Title: Favour
Fandom: Magic Knight Rayearth
Rating: PG
Length: 1600 words
Content notes:
Author notes: Medieval!au - right after Tourney, but should be perfectly coherent without. And the cliche being used is winning a tournament as a way of courting someone - not that either of them would admit there is any courting going on yet. Not even if there happens to be a kiss. (Or two.) (Umi winning the tourney probably counts as a cliche too. XD)
Summary: "Would you not tell us your name, and for whom you fought so valiantly?"

oOo

When the Tourney was over, Umi sat proud - on her borrowed horse, with borrowed armour wrapping every limb, and turned to the pavilions where the King and the more sedate parts of the nobility were sat. There were far fewer knights left mounted than had started the day such - she had granted the least experienced of her opponents their mounts back, but she had still taken half a dozen fine horses from the field during the afternoon.

(Tradition said it was only right that the young knights who lost their mounts had to go without, and without chance of fighting at Tourney or elsewhere until they had procured funds for another - Umi preferred to recognise their valour in taking her on. Besides which, she had no need of the horses, or the money she could raise by selling them; the ransoms for those knights whose horses she had deigned to claim would more see her well able to indulge any whims she had with regard to new arms, or clothes, or anything else she could need.)

LaFarga was still mounted, she saw, and Lantis was somewhere beyond him. They, like she, were sitting more heavily than they had been when the fighting began, with dirt - and occasionally blood - smeared across their armour. Her surcoat had been torn in several places, and her arm and chest were both aching from blows she had failed to move away from, and her left leg was alternating between a deep sharp pain and a stabbing numbness after a strike caught her on the knee. She was not too worried - she could still move her foot, therefore it could not be so bad.

She and just over a dozen others still on their feet and uncaptured had been on the same side of the melee, those from the Castle side of the grounds; there were but seven left who had been on the opposing team, though that included both Marshals, neither of whom she had managed to find on the field. She would not be surprised to if they had recognised her style of fighting and chosen others to face - not from any cowardice, but because they viewed the field as a chance to assess the fledgling knights in person before issuing invitations of service to those they thought had promise. There was no gain to them in fighting someone they already knew - or letting her take them from the field. (Umi would not guarantee her victory against either man, but nor would she call herself outmatched. They had sparred often enough before this, and she won as frequently as she lost...)

(Also, Clef had borrowed this horse from the Marshal's stables for her - she did not know which of theirs it was, but they were likely to have noticed. Only their recognising her would have kept them from claiming it back.)

Slowly, they all turned their horses for the pavilions, making their way across to where the King was rising to his feet. It was a long way, across ground which had been churned into thick mud by the fighting. Lantis was not the only knight who dismounted and led their horse across. Umi remained in her saddle, where she did not have to test her leg quite yet, and where she was able to see over the rails and into the pavilion, where Fuu sat next to Ferio's chair, Hikaru at her other side - and, close on Ferio's other side, the man whose armour had protected her, and whose sword was hung by her side. Clef was sat with his hands clutching the arms of his chair, watching her intently - he did not even glance at any other Knight, and Umi straightened her back, held her head higher under his regard.

Ferio stepped forwards as they approached, and everyone watching - the defeated knights, the audience, and all - turned eagerly to him as he raised his hands and his voice. "This Tourney was well fought by all, but I feel none will disagree with me that this knight, of all, has proved themselves beyond all others in both terms of their winnings on the field, and in their skills with horse and weapon. Do all agree?"

Umi blinked, as he gestured to her, and there was a cheer from the crowds. Normally awards waited for the feast to come, when the knights who had lasted the day were presented to the company; it seemed Ferio had other ideas. He was grinning across at her - grinning knowingly, and Umi knew him too well to trust that smirk. The slow suspicion growing in her heart still could not overbalance the pride at hearing herself - not named, but recognised. Her aim had been to win the highest honours of the day - but what knight would aim elsewise? And there had been many fine knights on the field, their own honour making this prize the greater.

"We would declare you victor of this tourney, my lord, but that we do not know your name; nor do you carry any token by which we may know your patron, and thus you." Ferio continued, and Umi bit down on a laugh, as Clef. "Would you not tell us your name, and for whom you fought so valiantly?"

"My Lord," Umi said, with a bow of the head, pitching her voice above the excited rush of whispering - Ferio was not the only one to have recognised her, but for a moment longer she kept her helm on her head, nudging her horse to take a few more steps forwards, up to the edge of the dais where Ferio stood. It raised its head gallantly, still stepping neatly, ears flicking back towards her and then towards the excited crowd; she would be trying to use part of her winnings from today to buy him away from his current owner, he had more than proven himself. "I thank you, but you are mistaken in one thing; I do indeed bear a token. The favour I carry is the armour I wear, and the sword which I have borne this day."

She looked to Clef, the rush of winning making every ache fade back for a moment - a moment in which she could hear Ferio asking "then would any step forward and claim this favour as their own?" but paid him no attention, as Clef had not waited for the King to speak - had not even looked at him, but was standing up and stepping forwards, right to the edge of the dais, where there was a rail for him to rest his hands on. He looked - like he did not know whether to laugh or to frown at Ferio's theatricals and Umi's wilful joining in with them.

Umi swallowed, suddenly, and reached to unclasp her helm, pulling it from her head. There was a rush of noise from the audience, and her poor weary mount nodded his head, side-stepping nervously at the uproar. She had to nearly shout to be heard over it. "All the honour I have won today is in your name, my Lord Eleru. I thank you for the loan of your arms, and I hope that you are not displeased."

Clef sighed, and then he smiled, and Umi pressed her legs to her horse's side, urging him to turn alongside the dais so she could hand the helm up to him. Clef took it, and she was distantly aware of Ferio reaching out to catch the reins and hold her horse still as Clef handed the helm back, unseeing, to whoever was behind him so that he could reach with both hands to cup her face, thumbs rubbing along the rain-damp, sweat-damp line of her cheekbones. "How could I be displeased with you, my Lady?" He asked, and leant over the rails to press his lips to her forehead. There was another swell of noise, cheering, expectant - Clef hesitated, instead of drawing away, and then he was leaning closer still and she tilted her head back for their lips to meet.

He pulled away swiftly, but the warmth of his mouth against hers stayed with Umi even as he went, his cheeks flushed but still smiling - even as she was. And then Ferio was turning away - and she noticed because he let go of her reins to do so, and her horse danced away from the rails and the noise again, making her pay attention as Ferio declared her the best knight of the day, and invited all present to come to the castle and take part in the feasting where they would toast her victory, and the bravery of all who had fought that day.

Clef was still at the rails, only half turned to listen to Ferio. "I did tell you I would win in your name." She said, this time for his ears alone, somehow both nervous and unable to keep from smiling.

"...I am certain that Fuu will give you her thanks later this evening." He murmured back to her, and Umi laughed aloud, and bowed her head in salute to him.

"I shall see you at the feast?"

"If you wish to be presentable, you might wish to wash some of the mud off before you are presented." He told her, with a grin, as the crowds began to disperse - all those except the closest, who seemed to be leaning closer, far too curiously.

Umi laughed once more, and bowed her head. "As my Lord commands!" she called, and turned for the Castle - and a well-deserved rest for her horse - before finding a bath and some more presentable attire for herself.

But even though she would give up the mud-splattered armour, which needed more cleaning than could be done before she would be wanted, it was Clef's sword she would wear by her side that evening.

oOo