Magic Knight Rayearth

Title: Cloud Watching
Rating: G
Word Count: 718
No content warnings
Characters: Eagle, Hikaru, Umi, Fuu
Summary: It didn't matter how long he looked the at the sky he never grew tired of it.

I wrote this little drabble in one go and edited it at 2am, so err, enjoy?

ooo

It didn't matter how long he looked the at the sky he never grew tired of it.

So much lush greenery all around him, the air crisp and refreshing, a bigger sky than he could ever have imagined.

No, even back on Autozam, standing on a surveillance platform, looking at what looked like a blue marble on the horizon, he could never have thought of this. His imagination failed in comparison.

Eagle took a deep breath, relishing it, laying in the long grass in a palace garden open to the blue sky, far, far above. He'd been here a better part of the day and Hikaru, Umi and Fuu were due for a visit today, but he just somehow couldn't manage to make himself leave just yet.

He felt he was entirely too old to be lounging around in the grass, but he didn't let himself care. There was no one here to impress after all.

He dug his fingers into the slightly damp soil beneath him, reveling in the feel of it in between his fingers. The smell of damp earth, with no tang of metal and decay upon it. How could people live any other way?

It made him want to help Autozam all the more, every one of his people needed to know this feeling.

He laid back again, arms behind his head and gazed up at the clouds that were passing by over head. Light and fluffy, but moving higher on the wind, he wondered if it might rain later? So different from the sky in Autozam. It was always filled with clouds, but dark and low, you had to nearly leave the planet’s atmosphere before you could see above it all. Sunlight did not filter though much either, it was one of his favorite things now, to lay in the long grass or a low tree and nap in the sun.

Umi had laughed one time, finding him napping in a tree, and said both he and Lantis were practically overgrown house cats, with as much time as they spent napping in the sun.

Hikaru would join them sometimes, though she was never still for long, too much energy. She often ended up running around watching birds or chasing butterflies or any of the other unique wildlife Cephiro had to offer.

Before he realized it he had drifted off to sleep, as he was want to do, he still slept a great deal and had not fully recovered from the negative effects of over using Autozam's technology.

He awoke to laughter.

"I told you he would be here." Umi wore a tripumptant smirk as she looked down on him in the grass, she had a basket under her arm. He hoped that meant cake in his future.

"Did you forget we were coming Eagle?" Hikaru leaned over him slightly, beaming one of her huge smiles.

"No, I just let time get away from me I guess. I was just enjoying the view."

Fuu gazed around them, "What was it you liked so much about this spot?"

"The view of the sky, I was watching the clouds." Eagle pointed up.

"Oh, I use to do that all the time with my sister when we were younger. She always came up with the weirdest things when we would tell eachother what we thought the clouds looked like." Fuu sat down beside him, the other girls joining them in a semicircle. "What about you Umi?"

Umi gazed up, "I don't remember doing it that much as a kid. Maybe once or twice." She scrunched her nose, "Maybe in grade school I think. You, Hikaru?"

"I still do it all the time with my brothers, especially Kakeru and Maseru, though Kakeru always sees only food..."

They laughed.

"See that one looks like a giraffe doesn't it?" Hikaru pointed up to one cloud.

Umi squinted, shading her eyes, "I guess it kind of does, well maybe a giraffe with a huge head."

"What's a giraffe?" Eagle asked.

All three girls turned to him and the the rest of the afternoon was spent trying to explain different Earth animals to him, including some very hilarious doodles done on the back of Fuu's homework. Later followed by the previously mentioned cake.

Eagle could not have asked for a better afternoon.