Disclaimer; don't own, never will, no profit -enjoy!

XOXOXOX

Lina's eyes glinted dangerously as she stalked back towards the town square. Xellos was going to pay. Not only had he made that soup but lied about how to cure it.

Well maybe not lied exactly – it had worn off after a day, but he hadn't told them it could be countered by flow break!

"Lina…"

When she got hold of him he would be in so much pain he would wish never to have been born. She could picture it clearly; a couple of fireballs followed by a dragon slave (once she'd tricked him out of town of course) if that wasn't enough to render him immobile she'd cast a shadow snap and set Amelia on him.

"Lina?"

A couple of love, truth and justice speeches and maybe a verse or two of 'life is wonderful' then, once he had been reduced to a suitable pile of mush she'd package him up and send him to Filia as one of those stress-relief toys you're supposed to squeeze –and dragons have a very good grip.

"Lina!"

"WHAT IS IT GOURRY?"

She whirled around to face the swordsman and only the force of her anger stopped her from bursting into laughter at the sight of him.

Once he had been cured Gourry had instantly changed into his usual attire and removed the make-up Amelia had applied so professionally. Unfortunately he didn't have much experience removing make-up and had hence made a complete mess of it. The delicate pink gloss on his lips had been smudged making his mouth appear thrice the size, mascara ran down his face in streaks and the eyeshadow had only been half removed making a rather interesting two colour effect that wouldn't look right on anybody.

"Where are we going?"

Lina smacked her forehead against her palm.

"To find Xellos so I can inflict serious amounts of pain on him."

"Oh… wouldn't he like that?"

"What?"

"Well um, he's a monster right? So wouldn't being angry and trying to hurt him make him feel happy?"

Lina blinked. He was right. Not only was he thinking things through but he was actually right. First the rooms then the flow break – he seemed to be on a roll. Well, third times the charm…

"Well what would you suggest then?"

"If he wants us to be mad at him we should just ignore him and go back to the inn and be happy. We could get a snack or something for until Zelgadiss and Amelia get back then eat again when they do." He said with a grin, then added "None of that blue stuff though."

Naturally the suggestion of food was much to Lina's liking. She smiled and let the anger slip away from her. The effect of Gourry's make-up finally caught up with her and she giggled a bit and produced a handkerchief to wipe it off with.

"C'mere Gourry, you've still got stuff on your face."

Obediently Gourry bent to allow Lina access to his face without having to jump to reach. Once she'd cleaned his face Lina quickly became aware of how close they were and to which parts of her anatomy Gourry's eyes were currently directed. She began bracing herself to fireball the jellyfish when he spoke.

"Y'know I like you better this way than when you drank that stuff." He looked up and grinned disarmingly "You're beautiful as you are."

Completely stunned Lina could do no more than blink. Sure she always said she was beautiful but no-one else seemed to agree, and certainly not 'as you are'. But Gourry had just said that…

She must have been standing there in shock for quite some time for the next thing she knew Gourry was waving his hand in her face to get her attention.

"Hey Lina, are we going to go get food or what?" He asked, as if he hadn't said anything out of the ordinary.

"Huh? Oh, yeah, Lets go!"

She recoverd herself, grinned and winked before running back towards the inn, Gourry behind her calling out the usual chant of 'Food! Food! Food!'

The smile didn't leave her face all evening.

XOXOXOXOX

"After crossing the mountains of tears in a single afternoon I ran into a particularly fierce bunch of bandits. Of course they were no trouble for the legendary hero Volun, but still there was no sign of Miss Lala. I began to despair of ever seeing her again I pushed on however and soon found myself…"

Zel sighed and allowed his mind to drift away from the fascinating life of the 'great hero' Volun. Realistically, he thought, it would have taken him at least three days to cross the mountains of tears on his own and the 'fierce bandits' were probably a group of worse idiots than him (as it happened it had taken Volun two months to travel around the mountains and the bandits had been a pair of children play-fighting with sticks for swords, but then Volun had always been a braggart and could make a paper cut into a tragic war wound.). He'd been talking non stop for an hour and a half and didn't seem to be slowing down at all. Zelgadiss began to ponder the amount of damaged a burst rondo might do the area immediately surrounding the 'great blabbermouth' and calculating how much power it would actually take to shut him up when Xellos re-appeared by the table.

"My, what a story! I must remember this one, please do continue."

Zel frowned, something was wrong here. Not that that was saying much, something was always wrong wherever the trickster was involved. His frown deepened however, when he realised what it was.

"Where's Amelia?" He interjected cutting off Volun's continuation. "And don't even think about saying 'that's a secret'" he added seeing Xellos's finger move into its customary pose.

"Well if you must know she's right over there dancing."

"With who?"

"Didn't get a name" he said with a shrug "He seemed keen to dance with the 'Bonnie lass' she wanted to dance and I was quite happy to find out what everyone else was up to"

Xellos found his feet lifted a clear foot of the ground as Zelgadiss grabbed him by the collar and yanked him up, hostility practically radiating off him.

"You left Amelia to dance with a complete stranger?"

"Well… yes, basically. Does it bother you?" He asked slyly

Throwing the priest aside and completely blanking him Zelgadiss walked off briskly to find the princess and make sure she was alright.

"My, my" Said Xellos as he stood up and dusted himself off before taking the seat Zel had just vacated. "Now then where were we?"

Volun shrugged and continued; an audience was an audience.

XOXOXOXOX

Amelia was a very good dancer.

That was the only thought Zelgadiss had that didn't involve a curse of some nature towards her partner. The man currently leading her through the reel was admittedly rather handsome. He had short dark hair and bright eyes, was dressed in a kilt and a tight shirt that showed off strong legs and muscles so perfect they could have been chiselled. Except, Zel thought bitterly, he wasn't made of stone.

The current tune ended and the man bowed to his partner before kissing her hand -invoking a death glare from a certain chimera even though he couldn't see it. Amelia curtsied, smiled and much to Zel's relief they parted ways, the princess moved to the edge of the dance floor her eyes scanning the crowd for a potential new partner.

Amelia jumped when she felt a hand on her shoulder and turned to see Zelgadiss regarding her seriously. What was he doing here? Was he going to ask her to dance?

"We should get going; Lina and Gourry have already gone back to the inn."

Apparently not. She should have known…

"I'm not really done yet Mr Zelgadiss, but you don't have to wait up for me. I promise I'll be quiet and not wake you when I get back."

"I can't leave you here alone, Amelia… I'd worry."

Amelia was about to protest that she was quite capable of looking after herself, didn't need a chaperone, or a hero to rescue her when the second half of his statement hit her as did the fact that this was Zelgadiss speaking. The 'heartless sorcerer/swordsman' himself was admitting that he worried for her.

A new song struck up and filled with confidence from his admittance Amelia held out her hand towards the chimera.

"Dance with me then? Just once and I'll let you take me back."

After a moments serious contemplation trying to determine the best way to preserve his dignity and still keep Amelia happ–er, safe, Zelgadiss made a show of rolling his eyes and grudgingly taking her hand in order to give the impression that the last place he wanted to be at that moment was with her. Amelia wasn't fooled though. She saw his customary half-smile in place and noted that he danced with her three times before finally placing an arm round her shoulders and leading her back to the inn, the moon riding high in the sky above them.

XOXOXOXOX

When Volun woke up the next morning he wasn't entirely sure where he was. He racked his brain for answers and came up with the memory of the purple-haired man he'd spent most of the night with.

It all came back to him after that. How he had told the tale of his heroic deeds and then unloaded all his frustrations of not being able to find Lala. The man had the most wonderful idea about that (although he had to admit he had been thinking it himself seconds before it was mentioned, naturally) Instead of travelling looking for her he should wait for her to come to him! Because clearly she must be in love with one as magnificent as he! That was when the purple haired one had brought Volun here (although Volun was convinced they had gotten here so fast due to his legendary speed) and introduced him to his new employer.

Without any further thought the new priest of Zoamelgustar got up to face the day.

XOXOXOXOX

Once Lina, Gourry and Amelia had eaten (or rather, demolished) breakfast and Zelgadiss had finished his coffee they gathered their things and headed to the front desk to settle the tab, which was pleasantly small due to their expenses being paid. Despite the diminutive size of the bill though, Lina still tried to haggle it down further being reluctant to part with any of her hard earned money. Eventually a deal was struck and they turned to go when the innkeeper stopped them.

"Before you go I was wondering if you might like to try this." He said bringing out a bowl of soup. "It's a whole new recipe."

The group took one look at the florescent pink colour emanating from the bowl exchanged glances and instantly reached a unanimous decision.

"No."

With that they turned and dashed out the door to find treasure, eat lots of food, fight for justice and search for a cure …all over again.

Fin

A/N: It's over! Wow!

I'd like to point out that Zel does worry about Amelia –when she distracted Gaav from killing Zel+Gourry (after Milgazia had healed her) Gourry asks 'when did she recover?' and Zel thinks 'sheesh, and here I was worrying for her' At which point Ame launches into her justice speech.

And before anyone asks, yes I'm a Scots lass and no, men like Amelia's dance partner aren't easy to find. Unfortunately…

Thank you all for reading and I hope you enjoyed!

Mistress DragonFlame; Thank you so much for all the reviews it's very much appreciated. In answer to your question yes Xellos probably would enjoy that and I seriously considered writing it in, but I think that idea deserves a lot more attention and possibly its own story. I think that has the basis for a good Xel/Fi fic ne? Maybe I'll do a sequel to this someday. CarolinaWhiteRose; Again thank you for all the reviews! I'm glad you found it so funny and I hope you liked this chapter as much. Not only did Xellos get his wish, he got fed and didn't get dragon slaved into oblivion! DQBunny; Hilarious? Victory! That's high praise indeed from one with your writing talents. Volun's so much fun to write though, just the extreme nature of his crush on 'Lala' makes him infinitely useable. After all it's the over exaggerated traits that are always the funniest (i.e. Volun chasing Gourry just because he looked "enough like Lala that I don't care you're a man!") Can't wait to read your version. Earth Star; Thank you so much! I was worried I might be going a little OOC, glad you enjoy (I really like Wild Hearts by the way – I hope you update soon (15 hugs as well!))