For A Friend
Part II
Zelgadis Graywords sat on his bed with his head lowered and his arms wrapped around his legs. He let out a sigh and then with his right hand lifted the lavender Jewel of Restoration off his chest where it lay. The necklace that the jewel was connected to was hung around his neck, allowing the jewel itself to fall loosely on the middle of his upper chest. Ever since he received the jewel from Sekhmet, Zel had worn it around his neck and tucked it away under his shirt. However, he had now had it out in the open for all to see, and was running his fingers over its smooth and rounded edges.
It was strange, but the first time he had held it, the jewel had come to life and given him a warm boost of strength, while glowing with a soothing lavender light until all of his emotional and physical pain had subsided. It was as if the jewel had healed both his body and soul. It seemed to him that something like that taking place would be impossible. However, that's what the jewel had appeared to do.
Now, the jewel merely hung still and lifeless from his neck that held the cord attached to the jewel's lavender form. The jewel itself was cut into what almost formed a fish with a star inscribed in a pentagon in the jewel's center. Zelgadis held it in his cupped hand as it neither spun nor shown with light despite the pain he felt inside. So with a sigh, Zel allowed the jewel to drop from his grip back onto his chest, only to sit there, without reason to do anything to the contrary. Kaily was far away, leaving her happiness completely out of his control, and leaving himself to feel utterly alone and helpless despite all of his friends that were only rooms away from him. Rina, his younger sister, was without a doubt worrying about him as well. He sighed deeply and leaned his head back slightly, leaning it against his headboard as he opened his eyes to look at his ceiling. If Kaily knew about his mental state at the moment, there was no doubt in his mind that she would come as quickly as she could and do all that was in her power and more to help him and make him smile. Thinking of the look that would be on her face if she could see him at that very moment brought tears to his eyes, causing him to blink and raise a hand to wipe away his silent tears.
A few long moments passed by until Zel at last found the strength to sit up and look around the room until his eyes landed on his acoustic guitar sitting upright in the corner next to his closet. Then after another long and painful moment of silence, he pushed himself up and off of his bed. He then walked over to kneel down by his guitar, pick up its frame up off the floor, and lift it onto his lap.
Soon his fingers found their places on the bronze strings and Zel grazed his index finger and thumb of his right hand over these strings. The inner core of combined steel and silk added to the thrum of the bronze outer coat and emitted a soft tone with a drawn out sustain. Yet, even before this warm sound was allowed to fade away, Zel's left hand was busily working at tightening and loosening the strings to get the sound even more in tune than it already was. Thanks to Zelgadis's extra long and pointed ears, his hearing was excellent, and therefore his ears were extra sensitive to things such as tuning. After a few drawn out minutes and a countless number of additional thrums to check the tuning, Zel was at last satisfied, and with a gentle smile he began to strum out a few chords before beginning to play an actual song upon his bronze coated strings. The song was Lonely People by America, and once he got past the intro he took a smooth breath and began to sing the words, softly, with his mellow and soothing voice. A few lonely tears still remained in his eyes, and one by one they trickled down his cheeks as the words left his lips.
This is for all the lonely people
Thinking that life has passed them by
Don't give up until you
Drink from the silver cup
And ride that highway in the sky
This is for all the single people
Thinking that love has left them dry
Don't give until you
Drink from the silver cup
You never know until you try
Thinking about the words that he was singing, Zel managed a small smile, as he continued to sing the song for himself. He pictured moments from all over his life, a jumble of mostly lonely and painful memories until that all changed and Kaily entered his life. In his mind, he saw her smiling face and thought to himself how lucky he was to have met her, and that they had grown so closely a part of each other's lives. A few more tears dropped, but the smile on his face remained, as he continued his song.
Well I'm on my way
Yes I'm back to stay
Well I'm on my way back home
Hit it!
Now it was time for the instrumental break in the song, and Zel rose to the challenge, picking out all the chords that would usually be played on a piano. He did so with what seemed like ease, and his eyes were finally starting to dry up and show a bit more happiness, which was brought on by the music.
This is for all the lonely people
Thinking that life has passed them by
Don't give up until youDrink from the silver cup
Never take you down or never give you up
You never know until you try.
Strumming out the final chord, Zelgadis sighed with what seemed to give great relief to a lot of pain he had been harboring. The song itself didn't go into exactly what he was feeling, but just singing and playing his guitar made him feel stronger and more able to face the world around him. Maybe he was a bit more sentimental that most guys his age, but he didn't really care. Living the life he had had shaped him into a very emotionally soft and caring easily moved to tears by things such as music and verse, even if his physical appearance gave off an air of something very different. Playing the guitar had been a habit he had picked up in his childhood as a compliment to his studies in swordsmanship and later into shamanism, along with his vocal skill that grew to keep up with his knack for the acoustic guitar. His grandfather, Rezo, had tried many times to break him of his love for music and this new habit, but he was never able to stop his grandson from finding free time to practice. Rina even helped Zel find this time when the need came up, but more often than not, Rina would find herself unable to manage even a weak smile, only to find herself being sung to by her older brother and his guitar. To Zel, his guitar was both a tool for music and a friend. It was a way for Zel to express himself even when nobody else was there to hear what he had to say.
Finally, Zel managed a small smile as he played a few more random chords for only his ears to hear. Some of his lonely spirits had been calmed and soothed, making his separation from his beloved Kaily a bit more tolerable. His soul was not completely soothed, but what he had done certainly helped, and for that he was grateful.
But then, again he thought of Kaily and some of the loneliness came back again, and he let out a sigh. If only he could see her, but he knew there was enough going on without her having to worry about how much he missed her when she wasn't by his side.
Suddenly, there were a few footsteps outside of his bedroom door, and Zel looked up to look towards his door that led to the hallway. His ears picked up more sounds, the faint whispering of what sounded like Lina making orders. A smile slipped across his face, and Zel shook his head. Gourry must have told Lina about the mood he was in, and now she had done something to make him feel better. Lina, she was a good friend when she set her mind to it. She certainly never left you alone for too long, that's for sure. But whatever she had planned, he doubted that it would be what he needed to get on his feet again. But, at least she was trying. That was more than most had done for him in the past. So he sat on his floor, waiting.
Soon there was a knocking on Zel's door, followed by a call in Lina's voice. "Hey, Zel! You in there?" she said in her usual tone, so full of life and energy. "I heard you weren't exactly feeling too happy today, and we thought that, in being your friends, it's our obligation to do something about that."
At hearing this Zel said, "we?" aloud, and then thought to himself that the "we" and "our" had to include Gourry. He then stood up, placing his guitar back in its corner, and walked over to the door.
"Yes, Zel, we. Now, open the door already, unless you want us to just barge in there," Lina answered.
Zel shook his head and then placed his hand on the doorknob. Soon he turned the knob and opened the door to let Lina and Gourry, he assumed, start trying to cheer him up. However, this wasn't quite what awaited him.
The next thing Zel knew, once the door was swung open, was that none other than Kaily came through the doorway and he found himself being warmly embraced by the woman he loved. She then lifted her head from his chest, wrapped her arms around his neck, and looked up into his bewildered blue eyes. Kaily then gave him a big smile followed by another warm hug. "Hi, Zel," she said looking up into his eyes again, with a smile full of love stretched across her face.
Once he was able to get over the shock of not only seeing Kaily, but having her embracing him and smiling up into his un-expecting face, a rush of joy jolted through him and he returned her embrace. Zel's arms wrapped around Kaily and held her close to him, as tears of joy began to flow freely from his eyes. He managed to call out her name once, but was unable to say anything further due to the rush of wonderful emotions that were filling him as he held her ever closer to him. "Kaily...Kaily, you're here," he managed at last.
"Yes, Zel, I'm here," she answered back with yet another smile.
Standing outside, Lina, Gourry, and Rina witnessed the two as they happily stood there in Zel's doorway together, arms around the other and faces that shown with the joy and happiness that they felt in being in each other's arms. The three smiled at one another, clearly proud of what they had been able to accomplish, and rightfully so. All of the pain and sorrow that had been consuming Zelgadis till now had visibly melted away in the instant that he had Kaily safe in his arms. There was no point in going into the story of exactly how they had gotten Kaily there so quickly, or why Rina had joined the original team of Lina and Gourry. Those were all the simple details that led up to this moment in time, and therefore the present, that was the outcome of all the efforts, was the important thing. As long as Zelgadis Graywords was happy, then at least for a while, all was right with the world. For Zel being truly happy was a rare moment in deed.
------
Lina smiled to herself and grabbed Gourry by his arm in a forceful hint that it was time for them to leave. Gourry looked confused at first, but the look that Lina gave him, accompanied by the fact that Rina too was turning around to go back to what she was doing before, turned on a light somewhere and he followed Lina, leaving both Zel and Kaily alone in each other's arms.
"I think we did good," Lina said to Gourry when they were a fair distance away from Zel's room.
"Zel certainly did look happy," Gourry pointed out.
"And so did Kaily," Lina chimed in. "It's a shame that they have to be apart for such long periods all the time. No wonder problems like this come up."
"It's a good thing that Zel's strong, then," Gourry noted, putting his right hand on Lina's right shoulder.
"Yeah, I suppose you're right. But I doubt that was the type of power he was searching for all these years."
Gourry smiled and looked down at Lina before opening his mouth to speak. "Sometimes, the best things in life are found when you're not looking for them. They just show up along the way, and they make everything else all worth while."
"And where did a big oaf like you get the brains to figure that out?" Lina asked, caught slightly off guard by Gourry's enlightened insight.
Sighing, Gourry shook his head, "I don't know, Lina. I just thought... Never mind, I'll explain it to you later," he said, looking slightly put out.
"Thought? You? That's a rare thing for you, Gourry."
"Forget I said it, Lina. Next time I won't talk about you when I'm being serious," he said, walking off towards his room.
"You were talking about me?" Lina said, blinking. "Hold on a minute, Gourry!" she called out to him, running the short distance to catch up with him. "Were you really talking about me?"
Gourry sighed, stopped, and looked down at Lina again. He then gripped onto Lina's hand, holding it for her to see clearly.
Lina looked curiously at the back of her own hand until her auburn eyes landed on the diamond crested metal band around her ring finger, her engagement ring. The symbolism of both Gourry's comment and the ring then sunk into Lina Inverse's mind, and she looked down at the floor. "Sorry, Gourry..." she apologized in a far away tone.
But Gourry only smiled and leaned down to kiss the top of Lina's head, causing her to blush slightly. "Don't worry about it, Lina," he told her as he stood up tall again and ruffled the bright red hair at the top of her head playfully. "You're forgiven," he said with a big smile.
After being forgiven, Lina managed to look up timidly, with her big auburn eyes, into Gourry's smiling face. "Thank you, Gourry," she murmured with a shy smile.
"No problem, Lina, and don't worry about it," he said, still smiling radiantly down at her. Then the next thing he knew, Lina jumped up and gave him a big hug around his neck, to which Gourry caught her, using his left arm to support her and his right to hug her back. "We did good today."
"I think we did too," Lina added in, releasing her hold on Gourry's neck to look up at him, smiling.
All of a sudden, they heard footsteps behind them, and Gourry turned around so that they could both see whom it was. Once he was turned he saw that it was none other than Zelgadis walking towards them, alone but with a content look on his face. "Where'd Kaily go, Zelgadis?" he asked before Lina had the chance.
"She had to go home, after all, you two did catch her on short notice," Zel answered calmly.
"And are you feeling a little less alone now, Zel?" came the voice of Lina from her high perch in Gourry's arms.
"Yes, and thank you," answered Zel with a friendly smile.
------
Soon Zel found himself being hugged by his friends, Lina Inverse and Gourry Gabriev. And not long after, his sister, Rina, joined in on the group hug that was surrounding her brother. Zel was grateful for them all, for it really was one of the best feelings in the world to have friends who really cared.
The End (Owari)