The phone rang. Little Zelgadis scrambled up the stool near the counter to reach it, then nearly fell right back off as he lifted the ringing receiver from it's base. Aww.
"Hello?" He asked, in a soft, hushed tone that he usually had. A cheerful voice came from the other end.
"Hello! Is Mr. Greywyrds there?"
"Gran'pa's in the study right now. Can I please take a message?" Zelgadis recited. His grandfather had told him never, ever, ever to tell anyone that he was at home alone, especially if he didn't know who the person was. This time his grandfather really was in his study, but Zelgadis said it every time in case some day he slipped up.
"Zelgadis? Is that you, sweety?"
"Yes," Zelgadis answered warily. No one had ever called him sweety before.
"Hold on a sec, hun. Someone wants to talk to you." There was the sound of two people talking in the background, and then a joyful squeal.
"Hello?" A sweet, young soprano piped into the phone.
"Lina?" Zelgadis said hesitantly.
"Hi Zel!" She said cheerfully. "How are you?"
"...I'm fine. What are you calling about?"Zelgadis was a bit weirded out. No one had ever called him before.
"Wanna come over to my house on saturday ? I'm having a birthday party, and I want you to be there!"
"Tomorrow?"
The little girl nodded, realized she was holding the phone, and then gave the affirmative verbally. "We'll have lots of fun, Zel! Pleeeeeez?" She whined. Zel blushed.
"Um, hold on, I'll ask." He carefully se the receiver down and scrambled off the stool, where he proceeded to scamper up to his grandfather's study as quickly as possible.
"Gran'pa! Gran'pa!"
Rezo looked up from his research. It was rare that Zelgadis was ever excited about anything, and rarer still that he was this excited. The boy was hopping from one foot to the other. "Gran'pa! Lina invited me over to her house this saturday! Can I go? Pleeeease????"
This could be another sick joke... Rezo tried not to think of the last time people had pretended to be nice, only to threaten Zelgadis' life if they didn't leave town. This could be another...
Zelgadis looked so happy to have the invite, though. And he was so excited....Rezo smiled. "Of course."
Zelgadis leapt up into the air and darted forward to hug his grandfather. "Thank you sooo much!!"
Rezo smiled. "Thank Lina, she invited you. Shall we go present shopping after you tell her you can go?"
Zelgadis nodded so hard Rezo was afraid his head may fall off. He grinned and rushed back downstairs again.
He picked up the phone. "I can come!" He said breathlessly. You could hear Lina grinning on the other end.
"Great!! I'll see you at 2, okay? And bring a bathing suit!Bye!"
"Bye." Zelgadis hung up. He hopped off the stool and ran upstairs to get his grandfather.
Zelgadis held tightly to his grandfather's hand as they walked through the store in the girls aisle. He was pretty much overcome by the amount of pink in it.
"Do you think she'd like that?" Rezo pointed at a baby doll with lots of ribbons. Across the top of the box it stated that the doll cried, drank, and wet itself. Zelgadis made a face and shook his head no. "What do you think she'd like?"
Zelgadis scrunched up his five year old face at the blatant stereotypes around him. "I don't think she'd want anything pink." he stated. He clambered out of his grandfathers arms and scampered towards another aisle. This was his friend. He had to get something special.
Rezo smiled. The boy was truly happy. Zelgadis had so little to be happy about since his parents had die and it was discovered he had AIDS. Anything that cheered him up, Rezo was happy to condone.
Zelgadis turned the corner on the boys aisle and looked at the tens of thousands of wrestling, racing, and massacring paraphernalia. He made a face. She wouldn't like this either. It was amazing how little there was in a toy store. He searched the entire place for about an hour before finally choosing a chemistry kit. There. She should like that.
Rezo watched as the boy excitedly told the cashier that he was going to a birthday party. The woman smiled and said his friend would like the kit very much. Zelgadis beamed as he took the bag and thanked her as Rezo paid. The cashier smiled.
"What a lovely little boy you have."
Rezo smiled back. "Isn't he?"
Zelgadis had to pick out the right wrapping paper and card, too. He took the greatest of care wrappng the present. He ended up covered with tap and bits of wrapping paper, but he didn't mind in the least. Rezo almost had to resort to cutting his hair to get all the sticky tape out, but finally managed. He didn't want poor Zelgadis to have a bad haircut for the party, after all.
Zel looked with great pride at the present. He'd wrapped it four separate times, then shredded it when he pronounced it not good enough. It was very well wrapped, amazing considering Zelgadis was only five, but he'd always been a perfectionist.
He couldn't wait for the party. He sat for the last half hour, watching the clock. Rezo laughed and took the boy to Lina's house.
Lina heard the doorbell ring but ignored it. Luna would get it, and besides, Lina was busy trying to steal some of the frosting from her cake.
Luna walked to the door, carrying a screaming Xellos under her arm after he had tried for the third time to hit Lina with a water balloon. She didn't know why she'd made Lina invite, him, she really didn't. She opened the door to see Rezo standing on the threshold, Zelgadis shyly clinging to him. She smiled.
"Why Zelgadis! Come inside, we were just getting started! Lina's in the kitchen, trying to steal frosting from the cake and thinking i don't know it." She set down Xellos and took the present from Zelgadis. He smiled shyly and went off to find Lina.
Xellos looked at him. The boy (if Luna could call it a boy, it's mother had so successfully spoilt it she couldn't stand the thing) walked up to the nervous Zelgadis and pointed.
"It's the freak!" He proclaimed. The room got very hushed, and Zelgadis backed up against a chair. Childish voices murmured hostily, and Xellos, certain in his righteousness, continued to torture poor Zelgadis.
"Why are you here? This party if only for normal people." Xellos sneered. "You shouldn't be here."
"Lina invited me," Zelgadis said softly, pulling in on himself. He didn't like Xellos.
"She was only being nice. She thinks you're weird to. She didn't want you to come." Xellos lied. He advanced on Zelgadis, who pushed himself harder against the chair.
"...She does not," Zelgadis said, in a small voice. "She said she wanted me to come."
"You're just a weirdo! Nobody likes you, go home and leave Lina alone!" Xellos taunted. Zel broke and ran back to Rezo, who was just leaving.
"Zelgadis?" Rezo asked the little boy latched onto one leg, face pressed into the cloth of his robes.
"I wanna go home,"Came the muffled reply. "I don't wanna be here anymore."
"but you were so excited to come!" Rezo protested softly.
"No I wasn't." Zelgadis refuted. "I don't wanna be here."
Luna knelt next to him. "Lina was looking so forward to seeing you, Zelgadis."
"No she wasn't."
"Yes she was. All she could talk about was the big cake and whether you would like it." Luna smiled. "Why don't you come in?"
"Because I'm weird."
"Who told you that!" Luna snapped, making Zelgadis jump back. "Who said that!"
"Nobody." he said sulkily.
"Zelgadis," she said in a slightly warning tone.
Zelgadis opened is mouth to say something when a burst of red shot out from the house and ran into him full force.
Zelgadis looked up from where he'd been knocked down to see Lina's shining face. She grinned. "Hi Zel!" She exclaimed. Come and see my cake! It's soooo big!!" She helped him to his feet and dragged him along. "It's got a whole ton of frosting on it and it must be a million miles high!"
Luna laughed. "That's my little sister." She said fondly.
Rezo laughed too. "I'm glad she's taken a liking to Zelgadis. He really needs it."
Luna smiled. "SHe tends to do that," She said softly. "She's the most drawn to the people who most need her. Either she's an empath or a psychic, I'm not certain which."
"Zelgadis was certainly excited to be invited. He's quite taken with her."
Taken with her by the arm. Lina dragged him cheerfully into the kitchen. Her eyes gleamed as she pointed to the huge cake. "Isn't it great? And I get to eat almost all of it!"
"Really?"
"Yeah! And mean ol' Xellos isn't getting none of it!!" She stated, sticking out her tongue in his general direction. At the moment he was across the yard throwing mud at shyfiel's new dress while Gourry tried to console her. Failing that, he settled for beating Xellos upside the head with his favorite stick, affectionately named stick-sama.
Xellos, of course, screamed and rn crying to Luna, where he got absolutely no sympathy and was told to play nice.
Lina and Zelgadis went over to play on her swingset, where she proceeded to wrinkle up and get her new purple dress all dirty, not caring in the least.
A blonde girl sat over to the side of the yard and played in Lina's sandbox, building little statues of dragons and calling herself a priestess. Anytime Xellos got anywhere near her she would reach into her little purple backpack, bring out a large spoon and smash him over the head with it, screaming something about trash.
Meanwhile, Xellos had discovered the water balloons. ^_^ insert ensuing chaos here.
"Okay kids! Time for Lina to unwrap her presents!!" They all trooped into the rather small house. Luna, being a waitress, wasn't exactly rich. But the love was unmistakable, so it seemed like a mansion.
Lina squealed at the mountain of presents before her. Zelgadis noticed his was on the bottom. Oh well.
Lina ripped into the first one. A tea set. She smiled at the thought. "Thank you, Feria-chan!" She called to the blonde sitting in the back, who smiled and cheerfully ht Xellos on the head with er spoon. Zelgadis squirmed on his chair. What if she didn't like it? What if he was wrong and she did like pink stuff?
She put it into a separate pile and ripped into the next present, a toy sword from Gourry. She grinned and hopped off the chair to bear hug him. "Thank you Gourry! This is soooo cool!!!" She squealed, testing it out by stabbing Xellos with it. "I love it!"
Gourry beamed. "I thought you would."
Zelgadis felt a tinge of resentment, but mainly he felt nervousness. He really hoped she liked hi present.
Lina opened the next one. A doll. She grinned. "Thanks, shylly!!" She called cheerfully to Shylfiel, who smiled sweetly in her pink frilled party dress. Lina tied a napkin around it's neck and tossed it in the air, caught it, and tossed it again. "This is great! Now I can play superman!"
Shylfiel shrugged. Well, if she enjoyed it....
She opened the next present, from Amelia. It was a white plastic horse. She grinned. "This is really cool, Ame!! Thanx!" Amelia smiled.
After a while, Lina managed to charge through all her presents. Most of them were nice, except for a few, like Martina's (A rock with a face painted on it) and Naga's (A bikini with skulls on it. These kids are five, for heaven's sake!). Finally, Only Zelgadis' was left.
Zelgadis squirmed and fretted in his seat. What if she thought it was stupid? What if she hated it?
Lina opened the gift slowly, then squealed with delight. She yelled something of such exuberance, such pure, well, Lina-ness, that you have to have guessed it by now.
"I can blow stuff up with this!!!"
Well? Am I right?
Zelgadis could have jumped for joy.
Luna smiled and gathered up all the wrapping paper. "I guess that's the last one, Lina."
"No it isn't!" Xellos grinned and walked forward. Luna frowned. What is that brat planning?
Lina didn't trust him either. "If It's a slug, I'm going to beat you up." She warned. He grinned.
"No, it's much better than a slug. It's a kiss!" And he proceeded to kiss her on the mouth.
Lina shrieked and tackled him, the two of them scuffling in the dust while Luna tried to get a hold on either of them. She failed. Lina's new dress was being ruined. Xellos' nice purple party suit was, too. Lina let loose a stream of words that she most certainly shouldn't have known, and Luna yelled at her for saying such things.
Zelgadis hurried forward, worried about his friend. Finally, Luna pulled them apart. Lina was covered with scratched and bruises, but Xellos looked a lot worse for wear. Lina was crying her eyes out.
After all, the most heinous of sins had just been committed.
"He gave me cooties!!" She wailed in between sobs. "Now My hair's gonna fall out and I'll DIE!!" Nothing Luna could do would cheer her up. Xellos got sent for a time out, but even that wouldn't cheer Lina up. She wouldn't stop crying.
Zelgadis hurried over to her and offered her a dandilion.
"Please stop crying," He sat on his heels and looked up at her crying face. Proffering the pretty weed.
Lina took the flower and sniffled miserably. "Now I have cooties. I'm gonna die."
Martina scrambled over. "I know how you get rid of cooties!" She exclaimed, pointing at Lina. Lina cheered up immediately.
"Really? How?" Lina begged, looking at Martina with big sparkly eyes.
"PRAY TO ZOAMELGUSTAV!!!" Marina immediately fell to praying to the painted rock that Lina's cooties be destroyed.
Lina started crying again.
"You dumb-butt! Everyone knows the only way to get rid of cooties is to give them to someone else!" Felia said knowledgably. From the lofty age of seven, she was always right.
Lina scowled. "But who do I give cooties to!"She sat down in the dust and wailed.
Zelgadis came forward shyly, worried about his friend. "You could give me the cooties, if you want."
Lina looked up at him. "Really?"
Zelgadis nodded solemnly. "I don't want you to die, Lina-chan."
Lina hugged Zelgadis. "Zel, you're the bestest friend a girl could ever have!!" Zelgadis smiled shyly. Luna sat there with the cake, 'aww,' spelled out across her face.
Lina kissed Zelgadis on the mouth. Zelgadis blushed. She looked nervously at him.
"Do the cooties hurt?" She asked, her face a mask of worry.
He shook his head no.
"Are you sure?"
He nodded yes.
"THANK YOU ZEL!!" She hugged him. Then she looked really sad. "But now you're gonna die cuz of me!" Lina started crying again, and Zel looked very lost. Luna felt it time to intervene.
"Of course it doesn't hurt, Lina! You just gave him the boy cooties you got from Xellos. He's a boy too, so it just canceled out. Zel will be fine."
"YAAAAAAAY!! Zel, I'm so happy!!" Lina hugged her new best friend. Zel smiled shyly and hugged back.