A/N: Again, sorry the chapters are so short. We're getting close to the end. Let me know if you want the final bit in one long shot, or if you want me to break it up. In this chapter, I might take some heat for what relationships don't develop, so I apologize in advance. I think you'll see that it's for the best, in the end. Thanks for all your support, and I hate to admit it, but reviews really do keep me motivated…

The rest of the visit was somewhat strained and no consensus had been reached on what to do about the situation. Lina steadfastly refused to admit that her daughter was really doing anything wrong, instead chalking the situation up to hormones and advising that they let the children figure it out. Xellos was mostly of the same mind, but he surprised himself by secretly wanting to do something horrible to Amelia and Zel for attacking the character of his precious daughter. On the final day of their visit, Lina, Amelia, and Zelgadis were sitting in the garden, awkwardly having tea while Xellos puttered around the flower beds, when suddenly Lecia ripped through the yard, slamming the door as she dashed into the house.

"Lecia, wait!" a cry rang out, and Alfred came hurrying after her. He, too, disappeared into the house.

"Oh my," Xellos breathed, the sound of more doors slamming coming from inside. Alfred's pleas were also easily heard.

"What the hell was that?" Lina snapped, twisted around in her chair to stare at the house.

"I'll go see," Zelgadis said, following the children inside. Several quiet, tense moments passed, then the lavender-haired man reappeared. Alfred followed behind him, but instead of stopping and talking to the adults, he stalked off into the forest.

"What's happening?" Amelia asked her husband.

"I have no idea. He wouldn't talk to me, and Lecia's locked in her room."

Xellos pressed his lips into a firm line. "That doesn't bode well," he muttered.

"This whole visit hasn't gone very well," Lina announced. "This is exactly why I never wanted to have kids."

"But do you regret it?" Xellos asked, unable to help himself.

She shot him a charismatic grin. "Not in the least. But maybe we should get rid of these particular kids and make new ones. You know, start over."

"I'm willing if you are," he replied with a wink, and was rewarded with queasy looks on the faces of the Seyruun couple.

Lina noticed their expressions as well, for she stood up and chuckled. "You guys still take everything too seriously," she said. "Let them work it out. It'll be fine.

You two just worry about getting your stuff together for your trip home."

Xellos remained silent, agreeing with his wife, and after a few moments, Amelia and Zelgadis seemed to agree as well. The rest of the evning was spent in companionable conversation, with only the occasional interruption by one of the children. Xelllos geniunely enjoyed the eveing, and found he would be sorry to see their friends go.

The departure itself went without a hitch, other than Lecia's absence being painfully noted by everyone. Val was glaring daggers at Alfred the entire time, even though Xellos was fairly certain Val didn't know what was going on better than anyone else did. Alfred was quite pathetic, begging his parents to be left behind and even offering Val money to take him back home when he was ready, an offer that the dragon staunchly refused. Celdra finally seized her brother's wrist and began walking, dragging him away from the Inverse home, and after a few apologies, the rest of the family followed. Xellos, Filia, Val, Lina, and Gorran watched them go until no sight of them remained.

"Who wants lunch?" Xellos asked, herding everyone into the kitchen before comments on the young prince's behavior could be made. Lina made a great show of being hungry, but Val and Gorran still looked out of sorts. He quickly prepared a batch of sandwiches, and, with an approval glance from Lina, quietly stole upstairs to Lecia's room. "Little one?" he asked, softly knocking on the door. "They've gone."

Only silence answered him. He knocked on the door again, knowing that to try the knob would be a breach of his daughter's privacy. Moments stretched into minutes, and he wondered if she was even still in the room. "Lecia? Please talk to me," he said, leaning his forehead against the door. "It kills me to see you upset."

"Is Mom with you?" he heard his daughter answer, her voice muffled on the other side of the wood.

"No, it's just me."

The door opened a crack. Lecia's eyes were red-rimmed, but it seemed more from lack of sleep than the after-effects of crying. She glanced around the hall, then opened the door wider to admit him. He stepped inside, remaining standing until she indicated for him to sit. She locked the door again behind them, throwing herself on her bed as he pulled the chair from her desk nearer to her. "I don't want to talk about it," she said before he could open his mouth.
He reached out to put his hand on her ankle, which was the part of her closest to him, but she shied away from his touch. "We were just worried, that's all. You don't have to tell me what happened, but we can talk about your feelings, if you'd like."

Lecia studied him, her head half-buried in her pillows. One bright, amethyst eye glittered in the depths created by the shadows of the pillows and her voluminous hair. "I don't want to."

Xellos took a deep breath and adjusted his position in the chair. "I'm sure whatever it is must have upset you greatly, and that's fine. I really think it might help to talk about it."

The clock on Lecia's wall counted the seconds as they sat in silence. He crossed his arms over his chest and leaned back in his chair, ready to wait as long as it took. She shifted a bit on the bed, then finally sat up. "He proposed, Daddy."

Whatever he had been expecting, that certainly wasn't it. "What?"

"Alfred asked me to marry him."

Xellos, for once, didn't have anything to say. A few more seconds ticked by before he found he could breathe again, his daughter's whole life flashing before his eyes. "But you're only seventeen," he said, staring at Lecia.

"I know!" she cried, rubbing her face with her hands. Her dark hair spilled around her like a curtain, partly removing her torso from sight.

"And what did you say?"

"I said no."

Relief washed over him, pure, cool relief. "Thank the gods," he whispered.

"You don't like Freddy?" Lecia snapped, eyes suddenly exposed and crackling.

He held up his hands. "No, no, I think Freddy's very nice. I just think he needs to spend a bit more time growing up."

"Yeah."

"And so do you."

Lecia caught his eyes, then looked away again. "I'm not ready to settle down. I want to see the world, like you and Mom did."

Xellos moved from his chair onto the bed, gently stroking his daughter's hair. "You will, little one, you will. Someday this world will be yours for the taking, and if you decide to have a man at your side, it will have to be the right man."

"Yeah. That's basically what I said, and he got really upset. I felt really bad about telling him no, so I started to leave. He began to cry and started to grovel, so I just left faster. He just wouldn't leave me alone."

Xellos sighed and covered her hands with his. "That's the way men in love are. They're fools. That will never change."

"I just didn't want to marry my first boyfriend," Lecia said with a sigh. "And he wasn't a very good kisser."

He watched as Lecia tossed her hair, and suddenly he was able to see the woman she was becoming. She was still his daughter, but she wasn't his little girl anymore. Lecia was beautiful and just as charismatic as her mother. "Y-you kissed him?" Xellos asked, feeling his hands curl into fists.

Lecia's eyes were wide as she looked at him. "Sorry, Daddy."

"Did you do anything else?" It took every iota of self-control he possessed not to yell the words.

"No."

He immediately deflated. "Well, that's good."

Suddenly she turned to him, her hands gripping his hard. "When you kiss someone you love, it's supposed to make you feel something, right?"

"Yes, it is. You'll know what it is when you feel it. There's nothing like it."

"What does it feel like when you kiss Mom?"

Xellos thought about it for a few moments, chin in his hand. "Well, it's electric. It's like something's shooting all throughout my body, and the feeling originates from wherever she's touching me. It's like flying to the moon."

Lecia snorted.

"What, it wasn't like that for you?"

"No," she growled.

"Well, what was it like?"

She cocked her head to the side, looking up at the ceiling. "It was like...nothing. Just pressing my lips to his. Nothing else. No heat. No tingle. Nothing."

Xellos fell silent, mulling over his daughter's words. "Why do you think that is?"

A scowl marred her perfect features. "I'm not sure. I love his brain, I love his skill, I even think he looks nice sometimes, but something wasn't right."

"He wasn't the right fit for your soul," he said without thinking, and as the words passed over his lips a shudder wracked him. He remembered what his daughter's soul looked like after Xellas was done with her. There was a high probability that no one had enough light in his soul to dispel the darkness of his daughter, even as lovely and wonderful as she was. He wondered if she would always be at war with herself, just as parts of him were always at odds.

"But I liked him so much!" she wailed. "I really wanted to love him!"

Xellos held out his arms and she climbed into his lap even though she was much too large to fit there very well. Her tears finally released themselves, his shirt soaking them up as he wrapped his arms around her and murmured soothing sounds into her hair. She sobbed in his embrace as the sounds of the house grew still around them, the day fading to late afternoon. "We sometimes don't get to pick who we love," he said softly, thinking of how he was drawn to a certain redhead. "But when you do finally fall in love, you'll never wish it had been someone different, if you keep your wits about you."

"Okay," she whispered, and after a few more minutes she stopped crying.

"Are you better?"

"Yeah," she replied. "It still sucks, though. I don't think I can be friends with him now, because every time he looks at me, I'll wonder if he's hurting because I rejected him."

"I think I understand. You should ask your mother about that."

"Because of Gourry?"

Xellos waited for the old rush of jealousy to take him over at the mention of the swordsman's name, but nothing came. "Yes, because of Gourry."

"But that worked out okay, didn't it?"

"It will eventually, yes. Just remember, you don't have to be his friend, but you can still love and treat him like he was your friend."

Her amethyst eyes sparkled up at him as she climbed out of his lap. "Thanks," she murmured.

He nodded, stroked her hair a few times, and sat up. Going to the door, he paused when she cleared her throat. "Yes?" he asked.

She looked at the floor. "Do you need any help with dinner?"

Xellos smiled. "That's my girl," he replied.