Seyruun High Jinx –NEXT!
Chapter Two
A night to remember
"I make my biggest mistakes when I'm bored." – Filia
Filia was bored.
The ballet had been a remarkably fun experience, thanks to Xelloss' unbounded enthusiasm and interesting comments. Afterwards Xelloss had guided her father to a dance hall, of all places. Her parents were unsure at first, but when he assured them that it was ballroom dancing and very nice, they relented. She had never seen her folks so happy and carefree before. Her mother was glowing, dancing in the arms of her handsome father.
Xelloss had asked her mother for her first dance and what a striking couple they had made! Her mother was an inch or two taller and older, but Xelloss carried himself with such self-assurance and grace on the dance floor that they appeared to be old pros doing it for years. Her father had asked her to dance and, sadly, she knew that they had not cut such a fine figure. But she wasn't that bad. Her father swung them near to the other couple and suggested to Xelloss that that they trade partners, joking that if he didn't get his wife away quickly while he had the chance, that she might just run off with her new-found dancing partner! How embarrassing! But her mother had thought it very flattering and funny! Xelloss had too.
Filia sighed. Dancing with Xelloss had been, well…she had to admit, an exhilarating experience. He made her feel like she could dance as well as he and the looks they'd received! They were among the youngest on the floor, and certainly Xelloss was the best. If only her parents would stop staring at them! Xelloss was just her friend of sorts, the drummer of their band, the young man who had returned Wolfpack Island to her colony, the recently retired head of the western Syndicate, and the owner of the most beautiful pair of eyes--the color, she meant, of course!
But after that they had to return to their hotel rooms. Mom and dad were pooped, or so they claimed. Now her parents were busy in their room doing...whatever, and she was bored to tears. She had neglected to bring a book to read and so was relegated to being a TV watcher. After discovering what a waste of time late night TV was, she decided to go out of her room and hunt for the ice machine and something drink, soda if need be. Company would be nice for this adventure and Xelloss was conveniently located in the room next to hers.
She knocked on his door. "Xelloss? Xelloss! Open up, it's me!"
It had been a long day. Zelgadiss had made him get up and go to classes that morning-- way too early, considering the previous late night of chemistry lab and homework. Then back over to the high school. Then the drive to the city, dinner, the ballet, then dancing. Now it was time to dry his hair and slip between those crisp, cool sheets for a well deserved night's sleep. He heard an insistent knocking at his door and frowned. Now what?
He wrapped his hair towel around his waist and opened the door a crack, "Filia? What's the matter?"
"Listen, I'm going for ice."
"Really." He said that flatly. With a sigh he added, "That's nice. I'm going to bed. See you in the morning."
"Aw, come on. I don't want to go creeping around this place all by myself. Who knows what kind of monsters are hiding in the shadows?" She wanted him to join her but wasn't about to start begging.
Xelloss sighed slightly. "Just a minute, I'm not..."
Filia was already pushing into the room.
"...Dressed. Filia!"
"Oh for Cepheid's sake, Xelloss, just put on your kimono and let's go!"
He did. He also scrambled around for his pants, mentally thanking Zelgadiss for his forethought. "My, my, Filia...a little privacy would be nice."
"I'm not looking at you, Xelly. Besides, I know what you look like and we've been holed up together more times than I like to think about with less privacy than this. You ready yet?"
"After you." He bit back any other comments like, "Well maybe you don't cherish my privacy, but I do!" What good would it do?
He padded beside her, barefoot, looking rather exotic in his kimono and silk pants and straight damp hair alongside the tall, elegant blonde girl glowing with good health. "Just around the corner. Drinks too? Okay. I haven't any money on me," he smiled. Obviously he hardly had time to get on himself!
"I'll get you something. Pick one. That one is caffeine-free, should you want to go to sleep in the next few hours."
"I should have liked to have been asleep already." He looked at her askance to see if she had been paying attention to his little jib. If she had, she wasn't reacting. No fun. "Okay, I'll take that one. Thanks."
They made it back to his room. "Well?"
"Well, what?" he asked as he stood in front of his door.
"Why don't you go in?"
"I left my keys on the dresser...in side the room," he smiled apologetically. "You rushed me."
"You mean Zel-bob wasn't reminding you to pick them up on the way out. You would be lost without him, I bet. How ever did you get along before you guys met?" Filia asked, arms folded and eye to eye with him.
He leaned against the door, feeling the solid coldness on his back. "Okay."
She cleared her throat and clicked her tongue, yeah sure.
"Not very well," he amended his first statement. "You know, he was my first male friend, albeit a reluctant one at first."
"Male one. You mean you had girlfriends before that?"
"Only one and she was just a friend. Lain. The girl at the dance club the night...well, maybe you didn't meet her. You were busy with Allan Schezar that night, if I recollect."
"How would you remember anything about that night after nearly OD-ing on drugs!" she asked.
"I have a good memory, in spite of everything," he smiled and looked down at his empty hands wishing fervently that one of them contained his room keys. He was dependent on Zelgadiss, wasn't he?
"So where did you meet this Lain girl?"
"At...the hospital...the mental one," he answered quickly. Looking off into the distance he said, "Filia, no offence, but I need to get to the office and have the management scare up another room key for me."
"At this hour? It must be way past midnight." Filia shook her head. "Come on, you can stay in my room." Her eyes narrowed, "It's got two beds."
What the hey? "O-kay, do-kay!" He smiled a tired smile, adjusted his glasses slightly, and followed her to the next door. "But you do the explaining in the morning to your parents."
"There won't be anything to explain. I'll set my alarm. You'll be out and in your own room by the time they're ready to go to breakfast. Besides," she added as they entered her room, "they're ready to adopt you anyway. Gods, you are such an actor, Xelloss. As far as they are concerned, you can do no wrong. Perfect manners, elegant dancer, funny, entertaining, sophisticated yet not stuffy or arrogant, handsome, intelligent... What's your problem?"
Xelloss was holding his sides and about to explode with laughter. "S-Sorry...I'm not certain if you are talking about the wrong Xelloss or I'm in here with the wrong Filia!"
"Moron ..." she mumbled. "Here's a glass. There's plenty of ice."
"Yep."
"Have you tried the TV yet?"
"No. I took a shower. A long shower. It helps me relax." Xelloss filled his glass with ice, popped open his drink and settled on the neatly made-up bed by the window."
"Comfy?"
"Yes, thanks for asking...and thanks for, you know...offering me the fine accommodations." He smiled and sipped at his drink. Zelgadiss he would have to tell about all this, but should he tell Val? He might not see the humor in it like Zelgadiss would. In fact, he might spark a little jealously in his punkish heart. That might be fun. Then again, it might be painful.
"So. You like to talk. Tell me a story." Filia sank onto her bed, tucked her robe around her and looked over at him. "Oh, and dinner was good, by the way, for French. I thought everything but desserts had some kind of organ like liver, guts or testicles in it."
"Ah...thanks… And…it's not… well, I'm glad you were impressed. Now, I'd rather just drift off quietly to sleep..."
"Tell me what it's like in a mental hospital," she practically demanded.
"Huh? You are full of surprises. Tell you about my time in the nut house, huh? It is not something I've ever talked about." Xelloss leaned back on one stack of pillows and drew the covers up over his legs. Unconsciously squeezing another pillow to his chest, he closed his eyes a moment.
Filia thought that he had fallen asleep and rose, moving over to his bed, when he started to speak again. "I remember bits and pieces, as you'd expect from the head injuries I had incurred along with the others to my body. I clearly recall standing in a hallway outside what was to be my room, my mother's heels clicking in the distance...leaving. The clothes and toiletries were simple and standard issue to everyone. Nothing from home was allowed in."
Xelloss chucked softly, "I looked in the room and to my relief, nothing was purple-colored!"
He opened one eye when he felt the corner of the bed sink slightly as Filia sat down. "I, ah… I had a roommate; we all did on Desolation Row– that's what the suicide-watch hall was called. It's from a Bob Dylan song. My roommate wasn't there at the time. Probably on purpose until I was moved in. I'd meet him later. I think now that he had to have been eating dinner. It was dark out when I had arrived, but I don't recall being offered a meal myself. A nurse led me in and showed me my bed and my closet and bookcase. Then he left. My mother hadn't even stayed to see inside the room where I'd been sentenced to live."
Filia nodded and he continued, "Anyway, I must have simply fallen asleep in my clothes. I know I hadn't changed or anything when I woke up screaming. The lights were on...a steward was holding me down and calling for help. Someone came in and ripped off my shirt, to give me a shot of some kind of knock-out drugs. It ripped most likely because I was fighting them and thrashing around, looking back. I didn't know what was happening or where I was. What I remember now is the sensation of being the center of chaos...the total confusion of the entire event. I smelled something and turned my head to the side and saw a kid, older than me puking his guts out. It was my roommate. He'd just seen my chest scars. They had only recently been unbandaged and I can assure you that they looked far worse then, than now, because my roommate --as it turned out- was ordinarily no weak-stomached Milquetoast. I was moving about totally out of control and managed to make the needle jab me pretty hard. Naturally I noticed the blood and fainted away. And that was my first night at the hospital. Heard enough?"
Filia, who was settled at the foot of his bed to listen, shook her head, "Go on."
Xelloss stared at her a moment. "This is really difficult to describe, Filia. Like a dream. Ever try to tell someone about one of your dreams? Details…some are clear, mostly the strong emotions, others are foggy and the rest just escapes to the nether parts of the brain when you try to focus on them. Well, that's the way it is for me, anyway."
"I get what you're saying," she said encouraging him to go on. "Plus the pills and stuff must have messed up your head too."
"That too. I was drugged and strapped down for days. I lost track, unable to really tell one day from the next. When they finally deemed me able to socialize to some extent, I was introduced to the routine. Group therapy, meal, exercise, individual psychoanalysis and in my case some physical rehabilitation, meal, free time, rest, supervised activities, meal, then time restricted to your own room and lights out.
"Sounds more boring than dirt."
"It was. That was the point. No surprises. Busy enough to make it seem like a life, but for some of the kids with intelligence..."
"Like Lain? And you of course..." Filia said.
"Yes. Lain had been there a few months longer than me. She had progressed to a period of unsupervised activity, where she lived and breathed surfing the net and hacking codes and... creating viruses... stuff. I wanted to learn all that too, so I honed my acting skills and 'got better' faster. Filia, some of those other kids, they were hopeless. Most of them had fried their brains with drugs, usually as a follow up to either parental abuse or from being runaways and messed up on the street. Boys, girls...rich, poor... openly hostile or withdrawn. Didn't much matter. We were all thrown together, a real hodgepodge of kids no one wanted to see again."
"Wasn't it dangerous, though? I mean, weren't you better off at home, now that your…um, step-father was locked up?" Filia asked.
"Thrown to the wolves…" he mused to himself ignoring Filia's question. "I was pretty young. Most of the others were two or three years older than me, some more than that. Most the guys figured I was gay and figured what I was good for," he paused and closed his eyes, letting Filia fill in the details as best her imagination could. "Lucky for me my roommate actually was gay and had once been on the wrestling team at his high school. He protected me for the most part from the others. I mean, I was scrappy and could fight, but not well and I was small at the time. From him I got the idea of taking up Karate as soon as I worked my way up from 'unsupervised' free time to 'unsupervised outside activity'. That took about six months of concerted effort on my part, and a great deal of acting ability."
"I think you are skipping past some bad memories." Filia watched his face. "Yeah, so your roommate became a friend too. You seem to like weirdos."
Xelloss sighed and hugged the pillow tightly, ignoring her slight insult, and not wondering even if it had been intended as one. "In a way, I suppose. We tolerated one another. I wasn't really ready to befriend anyone, Filia, but I was happy to have him keep the others at bay. But we had nothing in common and never really talked about anything. Lain was different. I wanted what freedom and knowledge she had and sought her out. It wasn't until my last year there that I established a kind of friendship with her. My roommate had already shipped out by then and I was well into mastering Karate so I didn't need his threatening bulk to protect me any more. Funny, I don't remember what he looked like even. Why, I could run into him on the street and not even recognize him I'm sure, but at the time I saw him more often than my own reflection. We had no mirrors in our rooms, only in a large shared bathroom where the older boys could use one to shave or the girls to primp."
"That sounds...awful, why?"
"Suicide watch. We could break the glass and slit our wrists, I guess. Our plates and drinking glasses were plastic...even our spoons and forks. No knives, of course."
"So, your roommate got better and left?"
"I guess so. No one ever told us a thing. One day they are there and the next, gone-- unless you're lucky and catch one going out feet first. Oh, yes, sometimes one would figure out how to kill themselves and do it!" Xelloss smirked.
Filia shuddered. "How sad."
"Yeah."
"Did you ever...try?"
"At the hospital? Oh, at first I attempted to put myself out of my misery several times a day! Then I found out that it only set me back; keep me in lock-down more. More meds, too. Once I found out about other possibilities, I stopped. I pretended to take the pills, hid them, got my head together, and started to improve. You see for me the drugs were not the right prescription, just a ploy to drive me nuts permanently."
"Good thing you figured it out…in time."
"For me, yes!" Xelloss laughed. "Of course that didn't spare me from the injected drugs or the food-laced-with-mind-deadening crap." He nearly spat out the last word with a vehemence he had had under tight control until then.
"You've been practicing…as an actor for a long time then."
He nodded. "I guess so. Doesn't everyone try to be something they're not? Something bigger and better?"
"Some, but you do it all the time, don't you? I mean, is this the real Xelloss I'm talking to, or the suave dancer or sophisticate around town, or the fool at school or the…"
He brought a finger up to her lips to silence her. "I'm too tired to be anyone but who I am right now. Is that okay?"
Gulp. He was going to try to kiss her, wasn't he? He was close, close enough that she could smell the faint scent of his lavender shampoo and feel the warmth of his face. So close… Did she want him to try?
Oh my. She was closing her eyes. She was expecting him to kiss her, wasn't she? Would she want him too? She was quite beautiful to look at. So unattainable for a guy like him. And yet…
Her lips closed over his finger tip.
Xelloss let out a small gasp of surprise followed by, "Ouch! Hey!"
He checked his fingertip for her tiny teeth marks then their eyes met. They both broke out into laughter and giggles. Silly, so silly to conceive of any kind of romance with one another! At least, not tonight.
"I'm done for. No. More. Stories!" he finally managed to say.
"Yeah, thanks. Ah…I'm tired now. 'Night, Xelloss," Filia yawned and climbed into her own bed.
"G'night, Miss Filia," Xelloss sighed and turned to face the window. "Of course, there might have been something buried in one of those sauces…meaty-like and disgusting," he whispered.
"Ughhhh. Shut up, Xelly," Filia murmured as she flung her extra pillow at him.
What luck he had! Things couldn't have worked out better if he'd planned it all out—not even if Zelgadiss had! Luck; that's what it took to get along! Xelloss smiled wearily and arranged the new pillow addition in with his own, making a kind of nest to snuggle into.
"What's that yer playin'?" Gourry asked Val. Val had been plunking away on his electric piano for a few minutes and the tunes didn't sound like Slayers'.
"The blues, dude. Last year I played with the jazz band at school occasionally. I listened to stuff and got into the blues on my own," Val explained.
"Play that one. Does it have words?" Gourry shuffled over closer, joined by Zel.
Val hummed at bit then sang in an almost monotone,
"Did ya hear? Shoutin' from the corner and over the ra-dee-o. Have ya heard the latest? Have ya heard the news? A green-haired punk dude's singin' the blues…"
Zel chuckled. "Funny, Val."
Val started another humming some-- then, "…Ya come on in wid yer hair all wet, sSmellin' of shampoo instead of sweat. You call it joggin', but I call it runnin' around."
Gourry smiled and shook his head. "You didn't make up that one, didya?"
Val shook his head, "Naw, but it's not so hard. Try it."
Zelgadiss strummed a chord on his guitar and nodded,
"Addin'… Subtractin'. Some find it relaxin'. Put it down to one more…allo-cation."
Val groaned, but Zel continued, inspired.
"If the answers aren't meetin,' it's not cheatin'. Just, put it down ta one more allo-cation. Even the right solution, won't bring you absolution…"
Val's howls finally stopped him. "No nerd math blues, dude. Here's another, "Got yer fax and yer telephone, but ya can't relax or find yer way home. When ya get to the city… better take some cash, or you'll be thrown out with the trash!"
Gourry smiled. Val grinned as he remembered another. "A Mos Allison song: If ya got to be talkin', then make it rhyme. 'Cause yer mind is on vacation and yer mouth is workin' overtime…"
"Who does that make ya think of, huh?" Val laughed at Gourry.
Zelgadiss jumped in defensively, "Hey, the guy's not here to defend himself!"
Val coughed and laughed at the same time, "What make ya think it wasn't you, huh, dude?"
Gourry signaled for Val to play again and started to sing his blues attempt,"I'm not discouraged, no… I'm not discouraged, I'm not discouraged, but… I'm getting' there. I can't drink the water, can't breathe the air, but you can't be bothered or even care. I'm not dis-illusioned, no… I'm not dis-illusioned, I'm not dis-illusioned, but… I'm getting' there."
"Hey dude…" Val said in awe.
"Gourry, that was…really good! Maybe we out to try that 'unplugged' idea we once had and sing the blues?" Zel said excitedly.
"Sure," Val agreed. "'Cept I was thinkin' maybe getting' Lina to do somethin' different. Ya know, can't ya just hear her doin' 'torch' songs?"
Gourry's eyes glazed over. "Oh yeah, man…she'd do that great."
"She'd be hot and steamy. If that's what you're getting at," Zel agreed.
All three of them looked over to where Lina, Amelia, and Sylphiel were sipping sodas and discussing potential new song possibilities for them.
"Oh yeah…" they all agreed in unison.
"Yes?" Xelloss opened the door a smidgen and adjusted his glasses.
Filia's mother and father dressed for breakfast gaped in silence for a heartbeat at the unexpected sight of the young man in what they had thought was their daughter's room. "Wrong room…so sorry…" Mr. Ul Copt muttered.
Xelloss going from near-dream state to full-consciousness in an instant scratched at the back of his head nervously. "Ah, well…no. Not if you were looking for Filia. This is her room and… now I know that this looks rather bad, but its really quite innocent… and funny when you think about it!"
He stepped aside to allow Mr. Ul Copt inside. Clearly both beds had been slept in and Filia was only now being roused from her slumber. "Xelloss shut up and go get that…" she struggled with a word a moment and rubbed her eyes, "other key. And be quiet about it… and get out of here before..."
"That, Filia-dear, is too late," he said with a weak smile.
Her eyes flew open, "Daddy!"
He was standing, arms folded. In a stern voice he said, "Filia…Xelloss…I'm…very disappointed."
Her mother however entered the room smiling, "Now dear, I'm sure they have a simple explanation for all this, right?"
They did. Xelloss was a most contrite, self-effacing supplicant, begging them for their understanding while at the same time being very eager to hurry off to the office, nab a spare key, and hide forever in his own room. Mrs. Ul Copt waved him off with a chuckle and a promise from him to meet them downstairs in the dining room in ten minutes. He nodded once and slipped past the adults in a flash, grumbling to himself about trusting Filia. "She did this on purpose to get me, I just know it!"
He joined them at a table—conservatively dressed and hair brushed—placed his simple order of tea and Danish, then felt foolish for a few minutes until Filia broke the ice. "I mean, like I'd ever do anything with HIM! How could you even let a stupid idea like that pass through your minds?"
He was having a Zel moment. He nearly sank his head onto the table, but stopped himself in time.
"Well you are a very attractive young lady. Wouldn't you agree, Xelloss?" her father asked.
Talk about your setups. What could he say? No, she's a real mutt whom I would never dream of seducing? "Ah, yes, sir. Very."
Her mother's eyes danced with merriment. He looked so uncomfortable. Not at all like the confident young man of the night before.
"See? And being a man, I know what thoughts run through a young man's mind like Xelloss' here when he's put in…a situation like last night…" Mr. Ul Copt continued.
Oh shit. Xelloss wished with all his might that he could simply transport himself instantaneously somewhere else faraway.
Filia sniffed, "You couldn't possibly, daddy. His mind's a real mess. He was telling me about his stay in the nuthouse…"
"Sanitarium, dear," her mother corrected. "It sounds much nicer that way."
Xelloss met her eyes and smiled weakly. Gods…to just fade away into thin air…what a gift that would be!
"I wasn't meaning the state of his mind, honey. I'm sure you understand that…"
Filia interrupted her father again, "Gods dad, this is Xelloss! I've seen him mostly naked remember? I told you about healing those bruises and marks he was getting? And Lina's seen him without clothes on. I mean, its no big deal. It's not like its exciting or anything…right Xelloss? We're all just band members and very mature about it all…right?"
Well…shit. Thanks Filia. Tell them all my secrets, why don't you? Okay, time to pull yourself together. Imagine that's your mother and Rezo sitting there. How would you handle it then? "Er…well…Not to mention," he straightened, "That my girlfriend would kill me if I cheated on her in anyway and Val threatened to 'have my skin' if I bothered Filia in anyway-- and I have to share a house with that guy! So you see," he smiled at Filia's mother and father, "Filia has been perfectly safe with me all along."
And that was that.
Later in the car going home Xelloss nudged Filia in the arm and whispered, "That wasn't very nice of you…letting me sleep in like that."
Filia smiled, "Oh really? So tell me, was that you acting scared to death? Cause if it was, you're a better actor than I thought."
Xelloss' eyes flashed dangerously, then he giggled, "Wait…just wait…your time will come…"
Filia's eyes went wide, then narrowed, "No…you wouldn't…"
"I'm not called the Trickster Priest for nothing!"
"I didn't even know you were ever called that," She grumbled. "Jerk."
"Naughty, naughty! Filly-dear…oof!" He wheezed as she rammed an umbrella into his stomach.
"Kids! Are you fighting back there? Filia! Put that down. Your poor friend has been so nice and understanding all this time. Now don't you go and ruin the good time we've all had!" Mrs. Ul Copt admonished her daughter.
Xelloss grinned and stuck out his tongue.
Filia rolled her eyes, "Moooo-ther! He's just a geeky jerk!"
Then to both kids' horror, Mrs. Ul Copt leaned closer to her husband and whispered, "It must be love, dear."
Filia groaned, saying, "I make the biggest mistakes when I'm bored."
Xelloss opened his eyes wide, leaned in close and asked in his best imitation of her own lilt, "You're not bored now, are you? I'd be soooo insulted."
He protected his head with his arms as she clobbered him repeatedly with whatever small items her hands contacted.
"He-looooooooooooooooooo whoooooooooooo! I'm hoooo-ome! Anybody here?" Xelloss called on his way into the house he shared with Val and Zelgadiss.
Funny, he had expected at least Zelgadiss to be buried in his homework on a fine Saturday late afternoon.
"Out here!" came a muted shout from out back.
Xelloss turned to the new French doors, which opened out onto their new deck and hot tub area. Val was waving from the churning bubbles. Zel had his back to the door. Oh, how inviting!
"Be right there!" Xelloss shouted back.
Moments later he returned, dressed in his kimono top and a towel. Just what he needed to get the kinks out!
"New bruises?" Zel said after glancing briefly at Xelloss as he climbed into the tub.
"Ah, yes. From the car ride back."
"You weren't in an accident were you?" Zel asked with concern.
"Better hope so," Val muttered.
"Noooo," Xelloss said cautiously. "Filia got bored and decided to hit on me." He grinned a bit, before adding. "Literally. With an umbrella!"
Val chuckled and the tension dissipated into the warm water with the caressing bubbles.
Ring, ring
"I'll get that," Zel croaked. He nabbed the cell phone before the third ring. "Zel here. Oh, hello. Oh. Oh. I understand. At three, Sunday. Yes. We'll all be there, thank you for calling and letting us know. I'll notify everyone else. No. no trouble at all. Certainly. Good bye."
Xelloss was curious anyway, "Tomorrow, what?"
Val opened an eye, noticing the subdued atmosphere settling in.
"Ah, Hokuto's funeral. That was their grandmother. She's very worried about Subaru and hopes we'll all be there. I told her we would be, of course." Zel sighed and looked over at Xelloss.
Xelloss nodded. If only he had done something… "Of course. I'll help you make the calls to the others."
End Seyruun High Jinx –NEXT! Chapter Two.