Title: As good as
Fandom: Magic Knight Rayearth
Rating: General
Length: 1600ish words
Content notes: Background: one canon character is implied to have died a while before this starts.
Author notes: Modern day/mundane AU
Summary: "Don't you think getting married is a bit extreme as a way to go on holiday?"

oOo

"Don't you feel like you're going about this all - backwards or sideways or something?" Ferio stood in the doorway to Clef's bedroom, watching him go through his clothes and dump half into a large suitcase, the other half getting discarded onto the floor.

"Ferio-"

"No, seriously, you're meant to get to know someone before you fly off halfway around the world to marry them, I'm pretty certain about that!"

"I do know her," Clef protested - mildly - looking between his two winter coats and trying to decide which looked smarter. "I know her some, anyway."

"You do not! You know of her, and my sister knows her well enough to come up with this ridiculous plan-"

"Shouldn't you be off yelling at Emeraude, then?"

"She was drunk when she came up with this ridiculous plan - you were drunk when you agreed." Ferio threw his hands up. "I just don't know why you're still going through with it! Promises made when shit-faced at the tail end of a wedding reception do not need honouring!"

Clef dumped the contents of his sock drawer onto his bed then sat down beside them to sort through the chaos, matching them and throwing the first pairs he made all in with the clothes. Pairing socks was one of the many things he'd stopped bothering to do along the way somewhere. "A promise is a promise."

"You were under the influence! Neither legally nor morally binding."

"Look, I don't see what's getting you so worried. Your sister's friend needs some help because a bunch of executives have dragged up some 'no unmarried woman shall inherit' clause to try and keep her from taking over her grandfather's company - largely because they want to take over themselves, from what I can gather. If the best way to say 'fuck off' to them is for her to acquire a foreign husband who would be plainly useless at running the company and supports her doing it herself - well." He shrugged. "I've always wanted to see the world. And haven't you been telling me I need a change?"

"Don't you think getting married is a bit extreme as a way to go on holiday? I know you - you and your 'a promise is a promise'. You're not going to make any vows without holding yourself to them-"

"We're getting married in Japan, Ferio. We're signing some paperwork and submitting it to the local government. We're not planning on doing the party or the vows - I'm not sure I'm over the hangover from Lantis's wedding yet."

That was possibly badly stated - it was Lantis's wedding where he and Emeraude had sat at the back getting completely sloshed until they came up with this great plan to help out one of the best friends of Emeraude's not-quite-girlfriend. (She'd got as far as admitting she was probably dating Hikaru only after the first three drinks. It had prompted the second bottle of champagne. If she actually managed to ask Hikaru to date her properly, Clef was going to insist on grape juice for the toasts.)

Ferio snorted in recognition of that. "Yeah, I don't think so either." He took a breath. "Clef… are you sure this is what you want to do?"

Pausing, Clef stared down at the sock in his hand. It had little blue fish around the top. He hadn't seen the partner in years, it was worn through on the heel, and he couldn't let it go. It was the last birthday present he'd had-

He dropped it in the suitcase. Ferio didn't comment.

"We're pretty much signing a business contract," he said, after a breath. "On which gives me at least a year to be somewhere else, to think about what I want to do with, you know. The rest of my life, I guess. And maybe…"

"Maybe get on with that novel you refuse to let anyone read which I can see you've packed?" Ferio said, waving to the battered notebook under the scattering of socks. "Add 'published author' to the doctorate you've collected?"

It was Clef's turn to huff. "Even if I finished it in a year, getting an agent and then going through the publishing process - that's years, Ferio, not just one."

"Well, there's self publishing too." Pushing himself to his feet, Ferio picked up the stack of trousers from the top of Clef's dresser. "You might want these."

"Thanks-"

"And take this, too." Ferio dropped the trousers in the suitcase and flung his arms around Clef instead.

It took a moment to get past being startled, but Clef hugged him back, sliding off the bed so he wasn't at a terrible angle for it.

"You'll be okay," Ferio muttered, with a sigh. "But if this woman's so loaded, I expect you to pay for me to come visit in a few months. Deal?"

"Deal," Clef said, with a laugh. "But it'll be economy class. And I don't promise accommodation."

"Not sure I want to stay with a couple of weirdo newlyweds who're still basically strangers," Ferio retorted, holding on tight for one more moment before letting go. "Okay, Charlotte. I'm off to bed so I'm awake to drive you to the airport in the morning at ridiculous o'clock."

"I can take a taxi?"

"But you're not gonna," Ferio said, and waved as he headed across the flat to the guest room - now Ferio's for the duration, with the flat officially sublet and all, not that he hadn't been living here for almost a year already. "See you in the morning!"

"Night, Ferio." Clef flopped back on the bed and stared a the suitcase again, stomach unsettled, but determined.

If he didn't take a chance now at actually doing something interesting for once… well, he probably wouldn't ever. Except by accident. After he and Emeraude jointly walked Lantis down the aisle (they'd insisted - the fact that he towered above both of them amused them greatly, the fact he let them stand as his family meant a lot) and got thoroughly pissed, it had seemed… appropriate. Lantis was married, Emeraude was dating, Ferio had a job that he seemed to be enjoying - time for him to try something new.

(Lantis's new husband had seemed just as amused as the rest of them, especially as he got to stand at the end of the aisle looking petite and delicate waiting for Lantis to get there and tower over him, too. One more reason Eagle seemed a pretty good fit for their hodge-podge family - shared terrible sense of humour.)

That was only a month ago, and here he was packing - at the last minute, of course - with a one-way ticket tucked into his passport and a grand total of five hours clocked up talking to his fiancee in the last few weeks, getting to know the bare minimum about each other.

Time to sleep, then in less than a day - see if this deal was going to work.

oOo

Ten minutes later, he blinked and then leaned out the door to snap 'Oi! I'm not in an Austen novel and I'm definitely not marrying Mr Collins!" in the direction of Ferio's room. He could hear Ferio laughing even through the shut door.

oOo

He got an hour of restless drowsing in before his alarm went off at four. Ferio was obnoxiously awake when Clef stumbled out of his room, and Emeraude even more so when they stopped by her house on the way to the airport so she could give them breakfast - and then get in the car too. "To keep my brother company," she said.

Clef was too tired to glare at her. "You just want to see if I actually go through with it."

"That too," she said, cheerfully, and handed him a travel-cup of tea.

They saw him to security, and Emeraude hugged him just as tight as her brother had, before packing him off.

He didn't normally manage to sleep on flights, but this time he was exhausted enough to crash partway through, and stumbled off the other side bewildered by - everything, really. He spoke about twelve words of Japanese right now, and read absolutely none of it, and this was starting to feel like a tremendously foolish idea.

Then a voice he recognised - even without the wavering of a dodgy computer connection - called out "Hey, husband! Over here!" and he looked over the exit barriers (as did most of the other passengers) to see Ryuuzaki Umi beaming at him, with his battered suitcase and rumpled clothes and all.

She met him at the end of the gate, reaching out to take the suitcase from him. "You look like you've been stuck on a flight for half a day," she said, her English practically flawless. She'd grown up partially abroad, she'd told him. "Come on, lets get you home."

"Sorry," he managed. "I-"

"Don't worry about anything," she insisted, and she set the suitcase aside to grab his hand. "Just come, get something to eat and get some sleep. And think of it this way - the longer you stay here, the longer you have before you have to get on another flight like that one."

Clef stared at her, and then burst out laughing. "We'll be married for the rest of time if you promise I never have to get on a plane again."

"Sounds good to me," she told him, and then towed him off through the crowds, his suitcase in her other hand, towards his new home.

oOo