“Thanks for the show you put on for us, Maya.” Claire thanked Maya after they were done with their training.

“Yeah! Thanks! It was really cool to see.” I shook her hand.

“No problem. It’s always nice to see the viewer’s faces when we are performing.” She smiled and shook my hand back. “See you here tomorrow for your first training?”

“Ah… I don’t think I can tomorrow… I promised Emma we would go and see her parents after school…”

“Girlfriend stuff, hey?” Maya smirked. “Don’t worry, personal life always goes first. Training is voluntary anyway so we couldn’t force you even if you wanted to.”

“We have training on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays.” Claire explained.

“That’s right.” Maya nodded. “Just come over when you have the time.

“And what do I do about gear?”

“You can always use the gear we have here, although getting your own and bringing that is allowed too.”

“It does cost a bit of money though.” Claire looked at me and crossed her arms. “So don’t feel obliged to get your own stuff.”

“I’ve had a bit of luck financially so it shouldn’t be much of an issue…” I reassured her.

“Oh, great. Good to hear that.” Claire smiled.

“If you want to, we can go over the basic gear and make you a little to buy list and where you can buy it.” Maya continued. “Some time after training.”

“Thanks, that’d be a great help.”

Maya’s club members were slowly filtering out of the gymnasium leaving only the three of us inside.

“Let’s go out so I can close up the building behind us.” Maya stated as she swung her bag over her shoulder.

We nodded and followed her. After checking if no one got left behind in the building, we all excited and let Maya lock up behind us. It was dark outside and slightly chilly which reminded me of the time I’d stayed behind with Emma to test my capabilities. Somehow, in that little time, so much had happened.

“Aurora, what are you dreaming about?” Claire asked, which brought me back to my senses.

“Probably her girlfriends.” Maya teased.

I started blushing. “That’s… not entirely untrue…”

“Told ya.” Maya started laughing.

“Verily, thine mind must be a garden of eden.” Claire smirked.

“Can’t deny that.” I smiled and started walking. “Are you going home, Maya?”

“Nah, I live in the dorms, I’ll just walk you two to the gate and go my own way after that.”

“And I’ll take the bus home.” Claire stated. “Should’ve one in fifteen minutes or so.”

I nodded and together we walked on through the night.

As mentioned Maya waved us goodbye at the gate and I walked on with Claire to the nearby bus station.

“You don’t need to come with me, you know.” Claire said as we turned the corner.

“But I just enjoy your company.” I smirked.

“Want to hear my poetry bundle I made then?”

“Hmmm. I think I’ll pass on that.”

Claire chuckled. “You still need to learn how to appreciate the arts more, my friend.”

“Eh, I appreciate them plenty already.” I just kept the conversation going. In all honesty, I was just accompanying her because I was still a bit worried about some shady people acting around the school. Not everyone had a bodyguard with spy-like training.

“So… Aurora, what’s really up with you?” Claire asked once we got to the bus stop.

“What do you mean?”

“Hmm. Apart from your lesbian epiphany you’ve had, somehow, there’s something else that I’ve been noticing around you lately.”

“Is that so? I think I’ve been acting pretty normally.”

Claire thought for a second and shook her head. “Sorry for calling you out on stuff but I don’t think that’s the case, my friend.”

“Huh…”

“First of all. I think it’s obvious you, Ria and Emma are hiding something. The school and the others might believe the story about the extracurricular activities. But I’m not that naive. Secondly but connected to the first part, you and Ria becoming ‘sick’ at the same time. While technically possible, pretty implausible. Add to that the state Emma was in at school when you two weren’t present…”

My defense started to falter a little as I squeezed my arm with my hand. Claire just continued in the meantime.

“Apart from that, since last week you’ve barely eaten anything at all, especially compared to how much you ate beforehand. And now with your sudden interest in fencing and your insane reaction times… Plus how weird you acted during P.E. last week. Not to forget your ‘why does everyone always want to fight me?’ comment.”

I stopped crossing my arms and scratched the back of my head. Claire clearly had been thinking about this a lot more than I could have ever imagined.

“So, excuse my words but, what the fuck is up with all that!?”

“Uh… I…”

Claire sighed. “If it’s not something you can tell me, I will respect that. But you came to me for your love advice when you could go to no-one else. And we’ve been really good friends for a pretty long time now, haven’t we? How much bigger can this secret be?”

“It’s… it’s pretty darn big, Claire…” I admitted without really admitting to anything specific.

“Are you part of some deep-state secret organisation or something?”

It was scary how close she was even though that comment was probably more in jest than anything else. “Would you…”

“Hmm?”

“Could you give me some time to ask around first. I… I don’t think I should make this decision by myself…”

“So it’s really that big of a secret, huh?”

I nodded.

The bus rounded the corner just when I did.

Claire sighed once more and then smiled at me. “Alright. I’m sorry for pushing you like that. But it has been bugging me like there is no tomorrow.”

“Mhmm, I’m sorry about that.”

“It’s fine.” She put her hand on my shoulder and her other hand in the air to stop the bus. “I’m happy you are at least thinking about telling me.” Claire then waved me goodbye and got on the bus. “See ya tomorrow.”

“Yeah, see ya.” I waved back at her and waited for the bus to leave before I started walking home at a slightly faster pace than usual.

The walk home was luckily uneventful.

When I got in Shima came to ask for attention so I grabbed her in my arms for a moment or two, petting her on her belly, before I put her down on the sofa and took my phone out. I dialed Emma and the phone started ringing.

Her phone only rang twice before she picked up. “Hey Auro, how did the fencing go?” She sounded pretty happy.

“Uhm, pretty good, but that’s not what I wanted to talk about…”

“Did something happen?” Her tone changed, clearly concerned.

“You see, I was walking Claire home…” I explained the entire story to her.

Em stayed quiet for a bit before she replied. “I see. That’s a problem.”

“Yeah… so, what are we going to do?”

“We should discuss this with Ria as well and with Alessia. Maybe she has some ideas on how to handle this.”

“Mhmm.” I agreed. “We should probably also discuss how to tell it to your family, one day.”

“That can wait for a bit until we’ve resolved Claire. Let’s discuss it at your place on Thursday.”

“Okay.” I agreed once again. “Thanks for the advice sweetie.”

I swear I could hear a tiny ‘eep’ coming from across the telephone line. “N-no problem.” Emma stuttered. “But please don’t blindside me like that.”

“Awh. But I love giving you cute nicknames.”

“Not when we are talking about serious things! I must prepare myself for that, y'know!”

I laughed. “I see, I’ll try to keep that in mind.”

Em coughed and then asked me again how fencing went, apart from Claire’s inquisition.

“Good to hear, this Maya person sounds friendly.”

“She is. Definitely queer as hell too.”

“I wonder why I’ve not seen her around before. You said she has blue hair, right?”

“Maybe that’s because we just have eyes for each other.”

“You flirt.” She chuckled. “Have you called Ria yet?”

“No, I just got home and immediately called you. Didn’t want to call you outside just in case someone overheard me or something.”

“That’s true. But you should definitely call her. She was in a very hugging mood when we dropped her off at her house.”

“Was she?”

“Yeah, she hung on my arm during the entire car ride.”

“Awh, that’s cute.”

“She is, she very much is.”

We both didn’t say anything for a while before Em continued speaking.

“So, yeah. Don’t forget to call her, okay? Need to go now, Karin wants to watch the stars with me now. She just came in with her pouty face.”

“Okay, don’t let me keep you from your sisterly duties.” I giggled. “See ya tomorrow Em, good night.”

“Good night, babe.” She quickly hung up after that. Probably too blushy to wait for a reply. I got to say, when she said that, I did start to feel quite warm inside.