Archive of Our Own ^beta

Palmer's footsteps echo, heavy, down the long hall leading up to the stadium. It's in some part due to her new horseshoes, which were hammered on by Daitaku Helios herself as a thanks.

For what, exactly? she’d asked. Sticking with her? Being her partner? Believing in her? Helios makes it easy, but the look in her eyes when she handed the horseshoes over made it hard to refuse.

(If Palmer's being honest with herself, Helios' sunny smile when she accepted was more than enough for a reward. Not that she'd ever say it out loud.)

Her mechanical walking halts when she spots another figure up ahead, moving at a much slower pace. Consumed in thought, or anxiety, as horse girls are wont to be right before a race as important as this. Palmer has to squint to see who it is, the distance making them blurry, but she makes out purple hair and white clothes and then it's really just obvious.

Mejiro McQueen. She's still, in Palmer's head, her baby sister, even if it's not an accurate way to describe her anymore.

At first glance, the two couldn't be more different. McQueen, who dons royal purple hair to match her eyes, who wields that refined air about her as a tool. Then Palmer, who almost instinctively reaches out to others, who doesn't quite feel worthy of the surname. Brown hair, gray eyes. No one would have guessed.

But they are from the same family, in the end. The same expectations and the heavy mantle of the Mejiro name. McQueen hasn't noticed her yet -- she must be really absorbed to not realize there's someone else behind her. Palmer could wait for her to walk out. It's not like they have much time to make small talk, after all, and have they ever been that close? Yet--

"McQueen?" she calls out in spite of it all, before she has a chance to stop herself.

McQueen jumps, making a small, choked noise, then turns on her heel. "Ah. Palmer." She smiles, tight lipped. Palmer's eyes are drawn to where she drums her thigh with her fingers. "How are you feeling about the race today?"

"Well, excited, like always. A bit anxious too, I guess. Mm, but what about you? This is your big comeback, isn't it?"

McQueen speeds up a little, face paling. "It's fine. I mean to say, I'm feeling fine." It's extremely unconvincing. She's switched from tapping her fingers to playing with the hem of her shirt.

"...You're nervous, aren't you?" McQueen's face goes slightly pink, and she opens her mouth as if to deny, but then she closes it again. Her posture sags.

"Yes. You could say that."

"I understand. Although... you didn't used to get this worked up before big races."

"Yes, well." The last time Palmer met McQueen before a race, she was barely into her career. McQueen is kind enough not to say it. "I suppose there's someone I'm trying to... prove myself to, today."

"Someone?" Palmer can relate -- her mind briefly flickers to Helios, but she tries to force the image out of her head. "Who is it?"

"...Tokai Teio." It's said like an exhale, reverent. Palmer realizes slowly where she's seen that expression before, that gratefulness, the way the tired lines of her face soften. "You see, this isn't just my return race. I made a promise to her, that I would be her goal. That I would be a worthy rival. I intend to keep it."

McQueen turns and straightens, carefully neutral again. "So I won't lose. Not to you, not to anyone."

They're close to the exit. She starts to walk off, like that's it. It almost irks Palmer, who has to jog to catch up. "It happens that I have someone like that too, you know."

"Hm? Is it the blue girl that's hanging around you all the time?" That vague unease in Palmer's stomach takes shape. Annoyance.

"Her name is Daitaku Helios." McQueen studies her intensely. She must realize something, because she coughs into her fist, looking slightly guilty.

"I apologize. Helios, then." Palmer feels strangely vindicated. It's not every day one can get McQueen to eat her words, after all.

"All I'm saying is having a promise to keep isn't enough." These disjointed thoughts keep spilling out of her, foreign. It's the most she's talked to McQueen in what must be a year. "Everyone who's racing, all fourteen of us, we have different reasons to run. I promised Helios I'd win the first race I took part in with these," Palmer clicks her heel against the ground, "and that we would participate in the later brackets together. I'm not going to let her down, either."

She levels her chin, defiant. McQueen keeps looking at her in that intense way, searching, before a careful smile spreads across her face. She considers her words, then says, "did you realize that our motives are... similar?"

"Huh? I mean... we did both make a promise..." Palmer thinks about it for a few more seconds. "Do you think we feel the same way about our partners?"

"That's what you get out of it?" Palmer notices she doesn't refute the assertion that Teio is her partner, even though she'd been calling her a rival just moments ago. "But, yes, I would say we likely feel the s-same way."

Palmer peeks at McQueen's face, which is now a solid red. They're probably on the same page about what that feeling is, which shocks Palmer more than it should. Her baby sister? And Tokai Teio?

Then again... Palmer remembers passing by Spica practices and seeing Teio devoutly cheer McQueen on, or sling a casual arm over her shoulder, or feed her, or any number of not quite platonic things... Not to mention all the media coverage of their almost obsessive rivalry turned friendship. Maybe it's not that unbelievable after all.

"Heh." Palmer coughs, suddenly embarrassed at the notion that McQueen might be going through a similar thought process in her head. She tries not to linger on how her and Helios come off to others. "I guess we have that in common."

"That we do... Err, I'm still not going easy on you. Regardless." McQueen's trying to regain composure. The effect is ruined by her ridiculous blush.

"Of course. Beckenbesides, I'm going to ultim-outrun you," Palmer announces. McQueen raises a brow, but she can't help a silly grin from spreading across her face.

"Is that so?" McQueen says, and laughs. Miracle. It must be the infectious spirit of Helios, her ridiculous terms and easygoing vibes.

Come to think of it, this is the most connected Palmer's felt to McQueen in a while.

The two of them finally approach the entrance to the stadium. Wind blows over them suddenly, and it puts out the relaxed atmosphere like a match snuffing out. As if sobering them to the realization that either way, a promise will be broken today.

"Well then. No need to dawdle." McQueen walks a few more steps down the hall, meeting the light, then turns around. She echoes Palmer’s expression: determined, mouth drawn into a certain line. "Make no mistake about it. I will win."

For her. It goes unsaid. Cloaked in shadow, Palmer narrows her eyes. Gray meeting purple. "Don't be so sure."

McQueen exits with a last half-smile, conceding. Her uniform melts into the light. Palmer waits for the cheering to subside; takes a deep breath.

She walks out onto the turf, smiling wide, and imagines Helios cheering for her in the roaring crowd.