Title: Harbour
Fandom: Magic Knight Rayearth
Rating: General-in-fic, Teen-in-implications of sex and violence in the backstory
Length: 600 words
Content notes: None
Author notes: Spies!AU (basically modern day man-fron-UNCLE fusion), Clef/Umi, early months of their relationship
Summary: There were only three other people who knew the codes to his alarm system.

There was only one who ignored the slippers waiting by the door.

oOo

Clef came alert as the lock clicked in the door to his apartment, and then the catch went, and he kept his breathing slow and steady even as he slid one hand across the bed under the sheets, working out how far it was to the edge and the hidden gun below-

A quiet trill from the alarm system had him actually waking up, then there was the thump of a bag hitting the floor in the genkan, the sound of a pair of shoes afterwards, and then bare feet on the wooden floor. She wasn’t trying to be silent, just not loud, and there were only three other people who knew the codes to his alarm system.

There was only one who ignored the slippers waiting by the door.

He turned, blinking his eyes open. “Umi?” he asked, but it wasn’t her identity he was questioning.

“We finished up early,” she said, her voice less triumphant than it usually was after a successful mission. She sounded tired, her tone as weighed down as his body felt after maybe two hours of sleep. “Didn’t really fancy heading home alone. Is that okay?”

“Of course,” he said, without hesitation or thought. “I wouldn’t have given you the codes if I didn’t mean you to use them. …It went badly?”

She snorted, dropping her jacket by the side of the bed and wriggling out of her jeans, lit in blooms of garish blue and pink from the neon signs across the road that his curtains barely filtered. It left her in nothing but a sleeveless top, but one that was almost long enough to count as a dress.

Almost.

(He remained bewildered, even months into this relationship, that she was happy for him to see her in even less.)

She pushed at his shoulder, almost gently, and he moved back across the bed to give her space to clamber in beside him. But as soon as she was under the covers she pulled him closer again, wrapping an arm about his waist, resting her head against his shoulder, and sighing. He could feel tension start to ease out of her even before he tentatively reached out and lay his own arm around her. She smelled like the recycled air and sharp cleaners of an aeroplane journey, and he was so glad she’d chosen to come to him, tired and a mess.

“The mission didn’t go at all,” Umi muttered, her face out of sight against his shoulder. “Bad intel. There was nothing there – well, there was some kind of lab, but it hadn’t been used since the sixties. Complete waste of time.”

“Ah.” Clef winced, and pulled her a little closer, shifting until he was laying comfortably as he could while she was still using him as a pillow. “I hate those.”

For once, she made no joke about the fact he’d said that present-tense. Just tucked her head closer against him, breath warm on his skin. “Mm. It’s just. It’s so frustrating.”

“Yeah.”

“And it’s been a string of bad intel, and I know it happens sometimes, but – and we only just got done tidying up after the whole Innouva mess! I’m too tired to think about whether we’ve got another mole.”

“Sleep, then.” Clef pressed a kiss to the top of her head, her hair a slightly different texture after a week of generic hotel shampoo. “We’ll look into it tomorrow. Together.”

“Yeah,” Umi said, voice already murky with sleep, worming closer. “Tomorrow. Thanks.”

“It’s no problem,” he murmured, and let his eyes close again, listening to her breathing as he drifted back to sleep.