"Ah, Sarah! You are soooo lucky! Waiting on him!"
Sarah Tittered. "Yeah...but he doesn't say a single thing. And he doesn't order anything but coffee."
The aforementioned Man sat in a booth in the corner. He really didn't like the way his life had turned.
He was tall, dark and mysterious. Covered head to toe in white, only his eyes showed between the mask and hood he kept pulled over his face. His skin was not skin, but blue stones, and where his hair escaped around the deep blue eyes was a metallic silver wire.
He sighed.
Zelgadis Greywyrs took another sip of his coffee. After Lina and Gourry got together, he saw no point in staying. He just felt like he was invading, and that he ought to leave them alone.
He wasn't jealous or anything. Lina was his partner, nothing more. And to be jealous of her taking Gourry....ugh, the thought disgusted him. Not a man's man n the first place, Gourry was not the type to send him changing. Nnooooooo...
So he'd left early one morning and hadn't come back. Amelia had already returned home to Seyruun, and they were so infatuated with each other they didn't notice until he was long gone.
But...now it was back to the despairing loneliness again. No one else took his curse so in stride as Lina did. No one else treated him like a person. His followers had shown respect, Amelia showed childish infatuation, Gourry...Well, Gourry showed stupidity. But Lina had been the only one to forget occasionally...most of the time, actually, that he was stone. But no one in the group treated him like a monster.
But he could deal with it. It had been like this before he met them, and he had lived with it then. He would live with it now. He paid for the coffee and walked out of the tiny café. It wasn't as if he needed anyone, after all. He didn't need anyone.
Three months. Three months, two weeks and five days. Zel had made a few half hearted searches for a cure, but it didn't really drive him anymore.
Zel stared into the leafy green canopy above, as if searching for an answer.
He's forgotten how lonely it was without anyone around who didn't shrink in horror from his face. He missed having someone he could honestly relate to, who would pick him up when he fell. He'd dealt with it before, hadn't he? He'd assumed he could again.
He'd gone so long with people who cared that he forgot what it was like when no one did.
And he kept remembering...
Lina, smiling that fiery grin that would betray the fire inside, looking down at him when he was sulking. "Oh, no, sir Sulk a lot. You're going to enjoy yourself of we have to tie you down and force feed you sake."
Mock scolding "Hello? We're a team, remember? I'm not letting you go off alone." Offering a hand to help.
Her and Gourry cheerfully squabbling when he was in a bad mood.
Lina always saying something to make him smile.
When was the last time he'd smiled? He couldn't remember. It was so long ago...
So far away...
"Message for Zelgadis Greywyrs."
Zel jumped with a start. He was in the middle of the forest! How did anyone find him? How —
Oh. A cheerfully demonic face smiled down on him. The tracking demon hovered about a foot away from him.
(Hah! I bet you thought it was Xellos! Fooled you, fooled you, fooled you!)
Zel wordlessly took the ivory colored envelope, and the demon happily faded from view.
He turned it over and over again, studying it. It was expensive paper, with gold lettering neatly stating that it was for Zelgadis Greywyrs. Who could have sent it? The tracking demon was fairly high level magic. The sender would have to be either very rich, or very powerful. He opened the letter.
A...a wedding invitation. Of all the things he'd hoped Lina to send him, this was the last. He hated being surrounded by people, and without his usual escape, hiding out on the balcony talking magic with Lina, was barred entirely for multiple, obvious reasons. A) She was the bride! Everyone wanted to talk with the bride on her wedding. He wouldn't get a word in edgewise. B) Her and Gourry would be all over each other, as per usual newlywed procedure. No doubt feeding each other, as if they couldn't themselves. C) Old relatives of Lina would all be dying to know what she was up to recently, and he was the last one with them that he was aware of. C) He was supposed to be best man. Man? And he was certain the tux didn't come with a mask.
He sighed. Torture. Pure torture.
In fact, he would have ignored the invitation all together, if it had not said, at the bottom, in neatly printed letters,
"Please, Zel."
He sighed. He should be there at her wedding. Even if it did entail torture, He was her friend. Oh well.
Amelia skipped down the halls. Maid of honor!
(I actually misspelled it the first time, typing 'maid of horor.' With one R. Yeah, I thought it would fit, but it didn't quite go with the flow.)
She felt so happy. And Zelgedis-san might be there too! Maybe he would notice how she'd grown...
"Oh, Lina-san!" She trilled happily, for the umpteenth time. "Thank you!"
Lina smiled. "You're welcome."
It was the day before the wedding, and all the guests were happily in their hotel rooms. All except on stone faced young man who had no idea he was missed.
"Where is Zel?" Lina said aloud, voicing Amelia's worry. "He was supposed to be here!"
Amelia groaned inwardly. "Well, He didn't RSVP...he might not be coming - "
"He'll come." Lina said angrily. "He knows I'll blow him up if he doesn't..." She looked out the window. "Zel, please come..."