Title: stray cables
Fandom: Magic Knight Rayearth
Rating: General
Length: 1500ish words
Content notes: None
Author notes: post-canon Umi and Clef
Summary: Computers are terrifying?

oOo

Umi had been dropping in and out of Clef's study as long as she'd been dropping in and out of Cephiro - it had been a decade at least, by now. The girls were girls no longer, but women with jobs in their own world - and they still came at least one weekend a month, to spend a day catching up with their friends. Umi was in the habit of charging into Clef's study as soon as they arrived, say hi and drop off her bags, and then head out to talk to other people for the rest of the day. She couldn't get back into the room to get her things without his presence, so she'd started it as a joke - a way of ensuring she would see him before she left.

As she left the school system and went to work for her mother's company, she'd become more serious about her things being kept securely. "It's not that I don't trust people here - I mean, what is someone from Cephiro going to do with the newest model of laptop that I'm testing out? You can't even power it! But I don't want anyone accidentally getting too close to it with a spell or- I don't even know what going through the castle shields would do to my mobile phone."

"So you're going to leave your electronics with the lightning mage who has the most heavily shielded rooms in the castle?" Clef had asked, skeptically, eyeing her briefcase from a distance. "That seems unwise."

"You don't leak power all over the place like one of the apprentices, and lets face it, your shields don't hurt anything you don't want hurt, whether or not you understand it."

He wrinkled his nose up at her. "Like you? Because I certainly don't understand you - why not leave it in your rooms? You still have a suite here, you know."

"It's not secure. Besides," she grinned at him, the smile the same even though the school uniform had given way to strangely cut clothes with sharp lines that she called 'suits', which made her look like she was moving at the speed of light though she was standing still, they were cut so sharply. "I still need to make sure you aren't working yourself too hard again - last time I didn't see you for a couple of months you ended up in bed with exhaustion!"

Clef flushed hotly. "That was- an accident, it didn't have anything to do with you-"

"Aside from the fact no one else worked out you were about to keel over!"

Umi's glaring was possibly a little justified, much though he hated to admit it. The strain of holding a chunk of the castle (and... a few other bits of Cephiro) had seemed so light after having to hold everything together when Emeraude passed away, that he hadn't actually noticed as more of the weight came back on his shoulders - it was perfectly natural, more people were moving out of the castle, so there were fewer people still adding their will to hold it together. They had homes of their own now. But they hadn't redistributed the support of the castle between the people, because Clef had just... kept filling the gap, not realising it was getting wider and wider, until he'd caught a slight cold that just refused to go away, right about the time that the girls were taking entrance exams to that last 'university' level of school, and spent a few months not turning up.

Well, by the time they did come back, he'd been almost hiding out in his rooms trying to just - not cause a fuss until he felt better, and Umi had taken one look at him and dragged him down to the healers.

Fortunately, the Master Healer asked enough pointed questions to work out what was after she was done telling him off for not taking care of himself, and the Priests had taken on negotiating who would put what effort into keeping the place together. He was still involved, but there was someone keeping an eye on how much.

So Umi kept bringing her bag for him to look after, while she kept an eye on him, and he had very little idea what the strange equipment she had was used for. Until the day that her bag tipped over half-way through the afternoon, the thump as it went over making him jump half out of his skin. A long, black cable spilled out of the top of the bag, a rectangular box of some sort fixed half-way down it, and he had no idea what it was for.

He also had no idea if he was safe to touch it - he'd learned years ago that the technology from other lands didn't always get on with his power, and being able to co-exist in the same room wasn't the same as direct contact.

So he left it where it was - only it was rather a hazard if anyone came in, so he set a chair over it, which was at least visible, and tried to get on with some work.

It was almost a success, but he was still eyeing that spill of wire, and hoping nothing inside the bag was hurt by the fall - not that it was his fault it had fallen over, it must have been slightly off balance - when Umi came back a couple of hours later, with a small basket of food, most of which she must have brought with her. "Still stuck working through dinner?"

"This report isn't going to write itself, and it's due in two days," he pointed out, sitting back and watching as she set a couple of plates on the desk, and pulled a couple of containers from the basket. "Why is it that you always leave your other bag here, but take the food with you until you want to eat?"

"Because the food goes in the fridge, where it will stay cool," Umi told him, lips twitching up despite her stern tone. "And you might eat all the onigiri before I got back."

"Oh, you brought onigiri today?" he sat up straighter, as she opened the boxes and laughed at him. "What kind? And don't laugh, you're the one who told me they were delicious and then fed me them until I agreed."

"Umeboshi and katsuoboshi," Umi said, shaking her head at him as she handed over the container with them in. "On account of how you were coming down with a cold again last time-"

"I am not coming down with anything-"

"-and it's good for you."

Clef rolled his eyes, but happily took one of the rice triangles. The food Umi brought with her was always interesting, even if it was because she didn't quite trust he was taking care of himself in her absence. He took a bite, and then realised Umi had paused, staring at the corner of the room.

"Clef… Clef, why is my bag in prison?" she asked, her voice starting to wobble.

"Why is it - it's not in prison! I just stuck a chair there so no one would trip over the wire that's spilling out. You must not have leant it against the bookcase very well this morning."

"You couldn't have just put it back in the bag?"

"And have it explode in my hand? I don't know what any of it does! I'm not touching any of that stuff and having you blame me for it going wrong."

"I wouldn't!" Umi said, starting to laugh, because yes she would, the next time she wanted something from him and wanted some reason he owed her. She never lied, but she had been known to stretch the truth sometimes. "Okay, this is getting ridiculous. I didn't charge it up this morning, but I'll do that before I come next time, and I'll show you what the laptop does. Maybe then you won't be terrified of it."

"Or maybe I'll destroy it by being that close," he said, "and then you'll have trouble at work."

She rolled her eyes at him. "Fine, I'll bring an old model, then it won't matter if you break it. You'll be done with these reports by next week, right?"

"Yes?"

"Then I'll come then."

Clef eyed her. "You don't come every week. I distinctly remember you declaring you also have a very important job and don't have time to come over every week just to see all of us."

Umi stared him straight in the eyes, and pointed over at the chair set over her bag. "You put my laptop in prison," she said again, voice shaking with mirth. "Whatever happens, it'll be entertaining at least - I'll bring inarizushi?"

Opening his mouth to protest, Clef remembered precisely which delicious cold rice item inarizushi was, and shut his mouth again. "…I guess," he said. "If you really want to."

Patting his shoulder, Umi grinned and tucked into her own onigiri.

Clef wasn't entirely sure what he was letting himself in for, but if she was going to bribe him, he might as well let her.

oOo