meant to confess that part aloud. Inevitably, a tense and awkward silence falls on their shoulders, and Maya heaves a sigh before twisting in her seat on the couch to better face Claudine. She glances at her watch, sees the glaring ‘9’ digit even through the cracked glass. For the second time today, she abandons sense and protocol. 

“Thank you for your offer to help.” 

Claudine lets out a small disbelieving scoff, seems to be prepared for rejection.  

“And I suppose beggars can’t be choosers when it comes to receiving help.” 

But Claudine waves her off. “Don’t pity me.” 

“It’s not pity. You said it yourself, didn’t you? I am not at my best, and therefore even as it pains me to say it, I will undoubtedly need your help.” 

“Let’s talk tomorrow. I’m going to my room, you can stay here on the couch.” 

She nods, unsure of where she now stands with the other woman. “Thank you again,” she offers. “For letting me stay and for treating me.” 

Claudine nods, then retrieves her phone out of her pocket before snapping a photo of Maya. “If you turn out to be an actual criminal, I’ll have a picture to show the authorities.” 

She opens her mouth as if to say something, but instead just shakes her head, and watches as Claudine saunters away to retreat to her bedroom.

Tapping on her cracked screen, the tip of her finger presses against the sliver of raw crystalline edge. The number 9 disappears only to show 91% lit up in green, and Maya frowns. 

—

The next morning, Claudine groggily wakes up, suffering a listless and fitful sleep as she thinks about the woman in her living room. For all she knows, Maya could have disappeared overnight, but she thinks the space woman hasn’t, not unless Claudine missed the heavy-footed hobbling of her house guest. As she recalls the events of last night, she grounds and shoves her face into the pillow when she remembers the pitiful words she’d revealed. 

Her move to Japan had been one she chose, needing a drastic change in her life. She’d felt stagnant in all facets of her life. Her job in a corporate law firm had burnt her out faster than she thought was possible, and whatever relationships she’d developed with the men and women she went on dates with fizzled out until all she saw in any regular capacity was the takeout delivery driver who would hand her weekly orders to her. 

Pulling herself from the bed, she softly unlocks the latch of her door before taking a breath, uncertain if she wanted to find Maya still there when she stepped into the living room. Her heart, the traitorous thing, skips a beat when she sees Maya hunched over some type of book that she’s tapping into. 

“Good morning,” she says, slowly walking towards the woman who greets her with a far more relaxed smile than Claudine would have expected. 

“Good morning, Claudine. I’m glad you're awake,” Maya says, before rising up steadily to her feet and attempting to put her jumpsuit over the shirt and shorts she slept in the night before.

“Whoa, where are you going?” 

Maya stops in her tracks and looks at her, “I have work to do.” 

“No you don’t.” 

“Claudine—”

“You literally fell from the sky, have a cut on your face, and you’re hobbling with a sprained ankle. You’re useless in a fight.” 

She seems keen to argue with Claudine, but something stops her and she relents, making a show of raising her hands in surrender, similar to how she’d looked the night before. Then, Claudine stares curiously as Maya quickly taps on her watch, a downward tug at the corners of her lips before returning back to neutral. But she doesn’t supply anything and Claudine doesn’t ask. 

Taking it as a win, Claudine goes to the kitchen where she begins preparing packets of rice porridge for the two of them. Maya extends her thanks when Claudine places the bowl in front of her and they eat in relative silence. 

After cleaning up breakfast and ushering Maya back to the couch, despite Maya’s insistence that she’s much better, Claudine takes it upon herself to take a cigarette from the pack and head out to the backyard for her first smoke of the day. This time, she fares better in lighting the cigarette, and she puckers her mouth slightly before exhaling the smoke right in front of her. 

She watches Maya through the window, who has returned to fiddling with her book. Her gaze lands on Maya’s profile, the gauze bandage on her face not deterring away from her striking features; the dip of her bridge against the slope of her nose, the pout of her lips, the point of her chin as it connects to the sharpness of her jaw. Yet despite Maya’s beauty, her most arresting feature are her eyes, amethyst hued gaze piercing Claudine to the wall, and making her feel far too exposed. Maya had mentioned another Claudine from a different timeline. She muses just how different she is from the other Claudines, how she measures up. She’s unemployed with very little job or romantic prospects, unmoored without purpose for her life, and unmotivated to make the changes if she’s not sure what she even wants. She’d made the move to Japan from France, thirsting and hungering for a change, but she hadn’t anticipated that all she would accomplish in that time was leave her job and her family to avoid one depressive rut only to fall into another depressive rut under the guise of independence and freedom. 

Reflecting on the recent turn of events, she can’t help but see Maya as a catalyst for change or, at the very least, a temporary escape. Maya, whether she knows it or not, effectively turned Claudine’s world upside down.

Her musings are interrupted when Maya jumps from her spot on the couch and rushes towards the backyard, the sliding door opening with a thud. “I’ve located the whereabouts of some of the korosu . Can you help me?” 

Claudine perks up from her slumped state, dropping the cigarette butt on the ground and crushing it with the heel of her outdoor slippers. 

“What do you need?” 

It doesn’t take them long to arrive in a sleepy local neighborhood by the coast, only about an hour from where Claudine lives. She and Maya had gone there by car with Claudine driving, now suddenly thankful for getting her license when she first got to Japan, if only to make the commitment of moving feel more permanent. 

Suffice it to say, despite the few months she’s spent in Japan since, she’d yet to drive a car until now. Already on edge from driving, she has to swerve from hitting a lamppost when Maya tells her to stop the car. She slams on the breaks, pushing back against the seat to brace for impact.

“What the—Maya, what’s going on?” 

Maya, for her part, pats her jumpsuit, hands attempting every pocket until she takes out a shiny and coiled black cylinder film. “There are two of the korosu up ahead, about 150 meters from here.” 

When Claudine glances up, she sees nothing but a blue sky and puffy white clouds. 

“If I allow you to see them, do you promise to stay in the car?” Maya asks in a serious yet seemingly unhurried tone, belying the tension that inhabits her shoulders. Mutely, Claudine nods. The time steward hesitates for a moment before quickly brushing the cylinder film over her eyes. 

Maya looks the same to her, but when Claudine turns her attention past the front windshield, she almost jumps out of her skin when she catches sight of these korosu monsters in front of them. 

Their large ink-stained bodies drape messily over the roof, dozens of tangled limbs with sharp clawed tendrils, multiple slits for mouths, with protruding fangs as sharp as their claws. Ugly messy things that send a shiver down Claudine’s spine. She realizes belatedly that despite their monstrous bodies, no destruction befalls the homes. Instead, she finds that they position themselves on the roof until they’re sucking out some type of whirlpool out of the windows and vents of the home.  

“They—” 

In a flash, Maya unbuckles her seatbelt and rushes to shove the passenger car door open, suddenly looking a lot more healed than she had been this morning. From the driver’s seat, Claudine can only watch, too stunned to do anything, before watching with great alarm when Maya rushes back to her. “Don’t leave this car, do you understand?” 

Still too stunned she only nods, her eyes trailing after Maya’s rushing figure who yanks the obsidian pendant from her neck one second only to wield the rapier in her left hand the next. 

Her gaze switches from Maya’s back to catching sight of two korosu clawing their way up the roof of one of the beach homes. Her heart lodges itself in her throat as she helplessly watches Maya deftly swing her sword against limbs until the messy drape of their spineless bodies fall. 

Her eyes are glued to Maya who masterfully stabs through the first korosu’s head until the creature splits in half and evaporates into the sky, leaving a flurry of ashfall on the ground of where it had last been seen. As she intensely watches, she doesn’t notice just how much she’s hunched over the steering wheel, trying to watch every second of the fight in front of her. 

Before Claudine knows it, the last korosu is handled similarly as the first, and it’s only when she sees Maya sag against the wall of the house that she jumps out of her car and rushes towards the other woman. 

“Maya!” She cries aloud, getting caught in the seatbelt before darting out of her car as she runs towards the other woman, kneeling in front of her to check for any injuries or wounds. “Are-are you okay?” 

Maya offers a shaky smile as she tries to catch her breath. “I told you not to leave the car.” 

“Are you hurt anywhere?” she asks instead, bypassing Maya’s comment, to which the space woman just shakes her head. “Okay, then let’s go back home, you’ll need your rest.” 

Thankfully, Maya doesn’t fight her on that and accepts the way Claudine pulls her up to her feet and brings Maya’s arm over her shoulder, supporting Maya’s weight. She walks the two of them to the passenger seat before jumping towards her side and driving back home. 

Every now and again, her eyes glance at Maya who is doing her level best to not sound out of breath, occasionally checking her watch, tapping on the screen just out of Claudine’s view. 

“What–what were they doing?” when she can relax somewhat in her seat now that they’ve reached the highway. 

Maya grunts. “They were eating the memories.” 

Claudine gulps, finds how horrific that sounds, even if she doesn’t quite understand. “Why memories?” 

Maya doesn’t respond for some time, her face turned towards the window. She risks asking again until she finally hears Maya’s voice with an answer too heavy for her to process on the quiet drive back home. 

“Memories are the stories of our emotions. Without memories, these stories, time is rendered meaningless.” 

—

Maya is exhausted, her fight with the one of the korosu depleting more of her energy than she wanted. Though if she were being honest with herself (which she isn't currently being) she knows that it's not all the korosu’s fault. 

Still, it had restored some of her spirit when she felt Claudine shoulder Maya’s weight, and even now, watching as the woman fusses over her. 

“What did you put over my eyes?” Claudine asks curiously after swallowing a spoonful of curry and rice. 

“It’s a special film that allows you to spot inter-dimensional artifacts. Think of it like a filter.” 

“Is it safe?” 

“Yes, of course. It’s made with civilians in mind.” 

Claudine stares at her, no doubt unending questions simmering in her mind. “How do I take it off?”

Maya rests her spoon in the bowl. With her now free hand, she reaches up to Claudine’s face, but stops just shy of touching her. “May I?” 

When Claudine nods, red piercing eyes don’t stray from watching her. Maya then carefully slides two fingers outward from Claudine’s temple. Then she holds up her palm where the black cylinder film rolled into itself now sits. She fights the way her fingers want to close around the film when Claudine reaches for it and holds it between her fingers. Claudine unfurls the coiling until all she is left with is a thin rectangular sheet. When she releases the film, it springs back into its coiled cylinder shape and drops to the table. Claudine then picks it up and holds it out for Maya to take. She plucks it out of Claudine’s grasp, careful not to let their fingers touch, before pocketing it into the right breast pocket of her jumpsuit. 

They’re quiet for the rest of the evening, eating burnt curry for dinner, no doubt Claudine distracted from making sense of what she’d seen. Maya doesn’t mind, even as she chews through the bitterness of the burnt stew, and would currently prefer the silent time they spend together rather than the questions she has to maneuver in and out of just to answer Claudine. 

If she wasn’t already sitting down, she thinks she would have been knocked on her proverbial ass when she spares an extra thought about how quickly they latched onto one another. Yesterday she had been limping and bloodied, at the mercy of the woman who thought she’d been a petty criminal trying to spin an elaborate fable. But now, there is common ground and familiarity in the time they spend in the space, establishing fast bonds with each other. It had been like this once upon a time, and the warmth in her chest at the thought feels like retracing old steps, ones she’s not too virtuous to ignore, despite the risks she’s putting herself through. 

When Claudine disappears outside to smoke, Maya retrieves her journal from the pocket of her jumpsuit that’s draped over the back of the couch. She opens it to the middle page, tapping on the center until a screen’s outline draws itself on the page before transforming into a three dimensional holographic screen right in front of her. With a thoughtful frown, she taps a series of letters and symbols, seemingly appearing out of thin air, the way the screen flickers unreliably. She attempts to send a message to the Seisho team in hopes of relaying a status report, but it fails half a dozen times before she gives up for the night. Knowing that she’ll have to sort this issue out tomorrow, she closes the journal and pockets it back in her jumpsuit before tapping her watch’s screen. The number 7 is now lit up on the screen, confirming that she has successfully dispatched two korosu in the area. 

When she taps at the screen again, her thoughtful frown deepens when the 91% from yesterday steeply drops to 84%. It is not yet cause for concern, but she knows, as is the nature of her job, it’s only a matter of time. 

—

Claudine goes outside to smoke after their dinner reflecting on how terribly she’d messed up their meal, apologizing for burning the bottom of the curry where the bitter burnt taste overpowered their palates. Maya only told her that it was fine, and that the burnt taste was hardly noticeable, but Claudine could tell Maya’s less enthused disposition in comparison to the previous night’s meal of store bought rice balls. 

When she hears Maya retreat to the bathroom to wash up, Claudine only inhales deeply watching how the orange embers burn through the paper before releasing the smoke through puckered lips. She can’t help but think that the same woman who picked at her food was the same one who had placed herself in front of danger to defeat those ugly snarling creatures. If she didn’t already believe Maya when they first met, she knows that seeing those creatures would have made her a believer. 

Still, it’s not the thoughts of the ugly creatures that causes a spike in her heart rate, but the way Maya could have gotten hurt. She’s not sure how to feel about that. Surely, worry about another’s well-being is understandable. Yet, it’s deeper—her worry. 

Later, she bids the space woman goodnight as she passes the living room towards her bedroom. Once inside, she goes to lock her door, but pauses and decides to think better of it. 

—

Despite the calm demeanor she’s trying to project the next morning while she sits at the dining table watching Claudine prepare breakfast for the two of them, Maya’s bouncing leg of nerves betrays her. So much so that Claudine twists where she’s standing by the stove. 

“Does my cooking really make you nervous?” Claudine asks with an amused smirk, chopsticks in hand as she fusses over a pot of hot water to make their instant ramen. 

“I apologize. It’s just that this is the longest I have been without communication with my team, and I can only imagine their worry over me.” 

“Is your watch thing not able to reach them?” 

“It needs some kind of recalibration of sorts, I’m not too certain. I’ll need to venture out today and find an extender so the signals go past this local zone.” 

“Extenders?” 

“Mm. They amplify signals through the lines. Like radiowaves.”

“What do extenders look like? Is it some like special magical item like your necklace?” 

“Not…really,” she begins, standing up from her seat at the table to walk closer to Claudine who has since returned to her cooking.

“Lines?” 

“Timelines.” 

“How many timelines are there?” 

“As many as you can imagine.” 

Claudine frowns at her answer before stirring the noodles in the pot. “So how do you find these extender things if they don’t look like anything?” 

“When I find the korosu.”

She lets her answer settle between them. Eventually, Claudine stops her stirring, and Maya is both impressed and resigned when the woman turns to face her. “They’re the extenders, aren’t they?” 

“You are as bright in this timeline as the others.” 

Claudine doesn’t respond right away, no doubt processing, so Maya is left to sit in the silence stretching between them.

“So I guess we’ll have to search for korosu today.” 

Her protest that Claudine is unnecessarily putting herself in harm’s way is at the tip of her tongue, but she does not say it. Not when the matter is spoken like a foregone conclusion; the pair of them, a team. A delusion of the highest order, and Maya lets herself pretend despite the alarm bells ringing inside of her head, despite the decreasing percentage shown on her watch. 

They finish breakfast and Maya goes to clean herself up, Claudine passing her a pair of simple khaki pants and an olive green worker’s jacket. When Claudine comes out of her room, she seems to be wearing an identical outfit, except the worker’s jacket is in a deep blue. 

When she raises a brow in question, Claudine just cocks her hip, her hand resting on her waist. “Would you rather I wore a ballgown?” 

“I was only going to say you look beautiful.” 

Claudine audibly scoffs and rolls her eyes before walking past her and towards the front door. “You’re better off as a magician than a comedian at this rate.”

And all Maya thinks is that she’s doomed. 

Soon, they’re in search of korosu, following the signals that Maya’s watch is picking up. They take the trains this time, Maya citing that it’ll be easier to maneuver around the city center this way. Just before the last stop, Maya rummages through her pocket and pulls out the cylinder film from the day before and gestures questioningly towards Claudine who only nods. She then brings the film up to Claudine’s eyes and waves her hand.

“How does it look?” Claudine asks, her eyes tentative, though she sports a teasing smirk. Maya only laughs just as her heart cracks. 

In no time, they find the ugly creatures, just a few blocks from the watch’s given coordinates, hanging around a nearby train station.

“Are you going to…you know…” Claudine mimes yanking the pendant before swinging a sword. 

Maya simply sighs and turns to face Claudine. “No.”

“What do you mean? Wouldn’t they get away?” 

“I will dispatch them later, but for now, my priority is to reach my team. They need to know I’m alive.” 

Claudine simply nods, and gestures for her to lead the way. So Maya focuses on getting close to the signal and adjusting for a few blocks, to offset the discrepancies of her watch. It surprises her to find the pair of them standing in front of the Kishi Theater. The signal is not as strong as earlier, but Maya knows this is the closest she’d get to a korosu without endangering the both of them. She’s about to walk towards the side doors when she realizes that Claudine has not followed her. 

“Claudine?” she asks, turning around. “What’s the matter?” 

“Did you know my father performed here?” Claudine asks suddenly, her eyes still looking up at the grand building and its large windows that overlook light displays inside. Then she shakes her head. “I don’t know why you would know that.” 

“Your father is a performer?” 

“Was.” 

She offers nothing, knows all too well about this feeling, and just follows Claudine’s gaze. 

“Sorry, I just—we can go in now.” 

Maya nods, and resumes her trek towards the side doors, this time Claudine follows her. 

Trespassing through different buildings is standard procedure for a time steward like her, so it should feel much more criminal when she has a civilian beside her. Yet, Claudine follows her with relative ease, just as cautious and stealthy. The pang of familiarity ripples through her once again and she has to actively shake those thoughts away so that she can focus on her task at hand. 

They soon reach an office at the end of a corridor, and Maya picks the lock quickly using the hair pins that normally push her bangs out of her eyes. From there, she walks around the room to find the most consistent signal reception. Finally, she sits on the couch on the far side of the office where she turns the lamp on and suddenly, she’s back online. Maya quickly pulls her journal out of her pocket and taps on the page until drawn lines making a rectangle appear, rising up to produce a three-dimensional holographic screen. 

“I’ll be lookout,” Claudine offers, stepping back closer to the door. As Maya works to get connected, she catches from the corner of her eye Claudine opening the window closest to the door. She hears the small flicking sound of a lighter and the smell of a freshly lit cigarette reaches her nose. 

She taps on the side buttons of her watch, and soon, the empty holographic screen flickers and she hears her teammates. 

“Maya! We’ve been looking all over for you!” The auburn-haired pilot of the Seisho team cries aloud, her voice and face awash with relief. “We really thought you’d gotten badly hurt from that attack.” 

“I’m fine, Karen. I’m healing from my bruises as normal.” 

Koharu, the team medic, leans forward. “Maya, what happened?” 

She briefly recounts her face gash that has all but healed (with the gauze she’s keeping on for appearances) and her sprained ankle all the while keeping her eyes past the holographic screen to momentarily watch the woman who had patched her up taking a drag from her cigarette. Claudine looks as if she’s giving them privacy, with her back turned to Maya. But Maya knows that head tilt from a different lifetime, a distant timeline, and she knows this Claudine is listening intently. 

She turns her attention back to the faces of her team.

“Where are you?” Nana, her team captain, finally asks. 

“I’m in Japan.” 

There’s a loaded beat that passes, then, “We can pick you up within 24 hours. Dispatch all korosu by then because we need to chase our leads for the Kirin case.” 

“Kirin?” she asks, leaning forward and resting her elbows on her thighs. 

“He's behind the ambush. Apparently, he also targeted the Frontier and Siegfeld teams.” 

“What is he planning?”

“According to murmurs on the lanes, he has a vendetta against his old business partner turning on him for selling him out.” 

“Souda?” Her question is met with nods from her teammates. 

“Since she defected, he’s been on the hunt to seek revenge for turning against him.” 

Maya shook her head. She understood vengeance, wanted karmic retribution for the pain and suffering she’d endured herself, but she’d never felt her hands tied so tightly as when the hubris of others placed them in the crossfire. A thought she’s all too familiar with, hypocrisy painted all over her own actions. 

Nana continues. “Which is why we need you to close out your mission there.” 

What she should say is ‘Yes, Nana. I will be ready’ or ‘I will send you my coordinates when I’m done’ . Yet what comes out of her mouth stuns everyone on the call into silence, especially because it is in direct opposition to her job as the main dispatcher of her team. “I cannot dispatch them all before then.” 

“Maya, scans show that there are only seven remaining in the area.” 

“I understand, but I cannot dispatch them all before then.” 

Nana narrows her eyes. “Why not?” 

“There is something here that I need to attend to.” 

Silence blankets over them, but it grows uncomfortable and she is prepared to repeat herself, until Nana’s voice cuts through. 

"What is this really about?" Nana asks.

She takes a steadying breath. “I believe you already know."

"Oh, Maya." The voice she hears is softer, and she wants to turn away from Koharu’s sympathetic voice, bordering on pity. "Are you sure this is a smart move?" 

“Smart or not, I’d like to stay. Especially if this is where I was deployed.” 

There’s a pause on their call, a flicker on the holographic screen where her three teammates are looking right back at her. Karen puts her hands up, trying to wave blame away from herself. “I didn’t do it on purpose! I promise! If I had known, I wouldn’t—” 

Nana places a hand on Karen’s shoulder, immediately stopping her impending tirade. 

“Regardless,” Maya starts again. “This is where you dropped me off, and I…I would like to be able to do this. I want to do this.” 

Koharu speaks up again. “Maya, what about expulsion?” 

The pain in her teammate’s face is visible, even through the holographic screen. "I will do my best so it doesn’t come to that."

"Learn from my experiences, Maya,” Nana says. “This isn’t worth it.” 

She shakes her head. "With all due respect, Nana, our situations are different.”

"You’re risking expulsion."

She smiles, a droll yet resigned curl of her lips. "I have always been a selfish and greedy sort who gives this job her all."

"Reckless,” Nana says, shaking her head, her tone hardening. 

"I know. I hope that despite this reckless decision, that you will support me.” 

“Of course, Maya!” Karen speaks up, then looks to their other teammates. “Won’t we?” 

“I don’t agree, necessarily, but I will support you.” Koharu offers her a gentle smile. 

“Nana?” she asks, when her team captain doesn’t immediately speak. 

“We’ll prioritize the case with Kirin for now, so we’ll give you some time to take care of your business.” 

“Thank you. I’ll make sure to complete the job here and that I’m fit to return.” 

"See to it that you are, Maya. I would hate to lose you, too."

Nana closes out the call with her, the holographic screen flashing into emptiness and closing out, the page on the journal darkening until it returns to its paper-like appearance.

Maya releases a deep sigh before leaning back on the couch momentarily shutting her eyes. It is a risk, one she’s all too aware of, knowing that the longer she stays in this line and away from hers, her body and her mind weakens. She taps her watch and stares at the dwindling percentage and knows that she can’t stay long. Yet despite the logic and rationale, and the clear and valid concerns her teammates express for her safety and well-being, she cannot deny herself this opportunity. Not when she’s been at the job long enough to know that this chance may never present itself again. 

When she opens her eyes, it’s to the silhouette of Claudine smoking by the propped window of the office they’d snuck into, the faint wisps of smoke visible through the glass. She rises to her feet and makes her way to Claudine, stopping a few feet away, smelling the lingering scent of smoke. Her gaze cuts to Claudine who’s now watching her every move, brows knitted, with the cigarette between two fingers. 

She places her hands in her jacket pockets. They settle in this limbo, and she can see just how much Claudine is thinking, so she gives the other woman an out. “Go ahead and ask.”

Claudine takes a drag of her cigarette, the orange embers burning through the paper leaving a lengthening trail of ash. “What are you risking by being here?” 

Everything, she wants to say. But she settles instead for a response she can control. 

“If I do not contain and dispatch the korosu within a certain amount of time,” she begins to say instead, angling to sidestep Claudine. “Then I run the risk of getting expelled from this timeline.” 

“What happens then?” 

“In this case, I do disappear like a magician,” she tries to joke, but when Claudine’s face visibly blanches, she sighs. “I do not die, if that’s what you’re thinking. Instead, I am forced back to my timeline where I’ll have to go through a probationary period until I can be an active agent again with my team.” 

What Maya doesn’t offer is that upon revival, she’ll wake up with random swaths of her memories lost, as a consequence. To face expulsion is to mismanage time as a steward, a grave sin. 

“Why risk that?” 

“I…would prefer not to answer.” 

Claudine nods, before taking another drag of her cigarette, the wisps of smoke exiting out the window. “How long do you have to get rid of the korosu?” 

“It’s hard to say.” 

“But as long as you get rid of them within that time, you’re fine?” 

“Mm.” 

“And will you leave after?” 

She clears her throat, the pair of them already knowing the answer. “I would have completed my mission.” 

Claudine takes a final drag of her cigarette and releases the smoke, then pushes the embers of the cigarette against the windowsill, leaving a small burnmark and line of soot. She turns and walks right up to Maya, the pair of them standing within inches of each other, and Maya can smell the familiar stench of smoke on her. Claudine faces her and says nothing, but her eyes seem to search for something on Maya’s features. Then, whether she’d found it or not, Claudine simply sidesteps her and heads to the door, dropping her cigarette in the waste bin. “We should probably get out of here before we get in trouble.” 

Maya wordlessly follows suit.

Chapter Text

When they exit out of the theater, Claudine throws a glance over shoulder. Memories flood her of her mother sharing photographs where the theater’s grand entrance featured prominently as her father stood proudly in front of it. Kishi Theater had been the reason why he was gone for so much of her childhood. Or why he had to wish her goodnight and sing her a lullaby through the phone instead of doing so at her bedside. 

She recalls the excitement in his voice, never once letting on that he was tired or that he was calling in the early hours of his morning just to be able to talk to her for a few precious minutes. How he would finish his songs with a flourish, and a wish for her to Always follow your heart, little bear. Papa loves you.

“Claudine, is something the matter?” Maya asks beside her, concern plainly etched on her face. 

“Wha—”

“You’ve stopped walking.” 

“Sorry,” she mutters. “Still trying to wrap my mind around your…space thing.” 

“Right, of course.” 

She clears her throat and resumes walking, not really wanting to unearth her childhood baggage in front of her father’s second home. “So is it okay to just let the korosu escape?” 

“It’s not ideal, but it should still be manageable. Unfortunately, I need to regroup before I can pursue them accordingly.” 

The way Maya’s lips purse in thought, Claudine can only assume that there’s more that she’s not letting on, yet deciding to let her keep her secrets as they make it back to her house. Claudine is fine with that. 

“Here,” Maya says, pulling the film out of her pocket. She then gestures for Claudine to lean forward before the film is extended over her eyes. “As a safety measure.” Claudine doesn’t sense a change or shift in anything, like they’re simply miming her wearing some sort of eyewear. Yet she does not balk or comment, only nods in acceptance. 

Their evening routine mimics the last two nights. She cooks them a simple mixed rice recipe she remembers her dad making for them and quietly serves it in bowls. Claudine can’t help the smile on her face when Maya goes for thirds, who is only somewhat sheepish when she asks for the third time. 

“How do you pack it all in and still look like that?” 

But Maya only shrugs and thanks her for the meal, a small timid smile on her face. 

The rest of dinner is a quiet affair, Claudine distractedly pushing her food to and fro in her bowl. She catches sight of Maya’s eyes trained on her when she looks up, but she mentally waves it off. Maya opens her mouth as if to say something, but Claudine interrupts her. 

“I’m actually not that hungry,” she says with a light push of her bowl away from her. “So, uh, just leave your bowl in the sink when you’re done and I’ll clean it tomorrow.”

“I will clean up after myself.” 

She nods along. “Suit yourself. I’ll be in my room.” 

Just as she tries to sit up, Maya mirrors her, the two of them awkwardly standing on either side of the table. “Claudine? Forgive me if I’m overstepping, but are you alright?”

“Why do you ask?” 

“You just seem distracted tonight.” 

Claudine’s body tenses in her spot, the corners of her lips tugging down in a scowl. “You’re right, you are overstepping.” 

She leaves for her room, only wincing slightly when the door slams shut, the image of Maya taken aback etched clearly in her mind. She almost considers walking back out and apologizing for her words, but finds she cannot. So she settles for tugging carelessly at her duvet cover and hiding underneath. 

—

The next morning carries a tense weight over them, and Maya sighs at having caused it. She doesn’t know what she was trying to accomplish approaching Claudine with such a question. She’d wanted to… Well, she’d wanted to be there for her, but this was the first stark reminder that she doesn’t really know this Claudine, not really. Despite the stack of similarities between them, Maya knows it’s not the same. She’s not the same. 

Maya elects to give Claudine a wide berth in the morning and prepares to get some of her work and exercises done in the backyard. It also gives her a chance to check her ankle. As expected, it’s almost as good as new. Though her body mends from yesterday’s wounds, it’s her extended stay in this timeline that is prohibiting her from making a full recovery. She glances at her watch, taps past the remaining number of korosu still left in the area, and frowns at the plummeting percentage. With a determined scowl, she taps out of the screen and proceeds to finish her exercise. 

Her watch pings quickly, signaling her to a nearby korosu. Quietly, she gets dressed, though she does throw a curious glance towards the closed bedroom door. It is nearing midday and Claudine has yet to emerge from her room. Maya can’t help the frown on her face knowing she is the probable culprit for Claudine’s soured mood. 

She considers knocking on the bedroom door to check on Claudine and gets so far as to stop right in front of it. Ultimately, she decides that perhaps a conversation would be better received later, after she’s successfully gotten rid of the beast. 

With an uncharacteristic stutter to her step for a momentary reconsideration of approaching Claudine, Maya finally heads out, leaving the house with a quiet click of the door behind her. She follows the signal on her watch and discovers that the korosu is much closer than she’d anticipated. The thought chokes the more logical part of Maya’s brain and she hopes that she can eliminate it before it comes any closer to this home. 

With a swift jog, careful of her almost healed ankle, Maya finds the korosu scaling the walls of an alleyway, no doubt to reach higher ground. She yanks at her pendant and quickly reveals her rapier. She’s just about to proceed forward when a call of her name stops her in her tracks and twisting her head to find the source of the voice.  

“Are you insane?!” Claudine yells at her in the middle of the street, panting as she approaches. 

“How did you find—” She shakes her head, will handle that line of questioning later on. “Claudine, please. Now is not the time!” 

“Why would you leave me?! I had to chase after y—” 

Yet before Claudine can finish her thought, the scaling korosu has since changed its trajectory and is headed towards them. Claudine blanches at the sight, and Maya jumps in front of her with her sword at the ready. 

She twists her head to look at Claudine who belatedly locks eyes with her. “Claudine, please stay here. I’ll take care of it. But promise me you will stay back.” 

Dumbly, Claudine only nods, and Maya considers that sufficient as she lunges towards the korosu to try and destroy it as quickly as possible. She’s able to slash through one of the gangly legs, which only makes the ugly monster screech. This one's a fighter, Maya realizes, and she knows that she’ll have to be quicker and more agile in her movements to avoid prolonging the fight with time nor energy she does not have. 

She exchanges blows with the korosu, the heels of her boot struggling to dig into the grass while she focuses on defeating the creature. 

Just as she’s about to cut through another leg from weaseling past the korosu’s attempt to overtake her, a hidden limb swipes at her and slams her against the concrete wall robbing Maya of air in her lungs. From the corner of her fuzzy vision, she finds Claudine fall on her back shuffling backwards as the korosu makes its way for her. Distantly, she hears a familiar panicked scream—reopening a scarred over wound inside of her. With unadulterated rage and panic, Maya pushes herself up from against the wall and rushes towards the monster, finally killing it by stabbing it from behind, the tip of her blade coming out the other side of the korosu’s mangled center. She stands as still as possible, chest heaving and body sore as ashes rain over them. Her blade stops just a few scant inches away from Claudine’s chest. 

Without another thought, Maya throws her rapier to the side and drops to Claudine’s side. “Please, are you hurt anywhere?! Did it touch you? Do you feel—” 

Claudine propels herself upward and wraps her arms around Maya, clutching at the fabric around her shoulders, muttering French expletives over Maya’s shoulder. Maya notes how she’s shivering and shaking in her grasp. She shuts her eyes tightly and fights the tears away before opening them again and reminding her that this is different. That they’re—

“Okay,” she murmurs, her own tired and shaking arms wrapping around Claudine and holding her steady. “It’s okay. You’re okay.” 

—

Claudine goes to take a shower first when they return back to her house, the filth of the korosu’s ashfall sickening her to her core. She scrubs away at her skin under the scalding water until they’re red and raw. It had been so close, its snarling face and rotting teeth ready to devour her if not for Maya. 

She hadn’t said her thanks, only remembering how deeply she clung onto the space woman who held her tightly. It’s the first time in recent memory she recalls the warmth of a hug, of arms purposefully granting her refuge, peace. Maya held her so expertly, her hands splayed open as her arms wrapped around Claudine’s middle, bracketing her in safety. She feels deep comfort just as she feels a pang of jealousy she can’t explain away. 

When she finally comes out of the bathroom, Maya is sitting on the couch, concentrating on her book. Maya stands when she sees Claudine. 

“How do you feel?” 

“Fine. Better.” 

Maya extends a hand out for her as an inviting gesture, but Claudine finds herself wanting to reach out and hold it in her own hand. She refrains, of course, and occupies the free seat beside her. 

“Why do you insist on placing yourself directly in front of danger?” Maya asks, her voice soft, edged with an undercurrent of irritation. 

She has no explanation for this compulsion to follow after Maya. To be by her side. 

“You just left,” she explains meekly, akin to a chastened young child. “What if you’d gotten hurt?” 

“And you?” Maya steps forward, the darkened violet irises more than Claudine had expected. “What if you had gotten hurt? What then?” 

She has no words once again, turning her head away slightly. It’s only when she hears Maya sigh that she returns her attention towards her. “I’m sorry. I just—I had heard you leave and I just thought—” you were leaving for good, she thinks, but does not say aloud. She shakes her head. “It doesn’t matter what I thought.” 

“What happened today cannot happen again, Claudine. You are imp—it is important that you understand this point.” 

“Why?” 

Maya narrows her eyes. “You are a civilian, Claudine. You are not suited for combat.” 

She surges forward, her words coming out of her mouth unbidden. “Then make me suited for combat.” 

“Claudine…” 

“Look, I know what I did was incredibly reckless earlier, but now that I know what you are and what those things are, you can’t expect me to stay put here and think that that’s it.” 

“That is precisely what I expect to happen!” 

“W-well, what if you’d been the one to get hurt? How can you complete your mission of defeating the korosu if you’re the one who’s hurt. It’s…you would be facing expulsion! You said it yourself!” 

Maya stops then, eyes Claudine tiredly before turning away, her hands on her waist. Claudine is set to say more, to make her case but is made silent when she catches the slump of Maya’s shoulders. 

“That is not your responsibility, Claudine,” she says finally, her voice soft and broken in ways that tears into Claudine’s heart. “You are under my care, therefore it is I who is responsible for you, and not the other way around."

She watches as Maya escapes towards the backyard leaving Claudine alone. With a deep exhale of her own, she sets to write a note on a piece of paper and tell Maya that she’s going to get food and she’ll be back. 

She then heads out with a quiet click of the door, not too different from the sound that she’d heard when Maya first left earlier. 

Quietly, she makes her way to the nearby grocery store and picks up a few items to make some simple dishes, some snacks that she thinks that Maya might like, distractedly going through the aisles as she recalls Maya’s last words to her, the tone of anger and hurt that seems to be interwoven with the words. 

Claudine barely recalls her return back to the house, or even paying at the register, but she makes it home in one piece with two bags of groceries. She pulls out the ready meals from one bag and places them on one side of the counter while she works to put the rest of the groceries away. Maya is still in the backyard, so Claudine cautiously walks to the door. At the creak of the screen door, Maya turns. 

“Lunch?” she asks. Maya simply nods, putting the rapier away and walking behind her. 

They don’t talk about their argument, eating quietly while lost in their own thoughts. 

—

Maya should have known better, the fire and spirit of this Claudine so apparent after she’d revealed herself as a time steward. It’s the first time she’s seen that in so long that it took her by surprise when she came face to face with it again. This was part of the danger and risks she put herself through to stay here longer than strictly necessary, but she didn’t think it would leave her reeling and breathless. 

Her memories flutter towards earlier in the day, when her heart had lodged itself in her throat at the thought of losing Claudine to a korosu, how she’d held the other woman in her arms tightly, afraid of letting go. 

She puts Odette back in pendant form and stares at the dried red patch of blood still on the gravel just a few feet away. How that night had felt like a lifetime ago, how her staying in this timeline is warping her own compass, all risked for one final indulgence that she has to do lest she loses herself altogether. 

The truth is that Maya should have dispatched all the korosu by now as Nana had originally instructed her to do. The declining percentage on her watch is proof enough of that, dropping significantly after just one slain beast. Yet the way red eyes pierce through her from across the backyard upon Claudine’s return, tentative in her movements as she asks Maya about lunch, as if they are not of different worlds and different timelines, reminds Maya of all of what she’s sacrificing by being here.

—

It’s night now, Maya more subdued as she sits in her claimed corner of the couch. Claudine stays put in her own room for much of the afternoon as she scrolls through her phone. It is not too different from her nights before Maya ever showed up, yet she is on edge knowing that Maya is here. Despite the tension that Claudine feels about their whole situation, she prefers it to the emptiness and numbness of the last few months of her life after her father’s passing, after the loss of direction in her life. 

She sits up in bed when she hears a knock on the door. 

“Yeah?” 

Maya’s head appears from behind the door and offers Claudine a courteous smile. “May I show you something?” 

Quietly, she nods and scrambles out of bed, following after her. She stops just a few feet away from the couch where Maya has sat, just in front of her journal. 

“Here, come see.” 

She closes the gap and sits on the couch. Maya then leans over and flips through her journal until she lands on a sketch of a longsword and hands the journal to Claudine. 

“This is the Étincelle de Fierte.” 

Claudine watches as Maya then stands back up and walks a safe distance away, retrieving an identical pendant from out of her breast pocket, save for the citrine stone instead of the silver metal. She places the pendant between her hands and in the same way that she revealed her rapier, the longsword sketched in the journal now appears in front of them. 

She can’t help but note the way Maya holds the longsword: reverently, and something else Claudine can’t quite place. 

“I recognize that I’ve put you in an impossible position. Your good and kind heart has led you to help me despite the danger of the work I do.” She’s ready to make a smart quip  about the good and kind heart that she definitely does not have, but one glance at Maya’s grave features has her biting her tongue. “If you’re going to follow me despite my insistence that you steer clear of the korosu , then you may as well equip yourself properly.” 

She nods in compliance, and it seems to be enough for Maya. 

“This is a loan. Tomorrow, we will train.” 

“Of course. I’ll take care of it.” 

Maya nods, hesitant in her movements, until she excuses herself to shower.  

Claudine holds the longsword in her hand, wielding it, testing its weight in her hand. She stands from her position on the couch and steps out to the backyard where she swings the sword around her. Unbidden, a memory spills forth of summertime in France. Her father and their matching pirate hats folded out of newspapers. Her hands tightly holding a painted wooden sword from her youth, no more than eight or nine years old. She can practically hear the thwack of wood hitting wood, the blunt blades locked against crossguards.

It was the last summer she saw him in France. 

She’s panting slightly and she stares at the sword almost as if being burned. She quickly presses the golden stone at the center of the pom and the longsword disappears, only leaving the citrine pendant in the center of her palm. She clasps the pendant around her neck, the way she’d seen Maya do with her own. 

She’s just about to return inside when her phone buzzes with an incoming call.

“I didn’t think you had it in you to answer,” Fumi says by way of greeting, her voice strong and assertive from the other end as always. 

“I can hang up and you can talk to my voicemail, if you’d prefer.” 

“Don’t be annoying. I’m here to invite you to a little get-together with some friends this weekend.” 

Just as she’s about to respond, she catches sight of Maya through the backdoor gently drying her long brown hair with a towel. 

“I-uh–sorry, Fumi. I just—maybe the next one.” 

“Yah! Always with the rejection.”  

She winces internally, knowing that she’s blown off her friend more than she’s seen her in the short time she’s arrived in Japan. 

“It won’t physically hurt you to say yes, you know? Weren’t you the one who told me you wanted to find yourself here?”  

“You can’t lord over my moment of weakness against me every time.” 

“I can and I will. The next one I invite you to, you have to say yes. Promise me.”  

“Yeah, I prom—” but her words die on her lips when her eyes fall on Maya’s figure through the open door frame just before she puts her shirt back on. She swallows the dryness in her throat, wanting a cigarette or two when she catches sight of the hard lines of her figure, even from this distance. She narrows her eyes when she finds a long scar across Maya’s back right above her back dimples, just as the shirt covers it out of sight. 

“Claudine? Claudine!”  

“Wha–hmm?” 

“What’s going on with you?”  

“I’m having an episode. I’ll call you back later.” 

She hangs up and quickly twists around to face the fence when she sees Maya approach the door. 

“Everything alright, Claudine?” 

She turns, pretends to have been busy doing literally anything else but ogle Maya’s figure. “Huh? Yup. Yeah. Everything’s fine.” 

—

The next morning, Maya is surprised to find Claudine pushing the backdoor open and stepping out, a cigarette between her fingers and the pendant around her neck. She catches sight of the local time, the corner of her lips twitching into a smile when she finds that it is not even seven o’clock in the morning. 

She follows Claudine into the backyard.  

“I did not expect you to be out here already.” 

“Perks of being jobless.” 

She assesses Claudine and her comment. “And why is that?” 

“The perks?” 

“Why are you jobless?” 

“Burned out. Wanted a vacation.” 

The dismissive tone that Claudine throws her way just as she walks to the center of the back lawn tells Maya that there is more to the story than that, but knows it does not serve any purpose to dwell on the matter. Still, the evasive nature of this Claudine feels far too close to home. 

She shakes her head and walks opposite of Claudine, her hand already on the pendant and unsheathing the rapier. 

“Your cigarette smoking habit has no use for today,” she says, matter-of-factly. Claudine purses her lips and makes a show of flicking the cigarette and squashing it, the sound of the gravel crunching noisily beneath her foot. 

“I’m ready, sensei.”

Maya rolls her eyes even as she adjusts herself into a fighting stance. “Let’s begin.” 

They train, and Maya explains the basics of sword fighting. Claudine picks it up easily, vaguely citing experience in her past about wielding a weapon. She quirks a brow, but there’s a smug smirk on Claudine’s face that Maya thinks is all too beautiful if not outright infuriating to stare at. 

At once, their weapons clang against each other, the blades hitting and sliding against each other. She’d initially gone easy on Claudine, but it seems that Claudine is a natural, and says as such. 

“Impressive, Claudine.” 

“What can I say, I’m just naturally gifted,” she offers with a playful sweep of her hair over her shoulders. 

Maya smiles, even as her heart drums in her chest. So achingly close. So achingly familiar. 

After a few hours, they stop to take a break to get an early lunch, the two of them walking towards a local udon shop. They even spare a few extra moments to detour to a dessert shop only a block away, as if it is a normal day and there are no korosu, no time stewards, no impending doom. They are just normal people without a care in the world save for the time they spend with each other. 

As they take bites of their respective taiyaki on their walk home, red bean for her and sweet potato for Claudine—a detail that is not lost on her (no detail is lost on her), Claudine catches her off guard. 

“Can I ask you something?” 

“Go ahead.” 

“How do you become a time steward? Is there a school for it?” 

The unexpected question takes her by surprise. “Well,” she starts, doing her best cobbling together the history of her homeland, of her own timeline. It has been years since she’d last thought of the roots of the crusade she has carried on her shoulder all this time. “I suppose the short answer is yes.” 

“And the long answer?” 

Maya offers her a small smile. “Many years ago, my timeline suffered a great war between two factions who sought out complete control of the entire land. Much of the fighting was gruesome and underhanded, using weapons without understanding the full extent of consequences.” 

“The korosu?” 

“Yes. There was some type of mutation that had happened and they quickly spread, wreaking havoc and chaos regardless of which side you were on. Korosu became such a threat that the two factions reached an accord to try and defeat them, but the damage had been done and they quickly spread through many timelines, infecting them in droves.” 

“So you went to school for it?” 

“Mm. Training academies were soon created and became places of high prestige. The top students in the academies were the ones who graduated to become time stewards.” 

“Were you always expected to be a time steward?” Claudine asks, her footsteps slowing. 

“Yes. As were my parents. The Tendou family was one of the founding members of the council for training academies.” 

“So you’re a big deal, then.” 

She blushes at that, deepening further when Claudine smirks at her. “I would not say that.” 

“It’s just us, you can tell me.” Claudine teases, her voice full of mirth. “I would have gotten the red carpet out had I known a descendant of the founding council was coming for a visit.” 

“You’re making fun of me,” she announces, the slightest hint of a pout on her lips just before taking another bite of her snack to hide it. 

“I very much am, yes,” Claudine says with a laugh. 

They fall into easy banter as Maya continues to regale Claudine of the stories of her school days in the training academy, of the expectations her parents have on her as a time steward, and of the weight of her family line. She can only imagine what they would think now, all of her choices actively contributing to the threat of expulsion. 

As they walk past a familiar place, Maya recognizes that they are not too far from the house. However, when she throws a glance towards Claudine, there is now a pensive look on her face. 

“Something on your mind?” she prods gently, her elbow tapping Claudine beside her. 

Claudine chews on her lip for a split second before glancing at her. “Can I ask who owns Étincelle?” 

Her heart trips over the question and she completely stills in her place.

“Sorry, that might be too personal. I was just curious, but you can forget it.” Claudine flashes her a genuinely apologetic smile before beginning to walk away. She rushes to catch up to Claudine and places her free hand on her forearm. 

“It is personal, but I don’t mind. Your question just took me by surprise.” 

“You don’t have to answer it, though.” 

“It belonged to my wife,” she responds, the words coming out foreign past her tongue. She almost smiles at the surprise that etches itself on Claudine’s face. Then, it seems, understanding. 

Maya drops her hand that was holding onto Claudine and turns, unsure of how to handle the softness now in Claudine’s eyes. This time, she’s the one who begins to walk away. 

“Tell me about her,” Claudine asks, sidling up next to her as they walk side by side back to the house. 

I don’t want to talk about her, is what she thinks. Yet her mouth forms around, “What would you like to know?” 

“Share anything.” 

Maya blinks, then she smiles, unable to help herself. “She was hard-headed. Stubborn.” 

“Was?” 

She nods and Claudine offers her the gentlest of smiles. “Sorry.” 

“Thank you.” A beat later, “Like I said, she was hard-headed and stubborn.”  

“I said tell me about her, not about you,” Claudine jokes, which earns her a glare from Maya with none of the bite she’d normally attach. “Go on, then.” 

“She was…Well, she–she was the most important person in my life.” 

Maya spends the next hour unlocking the rooms in her heart, tentative to let fresh air in. Her memories—a mausoleum, an archive—of all the things she never wants to forget. So, carefully unwrapping her memories and stories, Maya shares about her wife. 

How her wife was a time steward, just like her. Almost as good as Maya was, a comment that earns her a deep eye roll from Claudine beside her. 

How her wife drank a glass of wine every night and cared deeply for their friends and family, so very good at sending gifts and well wishes to others for their birthdays and anniversaries. 

How her wife was an excellent cook and baker, expressing herself through food—which worked out just fine for Maya considering how much she loved to eat, especially her wife’s cooking. 

How her wife was such a lovely singer and dancer, humming everywhere, singing softly beside Maya as they fell into sleep every night, limbs intertwined. 

How her wife pushed her to be the best, how Maya loved being by her side knowing that she was the only one who could ever keep up with her. 

How her wife was someone she had spent all of her life knowing, since they were five years old and they’d gone through school together, and risen through the ranks to be time stewards because their parents were good friends. How they’d initially fought their parents' assumptions that they would end up together, only to fall for each other in the end. Fated, Maya explains. 

How her wife was a fighter, to the very end. Even though she’d gone against Maya’s words and kept her illness to herself. 

“Why?” Claudine asks, eyeing her curiously. 

“Like I said: hard-headed. Stubborn. Thought she was right all the time. Reasoned that there was nothing else anybody could do.” 

“And was she right?” 

She hums as she carefully exhales. “I hate to admit it, but she was always right.” 

Maya slows her pace, lost in her thoughts, and Claudine graciously walks past her to give her some time to herself. 

They eventually reach the house and Claudine is just about to open the front door when she turns around and faces her. “She sounds like she was wonderful.” 

“She was.” 

Maya clears her throat as she begins to lock the memories of her wife back up. “What about you? Anybody special in your life?” 

“No. I never had the time for relationships.” 

“No suitors?” 

Claudine huffs, then shrugs. “Oh, I had plenty of those. But I never could give them what they wanted. I had this thing with this woman for a while; beautiful, sharp, most striking blue-green eyes I’d ever seen. But she ran circles around me and I knew I couldn’t really keep up, not like I was. I didn’t really want to, either.”

“Why not?” 

“I’d gotten tired of fooling myself.” 

Maya delays stepping foot inside the house, watching as Claudine walks further in. She understands all too well. 

—

They resume their training in her backyard, reinvigorated from their lunch. 

She’s aware that Maya is a formidable fighter, and has seen it from the times that she’s fought the korosu. Yet something about her standing just a few feet away with her own sword in hand, the tip pointing towards Claudine shows that Maya truly is of another world. The first time that Claudine thinks, perhaps, she’s actually in way over her head. 

Still, she does not give Maya the satisfaction, rising back up to her two feet and pulling the sword out until she raises it back up. The smirk on Maya’s face is one she wants to wipe off, and a spark of electricity runs through her body; an excitement, a purpose. 

They go again until the sun begins to set, the sky’s orange embers dwindling to the blue of night.

Claudine can admit that she’s physically spent, damning her nicotine addiction for her wheezing lungs as she rests her weight on one knee while she grips the longsword’s pommel, the blade stabbing through the dirt just in front of her. She is kneeling in defeat in front of Maya. 

This time, instead of a raised sword, Maya collapses the sword back to its pendant and offers Claudine her hand. One that Claudine hesitantly takes, reasoning that it’s her wounded pride that is making her do so, and not the jump of her heart in her throat at the softness that Maya presents her, such a fast change from the fighter just moments before. 

They clean up, Claudine urging Maya to go shower first, while she makes them a simple stew with some sliced fruits for after. When Maya returns, she is wearing another spare of Claudine’s shirts and shorts, her muscled limbs on display. It is a departure from how she’s seen Maya around her, wrapped in her jumpsuit or the worker’s jacket. Her cheeks flush, and she excuses herself to get cleaned up, ignoring the questioning glance Maya throws her way. 

When she returns, Maya has set the table for them, her journal sitting right in front of her, her bowl of stew to the side. There is a frown on her face as she glances between the journal and her watch. It feels like she’s interrupting, but as she tries to back away, her shoulder hits the door frame, signaling her arrival. Maya’s frown dissipates and turns into a smile when she looks up, closing her journal and putting it away. Claudine responds with a small one of her own, even as her heartbeat jumps at the sight. 

They sit in relative silence as they eat, though it isn’t bothersome the way silence has oppressed Claudine for months. 

“Are you really only on vacation?” Maya asks softly after wiping her face and placing her spoon down. 

“I…” she starts, before exhaling a tired sigh. Her knee-jerk reaction is that she had no obligation to Maya to share anything. Yet when she recalls their earlier conversation where Maya shared stories of her late wife and knew that this woman deserved more than a closed off host. “No. Just kind of not sure what to do with my life anymore,” she answers honestly, surprised at how easily she gave herself away. 

Maya does not say anything, her quiet demeanor an open invitation for Claudine to continue. 

“I wasn’t lying about being burned out, though.”

“Did you have a demanding job?” 

“Doesn’t feel all that demanding considering your job,” she mutters, and that earns her a smile from Maya. “I was in corporate law for a few years, exhausted with the grind.” 

“Did you always want to be a lawyer?” 

She scoffs. “God, no. I originally wanted to be like my dad. I wanted to be a stage actor just like him.” 

“What happened?” 

“My father was vehemently against it, actually.” 

“That’s—” 

She places a hand up with a knowing nod. “I know. He was a little bit of a hypocrite.” 

“Did he say why?” 

Claudine shrugs, her finger scratching at the side of her water glass. God she needs a stiff drink. “He said that he sacrificed too many of the wrong things to gain the fame and accolades he received, and that it wasn’t worth it.” 

Maya pushes forward and rests on her crossed forearms. “Do you agree?” 

She can’t say, doesn’t know how to answer that. Not when she’d lost her hopes and dreams of performing, lost so much time and energy from a job that practically ground her to dust, and lost a father all too soon. Instead, she says, “This is my father’s house, you know. This is where he stayed when he performed.” 

“At the Kishi Theater.” 

“Mm,” she says, nodding. “He died some years back. We’d fought about something so stupid, but—well, it doesn’t matter now.” 

“I’m sorry for your loss,” Maya offers, placing a gentle hand on Claudine’s forearm. 

“It’s fine.” 

“Is that why you are here in Japan? Because of your father?” 

She shrugs. “I don’t know. I thought it was. But I’m not sure how I got to this point. I don’t know what I’m supposed to be doing with my life or who I’m supposed to be. I’ve been sitting in this house alone for months and the first real house guest I have is a wayward alien who fights ugly monsters that binge on memories.” 

“I appreciate you letting me stay.”

She snorts at that, the corner of her eyes prickling with the threat of tears, Maya’s sweetness pervading her senses. 

“Regardless of whatever or whoever you choose to be, I have no doubt that you will be magnificent,” Maya offers when they begin to clear away their dishes. 

“Ugh, stop. That’s embarrassing.” 

“But it’s true.” 

“Sure, but I’m still embarrassed about it, so cut it out.” 

“I’m only telling the truth.” 

“Maya, seriously, stop talking,” she whines, though she can’t help falter slightly when she sees the amused grin on Maya’s face. 

“If nothing else, you can have an exemplary career as a caretaker and host of wayward aliens who fight ugly monsters that binge on memories.” 

“Oh my god, you’re insufferable. Just for this, you’re doing the dishes while I go watch t.v.” she says walking away from the dining table and towards the living space.

—

Yesterday had been more than Maya could have imagined, the two of them existing in a way that Maya never thought possible. It is, of course, temporary, ephemeral. For all intents and purposes, yesterday was time she squandered. Every ticking second a threat to the order of her entire world and existence. 

She reveled in it, wrapping her heart with all of it, knowing that it’s all she can have. One day where she felt normal, felt like she was back in her timeline, in her home with her wife, talking and laughing and eating desserts on their days off. 

The warmth that enveloped her while she spent time with this Claudine was as close to home as Maya had felt in ages. Even now, as she peers across the dining table while they finish up breakfast, Claudine scrolls through her mobile device while Maya works through her work in her journal. Affection blooms quietly inside of her when she notices the way Claudine types quickly with her thumbs, concentration focused on the screen in front of her. 

Regardless, Claudine is not a substitute for her late wife. This much she knows is true. Yet the twinge in her heart feels the exact same. 

Maya would have devoted a few more moments lost in thought until her watch signaled three korosu in the area. 

After scrambling to get dressed and prepare, the two of them got in Claudine’s car and drove quickly to the neighboring area. They park some distance away before rushing to hide by a corner of an office building as they assess the situation. Three korosu are scaling a nearby office building, two having made decent progress to reaching the top, with the third one just about ready to climb. 

Maya is secretly glad that Claudine is here, even as she squares up to fight all three on her own as best as she can. What she is doing is dangerous and reckless—bringing in a civilian—but with the predicament they have found themselves in, she’ll have to take her chances. 

“I need you to stay back and stay on guard, only fight if strictly necessary. Do you understand?” Maya implores, her face hardening as she attempts to pass along the gravity of the situation.

Quietly, Claudine just nods. 

“Use the sword only if you absolutely need to. I will take care of them one at a time. You watch my back.” 

“Got it. Be careful.” 

It’s Maya’s turn to nod before she turns on her heels and leads the charge towards the closest beast. Her heart hammers in her chest and she tightens her grip on Odette . A growl escapes her lips as she maneuvers herself just behind its hind legs and slices across. The korosu erupts in a harsh shriek that she winces from, but she continues, pushing up and jumping to dispatch the first one quickly. Getting them caught unawares helps, but she knows with the fall of this one, the other two have now been set for hostile revenge. 

The drop force of the second korosu from the side of the office building pushes Maya back and prone, her hand losing its grip on her rapier. She hurries and scrambles back on her feet, her eyes quickly scanning for her sword. She tumbles forward and grabs hold of it, spinning fully onto her back and then up on her feet. Yet the korosu was much closer than she’d anticipated, with very little space between them now. 

The ugly beast snarls at her and Maya finds herself on the backfoot, angled awkwardly when the korosu attempts to pounce on her. With nothing but her sword and courage up, she braces herself for impact. 

Yet the impact never comes, the korosu disintegrates in front of her to a torrent of ashfall, and Claudine with Étincelle held up high. 

Maya huffs out a sigh of relief just as Claudine stares at her with wide-eyed shock. The two of them not quite yet believing what Claudine had just done. 

“I just did that.” 

She can’t help the small smirk on her face. “You did. But let’s not celebrate prematurely, there’s still one remaining.” 

Just then, the third and final korosu snarls and growls ever louder, having dropped fully from the side of the building and in front of the two of them. They quickly turn away as it sprays them with inky black goop. 

“You didn’t tell me they inked you like a squid,” Claudine comments as she wipes her face with a grimace. 

“They ink you like a squid.” 

Claudine makes a face even as she falls into a fighting stance. “Your wife ever think you were funny?” 

She chuckles lightly, amused at how easily Claudine brings up her late wife like it’s not scoring Maya’s heart deeply with each word. She mirrors Claudine’s stance as they stare up at the creature in front of them. “Occasionally.”  

She thinks she hears a laugh coming from her left, but she can’t be too sure, not when they both lunge forward, Maya’s earlier rules of Claudine staying back somehow forgotten. Maya’s rapier meets easily against the korosu’s legs just as she jumps away in time from it swiping at her. She catches sight of Claudine in her periphery who seems to flail her way out of the beast’s grasp in time to cut off its arm. 

Maya thinks of established synchronicity and teamwork, but that is not what she gets here. What she gets is a Claudine who is afraid yet bracing herself. Who runs headfirst to danger with a hardy spirit and terrible form, shouting all the while.

She rushes forward, aiming straight for the center, and strikes cleanly as Odette pierces through. Then, ashes fall around them.

With less finesse than what she has grown accustomed to, they dispatch the final beast, working together in a manner that unravels Maya, thread by thread—her senses alight with the presence of another after years of dispatching alone. 

Maya takes a knee just as she rests part of her weight on her sword. She shuts her eyes, struggling to catch her breath. She drops a free hand down to the ground to keep her steady. 

“Maya!” 

Suddenly, hands grip her tightly on her biceps. It’s only then that she brings her head up and opens her eyes, greeted with Claudine’s blonde hair caked with ash and ink. She is a mess. She is beautiful. 

“Are you okay?!” 

She swallows and nods, does her best to keep her weight off of Claudine as she carefully pushes herself up to her feet. She wobbles a little and falls back on her knee. “Yes. Just got a little winded from my run. Nothing to fret over.” 

“Liar,” Claudine comments. “Come on, we should probably leave. We look terrible.” 

“I think you look cute,” she confesses, the words tumbling from her mouth without a drop of grace. 

“Oh, shut up.” Yet Claudine brings Maya’s arm around her shoulder so she can help Maya up properly. When Maya glances to her side, she could swear Claudine’s cheek has bloomed pink. 

Something deep inside seems to lock up as a result, just as something else clicks into place. 

—

Claudine takes an extremely long shower when they get home, letting the water wash away all of the dirt and grime from her skin and hair. The hot water sprays against her muscles, the first time she’d exerted any physical demands of her body. 

The afternoon was a bit of a blur to her. She remembers gripping the sword in her hand, the metal warming quickly under the heat of her palm. She watched Maya rush with precision at the first korosu and dispatched it with ease that Claudine knows comes from years of training and practice. 

Yet when she’d seen Maya fall on her back when the second korosu dropped down, her adrenaline kicked as her fears of losing Maya became a great possibility. She yelled for Maya, yet she’d also ran forward knowing that if she didn’t act, Maya would get seriously hurt. Without thinking, she sped towards the creature and slid under just in time to push up from her haunches and strike dead center of the ugly beast. Relief coursed through her when she saw Maya's shocked face when the korosu erupted into ash right around them. 

That’s not normal, she thinks. She shouldn’t feel such relief wash over her due to a stranger. Yet seeing Maya unharmed was the only outcome that Claudine would accept. 

She eventually gets out of the shower and dries her hair. She catches a glimpse of herself in the mirror. She remained relatively unscathed save for some minor cuts and bruises on her body. Claudine can’t help the pride that passes through her when she inspects herself. It’s a silly thought to entertain the idea of being a time steward, but what if this is the kind of change she needs to breathe new air into her stagnating life?

She thoughtlessly brushes her teeth and wonders about the possibility of it all, falling into an easy daydream of what her life could be if it didn’t have to be here. If she could leave the rut that she’s found herself in all these months—all these years, if she’s being honest. 

She spits out the last of her toothpaste and stares at her mirror. It’s a crazy thought, probably even impossible, but what if this is the sign that she’s been looking for? 

—

After a long and harrowing day they’ve had, Maya wants nothing more than to get some rest so she can replenish her energy. Yet, sleep does not come. 

The events of the day run mercilessly through her mind, along with the rollercoaster of emotions that went along with it. She sits in the conflict of her mind, her duty as a time steward in direct opposition with Claudine’s participation in dispatching korosu. 

But the bigger conflict that tugs at her cruelly and takes centerstage of her focus is how much she sees echoes of her late wife in this Claudine. Their appearance, their fight, their competence, their familiarity. 

Yet the Claudine in the next room is more unmoored, more reckless, more carefree. Maya does not know of a Claudine in this way. It is exhilarating as it is frightening. 

Her stomach turns and twists in knots when Maya finally recognizes what she is feeling. She groans and turns to her side, attempting to quell her dinner’s desire to come back up. She should have expected this, in her calculations, in the risks she was taking. She should have accounted for how her heart easily surrenders to Claudine. After all, this is not the first time. 

Regardless of her newly realized feelings, a frown etches on her face, and she brings up her wrist to study the numbers on them. The fact of the matter is that nothing here is permanent, that she herself is not permanent. More urgently, there are three remaining korosu in the area that still need to be dealt with. Doable, if not for the dwindling percentage on her watch that flashes in green. 

She covers the face of her wrist and shuts her eyes, willing for sleep to come. 

Just before she fully drops into unconsciousness, her wrist buzzes against her skin and she’s prompted to an incoming call. She sits up and pries her journal open until a faint light appears when the flickering image of Nana comes into view. 

“How are you reaching me?” she quickly asks, trying to determine how much closer the korosu are for them to connect this call. “Is—”

“At ease, Maya. Karen is holding us above your head, but we can’t stay for long.” 

“It’s a drive-by visit,” Karen supplies. 

“What has happened?” 

Nana takes a second to respond, her hands clasping together in front of her. “The Kirin case has worsened.” 

“How so?” 

“He’s declaring war.” 

“How can he do this?” 

“Old faction rebels took up his cause which bolstered his numbers. He plans to go to war. The ambush was meant to scatter dispatch teams. According to reports from the lanes, he plans to target training academies soon. So we need to return to our timeline immediately. You know as well as I do that your attendance is paramount.” 

She grabs her knees, her hold tightening as she thinks about what is now at stake. 

“I know that you need to take care of business, and I have done my best to give you the time and space to do so. But we cannot delay this solo mission of yours any further. Retrieval is necessary.” 

“How much longer do I have?” How much longer can you give me?  

“No more than thirty local hours. You need to dispatch all remaining korosu before retrieval. That’s an order.” 

Maya only blinks, even as her features harden, letting Nana’s orders sink in. “I understand.” 

“Maya, wait.” This time, it’s Koharu’s face appearing in front of her. “I know you’re due for retrieval soon, but your watch readings indicate that you’re just above redline. It’s imperative that you conserve as much of your energy as possible until you reach us.” 

Solemnly, she nods. “I understand. Thank you.” 

They quickly bid each other goodbye and soon the call cuts off where she falls back into darkness. She takes a few deep breaths, the news of her impending retrieval and all that comes filling her mind. 

She glances at the closed bedroom door and thinks about the woman in the other room. She carefully lays back down and shuts her eyes, willing herself to sleep. She disregards the handful of tears that escape from the corners of her eyes and drop into the wells of her ears knowing that her time has officially run out.

Chapter Text

—

When Claudine opens her eyes, she is in the center row looking up at the stage. She sees her father standing in the middle, one hand raised while the other clutches at his chest. He is singing her a lullaby she remembers from her youth, his voice coming in tinny and crackling from the static. 

Applause fills her ears and she tries to stand from her seat when the rest of the audience rise to their feet to celebrate her father.  

She waves at him, but he does not see her. He only waves back to his adoring fans just as she gets pushed back and back and back until she is by the exit doors. Her father is far away, untouchable, unreachable. 

Maya joins her father on center stage, the two of them waving towards all the adoring fans around them, Claudine hardly able to see them. 

“Papa! Maya!” she calls, her voice going hoarse from futile screams. She clambers forward into the throngs of audience members, but she is only a child. Tears fall down her face as she pushes the people out of the way. She eventually makes it to the stage, rising to her feet and dusting herself off. 

Yet just as she is just about to reach for them, they are standing on platforms that are ascending up to the rafters. 

She reaches out, rushing towards them, yet she is held down by korosu, their limbs clinging onto her feet. 

“Maya!” she calls out, desperation in her voice. “Papa! Please! Don’t leave me!” 

They do not hear her, and they ascend out of sight, out of her life. She is left alone.  Devoured by the korosu. 

She gasps awake into a panicked state clutching at her own chest trying to pull the shirt away from her body, sticky from sweat and adrenaline. Her foggy mind takes a second to re-orient herself that she is not anywhere she does not know. She is in the bedroom of her father’s house. 

She takes large gulping breaths to steady her shallow breathing. She scans the room and finds nothing amiss, only her altered state of her mind. She closes her eyes to try and focus her thoughts to something beyond the damning images of korosu after her. She attempts to recall her dream prior to the nasty creatures attacking her, yet the images are faint, blurred out of recollection. 

Dropping back down to bed, her eyes stare up at the ceiling of her bedroom. She wants to remember the details of her dream. Yet as the seconds tick by, her grasp on the remnants of it falters until all that’s left is the desperate restlessness that washes over her, lingering under her skin, settling in her bones. 

She grabs for the necklace around her neck, fisting the pendant and stone in her hand. Sleep is hard to come by the rest of the night. 

—

A korosu appears just before breakfast the next day. Maya’s watch buzzes and signals its location nearby. She’s about to tell Claudine that she ought to stay when—

“Come on,” Claudine says, already standing by the door with her worker’s jacket shrugged on and the pendant wrapped around her neck. 

In that instance, Maya sees her late wife. She blinks again and Claudine comes back into view. 

“Alright, but you take my lead.” 

“You got it, sensei.” 

When they arrive at the location, the ugly beast is crossing the short parking lot of a grocery store and clumsily hoisting itself up by the side of the building. It is smaller than the other ones that she has dealt with so far, but she also knows that smaller ones can be much more dangerous. So she proceeds with caution, Odette already gripped in one hand and the other held protectively out in front of Claudine. 

They both stealthily approach the back of the korosu by the dumpsters. She quietly points for Claudine to stand in her spot, reminding her to only act on her mark. Claudine nods, the longsword held out with both hands. It’s endearing in a way, but Maya tables those thoughts for later. 

She takes a deep breath and runs up to catch the creature by cleanly cutting through its hind legs. The roaring screech is deafening and she grimaces as she attempts to maintain control of her faculties. The volume disorients her slightly and she whips her head to make sure that Claudine is still alright. The korosu plummets to the hard concrete, disgusting limbs flailing to try and topple them down. 

Maya jumps back in time and pushes for an attack, her rapier slicing through one limb, resulting in another deafening screech as the korosu flails, attempting to get off its back. She wants to pounce from her advantage, but she doesn’t have the angle to cut through the korosu fully. So her eyes land on Claudine who has mostly been watching on the sidelines. 

“Aim for the center just below its head!” 

Claudine runs with the sword in hand, her trajectory perfect for eliminating the korosu immediately, until, of course, trouble strikes. 

The korosu spins on its back, so its one remaining good limb collides with Claudine, slicing through her worker’s jacket, the force of the blow pushing her back a few meters. Maya screams in a panic, her senses and her fight and flight responses fully activated as she works to stab through the ugly creature. The korosu spins again on its back and is about to body slam Maya off her feet until the tip of her rapier reaches the center of its body. The body explodes into ash and she ducks under her arm just as she runs towards Claudine. 

“Claudine!” 

She kneels right beside Claudine who has fallen face down, her eyes shut and her body unmoving. Terror grips Maya, and she is careful to try and turn the other woman over. Claudine groans and hisses and tries to get up, but Maya holds her steady. 

“Don’t rush it. Lay down for now.” 

“I almost had him,” Claudine comments, her voice croaking. 

She laughs wetly. “I saw.” 

Gently, she helps Claudine sit up, the weapons laying abandoned beside them. “Good job, Maya.” 

“You as well.” 

Claudine then laughs, her head tilting up as her eyes look up at the sky. “You are a terrible liar, Tendou Maya. Come on, let’s go home so I can nurse my ego.”  

Just then, Claudine’s stomach grumbles and the two of them stare down at her stomach. No one is more surprised than Maya when her gaze drops down to their hands tangled together, their fingers interlaced in Claudine’s lap. 

She clears her throat and deliberately wraps her other arm around Claudine. “Come on, let’s get you up.” 

They do not comment on it on their walk back, and Maya sighs in relief. 

—

The rest of the morning after the korosu is quiet, the two of them lost in their thoughts. Claudine is more than fine with that, unsure how to contend with the events of the morning. Her ego is bruised the way her ass is bruised from having been caught by the ugly beast. Those are acceptable things to reflect on, yet the only thing that runs through her thoughts is the tenderness that Maya displayed when she assessed Claudine’s health. Or, more frankly, the fact that they were holding hands and not even realizing it—a gravitational pull to each other that she can’t deny herself, even if she tried.  

She remembers the hug from the other day, but she can chalk that up to fear and adrenaline. This one, she can’t fully explain away. 

It is insanity to even attempt to untangle the increasingly complicated feelings she has for this woman, more complicated than spontaneously leaving her entire life in France for her supposed self-discovery in Japan. 

Now that she knows who Maya is, she cannot unknow her. She cannot fathom a life without this peculiar woman. It is a strange and scary thought, and she does not know what this means for her. If her counting is right, then there are only a couple of beasts left to get rid of. Which means that Maya’s mission is coming to an end. Which means that Claudine doesn’t have much time left. 

“You don’t have to wait on me,” Claudine comments when Maya places a tray of food on the coffee table in front of her spot on the couch. 

“On the contrary. You are my responsibility,” she states, matter-of-factly. Claudine does not fight Maya on this, allowing the woman to exit out of the room when she tells Claudine that the tea is almost ready. 

She stares at the tray just as she looks over her shoulder to watch Maya navigate her kitchen with relative ease. She settles into the couch cushions, leaning back and staring at her faint reflection on the television. Claudine idly wonders what life would be like if Maya wasn’t some random alien and was just a woman she met in Japan. Would Claudine like her at all? Would they get along? Would she open parts of herself up and share so willingly? 

When Maya returns with two mugs of tea, Claudine accepts hers carefully. The two of them eat a late breakfast as she tries to nurse herself back to health. 

Unbidden, she points to a corner of her television console and points to one of the DVDs. “Put on that disc from the very end.” 

Maya follows quietly, squatting in front of the console and taking the sleeve to show Claudine. It has her father’s face on the front. 

“Yeah. Let’s watch it while we eat.” Her heart rate spikes, her hands suddenly clamming up when she hears the opening whir of the DVD player. Orchestral music swells in the background as the video plays and she sees her father alive and larger than life on the screen. 

—

In any other instance, Maya would have focused on resting in the morning and training in the afternoon. Yet with Claudine tucked comfortably on the couch and the two of them blazing through her father’s performance DVDs, she cannot imagine a better last day spent in this timeline. 

Claudine had been slow in sharing information about her father and about her knowledge of theater when she initially put the first DVD in the player. Yet as they reached intermission with the second DVD, all of Claudine’s knowledge and stories started pouring forth. Maya is more than happy to listen as Claudine dispenses tidbits and stories of her own experience and of her father’s. Maya recognizes that Claudine’s passion runs deep, and she sits back as Claudine’s genuine excitement wraps the both of them up in front of the television. 

The day remains korosu free and Maya can’t determine if that’s a blessing or not. Instead, it had been filled with a marathon of shows and commentary as they watched side by side on the couch. Even when Claudine checked in about any nearby korosu, she only shook her head. 

Later, when they wrap up their impromptu watching party marathon, Maya helps Claudine to her room. She gingerly places a hand on Claudine’s waist just as she puts her arm out for Claudine to lean on. She decides not to think too hard about how their fingers are in a strange hold—not quite entangled as before, yet still fitting together. 

“I’m fine, Maya. It was just a scratch.” 

“I understand, but I just want to be sure.” 

“If you need to know the culprit for why I’m so sluggish, then I’m here to tell you that it’s the half dozen mochi I ate an hour ago.” 

She laughs, despite herself, even as they reach the side of Claudine’s bed. 

“Rest well, Claudine. Tomorrow is a new day.” 

She releases Claudine and takes a step back as Claudine settles herself in bed. Maya is just about to cross the threshold when she hears—

“Goodnight, Maya.” 

She glances over her shoulder and offers Claudine a small smile and faint nod before walking out fully and shutting the door behind her. 

She leans against the wooden slab and shuts her eyes, her heart heavy knowing without looking at her watch that she only has but hours left.  

—

Claudine’s instincts have yet to steer her wrong ever since she met Maya. So it feels especially troublesome this morning when she wakes up with her heart caught in her throat, her breath shallow, her skin already with a sheen of sweat, and her thoughts and emotions a jumbled, frazzled mess. 

When she walks out of her room, good as new, she finds Maya already shrugging on her jumper. 

“Hey, are you—is there a korosu nearby already?” 

“No, not yet. I am just getting ready for the day.” 

Claudine walks tentatively closer, yet she stands by the back of an armchair, her hands gripping the tops of it. “Listen, Maya, I think something’s off.” 

Maya stiffens, her hands fiddling with something in her pocket stills. She then catches Claudine’s eyes and stares for a long moment. 

“Explain.” 

Slowly, she starts despite being unsure of how to make sense of the uneasy feeling that has washed over her. She does her best to explain, though. Maya listens intently, her face with an unreadable expression. 

“Perhaps these are remnants from yesterday. You were hit quite solidly by the monster.” 

“No, I know that, but Maya—this is something else. This feels different.” 

Maya then walks over to her and they stand toe to toe. 

“If you’re not up to the task, I will understand. You’ve done more than enough to help me in my work.” 

She shakes her head, Maya’s words alarmingly grating to her already agitated nerves. “I’m not gonna leave you behind! I’m just saying, my gut is telling me that something’s not right.” 

Maya then brings her arms up and places her hands on her biceps. “Whatever it is, we will work through it together.” 

It’s of little consolation, Maya’s words, but she nods anyway, trusting and keeping her faith in the woman in front of her. “Okay, yeah.” 

“Good.” Maya releases her hold of her arms. 

“But if something does come up, you can’t get mad if I say ‘I told you so’.” 

Maya’s amused laughter, small as it may be, still manages to fill Claudine’s heart. “I will bear full responsibility. Now, would you like to go out to that cafe we passed by yesterday for some breakfast?” 

Reshifting her focus from her nerves to Maya, she quirks a brow. “You’re awfully confident inviting me out considering you don’t have any money.” 

“Ah. I will forever be in your debt, Claudine.” 

With an affectionate eye roll, she walks back to her room to quickly get changed before setting their destination towards the newly opened French bakery within walking distance of Claudine’s house. Once there, they order a small spread of breakfast pastries, a couple of croissants and viennoises, and two cups of coffee before occupying one of the tables right on the sidewalk. 

As she takes a sip of her coffee, she catches Maya taking healthy bites out of their baked goods as she gazes at the people passing them by. Claudine sits back in her seat, her mind idly drifting to daydreams of spending mornings just like this with each other, with or without the threat of these time termites. Prior to meeting Maya, her life had been rudderless, and she’s both exalted and frightened by how easily her life had turned upside down from Maya’s appearance. To know that there are parallel universes out there to explore, that there is so much more out there than she could possibly have dreamed. 

“Are you alright?” Maya asks, interrupting Claudine’s thoughts. 

“Mm. Just thinking. I do that sometimes.” 

Maya’s expression is revealingly fond, and Claudine has to dip her head down, picking up her coffee as a means of distraction. “Care to share your thoughts? Since you think sometimes, it feels like a special occasion worth celebrating.” 

Her jaw drops in outrage, and she has half a mind to abandon her pastry just to throw it at the woman in front of her. Instead she just shakes her head. “Well now I don’t feel like telling you.” 

At that, Maya seems to sober, leaning forward, and even going so far as to reach out and place a tentative hand outstretched just centimeters away from Claudine’s own. “No, please. I would like to know.” 

She huffs through her nose, but adjusts herself in her seat, buying herself some time to come up with something without revealing too much of her own feelings. “I was just thinking this is nice. Eating out here.” 

With you, she wants to add. But by the way Maya knowingly looks at her, there doesn’t seem to be any need to do so. 

“I agree. It is nice, indeed.” 

—

Maya watches across the table at Claudine, glimpses of her late wife peeking through. Yet as she listens to Claudine talk about nothing in particular, making idle comments here and there just as she takes drags from her cigarette, Maya’s attention is purely captivated by this Claudine. How her body sits looser on the chair, not so rigid as her late wife had been trained to do. How she laughs more openly, a quip about something here and there or about herself always on the tip of her tongue—each one tugging an easy smile on Maya’s lips. How she wears her heart on her sleeve, something her late wife rarely did, the hardness and difficulties of the war changing and marking her irreparably. 

How this Claudine is not her late wife at all, yet Maya likes her all the same. 

—

A companionable silence blankets over them as they finish their breakfast, relishing in the niceness of their time together, not worrying too much about anything else. 

Unfortunately, the serenity of their shared time together doesn’t last long, not when Maya’s watch chirps the signal for korosu in the area. Claudine sits rigid in her spot, a spike of adrenaline and fear coursing through her. She meets Maya’s eyes, and nods, the pair of them abandoning their food and rushing towards where the watch is directing them.  

They reach a senior retirement home, and she gasps when she finds two oversized korosu, larger than any she’s encountered so far. She scowls at them, anger flaring at the thought of these innocent elderly folks being victims of their memories being taken away from them. 

She swears under her breath, surprised at their sizes. She didn’t anticipate them to be so big, and though healthy doses of fear course through her veins, she does not buckle. 

“Why are they so big?” 

“They have been feasting.” 

Maya activates her rapier from her necklace. Claudine follows Maya’s lead and yanks the pendant from around her neck. This time, it activates much smoother in her hands, the sword a welcomed weight in her hands. 

“Ready?” Maya asks, glancing over at her. 

“If you are.” 

“Follow my lead. We’ll attack the one closest to us first. Just watch your back with the other one.” 

They surge forward with their blades to cut through the limbs of the clawed beast in front of them, destabilizing it by slicing through its legs to slow it down, even as they take turns fending off the larger beast behind it. 

They somehow, miraculously, make quick work of the first korosu, Claudine emboldened by their teamwork to bring it down by weaving back and forth until Maya catapults herself from a nearby ledge to stab through the korosu’s center, killing it in one fell swoop. 

Angered, the remaining korosu that had eaten away at so many memories frantically thrashes, its many limbs getting in the way, and they have to retreat so as not to get caught. Panting, she takes some steadying breaths before checking on Maya who is looking much more haggard than Claudine remembers seeing her just before the fight. 

“Maya! Are you alright?” she asks, rushing towards the woman, but Maya only pushes her away before swinging her rapier to slice through the korosu’s limbs attempting to ensnare Claudine. 

It’s a particularly nasty shove that has Claudine falling on her ass, and she knows she’ll definitely feel that pain tomorrow—even more than the one she had yesterday. But she’s glad for Maya saving her, raising her hand just as Maya reaches down to help her up. 

“Apologies for pushing you,” Maya huffs out. 

“I’ll manage. Now come on, let’s try to settle this.” 

They return to a fighting stance beside one another before the pair surge forward once again, hoping to divide and conquer, splitting the korosu’s attention. Maya swings her sword first, with Claudine following after, and they progress through handicapping the beast, but Claudine sees Maya stumble, falling on one knee as she leans for support on her sword. 

“Maya!” 

One of the korosu’s clawed legs catches Maya’s ankle and she falls flat on her back, which activates something feral inside of Claudine, seeing only red as she swings her longsword, cutting through a section of the korosu until she gets close to Maya. 

“Are you hurt?” she asks, checking on Maya. 

“Just winded. Please focus, he’s weak.”

Claudine’s muscles ache and her lungs are angry with her, but she won’t give up, not when Maya is struggling. 

“Stay still, Maya. Just tell me what to do.” 

“Pierce the heart, he’s hiding it with his claw, but if you can get to it, you can dispatch him for good.” 

Adjusting her hold on the sword, Claudine takes a steadying breath and does her best to bait the korosu away from Maya, all the while trying to find a way to pierce the heart, glowing a putrid yellow color. 

She’s about to attack, but the korosu suddenly shifts back to where Maya is, and Claudine’s head snaps in that direction and finds Maya trying to distract the beast. “Now, Claudine!” 

Without second-guessing herself, she rushes towards the exposed heart and brings Étincelle up before stabbing through the heart, a noxious odor releasing into the air just as she hears the squelching of the metal cutting through the flesh. 

She pulls her sword back, stumbling as she does so, and quickly crawls back when the korosu starts to thrash and deflate before disintegrating into large flakes of ash.

Claudine gasps for lungfuls of fresh air in her system. But her rest is short-lived when she runs towards Maya who has fallen on all fours, barely holding herself up. 

“Whoa, hey, hey. I’m here, it’s okay,” she starts to say, pulling Maya up into her arms even as she tries to look for any blatant injuries. “What’s going on? Did you get hurt?” 

Maya only shakes her head. “No. I’m not hurt.” 

“So why are you like this?” she asks, afraid at how weak Maya suddenly looks. 

With a slight grin, Maya pants out a response. “It seems I have overstayed my welcome.” 

“What? What does that mean?” 

Slowly, Maya brings her arm up for Claudine to look at the watch, the broken screen showing a disjointed 0 on display. 

“It’s zero.” 

Maya taps the screen and for the first time, Claudine watches the zero digit transform to show a percentage flashing in red. 

“Ten percent? Maya?” she asks, looking at Maya who is now forlornly looking up at her. “What’s going on?” 

“That is how much time I have left here.” 

“What?” 

She watches as Maya’s throat bobs. “My body is not equipped to stay in any one timeline for an extended period of time. The mission is always to quickly dispatch the korosu and leave. Usually hours, but no more than a couple of days.” 

Claudine quickly does the math in her head, her anxiety from before overcrowding her thoughts. Scrunching her face in confusion, she asks, “Why did you do that?’ 

Maya lets out a wry laugh, and doesn’t quite meet her gaze. “I was selfish; greedy.” 

“Maya…” 

“I had a Claudine in my timeline. She and I…we—you’re just like her.” 

She gasps out, even as things click into place. Devastation overtakes Claudine’s heart, not sure how to begin to process this information. She looks away, roughly wiping at a stray tear that treacherously falls down her face. As she does so, she catches sight of her longsword. 

“She was your late wife?” 

Maya sighs, and pulls herself up as much as she can, even as her body remains limp in Claudine’s arms. “I’ve met many other Claudines in many other timelines, but none came close as you. You were never meant to see me. Protocol dictates that I erase your memory when you see me, but I simply couldn’t do it.” 

“Why not?” 

“Because you looked at me the same way she looked at me. It was like stepping back into the past. And I couldn’t…I simply couldn’t help myself.” 

She frowns, but can’t cut away from the way Maya is looking at her: in pain, in love. 

“When you look at me, do you see her?” 

Maya, despite her deteriorating health, sheepishly smiles. “I did. But you are different from her. You are your own person. There were similarities, but as we got to know each other, the differences became more and more apparent. For one, you are a terrible cook.” 

“Hey!” 

“For another,” Maya continues. “You have a much more biting tongue than she ever did, like a curmudgeon of sorts.” 

“You’re like a wilted vegetable in my arms right now and you still have the audacity to say these things so candidly? Are you trying to insult me?”

Maya lifts her hand and cups Claudine’s cheek. 

“You are daring in different ways, taking risks with a strange person claiming that she is not from this world. You are also more open than she was. She’d held her cards close to her chest, and let very few people in. Even until the end, she kept things to herself for the sake of being strong. But your strength lies in your vulnerability.” 

“Maya…”

“You are more carefree than she was, and the laughter in your eyes is one I wish I saw more of. Our duties and our responsibilities always colored the way our relationship progressed.” 

Openly crying now, Claudine sniffled. “What happened to her?” 

“She got sick, though we never learned the cause. She only got sicker. One evening, she went to sleep and never woke again.” 

“Oh, Maya.” Claudine has tears in her eyes now, and it’s not until she catches sight of the blinking red that she focuses on their situation at hand. “E-Explain what the percent means.” 

“If the percent reaches zero, it means expulsion.”

Claudine gasps. “But you won’t die if that happens, right? You said!” 

“I will not die, no. But if it happens, then upon my revival, random portions of my memory will be lost.” 

As she tries to process all of this information, she scrunches her face in confusion. “What about me? My memories?” 

Her heart sinks in realization when Maya only gives her a solemn smile. “It is in your best interest to forget everything about me.” 

“Maya, what the hell!” 

“I’m sorry, Claudine. I didn’t mean to cause you so much distress, but this is what has to be done.” 

“Why? How come you get to keep me but I don’t get to keep you?” 

Maya clears her throat, her body slumping further in Claudine’s arms. “Because you are of this timeline and this timeline alone. You were never supposed to know about anything, including me. I’m sorry for my selfishness and greed.” 

“So take me with you! You can kill these giant termites and make swords appear out of necklaces, but you can’t take me with you?!” 

“Claudine, I’m sorry.” 

Sharp stabbing rage flares inside of her and though she’s already holding onto Maya, she wants to squeeze her frustration and anger on her. “So that’s it? That's all that I get? An apology and memory loss? How do I even account for the last week?” 

“You’ll remember everything else that’s meant to be in your life, you simply won’t remember me.” Maya’s matter-of-fact delivery angers her, but feeling conflicted about holding Maya tightly or dropping her on the ground. 

“Do you hear how insane you sound? I should've just hit you with that rake and called the authorities.” 

“Claudine,” Maya says, and it hurts Claudine's heart to hear the tone of Maya’s voice calling for her. “It is wholly unfair to do this to you, and I will always be sorry for pulling you into my orbit. But I will always carry you with me.”

“So that's it?” 

“I'm afraid so.” 

“You never should have done this. I would have been better off never knowing you in the first place.” 

“I know.” 

“You're a rotten piece of work, you know that?”

“Yes.” 

She wants so badly to scream to lash out, yet as she holds Maya in her arms, all she has is sorrow. “Did you also know that I love you? What the hell am I supposed to do with that?” 

Maya does her level best to push herself up so that they are eye to eye. “I did. I do. You and I, Claudine, we are the same.” 

She yanks Maya by her collar. “So why can’t you let me have this?!” 

“This part is not up to me. I'm a time steward. And a time steward is responsible for containing certain forces from meddling with time.”

Claudine scoffs, remembering the explanation Maya shared with her when they first met mere days ago, yet feeling like an entire lifetime ago. She leans back from Maya as her head tilts skyward. She cards a hand through her hair before covering her face with it. She wants to scream, she wants to cry, but instead nothing comes out. 

Maya reaches for her, hands prying Claudine’s fingers away from her face until their hands are intertwined. 

“Claudine, you have made me happier than you could ever know. And I will always carry the regret of taking away your memories of our time together. But I will do my best to take care of you in the ways I know how to do. Can you trust me?” 

She wants to say no, wants to deck Maya in the face for ruining her like this. Maybe her mother was right, maybe she should’ve stayed in France if this is what her life would amount to. To be so besotted with some otherworldly person leaving her in heartache. Yet despite everything she believes Maya, as she had done from the start, trusting her to do right by her. 

“Wait-wait—will I see you again?” 

“That’s not up to me. But you will always have a part of me. I swear it. Can that be enough?” 

She sniffles, her mind trying to catch up to their inevitable parting. 

“Only because you owe me.” 

Maya attempts to pull back and out of her arms, but Claudine can’t have that. She can’t not know how Maya tastes pressed up against her at least once, even if she’s meant to forget everything. 

She leans forward but stops just before their lips touch, wanting Maya to close the gap between them. The feel of Maya’s lips is everything she had imagined it to be, had hoped it to be. A kiss that lasts seconds, but spans lifetimes. 

When they break apart, she rests her forehead against Maya’s, and fails to stop the tears from tracking down her cheeks. She wants to say something, but it’s Maya who interrupts their quiet moment. 

“You taste like cigarettes.” 

She pulls back, laughter erupting from deep within, mixed with her tears. “You’re about to fuck my life up and you’re telling me I taste like cigarettes.” 

“Something to consider.” 

She rolls her eyes, despite everything. “Fine. Maybe I’ll quit.” 

“Only if you want.” 

When she wipes away her tears, she’s both relieved and distraught to find Maya’s face is now also streaked with her own tears. “I’ll do it.” 

Maya brings a hand up and cradles Claudine’s face again. She turns her head and nuzzles into it just as Maya’s thumb wipes away the wetness of her cheek. “Don’t cry.” 

“You first.” 

Maya draws Claudine’s face close and Claudine lets herself be pulled, their lips pressing against one another. Then, Maya places a reverent kiss on her nose, her cheeks, before she places a final one on her forehead, all the while, Claudine watches her do so, not wanting to miss any of their time together. 

“Thank you for everything, Claudine. It means more to me than words can ever say.” 

Maya draws back, though they’re still entwined with one another. The solemn smile on Maya’s face returns, and Claudine’s heart goes berserk, thumping wildly that she doesn’t notice how hard she’s gripping Maya’s jumper. 

“Close your eyes for me.” 

Claudine shakes her head, the word ‘no’ on the tip of her tongue, but the pleading look on Maya’s face is enough for her to acquiesce, clutching to Maya for dear life. Her eyelids flutter close, the last of her tears falling from the corners. She bites her bottom lip, breathing through her nose, when she’s touched once more by the gentleness of Maya’s thumbs wiping her cheek. She hears Maya’s sniffling, and Claudine is quick to bring her arms back around Maya’s body. 

“When I tell you to, open your eyes.” 

Taking a deep breath. “Will this hurt?” 

“No. You won’t feel a thing.” 

She nods, wanting so badly to open her eyes, but settling instead for the darkness under her eyelids. “Okay.” 

Maya’s finger trails from the center of her forehead and draws down her nose to her lips, to her chin. 

Then, 

then, 

then, 

“Open your eyes, Claudine.” 

— 

It’s with a burdened heart that Maya boards Seisho. Though she’s glad to be back with her team, accepting the hugs that they give her, she can’t help the torturous weight of leaving Claudine. Still, she dons a grateful smile when her teammates fuss over her, focusing on her rescue and appreciation in their reunion. 

“It’s good to have you back, Maya!” Karen greets her with a bear hug before apologetically pulling away when they both stagger back, with Koharu pushing up against them so they don’t fall. The pilot eases back and cringes at her actions, offering Maya an apologetic smile. “Sorry, sorry! I’m just happy to see you again. And sorry about your broken watch and all. I’ll fix it up right away for you so this doesn’t happen again.” 

She winces at the words before masking her face with a small smile, unclasping her watch and passing it off to Karen. “No apologies necessary, Karen. You did the best that you could under the circumstances; you all did. And I look forward to the repairs you’ll make for my tech.” 

“Ok, let’s get you in the back for rest and a proper check-up,” Koharu pipes up from behind her, ushering Maya’s still haggard form towards the back section of their transport. Unlike her usually upright demeanor, she slumps into the cot and lets Koharu check her vitals before connecting her to some hydrating fluids. 

“I’m glad you’re okay, Maya,” Koharu says, taking a seat on the edge of the cot. Maya is quick to make room, and Koharu offers her a thankful smile. 

“I’m sorry for worrying you.” 

“You got dangerously close, you know.” 

She nods, doesn’t quite meet the red of Koharu’s eyes, shades different from that of Claudine’s. “It was a foolish endeavor.” 

“Foolish endeavor of a lovesick fool. It fits the pattern.” 

At that, she lets out a small and tired laugh, glad for the positive company that Koharu always brings. It reminds her that despite all that’s happened, she did miss her teammates terribly. 

“You are the medical professional.” 

Koharu stares at her a beat longer, understanding etched all over her features, and Maya is glad for it. Finally, Koharu rises from beside Maya, but not before grabbing hold of her hand and squeezing it. “When you’re ready, tell me about her sometime?” 

Gratefully, she nods, the threat of tears appearing in the corner of her eyes. “As always, you are kind and generous, Koharu.” 

With another squeeze of her hand, Koharu eventually releases her and exits out of the room, the sound of the hydraulics of the door sighing as it closes shut. 

She closes her eyes and takes a steadying breath, her left hand reaching up to her obsidian pendant, her last memory with Claudine playing on loop in her mind until exhaustion lulls her into a dreamless sleep.

After several hours of rest and two hydration fluid replenishments, she wakes to Nana sitting on a chair beside her bed, scanning through the dossier screen. She doesn’t say anything, just watches her captain go about conducting business. 

They stay silent for a few minutes more, Maya watching and Nana not paying her any mind. When Nana reaches the end of whatever file she’s working on, she taps the dossier screen and it starts folding in on itself until it’s a rectangular tile smaller than Nana’s palm. Only then does Nana’s green eyes look up to find Maya. 

“How’d you sleep?” Nana asks, crossing her legs at the knee and resting her hands on her thigh. 

“Good. I feel much better.” 

“I saw your watch readings. They were grim.” 

“I was at 10%.” 

“You were at 7%.” 

“Ah.” 

“I could write you up for reckless endangerment and insubordination.” 

“If that’s your wish.” 

“Greedy, selfish, and hard-headed.” Her captain sighs, shakes her head. “Maya, that was dangerous, what you did.” 

She pushes herself up to a sitting position, resting her back against the headboard. “I know. I apologize for worrying you and for putting myself and our team under unnecessary risks.”

“I don’t have much leg to stand on considering I allowed you to get this way.” It surprises her when Nana waves her off with her hand, resituating herself on the chair and uncrossing her legs. “We take risks every time we get on board. And it would be hypocritical of me to berate you when I have made my own selfish decisions in the past.” 

She nods in understanding. “About Junna.” 

“Mm. Just as it is about Claudine.” 

Maya hums, the sting of Claudine’s name so palpable in the air. 

Nana lets out a wry chuckle, and places a hand on Maya’s forearm. “Was it worth it? All that trouble?” 

Maya lifts her gaze up to her friend and captain. “To love and be loved twice by Claudine will always be worth it to me.” 

“I hope you know what you’re doing.” 

She shrugs, releasing a deep sigh. “That’s the thing, Nana. I do not know, I have never been here before. And I do not know if I ever will be again. So I can only hope that what I’ve done is enough.” 

Nana stands and makes her way to the exit, grabbing hold of the door handle, but stops with a thoughtful tap of her fingers on the metal. “She has the pendant.” 

“It’s out of commission.” 

“And you’re willing to part with it?” 

Maya stares intently at her captain. “She parted with more.” 

“How foolhardy of you,” Nana comments after a long moment, though the words are betrayed by the wistful, almost envious tone in her voice.

“I suppose Koharu is right: we are no more than lovesick fools, after all.” 

Nana regards her. “Landing is in just a few hours. There is much work to be done upon arrival, so I suggest you get as much rest as you can now.” 

“I understand.” 

Maya’s eyes trail after Nana until the door shuts closed with a hiss. She drops her head down back to her pillow and stares up at the ceiling. Gone is the white empty ceiling that she’s seen over the last few days. She closes her eyes, her finger tracing against her lip. 

—

When Claudine comes to, it’s almost noon. 

She then realizes she’s woken up in a small puddle of her drool, her pillowcase sticking against her cheek. She winces in disgust, and groggily swipes at her face with the sleeve of her hoodie.  

It takes her a second to adjust her vision to her surroundings even as she tries to grab hold of the remaining wisps of her dreams. Her bedroom looks as it has always looked, but somehow she struggles to shake the empty feeling in her chest. Unsure of how to make sense of her strange emotions, she rises from bed and heads to the kitchen where she pours herself a glass of water. She uses the back of her hoodie to wipe away the water droplets on her face as she stares out onto the backyard, giving one last attempt to remember any part of her dream. But despite her best attempts to recall anything, nothing comes to mind. 

She moves to retrieve her pack of cigarettes she left on the kitchen counter but somehow thinks better of it. 

She goes to the nearby grocery store and buys herself a pack of curry. 

Distractedly, she burns her dinner. 

She gets some takeout and sits in front of her t.v. She catches sight of her dad’s tapes and puts one on and watches enraptured at seeing him in his element. She practically cries into her dinner, but she’s happy to see him. 

The next couple of days pass similarly for Claudine, an out-of-bodyness as she goes through. She cannot explain it away, a tingling sense of loss, but she can’t fathom the source of that loss, at least beyond what she’s already lost. 

On a whim she can’t fully explain to herself, she pulls her phone from her pocket to text Fumi.

Claudine: Is that get-together thing tonight still happening?

Fumi: Yes, why? 

Claudine: If I say yes to this one can I say no to the next one?

Fumi: Deal. 

Claudine: Text me the address for the restaurant.

It’s only a few seconds when she sees the three dots from Fumi’s side, waiting for the response. 

Fumi: Not even gonna wonder why you changed your mind, just glad that you did. Be there by 6 please!   

She shakes her head at Fumi’s comment, instead swiping out of the message app only to open the missed call from her mother. She bites her lip in thought and thinks she may as well just get it over with. With a single tap, she presses on her mother’s contact and waits as the phone rings and there’s a click on the other end of the line. 

“Hi, Maman. Yeah, thanks. I’m doing fine. I’ll be going out with some friends tonight.”  

Before long, evening arrives and she’s nervously checking herself out one more time on her phone just around the corner from the restaurant. She takes a deep breath and wipes away invisible dust from her sleeveless orange cream blouse under her dark jean jacket and white flowy skirt. As she arrives at the front of the restaurant, she finds her friend scrolling through her phone. 

“Hey,” she greets, with a small wave. 

Fumi looks up, and walks towards Claudine before hooking their arms together. “There you are. What took you so long?” 

She scrunches her face and frowns at her friend. “What are you talking about? I’m on time.” 

“Nevermind that, they’re already waiting inside,” Fumi says as they walk arm-in-arm. Claudine can’t help but roll her eyes. “Nice necklace by the way, where’d you get it?”

Her hand reaches up to her neck where she feels the cool metal, her fingers fiddling with the citrine stone pendant. She frowns in thought. “Not sure, I think I’ve always had it.” 

They separate as they walk inside, and Claudine attempts not to feel out of place in a gathering of strangers, many of whom work with Fumi. But since her friend had been persistent in inviting her out for the better part of the last couple of months, she thinks she can handle one night.

She positions herself on the corner edge of the long table and politely greets and smiles towards the others as Fumi quickly introduces her to everyone. As she greets every person whose names she knows she won’t remember after tonight, she quickly counts the heads around the table and discovers that there are only seven of them. 

“I thought you said you were trying to even the number of people?” she asks when she tugs at Fumi’s sleeve beside her. 

“Relax,” Fumi starts. “Akira’s friend is coming from a meeting across town so she’s on her way.” 

She rolls her eyes, but settles in her seat, placing her purse on the empty seat beside her, and allows herself to be pulled into polite conversation by the others around her. They’re nice enough people, and she’s not having the worst time in the world, but she makes a point not to make too much eye contact with her friend if only to avoid any potential questioning that may arise. 

Just as she’s about to be pulled into another riveting conversation about this man’s stock investments, someone taps on her shoulder. She turns and looks up to meet the piercing violet eyes of the most strikingly beautiful woman she’s ever seen, dressed in an elegant two-piece plaid pantsuit, with her chocolate brown hair cascading over her shoulders, and a friendly smile on her face. 

“Is this seat taken?” 

Dumbly, Claudine shakes her head, momentarily forgetting her voice before she clears her throat. “Nuh-no. It’s all yours.” She then quickly retrieves her purse and hangs it on the back of her chair, doing her best not to incessantly stare at the woman settling beside her.  

“Thank you. I apologize for being tardy.” 

She waves the woman’s apology off. “I think you’re fine. We just got started.”

“Ah, thank you.”

She can’t help but cock her head in wonder when she returns her focus back on the woman, the words tumbling out of her mouth before she can think twice. “This may sound odd, but have we met before?” 

The woman’s smile is wider now, feeling more genuine and open than the polite one she showed earlier, before shaking her head. “No, I don’t believe so. I would have remembered you.” 

Claudine’s cheeks tinge pink, warming at the comment. Nevertheless, she hums in understanding, sharing the same sentiment. She thoughtlessly brings her hand up to fiddle with her necklace, overcome with an unrecognizable sense of comfort, of knowing just by sitting beside this woman. But it’s an incomplete thought, much like her wisps of recent dreams. Not wanting to spoil their found time together, she lets the nagging thought in her mind go and instead focuses on the woman beside her, only somewhat aware of the people around them, least of all the knowing smirk of her friend beside her. 

Claudine crosses her arms over her chest and rests on them, leaning slightly forward on the table, and appreciating the way the woman seems to mirror her movements. 

“So you’re Akira’s friend?” 

“Yes. And you are?” 

“Saijou Claudine. Fumi’s friend.” She extends her hand. 

The woman grins and Claudine registers a tight pull of familiarity from it, unsure of where it stems from, but accepting it all the same. 

“Tendou Maya,” the woman responds in kind, clasping their hands together. “It’s lovely to meet you.” 

“It’s nice to meet you too, Maya,” Claudine says, meaning every word. 

—

Maya is back to full health, thanks in large part to Koharu’s care. Still, she takes it easy aboard the Seisho, sitting mostly in observation as Nana and the other teams meet and consult about the impending war. 

She listens accordingly, though her mind wanders. 

This is her life. It is what it has always been, and what it will always be. Still, she wonders if she had been allowed to stay with Claudine, if she would have. To take on a civilian life so outside the realm of all of her experiences. 

She doesn’t know the answer to that, but she thinks that a part of her would. She’ll never know, of course, but she’ll take the memories she has of Claudine and hold it dearly with the memories of her late wife and bask in her good fortune. 

Maya sits on the edge of her bed. She glances at the two photo frames on her nightstand. She picks up the one with her and late wife, the two of them standing side by side dressed in civilian clothing in front of the courthouse. Her blonde hair glowing in the sunlight, her eyes bright and her smile wide. Still the most beautiful woman Maya has ever seen in all of her life. 

Her thumb caresses her late wife’s face. A tear drops from the tip of her nose and down onto the glass. 

She sniffles before she glances at the nightstand and holds up the other frame. This time it’s a picture of Claudine with her parents, one she made a copy of from Claudine’s house. She hopes that Claudine won’t mind if Maya had something to remember her by. 

A knock at the door interrupts her thoughts and she turns to face the door just as Koharu appears. 

“Meeting in five minutes.” 

She nods. “I’ll be right there.” 

“Take your time.” Koharu offers her a small smile before leaving her alone. 

She places both frames back on her nightstand and wipes her face. She takes a deep breath and retrieves the olive green worker’s jacket from the back of her chair. She stops in front of the mirror and adjusts her jacket, fixing her collar before staring at herself in the mirror. 

Maya heads up to the meeting room where the rest of her team have already gathered. She takes her seat between Karen and Koharu, with Nana standing in front of them. Nana raises a curious brow at her and she only nods. 

Nana turns to the display. “Alright. Let’s get started.” 

—

Claudine stands by the entrance wondering if she should go or not, the bouquet of flowers crinkling in its paper as she grips it. It’s the first time she’s even attempted to go ever since arriving in Japan. With her free hand, she grasps at the pendant around her neck, seeking comfort in it. 

She doesn’t know if she’s ready, but she thinks that if nothing else, she’s already bought the flowers. What’s another few steps to reach her father’s grave? 

Taking a deep breath, she takes a step forward. 

When she arrives at his grave, her eyes begin to water, yet she holds them back from spilling. Instead, she sniffles and gently places the flowers right by his tombstone. Suddenly, memories of him calling her and singing her a lullaby before bed pops in her mind. Then of their time sword fighting in her youth. Then of her watching and clapping in her seat beside her Maman as they watched him perform. Then of her father finding her in the audience and blowing kisses at her, once she blew right back. 

“Hello, Papa,” she starts, tears finally trailing down her cheeks. “I miss you.” 

She stays at the cemetery for over an hour, clearing up the leaves and debris from around his grave while she opens up about what’s been going on with her recently. Her words slowly then quickly pour out when she updates him about her life and all that’s happened with her. 

“I’ll come visit again next month. Sorry I took a while to get here,” she says, before walking away.  

She’s just reached the street when she receives a text from Maya. She smiles and texts back right away, heading towards the location that Maya invited her to. 

When she gets to the cafe, Maya is already sitting at a table with a drink in front of her. Claudine’s heart beats a little faster when Maya stands and greets her with a smile. They get situated quickly, ordering her own cup of coffee and some pastries. She watches in amusement as Maya digs into a plate of baumkuchen quickly, a flash of strange recognition before it disappears. 

The next couple of hours fly by as they chat about their jobs and their lives, what Claudine was doing in Japan, stories about their mutual friends, hobbies and interests. At some point, they’d exhausted the menu between them and decided to take a walk to a nearby park, all the while talking and sharing. It’s the most that Claudine has opened up about herself in recent years, and although there’s a thrumming anxiousness that lies underneath about being so exposed, she finds that she doesn’t mind it too much with Maya. 

“I used to perform as well, in my youth,” Maya offers when they stop near a set of steps overlooking the park. 

Claudine is surprised by that. “Really? So what made you become an accountant, then?”

“My parents. They needed to make sure I ensured a future for myself.” 

She nods in understanding. “It seems we have more in common than I thought, Tendou Maya.” 

“Maybe we can join a local amateur group now knowing that you and I were such esteemed performers in the past,” Maya offers.  

“Maybe,” she laughs. 

“Or, perhaps, we can start easy and watch a show together.” 

Her head snaps to face Maya, her heart beating double time in her chest. “Like a date?”

Maya's cheeks blush. “If you’d like.”

She fiddles with her necklace, the citrine pendant warming under her touch. She offers Maya a wide smile. “Yeah, I would.” 

THE END