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Gold Ship was up to something.
It wasn’t hard to notice, especially not for McQueen. She was sure she’d practically grown a sixth sense for it after the amount of times she’d fallen prey to Gold Ship’s schemes. Evidently, the skill was serving her extremely well in this instance.
The signs were small at first. Which in itself was a miracle because Goddess forbid Gold Ship be subtle about anything when she could instead be as obnoxious as possible.
But regardless, McQueen was getting off track.
Her point was, even with whatever tip-toeing Gold Ship was attempting to do this time, McQueen could still tell that she was planning something. Or that she was in the midst of committing some drawn-out prank, most likely.
Really, it was the only explanation for why McQueen was suddenly noticing Gold Ship’s odd choice of accessories during the last few days. Which so far had included a blue beret, a gold chain belt for some reason, a lavender dress shirt, complete with ruffled sleeves, and many more that McQueen hadn’t considered significant enough to note down.
But she noticed them. Oh, did she notice them.
And today was no different, apparently. Because, as McQueen was sat eating her lunch in the cafeteria, Gold Ship chose that as the perfect moment to slide into the seat in front of her, wearing a true Cheshire cat grin, all while showing off the shirt she had haphazardly thrown over her school uniform.
The shirt that also just so happened to be the exact same shade of purple as the blouse McQueen was currently wearing.
It could very well be a coincidence, but judging by the expectant grin on Gold Ship’s face, it was anything but that.
“Heyyy McQueen. Lovely weather we’re having, yeah?”
McQueen chanced a look outside, noting the sunlight streaming through the windows lining the wall. “Yes.” She decided to humor Gold Ship. “I see you dressed for the weather, then?”
Gold Ship looked down. “Huh? Oh, nah. I was trynna copy you.”
Well, Gold Ship’s subtlety had lasted a grand total of three days. A notable achievement, but McQueen did not have the bandwidth to comment on it.
With that out in the open, and the newfound relief at now knowing that McQueen did not, in fact, have to squeeze the truth out of Gold Ship, she sighed. “I thought so,” McQueen muttered, gesturing towards Gold Ship’s shirt. “I mean, really? First, it was all those accessory choices, and now you’re moving on to literal color copies?”
“Yeah. You like it?”
“I don’t understand why you’re doing it. Why even make such insignificant changes?”
Gold Ship grinned, linking her fingers together as she leaned forward. “Well, ya noticed them, didn’t’cha, Mac-chan?”
"That-" McQueen stumbled on her words, replaying Gold Ship's question in her head one too many times until she could feel her cheeks heat up at the attention. "I don't see how that's relevant. Is this supposed to be another one of your pranks?"
"Huh?" Gold Ship cocked her head, looking confused. “No? You told me to be more like you, remember?”
McQueen paused, eyes darting off towards the wall before falling back on Gold Ship’s entirely too earnest face. “What?”
Gold Ship gestured vaguely. “Yeah, you said something about needing to use your style or whatever to be better at running. And hey, I’m a great listener, so I thought I’d give it a try. And obviously, the great Golshi is open to constructive criticism.”
Ah.
Yes, McQueen remembered it now.
“McQueeeen! Why don’t you ever call me a good girl?”
McQueen nearly choked on her own spit at that, eyes widening as she practically whipped her head up to look at Gold Ship, who annoyingly didn’t look nearly as perturbed by the words that had just left her mouth.
It didn’t help that they were quite literally in class, surrounded by Uma’s who could (but thankfully hadn’t) hear Gold Ship’s absurd question.
“What are you talking about?” McQueen hissed urgently, eyes darting around to make sure they weren’t going to be joined by anyone. “Why do you even want to be called that?”
Gold Ship pouted, planting her chin against her head with a sigh. “Oh come on, I see Suzuka calling Spe that all the time. Don’t you want to do that to me, too?”
McQueen was definitely not in the right headspace, or space in general, to answer that question. So instead, she turned her attention down to her desk, staring at it as if it had personally asked the question.
She could feel Gold Ship’s expectant eyes on her, and like an idiot, she did not keep her mouth closed in the seconds that followed.
“Take your races seriously, then maybe I’ll have a reason to call you a good girl,” McQueen muttered, not fully planning on letting Gold Ship even hear her retort, but evidently, the taller Uma had heard her.
“But I take all my races seriously? It’s like, totally my top priority.”
Gold Ship was clearly ready to wax on about her sudden apparent will to put actual thought and effort into her racing, but McQueen cut her off. “Ah, yes,” She nodded. “Your tactic of throwing training schedules to the wind and doing what you like? Is that the racing discipline you’re talking about?” McQueen scoffed. “Honestly, it’s a miracle your race record is as good as it is. Goddess knows how much better it could get if you actually employed training regimens like I do.”
“Like you?” Gold Ship repeated, drawing McQueen’s attention back to her.
She raised a brow, confusion marring her features as she answered. “Yes? Was I being confu-”
Gold Ship suddenly jumped out of her seat, a giant grin splitting her face as she tackled McQueen into a hug and pulled away just as promptly. “Thanks for the advice, Big Mac! I promise I’ll make ya proud!”
McQueen sat there, frozen in her seat as she tried to process whatever the hell had just occurred in front of her. Which also just so happened to have given Gold Ship the perfect opportunity to make her escape, skipping happily out of the classroom that she was decidedly not supposed to be in, as if she were on a mission and had not confused the ever living daylight out of McQueen.
Well, McQueen figured she had just found out what her supposed mission was. Not that it was much of one to begin with. And it didn’t matter in the grand scheme of things because McQueen was once again stuck facing a monster of her own making.
“That’s not what I meant when I said that.” McQueen managed to get out, already fully aware that the chances of Gold Ship actually listening to her were slim to none, as proven promptly after when Gold Ship’s grin widened.
“Don't worry, McQueen, I promise this is gonna work out great for us.”
“...Us?”
“Well, yeah.” Gold Ship nodded enthusiastically. “It’s foolproof.”
Now McQueen was sure that she had missed something. “Foolproof?” She repeated. “How-What part of this is foolproof? You’re just-”
“It’s science, Mac-chan.” Gold Ship explained, holding her hands up for emphasis. “Like Bernoulli’s equation and all that. You're putting out all that energy, and if I dress like you, I can take that energy to get stronger!”
Upon being met with a blank stare, she continued. “So,” Gold Ship drew out, pumping her fist in the air. “Obviously, by doing that, I can race with your aura and style by my side! It’ll be a race for the ages, McQueen!”
"...Right." McQueen managed to get out, looking down at her lunch blankly.
Goddess help her, she did not want her name attached to whatever abhorrent scene Gold Ship was going to make at the next Arima Kinen. Hopefully, Gold Ship would get bored and just drop the idea altogether.
Yeah. At that point, that was McQueen’s only chance of salvation from whatever she would be forced to witness in a few days time.
“Why are you still doing this?”
McQueen barely held in the sigh that threatened to leave her lips the second she heard scrambling footsteps behind her. There was only one person they could belong to anyway, so why turn around to check?
"'Cause it's fun." Gold Ship's perky response came immediately, followed by her silhouette speed walking until she was able to block McQueen's path. "Aren't'cha gonna guess what I did different today?"
She could walk away. Really, what was the worst Gold Ship could do? Follow her until she got bored? McQueen could handle that. But then again, she did have class to go to, and having Gold Ship act as an unruly puppy, or worse, disrupt her during class didn't bode well for McQueen in general.
Deciding to indulge her, McQueen purposefully let her gaze roam up and down Gold Ship's form, trying to seem like she was paying attention to what she was wearing, and unfortunately getting distracted by the definition of Gold Ship's calves. Not that she could be held accountable when the skirt uniforms practically put them on display anyway. But regardless, McQueen eventually forced her eyes to move up until she met Gold Ship's gaze and shook her head. "Unfortunately, I can't seem to place what about you is different today. Are you open to giving hints?"
Gold Ship grinned, immediately pointing a finger at the cerulean collar she was wearing. A collar that, now that she looked at it, matched the exact color of the bow in McQueen’s hair.
Goddess, why were those the things Gold Ship was somehow annoyingly attentive to?
“It’s all about the details.” Gold Ship relayed sagely as if she were sharing valuable wisdom, which was also how McQueen found out that she had unintentionally said her previous thought out loud. But before she could find the time to feel embarrassed by it, Gold Ship continued. “Makes people look twice and all that, real subtle foreshadowing, and I'm all for that.”
McQueen wanted to argue that that was definitely not what the word foreshadowing meant in that context, but Gold Ship was already rambling on about how she couldn’t go big with copying McQueen since the school uniform was exactly the same, and truth be told, McQueen was only half listening to whatever she was saying.
Not that it stopped her tail from swaying behind her, brushing against Gold Ship’s socked leg as she spoke.
"I see." She settled on, keeping her body squarely faced towards Gold Ship in hopes that the movement of her traitorous tail wouldn't be seen. "Is that all?"
That question must have been everything Gold Ship had been hoping for because she immediately whipped out a top hat, along with a whip and a cat-eared headband, from somewhere behind her back. "Great! I'mma need you to put this on real quick."
Oh.
McQueen had walked right into that one, hadn't she?
"Wait." She held a hand up. "I haven't agreed to anything yet, Gold Ship-san. And why are you carrying a literal whip-"
"It's plastic, relax." Gold Ship drawled, fixing the cat ears on her head and shaking her head as if to make sure that they were secure. "Heh, meow."
McQueen very nearly turned on her heel as soon as that sound made its way out of Gold Ship's mouth, but before she had the chance to make any kind of escape, Gold Ship slapped the top hat onto her head, nearly making McQueen stumble on her own feet.
Her ears flicked down, disturbed by the sudden weight on her head, but McQueen made no move to remove the hat. Instead, she forced herself to take a deep breath and fixed her eyes on Gold Ship, letting out an exasperated huff. "Will I be privy to an explanation sometime today?"
"Well, you asked." Gold Ship chirped happily, grabbing McQueen's hand and forcing the whip into it. "And yep, that's all." She stepped away proudly, clasping her hands behind her back. "Whatch'a think?"
"What do I think of your decision to wear cat ears when you already have a perfectly good set of ears?"
"Noooo." Grabbing McQueen's hand again, Gold Ship waved it around in some attempt to emphasize her point. Not that McQueen had any idea what her point could possibly be. "Look, we're matching! Lion tamer and, well, lion." She gestured down to herself proudly, all while doing a little spin. "Thoughts?"
"I don't recall agreeing to this matching quest of yours, nor being involved enough to wear outfits for it," McQueen muttered, dragging her eyes away from whatever dance Gold Ship was attempting to do.
Arms suddenly looping around her shoulder pulled McQueen's focus back to Gold Ship, just in time to catch a faceful of lilac-grey hair. "Come on, McQueen. Do it just for today, pleeeease." Gold Ship whined directly against her ear, taking the opportunity to obnoxiously rub her cheek against McQueen's, and weirdly enough, McQueen could not definitely say that she disliked the contact.
McQueen spent a good few seconds fighting with herself before relaxing against Gold Ship, allowing her chin to rest against Gold Ship's shoulder as she let said Uma proceed with her usual routine of begging for something that McQueen would unfortunately end up giving her regardless.
Good grief. McQueen could not believe she was about to agree to this.
"...Fine." She relented, slapping a hand against Gold Ship's mouth the second she pulled away and saw the excitement in her eyes. "Do not make this a spectacle. I'll wear this just for today, then that's it."
"Yep." Gold Ship said against McQueen's hand, her words having been heard despite how muffled they sounded. "Loud and clear, Mac-mac." She added, which eventually got McQueen to drop her hand, already well in the midst of mentally preparing for the day she had signed herself up for.
McQueen spent the rest of the day ignoring the curious stares they got as Gold Ship dragged her along to all her classes.
And if anyone happened to catch her smiling on more than one occasion, well, no one had concrete proof of that anyway.
The next time Gold Ship decided to accost McQueen was, thankfully, after she was done with training.
Training that Gold Ship had not attended despite her own race being a few days away, but whatever, that wasn’t McQueen's problem.
“McQueen! Are you finally done training now?”
Gold Ship had the decency to wait until after McQueen was done with her training before butting into her day, it seemed. And McQueen couldn’t decide between finding that fact touching or irritating.
“Are you implying you were waiting for me to finish?” She asked halfheartedly, unzipping her sweatshirt and letting the fabric slip off her shoulders.
“Kinda.” Gold Ship shrugged, finally putting herself in McQueen’s line of sight by leaning against the rows of lockers. “You never wanna play with me when you’re in the middle of training, so I thought I’d work around it.”
Well, that was strangely thoughtful.
McQueen turned and paused, eyes slowly roving over Gold Ship’s body, clad in racewear that looked suspiciously similar to her own, besides the fact that it was obviously in a larger size.
Her first instinct was to ask Gold Ship what she was wearing, but judging by the barely contained glee on her face, she was definitely expecting McQueen to ask her something like that, and most likely also had some cheeky response ready to go.
So, instead of acting as confused as she felt, McQueen busied herself with folding her sweatshirt and hummed. “A little on the nose, don’t you think?”
“Not impressed? Damn.” Gold Ship sighed in disappointment, putting her hand on her hips and clearly paying no mind to the way the material of her skirt dipped down enough to reveal a sliver of skin. Not that McQueen noticed, of course. “I thought it would work.”
McQueen tilted her head, deciding to play up her manufactured disappointment a little. "I'm afraid I've grown used to expecting more of you in this regard. Perhaps I should have toned down my anticipation."
"What?" Gold Ship blurted out, waving her hands with a laugh. "No! No, no, I want the challenge, Mac-chan. You gotta make me work for it, makes the reward all the more sweeter, ya know."
If McQueen had only been taking Gold Ship's words at face value, she might've missed the small flush that had begun creeping up the taller Uma's neck. But as it was, McQueen had a very clear view of that phenomenon, even more so when Gold Ship tried to duck her head down to hide it.
“Well,” McQueen chuckled, strangely finding it easy to tease Gold Ship back now that she had some semblance of the upper hand. “I’ll be sure to look forward to your next attempt to subtly match me. And I will expect an actual match, not a copy.”
Gold Ship grinned sheepishly, snapping her hand up into a salute. “Yup, I hear ya loud and clear, McQueen. Promise I’ll do better next time.”
McQueen hummed in amusement, buttoning her shirt up with steady hands. "I'll take your word for it." She said, strangely finding herself actually interested in seeing what else Gold Ship would come up with.
She looked at Gold Ship's attire again, finding herself surprised at how similar it looked to her own racewear. The outfit in itself wasn't free of small details, and yet Gold Ship had managed to get everything down to a T somehow. It made McQueen wonder if Gold Ship had sewn the outfit herself or if she had bribed someone else to do it for her. McQueen would consider it a feat regardless, but if Gold Ship had sown it, then McQueen definitely had a few follow-up questions she wanted to ask.
“Actually," McQueen stepped towards Gold Ship. "How did you get a replica of my racewear?” She asked, looking at the fabric with interest. “It looks well crafted.”
“Huh?” Gold Ship perked up, grinning. “Oh, I didn’t make it; this is one of yours. I just kinda cut the back and stretched it with extra fabric, cause I’mma need one for my race. Which, hey, did you know Feno can actually sew? Crazy, right?”
At that, McQueen paused, replaying the words over in her head until she was properly able to formulate a response. “...You what?”
“Anyways gotta go Mac-mac, smell ya later.”
“What? No Gold Ship, what do you mean it’s one of mine?!”