Title: Reading comprehension
Fandom: Magic Knight Rayearth
Rating: General
Length: 1000ish
Content notes:
Author notes: Modern day/mundane AU - marriage of convenience (Clef/Umi). Clef vs kanji... and Ferio I guess
Summary: "…Huh." Ferio squinted. "That's a lot of Japanese."

"Yes."

"Those look like a lot of very… complicated characters?"

"Yes."

oOo

"Ugh," Clef said, dropping the form on his desk and dropping himself down in the chair again.

On the screen and the other side of the world, Ferio looked at him. "What's up?"

"I don't know."

"No, really, something's bothering you."

"Yes," Clef said, holding the form up to the camera. "And I have no idea what it is."

"…Huh." Ferio squinted. "That's a lot of Japanese."

"Yes."

"Those look like a lot of very… complicated characters?"

"Yes."

"And you can't read them?"

"Nope. I've no idea what this is. But I know it was sent to me, not Umi - I can read my name, at least." He poked at it. "I think it's maybe a nightmare. Why would I have something official looking? All the house things are in Umi's name, mostly because she can read them. And I'm pretty sure they're all digital these days?"

Ferio shrugged. "You could just ask her what it's about when she gets home."

"Yes, but-" he pulled a face. "What if it's just junkmail or something? That'll be embarrassing."

"…Because you can't read it?"

"Because I'd be wasting her time with it?" Clef looked at it a moment more, then realised Ferio wasn't saying anything, and looked up to find his friend eyeing him with the most dubious expression on his face. "What!"

"This is the woman that married you and moved you to Japan partially because you don't speak the language so the bigwigs in that company of hers can't decide you're the one making the decisions. I don't think she's going to be bothered by translating a two page form for you."

Clef wrinkled his nose, and pulled a face back at Ferio. He might be right, but Clef was - tired, and probably should go to sleep instead of putting the kettle on for more tea. "It's just, she's so busy, and this business trip is important-"

"-And you've been alone in the house for how many days?" Ferio asked, voice very dry. Having lived with Clef for several years, he was more aware of some of Clef's issues than Clef was himself, or at least it felt that way sometimes.

"I like the quiet," Clef muttered, feeling his face flush incriminatingly hot.

"Uh-huh. You also like to spend a very little time with someone you like at the corners of the day or they, how did you put it when you were writing that last bit of your thesis? 'Smush together until everything feels like yesterday', I think that was it."

Clef rubbed a hand across his face. "It's only been three days. I can't be this bothered by spending three days alone!"

"Well, maybe you just miss Umi," Ferio said, and when Clef's head shot up to stare at him, he was smirking. "I mean, you've only been married what, two months? Perfectly reasonable if you're still in the honeymoon period-"

"We married for business reasons," Clef hissed at him, and scrubbed at his face again as it got ever hotter. "Her business! Was the reason! We're just-"

"Friends?" Ferio suggested, still smirking, Clef could tell from his tone. "Either way, you can try using one of those dictionary things, ask your Japanese teacher for help with it - though she was there the day Umi left, wasn't she? So probably Umi will be back first, and you should just ask her."

"…I could maybe at least work out what it's about with a dictionary," he muttered, eyeing his phone - which had access to several, including a couple where you could try to draw in the kanji you didn't know, though he wasn't very good at that yet because he kept guessing the order of the lines wrong. "At least enough to work out if it's junk mail? Maybe?" The title of the form was a string of ten kanji with absolutely no hiragana at all breaking it up. He winced at it, but still. "If I can work out each kanji well enough to type them in on the computer I can shove them in an online translator, anyway."

"Sounds like a plan. Not sure it's the easiest one, but good luck with it anyway," Ferio told him, laughing aloud by now. "Anyway, I need to get going if I'm going to meet Em on time for dinner so we can gossip about you - I'll call tomorrow. Get some sleep before you try fighting the dictionary, okay?"

"Maybe," Clef said, and waved Ferio off before ending the call and glancing at the time. It was late, but it wasn't terribly late - not by his standards, anyway, it was only one in the morning. He could have just one last cup of tea, try working a couple of these out…

To his side, his phone pinged, and he flinched and snatched it up to find a message from Umi. 'Ugh, exhausted! The managers here talked work all the way through drinks! But the view's pretty from the restaurant in the hotel at least, and they eventually kicked us out. We'll have to come here sometime - not on business!' It was followed by a string of grumpy-faced emoji and then a photo of the view through a high-up window, out over a town glittering with lights and across the dark of the night-time sea, with the moon just near the horizon and the light reflecting over the water.

Umi had shadowed the camera to get it to focus through the glass, but it had still caught some of the reflection of the room - he could just about see Umi, face scrunched up as she focused on taking the photo, and an impression of the mostly empty restaurant behind her, one blur looking like a table still full of people in fancy suits.

He grinned at it, and abandoned the form and his study to head out of the house, and took a picture of the same moonlight reflecting in the pond in their back garden to send back to her.

'The view's not so bad here, either. Sleep well,' he sent, and got a string of three fish emoji, a string of 'z's, and nothing else back.

Laughing, he headed back inside, and locked up. The form would wait.