Chapter 7

IN WHICH…

Umi is hot for professor

"Fuu." Umi's voice from the corner of the dark room had Fuu's heart beating double time. Why hadn't she turned on the lights?

"Yes?" she asked uncertainly.

"Fuu," Umi said again, sounding more upset and insistent. Fuu fumbled for the lights. Blinking against the sudden brightness, she found Umi sprawled in her usual position on the couch, one arm flung dramatically over her eyes. Her bag spilled papers across the floor next to her. Umi's last class had ended over two hours ago.

"Umi-san, what's wrong?"

"My world is ending."

That…told Fuu absolutely nothing. This was a bit extreme for Umi, but technically still within the realm of her usual behavior, so Fuu didn't think anything too bad could have happened. Still. "…Did something happen in your group project?"

"No."

"With Tarta?" Fuu guessed.

"No, worse." Umi peeked out from behind her arm. "Fuu, I think I'm falling in love with my angry midget professor."

"…excuse me?" Well. That…wasn't anything that she had been expecting.

All at once, Umi jolted upright. Her arms raised in a frustrated jerky motion. "Clef! I don't get it! I still get pissed off at how much of a jerk he can be but then he can be weirdly nice and when he smiles I want to make him smile again. Do you know what this means?" Umi curled in on herself.

"You have a type?" Fuu said, thinking of Tarta.

"No."

"You…have masochistic tendencies…"

Umi glared at her. "What? No! Fuu, it means I'm that girl. The girl that wants to bang her professor. I'm in the deepest pits of hell. How can I respect myself when I want to sleep with my weirdo professor?"

"There is an age gap…"

"Way too big an age gap! Like what the heck brain? Latch on to all the worst people."

Belatedly, Fuu realized that this wasn't Umi's usual half-sincere freak outs, and that this had truly caught her off guard. Comparatively, Umi's bisexual awakening had been an afterthought. "You realize you don't have to do anything about it."

"I know…" Umi sighed.

"…You aren't going to do anything about it are you?" Umi didn't answer. Fuu set down her bags and sat on the edge of the couch. She rested her hand on Umi's back. "Umi-san?"

"Gaah, I don't know okay?" Umi sighed again and flopped against Fuu's side. She hid her face in her knees. "…It'd be pretty stupid of me to start something with him wouldn't it?"

"Quite a bit, yes. Especially when you're still in his class." There were all sorts of university rules that would be breaking. Potentially a few laws too, though Umi was legally an adult. Then there were the ethics of it and what sort of light it would paint Umi or her professor were they to openly show interest in one another. …Fuu wondered what this Clef thought of Umi. Fuu rubbed slow circles against Umi's back.

"Blah." Umi said after a while. Most of her tension had leaked away. She sat up but she didn't pull away. "And I still want to kiss Tarta's stupid face. Fuu I think something's seriously wrong with me."

"Well, you'll like who you like." And Umi did have unconventional tastes. There was nothing wrong with that though.

"I guess…" Umi shrugged. She gave herself one last lingering sigh before giving herself a shake like it could brush away her thoughts. "Hey, Fuu," she said, "do you have anyone you like? I feel like it's always me bringing up my crushes. Is it that guy from the coffee shop? Because I know he likes you."

Fuu pulled back into her own space and gave Umi a secretive smile. "Hmm, I wonder."

"Is that a yes or a no?" Umi asked. "Fuu?"

Fuu kept smiling as she retrieved her bag. Oh my, she suddenly had so much homework that couldn't wait a minute longer.

"C'mon don't ignore me!"

Fuu hummed to herself. She was hardly going to admit that she was still trying to see where things would go in her romantic life.

Fuu has a date

Fuu had had Ferio's phone number for weeks now. There had been the expected ribbing from Umi upon being given it, awkward non-mentioning of it the times she had been to the coffee shop, and the ever present, slightly ignorable presence of the numbers where she had tucked them away in her purse pocket. She could have texted or called him at any time. Could have, but hadn't, despite the ever growing temptation—and ultimately, resolve—to do so. Fuu couldn't help but wonder what would happen if she did text him. Would Ferio carry over the cheerful and friendly—but carefully just friendly—tone that their other interactions had? Or would he slip back toward flirtatious? Was the number a sign that he was definitely still interested, or something else? Should Fuu have responded immediately with her number? Was it too late?

It was far more complicated than it needed to be and Fuu was reminded why she had never made much effort to seek out things like romantic relationships. It was terribly distracting and she had more than enough school work to keep her busy.

Except when she didn't and Hikaru and Umi did at the moment and Fuu found herself in the apartment alone with all her work for the next week done and it was only a Tuesday.

Fuu pulled out her phone. She hadn't made many friends outside of Umi and Hikaru. There were friendly acquaintances, but that was all they were. Outside of her roommates, her friends were the people she had left behind from high school and they had all gone different directions with their lives. Fuu preferred to keep to herself or keep interactions to a surface level until she was sure she wanted to know a person better.

She did want to know Ferio better.

She typed out the phone number.

"Hello?" came Ferio's voice on the other end.

"Hello. This is Fuu. I was calling to ask if you were free sometime this week?"

"Fuu?" There was muffled scuffing on the other end, like Ferio had almost dropped his phone or was shuffling things around. "Uh. Hi. Wasn't expecting you to call considering, uh. Right. Free time? Uh, I'm done with classes at six if you wanted to get dinner—or wait is that too weird, um, what were you thinking of doing?"

Fuu released a silent breath of air. She hadn't been the only one nervous. She smiled a little as Ferio kept spilling words and cut his babble off with his name. "Ferio. Dinner tonight would be fine."

"Great! There's a nice family run place in town; good food and usually pretty quiet if that's your thing?"

"I'm sure that will work fine. Would you care to meet up in front of the library at six thirty?"

"Yeah, I'll see you then." There was a smile in Ferio's voice and Fuu couldn't help smiling in return. Her hands felt a bit sweaty, but it wasn't the bad kind of nerves anymore. It was closer to anticipation.

"Have a good day, Ferio."

"You too! And, um, don't take this the wrong way but. Is this a date?"

She'd had enough time to debate this back and forth with herself already, so it took only a moment for Fuu to nod to herself. "Yes. Yes, if you are still interested, I would like for it to be a date."

Ferio laughed, breathy and relieved. "Okay. It's a date then."

Fuu hung up her phone and sat for a moment until her heart slowed down. She had a date. With Ferio. Fuu smiled to herself and couldn't help but laugh.

o*o

"So. Medical track, what's the story behind that?" Ferio asked.

The restaurant had simple, homey meals, like tonkatsu or hamburger steak, and so far Fuu had found herself quite comfortable on this date. They'd talked about current classes and about Ferio's work at the coffee shop. Now they had moved on to broader getting to know you sort of topics over their desserts.

Fuu ate a spoonful of her fruit jelly. "I suppose I always intended to go into medical," Fuu said after a moment. "I enjoyed sciences and math and both my sister and I are expected to choose life paths that will support us. She went into a research field for pharmaceuticals. I am going into medicine because it is something that interests me and is helpful I suppose. It pays well enough that my parents aren't concerned about my future as well. And you?"

Ferio snorted. "I kinda chose my studies because it pissed my parents off," he admitted. His spoon mixed the dregs of his sundae around and around his bowl. "They wanted me to go into business or politics, but I don't have the head for that kind of thing. I liked the more physical side of things, but you can't really make much swinging a sword this day and age. So I figured athletic training would be a good compromise with my interests, though I admit the science side of stuff doesn't come easy."

"And history?"

"That's because it's interesting." Ferio shrugged. "I used to join in with a group of reenactors for a while. We'd do mock battles and stuff and that was fun." He pointed at his face. "Actually that's how I got the scars. One of the swords we were using got hit at the wrong angle and broke. My parents were so freaked by that I wasn't allowed to go near that sort of thing for years. I still meet up with the group every now and again these days though."

"I'd wondered about that." Fuu eyed the scar. "When I first met you, I thought you might be a delinquent."

Ferio laughed. "Wow, yeah, you wouldn't be the first. I kind of leave an awful first impression don't I?"

"It was probably just circumstantial," Fuu said. She debated whether or not it was too personal to pry into on a first date or not, but…well, she'd already spoken with him about his sister and she didn't think this was more personal than that. "So your family…"

"Ah, yeah." Ferio winced. "We don't get along. Actually it's more like I'm kind of disowned at the moment. After my sister died, I got in a huge fight with them. We were on pretty bad terms before that but… Yeah, I up and left and they cut all support."

"That's difficult." Fuu couldn't imagine her parents doing the same. But then, Fuu had never been the sort of person who gave her parents reason to be unhappy with her.

"Yeah. I got a job at the coffee shop to pay for school, and Lafarga helped get me a place to stay. I was kind of worried I wouldn't be able to stay at college for a while."

"The cost?" Fuu ventured.

"That and, well…" He looked uncomfortable. "My parents have a pretty big say in what goes on at Cephiro. My great grandfather started up the university and my parents are both on the board of directors and major contributors so…"

"Oh." That was a lot like her cousin's family actually. She tried to picture a much younger Ferio attempting to fit in with the sort of social circle Fuu had grown up in. He'd have been miserably out of place.

"Your family gets along better?" Ferio asked.

She nodded. "I have an older sister. Neither of us were the type to act out much, but I believe my parents are proud of the paths we've taken for ourselves. They were glad to see us pursue our interests. They were a bit worried when I chose to attend Cephiro since it was far away, but they trust me to take care of myself."

"Sounds nice." He smiled a little crooked.

"What's your best memory?" Fuu asked hoping to keep his mind off potential regrets regarding his family life.

Ferio blinked, finished off his dessert. "My best memory? Ever or with family or…?"

"Whatever memory you want to share."

"Huh. I don't know about best ever, but one of my favorite memories of my sister is her reading to me. I had a favorite book about a knight rescuing a princess as a kid and I'd have her read it all the time. I never thought about it back then how she never minded that it was always the same story. But. We read it together again once when I was older and I appreciated how she used to read it all the more I guess? We didn't spend a lot of time together so it meant a lot."

Fuu wanted to reach out and hug him. The impulse startled her, but there was something bittersweet in his smile that left him looking very vulnerable. She had to look away before she did reach out, and she busied herself with her food for a moment. "That sounds like a lovely memory."

"Yeah. And you?"

Fuu looked up into Ferio's eyes. For all her first impressions of him, he was only open and interested and comfortable to be around now. She searched for a memory that fit; that would share something of her like Ferio had just given so freely. None of her family memories had that depth. She loved her family, but they were all busy people who pursued their own interests in their own time. It was similar with her memories of school and her friends before college. She remembered happy moments but…

"I think my happiest memories are since I came to Cephiro," she said after a moment. "I truly enjoy being here. I love my roommates and my classes. A few weeks ago, I stayed up with my roommates watching movies and making fun of them and sitting in a blanket fort just because we could." The blanket fort had been Hikaru's idea. The pillow fight that eventually followed had been all Umi. "I'd never done anything like that before. I've only known them for a few months and I feel closer to them than I do to friends I've had for years."

"I get that." Ferio smiled. "They are kind of a whole new family."

"They are." Umi and Hikaru were like two more sisters, and for once it felt like Fuu was the older sister. She wanted to hold and protect them and just thinking about their months together filled her with warm contentment.

"I guess that's how I feel about Lafarga and Caldina. Don't tell Caldina that though, she'd tease the heck out of me."

They shared a smile. Fuu couldn't picture a better first date.

Eagle kisses Lantis kisses Hikaru

Things were going according to plan. Lantis was back in Eagle's life and had forgiven him. And Eagle had forgiven Lantis. Eagle had his friends at his back, his classes were going wonderfully as expected, and the new presence of Shidou Hikaru in his life—their lives—was going smoothly. Eagle probably should have been satisfied with things the way they were, but if Eagle was the sort to be satisfied with good enough, he wouldn't have come to Cephiro at all.

"You need to take better care of yourself," Lantis said in the moment Eagle came to his decision. Lantis's familiar hands wound a spare scarf around Eagle's neck, straightened and zipped up his coat against the ever cooler weather. He had done the same thing at Autozam, forever catching Eagle's hands to force gloves or mittens on them, or failing to have spares, pull them into his own pockets or hands to keep his fingers warm. "You get sick easier now."

"I'm not fragile," Eagle said. It amused him then to watch Lantis mother-hen him the way Geo did; it amused him now.

Lantis's lips pressed together, disagreement as clear as if he had voiced it. That too was familiar.

"Am I sufficiently bundled up now?" Eagle teased, tugging lightly at the borrowed scarf. It was the same soft blue as the sky, like Cephiro's skies without the ever present smog that Autozam dealt with in the city.

"I have to wonder how you survived without stealing all my scarves and gloves," Lantis sighed.

"I stole Geo's," Eagle said.

"Of course you did." His hand was still on Eagle's chest, absentminded. A remnant of a routine that was out of practice.

It would be the simplest thing in the world to complete it. "Your scarves are always better," Eagle said. "They smell like you."

A shift in Lantis's stance, tiny, just the slightest move back with surprise. Maybe Lantis didn't think about those past moments like Eagle did. Maybe he really had moved on.

Eagle had always been a selfish person. He hadn't moved on from Lantis at all. He leaned into the hand on his chest, saw Lantis's eyes widen, and completed their old routine with a chaste kiss. "Thank you, Lantis. I'm sure I'll be warm all the way home."

Eagle left him in the doorway before he could pull himself together. Next time would be Lantis's move. Eagle smiled to himself. Oh, he was probably in trouble. He had Lantis's blue scarf and a stolen kiss and the easy way they'd slid back into each other's lives to keep him warm though. If he'd read Lantis right, this wouldn't be a problem in the long run at all.

*o*o*

Lantis peeled off the safety equipment piece by piece. It was something he'd insisted on after the first spar with Hikaru, which Hikaru hadn't been happy about but would wear since it meant Lantis would be a sparring partner. He liked the time he spent sparring with her. Having a competent sparring partner was something he had missed since returning to Cephiro. It was always soothing to lose himself in the flow of it, to focus on the moment instead of any thoughts that might be plaguing him.

Of course thinking about sparring partners before Hikaru meant thinking about Eagle, and Lantis had finally gotten Eagle off his mind.

Hikaru shook her braid out the face mask. Her bangs stuck to her skin by a fine sheen of sweat and her lips curved in a wide smile. Hikaru was wonderful at pulling his thoughts away from obsessing over problems. "Thanks for the spar!" she said. "I'm feeling a lot better now!"

"Was something the matter before?" She had seemed happy enough—though she always looked happy to see him and even happier to pull out her bokken to fight.

"The second semester is a bit harder than the first one," Hikaru said, "and I didn't do the greatest on my test. But that's over now, so I'll just have to do better on the next one."

"If you ever need help…" Lantis offered.

"Thanks." She smiled, not the blinding grin of a moment ago, but still a warm smile. "Geo is tutoring me and I know so many smart people that I know I can ask for help. There's so many nice people here."

Lantis nodded. He followed her from the practice room from habit to where they stored their safety gear and practice swords. There were a lot of good people at Cephiro. It was a pity that the system behind it was less nice, too traditional minded to recognize the individuality and talent of the people attending the school at times. Thinking about that took his thoughts down unpleasant tracks too. Lantis didn't feel like going down that road tonight, not now when he was having a good time with Hikaru.

Hikaru didn't seem to mind when he was silent, like now. It was never strained, she just accepted him for when he was quiet or filled it with her thoughts when she had something to say. That was a lot like Eagle too, and why did Eagle have to keep coming back around again and again in his thoughts? He sighed.

"Are you okay?" Hikaru asked. Her hand touched his wrist.

He didn't know how to answer that. He focused on her hand against him instead, using it as an anchor against the whirl of emotions and thoughts. Lantis liked this girl. He liked how she was passionate about what she cared about, how she saw the best in people, how she cared. That didn't make how he felt toward Eagle any less complicated; there was too much history there, and something fragile and new building here with Hikaru. At least he thought there might be.

"Lantis?"

"Hikaru, is there anyone you care for?" Lantis winced internally at his wording. That was probably too ambiguous for literal-minded Hikaru.

Hikaru blinked up at him. "Lantis and Eagle." She paused. "And Umi and Fuu and Presea and Geo and my family and…and everyone else. I care about a lot of people." She bit her lip and Lantis couldn't look away as her cheeks tinged pink. "But. I like Lantis…and Eagle. Differently."

Oh. Both of them? Was that even possible? More importantly, what was Eagle thinking in all of this because he had to have noticed something going on and he had kissed Lantis anyway. Lantis swallowed and turned his hand over, let Hikaru's fingers slide against the vulnerable stretch of his inner wrist to the palm of his hand. "Okay," Lantis said. His fingers curled around hers.

"…You and Eagle are close," she said softly.

"Yes." The word felt choked in his throat. If he told her Eagle kissed him two days ago, that they had dated once, how would she react? Lantis didn't tell her that though. Things were complicated enough without bringing it up. Before he could figure any of this out, he had to be sure… He held Hikaru's hand a bit tighter and leaned down. "Hikaru, may I kiss you?"

"Yes."

Hikaru didn't close her eyes as he leaned the rest of the way down. Lantis cupped her face in his free hand. He kissed her, long enough to be less than chaste, but not so long to be pressuring. Lantis brushed sweat damp hair free from her cheek as he pulled back. The blush on Hikaru's cheeks was darker now.

"Was that okay?" he asked.

"Yes." Hikaru smiled, bright and warm; it made him feel brighter seeing it. She squeezed his hand and pulled away. "Get dinner with me?" she asked like it wasn't what they always did if they had the time.

"Of course."

The kiss lingered on his lips. Like Eagle's had lingered. I like Lantis…and Eagle. Hikaru and Eagle. Now where, Lantis wondered, did Eagle stand in all of this? He tightened his hand around Hikaru's, planning to find out.

Hikaru meets weird people

Umi leveled a cup of flour, squinting at it like the measurement was off. Usually she didn't bother to measure perfectly, but this cake was going to be a gift, so she felt a little paranoid. Thankfully Fuu wasn't there at the moment of she'd probably laugh at her in the roundabout way she had. Usually Fuu was the one in their dorm apartment all the time, but she'd been studying elsewhere a lot more lately. Addicted to that coffee shop she kept bringing pastries from or something. Or maybe she was dating someone and being annoyingly secretive about it. Umi could dream. She poured the flour into a bowl and painstakingly measured out a spoonful of baking powder. Umi didn't mind the quiet really, but it felt weird to be alone in the room so often. There was Hikaru, but, well, Hikaru didn't seem to keep a regular schedule outside of classes and kendo.

"I'm back!" came a cheerful call from the entryway. …And that would be Hikaru. Naturally.

Umi moved on to the wet ingredients since the dry were all there. "Hey, Hikaru! In the kitchen. Fuu's out somewhere."

"Again?" Hikaru's voice got closer as she made her way to the kitchen. "That's the second time this week. Ooh, what are you making?"

"Cupcakes. For Tarta and Ascot to celebrate finishing our group project."

"Nice!" Hikaru chirped from Umi's right shoulder.

Umi glanced at her and almost dropped half a pack of butter on the floor. "Hikaru, what are you wearing?!"

"This?" She looked down at herself. She was dressed in puffy skirt with a half poncho-like top, with a turtleneck under it, a utility belt, and some sort of headband with wires leading who knew where. She looked like she'd walked off some sort of scifi set, only whoever'd designed the costume had had a thing for school girls. "Someone asked me to pose for some pictures and he said I could keep the costume."

Umi set everything she was holding down and took a deep breath to keep a hold on the sudden spike of alarm Hikaru's explanation brought. "Who asked you and why?"

"I think he was an art student?" Hikaru shrugged. "I was in the art building to talk to Presea-san and he ran over and said I looked just like what the protagonist in the game he was working on was supposed to look like. Then he asked if I could wear a costume so he could get reference pictures." She tugged on one of the over skirt panels. "It sounded like a fun project so…"

….Fuu should be here for this. Fuu was so much better at being calm. And explaining things. And not freaking out that Hikaru had gone off with a strange guy to take pictures. "Please tell me you didn't go to his dorm room."

"Eh? Of course not. I changed in a bathroom at the art building and we used one of the photography rooms since they have light equipment."

It was times like this that Umi got why Hikaru's older brothers were so over protective of her. "He just took pictures?"

"Yeah. I did some battle stances like…this! And this!" Hikaru posed like she was going to punch something and then like she was using some sort of brain powered spell with a hand on the headband. "It was really fun! He said that the game's supposed to be done at the end of the year; there's a fair to show off senior projects or something? But it sounded really cool, and it was nice that he let me keep the costume."

Who just happened to have a costume of a character they made up? No, scratch that, how had this guy happened to have a costume that fit Hikaru perfectly? It was all kinds of creepy and Hikaru was way too trusting. Umi rested her head in her hands a long moment until she no longer felt like she was going to track the weirdo down or spirit Hikaru away into a tower to keep potentially creepo guys away. "Hikaru?" she said.

"Yeah, Umi-chan?"

"Please promises me you won't go off with someone like that again. Or at least that you'll bring someone with you so you're not alone with a strange guy asking to take pictures of you in weird clothes? Please?"

Hikaru ducked down to look at Umi's face. "Are you okay?"

"Fine. Fine. Just really alarmed at your lack of self-preservation."

"He wasn't a creepy person, Umi-chan, he was really excited about what he was working on. Besides, if he turned out to be creepy, I can take care of myself."

"Still. Promise me ok?" Umi set her hands on Hikaru's shoulders. This girl.

"I promise," Hikaru said. "…This is something I probably shouldn't tell my brothers about, huh?"

"Yeah, probably not." Umi still remembered the time one of Hikaru's brothers had visited and a boy had bumped into Hikaru while they were walking. She'd never seen a guy burst into tears like that before. "They'd probably try to kill him."

"More like castrate," Hikaru said. Umi did a double take as Hikaru said, "I'm going to go change."

"You do that…" Umi was sure that naivety wasn't an act and yet sometimes… Yeah, no, not thinking about that. Baking. She had been baking. Umi reached for that butter again and firmly did not follow that trail of thought.

o*O*o

AN: I always thought it was kind of creepy that Zazu just happened to have clothes Hikaru's size lying around...and changed her into them. _ At least for Umi and Fuu Chizeta and Fahren had female characters present who presumably did the changing.

In other news, hey, look at the relationships progressing this chapter. Boy oh boy it's actually going somewhere. T_T (sssh. they do things at their own pace)