Author's Note: Well, here we are on the first week of our new Saturday-update schedule. Hopefully this'll work out much better with the classes I'm taking this term. Thank you for your patience while I worked this out :) and please enjoy the chapter!

Chapter 21. Wherever a Door Closes.

"Are you alright, Amelia?" Stanley asked, peering concernedly at her.

Amelia wiped her already rubbed raw cheek and kept her eyes off him as they walked along the same garden path they'd strolled through yesterday. "It's nothing," she said.

Stanley reached down to her and brushed her hair aside so as to better see her face. He withdrew his hand and looked at her gravely. "It's not nothing," he said. "You look like you've been crying all night. What happened?"

Amelia sniffed and looked away. She'd cried so much the night before that she'd just barely been able to stack up the bricks of her subconscious into the wall of her composure. There was no time for mortar and she knew that even the slightest breeze could knock it down and then she'd be sobbing again.

"This has to do with Zelgadis doesn't it?" Stanley asked, looking down at her worriedly.

This was greeted with a giant sniff that seemed to cause Amelia's entire body to shudder. She didn't cry, but it was a close thing.

"Tell me," Stanley said in a soft voice.

At least she could tell Stanley. He was pretty much the only one she could tell. He knew what she'd been going through the past few days, and he was a sympathetic ear. She had to tell someone. So she told him.

"You don't deserve to be treated like that," he said quietly as tears leaked out of Amelia's eyes.

"I don't know what's gotten into him," she said, dabbing at her eyes with a handkerchief. "There was no reason for him to be so cruel."

"I'm sure he has a lot on his mind," Stanley said in that same quiet voice, "but you're right. That's no reason to say those awful things to you."

She twisted her handkerchief and shook her head. "I shouldn't have left though," she said miserably. "I mean, I was mad though! Why can't he ever care about my feelings?"

"Of course," Stanley said. He narrowed his eyes. "Why do you think you shouldn't have left?"

"Well," Amelia said, caught off-guard. "I mean, I know he was insensitive and ungrateful, but I can't just leave him like this… I mean…" she paused, "It's for his cure. I can't just not help him out of spite. He needs me."

Stanley was silent.

"I'll have to go back tonight," Amelia said miserably. "It'll be awful and I don't want to do it. But we should finish what we started."

"…I don't think you should go back, Amelia," Stanley said finally. "I think you did the right thing."

"What?" Amelia exclaimed, as though she couldn't see categorizing anything she'd done in the last twenty-four hours as 'the right thing'.

"You stood up to him," Stanley said firmly. "Now he knows that he can't get away with walking all over you and disregarding your feelings. Now he knows that he can't take you being in his life for granted. Now he knows that he has to make a decision about his priorities if he wants to stay close with you."

Amelia sniffled again. She could feel more tears welling up. "I don't want to wreck— I mean, just because I— that doesn't mean—"

Stanley put a comforting arm on her shoulder. "I know it's hard, but I think you have to make a stand now. Don't give him an easy way out of this. If you stand strong, he might finally see what a fool he'd be to lose you."

Amelia stared at the ground as they walked along, Stanley's hand still resting on her shoulder. "And if he doesn't?" she asked.

Stanley turned his gaze ahead with a serious expression. "Then maybe he wasn't the one after all."

Zelgadis felt terrible, and he was surprised to find that the feeling didn't really seem to be based on the loss of his cure. Sure, he'd punched the wall half-heartedly and said: "So close!" but that was the extent of it. It was just another in a long line of failures on that score. But with Amelia…

Possibly 'heartbroken' was the most accurate word for how she'd looked when he told her to leave. He didn't like to think that word, though, because it said too much.

But she was with Stanley now. She liked Stanley. That much was obvious.

And he, Zelgadis, was just sort of… a remnant. It hurt Amelia now, but, he thought bitterly, anyone would probably say in a few years time that her being rid of him was the best thing that ever happened to her. Because when you got right down to it… he couldn't go on strolls with her through the garden and make her laugh and smile as though all her troubles were forgotten. He was one of her troubles. Probably the main one, he thought, lowering his head gloomily and looking out the window of his room.

And, of course, people would say that she'd be better off forgetting about some damaged swordsman and getting on with her own life. Who cared if the fairy-tales said that way was better? Fairy-tales had a lot to answer for. Common sense said she'd be worse off with him and better off with… with…

…with that obnoxious, fortune-hunting, inbred noble with brains enough to fill a teaspoon half-way? he thought angrily. Of course she wouldn't!

No, Stanley was obviously still a bad choice. Zelgadis could see plainly, even if Amelia couldn't, that all he was after was the crown. But that wasn't the point. It wasn't his choice to make, it was Amelia's. And he could see that she was moving toward Stanley of the Insincere Politeness and Shiny Teeth. It was only a misplaced sense of loyalty that was keeping her from making that decision. Well, he'd given her the reason she wanted to break those ties… ties that had never been spoken of but had always been there.

Before, it had all seemed like… like it could be right. Unbelievably right. Too unbelievably right for anything that would happen to him. He should've known better than to believe it could last.

Maybe it would've worked if he'd been able to realize what was happening sooner, or if he'd been able to act, but… well, facing facts: he'd only barely been able to accept that Amelia might have feelings for him twenty-four hours ago, let alone been able to think of what to do about this. Stanley clearly didn't have that problem. Much as Zelgadis hated to think it: this was a contest he couldn't win.

But what to do now? The potion was done for without Amelia and, given the state of affairs, he was pretty sure that his welcome was worn out. Should he… leave? If he asked Lina and Gourry if they could head out early, they'd ask questions he didn't want to answer. Plus, it'd probably just… be better if he traveled alone.

He didn't want to stick around to see the engagement solidify. He just hoped he didn't get invited to their wedding because he didn't think he could stand that.

...But considering how mad Amelia is at me right now, Zelgadis thought, getting up and gathering his belongings, I probably don't have to worry about being invited to any weddings.

"Uhh… Lina?" Gourry asked, "What are we doing?"

"What does it look like we're doing, Gourry?" Lina retorted, slamming yet another door.

"…Looking for the pantry?" Gourry tried. Lina often got this agitated when trying to search out food, but she ought to know where the kitchen was.

Lina rolled her eyes. "We're looking for a closet," she said, as if this was the most obvious thing in the world. She moved along the hall, opened a door, examined the space beyond it critically, shook her head when it didn't meet with her approval, and then slammed it shut again.

Gourry trailed along behind her. "And… why are we doing that, again?" he asked.

Lina clasped her palms together in a too-eager-slightly-evil way. "To trap our reluctant lovebirds."

Gourry scratched his hair perplexedly. "I thought you said that wouldn't work. You said it'd work on Xellos and Filia, but not on Zel and Amelia because their relationship isn't based on," he paused, screwed up his face in the effort of recollection, "…sexual compostability?"

"Combustibility!" Lina corrected. "Anyway, I don't see you coming up with any bright ideas. It's not like we really have any choices left, so we gotta go with this one even if it's stupid. I mean, we don't exactly have a lot of time, you saw what happened last night!"

"Yeah," Gourry said, now looking rueful. "Amelia was really upset."

"Well, who wouldn't be?" Lina shot back. "I don't see why you men have to be so insensitive all the time," she glowered, looking for another closet door.

"…I'm insensitive?" Gourry queried.

"Just shut up and help me look," Lina said bluntly. "At the very least if we can get them together for awhile they might make up. So we have to act quickly before Zelgadis does something stupid and decides to leave."

"Okay," Gourry said, "but what are we looking around for? It seems like there are a lot of closets around here."

Lina gave him a half-hearted smack on the shoulder. "Use your head, Gourry! We've got to find a closet that's big enough for two people to stand in, but small enough that they'll have to be very close together."

"Why do they need to be that close if we're just trying to get Zel to apologize?" Gourry asked.

Lina shrugged. "If we're going to do this then we might as well go for broke. I mean, we didn't start this whole mess just to end up no worse than we started."

"Oh," Gourry said, and thankfully did not question further.

"The real problem is," Lina said, checking the safety catch on one of the doors, "that it needs to be able to lock them in. Most of these doors lock on the outside, so even if it's locked you can still open it from the inside."

"Well, that makes sense, right?" Gourry said. "I mean, they're not worried about thieves already inside the door."

"Yeah, but that doesn't help us much if they can just open the door and let themselves out," Lina said, crossing her arms.

"Maybe they won't check?" Gourry tried.

"Please, Gourry," Lina said dismissively. "They're not that stupid."

"Ah!" Lina said, slamming her fist triumphantly into her palm. "I think I've got an idea! You know that ice house down on the grounds, right? Where they keep all the animal carcasses for the food? Well, that door isn't meant to be closed when people are in it. It doesn't even have a doorknob on the inside and it locks. It'd be perfect!"

"Uh… Lina…" Gourry began awkwardly.

"I mean, it's a pretty big space," Lina kept going giddily, "but it's going to be freezing in there, so if they want to survive they'll have to huddle together for shared bodily warmth. And they'll be limited air in there so they'll be all worried they're going to die or something and probably confess to each other!"

"Lina!" Gourry cut across her.

"What?" Lina said, sounding slightly injured. "I'd let 'em out before they suffocated. I'm not completely heartless."

"It's not that," Gourry said, and it might have been Lina's imagination but he looked a little pink. "If you really want them to… 'go for broke' with this… then a freezer is not the right place."

Lina blinked at him. "Why?" She'd thought her plan was flawless.

Gourry looked awkwardly around, then bent over and whispered something in her ear.

Lina's eyes flew wide open. "What? Really?"

Gourry nodded gravely.

"Oh," Lina said, face completely flushed. "Then… then…" she cleared her throat and regained her composure, "then we'll have to find somewhere else!"

"Hey," Gourry said, shading his eyes and looking down the hall as Lina tried to erase the last couple of minutes from her brain. "I think that guy's on the cleaning staff. Maybe we should ask him about closets?"

Gourry had made the brilliant deduction about the man's occupation from the fact that he was pushing around a cart of cleaning supplies and wearing janitor-blue. Lina raised an eyebrow. "Ask him how? You want us to just go up to the guy and say: 'Hey! We're trying to get two of our friends to fall in love to save the kingdom! Do you think you could show us a cramped closet that locks on the inside that we could trap them in until they become romantically involved?'"

"Sure, why not?" Gourry said. He waved at the guy. "Hey! Could we ask you a question?"

Lina let her face fall into her hands. She'd forgotten about Gourry's impenetrable sarcasm shield.

The janitor rolled his cart up to them and lifted his cap slightly in respect. "Can I help you?" he asked.

"Yeah," Gourry said cheerfully, ignorant to Lina's desire to just crawl away. "We're looking for a closet that you could fit two people in?"

The man leered over his glasses at the two of them. "Oooh, I see. Lookin' for a little privacy?"

Lina caught the man in the ribs with her elbow. "It's not for us!" she yelled.

"It's for our friends," Gourry said simply. Lina glared at him.

"Oh," the man said, rubbing at his bruised side. "My word." He thought for a moment. "Wish I had friends like you two." His eyes said: 'It's certainly better than enemies!'

Lina crossed her arms. "Look, don't worry about why. We just need a closet that's big enough to fit two people, but not comfortably, that has a locking mechanism that keeps whoever is inside the closet locked in, and that doesn't have a lot of foot-traffic around the area so people wouldn't hear any screaming and pounding on the door for awhile." She stopped. Put it that way, it sounded like they were trying to kidnap someone.

"…Is this like that… seven minutes in heaven game?" the old man asked.

Lina was surprised and slightly sickened that the man knew that term. She vaguely recalled coming across it at the twelfth birthday party of a local girl in her town. Ritchy Hawkins left that closet with a black eye and it served him right too. "Kind of," Lina said. "Only we're hoping for more than seven minutes."

"I know just the place!" the man said, tugging at his beard.

He left his cart and led them up a flight of stairs and down a disused looking hallway. He stopped before an old metal door, rapped at it meaningfully with his fingers and grinned.

"This?" Lina said disbelievingly. "But it doesn't look like it even has a lock on it!"

"Doesn't have to, Missy," the old man said. "Watch." He gripped the doorknob and pulled laboriously. He braced himself against the doorframe with his foot and pulled some more. After about ten minutes, the door finally burst open.

"See?" the janitor said, red-faced and worn out. "It sticks something fierce. No one's ever bothered to put a lock on it because there aint much point."

"I see," Lina said. This had possibilities.

"The door handle is broken on the other side, so it's nigh impossible to open from the inside. And I should know. I got trapped in there once," the old man said.

"What? Really?"

"Yes sir and ma'am," the janitor said, nodding gravely. "It's a real death-trap is this door 'cause you see, it's weighted so it often closes by itself, and it's heavy so it's hard to stop once it starts shuttin'. One day I was gettin' some extra cleaning supplies and WHAM the door shut and I was stuck!"

"How long were you trapped in there?" Gourry asked, open mouthed.

"Three days," the janitor said, nodding gravely. "No one comes 'round this way, you see? It's all 'cause of that rickety staircase. Everyone goes the other way, so no one heard me screamin' and poundin'. I had to drink some blue cleaning fluid to survive." He scratched his head. "I'm sure it was poisonous, but it aint done me no permanent harm." His eye twitched violently, but he didn't seem to notice.

The janitor's brain damage aside, this seemed like a perfect idea. "This is great," Lina said, touching the doorframe appreciatively. "Thanks a lot, old man!"

"No problem," the man said with a wave. He went off again mumbling good naturedly to himself about how he remembered what it was like to be young and in love.

"So, you think it'll work?" Gourry asked, once the man had gone.

"Well, the locking thing certainly sounds promising," Lina said, peering into the dark recesses beyond.

"How are we supposed to get them in here?" Gourry asked curiously.

Lina waved a hand dismissively. "We'll figure that out once we're sure that this one will work." She looked inside. "Do you think that could fit two people?"

"I don't know…" Gourry said, looking inside. "It looks pretty cramped."

"Well, we want it to be cramped… but we have to get them both in there in the first place," she said, tapping her finger on her cheek. She strolled speculatively inside the small, dark space. Another person might be able to fit, but it'd be close. "Hey, Gourry," she said. "Come in here for a second. I want to check something."

"Sure, Lina," Gourry said, striding forward.

"Just make sure you don't let the door—"

SLAM.