From Guru to House-Husband
Story 6: Close Quarters
Part 5: June
Umi peered closely at a bench in a quiet corner of the campus. The rainy season was here with a vengeance, and it had been pouring just that morning, but right now it was warm and dry the last few hours and it looked like the bench had dried out enough to chance sitting on it.
"Oh well," she muttered and sat. It was cool enough it was maybe still a little damp, but not enough to move now.
Her friend Honami - who hadn't gone to the goukon with the girls from fencing last month either, because it turned out she'd just met someone - brought her a can of black coffee from one of the closest vending machines before inspecting the bench herself. Sitting down beside Umi, she turned a can of tea round and round in her own hands.
The drinks had been Umi's idea. Honami had seemed nervous about whatever it was she wanted to talk about, and Umi knew she always found it comforting to hold a warm drink when talking about a difficult subject. Which was, now she thought about it, probably Clef's fault somehow. He always made a drink before talking about things, if he had a chance.
It took a moment before Honami gathered herself to speak, and her voice was so quiet when she did that no one passing them was going to overhear her. "You and your husband get along well, don't you?"
Though she'd guessed it might be a relationship question, Umi had still been half-hoping for a question about fencing or studying. Something she had more experience with.
"Yeah, I guess so. We do argue sometimes but we get along most of the time." She paused. "Well, we argue quite a lot, but we only have a few real arguments. Mostly it's just bickering about how I shouldn't wad up my socks when I throw them in the laundry basket and stuff like that."
Honami's voice grew even quieter, and she was looking down at the ground. "How often do you do it?"
Umi blinked at her. How often did they argue? That was easy. "A couple times a week, I guess. Sometimes more if he's being particularly annoying."
"You want to - if he's annoying?" Honami glanced at her and Umi didn't understand her expression at all. Or the question. Of course Clef being annoying made her want to argue with him!
"Yeah?"
Biting her lip, Honami looked back at her canned tea, turning it faster in her hands. "What do you do to make it stop hurting so much?"
"Hurting?" Umi stared at her in confusion. Sure she regretted some of the things she said to Clef, but they usually talked things out and apologised, and she didn't think they hurt each other much. They really didn't have real arguments that often, not anymore.
Then again, the thing they'd disagreed on most since getting here was which sofa to buy - it wasn't exactly a charged topic.
Though, maybe it did hurt Clef more when they argued... It wasn't something she'd ever asked him.
She really should watch her words better.
"You know, after your first time," Honami said, as if that was supposed to clarify everything. She waited a moment for Umi to answer, but when Umi stayed silent, she went on, "I know your first time is supposed to hurt, but what did you do differently after that?"
"You mean sex!" Umi blurted, and nearly dropped her drink, cheeks going hot. She looked around, but there was no one near enough to have heard that. Honami was staring at her. "I thought you meant arguing!" Umi's face went hotter still - and then Honami started giggling, and a moment later she did too.
"So… you don't want to, when he's annoying you?" Honami's lips were twitching, and at least she seemed a little more relaxed now.
About to say she didn't, Umi was hit with a memory of Clef in the middle of one of the arguments about that sofa - flushed slightly, trying not to grin at her, looking happy to have something so normal to care about. Or maybe just happy that they were buying things for their home, together-
Her face couldn't get any hotter, but she found herself looking at the floor, not answering that.
Why would anyone ask her for that kind of advice? She'd never even-
Oh, right. She was married.
Marriage didn't automatically make you an expert on relationships or sex; it just meant you'd both signed a piece of paper. Umi could give advice about living together with someone and making compromises on everything from the budget to what time they ate dinner. But sharing a family register and wearing matching rings led everyone to assume she and Clef were having sex.
Maybe it shouldn't have been so surprising that Honami came to Umi for advice.
"I knew it could be uncomfortable for a while," Honami continued, finally opening her drink. "But I didn't expect it to keep hurting as much as it still does. Which is really irritating, because I really - I want to do things! I just don't want it to hurt."
"Have you talked to him about it?" Umi asked. Even when it came to just living with someone, Umi had definitely learned that communication was key to a good relationship.
"But that's so embarrassing." Honami ducked her head. "How would I even bring it up?"
"If it were me, I'd say 'Ow! That hurts. Can we try something different?' when anything is uncomfortable." Umi knew not everyone was as straight forward with the people in their lives, but she was pretty sure sex was one thing you really should be blunt about, giving clear answers and telling your partner whether or not you were comfortable. What was the point of doing it if it hurt?
That was something she'd complained to Clef about back in high school when some of her classmates were having the same sort of problems, but putting up with it for the sake of 'keeping their boyfriends'.
Clef had been just as unhappy at the idea as Umi; he'd told her he would never knowingly hurt his partner, and he would hope they would tell him if he were. Just as he would tell someone if they were causing him discomfort.
It was probably wrong that it had been easier to talk to him about sex before they'd been married. Before she realised she was interested in doing those kinds of things with him. Not that it hadn't been embarrassing - but right now it seemed impossible.
Taking a breath, Umi shoved that thought to the back of her mind, trying to remember the actual advice he'd given her to pass on.
"I'm sure that if your boyfriend likes you, he doesn't want to hurt you," Umi said. "Isn't it more awkward to put up with discomfort when you could be having fun? Maybe try taking things slower? You know, focusing on just kissing and touching each other rather than trying to just put it in. I mean, you do a warm-up before fencing, right? It's kind of the same, you're still using a lot of muscles. You want to be warmed up. But relaxed too?"
Right now, even remembering that conversation had her imagining him doing that kind of thing with her.
Umi took a breath and remembered the less sexy bit of advice. "If it keeps hurting, though, you might want to see a doctor to make sure something's not wrong."
"That's even more embarrassing!" Honami sank back on the bench.
Umi couldn't help but giggle as another possible solution hit her. "You could always try finding yourself a new boyfriend with a smaller dick instead?"
Honami blinked, then burst out laughing. "And how would I do that?"
"I don't know. 'Nice to meet you. How big is your dick?'" Umi said, giggling as she mimed bowing to someone.
"What a good way to get known as 'dick girl'," Honami said, giving Umi's shoulder a shove.
"At least seeing a doctor would be less embarrassing than always having to pull out a tape measure when you take someone new to bed." Umi snorted with laughter.
"Thank you for that thought."
"Happy to help."
"Is that how you introduced yourself to your husband? Nice to meet you, how big is your dick?'"
Umi's face hurt from laughing. "No, but I did accuse him of being a pervert."
"You thought he was a pervert but you dated him anyway?"
"It was a misunderstanding, a long time before we got married. A lot can happen in four years." Umi took a sip of her coffee.
Honami's smile quirked up into a mischievous grin as she leaned in to whisper, "So how big is he?"
Nearly spitting out her coffee, Umi swallowed hard. "What?"
"If you're saying my boyfriend's too big, how does your husband compare? Is it little, or big?"
Umi's face went hot again. She couldn't say she'd never seen it. That would sound weird - like they'd only had sex in the dark, under covers.
Sharing a bedroom with Clef did mean she'd caught glimpses of it pressing up against his pyjama trousers of a morning, but it wasn't until she'd circled both her hands around the coffee can to work out how long it might be that Umi realised what she was doing and stopped, dropping one hand into her lap.
"Average, probably," she answered. "I have nothing to compare it to; I've never dated anyone else."
"Oh? Really?"
Umi's phone chimed loudly, giving her an excuse to end the conversation.
"And that's my husband. I forgot to let him know I was going to be late, and he'll probably be wondering why I'm not bugging him for food," Umi said, bouncing to her feet. "You should talk to your boyfriend! But if he's a jerk about it, let me know and I'll beat him up for you."
"I will," Honami said, laughing as she stood up. "Thank you for talking to me."
"Of course. Good luck!"
Umi turned away and headed home, the first drops of rain hitting her still-heated face as she reached the edge of the campus and realised that her umbrella was still back on the other side of campus, at the building they fenced in. She'd been so distracted by Honami's quiet question about talking that she'd forgotten to pick it up.
Oh well. She wasn't going back for it - she would just have to run.
The clouds opened as she held her bag close and shot down the road, but even getting soaked through couldn't stop her thinking about the conversation.
It really didn't make sense that she couldn't ask Clef about this kind of thing anymore, just because they were married - just because she was attracted to him!
If her friends were going to start coming to her for advice, she needed to talk to Clef about it, because either she needed to know she could ask him questions - or maybe have a different conversation entirely. One about getting some experience herself. Then she would be able to answer questions without bothering him, right?
Without bothering him with questions, anyway.
oOo
Clef wasn't expecting the downpour as he raced home from the bus stop - then again, when had he expected any of the rain this month? Apparently this time of year the sky just opened up when it felt like it, and he was constantly forgetting his umbrella and getting drenched.
Today he'd headed to downtown Kyoto to see if he could find a new book or two that looked like he might be able to read them. He had access to the books Umi had brought with them, but she hadn't brought that many, and the ones he felt up to trying to read were all the same kind of genre. For the sake of his vocabulary, he probably needed to branch out some, and there were a couple of large bookstores he had hoped to browse through so he could see how dense with kanji the text was, and whether any pronunciation help was given or not.
Sure, Umi had shown him how to buy books on his tablet, but there was something comforting in having the physical book to hold.
He'd got a little overwhelmed by the crowds and ended up in a cafe, sat in a back corner with a cup of tea and a sandwich while he calmed down. But he'd been so determined not to forget his umbrella when he left that he'd managed to leave his phone on the table instead, and hadn't realised until he was almost getting on the bus to go home, books finally purchased.
Retracing his steps had sent him from later than expected to actually late, and when he got back to the bus the second time and realised that while flustered about the phone he'd gone and left his umbrella there this time, after all that - well, he wasn't going back again. The umbrella was only a hundred yen, and a lot easier to replace than his phone.
Dripping up the stairs to the apartment, he was regretting not pausing to pick one up when he got off the bus. He was soaked through, and cooking would have to wait now; he wanted to get clean a lot more than he wanted to eat.
He kicked off his shoes in the doorway and sent a text to Umi that dinner would be late, there were some leftovers in the fridge she could snack on when she got home. He peeled off his shirt as he walked into the dressing room and dropped it in the washing machine, followed by the rest of his clothes.
He'd just finished showering and was just towelling off his hair when the bath started filling itself, making him jump. The controls for the bath were out in the dressing room, so he couldn't have knocked them.
He stood there staring at it in confusion as the door opened, and Umi was standing there, naked and holding a towel, looking like she'd got caught in the rain as badly as he had.
Umi squawked and yanked her towel up to cover herself, her eyes wide as she stared at his body. "Why are you naked!"
"Same as you - I mean, I was taking a shower?" Clef hastily covered himself as her gaze gave his body ideas about the situation. "You didn't knock," he said, then paused - if she'd knocked while he was in the shower, he probably wouldn't have heard anything.
"This room has a lock!" Umi pointed out, waving a hand at the door in question then snatching it back to clutch her towel as it slipped sideways. "You weren't supposed to be here! You said dinner would be late!"
"Dinner's late because I was showering, not because I was still out! I got caught in the rain, like I guess you did too." He took a breath and waved her aside so he could slip out of the bathroom around her. "You have your bath; I'll start dinner."
Umi bolted into the bathroom, not quite slamming the door behind her, and Clef let out a sigh and picked up his clothes to go get dressed in the bedroom.
oOo
For the first time, Clef burnt dinner.
He stared at the smouldering mess that had once been curry and swore. He was too distracted to cook. Which was ridiculous - it was just skin. He'd seen plenty of people naked before, and been seen by them - even people he was attracted to. It shouldn't throw him so badly.
Maybe it was just that Umi was the first person he'd been attracted to in such a long time.
Or else perhaps it was the way she'd looked at him.
Whatever the reason, he'd been too busy glancing at Umi on the sofa as she looked everywhere else but him now when he should have been paying attention to the food.
"You okay?" Umi asked, snapping upright.
"I'm fine, only our intended meal isn't." Clef dumped the failure in the bin, thinking hard. The last thing he wanted to do was start over with something else, and maybe they would both benefit from getting out of here for a little while. "Let's go out. The restaurant you want to try should be open tonight." And should be busy enough to cover any awkward silences, he thought, but didn't add aloud.
Umi nodded. "That's a good idea." She looked down at her nightclothes. "Give me a minute. I need to get dressed first."
"I'll clean this up while you do."
Clef had the pan in to soak and everything else cleaned and away by the time Umi reappeared and they headed out - with a pause to pick up two new cheap umbrellas from the conbini just down the road.
The place Umi had been told about by a classmate was a twenty-minute walk and Umi's hands stayed fiercely clutching her handbag the entire way, as she debated aloud what they might want to order.
Clef kept finding his own hand reaching out for hers as they walked. It wasn't until he was denied that touch that he realised how normal it had become to walk hand in hand, and how quickly he had gotten used to it without even noticing. It might have started as a way to keep together in the crowds he still couldn't adjust to, but that was no reason to hold hands as they walked down a quiet road with no pedestrians beside themselves. Only that had, apparently, become normal for them - until tonight.
Walking in near silence was also unusual. But when he tried to ask about her day, Umi flushed an even brighter shade of red and said that it was the same as always. She didn't speak again, not through the rest of the walk or while they waited in the queue, not until they sat down at their table.
"Sorry about earlier," Umi said, not looking up from her menu. "I didn't mean to walk in on you."
"I know. It's fine. It was bound to happen at some point, and you're not the first person to see me naked." He shrugged. "I'm sorry I forget you need to actually touch locks here to make them work." And that he needed to pick up his belongings instead of expecting them to vanish away into a gemstone when he was done with them if he didn't want to keep misplacing things around the city.
"You're the first guy who's seen me," Umi muttered so quietly Clef was pretty sure he wasn't meant to hear her. She took a deep breath and let it out again, her voice back to a normal volume as she asked, "What are you going to get?"
"The steak, I think. What do you want?"
"I don't know," she said and bit her lip, flustered again in a way that implied she wasn't talking about the food.
Clef swallowed and stared down at his menu.
The conversation stayed stilted all the way through ordering and finally getting their food, nearly two hours after they were meant to have eaten. They both took their time eating, and if Clef had hoped the meal would make either of them feel steadier, those hopes were in vain.
There wasn't very much to talk about, which wasn't a problem normally, but tonight left them stalling from one topic to another. Their plans for the weekend were being set by Umi's former fencing captain, who had invited them out Saturday evening and was bringing a friend along 'so you two don't feel like you have to entertain me', Umi reported. Umi didn't want to talk about her day, and the most exciting thing that had happened to Clef that afternoon was thinking he'd lost his phone, which he didn't feel like admitting when he was already so off-kilter.
Maybe he should just admit his attraction. Get that out of the way. It was definitely more obvious than his deeper feelings - he certainly hadn't been fast enough for Umi to have not noticed his body's reaction. Brushing it off as a simple physical response to the cool air from the open door was a lie, especially when, try as he might, he was struggling to get the image of her out of his own head.
The walk home was just as uncomfortable as the walk there.
They took their turns changing into nightclothes, and when Umi hovered uncertainly in the bedroom doorway, Clef walked over to the television and picked up the game controllers.
"Catch!" he said right before tossing one at her, then sat down on the far side of the sofa with his own controller and started their racing game.
Umi sat down on the opposite side of the sofa. Her shoulders relaxed after a few laps of the track. By the third time around she was properly smiling. The conversation started as laughter at their performance in the game - Clef contemplated 'accidentally' driving backwards for half a loop, only to drive off the course instead - actually by accident - and get stuck, making Umi cackle as she lapped him.
By the time they went to bed, the air seemed settled again.
oOo
Umi struggled all evening to shake the embarrassment of walking in on Clef, but that was more because it threw off her plans of seducing him, rather than because they'd seen each other naked - she'd already expected that to happen if she'd succeeded. She just hadn't been prepared for it right then.
Plus a little bit of embarrassment because she had forgotten to knock. Lock or no lock, knocking was the rule.
Perhaps it was a little because she'd seen him naked, and - yeah.
At least she was a little more confident that propositioning him might work?
She spent the evening trying to decide whether she should just go ahead and ask him, or if it would look like she was only doing it impulsively because she'd seen him without his clothes. She'd nearly convinced herself she was just being silly thinking that, but Clef must have read her nerves as a different discomfort because he'd distracted her with video games.
Which was sweet of him, but she couldn't figure out how you were supposed to ask someone to sleep with you when you were busy trying to knock them off a racetrack, so she'd given up for that night.
Her schedule was too full the rest of the week to give them enough time to take their time if she did talk him into doing it, and she couldn't even wait until the weekend, because she and Clef had agreed to go out with Shibuya-senpai and a friend of hers Saturday night. Shibuya-senpai had been so enthusiastic about spending time with them that Umi couldn't bring herself to find an excuse to cancel. She wasn't very good at lying anyway.
But in the shower, after she got home from fencing club Saturday afternoon, Umi decided she was being silly. Talking about it didn't have to mean doing anything - she didn't have to find a time when they had several hours just in case Clef agreed to sleep with her there and then.
(Not that she had any idea how long things might take, either.)
Getting dressed, she walked into the kitchen to get it over with while she still had the nerve.
"I'm almost finished," Clef said, waving at the stove. "Your phone pinged a few times while you were in the shower."
Maybe Shibuya-senpai cancelled after all - if they did have all evening to themselves...
Umi picked up her phone, only to find instead a message from Honami thanking her for her advice.
It worked great! Thank you so much! ? ✨Staring down at her phone, Umi took a deep breath before sending back her reply.
I'm glad I don't have to beat up your boyfriend."Everything alright?" Clef asked.
A hot blush crept up Umi's neck. "Yeah. It's just my friend Honami. She was having some problems with her boyfriend and asked for advice, and I guess what I suggested was helpful." She set the phone aside and sat down at the table with a sigh.
"Anything I can help with?" Clef came over with a plate of food for each of them, dropping down opposite her at the table.
It was a perfect opening, if Umi could just make herself take it. "I don't have any experience with the problem she was having, so I just repeated everything you told me in highschool. It would probably be easier to answer questions if I knew what I was talking about."
"Ah," Clef said, his cheeks going slightly pink. "I'm glad the advice helped."
Clef looked down at his food, and Umi fought back the urge to shout at him that she wanted him to teach her. But she couldn't - he looked so uncomfortable, and she couldn't figure out what to say to make herself clear without frightening him off the idea - and without making it sound like an impulse just because she wanted to be able to help her friends, either!
Wind effectively taken from her sails, Umi deflated and focused on lunch instead. No matter how hot he looked when he was riled up, she didn't think arguing would actually be the best way to get him to go to bed with her.
Instead, Umi decided to use that evening to her advantage. It was an excuse to dress up more than she normally did when she and Clef went out on their own. She'd always dressed nicely when they went out, but never tried to intentionally get his attention. If she could get him to look at her like he had the night of their wedding...
This wasn't the kind of thing Umi normally spent much time on, but she'd been to enough events with her parents that Mama had taught her plenty of ways to dress up over the years, so she grabbed her outfit and shut herself away in the bathroom to get ready.
They weren't going anywhere very fancy, but it was plenty of justification for wearing a blue lace dress that wasn't as fancy or as low-cut in the back as what she'd worn on their wedding day, but that she still thought looked pretty hot.
Hair twisted up in a way she knew should stay in place all evening, makeup and dress as perfect as she could manage, she clasped the bracelet Clef had given her about her wrist and stepped out to meet him in the main room.
Though she was hoping for it, Umi still flushed at the little noise Clef made as his breath caught.
"You look beautiful." His voice was just slightly rough and made her shiver - but that was it. He didn't step closer, didn't reach out.
If she was so beautiful, why didn't he do something about it?
She watched as he fumbled his jacket on - he looked good tonight, too. (Though her favourite thing for him to wear was the ruffled, relaxed sleepiness that she only saw on the rare occasion she woke up before him.)
With their wedding on her mind, Umi couldn't help remembering the nightmare that had him waking up screaming in the hotel. Was he holding back because he was afraid of hurting Cephiro? Despite all his insistence that he thought the country would be fine if he ignored the old laws, was he still worried he had it wrong? Was that why he kept shifting away and hiding his reaction when she got too close?
Or... was it possible that Clef thought not starting a baby meant keeping his hands off her until after graduation?
Surely he knew contraceptives existed here and that they could have sex with little chance of pregnancy.
Or did he?
Did Cephiro actually have contraception?
She tried to drag up memories of their conversations, but she couldn't remember if they'd ever talked about that. Surely there must be something you could do, unless that was the reason Clef had almost exclusively slept with people he knew he couldn't get pregnant before he became Guru - he'd said as much the last time she'd asked him for advice to pass on to her friends. She hadn't thought too much of it at the time, but now she couldn't help but wonder if she should let him know that condoms existed.
"Shall we go?" Clef asked, and he held out his hand to her.
Umi nodded. Swallowing hard, she slipped her hand into his.
oOo
Clef kept getting so distracted looking at Umi that he nearly got them lost on the way to the restaurant. She was always beautiful, with or without the bit of daily makeup she wore, but there was a difference in the level of care she'd taken, and Clef wasn't sure if he was right in thinking there was some sort of intention behind it. Or who that intention was aimed at.
He knew there was some sort of long history to Umi's relationship with her former fencing captain, especially when that person showed up at their apartment to judge his suitability as Umi's husband, and with Umi commenting about being distracted during fencing practice Clef couldn't help but wonder if it had anything to do with this Shibuya-san.
At the same time, he could hear Hikaru's words echoing in his head: "Umi won't be courting anyone else once she's married to you."
It was true. Umi was unfailingly loyal, and she'd promised fidelity.
Clef hated the idea of ruining Umi's chance to explore various relationships, but a small part of him couldn't bear the idea of her going home with someone else, of her not laying beside him in the dark, whispering "Good night".
But maybe he was overthinking things. If that dress brought up anything, it was memories of their wedding - Shibuya-san hadn't attended. Was it wishful thinking, that she might be doing this to catch his attention? (If so, she had achieved it so well that he had no memory of the name of the restaurant they were headed to.)
Either way, he was the one walking beside Umi tonight. It was his hand she was holding when they arrived at the restaurant and Shibuya-san cheerfully introduced her friend.
"This is Ito Misaki," Shibuya-san said with a wave to the woman beside her. "She's in the same year as me at University."
"It's a pleasure to meet you," Ito-san said, with a smile and a bow.
By the time they'd ordered food, Clef had not only set aside any notion that Umi had any current thoughts about Shibuya-san, but he had come to the conclusion that this Ito-san was likely Shibuya-san's romantic partner. He felt relieved, and then silly for feeling relieved.
The feeling was swept aside by the realisation this was the first time he and Umi really had been together in a situation where they would both be called Ryuuzaki-san, and he laughed the third time the wrong one of them answered. He still had to work hard enough at understanding the conversation that sometimes he missed the context cues, but Umi was too used to getting questions about the recipes she used when she was baking to remember Clef had been emailing Shibuya-san some more savory recipes, too.
"You can just call me Clef," he insisted. "I'm still getting used to Ryuuzaki, anyway."
"It feels a little wrong to call you by your name when Umi won't use mine," Shibuya-san said with a chuckle. She turned to Umi. "After six years, it's about time you call me Norika, don't you think?"
"I only just stopped trying to call you 'Captain'!" Umi complained, her cheeks colouring slightly.
Clef couldn't help but laugh a little. "You never minded calling me Clef."
"Because that's how you introduced yourself." Umi poked him in the shoulder. "And it's not like you've ever been my superior in anything but age."
"I'm pretty sure I'm the one with more experience in most things," Clef said, Umi's comment about giving advice to her friend coming to mind far too quickly and his tone coming out far more suggestively than he'd intended.
But he was rewarded by Umi blushing fiercely as she wrinkled her nose at him. "That's just because you're an old man."
Her eyes didn't leave his immediately, and when they did, it was to travel down his body with an intensity that made a hot flush radiate through his body. There was no mistaking the interest in that look.
"You can wait until you get home to flirt!" Ito-san said, with a friendly laugh. "How about this - shall we all use each other's given names from now?"
Umi's face glowed brighter as she turned away, and Clef couldn't help but wonder if he was imagining the interest behind her gaze - if he was just projecting his own feelings there.
It wasn't the last time that evening he found Umi taking inventory of him. Her eyes seemed to skate over him whenever she thought he wasn't looking, and the moment he caught her, she looked away blushing.
Clef still hadn't worked out a good way to start any of the conversations they should have had by now if they'd had the chance to let this affection evolve more slowly.
It was one thing to be in love with her, but the sexual attraction was an entirely different beast altogether. And with someone who was too embarrassed to even discuss privacy for self-pleasure, he was afraid of making their living situation uncomfortable while she sorted her own feelings.
And when the restaurant gave way to a karaoke place, Clef found himself eyeing the menu and the options for alcohol. Maybe if he had just enough to relax he could let something slip far enough Umi would start asking questions.
They'd agreed to never lie to one another again, hadn't they?
Which was all the more reason he should be straightforward about the direction he'd like to take this relationship, if Umi was on board.
"I don't know Japanese alcohol well," Clef said, turning to Shibuya-san - no, Norika-san, now - who was looking through the menu and offering to call their orders through. "What would you recommend?"
"Ooh, what kinds of things do you like?" She spread the plastic-coated menu on the little table. "Misaki only ever has one drink, so I never have anyone to try things with."
"Mostly I'm used to fruit liqueurs, but everything here is different. I haven't tried that much- well." He remembered the after-after-party at their wedding. "I don't think I've tried that much."
"I'll order a variety, then!"
The first drink was sweet, tasting more like fruit juice than alcohol, and Clef had finished about half of it before he decided to test his theory about Norika-san and Misaki-san. "So, how long have you two been going out?"
Umi blinked at Clef, but Norika-san laughed.
"Two years. Since the start of our second year here," Norika-san said, sharing a glance with Misaki-san before looking back at Clef. "I think you're the first person to not just assume we were just good friends."
"You definitely seem like friends too," Clef said, smiling. "Friendship is a good basis for a relationship." He couldn't help but glance over at Umi who bit her lip when their eyes met. "We were friends for years before Umi proposed."
"Before she proposed - did you not date first?" Misaki-san asked.
"Umi was far too young to date me for most of that time," Clef said, and when Umi pulled a face at him, he pulled one right back.
Misaki-san sat up straighter, tilting her head. "Just how old are you, Clef-san?"
"His passport says he's twenty-five." Umi looped her arm around Clef's, answering before he could work out how to do it without obviously lying. "And like I told Shibuya-senpai - sorry! Norika-san! I married him because I want to keep him. This way he gets a reason to have a visa, and we get to spend time together - and I get someone to cook for me!"
Clef's heart thundered in his chest at Umi's words, and he couldn't help but smile. He felt like an adolescent whose crush had actually noticed them for the first time, which was utterly ridiculous, especially given he'd heard her declare her intent to keep him plenty of times before.
Admitting she didn't want theirs to be a long-distance relationship - friendship - wasn't the same as saying she was in love with him.
"You two are too cute," Norika-san said and dragged Misaki-san to her feet to sing a duet with her
Umi's expressions sobered as she watched them.
"What is it?"
Umi leaned closer, cupping her hand around his ear and lowering her voice to admit. "It's just weird knowing I might have had a chance with her in school, but I didn't realise I'd had a crush on her until this year."
"Oh?" Clef asked, turning to face her. "How'd you work that out?"
Umi bit her lip, blushing as she stared at him, and Clef's breath caught slightly in his chest as he waited, hoping she'd say it.
But Umi broke eye contact and turned away to pick up her glass.
oOo
Clef didn't remember much of the cab ride home, aside from leaning against the wall where they were sheltering from the rain as they waited for a taxi and Norika-san laughingly apologising to Umi as he worked very hard on staying upright. The ground kept moving under his feet as they walked into their apartment building, and he nearly fell out of his shoes when they got home, but Umi caught him before he could fall face-first into the hallway floor.
"You're so beautiful," he told her, combing his fingers through her hair. He leaned in closer, his lips brushing against the skin of her neck. "You always smell so good. I wonder what you taste like. What would you say to me taking you to bed and tasting you all over?" Umi's gasp made him grin. Nuzzling the soft flesh beneath her ear, he continued, "If you're amiable to the idea, I'd very much like to do that in the morning, with a cleared head. You deserve to be savoured."
Umi put a hand in the middle of his chest and pushed him back. "Clef, you're drunk," she said, flushing brightly.
"Yeah," he agreed with a nod that had him swaying slightly on his feet. He pinched his fingers close together. "But only a little bit."
"More than a little bit, if that's what you just said. You're rambling in Cephiran. Sit down. I'll get you some water." Umi led him into the apartment and sat him down at the table. "You shouldn't have had so much."
"The drinks were nice." Clef rubbed a hand over his face. "But I thought I knew my limit. Sorry." He frowned and repeated 'sorry' with enough focus on the syllables he was pretty certain it came out in the right language.
"Here." Umi put the glass in front of him. "I'm going to get ready for bed."
Clef obediently drank the glass of water while Umi changed. He got up and had another, holding onto the edge of the sink for balance, while Umi set out the futon in the bedroom - he felt like he was more likely to get in the way if he tried to help.
By the time he made it to the bedroom, Umi had his nightclothes out and shoved them into his arms before sliding the shoji shut between them.
Clef eyed the night things, but undressing seemed impossibly complicated. It would just be easier to sleep in his clothes, so he just flopped down and shut his eyes, but that didn't stop the room from spinning.
The sharp knock on the shoji startled him.
"Huh?" he yelped.
"Are you dressed?"
"Uh huh."
Umi walked in and let out a loud sigh. "You'll wrinkle your clothes," she said.
"I ironed them," Clef declared with a dramatic hand gesture. "And washed them. It's fine." The last syllable stretched longer than he meant it to.
"Okay." Switching out the light, Umi crawled under her covers and shut her eyes.
Clef stared over at her as his eyes slowly adjusted to the dim light. Why was she so cute? He just wanted to crawl over there and snuggle up beside her. If he could only just undo her plait and run his finger through her long hair while he kissed her slowly, deeply, and-
"No!" he said, pushing himself up.
"No?" Umi asked, sitting up in confusion.
"Tomorrow," Clef said. "I'm really drunk." He climbed to his feet, dragged his bedding out to the sofa, and fumbled the shoji shut behind him.
To be continued...