Disclaimer: This series is intended as in-between vignettes of my other fanfic, Of Life and Lemonade, so in order to understand it, you probably should read that one first. Since that one is Amelia-centered, this series will focus on the other characters that pop up. Slayers is owned by very talented people who make all the money.

Occurs around chapters 15 to 22 of Life.

Chapter 5

Just When You Thought It Was Safe…

He wasn't answering his phone.

Zelgadiss never went out. He almost always spent his Friday nights at home on the computer or reading a book. B-o-r-i-n-g. So, where the hell was he? It was almost midnight, and his friend still had not returned his call. Xelloss picked up the phone again.

"…You have reached the Greywords residence. Please leave your name and number and the time you called at the tone…"

"It's Xelloss. Call me when you get in. We need to talk."

He frowned as he replaced the phone in the cradle. There was something strange going on, but he just couldn't decide what it was. Zelgadiss was up to something, asking him to find out that kind of information on that person, but who was he to wonder about the inner workings of his friend? He had known Zel for years, but he had never really talked about it in all the time they'd known each other. Not that Zelgadiss Greywords was a very open person. Quite the opposite, in fact. Never one to divulge information without a good reason, he was a very private individual who tended to keep his battles his own.

So, a few years ago, it had come as a shock to Xelloss when Zelgadiss had called out of the blue one day to have him help him out with his litigation against Atlas City in his accident. Judge Seyruun had overseen the case, and everyone was happy with the settlement. Zel left the Atlas City force and returned home to Saillune. Almost three years later, Zelgadiss requested Xelloss' help once again out of the blue. This case was one he decided to take on principle, and Xelloss almost never took anything on principle. Now, he was second-guessing his decision to take his friend's case after all.

Xelloss lay back in his king-sized bed and relished the coolness of his black sateen sheets. Closing his eyes as he thought about what kind of mess he was getting into, Xelloss soon drifted off to sleep…

…only to awaken to a loud ringing in his ear. By the time he was coherent enough to realize what he was saying, he had already annoyed Zelgadiss.

"…I hate you."

"You know you don't. I wanted you to call Amelia so I could treat her to a nice dinner and a movie tomorrow. I was thinking about somewhere on the pier and then…"

Zelgadiss cut him off. "I don't think that's a good idea."

Xelloss frowned. "Oh, really?"

"Yeah, umm… her friend, the housekeeper's son, was in a really bad accident tonight. I don't think she'll be up to going out this weekend." Anger suddenly flared up in Xelloss' chest. Who was he to determine what Amelia was going to think or do? After the momentary pause, Zelgadiss asked, "Hello?"

"I appreciate your concern, Zelgadiss, but don't you think that Amelia should make up her own mind? I don't know if she would appreciate it if she knew that you were making her decisions for her."

"That's… that's not what I…"

"Besides," he bit out, fighting off the familiar sense of déjà vu, "how did you happen to know this little bit of information?"

"I gave her a ride home since her car was leaking. I bought her dinner, and then she got the call that her friend was in the hospital. Is that alright with you? Look, she had a really bad day, and it ended with her friend getting into a bad accident…"

Excuses. Always excuses. Xelloss was the king of excuses, but he did not like being on the receiving end of them. "Do you have a problem with our arrangement?" he interrupted. "If you want out, let me know. I don't have to work on your case. No? Good. Just let her know, Zelgadiss. Tomorrow evening at 6:00. El Torito at the pier. Movie afterwards. Goodnight."

Slamming the phone back down in the cradle, he tried to let the sudden tension seep from his shoulders, but instead found that he was becoming more and more agitated. Why the hell did people always insist on screwing him over when it came to seeing the young women he was interested in? He wasn't an evil guy…

Well, he wasn't purely evil…

Well…

Okay, so he had his moments, but everyone's entitled to be a jerk every now and again! So what if he didn't blink twice when he helped to put that non-profit shelter out of business to make way for a new gentlemen's club, or when he assisted in negotiating the terms of a corporate venture that resulted in bankrupting several dozen small businesses, or even when he found a loophole that allowed a convicted drug dealer to go free. Who cared, as long as it didn't affect him?

So little Miss Amelia would be attending dinner with him, regardless of what that goody-good Zelgadiss thought. Xelloss lay back in bed, trying to figure out the best way to make Zel squirm by using the precious girl…

Filia sat bolt upright in her bed, a terrible feeling of unease sweeping though her chest. What could have possibly startled her out of such a sound sleep? Her mind quickly swept though her dream and dismissed it. No nightmares. Her ears tried to pick up the tiniest sounds outside of the house settling and soon dismissed those as well. There was nothing out of the ordinary.

She shuddered, and hugged her arms to herself, hoping to replace the warmth that she had lost when the blood drained from her hands and feet. Lying back down, she tried to fall asleep again, but after five minutes, her large cerulean eyes remained wide open. Her thoughts drifted, and they settled upon something that she hadn't thought of in months. Today was the anniversary of the day she had finally broke up with Xelloss.

That was the last time she had spoken to the man. They had only been together for a year, but it had been enough time for her to fall hard enough that she hadn't quite been able to pull herself back together in the ensuing two years. She blamed him for that, of course. Oh, she was doing brilliantly in school and at work, had lots of friends, and was ogled at and drooled over, but she still had not yet dated anyone else. Not even to go out for tea.

Val and Lina and Sylphiel had tried to set her up with different people, but when she put her foot down at their meddling, they soon enough learned to keep their noses out of her love life – or lack thereof. Filia had one heck of a temper when riled. So she hung out with her girlfriends or Val, and tried not to imagine herself growing old and dying a spinster. Well, if Lina and Gourry ever got their act together, then she could baby-sit their grandkids when she was too old to work at the hospital.

Filia let out a huge sigh and turned over in her bed to stare out of her window. It was a little past one in the morning, and now she was wide-awake, trying her best not to think about how she was going to end up alone in the world because of some stupid guy whom she was stupid enough to listen to with all of his stupid promises. Stupid girl…

With a growl, she buried her head under her pillow and squeezed her eyes shut in a vain attempt to block out the thoughts that had come to her unbidden in the middle of the night.

Filia soon lost herself in her work, especially after what had happened with Jordan. She spent much of her time at the hospital, not only working, but also offering her support and her help with her friends in their time of need. Seeing Amelia with that young man (Zelgadiss she believed was his name) lifted a weight from her heart that she didn't know was there. Perhaps her friend was finally safe from that garbage, that swine…

As she sat at the benches with the two 'we're-only-friends' who had just informed her that they were going on a date (Filia didn't care what they called it - it sounded like a date to her), that uneasy shudder that had woken her up several days ago passed through her once again, only this time, it intensified her already aching head.

"Hello, there," someone behind her said, and Filia froze. Not him. Anyone but him! "And hello to you, too, Miss Filia."

So there he was.

Xelloss. The bastard.

She should have just left. She should have just walked away without another word. Instead, she skimmed the surface of the roiling emotions within her, and before she could stop to think, she spat, "I wondered why I suddenly got a headache! What do you want, you stinking pile of garbage…?"

He tutted and waved a finger in front of her face as if she were a child, and she wished she had something heavy to hit him with. "Now, that's no way to act towards someone who just paid you a pleasantry, Filia. I see you've been hanging out with Val too much."

"Why, you…" She knew that her own passive martial arts were nothing compared to the deadly knowledge that he held, but she still found herself reaching out to snap the offending finger back sharply. He surprised her by falling for such a simple hold. "What. Do. You. Want. Xelloss?" she ground out. Her hold on his fingers relaxed a tiny fraction, but that small pause was enough to allow the man to retaliate, quickly and effectively.

She found herself sitting back down on the bench with his hand gripping hers tightly. It didn't hurt, really. In fact, Filia felt that he was being surprisingly gentle, given the circumstances. Her cheeks still burned with anger, but a new type of irritation made it worse. Now, she was upset with herself. Damn her heart for skipping a beat when that stupid man touched her hand! Damn her heart even more for fluttering when he let it go!!!

"As I was trying to say before I was so rudely interrupted, how is your friend, Amelia…?" Xelloss continued, but Filia's mind was fighting to regain control of itself. One minute back in her life, and she was blushing like a schoolgirl… It was a good thing her cheeks were already flushed.

She thought it was over. She thought that it would be easy to move on and get over him, especially because of what a jerk he was when they broke up. He was a shark who chewed her up and spit her out, mangled and bleeding. And here he was, back in her life causing problems for her friends, and for herself as well. He wasn't going to screw up someone else's life. He did enough damage to her once.

Never again.

Her frozen heart chilled a few more degrees. Steeling herself for the verbal lashing she was about to deliver, she almost missed the last words out of his mouth. "So how convenient that she's spent so much time with you, and now she refused me, and is going out with you to some car show? Was that your whole plan, Zelgadiss?" he hissed, glaring at the man. "Take the girl out to keep her away from me?"

Suspicions clicked into place, and the words were out of her mouth before she could take them back. "I knew it! You filthy pile of garbage! You weren't content to just mess up my life. Now you're trying to mess up someone else, are you?" Dammit, Filia! He doesn't need to know how much he had affected you!

Amelia was yelling at him as well, so for a split second, she hoped he hadn't heard what she said, but his eyes darted to her in the barest of glances, and she knew that she had said too much. She had given him the ammunition he needed to destroy her.

Apparently, that glance was the opening Zelgadiss needed to launch an attack. Bodies were suddenly entangled in fierce fighting, and Filia's sense of right overpowered her self-pity. Xelloss was a deadly fighter, and she would not stand by to watch him beat up someone who wouldn't have a very good chance against him. Seeing an opportunity, she seized Xelloss' neck, pinching the artery until he froze, not daring to test the effectiveness of her Chin Na. Amelia was able to drag Zelgadiss to the bench to see if he was unhurt.

Filia looked down at the purple head and knew, yet again, that he had allowed her to get in and stop him. He could have very easily broken her fingers and her forearm, but he didn't. He also could have very easily hurt Zelgadiss worse than he was, but he didn't. At least he was showing some restraint. Amelia said a quick goodbye and dragged her friend away, leaving Filia alone with Xelloss. The last person in the world she wanted to be alone with.

After allowing him up, she smacked him across the back of his head, and then she did something that surprised both of them. She patched him up. Apparently, he went easy on Zelgadiss and ended up getting the raw end of the deal. Not that she cared, but she was a nurse after all. Of course she was going to help a wounded person, no matter what kind of shark he turned out to be.

Leave it to Xelloss Metallium to keep his tactics of wooing an underage girl unchanged in three years. Hadn't he learned anything from their relationship? Hadn't he learned that some girls don't like to sneak around? Hadn't he learned that they weren't property to be owned or locked away? Apparently, his oversized ego was a false one if he was still using the same ruse with Amelia that he had used with her.

"Why do you do it?" she found herself asking. This time, she was truly curious.

His head snapped up in surprise. "What?"

Their eyes met, and it was all she could do to sustain the gaze. "Are you that much of a coward that you can't ask a girl out without fear of what might happen if you do? You know, sometimes I think…"

No. That was too much information. He already had too much…

"You sometimes think, what?" His eyes drew her in, and her heart began to thaw. Just a little bit.

"I sometimes think that if you didn't play all those games: getting other people to ask me out for you, always being so selfish and so controlling. Lying… I sometimes think that…"

Don't do it!

"…it could have been…"

Stop!!!

Swallowing hard, she shook her head slightly to clear it of the emotions her heart refused to let go of, despite its frozen home.

She sighed. "Those aren't stitches, so try not to move very much if you can help it, otherwise, they'll open and you'll have a scar. Don't do anything stupid, Xelloss. I've got to get going."

Filia fled from his presence, and only when she was locked away in her room at home, did she feel a degree of safety from the man who had stolen her heart so long ago and had yet to return it.

He was a sucker.

He must be a glutton for punishment.

He could still be…

Xelloss sighed. Okay, so he had let Zelgadiss have Amelia, since that was how he saw it. Sure, she was the one who had told him that she didn't want to see him again. Sure, she was going with Zel on a date-that-wasn't-a-date to some stupid car show. But for some reason, he was able to let it go after Zel actually called him. The guy must have it bad if he was so willing to apologize to him just so the two of them could go to the show.

He smirked. Zelgadiss could deny it. He could say that they were only 'friends', but Xelloss could see that the man actually cared for the girl, even moreso than Lina, actually. That was saying something, seeing how Lina knew Zelgadiss longer than he had known Amelia. He and Xelloss had never fought over their redheaded friend.

Amelia, however, proved to be a different story. Xelloss idly wondered if Zel had kissed her as well… It would be interesting to watch how long it would take for his friend to make his move with the prissy princess. She was a nice girl, but her sunny disposition had a tendency to grate on his nerves. How could someone be that cheerful all the time? It wasn't humanly possible, was it?

No. Let Mister Negativity deal with Miss Positive. Xelloss needed someone feistier. Martina was too clingy and flighty for his tastes. Lina… Now there was a spitfire that he would love to play with… if only she weren't so scary. He had no doubt that she would be able to wring him to within an inch of his life, and if she didn't do it, he was sure that oversized jellyfish of hers would do it for her. Sylphiel was too timid, so that left…

The reason he was at the hospital, sitting in the waiting room for a certain blonde nurse to appear at the nurse's station. Hardly twenty-four hours had passed since he had last seen her, and he found that he couldn't stop thinking about what she had said. "I sometimes think that… it could have been…"

Not that he wanted another relationship with the girl… woman. She just happened to be someone who used to go out with him, and who also had a certain insight into his personality and his quirks.

He frowned.

And she also just happened to be the only one who had ever really connected with him… even if it was with a rolled-up newspaper. Or a baseball bat. Or a sledgehammer. Okay, so maybe the sledgehammer didn't actually connect, but the flying shrapnel did.

He smiled. Ah, those were the days.

Filia was beautiful, charming, perfectly poised and undeniably irresistible. They had met when he became Phil's intern several years ago, and he found her help in researching her family's case very useful. They worked closely with each other, and he was surprised to find out that she was interested in becoming a lawyer as well. She had a way about her that was very reassuring, very thoughtful, and very intuitive. A perfect façade, he believed. Then she would be able to easily win over a jury or a judge while she worked the angles and the loopholes to her advantage.

And so, when she approached him to ask if she could help him out on the weekends to see what his work was like, he only gladly accepted. After a few months, Filia was becoming too high a priority on his list, and he soon found himself inviting her to other events. Soon, their weekend work meetings slowly melted into secret trips to the desert, or the mountains, and Xelloss stopped trying to keep his professional life away from his personal life. But to their downfall, his job always came first.

No one could know that he was dating a client. That would prove a serious breach of his Firm's ethics, although taking bribes, coercing witnesses, or falsifying information was not beyond its scope. So he kept their relationship hidden from prying eyes, always sending messages through other people or breaking dates to keep someone off his scent. But when he had tried to explain it all to Filia, she didn't seem to understand. And then there was that guy…

A nurse's voice broke though his thoughts. "Oh, Filia. There's someone here to see you."

Xelloss looked up from his clasped hands to see the young woman, standing there in her pink and white scrubs, her long silken hair tied back in a loose ponytail at the nape of her perfect creamy neck. Her clear blue eyes widened a little in surprise and alarm, but she composed herself and smiled. She appeared all the more like an angel.

"Xelloss. What are you doing here?" she asked, her voice calm and neutral.

"I think some of those band-aid thingees came loose, and I'd like you to take a look at them."

One perfectly arched brow rose in question, and she asked flatly, "One of the other nurses could have taken a look at it for you. You didn't have to wait for me."

Ah, but I did, he thought.

"It was no problem, really. Er… did you want to do it here?"

"What? Oh. No. I think we've got a free room. Follow me."

Filia's mind raced. What the hell is he doing here? He'd better not be stalking me, or I'll kill him…

Filia brought Xelloss to an empty exam room and closed the door behind her with a loud click. Keeping her voice controlled, she commanded, "Take off your shirt and sit on the table."

Doing as she asked, he sat on the paper that covered the exam table. Patting the space beside him, he joked, "There's room enough for two."

Her eyes never moved from his, even when her fingers found the edge of one of the loose butterfly bandages and yanked it free with a quick tug.

"Ow!"

"Oh, don't be a baby, Xelloss." Her eyes left his to concentrate on the task at hand, and a smug expression played across her face. Amused with her control over him, she proceeded to remove the bandages, clean the wound (which was healing just fine), reapply the butterfly bandages, and cover it with gauze and tape. With a small smile, she idly patted him on the chest and told him to put his shirt back on.

It was then that she realized what it was that she was doing. She had thought that she would avoid him for the rest of her life. She had thought that she would just disappear from his presence as she once had done. It should have been easy, but here he was, intruding in on her life once again, and she was treating him as an old friend! The empty gauze wrapper was summarily shredded into the wastebasket while she fought to regain her composure.

"So what are you doing? Why are you here bothering me?" She threw away the used bandages and cleaning pad into the medical hazard bin and tried to concentrate on the sterile packs of swabs, or the bottle of alcohol, or the tongue depressors, or anything that was clean and clinical. Devoid of emotion.

"Am I bothering you? I thought I was getting medical treatment."

She rounded on him, her face dangerously close to his. "Cut the crap, Xelloss! I know when you're bullshitting someone, and you can't do it to me. What do you want?" she growled.

His strange yet gorgeous purple eyes opened, and the mirth that had been on his face quickly disappeared. "I didn't realize you hated me so much, Filia."

Don't do it… she thought.

But having concealed her emotions for so long, she didn't listen to herself. "Hate? Do you know what you did to me? Because of you, my uncle and aunt lost their store and their life savings to that stupid mall. Because of you, I couldn't even think about being a lawyer anymore. Because of you…"

"…you're helping people now. You're a nurse who's helping hundreds of people. If you became a lawyer, who knows how many you'd be hurting, directly or not? You were better than that. You're where you belong. Perfect…"

Neither of them realized what they were doing. Filia didn't notice that she had begun to cry, her silent tears expressing the release of her bottled-up emotions. Xelloss wasn't aware that his hand had drifted up to gently hook a stray lock of hair behind her ear. Their emotions were so dangerously close to the surface, begging to be acknowledged, for the better or the worse. She had never stopped loving him, and for that reason alone, she hated him. He had always cared for her, never saying the word 'love,' yet always feeling the strange but familiar tightening in his chest at the mere thought of her in real pain.

But the insufferable lies and their convoluted past hung between them like a thick curtain that neither dared to cross for fear of the hurt and the anger that would certainly accompany the touch. Slowly and deliberately, Filia backed away from Xelloss as he dropped his hand to his lap.

"You're an excellent nurse, Miss Filia," Xelloss stated formally, pulling on his shirt. Just like that, the curtain that had been between them solidified once more into the wall that they kept about their hearts to prevent the loss, the anguish, the resentment, and the pain from smothering them.

"Yes, well… just don't get into any more fights. Next time, you can ask one of the other nurses to aid you."

She wiped at her face, and drew herself up to stand proudly before she opened the door. Xelloss stopped with her at the nurse's station while she scribbled something down on a form. "Thank you for your help, Nurse Filia."

A sheet of paper appeared in front of his face, and she shot him a look. "You can pay now out of pocket, or we can charge this visit to your insurance company, Mister Metallium. The bottom sheet is your copy."

And then she was gone, and he was left staring at the exam sheet she had drawn up with a total of fifty dollars due. Fifty dollars for a few band-aids and some gauze? Feeling taken, he shoveled out three bills from his wallet, gave them to the nurse, and took his receipt with disgust. Looking back down at the sheet of paper, he realized something that he wouldn't have noticed had he not paid.

Beneath the total due was typed in the nurse's name, but more than that, her hours and a phone number were written in.

Xelloss smiled. It wasn't the hospital's number after all.

He didn't call her right away, but when he finally did early the next day, she didn't yell at him as he thought she would have. It wasn't even the house phone number. She had given him her personal cel phone. They spoke briefly, and he even asked her out to lunch the following weekend. Amazingly enough, she accepted, however there was one condition.

She wanted to hash out all their old problems… so she could finally move on with her life.

He didn't refuse this offer of… well, not friendship, but… closure. She, like him, apparently still held onto some feelings that weren't going to go away without dealing with them, but Xelloss found himself wanting to see how far she would actually try to leave him behind. The more he thought about it, the more he didn't want to let her go.

Damn the woman for getting under his skin.

Ring. Ring.

"Hello?"

"How are you feeling?"

"Well, hello there. It's good to hear from you. I'm doing well enough, considering. And you? I saw what happened on TV."

"Hn… as well as I can be, I guess. But… we need to talk."

His eyebrow rose. "We need to talk? About what?"

"I…" he could hear a sigh on the other end. "I need your help with something. Can you meet me at the gym in half an hour?"

"Are you planning on working out your aggressions? Not on me, I hope."

"Actually, that's exactly what I had in mind. I need to talk to you about something – well – someone, to be honest."

"Really? And who might that be?"

"It's A… Amelia."

"Really?" he repeated. Though he knew that he should be upset or irritated, he found that he was strangely detached.

"Look, I swear I wasn't interested in her."

"But you are now?"

"I… I'm not sure… You see, after what happened last night, we got to talking, and then this morning, she just…" He sighed again. "Geez, I really don't know…"

Xelloss smirked. So she had actually gotten under his skin, too. "And I was just wondering how long it would take before you fell for her…"

"That's not it!"

"Sure, Zelgadiss. I'll be there in thirty. In fact, there's something – well – someone I'd like your advice on as well. We'll talk about it while we fight, shall we?"

Xelloss smiled as he hung up the phone. Recent events were proving interesting indeed if Zelgadiss was actually asking him for advice about women. Not that he was the best person to ask about relationships, but perhaps the information Zel volunteered would prove useful in the future. Now if only he could straighten out his own love life – or lack thereof.

A/N: So how's that for a little back-story on Xelloss and Filia? It seems that there's still some unfinished business between them. Sometimes people break up for stupid reasons, and sometimes it's justified. We'll find out a little bit more about their relationship later, as well as one of the factors in their break-up. And it seems that Zel's got some issues to work out, as well. Can we say, 'Denial'?

Thanks to everyone who's stuck with me. I've been promoted at work, and that means more hours and more work and more stress… for the same pay??? I think I got hustled… --;; On the bright side: I haven't been getting migraines, so that's saying something. I've got another WML chapter and an L&L chapter in the works, so I'll be updating soon. By the way, the quick-edit feature keeps deleting my little symbols and happy faces. Does anyone know how to keep them in the story? I'm not too keen on the clinical line-across-the-screen... B-o-r-i-n-g.

Special thanks to everyone who's reviewed: Ichiban Victory (It's always fun to explore different relationships in writing. The last chapter was actually what gave me the idea to do a side-story fic, so it took a while for me to get up to where it needed it to be. I'm glad you enjoyed it!), Ishy-chan (Thanks! Luna is one of those characters who is always hinted at or portrayed as very serious, but even serious people have a lighter side to them. I just thought it would be a riot to have her be the one to get them into trouble. After all, what are big sisters for? ), Kaeru Shisho (blushes Thank you so much! When I initially mentioned in passing that Lina was going on a weekend trip with her sister, I figured that it would be a fun story to explore. What better way to do it than to get them into some trouble… and it wasn't really Lina's fault this time! And who's there when she's down? Naga, of course! – I couldn't help it… I hope you enjoyed a look at some Xel/Fil time as well!), Aisha C (Yay! You caught up! Thank you for reviewing each chapter individually. I'm liking Val even more as well… How did you like this little bit of an inside look at Xellos' and Filia's real feelings? At least they're starting to act like adults – sort of. We'll see more in a later chapter. Thanks again!), Lina Gabriev (Ooh, an all-out brawl? A royal rumble sounds fun! I'll think on that. I know that all siblings aren't the same, but I thought that Luna's stern reputation could be a front for a very feeling person who accepts responsibility for her sister's action. Maybe I'm just too much of a softie… Thanks again!), jesphoenix5 (Okay, so I haven't watched them yet… I promise that I will! --;; Yeah, I guess when you get siblings together, all sorts of mayhem can occur. Glad you enjoyed it, and I hope you like this one too!)

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