While Zelgadiss and Amelia went about preparing supper, Lina was getting increasingly uncomfortable. She had placed herself on the couch, wrapping her afghan tight around her shoulders and snuggling into the plush cushions in the perfectly contented movie-watching position. After a few minutes, she looked up and noticed Xelloss seated on the other end of her couch. Hrmph. A few more minutes later and he was right in the middle, shortening the gap between them by half. Again Lina looked away.
A soft sizzling sound was emanating from the kitchen, mixing with the muted voices of the two within conversing. It was then that Lina felt the weight beside her and saw the fruit not six inches away. He glanced at her, rolling his purple eyes towards the kitchen and waggling his eyebrows suggestively. She snorted softly and shook her head, they weren't doing anything. The smell of him so close to her was mingled with the slight tang of herbs and spices from the kitchen, and she was becoming decidedly uncomfortable. She reddened, her face fast becoming the colour of her hair, and she turned to look away.
An ivory hand caught her chin and turned her back to face him, he was leaning towards her with a wry grin on his face and intensely shining eyes while the young man on the television professed his love to the lesbian girl in his SUV. She tried to pull her head back, but Xelloss would not be put off, he readied himself and moved in for the kiss. Hey, maybe this world wasn't so bad after all...
DING!
"Suppertime!" Amelia's voice was the happiest it had ever been since the discovery of the strangers. Not one to waste an opportunity when it arose, she ducked away from a rather surprised ex-priest and made her way to the table, suddenly ravenous as only Lina Inverse could be.
Supper went by uneventfully. A lot of silence, save for gobbling sounds on Lina's end of the table. Sidelong glances and the accidental meeting of eyes was all it was. Why? Well, partly because Lina was fairly uncomfortable about the purple haired man's attentions, and partly because the author was just too damn lazy to think of anything to happen, and is sure that everyone's sick of all this filler. One thing that must be said, though, is that the steak was good, cooked just right, and Chef Zel did wonders with the herbs he had found. So ends the meal and the shortest part of this chapter.
They had eaten late, but finding people from an alternate world that you supposedly lived in would keep anyone wired. Xelloss, oddly quiet, had ventured to the cushy chair and sat himself down for a good old fashioned brooding. Amelia was doing her homework, the scratch of pen on paper comforting her in these oh-so-stressful times. Lina and Zelgadiss were seated fairly close to each other. There was a book in Lina's hand that Zel was reading over, and a low conversation was taking place, much to quiet for the others to hear.
The trickster priest studied his steepled hands as he thought. He thought he could have her, get away with that. Well, at least he found out he might have to do things a bit differently to achieve what he wanted, but he was patient. Still, his Lina Inverse would have clocked him for even thinking about it. It was indeed odd what was happening. He tried to picture what kind of memories this Lina had, and how it might have altered her. She still seemed basically the same on the outside, but it was hard to tell. This let to the thought of whether this Lina may, in fact, be the real Lina, and they were just visitors from a passing fantasy. As unlikely as this seemed, it was a possibility nonetheless. He then decided he didn't like this train of thought all that much and decided to stop thinking about this. Sadly, even an ex-mazoku's mind works in the same way a human's does in the fact that it does not so easily ignore the things it really should. And so he sat, pondering and speculating, all the while casting his violet gaze between the raven haired princess-yet-not-a-princess and the girl with fire in her eyes and magic in her soul.
Her concentration was mostly on her paper, but not totally. As she attempted to write her report on the genocide of the ancient Ryu Zoku Indians, she found her mind wandering. This wasn't a complete problem, but it did call for excessive white-out on the paper's part. Her mind first wandered through the school day in a feeble attempt to place things. On it traveled to Gourry, which she spent a bit more time than usual on. He had been quick to defend her, but it was probably only because she was Lina's friend. She cast a glance to Xelloss, and could almost swear she saw his own gaze upon he before it slid away, smooth as silk on water, towards Lina. He was fascinating, in an odd sort of way. Her thoughts went ever back to Zelgadiss, and she didn't quite know why. She was scared as all hell of those two. They had come and shattered he own 'somewhat narrow' view of the world, and she had no intention of doing anything they asked or depend on them for anything other than a headache. But she felt she could trust Zel, that she could look into those cold cerulean eyes and see the fire within. She was being silly now, and she knew it, but she was currently having the same problem as our brooding priest over there. She wouldn't trust him as far as she could spit him. But there was no doubt that he was enticing in the dark, dangerous way skydiving off a Boeing could be.
The page crackled as Lina turned it, absently running her fingers over the raised foil letters of the title, "Magic in the Modern World and Ceremonial Dancing" by M.M. and N.N. Zelgadiss read over a few of the lines before snorting to himself. She turned, indignant, "What? You don't like my reading?"
"It's not that, it's just so vague about the important things and goes into too much detail about the stuff it doesn't need to."
Snapping the book shut and tossing it to the floor, Lina crossed her arms and leaned back, "Fine."
"What?"
"Well, Mr. Mage-from-another world?"
"Alternate universe, I think..."
"Whatever. How about you explain to me, then? Since the book is so wrong."
Erm. He didn't quite know where to begin, "Well, for example: Magic is one part interpretation, one part logistics, and eight parts intention."
"S'cuse me?"
"Look, that book is way too specific on dates and festivals and the positions of the moon and symbols and all that. Granted, some spells are more powerful during parts of the year, such as black magic near the autumnal and white near the vernal, but if you're a strong enough mage, it's not that big a deal. Even the incantations aren't necessary if you know the spell and are powerful enough to cast it without."
"And how would you know?"
"Because I saw a powerful mage, perhaps the most powerful magic user in my world, cast a monstrous destruction spell with nothing but the name."
"Who and what?"
"The Dragon Slave, and it was y - Lina Inverse, the one from my world, that cast it."
A small vision of her vanquishing dragons for treasure and burning up bandits bubbled up into her mind. She was interested now, and leaned closer, "What else?"
He proceeded to give her a crash course in magic theory, which included a brief history of the world he had come from. He explained to her, in the simplest terms he could, the nature of magic and feel of it within you. The author would go on, but she already has an essay about this in the works and knows that most people really don't care.
Time passed, as it has a slight tendency to do, and the group retired. Zel and Xelloss locked tightly in the basement, given sleeping bags and pillows, and Amelia and Lina on the third floor of the house, safely in her room. They had another long day in the works tomorrow, and Lina was snoring almost before her head hit the pillow, despite the nap earlier in the afternoon. Amelia conked a while later, her last thought of her in a glittering gown fit for a princess.