Title: Mapped out
Fandom: Magic Knight Rayearth
Rating: PG
Length: 900 words
Content notes: n/a
Author notes: Accidental hiatus due to moving home and computer breaking now hopefully mostly finished... ^^ Starting off the new year by starting up again! With – random Rayearth medieval!au because I can, really. Umi and Clef. (This summary edited feb 2018 because I realised I never put the title in it???)
Summary: Umi can't sleep.

oOo

It was more than a month since they had landed in this strange place, and the weather had only become worse. The wind and rain had not gathered again into another storm like the one which had smashed them onto the shoreline; instead, clear skies had dropped the temperature far enough that when the next clouds piled up above the castle, they dropped their burden as snow rather than rain - and when the skies cleared again, the drifts settled into place ready to stay a while.

Umi wrapped her borrowed cloak tighter about her shoulders, huddled in one of the seats in the room she and the other girls had been invited to use during the day, pulled close to the low glow of the fire, a single candle flickering by her side. In her lap, she had the piece of slate which she had been using to attempt to learn how to write with the strange letters they used here, though it was too dim to really see well - and furthermore, she had spread two pieces of parchment over the top, one which showed her homeland and those about it as far as Fuu, Hikaru and she had been able to remember them - and the other had been drawn by Clef, who had been able to eek his memory out by looking at a few of the books in his library. They met.

Just.

And the journey they marked out...

The door creaked, as it opened, their host looking in at her. "...I wondered who had a light in the solar at this hour. Could you not sleep?"

Forced practice meant her understanding of this land's tongue was growing swiftly, but it still felt more than clumsy in her mouth. "No. I did not want to wake Hikaru and Fuu, I - came away."

"From the cold?" he guessed, and Umi felt her face flush slightly - that had been part of it, but she didn't mean to mention anything to Clef. He had done all he could to make them all comfortable - the walls of their room were covered in heavy tapestries to block the cold, the windows shuttered securly and all the gaps stuffed with wool that had then been tarred into place, and heavy curtains about the bed as well as blankets on it. But she could not sleep entirely muffled under the bedding - she felt trapped if her arms weren't free, and nothing could make the bite of the air any less startling. But Clef nodded, ruefully. "And here I am, letting the heat from this room too - may I join you?"

"Please do?"

He pulled the door shut behind himself, and tugged across the tapestry meant to keep the last of the drafts from the corridor out. Umi had left it aside, earlier, not planning to sit so long. But half a candle had burnt down while she stared at a few lines and the terrible number of months it would take to cross them. Now, the steadiness of Clef's regard as he paced across the room to her had Umi fumbling the pieces of parchment together, folding them as small as she could.

His hand resting on hers stopped the motion, and the parchment slipped from her fingers. His skin was so warm compared to hers, and she looked up at him as the pieces of map rustled softly to the floor.

"It can be done." Clef wrapped his fingers about her hand, and held on tighter when she shook her head. "It can, Umi - you have done it! It will take time, but the journey is not impossible."

"Long. Dangerous. And- when we are home, they will not - expect us. Our places - will be full of other people." Her voice caught as she tried to explain what had kept her awake and shivering, more than even the cold. That their families would be mourning - and moving on, their place, their lives, not held in suspension for however many years it took them to return, but assumed ended. And if they set out... she glanced down, again, at the expanses of land which would have to be crossed - stretches of desert, mountains, places with more snow than rested in the courtyard outside.

If all three of them set out, and only one or two reached home safely - would any of their families want them to attempt such a journey?

But what else could they do?

Clef dropped to his knees in front of her, where he could see her face again, pulling her attention away from the fear of making it this far to safety, only to doom Fuu and Hikaru on a journey the like of which she'd never heard of. "It can be done," he said again, voice steady. "But it does not have to be done. You are welcome to stay here for as long as you wish, to stay in Cephiro - as long as my word can grant it, you will be welcome here - all three of you."

"...Thank you, Clef."

She had to smile at him, so earnest - and that won her a smile back, one brighter than any expression she'd seen on him before, making his whole face look younger before he shook his head and pulled away, standing again. "It is late - will you return to bed? Even I am going to sleep now."

Umi smiled again, and took the hand he offered to stand, setting the writing aside. She might be able to sleep now, in spite of the cold.

oOo