I spent a six hour trip writing this! What a productive use of my time. XD
"XELLOSS!!!! I SAID GET OUT!!!!" The mazoku dodged the well aimed vase. "But Filly" he said grinning "I thought you loved me." Filia Ul Copt glowered at her supposed demon lover. "You thought wrong" she hissed venomously. "Now beat it before my entire collection finds itself imbedded in your pretty head." "You think I'm pretty!!" he said joyously. Filia gave an unearthly shriek and barreled towards Xelloss with the biggest mace ever seen in this world. Xelloss gave a loud laugh before vanishing.
"Mama?" a boy's voice asked. Filia turned towards the stairs where an aqua haired boy stood sleepily rubbing his eyes. "I'm sorry Val" she cooed to her adoptive son "did we wake you up?" The 4 year old dragon nodded. "Why are you so mean to Daddy?" he asked. His mother growled. "He asked for it."
"But he protects us Mama and he's always there for us." her son insisted. Filia chewed her lip. "He's only doing it for himself" she finally blurted. Val didn't think that made a whole lot of sense. "But a blind man could tell Daddy loves you" he said matter-of-factly. Filia resisted the urge to massage her temples. Child logic, there was just no way around it. She decided to change the subject.
"You want some pancakes?" she asked "I'll make them chocolate chip." No child could resist the lure of chocolate chip pancakes and Val was no exception.
Afternoon found Val at the beach. The ancient dragon had a creative streak that showed itself in the boy's sand castles. He'd just finished adding a turret to his latest masterpiece when a loud popping sound came from behind him. Val whirled around.
"Daddy!" he threw himself at the Lesser Beast. Xelloss laughed and hoisted his son up on his shoulders." "Hello Val" he said "had a good day?" Val nodded vigorously. "I made a sand castle!" he yelled, pointing at the result of 3 hours at the beach. Xelloss nodded appreciatively.
"Is your mother around?" he asked. Val nodded "she turned me out of the house to deal with some nasty costumers." The mazoku couldn't help laughing at that. "I wish I'd been there to see it" he chuckled. His dragon dealing with stupid humans was always a sight worth seeing.
"Daddy?" Val asked, craning his neck so he could peer into his father's closed eyes "Why'd you come?"
Needless to say, Xelloss was shocked.
"Why?" he asked "do you not want me here?" Val shook his head. "Of course I do Daddy. But Mama's still mad at you." Xelloss gave a theatrical sigh.
"I know" he said "that's why I came." Val patted his father's head reassuringly. "You can do it Daddy" he said cutely. Xelloss squared his shoulders. "We're about to find out"he said.
The walk to the golden dragon's cottage didn't take more than ten minutes and father and son arrived quickly. Xellos and Val exchanged a wink and Xel knocked on the door. "Oh Filly" he called, his grin betraying none of the nervousness he felt.
The door banged open and Val had to throw himself out of the way to dodge the massive vase that came flying over the threshold. Filia swore loudly. Xelloss laughed from his position on the ground "Have to watch your aim Filly!" The golden haired dragon came out, eyes blazing. "Why?" she asked.
"Because you almost hit your son!" The mazoku roared with laughter. Filia dropped the weapon she held and looked around frantically for her child, expecting to see a bloody corpse.
"Right here Mama!" the boy chirped. Filia ran forward and embraced him.
"I'm sorry sweetheart" she said "Xelloss distracted me. What were you doing with this" she shot Xelloss a venomous look "thing anyway?" "Daddy came to the beach while I was building a sand castle" Val explained.
Xelloss had pulled himself off the ground by this point. "The kid's got a creative streak a mile wide" he commented. Val grinned. "Thanks Daddy." Filia petted her son's hair.
"Why don't you go upstairs and play for a while sweetie? 'Daddy' and I need to talk. I'll call you when supper's ready okay?" Val nodded and ran inside. Filia bent down and started to clean up the mess she'd made. "Go in and sit down" she said "I'll be in a moment". Xelloss ignored her and started helping clean. Filia paused in her work to stare at him.
"What?" Xelloss asked "are my good looks shocking you into silence?" Filia blushed in spite of herself. "N-no!" she said, flustered. Xelloss' ever present grin grew wider. Filia cleared her throat and continued.
"Why are you helping?" she asked, gathering the shards of a particularly big vase. Xelloss shrugged.
"You're tired. No, don't you try and deny it" he said as Filia's mouth opened in protest "You've been up since the crack of dawn dealing with me and your customers. Val told me you had some particularly nasty ones earlier." Filia grinned. "I sent them packing with a Dragon Slave." Xelloss raised an eyebrow
"Oh? No wonder it looks so messy out here." Filia sniffed. "It was worth it." Xelloss stood and snapped his fingers. The burns marring the ground and cottage walls vanished.
The demon gave his work a critical look. "Mazoku can't perform white magic so the patches will have to stay bare for now." The blond woman tsked.
"Who do you take me for?" she asked. She went over and cast a healing spell over each bare patch. Within seconds a light green fuzz had covered the previously dead ground. The dragon patted the soil fondly and stood up. "Thanks for helping me clean, Xelloss" she said. The Mazoku noticed with amusement that there was no trace of venom in her voice. He bowed. "Any time Filly."
Inside Filia had made tea proceeded to serve her guest. "I don't think you just dropped by to say hi" she said "You always have a reason for your visits."
"Ah my dear Filia. You know me well" the mazoku said with a grin. "I do have a reason for coming." The dragon sipped from her cup. Xelloss' grin abruptly vanished. He leaned across the table and said, quite seriously,
"I want us to be a family Filia. A real one"
Filia fell out of her chair.
"You're not serious!" she squeaked. Xellos went to help her up, that somber expression still on his face.
"I'm perfectly serious. I-" and he braced himself against the pain the forbidden word bought "-love you. And Val. More than you know. I know it's not supposed to be possible for a Mazoku to have these feelings. But then, I've always been a weird one."
The daughter of Elder Ul Copt could do little more than gape at this proposition.
Xelloss reached over and tapped Filia's chin, effectively snapping her out of the daze and closing her open mouth in the same movement. Filia sputtered and Xelloss had to wipe off the drool that was quickly accumulating on her chin. "Why?" she finally managed to spit out. "Because I love you" Xelloss repeated, wincing. "How hard is it to understand that?"
Filia was about to retort that it was hard to understand anything that wasn't true when she saw his eyes. They were open and filled with nothing but sincerity. Filia closed her mouth and stared down at the table, tears threatening to spill. She sniffed angrily and scrubbed at her eyes. "I promised myself I'd never fall in love with someone like you…" she sniffled. "And now look what you've done."
Xelloss chuckled quietly and Filia's head snapped up. "What!?" she asked angrily. Her lover smiled. "You." He walked around the table again to give her a hug. Filia finally gave in and leaned against his chest. "Do I have an answer?" he whispered. "Yes" she whispered back. "Was that it?" he asked, rocking her back and forth. She snuggled into him. "What do you think?"
Val was constructing the mother of all towers with his blocks when he heard a knock at his bedroom door. "Val" his mother's voice said "we have something to tell you." By "we" Val assumed that Daddy must still be there.
He jumped up, careful not to upset his blocks, and opened the door. His mother and father stood outside. And they were holding hands! Val had a feeling he knew what the news would be.
"What is it Mama?" he asked, trying not to get his hopes up. Filia took a deep breath. "We'regoingtogetmarried." Val whooped and launched himself at his parents. They caught him, laughing. "I'm glad someone's excited about this!" Filia laughed. Xelloss wrapped an arm around her. "And you aren't?" His fiancée' tilted her head up to kiss his ear. "Ecstatic is more the word for it" she whispered. Xelloss shivered and unable to contain himself, he bent down and stole a kiss.
The wedding day was a huge blast. Much to Filia's chagrin, several betting pools had been set up. To nobody's surprise, Lina was in charge of most of them. Filia chased her friend around the dressing room several times screaming "HOW COULD YOU?!" Lina could only answer "how could I not?" while trying to dodge the dragon's Elmekia Lance and mace combos. Gourry did nothing to help his wife; he found the whole thing too funny to care.
The wedding guests consisted of the whole traveling gang: Zelgadiss, Amelia(who were busy celebrating their own engagement), Lina, Gourry(already married) and Sylphiel who was busy looking over New Sairaag. A lot of the remaining Golden Dragons were there, all the ones who hadn't objected to one of their own marrying the creature responsible for most of their species death. Filia had told the ones who objected "I love him. GET USED TO IT." They'd backed away quickly. The mace Filia carried and her fiancé's malevolent glare might have had something to do with it.
Much to everyone's surprise, Zelas Metallium had made an appearance. When then whole of the Golden Dragon populace had made a very loud protest, Zelas just waved them away. "My son's the groom" she snapped "I have every right to be here." She then went up to Xelloss and in a very un-Beastmaster like fashion, kissed his forehead. "You've chosen well my son" she murmured. He bowed respectfully. "Thank you Mother."
When the ceremony was underway and the time came for the two to say their vows, people began to fear the wedding would be a bust. The priest asked Filia, would she take this man to be her husband? She said yes, she would.
Xelloss would always remember her smile that day as lighting up the whole church. He's always thankful they were in the church, otherwise he would not have lived to see his son grow up.
When the priest asked him would he take Filia as his husband, Xelloss pretended to backpaddle. He tapped a slender white finger on his well-formed chin, presumably thinking it over. The church held its collective breath. He would have carried on this delightful charade a bit longer had he not caught sight of his wife-to-be. Filia's cornflower blue eyes were burning and her beautiful face was twisted in rage. The mazoku gave an audible gulp before answering. Yes, he would take Filia as his wife.
The church released its collective breath and Filia's face relaxed to its usual form. She gave her groom a sweet kiss on the lips when the priest had pronounced man and wife and gave him a wicked grin. "Never leave me?" she asked. He gulped again. "Never leave."
All who had seen this exchange were convinced that it was fear that persuaded Xelloss to make such a promise. The ones who had learned of the exchange from those who saw it firsthand thought otherwise. They scoffed, Xellos wasn't afraid of his wife, preposterous! It had to be love that got him to make the promise. How little they knew...
It was a mixture of both.
And there's my story! AmberPalette's (she seems to be behind all my Slayers fics) stories "Night Light" and "Pieces of his Shell" convinced me to write this little snippet. I think it's a decent length and I hope you all like it. (I've quite proud of this)
