Title: A small proposition
Fandom: Magic Knight Rayearth
Rating: General
Length: 1500ish words
Content notes: None
Author notes: Stand-alone but set after the Presea/Hikaru pre-relationship thing I posted a couple of rounds ago here. For cave, also for generous for ffwks bingo.
Summary: Hikaru was always so generous with everything - her time, her belongings, her heart - that it made it decidedly hard for Presea to ask a favour of her. Because she knew Hikaru would likely say yes whether she wanted to take part or not in whatever venture Presea was proposing.

oOo

Hikaru was always so generous with everything - her time, her belongings, her heart - that it made it decidedly hard for Presea to ask a favour of her. Because she knew Hikaru would likely say yes whether she wanted to take part or not in whatever venture Presea was proposing.

This time, fortunately, there wasn't much choice, which made it easier.

The girls - who kept laughingly protesting they hadn't been children for at least a decade by the standards of their Tokyo - were in Cephiro as much as they were absent, these days, so it didn't take long after Presea had settled that she did need to ask before a morning dawned with the clear and cheerful feeling which meant Hikaru was back in Cephiro. (Presea wasn't sure she was meant to be able to sense that, but why wouldn't Cephiro be glad that the last Pillar was in residence?) She taught her morning class to the current group of apprentices in their last year of formal training in the main forge of the Guildhall, and then set out for the Castle early enough to arrive for lunch, walking up through the town and waving to LaFarga as she came in through the main Bailey gate.

She didn't need to take this route, not now the secret passage between the castle and her Guildhall was finished, but secret passages remained secret better when you didn't use them just so you could leap out and startle your friends at the other end, so she behaved herself. Besides, it was a lovely day, and a nice walk; several people waved to her as she went by, and two people hailed her to ask how their children were doing, in their first few weeks of training. The castle gardens had about as many people wandering and working in them as the town outside the gates; the food grown here still fed the majority of them, whether they lived inside or outside the wall. But the bells in the castle towers began to ring for midday as she came up to the entrance, and people started to set aside their work.

It was the third day of the week, so Hikaru would probably have spent the morning with the Guard's trainees, which meant she would be coming in from the southern tower right about… now. Presea grinned as the group of young men and women spilled along the corridor, looking enthusiastic and exhausted all at once, the Knights of Fire and Water chatting with a group of them at the very centre of the floor. Umi caught sight of her, grinned, and nudged Hikaru - who looked up, and then broke into an even brighter smile at seeing Presea, waving enthusiastically before she got close enough to break out of the crowd and across to where Presea waited at the side of the corridor.

"Hi!" Hikaru beamed up at her, voice a little breathless. She still had most of her hair in a long braid, but she'd wrapped it up about her head and pinned it in place for the morning, and bits of hair were coming loose here and there to join the shorter hair framing her face. She was a little taller than Presea's shoulder now, with some curves hidden under the bulk of the training armour and tunic she wore, which Presea had spent several years now pretending she hadn't noticed. "I didn't know you were coming up to the castle today - I was going to come over this afternoon and see how your Guildhall looks now you've moved people in. Did you have business with someone here? Will you stay for lunch?"

Presea grinned back, feeling her cheeks heating a little at the enthusiasm. "I came to have lunch with you, actually," she found herself saying. "I mean - I came up to have lunch and see if I could talk to you- I have a favour to ask?"

Hikaru almost bounced on the spot. "Sure! Come on, lets get something to eat, we can talk once we're sat down - have you been teaching this morning?"

"I'm working with the apprentices who are almost ready for their final exams each morning at the moment," Presea said, as Hikaru led her into the dining hall and they each lined up to choose food from the variety of dishes set out on the long tables at the end of the room. "We're working on designing their final pieces right now. Which is actually connected to what I wanted to ask, but - food first. Where do you want to sit?" She could see Umi had dropped into a table with Ferio and Caldina in residence already, and there was space left - but Hikaru picked up her food and led her up the stairs to one of the little mezzanine areas where there were smaller tables, and it was quieter, settling on a table in the corner which was half hidden by a large plant in a pot that seemed far too small for it.

"It will be easier to talk up here?" Hikaru offered.

"Yes, it's - it's nice up here." Presea tried not to flush, nodding, and if she could roll her eyes at herself without being seen, she would. This was as bad as her first crush. "Did you work on anything interesting with the Guard this morning?"

"Oh, yes - we were working on attacks from high places, so I got to jump out of imaginary trees and attack Umi a lot." Hikaru grinned, and Presea blinked at her.

"…Imaginary trees?"

"They set up a bunch of platforms out the side of the training room, so you can pretend you're on a tree or a ledge or something - it was mostly really about learning how to leap down without injuring yourself on your own weapon, as much as a sneak attack on an enemy - the kind of thing Ferio did a lot in the Forest of Silence. But leaping down and trying to hit each other with these sponge bats was just like playing with my brothers when we were little, it was great fun!"

They ate, not too fast, Hikaru gleefully telling Presea about pretending to be some kind of spy-assassin when she was young, playing with her siblings, and despite not eating that fast the meal was over far too soon, both of them setting their cutlery down.

"So. You had a favour you wanted to ask me?" Hikaru said, folding her arms on the table and leaning closer.

Presea nodded, and took a sip from her water glass to clear her throat. "I mentioned that the apprentices have to make something significant to pass their exams and qualify, I think?"

"You did. You've mentioned it before - it has to be something significant to them, something special."

"Yes. Well, I would normally make something along with them, to demonstrate the process, but while I have an idea what I might make, I… need your help getting hold of the materials."

"My help?" Hikaru blinked at her. "Of course I'll help you, but - why me?"

Taking a breath, Presea didn't let herself look away, or falter. "Because what I want to use can be found only in the Shrine to Rayearth, and you are the only person I know who will be able to find it in the new Cephiran geography, now Rayearth has moved on and his mountain sleeps. I cannot sense it, even Clef doesn't know where the Shrines have gone - but we know they still exist. What I want can only be found in that cave. If you would agree… I thought we might go together, and find it, and set it back on the map once more."

For a moment, Hikaru looked at her with her mouth slightly open, eyes wide, as though shock were all she had as a response - and then slowly she started to smile again. But it wasn't the same bright smile as before - this was something warmer, and quiet, and not quite sad. "Yes," she said, softly. "I would like that. And - we can go together, you said. Just the two of us?"

"If you would like- if you wouldn't mind-" Presea stumbled over the words, feeling her face heat. She wasn't expecting anything romantic might come from a bittersweet trip to the past, but…

"It might take some time," Hikaru added, that quiet smile sliding into something more normal, and almost mischievous. "I'm not sure how to find it, so we might need to walk about for a day or two - camp out under the stars together, that kind of thing. Would that be okay?"

Presea couldn't have flushed harder than she did then. "If- yes. If you want to. I would like that. Um."

"Then it's settled," Hikaru said, firmly. "I'll have to check what's in my diary to find some time - I can come to the Guildhall later on and we can work out when we'll both be free?"

"Come to dinner with me," Presea blurted. "At the Guildhall, that is - we have our own dining hall, there isn't as much choice as there is here, but it's not bad, and I can show you around this evening when things are quieter?"

Hikaru nodded, and smiled, and headed off to her next lesson, leaving Presea trying to regain her composure. She was several centuries old, head her Guild, in a position of power - and she still got completely flustered when someone she liked seemed to be responding to her?

Well.

She'd best head back and make sure things were in order before Hikaru showed up. Though at least, if everything else was a mess, she could always just let her loose in the armoury.