Lina smiled. She and Xelloss, her lover, were nestled together in a hammock, in a grand field of elegance. It was spring, a perfect season for love. Xelloss leaned over, to give her a kiss. She pushed herself toward him....

And suddenly sat up in bed, screaming at the top of her lungs!

She frantically looked around, ready to bash in the head of a certain fruitcake, but found her bed to be empty, save for a small plush Gourry doll.

Lina hugged the Gourry plushie, as she breathed a sigh of relief. "I never want to see that nutcase ever again!"

"Did someone mention my name?" a voice wondered, floating directly above her.

A vein popped up in Lina's head. "FIREBALL!" and soon the inn was missing part of its ceiling.

Lina stormed down to breakfast, already an air of moodiness following her. She was halfway down the stairs, when, suddenly, Amelia popped out of her room, happy and chirpy, like always.

"Good MORNING, Miss Lina!!!" she exclaimed, her tone dangerously close to sing-song.

Lina calmly planted Amelia's face in the floorboard, and kept going, heedlessly.

At the bottom of the flight of stairs, Amelia caught up to her. "Miss Lina, have you forgotten what today, a most blessed day, if I may say so, is?"

"'Don't bother or annoy Lina in any way' day?"

"No, Miss Lina!" Amelia laughed. "Today is the day that you, Mr. Zelgadis, Mr. Gourry, Mr. Xelloss, and Miss Filia agreed to be in the Seyruun Variety Show!"

".....Amelia."

"Yes, Miss Lina?"

"Not only am I going to say 'now way in hell,' but also, 'not before breakfast.' Good day, Amelia," Lina droned, walking to the kitchen.

"It truly is a good day, if you live for Justice!!" Amelia called after her.
**
Gourry was already stuffing barrels of food into his mouth when Lina sat down.

Lina cleared her throat, and Gourry paused to look up at her. "Good morning, Gourry."

"Gmm mffmmng, Lmma!" Gourry replied, with a mouthful of pancakes.

There was a silent pause, and then both of them engaged in battling one another for control of all the food on the table.

Zelgadis calmly walked into the room, attached to an I.V. He sat down, with the morning's paper and scanned through some of the articles.

Amelia twirled into the room, thinking of the variety show that was later that day. She saw Zelgadis and frowned. "Mr. Zelgadis, this coffee thing is really getting to be ridiculous. You are pumping it into your veins through a needle for Justice's sake!!"

Zelgadis looked up from his paper. He removed the I.V. and let it drop to the floor, coffee still flowing out of it. He folded his paper and laid it on the floor. "Oh, well," he said, dramatically. "I guess....you don't care if I die from withdrawal, then....I may as well go lie in my casket now...." He stood up out of his chair.

Immediately, Amelia ran over and made him sit back down. "Mr. Zelgadis! I'm sorry!!" she wailed, fiddling around for the coffee I.V. "I had no idea you needed this so badly!!" She gently placed the needle back into his arm.

Zelgadis sighed. Life was good....wait! Something that was going into her arm was cold!! What happened to the coffee??? "Arrgh!" he cried.

Gourry jumped out of his chair by the table, abandoning the rest of his breakfast. "Dreams DO come true!! Finally, Zelgadis is a pirate!!!"

Xelloss appeared in the room, and floated over the table. "Why, whatever is the matter Zelgadis?"

"Cold....coldness......frigidness....." Zelgadis muttered, crawling toward the source of the I.V. He followed it to the refrigerator, where he found that the other end was in a jar of mayonnaise. His eyes got large and his pupils small. Zelgadis abruptly yanked the I.V. out of his arm and stormed back to the kitchen table. "I demand to know who was feeding me mayonnaise through an I.V.!!!"

"Not I," Xelloss said, grinning.

"I hate you," Zelgadis replied, flatly.

"If hate means love, then I hate you too, Zelgadis," answered the mazoku priest.

Voices could be heard outside of the inn. "Come along, Val, dear. It's time to say hello to Lina, the others and that garbage.....well, we don't really have to say hello to that thing....."

Filia came inside, holding adult embarrassed beyond belief Valterria's hand. "Good morning to you all, except for you," she said, specifically pointing at Xelloss.

"I love you, Filia," he said to her.

A vein popped out of Filia's forehead, and her tail shot out of her skirt. She reached for mace-sama. "What did you SAY???" she demanded, shoving her mace in front of Xelloss' nose.

"Of course, as I mentioned to Zelgadis earlier, hate is love, so love is hate, so what I really said, is 'I hate you, Filia,' isn't that funny??" he said, rather quickly.

Filia seemed to be calmed by this. She put Mace-sama away. "Fine. You live....for now." She sat down next to Lina. "So, are we still going to be in this variety show?"

"No," Lina replied, without hesitation.

"But, Miss Lina!!" Amelia protested. "If you don't, you be breaking your promise and that inJust!"

"And I care because?"

"Because you be breaking the hearts of all those who would have watched you, including myself and my daddy!"

"So what?"

"So....the reward for participating in the show is a free all-you-can-eat buffet!!" Amelia finished, hoping to hit one of Lina's nerves with that one.

"For the good of Seyruun, I'll do it!" Lina exclaimed, raising a fist into the air.
**
"Wait....." Zelgadis said, as he stood backstage in Seyruun's Civic Center. "How did I get suckered into this?"

"I have no idea." Lina shrugged, flipping through some pages on a clipboard, distractedly. "Must be a plothole."

"Those are dangerous," Gourry mentioned.

"I forgot to ask you, Miss Lina," Amelia whispered, so no one else would hear. "What will you be performing tonight?"

"Stage manager," the dragon slayers slyly replied. Before Amelia could protest, she remarked, "You only said, 'participate,' not actually go out there and make a fool of yourself. Sorry, Amelia. I'm just going by what you said." She continued to mindlessly flip through the paper on the clipboard.

Amelia sighed. "This can't possibly get any worse....."
**
Xelloss: Oh, but it can.

NoV: Of course it can.

Zelgadis: I hate to think of what I'm going to have to do.....

NoV: Which reminds me! You guys get to vote on what you want everyone to do! And, not to mention, who else shows up! Zelgadis will be first, and then Gourry. Send me what you want them to do, and also who you want to make a guest appearance! Don't worry, Sierra, your idea will definitely come in at the end of this. ^_^ And, as for someone who didn't seem to think I knew the proper mechanics of writing, (cough, Saki, cough), all I have to say to you is :p. Til nexties!