Just Waiting

Part Twenty-Three G, Day 89 – 1 Day to Go

By Relm

While Filia and the girls were getting ready the guys were off in another part of the inn getting ready themselves. Or rather they were trying to get ready but they were being prevented from doing so.

"Where the hell is my tie?" Zelgadis grumbled looking around under the couch.

"This is not my suit jacket!" Val exclaimed in anger.

"Why do I have two left shoes?" Gourry wondered confusion.

Xellos just sat there watching the chaos while drinking his tea. The smile on his face looked innocent but that was never the case with Xellos.

"Xellos why do this stuff on your wedding day?" De Tanga questioned him with a very bored expression on his face.

"I have no idea what you're talking about. I'm perfectly ready to get married." Xellos explained while motioning to his state of dress. While everyone else was not ready Xellos was dressed in his tux with not a winkle or a hair out of place.

"So then that's your game? Stand there at the altar looking perfect while your wedding party looks like a mess?" De Tanga just shook his head. "Zelgadis your tie is under the chair, Gourry you have one of my shoes and Val I believe that's Gourry's jacket."

Xellos glared at him. "You always have to ruin my fun don't you?"

"If it's fun for the whole family then no I wouldn't. But when you're the only one having fun then yes Xellos I have to."

"But it's my wedding day." Xellos protested. "Shouldn't I be allowed to have my fun?"

"You keep this up you will have no one standing with you at the altar." De Tanga warned him.

"Oh but you'll still be there won't you my best friend?"

De Tanga rolled his eyes rather than answer the question.

...

Outside the door in the hall Gravos stood looking rather bored. He personally didn't care one way or another if something bad happened to Xellos. In fact Gravos wished something would happen so that Filia didn't have to marry the monster. The only reason why he offered to stand watch was to ease Filia's mind. So since he wasn't so concerned it was very hard to fight off the boredom he was feeling. Standing there doing nothing made him feel sleepy. But little did Gravos know that there wouldn't be an attack on Xellos or Filia while they were getting ready. No that wouldn't be until the big show began.

...

She seemed to dance as she made her way around town. Her long hair blew in the wind as she twirled around. To those that saw her would wonder who this long haired ballerina was. She was beautiful and mysterious. Even her smile was bewitching, though it was filled with sinister intent. "Hello!" She called out to any random person she saw. Her voice was melodious which fit perfectly with her dancing mannerisms.

Those she greeted nervously responded back as if not sure to be happy about the greeting or disturbed by it.

...

The setting was set. Flowers were arranged, music was playing and people had taken their places. What was about to be would be a monumental occasion. A monster was going to marry golden dragon. No matter what happened it was going to make history.

The church was a modest sized one that could house lots of people but it still wasn't large enough for those that had gathered for the wedding. The purple tulip adorned pews were crammed with all the guests there to bear witness to the nuptials. It was common for one side of the church to have guest there on behalf of either the groom or the bride while the other side would be for the other. But in this case most of the guests sitting on the grooms' side weren't there for Xellos. As Xellos was a monster he tended to antagonise those that he met so who would be there to support him? But as such Filia had so many guests that some of hers had to be seated on Xellos' side. Xellos did have a few there on his behalf but only one was worth mentioning. That being Greater Beast Zellas, Xellos' master. Zellas sat looking rather smug and content as she drank glass after glass of wine. The wedding hadn't even started yet and it appeared the monster lord was already drunk. There was something wrong about being drunk in church as it was supposed to be a holy place but there wasn't a person that was going to say something. It was Greater Beast Zellas after all.

On the other side of the church Luna glared at the sight of the drunken Zellas. Though Luna had never had any face to face encounters with Xellos' master she still wasn't calm with her being so near. Part of that reason was that with Zellas in the church it was hard to sense any other monsters that might decide to show up. Zellas' miasmic astral body exuded much energy that it was almost dizzying. Combine that with the energy from Xellos and De Tanga and it was enough to put someone into sensory overload.

'At the very least with her here that should scare away any of the weak ones thinking of causing trouble.' Luna thought to herself as she absentmindedly played with one of the purple tulips.

Though they weren't the flowers Filia had wanted originally but they did look good in the church. Out of all the things Xellos could have done to irritate his wife to be the flowers were actually the least of worries Filia could have had. In reality Xellos had chosen the flowers not to bother Filia, but to surprise her. The tulips did look much better. Or at least this is what Xellos thought as he stood at the altar waiting for the wedding to start. He looked to be like any excited groom. His smile was big and his hands still. But that was just the outward facade. Inside Xellos was ready to explode with nervous energy. Though he pretended to be all indifferent to the possible horrors the day could bring he was really far from it. Xellos continuously scanned the room looking for anything out of place.

...

"She's here..." De Tanga mumbled to himself as he peeked into the church main room from one of the halls.

"Who? It's not your master is it?" Val tried to look to see what De Tanga was seeing.

"No my master isn't here." De Tanga assured Val.

"Then who were you talking about?"

"Greater Beast Zellas."

"Xellos' master? She's here?"

"Well in a way she's the mother of the groom. So it's unlikely that she'd miss the wedding."

"Is she drinking?" Val wondered out loud as he noticed the wine glass. "There's got to be some rule against getting drunk in a church." He frowned in disgust.

"I wouldn't suggest trying to get her to let go of her wine. Zellas can be a very mean drunk."

"Still I don't like it."

"Having her here is actually a good thing. It means that she supports this union. Any lower monster would be pretty spooked to see her here."

"It's not the lower monsters I worry about." Val mumbled.

De Tanga stayed quiet at that comment. He would have loved to tell Val that there was no way Deep Sea was going to show up but he knew that wasn't likely. She had said as much wanting to make food for the reception. He just hoped that if Deep Sea Dolphin was going to show up it wasn't going to be during the actual wedding.

"Mister De Tanga I'm thirsty." A little girl with blond hair and purple eyes go in between De Tanga and Val. She tugged on De Tanga's pants while trying not to let go of her basket of flowers. This little girl was the little sister of one of Val's friends. Her name was Cecilia and she was the flower girl for the wedding. Her twin brother Aaron was the ring bearer.

"I need to go to the potty." Aaron announced while also tugging on De Tanga's other pant leg.

"Where's your mother?" De Tanga looked around frantically.

"Mommy and Daddy sitting down over there." Cecilia pointed to the pews.

"They said you were looking after us." Aaron explained.

"Okay you too let's go. We have to be quick." De Tanga scooped both kids up and teleported out of the church hall.

Looking himself in the mirror Val went to see if his hair was still okay but then he noticed something missing. The little purple carnation that was supposed to be in his pocket was not there. "Darn where'd that flower gone to?" Val looked around annoyed.

"I think it's right here." A woman with long green hair spoke while picking up a flower from the floor. She offered it to him with a warm smile gracing her ruby red lips. Her light green eyes sparkled like peridots tickled with mischief.

"Thanks." Val accepted the flower sheepishly not looking the woman directly in the eyes. She was beautiful and just being near her was making him blush. He really should have been questioning who this strange woman was. He had never seen her before in town. With all the possible dangers Val barely seemed to register them at that moment in his brain. It was too fogged up with being near a pretty lady. Val was a teenager after all. "Are you here for the wedding?" He dared ask her.

"I wasn't invited to the wedding. I'm just passing through town. Though it looks like it's going to be an interesting one." She said with a slight smirk.

Val rolled his eyes as he put the carnation back in his tux jacket pocket. The moment the flower rested in itself place a strange quietness befell Val. His golden eyes widened as did his pupils. It only lasted for just the scarcest of moments before Val was back to being alert. He didn't even realize he had blacked out there. "Well you have a nice day."

"You too." She smiled at him before turning around to leave the church. As the woman stepped out of the sacred building her green hair changed colour. It turned back to the dark blue it always was. And her light blue eyes held the childlike insanity so common to her. She danced through the town once more leaving confused people in her wake.

...

As De Tanga brought back the children he felt a faint sense of something powerful. It was fleeting as the source was quickly leaving. 'Probably just a monster scared off by Zellas.' De Tanga wrote it off as he got Cecilia and Aaron ready.

"Are we starting this thing already or what?" Lina fumed as she stomped her way down the halls. She did look pretty in her purple dress but the red head was not fond of the shoes chosen for her. They were heels and positively dreadful! 'I bet Xellos picked out these damned shoes!'

"Yeah we are." Val answered while looking at Lina strangely. Something was gnawing at him in the back of his head as he looked at Lina. Though this foreign feeling was interesting it didn't compare to the sight of his foster mother in her wedding dress. "Mom... you look..." Val trailed off as he couldn't think of any words to properly describe how beautiful Filia looked.

Filia blushed slightly feeling a tad embarrassed to having everyone looking at her. "Thanks honey."

"Yes Miss Filia you are beautiful." Amelia agreed happily. Unlike Lina she wasn't bothered so much about her shoes. Being a princess meant that Amelia would often have to dress in elaborate gowns with high heeled shoes. In fact the Sailune princess was very happy about how she looked. A statement like 'she felt like a princess' may be redundant for an actual princess but Amelia did feel special. Mind you not as special as Filia but as special as a bridesmaid could be.

Gourry and Zelgadis on the other hand didn't seem to like their tuxes too much. What had seemed fine enough when they originally went for their fitting was now not so good. The material didn't allow the skin to breathe that well and it made them feel a bit itchy. It wasn't unbearable to ware or anything but it was annoying.

Filia knelt down beside the kids and affectionately ruffled their hair. "Are you two ready?"

Both Aaron and Cecilia nodded their heads enthusiastically.

"Okay cue the music."

The music changed alerting everyone in the church that it was time for the wedding to start.

The two little ones made their way down the aisle while everyone watched. Both the kids were cute in their little outfits but it did little to draw De Tanga's attention to them. Instead the monster priest's eyes were transfixed on the bride to be.

De Tanga could sense Filia's fears which was understandable. That wasn't the reason why his gaze was transfixed. It was just like Val's reaction; De Tanga was taken aback by Filia's beauty. He had been very good about keeping his old emotions at bay up till this point but that wasn't the case anymore.

She was going to marry him. She was going to marry Xellos. This thought, this notion made things bubble up in De Tanga's stomach he didn't want bubbling. He felt so sick like he wanted to vomit and the taste in his mouth was like he already had.

'Stop it!' De Tanga mentally scolded himself. 'You're here to support this wedding. You don't love her.' He reminded himself. 'We already went over this before. You would have fought harder for her if you did love her. Remember what she said. Otherwise these past three months were for nothing. Because then you'll lose her too. You'll lose Luna.'

Luna.

That name alone put some of his nerves at ease. He was there to face this trial for her after all. She came all this way to be with him through this. To be supportive. Because even though it was a trial she imposed on him she wanted to be there for him. She wanted him to succeed. Perhaps she even believed in him, that he would indeed pass this test. But as he searched the crowd for the reassuring face of his purple haired companion he feared he was failing this trial after all.

(Author's Notes: Yeah finally at the wedding! When starting this fic I had decided that by this point I was going to have another 3 parts and that would be it. But that obviously won't be the case. I've decided to add more conflict thus making it much longer.)