Title: A Small Celebration
Fandom: Magic Knight Rayearth
Rating: R? (Prob a 15 in the UK)
Length: 1,700 words
Content notes: Sex (not particularly explicit)
Author notes: WHOOPS. This is Milieva's fault. Day 5 of my 12-days-of-christmas challenge.
Also for cottoncandy_bingo, 'celebration'.
Summary: Clef/Umi, a one-month anniversary, and a failed interruption.
oOo

She woke up, and Clef was still in bed beside her.

It wasn’t quite a first, but it was certainly less than usual. Nearly a month living with him in Cephiro had taught her that; had taught her that weekday mornings meant waking alone, a mug of tea left beside the bed with a spell on it to keep it warm. That the weekends were different mostly because he woke her when he brought the tea, and they usually had time for breakfast together before one or the other of them had to leave. Clef to his study, Umi to take herself back to her family on Earth, who lay claim to her weekends to make sure they saw her at least part of the week.

The evenings were more reliable for spending time together – and she was good at coaxing Clef away from his papers and spells, though she didn’t feel like she should do that too often. But mornings… they were alarm clocks and tea brewed strong enough to bite, stumbling about into the bathroom and into whichever clothes came to hand – or to mind – first.

Though that was only the mornings they didn’t get interrupted – and the evenings were rather dangerous for that, too. People had a bad habit of coming to Clef for help when everyone else was asleep and they had a problem, mostly because they knew Clef would get out of bed and help them. Only now they were sharing, it was… well.

The reason the bed was set off to one side, in an alcove, and screened by curtains was not to stop any drafts getting to them. And remembering to put some form of clothing on after any activity which removed them was becoming habit – it just didn’t help so much when they were still busy. Their friends usually remembered to knock, unless it was an emergency. Mostly they even remembered to wait for a response.

Clef was awake, curled towards her and watching with a lazy kind of contentment as she woke up. Sunlight was drifting in through the window, filtered to a luminous softness by the curtain behind Clef. Umi blinked at him, and his smile twitched, curled into a grin. “Good morning.” He said, and reached out to tuck a section of hair back behind her ear, escaped from her plait sometime during the night.

“…Morning.” She said, flushing slightly. “Were you watching me sleep? That’s kind of creepy, Clef.”

“Yes, probably.” He agreed, unworried, and pushed himself up on one elbow so he could shift closer. His hand was warm on her cheek, his lips soft against hers, and Umi slid one arm about his back to pull him closer.

“…What day is it?” She asked, sometime later, when he pulled away to smile down at her and neither of them were breathing quite steadily. If he was starting something when he was going to have to dash out to a meeting in twenty minutes…

“Tuesday.” He said, as she took her turn at combing his hair back from his face, the tangled curves wrapping softly about her fingers. “But I took the liberty of cancelling everything I had scheduled before lunch, and I know that you have today as a holiday…”

“How?”

“I may have checked with Hikaru.” His smile was twitching into something wicked again, something promising. “As you won’t write your schedule on the calendar-“

“You couldn’t read it if I did!”

“I’m learning. Or was that a comment about your handwriting? I agree that needs some work-“

Umi moved then, in a rush and a tangle of limbs, and three seconds later Clef was the one pinned to the mattress by her weight on top of him, laughing up at her.

Seeing him so carefree was still such a new thing that she took a moment to drink in every detail she could. His hair tangled on the pillows, the crinkles about his eyes, the way his nightshirt had slipped sideways to bare the long line of his collarbone.

“That’s a lot of trouble to go to. What’s the…” Umi began, and then her mind caught up, counting the days. Oh. “…Occasion. Oh. It’s been a month?”

“A month since you decided to move to Cephiro, to move here with me.” He said. His hands were warm on her waist, through the thin layer of her nightclothes, and she was going to blame that for the shiver – not the way he looked at her, not the way his voice curled husky and reverent. “We have made it a month without attempting to kill each other more than once a week. I felt we might take the time to celebrate that fact, if you would like?”

“You could have told me earlier.” Umi muttered, trying not to flush and failing.

Clef shrugged, as well as he could pinned down to their bed. “To tell the truth, I had lost track of the days. Ferio mentioned it must be nearly a month when I saw him yesterday – I counted the days last night, but it was too late to bother waking you by the time I came to bed.”

“I don’t know. If you knew we were free to sleep in this morning, then technically the anniversary started last night…”

Clef moved, faster than she expected, and it was her time to fall laughing into the pillows. His hands slid up, gathering the cloth of her nightdress as they went, and his lips silenced her laugh, transformed it to a hitched moan. Now, when he pulled back, his eyes were dark, and he was officially smirking. She was too breathless to do anything about it. “It may not be the same time, but I suppose it would be fitting to proceed in the same, ah… direction?” He offered, and Umi’s breath caught. He kissed the line of her jaw, the soft skin below it. Scraped his teeth over the line of her neck in a way he’d learned make her gasp.

Umi wound her fingers into his hair, and held on.

oOo

Ascot followed Ferio along the corridor somewhat uneasily – he’d seen Clef while he was clearing his morning of meetings, and was pretty certain that they would be very unwelcome. But Ferio was determined to get Clef’s opinion on the two ships coming in to land and trade with them, and nothing was going to stop him.

The head of the Guild of Merchants had heard Ascot’s embarrassed explanation that Clef was unavailable this morning, and smiled broadly – which was Dart’s response to most things. “We shall offer them refreshment, and make sure they are well settled, and by the time that is done I am sure the Master Mage will be willing to brief us on the best way to approach negotiations.”

But Ferio was nervous – this was his first time as Host since he had been officially awarded the post of Castellan, and apparently this meant he had to get everything exactly right. Even the kinds of food he offered. So he was dragging Ascot along the corridor to Clef’s rooms – Clef and Umi’s rooms, as they were now. (And that was still a little bit… well. It was something Ascot preferred to face after his first cup of tea, when he was fully awake. That was all.)

Ferio dropped Ascot’s sleeve to knock on the door, and wait – at least he wasn’t trying to get in, Ascot thought, wryly. The wards about the room were a static buzz which pressed out through the air, ticklish on his skin, but all of them had the key to getting through them when they needed to. There was no response, and Ferio pulled a face, knocked harder.

“Come on, Clef! This is more important than having some fun with your lover-“ He yelled, and Ascot felt the buzz of the shields flicker as they came down, enough to warn him to take a long step back. Ferio either didn’t feel it or didn’t pay any attention – and then a new shield slammed through the door and spread along the wall, flashing blue-white and nipping at Ferio’s fist. He yelped and jumped back, then stood pouting at the blocked-off door – the new shield was three inches away from the surface of the wall, far enough that they couldn’t even knock on it.

“That’s not fair!” Ferio yelled, and Ascot found himself trying not to laugh.

“I don’t think they’ll hear you.” He said, when the sound had Ferio pouting at him instead. “I think this spell blocks sound, as well as physical, um, interruptions?”

“You can speak through it, though, can’t you? With that distance-speaking spell-“ Ferio wheedled, but Ascot was already backing away, hands raised defensively.

“I’m not doing that!” He yelped, face flushing. “Not while they’re – you can ask Lantis, if you want, but I’m not-“

Ferio deflated. “Fine. Fine.” He sighed, ran a hand through his hair, stared mournfully at the door one last time. “…Do you think Lantis will-“ He spotted Ascot’s expression, and his shoulders slumped further. “Well, bother.”

“I’m sure the merchants must know how to do things like this?” Ascot offered. “And we have Clef’s reports we can read over…”

“True.” Ferio let himself be led away again, the shield still flickering defiantly behind them.

oOo

Back inside, Clef lowered his hand and turned back to Umi, where she lay shuddering still on the crumpled sheets. One of her hands was fisted in the cloth, the other still tangled in his hair; “aren’t you going to go see what he wants?” She murmured, as she slowly relaxed.

“No. If it’s really important Ferio can find someone to tell me about it first. I’m busy.” Clef turned his head just far enough to press a kiss to her thigh. She flinched a little, fingers pressing into his scalp as she tugged him back up the bed.

“I don’t know, I’m feeling pretty good already...” She said, but even as she said it her other hand was sliding about his back, urging him higher still when he paused to breathe over the sensitive skin across her ribs. “Clef-“

“We’ve barely warmed up yet.” He promised her.

Umi’s laugh was breathless, delighted, and Clef set all thoughts of anything else firmly aside. This morning was for the two of them.

oOo

end

oOo