Title: Love...or something like it.

Authoress: Ruby Moon Metallium

Summary: You're basic love triangle... hinted shounen-ai, lots of pairings. This is truly Xellos's fault!

Warning: Shounen-ai, X/L, X/F, X/Z, X/G, G/A, G/L, Z/L, Z/A

A/N: *peace sign* Wai! 4th chapter! I'm going into exams soon( but by the time I'm done writing this chapter they might be all done)...That means study, study and more studying! Lucky for me...-_-' but I think I'll be fine, I only have science, art and math. I'm really good in science, none of my test scores were lower then 70% this semester. And in math none were lower then 73%! And art.....^_^ I'm like the model student. I have never gotten anything lower then 85% on my projects.

D/C: I own none of the characters in this story. Slayers belongs to some people that I forgot they're names at the moment ^^' The story line, of course, is mine.

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Filia was walking around town by herself on a cloudy afternoon. She had ran away from the inn to get away from those idiots who she unfortunately had to travel with. For all those idiots new, she was still in her room but the truth was she had snuck out her window into an ally and escaped.

"I....I don't think I can take this anymore." She said to herself as she passed a few people who were to busy shopping and talking to notice the dragon priestess was almost in tears. " I try so hard but they always do something to aggravate me." She sighed with a sharp breath. The one she was mostly thinking about was that stupid Xellos.

Filia kept walking until she looked up at a sign. It was a pottery shop. "Oh wow! Pottery!!!" Filia giggled and her spirts lifted when she entered the shop.

~*~ back at the Inn ~*~

Lina was about to walk into her room when she decided to go back downstairs. Why should she be hiding from the world? "The world is my stage and the show will go on...." Lina felt her courageous side pushing her to forget her problems for now. "I'm going to do something constructive today instead of being sad. It's not like me to be gloomy!"

Lina jumped a few steps and then tripped down the rest. She got up and instead of complaining about it, she dusted herself off and decided the pain of falling was much more enjoyable then the numbness she felt all day. "Hey guys, I'm going out for a while. I'll be back sometime later." Lina said to Amelia and Gourry.

"Ok Miss Lina!" Amelia smiled.

"Sure Lina! Where are you going anyway?"Gourry asked.

"I'm going out to enjoy the rest of the day." She smiled back to them and ran out the door.

When she walked out, there was still an overcast but nothing at this point was going to stop her. She had a mission to make herself feel better. "I think I'm going to check out a few shops today. Maybe even find myself a few more magic trinkets." Lina mused.

~*~ Filia enjoys the pottery shop ~*~

"Oh wow!" Filia gushed as she held up a antique tea pot. It was dated almost as far back as the War between the Mazoku and Gold Dragons. She would have loved to have it for her collection but the price.....She could just feel the weight of her money bag deplete. She set it back to it's original spot, next to a few other, less old, tea pots.

"It's quite nice isn't it?" A voice said from behind her. Filia was still fixed on the antique to really pay attention to whoever it was.

"Oh yes....I would have loved to have that for my collection but I have to save my money to feed....a few certain piggy people I know." She was shaking at the thought of the Slayers group, pigging out at her expense.

"Ah, that's just too bad. Maybe one day you'll be able to get that beautiful tea pot and maybe even serve tea to more....civilized company."

Filia turned around to talk with this new person but to her shock....They had disappeared. "...I'm going crazy....." Filia's eyes had bags growing under them as she questioned her sanity.

~*~ Lina and the shop keeper. ~*~

"What do you mean 'you can't have this item'?!?! Why NOT!?!" Lina growled out a man behind a counter.

"It's a powerful item....If you don't have enough magic to control it properly, you could blow yourself up!" The man pleaded with her.

"...You really don't know who I am, do you?" Lina had a sadistic smile, kinda like Xellos did sometimes. "I am the great, beautiful, sorcery genius.... LINA INVERSE!" She promoted herself to everyone in the shop.

"...and that means...?"

"Idiot! Just give me the item before I decide to Dragon Slave your shop."

"Dragon Slave!? What kind of retard do you take me for...No such spell exist!"

"Stupid people, stupid idiots beyond the mazoku barrier....Figures, they don't know what a Dragon Slave is, nor do they know REAL magic. Well, it explains why they can't control this amulet or why they don't believe me...." Lina mused to herself. She grabbed the amulet out of the man's hand and gave a sarcastic smile.

"Want me to SHOW you just how powerful I am?" Lina laughed evilly. "FLARE ARROW!"

The shop went up in flames suddenly. People came running out screaming horribly. Lina walked out of the building slowly. She pushed back her hair. "BOMB DI WIND!" She called out and with a huge gust, all the flames were out. Everyone stared at her with huge eyes.

Lina dropped a few coins at the feet of the shop keeper and then walked away.

She decided that she had nothing else to do, so she did the unthinkable and went to look for clothes. Sure it wasn't like Lina to go shopping for clothes but she had promised to do something constructive that day....though up to now, she'd been doing more destruction then anything else.... A dark form watched silently, unmoving and then vanished.

~*~Filia goes back to the Inn~*~

After looking at through the pottery shop and the encounter with the mysterious disappearing person, Filia was ready to go back and regroup with everyone. She was feeling much better and more happy now. Her mood couldn't be spoiled by anything, not even by that psycho priest. She still wondered what had happened to him to make him change so much suddenly.

"It's a shame I didn't get to buy anything today but there is always another day for that." She smiled.

As she walked back into the inn she was greeted by Amelia and Gourry who ever still engrossed in their conversation. "Oh Filia, we didn't even see that you left the inn!" Amelia said.

"Oh...Well, I didn't want to bother you with your conversation so I just snuck out silently." She lied, but they'd believe it. She wasn't plainly going to say to their face that she jumped out of her window to escape all of the group because if she stayed any longer she might have tried to murder them all.

"Oh Filia, what a fibber you are." Xellos said appearing behind her.

"Xellos! Go back to the hole you dragged yourself out of!"

"Full of insults I see...."Xellos pouted. He put on his normal Hurt-Puppy-That's-Been-Kicked-Too-Many-Times act.

Filia groaned and then sat down at her own table. Xellos took a seat in front of her, he opened his eyes a bit to look at her pissed off face a bit better. When he did look at her she acted relax and she pretended she didn't even notice him. Under the table however....Filia was holding her tail down from everyone's view. Especially Xellos, she couldn't let him have the satisfaction of annoying her.

"So Filia....Enjoy your day out?"

"Yes."

"Did you buy anything?"

"No."

"Would you like me to order us something to eat?"

"No."

"Are you angry with me?"

"Maybe."

"Oh good, I hoped that you weren't angry. That would horrible wouldn't it?"

"Yes."

"It's nice to see you're agreeing with me. See how much we can get done when we agree?"

"I know you do this for fun, Xellos. You must be having a grand lunch off of me right now. How about you just leave me alone and go pick on someone else for a bit?" Filia said, ½ whispering...or maybe whispering was the only was Filia could stop herself from yelling at the top of her lungs how much she wanted to kill Xellos at the moment.

"Oh, I was starting to worry that you could only say 1 word at a time, Filia." Xellos smirked and then got up. He bowed to her and the disappeared.

A few minuted later Lina came in the door with a bag slung over her shoulder. She looked at everyone with a smile. "Hey guys! What have you all been up to today?"

"Gourry and I have been talking about our dead pets...." Amelia said. Lina didn't know if she should bring them for help over just leave them there. She shrugged her shoulders nonchalantly.

"I didn't do much. I just went shopping but I didn't find anything I wanted." Filia sighed and played with her golden hair.

"Where's Zelgadis then?" Lina questioned.

"We haven't seen him Miss Lina. I think he stayed the whole day in his room!" Amelia whimpered. How could she have forgotten poor Zelgadis!? She felt so bad about leaving him out.

"Ah don't worry Amelia. If Zel wanted company he would have come down or something. He's probably reading a book or spent the day in the hot spring." Lina told the princess to cheer her up. Lina guessed that Amelia must still have feelings for Zelgadis but she probably knew Zelgadis could never love her back as long as he was so absorbed in himself and his stupid cure.

"I guess but...Miss Lina, it's not good to be alone as much as he is!"

"You're right, I'll go drag him down here for some human..." Lina looked at Filia. "And dragon contact." Lina set her bag down close to Amelia.

Lina walked up to Zelgadis's room and knocked on it. "Zel, you in here?" She asked and waited for a reply.

"Yeah Lina, you can come in." Zelgadis replied through the door. Lina opened the door slowly and peered in. Zelgadis was just like she said, reading a book on his bed. He looked up at her and set down him book.

"What brings you to my room, Lina?"

"Just wondering where you went off to. Amelia is worried about you being in here all day. I think she's right Zelgadis, you need to get out more!"

"Don't give me a speech. I'm perfectly fine in here. I finally got to start a new book."

"Well then, come down stairs with me so we can all plan where we're going to eat today."

They both walked back down the stairs, Xellos was back. He sat in a booth far away from Filia. Amelia finally had left Gourry's side and was looking at the bag Lina had. She didn't open in but she knew there was clothes in it by the shape.

"What did you buy Miss Lina? Is this clothes!?" Amelia said.

"Yup, I bought it cause I have the perfect idea for what we can do tonight!" Lina smiled.

"...And that would be...?"Xellos asked from his corner.

"WE'RE GOING TO A DANCE CLUB!" Lina laughed as everyone wondered if it was really a good idea to go to a club.



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This chapter is done. ^_^ I even completed it before my exams start! I'm gonna start the next chapter right away so I can post it fast. r/r!