"You're not coming to Saillune with me, are you?"

It wasn't a question really so much as a statement, but it was one Zelgadiss had been putting off answering for sometime. And despite the fact Amelia already seemed to know the answer, for some reason he still didn't particularly want to tell her and couldn't bring himself to look back at her as he answered.

"No, I'm not..."

Amelia nodded silently and moved to join him on the inn's small balcony, leaning on the rail next to Zel as they watched the moon rise from the thin strip of fuchsia on the horizon that was all that remained from the earlier sunset and into the darker skies above.

"What will you do if... I mean, when, you find your cure?" She asked, continuing to watch the moon.

The chimera paused to think for a moment; this wasn't a question that had come up before, one he didn't have an answer for.

"I don't know... get a life I suppose."

He had meant it as a half-joke but Amelia frowned as she thought his response over. After a minute or two of silence she shook her head and turned away from the moon to look at him.

"No, that's not right. This is your life Zelgadiss-san, whether you enjoy it or not. Every moment that passes... is gone... your cure can't fix that... You can't bring back lost time."

Now it was Zel's turn to frown as he considered this. Before he had a chance to get too angsty though, Amelia grabbed his arms and forced him to face her.

"Will you promise me something?"

"That depends on what it is." He asked, slightly suspicious

"At least once a day, I want you to find something that makes you smile."

Zel blinked "What?"

"Find something that makes you smile. Beautiful moments like this watching the moon rise, finding an ancient temple, an inn where they sell decent coffee -whatever makes you smile!"

Zel blinked again. This didn't seem too hard a request although it was certainly unusual. Considering it was Amelia asking though, it shouldn't surprise him too much. However there was still one very important question;

"Why?"

"Because you don't smile enough Zelgadiss-san. If you're smiling then you're happy and if you're happy you realise how wonderful life is and start noticing more things that make you smile. And then I won't have to worry about you getting depressed."

"Besides which you have a beautiful smile that makes you look even more handsome and it's really unjust that we don't see it more often" she thought a little sadly and then blushed, noticing that her hands were still on his. He hadn't made any move to pull away…

"...Alright," he said "I promise, I'll try to find something to smile about once a day."

"At least."

"At least." he corrected. Amelia nodded, quickly pulled one of her wristbands off and (before Zel could do anything to stop her or even realise what she was doing) slipped it onto his arm.

"This is to remind you, you promised. And if you can't find anything else to smile about you can look at that to remember our adventures and smile at those!"

Zel sighed and resisted the temptation to roll his eyes.

"Amelia on our 'adventures' I've been fireballed, dragon slaved, used as an anchor, forced into drag, into a bunny suit, sent on numerous wild goose chases by Xellos and practically killed several times by rather high-ranking mazoku."

"Well then you can be happy that it's all over." She answered promptly with a grin and he had to admit she'd got him there, except for one little detail…

Now that it was really was all over he might never see her again. He could be trapped somewhere or lost or any number of possibilities. And if he ever made it back to Saillune… well, there are a lot of reasons royalty employ guards. Not that he wasn't worried about the others of course! Just Amelia happened to be the most vulnerable so of course he'd worry about her more... Really!

A quick glance confirmed there was no-one around to hear, so he placed his hands on Amelia's shoulders causing her eyes to widen with surprise as she looked up at him.

"Amelia... Take care alright? Don't do anything stupid and just… just be safe."

Her expression softened and Zel watched spellbound as she gave him a smile that could probably have killed a dark lord and caused his own thought process to completely seize up. The next thing he knew Amelia's arms were wrapped round his back and her head buried in his chest as she hugged him. Tentatively he returned the gesture and they stood like that for several moments bathed in the moonlight before a cold breeze kicked up causing the princess to shiver. Zelgadiss sighed and began to pull away.

"We'd better get inside."

"Wait! Can we... can we stay like this... just for a little longer?"

He looked down into her sparkling eyes and realised he was completely unable to deny her request, even if he had wanted to.

"...As you wish."

He pulled her close to him again but this time drew the heavy folds of his cloak around them both so they wouldn't be cold. As he did this, Zel caught sight of Amelia's bracelet on his wrist...

...and smiled.