Title: All in
Fandom: Magic Knight Rayearth
Rating: General
Length: 1000ish
Content notes:
Author notes: Clef/Umi, modern day/mundane AU - marriage of convenience. (I'm apparently writing a set of little snippety fic all set in this universe. It's fluffy nonsense XD)
Summary: "So," Umi said, after five days spent mostly hanging about wandering to touristy places and exploring the area about her parent's house. "What do you think?"


oOo

"So," Umi said, after five days spent mostly hanging about wandering to touristy places and exploring the area about her parent's house. "What do you think?"

"Think about what?" Clef glanced up briefly, then went back to trying to work out the instructions for heating the bento he'd managed to buy from the conbini down the road. He was proud of managing the trip and the transaction all on his own, which he probably shouldn't have been - the only Japanese it took was saying 'please' and 'thank you'. But he hadn't been in a country speaking a language he understood so little of since he was a very small child, and it was more intimidating than he'd expected, feeling so incompetent.

Umi, of course, was so fluent in English that the evenings in the house, watching films he understood or noodling about on the internet on their separate devices in the sitting room, he almost forgot he was on the other side of the world. At least, until the aircon hummed, or he had to navigate the dozen buttons on the loo.

Or he looked out the window, and it took his breath away again, the startling reality of it. But now the awful dragging feeling of the jetlag was wearing off, it was getting to be more exciting than terrifying, and he'd started poking at a couple of basic Japanese-language apps in the evenings.

He realised there had been a pretty long pause, and looked up again, to find Umi watching him with an amused grin.

"Sorry, did I miss half a conversation? I'm just trying to figure out which are the microwave instructions, I'm pretty sure some of these are for a toaster oven, and I don't know how to work that, so-"

"What do you think about all of it," she clarified. "Staying here. Getting married. All that."

"I- ah. That." He blinked at her, and found himself answering without a conscious decision. "Yes?"

Umi took a turn to look bemused. "…Is that an answer, or just acknowledging the question?"

"Well, I certainly don't hate it. You." He waved a hand about. "Being here, I mean- did you have to ambush me?"

"I wasn't planning on it, you just looked so please you'd managed to buy something, so I was wondering if, you know." She bit her lip, and flapped a hand at him. "If you're enjoying being here, and might think it's not such a bad idea."

"…Can you help me heat this up first?" he asked.

oOo

They ended up sitting down to actually eat lunch before they went back to talking, the awkwardness of the first moments after they sat down broken up by Kuromame attempting to steal a tempura prawn right out of Clef's lunch. By the time they'd finished, Clef had had long enough to think it through - the idea wasn't any stranger than it had been when it first came up, it was actually a lot more reasonable. (For… a given value of 'reasonable'.) They'd spent most of this time together and they'd already managed to argue about stupid things twice and make up afterwards; he thought they could live together without plaguing each other.

He would also need several years to see all the things he already knew he wanted to see, so a year in Japan? It wasn't going to be a hardship, though he was going to have to work at picking up the language.

"I would rather not live in your parent's house, though it's very… luxurious," he started. "I would rather be somewhere we could consider ours."

Umi paused, and set down her cup. "You want to stay with me?" she asked, and she almost looked shy, an expression he'd not expected to see on her after the last five days. It made him blush, too; no matter what they had agreed, it didn't feel like a business deal.

But maybe it could be an agreement between friends. After all, he'd shared a home with Ferio for long enough, and he'd lived in student halls with people all around him. As long as he could feel he had a corner of space that was his own, he should be fine - and she'd already explained the hours she was going to be working would keep her out most of the day.

"Yes," he affirmed.

"I can't afford a place that's particularly large," she warned him. "The CEO's salary at Grandpa's company I'd be getting is… well, it's set up to increase over the first decade or so if I don't mess up."

"You told me that when we were first talking," he pointed out, lips twitching. "It's fine, I'm not exactly used to a place a tenth of the size of this."

"Okay then," she said, and sat back, a smile curling her lips. "I- okay. I guess we're going to make an appointment at the embassy to get your paperwork in a couple of days then."

He nodded. "Yes." He took a breath, let it out, and then frowned slightly.

Umi stopped partway through standing. "What is it?" she asked, and he jolted.

"Oh, it's just - I didn't really think it through, when I was packing. I don't think I actually packed the one suit I've still got."

"…You don't have to dress up, we're just going to do some paperwork. I mean, unless you want to do that party bit? But I thought-"

"No, just paperwork is fine," he said, flushing harder. "But it still feels like I should make an effort? I mean, it's- it's still a serious contract, isn't it? And maybe we could eat out or something to celebrate? It feels wrong to do nothing."

"Well." Umi grinned at him, looking more at home again. "I think we can fix that."

oOo

A week and a day since he'd landed in Japan, Clef smoothed down his jacket and glanced at himself once more before he left his room, heading down the stairs to where Umi waited for him in the garage. She was wearing a summer dress, pinks and peaches and warm yellows, and he was struck again by how beautiful she looked.

She grinned up at him. "Looking sharp," she said. "You ready to head out?"

"I'm ready," he agreed, and checked he had his passport and everything else he needed one last time, before getting into the car beside her.