Title: Binding
Fandom: Magic Knight Rayearth
Rating: General
Length: 350 words
Content notes: None
Author notes: Post canon, pre-relationship Hikaru/Presea
Summary: “A present?” Presea looked at the little bag Hikaru had dropped into her hands. “For me?”

oOo

“A present?” Presea looked at the little bag Hikaru had dropped into her hands. “For me?”

Hikaru smiled up at her, still small though it had been almost a decade since she’d first been dragged to Cephiro by the Pillar’s last spell – smile still large enough to more than make up for it. “When I was on holiday, I saw a demonstration – people making these by hand. They twist the threads together and a pattern just appears!”

None of which made much sense when all Presea was looking at was a little bag, prettily decorated with a little bit of embroidery and tied with a twist of fancy thread.

Opening it up, however, found a bracelet made of more of that thread, woven together into a band, the colours coming together into a pattern that almost looked like little flowers. It was expertly made, strong and soft against her fingers, and beautiful in craftmanship as well as in fact.

“This one reminded me of the dress you wore, last festival,” Hikaru said, and there was a flush on the tips of her ears. “The braid at the edges- uh. So! I thought – you might be interested – anyway! There!”

And Hikaru was gone, running off with a wave, leaving Presea standing there in flattered confusion trying to remember what she had even worn, last festival. She’d been running late, and thrown on a dress from the depths of her storage, one which had been…

A little smaller than she remembered, because she’d had it long enough her figure had grown some after she first acquired it, but it had been decent, and no one she knew now would recognise it as very very old instead of something new.

…And it had a woven pattern along the neckline, she remembered, bright greens and golds like the bracelet Hikaru had given her, outlining the way it curved over her chest.

If that was what Hikaru had remembered –

Presea flushed, and bit her lip hard, trying not to grin too brightly. She had classes to teach all afternoon, and she didn’t need her students asking what had her so flustered.