Shouts and short screams and much banging was heard from the apartment's small bathroom as Lina tried to bathe Miyu. The infant had somehow gotten herself covered in syrup during breakfast and Lina was futily trying to de-stickyfy her daughter with only fair to middling results. Miyu squirmed and chortled, delighted at the great game she was playing with her mother.
"Hold....Ow!!! That's my hair!!! Miyu-chan, stop wriggling, and hold still!! This is all your fault anyway," she finished in frustration. Miyu paid no attention to Lina's pleading as she was busily gnawing on the washcloth.
"Ewwwwww.....baby spit," Lina said in disgust as she pried the cloth away from Miyu's chubby fists. Miyu's chin trembled as her chew toy was taken away and she whimpered, as Lina recognised the beginnings of immiment diaster, her hands rising in appeal.
"No please don't......"
"WAHHHHH!!!!!!"
"There, now are you happy?" Lina asked. Once out of the bath, Miyu had been given her teething ring and her stuffed dog, and was happily kneading one and smashing the other down on the counter as Lina dried her off. Lina took this moment to study her daughter, now three months old, but easily as big as a infant of six. She had wondered at this, but decided that it was probably the Mazoku blood in her that caused her strange growth spurts, and odd strength.
That's just what I needed, Lina thought ruefully. Superbaby.
Miyu looked up at her mother then and blinked, stuffing one fist into her mouth and making muffled baby noises around it. As she watched, Lina realised with a pang that Miyu was beginning to show more and more of her father every day. She had been born with his eyes, violet and slit-centered, but her hair, reddish at birth, was taking on a definite purple hue, and below the pudge, her tiny chin showed signs of sharpening into a hard little point like his. Miyu was even a here nor there name, taken from the humans, but with a Mazoku meaning sealed tight inside like a half closed lily. You are a mongrel baby, she used to whisper to Miyu as she lay asleep. Half bred and half owned. "Oh well," she said to Miyu as she finished drying her off, "at least you're cute."
Miyu smiled.
So did the darkness outside the window.
Miyu lay on her back in her crib by the window, dreaming formless baby dreams, when the shadow sidled inside, closing the bedroom door carefully behind it. The big bed where Lina slept alone was ignored as it picked its way through the hidden disorder of the room with a cat's eyes. The shadow paused at the crib, and watched Miyu for a moment, then reached inside and picked her up.
The faint ghost of the moonlight pentrated Miyu's closed eyelids, and she whimpered at the unfamiliar arms that held her, not soft and sweet with milky scents like her mother's, but harder and more metallic. A male smell.
A cool finger poked her in the cheek, and she whimpered again, ready to cry for her mother if this cold thing didn't let her go back to sleep or give her food soon.
"Well, hello, hello!! You ARE cute," a voice said, sounding pleased and full. She opened her eyes and blinked twice at the strange thing that held her. It was big.
A finger lifted gracefully and tickled her chin, tracing the outline of her pudgy lips. Miyu grabbed the finger and started sucking. "Awwwww," the voice said. "Hasn't Mommy been feeding you? Do you want to go see Mommy?? I want to see Mommy."
The thing carried her over to her mother's big bed and sat down carefully, cradling Miyu on its chest. Miyu wanted her mother and whimpered, meaning to cry for Lina but the sight of the winking jewels the stranger wore calmed her, and she reached out a chubby hand to touch them. She laughed and patted them, and the big man smiled.
"Oh sheesh," a voice said, and Miyu automatically turned towards her mother's voice. Her mother got up grumbling, making the bed tremble a little, which Miyu didn't like, and marched over to the crib, unbuttoning her nightdress as she went.
"My gods, Miyu-chan, where do you keep it all?" her mother muttered as she reached inside the crib. "I just gave you TWO feedings less then a hour ago, and..........ARGHHHHHH!!!!!!"
Lina had reached into the crib, for all the world expecting to see Miyu's violet eyes looking up at her in unsatisfied hunger, and was greeted with empty arms. No Miyu. How, Lina thought in a detached way, as distant from her own body as the space between the stars, did she get out of the crib? She's too little to crawl, she can't even stand up. So maybe........and as Lina bent down to look underneath the crib, she glanced back at her own bed and saw two pairs of purple eyes staring back at her. Miyu gurgled. The other waved.
"Hi Lina-chan!" it said cheerfully. That was when she screamed.
"Nice of you to tell me about this little cutie," Xelloss said, pouting sweetly, ignoring his daughter who had decided to nibble on his hair to see how it tasted. "Were you trying to make sure she wouldn't be like her bad old dad?"
The minute it took for Xelloss to say this was the minute it took Lina to leap across the space dividing them, and start throttling him.
"YOU.........Beast!!!!!! Jerk!!!!! WHERE THE HELL HAVE YOU BEEN?? I HAD TO GIVE BIRTH ALL ALONE WITH AN UGLY OLD WOMAN WHOSE BREATH SMELLED LIKE ONIONS NEARBY CACKLING AT ME, AND I COULDN'T EVEN TAKE IT OUT ON YOU FOR KNOCKING ME UP......"
Lina paused to take a breath, and so did Xelloss, as her hands loosened temporarily.
"AND YOU NEVER CALLED, YOU NEVER WROTE, YOU DIDN'T EVEN SAY YOU WERE SORRY FOR THAT TIME, AND I HAVE BEEN WANTING TO KILL YOU FOR THE LAST YEAR NOW!!!!!!! WHAT DO YOU HAVE TO SAY FOR YOURSELF??"
"Uh......I'm back??" Xelloss gasped winsomely as his air supply was dwindling drastrically.
"There," Lina said, taking a deep, cleansing breath. "That felt good."
Lina sat there and tried to feed Miyu as Xelloss tried to explain where exactly he'd been for the past year, citing many examples of "Mazoku stuff", and "Sore wa himitsu desu," at which point Lina had tried to strangle him again. That, coupled with the fact that Xelloss was a little TOO fascinated with the whole breast-feeding thing - "I've never seen a human woman feeding a baby close up," he tried to explain, as Lina tried to dig his eyes out, made for less then conducive talks.
"Seriously, Lina-chan," he said after dodging Lina's latest murder attempt, "it was a highly secret matter among the Mazoku hierachy, and it had to do with our Lord, the last piece of Shaburanigdu. I'm afraid that's all I can tell you for now."
"Mmm.....whatever," Lina finally muttered, clutching Miyu a little closer to her. It was all well and good to say it was a secret Mazoku matter, but that didn't change the many days and nights she had spent alone while pregnant and while raising Miyu.
You're going to make up for those in spades, Mazoku, she thought, looking at Xelloss's earnest face with narrowed eyes. You left me alone in the dark.
Miyu finished, and absently chewed on a piece of Lina's hair as Lina tried to ignore the Mazoku watching them.
"Why did you go?" he asked abruptly. "I returned to the village, and everything was in ashes. I thought you were dead again. Why?"
Lina looked away. "Some...an army of Mazoku arrived at the village sometime after you left for good. They demanded the townspeople turn me over to them. I escaped. I guess they burned it when they didn't find me. I was four months pregnant and running for my life again. I thought I would die."
"Army, huh...." Xelloss said, face settling into a thoughtful expression. "So this was delibrately planned."
"You think you know?" Lina said bitterly, not ready to forgive, forget, or absolve just yet.
"Mmmmmmm, Lina-chan was it mostly Lesser Demons or was it Higher Mazoku?"
"I wasn't looking, I was busy running," she retorted, ignoring the finger of icy fear that slipped down past her throat into her belly at the tone of Xelloss's voice.
"Ahhh, well, it's an interesting puzzle, isn't it?" Xelloss smiled, cheerful once more. "Now, you better get ready.....oh dear, we don't have time for that now. We're going to be late," he said cheerfully.
Lina stared. "Late?? Late for what?" she demanded, as pearly mists drifted around them in the beginnings of a transport. She clutched Miyu closer.
"Why, to visit my master of course!" Xelloss beamed. "Don't you think she should see her grandbaby?"
"Nan......" Lina started, but the fabric of time and space was rippling like a fish and with a great tearing noise like a giant clearing its throat, or a million pieces of ice cracking all at once, they were gone.
The lone occupant of the room stirred in its chair, absently batting aside the blue smoke hovering around its head and lit another cigarette, shaking the ash off the tip. "What the hell is taking so long?" the figure finally mumbled to itself. "Maybe the kid got sick, or maybe something went wrong. Nah, Xel never screws up. He just screws." Morosely chuckling to herself at that jibe, the figure rose and poured itself another drink from the capacious decantur near the fire. Swigging down the amber colored liquid, she paused and cocked a finely pointed ear towards the front door. It listened for a moment, then giggled softly. "Bout time."
The door swung open and Xelloss walked inside, beaming and dripping with water from the moat. "Hallo, I'm home!" he announced. "I brought a present."
The figure looked towards the door, where a young redhaired girl was scowling around the doorjamb. Her eyes glinted with either anger or alchohol, and the woman was quite certain that if the girl's fiery hair had not been bound in a tight braid, it would have thrown off sparks. She suspected that the braid was Xel's contribution to the evening, for although the girl was in pajamas, her face was rosily scrubbed, and her hair neatened.
"You can come in, Lina-chan!!" Xel sang. "No need to be shy, we're all family here aren't we??"
He bustled over to the door, and all but dragged the girl through it, promenading her over to the fireplace. "Look, isn't she pretty?"
The woman studied the girl carefully. The girl did the same in return.
"You're the all great and powerful Beastmaster, Mazoku Lord extrordinare??" the girl said in tones of disapproval.
"Umm,.....yeah," Beastmaster said in response.
"But you're DRUNK," the girl said in great disgust and a little disbelief.
Beastmaster shrugged. "On days like this, it's prefeb..preferba...nicer to be like this."
"Stewed out of your mind??
"When you get to be as old as I am, it's a blessing."
The Lina-girl turned towards Xel. "You said she was expecting us."
Xel grinned, and rubbed the back of his head. "She was.....just not today!!"
BONK
"Linaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa............chann!!!!!!" Xel whined. Then he reverted to normal, or what passed for normal within his brain. "Come on, let's leave Mother to her glass," he said in businesslike tones. "Besides, I have something to show you."
"But......Mi....."
"Come along dearest," he said placidly, taking her arm. "No time to waste."
They vanished.
Beastmaster stretched half-heartedly, and shook off the last vestiges of her performance. Then she tiptoed over to the basket that had been left alone on the table by the couch.
"Hi there," she said softly, picking the baby up, and cradling her in her arms, invoking the time a small familiar warmth had lain just so against her breasts.
"Your mommy seems nice, if a little uptight, but I guess that's not her fault," she crooned to the infant, rocking her back and forth gently. "Your daddy's been away for so long, and she's had to do without, but it'll be okay. You're so cute and little, like your daddy was when he was a baby. I'll make sure you grow up right this time."
When Xelloss was a baby...
His mother had exclaimed over his tiny pink fingers, counted his ten perfect toes, then raised him to be a killing machine.
Oh, he was read stories, and cuddled and held and kissed like any other little boy, and his mother loved him unlike anything else she had ever known, but Xelloss had been born for several reasons and love was just one of many.
Xelas Metallium was neither a joke or a mystery among her brethen, but something inbetween and half-known, regarded as an eccentric who did absolutely nothing to further the great Mazoku cause, who ran around her island with her wolves and preferred to be left alone. Oh, she wasn't insane like Dolphin had eventually shown herself to be, but she laughed in the face of her siblings, openly taunted Dynast and Phibrizo, and ignored all summons from the others. She was the last of the Lords to be found, and when she had stood in their midst that first time, a tiny, weak child underneath a ridiculous mass of dark gold hair, she had been laughed and cuffed out of their realm. She had run to the HUMANS, they sneered, and not just any human but their mortal enemy, the Knight of Ceiphied. When Xelas had reappeared out of nowhere as she had a habit of doing, holding her five year old son on her hip, both mother and child had been driven away.
Then came the Great War.
Phibrizo's General and Priest were both slaughtered by Dragons, their master suffering an even more incredible defeat, and never once after that battle was he to be seen as anything but a child.
Garv lost to the Water Dragon King, and was reincarnated as a Mazoku with the soul of a human. He went back to wandering, his great sword slung over his back, his heavy face set back more deeply, his laughter even louder, as if mocking himself for the thing he had allowed himself to become.
Deep Sea Dolphin appeared once, a faint shimmering outline, and promptly vanished after that, accomplishing absolutely nothing.
Dynast's General was killed, and he retreated to his base, his mind closed and bitter.
And Xelloss Metallium, just twelve years old, smiled, lifted a finger, and nearly destroyed an entire race.
He would have continued had his mother not called him off, but it was enough.
The Lords saw and were afraid. The weapon Xelas had been keeping in her midst had been born and raised in a fury of love and revenge, and they had nothing to compare with it. Xelas was strong. Xelas had taught the boy everything she had known, and a bit more. Xelas had powers she wasn't telling.
And the boy grew up to be a trickster, a smiling, jovial young man, and his mother would worry that it had been too much. Her boy, her servant, her Priest and General brought into one, loved her and obeyed her.
And his mother forever wondered what exactly lurked at the bottom of his heart.
"Here, Lina-chan," Xelloss said, ushering her into a room. "I want you to see my private domain."
Lina frowned as the door closed behind her. "This is a room?"
"More like a private dimension, but yes, it serves admirably as a room, doesn't it?" Xelloss laughed, his eyes brightening.
Lina looked around. The place looked more like a carefully tended antique shop, with various trinkets and odd things strew about on neat pedestals, lots of diffuse lighting, and a large bed taking up one corner of the room. Lina looked about, then sank into a large pile of dusty brocade cushions near the door.
Xelloss tsked. "Those are fourth century, maybe you shouldn't....ahh, nevermind."
"So," Lina said stonily, fingers tracing a macabre rune on the floor underneath. "Tell me why you brought me here."
Xelloss smiled. "Why, Lina-chan, isn't it obvious? I thought you could use a vacation from having to watch the baby all the time. My master could look after her, and we...." he scooted closer "could have some private time together."
Lina stared at him, then snorted a bitter laugh. "You never quit, do you?"
"But Lina-chan!" Xelloss pouted adorably, "it's been a _year_."
"So? If I lasted that long, I can last a lot longer."
Xelloss chuckled. "My stubborn wench."
Lina shot him a glare for the wench comment, then went back to ignoring him, wondering exactly what Beastmaster was doing to her daughter out there. She started to feel the beginnings of nervous agitation, and rose. "I should really...."
"No, stay," Xelloss said, pushing her back down into the cushions.
"Let me up!" Lina commanded, fighting the sudden sharp longing for her baby and her apartment. Xelloss held her firmly. "Let me up!!" she demanded, then sagged defeated into the cushions. "I wish you had never come back," she finally mumbled. "You make my life too complicated."
"What was that?" Xelloss asked, lifting her chin so her eyes could look into his. "You never liked being with me, never liked the way I made you feel, never welcomed the end of the loneliness that came when we were together?"
"No!!" Lina snapped. "You were always leaving, and then you left, and you never came back, and it was just me. I was pregnant with a half Mazoku bastard, and you left me and I never saw you again to this day."
"Lina-chan, I didn't want to leave."
Lina twisted out of his grip, and turned away. "That's what you say now, but when will the disappearences start again? Maybe it's best that Miyu doesn't know her father. Better she doesn't then have her sitting around waiting for a ghost that'll never reappear."
"Miyu means wanderer in human, and it also means dark treasure in Mazoku. You choose your names well, Lina-chan."
"Miyu's just a nickname," she mumbled. "I named her Miriya Tsukino."
"Moon Princess in human....well you did always want to marry a prince," he said, laughing. "Continuing your family tradition?? First came Luna, then Celina came from Selene. And now Tsukino Miriya. My Miyu-chan."
"Miriya Tsukino is too long for a baby anyway," Lina finally muttered, but she began to smile a little.
Xelloss leaned back casually, lacing his fingers behind his head, emboldened by the smile. "So, Lina-chan," he finally drawled, "what are your plans for the future?"
Lina looked startled for a moment. "Stay where I am, I suppose. Let Miyu grow up and have some friends. I don't know what else."
"So, you plan to stay in that apartment all the time?? How will you get money? Not planning to work, are you? Then again, I can't really picture you working like any other human drudge."
"There's always bandits!!" Lina snapped.
He held up a chiding hand. "I'm not even going to get into the new "police" forces that have begun to control roadway crime. The world's getting crowded Lina-chan. You can barely throw a decent fireball without hitting five or so humans nearby. You're talking of a life that's already passed you by."
Lina opened her mouth to make an angry retort, then fell silent. Excuses ran through her mind like water through a sieve; she could not catch any of them long enough to speak. Xelloss watched placidly from his midair pearch, outwardly a little bored. She glanced up at him, trickster and goad.
"Miyu," Xelloss said languidly, so softly the name might have been a small insect pausing for one instant by Lina's ear. "What about Miyu?"
"What about Miyu?" Lina said dully, the fire having gone out of her argument. I just want to go home, she thought. Not sit here and have him badger me with more unpleasentness. If I wanted that I could have gone to crabby old Mistress Gurdy and listened to her blather on about the wrongs young people did these days. Lina, being unmarried and with child, and looking for all the world a dainty eighteen years old, was one of the old bat's favorite victims.
Xelloss tilted his head down at Lina and one eye slid open challengingly. "Will you tell her?" he continued in the same drowsy tone of voice.
"Tell her what?"
Xelloss rolled his open eye. "That she's not quite....human, of course."
Lina stared. "I had...hadn't thought about it yet."
"When then?? When the other mothers realise her lovely violet eyes hide the slit pupils of a Mazoku?? That she grows much faster and learns much more quickly then the other children who are the age she looks? Not to mention her powers levels will be so high..."
"ENOUGH!!" Lina screamed. Startled, Xelloss opened both eyes just in time to see Lina's open palm slap him across the face, and then her rapidly retreating form as she ran for the door.
Lina tugged at the knob, meaning to make it turn, but hot tears blinded her and her hands fumbled uselessly at the cold metal. She gave up after a few frantic minutes and collapsed limply on the floor, crying.
"Shhh....." Hands picked her up and a voice spoke to her gently, soberly. She felt herself placed in a great rustling pile of brocade and sneezed half-heartedly from the smell of dust within as she wriggled in the tight embrace and sobbed, "See, this is what I meant.."
"I didn't want to make you cry," Xelloss crooned near her ear. "You have to think of these things Lina-chan."
"Why don't you think of them?" she accused, her eyes swollen and tight feeling from crying.
"I'll think of them if you'll let me stay with you," he whispered, his arms tightening around her.
Annoyed, Lina tried to push him away. "This is your solution to everything," she muttered. "Screw, screw screw."
"Ne, Lina-chan," he murmured, nibbling her ear. "Maybe we both need to let loose some frustrations..."
Lina continued trying to push him away, but he held on even tighter. "You suck."
"Whatever you want darling," he whispered, and Lina smacked him. "That was bad."
"Maybe so," he agreed, turning to her and opening his eyes. "Lina-chan, are you willing to take up house again?"
"I have a house," she said, puzzled.
"No, I meant here. Live here. Mother would be perfectly willing to watch Miyu-chan when she's not running wild with her wolves."
"HERE??" she yelped. "With a Dark Lord?? Doesn't that go against everything I've ever stood for?"
"You mean you stood for something other then violence, destruction and hair trigger temperments everywhere? Mother has all that and more," he said cutely, and received the beating of a lifetime for his ill-timed remarks.
"Ouchie...." he whined, rubbing his head. "Lina-chan, you're mean!!"
His whining stopped as Lina came towards him, her blouse slipping from her shoulders, her heavy hair lying in the fabric's place. Straddling him expertly, she reached down and silenced his complaints with a kiss.
Several minutes later they came up for air.
"Don't tell anyone we're doing this," she murmured, undoing his pants as his head nestled contently at her breasts. "It'll ruin what's left of my reputation."
"Pretty!!" Xelas said, as Miyu watched the colored lights floating in the air with awe. The infant was propped up in the crook of Beastmaster's arms, entranced by the lively parade of dancing lights Xelas had conjured up for her amusement. Cooing, she reached a tiny hand to touch one that floated tantalisingly near her face, and whimpered with frustration when her hand went through it. Recognising imminant danger, Beastmaster quickly made a few subtle gestures, and the lights became solid, allowing Miyu to catch one. Making muffled noises, Miyu began to examine the lovely glimmering bauble she now held as Xelas watched her, gently stroking the tufty reddish hair on the baby's head. A shuffle and scrape nearby made her look up expectantly, her eyes intent.
Xel-kun and Lina-chan staggered through the door, their cheeks flushed and eyes bright as Xelas studied them absently. Champagne afterglow? she mused, and her nostrils twitched, catching the fine musk in the air. Nope, she concluded.
"So," she said absently, her attention on the baby. "Reach an understanding?"
"Oh yes," Xelloss said brightly. "Lina-chan and Miyu-chan will stay here."
Miyu finally realised her mother was in the room and released the light. "Buh!" she said, arms reaching imploringly to her mother. Lina practically ran over to her daughter and scooped her up, cuddling her close. "Hey there, hey," she said smiling, as she unfastened her blouse to give Miyu her long overdue 4 am feeding. Lina sat down in a chair and turned her attention to her daughter while Xelas and Xelloss held a whispered conversation near the fireplace.
"So, she'll stay here for good then?" Xelas asked. Xelloss nodded. "But!" he said, lifting a cautionary finger, "you'll have to cut back on your filthy habit."
Xelas clutched her chest. "Gave up my cigarettes??" she whimpered brokenly. "That's almost too much to ask, even for Miyu-chan."
"Now, now!!" Xelloss scolded. "Be strong. We have both Lina-chan and Miyu-chan, what more could we want??"
"Lei-sama?" she asked hopefully.
Xelloss shook his head, grinning. "Maybe when the Armageddon comes again. For now, we'll just have to settle for Lina-chan. At least Luna-sama will be happy since we can keep an eye on Lina-chan."
Xelas nodded. "Yeah, she'll be relieved."
Xelas stretched and Xelloss yawned, both glancing at the chair where Miyu and Lina huddled together, now fast asleep. Xelloss smiled and slipped over to where Lina and his daughter both dreamt, most likely of food, while Xelas stood by the fire for a few more moments, basking in its warmth, and drained the last of her sherry, casting aside the empty glass. She started to walk over to where Xelloss and Lina were, meaning to join them when the door chime rang.
Xelloss glanced up, startled. Lina and Miyu never stirred. Xelas tiptoed over to the heavy ironwood doors, peeked through the peephole, undid the thirty-seven locks, and eased it open.
"Yes??" Xelas asked, peering cautiously around the doorjamb.
Beyond the doorway stood a stiffly formal Lesser Mazoku, the type of dully placid messanger favored by Dynast Grausherra, Lord of the North Pole. "Juuou-sama," it said, perfectly mannered. "His Excellancy, Dynast Grausherra-sama wishes all to learn of the mysterious death of his General Sherra..."
Xelas looked back and made saucer eyes at Xelloss, who simply shrugged.
".....and his Excellancy wishes to know another information held by you in regards to this mysterious slaying...."
Xelloss yawned.
The servant focused on Beastmaster's frantically gesturing form. "Do you know anything Juuou-sama??"
Xelloss smirked at his mother, and Xelas smiled back, a tightly knowing look.
"DO you KNOW anything madam??"
"Sore wa.......himitsu desu," Xelas purred, winked, then slammed the door in the almost startled servant's face and turned all the locks at once.
"Well," Xelloss said mildly, eyes closed, "maybe that will teach Dynast-sama and his bitch of a General to keep their hands off what's mine from now on."
"Wicked boy."
Xelloss smiled, caressing Lina's cheek as Xelas laughed and joined her family in the chair.