Lesson 10

"Lesson 10, make sure your child knows that you love them!"

Xellos squinted at Amelia. "Correction: make sure they think I love them."

Amelia gave Xellos a dismayed look. "Mister Xellos! The most important thing about having children is loving them!"

Xellos laughed. "Well, I suppose that's why demons don't have children!"

Amelia frowned. "But you do!"

Xellos leaned into his hand and frowned exasperatedly. "Fine, then. How do I do it?"

Amelia blinked. "Do what?"

Xellos shrugged, smiling at the ridiculousness of it all. "Love… something?"

Amelia stared at him for a while before running to grab some scrolls and books. Xellos laughed. "For someone who talks about love and justice all the time, you have to look it up?"

Amelia pouted. "It's something you just… feel and know! It's like… trying to explain how to remember to blink and breathe!" Xellos stared at her blankly with his constant grin. "Right, you don't really have to do that either..."

Amelia continued to search through her documents until she found something that satisfied her. "Aha! Love is a feeling and an action. It is the desire to do anything for someone, to ensure that they are happy and safe."

Xellos huffed cheekily. "Without anything in return?" Amelia scowled at him and he nodded concedingly. "At the very least I can go through the actions."

Amelia smiled triumphantly. "One more step towards becoming a human!"

Xellos nearly fell out of his chair. "Amelia..."

Filia made her way around her dining room, dusting as she went.

"You missed a spot!"

Filia glared at Xellos, who was pointing to the top of the china hutch.

"Can't you get it?" Filia glowered at him. "You're supposed to be magically powerful, right? Shouldn't you be able to clean this whole room at once or something?"

Xellos laughed. "I'm not some kind of fairy."

Filia grabbed a stool and slammed it next to the hutch. She was not in the mood for comments about dragons living in squalor. She stepped atop the stool and began dusting violently, only to knock herself off balance. She braced herself for the short fall and following laughter, only to fall an even shorter distance, into Xellos's arms.

Filia gawked up at Xellos's smug expression. "I knew you were clumsy, but this is ridiculous!" He set her feet first back on the ground.

Filia would have pouted angrily at him, but she was still a little shocked. "Why did you catch me? And not drop me?"

Xellos held his arms behind his back and smiled in the way he always had. "Just practicing."

Filia squinted. "Practicing what?"

Xellos's demeanor became less pleasant. "One of Amelia's silly lessons."

Filia's scrutinizing look softened. "So you are listening to them?"

Xellos scowled. "Well you made it very clear that if I want to not kill you and have contact with the egg, I had to."

Filia stared at Xellos with a blank expression. "Why haven't you taken the egg away from me? Or threatened me to get me to concede with however you want to run things?"

Xellos returned the blank expression. He suddenly was reminded by the lesson he had claimed to be practicing. He then internally shook away the thought. He did want to keep her alive, that was for certain; but he didn't want her to be happy, necessarily. He wanted to keep their relationship exactly as it was. Enough fear to keep power, but not so much to keep from seeing her constant outbursts. He smiled. After spending so much time with her, he started noticing how truly entertaining she was. Her spunk was more amusing than irritating- he even started to be impressed at her jabs at him. They were certainly getting more and more creative. He enjoyed his time with her.

Xellos paused, internalizing his realization. He also glanced up at the very confused dragon who was still waiting for his response. Having passed the limit for thought on his response, he went with his usual, classic response. "That, is a secret!" And vanished immediately.

After her strange encounter with Xellos earlier, Filia decided to visit Amelia to see if whatever she had taught him could have influenced his strange behavior.

"So, Miss Amelia," Filia began, pouring herself a cup of tea. "What was this week's lesson about?"

Amelia smiled. "Love."

Filia nearly dropped her cup. "What?"

Amelia nodded. "He said he didn't think he could love anything, but he said he was willing to try. For your kids."

Filia jumped out of her chair, tail straight upward, and she shrieked in horror. "He loves me?!"

Amelia gasped excitedly. "You really think so?!"

Filia quickly shook her head, feeling sick, and sat down. She laughed nervously. "No… that's impossible right? It's just… we argue so much, I'd assume he'd kill me the instant I got in the way of something he wanted, but here we are, with him taking lessons from you instead of removing me..."

Amelia smiled, putting her chin in her hands. "Well, Mister Xellos is the least demon-ey mazoku I've ever met. But, at the same time, Mister Gourry and Miss Lina argue all the time. Also, who knows? Maybe to mazoku, arguing is the same as flirting?"

Filia choked on her tea. "I should hope not!"

Amelia continued thinking. "What really is that egg, anyways?"

Filia rested her chin in her hands. "Some sort of fusion creature I suppose?" She then remembered the night they found it. The Golden Children did not believe that the war of Gods and Monsters was destined to continue forever. They believed that humans could find peace by either: destruction, or, union. A chill ran down Filia's spine. "I think he and I need to talk..."

Filia returned to her home to hear Xellos shouting from the other room. "Oh, Filia! You're here! Come quick!"

Filia rushed into the room to see Xellos leaning over the basket holding the golden egg. "Something's happening!"

The sick feeling Filia had in her stomach from her conversation with Amelia grew stronger, but it was joined with hope. She really hoped this egg would hatch into something and not turn out to be some sort of weapon that was suddenly activated. She watched nervously as it glowed and cracked, until finally the orb split open.

A little black creature lay curled up in the basket. It was shaped like a baby dragon, but it had no arms or legs, nor did it have a definite anatomical shape to any of its features.

Xellos nodded at it. "Well, it seems like it was really an egg after all."

"She."

Xellos squinted at Filia. "You can tell?"

Filia nodded. "Dragons have an innate sense; since it's so hard to tell dragons apart externally and all."

Xellos hardly hid his enthusiasm at the easy remark. "You can say that again!"

Filia scowled. "Anyways, we need to name her."

Xellos placed a finger on his chin. "What about Sellis?"

Filia pointed at him accusingly. "Your master had horrible naming sense, we will not continue the pattern."

Xellos folded his arms. "...Zelas, Xellos, Sellis- I hear it now!"

Filia hummed in thought. "What about Jade?"

Xellos scoffed. "She's pitch black. Jet would be more fitting."

"Jet is a boy's name!"

"Prejudiced as always."

As they argued, the little creature squirmed, silencing them. The creature then opened her mouth for a quiet yawn, and blinked at her observers, revealing her bright violet eyes.

Filia gazed softly at her child. "What about Violet?"

Xellos shrugged. "It's painfully straightforward, but I suppose it works."

Filia smiled and gently stroked her child's back. "It'll be a while before she can assume a human form; so we'll have to keep her indoors for a few months."

Xellos frowned. "Nonsense, she's emanating strong mazoku energies. She should be able to assume a human form almost immediately!"

Filia flinched as Xellos gently placed his hand over Violet. Violet glowed a bit, and then shifted into what looked like a several months old baby. She had pointed ears like a dragon, and golden hair. Filia stared at her, dumbfounded.

Xellos smirked. "Demons are born fully grown. I'd assume she's going to age quite a bit differently from any dragon."

Filia swaddled and picked up Violet, smiling at her child cautiously. She then stared at her in shock. "Xellos."

"What?"

Filia stared at Xellos intensely. "She has your eyes."

Xellos raised an eyebrow. "I'm not sure what you're projecting onto her, but..."

Amelia nodded, smiling. "She looks just like you, Mister Xellos." Zelgadis nodded in agreement, looking back and forth between the two monsters with disdain.

Xellos frowned, looking at Violet. "Well that must be because I helped her into her physical form."

Filia shook her head. "Dragon's can't change their human forms willy nilly like mazoku can!"

Xellos leaned forward. "And she's half mazoku."

Zelgadis squinted. "Didn't you two say you found her in an orb that you both used magic on?"

Filia nodded, brow furrowed.

Amelia nodded. "She looks like you too, miss Filia."

Filia and Xellos narrowed their eyes at Amelia. Filia's voice had a low grumble to it. "Miss Amelia… what are you implying?"

Amelia placed her finger on her chin in thought. "Well, we know that fusion magic can create things..."

Xellos yelped, finally coming to a realization. He smiled meekly at Filia. "Remember when we thought that we broke a seal and freed Violet from that sphere?"

Filia looked at Xellos in horror. "Th-thought?"

Xellos nodded. "The glass sphere may not have been a container, but a vessel..."

Amelia caught on and said what the nonhumans in the room were unwilling to say. "You two made a baby!"

Filia passed out, landing to the floor with a thud.

Amelia scowled at Xellos. "Mister Xellos! You didn't catch her. That wasn't very loving of you."

Xellos's eyebrow twitched. "Maybe that's because I don't love her!"

Amelia pouted. "Parents can't not love eachother! Do you know what that does to a child?!"

Xellos let out a single laugh. "No matter your reasoning, there is no way I could love her, much less anything."

Amelia pointed at Xellos. "Wrong! You love miss Lina"

Xellos squinted at Amelia, completely dumbfounded by her outlandish statement. "Pardon?"

Amelia nodded, sure in herself. "Love isn't simply an element of romance- it took me a while to realize it, but you made it blatantly obvious during our battle with Shabranigdo- you always keep miss Lina out of harm's way!"

Xellos scoffed. "Well, I can't cast the Giga Slave." He then folded his arms, quietly adding, "And that wasn't Lord Shabranigdo, remember?"

Amelia huffed, her energy not faltering. "Even when you fought to take her into custody that one time, you didn't lay a finger on her!"

Xellos blinked, and then smirked. "You do forget that I offer her life in exchange for things? Often?"

Amelia laughed to herself like he had walked directly into her trap. "Oh, yes, miss Filia told us how you offered miss Lina's life to Val that one time."

Zelgadis, resting his hand on his chin nodded. "Oh, right. You offered to kill Lina, not to give her over to Val so he could exact his revenge." He then grimaced, Amelia's peculiar theory sounding more probable.

Amelia pointed at Xellos excitedly. "Also! Also! The only time I ever have seen you look sad!"

Xellos backed away from her enthusiasm. "Sad?!"

Amelia nodded. "When you told us that the Lord of Nightmares had consumed Lina! I remember because you've never ever looked sad before or after!"

Xellos's eye twitched, becoming impatient. "And what does however you think I might feel about miss Lina influence how I feel about Filia?!"

Amelia leaned towards Zelgadis. "Mister Zelgadis, how often does mister Xellos tease us?"

Zelgadis shrugged. "About as much as anyone else."

"And how much does he tease miss Lina?"

"Huh. A lot, relatively"

"And what about miss Filia?"

The answer was obvious. Xellos placed a hand on his hip. "You can't possibly make a conclusion based on that! That's a step further than even circumstantial evidence!"

Amelia wagged her finger condescendingly at Xellos. "You have to look at this scientifically mister Xellos! Think of our sample size! Phibrizzo, Gaav, Saygram… the list goes on! We have lots of data on mazoku behavior towards non mazoku, and your behavior is most certainly an outlier!"

Xellos folded his arms in frustration. "Obviously there is no way I can dissuade you from this misguided line of thinking." He then vanished.

Amelia folded her arms and nodded. "Well then, I have a new mission."

Zelgadis looked at Amelia. "What is it?"

"To make Violet's parents love each other!"

Zelgadis nearly fell out of his chair. "Amelia… I think that's an impossible mission..."