Just Waiting
Part Twenty-Two D, Day Eighty-Eight – 2 Days to Go
By Relm
Outside the office Luna frowned. Even though Filia confirmed that she still wanted to marry Xellos, Luna still wasn't like where this conversation was heading.
Xellos smiled as he walked down the halls of the inn. After De Tanga left Xellos decided to follow him from a distance. But De Tanga was spending so much time in one room Xellos had to get closer to investigate. What he found was Luna Inverse the famed monster slayer and head waitress of 'The Devil's Spoon' standing in the hall listening outside the very door of the room De Tanga was in. 'This is amusing.' He stalked closer and closer towards Luna, marvelling at the fact that the purple haired woman failed to notice his presence.
If Luna had been in a proper frame of mind she would have noticed Xellos right away. But because she was preoccupied she didn't realize he was in the hall with her.
Xellos inched over so close to Luna until he was standing right behind her. He lowered his face right next to her ear that wasn't pressed up against the door. "Listening in on other people's conversations isn't a nice thing to do." He whispered.
Luna jumped and went to reach for her sword to slash the owner of the offending whisper. But of course it was hard to attack something with a sword when you didn't have said sword strapped to your back. It was a gut reaction that Luna almost cursed when she remembered her sword wasn't with her. So she found herself trying to hit the offending voice with her fist.
Xellos of course avoided this attack. "Now now that's not very nice to do. Especially when it's the groom to be of the wedding you're attending tomorrow." He chided her waving his finger in the air.
Luna had a strong urge to snap off said finger. But she refrained. In part that was because she was once again struck by the oddness of Xellos' appearance. This was only the second time Luna had come face to face with Greater Beast Zellas' general priest. One thought had crossed Luna's mind the last time she saw Xellos, that part of the reason why De Tanga was interested in her because she looked like Xellos. That it wasn't losing Filia to Xellos that bothered Deep Sea Dolphin's priest but losing Xellos to Filia. That deep down De Tanga was really in love with Xellos. This thought bothered Luna quite a bit. She didn't have anything against same sex relationships but it was never nice to think of a potential boyfriend being hung up on a guy.
Xellos could sense the odd emotions emanating from her and it confused him. 'Why is she looking at me so strangely?'
"Sneaking up on me was a very dangerous thing to do." Luna finally retorted shaking off the weirdness that had been gripping her.
"Given your reputation and our last run in I really shouldn't have been able to get that close in the first place." Xellos mused with a smug smile on his face. "Or has dating a monster made you unable to sense them?"
Luna glared at him. "I'm not dating De Tanga." She said through gritted teeth.
"Really? I don't remember putting your name on the invite list. So you have to be here as his date, that by definition alone means you are dating him. Unless you came with someone else?" Xellos mocked her.
"You know damn well I came with him. Did you really think he was going to come here alone?" Luna shot back rather quickly.
"My how protective you must be over him. But then again you chose to spare his life when he entered your home and usually you kill monsters for that action." Xellos observed.
"I had my reasons. If I didn't you would have been killed when you popped into my restaurant."
"If memory serves me you tried to. And it was our dear friend De Tanga that stopped you. Now why would you take orders from a monster?" Xellos tapped his chin in thought.
"Would you like me kill you right now to make up for not doing it before?" Luna threatened him.
"Oh but if you did that who would marry Filia tomorrow?"
Luna let out a dark chuckle. "Oh so that's why you're here. You're afraid Filia is going to realize the mistake she made by picking you. And you're harassing me to try and keep your mind off the fact that your best friend is potentially changing your fiancé's mind about marrying you."
Xellos' smile became strained. "Sadly you don't know my Filia too well. She's not going to change her mind."
"From the conversation I heard I wouldn't be so sure about that." Luna shot back.
"Oh really? What pray tell did you happen to hear?"
"I can't tell you that. Because listening in on other people's conversation isn't a nice thing to do."
...
While Xellos and Luna were arguing Filia and De Tanga had moved onto other topics.
"You're master... She's a strange one." Filia commented thinking back to her last meeting with the monster lord.
"Yeah. She's been like that as long as I can remember. I can't believe she kidnapped you and tried to kill Xellos." De Tanga replied guiltily. He knew he couldn't blame his master for what she did. If he hadn't gotten so upset she wouldn't have done it in the first place.
"The way she talked... She's very protective over you isn't she? Is she like that with all her minions?"
De Tanga shook his head. "No not really. If someone killed or tried to kill one of her minions I know she would retaliate. As monsters are possessive over what is theirs. But as she has said many times, I'm her favourite."
Filia frowned. "The way she talked about you... It's almost as though she was referring to you as her son."
Now it was De Tanga's turn to frown. "What are you getting at?"
"Do you know who your mother is?"
"No... my master isn't my birth mother. She couldn't be." De Tanga shook his head. It didn't make sense to him.
"You've never considered that possibility before?"
"I never considered it because it just isn't plausible. For her to be my mother she would have given birth to me. And for a female monster lord to create a minion in such a way would be a dangerous thing for her. I can't see her putting herself in such a vulnerable position just to create a minion." De Tanga rationalized.
"Well perhaps it wasn't a planned pregnancy." Filia suggested.
"Even still I would have heard something about it after the fact."
"Regardless of what the situation was I think she thinks of herself as a surrogate mother to you."
"That is most likely true. Even though she is crazy and completely random I am happy to have her as a master. Things could have always been worse."
Filia had another comment to make but a disturbing feeling stuck her thoughts cold. "I think it's outside the door." Filia commented while frowning.
"It?" De Tanga questioned Filia's comment while frowning in confusion.
"Xellos. I feel an evil presence nearby." Filia shuddered.
"Do you really want to be married to someone who gives you the heebie-jeebies every time he's near?" De Tanga joked with a laugh.
Filia just rolled her eyes. "What is he doing out there anyway?"
"I talked to him before I came here. He won't admit it but I think he's worried I'm going to sway you away from him."
Filia chuckled. "Should I go out there and tell him the wedding is off?"
"What and tell him that you're marrying me instead?"
Filia nodded while laughing.
"No you can't do that!" De Tanga insisted.
"You said it yourself there's a lot of people that are hoping that I don't marry Xellos. So really I'd just be doing what they want." Filia explained her point.
"No you aren't for several reasons. One of those being that you want to marry him. And even it's a joke you might piss some people off. What about those that travelled a long way to get here? They might get mad at you."
Filia rolled her eyes. "Fine. Though there aren't too many people come from afar. Just four people."
...
"You know I bet this is just some sick joke." Lina muttered as she and her three travelling companions entered Filia's town. She was of course with Gourry, Amelia and Zelgadis.
"Yeah I'll say. I can't see someone like Filia actually lowering herself to a level where she would be fine with marrying a monster like Xellos." Zelgadis agreed with Lina. "I'll bet Xellos just sent out those invitations just to piss Filia off."
"But it was Miss Filia's handwriting in the invitations!" Amelia protested.
"Do you really think Filia would want to marry Xellos?" Zelgadis rolled her eyes.
"Yeah those two fight like cats and dogs. It's hard to imagine them ever together." Gourry added agreeing with Zelgadis.
"You don't think Mister Xellos is forcing Miss Filia to marry him?" Amelia gasped in horror. "What if he's threatening to kill her if she doesn't marry him?"
"Why would a member of the monster race want to force the last known remaining golden dragon into marrying them?" Lina scoffed at the idea.
"Maybe he's being ordered into marrying Filia." Gourry suggested.
"Why would Greater Beast Zellas want her general priest to marry a golden dragon?" Zelgadis wondered.
"They would have some powerful children." Gourry explained.
"Well even if that were true, it still wouldn't explain why Filia would agree to it. Even if Filia was being threatened into marrying Xellos for the reason of powerful offspring I highly doubt she would want to sleep with him."
"Maybe baby Val's life is at stake!" Amelia exclaimed. "Maybe he's being held for ransom!"
"Baby Val isn't a baby." Zelgadis corrected her. "Last I heard he's a fully grown teenager."
"But he's not that old!" Amelia protested.
"It's going to be weird seeing him after what happened the last time." Lina frowned thinking back to when she last saw Val. He was Valgaav then and trying to destroy the world. Not very happy memories to say the least.
"I'm sure with Miss Filia raising him Mister Valgaav is a nice good hearted person who is a champion of justice!" Amelia pointed to the sky in her typical fanfare.
Lina rolled her eyes at Amelia's display but deep down she somewhat agreed with the Sailune princess. Val had to be a different person with Filia around as his 'mother'. 'I should stop worrying about that. I'm sure everything is fine.' Though she told herself this it didn't help the growing uneasiness in her stomach. She was feeling dread and the further they got into town the more it seemed to build. 'Why am I feeling so horrible?'
...
Xellos grinned as he sensed who just happened to come into town. "Ah so they made it after all."
Luna raised an eyebrow (not you could see it). "To whom are you referring to?"
"Some traveling companions of mine. One of which you know quite well." Xellos was greatly amused by this fact.
By Xellos' playful tone Luna had a feeling she knew exactly who he was talking about. "Are you going to greet them?"
"I suppose I must. It is my duty as a host to greet my guests."
"Do me a favour; don't tell her I'm here. I want to see her terror in person."
"Hmm..." Xellos tapped his chin in thought. "That would get the maximum result from her. I'll look forward to that." And with that Xellos was off to 'greet' the others.
Again alone in the hall Luna went to put her ear back to the door when Val came storming through.
"Where is she?" Val muttered to himself as he looked around. "Um..." Val looked at Luna realizing he either didn't know her name or had forgotten it which made things a tad awkward for the young ancient dragon. "Do you know where my mother is?"
"She's in this room talking with De Tanga. And it's Luna." There was just a slight edge to her voice.
"Right. You came with De Tanga. Well I guess I should let them talk. I'm sure I can handle things without her."
"What did you need help with?"
"It's nothing I can't handle I suppose. It's just we're having some issues with the waiting staff for the wedding. The schedule is a bit of a mess because one of the waiters quit last minute. And some of them have never waited tables before. Of course I don't find out about this until just a moment ago." Val let out a heavy sigh. "I'll figure it out I guess. I probably shouldn't be bothering my mother about these things."
Luna wasn't one to offer help to just anyone. Usually she would rather watch people fumble along stupidly while she sat there and watched. But any potential hiccup with the wedding could cause tension for the bride to be and ultimately call off the wedding. Plus waiting staff issues were a piece of cake. "Okay let's go. I'll deal with the staff."
"Are you sure? I mean have you ever worked in a restaurant before?" Val wondered.
"I own one. So just give me a couple minutes with your whimpy staff. By the end up of it I'll have them either ready or fleeing with tears in their eyes." There was a glint of sinister joy in Luna's eyes. She did love to make people cry.
"Why would you want them to cry and run?"
"You always have to weed out the stupid and pathetic ones. We're going, now!" Luna grabbed Val by the arm and dragged him along with her.
Val knew next to nothing about Luna Inverse. And a part of him didn't want to know anything about her, as she already frightened him.
(Author's Notes: It's my general rule of thumb that when I write a fic that is mostly Xellos/Filia that I don't include Lina, Gourry, Zelgadis and Amelia in the story. Though this story is Luna/De Tanga centric because it's a sequel to 'Mind Games' the same rule should apply. The reason behind this rule is because I don't wish to alienate my readers that prefer for 'cannon' pairings. As I don't like 'cannon' pairings in Slayers. I'm breaking my rule this time, however just so I don't alienate anyone there will not be any Lina/Gourry, Lina/Zelgadis, Amelia/Zelgadis or any other possible combination involving those four characters. Sorry if this disappoints anyone.)