Title: Poor performance
Fandom: Magic Knight Rayearth
Rating: General
Length: 360 words
Content notes: None
Author notes: Clef, post-canon, technically post-the-fic-for-the-last-challenge but not in a way that particularly matters?
Summary: (Perhaps he should have sent himself to bed, instead of making another pot of tea and trying to get anything done.)


oOo

Clef stared into the potions pot on his worktable, sighed, and found the lid to drop on it, instantly cutting the heat and containing the mess he’d made as he aligned it so the safety-charms engraved down it met up, and not the ‘keep heating up’ or ‘keep at a steady temperature’ ones.

He then paused to double-check he’d actually set it on correctly before dropping down into a seat and sighing again, only for it to turn into a yawn half-way through the motion, his eyes tearing up slightly.

Making potions was usually one of his favourite bits of work; it took focus, careful work with the knives and other tools needed, and the scent of crushed herbs and boiling magic was always strong enough to keep his mind present in the moment and not fretting about either future or past.

…Except when he was sleep-deprived enough to make the same kinds of mistakes he’d been helping people work on in the catch-up classes he’d been teaching recently. (And wouldn’t Umi cackle at him for this!) He yawned again, winced, and poked at the notebook he’d been working from, sighing for a third time when his suspicion proved correct – he’d managed to get something on the pages and two of them were stuck together.

Perhaps he should have made himself use one of the student’s pots (which had only safety charms inscribed, none of the other options). (Perhaps he should have sent himself to bed, instead of making another pot of tea and trying to get anything done.)

More tea was, sadly, unlikely to be a good plan. And before he slept, he had to figure out how to deal with the unfortunately volatile substance he’d created by using the first half of one recipe, the second half of another, all without even noticing. Usually it was handy to have all his potions notes arranged so that the ones which shared ingredients were all grouped together, but right now…

Well. At least he wasn’t in a classroom surrounded by other students – and he’d had plenty of practise at neutralising problem brews lately. Hopefully that, at least, he could manage successfully…