DISCALIMER: I do not own the Slayers... And now Mr. Joan is dead... what no tears?
And now, the adorable conclusion! I've really enjoyed writing this for you, and I've enjoyed reading all of your reviews.
Thank you,
- Nicci
Special Thanks To:
Story Weaver1: Well thats what I do with high heels anyway! -x- grins -x- Thanks for all your reviews, and Mr. Joane is beyond dead, but here's a commemorative R.P. Setibus plushy for you! Take good care of it!
raywing: You so get me! Hee! I hope you enjoy it, and here's a R.P. Setibus plushy for you too, treat him with love, Phil style! (n-)
Thanks so much both of you! (n-)
- Nicci
Chapter Twenty-One
Perfect Love…
In Saillune, far from the screams of a particularly evil dragon, wedding bells chimed and the citizens of the white magic capital let out a cheerful cry as the doors of the chapel burst open into the afternoon sun.
Amelia giggled cheerfully, latching onto a blushing Zelgadiss' arm as they stepped down the walk.
Lina smiled happily, her and Gourry following behind, he quite pleased with himself.
Then they were assaulted by a blizzard of rice.
Lina growled her irritation, waving it away and fighting her way onward down the walk.
Her rage overwhelming the desire to eat her way out.
"Okay! Okay!" Amelia spoke up worriedly as Lina began to grow redder and more irate. "It's time for the reception! Everyone knows where we're going right?"
"Right!" Her people cried and she grinned cheerily.
"Then!" She declared merrily, raising a finger in the air. "On your marks! Get set! GO!!!"
O O O
"I have to say, Amelia..." Lina mumbled through a mouthful of snow cone. "You sure know how to party. Turning all of Saillune into a carnival was a great idea! Now all the food in Saillune is on the house!"
"Erm hm!" Gourry agreed, taking a big bite of pretzel and eying Lina's cotton candy eagerly. "Hey, Lina! Are you gonna eat that?"
"Well of course I'm going to eat it, Gourry!" She replied smartly, taking a bite of that along with her snow cone. Huh, not bad... "I ordered it, didn't I?"
Gourry looked thoughtful a moment and then leaned over and kissed her sound on the mouth, causing her to flush bright red in embarrassed horror.
The swordsman grinned, and snatched the cotton candy from her with ease.
Lina stared in slack-jawed, scarlet-faced horror. "You... you..."
"FIREBALL!!!" She cried in frustration, toasting the cotton candy along with her husband. Not that she cared, no she didn't even notice as she pulled off her heel and began to beat him mercilessly with it. "YOU... DO... NOT... KISS... AND... STEAL...EVER! GOT IT!!!"
"Yeah..." Gourry spoke up weakly. "Got it..."
Lina sighed, putting her shoe back on. "Good. Now then..."
He felt the heat rise off her before he even had a chance to pull his lips from her cheek.
"Wait! Lina!" He protested, holding his hands up. "I was just kissing and making up! Ahh!!!"
"FIREBALL! FIREBALL! FIRE... BALL!!!"
Amelia and Zelgadiss watched with bemused smiles as Lina chased him around the square.
"Makes you worry about how the honey moon is going to go." Zelgadiss quipped, before he could catch himself.
Both flushed red and quickly turned back to watching Lina and Gourry.
A drunken Naga walked in front of their view, hanging off the arm of and equally drunken Mr. Borden.
"Oh... ho..." Naga hiccupped. "I haven't been too short for a rollercoaster since I was four..."
"Yeahs well..." Borden slurred leading her around the corner. "My boys went on the Tea Cups, and now... hiccup... they are way out of action, if you get my drift...so if you'd like accompany me honey... "
"Oh-ho-ho-ho!" She laughed and he grinned as they disappeared down the alley.
Amelia and Zelgadiss looked at each other with a sweatdrop.
Amelia winced donning a nervous smile. "Was it just me, or did those two look pretty familiar? Especially that scary looking woman."
"So this is what you and Miss Lina planned for the reception!" A cheery voice cut in before Zelgadiss could answer. "Bravo, Miss Amelia! You found something for everyone!"
Amelia beamed shyly. "Thanks Mr. Xelloss, it was nothing..."
"Filia's off on the edge of town." Zelgadiss cut in, giving the mazoku a knowing look. "That is what you wanted to know, isn't it?"
Xelloss sighed, shaking his head sadly. "When did I become so predictable?"
He hung his head in mock shame and then grinned, picking it back up again. "I know! I'll just have to shake things up a bit!"
And then Amelia found herself on Zelgadiss' lap… and Zelgadiss with his hand Amelia breast...
There was a split second of realization and then the princess screamed, smacking the chimera hard across the face.
"Wha!" Zelgadiss replied with a start, pushing her off his lap quickly... and onto the ground.
"Ow!" Amelia cried rubbing her bottom and Zelgadiss popped up in horror, realizing what he'd done.
"Amelia!" He cried, quickly helping her up. "Oh, Amelia! I am so sorry."
"Xelloss!" He bellowed after the tittering wind.
OOO
"Aren't you worried about the effects that this Joane's actions will have on your deal with Lina Inverse?" Dynast asked.
"No." Zelas answered smoothly. "This will just make her trust him even more when my Xelloss patches things up with his little Gold."
"I see." He murmured, taking in the sights of where they had found themselves.
"So, what are they?" Dynast asked coolly, lifting the thin metal bar.
"Bumper Cars, apparently." Zelas replied, lighting up a cigarette, and lifting the bar on hers as well. "They bump."
"Well, they don't appear to be doing so now, do they?" He asked disdainfully.
Zelas shook her head arching a brow gracefully. "As Xelloss said, apparently you drive them, and then initiate the bumping yourself."
"Xelloss..." Dynast muttered icily, lowering himself into the car, his beyond-humanly-long legs folded in, his knees sticking up far over his head. "I wonder sometimes if you didn't make his head wrong."
"Oh posh." She replied easily, despite the fact that she was having just as much trouble getting into her own car.
"So, why are we doing this again?" He asked dryly.
"Well..." Zelas explained flicking her hand to manipulate the START lever, her cigarette pressed between her lips. "Xelloss has informed me that by an embarrassing truth, the Mazoku race is inferior to the Ryuzoku in the sport of Bumper Cars."
"We wouldn't be if he hadn't been fool enough to play." Dynast countered with a cool smirk.
Zelas returned his smirk. "Yes. Well, now we are. And the way I see it, either way a Mazoku is going to win today, and that should reset the record."
"I see." Dynast murmured snidely, eying the stoplights. "Green means go, I presume?"
"Correct." Zelas replied coolly and Dynast smirked, slamming hard into her car.
"Well then." He stated casually, eying her coolly. "Dynast One; Zelas None. Xelloss must inherit his lack of skill from you."
Zelas glared at him, tossing her cigarette aside with a throaty growl as she sped towards him.
"Oh, my. You are going to regret that darling."
O O O
Filia stared at the ice cream cart, that silly woman was handing out ice cream to the passerby.
"Best in the world..." She whispered sadly, fiddling with her gloves.
How had it come to this? How had she let herself fall for him? She knew who he was, knew perhaps better than anyone.
But that's just it, wasn't it? She knew his faults, and she knew his goodness... what little of it there was...and yet...
He was a monster, who could be fool enough to fall in love with a monster?
"Me..." She whispered with a sad smile. "Me, a selfish, sad, foolish little dragon..."
She sighed, closing her eyes as she rested, willing away the pain as the gentle afternoon breeze caressed her face.
A soft and smooth gloved hand caressed her cheek and she blinked open her eyes tiredly.
"Go away." She whispered. "I don't want to speak to you, if I do, how can I forget I ever met you?"
Xelloss smiled wanly, his hand remaining where it was. "Oh! I very much doubt you could do that! I've been told I'm quite memorable!"
Filia let out a little laugh and rolled her eyes, tucking in her knees and looking away with a sad sigh. "Xelloss..."
His hand dropped to his lap and let it lie there, waiting to see what her verdict would be.
At some point on this mission, he wasn't quite sure when, he had handed over the power in their relationship to her. He wondered idly if it was too late to take it back.
Well, he never was one for waiting!
"So, Filia..." He asked causally, smoothing out a wrinkle in his cloak. "I believe I have a solution to our little problem!"
"Oh?" She asked with a worried twitch as she turned bakc to look at him. "And what is that?"
"We accept it and move on." He replied easily. "It's not like it's the first time I've betrayed you, and it certainly won't be the last. Besides, I never lie to you, so it breaks even in the end!"
"Even?" She echoed in disbelief. "So, am I too take it that you're not going to apologize?"
"No." He replied calmly. "I'm not. I don't feel sorry, and I won't lie about it just make you happy with me. I personally feel that it defies the purpose to apologize for a betrayal by adding yet another one, don't you, Filia?"
Filia starred at him darkly. "Well that's not the point, but even..."
"Also." He cut in, opening his eyes to meet hers. "Every betrayal, I've made has been because I've been ordered too. I won't apologize for that, my Mistress come before everyone, you, me, even Hellmaster. It was only her orders that let him use me! That kind of structure is the only to avoid an all out war with my kind, and I shall not change that for you. No matter how much it irritates me."
"I don't want you too!" She yelled, hopping to her feet in rage. "And I don't want you to apologize for betraying me! I want you to just own up to how you feel about me!"
She growled and lunged at him, pinning him to the grass. "I mean, Xelloss, I really like you, Gods save me but I do!"
Xelloss grinned up at her as she violently pinned his shoulders into the grass. "Why, Filia! Isn't it obvious?!"
He rolled, flipping her over and opening his eyes to gaze calmly into her shocked blue orbs. "I want you! Orders or no, I'll always want you!"
He kissed her softly and Filia felt the world around her stand still. All at once horribly imperfect and perfect at the same time…
No… in the end… It was... perfect... just perfect…
They broke away and he rolled off of her, spreading out an arm for her to sidle into.
"What do we do now, Xelloss?" She asked softly, arching her head up onto his chest to view his face.
He played with he hair gently, a grin on his face. "Well as I recall, I once said that you couldn't properly vouch for Chelsea's ice cream as you'd yet to try all the ice cream in the world! What do you say you leave Val with the help for a few more weeks and you and I take a little trip to help rectify that?"
Filia smiled softly, laying back down and sidling back into him.
She gazed up at the sky happily. "I say I'd like that, Xelloss."
"In fact, there's nothing I'd like more..."
O O O
...FIN...
O O O
-x- tear-x-
And that's the end. This was written just to be fluff, well as fluffy as I'm capable of anyway. I hope you liked it! Slayers: Blood will be debuting on October 3rd. As you can tell from the title, it's going to be a bit darker than this, in the spirit of Halloween. In fact, there's really very little comic relief at all. Still, it's going to be beautiful
Hope you join me!
- Nicci Rockdad