tampered | ongoing; closed

ongoing; closed

When; 17 May, afternoon
Rating; G
Characters;

soulofocean
Summary; A princess shouldn't be sleeping on the couch, honestly.
Log; The sprawling apartment in which most of Presea's friends lived was always a little short of space, as people came and went and they opened the rooms to them. Presea was no stranger to close quarters, given the way she'd spent most of her time in the Castle during Cephiro's last crisis, but here, at least, there was a better solution than the one they were using.

The apartment was emptier nowadays, with the sudden departure of Mokona, Shin, and Hikaru. In order to do something useful and not worry so much while Umi was in the hospital, Presea had walked around the apartment and taken stock. They had several bedrooms they weren't using, preserved as if their owners had left this very morning. She shut the doors again quietly, contemplating. Clef had came to her last week, saying something about quartering the princess, who was still tittering cheerfully about the adventure of sleeping on the living room couch. She'd thought, then, that they were pressed for space, but with the subsequent departures and the distraction of the sheep plants, the matter hadn't been resolved.

Umi was coming home today. Presea fully intended to persuade her to take at least a day off of work for the rest of her recovery. And while she was here, perhaps they could have a talk.

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Well, she did. And even if it was far from a given Umi was already having trouble concealing the facts. Truth be told she didn't expect to manage for long. But the Knight of Water needed to be sure before she reached any conclusions. Or sought advise. Maybe that would be a good idea too.

"...Not that the stuff this place pulls ever makes sense." She murmured, frustrated at The City at large, and kept browsing the book's pages. "If it did it'd become more predictable, right? And we could predict what's coming next."

"I've long given up on that," Presea said dryly. "None of the magicians here can see the future." She continued sorting efficiently. She paused, smiled. "Is the book any good?"

It was an honest question; she liked reading too.

"There's no point in doing that. The future's always changing." She said that with such surety... True, it had to be partly as Yuuko said: some things were fated. But what decisions people made on the go also dictated their future and others'. If she was right on her suspicion... Umi might have changed someone else's future too.

The book question was like waking up from a trance. She blinked, blue eyes huge with surprise, as if the last she'd have expected was for Presea to ask something like that.

"Aw, it's... mostly underwater photography!" Umi raised the book to display the large full-page photo of a bank of hammerhead sharks against a shot of bright sunlight coming from above water. "Look. Isn't it gorgeous? That's what the sea on Earth looks like. I think I'll be calling dibs on this one too."

Presea looked at the page, her eyes bright with interest. "That's really beautiful!" she declared. She'd never seen sharks before (the fauna on Cephiro were pretty different, after all), so she cocked her head to one side and gazed for a moment.

"You have a lovely world, Umi," she said to the Knight.

"It's really very pretty. Especially the ocean." Umi said that with a silly hint of pride. It felt like part of herself, after all. As Shin obviously felt it too.

She stared down at the book and turned the page, moving on to a shot of sea gulls diving for fish about breaking waves. "I wish we could show you all someday. Just like we're able to visit Cephiro..."

Presea shook her head, still smiling. "I don't need anywhere else but Cephiro," she said. "Not that the City isn't very... interesting. But it provides us interesting problems too. I'd almost rather be sitting through another conference at home, no rather how boring they can be sometimes."

She picked up another book and thumped Umi in the head with it, but in a gentle, teasing way. "There's a lot of work to do here, as well," she continued, and then placed the book in a box with some others.

Umi faked a little Ouch, wincing playfully and rubbing the spot where the book had gently bounced off her head. The Pharle sure had a way to put an end to a melancholy mood! And boy, wasn't that handy in moments like these...

"...I still want you all to visit." She insisted, stubbornly, as she put other books away. "And, one good thing about this place? It serves as a long break from school."

"It might be fun someday, if we find a way," Presea agreed. Especially if she remembered the City, she thought, because then at least she wouldn't be so much of a fish out of water.

She shook her head at Umi's next words. "You're not interested in resuming your apprenticeship?"

Presea had been taught to read and write at home, as was custom. She'd already been preparing to become Pharle at Umi's age, in fact. Things couldn't be that much different on Earth, she assumed.

"...Apprent--- aw, you mean school?" That should be the way Cephireans thought about it, huh? For all Umi knew they were mostly home-schooled.

"Not at all! I always hated studying! I mean, I know it's necessary, but..." She shrugged. It was actually imperative. All the more if she wanted to manage her father's business in the future. But just the thought of homework and assignments and -- there she had to smile -- dumb filed trips made her skin itch.

"It's a break, so I'll take it." She concluded, hoping Presea wouldn't lecture her about it. As she believed she might.

"I've always loved what I do," Presea said with a smile. "But I was lucky like that, to be chosen."

She stood and stretched and then picked up another box. "If it's not your thing, I'm not surprised you like the break." As Umi had suspected, she wasn't going to lecture. She really was happy about her job, personally, but not everyone was, and that was understandable.

"I think I was chosen too. Sort of..." Umi tapped her fingers on the surface of the book she'd just closed, then hugged it close to her chest, frowning. It wasn't doing any good: it was still just half of it she could remember. But she reached for the part that did stand clear in her memories and held onto it.

"I know I'm supposed to make my parents proud. My father specially." If she could have heard herself... without being under the trade's influence... well. The Water Knight could have figured out there was something seriously wrong. 'Father' instead of 'dad'... "Because I'm supposed to be a businesswoman one day or something."

She shrugged and set the book aside with a slightly puzzled expression on her face that didn't look half as troubled as Umi somehow sensed it should. "But I don't really see it as that pressing anymore."

Presea was silent for a moment, studying the Knight. "It's probably not pressing because you don't remember why it should be," she said finally. It wasn't meant to upset her, but at the same time, Presea was concerned. This memory thing... It niggled at her. She couldn't even imagine how it worried Umi.

"I guess so." It indeed bothered her. But in a way that was more discomfort than loss. She couldn't pine for things she couldn't remember. Not for something she couldn't miss. Though a gut feeling told her it was something precious that she'd lost here. Something she might value a lot.

"But I'll look into that. Somehow. For now, it's better than if I'd lost any other memories." Or so Umi believed. "Like the ones about Cephiro. Or Hikaru and Fuu."

For the time being those were the most important ones. Like what her life was all about.

"I'm glad you remember us too," Presea answered fondly. She was heartened by the fact that not all of Umi's memories had disappeared. She hadn't even considered that Umi might have lost Cephiro. That would have made all of them sadder.

"I'm sure you'll figure it out," she said, trying to be confident for Umi's sake.

"I'll make sure of that." There were moments when Umi felt empty, as if hollow, and it upset her to imagine parts of her personality might be tweaked by this lack of memories. But her determination was all the same. Presea's support only strengthened it. The Water Knight had dealt with the strangeness of The City before. This would be tricky, but not a first.

"It might not bother me too much. But I'm getting back what's mine, one way or the other."

"You have a very strong will," Presea answered, half-smiling. "I'm sure you will."

Then she pointed to Umi's arm. "After this, you should rest for a while. No more heavy lifting. Or sword practice." She lifted an eyebrow. She knew how Umi liked to push herself.

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