Title: Falling
Fandom: Magic Knight Rayearth
Rating: General
Length: 3000ish words
Content notes: None
Author notes: Post canon, Ascot and Zazu pre-relationship. (Edited to add the last two thirds which I missed when I posted an hour ago because I'm a goose but the challenge is still open so uh whoops. I'm good with the copy-paste...)
Summary: "You don't know what gravity is?"

oOo

"You don't know what gravity is?" Zazu looked up at him and the expression on his face was - well, it didn't look like he was certain whether Ascot was telling the truth.

"Well," Ascot hedged. "I don't really know what the word you're using means, and you know a lot more about how these things work and what they mean than I do…"

He wasn't trying to be misleading, but he really didn't know much about any kind of science. Gravity was something about things which couldn't fly, he thought, but that was about it. Ascot hadn't exactly been to school very long; he'd been pretty young when he'd ended up living with his friends. And Cephiro didn't have the same kinds of science as Autozam, anyway.

Getting Zazu to explain science-y things hadn't been a deliberate plan, but they'd been spending a fair amount of time together - the NSX had come back recently and departed leaving Zazu, Geo, and a couple of other crewmembers and a handful of scientists behind; Eagle was going to wake up properly soon, according to the healers, so Geo was here to help out with his recovery at the start (he and Lantis had made some arrangement, it wasn't anything to do with the military or politics or anything like that.) there was some stuff going on with the project to heal Autozam's atmosphere which explained the scientists and the couple of crew to help them out.

Zazu, though, was here partially because he wanted to see Eagle wake up - he claimed he hadn't forgiven Eagle for not telling them he was ill, though it had been four years now and they'd spoken - he was holding out until he got a proper apology while Eagle was awake.

The other reason - as Geo had explained at some length when they arrived - was because Zazu apparently hadn't actually taken any leave from his job… pretty much ever, and the records office had just caught up with him and were insisting he took at least six months of the year-and-a-week owed to him. So Zazu was here, with a bunch of stuff he'd managed to transport on the NSX to set himself up a mini-workshop and a habit of hanging out with Presea and her guild, asking questions about smithing, but as he was meant to be on holiday he'd been banned from spending all day there by Geo.

Ascot had spent some time with Zazu on and off through the years since the reformation of Cephiro; Zazu had been interested in Ascot's friends, which Ascot had been warily appreciative of - then he'd independently made friends with Ascot's friends, with apparently no prompting or ulterior motives - which Ascot had very much approved of.

The first morning of this vacation, Zazu had sat down next to Ascot at breakfast and grinned at him, and asked if Yaris would have any time to help him out setting things up for the temporary workshop he'd got permission to build. "I think he'd be interested, he seems to like the electronics, and he can reach a lot higher than I can!" Zazu had said, and in the past three weeks somehow Ascot had spent a chunk of each afternoon in that workshop, fascinated in turn by how all these dead bits of wire and metal could turn into machines.

Zazu had given him some brief explainations of what he was doing to start with, but when he realised Ascot was actually interested he'd started getting really enthusiastic - and he was so energetic when he was explaining these things, Ascot - well, he liked to see his friends happy, Zazu included, so he'd been asking for more explainations.

Today's had included a comment about 'of course, Cephiro's gravity isn't the same as Autozam's, so I'm going to have to make some adjustments to account for that'. And now they were staring at each other across a mostly-disassembled motor for one of the little hover-bikes used to zip about on Autozam.

Zazu blinked at him. "Um. Gravity's the force which makes you fall down?"

"What, it makes me trip over?" Ascot asked, puzzled, and they stared at each other for a moment more before Zazu's lips twitched.

"Not really? I think that's your sense of balance."

"Then…"

"Well, every item has a field of attraction - the existance of an object pulls stuff towards it. Only little things like you and me and Yaris here don't manage to make things move, we're too small to have much impact, but planets are big enough that they exert enough pull that it keeps our feet on the ground, and things from flying off tables. We have machines that fake the same energy in the NSX or we all float all over the place."

Ascot frowned. He'd been on the NSX, it hadn't felt any different to walkign about normally. "Really? But if we're being pulled that strongly towards Cephiro, how would we be standing up?"

"That's what we've got all these bones and muscles for," Zazu said, happily, and started to pull some footage up on the datapad he'd lodged on the edge of his workbench, that was meant to have the plans of this engine on it. "Here, I've some footage of the last time I had to take it offline on the NSX to do maintenance. Geo's really good at manouvering about in zero-g, he gets weirdly graceful - he says it's because he was born on a ship."

The next hour was devoted to videos about people (including Geo, and Zazu himself,) floating about in their spaceships, and Ascot getting fascinated by the idea that they could just fly around without wings, and without magic.

The bell for dinner startled them both, and as they walked to the dining hall Zazu was still animatedly explaining how this whole gravity situation affected various things; Ascot not understanding all of it, but drawn in by Zazu's enthusiasm anyway.

oOo

A few days later, Zazu flopped down at the breakfast table with a lot less enthusiasm than normal. (He'd been enjoying the freedom to fiddle with any project he wanted to, so far, at least that was what he'd told Ascot.) "Morning."

"Are you okay?" Ascot asked, and then bit down on his lip, feeling his face start to flush - that had been too blunt, hadn't it.

But Zazu didn't seem offended, he just snorted wryly. "Is it that obvious? I didn't sleep great - and I didn't sleep much the night before, or really the night before that…" He pulled a face. "It's too hot! How do people here deal with it? Is there a way of cooling my room off that I can't find?"

That - wasn't the kind of thing Ascot was expecting. "It's… too hot?"

"It's awful. So sticky and sweaty and how do you sleep when it's doing this? How long is it going to be like this?" Zazu waved his hands at the window, where a pleasant early-summer sun was beaming down on the gardens.

"Uh," Ascot started. Cephiro's seasons were a little more pronounced these days than the endless summer when they'd had a single Pillar - given they existed at all - but they were still pretty mild according to Caldina. "It's going to be getting generally warmer for a couple of months I guess, then it'll take as long to cool down afterwards-"

"What, really?" Zazu stared at him, a look of utter horror on his face, and Ascot had to work very, very hard at not laughing.

"It's summer?"

"I mean, I guess that means something here, but - months? Please tell me I can cool my room down somehow."

"Not really - we mostly just change all our bedclothes out for summer ones, and leave the windows open - you can screen them so insects and things can't get in overnight," Ascot started to explain, and slowed down, looking at Zazu's clothes. He'd not payed much attention to it, but the things that they wore in Autozam were all pretty warm looking, and if they were constantly living in artificial atmospheres… well, they wouldn't need to deal with temperatures changing at all. Pretty much like the first time Cephiro had experienced winter in a millenia, and the tailors had dug out winter clothing patterns from their archives, but in the opposite direction. "We wear things made of thinner cloth, and sleep under fewer layers which are also cooler," he explained. "If you don't have anything we can go to the tailors and get you some things today - to wear in the day, too, if you want, what you've got on seems pretty warm?"

"Please," Zazu agreed in a rush, nodding fiercely. "If this is going to keep getting warmer… I guess I can work on getting some kind of aircon set up that might work in the rooms here, too," he murmured, eyes slightly unfocused in the way Ascot had learnt meant he was plotting some new project.

So they headed to the tailors shop in the castle straight after breakfast, and Ascot only stammered a little as he explained to the attendant what they needed. But he couldn't do much more than that, as he received a message asking for him to come help a village who were having trouble with a creature who was wreaking one of their fields every night, and who they couldn't work out how to communicate with to work out what was going on.

(He was proud of his work over the past few years; he was called in now instead of the Guard, when there was a conflict between people and a creature, and the results were better for everyone - but especially for the creatures, which was his biggest priority.)

Zazu promised he would be fine, looking up with a smile for Ascot from a loose shift he was being shown. So it wasn't until late that afternoon that Ascot got back to the castle and hurried to Zazu's workshop, to see how it had gone. Only Zazu was still wearing his normal things.

"Oh!" Ascot blurted. "Didn't they have anything, or did something go wrong, or-"

"No, it was all fine, I think! How did your thing go, is everyone happy?"

"Yes, it's fine now - they've stopped trying to put a field where they were getting in the way - you think it was fine?"

"Well, I got some things, but… they're all Cephiran stuff, you know? The people in the shop were really nice but you know when people are so nice that you're pretty certain they wouldn't tell you when you were doing something foolish because they'd feel rude? I'm not sure if the stuff I got actually looks okay, so - uh, would you mind if I tried them on and showed you, and you can tell me if someone from here will instantly know I'm an alien who knows nothing about local fashions?"

Ascot blinked at Zazu's earnest expression. "I… sure?" He bit his lip. "I mean, I don't know anything about fashion either…"

"But you'll be able to tell me if I'm trying to wear sleeping clothes as daywear or something like that," Zazu said. "Please?"

"Yes, okay." He could do that.

"…And if Yaris could possibly put these boxes up on the shelves over there while I get changed that would be awesome," Zazu continued, with a quick grin. "I still haven't managed to work out how to power a hoist so I can get stuff up there myself, and I know you keep telling me about all those gems that can hold stuff, but some of these things are pretty volatile, I don't want them out of sight, if that's okay…"

This was safer ground. "He likes helping out," Ascot said, and summoned Yaris into the room with a word and a gesture. He immediately chirruped at Zazu, and listened intently to his instructions before starting to pick up the various boxes that seemed to have appeared overnight again while Zazu disappeared into the bathroom.

A few minutes later, Zazu cleared his throat from the doorway, and Ascot turned to find him stood there in loose summer trousers and a short-sleeved tunic, the light fabric embroidered with geometric patterns about the neck where Zazu had left the lacing undone, a matching belt cinching it in at the waist, and Ascot… stared.

He had known Zazu was in decent shape, but under the layers of his normal clothing there was barely a hint of the strength in his arms now on display, and he'd abandoned his usual gloves, and - Ascot could see his neck, and the dip between his collarbones, and it wasn't much skin but he was very aware it was a lot more skin than he was used to Zazu having visible, the warm tone of it highlighted by the contrast with the white cloth.

Long-sleeves like Ascot normally wore worked pretty well in the summer too, as long as the fabric was the right kind, keeping the sun and the heat off your skin, but long loose sleeves were probably more of an issue getting in the way of Zazu's work, and there were plenty of people who wore variations of the same kind of thing. In fact… Zazu looked like he belonged here.

"I'd not even thought about getting some thinner cloth, or I could just have made myself something - I mean, I normally do make my own clothes, but you don't get fabric like this in Autozam! I don't know why I didn't think about it? But until I can work on making myself something - they really were nice in the shop, they hooked me up with a place to go buy fabric and thread and all that too… You're not saying anything. I got something weirdly wrong, didn't I." Zazu rubbed a hand through the spikes of his hair, his usual hat missing for the moment.

"N-no. It looks good," Ascot managed, his face flushing, and two things happened almost instantly: Zazu's head shot up as he stared at Ascot while kept moving, and Yaris twitched around to look at him too - and that meant his foot moved slightly, putting his claw just in the way of Zazu's foot.

Ascot shot forward as Zazu yelped and started to fall forwards, and Yaris flailed away - trying to get out of the way, but knocking Zazu again as he went.

With a thump, Ascot ended up on the floor with a wheeze, Zazu sprawled on his chest (elbows first, that was uncomfortable), Ascot's arms wrapped tight about his back.

"Sorry!" Zazu said, practically into Ascot's neck.

"Elbows?" Ascot managed to gasp back, and Zazu apologised again, getting his elbows somewhere less poky.

Ascot was aware he should probably be letting go now, but he couldn't quite work out how his arms were meant to work. Zazu's breath on the side of his neck was more than a little distracting. "I guess that was your gravity thing," he found himself saying.

Zazu got one arm on the floor and pushed up just far enough to pull a face down at Ascot. "I think that was your fault, not gravity's!" he said, and his cheeks were flushed. "You said-" and he paused.

"You look good in those clothes," Ascot told him, and winced. His face was painfully hot now, and Zazu draped over him, staring down from so short a distance, was really not helping. "I mean…"

"…They look okay?"

"I like them. You in them." Ascot bit his lip. "Um."

There was a clock in the workroom that ticked - Zazu had set it up the first day he took over the space, declaring it his most irritating prized possession - apparently he'd won it in some school competition with his first mechanics project. Ascot was very aware of it right now, because it was the only thing he could hear besides his own too-fast breathing, unable to look away from Zazu.

Taking a breath, Zazu pushed a little higher still. "Please say that means you like me in a holding-hands-and-maybe-kissing kind of way," he said, all in a rush. "That would make this so much less awkward."

"How does it make it less awkward?" Ascot squeaked, and he felt like he should literally be bursting into flames, he was flushing so hard. "I mean, I - I think - yes, but-"

Zazu's lips brushed against his, barely touching and yet more than enough to take all the words from Ascot's mouth and the thoughts from his head.

Pulling away again, Zazu bit his lip,and looked aside - at Ascot's shoulder, the ground beside them. "Was that… okay?"

Ascot had no idea what to say to that - his ability to speak seemed to have fallen out of his head, but there was a strange light feeling in his chest, and he still had his arms about Zazu. Tightening them, he pulled Zazu back down, kissing him a little firmer, a little longer.

Apparently that was a good answer, as one kiss became ten, became twenty, and it was a long time before they managed to sit upright. Not until the bell for dinner rang, in fact.

Zazu's new clothes were horribly creased, and Ascot's were worse - and Yaris had been in the room the whole time, entertaining himself by looking at the boxes he'd been moving while the two of them were… distracted. But neither of them cared much, bumping shoulders as they worked to right the room before heading to dinner, even if Ascot flushed every time he met Zazu's eyes.

"I think I like the new clothes," Zazu said, casually, putting the last few tools back in their places. "I might go back tomorrow and get a few more things. Would you mind coming with me?"

"I'd like that," Ascot said, and ignored the amused comment from Yaris - who had finished what he was doing and was just watching them, so Ascot pulled a face at him and dismissed the summoning spell.

"It's a date, then," Zazu said, cheerfully, waving to Yaris as he vanished away. "Come on - I want to get to the dining hall while there's still enough space for me to sit with my cute boyfriend to eat." And he shot Ascot a look to which Ascot could only respond by smiling, that light feeling in his chest expanding further, and threatening to do away with all of this 'gravity' nonsense altogether.

oOo