February 14 - Valentine's Day
"Lina-san."
"Lina-san!"
"Lina-SAN!"
"LINA-SAN!"
Lina blinked and looked up from her triple scoop ice cream soda complete with whipped cream, nuts, syrup, and a cherry right into Amelia's scrutinizing face. At the edge of her vision, Lina could see Sylphiel-sempai signaling the waiter to place her and Amelia's order. There was still one more person they were waiting for.
"What is it, Amelia?"
"I've called you four times! And that's not counting how many times I tried your cell phone. What did you do? Turn it off again?" Amelia huffed, falling back into her seat across from Lina. "We were supposed to come together remember?"
The three of them, and the yet-to-come fourth, always met at this ice cream parlor adjacent to the local video game center. It was their place to hang out and gossip about things in school since none of them shared the same class. Amelia was the youngest, a first year student, who idolized Lina ever since Lina beat up some bullies in elementary school. Lina was the only second year student, Sylphiel and the fourth were both in their third and last year of high school.
"I'm sorry for being late," Filia excused breathlessly as she slid into her seat next to Lina. "Several of the new members of the pottery club got into a fight and there was clay everywhere. It took forever to clean it up. And what's worse, that piece of garbage just happened to come by when it happened!"
"Calm down, Filia, or we'll be forced to pour cold water on you," Lina snorted. If she could, Filia would probably have been breathing fire now. "And why are you still calling him a 'piece of garbage'? You gave him a Valentine chocolate didn't you?"
"Eh???" Amelia exclaimed, loud enough to cause all of the other customers to look in their direction. She lowered her voice, and looked suspiciously at Filia. "You gave him a Valentine chocolate? But I thought you said you'd never go out with him even if he was the last creature on Earth."
"Well...that is...it isn't...Lina-san!" Filia glared at the younger girl who was quite busy finishing off her ice cream soda. "You promised not to tell anyone!"
"I didn't. Or at least, I didn't tell anyone before you gave it to him. You didn't say anything about keeping quiet afterwards. How did you give it to him anyway? Xelloss must have gotten chocolate from a third of the female students at school."
"..."
"How romantic. True hate turned into true love," Amelia sighed. "I wish I had someone I wanted to give a Valentine chocolate to. Ne, Filia-sempai, how did you give it to him? Was it just the two of you? He did take it right?"
Filia hesitated. "I didn't exactly give it to him..."
The other three girls looked at her, questions being transmitted mentally from their probing eyes. They were going to hear this and there was no way Filia was going to get out of telling them.
"You see...I did manage to talk to him alone but..." The blond girl's ears were turning red and her eyes were fixed on the plastic tabletop. "..."
"What was that, Filia? I didn't quite hear you. Speak up," Lina grumbled, swallowing the last of her soda and signaling for another one.
"What happened?"
"That trash asked me if I had become like all of the other lovesick girls that had been raining him with chocolate all day. But then he figured even if I did give him one, it would probably be store-bought because the only thing I knew how to bake was pots," muttered Filia.
"And then?"
"I beaned him in the head with the chocolate I was going to give him. Serves the creep right."
Her friends sweatdropped. Oh well, at least she had managed to give him the chocolate even if it wasn't in a very touching or even normally expected way. On the other hand, Lina felt Xelloss deserved it. Filia had been up the entire night before making that chocolate.
"What about everyone else? Lina-san? Sylphiel-sempai?" Amelia asked, looking expectantly at the older girls. "Who did you give chocolate to?"
"Like you even need to ask Sylphiel." Lina dug into another ice cream soda, her fourth this afternoon. "She and Gourry have been an item since junior high school. And I bet he still doesn't get what a Valentine chocolate means. He just wolfed it down didn't he, Sylphiel?"
The soft-spoken upperclassman smiled weakly. "As long as it makes him happy, Gourry-sama does like to eat. At least he doesn't accept chocolate from anyone else."
"Gourry-sempai is really naive when it comes to romance. Does he remember to give you something back on White Day? Or does he even know that on White Day you're supposed to give a gift back to the person who gave you a chocolate to show you like them too."
"I'd be surprised if Gourry even remembers what day of the week it is," Lina muttered in between spoonfuls of the numbing sweetened and flavored crushed ice and milk.
"Ne, Lina-san. Did you give anyone a Valentine chocolate?" Amelia was right in Lina's face again. "I remember your school bag looked a bit lumpy so it had to be chocolate. You never told me you liked anyone!"
"Not so loud, Amelia!" Lina hissed, quickly pushing the younger girl back into her seat as all of the eyes turned to them again. "Just announce it to the world why don't you!"
Sylphiel looked at Lina in surprise. "You never told me you wanted to give someone a Valentine chocolate. I would have helped you make it if you had asked."
"She didn't want anyone to know," Filia smirked, ready to pay Lina back for earlier. "We both were up late trying to get the chocolate just right."
"Eh?! Filia-sempai, you know who Lina-san wanted to give it to? Tell us! Tell us!" Amelia pleaded, backed up by Sylphiel's curious nods.
"Filia, don't you dare - "
"Would it be someone by the name of Zelgadiss Graywords?"
"Xelloss?!" Lina and Filia looked behind their seat to see the purple-haired upperclassman holding a white box wrapped in pink and white ribbons. He let it dangle in front of Lina's face. "That's what it says on the box. But why do you still have it? Did Zelgadiss-san refuse it? Or have you not given it to him yet?"
"Xelloss, you creep, give that back!" she snapped, grabbing it and quickly stuffing it deep into her bookbag. Lina was blushing all the way down to the neckline of her white school blouse. Damn it, Xelloss and Filia deserved each other. "Don't you tell him anything!"
"Lina-san, you have a crush on Zelgadiss-san? The one who always appears in the district top ten guys along with Xelloss-sempai and Gourry-sempai, noted for his delicate features, pale skin, and light violet hair, that Zelgadiss-san? Why didn't you give it to him? He doesn't have a girlfriend and I think you two would go so well with each other," Amelia squealed.
"What makes you think I didn't try?" Lina muttered, stirring the melting ice cream in her soda glass. "I just couldn't work up the nerve to give it to him. Well, it isn't as if he might like me in return, probably doesn't even know I exist, so why bother."
"Lina-san, you won't know until you try! Didn't you tell me before that giving up is for losers? Even if you had a 0.00001% chance, it becomes zero if you don't believe in it. So come on, let's get ready, let's go!" Amelia was dragging Lina behind her, much to the red-head's dismay, out of the parlor and into the streets.
"Cho-Chotto! Amelia! Where do you think you're taking me!" Lina demanded, trying to free herself. "Let go! This is embarrassing."
"Valentine's Day isn't over yet, there's still time to give it to him. And you can do it where there isn't anyone else around either!" Amelia said gleefully, overjoyed with the thought of playing cupid. "You can give it to him at his home."
"WHAT??? You are out of your mind! There's no way I'm going to his home and giving it to him. I'll look like some pathetic, lovesick stalker!" She finally pulled her arm away when Amelia's grip loosened. "And where the hell is this?"
"Zelgadiss-san's home," Xelloss said softly in her ear and was rewarded with a piercing shriek and an elbow jab to the chest. Never sneak up on Lina Inverse.
"What are all of you doing here as well?" she demanded, looking over the rather large audience consisting of Xelloss, Filia, Sylphiel, Amelia, and Gourry. Where did he come from?
"Moral support. Your personal cheerleading team," Xelloss said cheerfully. "Here's the chocolate." Dropped the box which he somehow got hold of again into her hands. "Stand straight, don't slouch." Lina squeaked as Xelloss patted her rear and Filia slammed her bookbag over his head. "Go get'im."
"You can't be serious."
"Good luck, Lina-san," Amelia winked, pushing the doorbell.
"Amelia!"
But the lower classman and everyone else had skirted around the corner of the block, out of sight but not out of mind. Leaving her a nervous wreck in front of his house. Damn it, she should have gotten rid of that chocolate earlier. Or even eaten it for lunch. There was no way she could do this.
The seconds seemed like minutes. What would she say to him? Would he take it? What if he didn't? She wouldn't be able to show her face in front of him again. Heck, she just might change her name and move out of the country.
"..."
Was there even anyone home? Lina looked at the house outside of the gate surrounding it. Didn't look like there was anyone there. She breathed a sigh of relief. At least she didn't have to deal with him face to face. But what to do now? Her eyes fell on the mailslot. It might fit, Lina tried measuring the box in the slot.
"What are you doing?"
"EH??" Lina quickly stood up, the box slipping from her fingers and falling through the mailslot. And the person before her was none other than him. Gods, why didn't she leave earlier when she had the chance? "I'm just...passing by. CIAO!"
Zelgadiss blinked as Lina vanished in a cloud of dust that made an abrupt 90 degree turn at the end of the block. Now just what was she doing here? He didn't think she knew where he lived. Opening the gate, he looked at the mail that had collected in the bin under the mailslot. On all of the envelopes was a thin glossy white box tied in ribbons with an attached name card addressed to him.
Masaka. Was this some sort of joke on her part? Zelgadiss knew she was up to something today because she kept glancing furtively at him and would keep walking halfway up to him and then changing her mind and leaving. He opened the box to find a heart-shaped chocolate with the words 'Will you be my valentine?' written in red icing.
March 14 - White Day
Lina unlocked the gate to her home. Her parents were abroad again, her older sister out of town for a martial arts tournament, so she had the entire house to herself. That was good. She didn't want any of them asking why she was so depressed. White Day at school had come and gone, leaving two of the most sensational bits of news for the would-be tabloid journalists students.
One bit of news was that Gourry-sempai actually remembered White Day and had given Sylphiel, in front of the entire school mind you, a bouquet of roses. Not the traditional thing to give but Lina didn't think Sylphiel particularly cared. It was the thought that counts and all that sentimental stuff.
The second piece of news that sent the whole school a buzz was Xelloss giving Filia something. Most people didn't even know Filia had given him anything in the first place. So when he announced over the intercom during the morning public announcements that he had a pile of chocolate to give to her if she would come downstairs to the office, everyone thought it was a practical joke. Lina didn't want to be in Xelloss's shoes when Filia beat the living tar out of him for that stunt.
But Zelgadiss hadn't done anything. He didn't even act any different or acknowledged that he got the chocolate. On the other hand, she didn't even write her name on it so he couldn't have known it was from her anyway. It was just wishful thinking on her part.
With a sigh, Lina collected the letters in the bin, sorting through them as she went inside. Bills, bills, junk mail, bills, the usual. She tossed them onto the table next to the door before removing her shoes. Sylphiel and Filia were probably out on dates with their boyfriends and Amelia had received some chocolate from some of the first year boys so it wasn't likely that she'd be home either. Looked like another lonely night for her.
DING DONG
Now who could be ringing the bell now? And she had just taken off her shoes. Lina slipped into another pair and looked out of the door to the front gate. But whoever had rung the bell was gone. Or perhaps they were hiding behind the wall. There were a lot of sick perverts who liked little girls. Lina picked up a baseball bat left behind the door just for the express purpose of beating up such people.
She quietly walked up to the gate and it was only then did she notice the white fluffy stuffed teddy bear perched between two of the metal rungs. Curious but still cautious, Lina pulled the stuffed toy out and a letter fell out from where it had been wedged between the toy and the gate. Picking it up as well, she returned inside where she read it.
I'll give it to you in person next time if you do so.
Z.G.
The title Better Late Than Never was originally meant for me, because the story was late and I hadn't planned on writing it. If you hadn't guessed, this story is set in modern 20th century Japan and draws on one of the modified Western cultural aspects that Japan has. In Japan, only girls give chocolates to the people they like. Then on March 14, White Day, boys would give chocolate to the ones who gave them chocolate. (It's a capitalistic thing to make more money off of the candy.) Obviously, I've tweaked it a bit, since I don't know all of the ins and outs of that 'tradition'.