PurplePixie: ^_^ Heyo, heyo! Ky-chan is back for more tormenting of the Slayers cast! (Which I don't own...) This story just so happened to pop into my head when I was daydreaming about a hamburger (Mmm...hamburger *drool*). O.O Weird thoughts can be created when you're really hungry...

~*Life's an Open Restaurant*~

"What a beautiful day!"

Amelia lied down on the soft green grass while everyone took a break before continuing their journey to town. The justice-loving princess gazed at the puffy white clouds that drifted in the sky. Suddenly, a thought came to her. She rolled onto her tummy and faced her friends.

"Hey, you know what?" Amelia smiled as she looked at the trope. Surprisingly, no one was causing any trouble. Lina was trying to catch fish in a nearby stream, Gourry was with her, Filia was drinking tea, Xellos was in a tree (and not bothering anyone? Wow...something's up), and Zelgadis was leaning on a tree that was FAAAAAAR away from Xellos. "Life is kind of like the clouds."

"What was that, Amelia?" Lina turned to face Amelia questioningly, having missed what she was saying.

"Life is like the clouds," Amelia began to explain, turning back to the sky. "Everyone takes a different form, and you never know which way the wind is blowing you."

"Hey, you're right, Miss Amelia," Filia too glanced up at the sky.

"Yeah, Amelia," Xellos's voice came from his tree. "Now, if only you'd say 'Life is like the clouds' instead of 'Life is wonderful', we'd ALL be happy."

"Clouds?" Gourry looked up at the floating clouds. "OooH! I see one that looks like an evil, scary monster! Does that mean that someone in the world is a monster?"

"No! Gourry! Of course--!" Amelia turned back to the group and saw Filia and Zelgadis both pointing at Xellos. Amelia sweatdropped. "-not...-_- ; *sigh* Well, Mister Zelgadis? What do YOU think life is like?"

"Me?"

"Yeah! What do you think life is like?"

"Come on, Zel," Lina turned to the chimera. "Tell us what you think life is. And if better not have anything to do with your cure or Rezo!!

"I don't want to think about life, right now. =_="

"Please, Mister ZelgaDIIIIIIIIIIIS??" *insert puppy-dog eyes here*

Zelgadis sweatdropped as he glanced at the huge-eyed Amelia. "Fine. Uh...life is like *thinks* Uh...life is like a river."

"Ooooh! And why is that, Mister Zelgadis?" Amelia sat attentive, facing Zelgadis.

"Because," Zelgadis said. "It always either dries up and dies or changes into a waterfall. Both very bad choices..."

"Mister Zelgadis!" Amelia whined. "Can't you think of something more- more happy and encouraging?"

"Hey, you just told me to say something that didn't have to do with my cure or Rezo," Zelgadis smirked. "You didn't say anything about happiness or encouragement."

"Oh, Mister Zelgadis..." Amelia sighed. "I wish you weren't always full of gloomy and depressing thoughts."

"I was...but that was BEFORE Rezo came into my life," Zegadis was suddenly surrounded by a bluish battle aura. He shook his fist in the air. "DAMN YOU, REZO!!! DAMN YOU!!!!!!!!!!"

The whole group just sweatdropped.

"But..." Gourry scratched his head in a dumbfounded manner. "I don't get it. What if someone comes and DRINKS the whole river??"

"..." Zelgadis turned to his tree and started banging his head against the tough wood. "I'm *bang* surrounded *bang* by *bang* IDIOTS *bang*"

"Uh..." Filia swatted the sweatdrop away from her head. "^_^ You wanna know what I think life is like?"

"A life of bashing innocent people, Fi-chan?" Xellos glanced down at the dragon priestess. "Or maybe you worship Mace-sama or that Fire Dragon King of yours for so long that you don't HAVE a life." ^_^

Filia twitched but continued to ignore the grinning beast priest. "I think life is like a flower."

"That wilts at the sight of you, Fi-fi??"

"*twitch, twitch* NO! A flower! As one grows older, their life, as well as themselves, grow and develop into a beautiful flower!!!"

"Oooh...Then what happened to you?" ^_^

"SHUTUP, YOU ANNOYING NAMAGOMI!!!" *insert chase scene here*

"-_-; *sigh* So, immature..." Lina turned back to her fishing.

"Uh...Lina?" Gourry asked. "I think Filia's wrong, too. I mean, flowers are supposed to grow PRETTIER as they get older, right?"

"Yeah...Why?" Lina glanced at the dumb blonde.

` "Well...as YOU grow older YOU don't grow prettier. In fact, I don't think you GROW at all!" ^_^ Gourry smiled, thinking he had pointed out something very important. "Especially in some 'certain' area..."

"GOURRY!!!!!" Lina, having totally forgotten about fishing, simply leaped at Gourry and pulled him into a headlock...but she did that AFTER she fireballed, punched, kicked, and beaten him into a pulp. "WHY DO YOU HAVE TO BE SO DUMB!? DON'T YOU EVER LEARN NOT TO SAY ANY THING INSULTING?!! TO ME, OF ALL PEOPLE?!!! GOURRY NO BAKA!!!"

"AAAAAAH!! LINA, I'M SORRY!! I WAS JUST MAKING A POINT!!"

"YEAH! YOU MADE A POINT, ALL RIGHT!! THAT YOU DEFINITELY CAN'T MAKE A COMPARISON WITH LIFE!!!!"

Needless to say, the whole group sweatdropped.

"And she says that Miss Filia and Mister Xellos are immature..." -_- Amelia sighed.

Lina suddenly (and fortunately for Gourry) stopped raging at the swordsman, and glared at Amelia. "=.= What did you say???"

"^^; Uh, NOTHING MISS LINA!!" Amelia chuckled nervously. "I was just saying that we should really get going to that town. We're all done resting."

"That's what I thought," Lina stood up and dusted herself off. "Well, lets get going. I couldn't catch any fish and I'm HUNGRY!!" And with that said, the sorceress raced toward the direction of the town closest by.

"Miss Lina!! Wait for US!!"

~*At a restaurant in Random Town*~

"FOOOOD!!!!"

Lina and Gourry dove into the giant pile of food that they had ordered. Even Amelia joined in the fight for food. Xellos and Fila were both sipping tea far apart from each other, and Zelgadis was quietly drinking his coffee, trying his best to pretend that he didn't know who the hungry, savage, wolves (I'll give you 3 guesses: Lina, Gourry, and Amelia. ^_^ Hehe...) at the table were. Yup, it was the regular lunch routine. Or at least it was, until Gourry picked up a sandwich.

Gourry was about to take a bite of his sandwich, when a thought hit him. He sat there for a while, a thoughtful expression on his face. He was SO deep in thought that he didn't even notice that Lina was stealing his food. That's when the group realized that Gourry was doing something very un-Gourry-like.

"Gourry?" Lina sounded a bit concerned for her companion, whom NEVER let food get out of biting range. "Are you feeling okay?"

"Huh? Oh!" Gourry snapped out of his little trance and smiled at Lina. "^_^ Yeah, I'm fine. I was just thinking."

"OH MY GODS!!!" Amelia shouted in amazement. "He THOUGHT of something!"

"THE WORLD IS COMING TO AN END!!!" Filia wailed as actual tears ran down her cheeks.

"^_^ Yay!" Was all that Xellos said.

"O.O Y-You were THINKING?" Lina was astounded.

"Yeah. ^_^"

"...Who are you and what have you done to the REAL GOURRY!!!?"

"Uh, Lina, I'm right here!" Gourry waved at Lina. "I just thought of something to compare life to!"

"Uh...okay," Lina blinked at Gourry. "And that would be??"

"An open restaurant!"

Everyone facefaulted. Lina was the first to recover.

"What?!"

"A restaurant! ^_^" Gourry smiled at his friends. "Everyone wants to find a special friend, right? Well, falling in love is like walking into an open restaurant."

"And how is it like an open restaurant, Mister Gourry?" Amelia asked.

"Because!" Gourry cleared his throat and began to explain. "In life, you'd go around to try and find that special someone. It's just like ordering food at a restaurant! You want your meal to be just PERFECT! ^_^"

For once in a lifetime...Lina didn't understand what Gourry was talking about. Lina just stared at Gourry, waiting for more of the explanation.

"Okay, take this sandwich, for instance," Gourry pointed to the sandwich in his hand. "It's kind of like the special friend that you're looking for in life. Sometimes you like to add things on a sandwich, just like you'd like to add things to a person. Sometimes you'd like a person to be more pretty or handsome. It's just the same as adding cheese or a tomato to your sandwich. Sometimes you wish a person wouldn't be so mean or not be so grumpy. In that case, you'd be taking OUT something, like pickles or mustard."

"That kind of makes sense...I guess," Filia just blinked for a while, thinking about what the Brainless Wonder just said.

"It's just like how YOU wish that Xellos wouldn't be so annoying and not tease you so much," Gourry pointed out. "It'll be like taking something OUT from the sandwich. And Amelia wishes that Zelgadis would be happier and have more cheer. She's ADDING to the sandwich. And Lina...she wishes I was smarter. Again, adding to the sandwich."

Lina noticed a bit of sadness in Gourry's last statement, and felt a bit guilty for all the name-calling she had done.

"Wow, you know what?" Zelgadis pondered over the thought a little while longer. "That actually made sense. Congratulations, Gourry. You have made a comparison to life."

"Harrah!" Xellos said cheerfully. ^_^

"^_^ That was a very good statement, Mister Gourry!" Amelia smiled approvingly at Gourry. "It's your first step to getting smarter! A little more practice and you'll be super smart!!"

"Gee, thanks, Amelia! ^_^" Gourry returned the smile until a question popped into his head. "Amelia? What were we talking about again?"

And so the facefaulting began, yet again.

"It was too good to be true..." Amelia sighed and went back to eating at full speed.

"HEY!" Gourry shouted. "That was mine!!"

Once again, everything went back to normal. Lina, Gourry, and Amelia were engaged in another fight for food. Xellos and Fila were both sipping tea far apart from each other, and Zelgadis was quietly drinking his coffee, trying his best to pretend that he didn't know who the hungry, savage, wolves at the table were. Yup, everything was back to the way things should be. That is, it WAS until LINA picked up a sandwich.

Lina stared at the sandwich. She then gazed up at Gourry, whom was stuffing his mouth with food. Spotting Lina, Gourry paused his mouth- stuffing to give Lina a bright smile. Then he went back to eating. Lina smiled and turned back to her sandwich. She looked at her sandwich for a while longer. Another happy smile crossed her lips and she took a big bite from her sandwich. Who says I want to add anything to my sandwich? Lina thought to herself as she chewed and swallowed. I like my sandwich just the way it is...

~*~*~*~*~*~*~

PurpleP: ^_^ So? Did you like it? Does it give you a craving for a sandwich? *silence* Well, it gives ME one! So while I go make a sandwich, please review and tell me what you think! Arigatou, minna-san! Ja ne, for now! *waves*