This is not exactly new – it's a neatened, moderately edited beginning which has been languishing on my fic lj; given it was already up, I decided it was silly to not have it here as well, especially now I've tidied it a little.

This is a moderately ridiculous AU, rather (very) self-indulgent. (Though not as bad as the other AU I'm hammering to completion.) I began it when I was studying at a Japanese University, and was still learning to cope with the RSI in my wrist – so I sent the Rayearth characters to a Japanese University (or an approximation thereof) on an Earth which has magic, and gave Clef the magical equivalent of RSI.

Then, as things do, it developed a plot.

This one's not a priority until Protecting You is finished, but it's also not being left alone in the meantime. It's too fun. XD I'd love to hear what you think of it, it's a rather different thing. (While in other ways and later on, very similar!)

~down

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Untie the Knot

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Chapter One

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The first time Mazda Clef met Ryuuzaki Umi was when she ran him over.

He was walking down to the back gate off campus when she came around the corner from the bicycle park, going rather too fast, and yelling something he didn't catch at the person behind her - he had time to register a smudge of blues and white - and then he was lying on his back, a few feet away; his body aching and his memory of the last few seconds utterly blank.

"Oh, god! Are you alright?" The girl yelped, leaping off her bike before it even stopped moving and letting it clatter down against a wall as she sprinted back to him. "Are you okay? I didn't see you! God, I'm sorry - you're bleeding. Here, I've got a handkerchief somewhere…" And she fell to her knees beside him, her skirt fluttering a little at the movement.

Clef blinked as she began to search her pockets, and his head began to throb loudly, in time with his heart. He winced, a short moan caught in his throat, and she looked back to him.

"Oh my god, don't tell me I've brain damaged a student… say something! Anything!"

Clef's head was pounding, fuzzy, and it took him a few tries to make his throat work right. It did, though, in the end. Sort of. "T- that skirt really isn't appropriate for riding a bicycle in."

The girl stared at him as he blinked, fairly bemused at what he'd said - while she flushed a deep red, her eyes narrowing to blue slits. "Why, you - you pervert!" She went to hit him across the head, only to stop when it registered that he was collapsed on the floor with a possible concussion, and that hitting him probably wouldn't help. "I didn't mean anything like that, you pervert! I meant your name, or who the prime minister is, or something!"

As her voice rose in volume, it rose in pitch - Clef flinched as his head stabbed again briefly, and glared up at her. "I have a probable mild concussion, your voice is far too shrill to be a help in any way, and I don't know who the prime minister is because the election's tomorrow. I probably wouldn't be able to vote now thanks to you. Thank you so much! Besides… its true." Which it was, really, the skirt in question being fairly short and ruffled. Not that it ever seemed to stop a Japanese student - and not that it was polite to mention.

"Pfft. You can't be that bad if you're well enough to lose your temper." She snapped back, a little relieved, and apparently deciding to ignore any inappropriate comments.

"You'd be surprised. And this is not me losing my temper." You'd probably be ten miles down the road if that happened, he added silently

"Yeah, yeah… hold still a moment, anyway." The girl produced a clean handkerchief from somewhere and leant forwards over it for a moment, clasping a corner of the material tightly between her fingers. Her eyes fell nearly closed; just a glint of blue was visible through her lashes and the long strands of her hair which tipped over her shoulder slowly and pooled in her lap.

Clef blinked, and was about to ask what she was doing when he felt the air about him shiver. Suddenly a finger of cold slipped down his spine - and then it was gone, and she was pressing the now-dampened cloth to his forehead.

The stab of pain from a gash he hadn't known about before stopped his voice in his throat, before he could say anything. But he saw the design stitched neatly into the corner of the cloth, and sighed - of course she was a mage. An undergraduate in his department, almost certainly. No one else ever used the tiny gate here behind their block…

Which was probably why no one had been past since the accident. Then… hadn't she been yelling at someone? They must've gone somewhere…

She had power, too, if he could sense such a small working even now he…

"There," she muttered, leaning over him and frowning at his forehead. "That's clean, at least; it doesn't look bad anyway, and it hasn't bled much, for a head wound…" She was utterly focused, ignoring even the hair falling into her face. Clef gazed up her again, feeling dazed, still, and beginning to be more than a little giddy.

"… Thank you." He murmured, and her eyes flicked to his at the soft tone. She looked… hesitant, now, all of a sudden. Almost… anxious?

"… I- " She stopped, cleared her throat… and was interrupted before she could speak again by the sound of speeding footsteps, and a shout.

" Umi! Hey, Umi! I brought some help - is he okay?"

Clef turned his head to look, then regretted it as the headache got worse. There was… well, a girl who looked almost like a high schooler, bouncing on the spot nervously, beside…

He sighed with relief, recognizing the head of the student mages.

He'd never been so relieved to see Zagato in his life, and that included the time Ferio and Lantis wound up getting all three of them in a police cell one evening. "Hi," he managed, putting on a wry smile for his friend as Zagato loomed over him, a forbidding shadow with his black coat on, and his dark hair loose about him.

"What the hell have you gotten yourself into this time, then?" Zagato rumbled, settling on his knees the opposite side of Clef to the girl - Umi, he guessed. Clef frowned, briefly, then dropped it when the expression hurt.

"I didn't do anything this time! It wasn't my fault at all!"

Zagato snorted. "That'll be a first - without Ferio around, at least."

"Or Lantis. Do not forget the amount of times your brother has gotten me in trouble, if you please. You of all people should know that straight face of his is a mask…"

"Hhmph." Zagato sounded as amused as he ever did in public, which at least meant he couldn't think Clef was hurt too badly… Zagato's hand on his forehead was blissfully cold against the heat of the pounding within it, and he felt himself relaxing as a wave of coolness washed over him.

The healing spell left him drifting, fuzzy, but aching less - and his headache had faded a long way from murderous. His eyes fluttered shut, slowly, the lids suddenly weighed down. "You've got better at that." He murmured, barely aware that the girl sat beside him was now shifting nervously.

"Come on, let's get you up-" He was lifted into a sitting position, the taller man moving around to give him a living backrest as Clef slumped against him, virtually boneless. "You don't feel sick, do you?"

"Noooooooo…" Clef slurred, and felt Zagato's chest shake with suppressed laughter, though he couldn't think enough to understand why.

"Of course I've been practising healing spells, you idiot - between you, Ferio and my brother they're always a good thing to be decent at. And it's easy enough to improve with Emeraude helping me - we're going to go see her in a moment, because I'm fairly certain you have a concussion, and you're probably going to try to kill me when you come out of this anyway." Again, he shook a little with laughter. "You know, the day we figure out just why you act like you've been heavily drugged to every healing spell going, either we'll rid the world of disease, or it'll end."

"Shut uuuup." Clef muttered, absently, letting his head slid to rest under Zagato's chin. "Sides, won't be yoooou, it'll be your giiiiirlfriend…"

Zagato sighed, his breath fluffing the top of Clef's hair out of place, and must have turned to the girls - Clef didn't care, the conversation now passing entirely over his head as his mind slipped into a hazy, sleepy muddle and he drowsed.

"Is he… will he be alright? I mean, I hit him fairly hard - I just didn't see him! I can't believe-"

"It was an accident, Umi! It'll be okay, right?"

"Your friend is right, Miss Ryuuzaki; knowing this idiot, he wasn't looking where he was going, either. He'll be absolutely fine in a day or so, do not worry."

"…You're sure?"

"Absolutely."

"Does he really… he always reacts like this? To healings? I've never seen anyone do that before - I'm not sure he's even conscious, and…"

"He really does, don't concern yourself about that." The form Clef was resting on shook again, and he curled closer, annoyed that it wouldn't stay still. Zagato moved his hand to support Clef better. "He's been like this since he was a child. He should start coming out of it in a moment or two - the spell I used wasn't very strong, mainly just a pain block. Still, he'll have a hangover tomorrow morning, probably."

Clef scowled. Zagato sounded far too cheerful about that, and he struggled to pay attention. "Well, I'd better get him to see Emeraude - she's taking her advanced PhD here, she's better at this kind of thing than the clinic."

"Un. One of our friends is being tutored by her, she always says she's never seen a doctor so good - but how are you going to get him there? He's in no shape to walk… should we go fetch someone? Or…"

"It's fine; I'll just carry him. He's hardly the bulkiest person around."

"…That's true enough."

…carry him?

…

Oh, no way in hell!

Clef's eyes sprang open, and he shoved himself away from Zagato in a rush - before his limbs were fully coordinated, and he ended up falling onto the girl who'd knocked him down, slumped across the floofy skirt he'd noticed earlier. At this moment, he didn't care - he was not going through that again!

To her credit, Umi didn't drop him, or even shove him away when she found herself with a lap full of barely conscious mage - she grabbed him, instead, as he began to slip to the ground. Not that he really noticed it just then.

"You are NOT carrying me!" Squeaked Clef, eyes wide, staring up at both versions of a blinking Zagato that he could see as the world span around him. "Not after what happened last time! No way in hell!"

"…Last time?" Zagato asked, confused, as Umi dragged Clef up until he could lean against her shoulder, swaying slightly.

The world was revolving faster and faster below him, and even when Clef forced his eyes to focus the giddy spinning feeling didn't go away, but he refused to slump back completely against an absolute stranger - more because it would give Zagato more incentive to pick him up than anything else. "Last time. Lantis carried me across campus, on his shoulder, for all of two minutes - do you know how long it took the rumours to die down? Four months! "

"Oh." Zagato's eyes cleared, and he nearly smiled. "I remember. It's hardly the same, though. You were singing, and it was night."

"I was very, very drunk." Clef announced, carefully, wincing at the memory - and the memory of the next morning, and the worst hangover he'd had in his life. (Not that he'd had many, being a mage who tended to blow things up - that time had been just after he'd come out the hospital, and had seemed a good idea.) "And then Lantis dropped me."

"It's still not the same, and you're not getting out of this - it's Friday afternoon, there's hardly anyone left on campus, and those who are aren't going to be paying attention. Besides, practically everyone here knows about Emeraude and I."

"So? Lantis was going out with that Alcione woman back then, and that didn't stop anything." Clef tried to shrink away as Zagato reached out, and was glared at. "That doesn't work on me. I've known you since you were five years old."

"Then you know better than to make me call Emeraude to come get you."

"…" Stupid know-it-all tall people… Clef was trying to find an argument when his vision began to break up, painfully, black and grey sparks dancing before his eyes. Leaning harder against the probably very confused girl, he closed his eyes tightly, and tried to concentrate himself into not being giddy, without much success.

"Come on, Clef. The sooner we go, the sooner it'll be done." Zagato rumbled, and Clef didn't fight when he felt himself being picked up, concentrating too hard on trying to remain conscious. It was annoying that Zagato could do this, pick him up in his arms as if he was carrying a child, or something - but it let Clef lay his head against the solid warmth of Zagato's shoulder, and he supposed that was a benefit.

Zagato couldn't have taken more than a few steps when the girl's voice stopped him. "We…do I have to report this? To the police, or security, or anything. I mean, he got hurt, so-" She sounded frightened, and Clef began to regret making a fuss and looking like this in front of her.

"It's alright." He creaked out, not even trying to open his eyes. "It's not that bad - besides, I never have to pay for medical treatment, and I'm hardly going to report you. It was an accident, that's all."

"As he says, it's fine." Rumbled Zagato's voice, and the girl must have nodded because he turned and began to walk again.

In the background, Clef just barely heard the small "…thank you."

oOo

Clef had been at this University long enough he knew every building – even the ones for the non-magical half of the campus, since the accident which had left him powerless.

Or, not powerless – he could feel the sharp buzz of his magic pressing angrily at the ache in his head, an unwelcome vibration added to the pain. But it was bound down inside his skin, and since then he'd taken courses in a handful of other departments to fill out his time. He recognised it when Zagato helped him into the school of medicine and the medical arts, but, unfortunately, not from classes.

His friends had collected here, since. It was one of the highest ranked Universities for Magic in Japan, but the confluence of his 'family' was more suspicious than he really cared to think about. Zagato was one of them. So was the woman now poking his head thoughtfully, ignoring his wincing and noting things down distractedly. Until she jabbed at the point where his head had struck the ground.

"Ow!" Clef yelped, batting her hands away and scrambling off the table, swallowing hard against the nausea the quick movement caused. "I thought you were meant to heal people, not worsen the damage already done!"

"Get back on the table, Clef." Emeraude replied, not looking up from her notes.

"Not until you promise to quit poking me, I won't."

She looked up then, and sighed heavily, unimpressed. "Sit back down before you fall off your feet, or I have to make Zagato put you there."

"…" Clef managed to hold the strong green gaze for all of ten seconds, before he swayed unintentionally, and sparks of black began to dance across his vision again. He hauled himself shakily back onto the tabletop, and leant heavily against the wall, screwing his eyes tightly shut against the white glare of the lamp overhead. Ignoring Emeraude prodding at his head was impossible, but he tried anyway.

By the time she finished and stepped away, he felt as bad as he had done when Umi first struck him - unsurprisingly, as she'd drawn away the painkiller Zagato had smothered him with.

"Well?" He cracked one eye open to squint at her, trying to stay upright against the wall, not sure he was succeeding. "Are you done yet?"

"You have a concussion, a lump on the back of your head that makes it look as if you were attacked by a madman wielding a hammer, and the beginning of some impressive bruising across your shoulders. Apart from that, you're fine." She turned to the charts of circle-designs stacked along the counter, and began to pull relevant ones out. "I can heal the worst of the concussion, and the bruising, but you're going to have to stay with someone for the next twenty four hours, be woken every so often while you sleep, and not be up to doing much more than sleeping. Certainly not studying, and I wouldn't advise going anywhere much for the next few days; even the convenience store will probably tire you."

Grabbing a brush and ink bottle from the shelves, she began to draw out the array she wanted. The mass of wavy hair she had pulled back into a thick braid seemed to glow even more brightly gold as she worked, and Clef 's eye closed again.

"Seems a bit extreme for falling over." He murmured. Emeraude rattled off the same explanation she have been giving him since she came to join the graduate program here after the accident.

"Your main problem is your power tried to flare out and protect you from the impact, and failed. The power you called on is trapped in you by the binding, and it's going to be forcing it's way out through any weak point it can find - namely, the places you've been hurt. I can't do anything about it; it's still your power, I can't control it. So you'll have to put up with feeling lousy for a while, but at least it's not really hurting you. Just stopping you getting better as quick as you'd normally be able to."

"…Hmpf." Clef gave in when a hand pushed gently on his shoulder, and slid down to lie flat on his back - head lain carefully on one side so he didn't put any weight on the bruised area. "…So stupid. It can get out when I'm mad, but not to help me…" he muttered.

The room grew warmer, and he could see the rich yellow light spilling from Emeraude even through his eyelids - then that warmth was rushing over him, drowning him, and he was weighed down into unconsciousness again.

The next time he woke, the shadows were deep and indigo across the room, the sky outside beginning to be spotted with stars. He was also in an entirely different building, in bed, and covered with a light quilt; but he took longer to notice that.

Pushing himself up took a moment, but he managed it, and blinked sleepily up at the looming darkness which had shaken him awake.

"Eh? Lantis…? What are you…"

The shadow straightened up, and the faint light from the open window revealed the face of Zagato's younger brother - who looked so much like him that people tended to think they were twins, not a year apart. "You have a concussion, you shouldn't sleep too long; you'll go too deep." He rumbled, with the same deep baritone his brother had. "And it's tea time, so Emeraude said to wake you."

"…Hopefully this also means she or Zagato cooked." Clef lugged himself out of the bed, and tried not to lean against things as he walked.

He felt much better than he had since being run over - headachy, but not out of it so much… just a little slow, lethargic. Well, except for the muscles across his neck and shoulders, which seemed to have stiffened into a giant knot while he rested.

"You're in luck; she found out how much food Ferio and I had between us," as in, none, and Clef fought off a grin "and decided we were all eating together tonight." Then they were walking out into the main room, and the light nearly blinded Clef for a moment.

"Would that everyone include your friend, or isn't he back yet?" Clef asked, not wanting to move and walk into something before his eyes had adjusted.

Lantis stopped, too. "Eagle? He isn't back from England yet, though he should be flying out on Saturday, midday."

"Theirs or ours?"

"Theirs."

"I guess I probably won't see him until Tuesday, at least, then. Eights hours difference must be hell with jet-lag, and he won't be here until Sunday morning our time…" His sight clearing, Clef was greeted by the welcome image of a table covered with food.

"Come on, you two, get over here. Let's eat!" Was the (standard) greeting they got from Ferio, the youngest of them all by two years, and Emeraude's little brother. The five of them settled about her table, and soon the food was disappearing. Clef was eating a little less, a little slower than usual, but he didn't feel ill. Just didn't have quite as much of an appetite as usual.

"So, it's easiest if you stay here tonight and tomorrow, and we'll take turns to hang about when we're free."

"What?" Clef set his chopsticks down, and blinked over at Emeraude. "Sorry, I wasn't paying attention, with your brother trying to steal my food-"

"I was doing no such thing!" Ferio protested, in the background. "Lantis is much easier to steal from."

"You…"

"I was just saying it would be best if you stayed here tonight, and didn't go back to your room - we'll all hang about to watch you at different points, and there's more space…" She cut across the threatening argument, and Clef nodded. It made sense, if she was going to insist he wasn't alone; though they all lived in the same dorm building, everyone else had the usual tiny one-room-apartments, with a pod-like bathroom; Emeraude had the entire top floor, aside from the corridor people had to use to get out onto the roof and dry their clothes.

It was an apartment meant for the dorm's manager, but times had changed, and the university no longer insisted the manager live in the building. It cost about three times what the others were paying, but the gods knew that Emeraude could afford it; She had a full kitchen, a bathroom that wasn't so tiny it felt like being in an aeroplane, and three smaller rooms leading off from the main one, so one of these was a spare bedroom most of the time. She even had spare futons, for all the times they fell asleep (usually in the exam period) after staying up to cram all night. They might only live down the stairs, but working out where everyone's keys had disappeared too just wasn't worth it most of the time.

(And keys always disappeared in that place. None of them had figured out how, or why, but stay there half an hour and your keys would be gone, only to show up behind the sofa, or the sink - once, even, in the microwave of all places.)

Clef's room would have to be attacked strongly before anyone else could get in, and he didn't really want to argue with Emeraude; it wasn't a good idea, he'd learnt that a long time ago. The five of them had grown up in the same village, and only collected themselves to the same university in the last year or so - back when they were kids, Emeraude had ruled them all whenever she wanted to; that Zagato was three months and nearly a foot taller than her hadn't mattered any more than Clef's being a year older.

And, if he was being honest… Clef was feeling rather shaky, and his head was beginning to feel stuffed with wool again - curling up and going to sleep sounded like a good idea right about now, even if he felt pathetic about it.

"…fine. I'll have a futon in the spare room, though - I'm not turfing you out of your own bed." He added, remembering where he had woken up.

Emeraude just smiled. "You should go get ready to sleep, if you've eaten enough..." And at some point, the two of them had decided that age really didn't matter, that one extra little brother to look out for wasn't too hard, when split between two of them, and that Clef definitely needed someone to look after him. Despite him being the year above them at school. He protested the treatment… but he didn't actually mind.

It was no different now, as he found himself ushered into first his nightclothes, and then bed. The first person to sit with him was Zagato, a dark silhouette by the window, reading by the faintest of glow-lights.

It wasn't long before Clef was drowsing off, the room drifting away from him, and the warmth of the light quilt, the ache in his shoulders, all becoming unimportant.

oOo

The second time Mazda Clef met Ryuuzaki Umi was the following Monday, when the office sent his latest student to tutor.

There have been somewhat more auspicious beginnings to a relationship.

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end chapter one

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