Title: By any other name
Fandom: Magic Knight Rayearth
Rating: Teen
Length: 1000 words
Content notes: Implied sex
Author notes: This (again) goes in the fic series I am writing in apparently tiny separate segments, which is Umi/Tarta and Umi/Clef at the same time, when things are fairly new. Fluff nonsense!

Translation note: ringo is Japanese for apple.
Summary: But are they edible?

oOo
Officially, Tarta had her own set of rooms in the Cephiran Castle, now she was resident for a time. They just happened to be next to the suite that had once been the Master Mage’s rooms, and had expanded somewhat when Umi moved in with him. Unofficially, everyone knew about the connecting door - the three of them left it open pretty much all the time anyway, and the living room on Clef’s side was mostly communal now. The only space he really seemed possessive about was his workroom, and given the stories about Umi’s attempts to ‘help’ with potion making… that was just common sense.

There was an hour to go before dinner, but Tarta had officially had enough of the ship manifests she’d been trying to review when she heard the main door the other side shut with a thump. She put the data away - well, vaguely on the desk, that was away enough - and wandered through, to find Umi staring at a bowl of small fruits, pale golden green and roundish, which had appeared on the sidetable.

“…What are these?” Tarta asked, as Umi picked one up and stared at it suspiciously.

“Dunno, I was going to ask you. They look like tiny ringo, but…”

“What’s a ringo?”

“A fruit from home, but it’s usually four times this size… I wonder if they’re tasty?” Umi considered it closer. “…Or poisonous. Hey, Clef! You in?” The last shouted at the workroom door, which was partly ajar, so when Clef leaned back in his seat, he was perfectly visible.

“What is it? I need to get this batch of calming elixir done in the next ten minutes or it’ll sour.”

“You’ve had a delivery, I think?” Umi tossed him one of the fruits. To his credit, the mage actually managed to catch it without tipping his chair over backwards, though it was close.

He brightened, looking at them. “Oh! Ascot brought the deeseru up?” He looked at Tarta, then. “They’re something like - manen, I think it is, that you have in Chizeta?”

Tarta picked one up now, while Umi sighed. “I just heard ringo twice, and there’s no way that’s what you said.”

“If the translation spell is on the blink again, go complain to Mokona, not me! But was that all you needed to disturb me for?” He said it with a grin at Umi, and it was so obvious how fond he was of her.

Not that Tarta could fault his taste.

Umi waved a new deeseru at Clef. “Yes! Can you eat these?”

“What? Well, yes, but- oh dear.”

Tarta had bitten down on it the moment he said ‘yes’, curiosity getting the better of her, and her mouth was full of an overpowering bitter-sharp flavour. She spat the offending bite into her hand. “That is nothing like manen!”

“You’re meant to cook it first! Here, give me that - Umi, stop laughing, you were about to do the same thing-” he abandoned his workroom to take the fruit from Tarta, and with a muttered word summoned a glass full of a pale greenish liquid. He must have pulled it straight from the coolers down in the kitchen, as it was cold enough there was instant condensation on the outside. Tarta drank, and it was clear, and gently sweet, and actually did a good job of cleaning the horrible taste from her mouth. So she might forgive him, but Umi was still giggling.

“Why do you need those - things?” she asked, ignoring Umi entirely. “You don’t seem to do much cooking, and that stuff can’t taste good, not even stewed.”

“You didn’t mind drinking it just now,” Clef pointed at the glass, and she blinked at it.

“Really?”

“It’s a good - neutraliser? Of flavours? I add it to the worst-tasting potions so people can actually drink them. It makes them acceptable without affecting the magic bound into them, nothing else works quite the same.” He took the glass back. “Also, if you drink it between courses while you eat, it cleans the flavours from your mouth so they don’t clash. And it’s pretty good as a hangover cure, just… after at least nine hours stewing it. It’s completely foul before that.”

Tarta stared at the bowl. She couldn’t really believe they could turn into that drink, which actually did taste a bit like manen, now she was considering it. But then nothing about Cephiro was believable. “…You should get back to your potions now, shouldn’t you? And you can take these things with you.”

“If you’re alright?” He hesitated a moment, then frowned and elbowed Umi, who was almost choking on her laughter. “Hey, you, behave!”

“It’s just! Your face, Tarta!” And Umi was off into another peal of laugher, leaning against the sofa.

Clef sighed, and picked up the bowl. “We can both kick Umi out of bed tonight, if you want,” he offered. “Or get her to apologise nicely! And I’ll remember to phrase all my answers remembering there are now two hasty people listening.”

Umi looked up. “Hey! What would you have done if I’d eaten it?”

“Laughed!” He vanished into his workroom again, and shut the door all the way this time - it clicked just before the lone deeseru Umi threw at him hit the wood.

Umi pouted, and then pulled a face at Tarta. “I’m sorry, it’s just - Clef’s right, I was about to do the same thing, and then the face you pulled…” Tarta crossed her arms, tapping one foot. “…I’ll make it up to you?”

“…I suppose there’s still an hour until the dinner bell,” Tarta said. Umi was giggling again by the time they reached a bedroom, but she ‘apologised’ so thoroughly they almost missed dinner altogether.

When they did get there, sitting at the end of the long table by Clef, no one understood why the three of them started snickering anytime someone offered the jug of deeseru around.

oOo

end