Title: Curious boredom

Fandom: Magic Knight Rayearth

Rating: Teenish?

Length: 1600ish

Content notes: Some talk of sex and some kissing

Author notes: This was meant to be the fic which comes after ‘storm warning'. …Instead it seems to be one which goes before. Oops~ Umi/Clef. For date, but also fits chemistry and exploration.

Summary: “It sounds like you’re not enjoying yourself very much. Maybe you’re using the wrong criteria to choose people?”

oOo

They hadn’t been able to get to Cephiro quite so regularly once they all started University - there were so many other new things, clubs and study groups and sometimes even university reading, which they had to fit in. One of the things Umi had tried was going on a few dates - she’d felt vaguely like she ought to. At least so she could say she had, and because she was curious. High school had been too busy. (High school and visiting Cephiro once a week certainly had.) But even when she’d enjoyed herself, it had been… like hanging out with a friend. There weren’t any of the ‘fireworks’ people talked about.

In the meantime, she’d been grouching at Clef about the whole process, while he mostly ignored her and got on with his work. “It sounds like you’re not enjoying yourself very much,” he’d said. “Maybe you’re using the wrong criteria to choose people?”

“Oh, how would you know?” Umi slumped lower in the chair she’d made him summon up for her. (There were a couple of visitor chairs buried under books and paperwork, but they weren’t as comfortable as the summoned ones.) “It’s not like anyone would want to date you. You look like a kid!”

He snorted. “Only for the last three centuries. It’s voluntary, not a curse - it’s not like I couldn’t change if I wanted to.”

“Huh.” Umi stared at him. “…That just sounds so weird, ‘I’ve only been a child for three hundred years!’ You shouldn’t be alive for three hundred years.”

Reaching out, Clef bopped her gently on the head with his pen, not even looking up from his work. “This is Cephiro, not your Tokyo. I’m not a ghost yet. …And I was actually a child at one point too, you know. By our reckoning, you still are.”

“Meh.” She flopped lower still in her chair, staring at the side of Clef’s face, wondering idly what he would look like grown up. “Come on, then, what are your criteria for picking someone to date?”

“For someone to have a relationship with,” he corrected, absently. “Your ‘dating’ sounds a bit like Cephiran courting. So I’d want someone who I didn’t just like spending time with, but I wanted to spend more time with. Someone I wanted to share things with. And someone who gets under my skin, who distracts me. if there’s no strong emotional interaction, it’s not worth trying to work out if you want to let someone into your bed. It’s always more awkward ending things after that, and without having a strong reaction to each other the sex is generally disappointing, anyway.”

Umi flushed bright red, almost falling out of the chair as she shoved herself back upright. “You- what do you even know about sex?” she stammered, and the tips of Clef’s ears were slightly red, but he was smirking, the brat.

“More than you do.”

“I- fine! From your description, I need to find someone who pisses me off as often as you do!” She shoved out of the chair, and stomped out of the room, pretending she couldn’t hear him trying not to laugh.

“It’s better than being bored!” He called after her.

oOo

Only after that she hadn’t been able to stop wondering about it. What Clef would look like, if he was taller.

…No, being honest with herself - which she was trying to do, now she was admitting the whole dating thing was a flop - she was interested in the things that taller Clef would be interested in doing, with the person who met his ‘criteria’. If he’d have the same sharp focus on them, in his bed, as he did when he cast a spell. How he would touch them-

She thumped her head against her pillow, and turned over. She’d been curious about the whole sex thing, that was one of the reasons she’d given in and tried dating, only now she’d given up on that as a bad plan, she didn’t have any plans, and it was… frustrating.

That was the only reason she was thinking about Clef so much. He’d put the idea in her head, and it was his fault she was wound up. Her dreams weren’t helping, charged impressions of touching someone, kissing, hands sliding down over her hips - and never any idea what he’d looked like when she woke up, like even her dreams couldn’t decide.

Their next time in Cephiro, she hesitated, but she always visited Clef. (And… when had that started? Back when they could only get here once a month? She’d started seeking him out about then, because she… missed him. Wanted to tell him what she’d been doing…)

(…Oh. …Oh dear.)

She walked slowly up to his door, raised a hand to knock, and wavered. Maybe she should just say hi and leave? Clef shouldn’t have to put up with her being weird, just because she’d been thinking… things… all week.

The door swung open when she was still hesitating, and Clef was looking straight at her. Umi flushed; he looked just as he always did, and she felt like a creep. “Sorry!” she blurted, and flushed harder.

“…I don’t think I want to know,” he said, slowly. “Are you coming in?”

Umi sighed. “Yeah.”

Clef eyed her as he summoned a chair, without even being asked to. “I thought it was you, lurking out there. So… how are things?”

“I’ve given up on dating boring people?” She sat, and folded her hands in her lap, and looked down at her jeans.

It was awkward. When she glanced up, Clef was staring down at his papers just as intently as she had been looking at her knees, and neither of them said anything for a long moment - until both of them blurted ‘I’m sorry!” at the same moment.

“I- why are you sorry?” She asked, confused, and the blush spread across Clef’s cheeks.

“For teasing you, last time. I said too much, and made you uncomfortable. I didn’t mean to.” He looked at her, looking earnestly miserable. “I forget your culture isn’t as comfortable with things like that.”

“It’s more that we’re uncomfortably obsessed with it, I think,” Umi muttered. “It’s fine, Clef. I know you didn’t mean…”

“Good! Good. Right.” They stared at each other a moment, then Umi gave in and grinned, and Clef laughed back at her.

For a few minutes things were almost comfortable again, but Umi still couldn’t stop wondering. “Why do you stay this way?” she asked, abruptly, and Clef froze. “I mean, if it was - keeping the princess company, I guess I understand that, but the whole Pillar system is gone. So you must have another reason.”

“…It’s a bother.” He looked down, and Umi waited for him to say something more, but that was it. His ears were starting to go red again.

“What’s a bother?”

“The whole thing! Sex, relationships - if I’m like this, at least there’s one less way for you to get under my skin!” He stared at her, eyes wide, breathing hard. “…People. For people to get under my skin.”

Umi stared back. “For me to-”

“I didn’t mean to say that!”

“But was it true?” her voice wavered, and she held onto her knees to keep from moving.

He took a breath, and then another. “If it was-” Clef stopped, and swallowed, then pushed himself away from the desk. His voice was rougher than usual when he next spoke. “…Were you curious, about what I’d be like, grown?”

The flush on her face grew hotter still, which was probably answer enough. Umi still managed to croak out a ‘yes’ about the edges of it.

“Well then.” He closed his eyes, and as he stood, light started to wrap about him, too strong for Umi to see through - and it grew. Her heart started beating faster, and she stood even before the light started to fade away.

By the time Clef opened his eyes again - eyes which were on a level with hers, now, but just as blue, just as sharp - she was so close she had to take a step back to actually look at him. He’d managed to grow his clothes, too. (She hadn’t even wondered about that until she realised he had.) His robes were so enveloping that she got the faintest impression of a slimly built figure, but his hands were elegant, and his hair cascaded about a face which was more arresting than beautiful, sharp-boned and still flushed.

“Umi,” he whispered, and his voice… his voice was the same as before.

That, somehow, was the thing which had her moving. She stepped in, a hand reaching up to touch the line of his cheek, and he leaned in at the same time, his hands on her waist.

The first touch of their lips sent a chill over Umi’s head and down her spine. She shuddered and leaned in harder, and Clef wrapped his hands about her back as he opened his mouth, caught her lower lip between his.

Fireworks had nothing on the cascade of heat sparking through her, urging her closer. Clef seemed to have no objections to that as a plan, helping when she reached to fumble with the clasp of his robes. Distantly, she noticed a burst of rain against the windows, but however loud the noise, it wasn’t enough to distract her; Clef was managing that far better.