Chapter Two: ' Embarrass! What is the drink of the drool worthy?'
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" Sure!" Lina said, winking and giving him thumbs up, " I know just the restaurant!"
Zelgadis stumbled a bit, " Restaurant?" He asked weakly.
" Un," Lina answered happily, walking down the street briskly, Gourry right besides her. " They've got a great hotpot!"
" Yare yare." Zelgadis sighed. Some things were eternal.
The meal that followed was something the town had never seen, nor would they ever see again…at least, that's what the town folk were hoping. Lina and Gourry went through hotpot after hotpot, loafs of bread, piles of shellfish, tons of meat on a stick. And for all that food was flying everywhere, not a single morsel of it went uneaten.
Zelgadis had a cup of coffee.
" Yum!" Lina said, her mouth full to the brim with food. " Oishii, Oishii, Oishii!" She worked her cheeks around a large chunk of steak. " Now this is the kind off food you expect to find in a port town, ne Zelgadis?"
" Aa," he said, sipping absently from his now lukewarm cup of coffee, wondering if a waitress would be brave enough to wade through the food storm in order to get him a fresh cup.
Lina and Gourry had their forks locked over the last string of sausage. They glared at each other, Gourry obviously straining to keep his fork in the arena. Suddenly, Lina reached up and tickled him in his under arm, causing him to yell and fall backwards. Triumphantly, Lina grabbed the string of sausage and ate it.
" Yum," she said again.
" Lina," Gourry looked up at her from the floor with big eyes. " That was the last string!"
" Oh hush," she said, " I bought you your sword."
" No you didn't," Gourry said, raising his arm so he could look at the sword in question. " You stole it from that shopkeeper."
" I what?" Lina said threateningly, looming over Gourry.
" Nothing!" Gourry said, backing down. That done, Lina looked over at Zelgadis, to see that he had somewhat of an eye twitch.
" You…tickled him." Zelgadis said, lowering his coffee cup from his lips. " And you knew where to tickle him." His eyebrow went up even farther, to disappear beneath his hair. " Someone's getting friendly with their protector, ne?"
" N…Nani!?" Lina yelled, blushing almost the color of her hair. " I did not!"
" Whatever you say o harbinger of doom."
" And just what do you mean by that?" She yelled, letting her classic 'Lina's pissed' fangs into view. " I'm sick of being called Dragon Spooker, Enemy of all who live and That Flat Chested Little Kid!" She was almost bellowing at this point.
" Well," Zelgadis said, leaning back in his chair, " Whenever we run into each other, we tend to embark on a quest to save the world or some other world. Which implies in the end that there is something to save it from, which means, Lina, that whenever the old gang gets together, something really wrong and twisted is going to happen."
" You are correct." Stated Xellos from behind Zelgadis's chair and holding a cup of tea.
Zelgadis went down pretty fast.
Glaring up at Xellos from his new vantage point from the floor, and sporting that trendy new fashion of coffee stains all over his cloths, Zelgadis looked less then thrilled to see the other droolable Xell.
[Much like 'The other white meat' aids, its 'The other droolable Xell/Zel'™…sorry, just had to throw that in]
" Why Zelgadis-kun," Xellos said, wagging his finger at Zel and letting his teacup disappear into thin air. " You don't look happy to see me. And after I took all this trouble to bring Princess Amelia too! Tsk tsk, how rude!"
" Amelia," Zelgadis said, surprised, " You brought Amelia?"
" Ah, poor Zelgadis-kun, your curse is starting to effect your hearing."
" Lay off Xellos," Lina said, standing, " what's the deal this time? God from another world trying to take over? A Phibrizzo wannabe?"
" Nothing like that," Xellos said, grinning.
" Well then what?" Lina said, exasperated.
" Sore wa--" he started, but Lina grabbed him by the collar and dragged him down to eye level.
" You give me that 'It's a secret' stuff," she threatened, " And I'll rip out whatever internal organs you Mazoku have."
" My, my, Lina-san, such anger is really quite beautiful on you." Xellos said.
Lina let go of Xellos and turned to Gourry and Zelgadis. " You know what to do," she told them.
Taking a deep breath, the two of them reached inside the folds of their robes (or armor in Gourry's case) and pulled out…
Megaphones.
" Life is wonderful," they sang at Xellos through them. " Life is great, life is wonderful!" Gourry's eyes were stars and Zelgadis's had a glazed look about them (through actual happiness or just trying to block the fact that he was actually doing something so stupid in public from actually reaching his mind…your pick). Pretty space enfolded them as they chanted a positive message at Xellos.
Xellos looked physically ill. His face was white and he backed up against the restaurant wall. He fell to his knees, his eyes clamped shut, in obvious physical pain.
" Minna!" Came a voice from the stairs off in the corner, saving Xellos, " Your all here!…except for Filia, but that's okay. It's so good to see you!"
Lina, Gourry, Zelgadis and Xellos, even though Xellos already knew, turned to see who it was. And who should it be but…Amelia! The lover of justice! The purveyor of peace! The dork who had her shirt on backwards!
" Um," Lina said, motioning Amelia down the stairs a little so she could whisper to her. " Amelia, it's great to see you and all…but…your shirt's on backwards."
Amelia blushed, her first time to see Zelgadis in a while and she had to go and make a stupid mistake like that. What on earth was he going to think about her now!?
Turning an even brighter red at catching Zelgadis staring at her and thinking that he must be staring at her shirt, she turned around and ran back upstairs. Xellos turned and saw Zelgadis looking rather dazed at where the rather obviously grown up princess had been standing and nudged him with the jeweled end of his staff (that phrase, my friends, has several interpretations, let's stick to the rated G one for now).
" Grown up a bit, hasn't she?" He asked Zelgadis…and got no answer.
Zelgadis could do little but stare at where Amelia had been standing and think, " Wow! And…Wow!"
Amelia's hair was now down to her shoulders, dark as ever but somehow more…sexy. Where her bosoms had seemed large on a girl like her when they had last traveled a couple of years ago, she 'fitted' them now, having grown several feet taller, and filled out a bit…where as Lina seemed permanently stuck on 'itty bitty'.
Abruptly, our hunk of stony goodness blinked, coughed a little and took another sip of his ice-cold coffee.
" Why'd she go back upstairs?" He asked Lina…who gave him a funky look.
" You okay?" She asked, attempting to feel his forehead and only managing to prick her hands on his hair. " Ouch! Anyway, she had to change her shirt. Didn't you notice? Ooh!" Lina finally caught on and a big smile crossed her face. "Zelly has a crush on Amelia now does he?!"
" What are you talking about?" Zelgadis quickly slipped his poker face back on. " I was just as surprised as you were, that's all."
" Uh huh," Lina said smugly, giving him a wry smile, " That's why you still don't notice that you spilled your coffee all over your pants."
" What!" Zelgadis leaped up, looking down at his now dripping wet, and dark brown trousers. " Grand. I've booked a room next door, I'll go and get my clothes--"
" Nope," Lina said, holding up her hand. " I'm not going to have a companion of mine walk around in public looking like he pissed himself. Gourry, would you go next door and get them?"
" Sure," Gourry stood up, " What's your room number Zel?"
" 52," Xellos answered.
Lina facevaulted onto the floor. " NOT THAT XEL! YOU IDIOT!"
" 43," Zelgadis said to Gourry, giving Xellos a sour look. " If they want some identification, which I doubt, then just tell them that the demonic, cold-hearted swordsman said to back off."
" Wheeeeeew," Lina whistled. " You've gotten more authoritative since we last saw you, which brings me to ask why you're here, Xellos is here and just how he managed to convince Amelia to come with him."
" Oh that was easy," Xellos said, holding a finger up, " All I had to do was say that Zelgadis--" …*Thunk*
With that, Xellos fell to the floor as a fist plowed into the top of his head.
" Hehe," Amelia said, helping him up, " Xellos-san is such a kidder! He told me that there was a mission requiring all of us to get together. He also said that it had to be done by a certain date."
" So?" Lina said, leaning back. " I don't do errands for Mazuko."
" Ah, but Lina-san," Xellos said, half up, leaning on his staff, " it's not just for me. I've been directed by a power even higher then Zellas Mettalium to get you all to a certain location by the end of the fall. If you don't comply, I'm to escort you there forcefully."
" Sorry, no deal," Lina said, leaning back in her chair and picking her teeth with a toothpick. " Gourry and I are going to Mipross Island for the winter and that would put a serious crimp in our plans."
Eye-twitch from all around.
" You and Gourry," Zelgadis started, eyebrow disappearing once again, " are going to Mipross Island for the winter…together…………all winter?"
" So what?" Lina said, blushing lightly, partially from embarrassment, partially from anger. " What are you implying?"
" Nothing," Zelgadis said, looking away. He wasn't still alive today because he didn't know when to shut up…that and his stone skin. Yup, his skin definitely played a role too.
" Lina-san!" Amelia cried, " You can't become a woman of loose morals, even if it is Gourry-san!"
" WHAT!" Lina cried, standing up quickly, " Why is everyone grilling me?! I don't have to take this, common Gourry!" With that she grabbed Gourry, who had just re-entered the room, and pulled him by the scruff of his neck backwards. The pants Gourry had been holding had been thrown up in the air when Lina had pulled him out came floating down to land on Amelia's head. She pulled them off, looked at them, blushed and handed them (without looking at him) to Zelgadis.
" Oh dear," Xellos said. " She'll have my head if you aren't all there. I'd better do something about this." And with that, he disappeared.
Silence pervaded the restaurant, many of the patrons realizing that the people who had just been in there were not likely human and that the last two of the party might not be either. A waitress appeared and started refilling Zelgadis's cup with nary a clink or sound.
" Um," Zelgadis said, looking down and blushing very lightly as he addressed Amelia. " Would you like some coffee?"
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Whew, # 2 done and not even a dent in the storyline yet. Tedious huh? Oh well, I've got more to do and a plot to come up with so stay with me. What is Xellos's purpose? Why is Zelgadis acting that way towards Amelia? All those questions and more will be answered in Chapter 3, ' Dark! Depressing! Thoughts turned inside out!'
Doomo to all you readers who've actually read this far. ^^;; I'm not that good at this kind of thing, and I hope that you all enjoy it.