Author's notes: This another story for the thirty kisses community. This one is theme #20, the road home. Now, in this fic there's a little information that's required to know so things make a little more sense. In an interview the director of the Slayers anime, Takashi Watanabe, said that there was a Vision spell cast on Amelia's bracelets. The Inverse website and the third Slayers novel ,translated by Tokyopop, have some information on the spell. The Vision spell is a spell meant for communicating over long distances. The way it works is that it creates a projection of oneself that can speak, but a terminal is required. Usually the terminal is another sorcerer, but in this case it's the bracelets. Apparently the projections are very realistic, because when Rezo used the Vision spell in the third novel Lina only knew that it was a Vision spell because she couldn't sense him and because he said that he was somewhere else.

Disclaimer: Slayers is owned by Hajime Kanzaka and Rui Araizumi.

"And that's where they serve Seyruun's famous soft serve ice cream!" Amelia had been jubilantly pointing out sights more and more since they started traveling on the road to Seyruun. When they were on the outskirts of Seyruun she would point out things like, "That's where Daddy took me fishing!" and now that they were in the city she would point out things such as temples, or the priestess' dormitories more frequently.

Zelgadis still wasn't sure if he found it annoying or cute. He just nodded his head, like he did the other times she would point something out. Now that they were within the city, he had his hood and mask pulled up. For some reason he felt himself grinning beneath his mask. Perhaps her excitement was infectious. Well, at least no one could see it. Zelgadis Graywords, dark, mysterious, swordsman did not grin like a dope for no reason.

Zelgadis was surprised that her jubilance held out through the long trip from The Outer World back to Seyruun. She had probably been homesick and now she was glad to return. Then again, she always seemed cheerful, didn't she?

Amelia interrupted Zelgadis' thoughts to point out another sight, "And that's one of the libraries! You'll probably want to go there sometime, huh, Zelgadis-san?"

Zelgadis nodded, but found himself taking only a detached interest in the library. There was something that had been bothering him the entire trip to Seyruun…

"Zelgadis-san, when this battle's over will you come back to Seyruun with me?"

"Well, I'll think about it."

The truth was, he had thought about it. Quite a bit, in fact, but he still hadn't come up with a definite answer. He didn't know why the decision should have been that hard. Amelia was his friend, but his cure was top priority. Nevertheless, he should at least escort her safely back to Seyruun.

…That was what he thought when he started the journey to Seyruun with her, but now he didn't feel so sure. Another reason for Amelia's extreme happiness must have been that she assumed he'd decided to stay in Seyruun since he was escorting her back and he hadn't quite said otherwise anytime in their journey… He could imagine how disappointed she would be when he told her that he couldn't stay…

If he told her that he couldn't stay. He still hadn't made up his mind on it. He didn't know why Amelia would be disappointed not to have his company around. He know that he wouldn't care to have his company, but he still knew that she would be disappointed. He also knew that his cure wasn't in Seyruun, but there was part of him that actually wanted to stay regardless.

Once again Amelia interrupted his thoughts by looping her arm through his. "Come on, Zelgadis-san! We're almost there! I bet Daddy will be happy to see you."

That was when Zelgadis noticed that they were only yards away from the main palace of Seyruun. Now he would have to give a decision. A decision that he didn't have. It seemed as if his body decided to freeze in response to his indecisiveness.

Amelia noticed and her cheerfulness seemed to fade into slight worry, "Zelgadis-san, what's wrong? You're dragging."

"I just… I don't think I can stay in Seyruun. My cure isn't here, so there's no point. I've already spent a great deal of time traveling here that I could have used to search for my cure.." Zelgadis could almost sense a frown growing on her face, even though he wasn't looking at her at the moment. He quickly added, "But, then it's not like I don't want to stay…" That wasn't a lie…

Sure enough, Amelia was frowning when Zelgadis looked at her, but she quickly replaced it with another smile. It wasn't a smile of a cheerful and jubilant nature, like earlier, it seemed somehow… determined.

"That's okay, Zelgadis-san, because… A champion of Justice is always prepared!" with that said, Amelia slid her bracelet off her right wrist and held it out to him.

Zelgadis found himself dumfounded. Of all the things that he was expecting to happen, this was probably somewhere on the bottom fifty of his list with Amelia saying that she was married to Gourry and Seyruun blowing up. After a moment he was finally able to respond, "How does this solve anything?"

While Zelgadis was being dumfounded, Amelia had grabbed his wrist and placed the bracelet in his hand. "It has a Vision spell on it, so we can still talk to each other whenever we want, even if you're traveling far away. Although, I prefer talking to you in person…"

Suddenly it all made sense, "A Vision spell? That's quite useful. Why didn't you ever tell any of us about it before? I know there have been times when we had to split up that Vision spell might have been useful.."

Amelia put her hand on the back of her head and giggled nervously, "I don't really know. I guess I was kind of afraid that Lina-san might try to sell it or something if she knew about it."

Zelgadis and Amelia shared a mental image of a sparkly eyed Lina with her hands clasped squealing, "An object with a Vision spell cast on it? That's some valuable stuff, Amelia! Why don't you let your good friend, Lina, have a look at it? Hmmm?"

"Never mind, I see your point…"

Just as Lina was about to bring her chicken leg to her mouth for another bite, she sneezed.

"Augh! Grrr…" She started growling and it wasn't just because she'd sneezed on her meal…

"What's wrong, Lina?" Gourry talked surprisingly clearly through a mouthful of food.

"Someone's talking about me again! If I ever find out who… Hey, that was mine, Jellyfish brains!"

"But you were talking about something else…"

"Stealing an innocent girl's meal is unforgivable! NYAH!"

"Hey, you took more than I did!"

"Well, now that that's cleared up, I suppose I should be going now. It was good traveling with you, Amelia."

"Wait, Zelgadis-san! One more thing…"

As Zelgadis turned back to ask, "What?" he saw that Amelia was standing on her tip-toes and leaning towards him.

"A-Amelia, what are you doing?"

"I have to kiss you goodbye!" Amelia said as she started to lean in even more.

Zelgadis felt like his face was instantly ablaze. This was just too sudden… Not to mention it was broad daylight and they were surrounded by people and now it felt like all of them were staring at him! Besides that, his mask was still pulled up.

He didn't know where it came from, but in his nervousness he suddenly found himself blurting out, "A-Ah, on second thought, maybe it would be a good idea to stay for a few days. To ah… rest after traveling for so long."

Amelia quickly leaned back as a large grin spread across her face, "Okay!" Her grin was almost… impish, as if something had worked out her way.

Suddenly, she turned around and was skipping towards the palace, "Come on, Zelgadis-san!"

Zelgadis felt himself relax now that the possibility of extreme embarrassment was over. But still… he couldn't help but look at the bracelet in his hand and grin like a dope.