Notes: Ohaiyo min'na! Another chapter, another homework assignment lost. ^-^
Contemplation! Sleep deprived Men!
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Zelgadis was asleep, and that was good.
Then, there was a loud knocking on the door, and that wasn't so good.
Then the door got Fireballed, and Zelgadis woke up, and it wasn't good at all.
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Zelgadis sat jerked in his chair and then sat straight up, giving himself a nasty case of whiplash in the process, and stared at the smoking remains of the door. " Lina," he groaned, " why couldn't this have waited until morning?"
" Because," Lina stated, stepping over the smoking remains, leaving Gourry to accept the hostile stares from the neighboring room's occupants, " we have to get a move on. Xellos explained the whole mission to me and I feel that we should…what time is it?" She asked, looking out at the sky and then sat down next to the now wide-awake Amelia. Truth be told, Lina'd been so preoccupied with the idea of treasure that she hadn't thought about the time of night.
" I don't know," Zelgadis groaned, struggling into an upright posture. " I think, that, it might be the middle of the night. I could be wrong," he said, catching Lina's horrified expression. " It could just be really early morning. When did Xellos talk you into this anyway?"
" Um…," Lina thought as she leaned against a doorframe. " I think it was sunset…What in Ciephelds name have I been doing that took so long?" She turned to Gourry. He thought about it.
" Well," he started out, leaning against the doorframe. " We packed, and then it was dark, but the bar was still open, so we went down to eat, and you started going on to me about trying to get enough money to go somewhere for the summer too, and I told you that couldn't we just waylay some bandits somewhere and take their money and you said---"
" Never mind," Lina said groaning and rubbing her head. " I remember everything clearly now…and by instance, you still haven't told me where you think we should go yet."
" I don't know Lina, I'm not a very good swimmer, so maybe we shouldn't go to the beach."
" Not here!" She hissed at him, looking over her shoulder and grinning while bright red. Amelia just stared at her; her eyes starting to glaze over again and she fell backward onto the bed with a thump. Zelgadis immediately rushed over to check on her.
" I think you killed her," he joked in a dead serious voice. Lina sighed and waved her hands around a little.
" I doubt it, teleporting that long distance with Xellos is probably what drained her, that and the fact that he was probably feeding off her emotions."
" What?" Zelgadis said, dropping Amelia unceremoniously back onto the bed. " Why didn't you tell me?"
" Like you didn't know," Lina said calmly, yanking Gourry inside the room before he was belted with a ripe tomato from an occupant down the hall…Lina made sure to get the room number. " Why do you think he always teleported near a place with humans. I'd hazard to guess that he gets a craving for some right after teleportation like the way I do after running for a while. Besides…" she added, as Zelgadis had slipped his poker face back on and that always meant he was going to do a 'rational' argument, " it isn't all from teleportation."
" Um," Zelgadis's face got that light blush you can hardly see, but you know is there but can't really prove cause it's so light. " What do you mean?"
" Well," Lina said, smirking, as she sat next to Zelgadis and Amelia on the bed. Amelia had huddled into a little ball at the beginning of Lina's speech and now was deathly still, trying to pretend to be asleep. " Haven't you wondered why she had to teleport with Xellos at all, why she didn't just Rayewing herself over her?"
" No," Zelgadis answered, his face with a definite blush* now, " I haven't."
" Don't you want to know?" Lina asked, leaning in and giving her evil grin. " I mean, she must be sick or something to not be able to teleport, right?"
" Um," Zelgadis answered, too embarrassed to admit to Lina that he'd even thought about Amelia having her period.
" Why, you must know about---" …Thunk.
And Lina went down as Amelia's unthinking fist plowed into the top of her head.
" Hehe?" Amelia said, helping Lina onto the bed next to her, causing Zelgadis to get up, grab Lina's feet, and hoist her onto the bed. He then retreated to a chair that had been spared the Fireball. Gourry sat himself on the floor, leaning against the wall, thankful that he wouldn't have to run out of another town in the middle of the night. They sat in silence as Amelia slipped down into the sheets and fell back asleep, incredibly tired.
Time passed.
" Zelgadis," Gourry asked, breaking the soft sound of the two girls breathing lightly, " why don't you just tell Lina that you don't want anything to do with this quest?"
Zelgadis stared off into the dark for a minute. " Because," he answered, after he found what he believed to be a suitable excuse, " I might find my cure on this quest. It might be through pure luck that I stumble across it."
Gourry was silent for a minute.
" You're going to hang around Amelia the same way I follow Lina aren't you?" He asked softly, settling against the wall.
It was quiet for so long that Gourry though Zelgadis might have fallen asleep.
" You know Gourry," Zelgadis finally commented, his voice rising from the dark, " Lina say's your stupid, and a lot of people think that, and I'll admit that I thought so at first as well…but, your really a lot smarter then you let on, aren't you?"
" No," Gourry answered. " Not smarter, just more observant then people think. If I was smarter…I'd be able to figure out what to do to make Lina like me the way I like her."
" She's a difficult woman." Zelgadis said simply. " I know she likes you, she just shows it through the physical. She hasn't had much of a warm, loving family, so she isn't sure how to express herself. You have your work cut out for you."
" Oh, I knew that from the first time we met." Gourry commented. They both held their breath as Lina mumbled in her induced sleep and turned over slightly. " It's just," he resumed, " that I want to do something to please her. I don't think flowers or candy would work to well, but I don't want to just kick the butt of any guy that insults her either, I mean, she does that by herself."
" She's a difficult woman." Zelgadis repeated, looking at the ceiling. " I…know the feeling."
" Yheah," Gourry said, putting his head on his knees. " Sucks to be us, doesn't it."
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* ---- We have definite blush! We have definite blush! Aogah! Aogah! Dive! Dive!
Next Chapter: Long Journey! -_-??? Who's going to drive?