Author's Note: So, ladies and gentlemen, my very first fanfic! At least in English. Hope you'll like it:) R&R, but no flames, PLEASE! They make me cry!
PS: Please don't ask where it came from. I have absolutely no idea.
Disclaimer: I don't own Slayers; I basically don't own anything. I would like to own Xelloss, though. He is so cute!
Lina Inverse and the Magical Cloak
Lina walked down the staircase and into the dining hall. She immediately noticed her friends sitting around a large table in the corner. It was the same gang she always hung out with: Gourry, eating a huge pile of food as usual; Zel and Amelia, talking – probably about Justice because noone was able to talk with the princess about any other topic longer than a minute; and Xelloss, calmly sipping a cup of tea.
They had been staying at this inn for three days because of the blizzard. When Lina glimpsed through one of the windows, she could clearly see the large snowflakes whirling in the wind. Nobody knew how long it will last; probably a couple of days. And even when it finally stops, the roads will be impassable for a while. All in all they were about to waste a week here. The sorceress shuddered. She hated cold weather, especially snowing. Now that she thought about it, she hated everything cold.
"Hey Lina, over here!" Gourry shouted, waving. The others glimpsed at her when she approached the table. "Would you like some food? It's tasty!"
"No, thanks, Gourry." Dinnertime was over and as much as she would have liked to have some, her stomach was already full. No, she was here to solve another problem, one that she had had for a long time. Too long, she thought. It tortured her. She just couldn't let things go on like this any longer. Steps had to be taken.
She walked to Xelloss and stopped in front of him. "Gimme your cloak!" she ordered. As a response, she got a rather loud "Huh?" from the others. The mazoku raised an eyebrow.
"So many years, Lina-san, and you still manage to surprise me." He put his cup on the table, leaned back in his chair and looked at her. With closed eyes, of course. "May I ask what you want to do with it?"
"I'm going to sleep with it."
Zelgadis spit out his coffee. The others simply stared in astonishment, along with the confused mazoku who was now really looking at Lina with wide, fully opened eyes, and – probably for the first time in his life – couldn't say anything. He expected her to say she wanted to spit on it, or burn it, trample on it, tear it apart, feed it to the nearest animal – but sleep with it?! Why on Earth would she want to do that?! Unless… he chuckled.
"I didn't know you liked me that much" he said with a grin.
Lina stroke on the table, causing everyone to jump. "It's not that, you idiot!" she roared. "It's freezing here! And I'm fed up with lying every night in my cold, hard bed and listening to that damned blizzard because I can't sleep! Girls have desires you know!"
Xelloss raised his eyebrow again. "Desires?"
"We all understand that, Lina" said Zel. "But why his cloak?"
"Yeah" said Gourry. "You have a cloak of your own, why don't you sleep with that?"
"Because that one" Lina pointed at Xelloss' cloak "is magical!"
"Magical?" echoed Zelgadis. "Why do you think that?"
"I could clearly sense it three days ago!" Lina claimed. When the blizzard started, they ran to find an inn and just when she felt like she was about to freeze to death, Xelloss, who had appeared out of nowhere right next to her, for some reason decided to wrap her in his cloak. At that moment, when it tightened around her all by itself and began to warm her up, she immediately noticed its strong magic. Just the thing she needed now. She could barely feel her toes; that damned room didn't even have a fireplace.
"But Lina" Gourry looked confused. "Why are you so selfish? Poor Xelloss would surely be cold if you took his cloak!"
Lina and Zelgadis face-faulted but they didn't have a chance to explain things to him because Amelia freaked out as well.
"Miss Lina, I have to agree with Mr. Gourry! You already have Mr. Xelloss' talismans, now you want his clothes as well? How unjust!"
"Having you screaming about Justice inches from my ear, that's unjust" Xelloss mumbled.
Lina picked herself up from the floor and started to argue immediately. "Gods, Amelia, he is a mazoku! He can't catch cold, for Cephied's sake!"
"That's not the point, Miss Lina! You can't just deprive people of their assets like that! Don't worry Mr. Xelloss, I'll defend you in the name of Justice!" A small break. "Mr. Xelloss, where are you?"
Lina turned her head to find the priest hurrying towards the door, apparently trying to get as far away from the endless flow of positive emotions as possible. "NOOOO!! You won't sneak away!!" she yelled as she threw herself after him. As a result, she knocked him to the floor and landed on his back. "GIVE ME THAT CLOAK!!"
Xelloss stood up without effort, seemingly ignoring the girl hanging on to his neck and yelling continuously. He stopped though when he felt her trying to unclasp the cloak, which appeared to be rather difficult to do from his back, so he decided to put her down and turn around. He couldn't help but stand there amused as she fought with the clasp, both looking rather determined – Lina to unhook it, the clasp to prevent her from doing that.
She seemed to notice that she was losing the battle, at least that was what Xelloss thought when she began to pull at the cloak, thus shaking him violently. That was the moment when he finally burst into laugh.
"My, my, what a determined person you are. Or should I rather say desperate?" He chuckled and took her hands into his, thus preventing her from shaking him further. And causing her to blush, but that was not the point. "Anyway, as much as I appreciate you ripping off my clothes like that, I must ask you to stop it as it's not really nice and polite here in public." He waved around, in the direction of their apathetic companions and the other guests of the inn, who were staring at the scene, looking rather astonished. "However, we could continue this in your room, if you like. You can't imagine how much warmer a bed can be if you're sharing it with someone" he added with a charming smile.
Lina could not get her breath for a moment, her face became redder than her hair.
"You PERVERT!!" she screamed punching in his face, thus sending him to the ground again. Then she began to promptly beat the crap out of him.
"And she is indignant after she practically tried to undress him" Zelgadis remarked. "Typical Lina."
"Yeah" said Gourry, biting in a sandwich. "I'm glad I'm not the target this time. I feel kinda sorry for him though."
Amelia looked a little worried. "Mr. Zelgadis, are you sure we shouldn't stop her? I mean, she looks like she is going to kill Mr. Xelloss" she said.
Zelgadis smiled. "Kill him? All the better. And we can live happily ever after."
"But Mr. Zelgadis! How can you be so mean?!"
Meanwhile, Xelloss tried to dodge Lina's furious attacks. It seemed like he had gone a little too far this time. Too bad for Lina, she should know he was just teasing her. He didn't really care what she did to him as she couldn't harm him seriously without using magic and she wouldn't do that now that the only thing protecting them from the blizzard is the inn, which she could damage quite easily if she used a Fireball, for example. So, instead of causing him major harm as she wanted, she just provided him with a delicate meal of her strong negative emotions, quite refreshing after the shock from Amelia's positive ones. She couldn't get the cloak, and they both knew it.
Suddenly, a thought came to Xelloss' mind. Lina wanted the cloak badly, which meant she lacked a very important piece of information about it. Well, if she doesn't know, he won't tell her. He wasn't called the Mysterious Priest for nothing. A grin came to his face. Oh boy, now this was going to be fun.
"All right, all right!" he shouted, lifting his hands defensively. "Please stop Lina-san, I give up! You can have the cloak!"
The girl stopped. "I can?"
"Yeah. Just for this night, though. I have my purpose for carrying it, you know."
Lina's eyes narrowed. "And that would be what?"
Xelloss lifted his index finger to his lips. "Now, that is a secret."
Lina rolled her eyes and got off him. She was still angry with him but decided that having the cloak even for a single night was worth of letting him live. At least for now.
Xelloss stood up and dusted his clothes off, then with one single move unclasped the cloak and handed it to Lina. She looked surprised.
"How'd you do that so easily?"
Xelloss sighed. "That's-"
"No, don't say it. I know."
"Then why have you asked it?"
Lina gave him a devastating look. "Bastard."
While Xelloss stood there confused, she wrapped herself in the cloak, which tightened around her and immediately began to warm her up with its magic. "Ahhh… you better expect me not to give this back tomorrow."
Oh, I'm pretty sure you'll give it back, Xelloss thought. He smiled. He was looking forward to the extreme amount of negative energy he'll gain.
Lina made her way to the staircase, looking satisfied. Before going upstairs though, she stopped and turned back. "Oh, and Xelloss? I don't want any surprises during the night."
"Surprises?" The mazoku made an innocent face. "Like what?"
"Like you, climbing into my bed."
"Oh, don't worry" Xelloss grinned. "I promise I won't do anything like that." He watched the girl as she turned around and ran upstairs. The grin widened on his face.
Lina hadn't had a night like this in the past three days. After three days of torture, suffering and fight with the cold, she could finally sleep, wrapped in the warm, soft cloak, which seemed to use an enormous amount of magic just to provide her with the comfort she so much desired. In the morning she was just lying in the bed for another hour, enjoying it while it last. No matter what she said the previous day, she knew she couldn't keep the cloak against Xelloss' will. The mazoku never showed his true power but she was certain he could simply take it away from her anytime he wanted to.
She sighed and got up. She took off the cloak and folded it up. When she went downstairs, she was carrying it in her hand and wearing her own cloak.
The others were already in the dining hall, having breakfast. She sighed in disappointment when she saw Xelloss was with them; she had hoped he'll be busy and have no time to demand his cloak back. She stopped by the table and handed it to him.
"Here you are."
Xelloss smiled at her. "So, Lina-san, was it good to sleep with me?"
Lina's hand stopped in mid-air, still holding the cloak. Her eyes widened. "What do you mean?"
"Oh, didn't I mention it yesterday?" the mazoku scratched his head, still smiling. "I'm afraid my cloak isn't magical at all, it's simply a part of my body. So we can safely say we've slept together. I hope you enjoyed it as much as I did."
Lina was speechless, her face becoming redder and redder with any second passed. Gourry, Zel and Amelia stared at her in fear. They could guess what was coming, especially when she started to mutter words that were too familiar to them.
"…let the fools who stand before me be destroyed by the power you and I possess!"
"Lina, don't!" Zel shouted.
"DRAGON SLAVE!!" she screamed.
The huge globe of fire ate everything surrounding her, the inn, the entire town and even a part of the nearby forest. In the end, Lina was standing at the bottom of a crater and in the middle of the now relatively soft snowing, breathing heavily. She turned around, searching for the mazoku. When she couldn't find him, she became even madder.
"I'LL KILL YOU!!" she screamed. "DO YOU HEAR ME, YOU BASTARD? I'LL KILL YOU!! DON'T DARE TO COME BACK HERE AGAIN!!"
There was a weak groan below the ruins, then Amelia appeared. "M-Miss Lina? Why did you have to… destroy the inn?" Gourry and Zelgadis were also alive, currently trying to get out from below the ashes, collapsed walls etc.
Lina didn't even notice them. "I HATE YOU!!" She tightened her cloak around her, shivering as the snow started to cover her. "S-so c-c-cold…"
Xelloss appeared by her side. "Need my cloak, Lina-san?"
"DRAGON SLAVE!!"