Title: A rest
Fandom: Magic Knight Rayearth
Rating: General
Length: 900ish words
Content notes: None
Author notes: Modern day/mundane AU (follows on from last challenge but doesn't need to, just snippet of arranged marriage meeting)
Summary: Umi picks up her new fiance at the airport.

oOo

Umi wasn't sure precisely what she was expecting when her imported husband-to-be arrived. It was pretty early in the morning when his plane landed in Tokyo, but rather less early by the time he got through customs and everything else, and by UK time it was the middle of the night.

Plus, he'd been on a plane for a dozen hours, and he'd only let her upgrade him into one of the seats with a little more room, not all the way into first class. It therefore wasn't a surprise that he emerged from the depths of the airport looking like he'd been trapped for a hundred years, his hair ruffled and trying to fall in his eyes, and his hand clutching his suitcase like a lifeline.

The wave of protectiveness she felt was an unexpected surprise, but then she was responsible for dragging him halfway around the world, despite the fact they'd never met before. He was cuter in person than in the candid blurred photos that Emeraude had managed to send through, and than the wobbling video calls they'd made in the last few weeks where they raced to have a conversation before his internet dropped out.

She got him and his suitcase into her car, and headed to Tokyo proper, and home. "I imagine you'll probably want to eat something and then just crash for a while?" she said, while they were paused at a junction. "My parents aren't at home this week, so there's no need for you to get through introductions for a few days, and my wing of the house is pretty separate. The garage is shared, and the laundry room, but there's a seperate kitchen and all that, so you can spread your stuff anywhere you want, don't worry about it."

"I'm not normally that untidy," he said, and his voice was nice, too, without the electronic interference - though she wasn't sure how much of the slight huskiness was down to exhaustion. "No matter what Emeraude may have told you."

"She said you would claim you aren't untidy because you always know where everything is," she said, grinning. "And that the mess is mostly books and paper. I'm not worried."

"We have to do some paperwork soon, don't we?" He was obviously tired enough to ricochet from topic to topic; Umi silently reaffirmed her plan to get him to eat then lay down for a bit. It wasn't as though he needed to be instantly on Tokyo time, he wasn't going back to work in two days like someone finishing a vacation.

(Her mother might have been the one to mention a calm, slow introduction to Tokyo might be kindest, and that she would take Papa away for the week to give them space to get to know each other. But Umi was the one who had gone and bought an array of easy foods so he could grab what he wanted when he needed it. She was pretty familiar with the strange, distant feeling that came from too many hours awake across too many timezones, food always helped her.)

"Not that soon. We can take a week for you to settle in before sorting a timeline for any of that."

"Oh, good," he said, and yawned massively as she laughed. "I mean, sorry, just-"

"We probably need to know if we can stand being in each other's company before we sign anything legally binding. Anyway, I've got the week off work, so I can show you about a bit too. There's no rush."

"I thought you need to get the marriage sorted before - was it a board meeting? I'm sorry, I don't remember precisely-"

"I have two months, and once we get your paperwork sorted at the embassy, we can go ahead and file the marriage certificate whenever we want. If we wanted to go ahead and have a ceremony, we could have that some point later, it's not the legal bit."

"…I remember you telling me that, it obviously didn't sink in."

"Plane trips. You get a free pass on making sense for at least a day."

His lips quirked up - she glanced sideways at just the right moment to see it happen, then looked back to the press of traffic. "Only a day?"

"How long do you think you'll need?"

"I just moved half way around the world to marry you, and this is the first time we've met, so I'm not sure making sense is really happening at the moment."

Umi snickered. "True."

He settled back in the passenger seat, and by the time she pulled into the underground garage of her parent's swanky house, she wasn't sure he was awake. He certainly hadn't had his eyes open to see the outside of the house, which was likely a good thing - when she'd sent him a photo, his only comment had been 'you have to be kidding'. But he stirred when the car turned off, and she ushered him upstairs, made him eat some bread and an apple - apparently sandwiches were too complicated, he literally just ate the bread plain - then installed him and his suitcase in what had been the guest suite in her part of the house.

When she came back with a bottle of water a minute later, he was already stretched out on the bed, mostly asleep. "Thank you," he murmured, eyes only just open.

Umi flushed. "You're welcome," she got out, and left him to sleep.