Title: Difficult
Fandom: Magic Knight Rayearth
Rating: PG
Length: 750 words
Content notes: None
Author notes: Medieval!au - kinda middle of the timeline, not near any of the other snippety fics. Clef and Umi (not yet anywhere near married).
Summary: They both know how to be difficult. Tonight is Clef's turn.

oOo

Umi awoke grudgingly, a heavy lethargy weighing down her limbs, but her mind too anxious to let her remain asleep. From the thick darkness filling the corners of the chamber where she rested, and the weight of her head upon her neck when she pushed herself upright, only a few hours could have passed as she slept.

The room was plain, and unfamiliar. The hard wood of the bed was only slightly relieved by the thin mattress on it, and she had chosen to lay on top of the thin sheet rather than under it largely in defence against the prickle of straw through the worn material which held it. Aside from the bed, there was one lone bench and a sturdy table, both set back against the bare sandstone walls. It was a room meant for one who had turned to a life of contemplation, piety, restraint.

She had the greatest respect for those with the will and the patience to follow such a calling, but it would not be her choice.

There was not even a door on the arched entrance to the little chamber, and a thin glow flickered through it from the candle still lit in the next room. Umi slipped from the bed, still in the creased gown she had been travelling in; she crossed the room silently on bare feet and leant against the archway.

It did not surprise her to find Clef still sat in the hard wooden chair, reading over those letters once more. “Clef,” she murmured, softly. He started, the letter creasing in his hand before he relaxed again, but he did not turn around. “Clef, you must sleep.”

“I must find the key to this strategy of Chizeta’s.” His voice was rougher than usual, very nearly a rasp. “There must be something I am missing. I just have to find it.”

“If you do not sleep, then you will fall from Griffin almost as soon as we set out tomorrow, and we will have to wait until you manage to heal your foolish head after landing on it.” Umi studied him from her vantage point. She could see the letter trembling in his fingers, and his face was pale aside from blotches of colour high on his cheeks. “You take the bed. I shall stay out here. I am supposed to be protecting you, therefore it makes sense for me to sleep closest to the door to the outside.” She waved at the mattress which had been placed on the floor in here, the guest beds being fully occupied – and their quest relying on no one realising they were passing through. The women who lived here and devoted their lives to Selece had given a vow they would tell no one; Umi was prepared to trust them. She was not prepared to trust the merchants staying as more conventional guests of the Abbess. “Besides which, I am used to sleeping on the floor, and even with the army you have a cot.”

“No, you should have the bed, Umi. You need to be better rested tomorrow, to defend us again, should it be needed-“

Umi crossed the room, and took the letters from him before Clef could realise what she was doing. She promptly pushed them down the chest of her shift, which nicely halted his attempt to retrieve them. He was far too worn to navigate that problem – or the next. “If you do not go and lie down, I shall drag you through there, and I will lie with you to ensure you stay where you are put.”

Clef blinked up at her, once, twice – and then he grumbled, and gave in. His whole posture slumped down; she thought he was about to fall from the chair, for a moment. But he got to his feet, and across the room, a little unsteady on his feet. “If you are going to be difficult-“ he muttered.

“I am not the one being difficult in this room.” Umi told him, shadowing his steps as far as the entrance to the bedroom. She watched through the dim shadows as he dropped down onto the bed, more of a fall than anything else, and sprawled there on his front. He waved one hand back at her, let it fall to the bed… and was asleep before she had counted to ten.

The stone was cold below Umi’s feet, but she stood in the archway until they were numb, her mind spinning in circles as she tried to find anything more she could do to help lift the worry from Clef’s shoulders. When she could no longer keep her eyes open, she pulled the mattress across that doorway, and sank into a restless sleep.

But it was sleep, and they would both of them need it for the journey ahead.

oOo