Chapter Text
Gold Ship’s life ended on what was supposed to be a perfectly fine day. It was fine, until she made the impulsive decision to fuck it all up.
It wasn’t well-planned, per se, but she had more of a plan than Gold Ship usually has. She’ll buy a gift that shows that she cares, and McQueen will be swept off her feet. A very successful classic year had given Gold Ship an air of confidence she hadn’t felt before. She was convinced she could take over the world, much less get a girl to fall for her.
However, once she actually found herself in front of McQueen, the holes in her plan seemed more apparent than ever. She should have run, but her hands started to move on their own.
The bouquet of flowers that Gold Ship had put together this morning was customized to fit Mejiro McQueen’s interests. She holds it out towards McQueen in a clenched fist, more heavy-handed than Gold Ship intended. She’s nervous, sue her.
She scrunches her eyes close, smiles bright, and out comes the words, “Lady Meiiro McQueen, would you go out with me?”
Silence.
The second that Gold Ship opens her eyes to meet McQueen’s she knows it’s all over. McQueen’s frown makes her heart sink all the way to the bottom of her stomach. Gold Ship’s life had ended at that very moment. She is sure of it.
She doesn’t even hear what McQueen says before she drops the flowers onto the ground and starts to back away.
“You know, it’s fine, Mac-chan~! I mean, haha, who would imagine, HAHA. Okay, well, see ya!” is the last thing she says before turning on her heel and running away.
It’s over.
Gold Ship is ready to rot and wither away in this dorm room if it means she’ll never have to see anybody again.
I’m such an idiot.
She’s been drowning in her sorrow for the better half of a week. With her roommate on another vacation across the globe, nobody is here to witness her miserable state except herself. Her recent meals have consisted of microwaved carrots and instant noodles, but rations are running low. She has to leave her dorm room at some point soon.
…McQueeeeeeeen…
She pushes herself up and tries to blow the hair out of her face with minimal success before looking at the alarm. 6:00AM.
Is she training by now?
Gold Ship doesn’t want to see McQueen. Gold Ship doesn’t want to see anybody. But her mind and body seem committed to getting her up and reintegrating into society, as embarrassing as it might be. She sighs before sitting up completely as she starts to mentally prepare for the school day.
Despite waking earlier than usual, Gold Ship finds a way to be running late to class, half-jogging through the hallways while shoving her final microwave carrot–still frozen–in her mouth. When she opens the door to her classroom, everyone turns and stares at her. She can’t tell if word got around, or if this is just the normal reaction to her interrupting class. Could be both.
“Hey…there…” Gold Ship tries to shimmy around the classroom walls to her seat in the back, focusing her sight on her target instead of the glaring eyes.
“Gold Ship, I’m glad you could join us today.” The professor said without a smile.
She sinks into her seat and stares down at her desk, face hot. “Sorry, ma’am.”
The professor huffs and returns to her teaching, but Gold Ship only gets a second of peace before her classmate leans over.
“Hey Golshi! Why the long face?”
Tosen Jordan blinks faux-innocently while waving in Gold Ship’s face to get her attention. Gold Ship sinks even further. “I don’t want to talk about it.”
“Oh, is it because the Mejiro McQueen rejected you in front of everybody?”
Gold Ship could feel frustration bubbling up inside her. “I said. I don’t want to talk about it.”
“Well you know, next time I could–”
“Jordan, that’s enough.” Nakayama Festa cuts in. “Gold Ship, are you okay?”
Gold Ship slumps over the table, burying her head in her arms with a dramatic groan. “No…my life is over…..”
Nakayama looks at Jordan, and chuckles, “I don’t think your life is over, Golshi. You took a risk and you blew it,” she shrugs. “It happens.”
“‘Twasn’t supposed to be a risk…it wasn’t supposed to be this way.”
“Well, what are you gonna do about it?”
“I don’t know,” Gold Ship sits up and sighs. “I guess I have to avoid her forever now.”
Jordan cuts back in, “What? It can’t possibly be that serious, can it? You guys are still friends, right? Just talk to her!”
“What about your training?” Nakayama asks. “You’re not gonna be able to get rid of her altogether.”
Oh God. She forgot about team training.
Team Sirius training is just as bad as Gold Ship anticipated it would be. There was already an air of tension as she walked in, with several team members giving her a sympathetic wave before she sat down.
Her trainer seems as clueless as ever. She gives Gold Ship a warm smile and a wave, but Gold Ship hardly returns the greeting as her focus gets pulled away by the purple-haired girl across the room.
Not a hair out of place… McQueen looked like she had been running warm ups around the track long before the meeting started. Her cheeks slightly redder than normal and a few beads of sweat linger on her forehead, but otherwise she looks as proper as Gold Ship normally sees her.
Gold Ship looks at her for a few seconds but McQueen never lifts her head. She’s sitting in the far corner of the room, as if trying to make as much space between her and Gold Ship as possible.
Her attention is brought back to her trainer when her name is called. “–Ship, you and McQueen are both going for long distance this spring, so why don’t you two do some stamina training today?”
“Uh,” her eyes dart back to McQueen, who is looking up now, though her face seems emotionless. Play it cool. “Yeah, sure. Whatever.”
Her trainer nodded and continued down her clipboard, “Good, next, Special Week, you and…”
Gold Ship closes her eyes and prays to anybody out there that this would go by fast.
The locker room is already cold and wet by the time Gold Ship and Mejiro McQueen arrive to change into swimsuits. The silence is tense, and usually Gold Ship would’ve broken it a long time ago, but she’s clueless on what to say.
In the end, Gold Ship is just really bad with awkward silences. On the way out of the locker room, she calls out a simple “Hey,” feeling to see if McQueen would even talk to her.
To her surprise, McQueen stops and returns the greeting with a simple bow. “Hello.”
“Uh, so…” Gold Ship scratches the back of her head. Quick, think!
“...so, er, what training do you want to do today? We can relay, or Marco Polo, or–”
“Apologies, but I would prefer to do individual training today.”
Gold Ship blinks. “Oh, uh, sure thing.” Suddenly insecure about taking up so much space, she drops her hand to her side. “That’s fine with me.”
McQueen nods and continues to walk forward, Gold Ship lagging behind. They don’t talk for the rest of the training session.
In the end, she’s grateful that the splash of the water is louder than her own thoughts. Stamina training is so exhausting all she could think about after was her bed.
It’s not until she’s half-asleep that McQueen’s face pops into her head again. She bolts upright and screams into her pillow in frustration before throwing it at the door in full force. The pillow falls into a heap on the floor, and Gold Ship can’t will herself to pick it up. She covers her face with her hands and falls back onto her bed, hoping to dream of anybody but her.
A few mornings later, Gold Ship goes out to the long-distance track behind the Ritto dormitory. She doesn’t really do this often, as she would much rather spend her mornings sleeping or setting up a prank to pay off mid-afternoon, but her sleep last night was less than optimal. She felt so full of energy that she just had to burn it off somehow.
Also, she knew that McQueen would be here. The track comes into view and there she is, lightly jogging around the track, completely in her own world. The sunrise reflecting on her light hair made her look like an angel from heaven. Gold Ship walks up to the track gate but hesitates before opening it. There was a possibility that McQueen would see her and run away, but she was hoping that McQueen’s commitment to running would overpower her avoidance.
Without a moment to stretch, Gold Ship steps onto the track and starts to run. A light jog quickly turns into a sprint. She easily surpasses some other students warming up, but McQueen still feels half a track away. She fails to catch up to her before McQueen is jogging off of the track, finished with her warm up. Gold Ship keeps running.
After a sixth lap on the track, Gold Ship slows down and stops at the entrance gate. Her legs scream for mercy, but that’s the farthest thing from her mind right now. McQueen is long gone, but the metal entrance still feels warm with her touch. Normally, Gold Ship would joke about how it’s a true honor to train on the same track as a prestigious Mejiro. This time, the forced proximity irritates her.
She tsks and shoves the gate open. It hits the fence with a loud TWANG. Some of the younger students nearby flinched as she stomps back to her dorm, in a worse mood than before.
That McQueen, Gold Ship miserly thinks in the shower. Why does she have to be such a bitch?
She knows that’s unfair to McQueen. Gold Ship has advanced on McQueen many times before and McQueen is ready to reject most if not all of them, but this one feels different. Life ending, as she describes it. However, something draws her away from blaming McQueen. At the very least, she probably should have seen it coming after such a public stunt. I’ve never been good enough for her.
The hot shower burns her scalp and soaks through her hair down her back before dripping onto the floor. It’s nothing compared to the burn of shame she feels on her face. I just embarrass her she thinks. I’unno why she kept me around so long. If McQueen is going to wall her out, then there’s nothing Gold Ship can really do about it.
She knows she’s been closed off again. She felt so near to getting McQueen to open up once and for all. Now there’s no chance of that. The shower covers her tears, but not the choked sob that echos throughout the dormitory bathroom.
Gold Ship exits the bathroom soon after, body refreshed but emotionally exhausted. She fantasizes about drowning herself in blankets but tugs on her school uniform anyway.
The school morning is incredibly boring. Gold Ship has to pinch herself awake to get through the day. Classes are lame without friends to keep her entertained, but Nakayama Festa approaches her at lunchtime.
“Hey dude, Meno, Jordan and I are gonna play craps behind the dirt track today. Loser has to reset our shoes. You in?”
Gold Ship thought over this invitation, chewing on her incredibly bland sandwich. The last thing she wants to do is more horseshoe work. She hit her thumb while swinging the hammer and it was swollen for two weeks. From that day on she swore never again.
On the other hand, watching Tosen Jordan clean her shoes is bound to cheer her up.
Mouth still full of food, she jumps up from the table with a nod and follows Nakayama towards the track. Her half-eaten lunch remains on the table, doomed to be forgotten.
The track looks completely empty, but Gold Ship finds herself repeatedly glancing at it. Her brain is more worried about the chance of McQueen than having any interest in the game. Seeing her this morning is still fresh on her mind.
She’s distracted enough to get Nakayama’s attention. “Hey, get your head out of the clouds! There’s a real game goin’ here!”
“Yeah, yeah..” Gold Ship rolls the dice onto the table, but she doesn’t look at the numbers.
“Why does she keep doing that?” Fenomeno asks. “She seems…more subdued than usual.”
“Eh, her ego got hurt,” Jordan shrugs. “I've never seen her upset for this long. Who knows if she’ll ever recover.”
Gold Ship snaps her head towards the two. “I can hear you, you know.”
“Wait, but, what happened?” Meno’s face shows more concern than mockery. “What did you do?”
Here we go again. Gold Ship opens her mouth to speak, but Jordan cuts her off. “Didn’t you hear? Golshi tried to ask Mejiro McQueen out, but it was such an epic fail!”
Ugh. Gold Ship wants to kick her so bad. She looks over at Meno, whose shock is written all over her face. Gold Ship grins sheepishly and shrugs, “Yeah.”
“What? Why would you do something like that?”
“Uh, it was the heat of the moment? The particles around me were telling me to.”
Gold Ship’s nonsense fails to deter Meno. “You couldn’t have planned it at all? What caused you to do such a thing?”
Irritation rises within Gold Ship, but it quickly fizzles into a hollow sadness. She did have a plan, once, but like many of her plans it went off the rails before it even started.
She looks at the ground, dejected. “I don’t know.”
Nakayama reaches out to put a hand on Gold Ship’s shoulder. “Hey, it’s okay. Look, you rolled a seven so… you’re winning, and I’m not. Chin up! I won’t let you forfeit against me!”
“Okay, okay.” Gold Ship replies with a slight smile. “But you’re gonna eat your words when you’re cleaning my shoes. Those things haven’t seen soap in years.”
Jordan huffed a noise of disbelief while Meno’s jaw dropped even lower. “In years!? How do you run?”
“You know I could beat you barefoot, if I wanted to.”
“Ugh! Nobody wants to hear about your stinky feet! Just play the game!”
Gold Ship laughs heartily at Jordan’s outburst and tries to hone in her attention to the game. Why would McQueen be on the dirt track anyway?
In the end, Jordan won the game, with Gold Ship in second place and Nakayama in third. That left Fenomeno to repair their shoes. The girl seemed reluctant at the thought of doing even more chores.
Even if it’s not the torture method of her dreams, Gold Ship finds joy in someone else having to deal with her footwear. As they go their separate ways, she pats Meno on the shoulder with a final “Good luck!” Meno looks back in horror, and Gold Ship finds joy in that, too.
I guess I can have fun without McQueen, Gold Ship thinks as she strolls back to the cafeteria, hands behind her head. Maybe it isn’t all ba–Hey, who took my sandwich!?
The next few weeks are difficult at first, but Gold Ship finds that every day is easier than the last.
In an effort to distance herself from McQueen, she’s found herself spending time during and after school with Nakayama and their mutual friends. Even classmates that she had not previously considered seem to be receptive to her pleas of friendship.
It’s not like McQueen died, though Gold Ship sometimes feels like she had. When she’s not stirring shit with Nakayama or–God forbid!–training, she spends her time watching McQueen from a distance. This isn’t new for her. It isn’t stalking, Gold Ship would argue, because she only watches her in public. It was more of a casual hobby for her, since she could go a few days without seeing McQueen at all.
Her heart still skips a beat when she catches a glimpse of that light purple hair. She wonders if McQueen is doing alright on her own.
It is a little over a month of this routine before Gold Ship is called into her trainer’s office. For some reason, she feels nervous. Gold Ship had been on “good” behavior lately, at least for her, but the meeting still holds a feeling of apprehension that she can’t quite place.
When she opens the door to her trainer’s office and sees McQueen in one of two chairs, the dread clicks into place. McQueen whips around and looks surprised to see her here. This is the first time they’ve made such strong eye contact since the failed confession, and Gold Ship feels frozen where she stands.
“Please, come in,” her trainer waves Gold Ship in. Gold Ship’s legs feel like jelly, but she manages to clumsily sit in the open chair next to McQueen. She tries not to look at McQueen. It doesn’t work.
There was a brief silence, then McQueen was the first to speak. “May I ask what this is about?”
“Oh, nothing really, I just wanted to talk to you two about scheduling,” her trainer clicks a few keys on her desktop computer, then looks back at McQueen and Gold Ship. “You are both planning to run this spring, yes?”
Gold Ship watches McQueen nod confidently before giving her own slight nod.
“Well, I have good news. I talked to the director and I’ve managed to get both of you in the Spring Tenno Sho!”
Her trainer seems elated at this news, but Gold Ship’s blood runs cold. Both of us?
She looks to McQueen, but McQueen doesn’t look shocked by the news, just a little taken aback. Did she know this was happening? It wouldn’t surprise her if she did, but to keep Gold Ship in the dark…
Does she think she can beat me? Is that why she doesn’t care? Her eyes dart between McQueen and her trainer before her face scrunches up into something mean. Does she think I’m bad at racing? Does she–
Filled with a newfound passion, she shoots up out of her chair and swings her body towards McQueen, pointing a finger directly in her face. “Mejiro McQueen!”
McQueen sits still, wide-eyed as Gold Ship got in her face. Her finger was mere centimeters away from the bridge of McQueen’s nose, and she could almost feel the electricity between them. She pushes the thought away for now, because a better idea is blooming inside. “We’ll settle this on the track! From now on, you are my rival!”
Gold Ship doesn’t look twice at McQueen or their trainer before huffing out of the office.
It’s on.