Disclaimer: I don't own any of the characters. They are the property of Hajime Kanzaka and Shoko Yoshinaka.

Author's Notes: Hiya! I know it's been a long time since I updated. Sorry about that! I've honestly been fiddling with this chapter for a long time, trying to get it perfect, and I think I got it this time, but please review to let me know whether or not I got it right. Thanks!

Chapter Thirteen

Val perched himself on the windowsill of Filia's bedroom. What was he going to do? Xellos looked comfortable enough, but from what Val knew about the spell enchanting the room, there was no way a mazoku could walk away completely unharmed. Val shook his head mournfully, and decided to remove the enchantment, even though he wasn't sure what the effect was going to be.

There was one thing he was sure of – if Xellos did not wake up right away it would give Val the chance he was looking for. He had to exert his independence and make Filia understand that he was not her child and that he was never coming back.

Val said the words to remove the holy spell and slowly let himself into the room to see what happened. He may or may not have the chance to talk to Filia without Xellos interrupting.

Filia stirred slightly, and then her eyelids fluttered into awareness. She looked up at Val, with a look of amazement on her face. "What are you doing in here?" she asked.

Val looked meaningfully at the other side of her bed.

Filia turned her head and saw Xellos – sound asleep – and suddenly she sprung out of bed. "What's going on?" she demanded of Val noisily.

"What about you?" Val asked coyly. "Why have you got Xellos-sama in your bedroom with you?"

"I . . . uh . . . I don't know," she stammered, her cheeks flushed. "He must have . . ."

"Save it," Val said coolly. "I know you weren't fooling around with him. We need to try to wake him up," Val said, going over to the bed and shaking him.

"Don't be so rough with him!" Filia complained when she saw Val winding up to punch him.

Val turned around and looked at Filia. "Why do you always insist on babying everyone? He's a mazoku. I'm sure he can take it," Val said strongly. "I know you've been trying to hide his real condition from me, but this guy – Xellos – is really messed up isn't he? That's why he doesn't leave, even though he realizes quite clearly that hiding out with the two of us isn't the best place in the world for him to be. What exactly is wrong with him? But maybe you just think that everyone ought to be handled the same no matter what their situation is. You always treat me like I need your protection. You act all strong, but if something goes wrong you practically come unglued. If you think Xellos-sama needs you to coddle him – you're dead wrong!"

"I don't think he needs me to coddle him!" Filia answered back quickly, but she still wasn't feeling like herself. She still felt sleepy, but not so sleepy that she couldn't defend what she believed. Filia never felt too tired to defend what she believed in. "You're still a child Val, so I treat you . . .

Val interrupted her, "Just like you can't seem to let go of the idea that I am your son. I am not your son. I am no one's son!"

At his words she seemed to fall back until she came to the wall, which she leaned against uneasily. Filia tried to keep her balance. These arguments with Val were not unusual. Before she went to Sayruun for the tournament they were the order of the day. Things had been different since Xellos came, but now that it appeared that Xellos was not there to defend her - Val was back at his previous argument – except that he seemed angrier than before. "But Val . . ." she started to say weakly.

"Why have you been keeping me here?" Val shouted, interrupting her again. "Xellos isn't going to wake up and stop us from having this conversation. I'm positive of that. Do you know what? I'm not even sure if he'll ever wake up, and we need to have this conversation Filia," Val said approaching her with a serious look in his eyes. "I don't even understand why you care whether I stay or go," he started out, laying into her. "I'm a dragon and I don't want to live like this – like a human! A human Filia! Why do you even own a tea set? Why do you even own anything? It's unnatural," he hollered, getting more and more heated in his argument.

"It's how I was brought up," she wailed, suddenly feeling very cornered. "I was lonely Val, and there was no one there for me, except your egg. Everything I believed in was dashed to pieces in front of me. I don't even know if I would have been able to go on if it hadn't been to look forward to your rebirth. Can't you understand?" she asked desperately.

"So, you're just thinking about yourself. What I want doesn't matter at all to you then, does it? I refuse – I repeat – refuse, to stay here any longer. You are not my mother! I would have lived with, or without, your help!" Val bellowed, just as an unseen fist made contact with his jaw. Val staggered and fell a little bit away from the bed.

The mazoku pulled himself up, so he was standing his full height. "Don't you dare talk to Filia like that," the figure said darkly. "Don't you dare throw her efforts for you away just because you think you're all grown up. She deserves your loyalty."

Filia stared. She hadn't even seen Xellos get up out of the bed, but her lower lip was trembling and she knew she wouldn't be able to stop herself from crying.

"Filia," the figure said advancing towards the shaking dragon-girl, who was now weeping gently into her hands. "Don't cry. Please don't cry. Please just let him go, and I'll stay with you. I'll stay with you forever. I'll be here with you – if you'll take me . . ."

"Oh, Xellos," she said, throwing her arms around him.

He took her up gratefully into his arms and stroked her hair. "Hmm . . . Xellos," he said, repeating her slowly. "Is that my name?"

Suddenly, Filia pulled back and looked at him with very wide eyes. "Oh no! What's happened to you? You don't know who you are now?"

He smiled at her pleasantly, and touched the back of his neck absently. "I guess you're right. I don't have any idea who I am, but I know who you are. It's easy – because I love you," he said simply.

Filia found herself crying piteously into Xellos' lap. What were the two of them going to do now? Filia felt as though she had been bent backwards repeatedly by everything that had happened. She had been hurt that Xellos hadn't been in love with her, she was hurt having to refuse Lex when he was so close to the real thing, and she'd been hurt by the constant changes in his nature, so that she almost couldn't remember who the person she loved was. And now . . . she had to deal with Val. She didn't feel up to it on top of everything else.

Maybe it would be best to just let go.

Xellos just held her and whispered things in her ear that she could not concentrate on enough to hear.

She tried hard to focus. It would be a hard thing for her to give up Val; for her to let him go. Letting him go had been the thing she had been most afraid of for years. She couldn't think of enduring life without her child . . . her child. Yet she knew that Val was right about some things. He had never accepted her love for him. His feelings for her had been of a different nature since the time he realized that his ideas of how a dragon should be contrasted so differently with the way she, Filia, was. She was just so afraid of being alone.

Filia brought her head up and looked at Xellos, or Lex, or whoever the heck he was. Looking into his clear eyes, she saw that perhaps what she needed was not to be a mother forever – she had never been a mother to begin with. Looking into his eyes, seeing the confidence and power that existed there, it was hard to believe that she had ever thought that he was not the man she could not live without. Maybe it didn't matter who he was. Maybe they still had a better chance of finding happiness together than she and Val had ever had.

"Okay Val," she said slowly, "You can go." But when she looked up to see his expression, she saw that Val had already gone. She nodded her head resignedly, and tightened her arms around Xellos.