It had been 3 hours into the ball that Amelia and her father were throwing and Lina was getting annoyed. Maybe being a feared sorceress when traveling was good, but it was bad when you are at a dance. Gourry and Xellos were the only people who would dance with Lina because everyone else was afraid of her. Lina would have been fine with this if Gourry didn't keep stepping on her feet, and Xellos didn't have such busy hands.
Sighing Lina swatted Xellos' hand once again while they danced. Okay this is the last dance I dance with Xellos, and I'm sure not going to dance with Gourry either. Lina thought of how much her feet hurt from the last dance with him. Oh well, I guess that means I'm done dancing for the evening. Unless... Lina quickly scanned the room and it took her a while but she found him. He was leaning against the wall, lost in his own world, and dressed completely in ivory with his hood and mask. Just like Zel to be a wallflower at an occasion like this. I'm surprised Amelia managed to get him to come at all.
"Um, Xellos could we stop dancing? I'm a little tired and my feet are still sore from dancing with Gourry."
"Okay Miss Lina. Perhaps I should go see what the little princess is up to? Maybe she would care to dance with me?"
"Go find out," Lina pushed Xellos in Amelia's direction.
With Xellos gone she approached Zelgadis quietly so that he wouldn't notice. It wouldn't have mattered he was really deep in thought. Well I can change that. Lina rushed over to him and wrapped her arms around him. Zelgadis was surprised and was caught off guard by this.
"Zel, why are you here all alone? You should be enjoying yourself."
Still a little shocked at Lina's previous action he stared blankly at her as she stepped away letting him go. Then he was taken back the way she looked. Lina was dressed in an off the shoulder ice blue dress that went down to the floor. The sleeves flared out with white silky lace trims and the whole dress was imbedded with diamonds, pearls and more white silky lace trims. Her hair had parts of it tied back with more diamonds and pearls woven in. Her face had a slight touch of make up and she had a pearl and diamond necklace around her neck. She looked beautiful.
"Hello? Earth to Zel? Are you in there?" Lina playfully knocked on Zelgadis' head. Zel regained his voice quickly.
"Uh, why aren't you dancing with Xellos or Gourry?"
"Gourry keeps stepping on my feet, and as for Xellos... well let's just say I got a little annoyed with his hands."
"His hands? Nevermind I don't know want to know. Why aren't you dancing with anyone else?"
"Who would dance with Lina Inverse, the Bandit Killer, the Dragon Spooker, you get what I mean. Anyway, Zelgadis would you like to dance with me?"
"Wh-wh-what? You want to dance with me?"
"Yeah. So do ya?"
"Uh, no. I don't really like to dance that much."
"Oh come on Zel, just one dance please?"
"No Lina. I said I don't like to dance."
"You mean you can't dance."
"What? I never said that."
"But that is what you meant. You can't dance at all so you don't want to."
"No that's not the reason. I can too dance, and if you don't believe me I'll show you."
He grabbed Lina's hand and led her to the dance floor. He stopped for a moment fiddling with something in his cloak.
"Uh huh, thought so. You act like you can but you still wont because you can't."
"You still think I can't dance? I'm definitely going to surprise you."
Zelgadis walks over to the band and says something to them and then returns to Lina with an evil grin on his face.
"What did you do?"
Zel's grin widens as he offers his hand to Lina as tango music starts up.
"Oh No! The Tango?!"
"You ask for it. Just try and keep up with me."
Lina had her own little grin. Keep up with him? Well he doesn't know what he's getting into. You don't challenge Lina Inverse dancer extraordinaire to a dance off with out being left in the dust.
What Lina didn't know was that Zelgadis could not only dance but was very, very good at it. Eye's locked they got into the music letting it control their bodies. The passionate intensity that they emitted was so extreme and their movements were so graceful that everyone had stopped dancing to watch Lina and Zel. Neither Zelgadis nor Lina noticed this; they were so wrapped in the music and the dance that they were oblivious to their surroundings. Twists, turns, dips, and steps Lina and Zel swirled around the dance floor like professionals. As the music came to its climax they ended their dance with a jerked movement, in each other's arms staring each other in the eyes, faces very close to each other. And to top it off, Zelgadis even had a long stem, thorn less, red rose in his mouth. Everyone cheered and clapped and Lina and Zel blushed many shades of red. They laughed it off and snuck off to a place were they could be alone.
"Holy, I can't believe we did that!"
"I guess we got a little carried away didn't we?"
"Oh yeah. And what's with you and the rose?" She said playfully teasing him.
Zelgadis blushed as he stared at the rose in his hands. Without saying a word he places the rose behind Lina's ear. Lina blushed redder than Zel.
"A present from me to you. Anyway I'm going to go. I'll see you latter?"
"Uh, sure."
After Zelgadis left Lina went and got some food. Lina had decided to not dance for a while and after she finished eating went outside to the deserted balcony. She trailed the contours of the rose in her hands with her finger. Lina had a dreamy smile on her face, thinking back to how she got her little present. Well Zel you just made my night. Then Lina took a closer look at the rose. At first glance it looked like an everyday ordinary rose, but to a mage of Lina's experience the rose is not a rose at all. What the? An illusion spell? What would someone hide and make it appear as a rose? Well she decided to find out and with a little magic help broke the illusion. The rose changed form and shrunk until it was a very small and beautiful ring.
"It's an engagement ring."
Lina turned her back to see Zelgadis appear from the shadows. Zel closed his eyes, took a deep breath and opened his mouth to say something but Lina who had flung herself at him and wrapped her arms around him in a passionate kiss interrupted him. This stunned Zelgadis for a moment, but then he kissed her back intensiving the kiss. It got to the point that they were both out of air, so they broke it off.
"I'll take that as a 'yes' then?"
"Of course Zelgadis Greywers! Why would I say no? I love you."
Though Lina had already said yes he was still shocked at what she said. She loves me. Oh the gods how I love her.
"I love you too."
"Well you want the honors?" Lina held the ring towards Zel. He picked ring up with his hands with a very happy expression on his face. He lifted her hand gently and placed the ring on her finger. Their eyes met and their lips found each other as they kissed again very deeply. Totally oblivious to the world, Lina and Zel didn't notice a pair of eyes watching from the shadows...