navy = flashbacks
Filia sat shivering on top of the hotel roof top. Her face was turning an interesting blue colour, even though it was well over 20 degress out. Beside her lay her mace, two small dents marked where she had hit Gourry and Zelgadiss half an hour ago.
She had run in a blind panic that was reserved for most rabid animals, hitting anything with her mace that dared get in the way. A path of destruction was left in her wake. Fortunately, no sane person who attended the keggar was awake and the only casualties were Zel, Gourry, and a few hallways.
It was basically luck that lead her to the top of the hotel. After a moment of taking a few deep breaths, she was more or less feeling better. All she wanted to do now was relax and forget about that awful -
"I always knew it," spoke up a voice from behind her. She didn't need or want to turn around to know who it was. She just sat where she was, trying not to let him get to her. Soul of ice she thought to encourage herself.
"Xelloss," she said through gritted teeth. There was no way she was going to let him get her in her most vulnerable state. NO! The soft foot steps of the priest came up behind her where she sat as cool and calm as possible. She heard him snort softly.
"Once a violent dragon, always a violent dragon," he commented, grinning his usual grin. He reached up into the lapples of his cloak and drew out the letter.
"You dropped this," he said, waving the note infront of her face. She went rigid forgetting about keeping a 'soul of ice' and swiftly jumped up, grabbed her mace, gave a war cry, and swung said mace at Xelloss with all her might.
He dodged, slightly miffed at why she was attacking him for such a small reason. He didn't have time to broach the subject, however. Instead of swinging her mace again like until she actually hit him or until she grew tired, (mostly the latter) she dropped the mace and an eight-by-four wooden plank appeared in her hand. Who knows where it came from. Xelloss was slightly off his guard.
"Why - " Dodge the plank "what - " duck under the red bamboo umbrella "ever - " dodge the bonbori "is the - " jump over knives "problem?" dodge the - WHAM! ! ! Xelloss was brained before he could dodge.
He didn't really mind the pain persay, you could say he enjoyed it, but wouldn't you be just a tiny bit embarrassing to be taken down by a - duck shaped potty trainer?!
"Always full of surprises aren't you?" he remarked. He created a shield to protect himself from further attacks, he asked again, "What's your problem?"
"That!" Filia screamed, pointing her finger at the letter that Xelloss had miraculously held on to during her small tantrum.
He looked down at the mangled piece of stasionary. It just simply read, 'I think you're cute and I really like you. It's a secret who I am.' Then he looked at the cowering Dragon Priestess. Then back at the letter.
"This letter?" he inquired, waving it around. A part of him was enjoying the way that fear and anger was being emitted from her.
"It's a - it's a - it's a love letter!!!" she screached, making even Xelloss (and those within half a mile) winch. He teleported away in a haste as Filia suddenly came at him with a large mallet. It was oddly disturbing to see her like this. Of course it was funny, but still, disturbing.
Xelloss re-appeared on top of the roof across the street. Filia was still pounding the area where Xelloss had momentarily stood before with something less than hysteria. He mentally laughed at the man that slept in the room just under her.
He stopped to wonder how he was going to make her calm down before she ended up destroying the hotel. Though, not that it wouldn't be hilarious otherwise. He even surprised himself at why he was so worried over such a mortal, trivial thing. After a minute, he realized she wasn't mortal so that made it relatively alright. Well, that's what he convinced himself.
Filia leaned against the mallet, puffing from the exertion. After a few minutes of senseless venting, she finally realized that Xelloss wasn't there. Good for him but she really wanted to pound that guy.
She sensed a familiar evil pressence and turned around. Her eyes became dots and she sweat dropped at the sight behind her.
"Oi, Filia-chan!" Xelloss said brightly, sipping daintily from a tea cup. A table had been set up with a peach table cloth and china tea set. The Mazoku seemed oddly fitting in this sort of scene which secretly unnerved her. She wasn't in the mood and wanted to deal with this as quickly as possible. (i.e. destructively)
That wasn't what Xelloss had in mind though...
In a blur, he was suddenly behind the startled priestess and soon had her plunked into a chair across from his own. He jumped back into his chair and poured her a cup of tea. It had happened all so fast that Filia a) didn't have time to recoil from the Mazuko's touch and b) forgot about the letter at the moment. (Which was, by the way, what Xelloss had in mind.)
She replaced her mallet with Mace-Sama and planted it into Xelloss' face.
"Glad to see you're back to normal," Xelloss chirped after the mace had been extracted. He guestured to her untouched cup.
"Aren't you going to drink your tea, Filia-chan?" he asked.
"Why should I?" she retorted, shying away from Xelloss as much as she could while sitting. Which was an awfully hard task. He noticed this as he looked over the rim of his cup.
"Don't you trust me?" His expression turned from happy to a sick and hurt puppy look that was to be put down. Not very convincing if you happened to be a Mazoku. Especially the one that destroyed hundreds of her kind just with flicking his wrist.
"I trust you as far as I can throw you," Filia retorted haughly. Xelloss returned to grinning insanely at her with closed eyes with a touch of his natural hidden menance.
"That's always expected of such a selfish dragon. So wasteful of such good tea." He regarded her with one slitted eye open and waited for her reaction. His smile grew, if possible, as Filia picked up the cup tentitavely.
That's my Filia-chan that I know he thought, his worry diminishing. Always full of surprises this dragon He contined to watch her like a hawk. She sniffed at the tea. Glared at him. She took a sip. Glare.
"Isn't this much better?" he sighed happily, putting down his tea cup and crossing his legs. Glare.
BACK IN THE HOTEL...
"Filia is overreacting!" Lina declared, grabbing the last loaf of bread from Gourry, meanwhile hording the chicken legs to herself. She was still a bit grumpy from having been woken up so early in the morning and having to fight tooth and nail for food with Gourry and Ameria was not helping her mood whatsoever.
Zelgadiss came back to their table and began sipping at his cup. Ameria, always the observant one, looked over at him. This gave Lina the break she needed and she swiped away most of the eggs on Ameria's plate, much to the princess' chagrin.
"Zelgadiss-san, why aren't you drinking coffee?" she asked, indicating the white stuff in his cup with her finger.
"You're pointing," he replied, not bothering to answer her question. She fell off of her chair. When he notice that Lina and Gourry had stopped making noises from talking, arguing or eating, he looked up. They stared at him which, in turn, made him sigh.
"They said some crazy man stole their only pot of tea and they don't have anymore coffee left, so I only got milk." They nodded in understandment and got back to talking about Filia's predicament... and eating.
Ameria popped back from off the floor, her eyes turning into hearts. It made Zelgadiss recoil suddenly, only relaxing when he realized it wasn't focused on him.
"I think it's romantic that somebody would do that. Hey, I wonder who it is? We just came to this town last night!" Ameria started daydreaming about a mysterious stranger hidden in shadows. Oddly enough, it resembeled Zelgadiss.
"Yeah," Lina said, her brow furrowed. "I wonder who knows she's here. I am worried about her you know." Gourry used this pause in her eating to take back half of the loaf of bread.
"Oh?" wondered Gourry, "it sounded more like you were jealous or something." Lina responded by doing a high kick to Gourry's face while still sitting in her chair. It was a more or less difficult thing to do. Zel and Ameria gave her a 10.
"I do have to admit, we've only arrived here last night. Who knows who this person could be," said Zelgadiss, not bothering to sip his milk, just drowning it down. "It could just be - "
"Anyone?" Gourry supplied. Zelgadiss' face twisted in to a look of frustrated annoyance.
"Yes, Gourry, just about anyone."
"Who knows," pondered Gourry, his brain working overtime to grasp the thought. "It could even be you, Zel." Zelgadiss developed a panicky look. Ameria glared at him.
"It's not me!" he protested, jumping up with his hands held up infront of him. "What if it was you?"
"I know for sure it wasn't me. I like Filia and all but not like that," Gourry answered. Zelgadiss sat back in his chair, blushing a bit.
"You know this really isn't our buisness," he said.
Lina developed a dangerously thoughful look on her face. Even scarier, Ameria had mirrored it.
"You know, Filia's been looking pretty down lately - " Ameria slowly began.
"And it'll be nice for her to get a life - I mean, get a night out instead of worring about us all the time," added Lina.
"Are you talking about Filia's love life even thought you have no right to?" asked Zelgadiss in an exasperated not-another-one-of-Lina's-hopeless-schemes sigh. He looked over at Gourry for help but the swordsman was taking advantage of Lina and Ameria's distraction to eat most of their food.
"Don't you want to see Filia happy?" accused Lina and Ameria, aura's flashing behind them angrily. Zelgadiss slide his chair back as far from them as possible.
"Of course I do - "
"That settles it then!" cried Lina, pounding on the table and scattering the dining ware.
"But - "
"In the name of love - " started Lina, striking a dramatic pose while waving her arms around with her thumb, pointer and pinky finger extended.
"and justice - " Ameria added, also striking a pose similar to to the one Lina was doing. Flashy lighting following them.
"We shall find Filia a perfect boyfriend!!!" they cried out in perfect unison. Lina made a victory sign with her right hand, her left was on her hips, while Ameria kept her thumb, pointer and pinky extended, her left hand across her forhead with her right hand behind her. From out of nowhere, waves crashed in the background to complete the dramatic scene.
"Now wait a minute!" Zelgadiss protested, a bit frazzled. They ignored him and stormed out of the dining hall, off the find the 'perfect' boyfriend for Filia or destroy the city. Whichever comes first.
"Hey, Zel!" Gourry called. Zelgadiss turned to see Gourry sitting at a shogi board that was set up in the lounge area besides the dining hall.
"Do you wanna play a game?" he asked. The Chimera shrugged wondering if the less than brain gifted swordsman even knew what shogi was.
"Might as well, it seems like we won't be going anywhere at the moment."
Filia felt a sudden chill that creeped down her spine and she sneezed. I wonder who's taking about me? she though.
Xelloss had long since drained his cup of tea and was now waiting patiently for her to finish. A suspicious smile plastered across his face. She slammed down her tea cup, making the tea pot jump.
"What is it you want, Namagomi?" she accused, switching into offensive.
"Want?" Xelloss repeated, the infuriating mocking tone half apparent in his voice. "Can't two people sit on a roof top and have tea?"
"You don't even drink tea!" Filia exploded. He raised his eyebrows in what looked like a confused expression.
"Oh? Is that so? Then what, my dear Filia-chan, do you think I've just been drinking all morning?" he replied.
No reply. His slitted eyes snapped open to see if either a) Filia was going to bash him good with Mace-Sama; b) start crying and/or going into histerics, or c) both.
Filia sat quietly staring back at him. Inwardly, it was unnerving to think that things weren't going as he had expected it to. But then again, this was his Filia-chan he was thinking about.
"Why did you get so worked up over that letter?" he asked, no trace of his usual humour in his voice. Filia sighed in what sounded like defeat. He liked that sound.
"You really want a reason why I acted like I did back then?" Xelloss nodded and placed his head in his hand, face changing to one of thoughtfulness. She looked away, knowing that it was just a facade.
"I've developed a fear of letters that aren't signed by anyone. Especially lo-lo-cough letters. When ever I see or hear about them, I go - "
"Postal?" Xelloss supplied helpfully. Filia glared at him.
"Yes, postal. Whatever that means." Xelloss nodded again as a way to make her continue.
"You see, it all started when - "
"Fi-chan! Fi-chan!" A younger looking Filia smiled at the
other dragon maiden. One of the few that had been born at
roughly the same time as herself. It was the start of a very
slow population growth from what the incident that - well, that was
in the past and has very little to do with this story line.
Anyway, the dragon came bouncing towards her with more
energy than Naga, Ameria, and Lina will ever have combined. Also
the fact that she was in dragon form - just think about it. She
bounded towards Filia.
"Filia-chan, you got a letter from a secret admirer!" she
squealed. Filia's eyes lit up -
"What's so wrong with that?" Xelloss interupted. Filia snapped out of her memories, a bit surprised. She had forgotten about that namagomi being there.
"Just wait a moment," she snapped, blushing at the rememberance of what came next.
"Well if you'd just hurry up..." he replied, shrugging as if it wasn't his fault.
In a small voice, she asked, "Promise you won't laugh?"
"I promise," he said, trying to look as nobile as possible. He crossed his fingers behind him.
TWO WEEKS, FIVE LETTERS LATER
"Uh, Filia-sama?" a young, short and stubby looking
dragon half her age venture up to the starry eyed Filia.
"Oh, I see what you mean"
"Just wait a moment - "
The younger dragon figits a moment.
"I'd like to introduce you to my friend that likes you - "
Filia looked behind him hopefully. Something was shoved into her
face, she recoiled in horror. Sweat drops formed like a crown
across her forehead.
"My-my secret admire is a - a - sock puppet?!?!?!?" she
screamed. The young dragon took no notice and continued to act
out a scene in which the sock puppet got married to her and lived
happily ever after. She then procedded to wack anything that wasn't
nailed down with a smaller version of Mace-Sama. The younger dragon
continued to act out the scene, oblivious to the mindless distruction
going on around him.
Xelloss tilted his head downwards, his bangs hidding most of his face as it started to turn purple with holding down laughter. He started to shake suddenly and knew that if he didn't do something, anything, soon - he was going to explode.
Opps, too late was his last thought as he started to laugh. He tilted backwards involentarily and feel off his chair. Once he had started, he found he couldn't stop even if he had wanted to.
The last thing he saw was a shocked and hurt looking Filia before his eyes closed from laughing so hard.
After a long while and a lot of use of will power, he got up from where he had fallen to of realized that the dragon maiden was gone. The tea cup she had been using was smashed on the ground. She had even left Mace-Sama!
Xelloss looked around for a moment, his gaze falling onto the door to the roof that swung back and forth in the wind. Hefting Mace-Sama and his own magic implement, he went off in search for the dragon maiden.