Title: Mistaken
Fandom: Magic Knight Rayearth
Rating: General
Length: 800ish words
Content notes: None
Author notes: Clef, Umi, background Ferio/Fuu. Modern/mundane au
Summary: Clef isn't a florist. (He might be rude.)


oOo

When the phone rang, Clef hit the ‘accept call’ button without looking away from his screen. Only a few people had his number, all of who should know he was working, given it was 3pm. Even on days when the insomnia had got the better of him until about four in the morning he would be up by now. So he said “Yes?” and kept typing, mostly expecting to hear Emeraude or Lantis.

“Wow, that’s rude,” said a voice he had never heard before in his life. “Do you always answer the phone like that?”

Clef blinked, and then turned to stare down at the phone – and the completely unknown mobile number showing on it. “Who are – why are you calling me?”

“I’m guessing you aren’t the florist I was trying to get hold of, given that attitude,” they continued, sounding very cheerful about it. “You wouldn’t get any repeat customers. Or customers in the first place, unless they emailed, I guess.”

“Only my friends have this number,” Clef snapped back, feeling – more defensive than he probably should, given this complete stranger was being pretty rude in their accusations of rudeness.

“Oh, so you’re rude to your friends, then?”

“No, I – I’m at work. And I’m not a florist, no, sorry. You must have dialled the wrong number.” He scrambled his way back to something like a standard interaction.

“Well, that’s a pity. I wonder what grumpy flowers would look like – bye, then,” they said, and hung up without anything more.

Clef stared down at the phone, starting to relax only when the screen dimmed – only for it to startle him badly a moment later by lighting up again, ringtone shrilling, and a number he had a bad feeling he recognised on it.

Answering, he braced himself. “Hello, this is not a florist, if you’re the same person who called a minute ago-“

“Blast,” the same person said, sounding actually put out this time. “I guess Ferio gave me the wrong number then, I didn’t mistype it – sorry!”

Then they hung up, before Clef could ask if they meant the same Ferio he knew – but it wasn’t exactly a common name.

He picked up the phone before he could think better of it, scrolling through the short list of contacts until he pulled Ferio’s up and hit call.

“Hi, Clef?” Ferio said, after a couple of rings. “Uh, did you need something? I’m a little busy right now-“

“I thought you were out on a date this afternoon?” Clef asked, glancing at the clock in the corner of his computer screen. “Emeraude mentioned you’d actually touched an iron-“

“Yes, I am on a date, and I’m wearing a shirt, and that is why I’m busy,” Ferio said, but he sounded like he was trying not to laugh. “We aren’t all married to our work. What’s up?”

“Did you give my phone number to someone and tell them I was a florist?”

“…Oh.” There was a pause, then a cough like Ferio was trying not to laugh. “Possibly! One of Fuu’s friends was after recommendations for some fancy party her parents are throwing, and I had that Clare de lune flora person that Emeraude likes in my contacts, and they’re just above yours – has Umi been calling you?”

“Presumably,” Clef said, leaning back in his seat and rubbing a hand over his face. At least that meant this wasn’t a very bizarre scam of some kind. “She didn’t give me her name, just told me I was rude and hung up.”

“That sounds like Umi.” He could hear Ferio grinning. “I’ll get her the right number – thanks for letting me know.”

Clef let Ferio get back to his important date – he’d met Fuu once so far, she seemed very nice – and set the phone down, determined to get back to work.

An hour later, his phone chimed again – but when he flinched and looked down, snapping out of his focus, it was a text waiting for him instead of another incoming call… though from a suspiciously familiar-but-not-in-his-contacts number.

“Guess you’re really not the florist! Ferio got me the right number this time.”

He eyed it – and then poked his phone to add a new contact. ‘Umi’, Ferio had said.

If she was one of Fuu’s friends, and things seemed to be going really well for Ferio – well, he was probably going to run into her again.

“Glad you got through to someone who could help,” he sent back, before he could think better of it.

A moment later, “They weren’t rude, either!” pinged up on his screen, with a laughing emoji beside it – and a moment after that, a photo came through, of a very fancy looking bouquet. “Parent’s anniversary party this evening” was the explanation that came with it.

“That was a bit last minute.”

“Cat destroyed the last one (don’t ask – cat’s fine, roses everywhere) and the shop’s shut today.”

That was followed by a photo of a bit of carpet covered with little bits of what looked like petals, thoroughly shredded.

He had a feeling he was setting a precedent, somehow... but he replied, again.

Haphazard texting wasn't a standard start to a friendship, but this probably wasn't going to be a standard anything. At least not a polite anything, anyway.

(He was right about that.)