***A tea shop, somewhere in the world***
Once again, Filia sipped elegantly from her teacup.
"What a beautiful evening." She sighed, leaning back from the table
to look at the sunset. The golds and pinks in the sky were the perfect way to
finish what had been a perfect day. The fact she'd been wandering the town aimlessly,
neglecting her shop was irrelevent. Even she needed a break some days. Besides,
Jillas and Grabos were more than willing to look after the place for her.
She paid the waitress for the tea she'd just had and walked out into the forest.
Making sure nobody was around, she concentrated and morphed into her dragon
form. Then took off into the mountains to find a perch to watch the remaining
sunset bathing the ground in its golden light.
She glided happily along to a ledge on a cliff face on the mountain, and transformed
back, finding herself a fresh cup of tea.
Filia half watched the view and half fell asleep in her relaxed state. She wondered offhandedly why she was sat up here in human form, but put that down to ease of movement. And that she actually liked humans.
Funny creatures. She thought. So weak and small minded, but so strong and happy. Not to mention....
Then her flow of thought was disturbed by a loud explosion, and a massive cloud
of black smoke from the distance. Without really considering why, she changed
back to dragon form and dived in that direction, flying as fast as her wings
could take her.
She kept focused on her destination, lest the smoke should clear and she couldn't
find it. Another 'Klabammo!' made her speed up.
***Some town, a random restaurant***
"If you ever need to find Lina, follow the smoke, then your nose to the food!" Xelloss told himself proudly, having indeed found Lina by that exact method. Gossip of big explosions led him to the right town, and a guide book listing out the most famous restaurants in the area did the rest of the work.
"Gourry! hey gourry! Mppughh mhh chimmphen dohnmnw!!!" Lina exclaimed, translating roughly as 'put my chicken down or I'll toast your hair off, you stupid jellyfish for brains.'
"bumhf youmh stomph mhh mm...hey!" Gourry stopped, choked, and continued gorging. "mm.. mhey, its mmmpph... mmm..." He stopped and looked blankly at Lina. "uhh... Lina?"
"WHAT?!" She yelled, tearing a chunk out of the next unfortunate chicken leg.
"Who's that?" He pointed briefly at Xelloss, who had sat a few tables over with a glass of water.
"It'sm Xell." She replied, not seeing Gourry (lucky for the swordsman) steal several sausages from one of her plates.
"Ism Ameria with him?" He asked
"Wrong Zel." Lina replied, patting her stomach. "Waiter! More please!"
"Oh! Hey Xellmossh why don't you join us?" Gourry called over, finishing his plate.
"You idiot." Lina hissed.
"Well, its not Like he eats a lot. And he might pay." Gourry added brightly as the mazoku pulled up a chair next to them.
"Well, who would have expected to see you two in this area?" Xelloss said over cheerfully.
"Oh, well, Lina heard about some spellbook. And why are you here? Hows Amelia?"
"Wrong Zel!" Lina whispered, elbowing Gourry in response to Xelloss glowering. "What does bring you here anyway?" she asked suspiciously.
"Now, that...."
Lina began getting ready for a fireball. Then stopped on delievery of the food.
"Never mind. Telmm mush whewnn we're phi nnished"
Xell took a rough guess at this meaning, 'tell us when we're finished.'
Xelloss sighed and waited for them to finish eating. And waited. And waited. And waited. And then the desert cart came, and he waited some more.
"Uhh... Lina?" Gourry piped up.
"WHAT?!"
"Who's paying?" he asked.
"I thought you were." She told him.
"I thought I was, but my money has gone."
"YOU FORGOT IT YOU JELLYFISH FOR BRAINS?! YOU...."
The chef heard them, and dragged them both to do washing up. Xelloss left the building shaking his head, pocketing Gourry's money pouch. Now THAT'S what happens when you ignore a mazoku.
***Back in the sky with Filia***
Filia kept on going, now nosediving for the town. She heard something and turned to look behind her, and ended up colliding with Xelloss, who'd teleported into the air above the town and was giggling at the results of his handiwork.
They landed in a pile on the ground.
"Watch where you're flying!" Xell whined crawling out from under
a few hundred pounds of dragon.
Filia screamed and transformed back, knowing that people would come to investigate
what the crashing sound had been.
"Did you do that Namagomi?!" She asked pointing her mace at him.
"No. That was Lina-san."
"I'll bet you made her do it."
"I'll bet I did."
"Then we agree on that." She replied, lowering mace-sama.
"Then I'll say I didn't do it." He replied coldly.
They stared at eachother for a few seconds then turned with a 'Hmph!'
"Ahhhhhhhh! Making us do washing up can you believe it?!" Lina's voice came loudly across the street as she came to investigate the racket. "And as for you!" She stomped up to Xelloss and put him in a chokehold. "Running away like that! Leaving us to have to do that old man's washing up!"
"Oiiiii!" Gourry called after Filia. "Long time no see! Oiiiii! Filia!"
Xelloss and Lina looked at eachother and Lina dropped her thankful victim, who crawled to sit on the edge of a fountain. "HE REMEMBERED SOMEONE'S NAME?!"
Filia came back.
"Oh, Lina-san. I'm not staying. I just came to see what all the chaos was
about. Now I know it was the Namagomi, I have to get back to my shop."
Lina blinked and scratched her head.
"Actually It was me. Gourry forgot the money for the..."
"THIEVES!" Yelled the angry chef.
Filia went over and paid him for Lina's meal, regretting it. But she wanted to look good infront of certain evil ones.
"Sooo, that's how he remembered her name." Xelloss pointed out suddenly. "she pays for food. Anyway, see you all." And he vanished with a grin (And Gourry's moneybag)
"Yes, Nice to see you." Filia said, as she too vanished, back to the cliff where she'd left her tea, only to find Xelloss helping himself.
"Why are you here?" She asked abruptly, snatching her teapot back.
"Doing some research." He told her, pulling out a half finished report
which was titled 'All about Humans'. "See?"
"I see." She replied, flicking through the report with interest. She
couldn't actually read all of it, since the majority of it was in some runic
looking language, but there were some very interesting diagrams. "Why didn't
you come back after our last umm..." She blushed a little. "you know?"
"I've been busy." he said stiffly, taking the report back and packing it away safely. "I've had things to see and people to do. But," He gave her 'the smile' at this point. "But I'm going to change that soon."
"oh really? Here have some more tea." She offered.
"I can't.' Xelloss replied grimacing. "I'm being yelled for. Bai bai!" With that he disappeared again.
So much for watching the sunset. Filia told herself, looking up at the moon.
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Awww.... What a long chapter by my standards!!! I've had soooooo much free time! ^_^ Oh well, time for the next one!
