3 February 2018: As always, a big thank you to dragon of winter nights for the beta read of this fic. She not only polishes up some of my sentences, but also makes Clef's sense of humour worse than I started with.

I enjoyed writing this chapter. Please let me know what you think about it..

Content Note: Thc chapter has not been edited for content. It appears here exactly as it does on AO3.

Chapter 8
In which a bath turns into a water fight and a box becomes a proposal

Umi got just enough of a glimpse of the note pinned to the bathroom door to guess it was addressed to Clef - it definitely looked like his name at the top - before he yanked it off and crumpled it up, rolling his eyes. The bit of paper went directly into a bin when he opened the door and waved her in, making her very curious about what it might have said, but she was more curious still about the new rooms she hadn't seen.

Inside was a smaller - though still not small - version of the dressing room she'd used in the castle baths. One wall held shelves piled with towels and soaps and lotions and sundries, with few large baskets sat on the floor below.

"If you want to have your dress cleaned, I can get it back to you after washing day?" Clef said, waving a free hand at her muddy skirt as he dropped his outer robe into the basket on the left. Then he was pulling his shirt off over his head, and Umi was distracted by the muscles playing across his back as he turned away to remove his boots, any thought of the mysterious note completely disappeared from her head. She took a breath and failed to stop watching as the shirt was swiftly followed by his trousers and underwear. He picked up a towel and went to open the second door before he paused - perhaps remembering she was there - and turned back around. "Is there anything you need? Everything should be set out like it is at the castle."

Umi blushed fiercely at the sight of him standing there casually when he was so very naked and shook her head.

"Just come through when you're ready." He gave her a warm smile and walked through into the bath, leaving her alone in the dressing room. She stood staring at the door, unable to stop blushing. It wasn't like she hadn't already seen him naked. It was just - it was different when they weren't in the middle of… things.

Umi shook her head and laughed softly at herself before yanking her dress off over her head and throwing it into the basket, followed by her underwear. After tying up her hair, she wrapped a towel about herself and walked into the bathroom.

It was another large room. The floor was an intricate geometric mosaic of tiles in blue, lavender, gold, and white. At the far end of the room was a deep, sunken pool lined in the same tile and filled almost to the edge with steaming water.

The wall closest to the door was lined with several stools with shower hoses. Clef was sat on the seat in the middle, washing himself with a soapy cloth. He looked up and smiled at her when she sat down on the nearest stool to the door, and made herself look away from him.

"It's easier to wash without the towel," he said, his voice gently amused.

"I - yes - " Umi twisted the fabric with her hands, self-conscious about the way she was still staring anytime she looked over at him.

The vaguest hint of a smirk was playing at the corner of his lips when she glanced over again, her eyes traveling down his neck and shoulder and over his side, lingering on the fair skin of his leg and shape of the muscles where it curved up to meet his back. No, it wasn't just his leg, she was totally staring at his butt - what she could see of it as he was sat down, anyway.

Huffing out another embarrassed laughed Umi turned away rubbing her cheeks; her face was so hot it was almost painful.

"If the heat's bothering you, we can cool you off," Clef said. Umi didn't notice him raising the shower head until he shot her with a short blast of cold water.

With a loud squawk, Umi nearly fell off the stool in surprise. She grabbed the shower attachment in front of herself and turned it on him, yanking the temperature dial round to as cold as it went.

Clef just cackled as he jumped out of the way before she managed to get more than his arm. He aimed the spray from his attachment up into the air and it splattered down over Umi, making her yelp at the shock of cold.

Umi dropped her shower head - it clattered across the floor, still spraying - and leapt back away from him, using magic to drag water to her hands. She was so intent on getting him back she barely noticed the soggy towel falling from around her, and she certainly didn't care.

She threw the spell at him with more force than she probably should have, but Clef blocked it with one raised hand and a word before trying to spray her again. But Umi had made it out of range of his water; she laughed, as he frowned at the shower as if it had disappointed him.

Hanging his shower hose neatly back on its hook - and shutting off Umi's with a casual wave of his hand - Clef took three long steps towards her before dropping to his knee and pressing his hand to the wet floor. A crackle of electricity about his hands gave his spell away, but too late for Umi to get somewhere dry - there wasn't really anywhere dry by now.

The pulse shot flickered brightly across the tiles, sending a startling shiver up through Umi's body from the tip of her toes to the top of her head. She sucked in a breath, trying not to notice the way the heat was pooling in her belly at that. Biting her lip, she threw a proper attack at him. The watery dragon flew through the air at full speed before splattering across Clef's quickly-cast shield, exploding away from him in a silvery rain.

Clef grinned at her, his hair curling around his face and cheeks lightly flushed.

She wanted to kiss him. Now. Push him back on the tiles and-

The next spell she gathered in her hand faltered and poured out of her hand as her eyes travelled down his body, and a new blush heated her cheeks. "Um..." No matter how she tried to keep looking him in the eye, her gaze kept flickering down.

She evidently wasn't the only one who'd been turned on by that magic play.

"Oh, sorry." Clef ran a hand through his hair and turned away slightly. "Just ignore that." He waved her off. "It'll stop doing it in a little while."

Umi didn't look away, vividly remembering what it felt like to run her hands over him. Her fingertips were almost tingling with the urge to do it again. Perhaps if she asked very nicely...

"Whatever you're thinking, the answer is no." Clef laughed and turned away completely to sit back down on his stool, brandishing the shower head again. "I really would like to have a bath."

"Ah, yes. I forget you are a very old man." Umi poked him in the shoulder as she dropped onto the stool beside him. "So arthritic, you probably need a very long soak after this morning."

For that, Clef actually did spray the water her way again, but it was warm this time. She threw it right back at him with the flick of a wrist, and then they both dissolved into laughter.

Umi was still giggling when she finally rinsed the last of the soap off of herself and walked over to the steaming pool of water. She eased herself down the little flight of steps into the water, and sat on the low ledge, so the water came up to her chest as she leaned back against the side. A few moments later, Clef slid over the side, dropping into the water and setting ripples running across the surface.

"It's market day tomorrow," he said conversationally. "We can still go, if you like?"

"I thought Aveo cut off your credit?"

"Only when it comes to buying stuff." He shrugged. "I can still show you the village, and we can get a hot lunch before going out further. I did promise to show you more of Cephiro than just my bedroom."

"Well, I haven't really seen much of that either." Umi grinned.

He pushed a wave of water at her. "You know what I mean."

"Are you saying you don't want to show me your bedroom?" She splashed water back at him, giggling. "I mean, I showed you mine, so I thought that meant you'd show me yours."

"Oh, is that how it works?"

"I don't know, you tell me. You're the one with more experience in these matters."

"It's been such a long time. As you say, I am very old." He made his voice creak on the last words and Umi snorted a laugh.

Even now he'd grown, Clef definitely didn't look more than about twenty-five - thirty at most - by Earth standards. She didn't actually know if that made much of a difference to how well his body functioned. He might have reached his limit for today, and maybe he did ache after that much activity - he'd drawn things out longer than she expected, not that she'd been complaining - and that's why he was insisting on finishing his bath before doing anything else.

She poked him in the arm again. "I mean, you don't have to, if you don't want to."

"Are you always going to be this chatty in the bath?" Clef asked, leaning back against the side. "Because I might have to re-think inviting you in with me in the future."

Umi harrumphed and crossed her arms over her chest, pouting dramatically at him. The corner of Clef's lips turned up slightly before he tried to force a frown. Umi tried to hold her pout, but a smile was lurking at the corners of her mouth, making them twitch up.

Resting back against the comfortably curved edge, she reached one arm out along the side of the bath; Clef stretched his arm back towards her and tangled their fingers together as they settled into a restful quiet, the water soothing both of them.

.*.*.*.

The next morning, Clef woke to find that his pillow was breathing. He blinked a few times as he slowly realised his head was actually pressed against Umi's chest, which explained why his pillow had also gained a heartbeat. He mumbled an apology as he tried to move, only to find his arm wrapped around her and his legs tangled with hers under the covers.

Umi giggled, sounding decidedly more awake than him."It's like sleeping with a tako."

Carefully extracting himself, Clef rolled over and blinked at her. The last word she'd said hadn't meant anything to him, which probably meant there was no Cephiran translation. "What's a tako?"

"Oh, it's a -" she made a grabbing motion with her hands, and Clef leaned a little further back. "- creature that lives in the sea. It's got eight tentacle-arms, and wraps them around things." She pushed up on one elbow and grinned at him. "You didn't warn me that you were a snuggler."

"I forgot?" Clef offered, which was true enough. "Sorry."

"Don't worry about it. It's better than sleeping with either Hikaru or Fuu. I definitely don't miss being tickled in the middle of the night."

"Tickled?"

"Fuu's a sleep-tickler." Umi leaned toward him, hand poised delicately on his hip. "You'll be sleeping soundly when all of a sudden -" Clef yelped when Umi actually ran her fingers up his side and tickled him. When he flung himself away from her, she flopped back onto the bed giggling. "I think I preferred Hikaru sleep-questing, though."

"I'm not even going to ask," Clef said, chancing another tickle-attack as he slid back towards her. He bent to kiss her - just once, quickly - before drawing back to shuck off his nightshirt and gather up the fabric of her nightgown. Umi giggled again, wriggling as he helped her off with it.

She was in his bed, flushed and smiling happily at him, reaching out to pull him close. He wasn't convinced this wasn't all some vivid invention of his mind. He'd had more than a handful of dreams that started this way… but that was truly the skin of Umi's cheek soft under his fingers when he touched her, and the hot, damp press of her lips against the palm of his hand as she turned her head.

The dream-Umi had never had that dark freckle on her side just under her left breast, or the three thin scarred lines on her hip from her pet at home. There were a thousand little details to prove this wasn't just some waking dream that would leave him wanting.

He lingered on each touch, savouring the feeling of her skin beneath his fingers and his lips until she was shuddering against the pillows and whimpering his name. Some small part of him was still thoroughly smug that he had retained some idea of how to please someone else, despite the centuries of abstinence.

She was getting her breath back and urging him back up the bed when a loud knock startled the two of them apart. Umi made a grab for the bedclothes to cover herself, and Clef sat up to glare at their interrupter - despite being unable to see them.

"We're leaving soon," Kalos called through the closed door, "so you two need to get out of bed."

"Give us another half-hour," Clef called back.

"We're not waiting for you to have sex," Kalos retorted, and Umi let out an embarrassed squeak as she sunk further into the covers. "You can do that when you get back."

Clef just sighed. "You can go without us, you know!"

"Mum's threatened to send anyone with questions back here if you don't go into town for at least a few hours this week, so it's not like you'd get much private time anyway."

Clef grimaced. She had a point, and he had promised to show Umi the market. But he wasn't going to bolt out of bed and straight out of the house. "We still need to shower and get dressed. Plus, I assume you haven't brought us breakfast."

"You have twenty minutes, and you can get your own breakfast," was the last thing Kalos said before he could hear her footsteps walking away. Biting back a sharp retort, Clef turned his attention back to Umi, who was slipping away from him toward the side of the bed.

"I should probably go," she said.

Clef offered his hand out to her. "Stay a little longer?"

She wavered, and he closed the space between them, trailing his fingers lightly up her side before catching her mouth with his. That was all it took to encourage her to let him pick up where they left off; they used the first half of their time to do exactly what they'd been told not to.

.*.*.*.

After one very quick shower - alone, or she got the feeling it wouldn't have been quick at all - Umi sifted through the dresses Clef had given her until she found one simple enough to put on by herself. It was of two squares of deep indigo fabric with a silvery-blue pattern about the edges, caught up at the shoulders with jewelled brooches and overlapping at the sides. A sash in a lighter blue kept the two pieces from flapping open about her, and the hem brushed just above her knees.

There were three new bottles of the contraceptive potion where the two empty ones had been on the dressing table, beside the jewellery boxes. Someone must have brought up for her that morning, because they hadn't been there last night. Even though she knew it was sensible, Umi flushed as she took her dose for that day and opened the first box of jewellery.

It was the first time she'd actually seen inside without anyone's hands in the way. There were nearly enough pieces to accessorize half of the outfits at once, and that was only the first box? Umi's breath caught on a near-hysterical laugh. If Clef had bought all of this for her, no wonder Aveo had cut his credit off!

She picked out a simple silver bracelet with a single gem the colour of her dress set in the centre of openwork curves, and found a pair of matching ear-cuffs. A pair of boots from the wardrobe finished the outfit off. Like most of the shoes she'd worn here, they adjusted to her size once her feet were comfortably in them.

Taking a moment before dashing out to find everyone, she stared at herself in the mirror. She looked… like she belonged in Cephiro.

The thought did strange things to her stomach; she shoved it aside, and headed out.

Clef was waiting for her at the bottom of the stairs, holding out a piece of flat-bread with the spicy fruit spread she liked. She took it and slipped her free hand into his as they headed out the door to join everyone else.

It was a leisurely walk, filled with friendly chatter and laughter, not that Umi was doing much of the talking at first while she concentrated on not dropping her food as she ate it. At some point, houses started creeping up along the edges of the road, the gaps between them started growing smaller and smaller as they went on. When the gaps disappeared almost entirely and walls lined the way, leading down a real street, Umi realised this was no little village, no matter what Clef called it. It was a proper town; she slowed down a little, letting go of Clef's hand as she looked about.

Everything was all bright and new, evidence of how few years it had existed, but there were potted plants and washing lines and all sorts of things that made a place feel homey and lived in. There was even a group of children down one side-road playing a complicated-looking game with bits of fabric and a ball which they were tossing to each other.

They passed more and more people as they walked on. Many smiled and waved a greeting to Clef, who waved back in return.

No one actually stopped them until they rounded a corner to a large market square. Along the sides there were permanent shops extended outside for the occasion, with tables and awnings set out in front of their windows. In the middle was an array of stalls ranging from small tables that were probably only a metre across to long ones at least three times that. Some people had cloth roofs on poles to give themselves and their goods some shade, other people were happily sat on their table, or behind it.

Just as they walked into the square someone called out Clef's name, and Umi turned to see a woman calling him over to the draper's shop on the corner they had just passed. The woman (who Umi assumed must be the shopkeeper) spoke a few words to Clef before enthusiastically waving Umi over.

"It is a pleasure to finally meet you, Lady Umi. I'm Teana, head of Mazda's Merchant Guild." She grinned. "We'd wondered what Master Clef was doing with all that fabric, as he certainly wasn't wearing it. When Kalos told us about you, well. It all made sense then."

Clef muttered "Glad to know Kalos is still sharing my personal business," but Teana continued on, ignoring him.

"That colour looks beautiful on you. I'm glad." She leaned in, with a conspiratorial smile. "It would have made our warden look paler than he already is, which is frightening to contemplate."

"Hey!" Clef said, affronted.

Teana laughed and winked at Umi before launching into a discussion with Clef about trade and supply. Umi soon lost track once they got to exports and central Guild decisions, she didn't have the context to follow it, and the myriad of beautiful fabrics on display was far more captivating than the conversation. Many were shades of the indigo and violet that featured so strongly in her new wardrobe.

When someone else turned up to join the conversation, Clef waved Umi on, telling her to have a look around the market and that he would catch up with her soon. Umi was happy enough to wander along the rows, pausing at one of the stalls to marvel at the collection of shiny things - metal-work boxes, gems set in rings and plates and all sorts of other things.

She lingered long enough to draw the attention of the stall holder as she looked at a collection of bracelets. "Those little things are handier than you'd expect, lady. Each gem is charmed to store the equivalent of a whole household's supplies and with the very best preservation spells. Ideal for anyone who needs to keep a pantry and has no room for it in their home."

"Are all these gems for food?" Umi asked, startled by the idea that storage spells could be specialised. It made sense, but she'd never thought about it that much. Their gloves had held everything they needed in one place - well, except for the things Mokona carried for them.

...And Mokona was probably a special case, considering all they knew now.

The stall keeper shook his head and started pointing at the groups of items, apparently happy to explain to an interested potential-customer. "These rings and belts here, they're tuned for spirit summoners. This set of boxes is for general use, and these things, the these are all charmed to be the very best at clothing storage. You could leave that dress in here three centuries without a single wrinkle or a hint of tarnish."

She looked over the table again, and small set of intricately decorated boxes caught her attention. They were set a little apart from the others, on a velvet-like cloth. "What about those?" she asked. "They're pretty."

"Those are promise-boxes," he said, with a wink. Umi stared at him a moment too long. "…Ah. You aren't from Cephiro? Well, when a couple pledges to enter a relationship - the serious kind, mind you, not just fooling about - it's a tradition for the one who did the courting to buy their partner a keepsake."

"Oh," Umi said, trying not to blink at 'courting'.

The stall holder continued. "These are all charmed to hold whatever treasures might be kept - a dry flower, a ring, a letter - with the strongest possible protections. The decorations are all meaningful as well. This one has tefuron flowers, see, for loyalty, and this one has lines from one of our famous love-stories etched into the metal." He pointed to the pattern around the edge of the oval lid, and Umi realised it wasn't just a pattern, but scrolling Cephiran cursive script. "The gift doesn't have to be a box, of course, but they're a popular choice."

"They're beautiful," Umi murmured, running wistful fingers over the words she couldn't read. "What does it say?"

The voice that answered wasn't the stall keeper; Clef stepped up beside her, taking her hand in his. "It says 'Wherever you go, I will go, and wherever you stay, I will stay'," he told her. "Did you see something you want?"

Umi pulled her hand back and shook her head, a warm blush creeping over her cheeks. "You've given me enough, Clef."

Her fingers must have lingered a little too long on that box. Clef turned to the stall holder and asked "How much is this one?"

The other man's smile fell off his face as he focused on Clef. "You know I've been told I can't sell you anything else. No offence intended, but you understand Aveo can be scarier than even you, right?"

"That's why she's my seneschal," Clef said, sounding proud. He reached into his pocket. "You're not allowed to sell me anything on credit. However, Aveo's given me a small allowance, so you needn't worry."

When Clef pulled out the jangling pouch, Umi tugged him away from the table and out of earshot. "No, Clef. It's too much! You've already given me so many beautiful things. I have jewellery and dresses and shoes enough to last me for years, you don't need to get me anything else."

"Those were just -" He waved a hand in the air and then shook his head. "They were things that reminded me of you. I want to give you something - a present you've actually had some choice about. You like the box, right? You could just think of it as - I don't know - a memento?"

"A memento of what, exactly? Of the fact we had sex?" Umi snapped, voice harsher than she meant for it to be. That box was supposed to be more than just a souvenir, and they both knew it. "Clef, we can't - you can't do this."

Clef couldn't be in a relationship. No matter how hard he'd been ignoring it the past day, it wasn't allowed. Push though she might, Umi had accepted this wasn't going to be anything… permanent, not yet. Just sex. That was all he was allowed, that was what they had to pretend this was. She never wanted him to actually get into any real trouble; which recognising this as something more could do so.

"Next week, things will have to go back to how they were. I thought that was the plan - I thought that was your plan!"

"I don't want one night. And just one week is -" Clef's grip on her hands tightened, and his expression grew very serious. "I don't want things to go back to what they were, Umi. Unless you do?"

Umi stared at him, unsure of what to say.

.*.*.*.

When Umi didn't respond, the knot in Clef's chest tightened. He hadn't actually thought this could just be a game for her, but faced with her silence he wasn't so sure that he hadn't been played.

"If you want to forget this week happened, we can," he said, choosing his words carefully. "But Umi, If that's the case, I think I'd rather go back to being just friends. None of this." He waved a hand between them, and Umi looked down at the ground. "Because I don't want anything casual, and I definitely don't want to pretend this isn't - that we're not -" Clef took a breath and shook his head. No matter how little he cared about the law intended to govern his emotions, he probably shouldn't state them aloud, in public. At least, not yet.

"I told you months ago, I don't want to just be your friend, Clef." There were tears glittering in the corners of her eyes when she lifted her head. "You know that I -" She bit off the end of her sentence and shook her head, wiping at her eyes with the back of her hand. "I don't want to pretend, either."

"Then please will you let me buy you a gift?" When she nodded, Clef drew her back to the display, not letting go of her hand. "It doesn't have to be one of these, but I'd like to get you something."

Umi's hand almost instantly went back to the little box with quote, but she curled her fingers into a fist and pulled back before she touched it. She turned back to him and said, "Really, Clef, it can wait. At least until-"

"Buying you a token doesn't change what I feel one way or the other. If people want to make something of it, they've plenty more to talk about than this; let them." He leaned in to press a kiss to her cheek. "The second law is impossible, and I refuse to waste time fretting over it anymore." Clef reached back into his pocket and pulled out the money-pouch Aveo had given him that morning in the three minutes he'd made it downstairs before Umi had, and waved Holbio back from where he'd courteously moved down to the end of the stall, leaving them a little more privacy without comment. "Is that enough for the box?"

Holbio laughed as he tipped the coins into his palm. "That and about a dozen other things."

"Just the box for now," Clef said, picking it up with both hands. He read the inscription once more and smiled.

With a sudden feeling of formality, he turned to Umi and offered it out to her with both hands. A furious blush brightened Umi's cheeks as she accepted it and clutched it tightly in her hands.

"...Thank you." She looked down at it, and grinned suddenly, her smile taking Clef's breath away. "Though if I'm meant to put everything you've given me in it, I'm not sure the wardrobes will fit." Clef snorted, shaking his head.

"My sincerest congratulations to you and our warden, my Lady." An incandescent grin bloomed across Holbio's face as he handed Clef a rather lighter coin pouch. There was a glint to that smile that made Clef feel like it wasn't only the main household who had been wagering about his relationship. For a group of people who tended to spend a lot of time alone, they were all terrible gossips when they got together.

Rather than ask, Clef thanked him and led Umi onward. She glanced at the bracelet she wore, then at him; he nodded, and she let the box slide away into the gemstone on it. "Handy," she murmured, and let him take her hand again.

They wandered along the rest of the market stalls together. Anytime Umi showed interested in a little trinket, she immediately waved him off, saying she liked it, but she didn't need it. He was stopped a few more times for simple questions that took a couple of minutes to answer, and a couple of people handed him reports to read later.. All told, it was just about lunchtime when they made it toward the far end of the marketplace and the lane with the little cafe he liked.

They took a seat at the only empty table left outside, where they could enjoy the sun. Umi looked curiously around them before fixing him with a stare. "Clef, this is not a village."

"It was when I built it." Clef looked around them. The number of houses had grown rather a lot in the past year; people had started returning to Cephiro from abroad, and Mazda had received their fair share. Most of the wards were dealing with the influx of people well enough. It helped that the land was still excessively fertile after her rebirth, but it was encouraging new wards to develop rather faster than they had bargained for. "I suppose it's a bit bigger now."

"A bit? This is a town. Towns have markets."

Clef shrugged, unworried; he'd probably keep calling it a village. He pulled the little pouch of coins out of his pocket passed it across the table. "Here. I don't have any need for it, so you're welcome to spend it on anything else you'd like."

Umi pushed it back. "Clef, I can't."

"No, it's yours." It was money given to him specifically for her morning gift; spending it on anything else was wrong. "You always say there are things you'd like to get while you're in Cephiro. Weren't there some bracelets or something you were wanting the other week when Caldina took you all out into Castleton?" Taking her hand in his, he pressed the pouch into her palm and closed her fingers over it. "Next time you can have them."

"I think I've got enough jewellery for now, Clef - you've given me two boxes full! And how are you planning to pay for lunch?"

"I told you last night. I'm not allowed to buy things, but I can use my account on food to eat and tea to drink." He smiled as the the server brought out a tray of tea without him even needing to ask. "Now do you know what sort of thing you might want for lunch, or am I ordering for both of us?"

.*.*.*.

Umi gave in when Clef showed no signs of taking the money back, and made him read the menu out to her. She hadn't realised how few names she knew for the food in Cephiro. Everything was always served buffet-style, even in the Castle dining hall. There were dishes in intervals along the lengths of the tables, and everyone was able to help themselves, so she'd never needed to know what the foods were called; just if she liked the look of it or not.

In the end, Clef did order for them. The main dish was some rich meat stew served over fluffy spiced grain, but they also had a small variety of side-dishes to share between them. Umi was taken by the julienned root vegetable that had been fried to a delicious crisp.

She was just finishing the last of them when Clef let out a sharp gasp and leaned forward on the table, his face going paler by the second.

"Clef?" Umi jolted forward and grabbed his hand. "Are you alright?"

"It's Honda." He shoved himself up from the table. "I need to go."

Umi was on her feet a moment later. "What's happened? What can I do?"

Clef held out his hand without a word, looking off into the distance, and set off as soon as her hand was in his. As they walked quickly down the lane - and out of the town, Umi realised - his grip shifted from her hand to her wrist. When he tightened his hold she wrapped her fingers around his wrist, just in time for the rush of magic to wash over her like it had the night they attended the ball. The ticklish prickle of it swept across her as the town vanished and was replaced by a wave of trees.

With the next step of Clef's foot on the ground, they were suddenly in the middle of a field of Cephiran cattle. A second, and the prickle spread again; Clef pulled her on another step, and they were on the side of a hill with a view of the sea on the distant horizon.

"Don't you know where you're going?" Umi gasped, dizzy from the repeatedly shifting landscape.

"Somewhere on the northern edge of the border," he said, pausing a moment. "The whole area is pulled so tightly, I can't tell where-"

Another breath and they flashed into the edge of another wood, Getz cutting Clef off with a shout of "What took you so long?" the moment they appeared. Standing next to him was - the man from the jewellery stall?

"Forgive me for not being an earth mage like you two," Clef bit out, just as the ground bucked beneath their feet. "It took a few leaps to get the location. Where's Rio?"

"Doing some mystic water-spirit crap out that way." Getz waved a hand out toward where the ground was shuddering the worst. "But he's obviously not holding it very well. That's what you get when you have someone with a water affinity doing an earth mage's job."

"He's only one person, and you're the one who said both of us should stay here to hold it where it's crumbling," the jeweller said, then turned to Clef. "Like last time?"

"Yes."

"It's worse than it was then," Getz grouched, and Umi realised he was sweating with the force of a spell that he was trying to hold - trying to keep the land steady under them?

"Lead the way." Clef tugged Umi on with him as they followed the two men over the edge of a sharp ridge. Just beyond, the ground was split by a long cleft, perhaps ten metres long and growing. Umi bit back a yelp when it groaned open further with a sound not unlike tearing cloth. The ground beneath her boots shivered with every rip as it expanded, and still they approached it, stopping a bare two feet from the edge.

"You sure we don't want to just let the blasted thing become an island?" Getz muttered, at the same time as the jeweller said "You've petitioned the Council again, haven't you?"

"If this isn't enough to get them to see reason and actually appoint someone already, I don't know what is." Clef sounded absolutely serious, too much to even sound angry, though Umi could tell he was that, too, as he dropped her hand and stared down at the earth with the same fierce concentration he'd worn when all of Cephiro was falling apart. The air crackled around him as he reached out and summoned his staff, and as soon as it was in his hands, he turned towards her. "Umi, I need you to pull the groundwater back from this break."

Umi blinked at him, cast a momentary glance down at the now nearly fifteen-metre long gash, and looked back at him again with wide eyes. "What?"

"I need to heat the rock beneath us until it's pliable enough for Getz and Holbio to move it. That's easier to do without the water becoming steam in the process and getting, er, explosive. Normally, Rio would do it for us, but he's a bit busy right now keeping the rest of Honda from sinking into the ocean."

"Clef, I've never moved that much water at once." She'd only seriously started playing about and manipulating little bits of water the last few days, and it hadn't ended very well - especially not the one time she'd tried moving anything larger. Even if she wasn't drunk right now as she had been when the fountain went everywhere, the thought of exploding the ground beneath them like she'd done Clef's paperwork was absolutely terrifying.

Clef was using his calmest teacher's voice - the one which normally irritated Umi to no end. "You can do this, Umi. Just take hold and pull back. Like opening the pages of a book. Or - more pushing a set of doors open, I suppose, we don't want it to stay connected in the middle."

Umi took a deep breath and closed her eyes. She'd never actually moved real water she couldn't see, either. There had been a few magic practices where she cast a dragon through objects to hit a target, but that was spell-water, and it worked differently. But she pushed aside the panic with sheer willpower, and concentrated.

Deep down, she could feel the cool dampness of the groundwater as it passed under them. It was poised as if waiting for her, but tangled into it was another spell, pulled tight and holding. "Someone's already -"

"That's Rio. Push past his magic and open a clear path to the rock for
me."

Taking hold and concentrating so hard her hands were trembling, Umi pulled the water apart with the same gentle care she used when opening the oldest of the brittle law books Clef was currently reading. She could feel the ghost of the water against her hands, like the cool start of pins and needles, and she turned her palms out and slowly, slowly, pushed it to either side of the crevasse.

"Good." Clef moved and Umi felt the heat of his spell surge between the waves of water she was holding. It felt like having your hands in a sink of cold water just as someone else turned on the hot water tap. The rush of it sent an excited thrill through her even now, but she grit her teeth and ignored that too.

The heat grew steadily stronger both in the magic and in the air around the opening, until beads of sweat were trickling down Umi's forehead and the back of her neck. Once it was almost too hot to bear, the earth began to slowly pull together as the heat began to wriggle. Only then did Umi fully understand what they were doing. They were literally stitching the ground back together with molten rock. In her surprise, she almost lost her hold on the water and had to hastily tighten her grip.

She was gasping hard for air by the time they finished, a sharp tightness growing in her chest, but she managed to keep it back.

.*.*.*.

There was an overwhelming sense of pride sitting in Clef's chest at Umi's spellwork as he closed off the spell, leaving the area somewhat more stable than it had been; it should hold another week, anyway. She'd come a long way from the brute-force of only a few years ago.

He reached out a hand and set it on her arm. "We're finished, darling. You can let go now."

The tension dropped from Umi's shoulders as she let out an audible gasp of relief. She swayed lightly on her feet and he held her as she sank to the ground, until they were both sitting on the edge of jagged scar in the earth. Umi dropped her head on his shoulder, still catching her breath.

"I told you that you could do it," he said.

"What would you have done if I couldn't have?"

"Taken far longer and given us a thorough steaming rather than a dry roasting."

Getz and Holbio trudged toward them from opposite ends of the now-closed fissure, both looking equally worse for the wear, but still more with it than the wilting Umi beside him. Before they'd even made it over, Holbio was pulling a bottle of something out of the gem in his ring, and took a long drink out of it before handing it over to Getz. When he dropped to the ground beside Clef, Getz passed it over.

It was cool spring water flavoured with some sharp fruit juice Clef couldn't quite name. He took a long draft of it, and another, before offering it to Umi next. "Drink a little. It'll help."

"It felt like that whole section was going to fall off," Umi said, taking the bottle from him.

"That's because it was trying its best to."

Umi nearly choked on the drink. "Why's Cephiro trying to fall apart? I thought -"

"The land's being supported by the people now, but that's malleable and changeable as anything. Which is why we created the ward system and appointed wardens and mage circles to each ward, remember? To give some stability to things. But even if my whole Circle is strong, we're not strong enough to hold two wards together at once, no matter how much the Council want us to. Not when Honda has this many nonsense ideas of its own!"

Umi leaned back into him as she finished drinking. "Why're they wanting you to?"

"Staffing problems," Getz said, flopping back in the grass. "It's always staffing problems. And they think Clef should be able to hold this whole region together given he did an okay job holding Cephiro together there for a while. You know, if you ignore the bit where she still crumbled around our ears before being reborn."

Tossing a handful of loose grass at Getz, Clef wrapped his other arm about Umi's waist. "I could, possibly, hold bare rock, if it wasn't constantly changing and I wasn't doing a hundred other things at the same time and if it was formed sensibly. We're still settling Mazda, we don't have the energy to spare for this much upheaval. But the land is trying to pull together new areas before we've got everyone who could stand as Warden properly qualified. While I'd be happy to appoint people who haven't passed exams yet, the Mage's Guild and the Council disagree with that, so we're at a stand-off."

Clef sighed and took another drink from the bottle when Umi passed it back, then handed it on to Getz. He'd had so many arguments about this in Council he'd just given up.

"Your Guild is ignoring you again?" Umi asked, amused.

Clef huffed. "I don't know why I don't just quit as Guru some days. They could at least appoint an interim warden until it's solid. Someone to guide it, rather than letting it do whatever this one is trying to do."

"Instead it's growing on its own and is now trying to crumble like a badly tempered blade," Holbio said, before leaning forward to look around Clef at Umi. "I'm Holbio, by the way. We never were properly introduced this morning."

"That's because Clef should have done the introduction, but he's a terrible host," Getz said. "He's barely shown poor Umi the house, let alone Mazda, and she's already been here five days."

Umi stifled a giggle and smiled as she leaned around Clef. "I'm Ryuuzaki Umi."

"Knight of water," Clef added, glaring half-heartedly at Getz.

"A pleasure to make your acquaintance, Lady Knight," Holbio said with a broad grin. "I expect we'll see more of you in the future?"

"Hopefully," Umi agreed. "If Clef agrees to let me visit again. He might decide I'm more trouble than I'm worth."

"Hey!" Clef jerked his head round to look at Umi who just leaned into his side and beamed at him, radiating smugness. "...You know what, you should have a present for managing that spell so well. You can have Honda. That'll give you somewhere to stay."

Snorting, Umi thumped him on the shoulder. "No, thanks. Besides, I'm not qualified either."

"Magic Knight sits outside the Guild hierarchy, I could probably argue it," he told her.

Holbio laughed at both of them and put the bottle back into his ring before pushing himself up to his feet. "Getz and I can go check more of the border while the lady rests a while longer, make sure there aren't any more of these nonsense sandstone ridges trying to erode away already. Hopefully, we won't need to do that again today, though. I'm feeling a bit stretched thin. I wouldn't mind a ride back, if you're not transporting?"

"I'll summon someone when Rio turns back up," Clef agreed. He was too tired to be using a translocation spell for both himself and Umi after that. "You're more than welcome to hitch a ride, if you wouldn't mind coming back to the house to help with the report?"

"If there's food and a bed, I'm more than happy to go home with you." Holbio waved and trudged off down the hill along the edge of the border between the two wards, Getz following behind him a moment later.

"So the jeweller is a mage?" Umi asked

"Holbio?" Clef turned to her. "He's the Head Smith of Mazda, and - yes - he's a very strong earth mage as well."

"Like Getz?"

"Mm. They help balance me out in the Circle - they can ground my power. Makes us more stable."

"He's part of your Circle?" Umi sat up and looked slightly worried.

Clef picked up her hand and pressed his palm over the gem on the bracelet she'd put the promise-box into and smiled. "You don't mind some random smith knowing about us, but a member of my Circle worries you? Honestly, darling, if anything it should be the other way around."

"But -"

"The same goes for him as for the main household. I chose my people because I can trust them, as much as anything else." He lifted her hand to his lips. "Besides, they've all been interested in meeting you since Kalos and Brisa started gossiping about my having invited you out here."

Umi blushed and pulled her hand away. "I forgot to ask," she said, voice soft. "What's the quote on the box from, anyway? He said it was a famous love-story?"

"It's the tale of Acura - or Accura, depending upon who tells it," Clef explained. "The stories vary about who exactly she was, but they all agree she was very powerful." Relaxing his shoulders, Clef leaned back on his hands and stared up at the sky while he tried to recall the main points of the story. "It was during the fall of one of the pillars, everything was happening so fast - you've seen it - and she knew enough to realise that things were going to go very badly, so she tried to send her lover away. Far way, mind you, to one of the other countries around here at the time. "

"And her lover refused?"

"Yes. Very loudly. Probably shouting like someone I know." Clef grinned at Umi, who gave him a playful shove. "It's that stubborn declaration that gets remembered. 'Where you go, I'll go, and where you stay, I'll stay. I'll die where you die, and be buried beside you. And may Cephiro strike me down if anything but death parts me from your side.' Or something like that. It's a been a century or two since I've read or seen any version of it, actually."

There was consideration in Umi's expression as she tilted her head. "That sounds a bit like a marriage vow."

"Does it?" Clef turned to look at her as he tried to recall her explanation of what 'marriage' constituted. "That's the legal one, right?"

"Yeah."

"Huh. You didn't make it sound nearly that romantic when you explained it to me." Her description had been entirely about property, inheritance rights, and all the paperwork involved. There had been nothing about emotion that he could recall.

Umi flicked some dirt at him, and then laughed. "Well, I was trying to accept it as a practical thing. I mean, my only career aspiration at the time was being a wife so I could make my husband run the family company while I did other things."

"...Why am I not surprised you weren't interested in doing it yourself?" he said, teasing gently.

Umi stuck her tongue out at him. "Well, I want to become a Kairu, and I certainly can't do that if I'm running a business in Tokyo. Though I definitely shouldn't be coming over here to visit you, if I married someone else."

"It's an exclusive thing, then?" he asked, and Umi blinked.

"Yes? ...Hikaru said Lantis asked the same thing. Is it that unusual to have one permanent partner in Cephiro?"

"Not unusual, as such, but it's up to the people involved how exclusive it is. It's not… set, in the way I think you're meaning."

Umi shook her head. "Cephiro's weird," she muttered, and he tried not to grin at her flush as she thought about that. She hoisted herself up to her feet and dragged him up too, and they slowly started walking the direction Getz and Holbio had vanished. "Anyway, marriage is about more than just legal paperwork. You usually marry someone because you love them, and you want to be with them. It's a declaration that your relationship is serious enough to be considered permanent. I guess it's not unlike that whole gift thing, in a way, but a lot more public. And it used to happen before the sex."

Clef stopped walking. "Do you want me to marry you?"

Nearly tripping over, Umi spun around to face him, eyes gone wide. "What?"

He repeated himself, "Do you want to marry me?"

Umi went very, very still as she stared at him with disbelieving eyes. Then she took a deep breath and wrinkled her nose at him, putting a hand on her hip. "Do you even know anything about technology?"

It took him a moment to connect that back to her mother's company, and her requirement for someone to run it. "Only that I end up exploding at least one thing every time I visit Autozam," Clef stepped closer, trying to smile. It was a ridiculous thing to ask, he knew, and wouldn't change anything. But he really wanted to know if she wanted to stay by him.

The way he wanted to stay with her, as long as the world would let him.

"That wasn't an answer."

Umi's composure crumbled. "Clef, you can't even date me, so what's the point of discussing marriage?" She flailed her hands at him. "Even if you could, I'm from another world. Marriage doesn't exist here! We don't even know if we could get you to my world, and then you'd need identification and things that you don't have and can't get for the paperwork. So, even if you wanted to, we can't!"

Clef was watching her more than he was listening to her words, and that strong a reaction set him hoping, badly enough he failed to stop himself saying "Is that a yes, then?"

Umi shoved him hard on the shoulder, sending him sliding a few steps down the side of the hill as she stormed off.