5 Aug 2018: The plan was to have this chapter ready to post last weekend after Down and I got back from Wales, but we ended up using a lot of our free time finishing a cross stitch sampler that will be a gift for Down's parents' ruby wedding anniversary.

During our stint away from the internet for nearly two weeks, Down has also possibly finished the next chapter of Protecting You. (It won't be posted until the following chapter is also completed so not to leave us hanging on a cliffhanger for months on end.)

This chapter did start life as the second half of chapter 13, so the lingering question is not actually answered in this one.

Content Note: Nothing in this chapter has been censored. It is posted exactly as it reads on AO3.

Chapter 14
In which Clef again confronts Umi about her health

To say that Clef's week got off to a bad start was an understatement. The argument with Umi meant he spent nearly no time with her and led to enduring a conversation with Ferio that same night when he had the nerve to sweep into Clef's office, demanding to know what his intentions toward Umi were

"I should have thought it was obvious. That's what you've been telling me for the past few weeks, isn't it? 'Everyone knows' what I feel for her, I'm blatantly breaking the law, someone will call me up for treason any moment -" He cut himself off, closing his eyes and rubbing his face. "Let me guess. Caldina?"

"Just - please tell me you're not coercing Umi into continuing things," Ferio said, with a sigh. "Caldina's not the only one who saw you arguing this afternoon."

"Of course not!" Clef stared at him. "It's not like the arguing is anything new."

Ferio looked him in the eyes. "It is when it looks like you're trying to drag her away and she's arguing with that."

"Well, that's true, but -"

"What?" Ferio dropped into the chair opposite Clef like his legs had been cut from under him.

"To the Healers, not my bedroom." Clef snapped.

Ferio blinked then reached for Clef's cup of tea and drained it ignoring Clef's protest. "I know she's been a bit fatigued from that little stunt with Honda, but - Is something worse wrong with her?"

"I don't know." Clef put his head in his hands. "And she refuses find out."

With a sigh, Ferio got up and went to find the kettle hidden among the detritus on the sideboard. "What's the strongest tea you've got in here?"

"The tin with the griffin on it," Clef answered and tried to just breathe.

.*.*.*.

Monday morning at breakfast, Umi's stomach decided it was high time she understood that natto was literally the worst thing ever. She braced herself firmly against the doorframe while she gagged miserably over the smell of her father's favourite breakfast dish. Seven years abroad, in three different countries, and he still wanted a dish of fermented soybeans with breakfast whenever appropriate.

"How can you eat that stuff?" Umi wailed. She shot past him to the other end of the room, covering her nose and mouth.

"It's tasty," Papa said with a grin.

"It's vile!" Umi moved her dishes down the table as far as she could get from it. Thankfully, her breakfast was nicer than his. Not that she managed to eat very much of it.

.*.*.*.

Other than the occasional bouts of nausea when her stomach acted up, or the annoying recurring headache, the rest of the week passed ordinarily enough. Nao and Moe drafted a play that seemed to suit everyone in the class, though Umi declared that the sword fight didn't seem dramatic enough, which gained her a few eye rolls and an eraser flung at her head - she deflected it with her notebook before sticking her tongue out at the perpetrator, The play was agreed, and they got down to learning their parts. No one had too many lines, as they were all facing too much schoolwork, so most of Umi's time was spent working on the choreography of the fight with Rika, which was fun.

Still, by midweek, any extra sleep she'd managed at the weekend seemed to be wearing off, and she ended up having a nap after school by Wednesday. Even then, she went back to bed shortly after dinner and slept the whole night through.

On top of that, the dreams she was having were getting more vivid and more… unusual. They started out pretty normal, like the dreams she'd been having since Clef - well, since he looked like he did now. She'd been dreaming about what she'd like to do with him for nearly a year, so that wasn't too strange, but some of the things she dreamt of them doing were. (She did kind of want to actually try tying him up with the sheets at some point, but she wasn't going to stop in the middle of things to have tea with Caldina!) It was dreaming about other people who weren't him that really confused her.

Granted, the girl at the convenience store near her school was kind of hot, and Umi was seeing her more than usual since she'd been stopping in for a snack after school a lot the past few weeks, but that didn't mean she wanted to make out with her on the shop counter. But that wasn't the one that had her most confused.

No, that was the one with Ferio.

It had started ordinarily enough with Umi sat at a table in the dining hall with Clef across from her, and their friends around them. She'd gotten into an argument with Ferio about something - not that the topic really mattered, and it was a dream, so the topic never actually came up.

Somehow, they'd ended up under the table, with Umi telling him what to do - because he wasn't doing it right - as they had vigorous sex exactly the way she wanted it, which apparently meant she won the argument somehow?

She woke up sweaty, shuddering, and bewildered, aching and wet between her legs.

.*.*.*.

Clef knew he was terrible to be around the rest of week. He couldn't shake the all-encompassing sense of urgency that was eating away at him any time he spent doing his job rather than working on the next blasted repeal bill, trying to work out the quickest possible way to get the two remaining repeals heard - and agreed - by the Council.

It wasn't helped by the fact that there was absolutely no space on the agenda for the coming Council meeting. There were so many scheduled items that there would be no time left for a new member bill to be introduced from the floor. He doubted they'd finish the regular items before dark, and then Opel's review of the current split between the spirit areas was up, and he couldn't see that debate happening without a great deal of shouting.

If he didn't get this one through by the end of the next quarter, Umi would have to move into her own rooms. They would simply have to keep up the pretence of their indifference until it was through.

But all of the pretence in the world would be for nothing if they had started a child.

You could downplay a relationship, and financial records could be buried, but a baby - Nothing would say 'look at the treason I'm committing' like caring for a child with the partner he wasn't legally allowed to have.

The whole thing had him pacing his study floor as he tried to regain some sense of focus. It wouldn't do to ignore his actual job worrying over something that might not happen, but that didn't keep him from being so snappish that even his own household was avoiding him by midweek.

He was in the new library late one afternoon with a stack of books and scrolls he'd pulled out of the legal section when they were moving things across from the now - again a - ballroom when Aveo stomped in.

"When you put your name down to cook dinner, people expect you to actually do it," she said.

Clef looked up from the lawbook in front of him to the timepiece on the shelf before sheepishly getting to his feet. "I'm sorry. I'll go now."

"Don't bother. Getz and Aygo are doing it." Aveo said impatiently and sat down in the chair opposite him. "Under protest on Aygo's part, which I'm sure we'll hear about at dinner. Still, Uncle-mine, you know perfectly well that overdoing things will get you into trouble."

"I'm not overdoing things," he argued, dropping back into his chair. He knew he was in trouble when that particular form of address came out.

"You're currently working two jobs that can easily overwhelm most people can individually. And now you're researching several millennia's worth of legal history on top of them." Aveo crossed her arms on the edge of the table and looked at him seriously. "You don't have to keep doing this on your own. You can't keep doing this on your own."

"You do more than half of the work of Warden yourself," he pointed out, but just got stared at until he looked away, holding up the sheaf of papers to his right. "I know I need help. Tell Brisa thank you for the notes."

"Tell her yourself. You need to stop avoiding people." Aveo sighed. "What happened? You've been more stroppy than usual for most of the past fortnight."

Clef bristled. "It's nothing."

"Did something happen with Umi? Is that cake in the kitchen some sort of an apology you aren't accepting?"

He'd not been able to even look at the chocolate cake without thinking about Umi eating the other one. So the box sat untouched on the corner of the kitchen worktable with a preservation spell thrown over it, waiting for him to stop flinching when he saw it. The household had been asking him about it for days, but he hadn't been answering.

"She's still the same person she was before you slept together, so you're bound to have the same sorts of disagreements."

"I know that!" Clef snapped.

"And yet you haven't mentioned her in two weeks, and you're leaving that pretty little cake to fester on the table rather than letting someone enjoy it?"

Clef rubbed his hands over his face. "It's payment for sexual favours, if you really must know."

Aveo pursed her lips. He had the deepest suspicion she was fighting back a laugh. "Umi's paying you?"

"I pointed out that I'm still not allowed to be in a relationship with her." He shook his head. "It was her idea, and I just -" he sighed. "I just let her do what she wanted." Clef put his head in his hands. He always ended up letting Umi do whatever she wanted.

.*.*.*.

Clef had been expecting Umi to turn up at the end of the week, so he wasn't so much surprised when she thumped into his office as he was startled by the loud intrusion. He recoiled from the swinging door and smudged the ink across the paper he was writing on.

"Hikaru is absolutely terrible," Umi complained, dropping her school bag and a bright overnight bag on the floor as she slumped into her usual chair. She looked exhausted - positively grey.

"What did she do?" Clef asked, itching to go round his desk and drag her to a bed and glare at her until she slept, no matter the cause of her exhaustion.

"She dragged me to this stupid launch event, so she could get a second keychain mascot thing. We stood there for hours. My feet are killing me, and I don't even get to keep the blasted thing. Not that I want to - I prefer dragons to cutesy mascots - but I have absolutely nothing to show for my wasted time."

"You could have said no," he pointed out.

"No, I couldn't have. I promised I'd go weeks ago. I don't - I keep my promises." Umi looked at him like he was a fool and then rolled her eyes and leaned forward resting her chin on crossed arms on the edge of his desk. "There were so many people, and it was so loud. Please tell me you have something for my headache down here, because I really don't want to move."

Clef nodded and rose to his feet to put his little kettle on. His hand was shaking when he picked up the tin of headache tea and glanced over at Umi curled up in the chair. He shook his head sharply to chase the glimmer of that thought away. There was no point starting that argument again when Umi would just storm out and endure the headache. And what if he was just 'jumping to conclusions'? This could be a simple headache, even if she had complained of it for weeks now. So many of her other symptoms fit magic fatigue.

"I think I'll be going to sleep right after dinner," Umi said with a yawn. "I'm completely wiped out."

"You could go to bed now if you're that tired." He handed her a cup of tea. "Have a nap and get food later? Or I could fetch something for you?"

"I'm too hungry to skip dinner. And it's easier to just go down, anyway." Umi curled around the cup and closed her eyes, breathing in the steam, and the tension in her expression eased slightly. "But before I do that, I need to get out of these awful tights. They're so uncomfortable. I'm sure I've shrunk them again."

She took a sip of tea before wincing - it was still steaming hot. With a look of intense concentration, she stared at her cup and a soft light of magic drifted between her fingers. When she brought the cup up to her lips a second time, she drank deeply.

Clef sat back down and picked his pen back up, but he didn't even bother opening the lid, as he just sat there watching her drink. Every sip bringing a little more colour to her face. She really should be seen by a healer. If she kept putting it off much longer, he may just point Muira at her. Which could prove interesting, in a number of ways - he knew from extensive experience the Master Healer was not easily avoided.

When Umi looked up, Clef hastily unscrewed the cap of his pen and went back to poking the report in front of him.

Setting her cup down a few minutes later, Umi pushed herself out of her chair. "I'm going to go get out of these blasted tights." She picked up her bags. "I'd ask if you wanted to come up and help, but I - and I can't believe I'm saying this - I just don't have the energy today."

Clef watched the closed door a long time, ink drying on the nib of his pen.

.*.*.*.

Once she'd rid herself of the tights and shed her jacket and tie, Umi was half-tempted to take Clef's suggestion and just go straight to bed, but she was so hungry she was starting to feel ill. The need for food was the only thing keeping her up, so she went off to find Hikaru and head down to dinner.

The aroma of food carried down the corridor from the dining hall, meeting them as they stepped through the archway from the spiral and her stomach had done a very annoyed flip-flop. Umi paused, pressing her hand to her middle. She took a few slow measured breaths and walked on, but the warm smell of cooked cheese-fruit slammed into her full force when Hikaru pulled the door open.

Umi covered her mouth as she gagged.

Both hands pressed to mouth, she dashed back down the corridor and around the corner to the toilets, barely making it into the first cubicle before her stomach heaved. When she was finished, Umi sank down on the floor, tears trickling down her face, shaking.

A few minutes later someone knocked on the open cubicle door and asked, "Are you alright? Should I fetch someone for you - a healer, perhaps?" The deep tone didn't surprise her - Umi had gotten used to Cephiro's public toilets not being segregated by gender - but the voice itself was strangely familiar.

Umi let out a sob instead of an answer. She was so hungry her stomach ached, but the mere thought of going back to the dining hall was more than she could handle and had her pressing the heel of her hand to her mouth as she leaned back against the wall.

There was another knock on the door as it opened to reveal Ouran, of all people, standing there looking down at her with concern. "Oh," he said, the word coming out more like a startled whisper. "Should I get the Guru?"

"No," Umi shook her head. Clef was the last person she wanted to see.

There was a soft flutter of robes and the air around them trembled a moment before Ouran turned on the tap of the little sink in the corner of her cubicle. Umi looked up to see him filling a cup with water. He crouched down as he offered it to her. "Is there anything I can do for you, my dear?"

Taking the cup with shaking hands, Umi choked back another soft sob with a shuddered breath. "No. Thank you. I'm fine." Whether she was assuring him or herself, she couldn't be sure.

"You certainly don't seem fine," he said, holding out a handkerchief.

Umi traded him the half-empty cup for it, pressing the cool cloth to her face, and Ouran emptied the rest of the water into the sink before disappearing the cup. He stayed with her, a calm - almost reassuring - presence, for what felt like an hour, but couldn't have been more than a few minutes, until Hikaru called out for her from the main doorway.

"Umi?"

"Our Lady Knight is not particularly well this evening," Ouran answer for her, leaning out and waving Hikaru over before turning to help Umi to her feet. "You should get some rest, my dear," he said before excusing himself with a formal bow, waving off her belated attempt to hand the handkerchief back.

Hikaru stepped in after he left, pressing a hand to Umi's forehead. "Are you ill?"

"I'm - It's just -" Umi pushed her away, but she didn't know what to even say. She didn't even know if she was ill, or if - no, she wasn't going to think about that. "I think I'll just skip dinner and go to bed."

"Do you want me to come with you?" Hikaru asked, worry creasing her forehead.

"No." Umi shook her head. "Go eat. I'll be fine."

Hikaru followed her out of the toilets and down to the opening to the spiral, asking once more if Umi was sure she was okay on her own. Umi shooed her back to the main dining hall and headed upstairs.

Pausing on Clef's floor, Umi stood in the archway staring down the corridor toward his door. It was closer than her room, and she'd only have one person hovering over her if she stayed the night with him. She thought of about a half dozen excuses, so she wouldn't have to admit the idea of going to sleep in Clef's bed seemed nicer than going all the way up to her own room.

No matter what the reason was, she left her boots just inside the door and trudged into the bedroom, flopping onto the bed.

.*.*.*.

Clef was worried when Hikaru arrived at the table for dinner without Umi in tow. Especially when it hadn't been too long before that Umi had said she'd go find Hikaru.

"She was right behind me," Hikaru said, with a startled look back at the doors. "I'll go check on her."

The knot in Clef's stomach tightened, and it took everything not to jump up from the table to find her himself. He sat staring at the door, hoping she'd appear any moment, but over a half-dozen people walked through that door while he watched and none of them were Umi.

"You alright?" Ferio asked.

"Fine," Clef said, absently. "I'm fine."

He poked at his food, trying to force himself to eat a little of it. He was beginning to lose weight with all his fretting. Aveo had already taken to following him about the house with trays of snacks, trying to get him to at least eat something, but eating was difficult when his stomach was so anxiously tight.

A shadow fell over his plate a short while later, and he turned to find Ouran standing over him. "The young lady is feeling a little under the weather this evening," Ouran said, voice low enough no one should overhear.

Clef's grip tightened on his fork as if that would help him hold himself steady. He swallowed. "Thank you." She must have been very unwell if Ouran had come to tell him.

Ouran bowed gracefully and walked away. Clef stared after him for a long moment before snapping his attention back to the main door, trying to decide how long he should wait before going to find Umi. Hikaru returned a few moments later, her pace sedate with none of the usual bounce. She glanced behind herself once or twice like she was second-guessing her return.

"Umi's gone to bed," she said, sitting down at the table. "She's not feeling well."

Murmurs went around their bit of the table. One or two of their friends asked if Clef thought it was related to her magic fatigue, but Clef couldn't bring himself to answer.

Pushing himself up and away from the table gracelessly, Clef abandoned subtlety. She needed to see a healer now. He'd strode through the dining hall and into the main corridor before he realised he ought to take her something to eat. If she was fatigued, she shouldn't be missing meals. Only, if she had been sick, it would need to be something bland and inoffensive.

A brief visit to the main kitchens rewarded him with a small plate of the most basic of crispbreads. He carried them slowly up, round and round the central spiral ramp, wondering just what he was going to say to her that wouldn't start yet another argument.

Why wouldn't she just go to the healers when he asked? Did everything have to be a battle of wills with her?

By the time he reached his own floor, Clef decided he ought to bring her something to drink. The girls didn't have a tea service in their room, and the crispbreads would make a better peace offering if they were accompanied by a drink which could help settle her stomach.

Walking into his evening-dark suite, he nearly tripped over Umi's boots.

Clef stared at them, then at the empty lounge, before crossing through it to knock quietly on the closed bedroom door.

No one answered.

He eased the door open, calling a soft light to his hand - just enough that he could see Umi curled up on what she'd declared her side of the bed. She was still dressed on top of the covers, face pressed into the pillows, and her arm flung up over it.

"Umi?" he said, keeping his voice quiet.

She didn't answer - asleep, already.

Trying not to disturb her, he set the plate down on the bedside table and went back out into the living room to fetch the soft blanket from the settee. He didn't want to wake her just to get her under the covers. If she was already asleep, she should stay that way. She needed the rest.

A few minutes later a mug of soothing tea joined the plate, with two charms laid upon it - one to keep it warm until she woke and another to let him know when she did.

Clef forced himself to sit down and drink his own cup of tea, a calming blend. After the first cup, he felt a little less fidgety, but he couldn't expect a simple cup of tea to stop him worrying. How badly he wanted to be wrong. If this was only his paranoid imagining triggered by some deep-seated guilt about breaching the law, he would be more than happy. But he already knew how little he actually respected the laws that remained.

No, if it was true, his biggest fear was how it would affect Umi.

Emptying the last dregs from the teapot into his cup and downing it in one go, Clef pushed himself up and went to have a bath. Maybe the combination of the tea and a hot soak would relax him enough he might actually sleep, rather than lie beside Umi fretting for hours - which would no doubt precipitate him losing his temper as soon as she refused to go to the Healers, and then they would argue and she definitely wouldn't go.

He scrubbed until he was pink all over and his scalp tingled from too much shampooing. After a final rinse, he climbed into the bath and leaned back against the side as he sank into the water.

If it had happened and she chose to go forward with it, there was nothing to be done but welcome the child into the world. But he shied away from that thought, because there was a tiny sharp corner of his chest which felt - hopeful that there would be a child, even though - even though it could ruin all Umi's plans.

His too, he supposed, but - well, he wouldn't be heartbroken not to be Guru anymore.

If only it wasn't treason, a word somewhat harder to shake off than 'illegal'...

But he could be entirely wrong. It wasn't as if he knew a great deal about pregnancy. He'd never been close to anyone while they went through it. Navara didn't count, she lived halfway across the country and they only ever saw each other in Council or Guild meetings. They certainly weren't close enough to discuss anything so personal. Aveo had been on the other side of the country when she'd had Kalos a few centuries ago - and Clef had been a little distracted by the early hints of the Emeraude and Zagato implosion when Elysion was born.

With a sigh, Clef shut his eyes and tried to focus on the heat of the water on his skin and the scent of the relaxing herbs he'd dumped in the water with the bath salts.

He was nearly drifting off when the charm on the tea pulled his attention, letting him know Umi was awake. Blinking Clef rolled his shoulders and stared up at the ceiling. Maybe she would be more receptive to the suggestion after today?

The door to the toilet clicked shut, and he waited, trying to keep hold of the precarious calm he'd almost reached as he heard the door to the next room open and the tap go on.

The running water and the shut door between them meant he almost didn't hear when she gagged.

Clef flailed out of the water and dashed into the next room to find Umi bent over in front of the sink, one hand holding her toothbrush and the other pressed to her mouth. She was taking slow breaths through her nose, her whole body trembling.

Picking up a cloth off the closest shelf, Clef reached around Umi to wet it with cold water before returning to press in gently against the back of her neck.

"I just wanted to get the taste out of my mouth," she said miserably.

Clef took the toothbrush out of her hand and dropped it back in the cup before pulling her over to the bench and into a hug, murmuring near-wordless nonsense. Umi leaned in close, pressing her tear-streaked face into the curve of his neck.

"You're wet," she complained.

"I was in the bath."

"Guess that makes sense," she muttered. Her warm breath on his skin giving his body inappropriate ideas. She pulled back a few moments later, taking a few shuddering breaths while she wiped her eyes with her sleeve. "You're naked."

"That usually happens when I have a bath." He tucked her hair behind her ear. "It's time we got you to the Healers."

"I'm fine," Umi told him, a snap reappearing in her voice as she leaned away from him. "If I still feel bad on Monday, I'll go to the doctor at home. I'm just tired, is all. It's probably still just that fatigue thing."

Clef felt his carefully constructed calm crumbling. "Umi, even if this was magic fatigue - which doesn't make people throw up - what would your doctors in Tokyo be able to do about a problem with your magic? But this isn't fatigue anymore - or not just. This is something else too," he said. "You can argue with me all you like, but even if you're not pregnant, you must be seriously ill to still be feeling this bad."

"I'm not that sick, and I'm definitely not pregnant!" She shoved him away as she threw herself to her feet.

"I can't think of any other reasons for you to be feeling like this!"

"Stop being so - so -" Umi waved her hands with a groan of frustration. "Last week was all about the stupid cake, and this week, it's a stomach thing. Next, you'll be fretting because I'm still late - bleeding, or whatever you want to call it."

"It's been nine weeks, and you don't think that's worrying?" If her average was five, that was four weeks too many.

"I've been this late before, so it's not like it's anything to worry about. When I skip a go, it does a whole other cycle before it appears again, so I'm barely even due to bleed yet." She glared at him, defiant in her logic.

"It's something to be concerned about when you've had unprotected sex!" Clef was on his feet a moment later, pulling his trousers back out of the basket and dragging them on. "We are going down to the Healers."

"I'm not pregnant, Clef! I can't be!" Her voice went high. "It's impossible. I refuse to believe it."

"You can convince me to sleep with you against my better judgement, but no mere force of will - no matter how stubborn you may be - can remove a child if it has already started inside of you."

"I'm can't be pregnant," she repeated, her eyes blazing. "You're wrong!" She pushed past him and out the dressing room door. He barely had the trousers fasten when he ran out to see Umi shove her feet into her boots then slam out of the front door.

Cursing under his breath, Clef went after her, but he only made it three paces down the corridor before she vanished completely, leaving nothing but a trace of magic in the air. A cold chill ran through Clef's body as he stumbled to a halt, staring at the space where she'd disappeared.

.*.*.*.

Umi hadn't been thinking of anything but putting space between herself and Clef. Why did he have to be so utterly single-minded? It was infuriating! She wasn't going to give in and go see a healer if he kept nagging her.

But she didn't mean to throw herself through to Tokyo.

Materialising six inches off the ground mid-step would make anyone stumble. Umi fell hard to her knees, rain pouring down on her. It soaked through her shirt even as she pulled herself to her feet. Her hands and knees stung where she'd hit the ground, and tears joined the rain running down her face.

Umi didn't recognise where she was. It was nowhere near Tokyo Tower, and without her bag, she didn't have money to get anywhere else. If there were even any trains running. What time was it? Where was she?

Swallowing down the rising panic, she walked down the street with her arms wrapped tightly around herself, water thumping down on her hard enough to be painful. She had just wanted to get away, this was beyond extreme. The tiny spark of magic that was her tether to Cephiro was stretched and aching, and not responding to any tentative thoughts about going back. If Cephiro wasn't an option, she'd just have to figure out a way home from here.

When she reached the junction, Umi realised she did know where she was. This was a road she walked almost every day from the station. Picking up the pace, she ran the rest of the way home.

The slamming of the gate echoed down the street, but Umi didn't care. She was home.

Throwing herself up the final few steps, Umi doubled over to catch her breath in front of the door. When she finally reached for the handle, she froze, realising it was locked for the night. Her house key was still in the side pocket of her school bag, which was still on her bed at the Castle.

It took a few more moments for Umi to pull herself together, forcing herself to breathe normally. She wiped her eyes, and ran her fingers through her soaking wet hair, then lifted her hand to knock.

Lights turned on through the house. The footsteps coming down the stairs meant it was was very late, if her mother wasn't still in her study with her evening cup of tea. The lock clicked and the door opened.

"Umi, what happened! Are you hurt?" Mama looked her over as she stepped into the house.

Umi could only imagine what her mother thought of her turning up in the middle of the night wearing only half of her school uniform, but she hadn't expected the second question.

"Should I call the police?"

"No. I'm okay." Umi shook her head. With scraped knees and red eyes, Umi knew she didn't look okay, and she couldn't meet her mother's worried stare. "It was just a stupid argument. I'm fine."

"Umi-dear…" Mama was unconvinced.

"I'm alright. I promise," Umi said, trying her hardest not to shake, or burst into tears again, water running off her to puddle on the floor. She bowed. "I'm sorry."

Mama didn't press her for more information but drew her further inside. "You're soaked through. Come have a bath before you catch a cold."

They walked to the bathroom together. Mama seemed reluctant to leave her. While Umi was peeling her wet clothes off, Mama got the bath water running. When her mother left to go fetch a nightgown, Umi turned up the bath temperature before sitting down to wash herself. She wanted to the water hot enough to distract her from anything else, and it was definitely that. The heat nearly took her breath away as she lowered herself in.

Umi stayed in the water until the heat started to make her dizzy. Drying off and stepping out of the shower room, Umi pulled on the nightgown and dressing gown her mother had left for her and went to her room.

She was still towel drying her hair - with Peach complaining at her for being damp - when her mother knocked on the half-open door, asking to come in.

It suddenly felt like being seven-years-old again and in trouble for getting into a fight at school. (She still maintained she'd done the school a service by punching Jacques in the face, because he wasn't inclined to call anyone else names after that.) Only this time, she'd been arguing with her boyfriend - who she shouldn't have been staying with - and ended up running home.

Mama walked in. Papa was close behind her, his hair still mussed from sleep. Mama pushed the cat to the foot of the bed and sat down beside Umi. Papa turned the desk chair round to face them.

"You didn't stay with Hikaru tonight," Mama said, tucking Umi's hair behind her ear. It was less of an accusation and more of statement.

"I… um…" Umi chewed her lip. She didn't know what to say. She had spent most of the day with Hikaru, and she'd half-planned to spend the night in their room, because otherwise she'd have been tempted to not to spend as much of the night sleeping as she should have to shift the definitely magic fatigue she was struggling with.

"Were you with Clef tonight?" Papa asked.

When Umi hesitated then nodded, Mama looked dangerously serious. "What sort of argument did you have?"

"Just - it was just stupid stuff. He was being a twit about - things. Not - it wasn't -" Umi said. She couldn't tell her parents what they'd argued about without causing so much trouble.

"Umi, is he pressuring you to sleep with him?" Papa asked.

"Papa!"

"It's a reasonable question, Umi," Mama agreed. "I can't imagine many other arguments that would have you running home in the middle of the night."

"Sometimes young men assume things," Papa continued. "Especially if you stay past the last train."

"He wouldn't do that," Umi declared, shaking her head. "If anything, I'm the one who -" She bit off the end of the sentence.

Mama raised an eyebrow at her, and Papa cleared his throat. It was one thing for her mother to have guessed, another entirely for her to say it.

"I'm fine, really. I'm not hurt. Just - it was raining and wet and I slipped. I bruised my knees, that's all!"

"And your hands?" Mama asked, reaching out and turning Umi's hands over so the grazes were on display.

"And my hands," Umi insisted, tears starting to threaten again. "He just - I got so angry, and -"

The first tears slipped hot over her cheeks, and she pulled her hands away to scrub them away with the cuff of her dressing gown. Mama stroked one hand over her hair, and Umi swayed into the touch slightly - like she was seven years again, and far too young for trouble like this.

"Okay," Mama said, quietly, wrapping an arm about Umi's shoulders. "It's okay, Umi. It'll be okay. Let's put something on those cuts, then you can sleep, alright?"

Umi nodded, crying harder, and barely paying attention as her father was dispatched for the first-aid kit and some mint tea. She just curled into her mother's side and cried as of she could wash away her anger with Clef and the nagging, stubborn little voice that was wondering if he could be - right.

It was impossible. But that didn't stop her crying until her eyes hurt while her mother held her.

.*.*.*.

To be continued...

In the next chapter: Clef approaches the Council with his next repeal bill, Umi has some trouble at school...

... and the lingering question is finally answered.

Who do you think is right? Umi or Clef?

Note: All feedback is loved and appreciated.

I love reading comments, and I do get a little enthusiastic in replying to them. I hope I haven't scared anyone off from commenting due to my excessive responses.