Xellos was grinning.
That in itself should have started the alarm bells ringing.
The fact that he was grinning his I-know-something-you-don't-and-you're-gonna-get-yourself-hurt/embarrassed-because-I'm-not-gonna-tell-you-what-it-is-untill-it's-too-late smile should have sent them running for the hills. But as it was Lina and co had only just finished setting up camp and they'd be damned if they were taking those tents down until the morning –Actually Lina would be damned, the rest of them would be burnt to a crisp if they even thought of taking them down.
"What do you want Xellos?" The sorceress asked, half expecting him to say 'that's a secret' in reply.
He didn't though.
"Actually I've come to speak with Amelia-san."
"Me?" Amelia sounded worried. Smart girl.
"Yes, you remember that… little contest we had a few months ago?"
Amelia nodded, unaware of the matching evil grins that had appeared on Lina and Zel's faces at the memory of Xellos, conked out on the floor while Amelia calmly finished her last glass of wine. Boy did they remember.
"I believe I have found a challenge you could not win."
"Then why would I accept?" Amelia asked innocently.
Xellos grinned that grin again, and the princess had a sudden sense of (fully justified) foreboding.
"I have acquired information, about a cure for a certain chimera, that you may wish to attempt to win."
Within three microseconds Xellos's feet were lifted from the ground, his neck held in a death-grip by that certain chimera.
"What information?" He growled out. Xellos tsked and waggled a finger.
"Tsk, tsk Zelgadiss-san, patience is a virtue; only if Amelia-san wins the challenge."
"What's the challenge" Lina asked, cutting the princess off before she could consent, as she was about to –of course.
"That's a secret."
Everyone turned to look at Amelia who sighed and nodded, she didn't need to know what the challenge was her mind had been made up from the word 'chimera'; besides justice would see her through anything!
"I accept."
Xellos disappeared from Zel's grip and reappeared sitting cross legged on the ground pulling a deck of cards from thin air. He smiled and began shuffling.
"The challenge" he said slowly, drawing out their suffering at not knowing for as long as he could "Is… poker. Strip poker."
Gourry did a double take; Lina clamped a hand over her mouth to keep from laughing at the idea of Amelia playing strip poker while Zelgadiss stared open mouthed at the trickster, suddenly wondering if he could let her go through with this.
And damnit all; he couldn't.
"Amelia, no. If Xellos can get that information then we can too, you don't have to do this."
"I already accepted the challenge though" she pointed out and moved to sit opposite the priest. Xellos grinned internally, calculating his next move with precision.
"You know…" he said in his best thoughtful voice, never looking away from the cards "Amelia has a better chance of winning over me if more of you play." He directed a pointed look to Zelgadiss "Would you let Amelia-chan do this alone for your sake?"
The hesitation showed clear on Zel's face. The probability of public humiliation or having to live with himself for letting Amelia walk into the clutches of that…that… namagomi!
Zel cursed loudly and also moved to sit with Xellos, at which point Lina finally cracked and burst into laughter.
"I don't believe it! You know, I think the humiliation might be worth it just to see this! Deal me in!" she announced and joined them. Gourry just shrugged; if Lina was in so was he.
Mentally a small part of Xellos was screaming "yes, yes, yes, yes!" and doing a little dance, this was going perfectly!
Generally when things seem too good to be true they usually are.
"Are you aware of the rules of strip poker?"
"Straight flush beats everything, then four of a kind, full house, flush, straight, three of a kind, two pairs, a pair then high card. If you fold you lose one garment, if you have the lowest hand at the end of a round you lose a garment. If you lose all your clothes you're out." Gourry listed off without hesitation and everyone turned to look at him.
"What?"
"How do you know that? No actually don't tell me, I'm not sure I want to know." Lina answered. Xellos coughed to draw attention back to himself and the game, then began to deal, but Zelgadiss stayed his hand.
"Cut the deck first."
"My, my so distrustful Zelgadiss-san?" He taunted, but cut the deck anyway and began to deal again. He didn't need to cheat to win; the trickster priest had the world's best poker face, and a good enough memory to count cards.
Amelia frowned at her cards. She changed three of them then frowned again. When your best card is a nine you don't stand much chance –particularly if the grin on Lina's face was anything to go by. The princess was by no means a calculating person, she took things as they came and dealt with them more or less in the heat of the moment tending to jump to conclusions. She was however aware of 'the rules'. After years of living in a palace surrounded day in day out by lying, scheming, backstabbing lawyers and politicians you couldn't help but be aware of 'the rules' …and how to use them to your advantage.
Like on the second trip to Sairaag; had she known Hellmaster wanted Lina to use the Giga slave she would have had to try and stop her from going to rescue Gourry. Truth be told she had had a fairly good idea of what Hellmaster wanted Lina to do, but as long as she didn't know for sure it was alright to help her –using the rules to her advantage.
Social rules say it's not proper to remove one's clothes in public. The game however required it (and also required you get rid of the other players as soon as you could so there was a better chance of your own victory) and thus overrode that rule. Most people would still be aware of the social rules while playing however and would only remove non-essential clothes, such as boots and socks and so on, until they absolutely had to be less... decent.
After drinking Xellos under the table, Amelia had already proven she was not most people.
"I fold" She said simply, passed the cards back to Xellos, took a breath to steady herself and then promptly removed her shirt.
This single action eliminated Gourry and Zelgadiss from the game. As the part of Zel's brain that hadn't been turned into mush by the sight of her well endowed figure, barely covered by frilly white lace decided the only way to save himself was to shut down and cool off. In other words; he fainted. Gourry's chivalry kicked in fairly quickly after the shirt was gone and he looked away. Unfortunately he looked at Lina and his curiosity kicked in as well.
"Hey Lina, howcome you don't have-"
Lina's fist connected with the back of his head and Gourry, too, lost consciousness.
Xellos had to admit; he was impressed, he hadn't known she had it in her. But he kept his poker face on and turned to Lina before the sorceress could ask Amelia what she was doing or something of that nature. "What will you do, Lina-san?"
"Ame- huh? Oh I-I'll stay."
Xellos took two cards and soon after lost his left shoe –not that he was afraid of social rules; he just didn't have anything better to lose. Lina lost consecutively after that. Her concentration was more on figuring out Amelia's actions than the cards and soon she was down to her tunic, stretching it out as far as it would go to cover herself.
"Screw this! I quit!" She picked up her pile of clothes and stormed off to the tents. Xellos looked over at Amelia and smiled slyly; one more to go.
After losing her boots and a sock to Xellos's superior poker skills and card counting Amelia decided it was time to start applying one of the unspoken rules of poker; unnerve your opponent.
"Isn't it a nice evening Xellos-san?" she asked as she took her cards from him and began organising them "Not a cloud in the sky and it's so warm for the time of the year! Two please."
Xellos didn't comment and merely handed her the cards, taking one for himself. He nodded and they showed their cards. Amelia smiled and giggled
"Yay! I win! I was beginning to think my luck had run out." She beamed a twenty kilowatt smile and Xellos's perfect ever-smiling poker face began to crack. "but of course justice always prevails!"
Xellos lost his cape and dealt the next hand while Amelia started humming to herself, thinking as many positive things as she could, although she didn't voice them; lovely evening, travelling with friends, it would be her birthday soon, she was going to win information for Zelgadiss-san about his cure, it looked like it would be sunny again tomorrow, she won this hand…
After a few more rounds the nondescript humming turned into the life is wonderful tune…
When Zelgadiss woke up he couldn't stop himself looking straight to Amelia. He gave a mental sigh of both relief and disappointment upon realising she had her cloak wrapped round her upper body now. Apart from the shirt though, she only seemed to be missing her boots, socks and belt. Lina was nowhere to bee seen, Gourry was knocked out on the ground and Xellos was…
Xellos was down to his underwear and looked an unnatural shade of green. Zel grinned and got up to go watch as Amelia threw the winning hand down.
"Full house!"
The trickster groaned and revealed his three-of-a-kind.
"I believe that means you win princess."
Amelia shot Zel a victory sign and gathered her clothes, pulling them back on as quickly as possible.
"Yep! So, that information…"
"About Zelgadiss's cure?"
Amelia nodded and bounced slightly in her excitement, beside her Zel was hard pushed not to follow suit.
"The information about Zelgadiss's cure…" Xellos mused deliberately slowly, hoping to get a rise from them, though both knew better than to try and hurry him. "The information is… it exists! Bye-bye!"
The priest disappeared, his clothes and the cards going with him leaving Amelia and Zelgadiss in stunned silence, before the penny finally dropped.
"T-that's it? I-we-you went through this for that! That namagomi! That evil, scumbag, son of a-"
Zel's tirade was cut off by Amelia's laughter and the hysterical tears running down her face.
"He was right! A challenge I could not win. Even if I won the game he still, he still- hehehe, We'll have to call that one a draw hehehe."
Amelia continued to giggle while somewhere far away Xellos continued his search for a way to get one over the princess. He would find one and when he did it would be humiliating.
For now though, he could settle with a draw.
A/N: I was reading through my reviews (because it makes me feel warm and fuzzy) when i came across one from Shavaineth on "a little contest" saying there was potential for offshoots. Then I realized there was.
After I realized this I was cleaning out my room and came across my psychology notes from last year, in particular, the 'individual in the social context' section of notes, about rules and peer pressure and so on. After this I watched the Sairaag part of NEXT again and lo and behold, there's Amelia doing the one thing in the entire series that could have been considered unjust (helping Lina) except she manages to avoid the situation where it would be bad bynot being told the plan.
And so after a day spent in the Union playing poker ( Texas hold 'em, you perverts) the story was born.
I'm not sure why I told you this, except to explain why I don't think Ame's too ooc. She manipulated the situation to her advantage once, she could do it again -given the right justification (unlike those evil backstabbing lawyers who do so with no justification)
If ya have any suggestions for Xel's revenge, or constructive points (or out and out why this sucks)I'm glad to hear them :) Otherwise I hope you enjoy!