Devouring On A Scoop

----

Umi had found the man bitter in a way or two.

"I guess wisdom first...",she thought.

He had an image to protect,after was the mighty mage of Cephiro,the most powerful of them order to be respected,he had to behave in a way that they would respect him,since he had an appearance of a child,and it would be difficult to believe that he is one of the greatest magicians in the whole country unless he acts like ,that wouldn't be much of a help too,since Umi herself tried to strangle the hell out of him when they first saw him and treated him like a child(though he acted in a more mature manner than the three of them.

"Oh,how I regretted doing that to him",she smiled nostalgically as she reminisced that scenario on her mind.

The very first time she saw him.

She felt relieved that she had alloted time to apologize to him,and that she was simply thought that it wasn't enough that she said sorry to him;she had to give something to resemble her remorse over what she did to him before.

Umi walked here and there,thinking of what would she give him.A pillow?A shirt?A stuffed toy?A book?A letter?A figurine?A frame?A scarf?A hair gel?A pair of pants?

"Oh no...",she sighed,and slammed herself sitting back on the couch,"I've ran out of else should I give to Clef?",her brows furrowed in frustration.

For the meantime,she opened the television just to let the hours pass by and to give her time to think of the gift she will offer to Clef.

Suddenly,a commercial on the TV took Umi's she watched the advertisement,her lips curved to a toothy grin.

"I know!",she happily exclaimed.

She cheerfully hummed to herself as she went out of the despised that kind of thing she bought,but....oh well,it's not for her walked away merrily while imagining the mighty Clef's reaction about her giggled at the situations she conceived about.

When she went back to their house,she locked herself back in her ,this did not catch any of their maids' took out something from her pocket and she looked at it.

The thing she held was an turquiose gem forged to a shape of was studded with brilliant diamonds and pearls,and its surface sparkled so brightly.

"Aquamarine heart...",she whispered the name of the gem to herself.

It was a gift given to her by Celes,making her sure that her bond with the rune-god will stay smiled to herself as she remembered that the gem gave her the ability to go to Cephiro all by herself.

"Celes....",she murmured to the gem,"Bring me back to Cephiro."

The stone emitted light that shone all over Umi's another bright flash of light,Umi was gone with her gift to would be brought to Cephiro by the use of the stone.

Umi screamed loudly when she realized that there was no creature to catch her,since she was falling down freely from the sky,"HEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEELP!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!",she yelled desperately.

Appearing out of nowhere,a giant flying fish came to capture rested atop of its back and heavily sighed,"Thank goodness..",she wiped her forehead.

After a few moments,Umi realized that the giant flying fish was the creature summoned by Clef when the she,Hikaru and Fuu first landed in pat the back of the fish as friendly as she could while she told the creature,"How are you,old friend?",she smiled sweetly to it.

The flying fish happily responded to her by moaning softly,like telling Umi it was though Umi couldn't understand what the fish says like Hikaru,she was content that she felt the fish was extremely feeling well.

Umi looked was far from what they had seen was more beautiful than ever,the Sun giving off rays of glowing light to every corner of the atmosphere gave off a blissful aura,and Umi was left to herself smiling contentedly,"I'm glad Cephiro is still peaceful..."

The giant flying fish led Umi to the huge castle once ,she did not felt fear like what she had experienced she felt was a feeling of longing,of lingering.

..Longing for Clef,she guessed.

They went inside the castle and landed infront of a jumped down the fish and gave a final pat on its head before it left,"Take care,my friend.",she told the fish.

Umi was alone again,with the gift clutched by her breathed heavily,"I didn't know I'd feel so nervous for this.",she muttered to herself.

She hesitated to knock at the door,but after a few moments she was able to do closed her eyes after knocking and held the gift more couldn't let go of her breath.

"Who is it?"

Umi's eyes opened suddenly in gulped in extreme uneasiness and she could feel her feet becoming heart was throbbing faster than hands were fact,her whole body was shaking after she heard his voice.

"That...was Clef's.....",she mumbled softly.

"I think I should speak now....",she said to herself,and felt very shy to do she do it now?Or later?Maybe she should leave?

Umi closed her eyes once is when she's to going to answer.

"Be brave,Umi walking out this time."

She gasped for air,then finally replied back in a firm tone,"It's...Umi.",she finally opened her eyes.

She tightened her grip to the gift more than her voice too loud?Did she sounded stiff?Will he reject her visit?Would he not reply?Would he---

Umi's thoughts suddenly stopped running all over her head when the door opened,"Umi girl,stop shaking!!",she reprimanded herself inside her mind.

She looked around and slowly entered the room,her footsteps making sharp sounds as her eyes searched for .Where is he?

"Umi,it's a pleasure to have you here in Cephiro again."

She turned was ,the young-looking was standing there,smiling a eyes were staring at her,"What would I tell him?",her eyebrows knitted in confusion.

"Is there something wrong,Umi?",the mage asked,taking notice of Umi's face experession.

Umi shrieked from being stunned there and shook her head,"No,I'm fine,Master Clef."

"You can call me Clef instead,Magic Knight."

Umi could've used her first name instead!Too formal,she hated it's time to shot back at him.

"Um,you could call me Umi,Clef."

Clef had a dumbfounded expression on his face,but turned to a smile when Umi giggled,"Actually,I hate being 's a big deal for me.",she laughed.

Her smile...Clef had seemed to miss her loved those smiles that she would make out her lips;she looked beautiful...and enchanting.

Umi finally stopped laughing and coughed first before she informed,"Clef...I know you were already aware of how I sorry I was about how I treated you when we first arrived here in Cephiro."

"Umi,you know that I have--"

Clef was cut short when Umi continued,"After all this time,I still felt guilty about what I've done.I was not contented with the way I apologized to ...."

She stretched her arms forward,hands holding a certain container which was cylindrical in shape,"..Please accepted this!"

Clef seemed stupefied while he stood there.A moment ago he was surprised...but now he was just tremendously came over to Umi and observed the gift.

"Umi,I must say that I was deeply moved by your gift and I want to thank you so much but.....",he sweatdropped,"What is this..container have inside...?",he had this curious expression on his face.

Umi grinned widely at Clef,the latter looking like an innocent child wanting to know what's inside the ,he did reallylook like a child,she mentally opened the lid and showed Clef what did the canister contain.

Clef's gaped over at the content of the box."JUST WHAT IN CEPHIRO IS IT?",he thought crazily,like a dimwitted studied the inside was a substance inside which looked was white in color and had some brown strips on it."But really........WHAT IS IT?"

Umi observed something else,too....Clef's noticed how Clef smiled wryly at the gift and his eyebrows met together that it almost overlapped each other.

All the nervousness inside Umi seemed to be gone when Clef went near shrugged off her contemplation when she felt that Clef was dying to know what the content of the container is called.

She stated like a genius who just found an answer to a very,very,very,very,very,very hard question,"It's ice cream,your majesty."

"Ice cream...?",Clef looked to Umi,his face now finally calm but there were still traces of bewilderment in his face.

"Yes,it's a kind of sweet dessert in our world and it's made out of milk and other ,have a taste.",Umi gave Clef a spoon and put it on the palm of his hand.

Clef was still uncertain about taking a scoop when Umi tried to convince,"It doesn't have any poison;plus,it wouldn't hurt to bite,Clef.", she felt like a saleslady doing salestalk to a customer.

Clef breathed deeply before scooping out ice cream with a gawked at the sight,"Was he really that nervous!!!!!!!!?"

He slowly brought the spoon to his mouth,eyes ,on the other hand,looked like a moron frantically waiting for Clef to take his first taste of the ice even jumping up and down.

Finally,Clef had tasted chewed,chewed,chewed,feeling the cold confection in his can feel the"ice cream"melting on his tongue.

"Well,what do you say,Clef?",Umi asked.

Umi was completely startled when Clef's hand let go of his grip to his staff was left to be in a dazed state,the head of the spoon stuck in his eyes were in complete trance.

"It was....heavenly.",Clef said,sighing at the wonderful taste of that"ice cream".

Now,Clef ate all the ice cream in the container rabidly till it was head swung back and forth and he had a smug smile,making him like a drunk was knocked for six;she couldn't even laugh because she was just.....well,absolutely shocked.

---

"Umi,thank you for giving your time to visit here in Cephiro.",Clef said(he was finally alright after a few hours of passing out due to his dazed state after eating the ice was completely in love with ice cream after the incident,as what he have told the stunned Umi.).

"You're welcome,Clef!I'm happy you like my gift.",Umi gave him one of her sweetest smiles.

"The gift was not the only thing I liked.",Clef stressed in a serious tone.

Umi was perplexed,"What...?",was all she could say at that moment.

Clef kissed Umi on the cheek(she kneeled down at his level anyway a while ago)softly and smiled widely at caressed her cheek slowly,and told her gently,"I like you,too."

Umi was completely surprised...but was on the brink of tears when she heard him say those of couldn't stop her emotions anymore so she embraced her hugged her back,too.

Umi felt a small but warm hand brush her back,"Umi,please come again if you have time."

Upon hearing this,tears fell down from her finally let go of each other when Umi replied,"I will Clef,I will."

Umi finally left Cephiro after she bade goodbye from Clef when he remembered the spoon she was on his pocket when he took it out and looked at it.

The spoon was made of silver;it had elegant features and a heart sculpted at its other narrow grinned tenderly at it,as she ran through his thoughts again.

Umi,I'll always be watching you.

I'll always be there,just call me.

And.........

I hope you bring some ice cream when you come back here.