Title: Departure
Fandom: Magic Knight Rayearth
Rating: Teenish
Length: 1500
Content notes: Vaguest alluding to sex, poly relationship (currently two overlapping relationships), leave-taking?
Author notes: *Appears from the shadows to start posting again??* A snippet of the universe in which Umi and Clef are a thing, and Umi and Tarta are now also a thing. Only now Tarta has to go home.
Summary: It's not the politest leave-taking, though Tarta's doing her best not to be rude to anyone. Even if she hates this.

oOo

The morning was awkward enough, trying to take her leave from everyone she needed to and not offend them in the process - or forget anyone and offend them that way. So Tarta really wasn’t pleased when she realised she’d left her rings - including her seal, of all things - in the rooms Umi shared with the Master Mage.

She hadn’t seen either of them since breakfast - Umi had growled something about meeting her before she took off, and fled. Clef had sighed, and gone after her - and Tarta hadn’t moved. What could she say? ‘Sorry I’m leaving’? She’d said that last night, every way she knew.

…Which was why her rings were in Umi and Clef’s bedroom, after he’d diplomatically suggested they might want some time together and vanished all night.

But she couldn’t find Umi, still, and she couldn’t get through the shields on the door without being very, very loud - even then it would be close, the shields were almost as strong as the one Clef had wrapped about the entire Castle when Cephiro was crumbling. She’d bet her sister or Umi could break them down, especially if he wasn’t actively holding them, but (though she didn’t want to admit it) she wasn’t sure she would be able to break through.

Anyway, that would be rude. And he did have a workroom in there, so there was a chance…

She knocked on the door, and when Clef opened it he stared at her in just as much bewilderment as she’d been turning on him for the past nine months. “I… Are you looking for Umi? She’s not here right now, but I could find her for you-”

“No, I just - I left some stuff. Last night.” She flushed, and hoped it wasn’t enough to show. “…By the, uh, by the bed?”

“…Come on in,” he said, and stepped out of her way.

He didn’t follow when she hustled through the main living area and into the bedroom, but stayed out by the chairs; she grabbed the rings and jammed them onto her hands painfully fast, trying hard not to think about why she’d taken them off.

A few seconds, and she was turning around, striding through the rooms and trying not to let it turn into a run. She’d made it as far as the door before Clef said anything else, though she could feel his attention on her. She hadn’t said an official goodbye to him - she probably should, but she had no idea what she would say.

“Princess Tarta…” Clef started, and both of them winced at the honorific, and he hesitated. Tarta paused in the door, watching him - this man she didn’t understand, who she nevertheless understood terrifyingly well in some moments.

He wasn’t normally nervous. Tarta folded her arms, trying to make it look more like impatience than anxiety. But she was leaving - and she was leaving Umi with him. What more could he take from her?

(That wasn’t a fair thought. She knew that. Umi wasn’t his, wasn’t Tarta’s either, she was her own person - but it was hard to be losing something and know it to be entirely your own choice and none of your choice, and she wanted to blame someone. Who else but the other person who had so large a part of Umi’s affections? But it wasn’t anyone’s fault but Tarta’s that she was leaving - well, hers, and also the wording of one important international treaty which had given Chizeta a year of an office lodged in Cephiro, but only a year.)

(Nothing felt fair. And she didn’t want this man - this man in particular - to stand there looking worried about her.)

“Well, what?” she demanded. “Hurry up, won’t you? They’re waiting for me.”

“When you come back - you should come here.” He waved a hand about the suite. “With us. Don’t stay up on your ship. Stay here.”

Tarta - blinked. “With… you?”

Clef pulled a face. “With Umi, anyway. I’d be the random extra you didn’t ask for, I know, but - look. Umi’s rooms from when she first moved are still here, but she hasn’t used them in a year.” He waved a hand at a door in the wall of the living room that Tarta had vaguely assumed was another storage room or something - she knew Umi had had her own suite of rooms and didn’t seem to be in them anymore, but she hadn’t realised it was adjoining. “You would be welcome to make that space your own, if you want to. It locks on that side, and Umi could spend time with you without worrying about getting locked onto the Bravada and missing her early lessons…” He took a breath. “She is going to miss you.”

It should have been a non-sequitur, instead it was a kind of explanation. “…Does she know you’re giving away her rooms?”

“I told her she could ask you, and she said I should, as they were my rooms first.” He pulled a different face at that, fond and exasperated, and a little of the tension faded from the room. “But I’m serious. And so is she. You would be very welcome - Umi can tell you I’m better at respecting other people’s space than defending my own, I wouldn’t bother you. That door locks on your side; you’d be able to keep your space private any time you want, even from Umi-”

My side? Tarta thought, and it was a tiny fraction of hope in the bitterness of departing. “I’ll - I’ll think about it.”

“Thank you.” Clef’s hands twisted nervously in the air, and then he held a folded and sealed envelope. “If - when you’re settled and ready to- think about it - here.” He thrust it forward and Tarta accepted, confused. There was nothing on the envelope but her name, in the untidy scrawl she recognised as his. He’d managed the full name and title, too, for once.

She wasn’t sure she wanted to know what the contents could be to warrant that.

She folded the paper and shoved it in a pocket. “Thanks,” she said, gruffly. “I’d better-”

“Yes, before anyone starts to worry we’re kidnapping you,” Clef said, tone dry.

Tarta snickered, and waved only a little awkwardly before leaving to go find Umi.

oOo

Umi was waiting by the portal where the bridge extended out to the Bravada, waiting for her to cross before it folded away. She was tapping one elegant foot on the floor, arms folded, a frown creasing her forehead so hard it looked set in stone.

When she saw Tarta the frown got worse, and Tarta grimaced back.

“I was beginning to think you’d gone already,” Umi said, voice hard enough to make it an accusation. Tarta flinched, but didn’t let herself snap back the way she wanted to.

“You can blame your boyfriend if I’m late,” she said, which wasn’t quite polite. It was still better than ‘maybe I should have, if you’re going to snap at me!’ or ‘if you hadn’t run away to sulk after breakfast we could have spent the last three hours together!’

If she hadn’t been watching as closely as if they were sparring, she wouldn’t have seen Umi flinch. But she did see it, and it made things better and worse at the same time. Tarta dropped her arms to her sides and took a deep breath. “Umi…” she began, but her voice cracked and she had to turn away, eyes prickling hot.

There was a mutter of something rude enough it didn’t translate, then Umi shot across and flung her arms about Tarta. She buried her face against Tarta’s neck. “Don’t go.”

“I have to,” Tarta whispered. The truth of it ached in her chest.

“This is rubbish,” Umi hissed, and the childishness of her wording had Tarta choking back a strangled sort of laugh.

“I know, Umi-”

She was cut off by a desperate, miserable kiss. Umi pressed in against her as if they could meld together so firmly no one would be able to make Tarta leave. Tarta clung on and kissed back, shaking, until the kiss was flavoured by the tears leaking down her cheek. She pulled back far enough to scrub at her face with the back of one hand.

“I wish…” Tarta started, and trailed off, closing her eyes.

Umi nodded, and pulled Tarta’s head down to her shoulder. “I know.”

They stayed there longer than they should have, neither breathing evenly, until Tarta could hear the Bravada’s engines coming online. She stood upright, and kissed Umi’s lips once more, gently. “I’ll come back,” she said - promised. “I’ll find some excuse. I’ll come back.”

“You’d better,” Umi said, eyes shining too bright. She kissed Tarta’s damp cheek, and let go.

Rubbing her hands over her face one last time, Tarta took a deep breach, and stood upright. She held her head high as she walked out onto the ramp, and she didn’t look back until she was right at the top and Umi was a distant figure, arms crossed unhappily again. She waved once, then stepped into the Bravada, and the hatch slid shut behind her.

oOo