8Candle Eight
Clef's alarm clock went off far too early. He blindly reached out from under the duvet and smacked it. Beside him, Umi shifted with a loud grumble. "You're the one who booked the ten o'clock flight," he told her.
"If I didn't get the early flight, I would have had to leave yesterday." Umi rolled over to face him. "So, this is me staying as long as possible, and still being able to spend New Year with my family."
Rubbing a hand over his face, Clef dragged himself out of bed. "Tea?" he asked, pulling back on his clothes from yesterday.
"Yes, please!" Umi answered. "No, wait. Coffee. Extra strength."
While the kettle was boiling, Clef did a final check of the living room to make sure Umi hadn't missed anything while packing last night, as they'd been fairly distracted. He didn't find anything, but that probably meant he would find something completely obvious in a week's time. Probably when he finally took down that ridiculous tree.
They barely had enough time to finish their drinks before the taxi arrived and they dragged all of Umi's things down - he still didn't understand how she'd compressed everything back down into her luggage. Clef couldn't bear the idea of waving Umi off at the door as he had so many times before, so this time he followed her into the taxi and on to the airport.
He sat beside her in the backseat, a melancholy silence lingering between them before Umi shook her head and laughed.
"This is ridiculous. We shouldn't be so depressed," Umi said, taking his hand. "It's not like we're saying goodbye forever. It's just a couple of months. We've been apart a couple of months before."
"But this is the first time we've become engaged before putting thousands of miles between us," Clef said with a sigh.
Umi poked him in the shoulder. "So you agree that we're engaged."
Rolling his eyes, Clef smiled at her. "Did you ever doubt I'd marry you?"
"No." Umi laughed and threaded her fingers between his. "If you didn't want me around, you'd have kicked me out of your place years ago. Or just never given me the address."
.*.
Clef wheeled Umi's suitcase into the airport for her, and Umi spent most of the wait to check in trying to convince Clef that he just wanted to get on the plane and come home with her now. She could easily get him a ticket.
Faced with the absolute reality of saying goodbye, the only thing that kept him from saying 'yes' was the fact he didn't have his passport with him - and he didn't want to arrive on a tourist visa, not this time.
.*.
Rather than a taxi, Clef took the underground home. Being surrounded by hundreds of people was preferable to being even more alone with his thoughts in the back of a taxi. And when he got back to his flat, he simply collapsed on the sofa. He wasn't ready to face the empty bed just yet.
Umi's message tone woke him from a doze a little while later. He blindly reached for his phone and found that Umi had sent him a photo of an empty first-class sleeping pod. The picture taken through the lowered screen between the one Umi was obviously sat in.
Umi [10:31]: I don't have a neighbour. You could have been here instead.
Getting to his feet, Clef went and flopped onto his bed to take a picture featuring half his face and the empty pillow beside him.
Clef [10:33]: Or you could be here. And better rested.
Umi [10:34]: Ugh. I'm so tired.
Her last message was just an animated image of a sleeping cat snoring little 'Z's.
.*.
Clef had only meant to shut his eyes for a few minutes, but he must have drifted back off to sleep once more, because he was startled awake by the enthusiastic ding Umi's message tone again.
This time, opening his message app showed a photograph of a beautifully presented lunch on pretty little dishes - a big difference to the plastic-wrapped things he was used to getting in economy class seating when he paid for his own tickets.
Umi [1:15]: This is the lunch you could be having.
Staring at the picture a long moment, Clef found himself feeling hungry. Lunch was probably a good idea. He dragged himself out of bed and just pulled a face at the kitchen. He didn't feel like having lamb again, and there wasn't much else left in the fridge but butter, eggs, and a single sad-looking spring onion.
Grabbing his coat and shoving his feet into his shoes, Clef made his way down the little cafe on the corner that he and Umi often frequented on her visits.
He studied the specials board realising he'd actually have to decide what he wanted today. Normally, Umi would insist they get both of the daily specials to share. Not that Clef ever minded; he liked just about all the food he'd had at the little cafe so far. To simplify the decision, Clef just went with the first things on the board: a roast turkey sandwich and butternut squash soup.
When it arrived, nicely arranged and with a biscuit and a chocolate on the saucer of his teacup, he took a picture of it to send back to Umi.
Clef [1:40]: This is the one you're missing.
Umi [1:42]: Mean!
Umi [1:43]: It looks so good.
Then there were three starry-eyed emoji and one sighing panda animation in short succession.
Shaking his head, Clef grinned, and enjoyed his meal a lot more than he'd thought he would - sending her a detailed review of it when he was done.
.*.
That night, after Clef scraped the leftover wax out of the candle wells of the hanukkiah, Clef filled each one with the gold and violet candles Umi had been so fond of. He smiled as he lit them and said the blessing over them. This had been a very unexpected holiday, but it was also one of the best he'd had in a very long time. Possibly since he'd moved out of Auntie's place.
After he'd sent Umi a picture of the candles, Clef opened his email app and finally replied to Emeraude:
Sunday, 29 December at 16:35
From: Clef
To: Emeraude
Subject: RE: Chanukah Visit
What sort of happy news are you expecting? That I have agreed to move back to Japan with Umi? Or that Umi and I will be getting married next year? ~Clef
He couldn't help but grin as he hit 'send'. He set his phone on the counter knowing he'd just destroyed any chance of having a quiet evening - not that he wanted to be alone or quiet right now - and went to make himself a cup of tea.
The kettle had only just boiled when his phone chimed with a response:
Sunday, 29 December at 16:37
From: Emeraude
To: Clef, Ferio
Subject: RE: RE: Chanukah Visit
OMG! CONGRATULATIONS!
And then another as he was pouring water over the teabag:
Sunday, 29 December at 16:38
From: Ferio
To: Clef, Emeraude
Subject: RE: RE: Chanukah Visit
So does this mean I get the new Ryuuzaki game system for my birthday?!
He'd just picked up his cup to take it into the living room when the phone call he'd expected came in.
"Hello, Auntie," he answered, sitting down on the sofa.
.*.
The long conversation with his aunt ended with a promise that Clef would bring Umi back to visit as soon as he could once he was settled in Japan.
After ending the call, Clef remembered that not only was it Sunday, but that tomorrow was still very much a workday - even if he was planning to turn in a letter of resignation - and he ought to be sure he had clean clothes to wear to his office in the morning.
Somehow, he hadn't done any washing in a week, and after three guests his place wasn't the wreck it had been a few days before they had turned up… but it wasn't precisely clean and tidy, either.
Gathering up his dirty clothes, Clef pulled the clean sheets out of the washer-dryer and shoved in his next load of laundry. Once it was running, he set about doing his usual end-of-week tasks: changing the bed, cleaning the bathroom, and finishing any lingering washing-up before wiping down the kitchen. He even managed to get a bit more of that one scorch mark off the cabinet by the vent, and really the slightly wrinkled shape wasn't so noticeable when there wasn't ash in the crevices.
When all of that was done, he sat back down on the sofa with another cup of tea and turned on the tree and garland lights.
The strings of lights wouldn't be worth taking to Japan with him, but he could make sure to carefully pack the tree and garlands and have then sent along with the few other things he knew for certain that he would be keeping, no matter what, for his new home - their home.
.*.
Clef had just climbed into bed for the night when his phone chimed with Umi's message tone again. He picked up the phone and opened the message that was nothing but a photograph of a very foamy bubble bath with Umi's legs crossed on the edge of the tub.
Clef [00:19]: Happy to be back with your beloved bathtub?
She sent back another photograph. This one was a close up of her glitter-covered knees, that told him she must have used one of those bath-bomb things she was always buying when she visited.
Umi [00:21]: It would be better if you were with me.
Clef [00:22]: Soon.
With everything he had to do - quit his job, sell his flat, uproot his life to move halfway across the world - the next two months were probably going to feel like a terrible hectic rush.
He couldn't wait.
.*.
END
I have now written the word 'candle' so many times this week - with posting both on AO3 and on here - that it no longer looks like a real word.
I hope everyone has had a wonderful week, and I wish you all a happy new year.
There should be a new chapter of Sanctuary in January, and if I manage to get the first part finished and edited, there may be the beginning of the new little short fic series I also started during NaNoWriMo posted to AO3 soon too.
Perhaps, I may even have a sequel or two to this. I have notes for at least one sequel I wrote down last year. Maybe it might also make it up here. At the moment, I am working on completing a number of the WIPs that are lurking on my hard drive, so there may be a few longer one-shots or short multi-chapter things posted to AO3 in the new year as well.
(I won't be posting the new series or those other one-shots here because I don't feel like editing them down to a Teen rating as the 'adult' scenes are integral to the plots - I refuse to post anything over a Teen rating after having watched all the higher rated fics be deleted multiple times over the years. There were so many lovely Rayearth fics which no longer exist after the multiple fic purges)
