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Chapter 1
It was what could be considered the last half of the party. More precise would be to call its third quarter. Everyone had already toasted, drunk and fought for the food – as well as for the insufficient number of seats to eat everything that had been served.
As Masaki went onto the small platform holding a small glass in her hands, she could observe some were looking around for any trace of the small snacks that could still hidden somewhere. Well, at least a part of her mind might have processed that, she wasn’t really paying attention, being as dead set on her goal as she was. And so she looked proudly at everyone.
It was the party given by the Moon Troupe in order to celebrate the successful ending of The Rose of Versailles performances, and there was no way she wouldn’t feel proud of the deed. It had sold out in Takarazuka Grand Theater, which is very rare, and she had managed to play two roles, the two main roles at that. Not only that, but she would have a different co-lead almost each time.
Well, those were the reasons she had given each time she was asked about how hard that work had been. The truth was, however, that most of her stress had taken place right before the opening day, when she had had to rehearse with one of the actresses who would play Andre in Takarazuka. Each day had been a challenge to her nature in order to keep things going smoothly. Being the Top Star was surely a lot of responsibility but it had been during those days that she had noticed just how much that really meant.
Clearing her throat, Masaki breathed in the happiness, the sense of accomplishment that surrounded her peers and superiors. Marvelous. It was finally done! She did it!
“Hello, everyone!” she started speaking on the microphone used to open the party and to make the toast. “I hope you are all having a great time. I would like to say just a few more words.” After a pause to hold in the urge to laugh, Masaki cleared her throat once more. “Words can’t properly express how much joy I feel at this moment. Thanks to your warm cheering, all of this was made possible. I will never forget these feelings for as long as I live. I hope that together we can all head to the centenary. Thank you everyone. To Ueda Shinji-sensei and to Suzuki Kei-sensei. To Ikeda Riyoko-sensei. To my dear Manaki-chan, who is always supporting me. To Asumi-chan, who has now become part of the Flower Troupe. To all of the Andres, who have loved me with their all, Ranju-san, Sou-san.”
---
That was what Masaki was sure she had spoken on that platform, in the presence of all of the sponsors, the people in charge of the theater, as well as to the women in her troupe and the mentioned Top Stars, Ranju Tomu and Sou Kazuho.
While waking up after what seemed to have been a train wreck, she noticed that it was true she had said all that indeed. With the exception that her memory of the night before had suffered the omission of a single detail. For Masaki remembered now that, upon finishing her unsolicited speech that time, she had cheerfully added: “Mayu-san, I love you”, while randomly throwing her not-yet-empty glass to the air. She had also started singing the musical’s main theme: Ai Areba Koso.
“Oh, no...” she wailed, while brushing her panging head with her hand. The look on Mayu’s face surfaced to her mind. Not that she really remembered what had been her senior’s response but she could imagine enough to fill that gap. “Oh, no...” she repeated in a more dramatic tone.
---
After a little more than one hour, Masaki left the office room in the theater with her shoulders drooping. She tried to fix the hair falling to her eyes for a moment, before noticing two of her friends waiting right around the corner of the hall. It all still felt a little bit surreal, but facing Magee and Mirio had finally given the reality shock she didn’t really need.
“What did they say? About the speech?” Magee was the first one to ask, advancing to her as if she were in a race with Mirio.
“Um...” Masaki tried to think for a moment what had just happened during the meeting about her acts the previous day. She had been suspended, right? Ready to say so, the remembrance that it was supposed to be kept in secret from everyone “in order to protect yourself”, the man had said, made her swallow the words. Instead, she retold what they had come up with: “I am just feeling a little bit ill. So, I’ll have to rest for a while.”
“Ill?” Mirio’s mouth was agape. “That means you’re taking medicine, right? How could you drink so much last night, then?”
Her earnest concern made Masaki recoil, considering just telling them the truth. However, Mirio’s nostrils flared right open as she went on:
“Poor Mayu-san! Do you even remember what you said last night, Masaki-san? Well, she seems to be a good person. I think that you could try and explain to her. About your medicine and how you ended up drinking alcohol.”
In response, Masaki just smiled weakly and wondered whether Magee’s silence meant her senior had understood what had actually happened inside that room. Not that it was something unforeseeable. After more than a decade in the company, a lot worse had happened around her. Maybe she was even lucky.
“Wait, then you’re out of MeMy?” Mirio seemed to have finally noticed it, and then, she turned to Magee to check her conclusion.
“Just rest well, Masaki,” was all the senior could say in response, while giving her an ambiguous smile.
Masaki gulped in return.
---
Mirio had reminded her of a valid point: Mayu did not deserve what had happened. What she herself had caused the senior, better phrasing. However, there was no way to apologize at that point, for, as far as she could remember, Mayu herself had said she would leave for Tokyo that morning. And it was already almost lunch time.
In spite of not being the kind of thing that could wait, Masaki had been forbidden from going anywhere else but home. She was expected to be everyday at the theater from morning to afternoon, and then to go straight home. She would never apologize through a mobile phone either, so there was really nothing left.
Masaki looked around the room where she was told to stay during the working hours, and noticed the fan letters she had received on the last days of The Rose of Versailles. At least, she could think of a reply to them.
Sometime along the following days, an announcement was made about her absence in the Me & My Girl performance “due to injury”. Heh. They had changed the story by themselves after Masaki had already told some people the original lie. Perhaps, that was so details would not be asked when people started worrying about her long medical leave.
Could Mirio already discern it had all been but a lie? Magee had probably guessed it from the beginning, judging from her lack of reaction. What about Manaki? They hadn’t met ever since, so it was hard to figure what her official pair in the company thought about all of it. Masaki couldn’t even remember if the girl was in the party room during her speech. What a let-down she must have been as someone Manaki and all of the underclassmen in her troupe were to supposed look up to.
But her prime worry was still over what Mayu would be thinking of all that. Dang, Masaki. That was supposed the party to celebrate you being free from the weight that sharing a stage with that Ranju Tomu had put upon you. Instead, you go and confess your feelings to her?
Indeed, Masaki had always been an honest person. It was not really because she had been raised well, or anything. It was that it came natural to her just speaking what was on her mind. Of course, she tried to control herself whenever that was not allowed, like on the infinite times she was speaking in public.
From time to time, her true self would resurface. She had almost let her feelings out once, while describing how it had been to receive that rose from Mayu on the first day of rehearsals. Yes, the day she became aware there was something special to that woman from the way her heart had flinched in her chest. That had also been the first time she started considering shoujo manga could actually be for real, and that someone could simply go kya in real life. Because that was what Masaki had done at the moment.
Nevertheless, the dreamy scenarios they wrote about did not feel good at all in real life. It had been a torture to deal with her developing feelings every day she had to meet with Mayu. After the special performance days were over, she was still expected to comment on those as if it had been a good thing. Mayu was an older woman, so tender and so self-confident at the same time. Probably, someone who had never really taken notice of Masaki until that day. Masaki could even imagine Mayu looking at her and thinking “they don’t make siennes like in the old days”, having been in the Takarazuka that had great names and even in the same troupe as Maya Miki.
Well, even if she were the bigger person and hadn’t had any bad feelings towards Masaki, now she probably did in the worst way. Really, what was up with confessing love in front of all of the important people Takarazuka Grand Revue could gather inside one room? She could as well do it on national television the next time. Thinking back of that party, Masaki started laughing loudly. She had actually put an end to her shoujo manga romance with great style.
She really did need to apologize to Mayu immediately. While looking for the name in her contacts, however, she noticed she had to give up. At that time, Mayu had probably already heard about the said injury, which Masaki was not supposed to deny to anyone. And she couldn’t lie to that woman anymore. Not now her feelings were finally in the open and she could breathe again.
---
Spinning around herself and dancing from side to side of the small room she had been given, Masaki continued to rehearse herself for the musical anyway. This was supposed to be a really romantic scene in which she was to fall exhausted from dancing into the arms of the main lead and was then held very close. The male lead’s hand would be wide open, warm against her naked back. By the time she felt that strength pulling her, she was supposed to open her eyes.
And there was Mayu, flashing a smile in that kind and yet intense way only she could do.
‘Oh...’ Masaki thought, while trying to follow the script she had in her head.
A few lines later, they were supposed to kiss. How was a musumeyaku kiss? It was surely different from the ones she had trained so far, and she didn’t want to disappoint Mayu again. How long had passed since her last kiss as a girl? It had probably been back in high school, approximately fifteen years before.
Still hesitant but accepting the challenge to show her partner her worth, she tried to tilt her head one way. However, it felt wrong; so she did it to the other side. The other woman chuckled lightly.
“This is just like dancing, Masao-kun,” she said, then winked. “Try not to force yourself and trust my lead.”
‘Oh, this is the sekimen oujisama her fans talk about!’ That had been Masaki’s last thought before her mind went blank.
While pulling her even closer, enough to feel the softness covered by her clothes, Mayu started lowering her head a little bit. It must not have been much, for she was not taller when wearing normal shoes. Then again, the lowering part might as well have just been an impression.
When Masaki recovered her senses, their lips had already met, and Mayu’s tongue was now gently brushing through her teeth. It probably didn’t take much until their mouths were joined together as their bodies moved in some unknown song’s rhythm. With close to no resistance, Masaki let the familiar feeling against her lips caress her at the same time she tried to caress Mayu back, even if it was impossible to respond with the same amount of passion.
Her mind felt muddled.
The issue wasn’t really about what was happening, as this was obviously a dream.
Frowning, she woke up on the desk where she had started to read out loud Me & My Girl’s script. How much more detailed could that kiss have become?
Of course, she had kissed girls before but only by accident. Now and then, things would just happen during rehearsal, and her lips would brush her partner’s. The actresses were not to speak openly about that kind of physical contact but it was a sure thing to happen to almost any otokoyaku. It was no big deal; it had never been so for Masaki, at least. Maybe the musumeyaku didn’t really enjoy it and most of the otokoyaku felt a tad ashamed to reveal their bloopers. For her, however, it was just natural that it happened, especially during more passionate scenes. They were professionals; there was nothing to think too deeply about.
Then again, she had made sure it would not happen during the days spent with Mayu. For this same reason, there was no way she knew so well how those lips would feel. And never how the tongue would move inside her mouth.
Had she just imagined it?
She heard a laughter echo but it took her long to realize it had been her own. After so many days going back and forth from the theater, reading a script she would not be able to use in public, Masaki was guffawing. That dream had brought into her an amazing feeling only Mayu was capable of.
Probably, because her heart felt light, an idea of how she could practice better came to her. Perhaps, she was just going crazy from spending those beautiful spring days indoors. Whatever the cause was, it still didn’t matter whether she wouldn’t be allowed to perform to everyone. As a member of the Troupe, no, as the top, she couldn’t just be napping all day inside a room while all of the others worked hard to fulfill the gap her suspension had caused.
Secretly, she hoped Mayu could forgive her actions a little if she knew of that new determination.
To be continued…
Author Notes:
Hello! I hope you have enjoyed this first chapter! This wasn’t my first Takarazuka fanfic or anything; however, I consider it to be the beginning of everything, when I really got into the fandom. And, finally, with my real favorites too. I won’t even start to explain just how much I love these two, even though a fanfic is also some proclamation of love.
Well, the story is not very good. I just let my imagination run free and it result more in fan service for myself than at least for the readers. I’m sorry for that! But I assure you that I was full of love while making this, lol.
I want to use this opportunity to that Goodoldbadmood for not only her support for me to start writing about this OTP of mine but also for giving me the theme that originated it all. And a great theme! I laughed so much upon reading it that it became irresistible, I just had to write that story! Lastly, many thanks for being my reader too. Even though this is not your pairing at all, you read through this whole mess. Having someone there really makes you feel the responsibility of each word, of doing it, and doing it right. Thank you!
I hope you can comment on this story anyway. Any words are welcome, suggestions or even a mere “read it”. This is a pretty small fandom so if I don’t get that from you, I don’t think I’ll get it from anyone else. So, please, please, please. Comment!
That’s it! See you in the next chapter.
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