A Hopeless Dream
Jay-chan

The night was cold and wet, but Lina was too deep in thought to
notice. She just continued to stare up at the full moon as she sat by herself
upon a small cliff's edge.

The pain had gotten too intense for her to handle, and for a moment
she didn't think she could hide the tears from her friends. Luckily it was
Gourry's watch and within a half an hour he was asleep, allowing Lina to sneak
off into the surrounding forest.

She was alone, just as she always was, and for once she wished she
wasn't. A tear slipped from the corner of her eye as she continued to sink
deeper and deeper into depression.

"Lina?"

Lina spun around, fireball ready, to face her unexpected visitor, only
to come face to face with the cause of her suffering.

"Oh, uh...hey Zel." She put out the fireball and turned back to the
moon hopping he didn't see the tears in her eyes. As much as she cared for
him, she still wanted him to leave. He loved Amelia and there was nothing she
could do about it except cry. But she refused to cry, Lina Inverse did not
cry.

Zel sat down next to her and looked up at the full moon. She couldn't
help but notice how the pale light glittered off his metallic hair and make his
stone features look softer than they truly were. It all made her hurt more.

"So why are you out here?" His soft voice interrupted her thoughts,
as he turned to look at her.

"No reason. I just wanted to think." It took all her strength to keep
her voice from cracking.

"Your lying." Zel said simply as he turned back to the moon.

"How would you know or care?" she snorted, her eyes cold as she too
looked at the lonely moon. She couldn't help but think of a fable she heard
some years back...

Long ago, when the earth was still young, the sun and moon fell in love.
They longed to be together; however, as much as each wished for it to be,
they knew it was not possible.

At first the moon would come and visit the sun, but the moon would
block out the sun's warm rays and cause havoc upon the earth. So the sun
tried visiting the moon, but then the sun left one side of the earth in
complete darkness.

In the end they both knew that to be together would be impossible,
and so they separated, never to be together again. This made both the moon
and the sun very sad, and so the moon cried. She cried many of nights until
the hole night sky was sprinkled with tiny crystals which decorated the night
sky like little suns in remembrance of her love for the one she could never be
with.

Lina didn't know what caused her to think of the fable, but it seemed
to fit her situation. She was the sun, he was the moon, she was fire, he was
water. Both never to be together and that hurt.

Lina stared unblinking at the moon, with understanding in her eyes,
when a silent tear fell from her eye. Zel looked over at her at that moment
as saw the tear fall from her eye and caught it as it fell off her cheek.

He treated the tear as if it were the most valuable treasure every
created before he softly placed a hand of Lina's shoulder. She shrugged it
off angrily and continued to look strait ahead.

"Lina," he placed his hand upon her shoulder again, and again she
pushed it off. "Lina, tell me what's wrong." She turned her head and gave him
an angry glare.

"You want to know what's wrong?!" She stood up and glared down at
her stone companion. "You're what's wrong with me!" Zel was now standing
right in front of her.

"It's all your fault!" she started to scream louder and started to punch
and kick Zel with all her might, tears falling all the while. "Why?! Answer me
that, Zel!" she continued to let out all her frustration, pain, sorrow and
anger on Zel. It was easy to tell that she already had some broken bones in
her hand as well as a fractured shin, but still she didn't stop.

It seemed she wouldn't have stopped at all if Zel hadn't grabbed her
by the wrists. It was obvious she had forgotten he wasn't human again and so
he attempted to stop her from hurting herself any further, but when he
grabbed her wrists she still kept on kicking him, breaking more bones in her
lower legs.

Finally Zel was forced to wrestle her to the ground and wrap his legs
around hers from behind and kept his hands gently, yet firmly around her
wrists. Lina continued to squirm, so he held her closer to his body in hopes to
stop her.

Several minutes passed before Lina stopped moving and just simply
cried, each sob raking her body harder. Slowly he removed one hand from
her wrists and moved it to brush her hair away from her face, then gently
stroked her cheek as he cast a healing spell upon her damaged hands.

"Why?" she whispered. "Why...?" Her body started to shiver from the
cold and the great release of emotion.

"'Why' what, Lina?" he asked softly. He still held her, but not as firmly
as before, it was more gentle. "Please Lina, tell me."

She began to cry harder. "Why did I have to fall in love with someone
who won't love me back..." Zel couldn't stop himself, he had to ask.

"Who is this man?" Zel's voice was stern, yet gentle at the same time,
something only he could pull off. Lina sniffed and took a deep breath,

"It's you, Zel. It's you." Zel's heart stopped. He couldn't believe it, she
loved him. She loved him! He was so happy, for the first time in his life,
things seemed to be right. He leaned over her solder, while still not releasing
his hold on her, and whispered softly in her ear.

"I love you too, Lina." Lina spun her head around to look at him, but
instead she was met with a tender kiss. And so they kissed in the soft glow
of the late night moon.

___________________

Corny? YES! lol, sorry, this is my first romantic fic and second Slayers
fic, so what do you expect? I usually don't go for the romantic stuff, but
sometimes you just have to try something new, ne? Well hoped you liked it!
Ja ne!