A/N: So, here's the next installment. A couple people were disappointed I didn't go into Lina and Xellos' joyful, and probably passionate, reunion. Sorry about that. I wanted you all to use your imaginations. Heh heh. Also, some people think I hate Gourry and Sylphiel, or they really hate Lina because she's acting the way she has around those two. First off, I really adore Gourry, but remember this fic isn't told from his point of view. And Lina has a lot of troublesome feelings. When has Lina ever been good a expressing, or even admitting, her feelings? So, hopefully you'll get more good Gourry and Sylphiel bits as the story progresses, and Lina doesn't have her head up her butt all the time. Life is difficult, sometimes, and her behavior is simply her reacting to things and not thinking them through. Oh, and just so you know, she never does find out how the whole thing between Gourry and Xellos really went down. I've also received complaints that my chapters are too short. Still. Sorry about that, but I'm afraid what I deem to be a "chapter" is what's going to be a chapter. Hope you enjoy!

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"I'm back!" Xellos heard his son cry out as the front door slammed.

Lina looked up from the book she was reading at the kitchen table. "How was practice?"

"Good," the boy said, leaning his sword bag against the wall. "Miss Sylphiel gave me some cookies."

"Oh, give 'em here," Lina said, eagerly snatching away the parcel and tearing into it.

Xellos sighed and continued to stir the noodles, knowing that Lina could eat all two dozen and still find room for dinner. After so many years with her he had grown accustomed to her habits, but that didn't mean that he didn't wish she'd sometimes save some goodies for him. He fished out a noodle and tested its consistency. Dinner was almost finished. "Did you thank Val?" he asked.

"Yeah," Gorran said. "He's happy to have the pocket money."

Xellos smiled. "Well, you have the chance to earn more to pay him with. There's plenty of leaves out back that need to be raked up."

"Yes, Dad," Gorran groaned, taking his place at the table.

"Ah ah, did you wash your hands?"

Gorran growled and ran his hands under the water. "Yes," he snapped.

Lina frowned. "I thought you said practice was good. No need to get all touchy."

Gorran harumphed and turned away, arms crossed over his chest.

Lina pinched the bridge of her nose. "Okay, whatever. Say, you didn't happen to see your sister when you came in, did you?"

"No," Gorran grunted.

"That girl, she's never around," Lina sighed.

"She's out with her friends," Xellos explained, straining the noodles and filling a bowl full of sauce. "She'll be here in time for dinner. I'm sure she thinks she still has five minutes." He made sure everything was ready on the counter, since he knew the second he placed it on the table the war for food would begin. "What would you like to drink?"

"Am I late?" Lecia cried, tearing into the room.

"Hands!" Xellos said crisply, and Lecia growled as she went to the sink and washed.

She slid into her chair and clapped her hands together, looking about her. "Hey kiddo, how was practice?"

Gorran shrugged. "Good."

Lecia opened her mouth and promptly shut it again as Xellos set the food on the table. He already had his plate prepared and sat down with it as the rest of the family tore into the meal with frenzy. It seemed like only moments before supper was completely gone. "Daddy, can Val come over tonight?"

Xellos sopped up the remainder of his sauce with a slice of bread. "Are your studies done?"

"Yes," she replied, rolling her eyes.

"Did you practice your spells?"

"Yes," she sighed.

He examined her for a moment but decided she was telling the truth. "Very well," he said.

"Hey," Lina piped up. "You've sure been spending a lot of time with him lately."

"Moooommm, I'm seventeen," she replied, and stood, rinsing her dishes in the sink.

"Val and Lecia sitting in a tree," Gorran sang.

"Shut up!" Lecia growled.

"Gorran, do the dishes," Xellos said. "Lecia, get out of here."

His daughter's face split in a grin. "Bye!" she chirped, and was gone.

"Oh man," Gorran groaned, rising and collecting the remains of the meal.

"Don't complain. Your wife will thank you for your skills when you marry."

"Who says I'm getting married?" Gorran growled.

"Smart boy. That's my son," Lina said with a smile.

"Alas, he'll miss out," Xellos sighed. "I personally think married life is wonderful."

"Blah blah," Lina growled, but she gave him a tender glance.

"Well, I guess I should get the guest rooms ready. The royals will be here tomorrow," he said as he rose from his chair.

"I can't believe it's already been a year and a half," Lina commented. "Their kids are going to seem all grown-up."

"Our children seem all grown-up."

"We are grown-up!" Gorran chimed.

"Bah," Lina said. "I'm going to go read."

"I'll join you shortly," Xellos said, thanked his son, and went to freshen up the guest rooms.

The next day they were all gathered on the road, anxiously waiting. My mid-morning the carriages had pulled up and the prince and princess of Seyruun's family spilled out, triggering a flurry of embraces. Filia and Val had shown up as well. Gorran and Kerra immediately went into the forest to play, accompanied by Rodimus for good measure.

"Miss Lina!" Amelia cried, throwing herself into Lina's arms as Xellos warmly shook Zelgadis' hands. "It's been far too long. Why don't you ever come to visit us with Lecia?"

Lina's eyebrows raised and she shot Xellos a look, but he simply glanced at her and made a mental note to try and ferret out the source of that story later. "How's Gorran's spellcasting going?" he asked the chimera.

"Fine, fine," Zelgadis said. "He has a surprising affinity for white magic. He's learning so quickly that Amelia and Sylphiel are having a hard time keeping up. I'm having a tough time, too, but luckily they're keeping him so busy that he's only with me for a portion of the day."

Xellos shook his head. "It's so odd that he has no affinity for black magic. After all, I am related to Shabranigdo, and yet my son can't cast a black magic spell to save his life."

Zelgadis chuckled. "Well, hopefully I've taught your son enough shamanic magic that he won't need to rely on anything but that to save his life."

"That and that wretched sword of Gourry's."

Zelgadis nodded slowly, light blue eyes calculating. "It's pretty incredible, eh? With all those runes on it, and that rare metal, amadium, was it?"

"Amurium," Xellos said without thinking, then laughed at himself. "Oh dear, you almost got me, didn't you?"

"Almost."

"Well, I won't be telling you anything about ancient magics today. We have food to eat and wine to drink."

Zelgadis smiled, shaking his head, and Xellos led the man toward the house as he watched Lecia out of the corner of his eye. She was standing very near to Alfred, their heads close together. The boy had a faint blush on his cheek, and Val, who was prowling about with Celdra nearby, was scowling at them so furiously that his expression could have curdled milk.

Amelia was already bursting at the seams with happiness, flitting about the house and commenting on any improvements they might have made. She was in love with everything, from the elegant wrought-iron candlesticks Xellos had recently purchased to Lina's latest acquisition of rare books. Xellos could hardly move in the kitchen, she was so underfoot, but one he found tasks for her he found her immensely helpful. It was nice to have assistance in the kitchen, for once. The children reappeared from the forest, then joined the older teenagers in the backyard. All the while the adults watched them flit about, reminiscing and laughing in between sips of wine and bites of cheese.

When night finally fell, Xellos noticed that the two youngest were rapidly losing energy, and so he put them to bed without insulting their growing senses of independence. Lecia quickly organized an outing for the older children, and they set off on a moonlight walk towards the river. Lina threatened Lecia with severe pain if any of them fell in the river and drowned, but Xellos had become used to her brand of expressing worry, and was pleased to see Lecia kiss her mother on the cheek on the way out of the house. He wasn't sure what exactly had happened during his time away from life, but he was glad that the two most important women in the world had grown closer.

Xellos picked up a tray of drinks and met the other adults outside just in time to see Filia take her leave, Val in tow. Hugs and well-wishing were exchanged, and the dragons had barely been gone five minutes when Amelia let out a huge sigh. "We've been having some problems with Alfred," she blurted.

"Amelia," Zelgadis groaned. "At least lead into it."

Xellos sat next to Lina, carefully watching her facial expressions. He suspected where this conversation was headed, and he wondered if she did, too. "And?" he asked.

"Well, he's been doing terribly reckless things," Amelia explained. "He's been shirking his duties, ignoring his tutors, and has even been slightly rude to some of our officials. He never tells us when he'll be home, and sometimes he's out until all hours of the night."

"So?" Lina asked. "There's no rule saying a kid can't have his fun. I seem to recall that when you were his age, you were chasing down some of the most poweful demons this world has to offer."

"This isn't the same thing," the princess protested. "That was for justice. This is something else."

"He's never been this way," Zelgadis added. "Not that I think it's surprising he's doing it now. Somehow our children don't seem as mature as we were at their ages. Perhaps it's because they've lived mostly danger-free."

"Our kids are too old for their years," Lina replied softly, so softly that Xellos almost missed it. He felt a black curtain of guilt drawn across his soul. He knew exactly what she meant. Heaven knew he was the cause of almost all of her troubles for the past two decades.

"You sound as if you have a theory behind why he's acting like he is," Xellos said carefully.

"He does. It's because of Lecia," Zel sighed.

"What?" Lina growled, nostrils flaring, and Xellos quickly clamped his hand over hers, squeezing it tightly while sending calming thoughts through the magic conduit of the rings.

"He's trying to impress her."

Xellos nodded at Amelia's words. "Of course he is. He's eighteen years old. His hormones are raging and he'd probably like nothing better than to court our daughter."

"She's too young," Lina hissed, eyes burning.

"We don't know what to do," Amelia said sadly. "We both really like Lecia and enjoy her company, but we don't understand how or why she goads Alfred into such things. Why, just a couple of weeks ago he was holding one of our noble's hairpieces ransom, just for the laughs."

Xellos' lips drew into a thin line. Such behavior would have been encouraged by him if he had still been a Monster, but as it was he would not tolerate it. Lecia was a smart girl, and he wondered what she had to gain by doing such things to a poor, love-struck boy.

"She's just trying to hide her feelings for him by forcing him to give her reasons to think he's beneath her. Women in my family always have trouble with this sort of thing," Lina explained haltingly, eyes darting to and from her husband.

"We were just hoping maybe you two could keep her around home for a while," Zelgadis said.

Xellos studied Lina. He could tell rage was just below the surface. She normally would have erupted a long time ago over the perceived insults to her family, but instead she just sat there, silently fuming. There were calm overtones to the emotions he felt through the rings, however, giving him the sense that Lina wasn't surprised by what she was hearing. "I think that's about enough for this evening," he said brightly, gathering up the dishes.

Amelia touched his wrist. "We didn't mean to upset you."

"You didn't," he replied. "I just think that we're all tired and overexcited. After all, you didn't come all this way just to talk about our daughter." Amelia and Zelgadis exchanged a furtive glance, Amelia's round cheeks coloring slightly. Zelgadis refused to meet his eyes. "Did you?" Xellos asked, genuinely surprised.

"It was only the right thing to do," Amelia mumbled.

Lina threw up her hands. "Okay, you can all go to hell, but I'm going to bed." With that, she stomped inside. Her footsteps could be heard all the way up the stairs, even from outside.

"I appreciate the trouble you went through to come here, but it really wasn't necessary," Xellos said with a sigh. "A letter would have sufficed, and you would have been out of harm's way."

"We felt it would be better to attack the character of a friend's child in person," Zelgadis replied.

Xellos ran a hand through his hair, steadying the tray of dishes with his free hand. "Well, I hope it was worth it," he murmured. "I think you had best get a good night's rest. You're going to need it."

"No doubt," Zelgadis muttered, and Xellos took his leave of them.