Title: New Life 4 (Can't Stop It Now) Author: Korax Da Birdie Rating: R Warning: Horrible OOC-ness, cussing and yaoi. Not to mention my bad writing. If you don't like this stuff shove off. Disclaimer: Slayers is not mine, nor will it ever be. I will content myself in trying to be as cool as the original authors, but it just isn't the same. Pairing: Xel/Zel Post: Silk N Stone and DarkRoses, everyone else ask.

Author's Note: Uuuuuhhhh boy do I have long pauses between my chapters. This mainly took so long because I had to figure out were it was going to go. And my Slayers muse died for a while. Well actually it was distracted by Harry Potter, but we shan't go into that . . .

Xel: Face it, you like Snape because he's dark and angsting.

Shove off!

Zel: He's right you know.

What the fuh. . . since when do you side with him.

Zel: When it involves picking on you.

. . . Like you don't angst!

Zel: . . .

I Win!

Xel: Actually I think I did.

Whatever, fic time.

Xel: You're just upset because you lost.

*grrrrr*

****

He was in a room, where he couldn't tell, but at least he knew he was in it. He looked around at the sparse furnishings of the room; a bed that he was laying on, desk in the corner, mirror in the opposite facing away from him, a dresser and a wash stand. They all look so old, he thought as he allowed his eyes to linger on a window.

This is an Inn. He knew this suddenly, though he also knew that this was very wrong. It was more then wrong, because even though nothing was familiar, everything thing felt right. The room, the furnishings, and even the window that had soft streams of sunlight sneaking through the curtains, all felt so natural. What is this place?

"It is were you once were." Zel jumped at the voice. He swung his gaze around the room to the desk, were someone now sat. "You are remembering Zel- kun. I wonder . . ."

Zel was frightened then. "Xelloss . . ."

Xelloss raised his silt eyes to Zel's limp form. In the dream, because he knew it was that, things never made sense in his dreams, Xelloss was wearing a priest-like outfit, black and yellow. Zel stared at the outfit a moment, unsure of what it meant and why it seemed to suit him better then the dress shirt and jacket that the real Xelloss wore.

"Real? Who are you to say what is real and not, do you even know?" Zel dragged his gaze back up to Xelloss'. Xelloss was smiling and Zel stared slightly at it.

"Where am I?" He said after a long pause.

If anything, Xelloss' smile grew as he hopped down from the desk and walked toward him. "Sore wa . . ."

". . . himistu desu . . ." Zel finished. Xelloss stopped and opened his eyes in shock, but collected himself enough to sit next to Zel on the bed.

"You can't know yet I'm afraid. It's too risky. But you have to trust me."

"I can't, I don't know you." Zel suddenly remembered the bathroom, the wall and the kiss. He was scared then, he wanted out, he wanted to understand, but mostly he wanted the boy to go away. "I met you today for the first . . ." But that isn't right, he knew . . .

He suddenly looked about himself again. He didn't understand any of this, he didn't recognize this, and he didn't know this boy and he didn't want to know him. He just wanted to go home. Xelloss was so close, Zel's breathing spend up. Why was he so scared? He tensed as Xelloss reached for him. An unreadable flicker went over the other boy's face. His eyes narrowed and Xelloss leaned in close, a gloved hand closing over Zel's shoulder.

"You'd be surprised what you know, Zel-kun. But I can teach you more." The slits of Xelloss' eyes sharpened and the hand on his arm grew hard. Zel yelled at the pain and looked down.

Blue, his skin was blue. He stared at his hand, with pebbles imbedded in the skin. This was wrong, this was not normal, this wasn't real.

He screamed and Xelloss smiled.

****

Zelgadis sat straight up in bed and promptly hit his head on something. Two voices cursed, one not as colorfully as the other and then muttered. Zel grabbed the sheets of the bed and gripped his forehead with the other one. That HURT!

Wait, what was he doing on a bed. Zelgadis snapped his head around, half afraid he was still dreaming. Bed, curtains, counter, sink, cabinet, and jars of cotton balls, he was in . . .

"I found you in the bathroom on the floor so I brought you here, you've been asleep for half and hour. Just now you were screaming, so I thought I'd wake you up." The voice was coming from the floor. He looked down to a blonde haired boy clutching his head.

"Gourry?" He said, remembering the boy form lunch with the football jersey.

"Yup! Man you've got a hard head, Zegalis."

"Zelgadis . . ." Zel said irritably.

"Wha?" Gourry said looking up.

"My name is Zelgadis."

Gourry looked briefly confused then smiled, "Ooops, sorry man. Anyway are you ok. The nurse couldn't see anything wrong with you, but she said I should stay anyway to see if you'd wake up. What happened?"

"I'm . . . I'm fine. Shouldn't you be in class or something." Zel said, laying back on the bed, still rubbing his head. Man, this boy's got one hard head.

"Nah, I mean, well I'm supposed to be at practice, but the coach let me stay here." Gourry beamed. Leaning on his knees he moved towards Zel, "So, what were you doing on the bathroom floor anyway?"

Zel looked closely at Gourry's face, This guy wants nothing more then to help me. And I only just met him, but for some reason I feel like I want to trust him, like I've already . . .

"I'm fine now, just needed some rest I guess. I should probably get back to classes, It's still only my first day and I've got two . . ."

"No point now, 6th period is nearly over so schools ending for the day. You can probably get your stuff tomorrow." The Blonde paused a moment, "Why are you starting three weeks after the beginning of the school year anyway?"

Zel looked at the tall boy, more of a man really, and shrugged. "Grandfather said there were some problems with my transfer to this school. I don't really care."

A loud bell rang through the halls and the sudden noise of a hundreds of voices and footsteps echoed through the school.

Gourry stood up and grabbed his stuff, "Well, gotta go now, I have to catch my ride home or I get stuck walking. You alright getting home?" Gourry glanced at him worried, Zel was struck by how thoughtful the boy was for someone his size.

"Uh. . . no, I'm fine, I'm supposed to take the bus back." Zel hesitated a moment then added, "I'll see you tomorrow then?" Gourry smiled, "You bet! Get better!" And with that Gourry ran out of the room into the busy hallway. Zelgadis sat on the bed for another moment before finally grabbing his things from beside the bed and moving to the door. He passed a mirror on the way out and froze. Slowly he turned to face it, a look or horror shining on the reflected image. I'm seeing things, I was not blue a second ago . . . It was a stupid dream! I'm . . . that psycho boy did something to my head!

The door vibrated as it slammed on the way out.

*****