Title: Unconventional Beauty
Fandom: The Slayers
Characters: Naga/Zelgadiss
Prompt: #1 Beginnings, 2. Middles, 3. Ends, 4. Insides, 5. Outsides
Word Count: 1711 total, roughly 300 words a piece.
Rating: T for Teen
Summary: A series of short drabbles imagining the meeting and adventures of Naga the Serpent and Zelgadiss Greywords.
Author's Notes: I do not own the Slayers, nor will I ever. I am in no way making any form of profit from these drabbles. These are ordered by prompt number, not chronologically by event so it will seem like they jump around a lot. I had this idea awhile ago after rewatching the OVA's and realizing that Naga has very unconventional ideas about beauty. I'm not very satisfied with these, but I'm enjoying working out how such a strange pairing could even remotely work.
1. Beginnings – How They Met
The first time Zelgadiss met Naga he didn't actually see her, he heard her. He was walking through the forest when he the sound of high, loud, long laughter reached his ears. It was a sound he had never quite experienced and managed to create goose bumps along his rocky pale blue skin and cause his teeth to grind together instinctively.
"What the hell laughs like that?" he mused aloud as he continued to travel down the road, flicking his hood back over his wiry, metallic silvery blue hair and fitted his half mask over his mouth, effectively covering half his face and leaving only the space around his eyes exposed.
Around the bend was a sight that made Zelgadiss stop in his tracks. Before him was a woman dressed as in what appeared to be a black leather bikini, with large spiky mantles, and a floor length black cloak. He noticed her long purple hair, bright blue eyes, flawless skin, long legs and entirely too large breasts. She was surrounded by a large group of bandits, most of them lying prone on the ground around her. And she was the owner of that obnoxious laugh.
His first instinctual reaction was to run, his second to ask her what her name was, but before he could decide between the two she looked his way and dropped the hand she'd been holding posed next to her mouth.
"Hem, what's this?" the tall woman asked, walking towards him, "you're not one them are you?"
"N-no," Zelgadiss stammered, taking one step back before pulling himself back together and regaining his composure. He straightened up, and realized the top of his head only reached her shoulders.
"Oh my, you appear to be a bit too short," she said, as she looked down. Then she began to laugh again.
"Uh right, okay, I'm out of here," Zelgadiss said, moving to walk past the tall woman continuing down the road towards the small town over the rise.
2. Middles – Conversations over Dinner
"Zelgadiss, I don't see why you're so worked up over your appearance," Naga said as she reached over and snitched a piece of steak from his plate.
"Naga," Zelgadiss snarled, his face slowly filling with color as he blushed, "for the last time, eat from your own plate."
"But why when I can get the most interesting colors from your face when I take from yours? And don't change the subject Zelgadiss; you just can't accept how beautiful you look can you, though I do understand about being self-conscious about your height."
"I am not self conscious about my height damn it! And what do you mean I look beautiful?" Zelgadiss fidgeted in his seat his face filling with more color, "I really wish you wouldn't say things like that."
Naga started up with her characteristic laugh, causing Zelgadiss to wince and grind his teeth together, while the other patrons escaped from the inn.
"Hmmm I wonder where everyone else went," Naga said, taking another deep sip of her brandy, after having laughed for a good five minutes.
"I have no idea," Zelgadiss said, smacking his forehead with his hand.
"Anyway, no matter," Naga waved her mug around the room, "what's important is how beautiful I am."
Zelgadiss ground his face into his hand further.
"Ha! Deny it all you want Zelgadiss Greywords, but I Naga the Serpent know that you are finding it hard to resist my beauty!"
Zelgadiss had to admit he had a hard time drawing his eyes away from the way her breasts bounced as she waved her hands around and he blushed even more deeply than before when he looked away.
"Naga, stop, you're drunk."
"Oh Zelgadiss, you wound me, hmmp as if Naga the Serpent can't tell true beauty when she sees it," Naga said before hopping up on the table between them.
"Naga, please..." Zelgadiss whispered, looking up at her.
Naga leaned down placing her face within inches of his before saying in a loud and clear voice, "I should have expected someone like you to be incapable of seeing your own wonderful construction as the beautiful thing it is. Why, I bet you want to go on some silly quest to turn back to human."
"Naga, how can you say that, look at me! Of course I want to become human again!"
"Yes, just as I thought, completely clueless."
3. Ends – So this is how you leave Me?
Zelgadiss rolled over and reached one hand towards Naga's side of the bedroll but found nothing. He jolted awake and caught her on the edge of their camp ground walking towards the road.
"Naga where are you going?" Zelgadiss asked, reaching for his sword over his clothes. The barely lit fire played shadows over his naked form as he walked after the tall willowy purple haired woman.
"Oh my, you're awake, you should go back to sleep Zelgadiss," Naga said gently, reaching one hand to caress the chimeras rocky cheek.
"Naga where are you going?" Zelgadiss asked again, looking up into her clear blue eyes. "You're not leaving me are you?"
Naga looked at him kindly, smiling, "Of course! It's time for us to part ways."
"Just like that? We spend a year together, the last six months of which as lovers and that's it? You're done?" Zelgadiss' voice rose as he continued, his hand shaking around his sword.
"You can't change my mind Zelgadiss," Naga said, "I, Naga the Serpent am going to travel the world searching for treasure and spreading my fame."
"But what about me?" Zelgadiss asked, his shoulders slumping.
"You're not coming, I absolutely forbid it."
"What? You forbid it? Who are you to forbid me," Zelgadiss started, but was broken off by Naga's lips, soft, yet firm on his mouth.
The kiss deepened as Naga pressed him close. Finally when she finished, she whispered, "Go home Zelgadiss, take care of Amelia and never, ever think that you aren't beautiful."
And then she cast a sleep spell on the chimera, catching him in her arms as he protested. Depositing him on their sleep roll Naga ran her fingers through his hair one last time, forgetting how wiry and hard it was and sucking on her wounded fingers after she pricked her fingers.
"Goodbye Zelgadiss."
4. Insides – The Day His Heart Started
Zelgadiss remembered the day that he fell in love with Naga. It was a bright beautiful morning and she was still sleeping off the effects of the brandy they'd consumed the night before. Zelgadiss sat with his back against the tree they'd camped under watching her.
"This is Lina's old rival Naga the Serpent," Zelgadiss thought, taking in the lines of her body in the bikini she wore, "this is the woman that traveled with Lina before we met her, hard to imagine them ever being rivals, much less friends."
At the thought of Lina his heart tightened in his chest briefly, but looking at Naga his heart skipped a beat. Thinking about Lina his thoughts crossed over to his other old companions, Gourry the swordsman, and Amelia, the princess of Seyruun. He quietly took out a small pink bracelet and stared at it.
"I don't understand these feelings I have," Zel thought, clutching his head where a migraine was starting, "I don't understand why it feels like my heart is being torn apart. Everything was easier when it was just Amelia I was dealing with."
His hands played over the bracelet Amelia had given him two years prior, a special bracelet she'd given him that allowed communication between them. He hadn't used it in six months, unable to think of what he could tell her of his latest travels.
"Why does this have to get so complicated?" he thought as Naga rolled in her sleep, making small mewling sounds.
"Naga what?" he asked, leaning over her he found it hard to understand what she was mumbling indistinctly under her breath. Leaning closer and closer until his ear was next to her mouth Zel finally heard what she was saying:
"I'm not going to let you get into a sweet deal without me Lina, have you forgotten that I am Naga the Serpent your greatest rival!"
"I should have known!" Zel grumbled, falling over on top of her.
Snorting awake Naga looked down at him where he was sprawled across of her, "hmmmp Zelgadiss you are so gauche and obvious!"
Zelgadiss quickly scuttled away from her, but it was too late, Naga started her laugh again and didn't stop until he was well down the road.
"Why? Why can't I get her out of my head?" he thought, adjusting his speed to ensure Naga would be able to catch up quickly.
5. Outsides – Showing his Primal Side
Her lips were softer than any he'd ever touched before, her eyes a light, clear blue that he found hard to tear away from.
"N-naga, I'm sorry I didn't mean for this," Zelgadiss started, moving back away from her. Pulling away he turned from her, a bright red spreading across his cheeks as he shifted the towel he wore across his lap.
"I knew going to the hot springs was a bad idea," Zelgadiss thought, unable to look back at her.
"Zelgadiss," she whispered her voice lower and huskier then he'd ever heard before.
He shuddered gently, clenching his hands to keep from touching her where she lay on the bed beside him.
"Zelgadiss why are you facing away from me?" she asked, resting one hand on his rocky blue skin.
"Naga, don't toy with me," he responded, shaking slightly.
Lifting up on one arm Naga let her fingers run along his skin, "you foolish man, you simply cannot comprehend just how beautiful and perfect your form is, but don't worry now that you have Naga the Serpent!"
"I'm doomed," Zelgadiss thought, placing his head in his hands. Then all thoughts were forgotten as Naga continued to stroke his skin and slowly, ever so slowly he started to return her touches, letting himself enjoy the sensations. Zelgadiss allowed the pleasure of being with a woman, who had convinced him at least for that night that he was attractive in his chimerical form.