Title: Sustained
Fandom: Magic Knight Rayearth
Rating: General
Length: 1400 words
Content notes:
Author notes: Post-canon, Umi and Clef, a magic lesson which goes a little... wrong.
Summary: "I don't think that's what you wanted," Umi murmured, eyes wide. "How is that even doing that?"


oOo

The idea was to get far enough out in the wilds - the bits of Cephiro that were always sparsely poplulated, even before the fall - that whatever chaos Umi managed to cause, it wouldn't disturb anyone.

Clef still hadn't prepared for things to go quite like this.

Teaching Umi to control the weather was always going to be… interesting, but when she'd started to influence it by accident, it had to be done. She'd even sheepishly offered to keep a week of her summer holiday free to stay in Cephiro and learn this. That was a huge commitment on her part, given how busy she was at this 'University' of hers, and how much she was looking forward to relaxing. (Not that studying was precisely what was keeping her busy, given all her talk of clubs and other shenanigans.) No, the least Clef could do was match the consideration she was showing by taking her seriously - so he had wrangled a week away from his duties, and found one of the little ranger-shelters they could use as a base of operations.

(Normally he wouldn't have bothered with finding a shelter, but teaching Umi to control the weather? He rather suspected they'd want to wait out a downpour a time or two, even if they were heading back to the castle every evening.)

Anyway, it was a good excuse for Fyula to come out to take them out. He'd not had much time with his friends lately; it was worth Umi turning up just in time to see Fyula half-squash him demanding a head-rub.

They came down into the clearing, which was a good size, just as he'd hoped, and Umi paid diligent attention to both what he was telling her, and the demonstration he gave of how to call up a very little cloud cover. "Weather magic is only ever to be used in moderation. Some forces just don't appreciate being meddled with," he told her, keeping a very tight grip on his power and letting only a trickle through into the spell. "But sometimes it's necessary to stop a drought, or move a storm on before it causes flooding."

"How long did it take you to work that one out?" Umi asked, sat cross-legged on the floor with her head tilted back to watch the sky, a smile teasing the edges of her lips. "You've only had actual weather for six years."

"Oh, little bits of manual adjustment have always been needed here and there. …The flooding was new, I admit."

She laughed, but as he started to cut the spell off, he could see her screwing her eyes up to see the flow of power through the air. (She hadn't quite got the hang of doing that without pulling faces yet.) "Okay," she said, as he wrapped it up and then let the wisp of white cloud drift apart again. "So, my turn?"

"Go ahead. Just- keep it small."

He stepped back to watch, and had to grin when the first wispy bits of cloud she was coaxing together were joined by a couple of friends. "A little less power, I think," he called.

Umi flexed her shoulders back a little, held her hands a little wider apart. "That's - I don't think those are me."

Clef blinked at her, then focused enough to see the power pooled between her hands, the minuscule trickle she was letting free to the cloud-spell… which was still getting bigger, beginning to boil up at an ominous rate, the wisps darkening as they gathered. More vapour was boiling up on all sides of her spell, tapping into it, though he could see she wasn't calling it. "Let go," he instructed, closing the space between them and eyeing her connection to the spell - it was thrumming in her hands, like it was trying to break loose. "End it."

"I don't think I can!"

"Yes, you can. You're far more stubborn than any cloud."

He watched her try, biting her lip as her fingers closed tight about her power as she yanked it back - and it worked. She cut off the connection, and Clef watched with wide eyes as the storm above them suddenly accelerated, clouds building like an explosion.

"I don't think that's what you wanted," Umi murmured, eyes wide. "How is that even doing that?"

"Try grabbing it again," Clef instructed. "If you can hold it, I can try dispersing it." He dropped into his own magic and reached out with her, and - oh.

He hadn't expected Cephiro to pay attention, but the boiling storm gathering happily above their heads was shot with her power, happily expanding on the pattern Umi had made for her. And she didn't want to let go. In fact, there was a wind picking up, trying to pull the clouds away from them and spread them out over the land - which did not need a spectacular soaking!

Closing his eyes, he planted his feet more firmly, grit his teeth, and set to work trying to break the pattern.

oOo

Three and a half hours later, the two of them were soaked through, exhausted, and muddily triumphant. "Please tell me the weirdo egg-hut has seats," Umi demanded, reaching with shaking hands to let him help her up. "I need to sit down for a week!"

"There should be at least one bed against the wall, you can lie down instead." Clef pulled her up and towards the shelter, thumping the door with one hand to open it. He felt far too wet to be this wrung-out; the land had, apparently, been waiting for the right person to come along and give her weather instructions - which probably accounted for Umi's accidental manipulations, come to think of it. He'd have to apologise later, it hadn't been her control that was the issue at all.

He was going to have to go ask the Priests about this. It had to be related to Umi being a Magic Knight, but what that meant was beyond him just then.

Right now, they both needed a drink, a rest, and something to eat. Fortunately, the shelter could provide all of those, out of the fine and clearing drizzle as the last of the storm drifted apart. He pushed Umi in the direction of the bed and made for the little kitchenette on the other wall, poking through the cupboards until he found several flasks of water with a preservation laid on them, and a couple of the little boxes of 'emergency soup' - dried vegetables and seasonings with a handful of grains that he dumped into a pot with some water and set to heat, before taking Umi a drink, and flopping against the wall beside her to just close his eyes for a moment.

Next thing he knew, everything smelt of smoke, and Umi was sleepily muttering 'are we on fire?' against his shoulder.

Clef swore, and shot across the room, but even dumping almost a flask of water into the pan couldn't save the burnt remnants. He stared down at the blackened pot, little charred bits of once-soup drifting in the manky water, and had a moment of complete blankness before snatching the pot up and storming outside with it.

He came back, having left the damn thing in a puddle to cool off and stop smelling, and stared at the cupboards again - this time, he found the hardtack and made himself gnaw on a piece while he found another pot and some more soup, and this time stood staring at it dubiously for the time it took to look edible. But Umi made a pleased noise when he pressed a mug into her hands - and when he got back to the castle, he was going to go have a talk with the Rangers about keeping emergency rations which didn't require you to stay awake for half an hour before you could eat it.

oOo

They both crashed on the bed after that, fully clothed, too tired to care about being so close. He didn't wake up again until morning sunlight was flowing in through the open doorway - along with Umi's laugh.

He blinked his eyes blearily open as she appeared in the doorway - his exiled cooking pot in her hands. "Guess I'm making breakfast," she said, grinning.

Flopping back onto the bed, Clef pulled the covers up over his head and ignored her as she laughed again, and began a cheerful clattering in the kitchen.