Author's note: I have actually had the draft of this chapter finished since 8 July 2017, but it has had to wait for DragonofWinterNights to finish chapter 25 of Protecting You before she would do any beta reading for me. I think we can all agree on which takes precedence.
Chapter 2
In which Umi sees more of Clef's house
The late morning sunlight was streaming unhindered through the windows of Umi's newest Cephiran bedroom. Hadn't she closed those curtains last night? She muttered an angry curse before burying her face back in her pillow and pulling the covers back over her head, trying to get back to sleep.
It was a good fifteen minutes before she finally gave up on the idea. She slowly sat up and stretched her tired muscles with a heavy sigh. Perhaps she shouldn't have stayed up so late.
She was contemplating what she might do that day when her eyes noticed a small tray sitting on the little table under the far window. Throwing back the covers, she practically jumped out of bed to investigate. There was a hot pot of tea, an assortment of fruit, and a little metal dome. Lifting the cover revealed a steaming bowl of the dish rather like porridge that she'd grown rather fond of over the past few years.
After polishing off everything on the tray, Umi dressed in a short, light-pink sundress from the carefully chosen selection of cute summer clothing she'd brought with her. She managed to tame her hair well enough with just her fingers to twist it into a loose plait down her back, tying it off with a ribbon that matched the dress before going in search of Clef.
Her first thought was to check the study she'd found him in the night before, but that wasn't where he had disappeared last night after their kiss. Clef had shut himself in the room directly across from hers. She knocked lightly on the door, but received no answer.
Carefully, she turned the handle and peered into the room. "Clef?" she asked, quietly.
Inside it was dark, the curtains still tightly drawn; only the crack of light from the door illuminated the figure curled tightly under the duvet. If it weren't for the hair poking out of the end of the bundle she wouldn't have been at all sure it was Clef.
She was half tempted to wake him up. He'd promised to take time off and spend it with her, this week. But she watched the blankets rise and fall, and remembered the circles she so often saw under his eyes.
No, she would let him sleep as long as he needed to.
Stepping back into the corridor, she shut the door behind her and headed off toward the study she'd found Clef in the night before. Perhaps she could attempt to figure out one or two of the pages he was studying before she could be ushered out of the room again. Why he insisted on doing this on his own, she didn't understand. She might not be able to read the texts, but she could recognise words if he wrote them down for her. She could help him find the sections he needed to read, at the very least.
In the daylight, she could admire the beauty of the beast of a thing that called itself a desk. It looked more like a medium sized dining table than a desk, really. It had a solid mahogany-like top that was nearly as thick as her hand was long, intricately carved around the sides with the same floral designs she'd seen in the house's other woodwork. The heavy top was held up by four equally magnificent carved griffins. Their powerful backs and wings struggled under the weight of the books and papers covering every inch of the surface.
Of course his desk at home would be just as buried as his one at the castle.
Umi picked up the nearest heavy book to thumb through it and see if she could find anything that related to the laws surrounding Clef's post. What she didn't expect when she lifted it was the tink of china and the uncomfortably familiar sound of liquid spilling onto the floor.
Umi dropped the book and rushed round the desk to see what damage she'd caused. A cup of tea had fallen over, and from the look of the puddle it had been nearly full. Some of its contents had safely made it to the floor, but unhappily the majority had begun to seep through the lowest levels of the piles of parchment.
Helplessly, Umi scanned the room for a towel, a cloth, anything to clean up the mess, but there was nothing to be had. Cursing under her breath, she tried to figure out a plan before his notes were ruined.
Tea was mostly water, right?
Perhaps she could control it?
Teeth clenched tightly on her lower lip, she concentrated on the troublesome liquid. It was creeping its way farther into the mess. If she didn't do something soon, Clef would be beyond furious.
Pushing aside that thought she felt for the edges of the puddle and slowly began to pull it back towards herself. It was slow going at first; she was afraid of pulling any running ink off the pages as well, but it was her magic and it knew what she wanted to do. The tea pulled itself out of the parchment carefully, perhaps leaving a shadow of a tea stain behind, but the words were still as legible as they had been.
Growing more certain that no harm was coming to the papers, Umi pulled a little faster - perhaps too fast. The magic pulled the last drops loose of the final sheet with a strong pop and a rush of air, sending the salvaged leaves of paper across the floor.
Umi glanced between the dancing orb of tea in her palm and the new mess she'd just created. She needed to put the tea back in it's still overturned cup, so she could tidy up the papers, but how was she supposed to turn the cup over without dropping the tea?
.*.*.*.
Clef woke slowly, stretched and rolled over. Mornings at home were always better than mornings at the castle; no one rushing into his rooms or knocking on his doors with an urgent question at an unsociable hour. He could stay in bed until he was properly awake and ready to face the day, rather than dragging himself out and spending the day gulping down tea just to feel like a person instead of a ball of grumpiness.
The duvet was warm and soft. He snuggled further into it, trying to get back to sleep for a little while longer, but that serenity was short-lived.
He noticed the disturbance of the shielding about his study first, but thought nothing of it. Aveo often left him paperwork in the morning. It wasn't until he felt the other spell that he got up; no one should be casting spells in his rooms. They shouldn't even be able to!
Stumbling out of his bedroom in his nightclothes, Clef hurried down the corridor to see what was the matter.
He found Umi standing in the middle of his study, holding a rotating sphere of what appeared to be tea. Most of the paper from his desk now littered the floor around her.
"I leave you alone for five minutes," he sighed. At least this explained why someone was able to cast magic in the centre of a set of wards designed to prevent exactly that - he had a hard time convincing his magic to distrust Umi.
Startled, she lost control of the spell and let go. The tea splashed over her feet and the floor, saturating a few edges of the nearest documents.
"Well, I'm not the one who left the tea on the desk," she snapped.
"It's my desk." He waved impatiently at the now empty surface. "I can leave my tea on it if I like."
"To booby trap it so no one can help you?"
"I don't need any help with this, Umi." He stooped down to pick up the papers scattered about the floor. It was difficult enough doing the research without someone rearranging his notes; it was going to take quite some time to reorganise this chaos after that little trick.
She crouched down beside him, gathering other bits of parchment. "I want to help. It concerns me too, you know."
He flinched. "I know."
"Then why won't you let me help you?"
It wasn't that he was trying to shut her out, he just didn't know how to include her in all of this. There was so much reading to do, and she still only had a basic grasp of some words. However they went about it, they couldn't work out how to teach her to read Cephiran. No matter how he tried to sound words out, the syllables weren't translating the way they needed to. She needed to actually learn the language first, and with the translation spell in the way, that was next to impossible.
They'd tried talking about what he was reading, but that only managed to agitate him. The whole thing was stupid; the more he looked, the less of a purpose he could see to any of these laws - let alone there being three separate injunctions layered on each other, getting stricter and stricter. At the same time he couldn't leave any stone unturned, in case someone found something they could use to challenge him in the hearings, which were bound to be extensive and argumentative. He wanted the repeal bills to be as watertight as he could make them, or it was going to be a matter of years before they went through.
...He didn't think Umi's patience was going to last years. (He wasn't convinced his resolve was going to last the week.)
Sharing the detail would only depress her too, and that wasn't going to help either of them. Clef shook his head to both end the conversation and to push the whole mess out of his mind. He glanced over at the window and then back at Umi.
"It's a nice day," he said quietly. "I could take you around the gardens, if you'd like?"
He tried to ignore the way Umi forced a smile when she accepted the invitation. They both knew how this conversation went, it was better to just leave the arguing alone for now. It didn't solve anything.
She sighed and looked down at her wet legs.
"Why don't you go get dressed," she suggested. "I'll clean this up and meet you downstairs?
.*.*.*.
Umi looked at the mess she'd made. Carefully stepping over the papers, she tiptoed her way between them to the overturned cup and put it right side up. With a bit more control, and little more concentration, she slowly pulled every last drop of the tea out of the carpet. Condensing it into a small sphere that she could hold in her palms, she let it trickle back into the cup.
Placing the cup safely on the other side of the room, so she couldn't knock the damn thing over again, she started gathering up the papers on the absolutely no idea how to sort them, Umi just stacked them all as neatly as she could into a few piles to give him space to resort them. He would probably grumble about it later, but he wouldn't be that angry with her for an accident. He never was. He'd just be a bit annoyed.
Once everything was returned to more or less where it had been—except the traitorous teacup—Umi jogged back to her room and washed the tea off her legs, glancing in the mirror before dashing out again.
Her hair was already trying it's best to escape her messy plait, but she wasn't too bothered. It was out of her face, and that was good enough. Her dress, on the other hand was trying to drop a bit lower than she wanted without anything underneath the top of it. She untied the drawstring—which doubled as the straps—and pulled it a little more tightly, bringing the neckline up to a more comfortable level. It also meant the hem was nearly two inches higher, but she felt really cute in it, and hoped Clef thought so too.
Shoving her feet into her shoes, Umi went back out to find Clef downstairs, but his door opened moments after hers.
Clef stepped out wearing perhaps the simplest robes she'd ever seen him in. Pale trousers and shirt, and a long overcoat in a light-weight navy blue material with silver thread glinting just at the edges, cinched at the waist with a wide silver belt. It wasn't often he wore anything that showed so much of his lean shape. Without his heavy mantle, and sweep robes, he looked practically naked. It was a little distracting.
The mantle wasn't the only decoration missing. The only jewellery Clef wore was his ring and a pair of silver ear cuffs. His hair hung freely about his face, and Umi just wanted to run her fingers through it.
"No coronet?" she asked.
"Ah, no." Clef touched his forehead. "I'm just the Warden here." He paused, and smiled. "The Guru isn't always as…approachable?"
Umi grinned at him. "Is the Warden less crabby, then?"
His lips pinched together and he gave her an indescribable look which only made her laugh at him, but she went quiet when he held out a hand.
"Shall we?" he asked.
Staring down at his hand, then back up at him, Umi couldn't work out what exactly was strange about this entire situation apart from all of it. Clef being dressed down. He was actually offering her his hand to hold. But the fact she was actually staying at his house was among the top contenders for the weirdest part!
The bemusement didn't prevent her from taking his hand and letting him lead her down the stairs.
.*.*.*.
Clef knew he shouldn't have offered her his hand, but still he found himself weaving his fingers between hers as he led her through the corridors and out into the sunshine. The smile on her face was more than enough to set his heart racing. The effect was compounded by her leaning into his arm. The warm touch of her body against his was…
His breath caught in his throat at the sudden charge of electricity which coursed through him. He tried to untangle their fingers before the surge of power jumped between them, but failed when Umi kept hold of him.
The spark that leapt from his skin to hers sent a tingling shiver up his spine, and he could only imagine what it had done to Umi. She instantly dropped his hand and took a step away from him, looking down at her palm in more bewildered fascination than fear before glancing back at him.
"Clef?"
That had been happening more and more lately, but he didn't even know where to start explaining why. It was too embarrassing; it had been so long since anyone else got that sort of rise out of him. He didn't know what she would do if she realised just what it meant.
Well, he had an idea, but he wasn't going to entertain that notion. Clasping his hand firmly behind his back, to avoid the temptation of reaching out to her, Clef walked on.
He was a good few paces down the path before Umi jogged to catch up.
"Hey!" she said. "What was that?"
He shook his head.
"That's not an answer, Clef." Umi grabbed his arm and pulled him to a stop, worry etched across her face.
"It's— um—" he stammered, glancing down at the hand on his arm. He could shake off her grasp; he could walk away; but she would definitely not ignore the pulse building beneath her palm.
Umi let go and dropped her arms to her sides, hands tightening into fists. "You're not ill, are you?"
"No?" Oh, bother. He wasn't getting away without explaining at least some of it.
Taking a deep breath he tried to gather his thoughts. The basics were simple, and he could just… gloss over the reason for it. Concentrating very hard on keeping his power tethered where it belonged, he reached forward and picked up her hands. "It's a complementary magic reaction."
Umi's fingers uncurled until her palms rested flat against his. He let a small flicker travel between them, trying not to allow the cool shimmer of her magic draw any more of his own up with it.
Both of them stared down at their hands for a moment. Umi's breath hitched and her magic surged across his palms and up his wrists, they both gasped and stepped back. Clef swallowed and took long steady breaths to ease the shakes running through him. A bright flush had spread over Umi's cheeks; he wondered if she might have some idea of the why of her own magic's reaction.
Running a hand through his hair, he made himself smile at her. "See? It's just a bit of overspill of magic." Once again gripping his right wrist tightly with his left, Clef started back down the path.
Umi followed him silently for a few paces before touching his arm with a trembling hand. "I don't mind."
Clef stopped and looked at her.
Shoulders squared, cheeks even redder than before, Umi looked straight at him. "I like holding your hand, Clef. If that's going to happen every time, then I guess I'll just have to get used to it." She thrust her hand out to him, her gesture more like a challenge than an invitation. "As I said, I don't mind."
Perhaps he should have argued, or - better yet - refused, but in the end he did exactly what he wanted to and took her hand back in his. The power buzzed gently between them, and he made a conscious decision to let himself enjoy the touch of her skin and the tingling in his fingertips.
Umi laced her fingers through his as they walked on. The expression on her face could be described as smug, practically victorious. She held on tightly, perhaps afraid he'd pull away again.
Their walk took them through the meadow, where Umi quizzed him on the names of the flowers she didn't know, and up the hill into the uinka orchard. Umi paused at the edge of the tree line to look back over the house and the gardens. She leaned back against the trunk of a tree.
"It's beautiful here."
"I'm glad you like it," Clef said, looking out across the fields in the distance. "I should take you into the village this week. Market day is in three days time."
"I'd like that."
She smiled brightly, and he couldn't help the grin spreading on his own face, or the laugh that burbled up when he remembered why he hadn't been to the market the past few weeks. Aveo had every right to cut off his credit, but it still was a bit… embarrassing.
Umi turned to him with a quizzical look. "What is it?"
"I'll tell you later," he said. "We should probably head back now."
They had walked quite a way. It was getting late, and Aveo would send someone to hunt him down and make him eat lunch soon. He didn't get away with forgetting meals here. She made sure he had ate something at least twice a day, and if he forgot too often someone would show up and glower at him. Since he'd already missed breakfast, it would be a bad idea to miss lunch.
"Should we?" Umi asked.
He took a few steps towards the house, tugging gently on her hand. "Yes. Or there won't be anything left to eat."
.*.*.*.
Umi let Clef lead her down a different path from the orchard, circling down a hill and around to the other side of the house. Letting go of her hand, Clef opened a gate and let Umi into a tidy little vegetable and herb garden. Umi stood by as Clef latched it again then took his hand once more as they continued.
At the end of the path was a small door which Clef again opened for her. Umi stepped through into the kitchen and headed right toward the little dining room where she'd eaten the evening before. Clef followed closely behind.
"Hey!" A small head poked around the corner before disappearing again. "Told you Master Clef could find himself!"
"Huh?" A wiry man leaned his chair back from the table to see them. "Guess you don't have to go looking, eh, squirt?" His face broke out into a broad smile as he waved at them. "Hey!"
"Good afternoon, Getz," Clef greeted the man over her shoulder. His hand came up to rest lightly on Umi's waist as they walked through the doorway. "Have you met Umi?"
"No, I haven't." Getz let the front feet of his chair drop back down on the floor with a heavy thump and stood up, politely bowing to her. "I'm Getz, my Lady. Pleasure to finally meet you. Master Clef has told us quite a lot about you."
"Has he?" A soft heat prickled up the back of Umi's neck and across her cheeks as she bowed back. Clef had been talking to them about her? "Good things, I hope?"
Getz's mouth curled into a bit more of a smirk than a smile when he looked back up over at Clef and shrugged. "Mostly."
"He said you were infuriating," piped up the same small voice from earlier from a boy with sandy hair who looked to be about ten or eleven.
"Aygo!" Three adult voices scolded simultaneously; Clef, Getz, and Aveo, who was sat at the far end of the table.
"That's what you said." Aygo shrugged, unperturbed. "That the Water Knight's as infuriating as she is beautiful."
Clef frowned at him while Umi tried not to giggle. "How are you getting on with the reading I left you?" Clef asked.
"I—um—" Aygo turned back to the table and shoved a spoon full of food into his mouth, shutting up.
Clef pressed his hand firmly against Umi's lower back and guided her around the table. He pulled out a chair for her halfway down the other side, before sitting down beside her.
"I'm beautiful, huh?" she teased, poking his shoulder, and trying her very best not to blush. She knew he liked to look at her, but he'd never actually said what he thought about what he saw.
He grinned, unrepentant, and picked up a jug of fruit juice. "Don't forget infuriating."
"Glad to know I made an impression." Umi held her glass steady while he poured her a drink. She looked up at Clef, there was a hint of something lurking about the edges of that easy smile he wore. Something which made her breath catch and her heart race, the thrill of it sending a shiver down her spine. There was no fighting the warm blush which spread across her face.
Their eyes met and Clef's hand faltered, spilling a few drops of juice over the back of her hand. "Have you met, Elysion?" Clef asked, turning away with a gesture toward the girl sitting on her other side. It was only then that she realised it was the girl from last night, the one who'd popped in to give her the message.
"Hello," Elysion smiled a little shyly at her.
"Hi," Umi replied, suddenly feeling like she'd forgotten the years of practice making small talk at functions her parents dragged her to. What even counted as polite discussion in Cephiro? She had no idea. She and Clef would discuss—and, inevitably, argue—about any topic which came to mind. With her other friends conversations came and went easily, they knew each other so well by now.
Meeting new people in Cephiro - at least, people she would see again - didn't happen very often. Most of the people at the Castle were there for their job, and didn't sit down at dinner to start gossiping with the three weird girls from another world who kept visiting. This was different. But none of them seemed worried when she didn't say anything more, everyone turning back to their plates.
The array of foods on the table was the sort of thing Umi had come to expect as lunch time fare in Cephiro. There were freshly made flat breads, sliced meats, slices of the local variety of cheese-fruit. Multiple salads and dishes made of the local fruits and vegetables. Everything had been started on, but there was more than enough food left for everyone at the table.
Getz passed the plate of flat bread to Clef, who gave Umi first pick. She took two and reached over for the cheese-fruit. Umi looked over at Clef as he split one of the breads down the middle to form a pocket and half-filled it with a salad of finely-diced vegetables. He then added some roasted meat and reached across the table for a small pot of some sort of sauce.
"No idea why you like that stuff," Aygo complained around another mouthful of food.
Clef dolloped a generous amount into his bread pocket and grinned at the boy. "It's tasty."
Umi bit back a snicker.
"I hope you're cooking something the rest of us like tonight," Aygo muttered.
"I was thinking of cooking something with a Chizetan flare, but if you'd rather I stuck to the basics—" Clef dropped the spoon back into the pot and lifted his sort-of-sandwich to his mouth. "I can always just boil some naitro for you."
Aygo pulled a face at that, an awful grimace complete with melodramatic gagging for good measure. The laugh Umi had been trying to hold back broke through; between that and imagining just how bland boiled naitro could be, it took her a moment to properly process what Aygo had said.
"Wait. Cooking?" Umi blinked and turned to stare at Clef. "You're cooking tonight?"
"We have a rota. Tonight's my night." Clef smiled that damn smile again—the one that was doing all sorts of things to her insides—and took another bite of his food.
"I want nanba pureto," Getz laughed, ruffling Aygo's hair. "If you're doing Chizetan."
"Master Clef's food is usually really good," Elysion murmured. "But Aygo's right." She pointed at the pot in front of Clef. "That stuff burns your mouth."
Umi picked up the pot and sniffed it. The smell was something like spicy mustard or horseradish, but the consistency was more like hummus and the colour not too different. She braved a small amount on the edge of her bread.
.*.*.*.
"Careful with that," Clef warned as Umi lifted the sauce covered bit of bread to her lips. "It's a bit… strong."
That was probably the wrong thing to say, because Umi seemed to take it as a challenge, pausing and then dolloping just a bit more on before biting into it and looking him right in the eye the entire time. She paused a moment and then chewed thoughtfully. Her lips turned up into a smile. "Hey, it's pretty good!"
"Of course she likes it," Aygo muttered to his nearly empty plate.
"Why don't we have this at the castle?" Umi asked, spreading another spoonful across the bread before putting some meat and cheese on it.
"Because it's imported," Clef explained.
"By which he means it's expensive," Aveo corrected.
"It's not that expensive." Clef waved the end of his bread at her. "There have been worse expenditures on the accounts."
"Yes. All of them yours." Aveo agreed, raising an eyebrow. "Many of them recent."
"It's my money." Clef muttered, suddenly remembering just what purchases she was referring to. He'd been meaning other actual household-related expenses.
"Yeah, and how much of your money did you spend before Aveo had to cut you off?" Getz cackled, nudging Aygo with his elbow. The latter snorting as he choked back a laugh.
Clef flexed his fingers over the last bit of his bread, sorely tempted to chuck it at the pair of them. The whole household found Aveo revoking his market credit to be the most hilarious thing that had happened in months. Perhaps he had gotten carried away, but they didn't have to tease him so relentlessly.
"Cut off?" Umi sat up and looked at him with amusement written all over her face. "What did you spend so much on?"
His face was getting uncomfortably warm, and he didn't look at her, just waved a hand in the air and hoped Umi would let it go.
It wasn't Umi he should have been concerned about. Aveo picked up the jug of juice far too casually. "How did you like your new wardrobe, Lady Umi?"
"Clef!" Umi squeaked, her cheeks going a bright shade of pink.
He waved her off and turned back to his dratted Seneschal. "You said I needed to support the local economy!"
"There is a difference between supporting the economy and hoarding dresses that you certainly aren't going to wear."
"Yeah." Getz sniggered. "Because one's useful and the other's just pathetic."
Clef lobbed the bit of bread at his head, missing when Getz ducked out of the way, and ended up hitting Aygo. Yelping, Aygo picked up a slice of fruit and was about to throw it back when Aveo grabbed his hand and he dropped it.
"Hey!" She snapped at Clef. "If you're going to start that, you'll be the one cleaning up!"
Getz was cackling again. Clef's fingers closed over another flatbread, but he was stopped from retaliating again by Umi's hand coming to rest lightly over his. He turned his over and let her lace their fingers together. Umi's lips had curled into an amused smirk by the time he looked up to stare at her.
"Yeah, you don't want to be making a mess," she laughed. "You know I'd help! Like this morning…"
He thought of the tea stain probably still on his study floor, and couldn't help laughing.
"Speaking of messes," Aveo said. "Kalos seems to have lost the notes you gave her. Do you have another copy handy?"
Clef glanced at Aveo, silently cursing her for bringing that up. It was supposed to be a surprise. But Umi was just watching him with interest, and showed no signs of suspicion. Of course, she wouldn't have any idea what notes he'd given to his ward's lead priest and judge to work on. That had been the whole point.
Letting go of Umi he got up from the table and went to the larder. He kept a notebook on the top shelf, out of the way. It would probably be more sensible to keep it in his study so it couldn't wander off, but he would probably lose it himself in there among all the other paper. Walking back to the table, he flipped through to find the page he'd copied out for Kalos and Brisa. It wasn't quite as detailed as the version he'd written for them, but they should be able to manage. Still...
"I don't have another copy," he explained, keeping hold of the little book when Aveo reached out. It had taken him two months to get this far. He didn't want to have to start over if this copy were lost.
Aveo kept her hand out. "I'll keep an eye on them," she promised, which was more reassuring than he'd like to admit. He handed the book over carefully. She thumbed through the notes and sighed. "I suppose I'll copy out the relevant portions and return it to that shelf, as there's no way Kalos or Brisa will even try to read this gibberish."
"Hey! Those are my own personal notes! If I can read it, that's all the matters."
"So you admit that your handwriting is terrible?" Aveo held the book up and raised an eyebrow at him.
It was a household game, teasing him. The past two years had seen the whole lot of them finding ways to poke fun at him when he was being too serious, which was, to quote Getz, 'the whole bloomin' time'. That was probably his own fault. He'd chosen his people because they weren't afraid of him, and would be more than willing to point out when he was out of line. It was tiring enough to have people in awe of him half the week, he didn't want that at home. And this was home for him now, far more than the Castle. That was just where he worked, and caught up with a few friends.
Which made having Umi here far more… intimate than he'd expected.
"While you're up, Clef," Getz said with a grin as he leaned back in his chair again. "Would you mind putting the kettle on?"
Clef threw up his hands and stalked out of the dining room. He filled the kettle and thumped it down a little bit harder than he meant to. Aveo shouted something about him having to replace it if he broke it, but he ignored her and set about the routine of preparing a tray of tea.
It was calming, pottering about and gathering the teapot, cups, and saucers. He chose a light fragrant tea that seemed to now be growing best up north. The tin only had enough for maybe one or two more pots after this one. He'd have to mention it to Aveo, so she could order more. Two large spoonfuls in the pot and he walked the tin back to the larder.
Umi appeared in the doorway a few minutes later, carrying the stack of dirty plates. "Where do I put these?"
"Over there." He motioned toward the dish sink before turning back to the now boiling kettle.
She set the plates down and joined him at the worktable. "Anything I can do to help?"
"The sweetener." Clef waved a hand at the little pot that matched the tea service he was using. Umi obediently bounced over to it and set it on the tray while he filled the pot. Her fingers paused on the lid after she set it down and she looked up at him. The uncertain look on her face almost startled him enough to spill the boiling water, but he managed to catch himself before he'd dripped more than two drops down the side of the teapot. "What is it?"
"The ball tomorrow…"
"Yes." He turned momentarily to set the kettle back down then returned his full attention to her. "What about it?"
"Are you sure it's a good idea?" She asked, tracing the curve of the handle on the pot. "Me going with you, that is."
"Why wouldn't it be? I'm allowed to have friends." He knew full well what she meant. He was aware how frighteningly close this friendship was to becoming the 'something more' he wasn't allowed under the current laws.
Umi bit her lip and turned away from him with a sigh. Rather than reach out for her, like he wanted, Clef flexed his fingers against the table. One, two, three taps of his fingers and he knew how to get that smile back. Though it would probably also get him hit.
Leaning forward to rest his elbows on the table and chin on his knuckles. "Unless you're trying to tell me that you're actually a terrible dancer, and I'd be embarrassing the both of us taking you out on the floor."
"Hey!" Umi spun around, narrowing her eyes at him. Yes, that was much better. "I'm a good dancer."
"Yet Caldina keeps talking about needing to get you girls into lessons before the festival ball in two months." He picked up the tray and carried it back toward the dining room.
Umi followed after him. "That's just because we don't know all the Cephiran dances!"
"Are you saying you actually need lessons then?" he teased, setting the tray down on the table close to Getz and Aveo, his hands lingering a moment as he turned back to Umi with a grin.
Getz muttered something about him taking his time, and had already started setting out cups by the time Clef turned back to the tea set. Aveo had the pot in hand before he'd even gotten to pouring. Aygo seemed to have wandered off, possibly to catch up on the reading he'd absolutely not finished.
"What, are you offering to teach me?" Umi leaned against the doorframe, eyebrows raised, arms crossed in a way that pulled her dress tighter across the chest.
Not that he noticed this, of course.
"Tea?" he asked, turning back to the table to pick up one of the cups.
"That wasn't an answer," she said.
Her light footsteps back into the room were nearly drowned out by Getz's sniggering. Clef thumped him, open palm, with his free hand across the back of the head, which only made him laugh properly.
"If the ballroom is any indication, Master Clef's not danced in a very long time." Getz dodged another blow. "So, perhaps you ought to be teaching him to dance, my Lady."
.*.*.*.
Umi paused at the end of the table, her cheeks growing warm again. She ignored the way Aveo was watching her over the rim of her cup and the teasing prodding of Getz; she kept her eyes fixed on Clef's.
"Can you dance?" The question coming out more like a challenge than an enquiry.
Clef set down the cup he was holding. "Of course I can dance."
"Show me."
His expression started as the usual one which was almost always followed by his declaration that whatever she was asking of him was a bad idea, before morphing into something more like an appraisal as he glanced down the length of her body. Possibly he'd meant to check how suitable her outfit was for dancing - he did have a thing about 'appropriate clothing' - but it didn't feel like that.
They both swallowed, and Clef took a long breath before he spoke, his voice betraying a hint of roughness. "Very well then."
Shoulders back, with a look of utmost determination, he held out a hand to her; tea was apparently forgotten.
Clef led her down a long corridor toward a wing of the house she hadn't explored yet. Two large doors opened into a grand room, with a high-vaulted ceiling and windows almost as tall as the ones she was used to in the castle. From the look of it, it could have once served as a ballroom or at least a very grand dining hall, but that didn't seem to be its purpose at all anymore.
Every bit of wall space was lined with bookshelves, packed with volumes upon volumes of the books she recognised as histories of Cephiro. Tables with chairs filled any open space. It looked like the sort of library one would find at a university. A good fifty students could easily study without getting in each other's way.
"Come on then," Clef said, walking over to one of the nearby tables. "Help me with this."
Umi laughed as they shoved the table back against one of the bookcases. It took a while, but they moved all the tables out of the way before Clef knelt down at the edge of the carpet and began to roll it up toward the opposite wall. Umi got down beside him when it started to go wonky - it was at least ten meters wide, and that was the short side - and helped expose a beautiful parquet dance floor. Sure he was more the bookish type, but why on earth would he cover up such a glorious floor with this great damn carpet?
Heck, if this house was only a few years old - and it had to be, nothing but the Castle had survived the reformation standing - why did he have a ballroom at all?
"This house… it's built on my memories of the one I grew up in, as a kind of framework. So we have a ballroom, but I'm not all that fond of balls and dancing," he explained when she asked. "Well…at least not hosting them. So it seemed to make sense to make use of it another way, and I do have a lot of books here."
"But this is such a beautiful room," Umi complained, looking around them. It would be a nice place to host parties. Even if Clef didn't always like noise or people, he seemed to have fun at some of the festivals and things.
"Would you rather I return it to a ballroom?"
Umi looked around at the room. It was a grand library, for sure. A perfect place for people to come and study. But there were other places for books, surely, and covering that floor felt like a crime. "Maybe a little?"
"I'll have to think about it." He looked about them thoughtfully. "It is a lot of books, you know. But I suppose I could find space to build another one - probably without the sprung flooring."
Umi ducked her head to hide the hot flush spreading across her cheeks. She wasn't asking him to change his house for her, that wasn't her place. She just thought it was too nice a room to just keep books in.
Clef closed all the space between them, and she tried to keep from getting horribly distracted just from that. Adjusting her posture with a firm hand between her shoulder blades, another on her hip, he settled the two of them into a closer angle as he began to explain the pacing and steps of the first dance.
It was a simple one, the first Caldina had shown them, but Caldina had run them through so many during their sporadic dance lessons that Umi always got the names and movements muddled together. But Clef guided her steadily through the first few steps, moving slowly, and then picking up the pace a little as she started to get the feel of the motion. The dance itself was a little like a waltz back home, except it this one was patterned on four beats a bar, not three; enough to confuse her all on its own. Clef counted the beat for her as they made their way across the floor, one finger tapping it out on her back as well.
She tried to listen, but the nearness of him made it difficult to pay attention to what he was saying. The lingering hold on her hip and the brush of his fingers on her back—bare skin, at that—was more than a little distracting even without the flickering of magic between them. Her heart refused to slow down, and she was breathing awfully hard for the very slow simple steps they were taking as he started them on another of the dances.
It didn't help her concentration at all when Clef slipped from just counting the beat to humming a soft melody as he guided her along. He might claim to not like dancing, but he was definitely not bad at it. She had little trouble keeping up with him as they moved across the floor. He wasn't trying to do anything fancy, but seven centuries of festival balls must have given him practise enough the motions all felt natural.
Shadows moved across the floor as time passed, and they kept on dancing. A while later she realised one of the songs he had started singing actually had words to it. By the time she'd actually noticed, though, he'd slowed his steps and the words tapered off. What fragments she'd gathered before they came to a halt told her it was a love song, but what kind of love, she wasn't quite sure. The melody was beautiful, whatever it was.
"That was lovely, why'd you stop?"
A soft, unhappy kind of smile tugged at his lips as he met her gaze. "It's not a happy song."
He stood there a moment, simply holding her. Then his smile grew real, and gained a wicked glint as he tugged her back into a close hold.
"Has Caldina shown you this one?" he asked, pulling her with him into something very like a quickstep, almost cackling as he counted out a beat. He gave her a few minutes to catch the steps and then his counting started to speed up as they moved faster and faster, the added spring in the flooring helping keep the bounce in their steps as they flew about. Eventually Umi stumbled, and they stuttered to a halt, breathless and giggling in the middle of the room.
"You did well," Clef laughed, his eyes sparkling with happiness.
It was perhaps the most carefree she'd seen him lately. Umi bounced lightly on her feet, ready to give it another go. Her feet were a little sore from what must be hours of dancing about, but she was having a lot of fun, and was beginning to really look forward to the ball tomorrow evening.
Clef reached his hand up and brushed a hair from her cheek, and his magic flickered lightly across her skin.
Without really thinking, Umi pulled him back towards her. Clef leaned in and tilted his head almost automatically. Her lips brushed against his, and she felt him take in an abrupt breath. His fingers tightened on her waist and she felt the sharp charge of electricity crackle through his touch.
Rather than pull away after a moment, as he always did, Clef flicked his tongue teasingly against her lips. She opened her mouth with a soft gasp. He tangled one hand into her hair at the base of her plait while the other wrapped more firmly about her waist, holding her close.
One of them let out a moan as a surge of energy pulsed between them, and Umi could feel something shift against her thigh that had nothing to do with magic.
"Oh," she breathed, pulling back to look at him.
His face was flushed and his eyes were dark, pupils blown wide. Why hadn't she realised it before? The spark of his magic kept growing stronger the longer they touched. Clef had waved it off as just some sort of reaction between their magics, but there was much more to it than that.
No wonder he hadn't wanted to talk about it.
"Umi…" His voice was ragged as he spoke, but whatever he was going to say was immediately silenced by her mouth on his.
.*.*.*.
The touch of her lips drove every other thought out of his head. Clef swayed on his feet, caught off balance by the sensations cascading through his body. Stumbling back a few steps, he tried not to let them both fall over.
He could think of little else but her touch, and his need for it.
Umi dug her fingers into his hair, scratching his scalp, and he was on fire. She pushed forward, sending him back another quick few clumsy steps until his back hit one of the bookcase ladders. The force at which he was slammed into the rungs would probably leave bruises, but he didn't want to be anywhere else. Clef pulled her more tightly to him, fisting his hand in fabric of her dress. The heat of her body against his was overwhelming on its own; but combined with the crisp cool touch of her magic, it was everything.
Her fingers undid the fastening at his collar, before running over the newly exposed skin of his neck. Umi's lips left his and trailed along his jawline. She nipped at the skin just below his ear and he moaned. Teeth dragged down his neck and he shifted against the rungs, trying to pull her closer still. His head lolled back as he tried and failed again to form a coherent thought with Umi's mouth against his skin.
"Umi—" he tried, failing to find any other words beyond her name.
"Bad idea?" Her lips and breath tickled his neck.
His hum of agreement turned swiftly into a moan when her lips were replaced by a tongue dragging up the side of his throat. Yes, it was a terrible idea. He could just about remember that, but he wasn't sure he cared anymore.
That was wrong. He absolutely didn't care anymore. Not in the slightest.
Laws be damned, Clef tilted his head and pressed a kiss against the bare skin of Umi's shoulder. She turned slightly, and he managed to land a few more feather-light kisses along her collarbone. Umi sucked in a breath and twisted against him.
Taking advantage of her momentary distraction, he pushed against her and spun them both around. He couldn't think properly when she was holding him down. Not that he was thinking much more clearly when she was pinned to the bookcase before him.
Kisses across her skin became licks and then nips. Umi arched her back and pulled him to her as he bit down at the point where her shoulder met her neck. The wanting, breathless noise she made sent another flicker of heat through his body. His hands moved of their own accord, sliding from behind her shoulders down her arms and back up then skittering down Umi's sides before slowly moving upwards again.
Umi's hands had found their way into his outer robe, her palms moving up to his shoulders and back down across the fabric at his chest until they reached the fastenings of his shirt again. Her fingers curled and she let out a hitched moan when his right thumb flicked over her nipple through the thin fabric of her dress. In response she tugged him closer by the collar of his shirt and crushed her mouth to his, her body trembling beneath him. She whimpered and shifted her hips against his when he repeated the gesture with his left hand.
He continued to lavish his attentions upon her for a few achingly short minutes before they were, fortunately, interrupted.
"Ma—Master Clef?" said a quiet voice.
Clef snatched his hands away to rest on the bookshelf above Umi's shoulders, dragged in a shuddering breath, and turned his attention to their intruder. His voice was perhaps a little more pointed than intended. "Yes?"
Elysion shifted where she stood by the door, looking down at her feet. "Mother says that if you're going to cook tonight, you had better get started."
"I'll be down in a moment."
She nodded and bolted from the room.
Clef turned back to Umi. She was flushed and still breathing heavily, but she hadn't moved. Her back was still firmly pressed against the bookcase, and her hands still tangled in the front of his robes. She was looking up at him, expectantly.
He swallowed, afraid of just how much she was expecting from him.
"I should…" he started, removing her hands from his clothing and taking a step back. "I should go."
"Should you?" Umi asked, leaning forward, wetting her lips.
Her dark gaze flitted down to his waist and back up, and Clef found himself suddenly wishing he'd dressed in a few more layers that morning, as very little was hidden by the thin, soft fabric of his trousers. His face heated up even more as he refastened his shirt. Kissing was one thing; they had shared a multitude of chaste kisses over the past few months. What had happened just now was anything but innocent. It was also definitely leaning toward illegal.
If Elysion hadn't turned up when she did…
Clef looked back down at Umi, with her creased dress, rumpled hair, and bright face, and the heat settled back into his stomach. He had never before wanted her as badly as he did then.
Shaking his head in an attempt to ignore that thought, Clef smoothed out his robes as best he could and fled toward the door. "Yes, I should."