Disclaimer: I was totally sleep deprived, and I'm not saying that like it's a bad thing.

Notes:

Kats: ^-^ Ohaiyo readers!

Readers: Ohaiyo!

Kats: [Looking at her reviews from the last chapter and picking one out]

Here we go…'P.S., is 'she' the LON?'. Okay, the 'she' that Xellos mentioned is NOT the Lord of Nightmares. Let your imaginations run wild here people….

^-^;; I lied.

This chapter is far more about Zelgadis's thoughts on Amelia then true WAFF between them.

Chapter Three: Dark! Depressing! Thoughts turn inside out!

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Amelia sat with Zelgadis, brushing her hair over her shoulder to keep it out of her face. Zelgadis was stuck staring at his coffee cup out of embarrassment and didn't notice.

" Ano, Zelgadis-san…" Amelia started.

" Yes?"

" Maybe you should go get your new pants on." She stated shyly, looking down at her lap. " Since Gourry-san brought them to you."

" Oh, yheah, right," Zelgadis said, it being his turn to blush. " I'll be right back." He rose and went to ask the owner of the inn if there was a change room he could use…and earning some odd stares on his way there.

" I can't believe this," Amelia thought. " This is just awkward and…and…awkward! I have no idea how to deal with this situation. What was I thinking? What was HE thinking? How did I manage to get all the way downstairs without noticing that I had my shirt on backwards?!" She looked to the hallway he had just disappeared. " He's still just as gorgeous, he'll never notice me, I'm still just a little girl!"

Zelgadis, meanwhile, was busy thinking similar thoughts.

" Why did they have to land on her head!" He lamented. " And she saw me staring at her like I'm some kind of horny chimera or something…okay, I'm not going to let myself go there.'

He looked down at the soiled pants that lay, smelling strongly of coffee, in his lap. Putting them in the corner of the room, he sat down to get his new ones on, but quickly got distracted again.

' I wonder if she's disappointed that I didn't find my cure?' he started thinking to himself. ' I'm disappointed, but not too much…I've kind of gotten used to this body, not that I don't want my old body back, no I do, but it's just…why is my left leg in my right pant leg?" He mused this to himself as he looked down at the tangled garments. Slowly, as if not to startle himself, he put them back in the right holes. " She's not a little girl anymore, she's a mature young lady." He told himself. " She has always had good sense, but it was always a little…extreme." He looked out the window of the small 'changing room' and stared past the dingy walls of the alleyway to the thing strip of blue, going purple sky. Leaning against the window, he allowed himself a brief moment of wondering what it'd be like if he had his body back and was able to be a normal person…

In a desperate attempt to save his sanity, he focused on getting his legs into the right holes for them. Then he sighed and leaned back, shirtless, against the window ledge while sitting on the bench, and closed his eyes. This wasn't turning out the way he had expected it to. He had known as soon as he had heard the rumors of a sorceress with a tall swordsman that had stolen a highly valuable magical sword that it had to have been Lina and Gourry. He had not expected to find Lina in a less than upper hand position. He had really not expected Xellos to turn up in the middle of his rather therapeutic teasing of Lina. That had shocked him, but what had shocked him even more was finding out that Amelia was with him. It had touched a part of him that hadn't been touched in years…jealousy. Not that he cared to think about that, he mused, it was just that he didn't want a psycho like Xellos hanging around with Amelia, much less giving her 'rides'.

Sighing, Zelgadis sat up and rummaged through a small pouch attached to the inside of the pair of his old pants. He hadn't left it anywhere else after almost losing it in a baggage mix-up in a small village. Gently opening the sack, he took out the item and held it in his palm.

Amelia's old bracelet reflected the light back slightly, appearing smooth and round beneath his palm. He hadn't known why he had kept it with him at first, maybe just for Amelia's sake, just in case he ever ran back into her, he had rationalized. But as he had traveled farther and farther away, he had started displaying more prominently, on his canteen at first, finally getting to the point where it was prominently displayed on his sash, the only bit of color on his ensemble. He hadn't known why he had displayed it so 'colorfully' on his clothing, but after he had gotten off a small caravan and discovered his sash, and subsequently, her bracelet, missing, he had gone into a complete panic. Because he hadn't known for about a day, he was forced to ride hard for a day and a half to catch up and get it back. It was at that point when he had had to admit to himself that he liked Amelia.

He leaned back again, holding the bracelet up to swirl and reflect the light.

" Why?" He asked quietly. " Why do I care so much?" He closed his eyes.

Time passed.

" Oi!" A voice called from outside his doorway, " Oi!"

" What is it?" Zelgadis asked, sitting up. " What do you want?"

The door opened a crack and a large man with a thick beard peeked in.

" Your lady friend's fallen asleep at the table and we wanted to know if you were still here, or if you had ditched her." The man's voice indicated that Zelgadis would have gotten a less then cordial greeting next time if he had ditched her. " Where do you want me to take her?"

" She fell asleep?" Zelgadis said, looking surprised and shucking his shirt on over his head. " How long have I been in here?"

" A good two hours mate, did you fall asleep as well?" One of his eyebrows was visiting his hairline, expressing disbelief on 'that' theory to Zelgadis.

" No," Zelgadis denied. " I was just thinking. I wasn't expecting to see her here."

" Ahhh," the man said, nodding, " That way huh, well, she's asleep, passed right out, from exhaustion I think, and we wanted to know where to move her."

" I'll come take care of it," Zelgadis said, rising, " I have a place I can take her to rest."

They walked down the hall in a companionable silence…at least, that's how the big guy thought of it. Zelgadis didn't really think about it at all, he was busy wondering where the hell Lina had gone. Usually Xellos would have brought her back by now, or she and Gourry would have been dragged back by their stomachs. He was debating whether or not to leave Lina a message here when the big inn-keeper waved him into yet another little side room and all thoughts ceased.

There lay Amelia on her back; one arm draped over her stomach, proving it to be flat under her tan traveler's clothes. Her face was turned towards him as she breathed slowly in and out, her face vulnerable, showing her tiredness, her emotional exhaustion. Zelgadis's heart melted a little when he saw her like that, but he shoved it away mercilessly. He couldn't afford to fall in love while he wasn't human. How could he? Love was a human emotion, he wasn't human, thus he shouldn't allow himself to love.****

He leaned over and picked her up in his arms, but not before he felt like he was invading her privacy. This was too much.

' What am I doing?' He questioned himself, as he was lead to the side door of the inn and into a dark alleyway. ' I shouldn't be doing this to her.' He walked up into the front of the larger inn next door to their eating place. The inn-keeper shot him a strange look but let him pass without saying a word. Zelgadis was an oddity, but obviously not one to be messed with from the look of the sword on his sash. Moving carefully, Zelgadis managed to get up two flights of stairs to the room, and from there to his bed. He placed her carefully upon it, settling her as not to disturb her. Placing his sword in the corner, he sat in a small stool in the corner of a decent, but not stellar room. The bed lay in the corner of the room, just a simple bed. A small sink with a privacy curtain and a basin was across the room in it's own little corner. The walls were a light cream that had been recently repainted, but had obviously seen better days. All in all, not a terrible place, but not to great either. Zelgadis sighed and leaned back, preparing himself to sleep upright all night…there was no way he could sleep on the floor with Xellos around and definitely not with Amelia asleep in the same room with him looking the way she did.

Zelgadis stretched out. ' I wonder what Lina and Gourry are doing?' he wondered just before he fell asleep.

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**** [INTERRUPTION!!]

Normally, I wouldn't do spoilers for this story to save my life, but I would like to reassure all you rabid Zelgadis fans that he will indeed, be feeling the love by the time I'm done with this fic. Well, jeez that section was filled with angst. When the hell did that get in there?

[End Interruption]

See you next chapter:

Toasty roasty! Will Gourry learn?