Chapter 4. Sneaking Out.

A breeze blew through the courtyard outside of Amelia's room. All was quiet except for the occasional chirping of crickets and a few light snores. Lina had fallen asleep with her face in a patch of shiny green leaves. Gourry had dozed off from a sitting position with his head jerked off to the side and a bit of drool hanging indelicately from his chin.

But no star-crossed lovers appeared on their rounds. Well… not quite yet.

Zelgadis lay in bed and tried to let the sounds of nighttime drift him off to sleep. It wasn't working. The problem with having a brain is that the off-switch is very hard to locate.

Maybe he should've done the whole… pebble to the window thing to see Amelia. Lord knew he wanted to get this thing worked out. And anyway, after her father's behavior and the fact that he'd actually set guards to keep her locked in her room… she must've been feeling very upset. It would've been right to go and see her.

He shook his head. It wasn't his job to comfort her.

And anyway, Amelia would talk to her father about this anyway. It didn't really need his intervention. Either Phil could be reasoned with and he could stay for awhile longer, or Phil couldn't be reasoned with and he'd just have to leave. It was as simple as that. There was no need to go skulking around and make things worse by confirming Phil's suspicions. No matter what Gourry said about serenading being the sticking point, Zelgadis was still pretty sure that anything involving a balcony fell under the category of wooing.

I mean, what other reason could a person have for doing something as drastic as that?

And that's when he heard something. There was a scrape of boots and a creak from the walls. He sat up and slowly reached for his sword while his ears twitched to find the source of the sound.

His eyes fell on the open window where a hand had just clasped the ledge. He soundlessly got out of bed and waited without breathing.

"…Amelia?!" he exclaimed as the figure climbed breathlessly into the room.

"Hi, Mister Zelgadis!" Amelia said cheerfully as she tried to get her breath back.

"Don't 'hi' me!" Zelgadis said. "What are you doing here? How'd you even get out? There were guards posted by your room."

"Yes, I know." She frowned thoughtfully. "That's kind of why I'm here."

"You didn't—" Zelgadis began with a foreboding feeling about how Amelia tended to react to unjust situations like being held prisoner. "You didn't fight them did you?" More of a ruckus was the last thing they needed at the moment.

"Oh no!" Amelia said. "I just walked past them."

Zelgadis gaped. "And they didn't do anything?"

"Well, one touched his forelock and said 'Evening, Princess,' but that was about it," Amelia said with a shrug.

"Weren't they supposed to be keeping you locked in?" Zelgadis asked.

"I think they were just there to keep something out," Amelia said slowly. "I'm not sure what the story is with that to be honest."

But I do, Zelgadis thought dully. Considering, however, who had actually snuck into whose room though… Phil might've been better off putting guards around his room.

"Something is very wrong around here," Amelia said, brows furrowed in concern. "I've never seen Daddy act like this before. I've got to do something about it, but I don't know what's wrong." She looked up at him with her big, blue eyes. "Do you have any idea why he would act like this?"

Zelgadis coughed and looked down. This was going to be awkward. "Lina did have an idea," he admitted.

"Really? What?" Amelia asked.

"She thought, well," Zelgadis twisted his shoulder back fretfully, "that Phil might have somehow gotten the idea that you and I are… well, that there's something going on between the two of us."

She just tilted her head at him in puzzlement. Oh boy, Zelgadis thought shaking his head.

"Something romantic, I mean," he finished reluctantly.

"I got that," Amelia said, cupping her chin in her hands. "I just don't see how that would make him act so…"

"…crazy?" Zelgadis supplied.

"Yes," Amelia agreed miserably.

"Well obviously he's not thrilled with the idea," Zelgadis answered.

"But he's always liked you!" Amelia burst out. "He's never said a word against you before! He's really proud of all that you and Miss Lina and Mister Gourry have done to help us in Seyruun over the years. And… well, whenever I've asked if we could invite you to stay for awhile he always seemed really agreeable to the idea."

Maybe he changed his mind after I turned down one too many of those invitations, Zelgadis thought with a streak of guilt. A father can only see his daughter left heartbroken so many times…

…Well, not "heartbroken" really, he thought hastily. Because Phil's assumption is wrong. Just… generally disappointed… in the most platonic of ways.

"I guess his opinion of me has changed," Zelgadis said leadenly. "I mean, you saw how he was acting."

"He was mostly yelling at me to get work done," Amelia said doubtfully.

"Yes, but he forgot the name of what he wanted you to do," Zelgadis pointed out. "It seemed as though it was just an excuse."

"I suppose," Amelia said, but she still didn't sound convinced.

"And when you left he told me to stay away from you," Zelgadis said sourly. "That you didn't need my 'bad influence'."

Amelia gasped. "He didn't," she said disbelievingly.

"He did," Zelgadis said dully.

Amelia sank down onto the nearest thing in the room to sit on, which just so happened to be the bed, Zelgadis couldn't help but notice. "I can't believe he would say something like that," she said numbly.

"He's always only had nice things to say about you. I don't see what could've changed," she said miserably. "He shouldn't be acting like this even if he knew." She paused. "I mean, even if he thought that."

"Well something must have changed," Zelgadis said indistinctly. Amelia was definitely upset by this. She was starting to put off "I might cry" vibes. Make that number one on the growing list of things that were making him feel uncomfortable about this situation. "I mean, he put guards around your room," he pointed out. "He really thinks I might try to," he blushed here, "you know. Sneak into your room or something."

"That's another thing," Amelia, sneaker-into-other-people's-rooms, said. The clouds were clearing from her eyes. She sounded more curious than upset now. "The guards he put around my room… well, they were Rodney and Steve."

This meant absolutely nothing to Zelgadis. He hated it when people assumed that everyone knew everyone they knew. "…And?" he asked.

"Rodney and Steve are..." she trailed off. Amelia wasn't the kind of person who took pleasure in insulting others. "…not the best guards," she finished lamely.

"I mean, they try their best," she pressed on. "But the fact is that Rodney's always falling asleep on his feet and Steve has to take a bathroom break every five minutes because of his… condition."

"Not only that," she shifted awkwardly. "But… well… a few weeks ago they let a thief into the castle because the thief had a business card saying that they were my daddy."

"Well, that's not very—" Zelgadis began.

"And the thief was female," Amelia finished pointedly.

Zelgadis gaped at her.

O… kay. So distractible, brain-dead and possibly vision-impaired guards were probably not the choice a worried father would make to keep prospective boyfriends at bay. But everything else made sense, right? What other explanation could there be?

"Maybe he didn't know they weren't good guards," he pointed out in a last ditch attempt at defense. "He can't know every guard in the squad. And maybe he just told the Captain of the Guard to handle it and he put his two worst men on it because he figured it would be an easy job."

"Maybe…" Amelia said vaguely.

"Well, whatever the case," Zelgadis said, "something's going on with Phil and I'm not in his good books. It might be best if I just left."

"Oh no!" Amelia said, turning her eyes up on him in an expression that Zelgadis considered to be unfair in some obscure way. "You've only just gotten here and it's been so long since we've seen each other!"

Zelgadis focused on the floor and muttered: "I can't be expected to just stop my search for a cure to visit."

"I know," Amelia said, bending over and turning her head so that Zelgadis's eye-contact was no longer with the floor but with her. "And I can help! We've got lots of stuff in the library and I can be there to help you find stuff since I know it better than you do. And I'm sure you could always use an extra set of eyes for research and taking notes." She gave him a determined and slightly desperate look. "I'll do anything to help you."

Zelgadis, Mister Self-Reliant, was caught off-balance in the face of this unsolicited helpfulness. "Well, I guess you could—" he began uncertainly, and then stopped. He pulled himself together. "That's not going to work out with whatever crazy bend Phil's on."

"Don't worry about Daddy," Amelia said with a harsh glint in her eye that seemed alien to such a generally good-natured face. "I'll take care of that."

Zelgadis nodded. With the face Amelia was pulling he almost felt a little sorry for Prince Phil.

There was a pause. It seemed like they'd run out of things to say. Suddenly they both had the uncomfortable feeling of two people trying to figure out what came next. Cool night wind swept through the open window and made the curtains dance gracefully as wind-chimes from a nearby courtyard tinkled in the distance. Starlight flowed into the room giving the moment a hazy, unreal feel. Amelia gripped the covers of the bed she was sitting on in a distracted way. The scent of nighttime flowers drifted around the room looking for a nose to accost.

"So—"

"I guess I'd better be—"

They both paused, having spoken at the same time.

"Go on."

"No, you first."

"I was just going to say that, um," Zelgadis didn't really know what he'd been going to say, "it's getting late," he finished lamely.

"You're right," Amelia said. "I guess I'd better go." She got up gingerly off the bed as though it might explode. "After all, it's a long climb down." She gave him a wan smile.

"Why wouldn't you just levitate down?" Zelgadis asked incredulously.

"A good climb does a heart full of justice good!" Amelia said with a broad smile as she made a fist and struck a pose.

Zelgadis couldn't help but smile a little too. "Well, don't fall and get yourself killed," he said almost kindly.

"I won't!" Amelia said brightly.

And with that Amelia disappeared over the ledge, clinging to the wall like the urban warrior that she was. Some grunting and creaking of wood followed.

Zelgadis shook his head. Typical Amelia; why do things the easy way when the hard way is so much more fun?

"Good-night, Mister Zelgadis," he heard from outside his window as the creaking briefly ceased.

"Good-night, Amelia," Zelgadis said, making his way back to bed, feeling that with that out of the way he might actually get some sleep.

"This isn't working," Lina said bluntly the next morning in Phil's chambers.

"You waited all night and he didn't show up?" Phil asked dejectedly.

"Yes!" Lina said bad-naturedly. "And I got this rash on my face from your stupid herb garden!" she shouted, furiously scratching had the red half of her face.

"It wouldn't have happened if you hadn't fallen asleep," Gourry pointed out.

Lina glared at him as Phil narrowed his eyes suspiciously. "Are you sure he didn't show up while you were—"

"Positive," Lina said through gritted teeth. "We would've woken up if he had."

Phil drummed his fingers against the arm of a chair. "I had hoped for better progress than this," he said.

Lina glared. There was a certain courtesy being missed. "Hello?" she shouted. "Rash? Sympathy?"

"I'm sure they carry some ointment for that in the cleric's quarters," Phil said.

"Well, thank you," Lina said, crossing her arms. She shouldn't have to nudge people for these things!

"But he wanted to see my daughter, didn't he?" Phil asked, getting back to more important, non-rash related issues. "You said he was all upset about my little performance earlier and your suggestion that Amelia might marry a nobleman."

"I thought he did," Lina said with a shrug. She wouldn't have spent the night curled up against a poisonous bush if she'd thought otherwise.

"Guys, you're forgetting that this is Zel we're talking about," Gourry offered up. "It doesn't matter if he wanted to see her or not. If he doesn't feel like he has a really good excuse to give himself then he's not going to do it."

"Oh good god; what's wrong with you men?" Lina said. She was getting sick of this game.

Phil stroked at his moustache thoughtfully with the side of his index finger. "So we've got to give him an excuse," he said thoughtfully.

"Yeah, and we better hurry," Lina said. "I think the only thing really keeping Zelgadis here is that collection of scrolls he wanted to read."

"We do have a lot of scrolls," Phil said uncertainly.

"Enough to keep Zelgadis here until he decides he loves Amelia?" Lina asked.

"Maybe not that many," Phil admitted.

"She's a very pretty girl though," Phil added.

"I know."

"With a lovely personality," Phil went on.

"I know."

"I don't see why anyone would put up such a fight," Phil went on with some distaste.

"That's just Zel, I'm afraid," Lina said helplessly. "Don't ask me to explain it."

"Well, you'd better think of something fast," Phil said.

"What? Why me?" Lina demanded. "This is your show; can't you think of an idea?"

"I have a few ideas already," Phil said calmly. "But they all involve Mister Zelgadis being here. You've got to find some way to keep him from leaving."

"And give him a reason to be around Amelia," Gourry piped up, adding to their laundry list of planning objectives.

"Fine," Lina said, clutching her forehead as an early-morning tension headache started up. "Just get me some French toast already. I can't be expected to plan anything without French toast."